Elevate The Hustle

In Episode 20 of Elevate The Hustle, hosts Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Neil Krauter to unpack a career that started with peanut brittle sales records and a keg party that changed everything, leading to a $40 million book of business, a firm built from scratch, and adventures that would make most people's heads spin.

At 18, Neil made a decision: retire by 40. What followed was a masterclass in specialization, relationship capital, and knowing exactly what your time is worth.

Episode Highlights:

• How calling a managing director a f***ing a**hole in a boardroom accidentally launched his entire career niche.
• Why he never does RFPs, and what that says about how the best in the business value their time.
• The day he signed a five-year personal lease on half a floor in Midtown Manhattan with zero clients and zero employees.
• How he grew a firm to 186 private equity fund clients, sold it, and never stopped grinding.

Whether you're just starting out or already building something, this episode will show you what it looks like to never give your time away cheap.

Subscribe, drop a comment, and share this with someone 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

Neil Krauter: [email protected]

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

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

Most people talk about building something. Andrew Nigri had the audacity to actually do it.

In Episode 19 of Elevate The Hustle, hosts Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Andrew to unpack the unfiltered story of how he walked away from a stable role, launched his own insurance agency from scratch, and built a referral-driven empire in one of the most complex and competitive niches in the industry, New York construction insurance.

This isn't a highlight reel. It's the real story: the dark startup days, the deals that almost didn't close, the relationships that changed everything, and the risk management model nobody else in the industry was willing to build.

Episode Highlights:

• The moment his boss said the wrong thing and accidentally gave him the push he needed.
• How niching down in construction and real estate became his biggest competitive advantage.
• The referral strategy that turned one developer relationship into an entire book of business.
• Why perseverance and expertise, not volume, are the real drivers of long-term success in insurance.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, an agency owner, or someone still working up the courage to take the leap, this episode will show you what audacity looks like in action.

Subscribe, drop a comment, and share this with someone 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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanleymeytin

Dom’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicpiccirillo

Andrew’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-nigri-15450413

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

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

"This company has survived the Great Depression, multiple wars. When you really think about what it takes to navigate business for that long, it's really insane."

Connor Lynch runs a 107-year-old insurance agency in South Florida. His grandfather bought it in the 1940s. His dad took over in 1969. Connor became CEO of Plastridge Insurance in 2019.

Every week, private equity firms call with acquisition offers. The money is good. Really good. But Connor keeps saying no.

Not because he's anti-growth. Not because he's romanticizing the past. Because he's built something he doesn't want to give up: a culture where employees get the first profits of the company. Where people stay 50+ years. Where a 93-year-old just retired because she wanted to, not because she had to.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Connor to talk about legacy, tough love, and what it actually takes to build something worth keeping.

Connor breaks down:

• Why he sits in every single interview with potential hires
• How to build client relationships that last 20+ years 
• Why transparency and employee choice create loyalty 

Plus, Connor talks about being an adrenaline junkie who became a volunteer firefighter, working hospital shifts from 3pm to 7am and going straight to high school in scrubs, and why being a good person is the only thing you can't teach.

If you're running a family business, if you're getting acquisition offers, or if you're trying to decide between the payout and the thing you've built—this episode is for you.

Some legacies are worth more than the check.

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

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

"No one grows up wanting to get into insurance, right? It's not on your vision board."

Before Kenneth Mantuo Jr. was building a multi-state insurance agency and trying to make the industry sexy, he was chasing a very different dream: the NFL.

He played football since he was seven. Pop Warner. High school. College ball. Then overseas in Germany for a year. Came back. Trained harder. Gave it everything.

Didn't make it.

Most people would've spiraled. Kenneth hung up the cleats and went into sales. No insurance experience. No connections. Just decided to start an agency from scratch in 2014 because "everyone needs insurance" and he saw an opportunity to do it differently.

Fast forward to today: BEIA is operating in 20 states with offices in South Florida, Orlando, and New York. They're building specialized verticals in contractors, marine, transportation, and hospitality — all while trying to prove that insurance doesn't have to be boring, antiquated, or soul-sucking.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Kenneth to talk about pivots, delegation, building culture, and what it actually takes to scale an agency when you're starting from zero.

