You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You.

If you own a P&C insurance agency doing $2 million to $5 million in annual premium - and you can't go 90 days without answering a client's email, your team freezes when you're unreachable, or being away makes you anxious - this show was built for you. Here's the truth: If your P&C insurance agency can't run without you, you don't own it. At best, you're a producer with equity. Real ownership isn't book size. It isn't revenue. It's freedom. It's control. It's building something that runs without you - and outlives you. Pete Poggi grew a personal lines P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months - without commercial lines, without cold calls, and without becoming a prisoner to his own business. He did it by installing systems that removed owner dependence at every level and created leadership depth that didn't require him in the room. What You'll Discover Each episode features real conversations with

You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You. is a business podcast hosted by Pete Poggi, with 22 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Pete Poggi hosts You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You., a business show with 22 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #17

  Entrepreneur or Wantrepreneur: How I Hire $10M P&C Producers

  Sep 25, 202616 min

  One of Pete Poggi's top P&C producers was waiting tables, bartending and driving Uber on weekends when Pete hired him. Today that producer writes almost $1.5 million a year in premium, and his book is approaching $10 million. Pete has interviewed well over a thousand people and hired hundreds of agents across 20 plus years, and he made just about every hiring mistake there is on the way. What finally fixed it was not a better resume filter. It was learning to tell an entrepreneur from a wantrepreneur. The entrepreneur is planning their day. The wantrepreneur is planning their lunch. In this solo episode Pete lays out how he tells them apart before he hires, and how he tells them apart after. Here's what you'll discover: The one line Pete's dad used on him growing up that now explains every bad hire he ever made What an entrepreneur says in an interview, and the very different thing a wantrepreneur says The question Pete asks when four people have the identical resume, and why he goes silent the second he finishes asking it The difference between a producer who is struggling and one who is resisting, and why only one of them is worth coaching Why Pete hires Rocky Balboa over Apollo Creed every single time About Pete: Pete Poggi grew a personal lines P&C insurance agency from $3 million to over $180 million in 84 months. No commercial. No cold calls. He created the Million Dollar Producer program and works with independent P&C insurance agency owners stuck between $2M and $5M in annual premium who are ready to stop being the bottleneck and start building a real book. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And if you have ever hired someone who talked a great game and then never did the work, send this one to another agency owner. Every one of us has paid that stupid tax. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

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  Episode #21

  How 5 P&C Producers Build a $20M Agency in 5 Years

  Sep 22, 202618 min

  Pete Poggi hired his third producer and did the math that changed his life. One producer at $750,000. Himself over a million. A third approaching $500,000. Three people were already producing more than he ever could alone, and they had not hit their ceiling yet. That number is where this episode starts. Where it ends is $20 million. Here is the arithmetic Pete runs on this one, out loud, in real time: five producers writing $400,000 each is $2 million a year, which already doubles what you could do by yourself. Coach those same five up to $800,000 and you are at $4 million a year. Five years of that is $20 million, and none of that counts your own production or the book you already had. But the part he says nobody talks about is what happened when his right hand man grew into a leader and Pete started traveling Florida to speak and train. Every time he came back, the numbers were better. It became a running joke in the office: let's see how long we can keep Pete out of here. This is a solo episode about the difference between hiring somebody and duplicating yourself, and why almost every agency owner confuses the two. What you'll discover in this episode: Why hiring a customer service rep is not duplication, and what it actually is The day duplication really starts, which is not the day you sign the offer letter The 80% question that decides whether you can ever build a team What most owners get wrong in the first 30 days with a new producer What Pete says is better than the money duplication brought him Pete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency. If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who is still trying to do all of it himself. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

