AI + Human Connection: The New Advantage for Agencies

Welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. This is the podcast for insurance agency leaders to think differently, to raise your standards, and ultimately become you and your agency's best version possible. My name is Brent Kelly. I am your host. Delighted to be with you on this episode and super excited to have an awesome guest, a little bit of a, uh, a member spotlight, someone who I get to talk to monthly as he's one of our private client members of the Sitkins Network. I wanted to bring this gentleman on, which I will introduce here in a second, not only just to hear more about him and his story and the agency and some of the things they're dealing with, but also to share one of the tools that we have for our members and how they've used it. Probably most of you are using AI and we have an internal tool that I'll talk about that some of our members are using very, very well. So with that, bringing in today, this is Eric Widges. He's the CEO of FSB Insurance. And Eric, we are from the same state. We both live in the great state of Illinois, but did you know, Eric, that some people don't realize that Illinois is more than just Chicago? I'm in central Illinois and Eric is in southern Illinois. So we represent the 5% of the population that's not in Chicago, something like that. So Eric, welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. Great to have you.

Thanks, Brent. Appreciate it. Been looking forward to this for a while and glad that today's here and get to spend some time with you today.

Awesome. Well, great to have you on here. And if, again, just to kind of kick things off here, if you would, Eric, just take a moment or two, kind of share a little bit about the agency, some things that you're working on, and I don't know, whatever you want to share, Eric, it's your world. We're just living in it right now.

Yeah. We're FSB Insurance Agency located in, as you mentioned, Southern Illinois. And I think that's the first thing that always comes up is people like, oh, you're in Chicago. And it's immediately, you know, that's that default setting in someone's mind that We're from Chicago, but so we're in that southern tip of Illinois. Independent insurance agency owned by Farmer State Bank of Alto Pass. So we're a bank-owned agency, have approximately 12 employees, and just have really enjoyed the membership of the Sitkins that we joined about a year and a half ago. And it's been a good fit for us and it's just, just a privilege to be part of the group.

Eric, it's great to again, have you on the podcast, but obviously to have you one of our members. And one thing that, you know, whether the agency's got 12 employees or 200 employees, we've got a range of people. The one consistent thing that we see is that people that are part of our membership are agency leaders who know there's more, right? There's a higher standard, a higher level. Uh, they're looking for those things. So again, I love, you know, in our conversations, it's always asking more questions. What else could we do? What am I missing? And I'm just going to start with this, a bit of a self-serving question, but heck, it's my podcast, so I can do what I want, right, Eric? But just based on, you know, again, this is obviously about your agency, but since joining the Sitkins Network, what's been most impactful to you? Because there's a lot of different principles and strategies and things that we talk about, but what's been most impactful for you and your agency so far?

I think it goes back to when Farmer State Bank purchased the agency and they had worked with a consultant to help them in the growth side. And when they purchased the agency, we had wanting to expand our markets. We wanted to expand our footprint of where we were currently located in Southern Illinois and get into other markets. And when we came across Sitkins Group, we'd read the book and just wanted to be different than the normal agency. We wanted to differentiate ourselves with value-added services and risk management tools. And I think that is the number one piece that we feel that is a privilege and a benefit of being part of the Sitkins is We have tools and resources and guidance from people like yourself, Brent, that allow us to be different than just the everyday agency.

Yeah. And Eric, one thing too, we've got, you know, it's interesting. You know, we would've probably said several years ago that, yeah, I don't know if we're, you know, always a good fit for bank-owned agencies. And here we are a few years later, we have many bank-owned agencies as part of our network. And again, I mean, I want to get your perspective on this, Eric, because there's There's pros and cons to anything in life, right? Good. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but oftentimes talking to bank-owned agencies, you know, one of the pros is, well, you're affiliated with a large organization, right? There's referral opportunities and leads and maybe even some brand awareness around that. And sometimes the negative could be, well, it's hard to differentiate, right? As far as who we are and what that looks like. So being a bank-owned agency, how has that worked well for you? And maybe what's some challenges do you face with that and how are you overcoming it?

Well, I think the number one thing is the brand side and affiliation with the bank is a benefit on our end. And it allows us to get in some doors and reach some clients, some future ideal clients that we probably wouldn't be able to in the past because of that affiliation. The other side of it is probably more of when you're, you're a community bank, you're a community type agency, you know, you try to be everything for everyone. And, and that's difficult in, in the world. It's difficult in the market. It's difficult on the bank side. It's difficult on the agency side, but trying to juggle that and making sure that we're, we are who we are called to be as an agency and who we're called to be for our clients and making sure we're, we're holding true to who we are.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a great point. And it is, because again, there's so many things with the brand that we typically see in the name, but yeah, I mean, there's some aspects of it that it's like, gosh, but how do we kind of make our own mark, right? In that part of it. So I think that's, that's critically important. You know, one thing, and I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, Eric, that I, big reason I want to bring you on outside of you're just a great guy to talk to, you have been one of our power users of Roger Saku. And just for the audience to give some perspective, I think everybody's familiar with AI to some degree. Now, whether you love it or hate it, it's not going to go away, right? Whether it's Claude or ChatGPT or Perplexity or the others that I have no idea that probably even exist. There's such value if done right. And so, uh, we created our own internal AI product, which was called Roger SAKU. And, uh, just have some fun with that. If you don't know, Roger Sitkins, our founder and CEO, named after him. And then SAKU is an acronym, S-A-K-U. And Eric, you've been through our programs. You've heard this. We'll talk about kind of jokingly with producers. Sometimes they think they are SAKU, which is the source of all knowledge in the universe. So that's where SAKU, the acronym comes from. And so we've put millions and millions. I don't even know the exact number. I think I used to say 4 million words, but we have every training video, every podcast, every book, every resource, every white paper, every Rough Notes article, everything we've ever done over 40 years, which is well beyond my time embedded for our agency members to be able to leverage it, to ask questions, whether you're going on an appointment or how do I do this or that. So now that I gave the audience some perspective, Eric, I'd like to get yours. How have you used it? Uh, what's been the greatest benefit for you? Just give me your experience with Roger Sitkins and AI in general.

Yeah. So we, we use it quite a bit as an agency as we go through. So we're a year and a half into Sitkins membership and kind of like any other training process, you kind of feel like you're drinking from a fire hose sometimes. And so it's all that information at once. You're like, what can we implement? We need to hold off on this. This can be pushed off a little bit longer. What, who are we as an agency? But what we like about it, it's kind of like having Sitkins at our fingertips and having Roger at our fingertips as well as your content from the Sitkins program is if we need a refresher on something, if we really wanna hone in on a particular piece of the produce bit or some content, then we can just hone in on that through the, the Saku. And it's, it's almost like we're live in that class and Roger's right there with us and the content is there. And so it allows us to dive deeper at our pace. And that's what I really like about it is, is that I can, I can hone in on a particular portion of the producer fit and or any of the content that is at my level. And I can continue to hone in and go deeper and deeper with my questioning to make sure that I understand what we're, we're trying to accomplish with it.

Yeah. I, I'm smiling there because you were saying that, because I didn't mention this earlier. And again, there's a lot of AI tools that do this, but the fact that you mentioned the book that we wrote and, you know, we, we narrate it, we have an audiobook as well and using that in podcasts. We actually translated that. Yeah, you could type to Roger AI, Roger Saku, or you could talk to him. And it sounds just like Roger, which is kind of fun and creepy. It's like, hey Roger, I'm going on an appointment tomorrow and here's who they are and here's what I'm getting ready for. What should I consider? And he's like, hey Eric, and he just starts talking. You're like, oh my gosh, it's Roger. But I mean, I think part of that again, AI, there's so many aspects to it. And for us being a closed, kind of a closed change AI, it is based on our principles and teachings. So Eric, I think you said it very well in the terms of we don't expect everybody that goes through our programs the first time to get everything or implement everything. You can't. In fact, we say that you're not going to agree with everything. You're not going to implement everything, but it allows you to give you a tool in real time to go back and say, gosh, remind me of the green zone. Right now, how do I execute the ultimate growth strategy? What does that look like? What should I consider? Could you remind me of the reverse referral process?

