You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You.

Pete Poggi

If you own a P&C insurance agency doing $2 million to $5 million in annual premium - and you can't go 90 days without answering a client's email, your team freezes when you're unreachable, or being away makes you anxious - this show was built for you. Here's the truth: If your P&C insurance agency can't run without you, you don't own it. At best, you're a producer with equity. Real ownership isn't book size. It isn't revenue. It's freedom. It's control. It's building something that runs without you - and outlives you. Pete Poggi grew a personal lines P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months - without commercial lines, without cold calls, and without becoming a prisoner to his own business. He did it by installing systems that removed owner dependence at every level and created leadership depth that didn't require him in the room. What You'll Discover Each episode features real conversations with P&C insurance agency owners who have scaled to $50 million, $100 million and beyond - plus solo episodes where Pete shares the exact recruiting, training, and management frameworks that took his agency from owner-dependent to owner-optional. This show is for the P&C insurance agency owner who has outgrown being a producer but hasn't yet built the team and systems to step away. If you're ready to stop being owned by your insurance agency and start owning it - this is your show. About Pete Poggi Pete Poggi is the founder of John Galt Insurance and creator of the Million Dollar Producer training program for P&C insurance agents. He is also the author of the bestselling book "P&C Insurance Accelerator: How To Build an 8 Figure Agency Without Relying on Cold Calls, Outrageous Franchise Fees or Outdated Sales Tactics," available on Amazon and Audible. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

  1. 10h ago

    How a Broke P&C Agent Built a $30M Agency

    Chris Cole built a $30 million P&C agency and was the number one agent in his company for a few years. Two and a half to three years into owning that agency, he was broke and foreclosing on his house.His words: "One day I woke up broke, the only way out was for me to start selling $100,000 a week in premium."Chris came to insurance from pharmaceuticals, through State Farm's training program, where a new agent takes over an existing book and manages it. So when he opened his own agency, he managed it. Performance was bad, because nobody was setting the pace. He let his salespeople go, put two or three support people around himself, and sold $300,000 to $400,000 a month on his own for about six months. Then he brought salespeople back in, and scaled.Pete and Chris go back to 2009. Today Chris runs a virtual assistant company, and he is open about where VAs fit in an agency.What you'll discover in this episode: The one-call close, and the "extended time" idea behind itWhy his team treated renewing clients exactly like new business, and got retention closer to 92 to 93%Why the owner has to become the pace setter before stepping backThe bar he set for new producers when he was selling $80,000 to $100,000 a weekWhy adding more salespeople can leave every salesperson worse offPete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency.If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who is stuck managing instead of selling. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    How a Broke P&C Agent Built a $30M Agency

  2. Sep 25

    Entrepreneur or Wantrepreneur: How I Hire $10M P&C Producers

    One of Pete Poggi's top P&C producers was waiting tables, bartending and driving Uber on weekends when Pete hired him. Today that producer writes almost $1.5 million a year in premium, and his book is approaching $10 million. Pete has interviewed well over a thousand people and hired hundreds of agents across 20 plus years, and he made just about every hiring mistake there is on the way. What finally fixed it was not a better resume filter. It was learning to tell an entrepreneur from a wantrepreneur. The entrepreneur is planning their day. The wantrepreneur is planning their lunch. In this solo episode Pete lays out how he tells them apart before he hires, and how he tells them apart after. Here's what you'll discover: The one line Pete's dad used on him growing up that now explains every bad hire he ever madeWhat an entrepreneur says in an interview, and the very different thing a wantrepreneur saysThe question Pete asks when four people have the identical resume, and why he goes silent the second he finishes asking itThe difference between a producer who is struggling and one who is resisting, and why only one of them is worth coachingWhy Pete hires Rocky Balboa over Apollo Creed every single timeAbout Pete: Pete Poggi grew a personal lines P&C insurance agency from $3 million to over $180 million in 84 months. No commercial. No cold calls. He created the Agency Elevation System and works with independent P&C insurance agency owners stuck between $2M and $5M in annual premium who are ready to stop being the bottleneck and start building a real book. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And if you have ever hired someone who talked a great game and then never did the work, send this one to another agency owner. Every one of us has paid that stupid tax. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    Entrepreneur or Wantrepreneur: How I Hire $10M P&C Producers

