Advertise on podcast: BOR or Bust

How much money is every hour of your workday actually worth? If you're an insurance producer, the answer depends on a lot more than how hard you work. Every day, you make decisions about where to spend your time. Which prospects deserve your attention? Which accounts are worth pursuing? When should you say no? And how much time should you invest in becoming a better producer? In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl Henry and Nick Aube explore how insurance producers can maximize the dollar value of every hour they work. We get into: Why being busy isn't the same as being productive.How to evaluate opportunities based on their potential return.Why chasing quotes can be an expensive use of your time.How to protect prospecting time from constant interruptions.Why developing your sales skills can be more valuable than simply increasing your activity.How raising your personal standards changes the economics of your career.Why believing in yourself matters when you're asking a prospect to believe in you.Along the way, we share stories about difficult prospects, bad drinking and smoking habits, waking up early, drinking celery juice, and anything else we felt like talking about along the way.  Because the goal isn't necessarily to work more hours. It's to make the hours you already work worth more. It's BOR or Bust, baby!

$30,000 in revenue. Two meetings. Six weeks. That's what happened when a producer used the Broker of Record (BOR) strategy to win a $220,000 premium account. But the real lesson isn't just how quickly the deal closed. It's what happens when you stop chasing quotes and start getting prospects to make decisions. In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl Henry and Nick Aube break down why speed to decision is one of the most important drivers of growth for insurance producers. We get into one of the most frustrating situations in commercial insurance sales: the prospect who likes your strategy, knows they have a problem, but just won't make a decision. How do you create urgency without becoming a pushy salesperson? How do you follow up without constantly "checking in"? And when should you stop investing your time in an opportunity that isn't moving? We also get into the economics of a producer's calendar. If you're spending 10, 20, or 40 hours chasing quotes for prospects who haven't committed to working with you, what opportunities are you missing? In this episode: How a producer won $30K in revenue with just two meetingsWhy dissatisfied prospects still refuse to leave their incumbent brokerHow to use your renewal strategy to create legitimate urgencyHow to follow up with stalled prospects without sounding desperateWhy getting to a decision faster is more valuable than simply getting more quotesHow time blocking protects your most valuable selling hoursWhy being busy isn't the same as being productiveHow to increase the revenue-generating value of your timePlus, Nick and Daryl somehow find their way into plant-based diets, bad math, personal trainers, and Fourth of July celebrations. Because apparently that's how we teach insurance sales now. The bottom line: You don't grow your book just by working harder. You grow by getting better decisions, faster, and protecting the time you need to pursue the next opportunity. BOR or Bust is about strategy, action, and community. Subscribe for real conversations about building a better insurance sales career.

Nick shut down the agency. But he isn't thinking smaller. He's pursuing a bigger vision—and he believes he's found a faster path to building it. In this episode, Nick explains why he decided to close the agency, what the experience taught him, and why he's shifting his focus toward building the environment producers need to grow. And there's another big announcement: Nick is giving away the BOR Growth System for FREE. The complete system—including the frameworks, scripts, videos, and sales process Nick has developed for winning commercial insurance business through Broker of Record—is being opened up for producers to use. Then we get into what happens when that system meets the messy reality of commercial insurance sales. What happens when you want to use a BOR strategy—but you don't have access to the incumbent carrier? Do you just go back to quoting? We don't think so. Instead, we unpack the idea of creating a BOR Standard: defining the level of commitment you require from a prospect before investing your time, expertise, and market relationships—even when a traditional Broker of Record letter isn't available on the incumbent carrier. We get into: • Why Nick shut down the agency—and why he sees it as a faster path toward a bigger goal • What he's building instead • Why the BOR Growth System is being released for free • What going back into production taught Nick • Committed revenue vs. bound revenue • One-call vs. two-call sales strategies • Using market reconnaissance to build the right strategy • How to compete against direct writers and inaccessible markets • Getting BORs for the rest of the marketplace • When strategic quoting can actually make sense • Why your BOR standard should change based on your competitive environment • How to determine whether a prospect actually intends to work with you • Why the strategy itself has value—even when the prospect doesn't hire you The BOR letter is a tool. The bigger idea is having a standard for how you operate. How much commitment do you require before you're willing to invest your time? When should you quote? When should you demand the BOR? And when should you simply walk away? That's what we work through in this episode. BOR or Bust, baby.

We already ended the episode. Then we kept talking. Nick had about ten more minutes, and we were still trying to figure out what happens when you win the BOR—but you can't take over the incumbent carrier. So we turned the microphones back on. Because this is where the BOR strategy gets complicated. What happens when the prospect wants to work with you, but their current carrier won't let you take over the policy? Do you walk away? Do you quote around the incumbent? Do you get the BOR for the rest of the marketplace? And how do you make sure the incumbent broker doesn't use their position to beat you anyway? That conversation led us somewhere bigger. Nick isn't just solving the problems of a producer anymore. He's solving the problems of an agency principal. Carrier access. Volume. Leverage. Market relationships. And the reality that when you're the smaller agency, sometimes you have to fight a little guerrilla warfare. But by the end of the conversation, Nick starts asking a different question: What if we're thinking about the incumbent broker all wrong? Instead of fighting the fact that they're still involved, what if we lean into it? There might be a better BOR play hiding in this problem. We have some ideas. That's next week's show. This is the conversation after the conversation. BONUS: We Weren't Done — What Happens When You Can't BOR the Incumbent Carrier?

Nick got the BOR. The prospect committed. The strategy worked. He delivered an option. And he still lost the account. In this episode of BOR or Bust, Nick breaks down a brutal month where he generated roughly $130,000 in committed revenue—only to watch deal after deal fall apart during fulfillment. That leads us into a much bigger conversation: Is getting the BOR really enough? We dig into the difference between committed revenue and fulfilled revenue, why producers may need far more lead volume than they think, what happens when your carrier doesn't deliver, and how market access changes the effectiveness of a BOR strategy. We also talk about what producers can actually control: lead volume, positioning, their standard for accepting opportunities, and the products they choose to sell. Along the way, we somehow get into glitter, shoplifting, Stoicism, Hertz Rent A Car, Chihuahuas, Corgis, and an incumbent broker calling a client from the hospital. This one went places. If you're an insurance producer trying to grow a commercial book, this is an honest conversation about what happens after you get the commitment—and why getting the BOR doesn't necessarily mean you've won. BOR or Bust is about building an insurance book by becoming the broker clients choose before the quoting starts. Subscribe for weekly conversations about insurance sales, prospecting, broker-of-record strategy, lead generation, commercial insurance, and building a high-performance book of business. It's BOR or Bust, baby.

In this episode of BOR or Bust, Nick and Daryl work through three problems they’re dealing with in real time. Daryl has been testing a new cold-calling script with contractors—and it wasn’t quite working. Then a contractor gave him the exact language he needed to change the opening. A small tweak started getting a very different response. Nick is learning another lesson as he builds his agency: getting the BOR is only the beginning. Pre-indications change. Underwriters decline accounts. Pricing moves. Market access matters. We talk about how to work through those problems and turn a commitment into an actual bound account. Then we get into lead generation. Nick tried outsourcing cold calling and had 21 appointments scheduled in the first week—but almost nobody showed. So what parts of lead generation can actually be outsourced? Can producers build a pipeline without spending their entire day cold calling? And where do content, email, power dialers and inbound leads fit? This one is a real-time look at what happens when you stop talking about sales systems in theory and actually try to execute them. BOR or Bust, Baby.

16 decision conversations in three days. Coming off Labor Day weekend, Nick wasn't particularly motivated to cold call. He was tired. He was questioning whether he was moving fast enough. And even after putting up some of his best prospecting numbers, the self-doubt was still there. But he made the calls anyway. In this episode of BOR or Bust, Daryl and Nick break down exactly what worked—and what they're still figuring out. They dig into the mental frameworks Nick uses to keep executing when he doesn't feel like it, why you need to build your support systems before you actually need them, and how Daryl has learned to completely reframe cold-call rejection. Then they get into the numbers. 166 calls. 16 decision conversations. Roughly a 9.5% hit rate. And $92,000 in committed September revenue. Nick explains why he's stopped scheduling traditional first meetings and started taking decision conversations live, what actually counts as a decision conversation, and why getting to a "no" faster might actually make his sales process more efficient. Then the tables turn. Daryl's been cold calling contractors—and his opening isn't working as well as he'd like. Nick helps him diagnose the problem in real time, and they rebuild the script around a simple principle: stop talking to prospects the way YOU want to be spoken to. Start using the language your customers actually use. This is a conversation about what high-volume prospecting really looks like: managing your head, testing your messaging, tracking your numbers, listening to the market, and constantly adjusting the machine. 16 decision conversations. Three days. Here's what worked. Second place isn't good enough. It's BOR or Bust.

Every producer wants to grow. But eventually, something gets in the way. Sometimes it’s call reluctance. Sometimes it’s rejection. Sometimes it’s uncertainty about your market, your strategy, or whether what you’re doing is actually going to work. And sometimes you’re just so busy doing the work that you stop doing the things that generate revenue. In this episode of BOR or Bust, Nick gives an update on his attempt to write $1 million in revenue in six months—and we get into the barriers that can slow down a producer at almost any stage of their career. We talk about recognizing where you’re winning and doubling down, dealing with rejection without letting it derail your day, protecting prospecting time, managing the mental side of production, and why your ability to grow may ultimately come down to how much discomfort you’re willing to endure. Nick also shares how one decision to protect his prospecting time instead of working on an existing opportunity led to roughly $30,000 in additional committed revenue. Whether you’re trying to get through your first year, break through $300K, or chase a much bigger number, eventually you have to figure out what’s slowing you down—and break through it. It’s BOR or Bust, baby.

Nick thinks he found his niche: distressed trucking. The opportunity is there. These companies are paying enormous insurance premiums, many brokers don't want to deal with them, and the buyers are struggling to figure out how to navigate the marketplace. Now Nick has to figure out how to win it. In this episode, we work through how Nick is adapting the BOR Growth System to trucking in real time. He’s learning the markets, building carrier relationships, testing market recon, refining the first call, and figuring out how to create an offer specifically designed around the problems these trucking companies face. And that leads us into a bigger conversation: What does it actually mean to specialize? Because building a niche isn't just becoming a coverage expert. It's understanding the buyer, the marketplace, the carriers, and the problems well enough that you can build a sales strategy specifically for them. We talk about why the same BOR strategy needs to sound different when selling to a trucking company versus a social service organization, why market recon can't become free quoting, and how getting to a decision early can save producers hours of wasted work. Nick even discovers—in real time—how 17 hot-shot trucks might be destroying the marketability of a $1.3 million trucking account. This isn't a finished strategy. You're listening to us build it. BOR or Bust.

What should actually happen on the first call with a prospect? Most insurance producers are trying to schedule the next meeting. But what if the goal should be to get the prospect to make a decision? This week, Nick has been experimenting with taking prospects directly from the cold call into the sales conversation—and potentially getting the BOR on the first call. It created an interesting problem. Sometimes you have enough information and market knowledge to ask for the BOR immediately. Sometimes you don't. So if you can't get the BOR on the first call, what can you get them to commit to? In this episode, we work through the process in real time and land on a potentially different approach: instead of allowing a prospect to casually agree to another meeting, get them to appoint you as the lead broker to conduct market reconnaissance. Now there's something at stake. We get into: Why Nick stopped scheduling meetings and started going live on the cold callWhether a one-call BOR is actually realisticWhy niche expertise makes it easier to get the BOR quicklyThe difference between knowing the marketplace and doing account-specific market reconWhy no broker needs access to every insurance companyHow producers should think about building carrier relationshipsWhy getting quotes from multiple brokers can actually hurt the buyerHow to use market reconnaissance as a deliverableThe idea of becoming the prospect's lead brokerWhy every sales conversation needs a decision pointHow a meaningful commitment could improve second-meeting show ratesWhy the first call may not be about getting the BOR—it may be about getting the first real commitment The goal isn't necessarily to close every prospect on the first call. The goal is to stop letting prospects move through your sales process without ever having to make a decision. Get the BOR if you can. If you can't, get a commitment. Make them decide. BOR or Bust, baby.

