Elevate The Hustle

Elevate Teams
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship

Elevate the Hustle is the podcast for independent insurance agency owners, entrepreneurs, and operators building something real. Hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo, founders of an eight-figure company helping agencies scale with top offshore talent, the show sits down with the people actually building right now: agency owners, M&A and P&C experts, and operators who've hired, led, and scaled without burning out. Every episode is the behind-the-scenes conversation you don't get anywhere else: how they hire, how they lead, how they grow without creating more chaos. New episodes weekly. Want to see if a virtual assistant is right for your agency?  Learn more at elevateteams.io

  1. 1d ago

    Curtis Barton Built a $2B Brokerage From Zero Clients. Most Owners Get This Wrong.

    Curtis Barton wanted to be a lawyer. His dad told him he didn't like reading enough. So he helped his dad start an insurance agency with zero clients and did whatever needed doing, including taking out the trash. Years later he bought the agency, reinvested his own commissions into it, and nearly tripled it. Then, instead of selling, he merged seven agencies to form Alchemy Insurance Services. Nearly 100 transactions later, Alchemy has 1,500 people. Curtis tells Stan and Dom why most agency owners are running lifestyle businesses, why organic growth fuels everything, how freeing up account managers drives cross-sell, and why independents who don't reinvest will get out-resourced. Plus the one question he asks every owner before he buys: if I gave you $10 million, would you still show up? Connect with Curtis Barton and Alkeme: Alkeme website LinkedIn: Curtis Barton Elevate the Hustle is presented by Elevate Teams.  🔗 Elevate the Hustle is the #1 insurance podcast in the U.S., hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo, co-founders of Elevate Teams. Every week we sit down with agency owners, founders and operators to break down what it actually takes to build teams, scale companies and lead with intensity.    Elevate Teams matches U.S. independent insurance agencies with pre-vetted, bilingual LATAM virtual assistants who become part of your team. Please tell us your AMS and the hours you need covered, and we'll show you who fits.  elevateteams.io LinkedIn: / elevate-teams Instagram: / elevatethehustlepodcast Connect with the hosts Stanley Meytin: / stanleymeytin Dominic Piccirillo: dominicpiccirillo Follow Elevate the Hustle    Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    Curtis Barton Built a $2B Brokerage From Zero Clients. Most Owners Get This Wrong.

  2. Oct 26

    Ep.38 Operations Bores Me”: The Producer Who Became an Agency Owner

    Daniel Rojas walked into insurance by accident in 2004. A couple of months later, four hurricanes hit Florida. He figured if he could survive that, he'd be fine. Twenty years later, he's co-owner of Lime Street Insurance in Miami. Along the way he let go of every account under $50K in premium to double his book, got two weeks to sign a new contract when his agency sold, and started his own agency during COVID with three kids under three. The hardest part wasn't selling. It was everything else. Daniel tells Stan and Dom why operations nearly capped his growth, how he got out of doing payroll and COIs himself, how he's hiring during the M&A wave, and why his goal is an agency that runs itself. Connect with Daniel Rojas Website: Lime Street Linkedin: Daniel Rojas 🔗 Elevate the Hustle is the #1 insurance podcast in the U.S., hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo, co-founders of Elevate Teams. Every week we sit down with agency owners, founders and operators to break down what it actually takes to build teams, scale companies and lead with intensity.    Elevate Teams matches U.S. independent insurance agencies with pre-vetted, bilingual LATAM virtual assistants who become part of your team. Please tell us your AMS and the hours you need covered, and we'll show you who fits.  elevateteams.io LinkedIn: / elevate-teams Instagram: / elevatethehustlepodcast Connect with the hosts Stanley Meytin: / stanleymeytin Dominic Piccirillo: dominicpiccirillo Follow Elevate the Hustle    Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    Ep.38 Operations Bores Me”: The Producer Who Became an Agency Owner

  3. Oct 19

    E37: He Worked for the Wolf of Wall Street. Now He Insures $5B in Real Estate.

    Jerry Katz was an immigrant kid named Igor when nobody came to his birthday party. That's the day he says his hustle started. From there: a sales mentor who warned him about the golden handcuffs, a stint at Stratton Oakmont, millions made and lost in the dot-com bubble, a Miami real estate portfolio, and a $144,000 insurance increase with 72 hours' notice that pushed him to open his own agency. Today, Premier Protection Insurance covers around $5 billion in commercial real estate across 15 states. Jerry and Stan talk about selling value instead of coverage, how one reclassification cut a client's premium from about $80K to $11K, scaling toward $100M in premium, and hiring the right integrator. 🔗 Connect withJerry Katz CEO Linkedin | Instagram | PremierProtectionInsurance 🔗 Elevate the Hustle is the #1 insurance podcast in the U.S., hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo, co-founders of Elevate Teams. Every week we sit down with agency owners, founders and operators to break down what it actually takes to build teams, scale companies and lead with intensity. Elevate Teams matches U.S. independent insurance agencies with pre-vetted, bilingual LATAM virtual assistants who become part of your team. Please tell us your AMS and the hours you need covered, and we'll show you who fits. elevateteams.io LinkedIn:   / elevate-teams   Instagram:   / elevatethehustlepodcast   Connect with the hosts  Stanley Meytin:   / stanleymeytin   Dominic Piccirillo: www.linkedin.com/in/dominicpiccirillo Follow Elevate the Hustle  Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    E37: He Worked for the Wolf of Wall Street. Now He Insures $5B in Real Estate.

