Agency Acceleration Lab

Episode 33 – Rusty and Michelle Noel Run 40 Medicare Seminars a Year and Here Is the System Behind It

Most Medicare agents run a seminar or two and hope the phones ring. Rusty and Michelle Noel built an entire operating system around seminars, membership meetings, and a CRM workflow that keeps their pipeline full year-round, even in the off-season.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Rusty and Michelle Noel to talk about how they built one of the most impressive face-to-face Medicare agencies in the country. In a world that is moving everything to Zoom and tele-sales, they chose to stay on the road, shake hands with their clients, and build relationships that last years. And it is working.

Rusty and Michelle break down how they structure their AEP road trips combining lunch seminars, dinner seminars, and membership meetings all in the same location, why they started adding Spanish language seminars, the 15 month CRM drip workflow that brought back a client two years after she said no, and what they would tell any agent running their very first seminar.

In this episode you will learn:

• How Rusty and Michelle structure their AEP road trips to maximize every location with multiple event types in a single day
• Why they now run around 40 seminars per AEP season including Spanish-language events
• The CRM workflow that drips on leads for 15 months and has brought clients back two years later
• How a client who said no at a seminar two years ago came back with one of the most powerful testimonials they have ever received
• Why face to face is still their primary business model and how they make it scale with LOA agents
• What membership meetings are, how they run them between lunch and dinner seminars, and why they work so well for client retention
• What to look for in a seminar venue and why name recognition and private rooms are non-negotiable
• Why seminars are a long play and what happens when agents treat them as a one and done strategy
• How to be ready an hour early and why trust is built before you ever say a word
• The first things Rusty and Michelle would tell any agent running their very first seminar

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Agency Acceleration Lab
https://agencyacceleration.ai

Connect with Alex Branning

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning

Subscribe to the Podcast

Watch on YouTube
https://youtu.be/1kHJAOU6BDk

Follow on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

Listen on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/po

If you have been wondering whether in-person seminars are still worth doing in today’s market, this episode is going to answer that question definitively.

Episode 32 – How to Fill a Room With 25 Qualified Medicare Prospects Using Facebook Ads for Under $500

Most Medicare agents are fighting over the same digital leads, paying more for them every month, and watching response rates drop. Branden Whitehead has a different approach. He fills rooms with qualified Medicare prospects using Facebook ads, builds trust in person over a free dinner, and walks away with enough booked appointments to fill the week.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Branden Whitehead to talk about the in-person Medicare dinner seminar system that has been quietly outperforming digital-only strategies for the agents who are using it. Branden breaks down the full process from venue selection to Facebook ad setup to the follow-up call that converts a lead into a confirmed RSVP and finally the seminar flow that naturally leads into booked appointments and ancillary product conversations.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why in-person dinner seminars are outperforming digital leads in the current trust recession
• The chain restaurants that work best for Medicare events and how to negotiate a private room within CMS compliance guidelines
• Why Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to host and why restaurants love it too
• Why 20 to 30 RSVPs is the sweet spot for building real rapport and booking quality appointments
• How to use Facebook ads within a 20 mile radius to fill a room for a fraction of the cost of direct mail
• Why you should start marketing two weeks out and what the ad creative should say
• The one follow-up phone call that converts a Facebook lead into a confirmed RSVP
• Why about 80% of confirmed RSVPs actually show up and how to account for no-shows without overbooking
• What a 30 to 40 minute seminar flow looks like from the moment guests arrive to when you book appointments
• The done-for-you Medicare presentation that naturally leads prospects into ancillary product conversations without blindsiding them

  🔗 Resources Mentioned
  
  Agency Acceleration Lab
  https://agencyacceleration.ai

  Connect with Alex Branning
  
  Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning
  
  Subscribe to the Podcast
  
  Watch on YouTube
  https://youtu.be/LhLAqC-3xEw

  Follow on Spotify
  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

  Listen on Apple Podcasts
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/po

If you have been looking for a consistent and affordable way to fill your pipeline with qualified Medicare prospects who already know you, like you, and trust you before you ever sit down with them one-on-one, this episode is your starting point.

