Business advice for agencies isn’t just about selling more policies. It is about removing bottlenecks so your team can focus on relationships, retention, and growth. Too many agency owners become the choke point in their own business. Matthew Saffer is the founder of Ethos VAS and an agency owner with more than 15 years in remote staffing and virtual team systems for insurance companies. He built his own backend operational systems to fix retention, persistency, and growth issues in his agencies. Those same systems are now used across multiple client agencies to help producers focus on selling while virtual teams handle follow‑ups, service work, and operations. On the Brokers Hotseat Podcast, Saffer explains how virtual staffing and sensible AI support can streamline operations without losing human connection or customer experience. 0:00 - Why Agencies Hit Bottlenecks and How to Fix Them 1:07 - Virtual Teams and Backend Systems That Scale 2:25 - How Remote Staffing Helps Producers Focus on Selling 4:00 - Security and Scaling With Virtual Staff 6:01 - AI Isn’t a Replacement, It’s Support for Human Interaction 8:10 - One Action Agents Can Use Today Connect with Matthew Saffer: Website: https://ethosvas.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mj-saffer/ Connect with Graden Reber: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gradenreber Brokers Hotseat Podcast brings real entrepreneurship and business strategy to agency owners and brokers who want practical systems, leadership skills, and success stories they can act on. Powered by NXC Podcast Network #thenxcpodcastnetwork #brokershotseat #businessadvice

If you want to master entrepreneurship and find financial freedom, you have to realize that activity breeds activity. Most people fail at business strategy because they treat hope like a strategy instead of building a repeatable plan for success stories. You have to start stacking up the nos if you want to find the yeses. Michael McCurry is the Principal of KMI Insurance Services and a 32-year veteran of the insurance industry. After a career spanning roles from the youngest sales director to a manager of agent development at the carrier level, he now leads a massive distribution network specializing in the Medicare space. Mike has mastered the "puzzle" of Medicare by aligning the interests of carriers, medical groups, and agents to better serve the ultimate beneficiary while maintaining a book of business that stays independent and residual-heavy. 0:00 - Why hope is not a viable business strategy. 1:45 - The old school math of stacking nos to get yeses. 2:30 - Shifting from transactional sales to a fiduciary mindset. 4:15 - Mastering the sales psychology of social submissiveness. 6:50 - Why you must read your contracts and own your residuals. 10:10 - Authenticity as the ultimate differentiator in the AI era. Connect with Michael McCurry: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mccurry-822ba3122/ Connect with Graden Reber: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graden-reber The Brokers Hotseat Podcast is where we stop the corporate speak and talk about what it actually takes to build a massive book in the insurance world. We talk to the producers and agency owners who are disrupting the status quo. Powered by NXC Podcast Network #thenxcpodcastnetwork #brokershotseat #entrepreneurship