Podcast Recap: Mivation + Landmark Insurance & Financial Group

The Insurance Perspectives Podcast involves contributors outside of HawkSoft. The participants' views are entirely their own and may not reflect the views of HawkSoft.

This recap of the Insurance Perspectives Podcast gives highlights of the two episodes about HawkSoft Partners Mivation and Landmark Insurance. We interview Seth Preus of Mivation and Suzy Tawes and Jill Hall of Landmark Insurance and Financial Group.

In this article:

• Part 1: Mivation (Seth Preus)

• • What is Mivation's reason for participating in the independent agency channel?
  • What one aspect of Mivation draws agencies in and keeps them working with you?
  • How does Mivation approach data ownership with regard to your customers?
  • What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?
  • What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?

• Part 2: Landmark Insurance (Suzy Tawes & Jill Hall)
  • Tell us about your agency
  • What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Mivation?
  • What is your agency able to do now with Mivation that you couldn't do before?
  • What is one thing you would change about Mivation if you could?
  • How would you describe the value that Mivation brings to your agency?

Part 1: Mivation (Seth Preus)

Watch the video podcast - Part 1

Question 1: Why does Mivation exist? What is your reason for participating in the independent agency channel?

• Mivation originally started by helping captive agents better track production and commissions, solving a clear and immediate operational need.
  
  
• Many captive agents transitioned to the independent channel and specifically asked Mivation to follow them, due to increased complexity.
  
  
• Independent agencies face significantly more challenges with multiple carriers, formats, and data sources, making commission processing much harder.
  
  
• Mivation standardizes commission data across carriers and types of statements (carrier download, PDF, images of physical statements) for reconciliation.
  
  
• The company’s goal is to reduce commission processing time by 80–90% so agencies can focus more on growth and sales instead of administrative work.
  
  

“We automate commission reconciliation for insurance agents. We can process any kind of statement from any carrier, from any line of business, in any format.”  

Question 2: If you had to pick one aspect of Mivation that draws in and keeps agencies working with you, what would that be and why?

• Mivation prioritizes transparency not just for agency owners, but for producers who rely on commissions as a key part of their income.
  
  
• The platform gives producers direct visibility into performance data, including policies written, cancellations, and commissions earned.
  
  
• This transparency eliminates confusion and the “black box” nature of traditional commission processes within agencies.
  

“You can't care about what you don't know about. By giving them access to their performance data…it gives them the opportunity to change their behavior and to make adjustments, but it also gives them visibility into why they’re doing their job.” 

Question 3: How does Mivation approach data ownership with regard to your customers?

• Mivation pulls data from both carrier statements and agency management systems (like HawkSoft) to create a unified view.
  
  
• The system normalizes data from different carriers and formats into a consistent structure for accurate processing.
  
  
• This approach ensures that every transaction is clearly understood and can be validated across systems. Agencies no longer need to re-enter or manually reconcile data after the fact.
  
  
• Ultimately, agencies maintain access and visibility into all their data in a centralized, usable format.

“One of the things that makes commission processing so difficult in the independent world is that data is in different places. We pull key data that we need for those commissions from HawkSoft and then match it with what we take from the statement. We stop the agent from having to enter that data months afterwards.” 

Question 4: What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?

• Many agents are naturally sales-oriented and prefer client interactions over administrative or operational tasks.
  
  
• The onboarding process requires some involvement and setup from the agency, such as granting system access, which can cause delays.
  
  
• Agencies sometimes struggle to prioritize the setup stage even though it will enable long-term efficiency gains.
  
  
• As a result, Mivation continuously looks for ways to reduce the amount of setup required from agency teams.

“Insurance agents like to sell. That's why they went into it. They like to have conversations. They are not the kind of people that were deciding, do I become a sales rep for insurance or an accountant? They don’t like to do administrative actions.”  

Question 5: What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?

• Insurance professionals tend to be relationship-driven and easy to work with, which creates strong partnerships.
  
  
• Many agency leaders are highly successful but still approachable and collaborative in day-to-day interactions.
  
  
• There is a shared understanding of customer service and long-term relationship building.
  
