Episode 178: Massive Agency Growth with The What If Girl, Kelley Herrin

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit podcast. This podcast will give independent insurance agents all of the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromsol.

Hey, welcome, everybody, to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. This is going to be a very special podcast because this podcast is born on something that I have shared a lot over a number of years. But this amazing, incredible agent picked up on this little small choice, if you will, and took it to the ultra next levels. And she was telling me about it recently. I said, we've got to share that with everybody else out there. So, Kelly Herron, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me on today, Mike. I'm excited to talk about this project.

Fantastic. That's exactly what it is. But I mean, if you think about the project, right, I mean, you are invested heart, soul, mind, strength, and everything else about it into the insurance industry. And that's what we do, right? We're invested. And you found this project opportunity to continue to better yourself. And that's one thing I've learned about you, Kelly. And I love this because I feel the same way. You love to learn.

I do love to learn. And I love to work.

And to a detriment sometimes, right?

Maybe.

Yeah, I've got the same disease. So, anyway, and we're fortunate. We have our spouses and family who love us and try to reel us in to the best of their ability. However. So, Kelly, I. There's people out there in the world who don't know who Kelly Heron is or anything about your journey in the industry. So if you're willing to give us a couple of, you know, quick tidbits, who you are personally, professionally, where you're located, city, state, etc. And years in the industry and all.

That, sure, telling my years in the industry is going to date me, but more about.

About whatever you feel comfortable with.

Like I said, I love to work. And my dad was the first generation of our agency. He would bring home projects for my sister and I that might include stuffing envelopes with calendars. But the good news, we would get a paycheck, a little paycheck at the end of the project. And by the time I was 15, I was begging my dad to let me go to work with him. So after school, before I Could drive. My mom would pick me up, drop me off at the office and I would stay for a few hours every day, day. Then it turned into I was working summers and you know, after school, even in college. I kept it up during college and at the age of 18, I remember this day so vividly. My dad and I went to purchase our very first computer for the agency. And it was huge and have these giant colorful discs that it really didn't do anything but accounting and took up a whole lot of space. But it was a start and it was a really, really long way from where we are today. But after I graduated from college, my degree was in accounting. My dad was losing his 20 year bookkeeper, she was retiring and I decided to come on board with my dad full time. I did have that accounting degree he had just paid for. So it was a good thing that investment, right? He invested, yes. He invested, yes. That same summer 1984 that I came to work at the agency, I also got married. And so I like to say that that one's the summer that I started my career insurance. And I also started my career with my husband. A little bit of personal information about me. My husband and I have two children. John's 35 and he became the third generation at Jack Bradley Agency when he joined us in 2009. We also have a daughter named Jessie. She graduated from the University of Georgia last year with an interior design degree. I always have thought that being insurance was like being a designer because we're putting the pieces together. So if you go look at my LinkedIn profile, you will see a tag that says I'm an insurance designer. So I like to think about. Jesse is in the business of matching homes, interior and exterior. Beautiful. And I'm in the business of designing a plan to keep those beautiful homes and dreams safe for our customers. So they sort of go hand in hand or maybe I just think that, but.

Well, I'll tell you. May I share what I'm thinking about?

What's that?

I'm thinking about a video with Kelly and Jesse at a house telling those store that story that you just told.

Well, you know, in the design world there's always storyboards so it would fit in perfectly.

Okay, you share that with the world. And it happened to be a customer's house.

Even better. And if it happened to be a customer's house that is willing to share a few words about their experience. And when I was looking at your bio, which phenomenal by the way, check that out after you listen and. Or watch this Podcast. Check out Kelly's bio. Incredible. But you talk a lot about the customer experience. Right?

Right.

Customer experience, team member experience. And another. But you've got the experience thing down. Great. So if you're at that customer's house as an example, you can. And that customer happens to share a little bit about their experience with Jack Bradley Agency.

Fabulous. See, that's why I love being part of Mike's program. Because upp, he's always listening, looking for that next aha moment and pointing it out, maybe things that we haven't even noticed or seen or heard. So that's a great reason to become a part of the UPP program and live the UPP life. So thank you for another great idea.

You're welcome. And thank you for that unplanned plug. But I will say this. I mean, that's the reason that I also invest myself in other outside influencers, coaches, to help me, because they can see things that I can't see.

Right.

And that's the beauty of it all. We get. It just takes that one or two ideas. Right?

That is true.

Fantastic. So let's dive right in to what we have for everybody today. So you showed up to a training earlier this year, and there was a takeaway that I show at the end of every all UPP training. And it's something that was developed in my own growth and personal development. I'm going to guess five or six years ago that I learned from somebody who's an influencer. Right. And at that time, it was, you know, small choices plus consistency over time equals massive results. And so I have built this visual including numbers. And that's why Kelly, because she's got the accounting background, she's a numbers gal, and the numbers don't lie. Right?

That is true every time.

Yeah. But, you know, just share another secret. You know, I used to have a post note on the bottom and I too remember the floppy disks that you were referring to back on. Exactly. Back on the days of the first computers. I, I, I too are from that era. But anyway, I used to have a post it note below the monitor that says debit equals credit. Or, you know, double debit equals out of credit equals into. Because I just couldn't get my mind around the reverse accounting thought process.

It is what it is. But I do know how to put numbers in the bank. So that's good. Back to the matter at hand. So this visual that you picked up on, and I want you to spill everything that you're willing to spill on this and paint a Picture for everybody who's either listening and or watching.

3 times 5 times 50 equals 750. And the thought process, there is three new things every single day. Or if you've got a larger project, three pieces of that larger project towards implementation, three pieces or new things every single day times five days a week. Give yourself a couple days off to rest, rejuvenate, refuel your mind, whatever, or you know, invest in other people in your communities or spend time with family or all the above. So give yourself some, some time doing other things. So three days, three things a a day times five days a week, times 50 weeks a year. Again, give yourself those couple weeks to rest, rejuvenate, refresh, whatever on vacation equals 750. So three times three things every day, times five days a week, times 50 weeks a year equals 750 new injections in just the first 12 months. So the result of that is small choices plus consistency plus time equals massive results. And so you've taken that thought process and you did something very unique with it that I've never seen before. Kelly, take it away.

So when Mike mentioned the 3 by 5 by 50 at one of his sessions, my wheel started turning and thinking about, oh my goodness, one of the things I didn't mention about myself is how much I love change. Maybe y' all don't think I like change because I've had the same job my entire life, but I do love change. And my staff laughs sometimes and says if she can't think of anything else to change, she'll move the furniture. So I do like change and what better industry to be in than the insurance industry? Because you shouldn't be here if you don't like change because it is changing faster and faster every day. So while I was sitting there in Mike's conference, I thought about, I had this stack of color coded index cards that I had had in a closet for years and they came from my days of studying for my CIC exam. And so I would take and I would use one color a chapter for one, one different color per chapter. And I would think through my questions during the class and then I would write the answers on the backside. So I must have really got excited about buying index cards because I had a ample supply of them here in my office. So I thought, what a great idea. What if I start my day off with a blank index card sitting on my desk that has number one, two and three and I dated in the right hand corner. And if I took this idea at the end of the year, I would have implemented massive amounts of. Of things, 750 to be exact. So my starting date, the very first day was July 8th. So maybe Mike will let me come back on one year from now in July of 2023 and tell you what happened with this project. So I've always been fascinated with what we do during the year, and we host an annual event where we call it our award ceremony. And a lot of the same things that I had been putting on these cards since I started this project would be some of the things that would come up at our end of the year banquet. But what this does for me, it keeps me consistent with actually writing those things down every single day. So, as you can see, it's a pretty easy thing at the end of the day to just pick up a blank index card, lay it on my desk. I already have it numbered. I'm ready for the next day when I come in. Nothing fancy, no automation, no technology to keep up with just a stack of index cards. But, Mike, I'll tell you what it has done for me. It created more of an awareness in listening to others. Not only did I listen more carefully and mindfully to my customers I was speaking with, I listened to my staff, I listened to my carriers. And most of the time you may think that implementing 750 things a year is hard. Quite honestly, I've had to control myself a little bit because I think, oh, I've got six things. So I did start a side list because I'm thinking maybe one day I won't feel so inspired. But the more you listen, the more things you can come up with. Either a easier way to do it, more efficiency. And my goal has always been I'm focused on what can make us more efficient, what can it make? How can we make it easier for our clients to do business with us, and how can I make it easier for my staff, which in turn.

