ATO Podcast

What entertaining and fun conversation with Roberto Salinas of Lula and Elis Umana founder of Conexion Insurance and Agency Scriptsure.   We discussed GAIL, the generative AI Tool by Lula.   GAIL is a Voice Powered AI Tool to that can help your insurance agency in so many ways.  It can help as an after hours call service, replace an annoying phone tree, route your calls to the correct department as well as create outgoing calls for cross sells, renewals, prospects, just about anything that you program it for.  AND IT SOUNDS REAL!!  Roberto is awesome.  He has a great backstory on the problem their insurance agency was having and how this lead to creating a solution which became GAIL.  Elis has become the go to specialist for building out GAIL.  The demand for her consultations became so high, she created a side business for helping other agents build out this program.  The name of the business is https://agencyscriptsure.com/.  You'll enjoy this episode!! 

Jessica Klatt, a human wiring specialist and founder of Be Industries to discuss all the benefits of using the unique Acumax personality assessment tool to help business owners hire, communicate and work more efficiently with their team of people.  This was a really interesting discussion on how we are all programmed.  Jessica is a business coach, consultant, mentor and speaker.  I truly enjoyed this conversation and learned a lot.   

https://wiredtobe.com/services

 🏢 Creating a training and communications department for a growing company. 0:01
🚀 Entrepreneurship journey with ups and downs. 4:58
🧠 Personality assessments and their impact on leadership development. 9:59
👥 Using personality assessments for hiring and team alignment. 17:53
📋 Hiring and assessing candidates for roles based on their personality traits. 22:11
📈 Assessments for business growth with a focus on culture and fit. 26:22 

Chris Langille, founder of Advisor Evolved,  is well known within the Independent Insurance space as a premier website provider.  Advisor Evolved is more than just a website provider.  Chris is a SEO expert, a Digital Marketer and for some a consultant.   Advisor Evolved delivers on their promise to provide the white glove service and an insurance specific website that helps you grow and win.  And he's one good dude. Enjoy this episode!!

https://advisorevolved.com/

0:00 🕛 Vetting marketing agencies and vendors
8:38 🕣 Expanding insurance agency services to new verticals, including lenders, and analyzing competitors' websites for SEO insights
11:57 🕚 SEO strategies for insurance agencies in 2024
16:49 🕓 SEO and local search optimization for insurance agencies
22:21 🕕 SEO strategies for insurance agencies, including content creation and social media promotion
26:59 🕧 Using Google Ads for local traffic marketing
32:32 🕟 Best practices for closing internet leads in the insurance industry
38:35 🕣 Digital marketing strategies for local businesses
44:25 🕔 Wrap-up and final thoughts 

Brett Young, President and CEO of Erb & Young does many things differently within the insurance business.  With a vision from the beginning to scale their insurance business, the 3 partners of Erb & Young thought differently from the beginning.  Not only were the focused on growing the insurance agency, they were focused on developing themselves.  Personal development is at the core of what they do and it's a foundation through the now over 50 person company.  At Erb & Young, Brett is focused on making people become the best version of themselves.  

 0:00 🕒 Scaling a successful insurance agency through strategic growth. 
2:12 🧠 Business philosophy and decision-making. 
6:29 📈 Prioritizing volume over quality in business growth. 
9:42 🧑‍💼 Building a successful insurance agency through recruiting and developing talent. 
15:21 🏢 Evaluating potential office openers for culture fit and competency. 
17:52 🌱 Personal development in the insurance industry. 
23:06 📚 Personal development and recruitment in a business environment. 
28:48 💬 Scaling a business through centralized messaging and decentralized execution, with a focus on team building and leadership development. 
31:44 🔥 Personal development and inspiring others. 
37:25 🗺️ Scaling a business through strategic planning and financial management. 40:11 🚀 Entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal development with a successful insurance business owner. 

An absolute pleasure to meet up with Erin & Mike Richardson, owners of Richardson Insurance located in Hanover, Mass.  They do it differently at Richardson Insurance.  They are all in with building relationships.  Not just with their clients and partners.  They are all in with building relationships with their team and their community.  Erin & Mike make insurance fun.  Most of us know that is not easy to do.  They are creative with how they take care of their team and how they work and communicate with the community.  They are everywhere in their community.   A core value of the Richardsons is giving back. These aren't just words on a wall, they have active charitable initiatives to give back to the community.  And they give back in a big way.  In 2023, they collected 608 Backpacks for School on Wheels to help those kids in need with basic school supplies.  This is just one of many charities that they work with.  This is a great episode where we cover a lot of topics including their sales process, how they create a team culture, how they work together as a couple.  Enjoy!!

0:00 ⏱️ Leadership transition in an insurance agency.
4:32 ❤️👫 Working with spouse in an insurance agency, challenges and benefits.
10:07 👥🤝 Building a customer-centric agency with personalized touches.
16:08 🏢🎯 Team-building activities and values alignment in a marketing agency.
22:10 🏆📈 Agency goals, service level, creative marketing strategies, and charitable involvement.
28:21 🎒📚 Charity work, backpack drive, and fundraising for Tommy's Place and School on Wheels.
32:37 🎤✨ Conclusion and final thoughts. 

https://www.insurewithrichardson.com/

I had an absolute blast connecting and learning from CJ Hutsenpiller, owner of Hutsenpiller Insurance located in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.  CJ always has been tech driven from automating processes, creating bots and now maximizing AI to improve efficiencies.  In this episode, we dive deep into the very impressive, seamless lead process that his team uses, bots they use in the agency and how the help and all the ways Hutsenpiller uses AI to help automate tasks and improve efficiencies. 