  
• Mivation’s team comes from the insurance industry, creating natural alignment with clients.
  
  
• This dynamic leads to rewarding engagements where both sides are motivated to help agencies succeed.

“One of the things I like about working with insurance agents is that they tend to be really nice people…We deal with a lot of agents who are very successful. They’re important people and they’re very kind people.”  

Part 2: Landmark Insurance (Suzy Tawes & Jill Hall) 

Watch the video podcast - Part 2

In this episode:

• Tell us about your agency
• What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Mivation?
• What is your agency able to do now with Mivation that you couldn't do before?
• What is one thing you would change about Mivation if you could?
• How would you describe the value that Mivation brings to your agency?

Question 1: Tell us about your agency. How long have you been in the business, and how did you get into the business? Do you have any specializations? What gets you excited about insurance?

• Landmark Insurance has been in business since 1979 and has grown significantly in size and service offerings over time.
  
  
• The agency expanded from a small P&C-focused operation into a full-service firm including life, health, investments, and employee benefits.
  
  
• Suzy and Jill entered the industry after a personal experience without insurance, which created a strong sense of purpose.
  
  
• A background in accounting helped shape the financial and operational structure of the agency.
  
  
• Their passion for the business comes from helping clients avoid coverage gaps and achieve financial security.

“I was riding my bike through the neighborhood in DC and got hit by a car, broke my leg, and did not have insurance. So I thought with all my degrees, I'm so dumb to not have health insurance. And I'm sure there's other people out there like me. That's where my desire to get into sales and do something I was passionate about kind of merged together.”  

Question 2: What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Mivation?

• The agency needed a better way to handle time-intensive, manual commission tracking processes that had grown unmanageable.
  
  
• Commissions were being tracked using spreadsheets, requiring significant time for data entry and reconciliation.
  
  
• Gathering statements from multiple carriers became increasingly complex as the agency expanded.
  
  
• The process required up to 40 hours per month, creating inefficiencies and strain on staff.
  
  
• Previous solutions still required too much manual effort, failing to fully solve the underlying problem.

“I started with a spreadsheet, and it would take me about 8 to 10 hours on a Sunday to just go through each of the paper commission statements. It just got so tedious.”  

 

Question 3: What is your agency able to do now with Mivation that you couldn't do before?

• Commission processing time has been reduced dramatically from approximately 40 hours per month to around only 4 hours.
  
  
• The reconciliation process is faster, more streamlined, and significantly less stressful for staff.
  
  
• The agency is now able to pay producers much more quickly, improving cash flow and satisfaction.
  
  
• Producers have clear visibility into their commissions, reducing confusion and increasing trust.
  
  
• Overall operations feel more organized, efficient, and manageable across the team.

 

“Suzy was spending 40 hours a month doing commissions. It's down to just maybe four hours for reconciling, and two minutes scanning and sending stuff. I'm delighted.” 

Question 4: What is one thing that you would change about Mivation if you could?

• Early versions of reporting required multiple steps to access and interpret data.
  
  
• While the data was always available, it was not initially presented in the most user-friendly format.
  
  
• Bank reconciliation still requires some manual effort and remains the most time-consuming part of the process.
  
  
• Mivation has made many improvements to the system, including UI enhancements and integration updates.
  
  
• The team has been responsive to feedback and actively works to improve the product.

“From my perspective, everything that we've brought up, they're very open and willing and in many cases they've already thought of it and it's in the works.” 

Question 5: How would you describe the value that Mivation brings to your agency?

• The agency has realized major time savings, allowing staff to focus on higher-value tasks.
  
  
• Stress levels have decreased significantly, especially for those previously managing commissions manually.
  
  
• Increased transparency has built confidence among producers in the accuracy of their pay.
  
  
• The system helps identify missing or incorrect commissions that may have previously gone unnoticed.
  
  
• Overall, Mivation delivers both operational efficiency and stronger financial clarity.

“The fact that my sisters can trust these reports is huge. I knew the numbers were right, but I don't have anything to prove it to them. So that's huge. And then of course, there’s the time that’s been recaptured.”