The podcast for independent insurance agency leaders and their teams to learn practical strategies and behaviors to become their best version possible. Hosted by Sitkins Group President, Brent Kelly, The Agent Leader Podcast provides agencies with leadership, sales, and self-development methods that actually get results. With our focus on a total-team approach to improving independent insurance agencies, we dive into sales, service, and leadership teams. Leadership is not a title. Leadership ...
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Unlocking The Power of Talent & Technology in Your Insurance Agency - Trap #7
24:16
24:16
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Are you falling into Good Results Trap #7 by under-utilizing your agency’s technology and talent? In this episode of The Agent Leader, Brent Kelly dives into the critical importance of your agency’s talent and growth strategy. Brent emphasizes that the key to staying competitive and efficient lies in a proactive approach to investing in both your p…
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Ignoring the Power of the 80/20 Rule - Trap #6
25:05
25:05
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25:05
Skyrocket your agency's revenue by embracing proven strategies used by top-performing agencies. In this episode, Brent Kelly gets into how the 80/20 principle can revolutionize your business model, helping you focus on the top 20% of your clients who generate 80% of your revenue. Imagine the impact of having half your revenue come from just the top…
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Is Accountability Ruining Your Strategy? - Trap #5
23:02
23:02
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23:02
Do your agency’s beliefs and behaviors align? Brent Kelly dives into Good Results Trap #5 which covers having limited or no culture of accountability in your insurance agency on this episode of The Agent Leader. Learn how fostering a Culture of Accountability can not only boost performance, but also make your agency a beacon for top talent. Examine…
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How can you turn part-time clients into full-time profits for your insurance agency? Brent Kelly shares the strategies that can transform your business model, boost your profitability, and secure your agency's future in this episode which continues our Good Results series with Trap #4 Part-Time Clients. Understand the critical importance of transit…
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What's the best way to scale your agency's revenue and ensure sustainable growth? Escape the Part-Time Producer Trap! Brent Kelly continues the Good Results Traps series with Trap #3, having part-time producers. Discover the critical elements that can elevate your agency from "doing ok" to thriving. Brent dives into the often-overlooked factors tha…
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How Unique is Your Sales Approach? - Trap #2
25:54
25:54
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What is your agency's set offense? Can you clearly articulate the differences of your agency vs. everybody else? Are your pipelines overflowing? If any of those answers are no, you may be falling into Good Results Trap #2, which wecover on today's Agent Leader podcast. In this episode, Brent Kelly continues the GoodResults Traps 7-part series by co…
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Trap #1 – The Cost of Not Having a Clear Plan
25:05
25:05
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25:05
Is your agency getting good results? Careful, these good results could very well be traps that are holding your agency back from becoming its best version possible. In this first of a seven-part series, Brent Kelly talks agency leaders through the first trap - having no clear strategic or financial plan. Get ready to ask yourself if your business m…
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Collaborate and Thrive: Specialty Risk Success Story with Chance Morgan
47:18
47:18
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47:18
What's the secret to sustaining impressive growth in your insurance agency year after year? Discover Specialty Risk Insurance Agency’s blueprint for achieving a staggering 32.4% year-over-year growth for 12 years straight in this episode of The Agent Leader podcast! Chance Morgan joins Brent Kelly to deep dive into the strategies, hiring philosophi…
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3 Must-Take Steps to Unlock Your Best Version Possible
16:00
16:00
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16:00
In this episode of the Agent Leader podcast, host Brent Kelly discusses the three steps to becoming a Best Version Possible agency. He emphasizes the importance of clarity, alignment, and focus in achieving agency transformation and growth. (5:30) It all starts with agency leaders answering three key questions for Clarity: where are we today, where…
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The Power of Quitting: Elevate Your Agency by Letting Go
16:17
16:17
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16:17
What's the secret to transforming your agency with less effort and more impact? Discover the blueprint to agency success that every leader needs. This episode dives into the heart of empowering insurance agency leaders, showcasing how doing less can actually lead to achieving more. By focusing on strategic delegation, cultivating team empowerment, …
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Are you coming at accountability backwards? Brent Kelly discusses how to use accountability for success in your insurance agency on this episode of The Agent Leader. Discover the essential strategies for growth through insights on aligning your team, understanding roles, taking strategic actions, and the power of coaching to excellence. Learn how a…
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Are you a cow or a buffalo in the insurance industry? Brent Kelly introduces a "cow mentality" and a "buffalo mindset" and how each pertains to different areas of an independent insurance agency. Learn how to shift from a cow to a buffalo with eight specific areas: Focus on problem vs. a focus on the solutions. (7:30) Activities vs. Results (9:00) …
