Elevate The Hustle

"Relationships close deals. Rates don't."

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Adam Urbania, part of the leadership team at The AC (Agency Collective), for a real conversation on why trust beats price in the insurance industry, and how a network built on relationships grew into a top-6 fastest-growing aggregator in the country, without a single acquisition.

Adam breaks down:

• The four questions every agency owner should ask before joining any network: buy-in, commissions, exit clauses, and who owns the book
• Why The AC has no lock-in contracts, no buyouts, and no non-competes, and why agents who've left have come back
• The five R's he lives by every day: respect, rapport, relationships, resolutions, and results

If you've ever felt like this industry pushes you to lead with the fee instead of the person, this episode is for you.

Elevate the Hustle is presented by Elevate Teams. We place trained virtual assistants from Latin America with U.S. insurance agencies, so owners can hand off the admin and focus on growth. See if it's a fit for your agency: [link]

🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/q7e5DRSu6kU?si=ioN5BvDb0zDEpPpA

elevateteams.io | @elevateteams

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

"$225K for 10%. He left owing 32%. Still called it a win."

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Nelson Brooks, founder of Cabana Boys Events, who built an 8,000-party empire before Shark Tank ever called, for a real conversation on Shark Tank negotiations, scaling a service business, and knowing when to ask for help.

Nelson breaks down:

• How he walked in asking for $225K at 10%, got countered at 40%, and negotiated down to 32%
• Why he applied to Shark Tank because growth had plateaued and shrunk, not because things were going great
• His plan to turn Cabana Boys into a billion dollar, franchised hospitality brand

If you've ever had to give up more than you wanted just to get the help you needed, this episode is for you.

Elevate the Hustle is presented by Elevate Teams. We place trained virtual assistants from Latin America with U.S. insurance agencies, so owners can hand off the admin and focus on growth. See if it's a fit for your agency: https://shorturl.at/0epS1

🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kRp3O-RGja8

elevateteams.io | @elevateteams

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

14 years old. Already failed 10,000 times. And he's just getting started.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Cody DeCoons, a 14-year-old entrepreneur who built Sports Sitters, a real, paying business, from scratch, to talk about failure, patience, and what it actually takes to build something before anyone thinks you're old enough to.

Cody breaks down:
 – How a dinner table idea during COVID turned into a business connecting high school athletes to teach younger kids
 – The $2,500 grant he almost deleted, thinking it was spam
 – Why recurring revenue beats one off sales, and the pricing lesson every founder learns the hard way

If you've ever waited for the "right time" to start something, this episode is for you.

Follow Sports Sitters:
 Instagram: @sportssittersnj
 Website: sportssittersnj.com

Elevate the Hustle is presented by Elevate Teams. We place trained virtual assistants from Latin America with U.S. insurance agencies, so owners can hand off the admin and focus on growth. See if it's a fit for your agency: [Calendly link with UTM]

🌐 elevateteams.io 📷 @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

He lost his father at 26, inherited a family business he wasn't ready for, and turned it into an 80-person insurance agency with 20+ acquisitions.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Marc Duffy, who took over his family's insurance agency at 27 and scaled it through M&A into one of the largest independent agencies in Greater Boston.

Marc opens up about the moment his father passed away in 2011, the guilt of "not pulling his weight" in the years before, and the wake-up call that forced him to grow up fast. He also breaks down the mistake that almost derailed the business early on (trying to grow 10x in a year), the exact formula he uses before buying any agency, and why he still believes independent insurance agents will win in the age of AI.

What you'll hear: – Taking over a family business at 27, right after losing his father – The biggest mistake he made trying to 10x growth in a year – The 3 non-negotiables he looks for in every hire – His exact due diligence formula before buying an agency (20+ deals and counting) – Why he believes AI is an opportunity, not a threat, for independent agents – What he'd tell his 22-year-old self about patience and building for the long term

Behind this show is Elevate Teams, helping insurance agency owners scale operations, build offshore talent, and grow without burning out. Book an intro call: https://calendly.com/elevateteamsllc/introductory-consultation?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=podcast

Follow Elevate the Hustle for weekly conversations with insurance agency owners, M&A experts, and industry leaders building serious businesses across the U.S.

