The tipping point: knowing when it’s time to leave
Brock Clement walked away from a comfortable, well-paid job to launch his own brokerage. How he knew it was time to go and how he made it happen.
For many people, it’s easier to opt for the known over the unknown; for acknowledged (if boring) certainty over taking a chance on starting something new. Not so for Brock Clement, president of CMB Insurance Brokers in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
In 2019, Clement knew it was time to make a big change in his professional life. For well over a decade, he’d worked for a local brokerage and had begun to feel stymied. It was a good job with good colleagues and great clients, but no path forward that he could see. “I’d built up a big book there,” he recalls. “And you realize you’re making someone else a lot of money and you want to do that for yourself. But the main reason for making the move is that you know when you’re at a place where you have no control, you can’t have your own employees, you can’t go up the ladder more.”
It’s a pivotal moment for many top producers who recognize they’re capable of doing more, achieving more, but can’t realize that vision as long as they’re an employee and not the boss.
For Clement, the choice was clear – it was time to take a chance and establish his own brokerage. “It wasn’t a hard decision,” he says. “I don’t think like that. There’s risk in anything you do, and if you think about that too much, you won’t do anything. I just called Ben and said I’m looking to get out. I talked to two other organizations at the time, but Ben’s thinking aligned with mine.”
He’s referring to Ben McDonald, CEO of Insurance Growth Network (IGN), a company purpose-built to support producers who want to craft their own futures in the insurance business. Together, they established the CMB Grande Prairie brokerage and Clement hasn’t looked back.
Brock Clement, President of CMB Insurance Brokers Grande Prairie
Proof of concept
Times were a lot different when Clement and McDonald had that first call. For one thing, IGN didn’t even exist in 2019.
Back then, McDonald was president of CMB in Edmonton with an eye on expansion into other places in Alberta, including Grande Prairie. So, when Clement called to say he was looking to start something new in that city, McDonald was all in.
At its simplest, the plan was for Clement to launch a new CMB branch giving all his attention to finding and growing new business while the Edmonton office provided all the administration support, such as bookkeeping, recruitment, payroll and more. As McDonald puts it: why saddle a top producer with paperwork when they could be out writing new policies?
While there is a lot more to it, such as developing bespoke growth plans, setting meaningful targets and avenues of accountability, the work Clement and McDonald did to get CMB Grande Prairie off the ground became the blueprint for other producers seeking to launch their own independent brokerages. By 2023, McDonald formalized this line of work under the IGN brand.
Making the leap
Not one to let the grass grow, Clement hit the ground running back in 2019 and it wasn’t always easy, but it has been rewarding. “There’s a financial investment in starting your own brokerage,” he says, adding he also had a non-compete period to get through. Plus, Grande Prairie is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone, which meant Clement had to work hard to prove himself after breaking from his former employer.
“There’s nothing you can do about what people say about you, except that most of my clients know what I can bring to the industry,” he says. “I thought there were things we could do better. I just knew in a small town, service is everything, no matter if you spend five dollars or a million dollars, everyone is treated the same. You just have to figure it out and work harder than the next guy.”
He says IGN helped make the transition to independence easier and, seven years later, he likes what he’s built. “It’s gone good,” he says. “We started with one person, and we have close to 25 people now. We’re one of the biggest offices in the CMB network.” But more than that, he says, it’s about having a career, not just a job. “No one should look at their job and think, ah, it’s good enough.”
“His advice to others thinking about making the leap is straightforward: have fortitude, focus on the long game and take the help.”
His advice to others thinking about making the leap is straightforward: have fortitude, focus on the long game and take the help. “I can lie in bed every morning looking at the ceiling and think about what could go wrong, or I could just not,” he says. “It’s wasted energy worrying about stuff you can’t control.
“My wife was the one who made the decision easier – she said you’re going to be a happier person,” says Clement about making that fateful decision to pull the pin on his old job. “You have an opportunity to make your own happiness. IGN will give you all the tools to be successful. It’s up to you how you use them.
“It’s not for everyone,” he says “It’s for people who are willing to bet on themselves and work hard. There’s only one person who can stop you and that’s you.”