0:01 – Earning leadership role through hard work and tech adoption. 💼🔧
5:32 – Automated lead process and website optimization for insurance agencies. 🌐⚙️
10:46 – Optimizing website lead conversion through pop-ups and bots. 📈🤖
13:10 – Adapting to modern communication methods in insurance agencies. 📱💬
18:46 – Utilizing AI to streamline agency operations and improve efficiency. 🤖🚀
24:20 – Using AI to generate responses to Google reviews and improve social proof for a business. 🌟📝
27:49 – Using AI to generate insurance content. 📰🤖
32:46 – Creating a custom AI model for underwriting insurance risks. 📊💡
38:23 – Using AI to streamline insurance processes, including predicting customer behavior and automating tasks. 🔄🧠
41:12 – Using AI and automation to save time in business. ⏳🤖
45:28 – Transitioning from mother to owner in the insurance agency. 👩‍👧➡️👩‍💼

It was a pleasure to connect with Peter Covill, owner of Humphrey, Covill & Coleman.  Peter, aka Peter Scotts, is the most recent owner of this family agency that started in 1926.  This is anything but a dated agency.  In this conversation we discuss how automation is used in the business, the modern culture that the business is run under and the variety of digital marketing processes that they use to grow the business.   Enjoy this episode! 

⏰ 0:01 - Leadership challenges & strategies for success
⏰ 6:47 - Navigating flood insurance market & Google ad strategy
⏰ 16:37 - Using Google Ads for homeowners insurance leads
⏰ 26:18 - Insurance lead generation, retention, & automation
⏰ 34:05 - Deep dive into Google Ads, automation, & lead generation
⏰ 40:47 - Conclusion & key takeaways

Always a pleasure to connect with Tamron Manning with Integrity Insurance out of Lexington, KY.  Tam is a Business Owner in the Insurance Industry.  He is intentional about growing a business and not just being an insurance agent.  It's unique for an insurance agent to be this proactive early in their career to focus on growing the business and not just selling insurance.  Tamron is a student of Business.  We discussed the ways he is developing himself as a business owner, hiring and firing, branding the business.  These investments in the business and himself will undoubtedly pay off.   Enjoy this Episode!!

0:00 🎯 Intentional branding and consultative approach in insurance agency
6:04 👥 Hiring and team growth for a business
11:30 🔄 Hiring and onboarding processes, recognizing a bad fit, and taking responsibility
16:48 📈 Business ownership, hiring, and professional development
21:22 🛑 Firing employees and its impact on business owners
24:56 📊 Marketing strategies for insurance agents
29:21 🏅 Training new employees and delegating tasks
34:56 💸 Hiring and compensation for insurance agency
38:50 💑 Improving insurance business with a spouse's involvement
42:51 🤝 Running an insurance agency with a spouse
48:29 🎉 Wrap-up and key takeaways

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamron-manning-73b849181/

RPA's aka Robotic Process Automation or as Mike Fusco call is Repetitive Process Automation.  In most businesses there are repetitive processes that our team must handle over and over and over again.  RPA's help automate this redundancy.  Mike Fusco has employed a few of these RPA's to handle the mundane tasks.  It saves his team time, a lot of time and a lot of money.  Mike can tell you how much time and how much money.  In this episode we get in the weeds on RPA's, how they help, what his team thinks of them, how the help manage his processes and how much he has saved.  We also cover the typical insurance agent topics.  Mike is awesome!  It was great to connect and get to know him better.  Enjoy!

1️⃣ 0:01 - 📊 Insurance Business and Automation.
2️⃣ 1:08 - 💡 Insurance Consulting and Audit Support Services.
3️⃣ 5:25 - 🤖 Automating Repetitive Tasks in an Insurance Agency Using RPA.
4️⃣ 11:58 - 🚀 Automating Repetitive Tasks in an Agency Using Bots.
5️⃣ 19:06 - 🔄 Automating Monotonous Tasks with RPA.
6️⃣ 23:54 - 🏘️ Automating Tasks for Real Estate Agencies.
7️⃣ 28:54 - 💰 Creating Bots for Automation and Return on Investment.
8️⃣ 32:54 - 🧠 AI Use in Insurance Industry, Content Creation, and Authenticity.
9️⃣ 40:07 - 🔍 Wrapping up with advanced strategies for the future.

Mergers and Acquisitions is one of the hottest topics in the insurance industry.  So many agency owners want to acquire another business.  In this episode with Colby Allen, we cover all things in the acquisition process.  Financing, what to look for in the agency, what to look out for, what to look for in the P & L, things to consider for valuations, things to consider with staffing and so much more.  Colby is a consultant with Agency Focus.  Agency Focus is a Business Consulting agency specific to the the Independent Agency Industry.  Agency Focus handles Agency Valuations, Fractional CFO, Merger & Acquisitions and agency consulting.   This is a great episode to learn about the Acquisition process. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/colbytallen/

0:02 - 🏛️ Agency valuations and acquisitions.
4:35 - 📊 Evaluating insurance agencies for acquisition.
9:54 - 🔍 Agency valuation and due diligence.
15:44 - 👩‍💼 Vetting employees and prioritizing their well-being in business transactions.
22:19 - 💼 Agency compensation plans and their impact on valuation.
28:52 - 📜 Agency models, contracts, and exit strategies.
32:20 - 💰 Agency owner compensation and transition planning.
37:18 - 📈 Agency valuation, due diligence, and fractional CFO services.
43:32 - ⏳ Closing thoughts on agency valuation and financial consulting.