After two years and over 100 episodes of The Digital Broker, we find out that the insurance agency space has never been in more promising shape. Ryan Deeds and Indio Technologies CMO Ken Wohl look back on what the show has taught us about data, technology, and the future of insurance agencies.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Being a digital broker is less about an attachment to specific tools and more about a mindset of adaptability. Learn how that mindset works and what to focus on before you decide which tools are worth using. Ryan Deeds hosts.Indio Technologies, Inc.

In-person meetings are essential to the insurance industry, but social distancing and quarantines are limiting the freedom to get together in person. Luckily, virtual meetings are coming to the rescue, providing opportunities to keep learning and meeting people. Time to take virtual meetings more seriously. Ryan Deeds hosts.…

Paying producers too high a percentage on new business can discourage them from taking renewals seriously, but neither should you keep producers stuck on renewals. There is no universal formula for producer compensation, but here is what to keep in mind when designing a producer compensation structure that makes sense for your agency. Ryan Deeds ho…

A podcast can drive a lot of listeners and opportunities your way, but it can also be tough to produce. Learn about which tools exist to take the grind out of podcast production so you can focus on just pressing Record. Ryan Deeds interviews Jason Cass.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Leadership involves making decisions based on the available information, but in times of crisis, information is volatile, if it's available at all. Learn how to lead your team through crisis by becoming flexible, nimble, and agile. Ryan Deeds interviews Brian Comerford, host of the Lead.exe podcast.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Bad days are going to happen, but if you know what you’re doing, great days are going to happen too, and they can supercharge employee morale and wipe out the impact of previous bad days. Here are a few, simple things you can do to deliver great days to your employees. Ryan Deeds interviews Azia Hurley and Melissa Wilder.…

Insurance agencies have historically been slow to catch up on technology, but COVID-19 is changing everything. Learn how insurance agencies are making important technological adjustments that will benefit them long after the crisis is over. Ryan Deeds interviews Eric Wistrand, CIO of Couch Braunsdorf.…

When your house and the office become the same place, it is easy to feel like your career is stuck, too. But there is much you can do at your desk to grow your network. Ryan Deeds interviews Olivia Schmitt, who landed her dream job at Total CSR by posting consistently on LinkedIn.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Insurance is supposed to be a lifeline against tough times, and this is the toughest time that many people have ever known. Here is what you can do to put your agency in a position to keep helping people. Ryan Deeds hosts.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Extraordinary times are pressuring insurance agencies to switch to remote work immediately, but knowing where to start can be disorienting. We get straight to the point and tell you which collaboration tools you can start using right away, without having to sort through hundreds of options. Ryan Deeds hosts.…

Bad days are going to happen, but when they *keep* happening, they can destroy agency morale and drive employees away. Here is what you can do to minimize the incidence of bad days and reduce the negative impact of the ones that happen anyway. Ryan Deeds is joined by Azia Hurley and Melissa Wilder.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Indio Technologies, Inc.

Heading into the holiday season, Ryan celebrates appreciation. People don't do their best work unless they want to, and that requires motivation and appreciation. But there are ways to show appreciation that can backfire. Learn how to design and implement a culture of appreciation that consistently inspires and motivates employees.…

Insurance agencies could be connecting with more customers through video but are holding off for fear of lacking resources or know-how. None of those things need to scare you, says Chris Greene of The Flood Insurance Guru. Ryan Deeds hosts.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Following a break from the insurance industry, Ryan Hanley returns, ready to advise insurance agencies who are in the process of their own self-discovery. Ryan Deeds hosts.Indio Technologies, Inc.

Customers are sometimes hesitant to pay a premium if it's too large. Premium financing allows the customer to pay the premium in installments. Bill Wood of Imperial PFS talks to Ryan Deeds about how premium financing works, what the customer can expect, and how the insurance agency receives the money.…

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds interviews Matthew Smith of Rocket Referrals, a company that helps insurance agencies discover and get value from their Net Promoter Score. By listening to this episode, you will learn why a Net Promoter Score is superior to other measurements of customer satisfaction, how to find your Net Promoter …

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Demetrius Gray talk about preparing an insurance agency to handle weather-related claims. By listening to this episode, you will learn what insurance agencies could do to handle weather-related claims more proactively, how technology can help insurance agencies assess exposure to weather damage …

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds talks with Jim Gardner about using technology to optimize field inspections. By listening to this episode, you will learn how traditional field inspections cause operational frictions that waste agency resources and frustrates the customer and how technology can streamline this operation by delegati…

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds interviews Justin Lair of Agency Revolution about the digitization of an insurance agency's marketing process. By listening to this episode, you will learn which outdated habits of classical agencies are their downfall, what sets forward-thinking agencies apart from classical agencies, and how forwa…

