Episode 248: The Implementer of the Year Maura Perkins

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. Finally, finally, I was able to corral her, and that's been a long journey in itself. But our most recent implemented of the year, the unstoppable Mara Perkins, I was able to finally corral her, get her on the podcast, and lend to her all of the praise and recognition that she deserves in winning our most recent implement of the year contest at boot camp. Mara, welcome back to the podcast.

Thank you, Mike. Thanks so much for having me.

You're welcome. I'm super grateful that you're here, and it was just fantastic to experience your share, how you did it, and for everybody, if you're not familiar with the implemented of the year program at our boot camps, it's 100% vote of the crowd. So our team has nothing to do with it other than the fact we do our best to help everybody that earns the right to be a finalist, number one. Number two, any support that's needed. And Mara just said, I got this and I'm gonna go do it. And not only did she did it, she won it. So I just wanted to share a little bit about who Mara is. In case you haven't heard of her, you will be hearing about her in the near future, right, Mara?

Oh, definitely. Great things coming up.

Exactly. I know you do, and I always see the fire in your eyes. So, uh, let's just get right down to it. Welcome. You know you started at a very young age planning to be an insurance agent, right?

Yeah, that's what I wanted. I thought as a kid, like, that's what I want to do. When people asked me, what do you want to be when you grow up? I just, gosh, could I sell insurance? But no, seriously, I had two goals when I was about six or seven, which was I was going to work in a Chinese restaurant or be a psychiatrist. And. And somehow I ended up doing insurance, which is a little bit of both. Like, you take orders and you're helping, you know, listen to your clients vent.

And sometimes you feel like you're eating with chopsticks.

Definitely get those little greens of Rice.

Exactly. Wow. Amazing that you met right in the middle and you're doing great things. And of course, like anybody who gets into the insurance industry, it's not always easy and. And sometimes we encounter other bumps in the road.

Yeah, I mean, there's definitely been some bumps along the road. I mean, my largest one came in 2021 when I was diagnosed with cancer. So that was a bit of surprise because it was kidney cancer. And you know, it's one of those sleepers, right. You don't feel like you're ill. And it was found, you know, by accident, you know, from another test, which I'm very grateful for. But it was a difficult situation. Difficult surgeries and multip. Multiple things happened. So I was really laid out, not able to work full time for about nine months.

Wow. And you'd been working really, really hard to build the agency prior to that. You know, you came to California back in the 1980s as I recall.

Yeah, 1987. And I promptly got into the insurance business. It was, you know, one of my first jobs, starting out as a file clerk and you know, just had some really great mentors in my career that helped me immensely and know, I just moved on up, worked in different sizes and structures of agencies. You know, there was, you know, small family agencies where I started, then I went to corporate and from there I ended up ended up in another family based business. But it was three different families and third generations. So it was a lot of nepotism.

But you, you learn all your little things through those structures.

Right, right. Or you either win or you learn. You never lose.

Yeah, no, I know they were all great lessons, 100%. And it helped me to identify how I wanted to structure my agency. And when my time came to start my agency, I was ready to go for it, you know, so I started my agency, you know, really, I started doing sales in 2007, you know, got enough business under another agency and then moved my book and started my own agency and got my own appointments and two. And that started happening. My own agency happened in 2012. So, you know, in those, you know, almost 10 years, right. 20, 21 is when the cancer happened. I really made some great strides. I had, you know, seven full time people working for me. I was the only producer, you know, so my book was very decent size. And when that kind of tragedy strikes you, you're not really prepared for. At least I wasn't. Right. So there was a lot of prat falls with that. You know, I'm trying to deal with all of this Mentally, you're kind of checked out because you have bigger things like survival Right. On your plate, and then worrying about what's going to happen to not only your. Yourself, but obviously your family and then your work family who you relied on and you're providing for as well. And then I'm worried about my clients. Right. And some of my larger clients, you know, they couldn't. They weren't. There were a lot of clients were unsure what was going to happen. A lot of them didn't know what was going on. Right. Because there's not really a rule book on this. Right. Do you broadcast it to your clients? Do you hope they hold on? Do you not say anything? So we lost a fair amount of business. Right. In the two years from, you know, when I had to have surgery and then recover.

