PIP shows up on commercial auto proposals in no-fault states — and if a client asks "what's this?", you need an answer. Derek covers the 5 things to know: how PIP differs from MedPay, why it pays fast, priority of payments, and why it doesn't waive future lawsuits.

For years, I thought professional titles meant something.

Partner. Director. Senior Account Executive. Those titles represented years of work, success, and climbing the ladder. Then I lost them—and I realized something I wish I'd understood much earlier: my clients never cared about my title nearly as much as I did.

In this episode of Commissions to Convictions, I talk about professional titles, industry designations, status, and the danger of allowing your career to become your identity.

Because your business card might say one thing, but the people who know you best know you by something else: husband, father, friend, mentor, coach.

I've had a lot of titles. I've lost a lot of titles. And I've learned that what you do matters a hell of a lot more than what your title says you do.

Focus on what's behind the title.

Employee Benefits Liability — the coverage Derek calls "HR screw-up insurance." One missed COBRA notice during a layoff. One forgotten dependent enrollment. One overlooked disability election. These are the mistakes that get HR teams sued — and this episode breaks down the coverage built to catch them, including a real claim from Derek's own career that settled for over $600K.

Loss control visits and claim reviews are necessary — but they're not where the real leverage lives. In this episode, Derek breaks down the two types of carrier engagement every broker needs to master, and shares his exact playbook for building the relationship that gets you through bumpy renewals and messy claims. No fluff, no selling — just what actually works.

Derek made millions as a top insurance broker — then lost it all chasing the wrong thing. In this Commissions to Convictions episode, he breaks down the warning signs he ignored, what jail taught him about money, and why your worth was never tied to your paycheck.

20 state AGs are suing Meta for $1.4 trillion — and its own insurance carriers say they don't have to defend the company. Derek unpacks the duty-to-defend fight playing out in Delaware court, why "intentional acts" exclusions are doing the heavy lifting here, and the coverage lesson every buyer should take away: it's not what happened that triggers your policy — it's what's alleged.

Most insurance programs are buried inside proposals, policy binders, and 20-page renewal summaries.

But what if you could understand an entire commercial insurance program in less than 30 seconds?

In this episode we break down one of the most valuable tools I used throughout my commercial insurance career: the Balanced Risk Management Approach (BRMA).

This simple one-page visual document summarizes:

• Insurance carriers

• Policy limits

• Premiums

• Deductibles

• Layered programs

• Program evolution over time

Whether you're a broker, CFO, controller, risk manager, or business owner, this episode will show you how a simple visual dashboard can improve communication, simplify decision-making, and make your insurance program significantly easier to understand.

No BS. Just insurance.

When a box of bananas goes missing and my off-the-record guess gets someone fired, I remembered a phrase from my time in sales: confidential but not anonymous. In my sales career, where "confidential" employee surveys/votes turned out to carry a lot more traceability than anyone let on. A candid, unflinching episode about information, trust, and the systems we assume are safer than they are.

Everyone's talking about how to win an Agent of Record letter — Lets talk about what happens after you win it. We break down six operational mistakes I've made (and one bonus trick) around carrier AOR rules, wholesaler transfers, commission timing, orphaned audits, fresh submissions, and getting documents signed without the awkward back-and-forth.

Sometimes in a quest to chase accolades and achievements we lose sight of the basics of what make you successful and great on and off the field.