1085: The $250,000 Blueprint for Insurance Growth: Conquer Fear to Become an Insurance Superstar with Complete Game Consulting Founder Andy Neary

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Hey and welcome back to the podcast. And Andy Neary is here. Andy is a speaker and author of podcast host and he's a coach. He's a podcast host. Host. I can't say that. But also coach to the insurance industry. So Andy has a two step process to go from unknown to unstoppable because the insurance industry is filled with noise making it very difficult for advisors to stand up and stand out. So Andy speaks to some of these challenges that they face growing their business. Post Covid he helps to identify ideal prospects in five steps. Build a marketing message to attract ideal prospects, create expert credibility to win, dream prospects, and so much more. So Annie is going to be sharing about the things holding us back, what we can do to break through all the insights he's learned with by creating his insurance agent sales playbook and so much more. So, Andy, glad to be speaking with you.

Robert, glad to be here, man. Looking forward to the conversation.

Same. And so I'm super impressed with you already. I know you're a former baseball player turned insurance advisor and business coach. So what are you all about? In your own words? What's your current passion and focus?

Yeah, man, we're on a mission to help 25,000 insurance producers sell their first $250,000. You know, coming from the insurance industry, it's an industry where you're sold on the, you know, sky's the limit when it comes to making money. And then you get in the business. Most people don't get in it by design and then they find themselves in the business and they don't really have anybody to help them grow their business. They, they're kind of out on an island to try to figure it out on them on their own. An entrepreneur, right? And they're, they quickly get burnt out, dejected. I know that's where I was early in my career. So when I built the coaching and consulting company to help producers, that was really my mission is to help these people who are getting in the business even if they've been in it for a while. We're just missing the coaching and training they need to take their business to the next level. So you know what lights me up is helping somebody who knows they're not reaching their full potential right now, but they know what they're capable of. All they're. All they're missing is clarity. If they have a better plan to execute, they're going to be hitting on all cylinders, and that's what we hope to bring to them.

I love it. And I think a lot of us can relate to that, right? Of just knowing that we can achieve more but unsure about all the various things that need to happen and kind of the focus split and probably having a list of a few ideas of saying, oh, man, I wish I could do that in six years or in three years. And like having the. The wish list to do list of all the things that I woulda, shoulda, coulda done. And also there seems to be the element of, like, the harsh realities, right, like you mentioned about how where the insurance agents are kind of sold on these big dreams. But then there's the harsh reality of you have to do way more than you thought you needed to do, right? You have to do the marketing and be on podcasts and advertise and do way more sales calls just to get a tiny little sliver. And so, I mean, is there a good starting point here? Just as far as, like, someone that you. The help that you teach, is there like a number one missing link or something that you say, hey, you know, everyone gets this wrong. This opens your eyes. What is it?

It's a game of attention. Whether you sell insurance or you're growing your own business selling cupcakes, your brand, you need attention to win business today, you have to grab other people's attention. And I know when I look at the insurance industry, there's this belief that, you know, if you build it, they will come. I sell insurance, therefore I'll have all these people who just come to me because they want insurance quotes. Well, that's not how it works. You actually have to go grab their attention because it's a noisy industry, no matter what industry you're in. And so really the place to start, Robert, is understanding that you are a personal brand. And your number one objective is to get as many people to know about your brand as you possibly can. And that's where a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck. Because just that thought of putting yourself out there brings up fears of comparison and judgment and failure. Right? And I think that's where a lot of entrepreneurs go wrong, is they do have that fear of what will happen if I put myself out there. I put my brand on social media. I put my brand out on a public speaking stage wherever that might be a lot of fears come up and that's what keeps a lot of entrepreneurs from growing, is they're just not letting enough people know they exist.

You're reminding me of like when the ballot comes in the mail to vote and there's all the, there's like the lesser known politicians, right? When I vote for like my House rep in Congress or my mayor and, and I look up the names and I maybe recognize one or two, but I'm like, there's like five or six people and they probably run ad. They probably do everything they can all day, every day, just, just for just their name to get known. And I'm like, I don't even, I haven't even heard of this person's name once. So I think you're so right that it's, it's hard just to get even a tiny sliver of attention. And, and I mean, in that case, you're talking about these politicians who like, they probably overcome the, that confidence issue, but even then they put in all the work and no good attention. So for us even like a few steps back from that, if you have these insurance people who say, well, I cringe ahead of time or I worry about what people will say, what they'll think, how do we break through that? Is that just a matter of proceed anyway and have someone coach you through and then look at the evidence, like, how do we overcome this kind of irrational but understandable fear?

Yeah, it's very understandable. I, I talk about this a lot. You know, you said, I'm a former baseball player. I, I was fortunate enough to spend some time in pro baseball. And I tell people that was one of the, one of the biggest reasons my pro career lasted as short as it did. It was because of the same fears, comparison, judgment and failure. And it is, it is the same thing that holds people back in business. It's that fear that, you know, what happens if this doesn't work. You know, that was something I was worried about when I started my first business. I told you offline, I wasn't an entrepreneur until I turned 41. And my biggest fear was what happens is if this fails.

And I think one of the most comforting moments for me, Robert, was when I realized, if this fails, I'll just go back to selling insurance. I realized I have nothing to lose. I'm not going to be homeless, not going to be out on the streets. If this doesn't work, I'll just go back to doing what I used to do. And I think that's For a lot of entrepreneurs. A lot of entrepreneurs.

Have gone into the world of entrepreneurship to break away from the corporate world or break away from the nine to five. Well, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? If you try to do something as an entrepreneur and it doesn't work, you might have to go back and sell or do what you used to do. It's not the worst thing in the world. So you've got nothing to lose. Put yourself out there, get as many people to know you exist, and it's going to help grow your business. Here's something I had to learn the hard way, Robert. When you're an entrepreneur, you're in sales whether you like it or not. You better work on your sales skills, because if you are growing your own business, the only way it's going to grow is if you tell a lot of people that you can help them.

I love it. And so this is some really freeing advice here, right, that you're saying that is even if the worst possible case happens, your business fails, you can revert back to 90, 95 and restart and reassess and then it. But as far as hopefully avoiding that path, if you can then really embrace this whole idea of sales. And when you say embrace sales, what comes to mind are these ideas of, like, post every day, think about what your. Your quota is as far as, like, people that you want to talk to, people that you want to get on your calendar, people that you want to follow up with. But that's just what my impressions are. So when you say that you should really be focusing on sales, like, what does that mean? What are the handful of tasks?

Yeah, great question. I look at everything like a process, right? And marketing and sales go hand in hand. And one thing we really help advisors with is how to build marketing and sales systems. Because first you got to open the door, right? And then sales is what closes the door. And so.

You referenced this episode as the two steps to go from unknown to unstoppable. To have a better sales strategy, you have to have two things dialed in. Who are you talking to? And where are you talking to them? So you got to know who your ideal prospect is. Not everybody's a good fit for what you have to sell. And you have to understand that I come from an industry that thinks all prospects are good prospects. That's not the case. You've got to get dialed in on who you're trying to attract to your business. The second thing is once you know who they are, once you know what the Message is, you have to have a clear strategy to know where you're going to put that. When I got in the insurance industry, Robert, in sales, I was taught one thing. Pick up the phone and make a bunch of cold calls, right? Well, the game has changed. I call. That's linear awareness. When I pick up the phone, I can only call one prospect at a time. Today I can go make some social media content. I can go public speak, I can host a podcast, I can send out email campaigns. There are so many ways today to create exponential awareness. Getting the one message in front of a lot of people at one time. If I were starting over as an insurance producer today, that's exactly what I would lean into, is what can I do to get my message in front of as many people as I possibly can at one time? Why? It's a better use of my time, and it's going to get a lot of people to know me faster.

And is it safe to say that this is maybe somewhat cyclical? Like, you have these two buckets, right? You say, who are my people and where are they hanging out? And so where are they hanging out? Meaning that they might be at this event where you're speaking, they might be listening to your podcast, they might be on social media. And it seems like, well, okay, so I first say, like, who are my people? And then that leads me to where I'm hanging out and I go on post. And then you get some of your. Your leads and your prospects and your sales. And then you might be saying, well, I want to repeat that, right? If going on podcasts work, then I'll do more of that. But then there's also like, the FOMO aspect, isn't there? You say, okay, well, I'm. The podcasting is working, but should I also be looking into speaking at live events? I'm like, how do you balance that? How do you say, well, I want to go back to the well, but I also want to do new stuff. But I'm also kind of not sure if the new stuff is a waste of time or it hasn't picked up speed yet.

That's a great question. I think everybody today should view themselves as a media company that has happens to sell a certain product, right? Because you have to grab attention. Now you bring up a really relevant point. Don't get caught chasing the next platform because somebody told you that's the platform you have to be on. I'll give you an example. A lot of people tie us to LinkedIn because we teach people how to use LinkedIn but there's markets in the, in this country where insurance advisors actually would be wasting their time if they're on LinkedIn. It's a rural market. People still do things with a handshake. They should actually be going door to door and dropping in and saying hi to people. As outdated as that seems, that's a strategy that would still work in their market. So it's, to answer your question, it's understanding your market. Where do your people hang out? Are you selling to people who hang out on Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok? Maybe they do things hand to hand. Maybe they attend live events. So public speaking is something you should think about. Maybe you're targeting people who are part of an association. Go speak at that association. Right. There's not one way that works, but it does require you to understand where your ideal prospects are hanging out. For sure.

I love it. So. And this all, to me like, relates to what you're saying of we need to expand our thinking somewhat. Right. You're not just in insurance, you're a media company, you're an entrepreneur. You need to figure out who else you can talk to and get attention to some of this. And so you say that you didn't even realize that you were an entrepreneur until you were 41. Like, what happened there was that when you give up the baseball and start doing this, like, what was the turning point?

Yeah, no, I, so I was actually, I was in insurance at that point almost 20 years. And my story really started in insurance in 2014. I'd had been in it for 13 years at that point. Amy and I, my wife and I decided to move to Colorado. And I found myself in a market where nobody knew who I was. And I said, okay, I've got to start over here. Am I going to do it the old fashioned way, which is the way I was taught to cold call, pound the pavement, or am I going to try something else? So I decided to build a personal brand. And in 2014, Robert, people in our industry are like, what are you doing? Nobody does that. I said, I'm going to do it. And it worked. I built a nice book of business in a market nobody knew me because I got my message out far, fast and wide. Fast forward four or five years, I had some peers say, teach me what you did. And so I'm like, wait, I could get paid to teach people to do this. So it started out as a side hustle. And then In January of 2021, I said, I know where this is going. I want to do the Coaching and the training. And so I gave up my book of business, went all in on complete game consulting, which is the business I have today. And I was at that time when I started it as a side hustle, I was 41, but in 2021, I was 43. And what I realized here, here was my pivotal moment, Robert. One, it was that what happens if it fails? I'll just go back and sell insurance. The other moment I had where I realized I could be an entrepreneur because I did not grow up in a family of entrepreneurs.

Is I remember there was a day, it was a terrible day. I'd lost a couple clients, I had a nice coaching contract that they were going in another direction, they got acquired. So I lost the contract. And I had that thought of maybe it's time to go back.

But I remember going to bed that night and I was super excited to get up and try it all over again the next morning. And when I had that thought, it hit me that if I'm willing to embrace the suck as bad as today was, but I'm still excited to wake up tomorrow and do it all over again, I can do this. And that was my moment where I realized it took me a lot longer than a lot of other entrepreneurs, but I can do this thing. I've got the mindset it takes to do this because of that feeling right there.

And how do we get to that point? Where does the embracing the suck energy come from? Does it happen just naturally from trial and error? Is it a thing we can tap into and repeat? Like, how do we get to that, that mental state you're mentioning?

