End of Year Review

Welcome to the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me on this episode. And this is the final episode of 2021 that will be recorded on the Agent Leader podcast. So first of all, thank you for listening. Whether you listen to one episode or all of the episodes, I just want to thank you for being a listener in 2021 and certainly if you were able to share or subscribe to the podcast, appreciate that as well. And we're going to continue to grow this podcast, grow the audience, bring in some more guests throughout next year in 2022, and just continue to up our game to you to live out our mission, which is the purpose of this podcast is to help you as an agency leader gain clarity, build consistency, and make a commitment to being your best version possible. And I mentioned this on last week's episode. If you are a viewer, not just a listener, you probably see behind me some books. And we are releasing our book. It'll be the beginning of 2022. We were told that we should be receiving our first copies here right around Christmas, which is. I'm recording this just prior to that. So we should be getting those soon. And we'll make an official announcement, let you know where to get them, how to get them. We want to get those all squared away, but best version possible. Our book by myself and our very special guest today, repeat guest, Roger Sitkins, will be coming out the beginning of 2022. So, Roger, I'll let you say something about that in a minute, but I'm going to, I'm going to save, say hold that thought just for a minute, but I want to make sure that people know that the book is coming out. Also, there is going to be a premiere of a Sitkins documentary that both Roger and myself are part of that, but more importantly, our clients, our friends, telling the story of the independent insurance agent in a way to help all independent insurance agencies, at least those that truly want to commit to growth, to have an incredible 22, 2022 and beyond. So be on the lookout for a world premiere of the Sitkins documentary for independent insurance agencies coming early 2022. And without further ado, I mentioned his name. To wrap up 2021, I wanted to bring our very special and repeat guest, Roger Sitkins back on with us to the Agent Leader podcast to share what lessons, what experiences, what advice he could give independent insurance agencies into 2022. So, Roger, did I do that justice? Welcome to the Agent Leader podcast.

Well, thank you, Brennan. It's great to be here. Again and again and again. And more importantly, hope we continue to bring value to agents across the country. We're very, very excited about the best version possible book and the movie. So pay attention as Brent mentioned.

Wonderful. Well, I want to get Roger again on for this podcast. Just it's one of those things where I know there's a lot of year in review things and you know, oftentimes it's, you know, looking back and I mentioned that on my most recent podcast about the power of reflection and taking some time. But you know, obviously, you know, Roger, you've been, we've mentioned before, you've been in this game for quite a while. You have served a lot of independent insurance agen and one thing that I love in talking with you is that, you know, certainly you reflect and learn, but you're also looking forward what's next, you know, certainly for the independent insurance agency. So I want to just ask you some questions and get your thoughts around. First of all, looking back, what you've learned and of course moving forward, what you think is going to happen next, where do you see some things going? So let me start off with just the most obvious question. What did you personally as a coach to independent insurance agencies, what did you learn most this year about independent insurance agencies or just in general, what did you learn this year?

Well, I got reinforced that it's a great business. It's a great business to be in. And we talk about this with maybe a little bit of tongue in cheek, but not really doing much of anything. You can be semi successful in this business and the fear is that people will fall into this semi successful trap. It's a phenomenal business. You're serving your clients, you're serving your colleagues, your communities, you're taking care of your families. So from that perspective that all got reinforced, probably the singular biggest lesson that I've learned and that we've been sharing with people is the need and the two words, print, simplify and focus. There are always more great ideas, great squirrels, bright and shiny to chase. There are always more great ideas than there is time or capacity to execute them. So the ability to simplify and focus, do the basics, the things we talk about, as we always say, they're simple. They're not easy, but they're simple. Okay? And if you can get it down to a manageable number of things that you're really focused on, have a laser focus on it, the results happen. They just happen. We use a term and it's true. They're predictable and guaranteed. When you do the right things. So the two words, simplify, focus, I.

Think I've heard those two words before. Yeah, I certainly agree. Just quick thoughts from my perspective on that is, you know, this goes back for me and I've mentioned this before in different areas, but for me, I pick a word for every year to be my word of focus and intention. And in 2020, this is prior to the, you know, the official pandemic, so to speak, in March, my word was deep and, you know, that really transpired. And within that is what you just said is, hey, wait a second. If I can. And certainly independent insurance agencies can just take all that noise and simplify and just get focused on the right things, the most important things, and quit getting distracted. All these distractions and we all deal with them. But we see again and again those agencies that do say, hey, listen, I'm going to focus, I'm going to simplify all the stuff and we're going to focus. Guess what? As you said, the results become predictable and guaranteed. So great, great thoughts there. What did you see? One of the things that we talk about all the time in our, in our live programs that we run, by the way, next programs are coming up, beginning of January. So go to sitkins.com if you want to see if you can be part of this. But we always ask our agencies, you know, tell our agencies that success leaves clues. And one of my favorite things that you say, Roger, and it's so true, and so I steal it and other people steal it, is gosh darn it, it works so well that we just stopped doing it. And just from your perspective, what did you see in this past year where agencies had the most success?

