Episode 152: Softballs of Money with Tracy Henry and Rachel McClurg

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromso. Welcome, everybody, to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I am pumped and excited because with us today we have some longtime business partners. But this organization is at the top of their game, and it couldn't come fast enough to be able to share with you all everything that they're doing out there to help independent insurance agencies grow more and to become more of a footprint in the areas that they want to do business again. I am honored to have on the podcast today two of the teammates from Pacific Interstate Insurance Brokers, also known as PIB, and it's less to write. We have Rachel McClurg and Tracy Henry. Good afternoon, ladies.

Hey, thanks for having us.

Hey, you're welcome. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. So, before we get started today, Learning more about PIB and what PIB's doing in the independent insurance agency marketplace. Let's just do a quick intro and we'll let Rachel go first.

All right. I'm Rachel McClurg. I have been with PIB since 2004, so 18 years now. I was probably the second staff member hired, and I used to open mail on the floor in the office when we had around 15 agencies. We now have over 240 agencies. It's been.

Pretty unique and pretty awesome for me to see a company grow like that right out the gates. It was a college job for me initially.

Yeah. And to be part of it.

Yeah. Yeah. Just to even be part of it and meet the people I've met. And Larry Manning, who was the one who originally hired me, just the most amazing. One of the most amazing people I've ever met.

Yeah. Feel very fortunate to have been able to work with him for so long and learn from him. So, currently I am a senior sales rep at piib and I help prospect and bring on new affiliates.

Awesome. And you spent some time on the carrier side as well, so you understand both sides of the dynamic.

I did right after there was a little piece there where I was like, you know what? I've been at PIV since I was a junior in college. I feel like I should really maybe spread my wings, try something new for a little bit. But with about a year after my husband got relocated to LA and we needed to Make a move. And PIB was like, you know what? You were here so long, you just go ahead and work remote down in LA and come back. So I am so fortunate that I.

Was able to do that. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you, Tracy.

Yeah. So my story and my way into PIAB is unique and it's a cool story. So Rachel actually is with us today. Her and I have known each other since I was a freshman in high school. So that was. Well, we've known each other for more than half our life. We'll say that.

We won't timestamp it.

Yeah, more than half of our life that we've known each other. And we ended up on an adult indoor softball team together. And I had recently left the job that I was at a couple of years out of college. And she's like, well, hey, I think my. My company is hiring, so you want to give them a call? And within days I was hired at. So cool thing is that Rachel got my job. We've been working as a team pretty much together for almost, you know, for more than half my life was minus a couple years and went to college and went away. But we played softball together in high school, played softball together in an adult team, and then now we work really hand in hand, like really close together at PIB to my role also, like. Like Rach's senior sales rep. And our primary goal at PIIB or PIB is to bring on and onboard new affiliates and manage those relationships with new agencies that come on board. So pretty cool story. Happy to work with Rach, especially really closely with her and thankful that she gave me the opportunity ten plus years ago.

Yeah, absolutely. And to use the analogy that you ladies just dropped, I wasn't aware of the softball background, so that's fantastic stuff. You also help agencies toss softball size chunks of money into people's bank accounts, namely the agencies, which I think is fantastic because of what you built. Let's dig into what you built. And I will just personally say that I did business with PIIB for a number of years and continue to work with them just helping agents. And I've got nothing but great things to say about my relationship. And there are two things that come to the table when I think about that relationship and it's not money. First is leverage. They leverage your positioning with the carriers in a way that I don't think anybody else can, and I think that's fantastic. And oh yeah, there's some extra income streams available as well because of the partnership. So, Traci, if anybody's never heard of pib. Tell us a little bit more about the organization and anything you want to pass around, Rachel.

Yeah, so first off, we are and have always been extremely proud to know you, Mike, to have you be part of our team. Still love working with you and just. Yeah, I've always been really proud to work with you and work for you and all those things. So thanks. And we love you, seriously. So anybody that doesn't know pib, we work with independent agencies. Independent. So there's, you know, there's an independent. There's a captive world. So independent agencies look to an organization like PIIB when either they're starting their own agency, which they have to be an experienced producer in that case, so they have to have the experience with insurance. But if it's, let's say, a captive agent that wants to go independent or a producer, let's say, that wants to go out on their own, they're ready to take that leap, and first thing they cut. Well, there's a lot of things that come into when you start your own agency, and we certainly help with a lot of that, but kind of once you get the brick and mortar, I guess we'll call it, even though in this day and age that's not necessarily the case. But get all things aligned. You need carrier access, and that's really, I think, over the years, you know, there's been a lot of morphs of aggregators and networks that are like piib, and there's a lot of different values that we bring, I think. But no matter what I ask agencies consistently and currently, what is most important to you that PIB brings? And it's always still the carrier access and the profit sharing, which Mike touched on, the enhanced and increased revenue. So an independent agency existing would look to PIIB for additional carrier access and stability and security, bring that revenue year over year, and somebody like that case I already gave would look to us to help get that carrier access and really just hit the ground running from day one. Because on your own, it does take a significant amount of time to get those carrier appointments in place, to hit minimums for profit sharing to earn the highest commission. All those things take a lot of time. With piv, it's pretty much a fast track to get those things.