We have more freedom to do more. I feel like this is almost like putting a puzzle to together. And when I walked away from your meeting, I wasn't sure that it could be done. I thought, 750 things sounds like a lot, but.

It has been really, really easier. Easier than I thought. And thinking about the intent of making it easier, faster, and better for the whole organization and for our customers. So that's really where my inspiration comes from. Almost daily is thinking through what can solve things, make it easier, make us more efficient.

Wow. I hope you were paying close attention. And if you weren't, I would strongly recommend that you rewind this podcast for about the last 10 minutes. And listen to what Kelly just dropped again. Either if you're watching it and. Or listening to it and if you're watching. If you're not watching it, we're also on YouTube. You can just go to our YouTube channel, search Unstoppable Profit Producer, go to the videos and all of our podcasts are there. Visually, Kelly showed the stack, but she also just dropped a bunch of gold nuggets. So, Kelly, can I ask you a couple of questions?

Sure.

So I just also possibly coined you as the visionary artist. Okay, so back. Back to. I mean, Jess got it from somewhere. Yes, it's in her DNA somewhere. So I don't know anything about Rodney. I've never met Rodney yet. So, anyway. But with that being said, tell us about the annual awards ceremony. What does that look like?

Well, we actually only started it two years ago, and it was with the intent of recognizing what we did during a year. And it wasn't just about numbers. It was about what we did in our community. It was what we did for each other, how we helped each other here in the agency.

You know, there were some number components, producer of the year, as far as numbers go, but it was more about just celebrating the fact that we are still in business another year. We've been here for 60 years, so I'm hoping that we can keep it going. And it's just a way to celebrate all the hard work and the hours that everybody's put in. And I'm really excited about how I can take these three things. And I will do a little bit of automation technology with these because I'm logging them into a spreadsheet and I'm putting them in a category. So we can take those 750 things and we can determine which area we were able to improve upon.

Wow, that is awesome. So what do they receive? I mean, if somebody gets the Producer of the year or the CSR of the year, I know that's just a term, but that's what a lot of people use. If somebody receives one of these awards, what do they receive?

Well, like I say, this is. This will be our third year. And we. It has only been a plaque recognition. But one of the things that we're going to come up with in our leadership meeting before the start of the new year is there is going to be some kind of bonus that is going to be available. One of the things that we'll take into consideration at staff meetings, everybody has to come prepared for 60 seconds, and it can be a win. It can be a lesson. It can be just something.

Motivating from their family life or from their work in the community, involvement in whatever they're involved in.

And I started using the Golden Nuggets like you just held up. I ordered a bag of those from Amazon. Also another tip I learned from upp. And so we're going to build in a component who brings the most golden nuggets to the 60 seconds every week will also receive some sort of bonus compensation at the end of the year just for participating and being willing to write something down and bring it to the group that's beneficial to us all.

I think that's super important to continue to celebrate wins, whatever they might be. Not to overdo it, though.

Right, right.

But to praise and recognize publicly because it's one of the core pieces of leadership when it's deserved. Now, it's a slippery slope as to, you know, do you need to praise, recognize everybody, period, if they don't deserve it, that's a whole nother conversation. So. But you're just a couple of years in, so I look forward to hearing about the future of that. Congratulations on the thought process. I think that's an awesome idea.

Well, and in thinking about it every single year, it will become bigger, more exciting. You know, it didn't have music the first year. The second year it did. So I think every year that you do something like that, you get a little better and you add things that make it more fun because it is meant to be a fun part of our year. But the 3 by 5 by 50 took it to a new level because it's forcing me. Well, it's not forcing me. I get to do it every single day, is write those three things on my card. One of the things that I will tell you was challenging to me about the project is I couldn't lose sight of my big projects. And you hit the nail on the head when you said, break the big projects down into smaller pieces and they become part of your three that you can accomplish during the day. And I think when I first started in July, I got a little behind on thinking about my big projects because I could think of something so many little things that I could do for that day. So that was one of the. That was a aha moment when I had to learn that, hey, I can't abandon all my bigger projects for the 3 by 5 by 50. It just became part of the project.

That is fantastic. So you've been doing it since July, which is awesome. You've remained fairly consistent.

Yes.

Like I learned from my buddy Fred Kramer, things are good, never perfect.

Right.

We've got to get up again. If something falls short, get up again and start again the next day. So you remain fairly consistent and you're, you're seeing progress because of the consistency, doing it every day.

Yes. It's sort of like taking on a new exercise program. If you miss a day, that's fine. But you've certainly, you can't allow yourself to miss too many days in a row because it's hard to get back on the bicycle or whatever the exercise that going to the gym. And I think anybody who's ever.

Stayed focused and consistent with physical exercise would say the same thing. The more days you stay away from it, it's harder to get started back than it was started to get started to begin with. So I look at this project the same way, but one of the cool things, it's about to spill over into my personal life. Because if I can get 750 things implemented in my business, oh, man, what could I get done at my home if I said, okay, I'm gonna do three small things at my house? Now, I haven't told my husband about this project yet because I don't want him to know it's going to turn into my to do list. But I could see getting massive results in other areas of your life, not just in your business.

Well, I just have to ask the question, does your husband know about the podcast by chance?

No. Okay. But I'll send it to him once it airs.

Well, anyway, I just want to throw that out there because it is out there on a lot of airwaves now. In fact, I was, look, I was inspecting what I inspect over the weekend and I noticed that it was at the very top of the chain and it had an ad. It says ad on there when you Google it. Sponsored by Amazon because we're also on Amazon and they picked up the power, probably because my wife invests a lot of money with Amazon. But anyway, let's get back on track. That is fantastic. And so it took about two months to really kick into a higher gear, right?

Yes. Well, you know, I was really gung ho about it from the get go, but it took me probably one month to realize I was getting off track with my big goals. And that's when I had to start breaking my big goals down into much smaller components.

But then what I have learned is we were onboarding our first virtual assistant. We've been in the process of hiring someone. We've been building out our Intranet to include every single workflow, which is a process that UPP helped me take that to a higher level and then working on what our management system can do that we weren't utilizing. So there is. That was four big areas that are already were part of our focus. So I mean there's just limitless things. And that's why I did start a side list where as I brainstorm things that might make it to the 3 by 5 by 50 card system, I've got a little side list just in a notebook written down.

I'm not surprised. So.

So just to help everybody here because I keep thinking about this as I'm listening to the nuggets that you're dropping. Thank you so much. How many team members do you have roughly?

We have 14 full time and we have two part time and our two part time. One's a college student, one's a high school student.

And you're also a big supporter of interns and you have been for a period of time. And you sent me a visual recently about one of the things the intern did to praise and recognize and influence people in the agency. I thought that was awesome.

Yeah. So our intern program has been part of our agency for 50 years. In fact, when I was in middle school and my dad would be left in charge of picking me and my sister up at school and he would forget the school, would call the office and the intern would come and pick us up. So I know it goes back at least 50 years.

So your dad was passionate about the mission he was on?

Yes, he was always. And one of the things that I think I learned from my dad is he never complained about work. He never complained about how much there was. He just was always trying to figure out how to get more done in the eight hour work day so he could actually leave the office five o', clock, come home and be with his family. So I don't think I've adhered to everything that he taught me because I must say I have worked past five o' clock and took my laptop on vacations. But I think I have came up with a way to shorten the amount of hours that we can work but still get more and more accomplished. And this 3 by 5 by 50 has certainly spurred my energy to try to figure out how to make give myself more freedom, give my team more freedom, that we can get massive amounts of work done in a shorter time span.

That is fantastic. And so you are the visionary artist of all of this. I think that's just awesome. Just to Recap this for everybody. One, yes, we absolutely will have Kelly Herron back on the podcast reporting the finality of it all after 12 months in the future. So stay tuned around August of 2023 right here. And we'll have Kelly come back and fill our minds with more incredible ideas of what she's learning from this process. Congratulations. I have a couple, two things for you I want to touch on as we begin to wrap up today. I mean, we could go on for hours about this, in my opinion. I know you could too, because you love to share and learn. But we recently talked in a group forum in our circles, UPP circles about reverse engineering. And I think to an extent that's what you're trying to do here in the first 12 months is figure out the future because you've got John that you're mentoring as well, and you're trying to figure out the next one year, three years and beyond that. And one of the things that I've learned tons in the last three or four years is set that point out in the future of where you want to be. Say we want to be here in three years. Okay, great. What do we need to do to work backwards to get there? Right. And then have those little celebrations in the middle when you do hit that plateau?

Right, right.

And is this process helping you with that vision?

It is, because one of the things, it was a very easy transition when my dad retired because my dad from when I was that 21 year old girl coming into the organization.

He always empowered me that I could have my own ideas and he was not going to shoot those ideas down. And I feel like many times they probably should have been shot down, but he gave me the chance to fly and soar. So one of the things that I wanted for John is to be that boss to him where my door is always open for his ideas and what he thinks that we should be able to do next. Because I want that handoff to be just as smooth the day I decide that I am going to retire from this industry.

I want our agency to be growing, continually improving when it comes to serving our customers, being part of our community, just, you know, picking the right carriers to make all that happen. And I think it all comes down to getting your processes, your systems, your procedures in place. So it's almost like investing in all of these things now means that it's going to be an easy handoff one day. And I think that's the part we were talking about. What all can I do to make that, you know, seven years from now, eight years, 10 years, 15, whatever the number is.

Right.

That it's just an easy transition.

Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. And it takes time. It's not an overnight thing.

No.

You got to work up to it and plan out into the future. You know, if you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail. According to Ben Franklin. Kelly, I'm going to wrap with one last question, and let's just do a quick recap for everybody because we've thrown an awful lot of information and people very quickly. Thank you for sharing. But 3 times 5 times 50 equals 750. You have a stack of index cards that were hiding in the closet. You decided to pull them out and use them after you got the inspiration and the idea from one of our trainings. Right down three things every single day.

Yes.

On an index card, but you stacked them up.

Three times, five times 50. You have 750 index cards stacked, or you have a portion of them and you keep building on it.

Actually, I've just grabbed this stack, but that's a good idea. I should count them so as I. Because I start at the top and move them to the back. And.

I do need to count them and actually know. Because you wouldn't need 750 because you've got three per card. So do the math and leave that many parts.

Just a thought process. Inspect what you expect. And I know you got the side list going on, which doesn't surprise me at all. Like I said, so that's fantastic. And you know, it's really. And the other thing that I admire so about this whole idea and you implementing the idea, which is the key to anything, is the fact that have you come up with new ideas as you've worked through this? I mean, even over the last two months, you know, three things every day, and you go, oh, aha. I. I didn't think about this aspect of this. Does that happen?

Oh, definitely. There's so many new things that I had never. I think the key to it is. I think for me, it's been more the listening more mindfully for the ideas. It's sort of like if you've ever started journaling or you ever wanted to start a blog or you ever wanted to start a podcast, you've got all these ideas swirling around in your head, but then that day comes and you sit down with your piece of paper and you're. You're trying to. And it. It's harder to come up with something than you think it would be. So I think that's What? This has taught me to be a better listener and always be thinking of. My favorite way to look at any project is to ask the question, what if? Well, this is the perfect opportunity for all those what if moments. In fact, my dad always called me the what if girl because I said it so many times. He would say, here she is. That what if girl. But I think this project lends itself to that mindset daily more than any project I've ever worked on.

Wow. Now. Now I've got a decision to make. The visionary artist or the what if girl?

Do you have a preference?

I like what if because it is very. An endearing term to me because my dad said it to me quite frequently.

Deal. My last question for you, Kelly. Thank you so much for sharing. And this is kind of way out of left field. You ready?

Okay.

I've never done this before. Just kidding. In the last two minutes, one thing I've observed about Kelly Heron, if you. If you meet Kelly Heron, she's humble, she's kind, she's quiet in her own way. But inside of Kelly Heron, there's something that nobody can see, and I've seen it come out. Kelly Heron, why do you like to win?

Why do I like to win? Well, the only person I really like to win against is my own self. I want to do it better.

Than I did it before.

But I think winning for me means our whole team is winning. And when the whole team is winning and I've helped other people win, that is the. That's the most exciting part for me. If, you know, if I ran the race and I didn't make it on the top three on the podium, I was just as excited if one of the girls that I had been training with made it to the podium, because I thought all those times I went to run with you, it's okay that I'm not standing up there today. I'm just as excited that you are up there on the top three.

That answer doesn't surprise me either, that that just tells at the core who Kelly Herron is. Kelly Herron, thank you for sharing. Is there anything else you'd like to add as we wrap up today?

No. Everybody, go buy your index cards and get started. It will be easier than you think.

Wait a minute, Kelly, aren't those, like, really expensive?

I don't think so.

Small investment, right?

Because maybe nobody even buys index cards anymore because we're all so digital. I'm not sure. They just happen to be here, and they fit my idea of how this.

Could look well, Some people do, including myself. And I'm super privileged that one of our other members, who you know quite well and I've learned that you two know each other way back.

Had those made for me spontaneously and they arrived one day at my house. So I too have index cards, Kelly, that I use often. And when I give it just a little subtle.

You know, marketing thought process. Because we always need to be marketing and promoting. Right. So when I. When I write an idea on this and I hand it to somebody, they'll never forget where it came from. Right.

That is a good idea. But I could see this.

Next year, me trying to inspire team members. So if the marketing person could have a year where every single department could have a year where they implemented 750 items. So we have personal lines, commercial lines, the life and health, and then marketing. So 750 times 4. You talk about massive implementation. If we could somehow spread this project throughout the organization, would we run out of things? I don't know. No, I don't think you can ever run out of one more thing to do.

No, no, no. And in addition to that, my great encouragement was. Well, first of all, that's the ultimate compound effect.

Secondly, I'm looking at, you know, one of my acronyms that I picked up recently. Deep. Go deep. Delivering excellence in every process. Okay. So once you, if you ever do, and I'm not going to suggest, you will get there, but let's say you do get to quote the end. Turn around and rinse and repeat.

Run it. Or just call you.

Yeah, do that too. Or both.

Okay.

Yeah. I will see things that you can't see. And vice versa. So the what if girl has joined us and dropped gold nuggets. Beyond gold nuggets. Thank you, Kelly Heron. You're awesome.

Thank you, Mike, for having me on today and look forward to seeing what a year brings.

Oh, there's. There's no other options. What an incredible future we have before us. So speaking of that, if this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Strom, so I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can find out more@undoppableprofitproducer.com if you're interested in attending a virtual or live event. Our virtual event portal is upfaststart.com or our live event portal is beunstoppablebootcamp.com both events are designed to share our best money making strategies developed over 35 years of research in our industry. With the goal of growing your business, creating wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And again, if this is your first time or you haven't done it yet, please subscribe to our podcast. If you're watching this online or listening to it, you can subscribe at the top of the website. Just go to unstoppable profit podcast.com hit subscribe and you won't miss one episode like this episode because I will suggest anybody that was truly paying attention to Kelly today has pages of ideas and new things to implement. So Unstoppable Profit podcast.com subscribe and we're out there on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, on our YouTube channel, on Amazon, and more. So thank you for joining us, everybody. Until next time, get out there, make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. Kelly Herron, thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

All right, have a great day everybody. Until next time, go implement something.

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