The Insurance Marketing Playbook

Referrals can feel like luck until you hear how Hannah McDonald turns them into a repeatable system. We sit down and get honest about what business development really is: relationship marketing with clear goals, real follow-through, and enough patience to let trust compound. Hannah walks us through her career from radio sales to leadership in a remote sales org, then into insurance agency marketin...

“You’re just a busy mom” might be the most expensive sentence a woman can hear. Shelby McFarland sits down with registered dietitian Megan Green to talk about what happens when your body is waving red flags and no one is connecting the dots. Megan shares her own health spiral during COVID, the exhausting list of symptoms that were brushed off, and the moment deeper lab testing finally revealed an...

You can build a real business in a space you barely understand at the start, but only if you’re willing to learn out loud. I’m Shelby McFarland, and I’m joined by Chelsea Todd from Revolution Financial Management, who proves that “no background” doesn’t have to mean “no chance.” Chelsea shares how she got licensed, leaned on a strong training system, and grew through word of mouth instead of cold...

Your ads can get clicks like crazy and still produce zero sales. That’s the uncomfortable truth we’re getting into, and I’m sharing a story I don’t love telling because it felt like failure even when I did the work the right way. An out-of-state client found me through Google, signed on for a bigger-than-usual proposal, and I thought it was proof my marketing strategy and SEO efforts were paying o...

Your business can be solid and you can still have weeks that feel like the wheels are about to come off. I talk through one of those stretches: long days, nonstop demands, and that nagging feeling that everyone wants everything “yesterday.” But instead of spiraling, I focus on the mindset shifts that keep me steady as a business owner and service provider, especially as I write my next book, Hustl...

Leadership can look powerful on the outside while feeling painfully quiet on the inside. We’re Kayla and Shelby, and we get real about the loneliness that shows up when you’re a woman leading teams, building a business, and trying to have a life that doesn’t collapse under the mental load. If you’ve ever skipped the networking night because it’s your only time with your kid, or felt like nobody in...

“Reasonable” sounds friendly until you’re the one paying the bills behind the scenes. I’m Shelby McFarland, and I’m joined by my hair boss Rachel Harris to get real about the stuff small business owners vent about after hours: price pressure, discount culture, picky customers, and the quiet fear of a bad review when you’re doing everything you can to make it right. We talk about why you truly can’...

Meta ads can feel like a maze, especially if you remember when running Facebook and Instagram ads meant guessing at budgets, demographics, and settings you did not fully trust. I walk you through the approach I use now, after years of hands-on work, to make Meta ads simpler, more predictable, and far more useful for small businesses and local service brands that want real results.  We talk budget...

You can run a business, manage clients, and make high-stakes calls all day then suddenly feel stuck choosing dinner, deciding whether your kid needs the doctor, or figuring out what to wear. That’s not a character flaw. That’s decision fatigue, and it’s often fueled by the mental load we carry as women, moms, and default planners. We dig into the real-life moments that drain us: last-minute school...

Your marketing budget feels tight because it is tight and that’s exactly why your first moves matter. We sit down and answer the same questions we got on a local marketing panel, with straight talk on what to do first when you can’t afford to waste time or money. If you’ve ever asked “How much should I spend?” or “Where should I start?” we walk through how to think about your industry, your price...

If you’ve ever stared at a quiet inbox and wondered whether you should quit and go back to a 9 to 5, this conversation is for you. I’m Shelby McFarland, the marketing broker, and I’m laying out the mindset shift that keeps entrepreneurs, salespeople, and marketers moving when doubt gets loud: you are in control of your business success, but only if you act like it. I walk through a real story from...

Recruiting can feel like a totally different world from marketing, until you hear how Demi Mathis actually does it. Demi is a business development officer at Northwestern Mutual in Arkansas, and her day-to-day sounds a lot like what marketers preach: know your audience, show up consistently, start real conversations, and build trust long before you ask for a yes. We get into the behind-the-scenes...

