Episode 276: Breakthrough Mentality with Bill Butler

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 Stromso.

Greetings, everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I am pumped and excited because over the next episodes of the Unstoppable Profit podcast, we're going to be featuring incredible, high achieving agents, as we like to say, bill, top what?

Top 3%.

Top 3% of achieving agents from our UPB circles who have also donned the COVID of rough notes, like Mr. Bill Butler and at the time, his teammates Dan and Linda. But now Bill has achieved the level. He's in the chair and we're going to hear more about that. So we're excited to have Mr. Bill Butler, who's created a niche, Butler and Associates out of Minnesota. I'm going to ask Bill to tell a little bit more about himself, who he is and where he's come from, and more importantly, learn where he's going. Bill, welcome to the podcast.

Well, thanks for having me, Mike. I'm glad to be on the Unstoppable Profit podcast again. I'm a multiple guest and I'm honored to, to be here for. I think this is my third visit to the podcast.

I lost count too. But thank you again for all you've invested in yourself and your family and your future and all you've done for agents everywhere through the UPP circles and beyond. So super excited for the future. And you're in the middle of the 20 mile march right now.

I am. So, yeah, just to answer your question about, you know, where, where I've come from and, and how I got started in all this and then, you know, kind of bringing in rough notes.

Yeah, but, but before we go there, Bill, tell everybody in case they haven't heard of you.

Yeah.

Who is Bill Butler? And just a little background.

Yeah. So you know Bill Butler from Butler and Associates Insurance here in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Our agency's been here for 22 years. I've been in the industry for 20. So people look at that cover of Rough Notes and they see a generational agency. But what you don't really understand is that my parents started the agency as a second career in their early 50s. And so my dad was working for a Fortune 100 company as a regional marketing director and got downsized. The industry he was in was changing and he needed to find a new career. So he wound up joining his insurance agent and that partnership did not work out, as many partnerships do not if you don't do your due diligence. And so he thought it was a great opportunity, but that partnership didn't work out. So he and my mom wound up founding Butler and Associates out of that partnership. That is a podcast story for another day. But I was in the military at the time. I had wrapped up a stint on active duty and was a recruiter in the state of Minnesota for the Minnesota Army National Guard and was looking to figure out what the next chapter of my life was. And, and like many individuals, insurance was not their number one career counselor choice in high school. You know, and people ask me, I'm very transparent. I came into insurance because it was the path of least resistance. I left the military and joined mom and dad at their insurance agency. But you know, when we started the agency, the article in Rough Notes talks about, you know, a real mom and pop operation. And it was, it was the three of us, it was mom, dad and Bill. No insurance experience or education. We all had to self teach ourselves. So without jumping ahead to the Rough Notes component, you know, the first 10 years of insurance for us was really just learning how to run an insurance agency out of this partnership. We had, you know, clients and contracts, but no real understanding of how to run an insurance agency. And so those first 10 years were pretty interesting, tough and you know, real trial by fire for us because we didn't build the agency. We started with clients but just didn't understand insurance at all. So that was how I got into the business.

Fantastic. And we're glad you did. And now you're up in the leadership realm nationally of organizations who have national presence within the industry. We're grateful for your service there. I know that's got a very special place in your heart and it may be in your future, I don't know. So thank you for that, your service to that arm of the industry and to our country as well as an Army Ranger. So thank you, Bill, for that.

Yep. And you know, just to, to talk about that for a second. I've always been very involved in our state association here in Minnesota for the independent insurance agents and brokers. I sit on our state board, I sit on our legislative committee, I travel to Washington on behalf of the, the independent insurance agents of the state of Minnesota nationally lobbying and I testified twice last Year to the Minnesota State House Commerce Committee on legislation trying to defend our industry against storm chasers. And so I'm just. That's become a very. A very big part of who I am in the insurance industry, and my career progression has helped out. So anyone listening out there, I just. Encouragement to you, if you want to know how to be more involved and understand more about the industry that pays. Pays all the bills for you, I'd recommend getting involved in, you know, Pia big I. Whatever it might be, because it really, it's given our agency a leg up overall. And, and I think part of the reason, you know, talking about the Rough Notes component, why I am who I am and, and how, you know, we.

