Episode 165: The Bottom Line - Who's On Your Team?

So the big question is this: how do small business owners like us grow our leadership, develop our teams, and scale our business in a way that allows us to get our products and services out to the world yet still remain profitable?

That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers.

I'm Bradley Hamner, and this is the Club Capital Leadership Podcast.

Welcome to The Bottom Line, a new weekly podcast series that we drop every Thursday to complement our weekly Monday podcast interviews with the industry leaders. These podcasts are going to be designed to give you short, impactful, and value-driven information that you can start using right away in your business.

I value your time and attention and will do my very best not to waste it.

Just get what you need and go. So with that, let's get into today's episode.

Are you an agency owner looking to grow your revenue, increase your bottom line, and better manage your taxes? Club Capital is here to help. Club Capital is the largest accounting and advisory firm for insurance agents in the country, providing monthly accounting, tax strategy, and CFO services. Way more than bookkeeping and your everyday run-of-the-mill tax prep, Club Capital is focused on providing financial and tax advisory services that help you plan and forecast your agency's performance. Their financial dashboards and agency forecasting tools help you better understand your agency's historical performance, create, measure future targets, and see how your agency compares to your peers around the country. Imagine what it would be like to understand the impact to your bottom line when deciding to hire a new employee, or forecast the impact rate changes or commission rates will have on your business. With over $200 million in tracked annual revenue and $140 million in tracked annual expenses, Club Capital has the data and the team to help you make better informed decisions for your agency. They will help you turn that back office stress into the backbone of your agency's success by giving you the tools to take your agency and your leadership to the next level. Visit club.capital today to book a solution overview with one of our business consultants. Club Capital, way more than a CPA firm. Are you an agency owner looking to grow your revenue, increase your bottom line, and better manage your taxes? Club Capital is here to help. Club Capital is the largest accounting and advisory firm for insurance agents in the country, providing monthly accounting, tax strategy, and CFO services. Way more than bookkeeping and your everyday run-of-the-mill tax prep, Club Capital is focused on providing financial and tax advisory services that help you plan and forecast your agency's performance. Their financial dashboards and agency forecasting tools help you better understand your agency's historical performance, create and measure future targets, and see how your agency compares to your peers around the country. Imagine what it would be like to understand the impact to your bottom line when deciding to hire a new employee. Or forecast the impact rate changes or commission rates will have on your business. With over $200 million in tracked annual revenue and $140 million in tracked annual expenses, Club Capital has the data and the team to help you make better informed decisions for your agency. They will help you turn that back office stress into the backbone of your agency's success by giving you the tools to take your agency and your leadership to the next level. Visit club.capital today to book a solution overview with one of our business consultants. Club Capital, way more than a CPA firm.

