At Ricci Insurance Group, we don’t measure success exclusively by awards, partnerships, or milestones (though we’ve had some exciting ones this month—more on that later). We believe real success is building a place where people grow into confident professionals, trusted advisors, and leaders.
That’s what this fancy dinner was really about.
Over the past few years, we’ve experienced record-breaking growth as an agency. But growth doesn’t just require more people and more clients. It demands the right people, with the right training, support, and structure to lead. When we wrapped up 2023, we took a hard look at our organization and asked: What structure will carry us forward into the next phase of growth?
That question led to a major internal evolution where we leaned into our core value of “Be Worthy.” Worthy of the trust of our clients. Worthy of leadership of our growing team. Worthy of the long game.
With intention and vision, we created the roles we needed, identified team members with leadership potential, and made sure the path was clear to step into those roles. The results speak for themselves:
- Noelle was promoted to VP of Sales
- Marie stepped into VP of Agency Support
- Melissa became Manager of the Agency Support Team
- Alex transitioned to Manager of the Admin Team
- Jessica, Alyssa, and Michael took on Team Lead roles
- Balina moved into a newly created Agency Ambassador role, focusing on community and carrier relations
Some of these leaders have been with us for nearly a decade. Others joined less than three years ago. What they have in common is the drive to grow and the support to get there.
That support didn’t happen by accident. We’ve invested deeply in our people because we believe that’s the most important investment we can make. Here’s a look behind the curtain at what that looks like:
- We brought on Katie McCollum of CBK Advising as our fractional sales manager, who’s helped shape our sales process and led workshops on emotional intelligence, DISC profiles, and individual motivators.
- We partnered with Stephanie Marquardt to build a future-facing org chart and roll out our first year of EOS goals and weekly Level 10 meetings, or what we call “Traction Lite.”
- We enrolled leaders in Crestcom International Training with Tony Davis, gaining leadership-specific training alongside other high-performing professionals in the community.
- We’ve leaned on Lynda Postema and Jenny Cox from Liberty Mutual Insurance whose mentor/mentee programs and advanced trainings have helped us build depth and industry excellence.
- We’ve stayed accountable and strategic thanks to Vistage Worldwide, Inc. with Alan Lowe , the ISU Steadfast Insurance Agency Network Agency Principal Forum with Tracy Blumberg, CIC and Steve Pearson, CIC, CRM , and yes, even a five-year-long insurance group chat with Allen McGinniss , David Bird , and Andrew Koehneke that’s become part coaching, part friendship, and part comic relief.
Leadership at Ricci Insurance Group doesn’t start with a title. It starts with a mindset, and we’ve worked hard to create a culture that supports growth from day one. Whether you’ve been here two months or ten years, you’ll hear us talk about opportunity, ownership, and leveling up.
And yes, this month, we celebrated some major wins.
- We were honored with our 7th Diamond Agency Award with American Integrity Insurance Company
- We were nominated (again!) as Best Insurance Agency in the Community Choice Awards
- We launched a game-changing new partnership with Auto-Owners Insurance that’s been years in the making
The awards and milestones matter, but we are most proud of sitting at a table with the people who grew with us, stepped up, and became the backbone of this next chapter. We have the right people, in the right seats, and are even more focused on what’s next!
