Leading Insurance Professionals in the USA | Hot 100 2024

Over the entire four years, the corresponding figures are:

• 47 percent revenue
  
   

• 70 percent premiums
  
   

• 223 percent new business

The key for Norberg was changing the mindset.

“We are such a big, diverse company and the legacy staff had come from a very small mom-and-pop shop. So, I’ve been teaching them about the pieces of RPS and how to access those, and what they can use them for.”

Norberg also encouraged staff to shadow her dealings with clients to learn firsthand. She explains, “I wanted to add customer value, trying to get service up to a higher standard and almost a white glove service. As soon as they were able to see it, they realized it wasn’t rocket science and they have come along. I don’t want to say it was easy, but they just had to see what my levels looked like.”

Mirroring this trajectory is Craig, who also credits his success as the culmination of a team effort.

Pie is the fastest-growing workers’ compensation insurer in the US, and is active in 38 states and Washington, DC. Over the past 12 months, the firm has:

• grown its partner agent network by almost 30 percent
  
   

• announced a $315-million Series D round of funding, making it the largest round of financing for any US-based P&C insurtech company in 2022

Dax also spearheaded a partnership with Ford Motor Credit Company to launch Ford Pro Insure, a new commercial auto insurance product powered by Pie, that delivers customized commercial auto coverage and services to small businesses with the goal of helping them reduce overall fleet costs.

“Throughout a challenging economic landscape, especially within the commercial insurance industry, the past 12 months were undeniably demanding yet equally rewarding. Looking back, I feel incredibly proud of my accomplishments as a leader,” Craig says.

And he adds, “The past 12 months were a mix of planned strategies and unexpected challenges. While we anticipated growth and innovation, the industry faced shifts in economic conditions that were challenging for me, our team, customers, and partners.”

Keeping a laser-like focus on performance is why Hall has delivered impressive results for his team of 30 brokers and 150 staff.

In the past year, he has:

• created the BOR Tour, an educational and networking series of events where insurance agents and underwriters can come together to learn about construction insurance-related topics
  
   

• launched Labor Guard Online, an online insurance pre-qualification and risk management service to manage risk transfer for construction projects and large builders and general contractors across the country
  
   

• produced a personal book of business with $450+ million in premium and 300+ projects in 2022, bringing a total 12-year career with RT Specialty of over 19,000 construction policies

He also stresses the importance of leading with a collective excellence mindset.

“I’m in a constant state of reflection about the performance of my team, but I’m not as concerned about the performance of the past 12 months as I am about the performance of 30-, 60-, and 90-day periods. I break it down to smaller increments and look for trends in weekly and monthly data. “

Hall utilizes data analyses to track:

“I look for trends while tinkering with the team to find the optimal balance to yield the greatest result for our clients. Spending too little time gets you beat and spending too much time makes you inefficient and hard to scale. It takes experience to learn the art, but the indicators are in the metrics if you look closely for them.”

 

 

Key to being a Top 100 Insurance Professional

A strategy Hall has explored is time management. As his team and responsibility has grown, he has had to delegate to maintain quality. To do this, he placed an emphasis on honing his ability to assemble a team.

“A high-performing team is built by providing enough support and coaching opportunities that allows your team to continue in developing their skill set. Scaling your team too fast can diminish its value to your client and is a serious concern if you don’t have a solid foundation in place first to build from,” he explains. 

“It is a fine balance and requires developing strong best practices that set expectations that are measurable and hold your team accountable when they don’t meet expectations and reward them when they do.”

For Craig, the target over the last 12 months was adopting the mantra of the need to remain fluid.

“Working by the same playbook as I did a year ago, or even six months ago, wasn’t going to cut it. The world is changing rapidly around us and requires a more flexible approach.”

In practice, this manifested as a test-and-learn mindset.

He says, “My role is to guide and encourage our teams to try new things without fear of failure. To move fast and meet the demands of our customers and partners, continual learning, and the ability to pivot when something wasn’t working became a critical lesson.”

Enabling him to offer his team a wider insight, Craig undertakes a series of additional industry roles:

• serves on the board of advisors for Kovrr, an Israeli company that enables reinsurers to predict and price cyber risk, transparently utilizing advanced artificial intelligence and data
  
   

• founding member of the Colorado Inclusive Economy, a statewide movement of design, intent, and action led by local CEOs and leaders
  
   

• advisory board member for the Collins College of Business at the University of Tulsa
  
   

• member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, which connects 21,000 business leaders in more than 125 countries around a shared mission: Better Leaders Through Education

While Norberg’s biggest takeaway was how best to create a team ethic. It was about setting benchmarks that different members would respond to.

“When you’re in sixth grade and everybody asks what you want to be when you grow up, nobody says insurance. I always wanted to be a teacher. I now get the best of both worlds because my job is writing business, but I also get to mentor people.”

She has also used a variety of bonding activities, such as a Winnebago trip to a winery and ATV rides, resulting in 97 percent employee retention. Some members of her team have been working in the office for 30 to 40 years, and she is attuned to what motivates each of them.

“It is about sitting down with every individual person, even the new employees, so everybody knows who comes in. I take the time to get to know them and try to figure out what makes them tick. Every new person that I bring in or if I see someone struggling, my reward is seeing them all become successful,” he says.

 

 

Top 100 Insurance Professionals look forward

RPS has tasked Norberg with spreading her genius, as she is now going to oversee the firm’s North Barrington office. She will use her special ability to identify talent and hone it.

One of her top performers was a former Harley-Davidson salesman.

“I knew he had the drive but just needed to add the industry knowledge as he was great with clients, so could add customer value. When I’m looking for new recruits, it’s not necessarily somebody who really knows insurance.”

In addition to scouring the market for talent, she also inspires others with additional roles:

• instructor for the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association 
  
   

• founding member of the RPS Women’s Network
  
   

• active within the Wisconsin chapters of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America and Professional Insurance Agents 

At RT Specialty, Hall has weathered a tough time to come through stronger. By the end of the third quarter of 2022, fewer projects were being green lit.

“That led to greater competition for deals by insurance agents and brokers. To find growth you needed to outthink, outwork, and outexecute the competition. This can equate to putting in longer hours, more marketing, diversifying into new products, and creative thinking that would set you apart from everyone else to win you the business,” he says. 

And he revealed how he drove his team to never take the small details for granted.

“A hard market will challenge a broker, but a hard market with fewer deals will really challenge a broker to bring their A-game. As you get further along in your career and have cast a wider and wider net, you can get spread too thin quickly. You must stay disciplined, keep your head down, grind, continue to learn and keep developing fresh strategy, products, and solutions.”

Holding a long-term mindset has also set Craig up for repeat success. He has made sure there has been no tradeoff between revenue and standards.

“I’ve made it a priority to guarantee that Pie’s expansion doesn’t come at the expense of delivering exceptional service. This will remain at the forefront of my decision-making next year as we double down on our commitment to both sustainable growth and innovative solutions that elevate the experiences of our small business customers and partners who serve them.”

He continues, “This mindset is not just a current focus but a guiding principle I intend to carry forward throughout my career.”

 

 

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