Leveling the Playing Field for Independent Agents with Michael Zalle, Episode #286

Why the Soft Cyber Market Is Your Best Opportunity: Protecting Clients, Managing Risk, and Driving Revenue

February 3, 2026

The cyber insurance market has always been unpredictable. Over the past decade, we’ve seen it move from an emerging line of coverage to one of the most volatile, swinging rapidly between soft and hard market cycles. But today, cyber has entered one of the softest markets in recent memory—and that presents a rare opportunity for both agents and clients.

Captives Have Moved Downstream: Why Middle-Market Producers Must Master the Conversation—Or Get Left Behind

February 2, 2026

For most of my 20-year career, captives felt like something reserved for the insurance elite—the jumbo accounts, the Fortune-level operations, the companies with multimillion-dollar manual premiums and entire departments dedicated to risk management. If you had asked me ten or fifteen years ago whether a $250,000 account was a legitimate captive candidate, I would’ve laughed. I thought captives were reserved for companies so complex and so large that the only rational way to insure them was to build an insurance company around their risk.

From Blue Collar to Blockchain: What New Producers Can Learn from Dean Bowen’s Journey Into Middle-Market Insurance

January 27, 2026

Breaking into the commercial insurance industry is never easy—especially when you’re young, new, and entering a hard market where expectations are high and patience is low. But every once in a while, a story comes along that perfectly illustrates what it really takes to survive and succeed as a new producer.

Financial Literacy Is the Hidden Competitive Advantage for Middle Market Insurance Producers

January 26, 2026

Most commercial insurance producers believe their edge comes from relationships, market access, or quoting speed. Those things matter. But at the middle market level, they are no longer enough.

The producers who consistently win larger accounts, earn underwriter trust, and build long term career leverage all share one trait that rarely gets talked about openly.

Cracking the Code on Sales Talent: How Insurance Agencies Can Recruit, Develop, and Retain Top Producers

January 21, 2026

We can talk all day about marketing funnels, quoting platforms, and prospecting strategies—but if you don’t have people who can sell, none of it matters. Every agency owner I talk to says the same thing: “We just can’t find producers who can sell.”

Mastering the Micro Niche: How Focus, Pre Prospecting, and Relationships Build Million Dollar Books in Commercial Insurance

January 20, 2026

The Protege Season 3 cast met with special guest mentor Charles Specht to talk about what it really takes to build a million dollar book of business in the commercial insurance world. The result was one of the most valuable mentoring sessions the group has ever had.

Leveling the Playing Field for Independent Agents with Michael Zalle, Episode #286

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The Power Producers Podcast where we are refining and redefining the sales game.

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David Carothers

Kyle Houck