All right.

What does a great high-performance team meeting look like? And, you know, it's just a great ongoing thing where, again, Eric, I don't know if you've done this or not, but I have some of our leaders that will go in it for sales meetings, use it to prepare for sales meetings and kind of reinforce things. Cause we don't expect you as leaders to remember everything. You got a lot on your plate as well. So have you used it for that way as far as communication with your team as well, Eric?

Yeah, absolutely. We really honed our HPT meetings. With the SACU, that was something that our account managers and our account executives were using it to really focus in on developing our agenda and making sure it was intentional to what we were trying to accomplish. And so on that piece with the HPTs, it really helped us define our HPTs, our weekly meetings and our debriefs and helping develop that agenda to move forward on, I would say, at-risk accounts, or even just trying to make sure we're rounding out the accounts and asking the right questions. Because I think sometimes when you're going through an SPT, you're always trying to get to the next account, make sure we're being respectful of each other's time. But I really like how the SACU reminds you to, to take a deep breath and round out those accounts. Are we the full owner of that account? And if we're not, how can we even utilize some questions to make sure we get to that prospect? And it keeps us all aligned. And that was probably the number one issue we had coming into the Sitkins was alignment. And so that HPT really keeps us aligned and our account executives are constantly on there trying to make sure that our HPTs are efficient in following the process. From a leadership side, I use it constantly from making sure that I'm asking the right questions of our team members, making sure that are, are questioning. I, and you and I worked a lot on questioning 2 months ago and making sure that our team was asking the right questions. And so I use that as a guide to challenge myself to make sure that I'm asking the right questions to keep them moving forward. So personally, that's what I've used on the leadership side with is really just making sure that I'm asking the right questions and challenging our team to, to get with the clients and and I would say position ourselves as the differentiator. And so that's what I use it for.

Yeah. I appreciate that, Eric. It reminded me too. Yeah, you obviously could go in there and ask Roger, hey, I'm busy. I'm meeting with this client and here's some things to think about. What are some, what are 3 risk-based open-ended questions that I could consider? Right? And it's not that we can't do that on our own. You could figure that out, but like the biggest thing I keep seeing with technology, and we've said this for years and years outside of AI, is that technology is never going to replace relationships. But we need to use it to enhance them, right? So to allow you to prepare and kind of speed up that time so that you can spend more time doing the stuff that really makes you human and gives you that competitive advantage while you're out there. And I don't know if you're using this, Eric, or not. And part of our selling system, and we just introduced this a few months ago, which we have a Sitkins Selling System, is we have another version of our AI, different name. This is Pam. She's, uh, she's the account manager version of this. And within it, for example, uh, when we're going through our selling system, you can actually type in a specific issue and it'll give the problem, the impact, and solution, which are great, by the way. Here's a problem. Here's the impact we'd see based on this. Here's solutions based on what you've shared with us. And then around that too is here are 3 open-ended questions to consider to help unlock, or as we say, open that new file with a future ideal client. So I don't know if you're, are you using it in that way as well?

