Episode 350: The Masters

Hey everyone. Well, this past week was the Masters, and if you happen to be watching this on YouTube, you can see I got a new Masters hoodie. But I'm going to bring this back, as I always attempt to try to do, to your business and what we can potentially take away. I personally try to use analogies and metaphors from different times for me because I think it helps me to be able to make sense. Of business. So again, as always, if you're not a golfer, hopefully this will begin to make sense. Well, if you've had the opportunity to get to go to Augusta National in Georgia and go to the Masters, you know what a pleasure it is. I've been able to fortunately go 3 times. I think, uh, all 3 times, uh, somebody I know has won the lottery, and fortunately I've been invited to get to go to them. So David, shout out to you. Thank you so much for inviting me to Get To Go. It was, um, incredible experience. But what can we learn from the masters and the way that they do things that can potentially help us in our business? And as I was walking around the grounds, there were a few things that kind of came to mind. Number one is it was standards. They just have a standard for the way things are done. What is your standards for how you want things done in your business? I'll give you a specific one for us. I'll give you two, actually. One is a certain way that we use Slack to be able to communicate. And I know this is fairly tactical, but hopefully it gives you a specific example. The way that we use Slack to respond, the using threads, the way that we even structure and bold something, what things we use emojis to mean, mean certain things. I know that sounds silly. Many of you may not use Slack in your team communications, but it's not at random. There's a structure. There's a process for how we do things and even a routine. And the reason that's important is because when someone comes into the organization, they get accustomed to that and they say, okay, this is how they use Slack. And I think that becomes important. I'll give you a second one. The way that our documents look. So we primarily use Google Docs. I love Google Docs, but this applies with Word documents as well. One of our maxims is Um, never send a doc in Arial. And so if you send a document to me of one of our, uh, something that we use and it's in a font that's not how we wanted the font that we use, then I'm going to say something about it. And the reason is, you may say, Bradley, do you think actually a business grows off of the different font that you use for an internal document? Not at all. Not at all. Not at all. It's not going to matter to anybody whether or not that document's in Arial, Times New Roman, or something else. Okay, Helvetica. It doesn't matter. But what it signals is that there's a way that we do things. We care so much about having a system, all the way down to how our documents look internally. Now, I'll give you a fairly practical one about this one, is that if you start down the process of documenting your systems and processes and you create a document, say a Word document, and then you have somebody on your team do it. Let's say you're working on the sales playbook and then somebody else is working on the marketing playbook and you're, and then you've got the recruiting system that you're documenting in your organization and different people are touching those. Well, different people are going to have different tastes. And so what you're going to end up with is like a Frankenstein looking documents because they're at random. There's no standardized way to do things. But at the Masters, everything has standards of how they want the course to look, the way they want the concessions to look. I even saw whenever I went through the concession stand, they were, um, I was getting one of the beers, it was a Crow's Nest, And they had the beer and they set the beer down. And what they did is they turned it, they turned the cup. I wish I had one with me. And, uh, they turned the cup to where crow's nest was pointed. Wasn't like there was a way that they even wanted that to be done so that it was all neat and organized. So I think standards is one thing that really stands out to me about the Masters. I think number 2 is that they overdeliver. They overdeliver. Now, this is one of our core values, is to provide value first. And I certainly hope this podcast is, is that way too for you. They provide value first and then they overdeliver every time. And I've shared this on, um, somebody that, uh, I know they went on Friday and it was their first time to get to go. And I said, you know what, no matter how long I spend building this place up, it will always overdeliver. No matter how high your expectations are, it will overdeliver. And it did for him. And it does for me every time. I'm blown away. And so I think that this idea, our core values, and I'm not saying you need to adopt our core value at all of provide value first and overdeliver. But what are the little things that you can do to be able to overdeliver? Is that a handwritten note to a new customer? Is it a customer that maybe had a not a great situation and you handwrite them a note? Um, there's so many different ways of what that actually potentially could look like to where you do just a little bit extra. You go just the extra mile. And the Masters seems to always do that, which leads me to third, and actually the most important thing that I took away from my time at Augusta and the Masters: to get better every year. The iterative process of always getting better. They seemingly never rest on their laurels. They never slide backwards. And they made mistakes, and I'll actually share with you one in a second that that I think, um, as a very specific example, that wasn't great, that they will improve upon next year. But every year the golf course gets better, the experience gets better, the parking gets better, the communication gets better, year over year over year. You look back, um, of course I'm a golf nut, and you start seeing pictures of Augusta from years ago and You know, once you see those pictures and then you look at the golf course today and you go, wow, look how much it's, look how much it's improved. Look how much it's changed. And it has a lot.

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. Ambition is the first step towards success. It's time to level up your agency, and Coach P Consulting will help you do just that by using the same strategies he used to sell over 700 life insurance policies in 2021 alone. Now, this is not your regular one-and-done type coaching. You'll get personalized coaching 2 days a week, every week of the month, and you'll get a live look behind the scenes of his team training and an office that's performing at the highest level. There's a reason Coach P Consulting is the fastest growing coaching company for insurance agency owners in the country. Coach P will train your team alongside his own and show you the exact steps they are taking to achieve Chairman's Circle, Exotic Travel, and Multi-Line Presence Club and be one of the few agents to be selected to have a third office. So whether your goal is to be at the top of your local market or amongst the best in the country, this training will give you the strategies and the tactics to get there. For just $250 a month, you'll get high-level coaching each week from someone who is already getting it done at that level. And his strategies work, and it's time to put them to work for you. Sign up at coachpeakconsulting.com and get your first full month for free when you mention the Club Capital Leadership Podcast.

