What the Insurance Industry Can Offer
Insurance is a sexy industry. We just need to talk about it differently—and run our businesses and the industry like we want the best talent to join us.
Making Insurance Sexy Again: What we have to offer
It started as a joke. A half-serious, half-cocktail-induced conversation with fellow agency owners: "We’ve gotta make insurance sexy again." It made us laugh… but it stuck with me. Because somewhere along the way, we stopped treating this industry like the opportunity it actually is. And if we’re not attracting amazing people into this space, who will work with us? Who will carry it forward?
We can’t just expect talent to magically show up. We’ve got to pull back the green velvet curtain and let people see what this industry really offers—freedom, purpose, financial growth, real impact.
So... where did we go wrong?
It’s not one single misstep. We need to hold the mirror up a bit if we want to move forward and work to attract new talent:
We are SO OLDSCHOOL. And not in a cool retro vinyl records way. We’re old school like this industry just started having “Women in Insurance” Industry meetings in the past 5 years. And even now I still hear other owners talk more about who they are going to sell to than how they are going to mentor and onboard new hires and producers.
The value of a great agent is under appreciated. Producers stopped owning their books - I’ll address that whole topic in a separate blog post.
Culture, training and even social media focuses on gimicky sales and doesn’t always attract the ideal, educated, professional agent many agencies are looking for or looking to develop.
Great mentors and leaders are terribly lacking in the industry as many of us in agent positions whether we’re owners or producers are competitive by nature and guarded.
We’re not flashy; we’re not in the news for our great work beyond our own “Ego Olympic” industry publications. But we all know and see attorneys in the news, we see investors or VCs - but I couldn’t tell you one name of an insurance agent who is out there doing amazing work and neither does the young person considering insurance as a career.
I think these are just some of the reasons a young professional leans toward a different industry or decides to work for an insurance carrier instead of trusting themselves as an agent, producer or agency owner. Why would anyone want to work in insurance if what they’re walking into is rigid structure, mediocre support, and leadership that doesn’t lead?
What we need isn’t more “my name on the door” energy. We need servant leaders. Real ones. Not lip service. The kind that coaches, empowers, and creates space for others to shine.
If we want to attract the next generation of rockstars, we’ve got to stop gatekeeping the good stuff. Let’s show them the why, give them the how, and welcome them in.
We’re all complaining as an industry about lack of interest from the next generation; we all agree we need to attract more talent, we just don’t seem to act on it.
When is the last time you brought on a summer intern into your agency? Went to speak at a high school or college event about the insurance industry? Have you ever let someone come job shadow you for the day who might be considering a career change?
The truth is, insurance is sexy—when we lead with purpose, when we innovate boldly, when we invest in people like they matter (because they do). If we want to build an industry that attracts curious, driven, talented professionals, we have to stop hoarding opportunity and start modeling what’s possible. It’s time to stop talking about the talent problem and start being the solution. Let’s make some noise. Let’s open doors. Let’s make insurance irresistible again.
