Elevate The Hustle
Elevate the Hustle is the bold, founder-to-founder show for leaders who want to stand tall and scale smart. 🦒
Hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo, co-founders of Elevate Teams, the show dives into the real journey—growth, chaos, culture, and the systems that unlock time and revenue.
You’ll hear from independent insurance agency owners, entrepreneurs, and operators who are in the arena: how they hire, how they lead, and how they use world-class talent to level up. It’s fast, funny, and practical—no jargon, no theory, just the plays that actually work.
Who it’s for:
Owners, principals, and operators who want real leverage—better processes, better people, better outcomes.
What you’ll get:
Actionable hiring and ops strategies, culture-first leadership insights, and memorable stories that push you to think bigger and build bolder.
Episodes
20 episodes
How to Build a Business That Runs Without You | Liz Mershon
Most people build a business to find freedom. Liz Mershon built five and was still a prisoner.In Episode 20 of Elevate The Hustle, hosts Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Liz to unpack the unfiltered story of how she...
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Most People Sell Their Time Cheap. He Never Did | Neil Krauter
In Episode 20 of Elevate The Hustle, hosts Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Neil Krauter to unpack a career that started with peanut brittle sales records and a keg party that changed everything, leading to a $40 million b...
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How He Built A Referral-Driven Agency In The Hardest Insurance Niche ft. Andrew Nigri
Most people talk about building something. Andrew Nigri had the audacity to actually do it.In Episode 19 of Elevate The Hustle, hosts Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Andrew to unpack the unfiltered story of how he ...
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Why This 3rd Generation CEO Won't Sell ft. Connor Lynch
"This company has survived the Great Depression, multiple wars. When you really think about what it takes to navigate business for that long, it's really insane."Connor Lynch runs a 107-year-old insurance agency in South Florida. His gr...
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From Pro Football to Making Insurance Sexy ft. Kenneth Mantuo Jr
"No one grows up wanting to get into insurance, right? It's not on your vision board."Before Kenneth Mantuo Jr. was building a multi-state insurance agency and trying to make the industry sexy, he was chasing a very different dream: the...
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Why Niche Beats Generalists Every Time ft. Troy Chakarun
"We knew the need before they knew the need."Before Troy Chakarun was helping scale one of the fastest-growing firms in insurance, he was making cold calls, sorting mail, answering phones, and getting yelled at by strangers at Merrill L...
Your VA Could Be Your Next Leader ft. Gabriela Rodriguez
"This is not the ceiling for me. I need more, I want more, and I've always worked for that."Gabriela Rodriguez started as a virtual assistant in Venezuela in 2017. $1 an hour. Paid in a collapsing currency. Her first client? Cold...
Why Most Agency Owners Hire the Wrong People ft. David Ragno
The best investment you can ever make? Yourself."I took a 70% pay cut at 25 just to get my foot in the door. Whether I made money at it or not, it was going to provide me tremendous value long term."David Ragno start...
Don't Wait for a Promotion. Take it ft. Sonya Horton
"I promoted myself to COO. See, when you don't want to promote me, I promote my damn self." Sonya Horton started as a receptionist at a Brooklyn livery cab brokerage in the '90s—answering phones for quarters and dimes, reading BOP p...
What Really Happens When You Sell Your Agency ft. Matt Naimoli
"In Sales, the better you work, the harder you work, the more input you have, the better output you get. There's a level of justice to it." Matt Naimoli knew he was built for entrepreneurship before he even knew what that mea...
Why the Perfect Time to Hire is a Myth ft. Insurance Matchmaker Cari Gelber
"If it doesn't keep you up at night and you're not excited to go to work on Monday, then it's not your thing. It's not your why." Cari Gelber spent 20 years in events, hospitality, and the music industry—touring with bands, n...
What Drives Insurance Agency Valuations ft. $19B M&A Expert Al Sica
"I was determined to play at the highest level, and I did." Al Sica is talking about Division I baseball—but he could just as easily be talking about insurance M&A. Today, he's the founder of Sica | Fletcher, the #...
You Never Lose—You Either Win or Learn ft. Mike Stromsoe
"You never lose. You either win or you learn." That's the philosophy printed on Mike Stromsoe's favorite travel shirt—and it's the mindset that took him from working nights at a bowling alley bar to building and selling a multi-mill...
Run Your Agency Like It's For Sale ft. FirstChoice's Keith Captain
"If you're not growing, you're dying." That's not just a saying—it's Keith Captain's operating principle as President of FirstChoice, the #1 largest insurance network in the country. 📈 In episode 7 of Elevat...
From Door-to-Door Insurance to Fully Virtual ft. Rich Nesbitt
"I don't even know where the F your office is. I just need to know that I can get you." That's what Rich Nesbitt's client told him when he was nervous about going fully virtual. 💻 In episode 6 of Elevate the Hustle, Stan...
The Samuel L. Jackson of Insurance ft. We Insure's Jay Wolfberg
"I quit my job, bought a house, and bought a franchise all in the same week. We had 45 days to make the mortgage." That's how Jay Wolfberg went all-in on insurance. 🔥 In episode 5 of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit ...
Leaving a $65B Insurance Program to Start From Scratch ft. Allen Hudson
"I was making someone else a lot of money. I was making good money, but the amount of money I was making someone else was considerably more." That realization changed everything for Allen Hudson. ⚖️ In episode 4 of Eleva...
Starting an Insurance Agency at 50 ft. Rob Bowen
"A lot of people get paralyzed and they don't make a decision, but that's a decision." Rob Bowen learned that in the Navy. At 50 years old, he decided to stop waiting and start his own insurance agency. 🎖️ In episode 3 o...
The Queen Bee of Insurance Recruiting ft. Kelly Bailey
"Do you know Kelly Bailey?" If you're in Florida insurance, the answer is yes, and you're probably best friends. (And if not, you will soon.) 🐝In episode 2 of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Kelly Bai...
