Vertafore Insurance Podcast

Putting Your Tech Stack to work

Casey Nelson, founder and Ceo of Stakwise, is the Insurance tech stack guru and someone to count on to question the status quo and make you change the way you think about the technology in your agency. He  is a former agency principal and has spent his entire career developing processes and procedures to increase efficiencies. Early in his career he saw technology as the answer to so much of the efficiency that he was seeking. and enhanced the processes he was implementing.... 

Meet Casey and hear:

• How he began his career in the Insurance industry. 
• How to use the tech you have right now in your agency to improve efficiency.
• What he calls the "trinity of your technology" Stack
• What he thinks is crucial to your client's Experience at your agency.
• How to get staff buy in and early adoption of new technology. 
• Casey define the difference in a CRM and AMS

The Secret sauce to this agency’s impressive growth.

When Sarah Zambrano, the operations director, of Colorado Insurance, started with the agency there were only 4 people on staff including the agency principal, fast forwarding to today there are over 100 people on staff and over 100 million in production.  Sarah credits much of the agency's success to the relentless pursuit of consistent process and procedures.  The procedures that were set up when they were a small agency are still in use today and are still incredibly valuable to the growth of the agency. 

Meet Sarah and hear:

• How She got started with Colorado Insurance. 
• What fundamental decision help set them up for success.
• How having consistent agency standards helps the agency be intentional in their growth
• Why the customer journey is so important and the processes and procedures they use to maintain consistency in that journey. 
• How to prepare your agency for success beyond sales and service. 

 

The State of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Insurance

Elisa Stampf, CEO of Insure Equality, shares how she is working to make insurance a more welcome place for everyone. Through her non-profit, she has created an actionable framework to help any agency or company achieve a more open, authentic and, ultimately, collaborative culture. It all starts with one, honest conversation.

Meet Elisa and hear:

• Why she chose to make DEI for insurance her mission
• Defining Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; why is it important?
• Real-world examples of agencies & companies championing change
• How Insure Equality can help your business 
• A sneak peek at Insure Equality's 2024 annual event

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Success, Driven by your Tech Stack

Drew Kinney is the co- owner of Kinney Insurance Agency, and someone you can always count on for a collaboration session.  He is always open to sharing his ideas and his success stories with anyone in the industry. Drew is actively involved  with the daily agency operations including: process management, agency data analytics, business intelligence reporting, and marketing. 

Meet Drew and hear:

• How he got started in the industry
• What is like working so closely with family and how they make it work
• How they built their tech stack out. 
• Step by step walk through how they set up their Agency zoom. 
• How to operate your agency with the right tech stack

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The Service Superpower KPI.

Episode 33 of the VIP Podcast is now LIVE!

Seth Zaremba, Founder of b atomic!, shares how he bootstrapped an insurance startup that's changing the analytics game. This isn't your standard, run-of-the-mill KPI conversation about total premium, retention and monthly sales targets. Seth is introducing new KPIs that the industry has never seen. And it all starts with three little words: cost per transaction.

Meet Seth and hear:

• From agency startup to insurtech startup
• Do agencies really own their data?
• Why current analytics don't give us a competitive edge
• The cost per transaction: what it is and why it matters
• How to begin leveraging data in your agency

He’s building a sales world without duplicate entry.

Tolga Tezel, Founder & CEO of Canopy Connect, is solving for a massive problem in insurance: moving sales data WITHOUT human hands. In any other industry, data is supportive to the product being sold. In insurance, the data IS the product being sold...which means, there's a lot of it. And moving it between systems? Whew. Pretty sure sales teams are already tearing up reading this. But dry up those eyes. Tolga and crew have an exciting solution.

Meet Tolga and hear:
- How he ended up in insurtech of all things
- Why he has bootstrapped his company from the ground up
- How much time sales teams waste being data janitors
- An innovative solution for moving hundreds of data fields in just a few clicks
- Where Canopy Connect is going next

Marketing yourself on TikTok

Episode 31 of the VIP Podcast is now LIVE!

Elijah Goodman, Producer at Goodman Family Insurance, was looking for a creative way to gain attention and write more business. He and his buddies created a video that went quickly went viral and Elijah saw his sales increase and his Tik Tok fame rise in the process. Goodman Family Insurance is a family-owned independent insurance agency. Elijah's unique marketing efforts made this local agency a household name and now writes in multiple states outside of his home state of Wisconsin. 

Meet Elijah and hear:

• How he got his start in the agency.
• The origin story of his viral Tik Tok Videos 
• Elijah Goodman's marketing advice for Indie Agents
• The rise and fall of Elijah's Tik Tok Channel. 
• What is next for Elijah Goodman and Goodman Family Insurance

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The First Ever Digital M&A Platform

Adam Bowe, Founder of Cake, has created a Carvana-like insurance marketplace where you can buy or sell your book of business. Today, the only way to buy or sell is...know the right person. With cake, that changes to...know the right platform. Not only are they democratizing the M&A space, they're also making it possible to exchange groups of accounts (known as "slices"), instead of the whole cake (aka, book of business). Believe us, this is one you don't want to miss.

Meet Adam and hear:

• How Cake works
• The *free Value Your Agency tool available on haveyourcake.com
• Why this platform makes the M&A space available to anyone and everyone
• The "trust" challenge Cake must overcome - and how they're doing it
• Where this platform is headed in 2024+

It Starts With The Data.

Margeaux Giles, Founder & CEO of IRYS, sits down with us to try and settle the CRM vs AMS debate. Her experience in both agency operations and insurtech gives her a unique perspective on what the next generation of technology could look like for the indie agent. And it all starts with...the data.

Meet Margeaux and hear:

• 4 key differences between a CRM and AMS

• A high-level overview of the importance of data architecture

• Why agencies need a CRM to be competitive in the digital era

• How to overcome the change management hurdle

SPOILER: An Agency’s Valuation Increases..

Carey Wallace, Founder of AgencyFocus, has an intriguing background. She cut her teeth in startup early-on after helping take a company public shortly after finishing undergrad. Since then, she's gone on to launch two more startups, both in the insurance analytics space. Her most recent venture is focused on helping agencies increase their valuation with......better data.  

Meet Carey and hear:

• Who is Carey Wallace and why has AgencyFocus taken off?
• Her belief on the importance of an agency's data in 2023 and beyond
• How data and valuation are linked
• The biggest data challenges she helps under-valued agencies overcome
• A few things you can do to improve your data maturity