Episode 31 – How to Find the Right People, Get Them Licensed, and Keep Them From Quitting

Recruiting unlicensed agents is one of the biggest growth levers in insurance right now. It is also one of the biggest sources of wasted time and money if you do not have the right system in place to identify who will follow through, support them through the licensing process, and get them producing fast once they pass.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Justin vom Eigen, owner of Just Insurance, to talk about the full journey from unlicensed applicant to producing agent. Justin recruited over 20,000 people into pre-licensing in six years and in this conversation he breaks down everything he learned about what separates the ones who make it from the ones who do not.

Justin shares the two interview questions that actually predict follow through, why the best version of someone in an interview is often not the version you get on the job, how his tracking system gives agency owners a real time view of every applicant’s progress through pre-licensing, what to do when someone fails the licensing exam, and what a successful first 30 days looks like for a brand new agent joining your team.

If you have been losing applicants between the interview and the license, or watching new agents quit before they ever get traction, this episode is going to give you a clear and practical system to fix that.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why the person who checks every box in the interview is not always the one who succeeds
• The two questions Justin asks in every interview to predict whether someone will actually follow through
• Why asking how long someone can survive on their savings changes the conversation completely
• How Just Insurance’s tracking system gives agency owners a real time view of every applicant’s progress
• Why cookie-cutter study plans do not work and what to do instead
• How to send the right message to the right applicant at exactly the right time without managing a spreadsheet
• What to do when someone fails the licensing exam and how to tell if they are still worth investing in
• The failed exam triage system Justin built to help agents pass on the second attempt
• What a successful first 30 days looks like for a brand new licensed agent
• Why getting call jitters out on day one is one of the most important things you can do for a new agent

  🔗 Resources Mentioned
  
  Agency Acceleration Lab
  https://agencyacceleration.ai

  Connect with Alex Branning
  
  Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning
  
  Subscribe to the Podcast
  
  Watch on YouTube
  https://youtu.be/JOCfXteYNEA

  Follow on Spotify
  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

  Listen on Apple Podcasts
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/po

Episode 30 – Chase Gruening Reveals How His Agents Generate $20,000 a Month Within 90 Days

Most agency owners spend months trying to get a new agent producing consistently. Chase Gruening has a system that gets them to $20,000 a month in revenue within 90 days. And in this episode, he pulls back the curtain on exactly how that happens.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Chase Gruening, Coach G, to talk about the revenue per household strategy behind one of the most profitable Medicare agencies in the country, the discovery process that gets clients to buy multiple policies without ever feeling sold to, and the webinar lead generation model behind a business doing over $10 million a year in revenue.

Chase also gets into why he prefers hiring agents with zero experience, the one thing most experienced agents have to unlearn when they join his team, and why hiring pros instead of trying to do everything yourself is what actually unlocks growth at scale.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why 80% of Chase's revenue comes from non-Medicare products even though all his marketing targets Medicare beneficiaries
• The discovery process he uses to help clients understand their problem before presenting any solution
• How he structures the first 90 days for every new agent, including an hour-by-hour plan for the first two weeks
• Why he prefers agents with zero experience and what traits he looks for above everything else
• The one thing most experienced agents have to unlearn when they join his team
• How the working the ladder onboarding system creates consistent early production
• The webinar lead generation model behind his $10 million a year agency
• Why authenticity is the secret sauce that makes his webinars convert when others fall flat
• Why the webinar model is very hard to scale if you are only writing one product per client
• Why hiring pros instead of trying to do everything yourself is the key to removing yourself as the bottleneck

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Agency Acceleration Lab
https://agencyacceleration.ai

Connect with Alex Branning

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning

Subscribe to the Podcast

Watch on YouTube
https://youtu.be/dTP4qltN4J8

Follow on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

Listen on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/po

If you have been trying to get more revenue per client, build a team that produces fast, or break into the webinar model for lead generation, this episode is going to give you a clear picture of what that actually looks like in practice.

