In this episode of Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey sit down with Jeff Arnold, founder of RightSure, serial acquirer, author of 11 books, and one of the most experienced agency buyers in the industry. With more than 40 agency acquisitions, multiple exits, and decades of leadership experience, Jeff brings a grounded, honest perspective on growth, technology, and knowing when it’s time to let go.

The conversation covers what most agency owners are thinking about right now: how to lead through AI without becoming “AI shackled,” how to approach acquisitions with trust and relevance, and why adopting technology without fixing broken processes only creates more problems. Jeff shares real-world examples of how his firm is using AI today, not as a buzzword, but as a tool to support people, improve workflows, and create long-term value.

They also dig into the emotional side of ownership and exit. Jeff talks candidly about selling agencies, the identity shift that comes with transition, and why staying too long can quietly damage the legacy you worked so hard to build. For agency owners considering growth, acquisition, or succession, this episode offers perspective that only comes from experience.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why AI leadership matters more than AI tools
• How to avoid becoming “tech shackled” as an agency
• What builds trust when acquiring another agency
• Why outsourcing creates perspective, not loss of control
• The real challenges agency owners face when transitioning ownership
• How to know when it’s time to exit and what comes next

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

In this episode of Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey sit down with Larry G. Linne, founder of InCite Performance Group, author of Make the Noise Go Away, and a lifelong student of business, leadership, and human behavior.

Larry shares his unconventional path from a West Texas football player once told he “shouldn’t go to college” to becoming one of the most respected advisors in the insurance industry. Along the way, he explains why curiosity, critical thinking, and execution matter more than new ideas, and why studying industries outside insurance is essential to staying relevant.

The conversation dives deep into the future of the insurance industry, including AI, the silver tsunami of retiring leaders, and the growing risk of knowledge loss inside agencies. Larry challenges the fear-based narratives around technology and makes a compelling case for why AI will not replace insurance professionals but will expose those who refuse to adapt.

They also revisit the core idea behind Larry’s book: the power of the “number two.” Larry explains why second-in-command leaders are often the real drivers of organizational clarity, execution, and growth, and why leadership does not only live at the top.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why being a student of business matters more than being an industry expert
• How AI will reshape insurance without eliminating the need for advisors
• The real risk agencies face during leadership and producer transitions
• Why “smart” agencies will outperform product-focused agencies
• How second-in-command leaders can create clarity and reduce organizational noise

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

On Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey sit down with Wessly J. Anderson to talk entrepreneurship, leadership, and the very real way AI is changing business right now. Wes is the founder of Agency VA and Agent CVA, and he’s built what most people only talk about: multiple businesses across different seasons of life, with a bias toward growth, speed, and learning through doing.

Wes shares how he grew up inside his dad’s tech company (back when “CD-ROM” felt like the future), and why that experience wired him to build. From a lawn mowing company where he never mowed a lawn, to a cleaning business at 14, to a surprisingly large candy company supplying hospitals, his story is a masterclass in sales grit, relationship building, and showing up when other people quit. He also gets honest about what can go wrong when you choose the wrong partners, including a painful story of a business being stolen and the lessons that shaped his much stricter partner-vetting process today.

Then the conversation shifts into a topic every business owner needs to be thinking about: AI. Wes is bullish on it, but clear-eyed about risk. He explains why putting sensitive information into public AI tools is a bad move, why “head in the sand” is the most dangerous position a leader can take, and how the real separator will be the people who put in the reps. Not AI itself, but the business owners who learn how to use it responsibly and well.

They wrap with Wes’s best advice for entrepreneurs: stop chasing everyone else’s playbook, get honest about what you’re good at, and build your business around your strengths while finding partners, people, and tools to cover the rest.

What you’ll learn

• How serial entrepreneurs spot opportunity and build fast
• Why contracts, consistency, and “showing up” create real enterprise value
• The hidden risk of choosing partners without a process
• Wes’s take on AI: privacy, practicality, and why adoption is now a competitive advantage
• A simple framework for entrepreneurs: know your strengths, outsource your weaknesses, and ignore the noise

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

On Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey talk with Matt Porter, former owner of a family-run oil and propane company in mid-coast Maine who started his business at the dining room table, grew it over 16+ years, and sold it in December 2022 through Tounge Associates. Today, Matt has come full circle and now serves as a Senior Advisor at Tounge Associates, helping other business owners navigate acquisitions and ownership transitions.

Matt shares what led him to sell, including rapid COVID-era growth, labor challenges in the trades, and the personal toll of running a seven-day-a-week service business. He walks through the decision not to pass the company to the next generation, even with multiple family members working inside the business, and why timing and pressure matter as much as valuation.

The conversation breaks down what it’s really like to work with an M&A advisor, from valuation and buyer outreach to negotiating offers while still running the business. Matt also reflects on communicating the sale to employees, staying on through a critical transition period, and planning life after the sale.

What you’ll learn

• How to know when growth is creating pressure instead of opportunity
• What buyers value most in service-based businesses
• Why working with an M&A advisor can protect value and reduce stress
• How to communicate a sale to employees and customers
• Why planning your post-sale chapter matters

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

In this episode of Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey talk with Col. (Ret.) Robert “Cujo” Teschner, former F-15 and F-22 fighter pilot and author of Debrief to Win. Cujo shares how a childhood dream of flying fighters led to a 20-year Air Force career, what happened when a colorectal cancer diagnosis forced him out of the cockpit, and how he rebuilt his purpose as an entrepreneur and leadership coach. He walks through the accountability and debrief system used in elite fighter squadrons and shows how those same tools help business leaders create high performance teams, lead through disruption, and handle feedback without blame.

