Episode 278: The Positive Opportunity with David Brush and Nancy Mendizabal

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 and welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. We are in a continuing series of profiling high achieving independent insurance agents who have been featured on the COVID of Rough Notes magazine, who are also members of the Unstoppable Profit Producer program or UPP family. So privileged and honored to have with me today the unstoppable Nancy Mendez Albus. How are you doing?

Good, thanks. Good Mike.

Good, good. And her brother, David Brush. David, how you doing?

Fabulous.

They were featured on the COVID of Rough Notes magazine for August of 2024. Not only super proud of them and all that they have accomplished, but.

They give so much back to the industry. And I know Nancy's served in various functions and David, I'd love to learn more if you have as well. Just go ahead and share a little bit about your history in the industry.

Why it's important to you to give back to the industry and why is it that you do what you do. Nancy, I'll let you start.

I think part of the benefit that we saw of our involvement in the industries from very early on, I think I came on in, you know, early mid-1990 and I joined the Independent Insurance Agents of Rhode island board pretty quickly and David came on, you know, a year after I did. But being serving the industry at the, on the board of the independent agents was really, it was a first step because we made connections with agents that we would not not have otherwise met and incredible relationships with company, company people. And I think that was the first step in realizing the benefit that you can get from being involved in the community and the relationships ships that you can build. And I was on the board for probably 15 years before I comment, went up through the chairs and became chair of the state of Rhode island independent agents. But the, the relationship part of it was really, really key and the various committees you serve on and you get insight as to, you know, industry, what's going on in the industry and how decisions are made and how things come about. But that was one of the, the key pieces I think. And after that we were on a couple, I was on some company panels and agent Agent panels. And David has. Has sat on some agency councils as well. But I think that was the first key right from the beginning, giving back and developing relationships.

So you learned early on that it's important to have deep, significant, meaningful relationships not only with your clients and the people in your communities, but with the industry as well.

Yeah. With our company partners and other carriers. Yeah, yeah.

How vital. And that. That provides part of our value as independent insurance agents because we understand all. All sides of it so we can pro. Properly counsel everybody that we serve.

Yeah. And David, David, in our office, in our agency, you know, we mentioned that Dave and I complement each other very well, but David takes care of most of the carrier relationships and he meets with a lot of the. Pretty much all of the carrier interaction and, and those relationships, I mean, David, you can speak to this more, but they really helped us through the years. Incredibly incredible.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, David, thank you for your service as well at that level. What other insights do you have for us?

The only thing I'm going to add is I agree with everything Nancy said, is I think that you can't overlook the importance of the relationships with the carriers. I think it can be easily overlooked or sometimes when we have a marketplace we're in right now, sometimes the carriers are doing things that we don't particularly like. But some of them, I mean, I'd rather have a carrier take a position that we don't like but still be there tomorrow. Yeah. Versus go out of business. I think that it's healthy to have as many carriers in the marketplace as possible. And the beginning of our positive relationships with our carriers, it was actually from my dad, our father with brother and sister, and he taught us right off the bat that, you know, know, you really got to build those relationships. And even if you don't align with maybe a carrier, sometimes those people shift from one carrier to another within the industry. So you build the strongest relationships you can with the people that work on the company side.

Yeah, exactly. And that relationship, it's okay not to agree as long as you know that it's coming from the right place, from the heart. Right. With the right heart. And that's one of the things that was talked about in the article. Your team has that positive energy going on and ultimately that is born at the leadership level for sure. So congratulations to both of you for becoming the great leaders that you become. And I know you continue to build on that. But how did that happen? I mean, how did you create that kind of positive energy in the agency?

I'm Gonna let David. David take that.

I think it's a million little things that really do it. And it actually, it started from I. Our father again, really. He was a very. He still is. I mean, he's going to celebrate his 90th birthday this Saturday. But he's a very, very positive person. Always was, always has been. And.

I. I think that that was. Started it. And we've learned from so many other people. I mean, upp a bunch of positive people. Just to continue to put yourself around positive people helps quite a bit, too. Anything to add to that, Nancy?

I think it's a mindset and, you know, once you. Once you take it on, it just. It perpetuates itself as long as you continue to feed it and grow it and. And focus on the positive. There's so much. There's a lot of positive industry right now. There's a lot of things that are. We like that word better than other options.

Yeah.

But, you know, there's always an opportunity in each challenge, and that's what we really try to focus on. And if you could, you can go down a rabbit hole pretty quickly if you want to or if you let yourself. So I think there's a lot of things, whether it's, you know, daily affirmations or it's, you know, really always looking on the bright side and, you know, pointing out all the positive things we have every day versus focusing on all in the challenges.

