Vertafore Insurance Podcast

Wow! It's hard to believe that we're already at the end of 2020. Time has simultaneously flown by and gone by slowly, but we made it through. In this week's rant, Rick recaps the year for us here at the #VIPodcast. He takes you through 2020 month by month chatting about all we got up to. Tune in to reflect on the year with us!

As we wrap up the year and look forward to 2021, Rick is excited to welcome Elizabeth Schenk, CEO of Agency Network Exchange (ANE), to the podcast! Elizabeth has a deep understanding of the independent agency and of the insurance industry and has some great advice we can all learn from. 

What is the most common thing she hears from the agencies in ANE about the state of the industry this year? People's concerns are all different, but one common theme: wanting support to navigate through challenging times. It's hard to be a lone wold, but you don't need to be when there are so many networks across the industry there to help you out. 

In this episode Rick and Elizabeth talk about:

The state of the industry from a network perspective (7:30)

What exactly is an agency network? (14:30)

What to look for in an agency network (22:00)

2020 has been a hard year all around, but Rick reminds us in this week's episode that we all still have a ton to be thankful for. Tune in to hear Rick's 6 buckets full of thanks for those that have made an impact on his year.

This week on the VIP we are excited to welcome Nicole Smith, founder & CEO of JMS Creative Leadership Solutions and author of 20 Leadership Golden Nuggets: Practical leadership lessons to use today. 

Nicole is an expert on all things leadership. She has built her career around helping others develop the tools they need to succeed and lead teams better. In this episode Rick and Nicole discuss:

Understanding leadership (5:30)

Emotional intelligence (9:35)

Self-awareness (21:00)

Affinity bias (26:50)

It's planning season! The holidays are right around the corner, so it's time to start planning for 2021. Now is the time to define business goals and make changes to accomplish them! Rick has six categories to think about for successful business planning:

Staff (4:56)

Sales (7:45)

Service (9:57)

Diversification (13:40)

Technology (17:14)

Culture (24:15)

As 2020 winds down we're evaluating lessons learned and planning for 2021! Rick's guest is Tom Super, vice president of insurance at J.D. Power, the nation's leading insurance customer intelligence and CX advisory company whose partnerships extend to the top 20 P&C carriers in the U.S. Tom shares insights into:

COVID-19 initiatives for premium relief (9:15)

Customized advice: Why agents are more important than AI and bots in this crisis (13:59)

The impact of declining customer income (16:25)

The benefits of carriers integrating agents into their digital processes (23:46)

Key factors about today's consumers that independent agents should know (29:15)

This episode is full of insights to help you make informed plans for the upcoming year.

Q4 is when most people slow down and plan for the holiday season. How about doing it a little differently this year and end on a fantastic note? In this rant, Rick challenges us to re-energize, seize the moment, and end the year strong! Rick suggests:

Sales: Set audacious goals, plan how to meet them, crush Q4, and set yourself up for an even better 2021 (4:06)

Customer Service: Connect with your customers, work on surpassing your renewals goal, clear up your backlog, and finish this year strong (8:43)

Leaders/Owners: Re-energize your staff, modernize your agency, and enter 2021 with a jump start (12:59)

Last year Dustin Mooney, co-founder of Rigid Bits, gave us a lesson in cybersecurity. This year he's back with an example of alleged negligence that exposed millions of documents containing insureds' personal information. Find out about how that cybersecurity case is impacting the insurance industry and what your agency needs to know to protect your clients and your business.

Market connectivity is a big topic of conversation in the insurance industry right now. The pandemic brought it to the forefront when members of the insurance distribution channel scrambled to find ways to connect when stay-at-home orders were in place. In this week's rant, Rick breaks down insurance market connectivity and gives tips on how you can start and modernize your connectivity processes.

Many of us are working from home because of the pandemic. We feel safe, locked away in our offices, or secure office space in our homes. We don't think about the cybercriminals who are hunting for prey 24-hours a day. They're waiting for a tiny mistake or oversight to pounce and wreak havoc on our business. 

Today's guest, Brad Schrum of Wingman Insurance—a cybersecurity expert with 25+ years of experience—is going to talk through some simple steps we can take to secure our data and explain why cybersecurity insurance is necessary for all insurance businesses.