We are obviously in one of the most intense hard markets of the last several decades. While much has been said and written about how to navigate the challenges the market is creating for agents, I’d like to take a …
You are going to sell your interest in your agency at some point. Whether the sale is internal, external, to a family member, employees, or to a large national organization, there are steps you can take in advance to make …
As a young professional I was very interested in becoming active in my community. Of course, I knew that this would help my business career but I also had the philosophy, from an early age, that we all stand on …
One of my favorite sayings is “failure is tuition for something else.” I adopted this phrase during a conversation with another senior leader one day on the consequences of some mistakes we’d made organizationally. I think that failure is a …
Life has never held more opportunities for our attention to be pulled away from what is most important. We have all seen the statistics about the number of messages the average American has bombarding them every day. While these distractions …
Recently I renewed two large accounts for the twenty-sixth time. Over the years, I’ve found the loyalty of these particular clients professionally and personally rewarding. It’s also created a stable source of revenue for a long time. Though these two …
Late last year, most Americans began to hear about a new application of artificial intelligence (AI) called ChatGPT. Soon, this application, from a data science company called OpenAI, became the hot topic at every meeting, trade conference or internet search. …
From time to time, my doctor prescribes a treadmill test to check out how strong my heart is. Perhaps you’ve experienced this test, but in case you haven’t, the idea is to make you run faster and faster up an …
I recently participated in a discussion on agency challenges for a major commercial property/casualty carrier. When asked about their challenges, every single agency owner cited talent as their number one challenge. Frankly, there wasn’t much conversation about anything else. While …
As 2023 moves into the second quarter, intense speculation surrounds us as to how the economy will perform for the rest of this year and into next. Many economists predict that the Federal Reserve’s dramatically tightened monetary policy — i.e., …
