Amid brokerage buyout upheaval, one person is ready to listen
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.
Nicole Hewson, IGN VP of People
There is a kind of alchemy to human resources. Unlike budgets, ROI, operating costs, asset values or any number of business metrics tracked on spreadsheets, the human element is less quantifiable, more fluid – more vibe than Venn diagram.
Which isn’t to say HR practice doesn’t require specialist skills – it most definitely does. While knowing who’s right for your company, or indeed if a company is right for you, is largely an act of faith and trust, finding a good match is a process requiring time, research, talk, assessment, and the ability to spot genuine talent along with that elusive quality - “a good fit.” There’s a formula to it, but it’s not formulaic, and no one knows that better than Nicole Hewson.
A partner with Insurance Growth Network (IGN) and its VP of People, Hewson is focused on recruiting top producer talent, specifically people who IGN can build new brokerages around. In an extremely competitive industry, it’s a challenging task but Hewson is not your typical recruiter.
She seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to reading people, understanding their needs, knowing their strengths and where they will need support to succeed. Indeed, her track record of successful recruits is unblemished. “At the core of everything is the people,” she says. “We look for producers who feel they’ve missed out or believe they can do more, and we look for people who fit our values.” And when she finds them, she works hard to nurture their pathway to success with wrap-around support. “We bring people on in an intentional, caring way.”
It sounds simple, but it’s not. IGN’s corporate culture and values drive everything Hewson does and, as a creator and fierce protector of that culture, one that hinges on the principle that investing properly in people is the root of success, she works incredibly hard to find people who will embody and promote this culture when they come onboard. If they can’t or won’t, they will not become a member of the IGN family.
But what does “investing properly in people” even mean? Money? Yes. But at IGN, it also means giving people the tools and resources they need to succeed, like career support, open lines of communication, accountability up and down the line, educational opportunities, a non-judgemental workplace and the expectation that each person is the master of their own trajectory. A lot of companies promise such things, but few deliver. And for Hewson, that’s where the alchemy lies, in finding people who are willing and able to live these values, not just speak them.
“At the core of everything is the people,” she says. “We look for producers who feel they’ve missed out or believe they can do more, and we look for people who fit our values.”
A person-first approach to expansion
The insurance industry in Canada is changing. There are fewer truly independent brokerages out there, and growth often comes through mergers rather than organically, from the inside. The situation has left a lot of talented producers wondering where their place is and what their future holds.
IGN was built specifically to help those producers, the ones who believe they’re capable of achieving more but can’t see a way forward. “There are a lot of individuals out there who have been passed over during a merger, or their company has pigeonholed them into a position, or is focused only on profit so things like commissions and incentives are cut, and the company culture is suffering,” says Hewson.
Since 2019, IGN has been helping producers like this launch their own brokerages by working with them to develop customized business plans, providing admin support and generally smoothing the bumpy path that new businesses tend to travel during the early years. In many cases, these brokers and IGN found each other serendipitously, but Hewson says that’s changing.
“We’ve started being very intentional about our network expansion,” she says. “We choose a region we want to be in and then look for the right person to work with, and build a branch around them.”
The formula part of this work begins with making a list of potential candidates in the regions IGN wants to establish itself. Specifically, Hewson is looking for producers with 10 or more years of experience and a good track record, then putting in the hard graft of cold calling and digital door knocking to start a conversation.
It’s then that intuition kicks in. You can tell a lot about a person by how they react to such a call – openly, with curiosity or with suspicion and aggression – it’s the first test of sorts. “If they’re mean or rude, I can take them off the list,” says Hewson. “We don’t want to bring toxic into the organization. We want people who are like minded and it starts there, with that call.”
It’s a long process of feeling each other out, talking, understanding what will be required if you do decide to start your own brokerage, and being honest about whether that is the right thing for you. “I talk to people about the opportunity, and I really want to get to know them,” says Hewson. “Are they nice? Can I work with them? Do I like them?”
Those interested in the opportunity are invited to write a business plan and show they have a vision for the kind of brokerage they want to run. “It’s pretty intensive,” says Hewson. And it’s not for everyone. “Maybe they don’t really have a vision, and that’s fine, it’s okay. It’s just not for you. But if you do, there’s an opportunity to grow with the team if they want that.”
It is a kind of dance and Hewson gets that. She is asking people to make big life-changing decisions, take on a lot of responsibility, and the timing isn’t always right for that. She has a story about an individual producer who IGN wanted to build a brokerage around in 2020. Then the pandemic hit, and everything stopped. The individual moved cities to be with family and wasn’t ready to take the leap at such a fraught time. Then, in 2025, he reached out to Hewson to reconnect, and she’s happy to resume the conversation to see where it leads – it’s a long dance.
But when the timing is right, and that elusive “good fit” threshold is met, Hewson and her team at IGN is ready to help set a producer on the path of running their own independent brokerage and fostering rapid, sustainable organic growth. “We provide a guaranteed salary so they’re not starting from a zero-income position,” she says, adding that IGN also provides support with everything from accounting to payroll to recruiting branch staff to training and more so that the new owner can focus on what they’re good at – building book. “The support engines behind you are all engaged, ready to propel you forward.”
Nicole Hewson with the new CMB Mississauga branch team - read their story here
“I’m looking for what we call high value people,” says Hewson. “People who are ambitious, someone ready to challenge the status quo. They’re ready for more, they’re at the top of their career and they want more.”
Corporate culture and success: what too many companies miss
Hewson understands how stifling a bad work culture can be because, like most of us, she’s has had some pretty negative work experiences in the past. It has given her a wealth of understanding and empathy for what her prospective candidates may be experiencing when she makes that first cold call. Indeed, she has lived the experience herself, coming to IGN after a pretty toxic work situation elsewhere. “I didn’t want to want to conquer the world,” she says. “I just wanted to work for a company where I felt safe and happy.”
She is actively looking for people, like her, who want something better so they can be better. “I’m looking for what we call high value people,” says Hewson. “People who are ambitious, someone ready to challenge the status quo. They’re ready for more, they’re at the top of their career and they want more.” She says there aren’t a lot them out there, but once the conversation starts, she knows when she’s found one. “It’s that nagging Spidey sense,” she says. “You can tell it’s not about the money for them – it’s the ‘why’, it’s their legacy.”
It is why culture is everything for Hewson and IGN – when the soil is fertile, the garden flourishes and she wants to see ambitious, hungry producers thrive. “Sometimes, people think they’re fine where they are, but they don’t know what else is out there,” she says. “If you want to learn more, if you don’t know what’s out there, then let’s have a conversation. We’re here. There is an option. I’m always happy to have a conversation.”