About Us
Michael McCormick
Stonybrook, NY
Villanova University
Career Insurance Agents
Michael McCormick is an award-winning insurance agent, digital marketer, and speaker. Michael has helped thousands of insurance agents in his career achieve freedom from lead vendors by helping them implement scalable digital marketing strategies for their businesses. Michael also co-founded some of the most popular brands in the insurance industry such as Insurance Soup, Career Agent Concepts, Career Insurance Agents, Agency Elephant, Tacobot, Yellow Brick Road, and The Collective Agency Council.
Taylor Dobbie
Midlothian, TX
United States Air Force
Career Insurance Agents
Taylor Dobbie is an award-winning insurance agent, digital marketer, and Speaker. Taylor and his team oversee Career Insurance Agents - a company that helps agents open independent insurance agenices. Taylor oversees over $100,000 in new business premium per day. Taylor also co-founded some of the most popular brands in the insurance industry such as Insurance Soup, Career Agent Concepts, Career Insurance Agents, Agency Elephant, Tacobot, Yellow Brick Road, and The Collective Agency Council.
Michael McCormick
Stonybrook, NY
Villanova University
Co-founder / Owner at Insurance Soup
Michael McCormick is an award-winning insurance agent, digital marketer, and speaker. Michael has helped thousands of insurance agents in his career achieve freedom from lead vendors by helping them implement scalable digital marketing strategies for their businesses. Michael also co-founded some of the most popular brands in the insurance industry such as Insurance Soup, Career Agent Concepts, Career Insurance Agents, Agency Elephant, Tacobot, Yellow Brick Road, and The Collective Agency Council.
Taylor Dobbie
Midlothian, TX
United States Air Force
Co-founder / Owner at Insurance Soup
Taylor Dobbie is an award-winning insurance agent, digital marketer, and Speaker. Taylor and his team oversee Career Insurance Agents - a company that helps agents open independent insurance agenices. Taylor oversees over $100,000 in new business premium per day. Taylor also co-founded some of the most popular brands in the insurance industry such as Insurance Soup, Career Agent Concepts, Career Insurance Agents, Agency Elephant, Tacobot, Yellow Brick Road, and The Collective Agency Council.
CJ Hutsenpiller
Mt. Juliet, TN
Hutsenpiller Insurance
Founder Tacobot
CJ Hutsenpiller is an award-winning insurance agent based just outside of Nashville, TN. Cj's team of personal lines insurance agents has grown rapidly - achieving top rankings nationally with several national insurance carriers.
Cj is best known for his ability to create complex insurance-based Messenger Chatbots and automation. CJ was the 2015 Tennessee Agent of the Year recipient from the PIA. He is also the co-founded of Tacobot and The Collective Agency Council.
CJ Hutsenpiller
Mt. Juliet, TN
Hutsenpiller Insurance | Tacobot
CJ Hutsenpiller is an award-winning insurance agent based just outside of Nashville, TN. Cj's team of personal lines insurance agents has grown rapidly - achieving top rankings nationally with several national insurance carriers.
Cj is best known for his ability to create complex insurance-based Messenger Chatbots and automation. CJ was the 2015 Tennessee Agent of the Year recipient from the PIA. He is also the co-founded of Tacobot and The Collective Agency Council.
From Career Agent Concepts to The Collective Agency Council: Our Evolution and Impact
Our Journey: 2016 - Early 2021
From 2016 to early 2021, Leadership at The Insurance Soup hosted the PREMIERE Marketing and Automation Mastermind in the industry, Career Agent Concepts. During this period, we taught and supported thousands of agents, helping them improve the quality and quantity of opportunities in their agencies.
Focus Areas
Our primary focus areas included:
- Social Media
- Lead Generation
- Automation
- Referral Partner Growth
Achievements and Awards
We were fortunate to win numerous awards from the marketing and insurance communities while providing the education, community, and support needed for insurance professionals to become self-sufficient opportunity creators for their businesses.
Key Insights
Despite being educators to over 5,000 agents in under five years, we learned a crucial lesson:
- Most agents believed they had a lead generation problem.
- In reality, most struggled with running their business properly, which often presented itself as a lack of opportunity.
Common Challenges for Agents
We identified that most agents had little to no structure, consistency, systems, or processes around various aspects of their agency, including:
- Sales Processes
- Service Handling
- Collecting Reviews and Referrals
- Office and Employee Management
- Marketing Follow-Up
- Lead Sources
The Evolution to The Collective Agency Council
Recognizing these challenges led to the birth of The Collective Agency Council. We evolved from a multiple award-winning marketing mastermind to a full-blown agency mastermind.
Data-Driven Approach
We decided to lean into our mastermind by incorporating data into all our conversations, thought processes, and decisions:
- Each agent joining The Collective Agency Council goes through a comprehensive application process.
- We leverage the data to demonstrate industry trends and areas of strength and weakness.
- Agents strong in various areas lead conversations and participate in panels to share their expertise.
Continuous Improvement
We constantly poll our audience on agency practices to provide data-driven advice. Some insights include:
- Sending "video quotes" only improves closing ratios by 2-4% and may be detrimental due to the time element.
- Agencies hosting daily team meetings are approximately 46% larger than those that do not.
- Having insureds sign off on forms declining certain coverages increases sign-ups for those coverages by an average of 108%.
Benefits of The Collective
The Collective helps agents:
- Avoid and shorten learning curves
- Make strategic decisions
- Avoid costly mistakes
- Learn skills, systems, and processes to earn significantly more in their agencies
Real-World Examples
- Video Quotes: Generally only improve closing ratios by 2-4%, but add a time element that can be detrimental.
- Daily Team Meetings: Agencies that host daily meetings are 46% larger than those that don’t.
- Sign-Off Forms: Agencies using forms for declining certain coverages see a 108% increase in sign-ups for those coverages.