We are. We are using that a tremendous amount. That's something that we utilize with all of our clients is going through Pam and typing in their 3 pain points and immediately identifying what is the problem, how's that impact them, and then what are some solutions. I mean, we use it on every one of our clients. Anytime we hear a pain or an issue that the client's having, we immediately go into Pam and we type that in and automatically it's just boom, boom, boom, you know? And I like what you said about, you know, AI is not, we're not replacing people with AI. We're just, we're making ourselves more efficient. It's giving us more tools to be better, better agents and better insurance trusted advisors for our clients. And it, and it speeds up that process. And you could overwhelm yourself with the amount of AI that's on the market and you almost kind of drive yourself crazy. Like, oh, I need this AI for this tool. I need AI here, AI this. But what I like about Pam is that it's specific to the Sitkins' teachings and it gives us specific talking points that we can talk to our clients or FICs about. And when it gives us solutions that we can help implement and it, and it's not something that we have to go back and research. It's, it's common, common practices, common solutions that we can implement with the tools that we have at our disposal.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a great point. And, and just so you know, and the audience too, this is a bit of a tease. Um, we're building more and more tools around that. In fact, one of the concepts, and you heard this last year, Eric, in our mastermind meeting that we held. Last year in Atlanta, but a business development center. And the ultimate goal of a business development center really is to free up producers, a kind of a, it's like a sales assistant, right? To a degree and gets more things to the producer's hands so they can go be more human, right? Build more connections, increase relationships, have more important conversations. And so you're going to see more of that built in as well, where we're going to help AI, right? Build out stewardship reports and things like that. So that again, the producers, because let's face it, where producers in particular get stuck is in this part. Well, I would do this, but I don't have it, or I don't know how to do it, or it's not right. And so once you give that to them, it's like, now you have it, go communicate, go have these conversations. So, and again, Eric, I don't really have a question there, but I mean, in the sense of, are you seeing that as well as just getting your producers in the game more?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's the thing is, you know, they've got a lot on their plate. And they're trying to manage a relationship with the client. They're trying to manage a relationship with the account manager and the account executive and myself. And anything that we can put in front of them that helps ease that is something they, they truly appreciate. They can take with them and gives them a little bit more confidence to have those conversations with the client and maybe address some of the concerns that either the client has, or maybe it's a solu— a problem that has come across. But, you know, I, I like using it on the SACU side and then taking it into the PAM side. Where if I'm meeting with a contractor, I've, I said, all right, we've implemented XYZ with this contractor. And Roger immediately will, you know, will give me some other additional details to think about and maybe a path forward that I hadn't thought about from a, a risk mitigation standpoint or a risk management piece. And then I take that and then I'll go into PAM and implement and put that problem in there. And then immediately I've got 3 other things to look at. So I'm a researcher. And I'm a reader and I like just continue kind of going down a rabbit hole. And it, it just, for me, it's so meaningful to be able to have that at our disposal and be able to, to, to type in 2 or 3, 2 or 3 things that we're working on and immediately having solutions for our clients. Coming from an education background, it's always about why, you know, there's 5 why analysis. Why are we doing this?

Why?

And we can continue to ask why until we get to that point. And I really like that. This helps with my analysis of getting to the point of being a problem solver for them.

Yeah. Eric, I did a, I did a sales training session last week and you said that, you just reminded me of something I talked about and maybe get your perspective. Although you kind of already indicated this is that I think oftentimes when we ask, I hate to say it, but like generic type of questions, right? You get generic type of answers. And oftentimes those answers come from the head like, well, this is an insurance agent. He's supposed to ask this question. This is how I'm supposed to answer. It's just, It's kind of transactional, but as you go deeper and deeper and deeper, and to your point, Eric, I think at some point the answers, the conversation turns into a head conversation to a heart conversation. This is what's really going on. This is what's really bothering me. This is, you know, whatever it is. And then of course, you know, our role as insurance professionals is to tie those products, services, whatever it is into helping them solve that problem. But it's really hard to fix a problem that isn't the real problem. And so I think this allows us to go deeper and deeper, deeper into those, those situations.

Yeah, I, I agree with you, Brent, on that. And it's too many times we can just ask general questions and just avoid that maybe deep conversation that we don't want to approach. And maybe it's outta comfort, maybe it's out of an inexperienced piece, but the more we get comfortable with that, the more we are deepening that relationship and trust. I think those conversations come easier and those questionings come more natural.

