Freedom to do broking properly
Ian Macro has spent his whole career in insurance, starting at 18 with an independent family-run construction brokerage which was bought by a large corporate business.
He progressed to become a regional head of sales, but moving further into management also meant moving away from the part of the job he enjoyed most: looking after his own clients.
After another two years in a different corporate broker, Ian joined Konsileo looking for the freedom to build a client base around the way he wanted to work.
“I had the mindset from day one: this is my business now. I immediately thought, how am I going to stand out?”
Today Ian remains a construction specialist, but through collaboration with other Konsileo employees, has built a broader presence advising businesses including hotels and sports clubs as part of the Leicester hub. If clients need expertise outside his own area, it’s easy to accessing specialist colleagues within Konsileo.
Freedom to build something of your own
For Ian, autonomy is about much more than working from home and not asking for time off to go to sports day. It means being able to decide where to invest his time, how to market himself and how to grow his business.
One of his more unusual ideas was to use rubber ducks as a tongue-in-cheek way of getting people to remember him and his commitment to being available to clients, reminding them that “Konsileo gives a duck”.
That entrepreneurial approach extends to the local partnerships and sponsorships Ian has developed across his local community.
“I had all these ideas before, but you had to fill in form after form, put in the ROI case, sit down and get told no, it’s not a good idea.
“Here I was told, ‘Yeah, we’ll support it. Go and do it. If it doesn’t work, we won’t be doing it again.’ I backed myself to make it work.”
Ian has since become involved local sports organisations and other businesses, putting himself in places where he can build relationships.
Broking through relationships
The freedom Ian values also extends to where he places his clients’ business.
“At previous businesses we were dictated to about where to send business. I hated it. I’m a trader. I have relationships with senior people who I knew when they came in as trainee underwriter, who I know I can ring at 8pm at night.”
At Konsileo, Ian can use those relationships and his own judgement when looking for the right solution for a client.
“That only works with the freedom I get from Konsileo. You can manage the expectations of customers because you know the people and you have that trust.
“That’s how my placement works: I deal with people.”
Collaboration is the golden nugget
While Ian enjoys working independently, he is adamant that independence shouldn’t mean working alone.
He is part of a local Konsileo hub whose brokers meet twice a month to discuss strategy, networking and opportunities in their area. They work independently but collaborate on local opportunities and strategies.
The same principle applies when clients need specialist expertise.
If Ian meets a solicitor who needs professional indemnity advice, for example, he can bring a colleague with that expertise into the conversation. If he comes across motor trade business, he can turn to colleagues who specialise in that market. Colleagues agree how to share the commission through Konsileo’s Virtual Team Contracting structure.
“For anyone to be successful, collaboration is the golden nugget. It’s easy at the start to be selfish and want 100% of everything, but realistically you run out of gas. You need people around you.”
For Ian, that means he can concentrate on developing relationships and winning opportunities, knowing he can bring in colleagues with a wide field of expertise.
Work around life, rather than life around work
Ian is open about the fact that greater freedom hasn’t meant working less.
“I work all hours of the day, but I just put work around my life. If someone rings me at 8.30 at night, I deal with it. But then I get times in the day when I can take my children to school or get a haircut.”
That flexibility has made a significant difference at home.
“Genuinely, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. My family life’s brilliant. I can pick my kids up, see them after school, I’m at home half the week. You have the flexibility to do all the little things rather than commuting 7–7.”
For experienced brokers considering whether they could work in the same way, Ian’s advice is straightforward: understand what you want to build and be prepared to take responsibility for making it happen.
“It’s the closest thing you can have to running your own shop. But with so much central support from compliance through to systems and marketing.
“No idea’s a bad idea if you put the work in.
“The sky’s the limit for what you want to achieve.”
