Finding Peak [Formerly The Ryan Hanley Show]

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ciara Gravier CIC, CRM, CCIC, PWCA, CPIA, Founder and CEO of The Bunker Insurance & Risk Management joins the show to share all her secrets to winning the start-up independent agency game. Ciara is someone I’ve personally been a fan of for a long time and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to spend time and learn more about her story. You're going to love this episode...Episode Highlights: Why did Ciara establish her own agency? (5:15) Did Ciara ever regret letting the Allstate brands go? (8:09) Ciara shares what they did when she first started the agency. (12:41) Ciara mentions that they were able to assist others in starting their own businesses from the ground up. (15:16) Ciara discusses some of the challenges of not having direct appointments. (18:28) Ciara explains why including business in the books has been difficult for her.  (25:02) Ciara explains why engaging in the killing commercial is one of the best things their agency has ever done. (30:53) Ciara mentions that she enjoyed the podcast with Ryan and James Jenkins. (44:26) Ciara and Ryan discuss Crypto. (51:42) Ciara shares why she believes that her agency is on the right track. (1:04:04) Key Quotes: “We're able to help these people find an attorney, find an accountant, you know, set up their businesses from the ground up. They can trust us.” - Ciara Gravier “So we joined Killing Commercial and that has really been the best thing that we've done.” - Ciara Gravier “What's great about this industry is that everyone can achieve success however they want. And everyone has a different roadmap to it.” - Ciara Gravier Resources Mentioned: Ciara Gravier LinkedIn The Bunker Insurance & Risk Management Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comPathPoint, the first open digital wholesale brokerage for the Excess & Surplus lines market in the insurance industry. Some people find E&S boring and difficult. In this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley is joined by Alex Bargmann, CEO and co-founder of PathPoint. They discuss why this is no longer the case and why independent agents need to start taking notice of E&S business. Don't miss this episode...Episode Highlights: Alex discusses how he got into the insurance industry. (6:13) Alex mentions how it took him a long time to truly comprehend E&S underwriting and rating, and how the processes are significantly different. (10:51) Alex mentions that they have executive support for putting products or providing capacity to PathPoint in order to digitize the wholesale distribution platform. (17:48) Alex explains what he really likes about PathPoint. (21:54) What were the most glaring challenges Alex knew he had to address, either immediately or later, in establishing PathPoint? (23:21) How difficult was it to get E&S carriers to return digital quotes? (29:17) Alex explains that they are very specific about their appetite and making sure they are not just adding class codes for the sake of adding class codes. (39:17) Alex talks about the first carrier they worked with. (44:25) Alex and Ryan discuss agency billing and direct billing. (47:23)  Key Quotes: “One thing I really liked about PathPoint where we were able to sort of figure out our differentiators, is like we didn't have to deal with this notion of do we go direct? Or do we go through agents?” - Alex Bargman “I think there's some value in being able to digitally quote business” - Alex Bargman “The thing we were able to leverage is that we didn't actually have to convince them to automate underwriting because they had incidentally already done it by writing these binding authority guidelines.” - Alex Bargman Resources Mentioned: Alex Bargmann LinkedIn PathPoint Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley interviews Brandon Smith, EVP at Glidewell and founder of the Producer Development Program. Brandon joins the podcast to help us better understand how to train high-functioning, successful insurance producers.We all want to write more business, Brandon Smith helps us understand how to help our producers do this every day.Don't miss this episode...Episode Highlights: Ryan and Brandon open the conversation with their thoughts on the Buffalo Bills game. (4:36) Brandon and Ryan discuss the ambiguity of sales. (24:19) Brandon answers questions about how he hires people and how he makes them feel supported. (28:12) Brandon shares how he solves transparency and communication issues. (36:38) Brandon shares the greatest part of being in the insurance industry. (41:38) Ryan and Brandon discuss having a process for a person to sell at their full capacity. (47:24) Brandon shares more about his Producer Development Program. (52:31) Brandon introduces a Planner he created to help people get the most out of their time. (57:05)  Brandon and Ryan