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What's the secret to building powerful relationships with CFOs? Unlock the key to establishing meaningful connections with CFOs by understanding their priorities, challenges, and strategic goals with this episode of The Agent Leader. Brent Kelly and Kari Glennon dive into what makes a CFO tick, from the nuances of their day-to-day responsibilities …
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Brent Kelly discusses the parallels between dunking a basketball and achieving success as an independent insurance agency in this episode of The Agent Leader. Brent explains how training applies to both basketball and insurance agencies. Much like our producer program, ProducerFit, which focuses on building foundational blocks for success, you can'…
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What are three reasons why agencies and their teams often avoid one of the most powerful areas of agency growth? Brent Kelly introduces the concept of the Ultimate Growth Strategy in this episode of The Agent Leader, along with the three reasons for avoiding this strategy: Complacency (6:30) Lack of capacity (7:40) Lack of confidence (9:43) If you'…
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Is what you're thinking stopping you from achieving? In this episode of the Agent Leader podcast, Brent Kelly and Roger Sitkins discuss the importance of beliefs and thinking in achieving success. Listen in for tips on how to turn internal convictions into external actions and desired outcomes. Our coaches are big believers in positive thinking as …
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In this podcast episode, Brent discusses the easy, normal, and comfortable things that insurance agencies often do that can hinder their long-term growth and success. Listen as Brent highlights four specific areas where taking the easy way currently could be making your future harder: Accountability (6:20) Productivity (11:30) Agency profitability …
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Best Way to Transform Your Agency into a Sales Powerhouse
20:21
20:21
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20:21
What's the secret to transforming your independent insurance agency into a high-performing powerhouse? Discover the undeniable power of a structured selling process in our latest episode. Brent Kelly delves deep into why relying solely on talent isn't enough and how a systematic approach can significantly elevate your agency's success. Learn the cr…
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Three Questions Everyones Asking About You
25:02
25:02
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25:02
In this podcast episode, Brent Kelly discusses three important questions that people are asking about you as an agency leader: "Can you help me?" (3:00) "Do I trust you?" (8:43) "Do you really care about me?" (15:00) Brent emphasizes the importance of these questions in determining a leader's impact, influence, and results. Listen in for practical …
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Learn how to make your agency soar with seven characteristics of eagles that can be applied to independent insurance agencies in this episode of The Agent Leader. The characteristics include: Vision (5:20) Fearlessness (9:30) Tenacity (16:30) Hunting (19:40) Vitality (23:15) Flying high (27:00) Nurturing (29:10) Listen in for highlights on the impo…
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Unlock Agency Growth by Eliminating Hysterical Activity
46:27
46:27
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46:27
Unlock the secrets to skyrocketing your agency's revenue and client satisfaction by escaping hysterical activity! Roger Sitkins joins Brent Kelly to unravel the art of prioritizing top customers, managing the 80/20 rule, understanding revenue concentration, and much more. Whether you're struggling with client management or looking for ways to boost…
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Mastering Conversations: Guide the Talk to Success in Insurance
28:42
28:42
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28:42
In this podcast episode, Brent Kelly discusses the importance of asking questions in order to improve communication, engagement, and connection with others. Brent emphasizes that asking questions is the number one skill to learn for agency leaders, sales professionals, and insurance service professionals. Listen in for four reasons why asking quest…
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In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly discusses the importance of aligning all aspects of your insurance agency - sales, service, leadership, and marketing. Brent emphasizes the need for three areas to align your agency and improve overall performance: Commitment (8:15) Culture (11:00) Communication (12:40) Listen in for examples…
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Brent Kelly dives into three reasons why Practice Quoting is Stupid in this episode of The Agent Leader. What is practice quoting? We define it as "the art of providing a quotation to an unqualified prospect in order to force the incumbent agency to lower their renewal price while retaining the account." Practice quoting is a waste of time, energy,…
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Mastering Cohort Management: Insights from Insurance Pro Kari Glennon
36:26
36:26
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36:26
Join us as we dive deep into the inspiring journey of insurance industry veteran, Kari Glennon. Brent and Kari discuss her background and experiences in the insurance industry, as well as some of the key challenges and successes she has witnessed. Kari emphasizes the importance of accountability in agency leadership and suggests using cohort manage…
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Don't Be Afraid to Be Great with Jim Koster of TRICOR
31:16
31:16
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31:16
In this episode, host Brent Kelly interviews Jim Koster, the Vice President of Sales for Property & Casualty at TRICOR Insurance to discuss the challenges and successes of building a growth-oriented agency culture. Jim emphasizes the importance of finding quality producer candidates, and investing in training and development to ensure their success…
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World Class Leadership Produces World Class Results with Chet Rhoads of HUB
32:59
32:59
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32:59