And then, yeah, I mean, I think that that's pretty much it. So if you're an independent agency, whether you're just starting or existing, those are the two largest values, in my opinion, that we bring to an agency in addition to others that I know we'll get into later on in this call. So I think that. Well, a little history on BiB. We've been around for 29 years, I believe, and started with five independent agents, said, hey, let's come together. Let's kind of work together and manage these relationships with the carriers as one. And today we have 240 affiliates that are part of us, domiciled in nine different states in the United States. So really quick intro. Rachel, do you have anything to add to that?

No, I think you did a really great job. And I think just again, reiterating that we are a place and a home for those startups who are coming with no book, we have no minimums.

We can work with those startups, but then also we just offer extreme value for existing affiliates as well in revenue and advocating, like you kind of mentioned earlier with the carriers, Mike. So we are an option for a wide range of agencies. So they should always, you know, give us a call. Don't automatically rule yourself out.

Yeah. And I was just speaking with an agent today about you, and I hope yours weren't burning too much. But, you know, other thing, if you've got an existing appointment as an example with a couple of carriers that you already represent, this agent said, well, I've already got them direct. I don't need this particular relationship. I will say, you know, I thought the same thing when another agent pushed me to make the call and I said, I don't need it, I got it. We're growing great in the whole nine yards. And he wouldn't leave me alone. And he wouldn't leave me alone. And shall I say, he wouldn't leave me alone. And I made the call and I'm so glad that I did because it starts with leverage and other opportunities. So you can help people even though they might have that appointment, the appointment can become even better. Right, Rachel?

Absolutely. Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. It can become better just for a multitude of reasons. And just again, how Tracy mentioned that stability, knowing it's stable year over year and someone has your back and is negotiating and figuring out things on the back end. So what you can do is just focus on your business.

Right.

And running your agency.

You allow us to be truly independent.

We do, and we want you to. But we're here if you need us.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah. And that's one of the greatest things about it. And you know, the other the people, the company people that come to the table, they're always looking, what more can I do for you? Because if you combine the volume of all the agencies together, you're automatically elevated up to a much higher level just like that. And you don't have this hammering, hammering, hammering. It's like, what more can we do for you to help you write more business, good business. And that's fantastic. So let me just answer an elephant that may or may not be in the room real quick and either one of you can take this. Does every agent out there automatically qualify for PIB or no?

I think Trace, I'll touch a little on this and then you jump in if you want to.

Okay.

We probably talk to 150 or so a year, maybe more, and we'll add around 20 to 30. We are looking for true partnerships. People who are committed, who when they pick up those carrier appointments, they want to grow them and then bring on more, you know, grow their staff.

So not everyone will be a fit. But just because they're not a fit at the beginning doesn't mean later on a few years later. It can't turn into a fit once they're at that point. Chase, do you have anything?

Yeah, the only thing I would say, like, kind of like it's not a one size fits all. Like we kind of hit on earlier. We do have shops that have. It's a one man shop. Maybe it's one man with a. Or woman with a virtual agent or maybe it's two people. We also have shops that have 20 employees there. So it's not a one size fits all, but it is sort of a. I guess it's more of a mentality. We're looking for. We're looking for, like you said, Rachel, or I think you said, we're looking for agencies that really truly want to grow. They're in growth mode. Profitability is number one to them because I would say pib. At pib, profitability is our number one priority in terms of loss ratio and profitability. With regards to how the carriers see profitability. It's not necessarily like a balance sheet or profit and loss, but in terms of loss ratio. We're looking for agencies that are focused on writing the type of business that is statistically shown to be profitable. They're in growth mode. And really, I mean it kind of comes down to that. Like Mike said, our affiliates are 100% independent and we want those that want to run their own shop and we want those who want to use us when they need us. And we are more than happy to help when that time comes. But also we don't want to have like necessarily our fingers in your agency. And knowing and telling you how to run the day in and day out. We want you to already know that and cultivate that within your own agency and then work collaboratively as a group to just strengthen the group. So it's definitely not a one size fits all, but I think it's more of a mentality. You want to grow, you want to work together, and you want to write profitable business.

