Troy's story starts long before insurance. While in college at UMD, he sold educational books door-to-door for the Southwestern Company, working 80 hours a week, finding his own housing on the fly, and pitching total strangers with no base pay and no safety net. He credits that summer-job grind with teaching him more about sales, persistence, and running a business than college ever did — and he still plans to send his own kids through the same program.
From there, the conversation moves into why Troy is doubling down on analog, face-to-face selling at a moment when everyone else is chasing automation. He and Tim dig into the idea that as AI and digital tools flood every industry, the businesses that pick up the phone, knock on the door, or buy dinner for a client are the ones that stand out. Troy explains how he's using this philosophy inside Pinnacle right now, including a modern door-knocking campaign built around Progressive-branded gear that's generating 20 to 30 leads a night.
The guys also get into the business side of Troy's journey: joining his dad Mike's Farmers Insurance agency in 2010, the leap to independence, buying his dad out, and 4x'ing the business since. Troy and Sean compare notes on captive versus independent models, and break down what's really behind State Farm's recent commission restructuring and what it signals for agents nationwide who don't own their book of business.
Then there's Savvital — how a single standout employee named Mo turned into a full virtual assistant company, why most agencies are still sleeping on VAs, and the "flywheel" Troy uses to reinvest revenue from new business into more salespeople, more service staff, and more VAs to keep growth compounding. Troy also walks through Pinnacle's incentive culture, including customized wrestling championship belts, Super Bowl-style rings for hitting $100K in new business, and plans for an orange "green jacket" for the agency's top producer of the month.
The episode closes with Troy's take on mindset: why he refuses to call anything in his business a "struggle," how gratitude and perspective help his team weather hard markets and difficult clients, and the old Southwestern Company line that still guides how he runs Pinnacle today — "If you're green, you're growing. If you're ripe, you're rotten."
This episode is brought to you by Property Management Redefined. PMR builds partnerships that create long-term success for property owners who value accountability, reliability, and a results-driven approach, backed by a local team that manages properties and tenant expectations every day. Reach John Sacks and his team at manage@gopmr.com or 267-753-6005.
Connect with Troy Thompson: Pinnacle Insurance of Minnesota, Coon Rapids, MN, or search Savvital (S-A-V-V-I-T-A-L). Cell: 612-408-9000.
Bricks and Risk is a podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance, and building your business, hosted by Sean Mooney and Tim Garrity. Join us as we take you along our own business-building journeys, along with wisdom from our network of local and national experts. New episodes weekly.
Chapters:
00:00 Cold Open: Super Bowl Rings and Wrestling Belts
02:15 Welcome to Bricks and Risk + Sponsor: Property Management Redefined
04:30 Meet Troy Thompson: Pinnacle Insurance and Savvital
07:00 Door-to-Door Book Sales: The Southwestern Company Origin Story
13:30 What Selling 80 Hours a Week Actually Teaches You
19:45 The Return of Analog: Why Eye-to-Eye Still Wins in an AI World
25:00 Taking Over the Family Business From His Dad, Mike
29:30 Captive vs. Independent: The State Farm Commission Shake-Up
35:00 Building Savvital: Scaling VAs for Insurance Agencies
40:00 Inside Pinnacle's Sales Culture: Rings, Belts, and Orange Jackets
44:30 Modern Door-Knocking With Progressive-Branded Marketing
49:00 Mindset, Gratitude, and Closing Thoughts