Yeah, 100. You know, it's perspective, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I. I probably struggle with it just as much as everybody else, but the one thing that I try to think about is when I'm not winning and I'm whining.

And not in the positive way.

I try to stop and think like, well, what is. Even though I think this is. Is horrible or a challenge or whatever, what is. What is the one positive thing about it? And how can I focus on that instead of all the negativity or any of the negativity. It doesn't always work, but it's. It's what I do personally.

And I think for the team sides, that's what we kind of started is having that positive team is. It's very challenging. I'm not going to lie about it. It's. It every day is a challenge to keep it positive. But you've got to find, you know, what's that one thing that they did really great today? What's the one thing we can celebrate? Do we save a client? Do we help them, you know, round out their portfolio? So we added a few lines of business and really focus on all those little positive things, because if, if you don't, it can be very discouraging each day. So.

So you guys have learned, among many other things, catching people doing something right.

Versus maybe catching people doing something wrong. Correct.

And we appraise publicly. Right.

And discipline privately.

Privately, yeah.

Yeah.

Fantastic. And I know that David. And we won't get into the story because it'll just because of time, but David and I have come to a meeting of the minds. We get to.

Yes.

Every single day. We don't have to do anything. It's a privilege every single day to serve and to give and everything else. Right. And David's got a story on his personal side. Maybe we'll revisit that someday.

But we should have a podcast just on that someday. Probably a short one.

I'm game if you are am game.

I'm game.

I, I think that would, that would be so game changing for so many people. I'm going to do something here real quick. All right, let's focus on change since we, we kind of touched on that a little bit. And you see change as an opportunity. And let me just add one other thing real quick on that. You know, in our relationship over the last five, six years, we've seen a ton of change, but it's happening faster than ever in the industry. Right.

So you see it as an opportunity, and again, it's back to perspective. Right. What kinds of opportunities do you see and. And how are you shifting that and leading your team?

I, you know, today there's a lot of challenges in the marketplace, but I really think there's a lot of opportunities right now, too. And because when there's change or disruption in our industry, that means people are changing agents too. So there's a lot of business to capture at that point. So I, I just think.

Technology is coming into this, too. There's. There's tons of technology to leverage what you can do and amplify it. And I, I mean, it is a struggle, the marketplace the way it is, but there is a huge opportunity right now. I think the other one, the other large opportunity we have is for young people to come into this industry. I think there's a lot of people in the, you know, towards retirement age in the industry. And I think that it's a great industry. It through good and bad, it always persists.

I think that with the transition of the challenges we're seeing, there's a lot of. Lot of transition and there's a lot of opportunities for agencies that are being proactive or are able to be responsive, to be able to capture market share and to, to bring on new clients. And right now, that. That probably is our biggest challenge, is having capacity to do that. But I think that there is so much opportunity out there if you're able to, if you have the capacity for it, market capacity and talent within your agency, you know, capacity within your team.

So.

And speaking of capacity, part of the reason that they're having that challenge right now in a very positive way. I don't know if I've told you this lately, but I'm looking at your growth figures since our relationship started. 205% revenue growth, so.

Oh, wow.

Exactly. Congratulations. Exactly. But we're just getting started, right?

That is correct.

So Anyway, we've got 205, we've got 88% on in force clients, 87% on in force policies, 109% on premium. So you figured out a lot of things in that growth, so well done. Congratulations. But that's because you've been willing to change and you have made the changes that are necessary, including. Let's talk about remote team members for just a minute. Because you decided that that model is something you wanted to embrace and put your arms around, and you've done it and it's worked. Obviously, if somebody out there, you know, is maybe stuck on that, well, I don't want remote team members, etc. Etc. What would you say to them?

Nancy, you want to take it first?

Yeah, I can take it first. I, I believe that in order for it to work, it has to be something that you believe in. If you're not sure, then it's gonna. It takes you a while to probably embrace it. We were forced into it, obviously, with COVID You had, you know, where we were. We had to all go home and we just stayed that way. There's a high level of trust. I think that if you, if you are a person that tends to micromanage, it's very, very challenging. So you have to kind of look at your own skill set and your own perspective and make sure that it's something that's going to align with what you kind of believe already.