What is the most important skill an insurance producer can develop? Getting to the decision. Nick is officially back in the saddle, and this week he started testing the one-call BOR strategy in the real world. He got to one deal worth $130k and gave the buyer enough information to make an educated decision in 45 minutes. Six qualified decision conversations. One BOR commitment. A $130,000 revenue opportunity he desperately wanted. And a whole bunch of questions about how producers should actually be spending their time. In this episode, we work through Nick’s first week back in production in real time. We talk about why yes, no, and maybe are all valuable answers, why a fast “no” can be better than spending weeks chasing a prospect, and why the goal of the sales process should be to get to the real decision as quickly as possible. We also dig into what happens after the prospect says yes. A verbal commitment isn’t revenue. There’s still a process: Verbal commitment → Signed BOR → Completed submission → Fulfilled revenue And that raises an even bigger question: If getting prospects to a decision is where producers create the most value, how should an insurance agency be designed to maximize the number of those conversations a producer can have? That leads us into lead generation, producer capacity, account minimums, fulfillment, paperwork, specialization — and whether agencies should be thinking less about revenue per account and more about revenue per producer per day. No prep work on this one. We walked in, hit record, and talked through what Nick learned during his first week back in the saddle. BOR or Bust, baby.

Can you really close a Broker of Record (BOR) in a single meeting? In Part 2 of our $1M Revenue in 6 Months series, Nick breaks down the system he's betting his new agency on. The goal isn't just to close faster—it's to find serious buyers faster. We challenge the traditional insurance sales process by asking: • Can a BOR really be won in one call? • How do you fit a strategy presentation into 25 minutes? • What if you're talking to the wrong decision maker? • What if the prospect says no? • What happens if the agency is brand new? Most producers spend months chasing quotes. We're trying to compress the time to truth. Next week we'll reveal what actually happened after Nick put the system to the test with live prospects. If you're an insurance producer who wants to write larger accounts, eliminate wasted work, and build a scalable sales process, this episode is for you. Subscribe for new episodes every week. #insurance #commercialinsurance #insurancebroker #sales #salestraining #brokerofrecord #b2bsales #entrepreneur #commerciallines #bororbust

Can one insurance producer build a $1 million revenue book in six months? Nick is about to find out. After reading The Science of Scaling, Nick started asking a different question: instead of incrementally improving the traditional producer model, what would have to change to make a seemingly impossible goal possible? That means eliminating bottlenecks. Protecting revenue-producing time. Rethinking cold calling and lead generation. Saying no to carrier meetings that consume your best selling hours. And maybe even questioning one of the foundations of our own sales system. Because if the goal is $1 million in six months, do you really need two meetings to close a BOR? Nick thinks you can do it in one. Daryl thinks there are some major problems with that idea. That disagreement turns into one of our deepest sales conversations yet as we work through buyer personalities, carrier access, account complexity, qualification, strategy development, and whether the secret to the one-call BOR might actually be controlling WHO gets into the sales process in the first place. This isn't about working 10X harder. It's about building a sales process capable of producing a radically different result. BOR or Bust, baby.

Most producers think they're losing deals because they don't have the right market. They're wrong. They're losing deals because they've lost control of the sales process. In this episode, Daryl Henry and Nick Aube break down: • Why prospects stop trusting you when you quote after pitching a BOR • The biggest mistake producers make when selling exclusive markets • How to create leverage with underwriters • Why "value-added services" don't close deals • The difference between selling yourself and selling a strategy • How to get prospects making decisions earlier in the sales process If you're tired of chasing quotes, collecting paperwork, and getting rolled at renewal, this episode will show you a different way to sell. BOR or Bust, baby.

The insurance industry teaches you that relationships wins business. They're wrong. Relationships matter—but they aren't enough. In this episode, Nick and Daryl explain why prospects who "love their broker" still take meetings, request quotes, and ultimately sign Broker of Record letters. You'll learn: Why strategy beats relationshipsWhy clients can't answer whether they're getting the best dealHow to win business from family members, friends, and long-time brokersWhy underwriters give better pricing when they believe they can actually winHow to stop competing on personality and start competing on strategy If you've ever heard, "I love my broker, but..." this episode explains what those prospects are really trying to tell you. BOR or Bust, baby.