Great. I learned from mentors, man, I wish I could say I came up with all this stuff, but I didn't. I have a lot of good mentors in my life and I've had a lot of good, some, some who I've never met. And one lesson I've learned is if you're going to build a business, you got to be thinking in years and decades, not weeks. And I've seen a lot of peers that I've been in masterminds with that are onto their fourth different type of business now in four years simply because they lack patience. You know, if it didn't turn into a six figure business in six months, they're on to something else. And to, to have that mindset, you have to apply patience. You can't see all the screw all the portraits behind me, but there's three words. Consistency, persistency, and patience. You got to be consistent and show up every Day. You got to keep doing it long after everybody else quits and then have patience. This isn't a short, quick win. There is no finish line. Enjoy the process.

Amazing and inspiring. And so I don't know anywhere close to anything about baseball as you do. All I know is when I was like 8 years old, I was in little league. But a big lesson from there was that you have to put like way more effort into just a little result than you thought. Like when you, when you swing the bat, you have to like, really follow through and you have to like, catch like 500 fly balls and 500 grounders just to be able to like, do just okay at a game where you might like, you might throw one ball and that's it. And you did all this practice just for this little thing. And, and what comes to mind is that there's the thing from Gary Vee document. Don't create. Right. And so you, you do, you do a thing, you get really good at it and you put in so much effort and then you say, okay, well, now I'll teach others to do this thing that, that I was able to do. And if that doesn't work out, you fall back on the doing it. If that doesn't fall back, you work back on the 9 to 5. And so that seems to be kind of an organized, focused way of doing things. And also there's that amount of self awareness that people don't talk a lot about with their peers and with their masterminds of kind of seeing the behavior of others that maybe they themselves are not aware of, such as the entrepreneurial add, impatience and saying, okay, well, that's what I don't want to do. That's a valuable lesson. And so in your ups and downs of your entrepreneurial adventure, do you have any scary stories to tell us? Do you have any moment of like, failure, frustration, panic, where you thought it was all over?

Yeah, it was that moment I talked to you about. I had built the business.

It was 20, 21, the first year I fully went into it. I don't have a story where I woke up one morning with zero showing up in my bank account. But I was down to two clients.

And trust me, it wasn't going to pay the bills. And I will share this because you said something. A couple things I want to address to answer this question, if I can. Robert, you talked about the baseball and how much goes in just a swing and a bat or throwing a baseball, throwing a strike. Right. I was asked one time, why are so many athletes in Insurance and why do they do so well? And I said it's because they know how to put the work in off the field. Everybody wants to be Tom Brady throwing a touchdown, the Super Bowl. Nobody sees the work he puts in day after day. To be able to do that, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a student at the game. You got to study, you got to have personal development be your number one priority. But to go back to that day where I was down to two clients when I had that thought, maybe it's time to go back, I did something I never expected myself to do. Robert. Here I am with two clients.

And that moment, instead of going, okay, I give in uncle, I'm going to go back to doing what I'm doing, I went the other way. Not only did I say, I'm going to keep doing it, I hired a business coach, I joined a mastermind, and I joined another group of male professionals that I was going to spend time with throughout the year to keep me accountable it that investment. Those three investments were the to the tune of $20,000.

But my business never looked back from that day. That's the biggest epiphany. What came out of a nightmare. When I thought it was over, I did something that my former self would have never done, which is double down. And I spent money I did not have and I threw it in betting on me. And I'm fortunate to say the business has never looked back. That was in the fall of 2021, and we've never looked back.

I love it. And that's powerful to think about this idea of doubling down and sometimes doing what seems irrational in the moment because you said, hey, this was the goal that I made for myself and I'm going to take it seriously. I'm going to follow through and pursue. And so in our last few minutes here, Andy, we're what question am I not asking you? Is there something that like you, you're like itching for Robert Plank to ask you?

That is a great question. If I, if I were to say what question would I want to be asked if I were speaking to a bunch of entrepreneurs, it's why should I create content? And I know that sounds like an interesting, not that.

Sexy question, but I will, I will share this with you, Robert. The reason I believe in content so much, whether that be social media content, email content, public speaking, as you mentioned, this is how you impact people. I think if more entrepreneurs leaned into impact, they would see a greater impact on their income because I think A lot of business, a lot of too many entrepreneurs, yourself, myself included, have been guilty of just chasing the revenue. But the whole reason I create as much content as I do, I look at ourselves like we're a marketing media company that happens to sell insurance training services is because I know the impact it has on people's lives. They may never hire us, but if I can impact people's lives, I know I'm doing the right thing, I'm doing my job. And ultimately, we are going to be rewarded with a lot of business because of that. And I'll share this last story and I know we're over. I had a peer reach out to me in 2021, and he said he wanted to catch up with me. So we jumped on Zoom, and this was my moment. I realized this. I thought we were catching up and we jumped on the Zoom. And he wanted to jump on Zoom to thank me, he wanted to connect to thank me. And I said, well, why are you thanking me, man? I haven't seen you in two years. What have I done? He said, I want to thank you for your content. He said, the pandemic was really rough on me. I went through a bad divorce. I almost died of COVID.

And I thought about ending it all. And your content kept me going.

And that's when I realized that it's so much more than income, man, what we do, whether it's running the business, creating content to grow the business. It's about impact. And if you focus on impact only over income, you will make more money than you possibly ever could dream of.

So do you have any advice as far as, like, how much content we should be looking to make or what impact, like, you always think about, like, well, if you're doing none, make it a habit or routine and build up and strengthen the muscle. But what's your advice if someone says, hey, you know, I've heard this so many times that I need to make the YouTubes and the podcasts, like, what should we be looking as far as goal setting?

Good question. I tell people, number one, start slow. Start with something you can stay consistent with. If it's once a week, start with once a week. As long as you can run it consistently. That's all I care about. I just want consistency. But here's how you got to think about content, because I get this question too, Andy. How much is too much? When do it? When do I become annoying? I said, well, my thought is if you, if you are going at it with the goal of creating impact and delivering value, you can never post enough. If all you're going to do is ask for business in your content, yeah, you're going to eventually become annoying. But if the goal is to deliver value, here's how you want to think about it. Every day, you make a piece of post. Every time you post something, you are giving yourself a chance to land in somebody's feed or inbox. If it's an email on the right day. If you only do it once a month or once a week, you give yourself just one chance to do that a week. If you do it every day, you give yourself a chance every day to land in somebody's feed or inbox on the right day for them to hit reply or send you a message saying, I want to do business with you.

Very powerful. Just looking for that one connection. And so what's the next step here? If someone says, you know, Andy had all this good advice, how do I know if I'm right for him and his training? Whether it's like entrepreneurial or the insurance agent sales playbook, how does someone know if they're a right fit and then if they are, what's the call to action?

Yeah, I'll just say this, Robert, man, if somebody's out there, you're listening and you're like, yeah, we need to get dialed in on who our target buyer is. We need a better content marketing strategy, whatever that might be. Reach out to me on LinkedIn if you're there. I'm very active there. Andy Neary, Complete Game Consulting or check us out at completegameconsulting.com awesome.

Completegameconsulting.com and that's Andy Neary on LinkedIn. That's spelled n E, A R Y. Andy Neary. And so as we're wrapping up our conversation here, Andy, like, you make all the content, you do all the speaking, you get all these ideas swirling in your head. Do you have anything to end this as far as a sound bite? Is there a powerful quote, quote or lesson that you can give us and you really blow our minds?

I'm going to steal this from a mentor. I'm sorry. Here's why you have to create content and grab awareness. We trust people we see. We trust people we know and we trust people we learn from. Every one of us has somebody on social media we follow. We would buy a product if we promote it because we trust them and we've never met them. That's how you grab somebody's attention. We trust people we see, we trust people we know and we trust people we learn from Are you doing it enough?

And we need to be so that we can be that person. So, Andy Neary, Complete Game Consulting Very lovely talking to you friend.

Likewise. Thanks Robert.

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