There's. You have to have a lot of flexibility. But I think that our team members, or I know that our team members are extremely appreciative of having that little bit of flex time, not having to commute, being able to be home with their family if they need to, or whether they like it or not really. But being able to be home with their family and, and having the flexibility to be able to, you know, for us, we, we do allow people, okay, I need to run out and pick up my kids from school and come back and work. So we don't have, it's remote and we don't have strict like you have to be at your desk 8:30 to 4:30. It's a little bit of flex time as well. It's a remote. So that's, I think that you need to have a lot of trust and you have to be able to.

You know, trust that they're getting the work. As long as they get the work done, we're. That's, it's fine. It's good. It's all good.

So do you set the precedent on what your expectations are?

Yeah, you have to have pretty clear expectations. Yeah.

Yes, great point, David.

I, I had a big mind shift compared to what we used to run our business like when Everybody worked inside versus now myself. If you ask myself 15 years ago or 10, maybe even 10 years ago, would this ever happen in my agency, I would have never believed it. But on the trust issue.

I really feel as though if, if the trust isn't there to let them work remote, then look, look at both sides. Don't just look at your workers, look at yourself too. What, what are you doing wrong so that, that trust isn't there? What haven't you done? Or, or where's, where's the lack is it in accountability training? There's so many areas and, and that's, that's another approach too that I've, I don't know. I've learned mostly since we've been coaching with you, that really the number when something goes wrong in the agency, it's take the opinion it's my fault we, they didn't supply the tools, the training, hire the right people, partner with the right companies. There's a whole laundry list. But as an owner we really, we control so much that it's really our responsibility to make it work.

100% it is our responsibility. Whether it's one of our teammates or it's something we did, we must own it.

Right? Yeah.

Fantastic. And you know, if you're thinking, well they've had these remote operations, what their retent, what is their retention like? I'm looking at the number hovers around 92% so great job on that. And by the way, I did not mention this out of the gate because I was so excited to get started. Nancy and David from Apple Valley Agency, they're in Rhode island just Outside of Providence. So.

Northeast agency doing a great job. And I'm looking at some of your accomplishments in the Rough notes article. In 2022, you reached a milestone with not just one of your companies, but two of your companies. And it's a 1 million milestone.

With some of your partners that you accomplished. So they were different. You had these Apple visuals. Tell us about that.

You know, it's, it's funny is a lot of times you think about hitting these milestones with, with companies and you, you think, you know, all the companies would celebrate you. Not that they didn't. I'm not saying that we'll celebrate these things, your celebrations. And we actually had a celebration, invited the companies to it and you know, it was, it was great and we had the whole team in and it was something that we tried to reach and we almost reached it with a company, oh, probably 10, 10, 12 years ago, and they pulled out of the market, a portion of market in Rhode island. And that obviously brought our premium down with that company. But for us it was exciting and we did celebrate it. We had a dinner for the whole team and we actually made up glass apples that we gave the company representatives about hitting the mile milestone. So the million dollar milestone.

Well, and that just reinforces the relationship, right?

Yes.

The priority and the importance of the relationship.

Nancy, I was gonna say we have lots of apples around the office and I think that's what you were mentioning. And our dad collected apples and we had a curio cabinet that has just all kinds of wooden apples, you know, marble apples, crystal apples, wooden, you know, apple ornaments, all, all kinds of apples. And I think that's what, when they were working on the article, they noticed that some of those were around. So that one is special. The one that shows the million, $1 million milestone.

Yeah.

And there was two of them.

Yeah.

Coincidentally in the year 2022.

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

So that was fantastic. But yeah, there's a lot of great things going on in the orchard, as we say, which is Apple Valley Agency. So congratulations on that. I want to touch on two things real quick. One is living life on your terms, because that's one of the things that we promote and encourage people to earn up to in upp. Grow your business, create wealth and have more freedom to live life on your terms. You guys have been able to do that and Nancy has earned the right to live life on her terms. She's in Rhode island sometimes and she's, you know, residing in a different state as well because that's the balance for her family. If somebody, you know, is struggling with that kind of mentality, what would you say to them?

Man.

I say it's doable. I mean, I think there's a. I know there are a lot of agents out there that have. Do that now that work from work while they're traveling, might have, you know, another home that they go to and they work. And it's. If you're remote, it's very easy. I think if your culture is that you're in the office every day, all day, it's. It would be more challenging to be there half the time and. And not be there the other half when everyone is there. Maybe a hybrid situation would be okay, too. But even to travel, like, a lot of times my husband and I will vacation, but I'm able to work maybe in the morning, and then we do something fun in the afternoon. And David's. David's starting to get the. The bug of that, too.

