One of the things I was thinking about today is how come it is that leaders have a greater desire for their people to succeed than their people do sometimes?
Leaders are leaders because of their mindset. They’re wired tighter than other people and are more driven. They want to see people succeed. At the end of the day, though, I think that leaders have a fault. Sometimes we want to see other people succeed more than they want to succeed, and I don’t understand the thought process behind that even though I’m guilty of it.
I think we have people in our organizations that we really believe in and can see their potential. And it’s our job as leaders to reveal that potential to them and believe in them at a greater level than they’re willing to believe in themselves. But at the same time, there has to be a time when we as leaders cut the cord. We can’t consistently want people to do better than they want to do for themselves.
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The truth is, in many organizations, people become cancerous victims that do nothing except complain about everything that doesn’t get done for them. Leaders cave. They go above and beyond. They do everything they can to honor the commitment they’ve given to that person when they come into the organization. But at that point, they’re in the death spiral. As leaders, we need to recognize when this happens. We need to remember when we need to quit. We need to recognize when we have to do something that we don’t like to do. We have to give up. I’m not particularly eager to give up, but we’re also responsible for running profitable organizations, and sometimes that’s what it requires.
As you think about how you’re going to go about your week, think about making sure there’s equality. Identify the congruent patterns of how you want someone to succeed and how they see themselves as succeeding. Everybody has a desire. It’s just a matter of what level. Ramp that up and get it. If you can do that, you and your team will kill it in commercial insurance.
If you are still walking into meetings talking about premiums, coverage forms, and carrier options, you are already behind.
The middle market is evolving. Business owners are more sophisticated. They are more aware of their financials. And most importantly, they are tired of writing checks for insurance year after year without seeing a return.
Workers’ compensation is one of the most misunderstood and underestimated lines of coverage in the middle market. Too many producers view it as a commodity, something to quote, bind, and move on from. But as the market heads toward 2026, that mindset is becoming a liability.
For years, commercial insurance producers could survive by being good enough across a wide range of industries. They could write a little construction, a little manufacturing, a little hospitality, and a little habitational business and still build a respectable book.
The commercial insurance industry is in the middle of a quiet evolution.
While most conversations still revolve around premiums, deductibles, limits, and carrier appetite, a different category of risk transfer has been gaining traction beneath the surface—parametric insurance. It is not new, but it is finally becoming accessible, relevant, and actionable for middle market producers who are willing to think differently about risk.
In a recent episode of the Power Producers Podcast, I sat down with Brian Thompson from Descartes Underwriting to unpack what parametric insurance actually is, what it is not, and why producers who ignore it may be leaving their clients—and themselves—exposed.
This article breaks that conversation down into practical, producer-friendly language and shows how parametric insurance fits into modern middle market risk management.
The last several years have reshaped the landscape of property insurance across the country. While most national carriers have retreated from coastal states, wildfire zones, and other catastrophe-exposed regions, a handful of disciplined players have taken the opposite path—leaning into difficult markets with a strategic, data-driven approach.
For most entrepreneurs, the decision to start a business is rooted in the promise of freedom. Freedom from a boss, freedom to control income, and freedom to build something meaningful. Yet for many business owners, particularly in service-based industries and middle-market companies, that freedom slowly erodes. What begins as ownership eventually turns into obligation, where the business demands constant attention and the owner becomes the single point of failure.
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