Kenneth breaks down:

• What it's like when your whole identity just disappears and you have to rebuild
• Why he started an agency with zero insurance experience instead of joining someone else's
• How he learned to delegate after nearly drowning on a cruise ship with no Wi-Fi
• Why insurance is actually the original subscription model
• The massive opportunity nobody's talking about: half the industry retiring in the next decade

Plus, Kenneth explains why small business is their bread and butter, how they're using tech and VAs to serve clients profitably, and why "if you can write it down, you can delegate it" is the key to scaling anything.

If you've ever had to start over, if you're afraid to let go of work, or if you're trying to build something in an industry that feels stuck — this episode is for you.

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

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

"We knew the need before they knew the need."

Before Troy Chakarun was helping scale one of the fastest-growing firms in insurance, he was making cold calls, sorting mail, answering phones, and getting yelled at by strangers at Merrill Lynch.

His first job in business? Picking up a phone book and calling dead people.
Not exactly glamorous. But it taught him how to sell, how to handle rejection, and how to outwork almost everybody around him. 

After Merrill, Troy moved through ING and Voya, built high-performing sales teams, got deep into data-driven distribution, and eventually brought that same mindset into the insurance world at Alkeme.

And the lesson never changed: the best teams don’t guess. They don’t wing it. They don’t waste time on sludge.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Dom sits down with Troy to talk about sales, scale, AI, mentorship, acquisitions, and why most people are still spending way too much time on work that shouldn’t even be on their desk anymore.

Troy breaks down:

• What his early days at Merrill Lynch taught him about pressure, training, and learning fast
• Why new producers need mentorship instead of trying to figure everything out alone
• How he used data to shorten sales cycles and walk into meetings already knowing the pain points
• Why account managers and producers are still buried in “soul-sucking, time-wasting tasks” 
  
  

Plus, Troy shares what makes a great acquisition fit, why niche expertise scales faster than being a generalist, and how the best businesses create systems that make growth easier instead of harder.

If your team is still stuck doing everything manually, still guessing in sales conversations, or still trying to scale without the right support — this episode is for you.

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

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

"This is not the ceiling for me. I need more, I want more, and I've always worked for that."

Gabriela Rodriguez started as a virtual assistant in Venezuela in 2017. $1 an hour. Paid in a collapsing currency. Her first client? Cold calling people in Mexico to book appointments. She got removed from the placement—couldn't hit the goals. But she didn't give up.

She got placed with Stan doing marketing work for his production company. Then COVID hit in 2020, and Stan's production business went to zero. He kept just one employee through it all: Gaby.

When Stan and Dom started Elevate Teams, Gaby wasn't supposed to be part of it. Just budget and marketing help. But she kept getting pulled deeper—more meetings, more responsibility, more seats. Marketing. Finance. Sales. Operations. She did it all. 

Nine years after starting at $1/hour, she's the Head of Operations. She built the systems that run the company. She trained the team. She's the soul of Elevate. And she's still not satisfied. This isn't her ceiling.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Gaby to talk about never settling, working your way up from the bottom, and why ambition doesn't care where you're from or what you're paid.

Gaby breaks down:

• What it's like to go from $1/hour to running operations for a US company
• Why consistency and showing up ready for anything is what separates good from great
• How she learned English from YouTube (shout out to Logan Paul)
• Why stability and opportunity mean everything when you're building from Latin America

Plus, Gaby talks about being Stan's toughest critic, why she still dreams bigger, and what it takes to inspire an entire team across borders.

If you've ever felt like you're stuck, like your ceiling is determined by where you started, or like you need permission to want more: this episode is for you.

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

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

 The best investment you can ever make? Yourself.

"I took a 70% pay cut at 25 just to get my foot in the door. Whether I made money at it or not, it was going to provide me tremendous value long term."

David Ragno started at Travelers crunching big data and analytics—making good money, safe career path, comfortable future. Then he walked away from it all to work an entry-level role at Keys Coverage in South Florida. 

70% pay cut. Zero title. 
He just wanted to understand insurance at a micro level, not from a spreadsheet.

Nine years later, he's the CEO. Fifteen acquisitions. Expanding across Florida and into the southeastern U.S. Launching a substance abuse-focused MGA. Building a real estate portfolio on the side. And he's never hired a single experienced producer—not once.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with David to talk about falling in love with problems, sacrificing for mentorship, and why the agencies stuck at $1M, $5M, and $12M all made the same mistake: they built for today instead of tomorrow.

