Using Digital Strategy To Build A National Insurance Brand | with Guffy Wright

If I do 10 posts on social media and I make 100 cold calls, I can't guarantee and quantify what that result is going to be in three weeks. And because of that, I think it presents a challenge to our new producers of, hey, just trust us. This is the system. These are what the winners do every day. Every day, every day, every day. And then when someone hits a big account, they go, oh man, how did you do that? It's like, well, a lot of little things over and over and over.

Welcome to the accelerate your insurance sales podcast.

Good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Guffey Wright, national sales leader with Mahoney group out of Arizona. I'm excited to have this one because, you know, we've done some work together and I, when I can see somebody, I can tell in somebody's eyes they have like that it of going out. And as I said to you offline, when you're in the field of play of sales, you're just out to kill people and win some business, which is what I absolutely love.

Let's start right there.

Child 8 of 9 Kids, what was that like?

You had to fight over the meals and everything else. But really what it was like for me is I got to watch my older siblings make good choices, make bad choices and be very observant. But at the same time, I think where I was slotted 8 of 9, I really just had to be different. Different to get attention from my parents and others. And so from a young age I had to be different.

Yeah. What's the age gap between you and the oldest are the old.

It's about a 20, 20 year gap.

Wow.

So I don't have any childhood memories of my oldest sibling.

Like, well, he's out of here. She was probably out of the house. But then.

Yeah, correct.

Wow. Wow. Well, that's. If you don't mind share the story again. If we didn't catch it, I asked you offline, how did you get the name Guffey? I actually went to high school with a guy named Guffey.

And that's not your real name, but I love the story about how you got the name Guffey.

Yeah, I just turned three and I went into my parents room and said, I don't want to be Jeff anymore. I want to be Guffey. And they kind of looked at me like, whatever, the world's going to take care of you. And from then on, that's all I've ever known. I mean from I'm three years old, I spelled my name Jeffrey wrong when I applied for a passport when I was 18. Um, I mean, I. It's just never been my name in my mind. Right.

And then for the parents listening, I love how you said it. When your parents.

Your.

Your child 8 of 9, they're like, yeah, whatever, do what you want.

Yeah, exactly. The. The older siblings always give us a hard time. Like, we had no rules and we had finally a little bit of money, you know, when I was growing up. And when they were growing up, they're like, we were poor and we had a million rules. Yeah.

Are you from. Are you from Arizona?

I am, yeah. We're five generations here.

Oh, wow. That's not. That's kind of. I don't want to say it's unheard of, but, you know, we lived in Colorado for nine years, and I always think of the west as being a newer.

Yeah.

Part of, obviously. Right. So it's rare. You see the generational. A lot of people are not from there. So five generations in Arizona. Wow, that's awesome. Well, let's. Let's dive into it. You know, I want to have you on the podcast because obviously you've had a very successful insurance sales career. We're going to talk about that. Doing a lot of good work here at the Mahoney Group and growing the agency. We're going to talk about the producers you hire. I also want to get into your habits and rituals that make you highly successful. And I just want to dive in right here. If somebody were to go to your LinkedIn profile right now, they would say they would see 10x enthusiast, and their natural inclination might be, oh, this guy's a big Grant Cardone follower. But that's not the case. You actually are referencing the book 10x is easier than 2x, which I absolutely love that book. How has that book impacted you?

So that's been one of the most impactful books for me because I'm. I'm big in goal setting. But at the same time, what this helped me do is when you have a large goal, because I kept having only a, you know, the same book of business for four or five years, it was driving me crazy. What 10x is easier than 2x helped me do is reach, make a big goal. But then that helps illuminate the path because there may only be one or two ways to do something incredible. There's a hundred ways to do something mediocre or average. And so that's why I've just constantly pushed against the status quo, challenged everything and everybody, and trying to get, I guess, the best out of myself.

Talk about that story though. I think it's pretty powerful for everybody to hear this. You had mentioned offline that you were stuck at the same revenue for five years.

Yeah, about five years. The book hovered between 6 and 700,000 from 2015 to 2020.

And you had this moment where you realized, okay, if I'm going to scale this thing, I got to start thinking differently here. Walk us through that. Pivotal because, because now you're sitting in a book that's north of 3, right around 3, which is meanings, meaning you've doubled more than once. What was that change? Going through that process? Where do you think you made the biggest changes? Either strategically, mentally, that's allowed you to grow as fast as you have in the last five or six years.

So the only full time job I've ever had is the Mahoney Group and, and especially in insurance sales. And so I just didn't know what else was out there. I kind of had a problem with my mindset. I didn't know.

Really the value I brought to the table. I didn't know who my ideal client was. I didn't know what was possible. And so I had to change my mindset. I met a lot of people in the industry that had been in the business less time than I was, thought they weren't as good at sales and they had larger books of business than me. So I couldn't argue. I just looking in the mirror going, I think I'm this, but the facts are the facts and this is what is happening. I'm stagnant for five years in a row. What is my problem? What can I do better? Who do I need to talk to? And so I hired, you know, outside people that were telling me the same thing a lot of the leaders here were telling me. But hearing it from an outside voice did a lot for me because I had only started selling at the Mahoney group at age 22 and never sold for another insurance agency. And so that, that helped me make that shift. And then ultimately it came to a point where I wanted to do business from my couch and I wanted to work with growth minded clients. And I thought there's only one way to do that or two ways. I got on Zoom before COVID and learned how to do Zoom. And then I only worked with clients that were in growth mode in real estate they were building or acquiring. And at that time interest rates are coming down, a lot of people buying, a lot of people building. And that's when the business took off. When I committed to My ideal client. And I, and I had a big goal because it was to double in two years, go from 700,000 to 1.4 million in two years. And I had that big goal. The only way to do that was through digital sales and being absolutely psychotic on my ideal, ideal client.

Well, I think in that that I don't want to lose sight because yes, you've picked the niche of real estate and construction, but I think more importantly you really niched down on who these people are between the ears. You said growth minded. You know.

This is what I want everybody to hear. When you went narrow, that's when your book expanded. And what was that like for you? Because I'm sure it meant you had to say no. A lot of. And that's hard for people in our industry. We are in an industry that often tends to just live in a lack mindset. Oh, we must. All revenue is good revenue. There's not enough to go around. How was that experience for you going narrow like that? And I love the virtual before virtual was even a thing. Because the way we do business today, you can have clients wherever you want. And I think the more narrow you go, the wider your market gets. Correct. What was that feeling like when you made that decision that I'm only going to work with this type of business executive? Were there any fears at first that you were limiting your options?

Well, I was fearful of it. I knew I wanted to do that for a year or two and what prevented me from doing that was fear. But then I was in such a place where I didn't. I got to a. I don't want to say I was broken, but I got to a place where I just was. I just thought this is worse than not growing. And so I was broken down and I said, okay, it's time. And then I learned you'll know what you're committed to by what you say no to.

From the book. 10x's correct. 2x.

And so then when I said no, I remember a client called and they were 15,000 commission.

15,000 revenue. And they not a client, a prospect called in. It was a call in. Even so, even easier to just write up and get done. And I said, today's the day. Pass that to a new guy. And from then on didn't look back. So I started a revenue threshold of 50 and have grown it from then.

You know, it's interesting you bring that up man, because.

I just had my own epiphany. A few weeks ago, one of our clients won a broker of the Year award on the employee benefit side by one of the industry periodicals. And when he won, I sat down and I made a list of, like, who are our top clients? And what are the characteristic traits, the psychographics, that make them a good fit? And then I did the same thing with who are the five clients in the last 12 months we probably shouldn't have done business with? And what was really interesting is top five all had the same character traits, you know, same psychographics, which I would put you in, that they're competitive as hell, they love to win, students of the game, they're trying to get better in all ways of life, not just as an advisor. And what was interesting, the psychographics of the bottom five, complete opposite. And even more interesting is two of the bottom five referred us to two of the other bottom feeders. But here's what that did for me. The week after I did that exercise, I jumped on three calls with prospective clients and told them all, no. I told them all, don't invest your money. I don't think it's the right move for you. And being able to do that so confidently is so freeing. And I'm sure that was the same for you when you looked, when that 15k came in and said, not mine, I'm gonna pass it on to my team.

Yep, totally agree. And you've helped me understand the power of psychographics because we all look at ideal clients as demographics, revenue threshold, and industry. But between the years, you know, the psychographics part is absolutely important because they allow you to do your best work.

Yeah, 100%. So how did you end up picking real estate and construction as your niches?

So we're in the early 2000s, we started a proprietary insurance program specifically for apartments. I didn't start working here till 2007, and we were just good at apartments. And when I started, I thought, okay, who's having success? Oh, these people writing apartments. I'll go do that. And that started me doing business out of state, mostly because it was very saturated here in Arizona. And from then on, you have a lot of real estate clients that also do construction projects. They may still be a developer or real estate, but they're building these apartments. So that's how I got into the real estate. And then also at the time, we had a one page application. No Accord apps, no. No having to gather vehicle information, nothing like that. I could get a one page application, write a policy in Texas, and. And it was, it was a good, good way to start without knowing very much in the industry.

Well, also, even if you do business in Arizona, this is a good market to be in, I think to be in construction, real estate. Right. Talk to me a little bit about what you guys, the philosophy you have at the Mahoney Group. I really like this. You know, you have producers select major and minor niches when they come to work here at Mahoney. What's the philosophy behind that?

So we developed practice groups that we lean into and want to continue to lead out in. And of those practice groups, when we hire a new person, they meet with all the practice group leaders and they kind of decide what industry they want to go to. So if they meet with our construction practice leader and think, I want to do construction, our real estate practice leader, our human services, our tribal practice leader, healthcare. So they meet with them and then they kind of decide what they're going to go deep in. Pick a major, pick a minor. And then also we're not naive. They're also going to pick their friends, family, and anyone if they have a Rolodex from previous work. So that's, that's how they help pick their major and their minor. And then they can pivot pretty easily and quickly. Sometimes, you know, people think they love real estate and then they get into it and they're like, wow, these guys are, I can't do business with these guys. I'd rather do something else. And so you got to be able to pivot. But ultimately, when there's a focus that's going to expand.

Any advice you would give a producer who might be listening to this, who is at that point where they are trying to select the niche?

Yeah, my advice would be, what would you be doing if you weren't in insurance? So what do you like? And then what are the type of people you like to interact with and do business with and try to figure out that industry niche? Because you can change. I mean.

I thought I was going to specialize in security guard companies for six months. The biggest waste of time, the only bigger waste of time was California printing companies. You know, I did that when I first started. And so, I mean, I have tried to niche in 20 different industries. So it's not like it's, you know, I was born and made for real estate. And I ultimately, after about 12 years in this business, that's when I committed hard and said real estate construction.

You know, it's funny, I. In the last three years, I've come to realize there really is a niche for anything in this industry. I worked with a producer who is thriving on the benefit side with a veterinarian niche.

Wow.

I have worked with a commercial advisor who. He has a team that focuses specifically and I'm going to say it wrong, I can't even. I wouldn't even remember how to describe the niche, but it's the niche that does. Like the birds, the, the one, you know, the two wheel scooters you rent when you're in a city, then you park it somewhere else.