Agency Intelligence Agency Intelligence

In this episode, James talks with Stephen Sedlak, President of Workcompology.

To learn more about Workcompology, visit https://workcompology.com/.

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Episode Highlights:

Stephen shares his background and how he got into the insurance industry. (2:12)


Stephen mentions that at ADP, he learned "the answer is always yes," which has served him well in his career. (7:26)


Stephen discusses how he started writing his book "The Work Comp Control Effect" and how he utilizes the book for marketing. (12:32)


Stephen mentions that there is no right or wrong way to write a book and that the most important thing is that you're writing something that makes sense to you and the prospect. (19:18)


Stephen explains that the purpose of his book was never to sell it, but rather to share the approaches that have worked best for him. (22:50)


Stephen explains the benefits of having a workers’ comp program and how it goes far beyond the policy itself. (28:45)


Stephen explains the major reason they chose to join Keystone over others and how working with them is a collaborative experience. (34:16)


Stephen discusses the benefits of joining Keystone and how it has elevated its members' reputation with certain carriers and brokers. (39:02)



Key Quotes:

“At the end of the day, you're just writing something that's going to make sense and gonna hopefully make sense to the prospect, if that's your goal.” - Stephen Sedlak

“It's a program. It's the work comp program. And that's what we try to get our prospects to understand is that it's no longer a policy, it's a program.” - Stephen Sedlak

“The purpose of the book [The Work Comp Control Effect] was never to sell the book…I figured if I ever sold that book for more money, you know, made more money off of selling that than I did writing new business, then I failed as a producer.” - Stephen Sedlak


Resources Mentioned:
ModAdvisor

In this throwback episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck talk about their experience when dealing with difficult clients.

Episode Highlights:

David shares a story about an account that was referred to them by one of Kyle's referral partners. (6:52)


David mentions what happened to that account. (7:37)


David mentions his response to the client. (10:47)


David shares the number of accounts that he has terminated. (11:52)


David shares what he realized when it comes to payroll. (12:45)



Tweetable Quotes:

“You outline the options with everybody beforehand in terms of payment explaining why monthly self-audit makes the most sense for 99% of our clients.” - Kyle Houck

“There are good ones out there and we work with some really good ones. They have numbers they have to hit. I like to recruit them because they have to get in front of literally everything so that they can hit their numbers.” - David Carothers


Resources Mentioned:

David Carothers LinkedIn

Kyle Houck LinkedIn

Florida Risk Partners

The Extra 2 Minutes

In this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley sits down with Izik Lavy.

Izik Lavy is the CEO and founder of GeoX Innovations.

GeoX experts use machine vision and deep learning technology to automate fast and accurate extraction of 3D objects from aerial imagery and create worldwide property databases. This property data is for Insurance companies to study property features, get current property intelligence, effectively process claims, streamline underwriting, and evaluate risks resulting in significant cost reductions and lost revenue capturing.

Don't miss this conversation...

Episode Highlights:

Izik mentions that the goal of GeoX Innovations is to help insurance carriers offer better insurance and understand risks better, and help carriers predict events and notify their clients to take proactive measures. (3:47)


Izik explains that his passion for geospatial and public information led him to create something valuable that protects people's lives and properties through the insurance industry. (7:47)


Izik explains that GeoX Innovations uses a variety of data sources to provide the most recent aerial imagery to insurance carriers worldwide, and they prioritize providing good service to everyone, regardless of their location. (14:21)


Izik shares that GeoX Innovations works closely with insurance carriers to provide insights and data on risks, and they analyze the raw data from imagery and combine it with claim information to determine correlations and ROI for carriers. (21:27)


Izik mentions that their platform is currently used by insurance carriers and now they are working with insurance agencies to help them target their clients and find the best opportunities. (35:08)


Izik explains how their technology helps agencies target the specific properties their carriers want to insure, giving them a competitive advantage, which also helps agencies meet their carrier commitments and expand their opportunities beyond their local area. (40:07)



Key Quotes:

“Our mission is to help the insurance carriers to provide better service to their clients, to reduce the risk and also to provide a new revenue stream, and the way to do it is by providing them insights, with data insights.” - Izik Lavy

“I create relationships with insurance carrier. And I think this is like when we try to understand how, as agent, we can create our future more clearly and also create more profit. I think one of the biggest things that we need to do, the action that we need to do is understand our client better.” - Izik Lavy

“You can make the entire sales cycle in one phone call. And this is eventually what we tried to work with agencies. And we want for them to be able to focus only on and say, how I close my next call, and not how I call to the next client. I asked him the question, I investigated, receive the information. And after this, calling him back in two weeks, and try to call, closes a deal. So, this is a thing that eventually we are trying to cut.” Izik Lavy


Resources Mentioned:


Izik Lavy LinkedIn

GeoX Innovations

Reach out to Ryan Hanley


Rogue Risk

Finding Peak

In this throwback episode of Power Women In Insurance, Teresa Kitchens discusses what underearning is and why it is so important to see the signs of it so we can fully achieve our goals.