Everyone can post a photo. That does not mean they know how to market a business. We take over the mic this week and pull back the curtain on what real marketing work looks like when it is done by an actual marketing agency, not a “pop-up” marketer chasing vanity metrics. We talk through the unglamorous parts that make the glamorous parts work: client discovery meetings, defining goals, building a...

You can feel it before you can name it: the calendar is packed, your brain is fried, clients keep coming, and the business still won’t move to the next level. We sit down with Leia, an adult ADHD and executive function coach, to talk about the real pivot point for entrepreneurs, the moment you either cap your growth or you start delegating the work that’s quietly draining your energy. We get speci...

Everybody has a “rule” about marketing, and most of them sound right until you try to build a real business with them. We sit down and call out four popular marketing myths that quietly waste your time: the idea that you must be on every social media platform, that good marketing should produce immediate results, that more followers automatically means more sales, and that a good product will sell...

$48,000 in two weeks sounds like a book sales story, until you hear the truth: only $710 came from selling copies. What changed everything was treating the book as a marketing tool that drives real business revenue, not as the revenue itself. We share the behind the scenes strategy of how becoming “an author” can instantly upgrade your positioning, shorten the trust gap with prospects, and give yo...

AI is already in your customers’ feeds, your competitors’ workflows, and probably your own browser history, so the real question is whether you’ll use it with intention or let it dilute your brand. Shelby McFarland, marketing boss at The Marketing Broker, shares a grounded take on AI for small business marketing: what’s helpful, what’s overhyped, and what can quietly make your business look like e...

One day you’re grinding 60 to 70 hours a week and planning expansion. The next day the world shuts down, your clients panic, and your business has to reinvent itself before the bills hit. I’m Shelby McFarland, the marketing boss, and I’m telling the real story of how I survived the COVID years as both a sign shop owner and a digital marketing broker. You’ll hear how opening a second sign shop loca...

LinkedIn can feel like a noisy room full of “experts,” automation, and awkward cold DMs. We want to cut through that with something more useful: what’s working right now when you’re a real person trying to grow a business, land better opportunities, or build a personal brand without turning into a corporate robot. Shelby McFarland talks with LinkedIn specialist Katie Rasure about the surprising st...

A packed room, quick questions, and the kind of answers you only get when people stop performing and start telling the truth. We’re in Conway, Arkansas at a Women in Business Showcase talking with founders, operators, and creators across interior design, events, yoga, HVAC, construction, insurance, counseling, accounting, law, and more. The focus isn’t hype, it’s what actually helps women build a...

If you’ve ever paid for marketing and still felt like nothing changed, we’re saying the quiet part out loud: marketing can’t replace selling. Shelby McFarlane sits down with Arkansas insurance agent Nick Tubberville to unpack the difference between being visible and actually closing business, especially in industries where you’re selling something intangible like insurance coverage or digital mark...

If your agency’s marketing sounds like “great service” and “competitive rates,” you’re not building trust, you’re blending in. On this episode, Alexis and Mattie step in for Shelby and get blunt about the phrases that make insurance agents invisible online, even when they’re genuinely excellent at what they do. When your website copy and social media posts read like everyone else’s, prospects defa...

Your next month of insurance marketing is hiding in the questions your clients ask you every single day. If you’ve been stuck trying to “come up with content,” we’re flipping the process: we start with real conversations from sales calls and turn them into posts that feel natural, helpful, and easy to batch. We walk through a simple challenge: write down five questions you hear nonstop and make fi...

Random posting doesn’t fail because you’re not trying hard enough. It fails because it doesn’t give people a reason to trust you, understand you, or take action. We share a simple framework built for insurance agencies that want consistent leads without living on social media: three post types that work across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and beyond.  First, we get clear on educational posts that...

You’re posting, you’re trying to stay consistent, and the likes are still… not there. If you’re an insurance agent staring at low engagement and wondering whether social media marketing is a waste of time, I’m going to challenge three myths that quietly sabotage good digital marketing for insurance agents. First, “If I post more, I’ll get more leads.” Consistency is non-negotiable, but more posts...