- The Insurance Dudes Newsletter
- Posts
- Unlocking Bonus Success: The Top Three Questions Every Insurance Agency Owner Should Ask
Unlocking Bonus Success: The Top Three Questions Every Insurance Agency Owner Should Ask
The Insurance Dudes
August 12, 2025
Weekly Trivia 🤔 Question:
Which menu item was involved in the famous 1994 product liability suit involving McDonald’s?
Today In 5 Minutes Or Less (TLDR):
🔒Three Key Questions to Reflect on Your Insurance Agency Bonus This Year 🔒
Dear Insurance Champions,
Each year, bonus season gives us not only a financial boost but a golden chance to redefine our agency’s trajectory. It’s not about that one check. It’s about building a scalable, predictable machine that prints results for years to come. Ready to turn your bonus (win or miss) into your agency’s rocket fuel?
Let’s get tactical. Here are three questions you need to ask yourself to make this your breakthrough year:
1. Are You Truly Happy With Your Bonus?
Be brutally honest: Sit down with pen and paper write out if you’re satisfied with your bonus and why or why not. Don’t just let the answer rattle around in your head.
No self-beatdowns: It’s okay if you didn’t hit your bonus target. What matters is clarity, not criticism.
Reframe the miss: Treat your bonus as “gravy” yet a signal light on what’s working and what’s not.
Action Step:
Write down what you feel about your bonus, then list the top three reasons behind that feeling.
2. What Actions Led to This Outcome?
Trace your steps: Whether you smashed your bonus or came up short, take stock of all the actions you took last year.
Reverse engineer successes or stumbles: If you only earned half your potential, what specific activities filled that half and what was missing from the other side?
Own your process: Focus on actions you controlled. Ignore market excuses. Look inside your agency.
Action Step:
Make a two-column list:
Column 1: Actions that led to results
Column 2: Missed actions/opportunities
3. What Are You Willing to Do Differently?
Break the cycle: If you want a different bonus outcome, you must be willing to change something this year.
Dial up your marketing: Are you spending and investing at a level that matches your ambition or just coasting?
Systematize & empower: Build processes that allow your team to win without you micromanaging every detail.
Action Step:
Write out one thing you will do differently to fill the gap whether it’s a new marketing push, hiring, or retooling your sales process.
Bottom Line
The most successful agencies don’t settle for “good enough” or hope for luck. They intentionally review, recalibrate, and commit to new actions each year. That’s how you create consistent, predictable growth and make every bonus season a celebration.
Ready to level up? Start with these three questions today.
Craig Pretzinger and Jason Feltman
The Insurance Dudes! 🚀
We have to be mindful of what we're doing and really intentional about making the things that we do translate into results.
Craig Pretzinger
Strategic Humility for Insurance Agencies: The First Law of Power Explained
There’s something we rarely talk about as insurance agency owners, but it completely shapes how far we can go: understanding our role as “franchopreneurs.” That’s right we aren’t just entrepreneurs running wild with no limits. We’re working within frameworks set by the carriers, following playbooks that have some non-negotiable rules. And if you landed in the captive space, you probably felt the pinch of that reality pretty quickly.
It’s tempting to fight this with all our might, trying to “be right” or force the company to do things our way. But the real winners in this business? They play a longer, smarter game one built on what Robert Greene calls “strategic humility.” Law #1 in the 48 Laws of Power is never outshine the master. That doesn’t mean you shrink yourself, it means you read the room.
Look at Galileo, he could have gone guns blazing at the Catholic Church with his heliocentric theory. Instead, he checked his ego, let the Pope share in the breakthrough, and lived to keep making progress. Flip it to French history? Nicholas Foke went over the top trying to impress King Louis XIV with a party that was too good, made the king look bad, and earned himself a life sentence. That’s the difference between playing chess on the powerboard and flipping it over.
In our insurance world, this law still matters. We might feel like we have no boss, but every “corporate puppeteer” has their own agenda, usually tied to shareholders or the mutual company first, not the agent. If you want to expand your influence (and your agency’s opportunities), become indispensable to your market leaders, your regionals, and even the folks at corporate. Help them win their contests even if you’ve scaled past caring; help them look good. That’s how doors open.
It’s crucial to check our egos and stop chasing “being right” just for the sake of it. Focus on being effective instead. If you feel friction, step back and ask if it’s because you want to be right or because you want the best result for your agency. Show up as the team player who offers ideas, helps others, and makes everyone shine.
Don’t waste time fighting rules that won’t bend. Instead, master the art of alignment, help others win, and watch how your opportunity grows. That’s where real agency power lives.
🔥 Coming Up: The Future of Insurance with Troy Korsgaden
Curious about what the top carriers have in store for 2025? Troy Korsgaden is sharing the inside scoop, what’s shifting, what’s working, and the moves your agency should make right now to stay ahead.
🎯 Insider strategies. Carrier-level insights. No fluff.
🎤 Hosted by:
The Insurance Dudes with special guest Troy Korsgaden
✅Limited spots—> secure yours today!
Around The Web 🌎
The YouTube 🎥
We had the pleasure to sit down with the Co‑Founder and Managing Partner of Jordan Partners, a Raleigh, North Carolina–based private equity firm, Brandon Wolfe!
This Week On The Podcast 🎧
 | On this episode of The Insurance Dudes, we sit down with industry powerhouse Peter Fournier to uncover the secrets behind building a thriving, recession-proof insurance agency. Peter shares his journey from flipping Pokémon cards as a kid to carving out his niche in mortgage protection within the insurance world. He dishes out hard-earned lessons on money management, the critical importance of process, and how mastering referrals transformed his business. You’ll get candid stories from the field, tips on holding yourself accountable, and actionable advice for new and seasoned agents alike. |
Answer To The Weekly Trivia Question:
Coffee.
Many people think her lawsuit was frivolous, but Stella Liebeck needed skin grafts for the third-degree burns the drive-thru disaster caused. She just wanted McDonald’s to pay $20,000 to cover her medical bills. When they said no, the case picked up steam.
We put together a free book and checklist to grow your insurance agency 👉 Here
Reply