AGENCY INTELLIGENCE PODCAST NETWORK SHOWS—PART TWO

Podcast series wraps with a look at five programs

By Christopher W. Cook

It’s time to wrap up our hat trick of articles about the Agency Intelligence Podcast Network (AIPN). Let’s dive right into the last batch of shows.

Millionaire Insurance Producer. Hosted by Charles Specht, CEO of Permission Sales, which provides agents with sales coaching and online training courses, the show premiered in June 2021 and releases new episodes on Mondays and Thursdays.

The show provides “helpful sales tips, tactics, and strategies that help insurance agents build a $1 million or more book of business through signed broker of record letters,” says Specht, who spent nearly 10 years as a producer before becoming a consultant and coach. “I’ve branded the podcast’s focus around the concept of ‘12X,’ which is not multiplying by 12, but rather doing something 12 times. The focus is on winning one new client per month—or 12X per year. That is how you 12X your book.

“The primary topic of discussion is centered around the word ‘permission’; I teach insurance agents how to gain their prospect’s permission, which enables them to get the incumbent agent fired and them hired. Everything is centered around controlling the insured’s permission. (He refers to his listeners as the “Permission Nation.”) You either control the relationship or you’re being controlled by someone else’s process and agenda.”

During shows, Specht tries to “provide a step-by-step process during each episode to give my listeners something to walk away with and begin implementing immediately,” he says. “However, there are also times when I vent my frustration over things that I see insurance agents do that cause them to shoot themselves in the foot.”

Specht recommends checking out the following episodes:

• The 12X Millionaire Mindset—June 17, 2021
• 5 Things Successful Producers Do Every Week—June 28, 2021
• How to Win New Clients with a 12-Month Timeline of Services—July 8, 2021

Power Women in Insurance. Hosted by Teresa Kitchens, owner of The Sterling Insurance Group, Plano, Texas, the show premiered in March 2020and

releases new episodes on Wednesdays. The show originated after Kitchens attended an Insurance Agency Owners Alliance (IAOA) conference in 2020. “A group of women and I were sitting around talking about how we wished there was more opportunity to hear how women are showing up in the insurance industry and to have a way for women to be able to tell their stories and encourage other women,” Kitchens says.

“Women do make up approximately 60% of the insurance force, but I’ve heard that they are in less than 13% of the C-suite roles. Wouldn’t it be great if we created a podcast where women hear of other women’s success? And what if we help to empower the next generation of women stepping forward in the insurance industry?”

The show’s episodes, which range between 30 and 45 minutes, begin with an introduction of the guest, who then proceeds to tell their story. “The guests get the opportunity to tell us how they came into insurance and how they fell in love with it,” Kitchens says. “From there, [we discuss] their career, where they are, the challenges they’ve overcome, and we just sit down and have a conversation. We’re teaching other people about the insurance space, that it is a vibrant career option and one of the largest overall industries in our economy.

“It’s been a great opportunity to have these professional conversations, but then also [talk about] how you balance that with your family and your personal life and how it makes you feel.”

At the end of episodes, contact information is usually shared if listeners wish to connect with the guests.

For new listeners, Kitchens recommends the following episodes:

• Kristin Isaacson: Insurance Coach on How to Get Your Head in the Game—August 5, 2020
• How the Paradiso Agency Uses Data to Increase Customer Satisfaction, with Jordan McKay—April 28, 2021
• Imposter Syndrome and How It Impacts Your Insurance Career—June 30, 2021
• Building Powerful Cold Call Giants with the Cold Call Queen Jennifer Standish—September 22, 2021

The MVP Podcast. Hosted by Mitch Gibson, risk advisor at HRM Insurance Services, New Palestine, Indiana, the show premiered in early June 2021—although it took a hiatus between mid-June and mid-December—and now releases new episodes every other Monday.

The name of Gibson’s show was inspired by his love of the game of baseball. “Baseball has always been in [my family’s] blood and continues to be because I coach travel baseball for the [under 16] Indiana Nitro,” he says. “For a baseball player, the MVP award is the cream of the crop, and to be an MVP you can’t just be a one- or two-tool player; you’ve got to be a five-tool player. To be a good producer in this industry, you’ve got to be a five-tool producer. I took that perspective, threw in the baseball analogy, and [called it] the Most Valuable Producer.”

Gibson hopes that listeners of his program “make themselves 1% better every single day and learn one thing,” he says. “We’re not all going to be perfect, but we’re always learning and striving for better. I want our loyal listeners to find one thing, try it out, and if it doesn’t work to kick it to the side; if it does work, keep moving forward with it.”

For guests, Gibson tries to find people who “are new, young, or … have a specific process, system or [focus] that they’re really good at that’s going to be beneficial to a young agent,” he says. “It makes me excited to know that there are younger guys out there who are tuning in and learning about the industry, because our industry needs it.

“I try to keep [the language and terminology] as basic as possible, so [younger agents listening] are able to put in perspective what we’re talking about. After the [guest’s] first question of why they got into doing what they’re doing, we get into the nuts and bolts of the show and a deeper dive in the conversation.

