you know,

a 20 item producer might be great fit in some agencies.

Unfortunately, it doesn't kind of work in our environment just because of the investment that we have in leads.

And, you know, I would say there's more of a pressure for ROI to be positive in a larger agency than a smaller agency is what I could probably equate to that.

Leadership got messy because we would take You know, if Courtney was in an agency that we took over, you know, whether it's right or wrong, my commitment was let's just bring them in, figure out if this is a good fit for our agency, keep them where they are in that role.

It didn't always align with our core values.

It didn't align with kind of the fast pace of a busier agency.

The role in my experience just gets tougher because of the decisions you have to make.

So I wanna know, like, what changed, what happened that made you wanna just get things in gear and, and take it, take your business to the next level?

I, I think it's a combination of a lot of things.

It's like the journey, I think, evolved over from when I started to where we were a few years back and, you know, I f- I felt like, I don't wanna be s- selfish, but I felt like if we're gonna spend a lot of time, you know, I still had 10, 15, 20 however many years left, t- it's like, okay, there's an opportunity to start to buy books of business.

Like, does it make sense? And I, you know, I just had to get over that fear of, uh, what happens if it d- if we don't make it? What happen...

Y- 'Cause, I mean, as a scratch agent, from starting in 2007 even to now, like, in my mind, I'm always broke, even though, you know, it, it's...

I'm very fortunate to be able to pay bills when they come due and, you know, not have to worry so much about payroll, but it's like there's a lot of responsibility as an agency owner.

I think the team doesn't always see.

Mm