Profiles in Risk

Tony chats with Kyle Bartee, Founder and CEO Aviation Ops Ally. They are building an all-in-one app for private pilots that helps them get on the air faster, and helps them with their complicated insurance needs. A super fun conversation, especially for a flight sim nerd like me!Kyle Bartee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/knjnd-consulting/

Tony chats with Michelle Raue, EVP Chief Claims and Transformation Officer at Preferred Mutual. Michelle has had an incredible claims career and joins me on the show to talk about claims careers, mental health, innovation, and so much more. A cannot miss conversation!Michelle Raue: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleraue/Video Version: https://youtu.be/t1STEHxd_XI

Brandon Dendas, Owner and Marketing Director at Convirtue. They specialize in helping independent insurance agents grow through content marketing and SEO. They're also now starting to work on LEO: Large Language Model Optimization. You heard it here first (July 2025)! Their approach is different, instead of being top-of-funnel demand gen focused, they optimize bottom-of-funnel transactional content. They focus on people who know what they need and what they created works exceptionally well on Google. Now they're changing that approach to make sure it works with LLMs also.Brandon Dendas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandondendas/Convirtue: https://www.convirtue.com/Video Version: https://youtu.be/7pHSC7dAzZ4

Tony chats with Diane Coogan, Co-Founder and CEO and Robert Clark, Co-Founder and EVP at PLACECovr. They created a whole new type of insurance, Location Insurance! What happens if you buy a house and the quality of your state or the quality of your city goes down? PLACECovr can protect your equity. This is what true insurance innovation looks like! A fascinating episode!Diane Coogan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-coogan-66215812/Robert Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-clark-0245a05/PLACECovr: https://placecovr.com/Video Version: https://youtu.be/K2U2junnzHg

Jerry Chien, CEO at Jump Point, they are building the insurance infrastructure of tomorrow built from the ground up from AI first perspective. It helps brokers and insurance companies automate their workflows, gain access to their data that is trapped in all their documents, and build an interface that is transformative to the way you run your operations. You can run your entire operation from voice and text prompts! 🤯 A cannot miss episode!Jerry Chien: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrychienx/Jump Point: https://www.jumppoint.ai/Video Version: https://youtu.be/j-dPGIGd_rw

Tony chats with Jacquie Legrand, CEO & Co-Founder at MAPTYCS, they are focused on using geospatial analytics to assess property and climate risk. They offer a web based solution for property risk management and exposure analytics. It the platform you can combine, visualize, and analyze your property portfolio data with multiple a la carte specialty data sets from different third-party providers. This is INCREDIBLY powerful!Jacquie Legand: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-legrand-2806291/MAPTYCS: https://maptycs.com/Video Version: https://youtu.be/xe_sgCuTDAQ

Tony chats with Joel Gendelman, CEO and Founder at n2itive, they are 100% focused on improving recorded statements. Adjusters chat with the claimants to get the story from the horse's mouth shortly after the loss happens and they record it. This is basically a CRM for recorded statements, already in use at 35 carriers and with 3 of the top 10 carriers. It allows adjusters to reliably and easily record the statement, they gets stored, transcribed, and most importantly transformed by AI and unlocking the content of the conversations and making that data available to make the best decisions and make adjusters more efficient. The adjuster doesn't have to even type notes, the system guides them through it. This data is the most untapped data in the claims side of insurance. A must listen to episode!Joel Gendelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeldgendelman/n2itive: https://n2uitive.com/

Tony chats with Sam Broomer, President of Embedded Parametric Solutions at NormanMax Insurance Solutions, they help solve this growing gap of economic loss relative to insurance coverages. Parametric solves a real challenge for both consumers and businesses. On the consumer side they're creating coverages that didn't exist before, all of it with the fast speed of parametric. On the Homeowner side they help cover your deductible. On the commercial property side there are a whole bunch of other issues that can be addressed with parametric. A must not miss episode!Sam Broomer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-broomer-5997616/NormanMax Insurance Solutions: https://normanmaxinsurancesolutions.com/Video Version: https://youtu.be/-ikoUUCshd0

Tony chats with Daniel Smith, Co-Founder and CMO at Market Retrievers, they are a digital marketing firm primarily focused on helping insurance organizations better tell their stories online and fetch their targets. First they help you map out a strategy and then execute on that strategy.Daniel Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-smith-retrievers/Market Retrievers: https://www.marketretrievers.com/Video Version: https://youtu.be/aGZ7P5r3fQA

Tony chats with Jerry Lujan, CEO at Elevation180, they are a performance coaching organization focused on Producers, helping them significantly grow their book of business in less time. They also have a program to help them grow their team.Jerry Lujan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrylujan/Elevation 180: https://elevation180.com/AI Summary:Tony introduces the Profiles in Risk podcast, which has nearly 700 episodes and a large audience of insurance professionals. He welcomes Jerry Lujan, CEO of Elevation180, and they discuss the weather in Albuquerque and Tony's experience living in hot climates.Jerry's insurance background and challenges @ 1:34Jerry shares that he came from a third-generation insurance family, and it took him 17 years to build a $1 million book of business, working 100 hours per week. This led to a wake-up call from his young daughter about the lack of work-life balance.Developing a systematic approach @ 4:58After receiving coaching, Jerry was able to quadruple his book of business in half the time by becoming more systematic and focused. He learned to identify his ideal customer profile and ask better questions to understand his clients' needs.Transitioning to coaching @ 6:09Jerry's success and recognition as one of the 25 most innovative agents led to many inquiries from others seeking to replicate his approach. This inspired him to document his methods and start coaching other producers, eventually leading him to sell his agency and focus full-time on the coaching business.Elevation180's coaching program @ 11:06Jerry explains Elevation180's structured 2-year coaching program, which involves in-person sessions every quarter and monthly check-ins. The program has achieved an average 26% annual growth for participants, with some doubling or tripling their book of business.The role of human connection in the age of AI @ 45:48Jerry and Tony discuss the impact of AI and technology on the insurance industry, agreeing that the ability to connect emotionally with clients will be crucial for producers to thrive, even as AI handles more transactional tasks.Elevate180 and team development @ 50:28Jerry outlines Elevation180's Elevate180 program, which focuses on leadership development and helping teams and individuals identify the right roles and responsibilities to achieve sustainable performance.Video Version: https://youtu.be/Q8Ry-W_MMg4