But it was just— it didn't go from that to what it is today in a year. They just improved a little, one thing at a time. Or maybe it wasn't one thing at a time. I'm sure it's more than that, but just so many things. I even saw, uh, like if you are lucky enough to be one of the players, or I guess, you know, members, and you can drive down Magnolia Lane. When you pull up to the main gate, which is pretty small there, they have these— I guess they're barriers on these, uh, hydraulics. Now, right? Because, you know, before they just had a person, you know, standing out there and stopping you. Well, because of security reasons, now somebody could just run that person over or run them to where they move out of the way, and then before you know it, somebody's driving down Magnolia Lane. And they realized, okay, we can't do that anymore. We actually have to have steel— I'm sure concrete barriers— to where there's no way this is getting through. And we've got them on hydraulics because we happen to drive through and I saw those things being lowered. That was something that they improved at the Masters. So everything that they do, the practice facility, the buildings, the facilities, the food, et cetera, just seems to get better every year. And to me, I think that that actually is really helpful for me. And it's a good reminder. I just completed, at the time I'm recording this, a web class. It's the, uh, 5th web class, I believe, that we've done this year. The first web class that I ran just this year, I think the slide deck that I had was maybe around 30, 35 slides. And I think the slide deck that I have currently— I'm not going to stop the recording to go back and look, but it's probably around 90. Now, it doesn't mean just because there's more slides that because of that it's actually it makes it better necessarily, but there's more context, there's more, uh, stories, it's more participative. You're able to, you know, kind of see and experience what's, what's going on and what I'm, what I'm talking about on there. And so I think it's gotten better is the bottom line. And so what are the things— and invite you to consider— what are the things specifically that you can iterate in the— between now and this time next year, you could look at and say, we've gotten better at that. That playbook has gotten better. Our sales process has gotten documented. It's easier. It's cleaner. It's simpler. It's easier to understand. It's easier to execute. Can you point to tangible examples tangible examples of different things. And I think that from that you begin to kind of embrace this idea of, of always getting better, but an iterative process like the Masters. So I think standards is one thing that I picked up from the Masters for sure, and what really more reminded of. Number 2 is I think that they've always gotten better. And number 3, they always overdeliver. They always overdeliver. But I want to share one that I felt like that wasn't what they wanted to be. It wasn't a master's experience. And I'll share with you what I heard all in the line, and that was the merchandise tent. We were going to go there first, uh, to get merch, I guess. What my kids say. We're going to go get merch. And it was an unbelievably long line. I couldn't believe how long it was. And Tiger was on the course. It was on a Tuesday. So I said, you know what, I'll get the merchandise later. I'm going to go see Tiger. And so luckily I ended up going to the second merchandise tent, which is on the back of hole number 5. And got there, and I still waited 45 minutes just to get in. I actually ended up spending, uh, 30 minutes. I'm not going to share on here how much I spent in the pro shop because that's an embarrassing amount of money. But, uh, anyway, uh, I waited 45 minutes to spend 30 minutes in there, and I thought to myself, this is chaotic, this is chaotic, this is I don't think this is what the Masters wants. I certainly believe that they love the fact that, hey, this is the only time in the year that you're going to, you're going to buy these things. This is the only place to buy them. From what I understand, the Masters does roughly $1 million an hour in merchandise. So for that 7 days, you're looking at just through merchandise tent sales, $70 million. $1 million in merch. And so obviously, uh, which is why I kind of started off pointing to this hoodie that I have on with it, is that part of it they definitely want. They want to be able to make sales because that's one of the primary drivers of, of revenue for them to invest in improvements every year. But at the same time, I don't think that's the experience that they're looking for. And it was a little frustrating. You, you got your bags and you go through and you're, you know, maybe I waited 10 minutes just to check out. Um, I don't think that was great. And so I heard someone speaking to what looked like maybe a manager, um, there, and he said, you know, this was, this was, this was kind of chaotic. And, uh, the person said, yes, um, we're going to change this for next year. That this is, this is not how we want this to be. So just overhearing that again goes back to, they're not perfect either. They've made mistakes too. And I don't think that the merchandise experience is what they want it to be. They certainly want to sell more, but not in that way. And I think they'll be, they'll be able to do that better. Will it be perfect? Probably not. But will I think it'd be better than it was, uh, this year? That felt chaotic at times? Yes, I do. I do believe it's going to be, it's going to be a lot better. So those are my takeaways from the Masters and the things that I believe, um, in our businesses that we can do. How do we overdeliver for our clients? What's the little things that we can do whenever, maybe if we make a mistake, or even if it's not a mistake, something that we can, we can do to go that extra go a little bit of that extra mile, that extra step, not in all situations, but just a little bit. Um, I think what are the standards that we have, whether it's around standards regarding, um, uh, our documentation, how we want things to look, Slack, how we communicate. There's a way of doing things in the business. And then also, how can we embrace the idea of not just— not a growth mindset Specifically, but just always getting better. Let's just do the thing and get better at it. Do the thing and get better at it. Do the thing and get better at it. Brian, I was on the call with Brian. He'll, he'll listen to this and know, and, uh, you know, he, he, he talked about running some appointments. Um, he, he called them, I think, PRs, if I'm not mistaken, and told me, do the thing, do it, document it, delegate, and just continue to get better about that. But you gotta start somewhere. right? You got to start somewhere in doing that and also along the way document them, but that's for another podcast for sure. So I hope this helped you. That's my takeaways from my experience at the Masters. Yes, I'm a Tiger fan, disappointed that Tiger didn't play better, but at least he made the cut. Hope this served you well. Oh, by the way, next week, um, this is dropping on Friday, the April 19th. Next week we've got our 2-day intensive. If you go to abovethebusiness.co, we've got some amazing literally amazing speakers that are going to be with us next week. Totally free. We're going to be doing a deep dive on Teams. Come join me and some awesome speakers next week. Art of One. Till next episode, lead well.