Episode 5: Bill Whitley from The Risk Advisor Institute and The Power of Asking Questions

So my belief is that very few people understand insurance. And even if they do meet with their agent and the agent does a review, they might understand it for a brief amount of time, but they don't fully understand it. They certainly can't remember all the aspects. And so if an agent can make insurance and financial services simple, visual, easy to understand, the customer will say thank you and they'll buy more and they'll never leave. Welcome to the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, where you will learn to grow your business, grow your leadership, and grow and develop your team. And now tune in to another great episode brought to you by your hosts, Bradley Hamner and Chris Ferretti.

I'm really excited again about this episode with Bill Whitley, owner of Risk Advisor Institute. You know, Bill's been around the insurance industry for a long time, and the first thing that comes to mind is he's just a consummate professional. He really knows, he's such a great speaker. I'm sure listening to this podcast, I've heard him on stages throughout the country, and many people have already worked with him. And just secondly, the importance of practicing your scripts. And just knowing what you're saying. I mean, you can tell he said that so many times, but he really just encourages agents and their team members to really know their scripts. And obviously it's so important. So, Chris, what are some of the things you got out of this podcast?

Could not agree with you more. Just to piggyback on the scripts part, like a lot of the time people tell you learn scripts as the skeleton, but then make it your own. I would say the make it your own part should come once you have mastered the script. Like once you know it like the back of your hand, then make it your own because In the beginning, when you're trying to pitch a client on a product or service and you're focusing on making the script your own before you actually fully know it, you're not giving the client the undivided attention that they deserve. So it's gonna be hard for you to actually service them. So with that being said, I think Bill does a great job of explaining why you need to practice a script and most importantly, how his process can show you the power of questions. So with that being said, I think people are going to get a lot out of this because Bill's whole process teaches you how an appointment should be carried out. And I'm so excited to hear what everybody's going to think about this.

Bill, I've heard you on just a number of occasions. I think the first time that I heard you was in 2011 in Montgomery, if I'm not mistaken. And you just do a great job of sharing stories. And I've been to a lot of conferences over the years. And your stories are the ones that I remember, quite frankly. And so I think for the listeners that don't know you, why don't you just share your story?

Yeah, absolutely. So I am a technology entrepreneur and I have grown two technology businesses. They were both successful. I grew them, I sold them. And when I sold my second business, I wrote a book called Art of the Rainmaker. And my dream was to be a professional speaker. They say, if you want to be a professional speaker, you have to write a book. So I wrote a book and I wrote Art of the Rainmaker and I lucked out. And my very first speaking engagement came from State Farm. There was an AFC named Jim Barr from Los Angeles who read my book and I got invited to speak to 250 State Farm agents. And I was so excited. I said, hey, could I interview your top agents? You know, I'd like to customize my presentation. So they teed up 10 interviews. I spent well over an hour with every single one of these agents. At the end of my interviews, I was so blown away by what I learned that I called back and said, hey, I not only want to customize my presentation, I want to completely change my presentation. I want to call it 8 Secrets of the Top Performing Agents. And I'm delighted to tell you it was a big hit. It went over really well that day in Los Angeles, and I've now been hired to do that one presentation over 1,000 times.

Wow!

That's a fantastic story. So, Bill, talk to us just about what you do now and talk to us about the Risk Advisor Institute. I mean, you've been doing this now for almost a little over a decade, if I'm not mistaken. Is that right?

That's right. That's right. So, one of the main things that I learned when I interviewed these top agents is the best agents have all made a fundamental transition from merely quoting cheap insurance to advising clients in the most effective way to protect everything they own. And I call that becoming a risk advisor. And so when you make that transition from quoting cheap insurance to advising clients, there's several wonderful things that happen in your agency. Number one, you and your staff become more respected and you hear the word thank you more often. The second thing that happens is you close more sales. The third thing that happens is you increase retention. The fourth thing that happens is you get more referrals. So it's a really wonderful metamorphosis that happens in an agency if they can make that transition. And so that's what we teach, is we teach agents how to go from being a quoter of cheap insurance to more of a risk advisor.

You know, one of the things that really stood out to me and has stood out to me every time I've heard you speak is just the quality of your conversation. And you call it the Your World Conversation. Can you just give us a little bit of a genesis about Your World Conversation and how that came about.

