“A giraffe walks into an insurance conference…”

Sounds like the setup to a joke, right? Except this actually happened. And we were the ones who brought it. 🦒

In this first episode of Elevate the Hustle, founders Stan Meytin and Dom Piccirillo tell the real story behind the 16 foot giraffe they brought into the FAIA conference in Orlando—and why it wasn’t just a stunt, it was a statement about how they do business.

From there, Dom takes you back to the early days:
- Starting an insurance agency from scratch in New York
- Working 70–80 hour weeks and burning out
- Trying offshore help in India and realizing what doesn’t work
- Discovering Latin American talent and building a hybrid team that helped him scale and eventually sell his agency.

Stan and Dom break down how that experience turned into Elevate Teams—matching insurance agencies with trained, vetted virtual assistants from Latin America—and why they believe delegation, process, and culture are the real unlocks for growth.

They also dig into:
- The simple exercise that showed Dom he was doing “intern work” as the owner
- Why most agency owners stay stuck in the weeds
- Why sometimes, in business, you have to do something so bold people can’t forget you (like, say, rolling a giraffe into a ballroom)

The episode wraps with a rapid-fire round so you can get to know them—golf handicaps, Jets fandom, guilty-pleasure Starbucks orders and all.

Real talk, real stories, and occasionally real bad language.

If you're an insurance agency owner or entrepreneur who wants straight talk and stories from the trenches, hit play.

🌐 Website: elevateteams.io
📷 Instagram: @elevateteams
🔗 LinkedIn: Elevate Teams
🎙️ YouTube: @ElevateTheHustlePodcast