Episode Highlights:

Teresa shares how reading Barbara Stanny's book Overcoming Underearning has changed the way she thinks about herself, her business, and what she wants to accomplish in the insurance industry. (00:11)


Teresa explains that the book begins with a great parable, and it's truly about how we as people become overwhelmed by "what if," "maybe I can't," or "what if I don't?". (3:34)


Teresa mentions that she loves the definition of stress in the first section of the book because it says stress is underearning and worrying about the future, and she can relate to it because she always worries about the future. (6:12)


Teresa explains that underearning is a side result of not living our full potential, but we must remember that everyone has their own goals, perspectives, and way of reacting to things, and they react based on their own unique thoughts and feelings. (10:39)


Teresa shares that being able to dive further into what we want helps us define what we want, which is important. (13:42)


Teresa mentions that changing our relationship with money is one of the book's goals, and that money is just a tool to live the life we want to live. (18:03)


Teresa explains that the greatest fear for underearners is having more to do. The main fear that underearners have about earning more money is that they will have no life and that continue work endlessly. (26:02)


Teresa believes that if we do not accept personal responsibility, we will find ourselves in chaotic situations, financially, personally, spiritually, and emotionally, because we did not take care of business along the way. (29:16)


Teresa encourages everyone to set goals, answer questions about whether or not they are underearners, and evaluate their mental conversations. (43:50)



Key Quotes:

“Underearning is a side result from not living up to our full potential, whatever that looks like… but we have to remember that everybody has their own goals. Everybody has their own perspective. Everybody has their own way they react to things and they react based on their own personal thoughts and feelings.” - Teresa Kitchens

“In order to grow and to learn and to be something more, we have to know what we want to be and what we want to accomplish in order to get there.” - Teresa Kitchens

“One of the goals of the book is to be able to change our relationship with money. Money is just a tool. Money is a tool for us to live the life that we want to live.” - Teresa Kitchens

“By knowing what we want to do with our money, what makes us feel successful, what makes us feel happy, we can give ourselves pieces of that. But then we also know how we need to learn how to not let that get out of control. That is very important because if it gets out of control, it can impede us from being able to get where we really want to go.” - Teresa Kitchens


Resources Mentioned:

Contact Teresa Kitchens


Sterling Insurance Group

Book: Overcoming Underearning: A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Ryan Dunn, Director of Insurance at Trava. Ryan discusses the importance of being proactive with cyber insurance, how to leverage cyber to earn new business, and how Trava is enabling agents to collect internal infrastructure data and provide it to carriers for cyber underwriting.

Episode Highlights:

Ryan shares that he has been in the industry for eight years and has seen a correlation between worker's comp and cyber, where worker's comp used to be a massive door opener opportunity and now cyber is becoming a major opportunity. (2:19)


Ryan mentions that you don't have to be a cyber insurance expert to make the conversation valuable if you have the data to make it valuable. (4:46)


Ryan explains that delivering the coalition report proactively instead of reactively makes a huge difference. (9:51)


Ryan discusses the need for carriers to access internal data on modern cybersecurity infrastructure, including cloud environments, web apps, and third-party applications, to properly assess risk and prevent significant losses in cyber insurance. (12:54)


Ryan explains that Trava is changing the dynamic of cyber underwriting by creating an agency platform that allows agents to collect internal infrastructure data and pass it off to carriers, rather than having carriers scan clients directly. (15:56)


Ryan explains that their agency platform is a multi-tenant platform that simplifies the process of accessing data for carriers and provides an insurance readiness report to help clients prepare for the renewal period. (17:38)


Ryan mentions that Trava’s product is designed to drive more revenue to the agency. (22:33)


Ryan discusses the trend in cyber insurance towards more in-depth underwriting and how it will impact pricing and coverage for clients. (31:13)


Ryan shares that investing in product solutions to bring more value to clients is key to winning against larger agencies. (39:14)


Ryan believes that changing the mindset from reactive to proactive is essential in the insurance industry, particularly in cyber insurance. (50:59)



Tweetable Quotes:

“If we give the agents the power to be able to collect the proper information from that internal infrastructure, and then pass it off to the carrier, that's where the W is. So we're working with some larger agencies and some of the very well-known carriers in creating that connection.” - Ryan Dunn

“We are big believers in education…we constantly are training our partner agencies. We do in-person training, we do internal webinar training as well. And we do that on an ongoing basis.” - Ryan Dunn

“We actually recently just changed our pricing like last week, but we wanted to change it so that it could mold with any size agency and grow with the agency, right? At the end of the day, the point of our product is to drive more revenue to the agency.” - Ryan Dunn


Resources Mentioned:


Ryan Dunn LinkedIn

Trava

David Carothers

Kyle Houck

Florida Risk Partners

The Extra 2 Minutes

In this episode of Agents Influence podcast, host Jason Cass interviews Jacob Simon, Founder & CEO of Adapt API.

Episode Highlights:

Jacob explains that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software automates manual processes like data input, client updates, and email management, freeing up time for more productive work. (4:16)


Jacob mentions that insurance agencies can save time by automating operations like claim screening and report organization using bots. (6:45)


Jacob explains that Adapt API provides solutions to minimize missed notifications and other issues. (9:50)


Jacob explains that Adapt API’s service costs depend on the agency's performance, and the return on investment is normally $4-10 dollars for every dollar spent. (12:17) 


Jacob shares how their platform can quickly and effectively connect with an agency's workflow, enabling fast access to data with no continuing setup or training in 30 minutes and through email or Zapier. (15:16)


Jacob offers loyal listeners 10 free hours (600 minutes) of their agency's time by signing up for their product before the end of March. (17:00)



Key Quotes:

“If every day you're saying, hey, every morning I wake up and go to my email and then have to like open this folder and then drag something into it, well, you can actually have a software do that for you and then you can go and do better things with your time.” - Jacob Simon 

“We basically just charge you for the work that we do on your behalf, right? So you know, if the agency is smaller midsize, you're going to pay less. And for a much larger agency, you're going to pay more, but it's always going to be equal to the amount of work that we're doing for you.” - Jacob Simon 

“Implementing new technology can sometimes be weeks long, months long, just like a huge investment. And things fall apart in that time, right? And so, there's a little bit of aversion to trying something new, because you think, hey, it's not gonna get off the ground. But as you mentioned, you know, it's really quick and painless.” - Jacob Simon


Resources Mentioned:


Jacob Simon LinkedIn

Adapt API

Reach out to Jason Cass 

Agency Intelligence