Yeah. Yeah. And again, you said you're a research guy, right? We believe in that. You've heard us talk forever about preparation, but there's the other part of that is in practice. And so, you know, we're hoping too with this allows, you know, kind of expedite preparation so you can spend more time working on your craft. And, you know, I tell teams all the time, whether it's service, sales, or leadership, the number one. Right, skill that we all need to work on and develop in this world, in this industry, is a skill of communication. And, you know, these tools give you higher-level questions or thought processes, but then it gives you, hopefully if done right, more time to practice that skill, to show up to where, hey, nothing's going to surprise you. I've been in this game before. So are you using some of the AI tools to help you do more practice outside of just research, which is great, but actually work on the skill of communication?

Yeah, I use it quite a bit. I really like it. For me, practice comes like all day, and that's probably a problem for me, but I'm constantly analyzing and reflecting on what we're gonna talk about. How do I anticipate this conversation's gonna go? And if it goes this route, how do I want to respond in this manner? If it goes another route, how do I want to respond? So my mind's constantly just absorbing and trying to, you know, I would say anticipate how that conversation's gonna go. And then I'm constantly in my mind practicing, how am I gonna respond in this situation? What does that look like from the customer's side too? You know, as you come across, what does the customer, how does that come across? Because anytime we communicate, and Brent, you and I spend a lot of time together, you know, I could say something and then it may be in my mind what I want it to come across, but the way it's received is a whole nother manner and it causes such a problem. So. It, it's that personal, that personal touch, that personal, I would say, uh, soft skill that we've gotta practice on and, and be careful that, you know, AI is a great tool. It's not the end-all be-all. We still have to have that relationship with our, with our team, with our clients, and remember that we're still people. We're still human.

As you said that, I was thinking too, you, you know, I love my sports analogies, but you know, it's just one of those things like when you, when you prepare and you practice For example, a basketball game, right? You could use any sport you want or a music event if you wanted to, but like, it doesn't mean the game's gonna go exactly how you prepare to practice because there's too many variables, right? But like what, what it got me reminded me of is when you do that, like you're fully in the game. You're not thinking about what you're going to do because you've kind of done some of that. Like you're fully present. You're fully there. As things evolve and change, you can adapt. Like when you have conversations with future ideal clients, You can prepare and prepare and prepare, and it is a huge competitive advantage, like huge competitive advantage. But conversations might go different places because let's face it, before this conversation, Eric, like, you know, you probably didn't wake up this morning and were like, gosh, I hope Brent's having a great day. You know, not that you don't like me, but like you're in your own world. You've had your own experiences. You know, our kids do stuff, our spouses do things. We've got a work event here. We have this or whatever. And like the moment before I clicked record or we started talking on here, you had experiences that led you to that moment. And part of my goal is to be prepared enough to like be there so I could be in the moment wherever you're at. So that's my soapbox tangent on whatever I was going with it. But I just, I can't talk enough about preparation and practice. And some people, you know, they'll say, well, like, well, that's great, Brent, but you can't control every conversation. Like, well, no, you can't. That's why we don't believe in scripts, by the way, because sometimes the other party doesn't know their line., but allows you to be fully present and you think differently, you listen differently. And I think here's the big part, you emotionally connect with people very differently.

Sure. Yeah. You know, it's funny. It's, it's just my amazing how things work out. Last, I've got a presentation in September on trauma. Just, uh, that was my dissertation when I was in college and, and it, it was, it was on trauma and I was trying to think of a way to maybe have that attention getter at the beginning and really engage the audience. And it was talking about juggling. And you don't know what that person, as you alluded to, you don't know what that person is juggling when they walk into that meeting with you. They could have, maybe they had an argument at home, maybe something happened the night before. And so, you know, our plan and our process that we want to attack when we walk in tomorrow may be completely thrown out the door because as they start to talk, they may start to spill out something that completely deters us from where we wanted to go with the conversation, but empathy empathy, as we've discussed numerous times, being empathetic towards the client, I think is a good way to make some inroads on that. And as you prepare, you, you, you learn and gain more confidence in having that ability to, to just connect with them and have those resources in your mind of, yeah, I, I really want to go down this road, but let's see how this conversation goes. And then I can always peel that back. And be able to make some, some pointed comments to get to that point.

Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite books of all time is sitting back there somewhere. Uh, it's from John Maxwell. It says everybody communicates, but few connect. And I think, you know, a big part of that book is about preparation on things of like, oh, here's the things I have to say. Well, yeah, you're preparing that, but you do that not just because you just got things to say. It's because you're, again, you're ready to have those conversations and you can emotionally connect. So really good thing. See, Eric, this is the only podcast where you can start off on AI and end up in emotional connection, right? Hey, I have a couple more questions before I let you go.— one, just very open. Obviously you're always having projects and things. Every agency leader, they've got next steps, goals, agendas, things you're looking for. What are you most focused on for the second half of this year and even into 2027, Eric? Like what's the top area for you and your agency that you're, you're locked in on moving forward?

Yeah. One thing we're really focusing on is we've hired another production team member down and outside of our marketplace, expanding our footprint out into the Southeast side. And so a lot of my focus is been on assisting and developing him in that, I would say, market. The other side of it is really looking at our 2026 goals and keeping us aligned and making sure we're on target with that. And then the other part is just carrier relationships and deepening those to a level that is very important to me and our team. So after that, it's looking at 2027 already and starting to look at Maybe some 2027 targets that, uh, we missed out on in 2026, or maybe we need to, to look at again from 2025. And so that's really the focus on that. We, we met as a team and kind of set some critical drivers for the remainder of 2026 and making sure that we're staying put on those drivers and, and doing what we need to do to hit our targets.

Fantastic. And that's something we'll talk more about. And, uh, hopefully you'll be there with us. I'm sure you will. But in October for our, our Mastermind Summit. I mean, first of all, I love what you shared there. I mean, about developing people, right? Relationships, including carriers. And then, you know, you mentioned goals and the, what I want to bring to the table here. And not that I'm going to go off on a tangent. Well, maybe I will. But, uh, the idea that, you know, there's goals and then there's standards. And so I think part of that is a great, we've got, we're looking at goals, but what become the standards, right? That, that we live by, because, you know, I've said this in the podcast before, and I, I changed the phrase about every time that, you know, you may or may not achieve your goals. I think goals are great. Uh, but you will always rise or fall to the level of the standards that you, you live up to. In fact, I heard, um, on a different, uh, coaching platform I'm on last week, said goals inspire, but standards sustain. And so I think a big part of that, and again, Eric, this isn't just for you, it's for the audience, but just thinking about that, right? Like the idea of goals, hey, what do we want to accomplish by the end of the year? Well, it's X, Y, and Z. Great. Okay. What are the standards that must be in place to make that predictable and guaranteed? What does that look like? And that's basically becomes the identity. So I love the, I love the goals and where you're going there, Eric. And again, I know just in our relationship, you know, we'll talk about that. I didn't want to turn this into a coaching call, but I'm like, hey, let's talk about it.

Might as well.

Yeah. I have, I have one more question for you. I ask this to every podcast guest, so I don't want to leave you out. All right. I didn't prepare you for this, so I'll try to ask it slowly so you can process it. So let's just say for a moment that after this interview is over, you're in your office there. You, you walk out of your office and in your hallway, is the younger version of Eric Widges, maybe just starting off his career right out of college or out of school or whatever it is. And you bump into him and go, oh my gosh. And after you kind of stop freaking out for a second, you're like, wow, that's me younger. And that younger version of you looks at you today and says, Eric, I've only got about 30 seconds. If there's one piece of advice that you could give the younger version of me as I start off my career, what would it be?

