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 from inside one of insurance's most loved software companies for 22 years.

Darrin joined HawkSoft in 2004 as employee #8, after years as an agent and CSR. His interview was a backyard barbecue with the founder's family, his first desk was a shelf in a coat closet, and the first thing he was told was that his family comes first. Always.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Darrin joins Stanley Meytin and Dominic Piccirillo to share how HawkSoft grew on word of mouth with no marketing department until 2012, why it treats sales like consulting and walks away from the wrong fit, and the Purple Cow philosophy behind its passionate users.

He also gets honest about AI in insurance: when the tech stack helps clients, and when it starts to replace the reason agents do this work.

If your best clients came from someone who trusted you, this one's for you.

elevateteams.io | LinkedIn | Instagram: @elevatethehustlepodcast @elevateteams.io

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

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 about the summer competition teaching teenagers to build real businesses. One of their students was 15, couldn't drive, knocked on 1,031 doors, and made $25K.

Peter shares how he threw high school dance parties to help pay his parents' mortgage and built a software company acquired by Ford. Scott explains how he became an entrepreneur at 45 and started High School Hustle after his son's summer pressure washing business taught him more than college.

They break down the lunchroom pitch that changed their growth, the $2,500 "beat the summer" benchmark, the newspaper route lesson behind every business, and why even their best young founders struggle to make the first hire.

If you believe the best business education comes from doing, this one's for you.

Website: elevateteams.io

LinkedIn: Elevate Teams

Instagram: @elevatethehustlepodcast

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

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 in the insurance industry, and why his next chapter is built on relationships instead of transactions.

Ricky shares how he stumbled into insurance through a family connection, built his reputation at Agent Brokers United through pure persistence, and why LinkedIn has been his single highest-ROI marketing tool. He also opens up about launching his new venture, ForgePoint, alongside his own daughter, and the mindset that's carried him through every setback along the way.

Whether you're an agency owner who feels stuck or an entrepreneur trying to figure out how to build real relationships instead of just closing deals, this conversation is packed with lessons on resilience, follow-through, and what it actually takes to grow.

Elevate Teams: elevateteams.io
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/elevate-teams
Instagram: @elevateteams

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast