The Agent Leader Podcast

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...

Is your agency committed to being a true sales organization? Without weekly (not weakly) held sales improvement meetings, you aren't efficiently developing your sales team.  Brent talks agency leaders through three important parts of a sales meeting, what to include, what to leave out, and how to keep the impact going all week long so you can unleash the collaborative genius within your team....

How do you get your people to buy-in to new ideas or strategies in your agency?  No matter how good your idea is, if you can't get your team to buy into it, it's a failed idea. Let's talk about this and your agency. "How can you get more people to buy in?" It takes consistency, communication and collaboration. Because again, without it, no idea matters. To read the transcript or watch the vid...

Kevin Stipe from Reagan Consulting joins Brent to discuss main Challenges and Opportunities for independent insurance agencies.  Listen in as Kevin gives great advice on what he sees the Best Practices agencies doing. From building effective teams, heading into a recession, and the importance of getting people working together, Kevin covers it all on this episode of The Agent Leader.  To...

Tim Parenti from First Insurance Funding joins Brent for this episode of The Agent Leader. Listen in to Tim's perspective on how independent insurance agency leaders can move their business forward. Tim covers his view from the financial side of key struggles leaders are facing, how to build a long-term team, and how to find good talent outside of the insurance industry. Come for the great advice,...

What is the best version possible of an insurance agency? This episode is a recording of a live webinar hosted by Brent Kelly where he addressed this question.  The foundation for every successful insurance agency is alignment of leadership, sales, service and operations. Learn how to align the same goals with different roles, improve buy-in with your team, and how to get tangible results. Ge...

What’s the plan for your insurance agency? You’ve heard us say it before, but the #1 job of an agency leader is to develop their people. Now knowing that’s your #1 priority, what’s your plan for actually doing it? Brent will talk you through the importance of having a plan, and then some ideas of what you could do to expedite developing a plan. You know that good is simply not good enough for your...

Roger Sitkins is back for this episode of The Agent Leader to go over the Best Practices Study from Reagan Consulting. This yearly Best Practices study provides a lot of great knowledge and information, so we brought Roger on to get his reaction to it all. We'll discuss what the information means to you as an agency leader, and your agency. How do you digest this information? What are some things...

There's four areas to focus on that will make a huge impact in your agency. Want to hear what they are? Brent takes all the lessons that we talk about, everything we've learned from 40-plus years in the industry and combines those into four practical areas to focus on in your agency. Listen in for why these four traps are so important, why agencies get hung up on them, examples of success, and fai...

What does the Agency Leadership Institute and planning a 40th birthday party have in common?   Brent just experienced both events in one week, and found 3 lessons along the way that agency leaders can take away.    You've got to  Share your Vision Empower and Equip Your Team Constantly Improve To read the transcript or watch the video of this episode, visit https://www.sitkins....

Ryan Teubner, producer at Rich & Cartmill, Inc. joins Brent to talk about his biggest struggles, successes and advice for other independent insurance agents. Listen to Ryan share stories of his success at winning clients, having freedom to be with his family and how he operates on not being afraid, with a little luck mixed in. To read the transcript of this episode, visit www.sitkins.com/blog/...

Rick Fox, Head of Agency Sales for Vertafore, joins Brent to talk about how agencies can leverage the power of technology for relationship building with their clients. Listen in for tips on how to: - Get the best bang for your buck when your agency eventually gets acquired - Give staff 30% to 40% more time back, so they can go build more loyal customers - Making tech scalable for your agency - Mak...