talk about what a busy schedule means. (59:59) Key Quotes: “Why have we as a society come to the place where we celebrate victimhood, rather than celebrating people for their accomplishments and what they do.” - Brandon Smith “What makes our industry so great is the freedom to operate our businesses the way we want.” - Brandon Smith   “We don't know what being bored is anymore, we're so busy, digitally distracted. The speed at which we're living, I believe, is the greatest threat to our industry right now.” - Brandon Smith Resources Mentioned: Brandon Smith Linkedin Producer Development Program Glidewell Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley is joined by Will Shaw, CEO, and co-founder of Better Agency. They discuss entrepreneurship, InsurTech, and what Will has learned from assisting agency owners in growing their businesses. Will is an all-time guy in our industry...this is a conversation you don't want to miss.Episode Highlights: Will talks about a five-year play with InsurTech. (7:54) Ryan states that building your network is always important. (10:57) Will explains why they chose to bootstrap Better Agency. (17:29) Will shares his insights about independent insurance agencies. (24:19) Will claims that every client should be covered by every policy. (34:06) Will discusses what his duties were when Better Agency first began. (41:44) Will elaborates on the advantages of having an independent agency. (46:42) Ryan and Will discuss their love for the Buffalo Bills. (53:27) Will explains what it means to have a "ride or die" mentality. (57:23) Key Quotes: “The things I'm working on today are the things people are going to see in three or four months.” - Will Shaw “I hire people that are better than me in every way.” - Will Shaw “If you try to have your hand in everything you're just never going to get out of your business.” - Ryan Hanley Resources Mentioned: Will Shaw Linkedin Better Agency Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley is joined by David McFarland, founder, and CEO of Coterie Insurance, for an all-time conversation about insurance, insurtech and what it takes to win the small business insurance market. David is one of the smartest guys in commercial insurance and things he and his team are doing at Coterie are rapidly changing the standard for ease of business. Don't miss this episode...Episode Highlights: David explains what an actuary is. (5:20) What are some of the ways David worked within the business to overcome what seems to be a fairly common problem with carriers? (10:38) David explains first-order positive, second-order negative in Coterie. (15:15) David discusses how Coterie manages things in general.. (16:09) David mentions that the most valuable asset of any firm is its people. (19:13) David explains how Coterie gets people to believe in what they do. (21:55) David mentions that Coterie hires on four criteria: integrity, intelligence, passion, and humility. (27:37) David explains what makes Coterie unique. (32:17) David says they aim to create a tech and insurance product that will allow their distribution partners to run in ways they couldn't before. (35:30) David explains third-party data and how Coterie uses it. (42:27) David mentions that they aim to ensure the success of their distribution partner. (49:10) David says they're always seeking new data sources, evaluating its influence on customers, and verifying its accuracy. (51:58) What does David see happening with small company insurance in the coming years? (53:46) Key Quotes: “We create cross-divisional teams to accomplish certain missions. So, if we have a particular objective or key result, we will put together a group of people who are qualified to tackle this thing. And that is their job and they have to work together.” - David McFarland “We hire on four things. Integrity, intelligence, passion, and humility, and humility elevates all the other three. And the one sentence way that we describe it is that we're smart, passionate people who do the right thing, and we're not going to brag about it.” - David McFarland “What we want to deliver is a product, both a tech product and insurance product that's going to enable our distribution partners to run in ways that they just couldn't do before.” - David McFarland Resources Mentioned: David McFarland LinkedIn Coterie Insurance Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley is joined by Erik Garcia, CFP®, owner of Garcia Insurance Services and Garcia Financial Group. Ryan & Erik discuss what it means to set goals and actually make those goals a reality. Erik is one of the most thoughtful insurance professionals in the game. You are going to love this episode.Episode Highlights: Ryan and Erik discuss an insurance podcaster chat group. (12:20) Erik shares about his Brainshare experience in September. (14:12) Erik explains why agency owners and employees must be 