Wound up on the COVID Yeah, you deservedly so. But let me add one, a little piece of my own onto what you just said. I'm privileged. Just renewed my insurance license. Going to be 40 years next year. What I've learned in those 40 years, among many other things, is what we do as agents, we simply protect people's assets.

Correct.

And working with one of our members who's very savvy, you know, I see her and Bill running side by side all the time. Right. Trying to keep up with each other. I believe she said, don't quote me on this. In the near future, there's going to be $750 trillion. Yes. Trillion dollars of assets transitioning generationally.

So what we do is we protect those assets.

Absolutely.

And I know you feel the same way as I do, Bill. It's very important to us that we properly protect those assets. It's the financial vehicle of our great country in a way, so, so vitally important. Bill, I'm off track. Take it away, sir. So anyway, so I had one question for Bill to set the tone.

What makes Butler and Associates special and what's it grown into now? I'll shut up.

Yeah. So it's interesting, Mike, because you know, the question that you asked there, that's, that's the question that they open with when you start your interview, when you're selected as a Rough Notes agency of the month to wind up the COVID and you know, in preparation for the podcast, it, it, it's a little surreal. Right. So I can remember back to 2005. I got into insurance 2005 or 6, and I remember looking at Rough notes thinking, h, I wonder what it takes to get on the COVID of Rough Notes. Maybe one day I, I consciously remember. I don't know where I was, but I remember consciously having the thought of one day being A rough notes cover agency. And you know, that was very early, you know, 0506 into my insurance career, not really having any understanding at all about what insurance actually was because that was in our infancy and, you know, consequently started hanging around. Before we started the podcast, we were sharing some notes, as we often do, Mike, about, you know, the five people you spend the most time around. Or I shared something about the Square squad, which is a 1 inch square piece of paper. You write all the names you can fit on that piece of paper and anyone else who doesn't fit on that paper, their opinion does not matter to you and those are your key people that you pay attention to. So I started hanging around in 2014. Some higher achievers in the industry. Not that I wasn't hanging around good insurance agents, but I think we know what we're talking about when we say elite agents. And that was really from 2014-19, July of 2019, when we were selected. I really saw what a special agent is or what, you know, what makes an insurance agency special. And it's just the things that they do and the way they go about their business. I think that's really.

What, what sets agencies apart and gets agencies noticed. I mean, there are, there are hundreds of agencies that belong on the COVID of Rough Notes. But it's, it's, you know, it's a surreal moment. And they ask that question, what's makes, what makes your agency special? And then they start the interview process. So that's a long way around to Mike, to answer your question is. I'm not quite sure other than it's just how we go about our business and our attitude, how we give back to the industry and putting yourself on the map, so to speak, with, with, you know, not trying to be, you know, oh, look at me and what we do. But again, it's kind of that silent professional in the way you go about your business.

I agree with that. And that's one of the most important things. There's a degree of humility about the entire process of keeping your nose to the grind zone. And I remember a conversation that you and I had during COVID And there's dark times, let's be real, right? I mean, it's not all fluff and roses. So there's dark days and dark nights and dark times and fear and doubt are real things. But you know, it's, it's those who, that's why we surround ourselves with the five, if you will, the five mentality. The people we surround ourselves with the most who Help us through that. Who are shoulder to shoulder and helping us through that. So key component, and I was super grateful for so many years to have those same kind of people alongside of me and so strongly encourage it if you ever get the opportunity to do, you know, put yourself in a group of people to walk side by side with you. But so Bill, you have the first 10 years and you got through it, you learned a lot. Maybe, shall we say, flying by seat of your pants a little bit. Weren't clear on, you know, what kind of, what an ideal client avatar is. I know your teammate at the time was not clear on that because we've talked about that. Correct.

Yeah.

Yeah. So anyway, so you get to clean that up and a number of other things, but you started figuring some things out. Then you started developing your ideal client avatar. You got very clear on the type of people that you wanted to do business with, disqualification and the such, and then you found niches. So I think that was definitely a key component of what made you so attractive to the roughnose people. In addition to that, you were growing exponentially at the time and still are doing quite well. So share a little bit about the thought process through all of that.

Yeah, so I think one of the things, if you're a subscriber to Rough Notes and you see a common thread amongst not just Butler & Associates, July 2019, but many of the insurance agencies that are highlighted and selected as the agency of the month is they have a specialty, some sort of specialty, something that they do a little bit different than everyone else. It's very easy in this industry. I think many insurance agents would agree with me. It is very easy in this industry to take all comers, to try and be all things to all people and write everything that walks through the door. But at a certain point it's very hard to continue that as a process. And so when you look at the higher achiever agencies and I just try and pay attention to what successful people do and copy them, I mean, nothing's new. Success leaves clues, as Mike has said to me many times and I've heard many times. And so.

Started with specialization and I attended a, a coaching session that Mike had hosted in 2014 and I was, had just spent two years trying to specialize in a specific niche that didn't really get me anywhere. And I was transitioning to chiropractors that really wasn't going to get me anywhere. But I was investing some time in that. But just understanding that specialization was really a critical component to that next level of success to get a. Get off of a plateau, so to speak. And so, you know, that landed us in 2014.

Or 2017 actually was when. When we founded the. Our. Our current niche that we're focusing on, which is specialization in.

Veterinarians. Yeah. And before we go there, Bill, let's talk a little bit about the failures. Oh, yeah, because, you know, back to fear and doubt and dark moments and the whole nine yards. I mean.

And the one that I recently, most recently heard was Lynyrd Skynyrd. And whether it's a band or business or anything else, you. If you look to what happened before they, quote, became successful or high achieving, there's normally a long trail of agony, of struggle and everything else. And you know, the story with Leonard Skinner that I recently heard was Ronnie Van Zant, you know, had a shed down in Florida and he'd bring people in to play with the band and they weren't good enough. Ronnie said, get out, you're not good enough. And it was a revolving door in and out and in and out and. And part of it was, it was like, you know, hot and sweaty and they couldn't handle that aspect of it. Whatever. Whatever. Right. But Ronnie believed in what he was doing and he said, we are going to get there. And some eight or nine years later, Free Bird was born. And as they say, yeah, the rest is history. So you went through a couple of niches and struggled and failed before the advent of your niche, which is now just.

Exploding. So, yeah, so Jim, Jim Collins talks about it in good to great. And it's the buildup, breakthrough mentality. You have to have a period of buildup as a business and that buildup can be actually decades long. And then you have a breakthrough moment when the flywheel concept or the momentum of all that prior activity takes off. So, you know, you mentioned, Mike, that I did have two other niches that I was focused on. The first one was daycares. I am a middle aged male with no children and so I have nothing in common with people working in daycare facilities. I don't have a frame of reference. I am an only child. I did not grow up with brothers and sisters. I barely. So, you know, I spent two years there beating my head against a wall trying to get in. I had one daycare client, thought it was pretty good and so wanted to go that route. But there was another agent in the marketplace who she had it locked up. She was writing articles, she had the market, she knew what she was doing. And so it was a bit of a buzzsaw. And I didn't get anywhere. But I did learn how to start the process of building a niche and getting in and joining associations and volunteering. Did that for about two years. And then I had a couple financial advis who worked for a broker and said, hey, there's a. We have got this great disability product that we can offer chiropractors at a discount while they're in college. And we'll do the di and the life and you can do the property casually for the chiropractors. And I thought, this sounds great. Joined the chiropractic college. And look, I love chiropractors. I love my chiropractor. They're great people, but they're their business model. Most employees are 1099s. They don't own a lot of property. They operate out of a strip mall. The massage therapist, who the three massage therapists who rent the back room and rotate through also do not have professional general liability insurance or professional liability insurance. And they sell Chinese herbs under their own label, which makes them extremely difficult to insure. So annual premium on them, $2,000. They don't want to pay it. And so I spent two years there. My one win out of that Mike was at a booth at the annual convention. I did network with a distributor of chiropractic tables. He's a wholesaler and he sells. Still a client. This is what, 14 or 15 years later or 12 years later, still a client of the agency. So that ROI has paid off because I was two years there and I kept the client, but I spent two years there and so then still started on veterinarians. And to wrap up this story, I started Veterinarians and basically decided that that was the next niche that I was going to target. And one day my mom, who was still at the agency, walks by and she looked at kind of. I had all this stuff spread out on my desk, like, you know, logos and marketing materials and all this stuff. And she goes, and I basically had decided I was going to start doing this two weeks earlier. And she said, how did you know how to do all this? I said, well, I've been doing this for four. I just did two years with daycares and two years with chiropractors, and now I'm starting a veterinarian. So it wasn't wasted time. It was that buildup, breakthrough component that you're talking about where you have to spend that time out in the shed, sweating, learning how to be a professional in the industry and invest that you know, quote unquote, 10,000 hours. So that way, when you do have the opportunity, you're ready to seize.

