Agency Intelligence: The Insurance Podcast Network

What if every phone call your agency receives could tell you exactly how customers feel and how your team is performing? Jason Cass sits down with Winston Smith, CEO of Bridge Insure and Magellan Insure, to unpack how call intelligence is reshaping agency operations. The discussion explores why phone systems are more than dial tone, how real insights surface from everyday conversations, and why fo...

In this solo episode of Stuff About Money They Didn't Teach You in School, Xavier Angel, CFP®, ChFC®, CLTC, steps behind the mic to wrestle with a tough truth: planning isn’t optional, not if you want control over your future. Fresh off his conversation with Giovanni Arenas about Gio’s life-threatening condition and remarkable double lung transplant, Xavier gets another call that hits just as hard...

I know you probably work only on signed BOR ... right? Well, sometimes you might be tempted to offer quotes to a prospect (aka: Non-Client; someone who doesn't trust you yet) who won't sign the BOR over to you. Should you still work on that account and offer a quote, or should you push the "pause button" and try again next year? Well, it all depends on whether or not you can get the prospect to gi...

Pressure on agency call volume has never been higher, and the gap between what teams can handle and what clients expect is widening fast. In this Executive Sessions conversation, Jason Cass sits down with Francisco Lopes, Founder and CEO of Sonant AI, to unpack how AI voice technology is transforming call handling, reducing repetitive tasks, and freeing teams to focus on higher-value work. Their d...

Where does agency efficiency go when AI begins handling the repetitive steps teams have battled for years? Jason Cass explores that shift with Jackson Fregeau, Co-Founder and CEO of Quandri, as they break down how a renewal intelligence platform can analyze policies, trigger quoting based on premium changes, and create contextual client communication automatically. Their discussion highlights how...

In this solo episode of the Stuff About Money podcast, host Erik Garcia, CFP®, ChFC®, BFA™ sits down for a candid one-on-one about goals. Not the shiny, New-Year’s-resolution kind, but the messy, honest kind we whisper to ourselves when no one’s listening. Erik shares two personal moments that reshaped how he thinks about goal setting, including the year Dr. Matt Morris bluntly told him, “You just...

Leadership is shaped in the moments when uncertainty meets opportunity. Jason Cass sits down with Doug McElhaney, Chief Strategy Officer at Applied Systems, for an Executive Sessions discussion at the Applied Conference, where Doug breaks down how strategic clarity guides agencies through rapid technological change. Drawing from his years at McKinsey and his work at Applied Systems, he shares the...

In this episode of Front Cover: A Rough Notes Podcast on the Agency Intelligence Podcast Network, Jason Cass sits down with Mark Rodgers, Founder of Trailstone Insurance, the agency featured on the December 2025 front cover of Rough Notes Magazine.  Key Topics: Mark’s reaction to being selected for the Rough Notes Magazine front cover  Trailstone’s growth from a small agency to a large operation a...

What happens when experience, resilience, and strategic discipline converge inside a rapidly evolving insurance ecosystem? Jason Cass sits down with Ashim Khurana, COO of Cogneesol, for an Executive Sessions conversation that explores how a 25-year industry leader balances instinct, data, technology, and people. Drawing from work across global operations, insurance services, and Cogneesol’s transi...

In this episode of Insurance Shoptalk, host Eric Stein sits down with Vlada Lotkina, CEO and co-founder of SUPERAGENT, to explore how AI is changing the way P&C agencies train and scale their sales teams. Vlada breaks down how SUPERAGENT’s AI personas create realistic roleplay for new producers, how the real-time sales co-pilot improves conversion rates for experienced reps, and how their outbound...

In this moving episode of the Stuff About Money They Didn’t Teach You in School podcast, Xavier Angel, CFP®, ChFC®, CLTC, sits down with Giovani Arenas, business partner of Erik Garcia, CFP®, BFA™, ChFC®, at Garcia Insurance Services, to talk about life, death, and everything in between. Gio, who received a double lung transplant just two years ago, shares his remarkable story of resilience and fa...

How do you build a 26-year career around storytelling, culture, and servant leadership while staying relevant through every wave of change? Jason Cass sits down with Peter Van Aartrijk, Senior Vice President at Aartrijk, for an Executive Session recorded live at Applied Net in Las Vegas. From his early years as a journalist to building a respected insurance branding firm, Peter shares the mentors,...