Absolutely. And we have the same kind of environment in upp. I mean, we're not for everybody, but what we have found, we seem to attract the high achievement, growth oriented, you know, positive mindset. And I know your culture is very similar to ours, so that's why it's always been a great fit. So let's talk about culture for just a minute. So how does piib's culture bring value to the independent insurance agents? And why are you maybe a good fit and maybe sometimes not?

Yeah, I think where our culture really all started is kind of going back to Larry. He had a strong vision of what everything would, would look like. And he was. Some of the decisions he made were just so smart, things I wouldn't have thought of to do when building the culture for our team. And one of those things he did was whenever there'd be a new staff person and I was the second one, so there was one before me. And not only did he interview me, but once he interviewed me, he said, okay, now my one staff member that's already there, she's going to interview you and then we're going to talk to each other and figure out who will be best for the position. So we've done that with, I think, almost every staff member we've brought on, no matter how many staff members, and we have around nine now, we're still not huge. We still all interview incoming potential team members. And I think that really helps build the culture because we all have a say and if, yeah, we mesh with these people, this is great. This is fantastic.

And with that being said, because we get to do that, I do feel like we have a family feel, even though we're getting larger, you know, and we have over 240 affiliates and we're approaching, you know, a billion dollars in written premium. We have a staff of eight who are nine, eight or nine who we all get along really well. I think people see that. I think I've had prospects, I've talked to actually use the word. We're more boutique when it comes to the network networks out there. So I think, and I know people have joined for sure, at least Ones that I brought on for that reason, that they like the culture, they like the smaller feel of what PIIB is doing.

Yeah, fantastic. I just thought of something that you may or may not be able to use and if you can, please feel free to take it and run with it. You're small enough to know you, but large enough to grow you.

That's great, Mike.

That is. Yeah.

This is kind of how we roll around here at Living UPB Life. So, Tracy, anything to add on to the culture?

Only thing I want to touch on, as you said, like what makes, what helps and maybe what doesn't. I feel like the only kind of real maybe like doesn't fit. And it. When I think of it in my head, it sort of almost sounds negative. And I don't mean to sound negative because I think everybody can operate whatever suits their agency and them be successful is perfect for that specific agency. So I think if, if it's an agency that maybe feels like very competitive and wants to not necessarily like work with others, which I don't think there's a lot out there, but I mean, I think that like when we meet with our agents, when we talk to our agents, and because it is a very kind of tight knit group, if that doesn't vibe with your agency, then that, that probably would be something that does it. So I just want to touch on maybe something that maybe wouldn't fit due to our culture.

And to add on to that just really quickly to.

Trace and I were talking about this and actually we talk about it in the office quite a bit. But the longevity of our staff I think also adds, you know, I was, I have 18 years, Tracy has 10, but that's just two of us that I think the shortest amount of time someone has been with us on the team is maybe like five years. So it's a place where you can get to know the team you're working with. Any of us can help you and we're happy to.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Small enough to know you. Yeah, always felt that consistently. And you guys are awesome like that. So it's a great relationship to build. If it's a good fit. And you know anybody who might have a question, if it is or is not a good fit, just contact you guys, right?

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah. And then I don't know what. Sorry, one more thing too. It's just that I think that there are other models out there when it comes to aggregators and ours. Like if, if you are looking for the aggregator to be like, like I touched on before just the fact that we, we're not necessarily like in your business. Like we're not gonna like call you and ask what's happening unless there's something coming up. So I think if you want that real like, like.

Just. I, I don't want to say like support because I, I believe we support our agents. But if you want that daily support of, of a network that's doing something every single day in your agency then that wouldn't be a fit for PIV either. And I feel like it's worth mentioning.

Yeah, that was awesome. I mean you don't have to submit reports and do all this other stuff. It's more the other way around. You guys are always reaching out. What more can we do for you? Just help you and that's it. And you, you have kind of a self service portal there. People can log in 24, 7, 365 and get lots of helpful information and you've got some new things coming up. So I'm going to jump into that as far as benefits are concerned. So you know, what kind of member benefits can people expect from PIIB as an independent insurance agency?

Yeah, so I mean we have kind of the normal ones that you would expect of most networks, you know, programs, vendor discounts, things like that one that we are currently working on and we're excited for at least I'm excited to kind of bring it back is our, what we're calling our Accelerate program which is going to be our new and improved master code program. So currently for those that don't know, PIB is a subcode only network. You apply for appointments, there are minimum volume commitments and we are working on now becoming more of a hybrid model where we will have master code access.

And that eliminates that volume requirement, right?

It does. We still are really hoping, as we mentioned before, you know, we want our affiliates to grow. So we are hoping that you know, the carriers that they're going to grow, they're still going to be getting their subcodes with and you know, maybe as they learn these carriers that they aren't as familiar with in the master code, they'll still grow them and end up with their own subcode. That's always our hope, but it will. We do see the value in agencies being able to try different carriers out and see if they are competitive, if they do fit in their agency. As you might remember since you were with us, we did have a master code program years ago and it just wasn't the way it was set up. It was Set up when we had 15 agencies. Right. And so it just really needed a revamp. We took it away for a while and bringing it back now we worked closely with the carriers or Brittany in our office, like Brittany, shout out to Brittany. Brittany worked closely with the carriers.

And agencies to make sure that we're bringing back something that's going to be beneficial to everyone, where we can still track profitability because that's so important to us. And the affiliates and the agencies are still going to have direct access to those carriers, even though it's a master code option.

Awesome.

Yep. I would only. I have a couple of things to piggyback on that. So when you talk master code, I think PIB as a whole, we believe that the success comes from those carrier relationships, direct from the agency to the carrier. So we, when Rach said our hope is still that you'll have those relationships. It's, you know, it's there so that it's like you said, like they want to. They feel maybe it's an agency that wants to dabble in small commercial or maybe they're already there, but they want to try a new market. It's just kind of a good period of time where they can have access to those carriers with the intent always being the direct appointment. When you said that we're subcode only. It is your own sub code, whereas your agency's code. But it's a direct code. It's a direct appointment in all, in all senses of the word direct appointment. Commission comes to names on the deck page, all things like that. But. And then I forget what I was going to say about the rest of the master code. But anyways, we'll go back. I just wanted to touch on the fact that like we believe that the success comes from those direct relationships with the carriers. And so ultimately that's what we're hoping this program does is just open the door for those. For those relationships in the short term future for those agencies that maybe they wouldn't have the opportunity to make that relationship had it not been for MasterCard.

Yeah, absolutely. And that was one of the. Always the cool things. We had direct relationships with the underwriters. We didn't have to call anybody else. We go directly to the underwriters. Again, our name appeared on the deck pages. It was our own relationship. You guys were just there for leverage and to help us when needed. So let's get one of the other elephants out of the way that might be in the room, in the minds of somebody listening. So there's an investment to be part of PIB at this time. Correct, correct. A monthly investment. But that's it. You don't withhold any amount of commission or anything else. It's simply one flat investment. Correct, True.

But there is an initiation fee of $5,000. There's a one time initiation.

Okay, fair enough. One time, yeah.

850Amonth after that and yeah, no commission. Split profit sharing. We keep 10% and distribute the other night to our affiliates. And I would say with full confidence that it is probably. It's the most lucrative program out there. And we're very transparent with how our agencies get paid. They know where every penny comes from when they earn profit sharing with pib. So that's kind of. I think that's why we're able to be very lucrative obviously because we take profitability very seriously. But also we're so transparent in how we calculate and distribute those payments. There's really no room for us to.

Trick or. It's just the transparency is huge. Yeah, yeah.

Everything's on top of the table.

It is, yeah.

Well, and speaking of transparency, just because for the Accelerate program, which is our master code program which hasn't rolled out yet, it's currently piloting with 20 of our current affiliates. When that does roll out, there will be a separate flat fee for that.

Less than $400. We're not looking to make a ton of money off of everybody, but we got to cover admin costs. So there will be a separate fee for that.

Well, it's cost to make everything work efficiently and properly all of the time so people can earn more money. Because it's become a 24, 7 world.

Yes.

And so we got to invest to earn more. So just to be clear, there is an upfront cost, a signup fee of $5,000 one time and after that it's a flat 850amonth, but that's it. And I watched the math year after year after year and there's no comparison. It was worth every single penny invested multi times. So it's a great opportunity and just easy to do business with. You've got the E and O program. There's additional discounts that you provide through other vendors. Because of the size of your organization, everybody wants to do business with pib. So you pass that on to the agents. You've got these incredible networking events that you guys do as often as you can. And now that we're moving back towards more of the next normal. Super excited about that. Right. Anything else that I missed?

Well, I just don't Want to leave networks and the networking and events like just real, like, simple like that. Because I think that that's probably one of the most valuable pieces and benefits that we bring is we have at least one or two events annually, or we used to. We've already hosted one in the fall of 2021, and we are about to host our first convention in two years, in two weeks from today, which is really exciting. And so at these events, really, the idea behind hosting these is that our affiliates can make relationships with each other, with the. With each other, with the carriers. They can cultivate opportunities. For example, at the fall event In Napa in 2021, we had an event with principals, just principals. So the fall event tends to be agencies only. The convention, which is in April, where we pay profit sharing is agencies and our carrier partners and our vendor relationships. So at the Napa event in. In fall, one agency came up to me like, hey, I want to focus on growing my commercial book. Do you know, can you hook me up with somebody that might be interested in purchasing the personal lines book at my agency? I was like, absolutely. Actually, they're standing right here. Let's talk to them. Due to location and the fact that they were standing there and they executed that opportunity, and that agency acquired this other PIB affiliate personalized book. So it was an amazing opportunity for both. And those type of things happen often at these events that we have. So it really just cultivates opportunities to grow as an agency, to learn from one another, to bounce ideas. And I think that's where too we really. Those. Those events, like, everybody works together, and it is a family feel. And so that's why I kind of mentioned, like, when you go there, it's like everybody's on the same team when you show up. So.

Also, we do. We do provide education at the events, which I think is worth mentioning that we have Mike speaking at our event in two weeks. So.

We'Re trying to get, you know, we don't really have to try to get people excited about you, Mike, but we are very excited to have this.

And then, yeah, we have just. We try to provide very valuable content for our affiliates that's going to ultimately increase revenue. So whether that's in terms of agency operation, somebody's coming in and kind of speaking to that. If it's in terms of profitability, which obviously we talked about a lot. But we had another. Another workshop a month ago with a consultant that came in and just taught these 23 agencies that were there, you know, what to look at when they're looking at their production reports and how they can take it into their hands and improve their loss ratios. Because I will say that PIB has been historically very profitable, at least for the entire time that I've been here. But we can always be better. So the idea is to just always stay on top of it and make sure that everybody's mindset is to be profitable all the time. Because ultimately that increases everyone's bottom line and it makes the carriers happy and it makes our agencies happy when we can, you know, pitch that huge amount of cash to them. So like you said, that was a softball reference. I have the picture.

It's awesome. It's awesome. 100% agree. Those events are game changing, can be game changing when people show up. And I can think of multiple situations where, because I was standing in the room with somebody on the carrier side, a deal came up. I mean, I remember one of the gals who went down the hall, started making phone calls, et cetera, et cetera. The deal got done almost right there on the spot. In addition to that, I'll say just in the time in attending over the years, easily over seven figures and results because of those events and things that happen because of those events. So thank you guys. Just awesome.

Yeah, thank you.

Great stuff, Great stuff. So we talked about the benefits. Let's talk about a managing carrier relationships. And you started to touch on that just a little bit. But, you know, how does managing the relationship at the master level help the agents, the affiliate agents within the program?

Yeah. So PIV relations, that we manage the relationships of the carriers at our level, but also an agency still has that relationship at their level. So our affiliates, so we're domiciled in nine different states. When they get appointed with a carrier, they're actually working with the local team for that carrier. They're not working with. Like, we are headquartered in El Dorado Hills, which is just outside of Sacramento, California. They're not working with the Sacramento team, they're working with their local team. So they still have that relationship. That local relationship can pick up the phone, call their underwriter, call their reps. So they really had the direct appointment for that. Now where we, where we manage the relationship is kind of more like high level. We're managing it, negotiating those profit sharing contracts. We're negotiating the highest commission rates that we can get. We also have the ability to.

Negotiate like commission incentives. So not only is your base commission going to be the best, but we just calculated because we're about to pay out our profit sharing and another two weeks that it was over $1 million in commission in 2021 that our affiliates earned directly. We don't take a cut of it just as additional compensation. So they earned their base commission. And then our affiliates earned over a million dollars in additional commission because of deals that we were able to negotiate because of the leverage that you talk about, Mike. So that's huge profitability. I think we take that very seriously. Obviously, probably like profitability. Tracy or something. We seriously. And because we take it seriously, it helps everyone. Right? So, like any agency knows that we're taking it seriously. So if you're a profitable agency, you know that we're. We're not adding agencies that are going to hurt your agency. We're only trying to add the agencies that are going to bring value. And then from the carrier standpoint, it's huge to them because they have their own, you know, people and processes in place to manage profitability. But they can also count on PIIB being like a second layer to that. And I think that's huge. And because.

They understand and they trust our processes and our values, I think that it gives agencies a huge hand up when any carrier realizes they're part of PIIB because they really do understand the value that we're bringing. Agencies and carriers. So our reputation is huge. And I think that's a big deal. And we work really hard to manage that at our level too. Keep that reputation really strong and the integrity of our group strong.

Yeah. And you've been in the mix for a lot of years, Rachel, and you've been nurturing those relationships over the years. Why is that important? And how can it better benefit the agents that are part of pib?

The carrier relationships, I mean, just, I.

Think, just nurtured over a lot of years. And that just gets better and better, right?

Yeah, it does. It's amazing. Just even thinking how long I've known some of the people that I met maybe in my first couple years working at piib. But I think even just being able to build those relationships and having that rapport. We've all been at PIB a long time. I've been there a really long time. So we can have very open communication with what's going on. Hey, this is going on here. Where are these issues coming from? There's profitability things. Okay, can you pull this deep dive report for us so we can dig into it further and let's address it with the agency? Because we, we're happy to do that. I like learning about stuff like that. Like it's interesting to figure out what is actually triggering what's happening. So maybe less fun lately with all the, you know, wildfires and catastrophes, but before that. Yeah, so. But I think that, you know, having those relationships where we can go to one another with the care and work like a team in making things better is very helpful.

Absolutely.

And I want to just piggyback on that that I think nurturing these relationships gives gives our agencies and any independent agencies more opportunities to work with carriers that may be untouchable outside pib. Because we've established these, they're willing to work with our agencies, whether it's a startup which probably would never get access to these, some carriers because we've nurtured these relationships, they trust it and that opens up opportunities for them there.

Absolutely.

So anyway, it's fantastic and thanks for the great information. So let's go a different direction. Let's talk about something that's happening out there today and you guys are on the cusp of this all the time. You're very well aware of it and you actually work for the agents to help them in this particular arena. The M and A space, the merger and acquisition space, helping to support agents in that realm, help us understand more how you can do that.

It's very interesting especially for me again being there so long, this really wasn't a thing until you know, four years ago. And then, you know, we would never lose an agency and then all of a sudden there was a couple that were being purchased and then all of a sudden it was like 10 or 12 being purchased a year. So our response to that was we created PIIB Match. And so our affiliates, if they wish, can fill out a, basically an ad, a template that we've developed that says if they're looking to buy or sell it's, they can list, you know, specifics about their agency. If they're interested in selling locally like a geographic area they can, you know, their book size carriers they have and we also very much love for them to reach out to us so they can look at each other's ads but if they want to do something then they can come to us and we can even do a deeper dive looking into, okay, very similar carriers here.

Similar geographical location. And so we've actually had a lot of success in doing that. We actually just had two this month that.

Awesome.

Merged with each other. Yes. So you know, it's really fun for us to. When it happens, it's fine. I mean we always hate losing an agency but when they're, you know, coming together, that's actually pretty cool. And it's not even just like a large agency, you know, maybe buying a smaller one. We'll even have instances where we brought on a startup last year. It was basically a one person shop and.

Just didn't go as it should have. This person was an amazing person. It didn't go as well, but we were able to actually hook them up with another agency and say, well, hey, why don't we do this over here right now and you can learn more and grow and then if you want to break out on your own later, do that. So I think, you know, people having to be looking outside, they can sell within.

Yeah. So you can help on both sides. I mean, if somebody's looking to acquire books of business or other agency operations, you can help with that side. Or if they're ready to move on in a different direction. That is fantastic.

And it's such a hot topic right now because I do feel like even prospect calls, we get prospects ask, you know, do, do you know of agent agencies selling do you know? And so we're like actually yeah, we try to stay very on top of this and we actually have a program so if there's something you want to do, we can hopefully help you out.

Awesome.

And the agency that lists their, their profile on there, they're, they're already pre, pre approved to acquire an agency. So they don't even have to go through that. They' so when we're able to set them up, it's a pretty clean process that way. It is really cool. The only thing I have, the ad rates. Were you done on pivot?

Go ahead.

Yeah, Okay. I just want to talk. I mean it's a big deal to us because over the last four years we've seen a lot of shift and we've seen a lot of opportunities come up for our agencies. And so I think that we started working with John persky Probably maybe 5 years ago. I want to say we brought him to one of our conventions. He lives in Florida. He pretty much, he's self employed. He works for a company called Opt Perform, Optimum Perform. But he basically his entire career has been in the insurance industry and he sits on the society of cic. He's the exclusive lecturer on valuations, perpetuation, M and A. So he's seen everything. And so we brought him to our convention to talk to our agencies. Those type of things are kind of what we try to bring. We try to bring really valuable content to at those events. And not only did he speak at our event during a session. What he did that year, and I think for at least two consecutive years at our convention was he would come in a day early and he would set up 30 minute sessions with our affiliates for nothing. They didn't pay anything to talk to him for 30 minutes. And he's just a wealth of knowledge because he's been doing this for a long time and I think that that's been, I know that he's been really valuable for a lot of our affiliates and we're really like thankful for the relationship that we've established with him and being able to provide that as a resource and like a very easy end. Like he's well aware of who PIB is, he knows what our agencies look like. And even on the contrary, he's reached out to us when he comes across an agency that might be in that position and said, hey, like I have an opportunity, can you send me a couple of PIB affiliates? So that's been huge for us. We take it really seriously and bottom line is we want to just continue to create opportunities for our agencies in this space.

Yeah, I 100% agree. I ran into John in certain circles and I run into him again and again. But you know, thinking back on it, I met him 11, 12, 13 years ago at an industry event and he was teaching partly for the national alliance at the time. But you know, I remember meeting him. The guy is such a wealth of knowledge and I've gotten to know him more. 100% agree. So that's a great add on. And I know you have other people in the mix as well that are simply there to help agents through the transition, whether it's, you know, moving another agency in or maybe moving on their own agency and something else. So you guys are awesome in that realm and I love that about you guys, among many other things. So thank you for always being there for the agent first and foremost. So yeah, let's talk about data. It's a data driven world, right. And we can go very deep into this subject. But how is PIIB capitalizing on data and how's that going to benefit the independent insurance agents who are part of pib?

Yeah, I'll start on this trace and then if you want to hop in with anything else, we in the last few years invested in our beta partner for a company called Agency KPI. By getting in early, we're hoping we can kind of say, hey, these are the things we would really, really, really like, you know, to be able to do for our affiliates. And when using data.

So we're a few years in, and what's really cool is we can see all the data in one place now. All the carriers, premiums are pulled in there, loss ratios are pulled in there. So we can look really quickly, like if someone has a question or, you know, oh, how am I doing here? What am I doing this? Like, we can easily look at that to see where things are at.

We can look at commissions to see if there's better. You know, we can be negotiating better with certain carriers. We can look.

I don't think we can really look into profit sharing at that point, but so mostly just like the written premiums and the loss ratios. But one thing that was really cool that we did recently was a carrier wanted to terminate an appointment with one of our affiliates. And so we're like, wait. But that's kind of. They're a very profitable agency all around. And so we were able to go into our system, pull three years of written premium and loss ratios and show the carrier that, hey, maybe if we can just work on this rather than terminate, because look at what they have done. And they were like, okay. And so. Because we were able to show them that we were able to save the appointment. But kind of going back to the beginning, I should have mentioned, KPI is essentially an agency management system for networks.

Right.

So that's what that is for us.

So ultimately, that helps you maximize revenue for an agency, better manage the carrier appointments. And what I was thinking about as I was listening to you, Rachel, is you've got your finger on the pulse, everything going on with all the carriers to better help agents.

Yeah. And I mean, and we hope in the future, because like I said, we're still at the very beginning process of all this too, and figuring out what's so beneficial. But we hope eventually to have SIC codes in there and then maybe we can see, oh, my gosh, we have so much of this. We should have a program.

So those are the kind of things in the future that we'll hopefully be able to have. But even the way we're utilizing it now, just by seeing an overall picture is of profitability is really nice.

A quick idea.

Go ahead, Trace. Yeah, Trace, go ahead.

I was just going to say, because our. Our profile of agency is not one size fits all. There's one man shots one woman shop. There's, you know, larger agencies. I feel like in the near future, like, a lot of what Rach said pertains to numbers specifically, which is amazing. I love numbers. But I think that if we're able to capitalize and identify what is helping that one man or woman shop grow, like the shop that has 10 employees, like what are those factors? What are those key components that is helping this agency just absolutely kill it. I feel like there's so much data when it comes to a network. And that was really the idea behind creating agency KPI is that it's just, there's just so much data when it comes to 240 independent agencies. There's a ridiculous amount of data out there and it's not being capitalized on. So I'm looking forward to being able to just kind of use the data to form profiles for agencies and then really be able to identify like what they're doing that's helping so that we can share that with the rest of the group and everybody can share with each other and everybody grows and everybody has more success.

I mean, a wild idea out of left field and that's one of the things that I seem to come up with pretty easily is there's an organization, organization out there called Target Markets. And so you can have your own target markets inside of PIB to better help agencies like to dominate a niche as an example.

Yeah.

So that's fantastic.

Good idea. Thank you.

You're welcome. Always looking to help.

Yeah.

