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 NFL.

He played football since he was seven. Pop Warner. High school. College ball. Then overseas in Germany for a year. Came back. Trained harder. Gave it everything.

Didn't make it.

Most people would've spiraled. Kenneth hung up the cleats and went into sales. No insurance experience. No connections. Just decided to start an agency from scratch in 2014 because "everyone needs insurance" and he saw an opportunity to do it differently.

Fast forward to today: BEIA is operating in 20 states with offices in South Florida, Orlando, and New York. They're building specialized verticals in contractors, marine, transportation, and hospitality — all while trying to prove that insurance doesn't have to be boring, antiquated, or soul-sucking.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Kenneth to talk about pivots, delegation, building culture, and what it actually takes to scale an agency when you're starting from zero.

Kenneth breaks down:

• What it's like when your whole identity just disappears and you have to rebuild
• Why he started an agency with zero insurance experience instead of joining someone else's
• How he learned to delegate after nearly drowning on a cruise ship with no Wi-Fi
• Why insurance is actually the original subscription model
• The massive opportunity nobody's talking about: half the industry retiring in the next decade

Plus, Kenneth explains why small business is their bread and butter, how they're using tech and VAs to serve clients profitably, and why "if you can write it down, you can delegate it" is the key to scaling anything.

If you've ever had to start over, if you're afraid to let go of work, or if you're trying to build something in an industry that feels stuck — this episode is for you.

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, I mean, first off, uh, I mean, no one grows up wanting to get into insurance, right? It's not on your vision board, you're not going to your guidance counselor trying to say, hey guys, I want to I want to join insurance, right? So that creates opportunity. There's not a lot of people, especially if you start off young.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Elevate the hustle.

unknown 0:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome to Elevate the Hustle, where we break down what it actually means to build teams, scale companies, and lead with intensity. I'm your host, Dan Mayton. I'm Don Picharillo. And we have another special guest with us here today, all the way from South Florida, Kenny Manto. Welcome to Elevate the Hustle.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Welcome, Kenny.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Thank you guys. Pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Uh, Kenny, you are an interesting fella, and we're gonna learn a little bit more about you. Uh, first thing I want to start talking about is you are growing up in South Florida. Uh trying to be an NFL player. Is that is that is that accurate? Is that is that is that the dream?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

That was the dream. Yeah, that was the dream, the goal for sure. Um, yeah, yeah. I mean, I played played ball since I was, you know, seven, eight years old. Uh, you know, played pop warner, went through, uh played in high school, uh, went to college, played there, and then went overseas, played in Germany for a year, uh, came back, trained a little bit more, and then just you know, didn't quite didn't quite make it, but uh it was a good journey.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

But you're you were a professional football player. I mean, you weren't in the NFL. Yeah, yeah. Played professional.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

I did, yeah. That's a lot of people, whenever I say I played football overseas in in Germany, they're like, So you played soccer? You wouldn't know I'm like American football. Because no one even knows that there's still football over there. So since NFL Europe did you know dissolved 15, 20 years ago, whenever that was.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

So is at what point do you just decide, hey, I want to be a professional football player, and I also want to be a professional insurance broker all at the same time?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Uh it definitely wasn't at the same time. So uh yeah, I mean football growing up, I just I love sports in general. I played multiple sports growing up, you know, all the way through high school and college. Uh, and then, you know, after I decided that, you know, it was time to hang up the cleats, uh, I wanted to do something in the sales realm. Uh, and I kind of gravitated towards insurance just because it's something that everybody needs. And I felt like uh they always say like insurance isn't sexy, and our goal was to try and and bring uh a new face to to the insurance realm uh and and bring the technology that's coming around. It was antiquated per se uh in in a lot of facets, which has changed a lot over the last 10 years for sure. Um, but our you know, I just it felt like there was a need, and our goal was to try to come in and and change it up.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Did did you know someone who is an insurance?

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Like how my dad would settle on like insurance because it it's not the most he couldn't run as fast, so he he had to find find find something.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah, so my dad was in the uh in the PES space, like the professional employer organization space uh as a broker. Um so I I dabbled a little bit in that at first uh with him, and then I you know got really interested um in in the commercial insurance space and workers' comp, turn liability, commercial auto, etc. Um finding the needs, finding the gaps in coverage, and I was like, okay, this might be something that that I can uh foresee myself doing long term. And then I instead of you know applying to an agency or to a carry or anything, I just decided to start scratch and and you know went for it.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

