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 P&C insurance agency owners who have scaled to $50 million, $100 million and beyond - plus solo episodes where Pete shares the exact recruiting, training, and management frameworks that took his agency from owner-dependent to owner-optional.
This show is for the P&C insurance agency owner who has outgrown being a producer but hasn't yet built the team and systems to step away. If you're ready to stop being owned by your insurance agency and start owning it - this is your show.
About Pete Poggi
Pete Poggi is the founder of John Galt Insurance and creator of the Million Dollar Producer training program for P&C insurance agents. He is also the author of the bestselling book "P&C Insurance Accelerator: How To Build an 8 Figure Agency Without Relying on Cold Calls, Outrageous Franchise Fees or Outdated Sales Tactics," available on Amazon and Audible.
Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com
How a 24-Year-Old Makes $50K a Month Off Car Dealerships
Caleb Harris is 24 years old. He started in door-to-door life insurance, lasted about three months, and then took a job as a captive agent with Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance.His plan there was simple: Find the top agent and copy whatever he does. That agent took him to a car dealership in Ohio and showed him how it's done. A year and a half later, Caleb left to start his own independent agency, Ora Insurance.Today he writes about 50 new households a week through car dealerships, and his agency brings in $40,000 to $50,000 a month in revenue. His record is 82 in one week.So why did he DM Pete on LinkedIn? Because, in his words, if people go with you over $5, they'll leave you over $5.What you'll discover in this episode:
The one question he asks at every new dealership: "Does insurance ever come up in the sales or finance process for you guys?"
Why speed, and doing what you say you'll do, beats every other agent who walks in the door
Auto retention vs. home retention, and why Pete told him to replicate his model on the homeowner side
His biggest mistake: Not hiring his two virtual assistants sooner ($5 an hour, found on Fiverr)
How he turned dealership salespeople into his marketing reps
The first hire that didn't work out, and why Caleb says it was his fault, not the hire's
His five-year goal: An agency that runs on its own, doing $10 million a year in revenue
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 agent who is making good money and still doing everything themselves.
Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com
6 Oct 2026
How a Broke P&C Agent Built a $30M Agency
Chris Cole built a $30 million P&C agency and was the number one agent in his company for a few years. Two and a half to three years into owning that agency, he was broke and foreclosing on his house.His words: "One day I woke up broke, the only way out was for me to start selling $100,000 a week in premium."Chris came to insurance from pharmaceuticals, through State Farm's training program, where a new agent takes over an existing book and manages it. So when he opened his own agency, he managed it. Performance was bad, because nobody was setting the pace. He let his salespeople go, put two or three support people around himself, and sold $300,000 to $400,000 a month on his own for about six months. Then he brought salespeople back in, and scaled.Pete and Chris go back to 2009. Today Chris runs a virtual assistant company, and he is open about where VAs fit in an agency.What you'll discover in this episode:
The one-call close, and the "extended time" idea behind it
Why his team treated renewing clients exactly like new business, and got retention closer to 92 to 93%
Why the owner has to become the pace setter before stepping back
The bar he set for new producers when he was selling $80,000 to $100,000 a week
Why adding more salespeople can leave every salesperson worse off
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 stuck managing instead of selling.
Learn more at www.PetePoggi.com
25 Sept 2026
Entrepreneur or Wantrepreneur: How I Hire $10M P&C Producers
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
Who has been a guest on You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You.
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Nathan Brainard
Patrick Mignon
Zane Lefko
Greg Brunt
Gina Prizzi
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
13 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Contact You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You.
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Questions about You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You.
Who hosts You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You.?
Pete Poggi host the show. Published by Pete Poggi.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes weekly, based on its RSS feed.
Does You Don't Own Your Agency. It Owns You. take guests?
Yes. Guests have been identified in episode analyses.
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