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.

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