100% expendable. (20:45 ) Erik adds that as a business owner, his value for his agency is as a visionary and strategist. (23:15) Erik discusses the importance of business owners determining what they are working towards and what their end game is. (26:32) Erik mentions that business owners must be concerned for their staff. (28:46) Erik discusses why business owners should evaluate their role in the business. (31:26) Erik explains why perception is reality. (41:50) Erik explains that as a business owner, he must ensure that his clients are aware of his availability. (43:04) Erik talks about the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. (47:08) Erik discusses building relationships and creating shared experiences with others. (51:53) Erik shares how he met David Carothers and creates a shared experience. (55:06) Erik explains how important it is for business leaders to create experiences with their staff. (1:02:55) Key Quotes: “We make money two ways as business owners, one by doing work earning a wage the same way any staff member would. And the other way is by ownership, we should compensate ourselves in terms of our wages. similarly to what we would pay someone to do the job.” - Erik Garcia, CFP® “We have to be genuine, authentic people. We can't create these false realities for people.” - Erik Garcia, CFP® “If there's someone you want to become a client, look for those opportunities to create shared experiences with them. Don't talk about insurance.” - Erik Garcia, CFP® Resources Mentioned: Erik Garcia, CFP® Garcia Financial Group  Garcia Insurance Services  Plan Wisely Plan Wisely: Agent End Game Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley interviews Peter MacDonald, co-founder, and CEO at Wunderite. Peter discusses insurance start-ups, entrepreneurship, and how independent agents can make commercial insurance submissions better. This is an episode you don't want to miss...Episode Highlights: Peter explains what Wunderite is and what they do. (11:59) Peter mentions that Wunderite's goal is to make it simpler for agents to gather the data they need from customers, to make it incredibly easy, and to make it available on any device. (13:25) Peter mentions that Wunderite software is designed with the customer in mind and it allows customers to use the program in their own unique way. (14:57) Peter explains why Wunderite is focused on making their software easier to use than a pen and paper for their customers. (20:53) Peter explains how Wunderite fits into the day-to-day operations of the customer. (23:36) Peter mentions that one of their primary goals for this year is to have acord forms in Wunderite. (27:58) Peter mentioned that Wunderite has carrier supplementals. (29:49) Where does Peter see the potential for big wins in the insurance industry? (32:32) Peter believes that insurance is the original big data industry. (35:23) Peter defines success in his own words. (49:10) Key Quotes: “With Wunderite, what we wanted to do is make an easier way to capture the data that you need from your customers...So you don't have to ask all these annoying questions.” - Peter MacDonald “I've always wanted to build something on my own. I've always wanted to challenge myself to execute on these ideas and that's what I'm doing with my company and it's like the best thing I could possibly be doing is what I have to be doing.” - Peter MacDonald “We're on a journey, we're not perfect, but that's kind of the goal. So it has to be super easy to use the software. That's the only way it's gonna make it easier than, you know, pen and paper.” - Peter MacDonald Resources Mentioned: Peter MacDonald LinkedIn Wunderite Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley is joined by Wade Eyerly, founder and CEO of Degree Insurance. Wade discusses how to establish an insurance product where one didn’t previously exist. Wade is a tremendous person, and Ryan and Wade take this conversation in a variety of directions. You don't want to miss this episode...Episode Highlights: Wade explains what led him to Utah. (8:51) Wade discusses the concept of Degree Insurance. (18:40) Wade discusses how he became a missionary. (28:43) Wade explains why he chose Moscow to serve as a missionary volunteer. (31:09) Wade shares the story of how they helped a man they met quit smoking. (33:44) Wade mentions that building genuine friendships rather than trying to network with everyone under the sun gives much greater results. (44:25) Wade believes that trust stems from shared experience, which cannot be rushed. (48:30) Wade believes that insurance is a fantastic industry in which you do not have to be the brightest person on the planet. (57:58) Wade mentions that insurance enhances people's ability to take risks. (59:36) Wade explains that the purpose of Degree Insurance is to remove the risk out of higher education. (59:59) Key Quotes: “If you spend two years