  3. Sep 22

    How 5 P&C Producers Build a $20M Agency in 5 Years

    Pete Poggi hired his third producer and did the math that changed his life. One producer at $750,000. Himself over a million. A third approaching $500,000. Three people were already producing more than he ever could alone, and they had not hit their ceiling yet. That number is where this episode starts. Where it ends is $20 million. Here is the arithmetic Pete runs on this one, out loud, in real time: five producers writing $400,000 each is $2 million a year, which already doubles what you could do by yourself. Coach those same five up to $800,000 and you are at $4 million a year. Five years of that is $20 million, and none of that counts your own production or the book you already had. But the part he says nobody talks about is what happened when his right hand man grew into a leader and Pete started traveling Florida to speak and train. Every time he came back, the numbers were better. It became a running joke in the office: let's see how long we can keep Pete out of here. This is a solo episode about the difference between hiring somebody and duplicating yourself, and why almost every agency owner confuses the two. What you'll discover in this episode: Why hiring a customer service rep is not duplication, and what it actually isThe day duplication really starts, which is not the day you sign the offer letterThe 80% question that decides whether you can ever build a teamWhat most owners get wrong in the first 30 days with a new producerWhat Pete says is better than the money duplication brought himPete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency. If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who is still trying to do all of it himself. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    How 5 P&C Producers Build a $20M Agency in 5 Years

  4. Sep 15

    The $40M Mistake a $4B P&C Agency Admits To

    Nathan Brainard runs a $100 million division inside a $4 billion P&C agency. He is also willing to put a real number on the record: the $40 million his company spent on an online quoting platform before deciding to stop. His words: "We were already $30, $40 million deep into this adventure. And we ended up cutting bait and saying, it's better to take our losses now." Walking away from a number that size takes more discipline than most people give it credit for. The advice that came out of it is four words long: Don't get over your skis. Nathan started at Insurance Office of America in January 2005, after Marriott cut the $30,000 bonus he had earned down to $3,000. Twenty-two years later he oversees roughly 100 producers and 400 people across IOA's largest division. Last November his company took private-equity money for the first time in its history, and he walks through what that actually felt like from the inside, including the seven months he calls the roughest of his career. What you'll discover in this episode: The first thing a $4 billion agency screens for in a producer, before experience, book size or production historyWhy 99% of their producers stayed through the private-equity transition when the PE firm had forecast 85%The one question to ask a private-equity firm before you sign anythingWhat a softening market does to renewals you thought were safe, and why owners under 40 have never seen itThe interview question Nathan asks that has nothing to do with insurancePete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency. If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who is being courted right now. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    The $40M Mistake a $4B P&C Agency Admits To

  5. Sep 8

    4 Bad Hires Before He Found One Good Producer

    Patrick Mignon built a $2.4M P&C book after a non-compete forced him to walk away from every client he had ever written. Eight months into starting over, his wife looked at him and said "just go get a job." He told her: "I'm the job." Today he runs $80,000 to $100,000 a month in production and is chasing a million-dollar year. But the thing that unlocked it was not talent. He already had that. It was finally hiring, and the first four people he brought on did not last three months. In this conversation Patrick walks through exactly what he got wrong, what he changed, and the moment the stress came off his shoulders instead of piling on. What you'll discover in this episode: Why a "vicious non-compete" turned out to be the best thing that happened to his careerThe five-word morning system Patrick calls GARLIC, and why he runs it before he does anything elseThe one word that explains why most agents never get referrals from realtors and mortgage brokersWhat Patrick looks for in the first two to three weeks that tells him whether a new hire will lastWhy he says hiring gave him more time to build his business by doing less work Pete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency. If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who is scared to make their first hire. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    4 Bad Hires Before He Found One Good Producer

  6. Sep 1

    How a 30-Year-Old Built a $45M P&C Book

    Zane Lefko was 20 years old, sitting on a couch in Orlando, when his roommate's dad walked in and asked if the two of them wanted to get their insurance licenses. He said "sure, I guess." He had no plan. He later dropped out of college to keep going. He committed to Pete's system at 21. Between his agencies he has now surpassed the $45 million mark, and he has personally produced a million to a million and a half a year for about eight years. He did try buying leads online once. His office called somebody who had filled out a form, and the man told him he was only trying to get his Outback gift card. That conversation cost $30. His line ever since: "I always tell people I spend $0 on marketing. It's all referral based." (On the tape Zane sizes the book at about $30 million. Between his agencies today he is past $45 million.) The part most agency owners will not expect is what he says about the last year. He nearly walked away. "Probably a year ago, I got to the point and I'm like, I don't think I can do this anymore." What you'll discover in this episode: The four-step system Zane says is the whole secret, and the one thing he says everybody else does insteadWhy the "what ifs of not hiring greatly outweigh the fear of hiring", and the hiring mistake he still makesHow 10 or 15 unreturned voicemails turned into 40 to 50 referral partnersThe attrition math that traps agency owners at $3 to $5 million, and what has to change before it breaks youWhat he actually did in the year he almost quit, and the line about breakthroughs he keeps coming back toPete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency. If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who thinks they have to do it all themselves. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    How a 30-Year-Old Built a $45M P&C Book