“I like to ask and find out the weak-nesses of that specific guest. We all have weaknesses and I think we learn a lot more from weaknesses and struggles than we do from what we’re really good at. [We want the] producers out there listening to understand that it’s okay to ask people for help. We have such a helpful industry and the ability to make a difference in someone’s life.

Episodes generally last between 30 and 50 minutes, and Gibson recommends the following ones for new listeners:

• Bradley Flowers, Making Sure It’s a Good Fit—June 1, 2021
• Tamron Manning: Becoming an Agency Owner at 27—January 17, 2022

Digital Insurance Pint Podcast. Hosted by Tom Reid, president of GRTR Consulting; Adam Mitchell, owner of Mitchell & Whale Insurance Brokers; Steve Earle, president of Cheep Insurance; and Jeff Roy, CEO of Excalibur Insurance Group; the show began recording in the spring of 2020 and launched in September of that year. New episodes are released on Saturdays. The show joined the AIPN in early 2022.

The four hosts met at an Aviva Digital Broker meeting in 2017. “Tom Reid was in charge of the digital brokers across Canada at Aviva and we used to meet,

share ideas and help Aviva get better,” Roy says. “Adam Mitchell and I had talked about doing a podcast for a few years, but we never found the time. The four of us were talking during COVID and Tom suggested we do one.

“We came up with the name ‘Digital Insurance Pint Podcast’ because at most company meetings, conferences and conventions, many of the best ideas and real discussions happen over a beer or cocktail. We wanted to replicate this vibe online.”

Listeners of the show can expect to hear “three of the more forward-thinking digital brokers in Canada talking about the key issues they deal with everyday and talk to the companies and vendors who help us adapt to a changing world,” Roy says.

A typical show begins with the hosts cracking a beer from their sponsor, Garrison Brewery. “We introduce every-one and the guest and do a rapid round of questions to get to know the guest better, and then start the discussion. We mail all guests a shirt, beer glass and four beers for being on our show,” Roy says.

Aside from Garrison Brewery, the show is also sponsored by the Croo Group, a telecommunications firm based in Montreal, and IFS Premium Financing, Canada’s largest privately held premium financing organization. While the sponsorships help fund the show, “any money left over from sponsors at the end of the season, we donate to WICC(Women in Insurance Cancer Crusade),” Roy says.

While the AIPN platform only carries episodes of the show since it has joined the network, Roy recommends the following episodes, which can be found at digitalinsurancepint.com:

• Applied Systems CEO, Taylor Rhoades—An Epic Transformation; Season 2, Episode 4—March 3, 2021
• IVANS CEO, Reid Holzworth; Season 3, Episode 4—October 5, 2021
• Google’s Nigel Walsh; Season 3, Episode 9—December 15, 2021

Power Producers Podcast. Hosted by David R. Carothers, CIC, CRM, principal at Florida Risk Partners, and Kyle Houck, advisor at Florida Risk Partners, the show premiered in April 2020 and releases new episodes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The newest show to join the AIPN—in February 2022—the Power Producers Podcast episodes avail-able on the network’s website, like Digital Insurance Pint, are limited to the ones from after its inclusion with the group.

“The podcast was originally created to be a lead magnet to the Killing Commercial Insurance (killingcommercial.com)online community and training program, but it ended up taking on a life of its own,” says Carothers. “The podcast has one mission and one mission only: to equip the listener with the practical steps they can take to produce middle-market commercial insurance business.”

The episodes released on Mondays and Wednesdays are with an inter-viewed guest, whether it be an agent, agency principal, service provider, vendor, or carrier representative.

“It opens up with a quick intro and the back story of the guest and immediately gets into deep conversation about what they are doing in the industry that would benefit others to know,” says Carothers. “The Friday episodes are branded as ‘shop talk’ and basically deliver on that brand. They are shorter (no more than 30 minutes) and provide the listener with one or two things they can do immediately to take their game to another level.”

Carothers recommends the following episodes for new listeners (being pre-AIPN episodes, they can be found at the Killing Commercial Insurance website previously referenced):

• Making Music in the Middle Market, with Josh Gurley—May 27, 2020
• Broker of Record Letters are NOT the Devil, Shoptalk Series—October 16, 2020
• Dominating the Commercial Game, with Lorin Montgomery—August 23, 2021
• Ask Questions Like a Lawyer, with Crystal Ware—September 22, 2021

Signing off

And this concludes our coverage of insurance podcasts—for the time being. When it comes down to it, Kitchens says, “Podcasts aren’t necessarily for everybody, but they don’t have to be something that people have to feel like they must commit to. It’s not like true crime where you’ve got 32 episodes [to watch] in order to figure out what happened.

“I encourage people to find a podcast that resonates with their soul, because there’s so much development and personal growth that can come from that, and there are so many personal, individual stories out there. These are not celebrities; these are day-to-day people doing what we do. That is a value you can’t get anywhere else,” she concludes.

For more information:
Agency Intelligence Podcast Network
www.theinsurancepodcastnetwork.com