Episode 244: Guarding Your Book With Purpose with Lynnette Wood

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.

Greetings, everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. I am excited to bring you something that, well, if you don't know about it, you're going to know about it in a very big way very, very soon, and you are going to learn about it first right here on the podcast. I am super grateful and thankful to introduce the unstoppable Lynette Wood. Lynette, welcome.

Thank you, Mike.

You're welcome. And I'm sure everybody's dying to know what the heck we're talking about. Would you agree?

I would agree.

Should we tell them just a few of the details? Sure, I think we should, because this is going to cause more freedom for people. It's going to bring them more income. And the good news is, if they don't want to, they don't have to do anything at all.

Correct.

Who doesn't want that deal?

And don't forget blocking out the competition.

Aha. Thank you very much and more. So we'll share all of that with you here on the podcast. But before we go there, anybody who doesn't know who Lynette Wood is, go ahead and tell them. Who are you going to add? Anything? Business, personal, whatever you feel like.

My name is Lynette Wood and I live way up north in Anchorage, Alaska. I grew up on an island called Kodiak, where all those bears are. So you want to go hiking with me? Is really what I'm trying to say. I know how to handle them, and I have. I met my husband in college, and then we moved back to Anchorage, and we have three kids that are doing great in life. I haven't convinced one of them yet to come into the insurance world. But we're not done yet. That's right. Because after all, the insurance industry is what, the best in the entire world. No ceiling, people. There is no ceiling.

And it challenges you every day.

Oh, every day. I am a teacher by trade. I taught middle school and high school science for quite a while. And so now I am back. I started in the insurance industry really, really young, left, got educated, became a teacher, and then came back to insurance. So I enjoy it. I like the challenge. I like teaching people about their insurance, and I like, really, the camaraderie I have with all of the other insurance agents, especially the ones like I have met through my LNR group with upp. We're close friends now. It's great.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's what's kind of led you to this passionate mission that you're going to endeavor into. You've started it, but we're going to launch it in a big, big way sometime in the near future, and that's really what I'm going to get to. Because you are passionate about helping people, teaching people, and leading them to that same destination that you're after. So fantastic. Thank you for doing that. So we met originally in 2019, and you arrived at Be Unstoppable Boot Camp. And I will never forget the moment that we met, because you asked me to do something. You walked right up to me and you said, turn off that microphone. I want to talk to you for a minute.

And then I said, oh, I love it. Somebody who knows what they want.

Yeah.

That's all that we want. That's all that we want. Right? And, Lynette, what I have learned as I've gotten to know you better, and I'm super grateful to have the relationship that we have, because you do know what you want, and you. You go get what you want and to give an idea in. In that time frame, in just a couple of years. I asked you if it was okay to share this, and you said, no problem. You've done four acquisitions since that time.

I have.

And then. And then you said, but that's not all. There's more.

Yes. I'm about to close on another one in two weeks.

So that's five.

Yes.

So congratulations. That's. In addition to growing the agency that you started, you came back into the industry and, if I'm not mistaken, bought the agency because of your teaching relationships.

And somebody had a. A very tough situation involved, poor health, etc. Etc. And you said, I'm going to jump in and I'm going to help. And you did, because that's what you do, is you help. So that's how you got back into the industry. And you've set out on an organic growth path and a. An acquisition growth path, and you've done great things. So congratulations.

Thank you. It's been a fun ride. And I'm not done riding. We're going to keep going down this journey. Let's go.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

We got a long way to go, but go ahead.

I'll just share that. When I took over the agency that I did because my. My boss passed away, we were benefits only. So that was all I knew, was doing employee benefits. But after just a short time, about two years, I had too many clients asking if we could do work comp. Could we do bonds, could we do general liability? And I was like, we don't do that. We don't do that. We don't do that. Pretty soon I was like, why don't we do that? So then I expanded into the PNC world, and now we are a full circle, full service agency. But that took a lot of growing pains and a huge different, you know, course change of what we were doing, because it's a different animal. And so when. And I was searching, I was looking for a group of people that could help me down this path that I didn't know was where I was, what were my bumpers. And so that's when I came across you and met you and went to boot camp. That's when I was like, this is it. I found my people, I found my tribe. I need to partner with these people, and this is how I'm going to be successful. And so that's why after we met the first time, I like, can you turn off your mic? I need to talk to you. I'm really serious about this. So that was kind of the backstory of I was desperately looking, and then I found you.

Well, thank you, and I'm glad you did. And it's been a wonderful, wonderful ride. And the thing that excites me so is when somebody tells me about something that they want to do and they're passionate about it and they've got it here in their head. I just need you to help me with the how and everything else. I said I am all in because there isn't a lot that I haven't encountered, both wins and lessons. So you mentioned that you're beginning in the end in the industry. When you took the agency, it was all benefits or mostly benefits. And so that's your hit.

Anything else?

Yeah. So that's your history. And that's the thing, you know, like the back of your hand, right?

Yes, in my sleep.

So you talk about it and Jeff says. What did you say? Benefits, benefits, benefits. Jeff. Jeff is your husband. FYI for everybody. Who's Jeff? Anyway, so with that being said, tell us a little bit about your vision. And you've already started working a little bit on this, but where do you want to be a Year from now, where do you want to be three years from now? And just recap what's in it for everybody out there who might want to partner with you as you help people with the benefits in their agency.

Yes. So Mike alluded to it. We want to be your trusted partners to help your clients be able to offer benefits to their employees. We don't want you to have to learn something new or have to, you know, everybody's busy. And I constantly came across people at all these different functions I would go to, and I'd say, do you do benefits? Do you do benefits? And all of the time I would hear people say, oh, no, we probably should, but it's just one more thing to learn. And I was like, I get that. I really do. Because I had to learn how to go from benefits out. And so what better way than to partner with someone who you can trust will not go after any other line of business. In fact, there will be. There's a contract to sign so that that is legal. And then you have a new revenue stream available to you. As your clients put in benefits in place, you get to share in that revenue stream, and then what else happens? As kind of a side kicker, you block the competition. Because if you're not offering benefits to your clients, believe me, other people are. And those other agencies are probably doing PNC as well. And so they're. They're combing them to get all of their lines of business, not just their benefits. But if you partner with me and my agency, we would come in, block out the competition. No one's talking to them anymore about trying to take away their. The different lines. And now you have a new revenue stream. Pretty cool.

And the good news is, the agency that is writing the benefits or that you're helping with the benefits, they still own the business, right?

They own the. Oh, absolutely, yes, yes. Don't own the business. No.

Right. You're just helping them with the revenue stream and everything else. So you know benefits so well that you've got. You understand the open enrollment philosophy, you understand the. The preparation for that. In fact, you just helped one of our members. They now are doing benefits for a city.

Right, right, right.

So I know you jumped on the phone and you came to the rescue and help because this agent had never done anything like that before. So thank you for that. Great job, by the way. And so, you know, that's what you do. And then the. The open enrollment and the ability to serve the clients online, you've got all of that in your arsenal to Help in any way possible. What else? Anybody out there that might be thinking about doing benefits, but oh, my gosh, it's a. It's a. You know, it's a foreign language. I don't understand it. I can't see myself doing it. What else do they need to be thinking about?

Well, there's a lot of rules around the Affordable Care Act. There's a lot of rules. When the employee has more than 50 employees, there's rules and sort of like if you're under 50 employees, you don't have to offer benefits, but if you do, then there's all these rules that go along with it. Or if you have over 50 employees, you must offer benefits. And it has to be at a certain affordability level for the employees. You also have to file certain forms with the irs. It just gets a little more complicated. But, boy, in order to attract and retain employees, everybody knows you need to offer benefits. People are looking for jobs with benefits, and it is not easy to find something that's affordable. So there's a balance between offering benefits, making it be affordable to everybody involved, but then also making sure that the networks are good, that people are happy with the benefits that are in place. And there's a lot of different things and different scenarios on how we approach things. Everyone is unique. So we looked at a group just earlier today in our own agency, and we told them that we would recommend that they cancel their group benefits. And instead we're going to put an ichra in place and everybody's going to have individuals digital insurance. And if you don't know what that means, you don't need to. That's what we know how to do.

I heard you say that recently, and I thought, what the heck she talking about? I don't know what it is either, so. And I've got a little bit of a lot of a background in individual and group benefits, but I don't want to know either. So that's fantastic. So you've got the history and the knowledge and the experience, and you've got your finger on the pulse, because not only you doing benefits in your own agency, now you're setting up a platform that can service other agencies across the nation. Is that correct? What's your vision for the future of this endeavor?

Our vision is to be a national company that people would come to and partner with so that they can provide benefits for their clients. That's our. That's our goal. Yeah, and we're already starting that. I mean, we've become. We're across Lots of different states now, and it's just expanding at a rapid rate. There's a lot the same in the benefit world across the nation, and then there's some nuances state to state. So, yeah, it's been fun. I enjoy learning, obviously, and I enjoy helping people. One of the things that was so critical to me was to have the help of other people, people that already knew what to do and I could just lean on them, ask them question. And I've had so many people share with me and give me advice and help me along the way with the whole PNC animal that this new venture of helping people with benefits is just an easy way for me to give back. It's an easy way to make more money, too, of course, for both people involved, but it's also just a really great way of partnering with my fellow friends and helping them out in their business. How, you know, how more can I do for you?

Right, exactly. So. So thank you for your giving heart. But you know what I'm also thinking about, and I didn't tell you I was going to ask you this question, but I know you can handle it. So somebody out there that's either watching or listening to this podcast says, well, you know, I've got a buddy who's doing benefits and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Why? Lynette Wood and her organization over and above any and all other options available to them. I mean, what unique can you bring to the table that sets you apart in the benefits world?

We really don't look at things. This might sound a little funny. You might even be surprised by this. We really, truly don't look at how we operate from a profitability. We look at it from what is best for the client. We truly do. So we come at a group and we look at what might best fit their situation. We are not a organization who just has a cookie cutter approach and we're going to force, you know, medical, dental, vision upon everybody. That is not how we operate. Little story. I worked with a local Gym. They have 12 different locations and they were financially a little strained. However, they had gotten to be 62 employees and now needed to offer benefits. They couldn't afford it because there's a lot with it. So I asked the owner, how many do you have on your janitorial staff? And he said, 12. And I said, all right, why don't you lay them all off and why don't you have them form a new company all together? You form a new company and have that company provide janitorial services. For your gym. Guess what? He didn't have to offer benefits anymore. And guess what? I have maintained him as a client for all these years because he really felt like I helped him out. And he calls me all the time, hey, what are you gonna do this. He trusts us because we are trustworthy. We're out to help our people. We are not out for our own wallet.

That's fantastic. That's a great story. Thank you. And thank you for thinking outside the box like that. So that's part of it as well. You've got the ani way, and you've got your other company that's up and coming to provide the benefits as well out across the nation. But it's your way. It's your proprietary way of doing business. It may not be for everybody but anybody out there who is not offering benefits at all. And I challenge you and encourage you to think about this.

Last time you received a letter from one of your carriers that advised you that an ar an agent of record, or a broker of record, A O R or B O R was just some. Signed by one of your clients, and you just lost that client. How did you feel?

Like we did something wrong.

Right. It sucks. Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

What did we not do for them?

What did we do? We violated trust. I mean, right. We've been going to bat. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. See, that's one of the things that you're bringing to the table here, is you're protecting that environment because, you know, whether you think they're looking or whether you think they're not looking, they may have that need. And so you've got to be the one who's prepared to share with them every possible opportunity that you can bring to the table from a commercial standpoint, and to give everybody else another thing to think about, you know, what's. What's going on in personal insurance in America today. Things rosy or. What are you hearing, Lynette?

It's rough. Not only the rates super high and the renewals, but there's more and more opportunities for them to just buy it online. They're poorly insured, but they don't know what they don't know.

Right, Right. And so that's another opportunity to move into the commercial insurance world. And one of the partners of the commercial insurance world is benefits, or it's an opportunity to use that as a lead line.

If you're out there trying to, you know, penetrate new niches or just kind of build your general commercial insurance enterprise in your agency. So Tons of opportunity out there.

Tons. And if you.

Don'T think that your clients are looking. They may not be, but other people are looking at them. I guarantee you, if we're all sales people, everybody has lists and everybody's calling and they're. People are knocking on their door. And you can have the opportunity to close that door where they say, I'm good, all my needs are met. Well, right now you might have an opening that it's not. So that's what we want to help you do, is close that gap, close that door. Guard your book, and make sure that you're successfully fulfilling all the needs of your clients, not just.

Their commercial things that are not benefits.

Guard your book. What. What is. What is the name that everybody needs to be looking out for? Have you formalized?

Maybe.

Maybe. Okay.

All right, we'll.

We'll leave that on the table. Stay tuned, everybody.

Yeah, that'll probably be the tagline. Guard your book.

Yeah. Protection. Right. We're all in the protection business, so that is fantastic. And you've already done a lot of work in all 50 states evaluating the carriers. So I got another question for you, and we've talked about this before, so whatever your answer is. But you know, there's at least in the states that I have history in, there's mga, so to speak, who handle health insurance. Why you over them?

I think that they will appreciate that we have a personal touch. We really are going to pick up the phone, we're going to talk to them. We're going to make sure that we have time throughout the year that we educate them. Because if you only have an open enrollment meeting and then you say goodbye like some of the bigger companies do, no one's going to remember but 10% of what was discussed in an open enrollment meeting. So you have to drip on them throughout the year on things that are important that employees need to know. Do you know how to create an. An online portal so you can see your claims and get your EOBs? Do you know who to call if you need to have a Teladoc? Do you know how to find a doctor who's in network? Do you want to see how your prescription is going to be handled and how much it's going to cost? Do you have those tools in front of you? I think that sets us apart. We half of my staff are former teachers, no surprise there. And we really care about training our clients on what they're purchasing and how to use it so that they're not frustrated when push comes to shove. And they need to have a claim. You know, you have a claim in your medical insurance just as much as you do your other lines of business.

Right.

But a lot of people don't know how to work that. If you just think your insurance card is going to get you in and out of the doctor and you're going to just pay what says on your card, you're in for a big surprise. You have to make sure that everybody is in network. You have to make sure they've pre authorized all the things they're going to do to you. And then when they refer you to someone else to go see maybe a specialist, that doctor is only thinking about your care or not thinking about your wallet. So it's on your shoulders to make sure that you're seeing the next person who you've been referred to is still in network. That happens a lot. So we educate on those types of things and we circle back with our clientele so that they're reminded of it. We drip on them and they appreciate it in network.

And add a network that is huge because the contracts between the carriers and the doctors, those come up, what, annually?

Oh, yes. But they. And it fluctuates a lot.

Right. And so you've got your finger on those tabs as well. And you know, that may not be something that maybe the bigger organizations are really paying attention to or caring enough about to communicate with you or have the ability to.

Right. I think that that's. It's a mindset.

Right.

What is your purpose in doing what you're doing? And if your purpose in doing what you're doing is that you're wanting to protect people truly, then you're going to take the time to educate them and follow up and make sure that they know what they have in front of them. It's not just sold and then we move on to the next sale. It's not how we run, how we run.

Fantastic. You just said something that I got to write down. I love that. Thank you. Guarding your book with purpose.

That is fantastic. And, and you've got the story, you've got the history, you've got the expertise and everything else that's necessary to make this something very, very special. And thank you for sharing just a little bit about what's on your heart, what your vision is for the future. We can't wait to see it expand and, and really just help more agents. And just to recap it for everybody, you know what we're looking to do, people that aren't doing benefits right now, but they might be doing a fair amount of commercial insurance business. They can add benefits to their own agency, right?

Yes.

Another policy, they can earn more commission.

So they get more commission. They don't have to do the work. You can set them up if they want to do it that way, where you can do all the work to help them get the business on the books. There will be a service portal available so they don't have to do that as well. Is that correct?

That's correct, yeah.

And bigger than that, you're going to have a written agreement in place protecting the book.

Yes. Okay.

So nobody has to worry about somebody else taking that business.

No, you're closing the door. You're guarding your book.

You're guarding your book.

You provide your clients with everything that they need, and you're blocking out the competition. Plus you're making more money. It's kind of a good thing.

It's a great thing. And if. If you're aware of retention and you're paying attention to your retention numbers, everybody knows if you add that third and fourth policy.

That just sends your retention percentages through the roof.

Right.

You know, above 90 up into the mid-90s in a lot of cases.

So who doesn't want that?

Yeah. And the trust factor goes up with benefits. I'm not sure people are aware of that, but benefits is the second largest cost to an employer besides payroll. Payroll's number one. Number two is benefits. So when you're talking about the first most expensive line that they have for insurance in their agency, they trust you. They look to you for advice. So you're working with them at the level that they care about the most because it's expensive. So it's very important to be at that level with them so that you are the trusted advisor on all of their insurance. The rest of it after that, small potatoes compared to benefits. It's expensive.

Yeah. And likely not going down in the future.

No, probably not. And yet it's one of the first things people ask about when they're looking for jobs is do you offer benefits? So employers know it's a cost that they need to learn how to manage, and that's where they come and find us as we help them manage those costs as best we can. And then we strategize with them on ways to, you know, you can put in. There's all sorts of strategies.

Yeah. And customize it for them. And they're not only for their business, but to help customize the entire insurance program in an agency business.

Right.

Fantastic. Y. Super. Super. Excited.

Thanks. Me too. It's going great. It's already. It's already a little bit trickling out the door, so it's already kind of starting, but it's going to.

Heard that through the grapevine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So fantastic. Lynette, anything else you want to add?

No, just a thank you to the whole insurance land of people that really do partner with me and with all of my colleagues. We are a tribe together, and there's lots of work out there, and we need to keep going after it together and.

And bigger than that, we just need to keep serving people.

Yes, we do. We need to make sure that we are being authentic and helping people so that they don't have that moment when something happens. Instead, they have the, oh, I'm so thankful I'm covered this way. That's what you want, right?

Or are aware of what might be coming down the pike, so they don't have that moment. Okay. Yeah. I knew it was coming. Now it's here. Let's deal with it.

Right?

So.

Right.

Preparation, awareness, everything else associated with that, it's going to keep changing. So if we want things to change, we've got to change, because if we're willing to change, everything will change for us. And congratulations to you and your team. You are changing for the better to serve more people, to help more people with purpose.

Absolutely.

Fantastic. I can't wait to keep up to date and to keep sharing everything that you're doing. I've got kind of an insider view, so I'm grateful and thank. Thank you for that as well.

You're welcome. Thank you.

Yeah. So go ahead.

Yeah.

Anybody that wants to learn more about how they can add benefits to their portfolio in their agency for their business insurance clients, just go ahead and send an email and go ahead and put in the subject line the words guard my book. Put guard my book in the subject line. Send the email to VIP. VIP very important person@upplife.com VIP life.com and put guard my book in the subject line. We will get in touch with you based on that submission so we can explain to you more about how the program works and we can find how it can be of best service to you to guard your book and protect people in your coverage territory. So fantastic. And anything else you'd like to add, Lynette?

No, I think I'm pretty set.

Yeah. Fantastic. You are set. And you're set to jet, so to speak, with purpose. So super, super excited about that. We can't wait to wait. You evolve so good. Luck in serving more people and we'll, we'll do a check in and maybe have you back on the podcast. Give us an update in the near future.

Sounds great. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Hey everybody, thank you for joining us on this episode of the podcast. If you're watching this or listening to this, welcome. My name is Mike Stromso. I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can learn more about what we do at Unstoppable Profit Producer. If you're interested in attending one of our virtual training events in the near future, please visit our virtual event portal@uppfast start.com Everything that we do, all of our events are all designed to share with you more than 35 years of our best money making strategies created so that you can grow your agency, create wealth and have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And when we all work together, things like the this adventure that Lynette's on all come from that. It's absolutely amazing when you surround yourself with like minded people and we want you to be able to create all of this again so you can live life on your own terms. So please make sure if you got great value out of this podcast, please go to unstoppable profit podcast.com go up to the top and click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode. And more importantly, if you got great value out of this podcast or you know somebody who's got a business insurance book, commercial insurance book, and they want to add benefits easily without having to do hardly anything at all, please share unstoppable profit podcast.com have them go up and click subscribe at the top so they can get all the benefits and everything that we bring to you weekly. And we're out there on all the channels like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon, and so much more. Unstoppable Profit podcast.com thank you for joining us. And until the next episode, get out there. Make a difference, be unstoppable, leave no regrets. You got this. We believe in you. And Lynette Wood.

Incredible. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for having me, Mike.

You're welcome. We're glad you're here. All right everybody, until the next episode, get out there. You got this. We believe in you. We'll see you next time.

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