Would your P&C agency benefit from nearshore or offshore back-office solutions? Find out more in this episode of Insurance Shoptalk! In this episode, host Eric Stein is joined by guests Mark Stetson and Henderson Watkins from Solvo Global. They share more about Solvo Global and their many services for P&C agencies, like processing certificates, scrubbing accords, forwarding policy information, and...

What happens when one of the industry’s most influential voices decides to rebuild from the ground up?  Jason Cass sits down with David Carothers, Founder of Florida Risk Partners and Creator of The Protégé, for a conversation that dives into what it really takes to evolve. David shares how his agency found explosive growth in personal lines, why transparency is the new superpower in carrier relat...

No doubt you were hired to sell insurance. But did your agency leadership make you FIRST prove that you can prospect to set appointments? I would suspect probably not. And, that's why so many insurance producers fail and don't make it -- or at least why they don't make enough money. They are good at relationship building and closing business, but they just can't set enough appointments. In this th...

In this episode of Insurance Shoptalk, host Eric Stein sits down with Terry McLean, CEO of SageSure, to discuss how the company has built one of the largest independent property insurance platforms serving catastrophe-exposed markets. Terry shares insights into navigating the hardest property market in decades, managing risk in wildfire and coastal regions, and balancing technology with hands-on u...

Jason Cass sits down with Dana Coates, CEO and Director of Strategic Partnerships at UWIB Risk & Insurance Solutions, for an Executive Session recorded live at Accelerate to discuss mentorship, generational leadership, and the importance of letting new leaders grow through experience. Together, they explore how patience, trust, and lifelong learning shape success in the insurance industry. Key Top...

Check out:⁠⁠ https://permissiongroup.com/permission-producer-school/⁠⁠ Imagine setting twice as many new business appointments with your prospects, tripling your win percentage, writing more accounts, writing larger-revenue generating accounts, and winning most (all?) of these new clients by signed Broker of Record Letter, rather than going through a normal quoting process. Sound to good to be tru...

In this episode of Insurance Shoptalk, host Eric Stein of Insured Solutions speaks with Bob Butts of Alternative Comp Solutions (ACS) about Ohio’s newly approved Alternative Employer Organization (AEO) program—an innovative alternative to the state’s traditional Bureau of Workers’ Compensation system. They discuss how this new model allows agents to finally earn commissions on workers’ comp, helps...

In this episode of Insurance Shoptalk, guest Jamie Fortier from isolved joins host Eric Stein to discuss how insurance agents can expand into payroll services through flexible referral and white-label models. Jamie explains how isolved supports agents with full back-office operations—from payroll processing to tax management—allowing them to grow revenue without adding staff. The conversation dive...

In this episode of Stuff About Money They Didn’t Teach You in School, hosts ⁠Erik Garcia⁠, CFP®, ChFC®, BFA™, and ⁠Xavier Angel⁠, CFP®, ChFC®, CLTC®, tackle a hard truth — sometimes, the biggest threat to our financial health isn’t the economy, it’s the lies we tell ourselves. From “I’ll save when I make more” to “I deserve this purchase” and “I can time the market,” Erik and Xavier break down how...

Technology is reshaping insurance and redefining leadership. Jason Cass welcomes Daniel Hom, Chief Technology Officer at Symphony Risk Solutions, for an Executive Session live from NetVu Accelerate. Together, they explore how the rapid pace of AI, cybersecurity, and automation are transforming the industry, and why the next generation of agency leaders must think like technologists as much as busi...

In this episode of Front Cover: A Rough Notes Podcast on the Agency Intelligence Podcast Network, Jason Cass sits down with Brett Merrill, CEO of Merrill Insurance, the agency featured on the November 2025 front cover of Rough Notes Magazine.  Key Topics: The honor of Merrill Insurance being featured on Rough Notes Magazine Carrying forward a century-old family agency and honoring his father’s leg...

Executive Sessions focus on the person behind the position, and that’s exactly what happens here. Jason Cass sits down with Keith Savino, Managing Partner at Trucordia, live at Accelerate. With over three decades in the business, Keith shares lessons from his journey through five agencies, the evolution of insurance tech from green screens to AI, and why servant leadership and collaboration still...

In this Halloween-themed episode of Stuff About Money They Didn’t Teach You in School, host Erik Garcia, CFP®, ChFC®, BFA™ is joined by Dr. Matt Morris and first-time guest Stephanie Osborn for a fun and insightful conversation about fear, especially the fear of money. The trio starts by sharing their thoughts on scary movies (and why Erik can’t stand them) and explores some New Orleans lingo abou...