It. And I'm sure one of Bill's favorite groups, if not his favorite group, Metallica, probably has a similar story.

So.

Correct. Anyway, with that being said, there's no breakthrough generally until there's some kind of.

Breakdown.

Yeah. Okay. So, you know, through the breakdowns of the failures, and just another tip for everybody out there either watching or listening, I learned in my marketing educational journey, you don't want a discount. You want to add bonuses. Don't ever devalue yourself. Add bonuses to increase your value. It's just a marketing thought process. So, Bill, you found vets. Why vets? Bill, is there something in your history that caused you to have a love for the veterinary.

Industry? Yeah. So, you know, two things. The answer to that is, yes, there was something in my history, and I have it to share here, but I insured a vet, and I think most insurance agents that wind up landing on a niche have one or two of these in their book of business business. And they just wind up having an affinity to that industry for whatever reason. Restaurants, you know, I know in your history, Mike, you. You did a lot of restaurant business over the years. You grew up in restaurants. That was your first job at 12 years old. And so, you know, you wind up gravitating towards something that you have an affinity towards. You understand, you like, you want to be around those people. So it's just easy to want to spend time with them. And so didn't really come up. This. This thing that you're talking about didn't really come up until recently. My parents just moved their downsizing, moving a little closer to us. And I had kind of forgotten about this, but my mom in downsizing said, hey, I have some of your papers. What my mom affectionately referred to as the William Butler Presidential Library. She basically saved everything for my entire life. And she pulled out this paper, and it's a. A report from. She's got a post it Note in here, 6th grade library, handwriting study skills class. And it's a super paper. I got an A on it. Very hard to see here, but I got an A. And I wrote it on vets in the sixth grade. And so I just, I. I've always loved animals. You know, I didn't grow up on a farm, but just had an affinity towards animals. And when you did the report, you actually had to dress up like that. The profession you were writing this on. And I have a. My mom made My Halloween costumes when I was a kid, a little white kind of karate costume with William Butler, DVM, which is Dr. Of Veterinary Medicine written on.

It. Wow, I didn't know that part. That's.

Awesome. Yeah. At a very early. And I still have that too, because mom kept it in case I was ever president. Now I'm just president of Butler and Associates. So.

So, you know.

I. Maybe that's in your future based on, you know, your path. And I just saw the movie Reag.

You know, he's got his own presidential.

Library. Sky's the limit.

Right? That's.

Right. We set our own. We set our own limitations is really what that boils down to. And so, you know, I've had an affinity towards this industry for a long time, and now that I'm actually in it and participating and really involved in, in, you know, the local associations and now at a national level, I just love being around the people in the industry. Not just the, the clients who are veterinarians, but also the other partners, the attorneys, the CPAs, the, you know, the brokers, the bankers. They just really have a passion for helping veterinarians, because veterinarians are, are they. They fill a role in society, I think that many people don't really understand it at such a large level. And so it's just a great industry to be involved in. I'm very passionate about being here now that I'm here. And it was kind of just, you know, life's path put me. Put me there. And again, kind of bringing it back to rough notes again, you know, that's one of the things that gets you identified or identified my agency. What, what sets us special. I think there's a lot of insurance agencies out there that are generals that do a great job for their clients, but there are fewer agencies that, that basically say, this is the path we're on. I'm going to burn the ships, I'm going all in on this and this is what we're going to do. And, you know, I looked at, again, other successful agents, yourself, Russ Castle, Jesse Parenti, you know, Claudia McLean, she said, we're all in on personal insurance. She's never written any commercial insurance policies. Bob Klinger. And so, you know, you, Chris Paradiso, you look at these successful agents, they say, we're going to do this, and this is 80% of what we're going to do. And that's what they do. And they're very successful at.

It. And one other thing about the industry that you ended up in, which is the Veterinary industry, as far as your niche is concerned, not only do you love the industry people, you may or may not remember this and I'll go ahead and prompt you on it. So I know it'll come back to you when I say this, but you found out something about the industry and veterinarians that was very unique. And I remember when you were talking about it, you had such a heart for it. I mean, these veterinarians, they deal with a lot of death with animals. Therefore there's something prominent in the veterinary circles that you want to help with. Right. Remember.

That. Yeah. So what many people. And what's funny is when I talk about this inside the insurance industry, I say, well, veterinarians are twice as likely as the average U.S. citizen to commit suicide. And they say, oh, I always thought that was dentists. And I said, no, suicide's actually talked about at vet school. Like they actually bring it up and talk about it at vet school. And that's prevalent. Compassion fatigue is a thing. You know, imagine, Mike, if you would, you're meeting with eight of your clients on a normal business day in your insurance agency, and two of them, you're sitting there with the husband and wife and you say, well, Mrs. Jones, I'm sorry, but Mr. Jones, he's got a terminal illness and we recommend that we put him down today. And you have to euthanize them. And they've been a 10 year client of your agency. And then the next client comes in, you got to do that again. I mean, I know some veterinarians who've had eight, nine conversations like that in one day. Financial euthanasia is an issue. People can't pay the medical bill for the care, so they wind up because they can't afford the care, wind up need to euthanize animals. That part of it, interestingly enough, Mike, isn't the issue for them. It's dealing with the human side, the, the medical component for them. And so you know, what you wind up finding out is you get into and you scratch the surface of whatever niche it is. I'm sure you could talk about many similar circum. Similar circumstances inside, let's say, a restaurant that I would never know about from just an industry perspective, turnover, ordering, you know, I don't know what it is.

But the more you specialize and the more you get into these industries, the more you find out how you can help specifically. I mean, look, insurance is complicated. It's confusing. And most veterinarians say, look, I just want a relationship with my insurance agent. I want them to take care of me and make sure that everything's taken care of and, you know, just help me out. Just help me out. And, you know, that might be different for a contractor or insert X. And so again, that I think that's one thing when you say what makes us special is, you know, we go out of our way to help our clients specifically based on their needs inside the industries that we work in.

Yeah. And looking at the article from 2019 under what's really important before we get into Bill's further success at building an agency that saw 54% sales growth last year.

Despite the retirement of his mom and dad, Dan and Linda, and already in the first quarter of that year was positioned to write more than half of what it wrote all of the prior year. I mean, this just started building upon its own, if you will. The tipping point became in effect, where you had done all the work and got it up to a certain level and you kind of go over the top and it started rolling downhill. But what was the thing, Bill, or a couple of things that got it to the top of that mountain that caused the tipping point to happen? So it was rolling downhill in your favor. And here we are today. You have nothing but opportunity in front of you. You're getting brought in to speak all over the nation to vet organizations and related organizations within the industry. What.

Happened?

My ability to say no to things that aren't important or don't help me on the path. So you had mentioned earlier, 20 mile march that comes. I'm a Jim Collins, one of my absolute favorite business authors. In his book Great by choice, he talks about the 20 mile march on a march to the South Pole. Great story in that book, but really we're all on a 20 mile march and you have to set out for yourself what those metrics are, what you need to do to get to the final goal, and then just be absolutely dogged, persistent in following that in spite of whatever anyone else says. You know, I've shared in our coaching circle, the man in the arena, there's a lot of critics out there all that stupid. Don't do that. Why would you do that? There's so many other things that doesn't seem like you can make a lot of money at that. I remember sitting at one of our masterminds. This is another coaching member. And I was three years into this and he said, well, how many veterinarians have you sold? And I said, 16 in three years. And he said, that seems like an awfully lot of that seems like an Awful lot of work for not a lot of payoff. And I said, maybe so, but that's what I'm doing.

And I didn't care. If they didn't think that it was the right thing to do for them, it was the right thing to do for me. And so as I mentioned, burning the ships and saying no and staying on the course that I knew was the right path for me and my agency. So to talk about sales for just a second, not big numbers, but we're about $6,000 here, September 4, 2024 from beating last year's total production. So. So, you know, but that's that again that build up breakthrough of being able to build on the success of the past because we've got a path that we're on to know how to get there versus just whatever. Whenever the phone rings, that's our next client. Whatever it is, I don't know what it is. And that's just. It's a very hard way to do insurance.

Yeah. Let me prompt you with just a couple of things I want to hear about. At what point the book came into play because that's really sent you on another trajectory and you just entered into a very exclusive space within the industry. So talk about the book and then talk about that exclusive space that you entered into because I know that that's going to on a tr. From a trajectory standpoint, send you like on a rocket ship. Go.

Ahead. Yeah. I think one of the things is you don't really have to have all the answers when you start out. You just have to know where the destination is and all the pieces in place will get you where you'll meet the right people, you do the right things. But as long as you have that end goal, the end vision in mind, and you and I have chatted about what the end vision is for Butler and Associates insurance on that 20 mile march, like what's at mile 20? You know, the book came into play again. I just looked at other successful insurance agents. Agents and what they had done. You've written a book, you wrote a book about, you know, business coaching, the three Ps and in insurance, I looked at Russ Castle. He wrote a book about insurance in the habitational space which was his niche. And I just decided in the fall of 2020, November of 2021, I was sitting at the UP mastermind out in San Diego, California and I decided the next evolution to make me to set my agency and myself apart inside the insurance industry for veterinarians was to be to write a book to make myself the authority in the marketplace. And so that's what I did. I invested in a coaching program put on by our friend James Malincheck on how to become a best selling author on Amazon and just started the process. So January 15, I sat down, started typing and October 12 it was out on Amazon. And that has really accelerated it. It, you know, it wasn't like one or two spaces ahead, it was 10 spaces ahead or 15 spaces ahead in the marketplace. Invested in how to become a, a professional public speaker. I'm now getting hired for.

Inside the Veterinary Industry to be a speaker at association events. And then that has leveraged me to join an elite, a group inside the veterinary industry that's a, basically a business association for business professionals services within the vet space. I didn't even know this existed when I started out. But as I said, if you do the right things on the path, you know, when, when the student's ready, the teacher will appear kind of thing. If you do all the right stuff, you don't have to worry about. I need to do, you know, step 20 to get to step 23. Just do step one because step two will become evident when you get to.

It. But bigger than that, congratulations by the way and well done on staying the course and doing the work after you charted the.

Course.

Yeah. So with that being said for everybody out there, I think one of the most important things that a lot of people may or may not understand, and some do and some definitely don't, is putting together the plan for the future, the visionary plan. Because you know, vision is the art of seeing things that other people can't see. Setting the vision, creating the plan, sharing it with the team and, and really putting it into action. And they don't give up, no matter what.

Happens. I would add one.

Other. You say to anybody out there who, oh, I've tried that before, but it didn't.

Work. You didn't try hard.

Enough.

Okay. I mean, honestly.

The other thing that I would add to what you just said about the, the things that you need to do and this was a critical component for me again to, to, you know, what makes us special. I invested in myself by hiring a coach, which, you know, transparently is you among others. I've hired other coaches, but again, that's surrounding yourself with people who see things differently than you, who aren't afraid to tell you what you need to hear when you need to hear it, even if it's not what you want to be told. You don't want to hear the truth. But as you know, Doc Rivers said, great players only want to be told the truth. And so, you know, that was one thing that I did in 2014, 15, was invest in myself, get into coaching, whatever coaching that you want to do. You know, Mike's a great option. I'm going to promote him selfishly here because he's been instrumental in my success. But there are many places to do this out there, and, you know, you don't. By. By doing that, I didn't have to come up with all the answers.

Myself.

That's the goal, to cut years off the journey, to show you all the shortcuts that we've already painfully been.

Through.

Yeah. In many, many situations. So, I mean, that's why we do what we do. I mean, to an extent, we pay it forward.

Right. And.

Absolutely. You've been so kind to pay it forward to others in our group. And beyond that, I know that there's other national, you know, groups of highly successful agents that you also contribute to, to give back in your own way. So, Bill, we couldn't be grateful. More grateful for you, for who you've become, who you are as a man and a. An American. So thank you. Thank you for all that you've done. As we could go on for hours about what's next, but the short answer of what's next for Bill and for Butler and Associates and anything else you want to add for the.

Future? Well, I just, you know, my encouragement to insurance agents out there. I mean, it is fall of 2024. The insurance marketplace is still not an awesome spot to be doing business.

But, you know, thank goodness that I had the foresight in 2017 to say, no, we're going all in on veterinarians, because again, production's up, claims are down. You know, it just. It has worked out, and I could have never envisioned it working out this way when it did, when the market shifted and everything that's happened there. And so, you know, you just have to. You have to believe in yourself to a component. As you shared with me during one of our coaching sessions at your house, you shared a quote from Beyonce. She goes, I don't often gamble, but I always bet on me. And so, you know, you have to be willing to bet on yourself to win. And, you know, I haven't been afraid to do that. I think many agents are afraid to gamble. We're in the risk management business, and we don't want to take risks. And sometimes you just need to take some risks and do that. So, you know, that's what's next for us. I'm going to continue to take risky decisions, calculated risky decisions, knowing that they're going to get me where I want to be. And, you know, one thing that I'll share that I'm not sure you're aware of, what's next for Bill? I've been asked and accepted to be on the, to bring it full circle back to roughnotes, to be on the editorial advisory board officially for Rough Notes. So, you know, when I back in, when I was a baby insurance agent in 2006, never could have envisioned, number one, being on the COVID of Rough Notes and then, number two, having the honor and privilege to be on the editorial Advisory board as a, as a key, you know, insight thought leader in the industry. And I'm not saying that, you know, to toot my own horn, it's just I never could have envisioned it happening. But as you've said, I put in the work and, you know, anyone out there is my encouragement that, you know, there's nothing special. At the end of the day, there's really nothing special about Bill Butler or Butler and Associates or anything that I've done. I've just, I've found a path and I decided to follow.

It.

And you followed it with relentless focus and consistency, which I think are two key.

Components. Consistency is the foundation of success. So you can find that in many, you know, books on the shelf podcasts, coaching, you know, consistency is the key. And that's one thing that I've been very good at, is consistency. And, and you look at successful agents in the, the most successful agents are generally the most.

Consistent. I saw a quote from Jerry Rice recently, and I posted it on one of our channels that I'm going to do today.

The things that I can do. So tomorrow I will be doing things that other people won't be able to do. I may not have gotten that totally right, but that's the mentality.

Right? Yeah. And any, any insurance agent. You listening right now to this podcast. If you're listening to this podcast, you too can be a Rough Notes Agent of the month, can be on the editorial board, can develop a niche. It's, it's many other agents who are less talented and less smart than you. Listening right now. I'm, I'm speaking to. You can do.

This.

100% agree. Now, I want to bring in a key point, though, that Bill spoke about.

At some point in his journey. I think it was roughly 2006, Bill thought about and said, I'm going to be a cover agent or at Least have the thought he might have said those exact words, but, you know, the thought came to his mind.

I'm going to be a cover.

Agent. What does it take to get on the COVID of Rough Notes? And then, okay, in 2019, you're on the COVID of Rough Notes and you're like, oh, that's what it takes. It takes consistency and hard work. Okay, well, I'll just keep doing that.

Then.

I'm going to go ahead and share from the trenches because that's what both you and I do. And I'm also a very transparent person. But, you know, I'm going to share a note because this is one of my books that I'm in right now from one of my coaches. I too still invest in multiple coaches.

So with that being said, I've got a letter in my hand from the coach that came with the book.

Three tips for you as we wrap this up. You good.

Time. I got time. Hold on. I got to write this.

