MRL #118- Stuck at $400K and Drowning

Meet Phil.

Phil is sitting on a $400,000 book of business. By most standards, he’s doing well. Above average, even.

But if you peek behind the curtain, you’d see Phil is running 100mph in 100 different directions.

One moment he’s helping a client decipher an audit. The next, he’s explaining why a yacht isn’t covered under their general liability policy. Then it’s back to quoting a new deal, answering a billing question, cold calling a landscaping company, and adding and deleting vehicles like it’s a hobby.

Phil emailed me earlier this month:

It’s a familiar story.

A producer hits a respectable number like $400K, maybe $500K and suddenly feels like they’re trapped in a job they can’t escape.

All the work, none of the upside.

In my humble opinion, Phil doesn’t have a revenue problem.

He has a capacity problem.

Doing Too Much for Too Many

At $400K, you might imagine that life would start to feel easier. A little smoother. Maybe fewer fires. But in most cases, it feels worse.

Why?

Because you're still servicing the same kinds of small accounts you started with, but now there are more of them.

What used to be 15 clients has quietly ballooned to 75. They all have your cell. They all have opinions. And most of them expect same-day service for a revenue contribution that wouldn’t cover a month supply of your coffee habit.

To cut straight to the point:

If you’re drowning at $400K, it’s probably because you have too many clients to manage.

At that stage, you’re wearing too many hats. You’re the producer. You’re the service team. Sometimes, you’re the emotional support animal.

That’s not a scalable model.

It’s a nervous breakdown waiting to happen.

Playing the Same Game That Got You to $400K

The tactics that got you to $400K:

Saying yes to every opportunity, quoting everything, being overly available, aren’t the same tactics that will take you to $1M.

Think of it like climbing a mountain.

The gear you needed at base camp isn’t going to help you summit the peak. You’ll need different tools, a different pace, and a different path.

This is where fear sets in.

To grow, you have to start turning down deals. Raising your floor. Saying no to revenue.

But it’s not just revenue you’re turning down.

It’s time debt.

Because every small client you write with no margin becomes a line item of stress for the next 5-10 years.

Spending High-Value Time on Low-Value Clients

Let’s do some back-of-the-napkin math.

At $400K in annual revenue, your time is worth somewhere between $200–$300 per hour. That’s your market rate.

Every hour you spend working is an hour that should produce that level of return.

So when you spend 45 minutes helping a $1,200 revenue client reset a billing password, you're not being helpful. You're being de-valued.

Producers like Phil often feel guilt around this:

“But they’re a client. Don’t I have to help?”

Sure. But YOU don’t have to be the one who helps.

This is where delegation comes in.

Even if you don’t have a full-fledged Account Manager, a good CSR can handle 80% of the administrative clutter that’s clogging your day.

Certs, vehicle changes, billing questions, audits…

There’s a playbook here. One you can design, document, and offload.

If your agency hasn’t provided the help, you either need to reach out to Producers who’ve experienced similar, or build the system yourself.

Otherwise, you’re not a Producer.

You’re a frontline customer service rep with quotas.

The Fix is Simple, Not Easy

Phil probably doesn’t need to work harder.

He needs to work differently.

1. Raise his minimum account size.

2. Create a list of “Only I Should Do” tasks and delegating everything else.

3. Shift his mindset.

“I’m not in the business of writing everyone and everything.
I’m in the business of building a book that gives me leverage, margin, and autonomy.”

At the end of the day, $400K shouldn’t feel like a full-time panic attack.

It should feel like the halfway point to something bigger.

More on building it, here.

See you next week.

Kick ass take names,

Micah