  4. Oct 12

    E36:Your Clients Should Be Your Marketing Department: How HawkSoft Grew on Word of Mouth

    You built your agency on relationships. Now everyone's telling you to automate, buy more leads and spend more on ads. Darrin DeFouw has watched that pressure from inside one of insurance's most loved software companies for 22 years. Darrin joined HawkSoft in 2004 as employee #8, after years as an agent and CSR. His interview was a backyard barbecue with the founder's family, his first desk was a shelf in a coat closet, and the first thing he was told was that his family comes first. Always. In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Darrin joins Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to share how HawkSoft grew on word of mouth with no marketing department until 2012, why it treats sales like consulting and walks away from the wrong fit, and the Purple Cow philosophy behind its passionate users. He also gets honest about AI in insurance: when the tech stack helps clients, and when it starts to replace the reason agents do this work. If your best clients came from someone who trusted you, this one's for you. elevateteams.io | LinkedIn | Instagram: @elevatethehustlepodcast @elevateteams.io Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    E36:Your Clients Should Be Your Marketing Department: How HawkSoft Grew on Word of Mouth

  5. Oct 5

    E.35 Every Business Comes Down to These 3 Things | High School Hustle

    In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Scott Lingle and Peter SerVaas, co-founders of High School Hustle, join Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to talk about the summer competition teaching teenagers to build real businesses. One of their students was 15, couldn't drive, knocked on 1,031 doors, and made $25K. Peter shares how he threw high school dance parties to help pay his parents' mortgage and built a software company acquired by Ford. Scott explains how he became an entrepreneur at 45 and started High School Hustle after his son's summer pressure washing business taught him more than college. They break down the lunchroom pitch that changed their growth, the $2,500 "beat the summer" benchmark, the newspaper route lesson behind every business, and why even their best young founders struggle to make the first hire. If you believe the best business education comes from doing, this one's for you. Website: elevateteams.io  LinkedIn: Elevate Teams Instagram: @elevatethehustlepodcast Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    E.35 Every Business Comes Down to These 3 Things | High School Hustle

  6. Sep 29

    E34: The Master Connector: How Ricky Brito Built ForgePoint on Relationships, Not Transactions.

    Ricky Brito joins Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to break down how he went from working rooftops at age 10 to becoming one of the most connected people in the insurance industry, and why his next chapter is built on relationships instead of transactions. Ricky shares how he stumbled into insurance through a family connection, built his reputation at Agent Brokers United through pure persistence, and why LinkedIn has been his single highest-ROI marketing tool. He also opens up about launching his new venture, ForgePoint, alongside his own daughter, and the mindset that's carried him through every setback along the way. Whether you're an agency owner who feels stuck or an entrepreneur trying to figure out how to build real relationships instead of just closing deals, this conversation is packed with lessons on resilience, follow-through, and what it actually takes to grow. Elevate Teams: elevateteams.io  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/elevate-teams  Instagram: @elevateteams Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    E34: The Master Connector: How Ricky Brito Built ForgePoint on Relationships, Not Transactions.

  7. Sep 20

    Ep.33 Fired, Then Founder: Greg & Becky Hile on Building QuoteRUSH From Scratch

    Greg and Becky Hile, co-founders of QuoteRUSH, join Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to tell the real story behind one of the insurance industry's most trusted quoting platforms, now serving over 1,100 agencies. Greg shares how he got fired from a construction job for refusing to cut corners, then taught himself to code from library books, betting he could build a business with zero physical product and a worldwide market. Becky shares how she went from supporting his obsession with computers to running the entire business side of QuoteRUSH, including the moment a longtime client credited the platform with letting him retire early and walk the Appalachian Trail. They also get honest about Becky's years-long skepticism of virtual assistants, and what changed her mind after watching Elevate Teams train and match VAs the right way. This is a conversation about building something real with no formal background, no ad budget, and no shortcuts. Learn more about QuoteRUSH at quoterush.com. Connect with Elevate Teams at elevateteams.io  LinkedIn Instagram @elevatethehustlepodcast Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    Ep.33 Fired, Then Founder: Greg & Becky Hile on Building QuoteRUSH From Scratch

  8. Sep 14

    Ep 32: The Insurance Agency Owner Who Turned His Biggest Pain Point Into a Business | Justin Goodman

    Justin Goodman, founder of Total CSR, joins Stan and Dom to break down how he turned his own agency's biggest problem, watching big houses poach every employee he trained, into an online trade school now used by 1,400+ insurance agencies across the country. Justin shares his path from a golf career cut short by a degenerative spinal disorder, to building his own agency with his brother, to eventually stepping away from it entirely to go all in on Total CSR. He talks about why the first few months of sales made it obvious he had something real, why he believes AI is quietly making agencies dumber if it's used the wrong way, and the mental health journey that led him to launch Project 55, the industry's first tactical training on how to step in when someone is struggling. If you're an agency owner tired of training people just to lose them, or you're trying to figure out where AI actually fits into your business, this one is packed with lessons on training, leadership, and building something that outlasts you. Elevate the Hustle is hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo, co-founders of Elevate Teams. New episodes every week. 🌐 elevateteams.io  💼 LinkedIn 📸 Instagram: @elevatethehustlepodcast Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language. 🌐 Website: elevateteams.io 📷 Instagram: @elevateteams 🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams 🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

    Ep 32: The Insurance Agency Owner Who Turned His Biggest Pain Point Into a Business | Justin Goodman
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Elevate the Hustle is the podcast for independent insurance agency owners, entrepreneurs, and operators building something real. Hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo, founders of an eight-figure company helping agencies scale with top offshore talent, the show sits down with the people actually building right now: agency owners, M&A and P&C experts, and operators who've hired, led, and scaled without burning out. Every episode is the behind-the-scenes conversation you don't get anywhere else: how they hire, how they lead, how they grow without creating more chaos. New episodes weekly. Want to see if a virtual assistant is right for your agency?  Learn more at elevateteams.io

Information

  • Creator
    Elevate Teams
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Elevate Teams
  • Show Website
    Elevate The Hustle

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