Hey everyone, well, for the last few weeks we've been going through a 5-part series on the 5 key questions that every business owner should ask. And so we started with, just going back to week 1, we started with number 1, what are your priorities? In week 2, we talked about, well, show me your calendar. Number 3, we talked about show me your scoreboard, be able to keep track of how you're doing relative to your priorities. And today is who is on your team. You may have heard me say this on maybe some of the Monday interviews that we do, but I'll talk about A-players. And when you think about, uh, who is on your team, I mean, it is not earth-shattering to say that who is on your team is going to be able to dictate how well you do in your business. That is pretty obvious. We've had some incredible guests that that have come on and that both are really good at being able to recruit, how do they attract people. We've talked about all of those things and I'm not gonna go through that on this episode. I'm gonna share with you hopefully a couple little things that may be able to help you whenever you're beginning to think about who is on your team. The actual X's and O's of about how do you attract them, how do you develop them once you're on your team, and how do you retain them, And that's the 3 things I do think about. I think about attract, develop, and retain when it comes to the team. But today I want to talk about the definition of an A-player. Now, I'm not necessarily going to say that your definition should be the same as someone else's. What I am going to encourage you to think about is what is your definition of an A-player in your business? Let's just say that you had sales acquisition, as one of the key positions in your business, and then there was, uh, account management or customer service or client support, whatever that may be. Let's just focus on those two as the main two roles. Of course, many of you have far— many, many different roles. You have an admin assistant, you have an executive assistant, you have a marketing assistant, you have sales managers and service managers, etc. But we're just going to focus for now on those two: sales acquisition and account management. Well, those are likely going to be two very different definitions of what an A-player looks like. And if you're going to ultimately attract, and if you're going to use a service, say, like Autopilot Recruiting, it is key that you're able to know for yourself exactly what an A-player is, because who you have on your team is going to dictate your ability to achieve the priorities that you've set out for your business over the next 90 days. Over the next year, and over the next 3 years. I got a question for you. Think about this. How many of the problems in your business would immediately cease to exist if every player on your team was an A player? If everybody on your team was an A player, how many of the problems in your business would simply cease to exist? I had to bet for many of you, it would be maybe all of them. Actually. And of course you may say, okay, well, what is it? What defines an A player? I think that's up for you to be able to decide, but I think it's also key for you to decide first and foremost for you based on the positions, communicate that to your team, and absolutely hold to that standard when you are interviewing and bringing people on. Because if you haven't actually set out and said what the standard is and what we are looking for, then you'll settle for anybody. And so, it really comes down to standards and expectations. Many of you know, look, my affinity for Auburn and Auburn football. At the time of this, we're in the middle of a coaching search. Hopefully, somebody will get somebody that will be able to compete with Alabama. But at the end of the day, there is a standard Alabama football is looking for in their recruits. And it pains me to say that, but they get, you know, 4 and 5 star talent every single year all throughout the roster from top to bottom. The people who are not playing would likely be starters on many of the other SEC or Big Ten teams throughout the country in college football. And if you're not someone who keeps up with sports, let alone college football, That's fine. I know many of you have heard of Alabama football and their standard of excellence is really impressive. And to be able to sustain that for so long, he has certainly created a culture. And my goodness, we've talked about culture and leadership development so many times on this podcast. But that is a good analogy for getting A players on your team. You get quarterbacks that are Heisman Trophy level quarterbacks. Yes, you have to still develop them. Yes, you have to put them in an environment where The environment itself dictates performance. In fact, I don't know if you've heard me say that before, but I really do believe environment dictates performance, and that is culture. But there's a standard to which those A-players, that they are going to be looking for a certain type of player. And of course, in football or in basketball, there's a— what does an A-player look like that's on the defensive line, or what's the A-player look like if it's a point guard in basketball, etc. But for your business, can you take the time? I just invite you to consider that you take a few minutes and say, these are the key positions that I have in my small business, and this is what defines an A-player. It's probably going to include some key performance indicators, some KPIs, meaning if it's a sales acquisition person, there's going to be a minimum targets that you're going to want to have them to be able to hit every single month? I think that's pretty easy. How do you want them to be able to show up? In other words, if they get it done but then they're a toxic part of your culture, that wouldn't be an A-player, would it? Be somebody who maybe develops other, uh, key salespeople, pours into other people. Is punctuality a big part? Is it important to you in your culture? Then put that down as an example. Maybe punctuality is not as super important to you, but maybe it's critical. What about discipline and consistency? What are the things that you absolutely can say, this is what's important to me? And I'll tell you, I mean, whether it's David Peterson, Alex, or, you know, many of the other amazing guests that we've been able to have on the podcast, don't necessarily try to be those people. Be you. You know what it is that you're looking for in your business if you'll just take the time to get it out of your head and on paper. And once you get it on paper, maybe it's in a digital format that you can print off and share, but share that with your team. There's a great tool. I want to give credit to Dan Sullivan for this. He's an amazing entrepreneurial coach with Strategic Coach in Toronto, and he's got a great tool. You can just Google it. It's called the 4x4, and he talks about performance, results. What are the other two? Oh, what drives me crazy and how to be a hero. And in each one of those boxes in that quad there, there are 4 things. And so you say these are the 4 main results that we want to get. This is the 4 main things of how we want you to be able to show up. In other words, your performance. These are the 4 things that drive me crazy, and these are the 4 things about how you can be a hero to the business and to us as a team. That is a fantastic tool and a guideline for you to be able to get really clear on what an A-player looks like. And so Google that tool, print it off, and use that. And that can really become an A-player talent. You want to do that for each one of the, the the positions that you have in business. I, I take that and, and make some modifications to it to fit kind of my personality and some of those things, but the, the basic tool itself is obviously highly influenced from Dan Sullivan. So definitely take a look at that. So where do we go from here, right? We said number 1, 5 key questions, is what are your priorities? Got to get it out of your head. Where do you want to take the business over the next year? Where do you want to take it over the next 3 years? Number 2, show me your calendar. What are the things that you're doing, your personal calendar time that you're allocating to be able to focus on those priorities? Number 3, show me your scoreboard. How are you keeping track of all of those things in the business? We got to be able to tell the winners from the losers. And today, who is on your team? If you got a team of A-players, you're going to be able to hit those priorities that you have set out for the business. And great tool to use for that would be the 4x4. Get it clear so that you can go about attracting those A-players. Then you can go about developing them, and then you can do certain things to be able to retain them in your business. All right, everyone, hope this served you. Appreciate your time. This was helpful to you. Would you consider sharing it with one other person today? All right, until next episode, lead well. If you're listening to this podcast, I know you're someone who has a growth mindset. You probably want to be able to grow your book of business as well. With DirectClicks specializes in helping insurance agencies leverage Google Ads and SEO to drive inbound phone calls, leads, online visibility, and even organic traffic. You can be confident in knowing exactly how well your ads are working and getting support in what really matters in your business. Get exclusive online marketing support today when you visit directclicksinc.com. You know how important it is to develop yourself and to develop your team. Well, if you're going to do that, you want to do it with the best. Work with Coach P Consulting to learn and implement the same strategies that he used to sell over 700 life policies in 2021 alone. You'll get personalized coaching 2 times a week and an in-depth look at how his office is run, and Coach P will train your team alongside his own. Get your first month free when you mention the Club Capital Leadership Podcast during signup. Visit coachpconsulting.com to get started. If you've listened to this podcast for any amount of time, you've heard me say many times, the best use of money is to be able to buy back your time. And one of the best ways to do that is by hiring a virtual assistant, whether it's an executive assistant or creative marketing assistant. Rock Solid has a unique hiring process to net the very best talent, and they intentionally match you with a great fit for you and your team. They value your success as if it were their own, because it is. If you're looking to build a rock solid team for your business, Reach out to Tracy and her team at rocksolidassistance.com.