Evolved Broker Podcast

For this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the most prominent sales experts in the world. He is the author of three amazon best sellers and was the #1 salesperson in three organizations. He’s been called the #1 Sales Expert to follow on twitter. His books include New Sales Simplified, Sales Management Simplified, and Sales Truth. My guest’s name is Mike Weinberg.

I wanted to have Mike on because beyond having tremendous success as a sales trainer and author, his style is far more blunt and direct than any other sales trainer we’ve had on the podcast. He’s spoken on five continents and has worked directly with companies and individuals in the insurance industry.

Mike and I discussed:

·      What differentiates him from other sales experts

·      Why do most sales people fail?

·      Prospecting: Go after Dream Targets

·      The Most Important Sales Weapon

·      Sales 101: The Universal Objection Buster

My guest for this episode is the co-founder and CEO of one of the newest Insurtech Unicorns in the industry. Niji Sabharwol founded a company called AgentSync with his wife Jenn Knight in 2018. They met while working at LinkedIn together where he served as the Global Sales Strategy & Operations Manager based out of Ireland and then San Francisco. Niji moved on to become the Head of Sales Strategy and Operations at Zenefits.

Zenefits was a hyper-growth HR startup that received a 4.5 billion Dollar valuation. Unfortunately, they grew too fast resulting in over hiring, reckless company culture, and disregard for insurance licensing regulation. Niji was the guy tasked with fixing the problem.

The remediation plans he set up for Zenefits helped him come up with the idea for AgentSync. He and Jenn have come up with a way for the insurance industry to automate producer licensing and compliance in real-time with software.

We covered:

·      Advice for Raising Capital

·      AgentSync’s Ideal Client

·      How the Zenefits Compliance Issues Created AgentSync

·      Why AgentSync is Crucial for Compliance

In this episode, I spoke with one of the most renowned public speaking experts in the world. My guest is a three-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author, internationally popular keynote speaker, Harvard instructor, and leadership advisor for the world’s most admired brands. My guest is named Carmine Gallo.

Carmine’s books have been endorsed by folks like Howard Schultz, Marc Benioff, Tony Hsieh, Tony Robbins and Adam Grant. In our conversation, he breaks down the science behind one of the most feared activities in human history: public speaking. We discuss the specific secrets and tactics for public speaking that he reveals in his book; Talk Like Ted. 

We covered:

·      The best way to CRUSH a presentation

·      Why most presentations suck

·      The best business presentation of all time

·      Warren Buffet’s thoughts on the value of public speaking

·      The time Bill Gates unleashed mosquitos into a crowd

2022 is a new year for the Evolved Broker Podcast!

In this episode Pat breaks down the first year of the Evolved Broker Podcast and looks forward to year two. 2021 was a huge success and we believe that with the experience and knowledge that we gained, 2022 will be even better!

Pat covers:

·      Why we started the podcast...

·      2021 Year in review

·      Advice for anyone starting a podcast

·      2022 Preview

·      How the audience can get involved

On this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with the CEO of one of the largest and fastest growing insurance agencies in the United States. That man is Ricky Spiro, and he is the CEO of the Hilb Group.

For 2021, Insurance Journal lists the Hilb Group at #13 on the list of largest insurance agencies in the US with more than $260M in P&C revenue. As of July, they’ve completed more than 100 acquisitions and they have more than 100 offices, with more than 1500 employees, in 21 states.

Ricky and I discussed:

·      What is Hilb's company culture like?

·      What's an ideal agency for Hilb Group?

·      Advice for a brand new employee at Hilb

·      What's the future for the Hilb Group?

·      What could disrupt the insurance world?

My guest for this episode is a former NFL coach and current CEO of North Risk Partners named Chris Meidt. Chris is known as the Ted Lasso of Insurance.

The reason he's called Ted Lasso is because he started his career as a football coach, and while Ted went from football to soccer, Chris transitioned from football to insurance.

In his 7 years in the insurance industry, he's been incredibly successful. After joining North Risk in 2014, he quickly took over as CEO. Since that time, the firm has more than tripled its revenue, going from $20M in revenue to about $75M in revenue.

Chris and I discussed:

·      Why he is the Ted Lasso of Insurance

·      How he became a Redskins QB Coach…

·      How Walmart Prepared him to become a CEO

·      3 Ways to Be Successful in a New Venture

·      How to deal with insecurity about a new job

·      Why the Insurance Industry is better than the NFL ;)

·      The biggest Lessons from Football that apply to Insurance

·      Jimmy G or Trey Lance?

My guest today is a former professor and an author named Allan Cohen. He attended Harvard Business School and has consulted with companies like IBM, GE, and Chubb to improve their leadership, culture, and conflict resolution.

He wrote the book “Entrepreneurship in Every Generation: How Family Businesses Develop Their Next Leaders.” Finally, he served as a Distinguished Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College.

Allan and I discussed:

·       The recipe for success in family business

·       Creating a shared family vision for success

·       How to deal with disagreements

·       How to deal with an underperforming family member

·       Passing the business onto the next generation effectively

In work and in life, we have to have difficult conversations that require negotiation. Difficult conversations with our co-workers, partners, vendors, employees, and even spouses. To be more effective in these conversations, we thought who would be better to learn from than the former commander of the hostage negotiation team in Washington, DC.

My guest today is a guy named Derek Gaunt. Derek spent 29 years in law enforcement and is considered a hostage negotiation and incident command subject-matter expert.  He is an author and regularly speaks at Hostage Negotiations and SWAT conferences across the country. He now specializes in instructing companies on how to apply hostage negotiation practices and principles to the business world.

Derek and I discussed:

· His Police Negotiation Career

· Negotiation Strategies & Tactics

· The Ideal Difficult Conversation Outline

· The best way to say “no ”

· And how to get people to truly make a commitment

Learn more about Derek here.

Follow Pat on Instagram: @patbcostello

https://www.evolvedbrokerpodcast.com/

Roger Sitkins is the CEO of Sitkins Group, Inc. and developer of The Sitkins Network and The Better Way Agency program. Roger is recognized as the nation’s top insurance agency results coach.

Brent Kelly is the president of Sitkins Group and was named one of the top 12 young agents in the country in 2012. He is also the host of the popular Agent Leader podcast. Together, Roger and Brent have trained and mentored thousands of insurance professionals.

In our conversation, we discussed:

· Roger’s background, Brent's background and how each of them got into sales consulting and agency optimization.

· Agency success stories.

· Specific Sales Tactics & Strategies

· And how your agency can get access to the experts at Sitkins

Learn more about Sitkins here: https://www.sitkins.com/

My guest today is Joel Peterson, one of the best business teachers in the world. He attended Harvard Business School and served as CEO of the Trammell Crow when it was the largest private commercial real estate development firm in the world. He then went on to serve as the chairman of JetBlue Airways for 12 years.

Joel has launched or backed over 250 companies. Many of these companies are household names like Bonobos, Trunk Club, Asurion, & Vivint.

He is recently authored a book called Entrepreneurial Leadership. As he says, it is about the art of launching new ventures, inspiring others, and running stuff!

Finally, He is a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, teaching classes in leadership, entrepreneurship, and real estate. If you want to be a better leader, build a better business, or be more effective on a daily basis, you will really enjoy this conversation.

Joel and I discussed his experience with:

·        Trammel Crow

·        Bonobos

·        JetBlue

·        How to fire someone you care about

·        Small vs. Large Business

· His new book

·        And so much more

Follow Pat on Instagram: @patbcostello

https://www.evolvedbrokerpodcast.com/