96. Why You Can't Be All Things To All People

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 96. Today I'm going to talk to you about why you can't be all things to all people, nor do you want to be all things to all people. In fact, I'm going to dive into how you need to go exactly the opposite. But before we get there, I want to make one last invitation. If you are an insurance advisor listening into today's podcast episode, first, I want to thank you for taking the time to doing so. Second of all, I want to invite you into the Broke Branding Academy. There's only four days left before this thing kicks off. Listen, it has never been harder to connect to prospects than it is right now. And it's never been easier to be irrelevant. There's too much noise out there. By jumping into this four month program, we are going to lock arms. You're going to lock arms not only with myself, but a group of high achieving insurance professionals to help you develop a bulletproof marketing plan to help you create LinkedIn strategies that will drive business, to help you create killer presentations and speaking engagements. And most of all, we're going to show you how to make it easy for your prospects to say yes to you. If that sounds like what you want and you're like, I know this is what I need to take my 2021 sales to the next level, I want you to do this. Simply text the word Academy to 414-622-1462. That's Academy to 414-622-2462. You and I will jump on a call, we'll talk about the Academy, answer any questions, objections you might have, and we'll get you enrolled again. There's only four days left. Seating is limited. Let's connect today. Simply text academy to that number below. All right, let's dive into this week's episode. Today I want to talk to you about why you cannot be all things to all people. But let me level set and tell you where this topic actually came from. So last weekend I was having my weekly check in with my parents, which I love to do. As as many of you know, they live up in Wisconsin. Amy and I are down in Colorado. So we're literally, literally a thousand miles away. If you actually look on a map and look at the homet, I'm from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. And you put it on a map, plot it against Fort Collins, Colorado. It is almost to the T, 1,000 miles away. So we were having our Weekly conversation, which is consists of the normal check in, you know, mom, dad, how are you doing? They're checking in on me. My dad and I talk about sports, Badger, Packer, Brewers, Bucks. And my mom asked me how things were going in the business. And I said, yeah, things are well. Things are going well. Coaching business is growing. As many of you know, I gave up my advising practice, so I am 100% off in on this coaching thing right now, which is exciting. It's a sense of freedom. And then she said something to me that actually caught me off guard. My mom proceeded to give me business advice. And, you know, there's the old phrase that mom knows best. This was something I was not expecting whatsoever. And so I listened in. She's like, can I give you some advice? I said, sure, Mom. What do you want to talk about? Well, she had been watching some of my Facebook videos that I put out on a weekly basis. So for many who follow my content, you know that I post a lot of content on LinkedIn, but I often post the same videos that I use. The coaching videos, the motivational videos. All that stuff goes on my Instagram account as well as my Facebook account. So she's been digesting my content on Facebook. And what's interesting is this is kind of a recent.

Epiphany for her because it was about a year ago, literally a year ago. I remember I was getting ready to launch.

The retreat. I was going to be hosting a complete game retreat last June, which obviously got postponed and eventually canceled due to the COVID and the pandemic. But I remember I had gone downtown Fort Collins and I had made. I'd done a video at the hotel where the retreat was going to be hosted. And I talked about the holidays. The fact. Are you somebody who enjoys receiving gifts that are material items, you know, the stuff, or are you somebody who enjoys receiving gifts that are experiences? And I had made a comment on the video that, you know, I grew up in a family that, you know, my mother love her to death. She loves giving you stuff. She loves giving you actual gifts things, right? And I'm just. Amy and I are not things that. We're not stuffed people. We love experiences. You know, if somebody want really wanted to give us a gift, we'd rather either you give us the experience or just give us cash and we'll go make the experience happen. But so I make this video about that sharing that, you know, my mom is somebody who loves making gifts or loves giving gifts stuff, material items. And of course, that is the first video she ever listens to or ever watches of mine on social media. And I'll never forget hopping on that weekly check in with them. A little over a year ago. My mom said, so.

Watched a video of yours on Facebook. And I said, oh, boy. And I knew exactly where it was going. She said, so I like giving material stuff, huh? And I said, mom, you know, you and I have had this conversation. You know, Amy and I don't enjoy getting stuff for Christmas. We'd rather have the experience. And on and on. The conversation ended up having ended up being fun, and it was a good conversation. But I wanted to level set my mom. So my mom has been watching my videos for about a year now. So this past weekend, fast forward here to the present, and she wants to give me some advice about my videos. I said, okay, what do you got? And she said, you know, you're pretty energetic on your videos. I said, yeah. I mean, I get fired up with my coaching. I love what I do. If there's certain topics that, that really get me going. Yeah, when I jump on, I hit record. You're probably going to see a really fired up version of myself. And she said, I know. She goes, and that's good. She goes, but do you ever think about the fact you might be too much for some people?

And.

It got me thinking, and this is literally what led to the topic of today's podcast episode is do you might. Do you think that your energy might be too much for some people? And I remember making the comment where I said, you know, honestly, there's probably some times where I get really hot on a certain topic. Maybe I got an objection from a potential client that really fired me up. So do I have a tendency to maybe go hit the record button a little too fast before I cool down to really fire up and talk about something? Yeah, I do that once in a while. But here's the comment I made back to her. And this sets the premise of today's episode. I said, I get it. I said, I know my energy isn't for everybody, but I don't want to coach everybody. In fact, I made the statement that in the health insurance industry, you know, as I coach health insurance advisors, there's probably, I don't know, somewhere between a quarter of a million to a half a million health insurance brokers in this country. I just need a hundred of them to have one hell of a business. And so I know that I probably am not for the majority of the health insurance brokers out there, but I'm going to wake up every single day and just make sure that I am bringing forth the best version of me, that authentic version of me that sometimes gets fired up, that sometimes is super energetic. And I know that not everybody is going to like that, not everybody is going to find that appealing, which is going to make it more difficult for them to resonate with me. And again, let's be honest, they probably aren't going to want to do business with me at some point. That's okay. Those are the folks who were not going to buy from me anyways because they don't like my energy. And I'm absolutely okay with that. In fact, I remember a colleague of mine in the industry had made a statement to me a few months ago that, you know, when it comes to referring business towards me, potential advisors that could, could use my coaching, he said, you know, he has received comments from people that from time to time, Andy, you know, some people, like, think you're too aggressive, too energetic, too intense. And I said, I get it, I absolutely understand. But that's who I am. That's how I coach. I get fired up. I want to help my clients win and I want to motivate them, you know, call it that proverbial light that fire under their ass so they can take the action they need to win. And I, at the end of the day, I know that as a result of that, I am not a fit for everybody. And that's the advice I want to give you today, is whether, you know, you're trying to find your tribe of people who you're going to surround yourself with in, in your life, whether you're finding, try to find the tribe of people you're going to surround yourself in business or you're trying to target, you know, your prospects that you want to buy from you eventually. You have to understand that you are not going to be a fit for everybody. You cannot be all things to all people, nor do you want to be all things to all people. In fact, one of my favorite recent reads is this book by Seth Godin, who is a master when it comes to the game of marketing, book called this is Marketing. In the book he talks about as a business, somebody in sales, your job is to go find the smallest viable market. What does that mean? It means the smallest niche that provides, allows you to provide the most clear description of who you are going after. But it's also got to be a viable market so you can sustain a business running that. And that really hit home for me because it goes back to what I thought about with, with my coaching business and the fact I know I'm not fit for every advisor that's out there, but I also know again, out of that vast market of a quarter of a million to 500,000 health insurance advisors out there, I just need, I just need a small, small fraction to maintain a viable business. And so that is the advice I want to leave with you today is whether you are searching for a group of friends that is going to challenge you, it's going to help you take your life to the next level. You're trying to surround yourself with a group of like minded individuals in business that's going to help you take your business to the next level or you're targeting a segment of prospects that you know you would be a good fit to do business with. Your job is not to try to be all things to all people. You cannot be all things to all people. And you want to go out and find that smallest viable market. Amy and I talk about this all the time when it comes to friendships. We've noticed as we've gotten older, your circle of friends gets smaller, doesn't it? The people that you want to spend the most time with gets smaller year after year. And it's that same concept of finding the smallest viable market out there that is going to create the best results for you, whether that's friendships or business or sales. And that was a struggle for me early on in my business career because I am a people pleaser, I admit it 100%. I want to make everybody happy. And so when I started putting myself out there on social media, for example, every negative comment would just devastate me, right? It would push me back. It would be like this massive punch to the gut. And I remember how many times I said, man, I just don't want to be posting content anymore because I can't take that negativity. I can't. That bad comment just absolutely eats me up. But at the end of the day, that's exactly what you should be getting because when it comes to.

How you are going to create the best results, you need to figure out the smallest market you can serve that's going to make that happen because it allows you to be more clear, it allows you to be very direct on who you are helping and it makes it very clear to your audience how you can help them. And so I don't know if this is advice for you today. I know this is something I've been thinking about all week since I've had that conversation with my mom. And mom, if you're listening in, I love you. But remember, can't be things, it can't be all things to all people, nor do you want to. Your only job right now is for you to show up every single day as the best version of you. And I promise if you do that, you will attract the right people into your life, whether they're friends, business colleagues, or new clients. So I leave you with that. Take time today to really think about how you are putting yourself out to the world, how you're showing up to the world, not just on social media, but the, the to your loved ones, to your family. Don't try to be all things to all people. Don't try to be a people pleaser, just be you. And I promise, if you just be you, the right people will always be come into your life at the right time and that's going to lead to greater relationships, it's going to lead to a more successful business, and it's going to lead to long lasting success. So, you know, at the end of the day, that's the only way I know how to do it. So mom, I know I'm very energetic. I know that not everybody loves that high energy or that intense energy, but I'm sorry, it's just who I am. And if you don't like that and you don't want to do business, I respect that. But I just know how to be one thing. So you know what happens when confidence and clarity collide? Massive action happens. So go take that today. Be the best version of yourself. You know what? You're going to have the right people in your life. Have a great weekend.