Shows / Elevate The Hustle
Elevate The Hustle
Elevate the Hustle is the podcast for independent insurance agency owners, entrepreneurs, and operators building something real.
Hosted by Stanley Meytin and Dom Piccirillo, founders of an eight-figure company helping agencies scale with top offshore talent, the show sits down with the people actually building right now: agency owners, M&A and P&C experts, and operators who've hired, led, and scaled without burning out.
Every episode is the behind-the-scenes conversation you don't get anywhere…
Episodes
Elevate The HustleThe Brutal Truth About Breaking the $5M Ceiling in Insurance | Pete Poggi
Pete Poggi sat next to a mortgage lender in his networking group for three years. The lender closed 10 to 15 loans a month. Pete never asked him about it, and…
Elevate The HustleCurtis Barton Built a $2B Brokerage From Zero Clients. Most Owners Get This Wrong.
Curtis Barton wanted to be a lawyer. His dad told him he didn't like reading enough. So he helped his dad start an insurance agency with zero clients and did…
Elevate The HustleEp.38 Operations Bores Me”: The Producer Who Became an Agency Owner
Daniel Rojas walked into insurance by accident in 2004. A couple of months later, four hurricanes hit Florida. He figured if he could survive that, he'd be…
Elevate The HustleE37: He Worked for the Wolf of Wall Street. Now He Insures $5B in Real Estate.
Jerry Katz was an immigrant kid named Igor when nobody came to his birthday party. That's the day he says his hustle started. From there: a sales mentor who…
Elevate The HustleE36:Your Clients Should Be Your Marketing Department: How HawkSoft Grew on Word of Mouth
You built your agency on relationships. Now everyone's telling you to automate, buy more leads and spend more on ads. Darrin DeFouw has watched that pressure…
Elevate The HustleE.35 Every Business Comes Down to These 3 Things | High School Hustle
In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Scott Lingle and Peter SerVaas, co-founders of High School Hustle, join Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to talk…
Elevate The HustleE34: The Master Connector: How Ricky Brito Built ForgePoint on Relationships, Not Transactions.
Ricky Brito joins Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to break down how he went from working rooftops at age 10 to becoming one of the most connected people…
Elevate The HustleEp.33 Fired, Then Founder: Greg & Becky Hile on Building QuoteRUSH From Scratch
Greg and Becky Hile, co-founders of QuoteRUSH, join Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to tell the real story behind one of the insurance industry's most…
Elevate The HustleEp 32: The Insurance Agency Owner Who Turned His Biggest Pain Point Into a Business | Justin Goodman
Justin Goodman, founder of Total CSR, joins Stan and Dom to break down how he turned his own agency's biggest problem, watching big houses poach every employee…
Elevate The HustleEp. 31: We Made $17K Our First Year. Here's How Erb & Young Got to $100M | Brett Young & Matt Main
Brett Young and Matt Main of Erb & Young join Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to break down how three guys with zero insurance experience and $17,000 in…
Elevate The HustleEp. 30: We've Trained 1,500+ Insurance Virtual Assistants. Here's How It Works. Ft. Melissa Rivera
Melissa Rivera, Head of Training at Elevate Teams, joins Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo to break down what it actually takes to build and train a great virtual…
Elevate The HustleEp. 29: The Insurance Industry Runs on Relationships, Not Rates. Ft. Adam Urbania from The AC
"Relationships close deals. Rates don't." In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Adam Urbania, part of the leadership team at The AC…
Elevate The HustleEp. 28: Shark Tank's Nelson Brooks on Building a Billion-Dollar Party Empire
"$225K for 10%. He left owing 32%. Still called it a win." In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Nelson Brooks, founder of Cabana…
Elevate The Hustle"This 14-Year-Old Entrepreneur Turned a Dinner Idea Into a Real Business | Cody DeCoons Ep. 27
14 years old. Already failed 10,000 times. And he's just getting started. In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Cody DeCoons, a…
Elevate The HustleHow to Scale a Family Insurance Agency Through 20+ Acquisitions ft Marc Duffy | Elevate The Hustle
He lost his father at 26, inherited a family business he wasn't ready for, and turned it into an 80-person insurance agency with 20+ acquisitions. In this…
Elevate The HustleHow to Launch an Insurance Business With No Roadmap and No Guarantees
Insurance agency owners: How Greg May launched a specialty casualty MGA from scratch with his brother, said no to the opportunity three times, and bound their…
Elevate The HustleWhat Every Stuck Insurance Agency Owner Gets Wrong About Growth
In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Kim Ades, founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and one of the most respected…
Elevate The HustleHow to Actually Grow an Insurance Agency ft Ryan Hanley
In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo sit down with Ryan Hanley, 20-year insurance industry veteran, founder of Rogue Risk…
Elevate The HustleStop Growing Your Agency Alone | How to Build Connections That Drive Revenue | Jon Spaugy
Insurance agency owners: How Jon Spaugy spent 16 years building one of the most connected networks in the independent insurance world, and why the agents who…
Elevate The HustleThe Future of Insurance Agencies: Who Survives and Who Gets Left Behind | Kevin Panter
Insurance agency owners: How Kevin Panter built a $20M independent insurance agency in a Georgia county of 27,000 people, and why he keeps saying no to private…
Elevate The HustleHow 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…
Elevate The HustleMost 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…
Elevate The HustleHow 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…
Elevate The HustleWhy 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…
Elevate The HustleFrom 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…
Elevate The HustleWhy 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…
Elevate The HustleYour 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…
Elevate The HustleWhy 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…
Elevate The HustleDon'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…
Elevate The HustleWhat 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…
Elevate The HustleWhy 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…
Elevate The HustleWhat 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…
Elevate The HustleYou 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…
Elevate The HustleRun 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…
Elevate The HustleFrom 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…
Elevate The HustleThe 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…
Elevate The HustleLeaving 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…
Elevate The HustleStarting 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…
Elevate The HustleThe 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 HustleWe Brought a REAL Giraffe to an Insurance Conference
“A giraffe walks into an insurance conference…” Sounds like the setup to a joke, right? Except this actually happened. And we were the ones who brought it. 🦒…