“Same difference." “Seriously funny." I use these conflicting words together every day without a second thought.

As the CEO at Keystone Agency Partners, there is another one I use daily that guides how we do business and inspires the entrepreneurial spirit that I think is within all of us: “Connected Autonomy." These seemingly contradictory words define our firm's market distinction and our passion—and are our secret sauce for driving entrepreneurial spirit and growth within our insurance agency partners.

The agencies we partner with are typically not for sale. They have dynamic, ambitious and entrepreneurial management with strong growth aspirations that they can't achieve on their own.

While we acquire a majority stake in our agency partners, we expect them to maintain their identity and growth objectives. Bolstered by the capital investment and consultative resources that a partnership with us affords, agencies are provided with the runway to dream big.

We are not the owners of their vision, their future or their drive. Instead, we provide whatever we can to engage their entrepreneurial spirit and support their desire to be even better than they currently are.

So, how does this happen?

There are many nuances to our approach that take place through a great deal of collaboration and hard work. Four of our larger areas of focus include:

1) Removing barriers. One of the first tasks Keystone Agency Partners incurs on our partner agencies is to eliminate the routine tasks, such as finance, HR, payroll, benefits and more, from their responsibilities. Keystone Agency Partners has significant expertise and scale in these areas. Our partner agency employees benefit from this knowledge and size by freeing up the leadership at the agencies to focus more on running the business and driving growth.

2) Plotting a distinct course. One of the first activities post-close is a multi-day session with agency leadership to tap into their collective vision and refine strategic objectives to take them to new heights. The Keystone Agency Partners team—comprised of insurance industry experts with more than 100 years of collective experience in distinct functional areas—spends hundreds of hours engaging with our agency partners to tailor each partner agency's course to success. Our team focuses on all business, cultural and emotive aspects of our partner agencies in these sessions.

3) Connecting the partner agency. Our platform network allows agencies to share best practices across a peer class that they otherwise would never interact with—except in competitive sales situations. We provide a network of collegial high performers that push each other to define their value proposition in a way that drives collective growth and better performance. Our connection with Keystone Insurers Group (KIG) provides even more peer network access through intellectual capital, growth opportunities and networking starting the day platform agencies join Keystone Agency Partners.

4) Learning continuously. We know from experience that success is only achieved through continuous exploration and discovery. We work with our partner agencies to provide an ongoing engagement in critical sessions for all staff to grow in their roles and provide even more meaningful contributions to their agency and our collective platform.

And these are just the beginning phases of our partnerships. Entering the partnership is the start. Discover more about our mission to support your agency.

To learn about becoming a partner connect on LinkedIn or contact us directly.

Jeff Turner is CEO of Keystone Agency Partners.