How To Turn Content Into Closed Business with Chris Bayer and Chris Boling

I'm excited to do this recorded because the two guys that are gonna. And by the way, anybody who may have background noise, if you don't mind muting yourself. Thank you. That would be super helpful.

I'm excited to do this, this.

Fireside Chat today, guys, because. Hold on, guys, can you guys mute yourself, please? Jenny, I have a. Jenny, if you don't mind muting yourself, there's some background noise. Thank you.

Guys. I'm excited to have Chris and Chris on because Chris Buyer and Chris Bowling, who I'm going to let introduce themselves here a minute.

Actually joined Chris. I think it was the first work, first academy I ever ran, if I am correct, back in 2020. And what I have been really proud about with these two guys is.

They have been consistent as heck in the last now almost four years of, of running content consistently. They're going to share their journey with you today where they had their doubts and what it's done for them in the last four years. But it's kind of full circle for me. First academy I ever decided to run, these guys joined it and, and came on with some skepticism, which we're going to talk about. But I'm excited to have these guys and introduce these guys to you. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to let them introduce themselves first and then we'll go into a little quick intro presentation and dive right into the Fireside Chat. So, Chris Beyer, take a minute to introduce yourself.

Yeah. Chris Beyer, Live in Galesburg, Illinois. Have been on the broker side since 2016. Spent time in the voluntary benefit space before that. So I've been in the insurance industry since I was a junior in college 2003 and been working alongside with Chris now for almost the last nine years.

And if anybody is interested, Chris just got to spend time in Green Bay and went to Lambeau Field to do sprints and broke his leg doing sprints. So Chris is joining us with. With some broken bones in his body.

Yeah, I'm a basketball player, not football. Do not, do not do football.

So awesome. Chris Bolan. Be easy to remember these guys. Chris and Chris, CB Square.

Chris, introduce your Chris Bowling from Davenport, Iowa. I've been in the broker space, my God, 34 years. Started my own agency between my sophomore and junior year in college. Did play football. So I won't injure myself if I decide to step on a football field. Got injured, I still had a bill to pay and my parents said, well, how are you going to pay for it, Chris? And I'M like, I think I'll go sell insurance. So here we are, 34 years later. Hard to believe that it's gone by that quick.

Awesome. Awesome. I'm excited to have you guys. It's going to be a fun conversation again. Anybody, as you're listening, if you have questions, can either just hold on to the question till the end or put it in the chat box and I'll make sure to get it. So here's where we're going to kick off, guys. Why are we here? Why are we. Why are we having this workshop today? Well, content is something that I, as you guys know, tend to talk about quite a lot. And it's a conversation that still gets a lot of pushback. And I want to. My goal today is to let Chris and Chris tell you about their journey, because I really believe content can change your business forever and change your life in many ways. And they're going to definitely talk about that. But couple things that I want to talk about. Number one, why are you here? Maybe you're here because you've seen Chris and Chris on LinkedIn. You think they're cool. You want to meet these guys. You've been on the fence about content and would like to hear how it helped some peers.

Tom.

Or you know what? You're kicking some butt right now. You're just looking for more channels to create opportunity. That's where a lot of people sit. I'll tell you, one of the most common type of calls we feel today is a industry veteran who's been doing this for a while, has had a lot of success. But you know what? Things have adjusted. Things have shifted. We need another channel to have success. Chris and Chris are going to talk about that today, too. Now, some of the challenges that we're seeing in the industry right now is, number one, traditional prospecting is tougher than it used to be. Fact, I'll actually say I read a statistic recently that cold calling is back on the rise as far as success rates go. Interesting. There are more insurance brokers than ever before. That is very true, no matter what market you're in. And here's the reality, guys. I don't care if you've been in business for 30 years, not enough prospects know you exist.

Yeah.

And here's the deal.

Every one of us that got in the industry has been taught to go where our prospects are. Right? I've shared this story a lot. You know, when I got in 23 years ago, I was told two things. Dye my hair gray so I look older. And number two, go get a membership at a country club you can't afford because the CEOs hang out there. Well, guess what, guys? In 2024, you know where your targets hang out. Right here.

Yes.

This thing called the phone. So that's why we need to have a strategy to be inside the phone, because that's where their attention is. Now, what we're going to talk about today, guys, is prospecting strategy. Right? And when we work with our clients, we often spend time looking at this chart right here. And I got this from a book written by Alex Hormozy, $100 million leads. If you think about how we reach out to prospects, there are four ways. We have cold one to one. We have warm one to one, warm one too many and cold one to many. Every one of us has been taught cold one to one in this industry. The problem is there's still far too many advisors whose only strategy is cold one to one. And you have to have different ways of hitting your prospects today, which is what we're going to talk about down here in the lower left corner, Warm one to many. Mainly social media, because if you look at this image the way I have it set up, Warm one to many supports everything you're doing above cold calling, drop ins, emails, referrals, networking, because the more awareness you build, all of the stuff up top becomes more effective because people know who you are.

Now let's quickly talk about why content isn't working for you. If you're doing it today. This is going to set up the fireside chat.

Number one. I'm willing to bet your content is, to me, centered. You're spending way too much time talking about your company, your agency, how long you've been around.

Can you guys mute yourself, please? Nobody cares how long you've been around. Nobody cares about your logo. They want to know what's in it for them. So that's the first challenge I see with content number two. You're talking to the wrong people.

LinkedIn. I've had two people this week and it. I literally, I had to hold myself back from commenting the way I really wanted to comment. I've had two people this week refer to LinkedIn as a fun platform. I'm like, that's why it's not working for you. You look at it like a hobby. It's a place to grow your business. And the problem is you're talking to your peers, not your prospects.

Third challenge and the biggest one. And this is the one we're going to talk about today. You're not consistent. You get hot for two weeks, post a bunch of content, and then you're gone for a month. You come back, you're gone, you're back, you're gone. People distrust inconsistency. That's true for your team, your boss, prospects. So one of the things, one of the reasons I wanted Chris and Chris on is because if there are two guys that I've seen be more consistent with content, it's these two right here. The day they left our academy, they went to work, and they have not stopped ever since. And that's why these guys are sitting on this webinar today.

So with that being said, guys, I'm excited because what we're going to do is go through a fireside chat here, and I'm gonna ask some questions. I'm gonna let you. I'm gonna let these two guys share their journey with you. And my goal is by the time we're done today at the top of the hour, you're convinced that content needs to be a part of your strategy, especially if you're sitting on the fence. So, Chris Buyer, I'm gonna start with you, my friend.

Yes.

When you guys joined the Academy back in 2020.

What led you two to believe that, all right, we need to start creating content?

I think we initially joined the academy, number one, we were going through Covid and didn't know what to do. We were supposed to be out in Colorado with you for a week, and we, you know, pivoted to virtual. But I think it goes back a year before that. Andy, you came and spoke at a conference that it was basically a consulting group, our agency, our independent agency belonged to, and you were talking through just the infancy of content and sharing some of the creativity that you were using as a consultant. And so that's how we connected. But you, you said, hey, I'm going to do this course and to teach you how to differentiate yourself. And, you know, certainly Covid put a big crimp in our ability to go out and talk to people. But Chris and I also came off a year where we were over 12 in opportunities where we thought we had the lead in that RFP in the broker selection just kept losing one after the other. And it was like, well, we got to do something new because we just joined assured partners. Covid shut the office down. We're on a losing streak. What are we going to do?

Yeah, Chris Bowling, how about you? You know, I know when you guys joined, and I. I probably should redirect this back at Chris Buyer. But you guys came to the academy with some doubts or some skepticism about content. Talk a little bit about that because I think a lot of people, Definitely, even today 2024, still have some skepticism as to whether or not content, mainly social media content, is actually going to help them grow their business.

Yeah, when, when we joined your academy, I was forced to create a LinkedIn profile and I had not updated that LinkedIn profile in 10 years. That's how much I loved LinkedIn. I don't think I, I didn't remember my password, I didn't remember my username, and I remember when Chris came to me and said, hey, we're going to spend X amount of dollars, you know, and let's join this. And I kept thinking to myself, why in God's green earth do I want to put crap on LinkedIn? Which I don't even like that site.

Yeah, well said. Talk about, talk about your skepticism a little too, because I know you had some doubts.

I mean, you said it before. I was connected to industry partners, you know, in my space in the voluntary benefits world, I was in recruiting as well as sales. So I had anybody that had an insurance license as my network. I did not have connections that were ideal prospects. And so, you know, all I saw in my feed was other insurance people. And there was no understanding that, okay, this could be, this could actually hit somebody that's going to pay attention to what I'm going to say and who wants to listen to me anyway. I'm used to the one on one conversation. I don't use social media much outside of LinkedIn, so who cares what I have to say? And I think that was my mindset of this. We'll give it a shot, but it's probably not going to work because who wants to listen to the two of us talk about things all day long?

Yeah, that's a really good point. I think that's something a lot of people have doubts about. That almost a lack of self confidence a little bit. Like who actually wants to listen to me talk or post content? I think that that's really important because I think a lot of people go through that. I know I went through that in 20, 20, 14, 15 when I started, I was like, okay, I'm going to write some articles on LinkedIn, but who the heck is actually going to take the time to read these? Yeah, I feel you. Now there's something Chris Bowling, you said to me on Monday as we were preparing for this workshop and I want you to address.