Rich Bales
Owner - The Avanti Group
Rich Bales is the founder of The Avanti Group, an independent P&C insurance agency in Johnston, Iowa. A former Division I athlete at Iowa State and nine-year veteran of orthopedic medical device sales at Arthrex, he now helps mid-market business owners and high-net-worth homeowners get clarity before coverage through his proprietary BRD™ and RRA™ frameworks. He lives in central Iowa with his wife Jaclyn and their two daughters, July and Vienna.
27
June 22, 2026
Ep27 Rich Bales: How to Move Upmarket, Build Stickier Clients, and Become the Glue in Your Industry
In this conversation, Joe Blackburn, Jason Croft, and Rich Bales of Avanti Group unpack what it looks like to walk away from medical device sales, move to a new city, and build an insurance practice that operates nothing like what the industry is used to seeing. Rich entered insurance during what agents were calling the hardest market in decades... and used it as a launching pad. While veteran agents panicked, he asked a simpler question: why are all these people so angry at their current age...
Guest: Rich Bales