In this episode of the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, host Bradley Hamner introduces a new weekly series called “The Bottom Line,” aimed at small‑business and agency owners who want practical, time‑efficient advice for growing revenue, improving leadership, and scaling profitably. After a brief sponsor message highlighting Club Capital’s accounting, tax, and CFO services for insurance agencies, Hamner tells two real‑world art‑discovery stories—a misidentified Van Gogh found in a Norwegian attic and a hidden Rembrandt uncovered after 300 years. He uses these anecdotes as a metaphor for the “Rembrandt in the attic” concept: valuable business assets (files, spreadsheets, playbooks) that sit unnoticed on a laptop or in a shared drive. Hamner urges listeners to audit, delete, archive, or repurpose old digital assets to unlock hidden value, improve efficiency, and boost the bottom line. The episode ends with a call‑to‑action to visit club.capital for a solution overview.
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So the big question is this: how do small business owners like us grow our leadership, develop our teams, and scale our business in a way that allows us to get our products and services out to the world yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Bradley Hamner, and this is the Club Capital Leadership Podcast. Welcome to The Bottom Line, a new weekly podcast series that we drop every Thursday to complement our weekly Monday podcast interviews with the industry leaders. These podcasts are going to be designed to give you short, impactful, and value-driven information that you can start using right away in your business. I value your time and attention and will do my very best not to waste it. Just get what you need and go. So with that, let's get into today's episode. Are you an agency owner looking to grow your revenue, increase your bottom line, and better manage your taxes? Club Capital is here to help. Club Capital is the largest accounting and advisory firm for insurance agents in the country, providing monthly accounting, tax strategy, and CFO services. Way more than bookkeeping and your everyday run-of-the-mill tax prep, Club Capital is focused on providing financial and tax advisory services that help you plan and forecast your agency's performance. Their financial dashboards and agency forecasting tools help you better understand your agency's historical performance, create, measure future targets, and see how your agency compares to your peers around the country. Imagine what it would be like to understand the impact to your bottom line when deciding to hire a new employee, or forecast the impact rate changes or commission rates will have on your business. With over $200 million in tracked annual revenue and $140 million in tracked annual expenses, Club Capital has the data and the team to help you make better informed decisions for your agency. They will help you turn that back office stress into the backbone of your agency's success by giving you the tools to take your agency and your leadership to the next level. Visit club.capital today to book a solution overview with one of our business consultants. Club Capital, way more than a CPA firm. Are you an agency owner looking to grow your revenue, increase your bottom line, and better manage your taxes? Club Capital is here to help. Club Capital is the largest accounting and advisory firm for insurance agents in the country, providing monthly accounting, tax strategy, and CFO services. Way more than bookkeeping and your everyday run-of-the-mill tax prep, Club Capital is focused on providing financial and tax advisory services that help you plan and forecast your agency's performance. Their financial dashboards and agency forecasting tools help you better understand your agency's historical performance, create, measure future targets, and see how your agency compares to your peers around the country. Imagine what it would be like to understand the impact to your bottom line when deciding to hire a new employee. Or forecast the impact rate changes or commission rates will have on your business. With over $200 million in tracked annual revenue and $140 million in tracked annual expenses, Club Capital has the data and the team to help you make better informed decisions for your agency. They will help you turn that back office stress into the backbone of your agency's success by giving you the tools to take your agency and your leadership to the next level. Visit club.capital today to book a solution overview with one of our business consultants. Club Capital, way more than a CPA firm.
Everyone, have you ever heard of the idea or the concept, a Rembrandt in the attic? Well, it refers to a piece of valuable artwork or other collectible item that's been forgotten or overlooked over the years and possibly sitting in an attic or basement somewhere. And while it may seem like a far-fetched idea, There have been actually many instances where a valuable object has been discovered in someone else's home, often after the owner has passed away. And I'll give you a couple of those examples and tie it to, um, a business and how it can possibly be able to help us. In 2013, there was a painting that was believed to be a fake, and it was discovered literally in an attic in Norway. The owners had inherited the painting from a relative and really had no idea of its value. But after some research, it was determined that the painting was actually a previously unknown work by none other than Vincent van Gogh, and it was painted in 1888. It was valued at over $60 million and is now on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The painting called Sunset at Montmajour— may have— hopefully I pronounced that okay— had been rejected by Van Gogh's brother, actually, who had declared it to be a fake. And it was then sold to a Norwegian collector who stored it in his attic for years. After the collector's death, the family had discovered the painting, had it authenticated, Well, the discovery of the Van Gogh caused really a sensation in the art world and reminded us all that, like, valuable treasures can be hidden in plain sight. And then I'll tell you another story. In 2016, an art historian named Jane Six painted a— excuse me, purchased a painting at auction that she had believed had previously was an unseen work by, painted by none other than Rembrandt. Well, the painting, which depicts a young man in a black coat and a white collar, had been in a private collection for over 300 years and had never been exhibited. Well, after extensive research and analysis, Sixt was able to confirm that the painting was indeed a genuine Rembrandt, and it was painted in 1634. It's now on display in Amsterdam, ironically, as well. Well, that discovery, of course, caused another stir in the art world, world, and shed some light on the importance of providence, uh, provenance, which is basically the history of ownership of a work of art. In their ability to be able to determine its authenticity. Well, that painting had been in the same family for generations, but again, similar to the Van Gogh, had been overlooked until Jan recognized its true value. So this story of the Rembrandt, the story of the Vincent van Gogh, they really begin to serve as a reminder that valuable treasures can be hiding in plain sight. And so, look, while it's very unlikely that you're going to have a masterpiece sitting in your attic or basement, it is absolutely worth taking a closer look at the business assets sitting in your laptop from all the years. I was just having this conversation with someone, uh, Dave, he'll listen to this, and so I'll give him a shout out. And we were having this conversation about the, the Van Gogh, the Rembrandt that he has sitting in his laptop from all the years of all the Excel spreadsheets, of all the Word documents that he had created.
He—
but he's gotten forgotten about. What about you? What about on, in your laptop? I would encourage you to take the time to almost, as we get into spring, as a matter of fact, when this episode is gonna get dropped, it's gonna be in late March. And so many of you may be doing some literal spring cleaning. What about your laptop? What about those file folders that you have? What if you went by one by one? And did one of three things with it. Number one, you deleted it. Just delete it. Get it off there. If you're not going to use it anymore, there's, there's no value to it. Get rid of it. Number two, if there's something that you still see as value, maybe we put it in archive folder, or maybe you unearth something. You say, oh my goodness, look at that playbook. I remember spending hours on that. And you can dust it off. Change a few things, maybe update it a little bit, and boom, there is the playbook that you were looking for that's going to be able to help you grow and scale your business. My guess is many of you, especially if you've been in business for a long time, are sitting on so many different Rembrandts, so many different Van Goghs of a business asset nature. Hope this served you well. Till next episode. Lead well.