Down. Yeah, sure. Thank you. By the way. One, set aside sacred time in the morning. I recommend 5 or 6am.

To remind yourself of your dream.

One, set aside sacred time in the morning, like 5 or 6am to remind yourself of your dream. Number two, look at your schedule the rest of the day.

Does it line up with your dream or your priority or your goals? You insert whatever applies to you. If it doesn't make some adjustments, you've got to build a schedule that's equivalent to your dream. And that means saying no to the things that don't line up. Try it for 24 hours and then try it again for the next 24 hours. And number three, read Turning Pro, which is the book by Steven Pressfield. Stephen Prefield is a very deep thinker, by the way. I've read one of his other books. So it's, you know, you got to sit down with it and really take it in. But Bill, like you said, anybody can do it. I'm not the most talented guy in the world.

But I challenge anybody to come out, work me, and to out do what it.

Takes.

Yeah. Because I will do that and I will do it every single day with every waking.

Moment. Here. Here's what I heard in what you said. Have a clear vision and then make sure what you're doing lines up with that clear.

Vision. Boom. Dream goals, priority, vision, whatever works for you. We're all unique human.

Beings.

Yep. I couldn't agree with you more. Congratulations on just being you and just pursuit of it. And I agree with Bill. You got this. And Bill and I believe in you, absolutely. You just got to be what.

Bill? You got to be action.

Packed. I set him up, and I'm glad he said that because that's what I was expecting him to say. Bill is known in our circles as action packed Bill. And that's, that's his encouragement for everybody. Just take freaking action. You're. You're either going to win or you're gonna learn. You never.

Lose. I would close with this, Mike. You know, in the action packed realm is, you know, I think a lot of agents think about doing stuff. I didn't think about doing stuff. I just did it. Right. I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I thought that's what we should do. And then that's what I did. And, you know, I get question asked by agent, well, how did you, how did you know to do that? I'm like, I don't know. I saw somebody else do it and I just took action and did what they did. You know, there I. There I.

Was. So, yeah, I remember in the early days of cell phones, they'd become pretty popular, but I had a dictation service on my phone because I'd be driving around, I'd see billboards, and I get an idea from the billboard or everything going on in the sky and everything around me, I'd just start dictating notes to myself to take action on. And honestly, that's how I got it done. It wasn't difficult. It's just action and confidence.

Yeah. Be action packed today. That's the goal. You can be action packed too, on your.

Vision. So, anyway, yeah, we could go on. So thank you, Bill. Thank you for, again, for everything that you are and have become. Congratulations on that and thank you for everybody. To everybody that joined us either on the audio portion or the video portion of this very special podcast. Profiling Mr. Bill Butler on the COVID of Rough Notes, sharing a lot about his story. I know there's a lot to come. And again, 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. You can learn more about us@upplife.com that's upplife.com everything that we do is just sharing our almost 40 years of experience as a proud independent insurance agent. All sharing with you so you can grow your agency, create wealth, and have more freedom to live life on your own terms. That's all that we want. And I will share with everybody here somewhere around this podcast recording. Probably down below is an invit very special invitation to our upcoming UPP Grand Mastermind. Bill. If anybody has a chance to get involved in any of the UPP circles, would you recommend.

That?

Highly. Okay, so there's an opportunity for you. We want to continue to give back because that's what we do. We just want to give everything that we've learned and you're going to be surrounded by 125, 150 other high achieving agents who also have the same pursuit. And again, if you enjoyed everything that you received on this podcast, fantastic. And make sure that you share it with somebody else. Just send them to unstoppable profit podcast.com make sure they go up to the top hit subscribe so they can continue to receive great value on all of the podcasts that we put out there in the world. We just want to bring the best growth, wealth and freedom activities for everybody and we're out there on all the channels. Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon and more. That's why we do what we do to simply impact people's lives personally and professionally. Mr. Bill Butler, thank.

You.

Two thumbs way.

Up. We appreciate you. And until the next episode, everybody remember you got this. We believe in you and you can do this. You are worthy. We'll see you in the next episode.

Everybody. Do you love the podcast but don't know where or how to get started? Visit www.wpplife. com. That's uplife.

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