Good one. I told you it was kind of a deep dive. Yeah, there's a lot of things I'd probably tell the younger Andrew, right? Um, I think the biggest, the one thing, right? As Roger says, the one thing I would tell myself is to be present in the moment. And that goes in a lot of ways. It's not just professional. I think it's personal as well. And too often when we're younger, we always think about what am I gonna do in 5 to 10 years? What does my life look like? I need to start planning for what my career is gonna be and what I'm gonna do and how our kids are gonna get older and just really taking a step back and just really enjoy the moment. And as you get older, you, as it's maturity, as with anything, you start to realize how important those moments are. And even from a professional standpoint is enjoying those moments where you have with your team and enjoying those moments you have with your, with your employees and your teammates and And living in that moment. And so, you know, a lot of, lot is, lot has happened in my life and a lot of people have, have passed on and relationships have changed, but just really cher— cherishing where we're at right now and what we're trying to accomplish from an agency, what we're trying to accomplish on a personal level, where I'm at in my, in my spiritual walk and in my life. I think it's just important to really just live in the moment.

That's powerful stuff. So thank you for sharing that. And I was actually taking a note because there's so many different aspects of this, but I was just thinking, as you said that, Eric, you know, so often I've been guilty of this. We spend so much time thinking about what's happened or too much time thinking about what's going to happen. And we totally miss what's happening, you know, and it's like, and it's, it's crazy. And again, it's, it's kind of human nature, unfortunately, but I think that's such powerful advice of just just be there, you know? I mean, life's gonna be good, life's gonna be bad, ups and downs, but either way you're there. So, so experience it, be present in that.

It's kind of like that 90/10 rule where, you know, it's, it's about 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you respond. And I think sometimes I get, and I'm sure I'm guilty every day about it, I'm more worried about that 10% than I am worried about anything else. And so just, just really honing in and focusing on being present in all situations.

Fantastic. Well, Eric, thanks so much for hopping on here. I love the conversation. I knew it'd be fun. And again, I wanted to bring you on mainly just because there were so many things you're using that I wanted you to share about the Roger Saku, our AI tool, but I knew we'd go off in different areas and I'm glad we, I'm glad that we did. I mean, you know me well enough. I can get sidetracked pretty easy if I'm not careful and I just I like talking to people. It's fun. So I appreciate coming on here and doing this. And just for all the listeners out there, you know, if you want to be like Eric, if you want to be a cool kid, right, Eric? You know, if you want to step up your game and, you know, so many agencies, again, we know are doing really well, they're doing really good, but you know, there's a higher level, right? And you want to be encouraged. You want to be challenged. You want to be surrounded by other people who are going to push you forward in the right direction and hopefully give you a really good perspective. Well, there's my call. Go to sitkins.com/bookacall. Sitkins.com/bookacall. We'll have an initial conversation and just get to know you. See if there's an opportunity for us to help you working forward. If there is, great. If there's not, you know, we'll still be buddies. Well, I think, Eric, right? I don't know. We'll see how it goes, right? Anyway, Eric, any final comments you want to share to the agent leader audience before we depart here today?

Appreciate the time, Brent. It was a privilege being here and always enjoy our conversations. Just what I'd say is, you know, take that moment and reach out to Brent and his team. It's, it's been real impactful for us as an agency and couldn't imagine being where we, where we are without it. So appreciate it, Brent.

Awesome. Thanks, Eric. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening. I wish you all the best in your success. Take care, everybody. Hey there, agent leader. Brent Kelly here. Want to take just a few seconds to remind you that now is the time to create your true best version possible agency. If you go to sitkins.com/bookacall, sitkins.com/bookacall, we'll get to know more about your agency, conduct an agency assessment, and provide your agency with a customized plan to help you avoid some of the pitfalls, frustrations, challenges, and roadblocks to get your agency to true ultimate freedom and become its best version possible. It all starts by going to sitkins.com/bookacall. Robertlewin.com/bookacall.