If you’re an ambitious insurance producer interested in building a commercially focused brokerage, visit the IGN team at booth 1215. You’ll have the opportunity to meet our representatives, learn more about the IGN model and discuss what it takes to launch or grow a brokerage of your own.

Most leadership teams know what a busy organization looks like. Calendars are full, messages arrive constantly, meetings stack up, and customer requests, internal questions, operational problems, and new opportunities all compete for attention. People are working hard, often at a pace that can be difficult to sustain.

CMB Insurance Brokers was founded on the principle of “be better”. Forty years later that mantra defines everything about how this mid-market firm chooses to do business by putting customers first, defying industry norms, and leaping from strength to strength.

Many leadership teams invest considerable time defining their vision and setting priorities, only to find that execution gradually falls short of expectations. The strategy remains sound, but projects take longer than expected, priorities begin competing for attention, and the pace of progress slowly begins to change.

When people think about exceptional leadership, they often imagine bold decisions, breakthrough strategies, or moments of inspiration that transform an organization overnight. Those moments certainly exist, but they are rarely what separates consistently successful organizations from everyone else. More often, long-term success is built through disciplined repetition.

When results disappoint, it is natural to assume the problem begins with the team. But many underperforming teams are made up of capable, hardworking people who genuinely care about the success of the organization. They show up, put in the effort, and want to contribute. Yet despite those qualities, results remain inconsistent.

Every leadership team has them. The issues that are real, that everyone is aware of, and that nobody is quite willing to name out loud. A chronically missed commitment. A department head who isn't cutting it. A tension between teams that has quietly been reshaping how work gets done. The subject changes. The avoidance looks the same.

For many organizations, introducing measurable data is a turning point. What was once unclear becomes visible. Conversations become more grounded. Accountability begins to take shape. Over time, however, a different pattern can emerge. As numbers become more central, there is a tendency to treat them as definitive.

Most leaders believe they have a reasonable understanding of how their business is performing. They review financials, stay close to their teams, and rely on experience to interpret what they are seeing and hearing. On the surface, that feels sufficient.

For Adam Thomson, opening his own independent brokerage felt like the natural way to build on the foundation set by his father and grandfather, while also creating something uniquely his own.

The Insurance Growth Network has named Adam Thomson as partner and branch president of its newest CMB Insurance Brokers office in Saskatoon, Sask. 

Most leadership teams don’t suffer from a lack of meetings. They suffer from a lack of momentum. The calendar fills easily, the room is engaged, and everyone leaves with a general sense of what was discussed. Yet, week after week, the same issues resurface. Decisions stall. Priorities blur.

Most organizations don’t struggle because their people lack effort. If anything, the opposite is true. Teams are busy, calendars are full, and work is constantly moving. Yet despite all that activity, progress on the things that truly matter often feels slower than it should.

In many organizations, accountability is assumed rather than clearly defined. Roles exist, people are busy, and work moves forward, at least on the surface. But when results begin to slip or issues recur, the underlying problem is rarely a lack of effort. More often, it is ambiguity.

Insurance can be a dog-eat-dog industry where competition is fierce and independence often gets squashed. That is, unless, two entrepreneurial, independent companies – one in P&C, the other group benefits – decide to join forces in partnership that puts client service front and centre.

Insurance Growth Network and People Corporation form strategic partnership.

Is your leadership becoming the bottleneck? Learn why letting go is essential to growth—and how to build the structure that makes it possible.

Nicole Hewson has made a career of finding producers who have the ambition to create their own successful brokerage but are lacking the support to make it happen. Her take? If you want a producer to succeed, they need fertile ground to grow in, and company culture is that ground.

IGN Day is the one day each year when our entire network comes together in one room. It is a chance to step away from screens, connect face-to-face, and celebrate the people, progress, and shared purpose that make Insurance Growth Network what it is.

If You’re Still Discussing the Same Problems… You’re Not Alone

Most leadership teams fall into the same frustrating loop: big issues get raised, debated endlessly, and then quietly set aside. A week later—they’re back on the agenda.