Episode 29 – How Randy Thompson Went From 62% Market Penetration in Wyoming to a Nationwide Agency

Most insurance agents think their location limits them. Randy Thompson proved otherwise. He built one of the largest insurance agencies in the country from a town of 3,000 people in Wyoming, and the system behind that growth is something every agency owner needs to hear.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Randy Thompson, the Real Cowboy Coach, to talk about the invisibility tax most agents are unknowingly paying every single day, how branding and marketing helped him dominate his local market before scaling nationally, and the AI knowledge base he spent three and a half years building that completely transformed how his team operates.

Randy also gets into why vulnerability in your story builds more trust than highlighting your success, why asking for an introduction lands better than asking for a referral, and where he sees AI taking the insurance agency space next.

In this episode, you will learn:

• What the invisibility tax is and why most agents are unknowingly paying it every day
• How Randy hit 62% market penetration in his county before scaling his agency nationwide
• Why branding is the message and marketing is just the vehicle that carries it
• How asking for an introduction instead of a referral changes the entire conversation
• Why sharing your failures builds more trust with your audience than sharing your success
• The AI brain Randy built from 23 years of SOPs, handbooks, and thousands of documents
• How he went from 100 team interruptions a day to almost zero using his AI knowledge base
• Why Insurance 247 sits on top of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude at the same time
• How agents across the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK are using it to grow
• Where Randy sees AI and automation going next in the insurance agency space

  🔗 Resources Mentioned
  
  Agency Acceleration Lab
  https://agencyacceleration.ai

  Connect with Alex Branning
  
  Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning
  
  Subscribe to the Podcast
  
  Watch on YouTube
  https://youtu.be/Qn-bd3Kt_x4

  Follow on Spotify
  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

  Listen on Apple Podcasts
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/po

  If you have been thinking your market is too small or your team is too dependent on you, this episode is going to change how you think about both.

Episode 28 – Why the Busiest Agency Owners Are Often the Least Profitable and How to Fix It

Being busy is not the same as being profitable. And for most agency owners, the gap between how hard they are working and how much they are actually growing comes down to one thing — they are doing everything themselves and leaving their most valuable work undone.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Sarah Pappas to talk about the revenue leaks that are quietly costing agency owners money every single week, and how a well-placed virtual assistant can plug those leaks while freeing the agency owner up to focus on the work that actually grows the business.

Sarah brings a perspective that most people in this space never talk about — the hidden cost of not hiring a VA is not just the tasks that pile up. It is the missed connections, the missed follow-ups, the missed relationships, and the missed revenue that slips through the cracks while you are buried in things that someone else could be handling for ten dollars an hour.

In this episode, you will learn:

• What revenue leaks actually look like inside an insurance agency and how a VA plugs them
• Why being stuck in ten-dollar-an-hour tasks is costing you far more than just time
• What your zone of genius actually is and how to identify it in your own business
• How a VA can help with recruiting, appointment setting, agent onboarding, and client follow-up
• The treasure hunt strategy for finding missed opportunities and lost revenue inside your existing database
• Why the hidden cost of not hiring a VA is the relational equity you are missing out on
• How to onboard and train a VA even when everything is still stuck inside your head
• The delegate and delete framework for figuring out what to hand off and what to stop doing altogether
• How to use AI to build the playbook your VA needs to train themselves
• Why your book of business is your most valuable asset and how a VA helps you protect and grow it

  🔗 Resources Mentioned
  
  Agency Acceleration Lab
  https://agencyacceleration.ai

  Connect with Alex Branning
  
  Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning
  
  Subscribe to the Podcast
  
  Watch on YouTube
  https://youtu.be/2FLsVja--0c

  Follow on Spotify
  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

  Listen on Apple Podcasts
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agency-acceleration-lab/id1882456627
  |
  If you have been telling yourself you are too busy to hire help, this episode is going to show you that being too busy is exactly the reason you need to.