He's.

He's learning that he can log in from anywhere.

Yeah, good.

Yeah.

Next week.

Support you on that because you get to.

Yes, yes, I do. I do get to.

And I think one thing that we mentioned, Mike. Well, maybe circle back up decided.

But. But the fact that we have each other allows us to do that as well. If it was just one of us running the whole agency, then it would be much, much more challenging to be able to step away for even a week's vacation. But to be able to go away for an extended time is really a blessing. And we do rely heavily on each other. And I think if we didn't have each other, it would be very different for each of us. Very different.

That's exactly what I was going to touch on because we've talked about this before, and I originally learned it from a guy who started a company from scratch and created a $1.3 billion revenue company. $1.3 billion. Reven.

And I asked him what his key to success was, and one of the things in his answer was the balance within a team.

And you guys have achieved that balance as a leadership team? What would your response be to anybody that might be watching or listening out there who's trying to balance leadership within an organization? Because you complement each other so well, you both have different strengths, you both have different opinions, and you probably don't always agree on things, but how do you balance that for the good of the organization going forward? David.

One of the things I think that Nancy and I are blessed is we're cut from the same cloth. So that helps a lot. However, when I say that we do have totally different strengths and we've been fortunate that if there is something that I really don't want to do, I probably could convince Nancy to do it. And flip side, too, I think vice versa. And then two, there's some areas that I'm really weak and she's strong and, and vice versa. So we've just been blessed in that. But I, I think that having a business. Business partner helps in this area greatly. If you don't have that, then really search when you go to conferences or meet other agents for an accountability partner, someone you can trust and, and try to build a relationship there or, or utilize a coach, too. But I, I think it's nice to have another business partner that's. That's going through the same thing as you and living the same life you are. So.

Yeah.

Do you have anything to add, Nance?

No, but I was going to say even when we first bought the agency, because we all. We worked with our dad for probably 15 years before we bought the agency from him. And Dave and I quickly realized, you know, we. We have each other. That's great, but we're both in the same boat. We're new owners and we don't. I don't say we didn't know what we were doing, but once you become an owner and you're responsible for that payroll every week or every other week, it's a whole different ball game than being a producer or being, you know, like a part owner that doesn't have the full responsibility. And when that hit, I was like, oh, wow, we don't really have a boss, you know.

Right.

We didn't have a. Have one before, but it was just a different perspective. Once it's all on you. Right.

It changes the game, doesn't it?

The paradigm changes.

And that's when we first said, wow, maybe we should have someone like a coach or a community that we can bounce ideas off of because, you know, we. We have great. We have tons of ideas. Are they all good? Are they all, like, you know, realistic you. So it's really good to have someone to, you know, bounce things off and say, you know, you're totally off the wall, or that's wacky, you know, or.

To help you accelerate them.

Yes. Yeah.

You need.

Yes.

So, and it depends on your goals, right?

Oh, yeah, yeah. And where you are. I mean, there's a. You have a lifespan. Right. And for a long time, we were.

Not really active, as active in the growth mode. You know, we're more like just kind of you know, running the agency day to day. Yeah, we were service agency, service agency. And we were pretty much just putting out fires most of the time. Right, That's. And a lot of us get caught up in that. But, but I think even if you, if you have a reliable business partner or you have a coach or you need somebody, because otherwise you're just sitting there thinking, am I really on the right path? Am I really doing the right thing? You know, so.

And it helps accelerate too, your goals greatly.

Yeah.

And sometimes people, when you work with them from outside, such as a coach or a community of people in a program such as upp, they can see things that you can't see.

And they give you that different perspective and it keeps you on track. Yeah. We have this great idea, but is this going to support what you want to accomplish and where you want to be at the year end or at the end of your three year forecast?

Yeah. So is that, what, is that what's best for the business right now? Right.

Yeah.

Boom.

Because that's what keeps on giving.

Right.

The business.

And, and it gives lots of things. It gives opportunity, it gives opportunity to change, to grow as a team. It gives us a career, something to support, a fulfillment, to be able to support a team and their families and, you know, something that we can build that can get back to our communities and. Oh yeah, that income thing.

And all.

Of that minor detail.

Yeah, no, it's. It's all part of why we do what we do. And you guys have done it so very well. Congratulations.

Thank you.

So, David, you touched on this earlier, but you know, if somebody out there might be thinking about. Because you guys also, and we didn't get to this. And just out of respect for time, I'll just mention this also recently you've written a book.

Yes.