Yeah. I'm sorry to hear that, because you started Sagacious, and I want to get into the name in just a minute, but 2011, roughly, right?

Yeah, 2011.

Yeah, yeah. And where did the name come from?

So, interesting story. When I was in school, in high school, I was reading a book and the word sagacious was there, and I couldn't figure out what it meant in the. In the sentence. Right. So it didn't give me enough clues, context clues. So I looked it up in the dictionary and found out what the meaning was, which was, you know, shrewd, keen, on top of your game, cutting edge. And I thought, if I ever open a business, I'm going to call it Sagacious, whatever it is I do. Right. And so when my time came, I remembered that. And, you know, I don't know if I mentioned this in the presentation for the award in the Implementer of the Year award, but I had like six or seven names I was considering for the business, and I put it out there to, you know, friends and family, and no one picked Sagacious.

You gave them all seven choices?

I gave them all seven choices. Sagacious was one of them. Not one person selected it. And I thought, you know, that's really too bad. And then I went back and I asked why in over 75% of the people who had the options that didn't know what it meant. Aha. And so to me, I thought, well, you know what? This is even better for branding because I can then talk about what does this mean? And further, you know, build that relationship with clients.

So how many do people still, to this day, still say, what, by the way? What is sagacious? Or where did that come from?

Yeah, it's kind of interesting, you know, and I don't like to generalize people, but, you know, the more educated people know what the word is.

Right.

You know, lesser educated people don't know what it is. So some people will say, oh, I had to look it up. And you know, then they're, you know, I get, you know, kudos to you for naming your business that. That's a really cool adjective.

Right.

And then, you know, I explain it to the people who ask in, you know, it gets the same response. Right. People are like, wow, that's unusual and pretty cool.

Yeah, fantastic. That's a great story. And so you made a fast run for that 10 year period, did great things. You are at the cutting edge of your pursuit of the people that you do work with in commercial lines. You also handle some personal lines as well.

Yeah. So our split is probably 60 commercial. You know, right now we're 20% personal. You know, in California, that market's had a lot of upheaval, you know, 10% life and health. And then we offer HR services for a fee model to our commercial clients as well.

Yeah. And I don't have the podcast episode number at my fingertips right now, but go back and check out the podcast with Mara. She was kind enough to share the thought processes of her strategic model as far as offering additional complimentary services in the commercial lines arena for HR and a whole list that she has. So great job on that as well. I know you've been working hard on that for about at least five years. Yeah. Putting that together and doing great things. So I got an opportunity within the last year to learn more about how she's doing that. So super proud, super honored to be able to know you more and to walk along your alongside of you. And of course, like you just shared our, our heart continues to go out that you had that bump in the road, the, the cancer word. But the good news is you, and it's never a surprise if you know Mara Perkins at all, she did whatever she had to do, including going against the grain, care wise to get the treatment she needed. And just to, you know, answer a question that may be going through the hearts and minds of anybody watching or listening, you're healthy today, right?

Oh, 100% cancer free. 100. I mean, I'm as healthy as I'm gonna get. Right. Like we all get older, stuff happens. But yeah, currently not in any kind of treatment, not dealing with, you know, any kind of medication issues or health issues. So yeah, clean bill of health.

That's awesome. So happy for you and your family and your Agency team love the way that you talked about caring about everybody and that's fantastic. Way to go. Yeah. But you lost some business during that period which, you know, set you back a little bit. So you had to figure out how are you going to get it back and, and you knew in your heart that you had what it took to go get it back and you, you had the history of the agency that you built over the 10 year period to get it back. But.

What else did you need and what happened after that that was a benefit to you that you want to share?

Sure. I mean, so usually I have that fight, right. That's just who I am. I'm kind of a scrapper east coast, you know, at birth and raised so you know, just kind of have that and. But you know, it took the wind out of my sails, this illness and the recovery. So I was really struggling with mindset and motivation and I was gifted a ticket to come to up boot camp and I went in 2022 and was blown away, just blown away. I mean, I normally don't accept those kind of things. I'm kind of, you know, just stick to stay in my own groove, I'm staying my own lane. But for some reason the planets aligned and I accepted the ticket and I went with an open mind and was just really impress impressed with, you know, not only boot camp, but meeting all the other people. And I've never seen other insurance agents fellowship like that. You know, not that it was a church setting or anything like that, but everybody seemed to be very friendly. Everybody was genuinely wanting to help one another, asking pointed questions to get to know you better. It just felt right, you know, so, you know, finding you and your team and you know, everything with UPP just hit at the right moment for me. So I joined, you know, at the end of those three days for, you know, the annual program and it was phenomenal for me.

Well, you made a great difference for many others that you interacted with as well because they told me so. I may not have told you that, but so, you know, you made a great difference and know I, I will not soon forget if ever when we first connected after that event. And I'm glad that, glad that you showed up by the way. Thank you. And that was awesome. And I remember talking to you at the event because you were.

Don'T, I hope doesn't offend you. You were a little skeptical.

Oh, I was 100% skeptical. I hope it doesn't offend you.

No, no, it didn't offend at this point in my existence. There's not much that I haven't encountered and there's not much that offends me. So thank you though. But anyway, you kept asking me questions and you flat out told me, I think, oh, I'm very skeptical, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I said, any questions you have, just let us know.

Oh, I remember the exact words that were said. I said, I said, you know, this all sounds great, but I just want you to know, Mike, I am not drinking all the Kool Aid. Right. But you know, guess what? Fast forward. You know, I was in the group for, I want to say, the first couple of months and I was an observer at that point, you know, just kind of figuring out the lay of the land and how do you participate in, you know, the zoom meetings and, you know, the support calls and the check ins with Joel, the accountability check ins with Joel. And you know, you kind of figure that out in the first month or two. And then I started participating and putting ideas out there and then also receiving, right, receiving a lot of great information, finding my motivation to really fight through my issues, to revamp my agency and get back to where I left off. Not only, you know, with, we can call it, you know, pips, policies enforced, or income commission, whatever you want to go by, but you know, those were all the mile markers.

You know, and at the end of it, I realized, wow, not only did I drink the full cup of Kool Aid, I drank the whole pitcher, you know, to get me to where I needed to be. So it surprised me in so many ways and it was all positive.

Fantastic. Well, I hope it, hopefully it will continue to reap benefits and whatever that cure needed. Sounds to me like you got the cure you were looking for and it gave you the right motivational juice, the right momentum juice, if you will, to do great things. But you know, just another thing, back to the beginning, I will never forget I mentioned that a couple minutes ago when we first jumped onto one of our very first one on one sessions. And I think you had sent it to me in preparation for that. You had a task list to do, list, whatever you want to call it, of everything that you had picked up and all the things you were going to do.

Oh yeah, my 90 day plan.

90 day plan, fine.

Yeah.

And I looked at that list and I said, holy blank.

That'S amazing. It was an amazing list. And I was in awe of everything that you plan to tackle in that 90 days. But, you know, as an encouragement for everybody out there, and this is what I'D love to get out of you, and you may not have a good answer, and that's fine, too.

Okay.

But what inside of Mara Perkins.

Causes Mara Perkins to come to a conclusion about something, get it documented and come from within her and say, I'm going to do this, and just does it? I mean, you did it with that list. You did it with the Implementer of the Year contest. You pretty much, no disrespect to our other contestants, said, I am going to win. And you created a plan and you just did it. Where does that come from, Mara?

You know, that's a really good question. I've always been an achiever in my own way. I, you know, didn't take the normal routes, and I normally don't take the normal routes. For whatever reason, I kind of marched to my own drummer. Right.

Yeah.

And it just. I find that if you have a plan, you know, whether it's a strict plan or it's in a rough outline, and it helps you to really map where you want to be and where you're going and, you know, to stay on track with it. Right. So I think a lot of times, as, you know, business owners and entrepreneurs, we have the best of plans, but we don't have the accountability part of it. And that's where I was getting a little lost, right. When I came back from my cancer issue. And I was like, you know, I have all these ideas, but, you know, there's so many things wrong in my agency. I just don't even know where to start. The first thing you have to do is start, you know, list it all down and make it achievable. Right. Break it down so those goals can be met or you're going to get discouraged and not want to continue. And that's kind of where I was. So I started penciling everything out, you know, in a draft form for, you know, these are the big goals. And then, okay, how do we break it down in 90 days to get these completed or, you know, moved into the next quarter? And then I've got seven people that are on my team, so how do I utilize their talents to help me hit those goals? And so, you know, that really started to light the fire under me. You know, not only were we losing business, you know, which was drastic, but I still had those salaries to pay for and wanted to hang on to the business that was there and still keep developing, obviously. So there was a lot of motivation. Right. But now that I'm on the other side of that.

My reason, your reasons remain the same. Right. I still have the same people, I still have the client, the same team. Right. Work team. I still have clients that have been with me for a long time and rode the storm out with me. I have new clients coming on board, which is fantastic. But I have other new things that I'm developing too.

Right.

So, you know, once I got my mojo back, it just all started flowing.

That's fantastic. And I knew, I know you do have some new things you're developing and it's in the early stages, so we'll leave that alone. It's. It's right in her wheelhouse as far as commercial insurance and we'll just kind of leave that on the table. Congratulations on that, by the way.

Oh, thank you.

You're welcome and well earned. Because, you know, I. You planned for it. Because I remember when the fact you came to my house, you said, oh, I said, when are you going home? She goes, well, I'm not going home. I've got something else that I planned to do while I'm here which is in alignment with that. And you took action on that and those meetings and everything else. Great stuff.

Yeah. So I mean, we can talk a little bit about it. We're. I had an idea to come up with a program for specific niche. I actually did Niches to riches training through UPP with, you know, you, Bill Butler, Russ Castle and Mr. Paradisio and it was fantastic for me. I had a lot of ideas through that. It was, you know, two or three days. I can't remember how many days it was but you know, it was just non stop for me. Writing ideas, drafting everything out. I would go back to the hotel room and keep working on it. So three months later when I met with you for our six hour in person coaching at your house, which thank you for having me by the way.

You're welcome.

You know, I just had these ideas and started talking with carriers and you know, the time was right and they had an office in San Diego. So you're in Southern California. I thought, well, while I'm here, let's have dinner and see where it goes. And you know, we're almost ready to launch the program, so I would think in about 60 days we're going to launch.

Super awesome. Way to go.

Thank you.

And you've got a long list of everything that you implement implemented surrounding the 3Ps, the people, the processes and the promotion. You took a little tagline off of the coaching group that you were in AMFF and did some very cool stuff with that.

Including accountability.

Talk about accountability a little bit, because that's something that a lot of people, then a lot of business owners, then a lot of insurance agents all being the same. Right. Don't really care for. And you, you noted some things on accountability. Talk more about that, if you don't mind.

So with up, one of the really cool concepts with that is, you know, not only are we working with you to go, okay, well, this is where I'm at and here are my problems, and this is where I want to be.

So Opportunities.

Right, Exactly. Sorry. You know, how do I get there? How do I overcome these challenges and turn these into positives? Right.

So we get the framework and, you know, a great map, but then you offer accountability. So Joel McKinley of your organization was key for that. I, you know, he supports everyone with that.

And I thought, okay, well, that's great, you know, to keep me on track with my goals, but I want to align myself with people that are inside my coaching group that either I can help somebody and then somebody who, you know, another agency owner who's bigger than me or doing things that I want do that I can grow into so I can start to get those ideas from that larger agent or that agent who's doing something better or different than what I'm doing. But then at the same time, I wanted to also help another agent. Right. And, you know, you get things from both people. So throughout the month, I would have three accountability calls, and my lists were different for every single thing, because for every accountability call, because the person that I was being accountable to had skill set that can help me with those items on my list.

Right. And you exercise the other things you mentioned as well. Reciprocity. You gave back in big, big ways, I'll suggest probably more than you receive, but that's how it works, and that's who you are. So thank you for that. And then you expressed a very deep gratitude. You did the thing that all great leaders do. You gave all the credit to your team and recognized your team. Kudos to you on that. So, Mara Perkins, congratulations.

Thank you.

It was phenomenal just to view the result of everything that you did in your first year in UPP and again recognized as the winner and the 2023 implementer of the year at our 2023 Be Unstoppable Boot Camp. You did phenomenal, phenomenal work. So congratulations. And we just wanted to make sure that we gave you all the recognition that's way overdue because of the fact that we. We just couldn't catch up.

So, yeah, I mean, Life gets like that, right?

Yeah, it does. Yeah.

Fourth quarter, end of the year, then January hits. You're, you know, spinning out your new year, so. Yep. You know, but we're here now, so that's what counts.

And I am super pumped and excited for you. The launch of your. Your new endeavors and programs and everything else, whatever that looks like. I can't think of something more exciting because of everything else that you already bring to the table with regard to your services and ways to support people in those industries. So, I mean, just from all of us, if we can ever do anything to support you, whether it be from a credibility piece or whatever, you know how my mind kind of thinks sometimes. If you need something outside the box, don't hesitate to reach out.

Oh, thank you. I mean, I appreciate that. No 100 and, you know, likewise. If, you know, there's anything I can ever do to help, I'm always here for you.

I know. I know. So anyway, Mara, before we wrap up today, anything else you'd like to add?

That's a loaded question.

Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a new year, 2024, and, you know, I've got a whole new list of goals and milestones to achieve and, you know, I'm looking forward to it.

Fantastic. Well, I know you will achieve it, and I'm sure the list is quite precise and maybe a little bit lengthy, but you've got it segmented out in a way that will work and you will lead your team into the right place and we can't wait, wait to watch you continue to evolve in this forever changing marketplace.

Oh, thanks, Mike. I appreciate it and I appreciate all the support. And, you know.

Whether you realize it or not, you were a large part of me getting my mojo back, and I truly appreciate that.

It's an honor and a pleasure and I'm glad we were able to connect. And I'm forever grateful for every single opportunity, every single day. And that's why I'm. I feel super privileged to be here to. To work with all of you and in every way, every single day. So the reason, our purpose is to impact people's lives personally and professionally. And you work within the same platform that we do.

Yeah.

We've all got a purpose. Right?

Exactly. Exactly.

So anyway, I'm glad you felt the impact. But bigger than that, you took that and paid it forward and impacted a couple hundred people at the boot camp. So congratulations for that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for that. You're very welcome. So, Mara, I will see you up on the next level. There's not many, very many people there, so it's a rare place, but I know you'll be there.

Oh, well, thanks, Mike. I appreciate it. And again, thanks for all the support and everything that you and your team have done for me and, you know, other members of upp. And we're all going to get good things going in 20, 24, 100.

There's no other options.

Exactly.

All right, fantastic. Well, Mara, thank you. And if this is your first time on the podcast, 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 myself and what we do at up@unstoppableprofitproducer.com and if you'd like to learn more all about the 3Ps and one of our live virtual events, please go to up fast start.com that's up fast start.com all of our events and everything that we do are all designed to share with you some of our best money, best money making strategies developed over 36 years of research and as a proud independent insurance agent, 100 of the time to help people grow their business, create wealth and have more freedom to live life on their own terms, to set them up to battle through whatever they have to battle through. And again, if this is your first time on the podcast, please go to unstoppable profit podcast.com go up to the top, make sure you click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode. And, and if you got great value out of this episode and I can't imagine how you didn't, please share unstoppable profit podcast.com with somebody you know and care about so they too can reap the massive benefits of everything that we share here on the podcast. And we're out there on all the channels, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, and Amazon and more. So just search for Unstoppable Profit podcast. We want to be here to help you again. Mara, great job. Thank you.

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate you.

Until the next episode, everybody get out there. Make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. You got this. We believe in you. We'll see you in the next podcast.

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