The construction industry has digitized, but the insurance industry hasn’t kept up. Most carriers still price risk based on outdated proxies, ignoring the massive amount of real-time safety and operational data available through tools like Procore and Samsara.
Every insurance agent has a graveyard of “dead” leads; prospects you called once, got sent to voicemail, and never touched again. You think they are worthless, but you are actually sitting on a goldmine.
Most agencies treat employee benefits as a secondary revenue stream – a product to be sold rather than a risk to be managed.
Losing a big account hurts. Your natural instinct is to get defensive, blame price, and block the other broker on LinkedIn. But what if the secret to your future growth lies in picking up the phone and congratulating the person who just beat you?
That was the feedback Stephanie Handschuh received from a CFO early in her career. It is a bias that plagues the insurance industry, where the average age is pushing 60 and the “old guard” still holds the keys.
In an industry obsessed with mergers and acquisitions, staying independent is a radical act. Most agencies sell out or fade away, but Rue Insurance has thrived for 108 years across four generations.
In the insurance industry, we are taught that value equals output. We measure success by how hard we grind, how many calls we make, and how much revenue we personally drive.
Most producers claim they want to dominate in 2026, but they are waiting for permission. They wait for the “perfect time” to invest in themselves, or worse, they wait to see if their “boss will pay for it.”
Building a personal brand and driving sales usually requires you to be awake, on camera, and actively recording.
Most agency owners treat profit as an afterthought; it’s just whatever is left over at the end of the year. This “Bank Balance Accounting” mindset leads to a high-stress cycle of overspending in good months and panicking during tax season.