So congratulations on that. And that got published. How to protect your family and everything that they've worked so hard for. So congratulations on that. How's that been received and how's that going?

It's been received well.

So we have four siblings and one of our sisters is actually writing a book also. And she's like, you guys already wrote a book. Been thinking about that and working on that for a while, but she's moving along on it. So. Yeah.

We, we've shared it with company partners too, besides individuals, meaning insurance company people. And I think that that strengthens relationships too, because they see that you're invested in the business so at a higher level.

And, and that will maybe open up doors if they're running into an agency who maybe wants to, you know, move on to the next phase of life. And they're thinking about who should we recommend? Well, might as well recommend the agency that wrote the book, right?

Yes, yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. So well done. Congratulations on that.

Thank you.

And David, the last thing you talked about, this before we started today, if somebody's out there looking for somebody to walk shoulder, shoulder with them, to guide them along a path, such as a coach or something like that, what would you say to them?

Well, I, I see the, I see the value in it because of some of the things that we've talked about already, but it really helps you stay in line with your goals. It helps you think about your business from an outside standpoint or from a working on the business standpoint rather than in the business. And it helps you accelerate what you want to accomplish. There's, there's so many benefits to a coach, and I, I now wouldn't, I mean, for the rest of my career, I'll definitely always have at least one coach.

Awesome. Fantastic. Anything to add, Nancy?

Not really. I think it's, it's an evolution. And I think you, you know, once you get caught, once you start with a coach or in a group or having an accountability partner, some sort of like, structured coaching program, I think it's something that you can't live without. Once you get used to it, once you, once it, you get the bug. So.

Well, it helps you accelerate your goals. Yeah, it stays, it helps you focus and it helps you accomplish goals a lot quicker.

Even to create your goals, you might not really have a. Have a way to figure that out. And it, it's just, it lays a foundation and a path for you to follow, and it can, it can give you support when you need it, it can answer questions you have along the way, and it can give you the motivation you need to keep. Keep going forward. And all of us could use a little more motivation, I'm sure.

Absolutely. Because those days come, right?

Yeah.

Fantastic. Well, Nancy Mendez, Abel, David Brush from Apple Valley Agency in Greenville, Rhode island. Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations on your accomplishments so far and your recognition as the Rough Notes cover agent for August of 2024. Roughness magazine, the oldest independent insurance agency publication in America. 146 years old, and you were chosen as the number one agency in all of America. Congratulations and well done.

Thank you very much, Mike.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Hey, thanks, everybody. We hope you got great value out of this podcast, and if you did, we would appreciate you forwarding the link to this podcast, to somebody else, you know, somebody else you care about, maybe another agent, another colleague. So they too can get great value because it just takes that one idea sometimes that can change everything or as David mentioned, can shift the paradigm. Just that one idea. And if it's a good idea to keep yourself on track as well towards your goals, just go to unstoppableprofitpodcast.com unstoppableprofitpodcast.com you can share that link. We're out there on all the channels from Stitcher to Spotify to Apple and so much more. Unstoppable Profit podcast. Share that link. And if you're looking for that one great idea.

That next big idea that can change everything, or you want to be in a group of people who are like minded, who can be the community that you can rely upon, that you can trust. We hope that you'll join us. We had a very special event coming up. It's in Phoenix, Arizona November 8th and 9th. It's called the UPP Grand Mastermind. It is full of people just like Nancy and David who are forward thinking, proactive, aggressive and they want to continue to grow their businesses and they're like minded and positive and everything else that was mentioned. We hope that you'll join us. The seat is free. You just need to get there. There's a link somewhere around this recording or this podcast where you can just go there and grab your complimentary invitation. Just click on the link and make sure that you join us there. We've got a few seats left. We hope that you'll take advantage of this incredible rare opportunity. That's the UPP Grand Mastermind. Or if you're listening to this, you can just google it, upp grandmastermind or just go to unstoppableprofitproducer.com and it should be there on the website. If you have any questions about anything, please reach out to us. We are here to help you, to serve you. VIP life.com VIP life.com Just shoot us an email so we can serve you in any way that we, we can to help you. Nancy Mendez Abel, thank you so much for joining us today. David Brush. Thank you, sir.

Thanks, Mike.

Thank you, Mike.

All right, everybody, good luck out there. You got this. We believe in you. I will see you on the next episode.

Do you love the podcast but don't know where or how to get started? Visit www.upplife.com that's upper L I F E.com to learn more about our coaching and mastermind programs and how you can join our community of growth oriented agency owners today.