So how how long how I love it. How long were you in the insurance space before you're like F it, I'm doing it myself?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Literally, I mean the actual insurance space, not at all. I mean it was in the in the PEO space maybe six months, twelve months before I got licensed, and then you know, started calling on carriers. And I had a couple buddies in the space and uh at the MGA level, you know, I called them. Hey, I was like, hey, I need I need a little guidance here. Um I'm starting scratch, you know. Can I get an appointment? And can you kind of guide me through uh you know the the beginning of starting an agency? And and they were very helpful in that process. Uh, but there were definitely a lot of uh learning curves along the way.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah, what was the biggest like hurdle that you had to overcome like in your early days?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Um I'm there's two that stick out to me. There's one story I always like to tell. So uh this was in like 2016, 20. So I started the agency in late 2014. Um kind of like I said, it was more of a side project at first. We were still doing a lot in the PEO space. Um we didn't really get, we didn't really officially launch until like second quarter, third quarter, 2015. Um so going a couple years down the road, um still mainly handling everything myself. Um I had some business partners, and they are more on the back end, the marketing end, the accounting end. Um I'm the day-to-day guy that was that was handling all the policies, all the quoting, all the service, um, etc. Uh and I was going on a cruise um with my family, and it was one of the quick ones, you know, like the three or four-day ones. Um, but I had to leave the office and they brought my computer with me since I'm the one that has to service everything, but the Wi-Fi just wasn't working on that ship for whatever reason. So people are blowing up the office line, uh, you know, calling around, trying to get certificates, trying to get service. And at that point, I was like, okay, I got back, and me and my partners were like, we need to hire somebody. This it's it's time for expansion. So that was definitely a big learning curve there. Um, one of the other ones was the first time renewals came around. Um, how I had set up the filing system, how I had built out uh all of the processes and the SOPs didn't account for renewals. Uh so I had to rebuild that uh from the ground up. So that was a that was a fun learning curve too. And then just the day-to-day uh insurance is ever changing. So uh learning the process, you know, learning doing the continuing education, learning all the nuances that are going on. Um, and that's the the probably the thing I love most about insurance is how it is ever changing um in terms of forms, in terms of the technology, um and and just being able to continually learn and and find ways to make sure that we're there for for our clients and for our carriers.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

So one thing that you said that sticks out to me is that insurance is not sexy. Uh and and you wanted to change that. I I I happen to agree with you. Uh Dom's an insurance native, I'm not. And you know, after learning about the insurance industry, I'm like, holy shit, there's a lot of money to be made here. Insurance is very sexy. I mean, I think we should start a movement, right? Let's make insurance. There we go, again. What what do we gotta do? Like, but but like what talk, you know, talk us through that education, right? Like you said, your dad is in the PEO space, so you had some sort of exposure. But most of the people we meet with, or most of the people that we talk to, everybody has a funny story how they started insurance or how they fell into it. Either it's either family legacy or or they fell into it, right? And obviously, there's a problem in the insurance space where you know, people people are selling their businesses, they're dying, whatever the case may be. They're and we need new blood, right? So, like let's go out there. How do we recruit some young guns in into the space and and tell them why insurance is sexy and why they should join?

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Uh, I mean, I think there's two main uh two main points for that. So one is technology. So as I mentioned earlier, I mean, insurance in general was was kind of a dinosaur when it comes to technology up until about five years ago, five, ten years ago. Um, and especially there's been a huge acceleration in the last you know 24, 36 months um from a tech for tech stacks, so in terms of how we set up um our back-end processes, um, the forward-facing uh ability for clients. And this is at our level, at the agency level, um, it's at the carrier level, and like I said, it's also at the client level. Uh so just continuing to do that and make it so it doesn't seem like a burdensome um process for the clients and for the employees, right? So our goal is to simplify workflows, to make things more efficient so that the employees can interact with the clients, so they can, you know, spend time on the phone with them, you know, be able to uh build a relationship with the clients and and not just go through the daily grind of or I need to submit this document over and over again and do the same process a thousand times. Uh, we're trying to find ways uh to make it more efficient and aka sexier uh to uh to have so that they can have so they can you know enjoy the time that they have with us at uh at the agency. Um so that's uh that's definitely one of the biggest things that we're seeing. And then two, I think social. I mean, my goal is this is I mentioned this is the first podcast I've ever been on, but um, and our team is doing a lot of things on the social side. We're starting starting to get involved on on Instagram and and TikTok and LinkedIn and and try and have fun with some of the videos while also being educational. Um so you know, crossing those two paths uh to to try and bring insurance out there. Um people think of insurance and you know they own they almost shiver, right? Oh, I have to have insurance, but I don't want it, right? It's like buying goals exactly, right? Uh and just like us, it's been going up for quite a bit, so but insurance is stabilizing. But uh uh yeah, our goal is just to try and make it make it a little bit more fun for for the the internal team and and also for our clients.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

And being that it's not sexy, like are you thinking like you're looking at this industry like oh, like it's not sexy, people don't want to be here. Are you viewing that as an opportunity because there's like a lack of talent in the industry that you could really thrive? Or are you just like screw it, this is like a good business, and you know, you weren't really going that way with it?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Um, I think at the initially I wasn't, I would say now I'm more focused on that, right? So um I there's a couple I'm involved in a couple groups, uh, you know, associations and such. And I mean, our goal is to try and educate um the people that are going through high school, to go through college right now, um, on how insurance can be a long-term successful career for you. And it's not you know boring and mundane, right? Uh so I I have pivoted towards that, I would say, in the last year and a half on really trying to be involved in in those groups and and find ways that we can get in front of some of the young talent that's coming up and and trying to attract them into the industry. Um, there's definitely a problem for that right now, and and we're trying to find ways to to to resolve it. Um But we're seeing we're seeing we're seeing some success. Uh, and I think it'll continue to trend that way, especially as as technology as uh continues to advance and as the industry starts to learn AI and and get into that realm, which is a whole nother thing. Um, I think uh we'll continue to see see uh some progress on that.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

I think we just need to show them the multiples.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yes, yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially for yeah, for for long-term success. Yeah, the multiples. And I mean, have any agency, I mean, it's it's it's definitely uh a long-term success plan.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

So let's do it right now. You guys are two young insurance studs, right? We got 50,000 subscribers. Make sure you subscribe below. Give us the pitch. Why should the young people come? Like, give them the sexy stuff. Why should they come like not join your agency, but why should they start looking into insurance? Dom, you too. Kenny, let's let's let's tell the people.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

It's the original subscription model. All these tech companies want subscription models. Original subscription model, 90% retention, residual income, eye margins, like all the stuff, right? It checks all the entrepreneurial boxes.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Not everybody's as educated and complex as we are. So right now, I'm a you know, 18-year-old kid graduated high school. I'm a 22-year-old kid graduating college. I am trying to figure out what the fuck am I gonna do with my life. Dick Sporting Goods just called. They offered me a job, right? My cousin knows somebody at enterprise. Maybe they could get me a managerial track control of position, whatever those are called, the track. And then you got Kenny and Dom. Why should I go into insurance?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Go ahead, Kenny. You can break it down more.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Well, I mean, first off, uh, I mean, no one grows up wanting to get into insurance, right? It's not on your vision board, you're not going to your guidance counselor trying to say, hey guys, I want to I want to join insurance, right? I want to join the insurance world, right? So that creates opportunity. There's not a lot of people, especially if you start off young, you come out of high school, you come out of college, you don't need a degree to join insurance, right? So a lot of people can jump right out of high school into it. But if you go to college, you go through there, you can there are insurance programs, you can go through that route, but if you start early, it creates a huge opportunity for yourself. Um, why? There's a couple of different ways. One, um, you pursue the agent route, right? Basically building your own business within a business. So you're building a book, a business, and that business is gonna stay with you for as long as you're there. Um, you build that residual income that Domit talked about a little bit earlier, uh, which is money that's gonna come in um continually for as long as you keep the clients on the book and will continue to grow. Um, so I think that's one really big thing about it. Um, one of the other probably biggest things right now is between consolidation um and and mergers uh and the fact that about half of the insurance force is gonna be retiring in the next decade. So some people think that's a concern. I think it's a it's a huge window and a great way to be able to jump into the field um and and one, either take over a book of business, or two, have a huge opportunity to go after business that maybe somebody has been with their agent for 20 years and they haven't really shopped, or uh, you know, they haven't seen an opportunity or reason to go to another agency or to another agent. So you have that opportunity to get in front of them um and and and you know have the opportunity to control that business.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

So what those are a couple things that are the uh to give more insights, what what you know, what is that person looking for? Like I just came out of college, I'm looking for a job, I heard Kenny on Elevate the Hustle Podcast. I'm like, all right, cool, I'm gonna go work for a broker. What should I look for in a broker? What type of questions should I be asking? Like, what how do I know I'm gonna be working for the right person?