Yep. So, my belief is that very few people understand insurance. And even if they do meet with their agent and the agent does a review, they might understand it for a brief amount of time, but they don't fully understand it. They certainly can't remember all the aspects. And so, if an agent can make insurance and financial services simple, visual, easy to understand, the customer will say thank you. And they'll buy more and they'll never leave. So, Your World is just a simple diagram and a conversation, and the two just sort of go hand in hand. And it starts out by saying, you know, here's you. So an agent would pull out a blank sheet of paper and he'd put the client's name right in the center of the page. And if I was creating this for you, I'd say, Bradley, here's you. I'd put your name at the center of a page and, you know, everybody loves you because you create income. You're the center of your world. They love you because you create income. And so, Bradley, tell me what you do for a living. And question number 2, wow, how long have you been doing that? Question number 3, oh man, how'd you get into that? And then once I understand those 3 questions, I'd say, so Bradley, if you don't mind me asking, how much do you make each year doing whatever it is that you do? And once I understand you, then I draw 2 little arrows, one going to the bottom left, one going to the bottom right. I say, so Bradley, your income goes in one of two directions. It either goes to support your family or to purchase assets. And so in terms of your family, I'd want to know, are you married? And do you have children? And tell me about each of your children. And then I wouldn't stop it there. I'd want to know about your parents because a parent can become a dependent. And once the agent understands the family situation, then they say, okay, now let's move over to the other side. Tell me about your assets. And they would want to certainly understand their cars, their home? Have you started any type of savings plan? And so income, family, assets. Once an agent understands that, you can really move to the second level of discovery, which is, you know, as your risk advisor, I think about 7 things, the 7 biggest risks we all face. And you would just simply go down a list of those 7 things. You know, the first thing I think about is your health. If you had a major medical procedure, it could cost a lot of money. I don't want anything to erode those assets you told me about. So tell me about your healthcare coverage. And the second thing I think about is your income. You know, if you couldn't do whatever you just told me you're doing, would your world be okay? And the third thing I think about, you know, God forbid, if you passed away prematurely, would your family be okay? The fourth thing I think about is just the opposite. If you live a really long time, is it possible you could outlive your assets? And if you have that concern, we call that a longevity risk. And I can recommend some ways you'll never outlive your income. Fifth thing, I think about your home. The sixth thing, I think about your cars. And last thing I think about is if somebody sued you, would your world be okay? And then the conversation just wraps up by really drawing a wall of protection around income, family, and assets, and just simply wrapping up by saying, you know, as your risk advisor, my job is to help you create this wall of protection. So if any of these accidents happen, they'll bounce right off. And by the way, we are not going to be able to build this wall today. But my goal is to help you build that wall over time. And so my only question for you is, which of these risks concern you the most? Where would you like to start? You know, what would your top 3 priorities be? And then you just simply help the client work on the risks that are the most impactful to them, the risks that concern them the most.

You know, I just have to say, it's just such a beautiful conversation because it flows so logically and naturally. That's the first thing that comes to mind. And the second thing that comes to mind, and I just want you to speak to this, I think it's really interesting that you started and sold two technology companies and you're speaking to insurance agents around the country and everybody is faced with the same thing. Technology is a beautiful thing. It's helping all insurance agency owners, but it's also coming at a challenge too. And insurance is being commoditized more and more and more every single day. Things are happening at a faster pace. And so, just talk about the fact that how the Your World Conversations can begin to separate out for the clients so that they don't feel pressurized to just go get a quote and save 15% in 15 minutes or something to that effect.