walking around trying to help people as your full-time gig, you learn to love those people. You learn to care about them. You learn what's important to you.” - Wade Eyerly “Insurance is such a great industry...you don't have to be the smartest person out there. If you can put your nose down and hustle, you can do really well, in any part of the country with traditional products.” - Wade Eyerly “Insurance unlocks other people's ability to take risks and nothing is going to drive the economy faster. build more wealth, do more things than letting people take responsible risks.” - Wade Eyerly Resources Mentioned: Wade Eyerly LinkedIn Degree Insurance Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley interviews Raymond Lynch, Vice President of Growth at Coterie Insurance. Raymond talks about his transition from Liberty Mutual to Coterie Insurance, and why small business insurance is the place to be.Episode Highlights: Raymond discusses his decision to transition from Liberty Mutual to Coterie. (11:45) Raymond adds that he's back to doing what he loves, which is leading people and helping them achieve their goals. (17:05) Raymond believes that we need to improve our change management skills across the whole value chain. (22:41) Raymond shares what he’s noticed with all the API technology that everyone’s talking about. (28:21) Raymond explains why transparency has to come to insurance. (33:09) Raymond explains where data comes from, how it's used, and how it's helping to improve the process. (41:06) Raymond shares the most important thing they’ve learned through their journey. (49:18) Raymond discusses the aspects of coding that he enjoys the most. (50:49) Raymond explains why one of his favorite things to do is work with new agents. (53:39) Key Quotes: “Why waste hours of your time trying to figure out how to answer these questions when we can make an API call to 5,6,7 different vendors, and pull in a lot of information.” - Raymond Lynch “I think it's easy for experienced industry people to throw shade and be like, ‘Oh, they don't know what they're doing.’ It's true, we might not know what we're doing all the time. But we're pouring a lot of effort with a lot of smart people to improve and try to get better, and to try to do things just a little bit differently.” - Raymond Lynch “Behind the scenes, it may not be the traditional underwriting relationship that you're used to, but know that we have some really strong underwriting minds that are kind of keeping the guardrails in place and making sure that we're writing the right business.” - Raymond Lynch Resources Mentioned: Raymond Lynch LinkedIn Coterie Insurance Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9

Became a Master of the Close: https://masteroftheclose.comIn this episode of The Ryan Hanley Show, Ryan Hanley is joined by Jonathan Libby, founder of Steady State Finance, the smart Defi insurance company. Listen for an absolute nerd session on all things crypto, blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi) and what the future holds for insurance.Episode Highlights: Jonathan explains what decentralized finance means. (5:06) Jonathan tells listeners what the role of DeFi will be in the future. (9:00) Jonathan explains how decentralized exchange effects the ecosystem. (13:16) How difficult is it to make changes within the Bitcoin community? (18:30) Jonathan details how to disrupt insurance and implement new concepts. (22:31) Jonathan gives listeners insight on how Steady State Finance operates. (26:46) What’s the process, if a consumer wants to be part of this? (32:49) Jonathan gives an example of what Steady State Finance can offer. (33:45) How did Jonathan get into this space? (36:16) Jonathan walks listeners through how he put several concepts together to build something significant. (38:22) Key Quotes: “I think in cryptocurrency... universal basic income, is for the first time is even actually possible, in a way that you can actually feasibly work, where people can all have a standard of life without sacrificing individual liberties.” - Jonathan Libby “We're almost building a model that prioritizes reinsurance. We move from reinsurance to actually sharing the protocols ourselves as they keep developing. And by us, I mean a deep centralized community, not run by me not run by anyone you know, directly...But, by the people.” - Jonathan Libby “My thought was...let's apply this. I'm like, this is the future. So, I started looking...How do I put together a bunch of concepts together and build something? Eventually, I met a very well known figure in the space, named Tim frost, from Yield app, and Yield app contracted me to build an insurance solution for them, and how to insure their portfolio to defy risk.” - Jonathan Libby Resources Mentioned: Jonathan Libby LinkedIn Steady State Finance Reach out to Ryan Hanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9