The Agent Leader Podcast

Brent shares areas of impact from his recent three-day Agency Leadership Institute hosted by Cincinnati Insurance and led by Reagan Consulting. Listen in for what great agencies from around the country discussed as their top areas of impact. Get ready to take notes and learn more on: Recruiting and training producers, having a culture of accountability, green zone focus, leading with excellence, a...

What is the greatest asset your agency possesses? Technology? Data? Insurance carrier relationships? Community involvement? Knowledge? Credibility? While all of these are great assets, the number one asset every agency has is its people. In fact, in the recent Best Practices Study, the concept of developing your people was mentioned 8 times in the opening section - with IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE!...

Brent is joined by one of our awesome members, Ben Zimmer, CEO and founder of Ethos Insurance and Risk Management. Ben is an excellent example of the growth-minded leaders we like to work with at Sitkins Group, and when you listen you'll know why. Get ready for an impactful discussion with Ben on what is working in his agency - that's been growing 20-25% YOY. As the episode title implies,...

What would you do if someone on your team made a mistake 80% of the time? Reprimand them? Possibly. Train them? It better be a lot of training! Release them? Hard to argue. When you ask agency service team members how many times a producer gets a service request or change 100% accurate and 100% complete, the first time, the answer is usually about 2 out of 10. In other words, producers make mistak...

How often do you or the people in your agency focus on things that, although they may be impactful, they have no control over? How much time, energy, and effort goes into anger, frustration, or anxiety wasted on others' mistakes that we can't change? Do others' actions impact you? Yes. But the bigger question is, do they control you? In this episode of the Agent Leader, Brent Kelly wil...

How can you make meaningful change in your insurance agency? Brent talks over four ways agency leaders can create greater buy-in with their agency teams. 7:30 - Having a Clear Vision vs. Confusion 11:08 - Having a Culture to support the Change 14:30 - Having Consistency vs Intensity 16:50 - Commitment vs Complacency If you're ready to make impactful change in your insurance agency and want to...

Are you simply making the easy choices in your insurance agency, that are actually making your life harder in the end? As we always say, if you make easy choices today, it'll make your life harder long-term. Brent challenges independent insurance agency leaders to think through five choices that can impact your business long-term. 4:30 - Choice #1, Does your agency have a Team Training and Dev...

Have you ever wondered what you could gain from producer training program? You're not alone, producers keep asking if our programs are right for them. Brent Kelly goes over the core strategies from our #1 program, ProducerFit, to help develop insurance producers. Get ready to take notes on the tips to success in insurance sales that Brent shares from our 8-week virtual program. Whether you&#39...

Brent is bringing some excitement and thoughts back to you, the audience, from two events he recently participated in. Great ideas are everywhere for improving your agency. The real challenge is how can you as agency leaders keep the intensity through consistency for change? One of the biggest frustrations we see in working with agencies like you is the fact that we start things, we just don't...

Brent highlights three shifts that insurance agencies can make to truly become indispensable in their marketplace. As an agency leader, or within your agency, your agency culture, what needs to change to get you to the next place? Follow along as Brent goes over three shifts you can make to transform into indispensable, along with some deep questions to ask yourself as a leader. Shift 1: Shifting...

Roger Sitkins and Brent Kelly finish their discussion on Service Capacity in Part Two of our Two-Part Series on Sales & Service Capacity.  Listen in as Roger shares how simply knowing your numbers can increase your service capacity, how to use technology to enhance client relationships, and KPI's to help you measure capacity in your agency. If you missed part one, you can catch it on our p...

Roger Sitkins comes back as Brent's guest for a 2-Part series about Sales and Service Capacity. In this first part, our coaches tackle the topics that can help you increase, and improve, your sales capacity. Get ready to take notes on agency valuation, how to invest in your agency, and examples of what independent insurance agencies have done, can do, and should do to help improve their sales...