Connect with us: Instagram: instagram.com/elevatethehustlepodcast LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/elevate-teams

Marc Duffy — Duffy Insurance, Greater Boston, MA

#insuranceagency #entrepreneur #familybusiness #mergersandacquisitions #insurancepodcast

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

Insurance agency owners: How Greg May launched a specialty casualty MGA from scratch with his brother, said no to the opportunity three times, and bound their first policy in under five months.

Want to grow your insurance agency without burning out or selling out? Book an intro call with Elevate Teams: https://calendly.com/elevateteamsllc/introductory-consultation

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In Episode 25 of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Greg May, co-founder of May Specialty, a growing MGA operating in the excess and surplus lines insurance market. Greg spent years building one of the top specialty casualty teams in the country at Allied World before a private equity firm found him and offered him the chance to build his own business. He said no three times. Then he said yes, wrote a business plan with his brother on a deck in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, and launched May Specialty in 2021.

They bound their first policy in under five months. Then they kept going.

Greg also talks about the weight nobody prepares you for when you hire your first employee and realize you are now carrying his family too, why he built May Specialty with one P&L across the entire country from day one, and the moment a stranger in Newark Airport recognized his brand and he knew it was real.

Oh, and he almost became a high school history teacher and football coach. That story is in here too.

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What you'll hear:

• Why Greg said no to the opportunity three times before finally going for it
• How he and his brother launched May Specialty and bound their first policy in under five months
• The weight of hiring your first employee and being responsible for their family
• Why one P&L across the entire country was a non-negotiable from day one
• The stranger in Newark Airport who recognized the brand and what it meant
• Greg's advice for agency owners sitting on the fence about betting on themselves

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Subscribe, drop a comment, and share this with a founder who needs to hear it. 📩 Want to be on Elevate The Hustle or collaborate with us? Apply or connect here: [email protected]

✅ Connect with us: Instagram: / elevatethehustlepodcast LinkedIn: / elevate-teams Stan's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stanleymeytin Dom's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dominicpiccirillo Greg May: [email protected] | mayspecialty.com

About Elevate Teams: We help insurance agency owners scale operations, hire offshore talent, and grow profitably. Book an intro call: https://calendly.com/elevateteamsllc/introductory-consultation

Subscribe for weekly interviews with insurance agency owners, MGA founders, and industry leaders building serious businesses in the United States.

#insuranceagency #insuranceagencyowner #independentinsuranceagency #insurancepodcast #MGAinsurance #agencyowners

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Kim Ades, founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and one of the most respected executive coaches in the entrepreneurial world. Kim started selling back massages on Cape Cod at 10 years old, built simulation-based assessments that tested every measurable trait in high performers, and discovered that emotional resilience beats all of them. She has since coached hundreds of business owners and executives across the USA using a journaling-based methodology that gets inside how a leader thinks and changes it from the inside out.

She also shares the story of an emergency appendectomy, a CT scan that found a mass on her kidney, and a Zoom call from a friend in a hospital gown with stage four bladder cancer and six to nine months to live. And what she built from both.

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What you'll hear:

• Why emotional resilience is the single biggest predictor of success for any insurance agency owner or independent agent
  
  
• The journaling method Kim uses to surface the hidden beliefs quietly running your agency without your permission
  
  
• Why most agency owners come to Kim wanting to grow their revenue and leave realizing the work starts with them
  
  
• The two journaling prompts that will show you exactly what is getting in the way of your growth
  
  
• What great leadership actually looks like when everything around you is out of control
  
  
• How to build emotional resilience as a muscle regardless of where you are starting from
  
  

Subscribe, drop a comment, and share this with an agency owner who needs to hear it.