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah, so I mean, I think one, it depends on what side of the what side of the field you want to be on. Uh so do you want to be on the agency side and be at the forefront, uh, you know, talking to the customers, engaging with the customers? Uh or do you want to be more on the back end, right? So you could do that on the agency level, but you could also do that on the MGA and carrier level, um, you know, whether it's in underwriting or in claims, um, whether it's on the accounting side. That's that's another big thing about insurance is there's so many different avenues uh and ways uh to get into the industry um and and pursue it that I think it's a it's a really good opportunity. So you can look and see what works for you. Do you want to look in the back end and scrub policy data and scrub and underrate and find ways to get successful business? And a lot of people, it's not my thing, but a lot of people that's what they're looking for. Um do you want to get into the claims side? Do you want to help customers through a claims experience and and and help them get paid on their claims uh and work through that process? Uh, you know, do you want to engage with the customer on the daily basis from like a customer service side? Um, or as an agent, do you want to sell? Do you want to educate? Uh so there's a lot of different opportunities in the insurance realm.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Dom, what's your sales pitch? What's my sales pitch?

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

No, just you can wear a hat to work. You'd be rich like me.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

You actually can't really wear a hat to work. I used to get yelled at because I didn't shave every day and it pissed me off. And then when I left there and I started my own company, I grew a beard just because I could, as like a spite thing, because I'm a spiteful human being.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

So see, the beards are the beards allowed now.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

So they are No, I think look, I think from like a business perspective, insurance is a great business, right? And like, especially if you're building your own book, you have equity in that book. Um, you know, from when I started 20 years ago till today, the multiples have gone up probably two to three times uh at exit from where they were a while back. But also like being a producer is a grind. Like you're on call 24-7. It's pretty rare that you have happy customers, like premiums haven't really gone down much, if at all, uh, over the last decade, really. So, you know, you're constantly delivering bad news, people are upset, they're angry, like you gotta eat a lot of shit along the way. But you know, I think ultimately, like, if you're a people person and you want to go into that sales track, like it's the best get rich slow scheme that's out there, right? Like everyone's trying to make a quick buck, but if you're willing to put in the work and grind for you know a few years, you'll really start to see those residuals coming in. And as you continue to build a client base, you continue to get more referrals, and there's a real snowball effect there. Um, so you know, insurance has been very good to me. I made very good money over the years. Um, ultimately, you know, I I decided to sell my business and start this business with Stan and do something else. And um this has been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

So and you can wear a hat to work. I don't wear a hat. I wear sweatpants, sweatpants. I don't even have pants on. Uh but my my experience, and this is something people don't talk about, right? You go to you go to a conference, you go to like FAAIA, and like insurance people don't seem like they like to have fun. They like to have a good time, man. They they they they get after it in in those hotel bars. Uh sometimes it gets a little crazy.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of social interactions, I think, in in in the insurance world, just in general. I mean, do you have the the annual conferences like that? But also, I mean, there's a lot of like local events that go on, um, happy hours, meet and greets, and and it's a it's a way to blow off a little bit of steam, but it's also good, you know, you have a good time with them. Uh so I like that. But uh Tom, just one of the things I want to touch uh on on your side. I know you mentioned you know, obviously you gotta you gotta go through the grind and everything, deal with unhappy customers, but I think one of the the keys to success with that is communication. So as long as you're constantly communicating uh with your customers, then you can alleviate the majority of the problems before they get to you. Um I think one one thing shift that I've seen is a lot of people kind of avoid confrontation, avoid communication until they have like a said answer. Um, but I think it's pivotal to get ahead of that, be proactive, not reactive, and it just helps your overall experience as an agent, it helps your customers' experience.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

And even if it helps your journey for sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Even if you're working on a renewal, and this is any like service sales job you have, right? Like perception is everything. And if you're not communicating with the client, their perception is gonna be that you're not doing anything or you're ignoring them or whatever the thing is, right? Whereas if you're communicating with them on a regular basis, keeping them updated, letting them know what's going on, um, you know, they're gonna feel like you have their back and you're doing what's in their best interest. You know, even if you're doing all those things behind the scenes and not telling them it doesn't matter because they're still gonna be pissed off because their perception is that you weren't doing shit for the last month and where the hell have you been?

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Right. Agreed. But I think that's just like like overall, I mean, like I I don't want to say business is simple, but I guess it is a little simple. Like like you just you need to right, you need to take accountability. Hey, sorry, we fucked up, right? I'm gonna raise my hand. I'm gonna sit here and tell you what you know how I could help you or how we can work through this together. Most of the time, it's let me just be honest, and that's what people want to hear that you're accountable and you fucked up. And like I was just at a hotel and they didn't have my room ready, and then she just kept telling me that it's not her fault that you know they had a they had a lot of people check out. I was like, Well, I don't really care, like it is their fault, it's not my fault. Like, I just have my room ready, and all she could have said was like, Hey, I'm really, really sorry, we fucked up. Let me make this right by you. But most people don't, right? Like, I think I think some of the business things that that happen in day to day, whether it's you know, like obviously we have a lot of people to watch and listen to the show that are in the insurance space, but some are just you know, regular business owners or wannabe business owners. And you know, like let's let's go through what what advice you have. My advice is like raise your hand up for accountability, own your shit, right? And and take it on the chin and and just solve the problem, fix the problem. I mean, what do you what do you guys have to say about that?

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yeah, I mean, I think that's the number one thing. And even if even if it's not an issue, right? Maybe it's just you're you're working on a process and maybe it's taking a little bit longer than it should, uh, just communicate, hey, we don't have an update yet, but we're expecting it. Uh or you know, I don't have a resolution for you yet, but we're still working on these are the steps we've taken. But just ignoring somebody for a day or two days or three days or four days, all they're doing is stewing and getting angrier and angrier, which they should, because it it it doesn't seem like whatever their issue is, and this is business in general, uh, whatever their issue is doesn't seem important. Um, well, you their issue doesn't seem important to you because you're not communicating. Uh, where as long as you're giving them some up. um then at least they know that you're working on it. And it just alleviates any of the the pressure from from well at least some of the pressure from that problem.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Yeah, I mean sorry. I was going to say as long as you're honest and you're quick with your communication, like the chances that you're going to keep that customer are exponentially higher than if you avoid it. So like you just got to swallow the frog and make the phone call and be honest. And if they're going to leave they're going to leave. But chances are if you tried to hide it and you didn't call them, they were going to leave anyway. So like you don't really have anything to lose in that scenario.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yep. Look at these useful lessons we have for for the world today. I hope everybody's watching and appreciating all this knowledge we're dropping. Kenny, do you consider yourself an entrepreneur, a business owner? Do you consider yourself like an insurance agent all of the above or insurance broker?

SPEAKER_00 22:56

All the above. So I I still wear the insurance agent hat on on specific business. I I have a team of agents that handle the majority of of the sales now so I can focus on the big picture and growing the business um in and like I said working on the tech stack and in and trying to make things more efficient for the team and for the customer. But yeah still definitely wear the insurance hat. I love it. There's nothing like the throw of a sale right so um I still I still will will take on some leads, especially like the more complicated ones uh because it's a challenge, right? So if it's a new vertical, maybe it's an industry we haven't really dealt with um or a complicated account that has like nuances and such, then I'd like to take those on uh because one, I like to to to find a way to make it um to make a to make it possible for for the client. But two it also gives us a new avenue. Right. So that's how we built out a lot of our verticals. We have you know seven or eight different verticals that we really focus on now and it's all because you know we had one that approached us that um that we built out the the workflows and the SFPs for that and and made it so uh that we could we could you know replicate the process for them. So uh definitely on that side but but still more the entrepreneur side um you know we have the the agency I do have you know some of the PEO businesses as well and my partners do. So you know we're continuing to try to find ways to to assist our clients whether it's on the insurance side you know on on the the PEO side so payroll the HR side so we're trying to build a web uh of services for for our clients so that they come to us for everything and and we can try and be a one stop shout for them.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Any regrets or not regrets but like you you started this business on a whim right kind of almost like what what would you tell your like knowing what you know now you know going back to 2014 what what what would you tell yourself?

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Hmm that's a tough one um I mean I definitely don't regret getting into the industry I love it um what's something I would tell myself then um I put in a lot of time but I would say put even more which is weird right you because I'm trying to do that life balance now work life balance now um and and the more time you put in in especially on the processes I would say more time into the processes and the workflows um and delegate earlier that's probably my biggest thing uh that was really tough for me to let go of different parts of of the daily tasks and such especially when I was doing everything myself so it's like oh it seemed really tough to let go of doing certs you know certificates and it felt really tough to get rid of service tasks right then it got really tough to get rid of sales you know doing the sales then really tough you know so as I've learned to delegate um you know I I've seen that that that is successful for growing the business and I wish I would have been able to delegate a little bit earlier because I have a great team um and and you know and uh and they've been they've been the backbone of of the company and and how we're able to grow um and I continue to delegate to them and and and find ways to to to uh to uh to delegate more of those roles so that I can focus on the overall big picture.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

So when it when it comes to sorry when it when it comes to delegation right like you have a bunch of people that uh are with you through Llevate teams like did you start off delegating to our people like did you hire a VA first did you hire someone in the States first? Like what was your process around giving up you know that work that you shouldn't have been doing but you were doing it better than anyone else could yep yeah so first I mean I to piggyback to Dom's question what it like what inspired you to delegate did you read a book did somebody tell you to do it like how how did I so I'll do I'll do that part first.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

So time there's just not enough time today. You know if I wanted to scale and I wanted to grow there's just it's impossible to be able to handle and to properly service the clients if you're handling everything yourself. So first thing yeah I did high hire um you know US um staff here in in South Florida first. So I grew internally we opened up the office you know we had you know a little office first and then you know it's expanded a lot from there. And then after I think it was in 2022 or 2023 when we um we got our first uh VA with you guys uh which was a a a a way that I wanted to delegate but also was a way that I wanted to build out um additional roles within the company so layers within the company right so that um you know we have our our agent staff we have our our customer service staff we have um our account managers and continue to build layers within the company um so that everyone can focus on their roles uh so delegation has been big with especially with with working with you guys and we've scaled a lot with you guys um and that's helped me overall um and the company overall scale what what would your advice be I mean we talk to brokers every single day that are like nobody could do it like I could do it I'm like wait nobody could do a cert like you could do a cert really what's your advice to that you know that that business owner that is not ready to delegate if you if you can write down if if you have a process right and you're doing it really well write down that process if you could write down that process you can have somebody replicate it there are certain things that you know take um experience and time and and you have to learn the process but within the agency space and within a lot of businesses there are a ton of mundane tasks or things that can be replicated and duplicated by by setting out the right process. And you can make it so that your staff can do it just as well as as you can um if you put them in the right role too, right? So if you have the right staff member in the right role um and you give them the right process, then they're gonna be successful. And probably better than that at you because they're gonna be doing that process over and over again instead of you doing 10, 12, 15 different processes. So I think that's one of the biggest things is is one finding the right person um and two building out your process and make sure that it is written um and documented so that they have something that they can reference. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Makes sense yeah I I I mean I delegate everything right I like my mindset is you should be doing it's 8020 rule right you should be 80% of your time should be spent on things that are going to generate you revenue or you know whatever help help you hit your goals whatever you're trying to do and 20% should be time on you know getting there right so on the flip side of it if you have an assistant or your VA or whatever it is you need to have them do 80% of that work and you know you should spend 20% of that time reviewing that work in order for you guys to to to get there. And it's not that hard. It's it's just that people are afraid of fear of the unknown. I think everybody is very afraid of fear of the unknown but if you ask the question of you know well what do you want to do? Like what do you see yourself where do you see your business being in three to five years and the answer is you know I want to double in size triple in size you're not gonna get there on your own but you need to hire the right people to get there. And even the people in the states that you're hiring most of them don't want to be doing that work anyway. So you're gonna you're gonna struggle finding the right people here that are going to be able to do that type of work because they want to do higher level stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Yeah I agree so so Kenny what can you correlate or relate your experience as a professional football player to being a business owner yes I mean I think that's why a lot of athletes fall into this realm um one the competition right so um as a business owner my I mean my goal is to be as successful as we can be right and and our goal is to eventually be the best um and there's takes that takes practice you know lots of practice uh takes lots of time takes lots of energy which is the same thing that an athlete goes through right so if you don't put in the time you're not gonna be a successful athlete same thing as a business owner um one is is being a team player too is huge so especially in football right there's you know 11 people on the field at a time and teams range from 50 to 70 people um and you have to find ways to to work with all of them you're not gonna align with everyone right you're not gonna have the same views as everyone you're not gonna have the same work ethic as everyone um everyone's gonna want to work a little bit differently but you have to find ways to make every um everyone work together towards a common goal which is in sports winning the championship so same thing on the business right so the the goal is to one uh build a culture that that is you and uh that people can gravitate around uh and two you know finding and giving people you know what's their one year goal what's their three year goal what's their five year goal so it's not just the success of you and the agency it's the success of of your people too that that help you overall so I think those two things really blend together between sports and and entrepreneurship in in general.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah and I think earlier you know you mentioned having the right person in the right seat right and like in football your quarterback's not going to be a good linebacker. Right so it's like finding people's strengths and putting them in the right seats and allowing them to thrive is is incredibly valuable.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Yeah being a player and a coach basically so what's a Super Bowl? What's a Super Bowl for B E I A? What what does that look like? What does winning it all mean?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

So I think it that's a it's it the uh it's an ever moving goal right so when you hit the one then it moves to another so uh I I would say it's more uh yeah it's in stages right so first you're just trying to have a winning record right then then you're trying to make the playoffs right then you're trying to to uh to make it to the Super Bowl then you're trying to win then you're trying to uh be an all-star you know be a hall of famer etc so there's those moving goals uh so for us right now one um is growth in general so growth in in Florida uh building a a footprint here uh uh in terms of our customer base and and our presence online so you know our goal is to continue to build on on the social side uh to continue to build and and get Google reviews five star Google reviews we we're really proud of uh of what we do there um and then growth outside of Florida so we're technically in 20 states right now but there's four or five states that we're we we have a lot of growth in right now uh we want to continue to do that so opening new offices we have one here in South Florida we have one in Orlando and we opened last year in New York um so continue that growth love the brick and mortar idea you know we're n we do a lot of online business but we don't want to ever want to be a full digital agency we still want a presence we want to be able to have a local presence so I think that's one of the biggest things continue to grow on that side uh continuing we want to grow within the community as well is why we have the brick and mortar so uh finding ways to to want to educate the community educate associations um educate different industries um in in and give back essentially is another uh big goal of ours and and then of course the the end goal I guess eventually is to to build a legacy plan uh whatever that ends up being and and and going from there are are we are we gonna see your kids in the business is is that is that part is that part of that plan well based on right now that they have zero interest but they are six and three so you know that's not at their forefront my older one wants to be a football player so he's trying to follow in in daddy's initial footsteps so you're telling me there's a chance you're telling me there's a chance you know keeping the fingers crossed yeah so interesting that you said you opened up in New York uh I saw you guys have an office in Brooklyn uh Dom and I are obviously from New York and most people from New York move to South Florida so they'll open up an office in New York and then they move their business over here. You're doing the opposite what uh what prompted that um I mean we just have a really a lot of really good relationships from people that you know moved back and forth between Florida and New York um and it got to the point where um we had a lot a large enough customer base and we had enough referral partners that it made sense to make a presence there. It's more for the back end so uh from a carrier perspective a lot of the Northeast same thing reciprocity like the reciprocity with Florida uh a lot of carriers if you're in New York you can write in New York but you can't write in Florida and if you're in Florida um but you're trying to write in New York you can unless you have a brick and mortar so uh we wanted to get that set up to make sure that we have uh the most opportunity to um to get appointed with as many carriers as possible um that are going to help our customer base. Um so that was one of the main reasons we did that and and I like to travel to New York so I I like that we I typically am up there every six to eight weeks and and I love going up there. I'll spend a week there you know we'll typically stay in the city I'll do a day in Brooklyn I'll do a day in Staten Island you know um etc we'll go through and and and I'll spend five days there and then come back.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

What are you doing in Staten Island, Kenny a lot of good business out there. A lot of good business out there. A lot of really good food I'll tell you that a lot of really good food so there is good food for sure. So you have offices in New York and Florida now and you're pretty much only business insurance, right? So like what are some of the biggest differences or challenges that you face in like one market or the other like how do you kind of reconcile reconcile going back and forth between those two markets and and what are you seeing in terms of differences in like the clientele if you have people that are exclusively in New York versus exclusively in Florida?

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Sure. So I'll start with one of the similarities. So one of the big similarities in insurance uh at least commercial insurance between Florida and New York is a lot of business ends up going Enos, which is excess and surplus um just because of the nature of how high risk um the the business is in those states um especially for uh contractors which is one of our bread and butter, right? So we we we have a large book of business in in the contractor space um so we we do see that quite often um so that's a a similarity um one of the major differences is the form so there's a lot of nuances in the coverages between in Florida and then in in New York so uh we're still you know we got into New York around the end of 2023 so you know continuing to learn uh all the different forms there and and and uh the little intricacies of of each policy and each carrier um the appetite so we can have a carrier that's in Florida and New York and the appetite's completely different so um so finding the strengths of the carriers uh is another thing that we really look to to to to continue to learn.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Yeah and I mean I'm sure you know small businesses or small to midsized businesses in both markets are are kind of similar but also are somewhat underserved with respect to like the insurance distribution space. So like how what are you doing differently that's allowing you to to service these clients and and really do an amazing job for them that allows them to stay with you for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Yeah so I mean oh small businesses are bread and butter. You know that's the backbone of of our clientele base. And the reason we pursue it is because we've made our processes efficient, right? So our goal is to be able to service the client to the best of our ability um to take care of all of their needs. And at the small business level there are a lot of needs right so there's a lot of service work especially in the contractor space for for endorsement changes whether that's driver changes on the auto or vehicle changes or on the liability if they need to different contractual obligations as they continue to scale certificates, you know, the list goes on and on. But we found ways to to make it really efficient for us and really efficient for them. So that's still profitable for the agency level. But it gives the the customer this the same look and feel as if they were a larger customer.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Yeah I think a lot of the larger brokers or almost all the larger brokers kind of shy away from small business, right? So at least in my experience there was a real um opportunity there to service those clients um and if you're able to do it in a way that's efficient like you were saying whether it's using technology or remote workers overseas or whatever the thing might be, you know, it allows you to do it in a profitable way and it's it's a it's really a win-win for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Yeah. Yeah. So what verticals are you in? And I I know we didn't really touch on this before, but like is finding a niche like something that you actively pursued or did like the niches that you're in kind of come to you passively?

