Leadership Interview

LIAM CONNER

Director of Finance

All leaders

The Seat

Broad Industry Set

The same industry-wide questions every HPM leader answers.

  1. For an agent who has never worked with an FMO, what does an FMO actually do on a normal Tuesday that an agent could not do alone?
  2. When someone chooses the wrong Medicare plan, what happens to them six to twelve months later that nobody warned them about, and how does a good agent prevent it?
  3. What is one rule in Medicare or the ACA that makes no sense until someone explains why it exists?
  4. What is the single piece of advice that, if a new agent followed it, would almost guarantee they wash out inside their first year?
  5. What decision does a new agency owner make in the first ninety days that quietly kills the agency by month eighteen?
  6. Two agents both step away from selling for six months. One comes back to a business that kept running, the other comes back to nothing. What did the first one build that the second one did not?
  7. When a CMS rule change or a carrier shift lands, who tends to get hurt and who tends to get ahead in the same six months, and what separates them?
  8. What is a book of business that looks impressive on paper but is actually fragile the moment the agent behind it steps away?
  9. If an agent builds their whole book through an FMO and later decides to leave, what should they have asked about book ownership and portability on day one?
  10. What kind of agent should you honestly talk out of this business, or out of going independent, before they get hurt?
  11. Where is the health insurance market actually heading over the next three to five years, and what should an agent be doing today to be ready for it?
  12. What is a moment in this business where doing the right thing for a client cost you money, and would you do it again?

The Finance seat

  1. Most agents are great at selling and rough on the money side. What is the first financial habit you would give a new agent?
  2. What is the difference between an agent who is making a lot and an agent who is actually building wealth?
  3. How should an agent think about budgeting for the seasonal swings of this business, especially around AEP?
  4. What numbers should an agent look at every month that they probably are not looking at right now?
  5. What is a financial mistake that feels responsible but actually holds an agency back?
  6. On the HR and admin side, what do growing agencies underestimate when they start hiring?
  7. What does the finance function see about the health of a business that no one else does?
  8. What is a book of business that looks impressive on paper but is actually a liability underneath?