In this episode of the Agent Leader podcast, host Brent Kelly interviews Chet Rhoads, president and CEO of HUB Three Rivers. Chet discusses how his leadership tactics have helped double the size of their agency while maintaining a great culture. Listen in for highlights on organic growth, the significance of role-playing, and executing the right be…
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Planning Agency Growth with Harrison Brooks of Reagan Consulting
40:59
40:59
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40:59
In this episode Brent Kelly interviews Harrison Brooks, a partner and consultant at Reagan Consulting, to discuss the growth and challenges faced by independent insurance agencies. Harrison shares success stories of agencies that have grown their revenue and offers advice on how to compete in the current marketplace. Harrison emphasizes the importa…
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Be Like Mike Malinowski of EHD Insurance Agency
32:59
32:59
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32:59
In this episode of the Agent Leader podcast, Brent Kelly interviews Mike Malinowski, the president and CEO of EHD Insurance. Mike and Brent dive into the challenges and successes of running a successful insurance agency, with highlights including: the importance of developing a sales culture within the agency the benefits of creating a separate bus…
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A Holistic Approach to Growth with Jim Welsh of WIS&G Insurance Agency
24:49
24:49
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24:49
In this episode of the Agent Leader podcast, Brent Kelly interviews Jim Welsh, the CFO of Winton-Ireland, Strom & Green (WIS&G), a California-based insurance agency. Jim Welsh shares his experience so far working with the Sitkins Group to improve their agency's performance, especially finding value in the holistic approach of our training programs.…
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Avoiding the Four Most Dangerous Trends Impacting Your Agency in 2024
33:12
33:12
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33:12
The recent Best Practices Study showed that the most critical issue facing independent insurance agencies today revolves around one thing, people. How can you find, develop, and retain the best talent? This episode is a special replay of a Live webinar with Brent Kelly built to help show you how to: Get your sales & service teams working together; …
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In this episode of the Agent Leader podcast, Brent discusses the issue of treating everything as an emergency in your insurance agency. He emphasizes that not everything is an emergency, and treating everything as such can cost the agency time, money, and create culture issues. Brent shares insights from conversations with agency leaders in our coa…
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Are They Not Interested, or Are You Not Interesting?
34:42
34:42
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34:42
In this episode of The Agent Leader, Brent Kelly discusses the importance of becoming more interesting in order to be more successful as a leader or professional in the insurance industry. So how do you become a more compelling and engaging communicator in order to connect with others and build relationships? As Dale Carnegie said "to be interestin…
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The purpose of this episode of The Agent Leader is to challenge you and to encourage you to think bigger than you've ever thought before. As an individual, as a department, or as an entire agency, so often we don't realize how limited our thinking really is. In fact, our limited thinking creates limited results. But, if we can think bigger, we have…
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Two Impact Items from the Agency Leadership Institute
17:00
17:00
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17:00
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 accountabi…
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How to Avoid the Multi-Million Dollar Mistake Most Agencies Make
1:00:27
1:00:27
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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 …
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Meaningful Meetings with Ben Zimmer of Ethos Insurance and Risk Management
50:12
50:12
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50:12
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 …
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3 Reasons You Need to Fire Your Producers From Service
26:28
26:28
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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 …
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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 episod…
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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 impactfu…
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Easy vs. Hard, It's About the Choices You Make in Your Insurance Agency
27:57
27:57
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27:57
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,…
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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 fr…
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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 i…
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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 questio…
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Increasing Service Capacity in Your Agency
21:47
21:47
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21:47
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 m…
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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 …
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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 – Mot…
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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? …
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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 acc…
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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 agen…
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