Let’s just come right out and say it—one of the absolute best parts of owning your own agency is this: you don’t ever have to do the parts of the job you hate again.
Seriously. You get to fire yourself from the things you suck at or just flat out despise.
You get to design your day around the things you like doing, the things you thrive at, the things that give you energy instead of drain you.
That’s a pretty sweet perk, right?
But most agents I talk to? They don’t even realize this is on the table. They’re out here trying to be everything, trying to learn everything, trying to force themselves to get good at stuff they naturally aren’t wired for.
And it’s burning them out.
There’s a better way. It’s not just okay to hire where you’re weak—it’s absolutely vital if you want to grow, stay sane, and build something that doesn’t chew you up and spit you out.
When you start out, yeah, you wear all the hats. You’re the producer, the marketer, the customer service rep, the claims handler, the office manager, the janitor, the social media guy, the billing department, the coffee runner…you name it.
You’re the entire circus. You juggle flaming swords while balancing on a tightrope over a pool of sharks, and somehow you keep it all together.
But that can’t be the long-term plan.
That’s not building a business. That’s building a job you own.
And let me tell you something about jobs you own: they can be worse than jobs you don’t own, because now you have all the pressure and none of the freedom.
One of the biggest mindset shifts that has to happen as you grow is realizing you need to hire out your weaknesses so you can build a business that actually serves you, not the other way around.
You know what else trips people up?
They hire people who are exactly like them.
If you’re a sales dog, you hire other sales dogs.
If you’re an ops nerd, you hire more ops nerds.
If you’re a relationship builder, you fill the place with social butterflies.
Why? Because it’s comfortable. Because you “get” each other. Because you see the world the same way.
But here’s the problem with that—you’re building a one-dimensional team.
Everyone’s pulling in the same direction, but nobody’s covering the gaps.
You end up with these lopsided agencies full of great producers but nobody who’s detail-oriented. Or rockstar CSRs but nobody who can sell. Or an office of big picture people with zero ability to execute the details.
When you hire people who are carbon copies of yourself, you create a company that’s got the same blind spots you do. And those blind spots will wreck you.
Look, I get it—it’s way easier to click with someone who has your energy.
They talk fast, you talk fast.
They love closing deals, you love closing deals.
They want to chase the next big win, you want to chase the next big win.
It feels right. It feels like momentum.
But real momentum comes from building a team that’s balanced.
A team where people are good at the stuff you’re not.
A team that’s not afraid to challenge you, because they see things you would never see on your own.
You know what’s uncomfortable?
Hiring the quiet detail person when you’re a loud big-picture guy.
Bringing in the process lover when you like to “wing it” and keep things loose.
Hiring the steady relationship-builder when you like to drop in, close fast, and bounce.
But those are the people who’ll save your business from the chaos you’d create if it was filled with more of you.
When you hire where you’re weak, you get to delegate with confidence.
You know that person is actually better than you at that thing.
You’re not just passing off tasks—you’re leveling up the quality of the work.
It’s not about saying, “I don’t feel like doing this.” It’s about saying, “This person is going to do this better than I ever could.”
When you start thinking that way, delegation stops feeling like losing control and starts feeling like gaining freedom.
Hiring where you’re weak gives you the gift of focusing on your zone of genius.
You get to do the parts of the job that light you up, that make you dangerous, that drive growth.
And when you’re doing what you’re best at, and they’re doing what they’re best at?
That’s when things explode—in the good way.
When you look at your hiring plan, you should be thinking about balance like you’re building a great sports team.
You wouldn’t field a baseball team of all first basemen. You wouldn’t send out five point guards to play a basketball game. You wouldn’t run a football offense with nothing but wide receivers.
Each role has a skill set, a job, a purpose. Your agency should be no different.
If you’re the high-flying producer, you need grounded, detail-obsessed service people to make sure what you sell sticks.
If you’re the spreadsheet-loving ops brain, you need aggressive, fearless closers to bring in new revenue.
If you’re a relationship-builder who hates confrontation, you need a sharp policy technician who’s not afraid to push back when coverage is weak or pricing is off.
Diversity of skill sets is your competitive advantage.
Diversity of personalities is your protection against blind spots.
Diversity of thinking is your best shot at scaling without burning out.
You know what happens when you start intentionally hiring people who think differently than you?
You start getting solutions to problems you didn’t even know existed.
You start seeing cracks in the system you were blind to.
You start hearing “Have you ever thought about doing it this way?” more often.
And those moments?
Those moments are how you get better.
You can’t grow beyond yourself if you keep building a company that just is yourself, cloned five times over.
The friction that comes from having different thinkers in your agency? That’s a good thing. It sharpens you. It sharpens them. It sharpens the business.
At the end of the day, building an agency that you actually love showing up to isn’t about becoming a master of every part of the business.
It’s about building the right team—a team that covers you where you’re weak, pushes you to get better, and makes the business stronger than just you alone.
When you do that, you win two ways:
You get to fire yourself from the stuff you hate.
You build something that runs smoother, grows faster, and survives longer.
And isn’t that the point?
To build a business that doesn’t own you, but frees you?
To build a business that plays to your strengths, while being bulletproof in the areas where you naturally struggle?
Hire where you’re weak.
Balance your team. Build the agency you actually want to run.
You deserve that.