Throughout the conversation, Cujo and the hosts connect these lessons directly to independent insurance agencies: finding meaning in “numbers work,” leading teams through transition, and staying grounded when your identity is tied to your role. It is a practical, story-driven playbook for any owner or leader who feels stuck, burned out, or on the edge of a big change.

What you’ll learn

• How fighter pilot debriefs translate into a simple, repeatable accountability process for your agency
• A forward focused way to talk about mistakes that improves performance instead of creating fear
• How to reframe disruption, illness, or career change so your story “gets better” instead of smaller
• Why purpose drives better results than quotas, and how to reconnect your daily work to real impact
• Practical ideas for leading your team through uncertainty, tough feedback, and major transition

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

On Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey sit down with serial entrepreneur Alan Ringvald, CEO of Relativity6, to talk about what today’s entrepreneurs and leaders can learn from the startup world. Alan shares the lessons he picked up building companies across industries, from launching tech products to navigating early-stage chaos to finding real product-market fit.

He explains why entrepreneurs need to focus on the problem before the solution, how to test ideas in the real world, and why great data has become a competitive advantage for both carriers and agents. Alan also breaks down how AI has accelerated innovation, what founders often misunderstand about adoption, and how to stay resilient when the work gets messy.

What you’ll learn

• Why solving the right problem matters more than having a clever idea
• How to validate new concepts quickly using real customer feedback
• The role of accurate underwriting data in profitable growth
• How AI is reshaping decision-making
• What long-term resilience looks like inside a high-growth company

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

On Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey sit down with Trace Meek, a third-generation agency owner and founder of Ask Fetch, to talk about one of the most persistent challenges in personal lines: the underwriting bottleneck. From appetite confusion to slow carrier responses to the loss of institutional knowledge, Trace explains why agencies get stuck and how tools like Ask Fetch are helping teams move faster and stay competitive.

He shares the turning point that inspired him to build a solution, the operational lessons he learned running his family agency, and why speed is now one of the strongest predictors of winning new business. This episode offers practical fixes, smarter workflows, and a deeper look at what high-performing agencies are doing to improve underwriting clarity.

What you’ll learn

• Why underwriting friction slows growth
• How speed impacts your close ratio
• Where appetite confusion really starts
• How Ask Fetch helps decode carrier rules faster
• How to reduce reliance on tribal knowledge inside your agency
• How modern workflows help new hires quote and bind sooner
• The mindset shift that moves agencies from overwhelmed to intentional

Business Refocused exists to help leaders remove roadblocks, improve operations, and build agencies that run with confidence.

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

On this episode of Business Refocused, Carey and Lindsay Wallace sit down with Jay Mueller, an independent agency owner who lives on the Mediterranean coast of Spain while running a growing brick and mortar insurance agency in Cincinnati. He shares how he restructured a multigenerational family business, implemented EOS, and built a leadership team that allows him to be overseas without losing momentum, culture, or performance. They unpack what it really looks like to design freedom into your agency, from getting out of the day to day to trusting your people and putting the right systems in place.

What you’ll learn:

• How Jay runs a Cincinnati based independent insurance agency while living in Spain
• The path from 10 employees down to 3, then back up to 15 with close to 20% organic revenue growth
• Why EOS, clarity in roles, and a true accountability chart unlocked scale
• How to move from “I am the main producer” to “I develop producers and leaders”
• Simple ways to test working remotely before you commit to a big life change
• Practical ideas to create more freedom for yourself and your team, including extended time off and sabbatical style breaks

If you are asking yourself whether it is possible to grow your agency, protect your culture, and still build a life you are excited about, this conversation gives you a realistic, step by step view of what it takes.

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

On Business Refocused, Lindsay and Carey talk with Raghav Tanna, founder of Tarmika and cofounder of the nonprofit Little Sparks Project. Raghav shares the real story behind building Tarmika, selling to Applied Systems, and deciding when it is time to exit. He breaks down how to pick the right buyer, what it feels like to stay on after a sale, and why family and happiness should drive the decision. The conversation also spotlights the Little Sparks Gala in Boston, and how the foundation supports families facing rare medical diagnoses with meaningful financial grants.

What you’ll learn

• A founder’s checklist for deciding when to sell vs raise another round
• How to evaluate buyers beyond the offer price
• What changes when your product becomes one feature inside a large company
• How to plan your post-sale season, including staying on or stepping back
• Why mission and family can be the best governance for big decisions
• How Little Sparks reduces financial stress for families with complex medical needs

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused

On this episode of Insurance Refocused, Carey and Lindsay Wallace sit down with tax attorney David Foate to unpack the truth about year-end tax planning for insurance agencies. From entity structure decisions to vehicle deductions, R&D credits, and home office rules, they cover what really works and what might land you in trouble with the IRS.

David shares real audit stories, explains why S Corps often make sense for agencies, and breaks down how to tell the difference between smart tax strategies and the viral “hacks” flooding social media. Whether you’re trying to lower your tax bill, prepare for a future sale, or just avoid costly mistakes, this conversation offers practical advice every agency owner should hear before year-end.

Sponsored by AgencyPoint

This episode is brought to you by AgencyPoint, your full-service partner for Accounting, Tax, Legal, and HR solutions built specifically for insurance agencies. AgencyPoint helps independent agencies streamline operations, stay compliant, and make confident financial decisions. Learn more at https://www.myagencypoint.com/partners/insurancerefocused

Connect with us:
Follow AgencyFocus for more conversations that help agency owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term value. Learn more at https://agency-focus.com/

Show previously named Insurance Refocused