📩 Want to be on Elevate The Hustle or collaborate with us? Apply or connect here: [email protected]

✅ Connect with us
Instagram: / elevatethehustlepodcast
LinkedIn: / elevate-teams
Website: / https://elevateteams.io/
Stan's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stanleymeytin
Dom's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dominicpiccirillo

Kim Ades
frameofmindcoaching.com
linkedin.com/in/kimades

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Ryan Hanley, 20-year insurance industry veteran, founder of Rogue Risk, board member at Linkora, and one of the most polarizing voices in the independent agent space. Ryan grew up collecting recyclable bottles at 5am to make $40 before school, got fired from every corporate job he ever had, and somehow became the person the industry tried to silence and couldn't.

He built Rogue Risk from scratch, launched it seven days before New York shut down in 2020, and grew it into the fastest growing small commercial agency in the country. He generated 20 to 25 qualified inbound leads a day from YouTube alone and closed them above 80%. Then sold it. On the same afternoon he signed divorce papers and a new apartment lease.

Ryan also gets into why logarithmic growth is within reach for any established agency owner right now using AI, why most agents are using their best people as data entry clerks, and how a woman calling him cold after reading his blog for three months changed the entire direction of his career.

Oh, and Ryan got blackballed from the Big I national conference twice for telling agents the truth about digital marketing. He kept going anyway.

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What you'll hear:
– How Ryan went from cold calling out of the phone book to generating inbound leads on a $100 budget in 2013
– Why independent agents are not behind because of regulation and who is actually responsible for throttling innovation
– The human optimized business model that let CSRs close qualified leads above 80% at Rogue Risk
– How Ryan built and sold his agency on the same day his marriage ended and what he would do differently
– Why AI makes right now the best time in history to have an established independent insurance agency
– How Linkora is solving the data problem that is holding agencies back from actually leveraging AI to grow

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

Insurance agency owners: How Jon Spaugy spent 16 years building one of the most connected networks in the independent insurance world, and why the agents who stay personal are the ones who survive what's coming.

Want to grow your insurance agency without burning out or selling out? Book an intro call with Elevate Teams: https://calendly.com/elevateteamsllc/introductory-consultation?utm_source=youtubeeth&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=podcast

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In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Jon Spaugy, Navy veteran, lifelong hustler, and the man behind ABU, one of the most recognized independent agent associations in the country. Jon started selling candy out of his gym bag in junior high, watched radar in the Navy, and somehow ended up becoming the person in the insurance industry that everybody knows.

He built ABU from scratch 16 years ago with one idea: get agents and companies in the same room. Their first meeting pulled 200 people. He has done seven cruises, dozens of conferences, and took the whole thing national to Vegas, where the Big I sent him a cease and desist the moment they noticed. He took it as a compliment.

Jon also gets into why AI is going to expose the agents who never learned to actually connect with people, why the independent agent is still as strong as ever, and what vendors keep getting wrong about conference ROI.

Oh, and Jon has a condo in Vegas with no blinds and an orange chair pushed up against the window facing the strip. That story is in here too.

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What you'll hear:
– How Jon built a national independent agent association from zero with no financial backing, just hustle and relationships
– Why the independent insurance agency is still the strongest force in the industry
– What vendors get wrong about conference ROI and how to think about it the right way
– How AI is reshaping independent agencies and which agents get left behind
– Why going back to grassroots and face-to-face beats every digital shortcut
– What 16 years of bringing agency owners, carriers, and vendors together teaches you about community and trust

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Subscribe, drop a comment, and share this with an agency owner who needs to hear it.

📩 Want to be on Elevate The Hustle or collaborate with us? Apply or connect here: [email protected]

✅ Connect with us
Instagram: / elevatethehustlepodcast
LinkedIn: / elevate-teams
Website: / https://elevateteams.io/
Stan's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stanleymeytin
Dom's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dominicpiccirillo

Jon Spaugy, ABU United
linkedin.com/in/jon-spaugy-857056a
abuunited.com | 909-809-4451
LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

About Elevate Teams: We help insurance agency owners scale operations, hire offshore talent, and grow profitably.
Book an intro call: https://calendly.com/elevateteamsllc/introductory-consultation?utm_source=youtubeeth&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=podcast

Subscribe for weekly interviews with insurance agency owners, industry connectors, and business leaders building serious businesses in the United States.