So I know that we're bumping up on time. So as we wrap it up today, by the way, thank you so much for sharing this information and. And it's just the tip of the iceberg, folks. So again, if you have more questions or you just want to have a quick conversation to see if it's a good idea or not a good idea to pursue a relationship with PIB. I 100% recommend getting in touch with Tracy or Rachel or anybody on the PIB team. But as we move to that, I'm going to go ahead and ask you to share how people can reach out to somebody on the team if they want to have that conversation. But before we do that, anything else to add?

I was only going to just do a wrap up kind of comment of.

That. We've talked to Rachel and I have talked to prospects, sometimes, prospect agency, sometimes for years before they join piab.

Yeah.

The only thing I would say is in every single case they're like, wow, I should have done this when I first started talking to you. So don't wait.

Yeah, yeah.

And then, yeah, we can tell you how to contact us. But we're like eager to help. We've been doing it. We have been through a lot of different scenarios, a lot of different situations. So don't wait.

And we'll always be transparent on, like, what's going on and how we can help and where we can help and what are your pain points and can we resolve those for you? So we'll always be very transparent and eager to work and help with new agencies and all.

100% support that in the. Let me think about this. Probably 12, 13 years, that experience that I have with you guys so far, 100% agree. Very transparent, always answering questions, never leaves any stone unturned. Grateful for you guys in that realm in every other way. So thank you for just being the awesome people that you are. So also to add one other thing on, based on what Traci said, you're right. The present is a gift. So we should open it, right?

Yes.

Take action now. Or if you think about the word now and you move the end to the end of the world to the end of the better said now or own it. Right?

Yep. Nice.

Fantastic. So, love it.

I love it.

So somebody sitting here listening and. Or watching the podcast, how can they. How can they reach somebody? A pip.

Yeah.

Well, we do have an email address that's pretty simple. It's opportunity.com.

I love that.

Send us an email there and it'll get to Rachel and I and you'll talk to one of us immediately.

Well, and that's the thing, too. We're not like, oh, that prospect was mine. Like, if I know I can't get to someone within 24 hours, I'll send it to Tracy and be like, hey, can you please take this? Because I don't, like, I don't want to sit on anything right now.

Right. Opportunity.com.

Yeah.

Yep.

And you want to add a phone number just in case.

Yeah, yeah. And we're always happy to talk, like, whether we schedule the call or you just pick up the phone and call. Phone number is 916. I almost told you my cell phone 916-941-0-518. And Rachel's extension is 107 and mine is 1 02. So even if you go, even if you just hit zero and you say, hey, can I speak to Tracy or Rachel, you'll get. You'll get straight to us.

So, yeah, 916-941-0518.

That's the one.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, fantastic. Ladies, I am super grateful and thankful that you have invested time today to share how you are helping independent insurance agents across states. And I know you guys are always looking to grow because the time that I'm privileged to invest with you. That's always the mindset. A profitable growth and mindset is what you've created and a phenomenal organization that's unlike many, many others out there. So again, if you're watching or listening to this and you want to have a quick combo, reach out to these ladies. They're here to help you.

Yep, absolutely. And thank you so much again for doing this, Mike. And we look forward to seeing you.

Yeah, exactly. So we'll see you at your convention and I know you'll also be at our boot camp, so that's another place where you can meet Tracy and or Rachel or the team. And we super look forward to that as well.

Cool. Thanks again, Mike. You're the best.

Yeah, no, thank you. Reflection. So anyway, really quickly, if this is your first time on the podcast, welcome and my name is Mike Stromso. I'm widely recognized as the leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can find me@unstoppableprofitproducer.com if you're interested in attending a virtual or live training event to grow your business, create wealth, so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms, please go to for our virtual events uppfaststart.com or you can join us at one of our live events@beunstoppablebootcamp.com again. Both events are designed to share with some of the greatest money making strategies that We've developed over 35 years of research and in our industry, again, to help you grow, create wealth and to have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And please go to our podcast website, unstoppable profitpodcast.com so you don't miss one episode. Subscribe at the top and you can find either the podcast visually on our YouTube channel or you can listen to the audio. And you can also find us out there on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and again our YouTube channel. So thank you ladies for being part of the podcast. We can't wait to get this out there in the ears or in the hearts or the hands of anybody out there who needs the amazing assistance in aggregators and clusters, relationships, or to just take their business to the next level, which you help me do. So grateful for you for that.

Cool. Well, it's our pleasure. Thank you.

All right, everybody, get out there, make a difference, be unstoppable, leave no regrets, and we'll see you on the next podcast. Until then, be unstoppable.

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