"No one grows up wanting to get into insurance, right? It's not on your vision board."

Before Kenneth Mantuo Jr. was building a multi-state insurance agency and trying to make the industry sexy, he was chasing a very different dream: the NFL.

He played football since he was seven. Pop Warner. High school. College ball. Then overseas in Germany for a year. Came back. Trained harder. Gave it everything.

Didn't make it.

Most people would've spiraled. Kenneth hung up the cleats and went into sales. No insurance experience. No connections. Just decided to start an agency from scratch in 2014 because "everyone needs insurance" and he saw an opportunity to do it differently.

Fast forward to today: BEIA is operating in 20 states with offices in South Florida, Orlando, and New York. They're building specialized verticals in contractors, marine, transportation, and hospitality — all while trying to prove that insurance doesn't have to be boring, antiquated, or soul-sucking.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Kenneth to talk about pivots, delegation, building culture, and what it actually takes to scale an agency when you're starting from zero.

Kenneth breaks down:

• What it's like when your whole identity just disappears and you have to rebuild
• Why he started an agency with zero insurance experience instead of joining someone else's
• How he learned to delegate after nearly drowning on a cruise ship with no Wi-Fi
• Why insurance is actually the original subscription model
• The massive opportunity nobody's talking about: half the industry retiring in the next decade

Plus, Kenneth explains why small business is their bread and butter, how they're using tech and VAs to serve clients profitably, and why "if you can write it down, you can delegate it" is the key to scaling anything.

If you've ever had to start over, if you're afraid to let go of work, or if you're trying to build something in an industry that feels stuck — this episode is for you.

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

"We knew the need before they knew the need."

Before Troy Chakarun was helping scale one of the fastest-growing firms in insurance, he was making cold calls, sorting mail, answering phones, and getting yelled at by strangers at Merrill Lynch.

His first job in business? Picking up a phone book and calling dead people.
Not exactly glamorous. But it taught him how to sell, how to handle rejection, and how to outwork almost everybody around him.

After Merrill, Troy moved through ING and Voya, built high-performing sales teams, got deep into data-driven distribution, and eventually brought that same mindset into the insurance world at Alkeme.

And the lesson never changed: the best teams don’t guess. They don’t wing it. They don’t waste time on sludge.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Dom sits down with Troy to talk about sales, scale, AI, mentorship, acquisitions, and why most people are still spending way too much time on work that shouldn’t even be on their desk anymore.

Troy breaks down:

• What his early days at Merrill Lynch taught him about pressure, training, and learning fast
• Why new producers need mentorship instead of trying to figure everything out alone
• How he used data to shorten sales cycles and walk into meetings already knowing the pain points
• Why account managers and producers are still buried in “soul-sucking, time-wasting tasks”
  
  

Plus, Troy shares what makes a great acquisition fit, why niche expertise scales faster than being a generalist, and how the best businesses create systems that make growth easier instead of harder.

If your team is still stuck doing everything manually, still guessing in sales conversations, or still trying to scale without the right support — this episode is for you.

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast

"This is not the ceiling for me. I need more, I want more, and I've always worked for that."

Gabriela Rodriguez started as a virtual assistant in Venezuela in 2017. $1 an hour. Paid in a collapsing currency. Her first client? Cold calling people in Mexico to book appointments. She got removed from the placement—couldn't hit the goals. But she didn't give up.

She got placed with Stan doing marketing work for his production company. Then COVID hit in 2020, and Stan's production business went to zero. He kept just one employee through it all: Gaby.

When Stan and Dom started Elevate Teams, Gaby wasn't supposed to be part of it. Just budget and marketing help. But she kept getting pulled deeper—more meetings, more responsibility, more seats. Marketing. Finance. Sales. Operations. She did it all.

Nine years after starting at $1/hour, she's the Head of Operations. She built the systems that run the company. She trained the team. She's the soul of Elevate. And she's still not satisfied. This isn't her ceiling.

In this episode of Elevate the Hustle, Stan and Dom sit down with Gaby to talk about never settling, working your way up from the bottom, and why ambition doesn't care where you're from or what you're paid.

Gaby breaks down:

• What it's like to go from $1/hour to running operations for a US company
• Why consistency and showing up ready for anything is what separates good from great
• How she learned English from YouTube (shout out to Logan Paul)
• Why stability and opportunity mean everything when you're building from Latin America

Plus, Gaby talks about being Stan's toughest critic, why she still dreams bigger, and what it takes to inspire an entire team across borders.

If you've ever felt like you're stuck, like your ceiling is determined by where you started, or like you need permission to want more: this episode is for you.

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast