The Broker's Voice: Chris Bayer & Chris Boling - Employee Benefit Strategists, AssuredPartners

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Broker's Voice. This week, I am super excited because I get to have on a team of producers, a team of two who have taken social media to the next level and are utilizing it now to help them create opportunities with prospects. In fact, to help them bring prospects to them. Wouldn't that sound nice? But before I get there, I do want to make a quick announcement for our sponsor of the Broker's Voice, the one and the only. I'm pointing at my hat agency annex. Listen, having a good website for your insurance agency is important. A good website can hurt you. A bad website can equal. Good website can help you. Excuse me. A bad website can equally hurt you. And so your website today has to speak to your target audience. It is no longer a place for you to talk all about yourself because nobody cares. You have to make it all about the prospect. Talk to the prospect, and your website will become that extra salesperson for you. If you want to build, if you want to tweak or you just want to completely overhaul your website, do yourself a favor. Connect with Steve Conka and his guys over at Agency Annex. They built my website. Couldn't be happier. And they will build a beautiful website for you. All right, now let's dive into the Broker's Voice. Today I am going to bring on my guys, Chris Bolling and Chris Byer. How are you guys doing today?

Doing well. Good to see you.

Awesome. We got Chris. Chris Boland, Chris Buyer with Assured Partners out of. Let's call it, the western Illinois Quad Cities area.

I'm excited for this interview, guys, because you guys have taken a very unique approach to branding and how you're using branding in the insurance world. But why? Before we even get into that conversation, I want you two to just each take a minute. Chris Bola, I'm going to start with you. Just tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe why did you get in the insurance industry? Or how did you get in the insurance industry?

Okay, I have to do this in a minute. Basically, my entire family, uncle, cousins, sister, brother in law, we were all in insurance. So I was destined to be in insurance, including my mother and father. So that's. I. It was just default. That's where I was gonna go.

You know, it's funny you say it's interesting because I always ask the question, thinking I'm gonna get, like, some really cool story, and then somebody's like, well, I actually went to college to get a degree in risk management. I'm like, really?

It happens. Yes.

Chris Buyer, how About you, how did you get in this industry?

I have a very family sales background with my dad and my grandpa, but I went to college and just needed an internship. So I was able to intern with an agency in my local market. So I started right out of college in that sales role and then have gravitated to the advisor role now the last five, five and a half years.

That's awesome. And you guys are both in the benefit space. That's right. And I'm watching you guys on social media right now. It's been fun to watch because I want you to and maybe Chris Beyer, answer this question. Take us back to like June of last year. Yeah, it. What was your viewpoint of social media and how you could use it to grow your business at that time?

It was, it was something that I was not comfortable with, I wasn't really familiar with. You know, if I were to share something on social media, it was probably an industry update or an agency update. I just looked at it as a way to broadcast information. And, you know, coming into the summer of 2020, you know, Andy, as we talked a lot about it, we were all trying to figure out what it meant to be in virtual meetings, how we were going to connect with prospects without being able to drive and see them. And we're in a very rural market. So I mean, we did a lot of in person stops and we did a lot of in person meetings. And it just felt like we were missing opportunities to connect with these prospects that were making decisions, but we weren't a part of it because we weren't in their space physically like we used to be. So I just looked at it as, you know, social media was something that somebody else did in a bigger market.

Got it. That's a really good point. Chris Bola, how about you? What was, you know, nine, 10 months ago? What was your viewpoint of social media?

Let's see, I created my Facebook page, or, I'm sorry, my LinkedIn page in 2010 and hadn't touched it since that day. My Facebook had a photo that was over 20 years old. I think it still is 20 years old. But I just felt that social media had no place in the benefit advisory business. I was like, that's, that's for millennials. I mean, that's not for us.

So I'm, this is why I'm excited to have this conversation because here we are on March, we're doing this interview on what, March 15, 2021. And I think you two could agree your perspectives have completely changed. Chris Buyer, want To ask you this. You said, you know, we're in a rural market. Chris Bolling, you're in the Quad Cities, say, okay, that's, that's, that's this bit of a city metropolitan area, but. Chris Beyer, you're in Galesburg, illinois.

Yeah.

Population 35,000 people.

Yeah.

Where it's easy to make the excuse. Not in our market. Social media doesn't work here. What would you say to that?

I would say that was my thought before. I mean, it was, you know, we did a lot of sponsoring in the community. We're still involved in the community, but again, all of that stopped last year. And we said, how are we going to, how are we going to be in that marketplace if we can't physically be there? And, you know, now I look at it and see the engagement we're getting from, you know, our CB Squared posts are all over the country, but I'm seeing those local businesses connect and look at it too. So it's not just, you know, international or, you know, coast to coast. It's truly in our local market. We're seeing it happen.

Yeah. Chris Bolling, you know, you said the CB Square thing, Chris, and I love it because it's created, it's a, it's created such a recognizable brand for you, too, even down to the logo. Chris Bowling, if you could share, like, talk about your logo and like the whole concept behind it, because I, I think it's genius.

Well, and we, we really can't take credit for it. You know, I was always just known as CB in the office. And then when Chris Beyer came along, it was, oh, well, now it's CB Squared because, you know, we're both six foot something, you know, we both wear glasses. We both played sports, you know, all through college. So it really happened in our office. They just literally called us CB Squared and we're like, hey, you know what, let's just go with it. Yeah. Again, Andy, I'd like to say, gosh, we were brilliant. We went through this, you know, half day, you know. No, really think of the right brand. We're like, you know what? They call us CB Squared. So let's, let's just, let's just go with it.

And if I could, if I could describe your logo here on, in video form, you know, you've got the C and the B. And if those who've seen it, the B looks like a pair of glasses. Because again, I think, I think it's brilliant how you guys have built that, that branding and really the most important Thing out of it though, outside of the logo and the branding and so forth is how you guys have started showing up. Consistency on, consistently on, on social media, mainly LinkedIn because it's the business to business platform for either one of you. I mean, think about like when, when you really got started saying, okay, now we understand we need to be here, we need to be posting. If somebody's sitting there right now in that same spot where, where they're, they don't think it's a waste of time, but they're stuck, they're like, okay, I know I need to do something. Where the heck do I even begin? What, what advice would you give that advisor right now?

You know, before Chris answers that, because he's going to be better at answering that than me. My big eye opening experience was when we went through our coaching session with you, Andy, and you said, do you realize when you call a prospect they're going to look you up before they ever talk to you? Yeah. And we're like, look us. What do you mean look us up? Like, yeah, Chris, that thing called social media, they're going to see how relevant you are in today's environment. And I was not relevant at all. So that's, that's, I think why, or not think that's exactly why Chris and I made this, this decision that we're going to devote time, we're going to devote resources and we're going to get out there.

Chris, if that's the case, you weren't relevant for 10 years.

No, no, not at all.

Because your LinkedIn profile was 10 years old.

Chris Buyer, what about you? Like again, think of that insurance advisor sitting there going, okay, I need to do something here. What advice would you give them?

Well, just start with a certain day and be consistent with it. You know, before Chris and I started doing things together and have really branched out into multiple days, I was just trying to put something up every Monday that I felt fit with what we do for our clients. And that was, that was a piece of it. You asked that question about the logo. It's the glasses. Because when we're advisors, we're giving wisdom, we're giving insight, we're trying to find ways to make those companies better.