The Agent Leader Podcast

Most agency leaders don't wake up and decide to become average.

Instead, average happens slowly, through tolerated behaviors, avoided conversations, weakened standards, and leadership drift.

In this episode, Brent Kelly explains why the biggest threat to agency growth isn't usually talent, competition, or market conditions. It's the gradual acceptance of mediocrity.

You'll learn:

• Why average clients drain agency capacity
• The cost of tolerating underperformance
• How weak systems create chaos
• Why leaders avoid necessary conversations
• The role standards play in agency culture and performance
• Questions every agency leader should be asking right now

If you're serious about building a more profitable, aligned, and intentional agency, this episode will challenge how you think about leadership, accountability, and standards.

Ready to take your agency above average? Take the free Sitkins Agency Performance Diagnostic

Most agency owners know they need help, but hiring the right people feels harder than ever.

In this episode, Brent sits down with Valerie Bowden, founder of CRDLE, to discuss why African virtual assistants are becoming one of the biggest untapped opportunities for growing businesses. Valerie shares how companies are finding highly educated, experienced professionals while creating meaningful careers and improving business performance.

The conversation goes beyond outsourcing. Brent and Valerie explore how agency owners can reclaim their time, delegate strategically, build better systems, and leverage AI to create documented processes that scale.

If you've been wondering whether it's time to bring on additional support, or how to do it successfully, this episode provides a practical roadmap.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why African talent is becoming a competitive advantage
• The biggest misconception about virtual assistants
• How to identify what work you should delegate first
• Why documenting your processes matters more than ever
• How AI can help create SOPs and accelerate onboarding
• The investment mindset required for successful delegation
• How strong onboarding leads to long-term business growth

If you're ready to create capacity with a virtual assistant, visit the CRDLE website at https://crdle.com/ or connect with Valerie Bowden on LinkedIn.

Why do some agencies thrive in difficult markets while others struggle under the same conditions?

In this solo episode, Brent Kelly explores one of the most powerful leadership concepts agency leaders often overlook: context. The way you interpret market conditions, staffing challenges, and opportunities for growth directly impacts the decisions you make, the behaviors you reinforce, and ultimately the results your agency achieves.

Brent breaks down how elite agencies approach hard markets, soft markets, staffing concerns, and professional development differently than average agencies. You'll learn why leadership isn't about reacting to circumstances, it's about creating the right perspective.

Key Takeaways:

• Why context drives behavior and behavior drives results
• How elite agencies respond differently to hard and soft markets
• The leadership mistake many agencies make when it comes to staffing
• Why preparation and practice separate top performers from average performers
• Questions every agency leader should ask themselves about the culture they're creating

If you're ready to create better results, take our free assessment at www.sitkins.com/getmyscore to uncover the biggest opportunities in your agency.

Agency leaders often focus on activity, accountability, and results, but what if the real issue is happening beneath the surface?

In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly sits down with sales call reluctance expert and master certified coach Connie Kadansky to unpack the psychology that silently holds producers back from prospecting, asking better questions, and confidently growing business.

Connie shares why even highly motivated producers struggle with hesitation, how agency leaders unintentionally “contaminate” sales culture, and why awareness is the first step toward breakthrough performance.

Together, Brent and Connie explore the hidden assumptions producers live with, the importance of coaching and development, and how the right assessment tools can dramatically accelerate growth.

You'll hear:

• What sales call reluctance really is
• Why producers devalue themselves
• The dangerous assumptions holding salespeople back
• How leaders unintentionally shape sales culture
• The role of assessments in producer development
• Traits of highly successful producers
• Why awareness creates better action
• Connie’s powerful philosophy: “Make everything an experiment”

If you want to help your producers gain confidence, improve prospecting consistency, and unlock higher performance, this episode is packed with practical insights you can apply immediately.

Connect with Connie Kadansky on LinkedIn, or her website https://exceptionalsales.com.

Most insurance agencies are doing pretty good.

But according to Roger Sitkins, that’s exactly the danger.

In this episode of The Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly and Roger Sitkins unpack the idea that “average is full” and why agencies that settle for average growth, average accountability, and average performance limit their long-term potential.

Roger introduces the 15-30-300 framework for elite agencies and discusses:

• Why revenue per employee may be the most important KPI in your agency
• The hidden cost of overstaffing and inefficiency
• Why “good results” can actually become a trap
• How elite agencies create stronger culture and accountability
• The importance of intentional growth and differentiation
• Why maximizing your current team matters more than simply adding people

If you’re looking to build a more intentional, profitable, and scalable agency, this episode will challenge the way you think about growth, leadership, and what it truly means to become elite.

To access free tools for agencies, visit sitkins.com/podcast

On this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly dives into one of the most important leadership disciplines for agency growth: controlling the controllables.