Brent Kelly continues his series on capacity and shifts it into the 4M's of sales leadership from a book called Becoming a Person of Influence by John Maxwell. Listen in and take notes as Brent talks you through what these 4M'S mean to you as an insurance agency sales leader. 5:00 – Model – To model the right behaviors and strategies are 6:50 – Motivate – Provide motivation, understanding,...

This is the first in a series about agency capacity. There's a lot that goes into that, and a lot to discuss, from leadership capacity, sales capacity, service capacity, and what all that means for your agency in terms of results, processes, systems, and pretty much everything you can think of. How can you gain clarity on your leadership capacity? Start by asking yourself these three questions...

Let's talk about five reasons why your agency doesn't need a coach in this episode of The Agent Leader podcast. Now obviously this title shouldn't be taken seriously, and be taken as more of a challenge to you as an insurance agency leader. Are you willing to work with others to develop and improve yourself and your team? After all, no one ever accomplished something great, alone. So l...

What are the two vital questions that every sales leader should be able to ask, and of course, get answers to? As an agency leader or as a producer, it's important to hear this message so you can develop your own personal accountability in becoming a great sales professional. It’s all about how you can Define, Document, and Deliver within your agency. As Brent says, it’s really hard to manage air...

Brent Kelly starts this episode off with a challenge to insurance professionals - how many of the things that you can control are you truly in control of? How much of your time, energy, and effort is lived with intention, intentionality, versus accidental and reactive? With that in mind, Brent goes through three areas where you can be more intentional to become your best version possible. Be Inten...

Brent talks you, the agency leader, through beliefs that are holding you or your agency back in this episode of The Agent Leader podcast. Get ready to discuss seven beliefs that could be holding you back from the true results you want in your agency: Your past is better than your future Fitting in is better than becoming world class We replicate vs. revise We can’t write larger accounts We can’t w...

Brent shares some solo thoughts on a really important topic today - your agency's culture.  What is a culture of excellence? What does a culture of excellence mean to you as an agent leader, to your agency, your team, your clients, and your community? You name it. It's all about a culture of excellence. So let's go deeper in this idea of what excellence means to you and having the ultimate co...

Mary Savage, Director of Marketing at UNICO Group, joins Brent to share her experience in agency development and growth through marketing. Listen in for a great perspective on agency challenges from the marketing side, including how Mary's team builds relationships with their advisors so that they're seen as a trusted team member, and not as a service center. Using our Risk Concierge Program, UNIC...

Brent Kelly gives an overview of our producer improvement program, ProducerFit by sharing the 10 Foundational Blocks of Producer Success.  As Brent goes through this list, ask yourself how well you as a producer, or your sales team, are doing in this area. Get ready to rate yourself on these 10 foundational blocks of insurance producer success: Having a high performance team Having your producers...

Allison Hammons of Knight Insurance Group joins Brent on this episode to share tips to her success in independent insurance.  Listen to gain clever tips on: Recruiting talent, both internally and externally  Creating a solid culture that includes praise within the agency The importance of having mentors Plus more great takeaways, available in video and text format at https://www.sitkins....

There's plenty of Wisdom in the Room with Dan Mickells of UNICO Group joining Brent as a guest on The Agent Leader for this episode. Dan shares stories of success, and stories of failure, that will help anyone in insurance sales learn some important lessons along the way - including why it's important to not be afraid to fail. Get ready to take notes, Dan's agency has the success to support their...

Our coaches, Roger Sitkins and Brent Kelly, talk over a Christmas Wish List for independent insurance agencies in this episode of The Agent Leader. Get ready to imagine your agency accomplishing the following things in 2023 and beyond: Having your entire team 100% aligned around a common goal. Have all of your team members in ongoing personal development programs Sales and Service teams working to...

Art Betancourt of AEBetancourt joins Brent today to share his expertise on how to attract, find, select, and hire great talent for your agency. By far the biggest challenge we hear from agency leaders is finding agency talent, because there simply isn't enough right now.  Art shares tips on how to: Go find and develop talent - because once you need to fill the position, it's too late.  U...