#insuranceagency #insuranceagencyowner #independentinsuranceagency #insurancepodcast #agencyowners #elevatethehustle

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

Insurance agency owners: How Kevin Panter built a $20M independent insurance agency in a Georgia county of 27,000 people, and why he keeps saying no to private equity.

Want to grow your insurance agency without burning out or selling out? Book an intro call with Elevate Teams:
https://calendly.com/elevateteamsllc/introductory-consultation?utm_source=youtubeeth&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=podcast

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In Episode 21 of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Kevin Panter — 37-year insurance veteran, 42-year volunteer firefighter and EMT, and the kind of agency owner who saves a stranger's life at 39,000 feet over Kansas and doesn't think twice about it.

Kevin walked away from a government career, faxed his resignation as the #1 captive agent in his market, and built a $20M independent insurance agency from scratch in the mountains of Georgia. Every private equity firm has called. He keeps saying no — because he's building something for his son, not for a multiple.

He also drops the one thing he tells every client that most insurance agents are too scared to say, why AI is going to force unprepared agents to sell, and why consolidation is quietly destroying small-town America.

Oh, and Dom accidentally stole one of Kevin's employees years ago. Neither of them knew it until they met in person. That story is in here too.

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What you'll hear:
– From zero to $20M in a Georgia county of 27,000 people
– Why he faxed his resignation as the #1 captive agent and started over the next day
– The hard truth most insurance agents won't tell their clients
– How AI is reshaping independent insurance agencies and who gets left behind
– Why he turns down every private equity acquisition offer
– What 37 years in the insurance business teaches you about integrity, community, and legacy

Subscribe, drop a comment, and share this with a founder who needs to hear it.
📩 Want to be on Elevate The Hustle or collaborate with us? Apply or connect here: [email protected]
✅ Connect with US
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/elevatethehustlepodcast/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevate-teams/
Stan’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stanleymeytin
Dom’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dominicpiccirillo
Kevin Panter Insurance. Blue Ridge, Georgia. Google: Kevin Panter Insurance

About Elevate Teams: We help insurance agency owners scale operations, hire offshore talent, and grow profitably. Book an intro call: https://calendly.com/elevateteamsllc/introductory-consultation?utm_source=youtubeeth&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=podcast

Subscribe for weekly interviews with insurance agency owners, M&A experts, and industry leaders building serious businesses in the United States.

#insuranceagency #insuranceagencyowner #independentinsuranceagency #insurancepodcast #insuranceMA #agencyowners

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

Most people build a business to find freedom. Liz Mershon built five and was still a prisoner.

In Episode 20 of Elevate The Hustle, hosts Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Liz to unpack the unfiltered story of how she sold her car at 22 to fund her first business, built Miami's most iconic production studio where Shakira, Oliver Stone, and Paramount Pictures all worked, scaled 5 behavioral health clinics, sold to private equity twice, and still couldn't take a vacation without hiding in a bathroom to take calls.

This isn't a success story. It's the real one: the grind with no foundation, the exit that broke her identity, and the operating system that finally gave her and the founders she now works with their lives back.

Episode Highlights:

• The moment she sold her car at 22 and went all in with no plan B.
• How working 24 hours for free on a film set opened every door that followed.
• Why scaling fast without a system is just a faster way to crash.
• The truth about selling to private equity that nobody prepares you for.
• The business framework proved to be 35% more effective than any other system.

Whether you're an insurance agency owner, an entrepreneur, or a leader who's built something great but lost yourself in the process, this episode will show you what freedom actually looks like when it's built on a system, not a hope.

Subscribe, drop a comment, and share this with a founder who needs to hear it.

📩 Want to be on Elevate The Hustle or collaborate with us? 

Apply or connect here: [email protected]

✅ Connect with US

Instagram: instagram.com/elevatethehustlepodcast/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/elevate-teams/

Stan's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stanleymeytin

Dom's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dominicpiccirillo

Liz's email: [email protected] 

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast