From Son of a Preacher Man to High Powered Producer with Cameron Brown, Episode #45

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Cameron Brown, Agency Principal at Insurance Brokers of Arizona. Cameron discusses what drives the success of his agency and how he started his independent agency. 

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Cameron Brown. (1:31)
• Cameron shares his background. (2:03)
• Cameron shares that after three years of working in the big companies, he decided to open up his own Independent Agency in April 2005. (6:02)
• What made Cameron want to go independent? (6:08)
• Cameron mentions that at present, they have over 90 captives that send them business regularly. (7:13)
• Cameron opened an independent agency, and he had three years of experience working for a captive before. (7:43)
• Cameron shares that as far as learning the independent side, building relationships with the underwriters was beneficial. (9:17)
• What’s the worst thing that happened to Cameron, while learning and setting up? (9:53)
• Cameron mentions that he has 10 licensed agents working for him as W2 employees, no producers, and he has one VA working for him and he’s ready to bring another VA. (12:48)
• Is Cameron following any of the other strategies that he typically sees that everybody’s doing? (15:12)
• David shares that one of the things that he learned about the video, was the sequencing of how to get your content distributed the most efficient way possible. (18:00)
• David mentions that Ryan Hanley introduced him to the website called Rev. (18:30)
• What are Cameron and his team doing on the commercial side to generate new business? (20:30)
• Does Cameron have the niches mapped out? (20:59)
• David mentions that when you have a lot of your business coming in from referral sources, you have to take the bad with the good and be able to keep the referrals flowing. (21:23)
• How did Cameron develop his relationships with the 90 captives? (23:51)
• Cameron mentions that he signed up with Podium at the beginning of the year, and it has made things easier for his team. (32:51)
• How has technology impacted Cameron’s agency? (34:18)
• Cameron mentions that they have a voice system called RingCentral. (35:27)
• What’s Cameron’s biggest win, since he had an agency? (38:57)
• Cameron shares that joining support groups with a lot of agency owners is beneficial. (42:31)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Just focus on just being around good people, doing what you can for everybody, and helping where you can and just be a good person, you know? So yeah, that was my upbringing.” – Cameron Brown
• “For me, it was just that definition of success that just keeps getting pushed back, keeps getting further and further out there.” – Cameron Brown
• “One day, you just kind of pat yourself on the back. You’ll be surprised at what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished.” – Cameron Brown
• “Join a group that allows you to see what all is out there. It was huge for me to wake up one morning in 2016, I believe, and find out that there’s a support group out there, like I owe a, you know, with a bunch of agency owners that can help you out, they’ve been there done that a lot of people willing to mentor you and help you.” – Cameron Brown
• “After 10 or 12 years, I just put my nose to the grindstone blocking everything out. And then aside from that, focus on niches, don’t be a generalist.” – Cameron Brown

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Cameron Brown LinkedIn
• Insurance Brokers of Arizona
• IAOA
• Agency Intelligence Mastermind