#344 - Rusty Reid - CEO @ Higginbotham - Building An Insurance Business That Has Compounded 20% YoY for 35+ years

Rusty Reid was named president and CEO of Higginbotham in 1989 at the age of 27. At that time, he implemented the firm’s defining “single source” service model whereby customers can obtain all their insurance and financial services under one roof. He also had the foresight to establish Higginbotham’s employee ownership structure, aligning all employees’ interests in the success of the firm. Under Rusty’s leadership, Higginbotham has grown to become the nation’s 21st-largest independent insurance brokerage firm and Texas’s largest—one with full property/casualty, financial, and HR service capabilities through offices coast to coast. We discuss: How to recruit well and build a culture Successfully integrating acquired companies Philosophy of generosity We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners.  https://www.thefortpod.com/survey Links Higginbotham Topics (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:56) - Infectious energy (00:04:38) - Rusty’s early life and career (00:22:34) - Company growth strategies (00:31:30) - How to recruit well (00:37:35) - Building culture (00:42:15) - Rusty on ‘buying themselves’ (00:56:18) - Going on offense and acquiring companies (01:01:27) - The value in staying busy (01:05:52) - How to value an insurance business (01:11:16) - How do you integrate an acquisition? (01:17:10) - StonePoint partnership (01:20:45) - Thoughts on AI (01:26:51) - Philosophy on generosity Support our Sponsors Fort Capital: https://bit.ly/FortCapital Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Chris on Social Media: X: https://bit.ly/3BYIjcH LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd   Watch The Fort on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX Visit our website: https://bit.ly/43SOvys Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO  The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

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Here, we uncover the proven strategies, insights, and inspiring stories of today’s greatest leaders in the worlds of business, real estate, entrepreneurship, and investing. Each episode’s mission is to help you to level up your entrepreneurial game by hearing directly from the men and women in the arena. Chris is able to uniquely uncover things not commonly discussed because he is an entrepreneur himself. We not only cover business, but we also cover the personal side of entrepreneurship. The Fort began in 2018 as a way for Chris to publicly explore the fascinating world of entrepreneurship. Since he was a child, he’s been characterized as obsessively curious about the world around him.  The Fort has now been downloaded over 2M times, across more than 50,000 unique listeners. Each week features conversations with entrepreneurs, Founders, CEOs, and Executives from some of the leading companies in America. Past guests have represented companies such as JLL, Hillwood, S2 Capital, Chick Fil A, Morning Brew, Founders Podcast, Tiny Capital, Permanent Equity, Fort Capital, Matthews REIS, Bonobos, and ConvertKit. 🐦 Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris 💡 Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ 📹 Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FORTpod