In this episode of Front Cover: A Rough Notes Podcast on the Agency Intelligence Podcast Network, Jason Cass sits down with Andrew Cowan and Dave Taylor of FirstMark Insurance Group, the agency featured on the February 2026 front cover of Rough Notes Magazine.
Key Topics:
- From Farmers agents to independent: Andrew and Dave’s leap into FirstMark in 2013
- Bootstrapping for seven years and choosing people over profit to fuel growth
- Transitioning to 100% remote operations after COVID showed it could work
- Four guiding principles: positive attitude, confidence, pursuit of excellence, and thoughtful and kind
- Choosing ideal clients who value advice and coverage over cheap pricing
- Teaching agents to reframe price conversations around the three things clients deserve
- Three-tier training system: foundation agents, journeymen, and tenured producers
- Using Microsoft Teams, EZLynx, and Sales Center for remote coaching and pipeline management
- Building a leadership team and moving to EOS with a COO as integrator
- Service model that frees agents to grow by adding client care teams to relationships
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