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds interviews Andy Priesman, founder of Cover Desk, about virtual assistants. By listening to this episode, you will learn how an assortment of back-office work can eat into your employees’ time, decreasing your agency’s output, how virtual assistants are capable of relieving your agency of these tasks…

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds interviews Justin Goodman, founder of Total CSR. By listening to this episode, you will learn which operational problems forced Justin to develop Total CSR, how the platform grew to help insurance agencies train CSR’s, producers, and employees in any position, and how a good onboarding process helps…

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Mark Alberto talk about the role of an IT department at an insurance agency. By listening to this episode, you will learn, how the expectations and responsibilities of the average IT department have grown, which challenges, old and new, continue to affect an IT department, and how to mitigate th…

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds reflects on leadership and the key responsibilities of a leader. By listening to this episode, you will learn which responsibilities are exclusively a leader’s, how employee engagement is a function of leadership, and how favoritism, absenteeism, and hypocrisy tarnish the credibility of a leader.…

On this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds talks about change management. By listening to this episode, you will learn why change management is essential to operational excellence, why so many change initiatives fall apart, and how to fortify your change management strategy by repeatedly asking yourself these five important questions.…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds talks to Michael Furlong, CEO and co-founder of Indio Technologies. By listening, you will learn why Indio bet on empowering the insurance agent and broker when everyone else was betting on technology to replace them, which key decisions allowed for Indio's growth, and what the company's plans are f…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds talks to Ron Glozman, CEO and founder of Chisel AI, about artificial intelligence and its applications in the field of insurance. By listening to this episode, you will learn how AI is already helping people in the insurance industry and how it actually can create employment opportunities by relievi…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds interviews Ron Glozman, CEO and founder of Chisel AI, about the company’s journey from inception to present-day operations. By listening to this episode, you will hear the story of how a textbook-crunching app became an insurance policy checking tool and how the artificial intelligence behind the to…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds interviews Jay Weintraub, CEO and co-founder of InsureTech Connect, about the brand new Agency Connect event at this year’s InsureTech Connect conference.Indio Technologies, Inc.

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds examines the challenges of implementing technology at insurance agencies. You will learn which biases prohibit insurance agencies from implementing new technology effectively, how to reset your expectations of technology, how your operations team figures in the implementation of any technology, and …

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Azia Hurley talk about Millennial employees at insurance agencies. You will learn why Millennial and non-Millennial employees sometimes don’t get along, how a mentorship program is key to integrating Millennial hires, how career pathing helps Millennial talent develop, and other ways to motivate…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and David W. Clausen talk about how growth works at insurance agencies. You will learn how insurance agencies grow in leaps which are preceded by an inflection point that forces leadership to make a decision, what to take into account when making those decisions, how partnerships and technology assi…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds interviews David W. Clausen about David’s successful history of generating leads online. David is the CEO of Coastal Home Insurance Solutions. You will learn how you can grow your own digital presence by sticking to the very basics of online marketing and why you should test your way to success, bei…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Melissa Wilder talk about the details that complicate coverages and how to spot them. You will learn, what kind of “little” things can wreck a coverage; where to find them; and how they vary from niche to niche, how to protect yourself against oversights, and what other resources you can consult…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Melissa Wilder discuss the perfect renewal process of an insurance agency. By listening to this episode, you'll learn what stage(s) in the renewal process typically fall apart, how to prevent it, and what to keep in mind when deciding whether to remarket…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds talks about what he’s learned at the many insurance conferences he’s been to in the first half of 2019. By listening to this episode, you will learn, what Ryan heard and saw at three of the biggest insurance conferences this year: Elevate, Accelerate, and Dig|In, and which technologies and products …

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Brad Ruben, founder of Archway, talks to Ryan Deeds about IT issues that affect insurance agency operations. By listening to this episode, you will learn about the many IT issues that affect insurance agency operations, including why so many agencies don’t get the most out of their agency management systems, h…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Milan Malkani talk about customer touchpoints, specifically the ones that are often overlooked by insurance agencies. By listening to this episode, you will learn how to cross-sell and upsell more successfully, how to visualize customer touchpoints with the help of a funnel, and how the payment …

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Olivia Schmitt talk about the challenge of finding and maintaining a work-life balance in the insurance industry. Learn how the perception of work-life balance is changing as a result of technology, what agencies can do to assist the work-life balance of its employees, and why it’s in the agency…

In this episode of The Digital Broker, Ryan Deeds and Eric Wistrand list the five questions you should ask to assess the state of an agency’s operations. Learn how seemingly small details like compensation structures reveal a lot about an agency’s attitude toward standardization, what a change management strategy ought to look like, how you can str…