S5E9 | You Can't Scale What You Don't See...Why Most Producers Get Stuck and Flatline. feat. Ryan Deeds

Getting Past the Premium

Most insurance producers cap out at $600K.
Not because they lack talent...but because the system around them is broken.
In this episode of Getting Past the Premium, I sat down with Ryan Deeds, VP of Strategy and Analytics at Alkeme, to break down the real reasons producers and agencies stall out.
Ryan’s built sales systems for 300+ producers across 57+ acquired firms...and what he’s seeing is uncomfortable, but true:
“40% of our clients were generating just 3.5% of our premium.”
That’s not growth. That’s bloat.
You’ll discover:
✅ Why most producers plateau...and how to break through
✅ How Alkeme built a Producer Portal that actually gets used
✅ The single most important metric every producer should track (average account size)
✅ How to design cross-sell and round-out into your operations
✅ The real cost of service drag (and why it caps growth)
✅ Why earnouts complicate scale—and how Alkeme is solving for it
✅ What to do when producers resist systems, tools, and change
👉 Connect and follow us:
Elliot Bassett, President & Partner at Ellerbrock-Norris | Co-Founder of LAUNCH | Host of Getting Past the Premium Podcast
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-bassett-aip-cpcu-84499515/
Website: https://getlaunch.io/
👉 Connect with our guest:
Ryan Deeds, VP of Strategy and Analytics at Alkeme
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancdeeds/
Website: https://alkemeins.com/
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🎙️ Sponsored by LAUNCH
This episode is powered by LAUNCH — the only risk platform that helps producers sell advice, not just insurance.
With LAUNCH, you map real business risks in minutes, prove your value before quoting, and win the account by thinking like a CFO.
Stop selling price. Start selling insight.
👉 Visit https://getlaunch.io/ and get past the premium.
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Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome Back: Ryan Deeds Returns
05:20 – The Producer Portal: Tracking, Tools, Transparency
10:15 – Cross-Sell and Round-Out at Scale
14:30 – Why Average Account Size Changes Everything
27:00 – Service Models, Earnouts & the Growth Bottleneck
42:00 – Chick-fil-A, ICPs, and Strategic Discipline
This episode is a masterclass in building scalable, data-driven, human-first sales systems.
If you’re a producer, agency owner, sales leader, or operator... this is required listening.

This episode is sponsored by LAUNCH.
In the world of insurance, independent agencies fight to survive. Brokers are forced to compete by blocking markets and bid for the lowest price. Worse yet, the industry is fragmented.
Agencies find it difficult to collaborate across division on the same client. Millions of dollars in potential revenue are left on the table. And agency owners lie awake at night wondering how to scale.
THAT’S WHERE LAUNCH COMES IN.
Access the full-revenue potential in your existing book of business. See opportunities other agencies can’t. Offer more value. Gain a competitive advantage in a commoditized market.
Visit https://getlaunch.io/ to learn more.