Episode 27 – He Films One Video and Gets 48 Pieces of Content — Tony Merwin's Agency Growth System

Most insurance agents know they should be creating content. Very few of them have figured out how to do it consistently without it taking over their entire week. Tony Merwin built a system that solves both problems at once — and in this episode he breaks down every step of it.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Tony Merwin from Austin, Texas, to talk about the two growth engines behind his agency. The first is his decision to market directly and entirely in Spanish to the fastest-growing segment of Medicare. The second is the content multiplier system he built that turns one video into forty-eight pieces of content across every major social media platform without starting from scratch.

Tony also gets into how he and his wife Grace use educational video content to build trust before anyone ever picks up the phone, how they handle prospects who call in asking specifically for Grace, and why understanding that different people convert in different ways led him to build multiple entry points for every prospect.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why marketing in Spanish rather than just adding Se habla Español to your ads is a complete game changer
• How Tony and Grace use educational video content to build trust before anyone picks up the phone
• Why the Hispanic market is the fastest-growing segment of Medicare right now
• How to handle prospects who only want to talk to the face they see in the videos
• The exact content multiplier system that turns one video into forty-eight pieces of content
• The tools Tony uses including Sonix and Vidya, to transcribe and repurpose content automatically
• How to identify the best-performing organic content and turn it into paid ads
• Why you need multiple conversion points to capture every type of prospect
• How to use a chatbot lead form and inbound calls together to maximize lead capture
• Where to connect with Tony and access his weekly live training in the Insurance Syndicate Facebook group

  🔗 Resources Mentioned
  
  Agency Acceleration Lab
  https://agencyacceleration.ai

  Connect with Alex Branning
  
  Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning
  
  Subscribe to the Podcast
  
  Watch on YouTube
  https://youtu.be/_gVSzY6UQ9g

  Follow on Spotify
  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

  Listen on Apple Podcasts
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agency-acceleration-lab/id1882456627

  If you have been trying to figure out how to show up everywhere on social media without burning yourself out or hiring a full content team, this episode is your answer.

Episode 26 – How to Get a Business Owner to Say Yes Before You Ever Mention Insurance

Most insurance agents spend their days selling one policy at a time to one person at a time. Larry from Diversified Capital Benefits Group has figured out a completely different way to do it. He walks into a business, asks one question about payroll taxes, and opens a door that leads to dozens of sales from a single relationship — without anyone paying a dime out of pocket.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Larry to talk about the business owner strategy that is quietly creating massive revenue opportunities for the agents who know about it — and why the ones who do not are leaving a fortune on the table.

Larry breaks down the one question that gets a yes from business owners 95% of the time before insurance is ever mentioned, how the U.S. tax code legally allows employers to fund employee benefits at zero net cost to the employer and zero net cost to the employee, and exactly how agents are stacking life insurance, cancer policies, hospital indemnity plans, and more from a single business relationship.

Alex also shares the story of Jerry — an agent in Austin, Texas — who walked into a small business with 21 employees and walked out with two to three sales per employee. The numbers speak for themselves.

In this episode you will learn:

• The one question Larry asks every business owner that gets a yes 95% of the time before insurance is ever mentioned
• Why leading with tax savings instead of insurance products changes everything about the conversation
• How the U.S. tax code legally allows employers to fund employee benefits at zero net cost to anyone
• How agents are stacking life insurance, cancer policies, hospital indemnity plans, and more from one business relationship
• Why employees see their net take home pay actually increase when this program is implemented
• How one agent walked into a business with 21 employees and walked out with dozens of sales
• Why this is a blue ocean opportunity that very few agents are taking advantage of right now
• How DCBG does all the heavy lifting on the tax side so agents can focus on the insurance
• The compliance piece every agent needs to understand before entering this space
• How to plug into the system even if you do not want to become a tax expert yourself

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Agency Acceleration Lab
https://agencyacceleration.ai

Connect with Alex Branning

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning

Subscribe to the Podcast

Watch on YouTube
https://youtu.be/UHmxlySVwoM

Follow on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

Listen on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agency-acceleration-lab/id1882456627

If you have been grinding through individual sales one at a time and wondering if there is a better way to build your agency, this episode is going to open your eyes to an opportunity that most agents are completely missing right now.

