Month: October 2025
The Heart of Leadership: Embracing Change and Building Legacy with Steve Kerns (Ep. 98)

The Heart of Leadership: Embracing Change and Building Legacy with Steve Kerns (Ep. 98)

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Change challenges every leader, but it also shapes character, culture, and legacy.

How do you lead when everything around you is shifting? How do you build a culture that lasts beyond your own leadership?

In this episode, Jeremy Houser talks with Steve Kerns, Founder of InsurMark and Executive Vice President of Business Relationships at Simplicity, about embracing change, leading with humility, and building culture through servant leadership. 

Steve shares insights from his four decades as an entrepreneur and reflects on how valuing people above all else creates meaningful growth that stands the test of time.

Key Takeaways:

  • How change has defined Steve’s leadership journey and why adaptability is essential for personal and professional growth
  • The lessons from Who Moved My Cheese? and how to embrace constant change with optimism and courage
  • The foundations of InsurMark’s culture, rooted in values, service, and putting people before profit
  • The story behind InsurMark’s Family Reunion and Founder’s Club traditions and their role in building community
  • And more!

Resources: 

Connect With Stephen Kerns:

Connect with Jeremy Houser:

About Our Guest:

Stephen Kerns is the Executive Vice President of Business Relationships at Simplicity Group. He founded InsurMark in 1983 and led the company for nearly four decades, shaping it into one of the industry’s leading distribution firms for insurance and financial products. Known for his commitment to servant leadership and culture building, Steve continues to mentor financial professionals and executives across Simplicity’s growing network.

Disclosure: 4850258 – 1025

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Leading with Data: Elevating Team Potential with Kellie Fern (Ep. 97)

Leading with Data: Elevating Team Potential with Kellie Fern (Ep. 97)

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Leaders often think they understand themselves and their teams, but research shows otherwise. Self-awareness and communication are frequently overlooked, even though they’re the foundation of building effective organizations.

In this episode, Jeremy Houser welcomes Kellie Fern, Director of Business Operations and Development at The Predictive Group, to discuss how the Predictive Index and behavioral data help leaders design stronger teams, improve communication, and align people strategies with business goals. 

They explore when businesses should use these tools, how talent optimization works, and why culture and communication matter more than ever.

Kellie discusses:

  • How the Predictive Index helps uncover self-awareness and behavioral drivers within a workplace
  • Why many leaders overestimate their self-awareness and the importance of recognizing blind spots
  • How behavioral data can be used to design complementary and diverse teams that fill performance gaps
  • When organizations should introduce these tools, whether during crisis points or proactive growth phases
  • How talent optimization aligns people with strategy to improve communication, engagement, and culture
  • And more!

Resources: 

Connect With Kellie Fern:

Connect with Jeremy Houser:

About Our Guest:

Kellie Fern is the Director of Business Operations and Development at The Predictive Group. She joined the Predictive Group in 2016 after graduating from Arizona State University with an emphasis in Business Management. During her first 2 ½ years in the business, she was a part of the Shared Services team and was able to support and consult with clients on all their business needs.

Life then brought her to Dallas, TX where she worked within a hospitality technology company in a sales enablement and learning development role. She was able to globally train and develop all the incoming and current sales reps within the business. During her time there, she was able to utilize PI and fell back in love with the value the tool can bring to organizations.

She found that her passion with PI was something she wanted to pursue on a more permanent basis and she is excited to continue to share the value human analytic tools can bring to all organizations.

Disclosure: 4800785 – 1025

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