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Combination. So contractors was always that's out the gate especially because of the PEO space um that we were in before um a lot of what we did in that space and continue to do is in the blue collar construction uh workers and we're pursuing those you know owner only companies up to five 10 employees and you know that's our like I said our bread and butter um and so we we've always pursued the contractor space. A lot of the other ones came passively right so through marketing efforts uh referral partnerships you know we've broken into uh the marine industry we've broken into transportation we do a lot in the hospitality space especially for for restaurants um main street business of course uh which is what everyone's pursuing but we try and take on some of the the tougher I would say verticals uh because there's so much opportunity there and if you can find the right way to service a client and and and build and tailor the programs to them um it it it can lead to a lot of long-term success for you and for the customers absolutely um so what's one thing that uh that most agency owners don't know that you think everyone should know like what's what's your one uh secret piece of advice that that you're holding back from us ooh um hmm I don't know um let's see one secret piece of advice the thing about me is I'm an open book so uh when I go to these events and such um I I you know a lot of people like to keep things keep things close to the chest right on on what they do for their agency right so you know how they run their processes you know what they do from uh an employee hiring standpoint and and how they you know they how they uh how they you know uh treat their workforce and such and and how their interactions are with their their carriers I I'm not like that if uh when I go to these events where I talk with other agency partners um or agency owners um my goal is if you know hey I'll I'll I'll give you all my secrets um if you can be more successful at me than than at what than what I can do then you know you know the the the better for you um so I don't know if I really have any guarded secrets um uh in in that realm I think it's more uh for me you know just leaning on like I said leaning on the technology space that's coming in and continually changing our tech stack a lot of people get stuck in their ways um and and hey these processes have worked for me for five years or ten years I'm not gonna change it I think the number one thing you need to do is be constantly evolving. And I think I think insurance isn't quite that way uh from an agency owner standpoint uh for the large majority. Um and I I think that's that's that's a huge thing is just to constantly evolve because it's gonna help you and it's gonna help your carriers and it's gonna help your customer base.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

Yeah I mean we hear that all the time it's like I've always done it this way so I'm gonna keep doing it that way.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

But yes yep we have consistency is good but there are ways that that you know if you can evolve properly. Totally and what got you here won't get you there.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

So yep yeah all right we're gonna move on to our favorite portion of the show the rapid fire questions.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Okay let's do it worst job you've ever had uh working as a salesperson for a legal office that was very short term I'm not even sure what that means so you're selling like like debt settlement you know like getting the calls in and stuff yeah terrible what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten uh have confidence in yourself all right and what is your Starbucks coffee order Stan's favor question. Oh the uh I always forget it too it's what I get literally every time the the the the espresso shaken oat milk thing uh brown yeah yeah the brown sugar oat I get that one sugar oat milk yeah espresso yeah yeah when when I'm not getting my basic bitch uh vanilla sweet cream cold I've been liking the the the the newer one the cinnamon dolce one or whatever I've been that's been my my new hot one I've been getting but yeah the cold one that the espresso one for sure awesome well thanks so much Kenny for taking the time with us today we really appreciate it uh before we go if you don't mind just letting everyone know where they can find you um

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Maybe your website or email LinkedIn, you let us know.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Yeah, sure. Uh yes, our website, www.beiagency.com. Uh you can find us on uh LinkedIn, you can find us on uh Instagram, you can find us on TikTok. Typically most handles are B E I Agency. Uh so yeah, definitely uh you know, follow, like, and subscribe.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Awesome. Yeah, and for us as well, if you like this episode, make sure you uh like, subscribe. Uh we're always looking for more for more followers as well. But again, thanks, Kenny, for the time today. It was amazing hearing about you and your journey. And stay tuned, everyone, for the next Elevate the Hustle podcast.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Thanks, guys.