  7. Aug 25

    The Hires That Built My $180M P&C Agency

    Pete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to over $180 million, and most of the producers who built it had never worked in insurance a day in their lives. One of his best hires ever was managing a Foot Locker when he walked into Pete's office. He didn't know the carriers, couldn't speak the lingo, and Pete still jokes that he couldn't spell insurance. Pete hired him anyway, then surrounded him with experienced agents. Almost every experienced hire failed. The Foot Locker kid became his top producer. In this solo episode, Pete lays out the hiring philosophy that came out of interviewing thousands of people and hiring hundreds of producers: Stop hiring resumes. Start hiring people. Here's what you'll discover: Why one bad hire can set your agency back a full year, and why it usually wasn't the person's faultThe math on "10 years of experience" that most agency owners never doWhat Pete saw in a Foot Locker manager that a thousand resumes never showed himThe exact interview questions Pete uses to spot a future top producer in the first 10 minutesThe one question running through Pete's head in every single interviewAbout Pete: Pete Poggi grew a personal lines P&C insurance agency from $3 million to over $180 million in 84 months. No commercial. No cold calls. He created the Agency Elevation System and works with independent P&C insurance agency owners stuck between $2M and $5M in annual premium who are ready to stop being the bottleneck and start building a real book. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And if you know an agency owner who says they can't find good people, send them this one. It might save them years of frustration. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    The Hires That Built My $180M P&C Agency

  8. Aug 18

    How a $20M P&C Agency Hires Producers From Restaurants

    Greg Brunt built a $20 million P&C insurance agency without hiring a single experienced agent. He pulled his first hires out of restaurants. In 2013 Greg walked into a small executive office in South Florida with a childhood friend, two phones, two computers and not a single client. Before that he spent eight years inside a State Farm agency, and he started there at the front desk answering phones and taking out the garbage. Thirteen years later Brunt Insurance has roughly 7,000 clients, eleven in-house staff, three or four virtual assistants, and nine affiliate locations across Florida. Four of his current producers started at his own front desk. He has never bought a lead. Pete Poggi sits down with Greg to walk the whole build: The captive educator model that made his first book and the day it died, what he had to physically stop doing before the agency could outgrow him, the hire that took eighteen months to pay off, and why he quit buying agencies and started building affiliates instead. Here's what you'll discover: Why Greg pulls his best hires out of restaurants and gyms instead of out of other agenciesThe school partnership model that built his first book, and the single event that ended it overnightWhat he had to hand off before the agency could grow past him, and how long it actually took him to let goThe hire that had nothing to do with insurance and fixed the entire back officeWhy he walked away from acquisitions in a three-times-revenue market and built nine affiliate locations insteadAbout Pete: Pete Poggi grew a personal lines P&C insurance agency from $3 million to over $180 million in 84 months. No commercial. No cold calls. He created the Agency Elevation System and works with independent P&C insurance agency owners stuck between $2M and $5M in annual premium who are ready to stop being the bottleneck and start building a real book. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. If you know an agency owner who says they can't find good people, send them this one. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

    How a $20M P&C Agency Hires Producers From Restaurants
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If you own a P&C insurance agency doing $2 million to $5 million in annual premium - and you can't go 90 days without answering a client's email, your team freezes when you're unreachable, or being away makes you anxious - this show was built for you. Here's the truth: If your P&C insurance agency can't run without you, you don't own it. At best, you're a producer with equity. Real ownership isn't book size. It isn't revenue. It's freedom. It's control. It's building something that runs without you - and outlives you. Pete Poggi grew a personal lines P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months - without commercial lines, without cold calls, and without becoming a prisoner to his own business. He did it by installing systems that removed owner dependence at every level and created leadership depth that didn't require him in the room. What You'll Discover Each episode features real conversations with P&C insurance agency owners who have scaled to $50 million, $100 million and beyond - plus solo episodes where Pete shares the exact recruiting, training, and management frameworks that took his agency from owner-dependent to owner-optional. This show is for the P&C insurance agency owner who has outgrown being a producer but hasn't yet built the team and systems to step away. If you're ready to stop being owned by your insurance agency and start owning it - this is your show. About Pete Poggi Pete Poggi is the founder of John Galt Insurance and creator of the Million Dollar Producer training program for P&C insurance agents. He is also the author of the bestselling book "P&C Insurance Accelerator: How To Build an 8 Figure Agency Without Relying on Cold Calls, Outrageous Franchise Fees or Outdated Sales Tactics," available on Amazon and Audible. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

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