Episode 25 – The Nine Step AEP System Every Medicare Agent Needs Before October

For the first four or five years of her Medicare career, Katie Owen wrote business during AEP but paid a brutal price for it. Eye twitches. Missed family gatherings. No Christmas preparation until days before. And more than a few seasons where she seriously considered walking away from insurance altogether.

Then she decided there had to be a better way. And she built a system that changed everything.

In this episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning sits down with Katie Owen — a Medicare expert with 23 fourth quarters in the insurance business — to talk about the nine step AEP process she built that turned her most stressful season into her most productive one.

Katie breaks down how she uses her CRM to automate client communication from start to finish, why she stopped doing plan reviews live and what she does instead, the one automation most agents forget to set up that costs them hours every single AEP, and how she generates consistent referrals through doctor relationships and strategic partnerships without ever chasing anyone down.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why Katie almost quit insurance during AEP and what finally changed everything for her
• The nine step client process she uses every AEP to stay organized and profitable
• How to use tags and workflows in your CRM to automate client communication from start to finish
• Why doing plan reviews live is one of the biggest time wasters in Medicare and what to do instead
• The tool she uses to collect client drug and doctor information before ever getting on the phone
• How to communicate plan review results to clients without scheduling a call for every single person
• The one automation most agents forget that costs them hours every single AEP season
• Why sending a text five minutes after every email dramatically increases response rates
• How she uses doctor relationships and strategic partnerships to generate consistent referrals
• How she has woven annuities long-term care and life insurance into her Medicare agency to maximize revenue per client

  If you are a Medicare agent heading into AEP and you are still running everything manually, this episode is going to change how you think about the next ninety days.

Episode 24 – What Are "Reggies"? The Revenue Secret Every Insurance Agency Owner Needs

You have probably described your day as busy, packed, full, or stressful. But when was the last time you actually sat down and looked at how you were spending it — hour by hour, task by task — and asked yourself honestly how much of it was actually making you money?

In this solo episode of the Agency Acceleration Lab, Alex Branning gets real about a concept that changed everything about how he runs his agency. He calls them Reggies — revenue-generating tasks — and the difference between agency owners who are growing and the ones who are grinding almost always comes down to how many Reggies they are getting into their day.

Alex walks through the time audit process that opened his own eyes to how much revenue he was leaving on the table, the math that shows you exactly what each revenue generating hour is worth, and the stories agency owners tell themselves about why certain things won't work — and what actually happened the first time he stopped listening to those stories and just tried anyway.

This is one of the most honest and practical solo episodes Alex has recorded. 

In this episode you will learn:

• What Reggies are and why they are the most important metric in your agency
• How to do a time audit that gives you an honest picture of how you are really spending your day
• The math that shows you exactly what each revenue generating hour is worth
• Why the things you have been putting off are probably your biggest untapped revenue opportunities
• How delegating administrative tasks frees you up to do more Reggies
• Why most agency owners are lying to themselves about how productive they actually are
• The difference between tasks you should delegate, tasks you should delete, and tasks only you should be doing
• How one simple email newsletter could generate hundreds of dollars in new business every single month
• Why webinars, email campaigns, and outbound outreach are Reggies most agents are leaving on the table
• How to hold yourself accountable to spending more time on revenue generating activities every single day

  🔗 Resources Mentioned
  
  Agency Acceleration Lab
  https://agencyacceleration.ai

  Connect with Alex Branning
  
  Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/alex_branning
  
  Subscribe to the Podcast
  
  Watch on YouTube
  https://youtu.be/zZQyBMwgZ2w
  
  Follow on Spotify
  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NPFO06K9WmfOBoYmHkCnR

  Listen on Apple Podcasts
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agency-acceleration-lab/id1882456627

  If you have been telling yourself you are too busy to grow, this episode is going to show you that the problem was never time. It was where the time was going.