Yeah, absolutely. And GEICO is doing such a beautiful job of commoditizing this industry and 15 minutes will save you 15%. You know, everybody's just suddenly so interested about price and saving money on their insurance. What we find is that if an agent has a Your World conversation with the customer, the very first thing the customer will do is say thank you. And usually they'll say something like this, you know, "Thank you, nobody's ever done this for me before," or, "Thank you, nobody ever made insurance that easy to understand." And then the second thing that happens is the customer will almost never ever leave you. So retention goes up. And the third thing that happens is that they'll buy more from the agent. By the way, I had a— this was a Farm Bureau agent out in Kansas named John Kinnis, and he had an angry customer come in. They had gone up $1,500 on his homeowner coverage, and the customer called John and said, "John, I demand to come meet with you. I don't understand why my insurance has gone up $1,500." And John said, "Absolutely, I would like to meet with you. Let's go ahead and put it on the calendar. I'm going to do everything I can to help you." When the customer came in, John said, you know, Everything we do for you should be based on what's happening in your world. Would it be okay if we spend just a few minutes so I can better understand your world? And the angry customer said, yeah. So John goes through the Your World Diagram and he noticed that this customer owned two automobiles that were insured with a different insurance company. And John said, now listen, this is not going to save you $1,500, "But if I can insure both of your cars and your home, I'm allowed to offer you a multi-line discount that'll save you money over what you're paying right now." And the multi-line discount for this customer was $750. And so on that day, John picked up 2 automobiles from an angry customer. Risk number 2, by the way, was life insurance. An angry customer just applied for life insurance. But the most important thing, and what I wanted to make sure everybody hears, when this guy stood up to leave John's office, He looked John in the eye and he said, "John, for the first time ever, I understand why I have an agent." So, that's huge. If all an agent is, is cheap insurance over the phone, the customer cannot differentiate the agent from GEICO. That's GEICO's model, cheap insurance over the phone. And so, GEICO's going to win that battle. They're a big call center. They're really good at cheap over the phone. But the agent, what I always say to them is, "Listen, you're local." you can get the customer to come in, you can meet with them face-to-face. And I know that's hard to do. Nobody wants to meet anymore. Everybody's so busy, but plenty of agents do a good job of getting their customers to come in. And if you can get them to come in, then you can make it simple, visual, and easy to understand. And they'll say, thank you. They'll buy more from you. They'll never leave you. So anyway, I think it's just tremendously important in this age of commoditization that the agent really steps up and becomes a risk advisor and has that face-to-face meeting with the client.

Now, I feel like you do an incredible job of differentiating between quoting and actually becoming a trusted risk advisor. For somebody who is simply quoting today, for an agent who's simply quoting today, how do you think that they can make the leap to actually becoming a trusted risk advisor?

Well, certainly, you know, we offer a lot of training on that topic. And one of the things that we've developed, we call it the Risk Advisor Mastermind Group. And we've developed an app and we have a video training library and a monthly program. So we created all the self-study tools that an agent can use. We charge $49 a month for an agent to have access to all of our self-study tools. There's no contract. And so if an agent wanted to check that out, they should just go to riskadvisorinstitute.com and they can see our self-study program. We've also just rolled out something called Infantry Training School, and this is a 6-month curriculum that we take the agents through. It's 2 live training sessions per month. This is a group training. We do it all with Zoom. And so Steve Wilmer leads our infantry training school. They see video of Steve, they see all of his PowerPoints. It's 2 scheduled training sessions per month, and then there's homework in between. And so some agents, in addition to having self-study materials, really want to have somebody else pushing their team and training their team. And so We offer that kind of training as well.

Yeah, Steve was actually just on the podcast recently, and he's great, high energy. I was making a joke that when we were in Chicago, like, that man did not need a mic. The second that he started speaking, he just had the whole room's attention on him.

Yeah, he's amazing. You know, when Steve was a State Farm team member, he personally wrote over 100 life policies per year for 8 years in a row. He's done, I think, over 1,000 Your World Conversations. He's the best at it I've ever seen, and I felt like I was really good at it. He's way better than I'll ever be. And so I was really, really lucky when he became my head of training, and he's taken our company to a whole new level.

Bill, you've worked with— I mean, you probably don't even know, honestly, how many insurance agents you work with across the country. So in preparing for the interview, I was really thinking about What is the single biggest obstacle that you see agents are faced with today? And what's one thing that you feel like that they can do to be able to overcome that?

I think the number one obstacle is team. We do an onboarding call when a customer signs up for our monthly program. I spend half an hour with them to make sure they understand how to use everything. And I always ask, you know, tell me more about your agency. Tell me about your biggest goals and tell me about your biggest challenges. The number one challenge I hear over and over and over when I say, "What's your biggest challenge?" They say one word. They say, "Team." I say, "Tell me more about that." They say, "Well, finding good team members and hiring good team members and training them and retaining them." To some extent, it's a little bit of an open door. I think the number one thing, this is kind of a neat little trick that we teach our customers. If I was interviewing a candidate that I was considering hiring, if you like the candidate, I always tell the agents to say, "Hey, thanks so much for coming in." I just want to let you know, at this agency, we're a little different from other companies. We help people manage their everyday risk. And if you don't mind, I'd like to show you exactly how we do that. We have this conversation, this little diagram, we call it Your World. If you don't mind, I'd like to draw it out for you just as if you were my customer. And they dive right in and do a Your World for the candidate. And at the end of the conversation, they say, now, by the way, it's very important we do this for our customers because They always say thank you and they never leave us. And in many cases, they buy more from us. So the first step is sort of positioning your agency as this thoughtful risk advisor that makes your employment opportunity more exciting to the candidate. And then as soon as they do that, the agents, step 2, they say, now, by the way, if you had the proper training, do you think you could draw that little diagram? Could you have that conversation? And they all say, yeah. And the agents say, great, do me a favor, pull out your iPhone. Or pull out your Android. I want you to download this app. And they give them the monthly code and they say, uh, do me a favor, go to that video training library. You see this guy right here? That's Steve Wilmer. Do me a favor, when you go home tonight, I want you to watch the Your World video, part 1, part 2, part 3. And when you come back for your follow-up interview, would you be willing to draw this diagram for me? You know, we'll pretend like you're the agent and I'm the customer. Could you do it for me? And so what our agents have found is that if a candidate can watch those videos and practice on their husband or practice on their wife and then come in and do the conversation, it's a really good indicator of how well they're going to perform on the job. So I think it's the perfect practical exam for an agent to use. And there's a State Farm Tika in Cedar Park, Texas named Jordan Wegner. He's in month number 6. And so he used this exact technique when he hired his first producer. And he said, "Bill, I interviewed 12 candidates. I liked 5 of them. And each of the ones I liked, I said, 'Hey, we're a little different.' I went through the whole thing you just recommended. And could you draw this diagram?" And he said, "All 5 said yes." And so we downloaded the app and I asked him to go watch the videos. And he said, "Of the 5," and we scheduled the follow-up interviews. He said, "Of the 5, only 3 came back." He said, "The first guy came in," and he said, "It was kind of scary. It was almost like the guy had amnesia when I said," 'Could you draw the Ural diagram for me?' He said, 'The guy didn't even know what I was talking about.' He said, 'The second guy came in, and the second guy watched the videos, but he never really practiced, and he botched it up so badly. He was so embarrassed with how incompetent he was, he was almost in tears.' He said, 'The third guy came in, it was a guy named Dylan,' and he said, 'Dylan watched the videos and practiced on his wife,' and he said, 'Dylan not only did the Ural conversation, He said he did it word for word. He said it was like watching Steve Wilmer himself. And he said, so naturally I hired Dylan. And he said, Bill, I just want to let you know, in Dylan's very first week in production, he wrote 2 really nice life policies. So I think the number 1 challenge is team. And if they would position their agencies as a thoughtful risk advisor and then use your world as a practical exam, it's the perfect way to know how this team member is going to perform on the job.

I love it. I think that's fantastic. I do want to go to something because I know that this is an issue. You kind of mentioned this earlier before, but can you give our listeners a tip just to be able to get more appointments in the door? Because if they're not using the Your World conversation, then if they're using some sort of conversation, my guess is they have some structure to how that appointment's going to be ran, whether they have explicitly said it or they just naturally do it. What is something that they can do to try to get more people in. Because if you don't, you lose the visual, obviously. And that's a challenge. People are so busy these days.

Yeah. I'll tell you an interesting story. There's an agent and I cannot ever remember his name. I got to go back and find his name, but he hired a receptionist named Kelly. And Kelly is married, her husband's successful career. They've got 2 kids. When their boys got to be like 16 and had their own driver's license, she decided she would go back to work. Part-time. So she became a part-time receptionist and appointment setter for a State Farm agent. And this agent, on Kelly's first day on the job, he took her into the conference room and said, Kelly, we're a little different. We help people manage everyday risk. And if you don't mind, I'd like to show you how we do that. And he drew the Your World Diagram for her just as if she was a client, you know, the diagram for she and her husband and the family and the assets and all that. At the end of the conversation, Kelly said, thank you. Nobody's ever done that for me before. And then she said, could I have my husband come in here? Would you draw that diagram for him? He said, absolutely. So when Kelly's on the phone now to set appointments for this agency, here's her word track. She says, hey Bradley, has he done the Your World thing for you yet? No. Oh my gosh, he just did it for me. It's fantastic. We've got to get you in here. You're going to absolutely love it. When's the most convenient time? You know, she doesn't even say what it is. It's just purely her excitement. I call that authentic enthusiasm. Just her excitement for what he did for her and how well she liked it is what she does to get more people to come in. So I think the best tip is show the Your World Concept to your team. Let them see the power of it. You know, it's a loving conversation. It's the right thing to do for a customer. So let the team understand the power of it. And then I think their natural enthusiasm will come across on the phone when they're trying to set appointments.

You have so many ways that you and your team help agency owners basically just become elite risk advisors. Can you elaborate more about your programs and more specifically about your mastermind group as far as how you make that happen?

Yeah, so we started this 7 years ago. We created the Risk Advisor Mastermind Group. And we developed this app. And on the app, we have a video training library. And then we also have basically a monthly podcast. Matter of fact, I got to interview Bradley for the podcast. And so on that monthly program, we have a segment called In the Trenches, where I interview some of the top team members in the country. And there's an interview with the top agent. And I have a little segment called Advice from an Expert. And that's where we had Bradley in to talk about business coaching and how to run a more effective business. So anyway, we charge $49 a month for the agency to have access to our app. And so the agents pay us $49 a month and every single month we text them a code and they type that code in and poof, they have access to all of our content. There's no contract. An agent can stay with us as long as they want or as short as they want. We obviously hope they become addicted to it and they love it and they never want to leave. But anyway, there's no contract. So that's the mastermind group. It's really a self-study program. And then as I mentioned earlier, there's other, coaching programs if an agent wants more help and more of our assistance teaching their staff.

I mean, for $49, that's quite frankly a steal to have all of that on there, Bill. I mean, it really is. One of the stories that I remember that I've heard you say, and quite frankly I've used it for years, is the story about the professor. And that has helped me so much in my business to be able to sell so many umbrella policies. Can you just speak to that specifically, that story? You don't have to necessarily share the story, but just speak to some lesson. I really want to more illustrate the power of stories, quite frankly. I mean, that story was such a game changer for umbrella policies in particular, but just the power of stories.

Yeah, absolutely. So, and by the way, that story was told to me by a State Farm agent named Mike Williamson. He used to be in Pasadena, California. I believe he's now in LA, but it's fabulous. And it's just the story about a college professor who was driving home from work and he went to make a right on red. and there was a guy running across the street trying to get himself out of the rain. Professor never saw the guy and he hit him with his car. It was an accident. He did not intentionally try to hit the guy, but he was held liable and he was sued for $900,000. The injuries were $900,000. And fortunately, Mike Williamson had met with this guy years before the accident, recommended something called an umbrella policy. And so State Farm paid the entire lawsuit. He had no financial impact at all. I just encourage the agents to say, "So how about you? If you hit the guy and you were sued for $900,000, would your world be okay?" And only 3% of US citizens have an umbrella policy. So there's a 97% chance that the person's going to say, "No, I would not be okay." And then all the agent has to do is say, well, it's almost like they're offering a gift. Well, by the way, I'll be happy to meet with you. I'll be happy to understand your complete situation and recommend the most effective way to protect everything you own. Would you like me to do that for you? So the power of it is, as a positioning tool, it really positions you as a thoughtful risk advisor. 97% of customers don't have an umbrella, so it's something they haven't thought about, and the risk of being sued. And so I just think it's a really powerful positioning tool. The human brain is just wired to understand story. It's just how we're built. And so, that story, it's easy to understand, it's easy to remember, it kind of sets the context so you can understand what might happen and why you might want to have a good risk advisor. So, I just love it. I think story is your most powerful sales tool, your most powerful educational tool.

Yeah, that may be the answer to the next question. So what is the one piece of advice that you feel like that you could give somebody who's listening today that they could take away in their office today and be able to go and implement?

So the number one thing I recommend is learn how to position yourself as a risk advisor. And I love the words, we're a little different from other companies. We help people manage their everyday risk. Now, nobody knows what everyday risk is. So if you say those words, it really gives you permission to say, you know, we're a little different. We help people manage everyday risk. Just as an example, one of our customers is a college professor. And now you have permission to share that example and educate somebody about potential risk and why you might want to have a good advisor. And then you can just dismount by saying, so that's what I do. And I'll be happy to do that for you. So I think that is the one piece of advice I'd give is learn how to position yourself as an advisor. Learn how to share a good client attraction story to educate and really kind of set the meeting.

Stories sell. Be a little bit different. Say that you're a little bit different. You'll be able to get away from the commoditization that everybody else is doing.

Absolutely. And by the way, I think you will enjoy your job more. When an agent does this, we see that morale goes up. You know, when a customer comes in and says, "Thank you. Nobody ever did that for me before." It just feels good. You feel more valuable than just trying to be a cheap source of insurance. So absolutely, I think that would work great.

Yeah, you fulfill it and actually you're making a difference in people's lives. All right. So you ready for E9, a little rapid fire, 9 questions?

Absolutely. All right, let's do it.

Last book you read?

I'm just finishing it right now and it's called Maybe You Should Talk to Somebody. And it's by Lori Gottlieb. She's a therapist. And so it's just fascinating. This is not a business book, by the way, but good gosh, I've learned so much from it. She talks about several of her different clients, and then she goes through some depression and she ends up going to a therapist. And so it's, here's what you learn as a therapist, and here's what you learn as a client. And in between is all the clinical psychology. And so I just found it fascinating.

What book would you recommend the most?

My favorite business book is called The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. And, you know, the whole concept of a minimum viable product and, you know, not trying to create this big expensive thing and, you know, go create the minimum viable product. Not a cruddy product, just what's the minimum viable product that we could test and understand that you're going to probably not hit the mark on the head, so you're going to want to pivot a little bit. I just think it's Really, really great advice.

What is your favorite vacation spot?

We have a mountain house up in the mountains of North Carolina at a place called Grandfather Golf and Country Club. And so in Charlotte in the summer, it'll be 95 degrees and you can drive 2 hours and it's 75 degrees. And so Grandfather Golf and Country Club is my favorite destination, and I love the cooler weather when it's hot here in the summer.

Very nice. I mean, you travel the entire country, I would say, for years just to attend these speaking engagements. What's one place that you haven't been to that you would love to visit?

Oh, man, I think I've been everywhere. But I really love that whole sort of west, Seattle and Oregon and Idaho. It's just so beautiful. It's so different than the east. Coeur d'Alene and all that area, I just think is stunningly beautiful. Beautiful. And as a speaker, you go in the night before and you do your speech, and then you fly back out. You don't really have much time to enjoy it. But I'd love to go out there in the summer and go fishing and hiking and kind of really enjoy the West.

You know, you're an inspiration to so many people around the country, and I really do mean that. But who inspires you?

Oh man, I'll tell you, I have 3 portraits on my wall of 3 great people. I think of them as my advisory board. So the first one, you know, I read the book by Walter Isaacson about Steve Jobs. I actually read it 3 times and I was just blown away. And, you know, Steve had a lot of issues and he certainly by— wasn't any means a perfect person, as all of us have issues. But anyway, he had some amazing advice in that book and the way he turned around Apple and turned it into a superpower. I'm always inspired by his courage and his chutzpah and his ability to design really wonderful products that people love. So he'd be number 1. Number 2 is a guy who just passed away. His name is Dan Kennedy, and Dan Kennedy is a brilliant info marketer. And he had the comment, he said, most people are price cowards. And so I just always remember that. And he really teaches you how to give value first, how to attract people with your value. And he calls it, you have to learn how to go from being an annoying pest to a welcome guest. So Dan Kennedy's number 2. And then the 3rd one is kind of a funny one. It's a lady named Liz Gilbert. Probably nobody knows, but Liz Gilbert is the lady who wrote the book Eat, Pray, Love. And I'm one of the few men in America that ever read that book, and I just loved it. And then she wrote a 2nd book called Big Magic. And Big Magic is about her creative process, how she does what she does. And so I think I've now listened to Big Magic 5 times. So those are the 3 people that really inspire me the most. And by the way, I would add one more. I can't leave out, you know, Zig Ziglar is just amazing. And Zig's the one who said, you can have anything you want, anything, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want. And I think that's a beautiful way to live life. And he was a big believer in automobile university. And Automobile University has been huge for me, you know, just listening to different tapes and CDs. And now it's all online and that sort of thing. What a great use of your time in your car to learn more. So I think Zig would be certainly one of the most important inspirers for me.

Bill, definitely sounds to me like you work a lot and like you love what you do. But what would you say is your favorite non-work hobby?