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  Episode #20

  The $40M Mistake a $4B P&C Agency Admits To

  Sep 15, 202651 min

  Nathan Brainard runs a $100 million division inside a $4 billion P&C agency. He is also willing to put a real number on the record: the $40 million his company spent on an online quoting platform before deciding to stop. His words: "We were already $30, $40 million deep into this adventure. And we ended up cutting bait and saying, it's better to take our losses now." Walking away from a number that size takes more discipline than most people give it credit for. The advice that came out of it is four words long: Don't get over your skis. Nathan started at Insurance Office of America in January 2005, after Marriott cut the $30,000 bonus he had earned down to $3,000. Twenty-two years later he oversees roughly 100 producers and 400 people across IOA's largest division. Last November his company took private-equity money for the first time in its history, and he walks through what that actually felt like from the inside, including the seven months he calls the roughest of his career. What you'll discover in this episode: The first thing a $4 billion agency screens for in a producer, before experience, book size or production history Why 99% of their producers stayed through the private-equity transition when the PE firm had forecast 85% The one question to ask a private-equity firm before you sign anything What a softening market does to renewals you thought were safe, and why owners under 40 have never seen it The interview question Nathan asks that has nothing to do with insurance Pete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency. If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who is being courted right now. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

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  Episode #19

  4 Bad Hires Before He Found One Good Producer

  Sep 8, 202628 min

  Patrick Mignon built a $2.4M P&C book after a non-compete forced him to walk away from every client he had ever written. Eight months into starting over, his wife looked at him and said "just go get a job." He told her: "I'm the job." Today he runs $80,000 to $100,000 a month in production and is chasing a million-dollar year. But the thing that unlocked it was not talent. He already had that. It was finally hiring, and the first four people he brought on did not last three months. In this conversation Patrick walks through exactly what he got wrong, what he changed, and the moment the stress came off his shoulders instead of piling on. What you'll discover in this episode: Why a "vicious non-compete" turned out to be the best thing that happened to his career The five-word morning system Patrick calls GARLIC, and why he runs it before he does anything else The one word that explains why most agents never get referrals from realtors and mortgage brokers What Patrick looks for in the first two to three weeks that tells him whether a new hire will last Why he says hiring gave him more time to build his business by doing less work Pete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency. If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who is scared to make their first hire. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

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  Episode #18

  How a 30-Year-Old Built a $45M P&C Book

  Sep 1, 202650 min

  Zane Lefko was 20 years old, sitting on a couch in Orlando, when his roommate's dad walked in and asked if the two of them wanted to get their insurance licenses. He said "sure, I guess." He had no plan. He later dropped out of college to keep going.He committed to Pete's system at 21. Between his agencies he has now surpassed the $45 million mark, and he has personally produced a million to a million and a half a year for about eight years.He did try buying leads online once. His office called somebody who had filled out a form, and the man told him he was only trying to get his Outback gift card. That conversation cost $30. His line ever since: "I always tell people I spend $0 on marketing. It's all referral based."(On the tape Zane sizes the book at about $30 million. Between his agencies today he is past $45 million.)The part most agency owners will not expect is what he says about the last year. He nearly walked away. "Probably a year ago, I got to the point and I'm like, I don't think I can do this anymore."What you'll discover in this episode: The four-step system Zane says is the whole secret, and the one thing he says everybody else does instead Why the "what ifs of not hiring greatly outweigh the fear of hiring", and the hiring mistake he still makes How 10 or 15 unreturned voicemails turned into 40 to 50 referral partners The attrition math that traps agency owners at $3 to $5 million, and what has to change before it breaks you What he actually did in the year he almost quit, and the line about breakthroughs he keeps coming back to Pete Poggi grew a P&C insurance agency from $3 million to $180 million in 84 months. Personal lines only. No cold calls. He now works with independent P&C insurance agency owners who are stuck between $2 million and $5 million in premium and cannot scale past themselves, teaching the systems, hiring standards and referral relationships that turn a top producer into an agency owner who actually owns their agency.If this one helped, follow the show so you don't miss the next episode, and send it to an agency owner who thinks they have to do it all themselves. Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com

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