Too many agency leaders get consumed by external chaos like staffing challenges, market disruption, carrier pressure, and economic uncertainty. While those realities absolutely impact your agency, elite organizations separate themselves by focusing on the internal systems, standards, and behaviors that create predictable performance over time.

Get practical leadership insights around:

• Team development and accountability
• Producer productivity and green zone activity
• Client segmentation and capacity management
• Organizational alignment
• Leadership energy and emotional consistency

You’ll also hear why many agencies don’t actually have a talent problem - they have a development problem - and how hidden subsidy models quietly drain profitability, efficiency, and growth.

If you want to build a stronger, more scalable agency, this episode will challenge your thinking and give you practical ideas you can apply immediately.

Listen now and take the Agency Performance Scorecard at https://www.sitkins.com/getmyscore to identify operational drag, accountability gaps, and opportunities to improve agency performance.

Most insurance agents say they’re different. Few can actually prove it.

In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly sits down with Dustin Boss, co-founder of Emerge Apps, to break down how elite agencies are shifting from transactional selling to true risk advisory, and why that shift is no longer optional.

Dustin shares how his journey from “insurance agent kid” to tech innovator led to a powerful realization: the agencies that win aren’t quoting better, they’re solving better.

You’ll learn:

• Why competing on price keeps you stuck (and how to break out)
• The real difference between “talking risk management” and actually doing it
• How to create meaningful client engagement outside the renewal cycle
• Why prevention—not insurance—should be your foundation
• A simple strategy to expose gaps and win more ideal clients

If you’re ready to stop being seen as a commodity and start becoming indispensable to your clients, this episode is a must-listen.

👉 Want help implementing this in your agency? Visit the Emerge Apps site to get started at www.emergeapps.com or email Dustin at [email protected].

Most agencies assume their best producer should become their sales leader. It sounds logical, but it can also be one of the biggest growth constraints in your agency.

In this episode of The Agent Leader, Brent Kelly explores the reality of the player-coach model and why it often works early, but stalls growth later.

You’ll learn:

• Why top producers and great sales leaders require different mindsets
• The hidden cost of divided focus between selling and coaching
• Why strong performers often struggle to teach others how to win
• How leadership success shifts from me to we
• The financial impact of moving your top producer into the wrong role
• Three smarter paths to build scalable sales leadership

Brent also explains how agencies can stop relying on individual stars and start creating systems that multiply results across the team.

If your agency is growing, plateauing, or trying to reach the next level, this episode will challenge how you think about leadership, structure, and performance.

🎯 Ready to grow beyond “good enough”? Visit www.sitkins.com/bookacall to get started.

What actually turns the crank on employee engagement?

Right now, only 31% of employees are fully engaged at work, and more than half are simply going through the motions. For agency leaders, that represents both a challenge and a massive opportunity.

In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly sits down with Sadie Bauman of iC3 to explore what really drives engagement, and how leaders can start turning the crank on performance inside their agencies.

Drawing on Gallup research and real-world experience, Sadie breaks down why so many employees are stuck in the middle, what separates engaged teams from disengaged ones, and how leadership behaviors directly impact results.

You’ll learn:

• What it really means to “turn the crank” on engagement
• Why 52% of employees are stuck in neutral—and how to activate them
• The critical role leaders play in driving daily engagement
• How clarity, development, and communication fuel performance
• Simple, practical ways to create a more energized, high-performing team

If you want a team that’s more engaged, more motivated, and more productive, this episode will show you where to start.

Connect with Sadie Bauman via the iC3 website.

Ready to get your agency to its Best Version Possible? Take our quick diagnostic to get started with clarity.

Most agencies don’t slow down because they’re failing, they slow down because of hidden drag.

In this episode, Brent Kelly breaks down what’s really dragging your agency down, even if you’re growing, profitable, and doing “all the right things.” The reality? Growth often hides inefficiencies instead of fixing them.

Using a powerful “parachute” analogy, Brent uncovers the invisible friction that limits your agency’s performance, profitability, and freedom—and why adding more people isn’t the solution most leaders think it is.

You’ll discover:

• Why growth can mask deeper operational issues
• The biggest sources of drag inside successful agencies
• How client mix misalignment impacts your time, energy, and profitability
• Why producers and service teams get stuck in inefficient patterns
• The critical difference between getting bigger and getting better
• Key metrics like revenue per employee and spread per employee, and what they reveal

If your agency feels busy, stretched, or stuck despite strong results, this episode will challenge your thinking and help you identify where you’re losing momentum.

Because the breakthrough isn’t about working harder or hiring more people, it’s about removing the drag that’s holding you back.

👉 Ready for a clearer, more optimized path forward?

Or visit sitkins.com/bookacall to start a conversation.