You know, I'm a golfer and I really love golf. When I was in high school, I was on the track team and I ran cross country, and so I'm still a jogger and I love jogging. Just the simplicity of putting on a pair of jogging shorts and some shoes and going out and just jogging around the neighborhood. I don't go very fast and I don't even go very far anymore, but I love the act of kind of getting your heartbeat up and jogging. So I'd say jogging would be one and then golf would be two.

With your background in technology and being an owner, and then obviously now transitioning into coaching. If that meeting, that State Farm meeting so many years ago had not happened, what do you think you'd be doing today?

Woo, I don't know. I guess my dream, you know, I am a technology entrepreneur and I grew two technology businesses. So I thought I was gonna write my book and I was gonna be a professional speaker and I was gonna speak to young startup companies, startup, especially technology companies. And so I guess I would now be a technology speaker and I'd go around to the different tech groups and that sort of thing and speak and help business owners try to grow their business.

Now, just getting away from all that, what's your favorite sports team?

Well, here in Charlotte, I'm a big Carolina Panthers fan. We've been through a little bit of difficult times with Cam Newton. He's polarizing. People either love him or hate him, and it looks like he may not be with us that much longer, but I'd say I'm a big Carolina Panthers fan.

Well, I am an Auburn guy, so I'm a big Cam Newton fan. So he can definitely be polarizing for sure. And you just fired your coach too.

We lost to the Redskins. They were 2-9 and we just lost to them at home. And I think everybody's kind of like, oh my gosh.

Yeah, I was going to make a joke and say that anybody that's a fan of football and more specifically publicly a fan of the Redskins and a fan of the Dolphins. Truly has to be a hardcore fan because those teams, they're very hard to love if you love a team based on their record.

Yeah, if you— some of these teams, if you're a fan, you're really a loyal diehard fan for sure.

All right, so you've made it to the end of Rapid Fire. Last question, and this is going to be probably pretty tough because you laid off so many people that inspires you, but what is the best piece of advice you've ever What do you think, Evan?

My first job out of college was selling computer systems to banks, and my boss was a guy named Jack Prim. He was just a wonderful sales manager, and he had this picture in his office, and it was a picture of Martina Navratilova. I don't know if people know who she is, but she was a great female tennis player, and it was a picture of her hitting a tennis ball, and then on the right of it was this quote by Martina Navratilova that said, focus, or maybe it said something like, when you have a clear focus, it means you get to say no to a thousand distractions. And so I think that is the single best advice. It's not easy to find what you're going to focus on, but when you do find that focus, suddenly it's amazing. There's so many things that are just noise and clutter that you can say no to, and there's only a handful of things that are really moving you in that proper direction. So I really love that quote. I do too.

That's fantastic, especially in the age of social media and our cell phones. I mean, we talked about that, but I mean, it really is, it is a skill to be developed to be able to focus.

Steve Jobs talked about that actually. Basically, he was saying that whenever you find your passion, it's not necessarily about saying yes a lot. It's actually quite the opposite. Like once you find your passion, you do that and only that, and then say no to everything else.

Absolutely.

Bill, this has been fantastic. It's been great having you on the podcast. Thank you so much for your time. I know our listeners are just going to get a tremendous amount of value. If they want to get in touch with you, the Risk Advisor Institute, what's the best way for them to be able to do that?

So, my email is bill@billwhitley.com, and anybody's welcome to send me an email. If you want to send me a text, my cell phone is 704-996-2800, and I'd be delighted to chat with anybody and learn more about their situation and see if there's any way we can help.

Thank you, Bill. I enjoyed it.

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

Likewise. Take care, man.

Chris, Bill Whitley, he knows what he's talking about, doesn't he?

Definitely.

He's been around the block a few times for sure. He's worked with some insurance agents. Look, I think people are going to get a ton out of that episode. I mean, we say that every single week, but we just had some really fantastic guests on.

I couldn't be any more thankful for our guests, man. I'm definitely very grateful for everybody that's come on board so far. I feel super lucky to be part of this journey. And most importantly, I'm thankful for our listeners as well.

Yeah, no doubt. Well, reach out to Bill at the Risk Advisor Institute. He and his team, he's got a team, check out his website. He's got so much material, so many videos on there. Again, I think people are going to get a lot out of that episode. And so reach out to Bill and his team at the Risk Advisor Institute if they can help you. Chris, my man, look forward to talking to you next week on another episode. Until then, lead well and stay classy.