David breaks down:

• Why he hires for grit and trains for skill 
• The glass ceilings agencies can't break through, and why reinvestment is what separates growth from stagnation
• How transparency and trust unlock speed in your business

Plus, David talks about getting sober at 25, why YPO membership changed how he thinks about business, and how blending personal passion with professional work unlocked a level of success he couldn't fake.

If you've ever tried to do it all yourself, built your org chart for where you are instead of where you're going, or convinced yourself you need "experienced" hires to scale—this episode will challenge everything.

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

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

"I promoted myself to COO. See, when you don't want to promote me, I promote my damn self." 

Sonya Horton started as a receptionist at a Brooklyn livery cab brokerage in the '90s—answering phones for quarters and dimes, reading BOP policies on the train, learning insurance line by line because there was no ChatGPT, no LinkedIn, no shortcuts. Just work ethic inherited from immigrant parents who said: stand on that line. 

Twenty-five years later, she was COO of Mogil Organization. Now she's at The Cody Group—the company founded by the same kid she trained 20 years ago when he was "staring into space" at his desk. 

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Sonya to talk about taking what's yours, letting go of what's killing you, and why the best managers don't throw people away—they find the right seat. 

Sonya breaks down: 

• How she promoted herself to COO 
• Why confidence isn't arrogance when you know your value 
• The control freak mentality that ruled her for 30 years and what finally changed her mind about delegation (spoiler: it was an Elevate Teams VA) 

Plus, Sonya shares how her psychology degree became her superpower in insurance, and why her daughter Samira is probably going to run the White House someday. 

If you've ever been the bottleneck in your own business, waited too long for someone to recognize your work, or convinced yourself you're the only one who can do it right—this episode was made for you. 

👉 Check out Samira's music: ​

 ⁨https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgIL1rnS8d-Lntdu9BZwLHQ

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

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

"In Sales, the better you work, the harder you work, the more input you have, the better output you get. There's a level of justice to it." 

Matt Naimoli knew he was built for entrepreneurship before he even knew what that meant—and a career aptitude test in elementary school that made him cry proved it. 

From Division I catcher at UVM to Liberty Mutual's top 1-2 sales rep in the country, to co-founding GNN Insurance and scaling it to an Inc. 5000 agency three years running, to selling in 2019 and launching Legacy Advisors—Matt has lived every phase of the agency owner journey. 🏆 

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Matt to talk about building, scaling, selling, and starting over smarter. 

Matt breaks down: 

• Why the most impactful early hire he ever made was someone who could remove him from the minutia—and why VAs are the modern version of that
• How GNN landed on home buyers as their niche (hint: it started with bobbleheads)
• The biggest mistakes agency owners make before going to market—and why your financials need to be buttoned up before you're ready to sell
• What a real sell-side M&A process looks like, step by step, and why going in eyes wide open changes everything 

Plus, Matt shares why his competition isn't other advisors—it's agency owners who don't know companies like his exist, and why asking more questions is always the right first move. 

If you're an agency owner who's ever wondered what your business is actually worth, thought about selling someday, or just wants to build something you'd actually be proud to hand off—this episode is for you. 

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

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

"If it doesn't keep you up at night and you're not excited to go to work on Monday, then it's not your thing. It's not your why." 

Cari Gelber spent 20 years in events, hospitality, and the music industry—touring with bands, nearly landing a Disney movie deal, and selling out nightclubs in Manhattan. Then she pivoted into insurance staffing with zero experience, said NO to the opportunity three times, and went on to help scale Elevate Teams from 5 clients to 95+ in her first year alone. 🦒

Today she's the company's Head of Talent Curation—the Insurance Matchmaker—and the reason agencies keep coming back for VA #2, #5, even #15. 

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Cari to talk about hustle, reinvention, and what it actually looks like to find work that lights you up. 

Cari breaks down:

• Why she turned down Elevate multiple times, and what finally flipped the switch
• The matchmaking process that goes way beyond resumes and why culture fit changes everything
• Why 99% of agencies say "we're not ready" to hire, and how Elevated+ is fixing that
• Her advice for entrepreneurs who have 25 things going on and no focus 

Plus, Cari shares why the best placements happen when agencies stop thinking "VA" and start thinking "team member," and what it feels like to go from selling booze to changing lives on both sides of the border. 

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

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