Something we talked about that probably one of the most sticky things we've ever come up with, and it's kind of a two phase number one, is that producer recruitment starts at home. We have enough producers if they'd actually be producing. And the sidebar to that is the green zone concept. Green zone versus red zone. And so the thing where I saw agencies have the most success is to realize, wow, time, my only diminishing asset. How am I using that time? And am I spending 80% of my time, energy and effort in the Green zone? And the Green Zone, as hopefully some people will remember, is when we're doing those things that earn money green, so it's the selling process itself, continuation process, pipeline building and relationship management. And when a producer can get focused and say, 80% of my day, my time, energy and effort needs to be in the green zone. The ones that have done that are phenomenal success. I just got done with a coaching call with one of our members. 15.8% organic growth rate and about a 24% operating profit. Okay. Because they got focused on just doing a few things exceedingly well. So I think that was just crucial.

This year, you know, and we've talked about that. I know. Even when I've had you on this podcast, Roger. But we hear it again and again and it's. And just to piggyback on that, I mean, sometimes we share ideas and thoughts that we've learned and that we want to implement with agencies and sometimes they kind of hear them and there's a little bit of stickiness and other times it's like everybody keeps talking about it. And that's something that this year we continue to hear is Green Zone. Green, Green Zone, Green Zone. And even in my own world, and I've shared some of this with you, but I continue to update. I'm creating my own four activities that are Green Zone stuff for, for my role at Sitkins because it's the same thing. And so for you as an agency leader and whatever your specific role is, certainly if you're a producer and we've got specific four key money making activities, but whatever your role is is go, hey, what are the things that, that are actually producing a result? And am I spending, or a better word, investing the majority of my time there? And if the answer is no, you got to ask yourself why? So I think that has been, I agree, a huge success we've seen agencies have this year. So let's flip the script a little bit, go from the highs to the lows. And maybe it's just a reverse of this. But I want to get your thoughts, Roger. What has been a mistake or maybe multiple mistakes that you've seen agencies that prevented them talk about being your best version possible, but it's holding them back. They're trapped. What are some mistakes that you continue to see, Roger?

Well, one is just the craziness of being stuck running the business and having your own book of business and everything, just day to day. And it's hard to identify time where you're going to be building the agency, not working in it, but building it. And one of the biggest things I see, Brent, is the gimmick of the month club. Okay, the gimmick of the month club. I just see that because there's so much information out there now, more than, more than we can ever consume, that people get trapped by. Oh, here's a Bright and shiny. Here's another gimmick. Here's another gimmick. Here's another gimmick. So they're always chasing the trivial many ideas, the trivial many things that they might want to do. And here's a bright and shiny here's goes to scroll, squirrel and there's a rabbit, and they're chasing them. And I refer to it as the gimmick of the month because they're going shallow versus our concept of going deep. And the minute that they can resign, quit their membership in the gimmick of the month club or the week club or the day club and say, look, these are the things we're going to do exceedingly well. And when they go deep, that delivering excellence in every process, that's where they're getting great results. So rather than chasing a hundred things, chase one thing, but do it really, really well. That's where we're seeing the best result.

Yeah, 100% agree. I do want to add, as you were saying, that it's hitting me because I want to make sure I'm asking you the questions. But I do have a thought on this one, at least something that I see quite a bit from my coaching experiences. And this is part of. I think one of the things that why agencies really enjoy working with us, certainly enjoy working with a coach and having mentors and peers and why maybe others stay away, if you really want to get honest about it, is because are you willing to take absolute personal responsibility to your results, to your success? And I think one of the mistakes, and again, there could be a multitude of this within this overall mistake, is not being honest with yourself, not being truthful and being able to, you know, the word that you said, Roger, I love this, is justify. You know, well, it's this. It's this or maybe pointing fingers versus just saying, hey, you know what, we've got to own it. We're better than this. We know there's more to accomplish. We know we've been holding ourselves back. It could be, again, a number of things, but just that overall concept, that mistake or an excuse of just saying, nah, it'll be okay. I don't know if you agree with that. Anything you want to add to those thoughts?

Well, you know, I absolutely do because justify is just a lie. You're lying to yourself. And one of our favorite sayings from Dan Sullivan is that all progress starts by telling the truth and getting people to say, okay, here's where I really am, and yeah, we're doing okay, but we're not Great. Yet we're not that best version possible. And so when they can stop justifying, they start telling themselves the truth when they look in the mirror and say, okay, what's the reality of the situation? And by the way, are you okay with it? If you are, you know, one of the things we talk about a lot. Look, if your goal is regrets later in life, stay the course, you'll be fine. Okay, you'll be semi successful. But let's get serious about it. Let's take advantage of these great gifts we have, make an impact.

Well, just, just one more thought on this because it just hit me. It's very recent and I didn't watch any of the game, but I saw a clip this morning from. That was the Bucs game last night, the Tampa Buccaneers with Tom Brady. And all I saw was obviously, I think he lost a streak of touchdowns and they didn't score a point. And all I saw was Tom Brady the sideline taking his was the Microsoft Surface, you know, the videos they look at to review the last play and just whipping it into the garbage can out of disgust. And I just, you know, it's part of this because I think, Roger, what you say and why, why, why bring this up is that so many agency leaders and agencies, oh, we're good enough, we're doing pretty good. And then you see someone like Tom Brady who, you know, has been fairly successful in his career, is that safe to say? I mean, multiple Super Bowls, that has more money than he could ever, you know, there's, he's got plenty of money, but just that idea of that's not good enough. And I, you know, and I, that's, that's just that, that mindset that comes back to it is once you begin to let complacency creep in, you're going to get in trouble. And you just, you just don't see that with the highest level athletes and, or business leaders and certainly agencies we work with. None of the agencies we work with are perfect. They all make mistakes. They all have shortcomings. Right. They all mess up on strategies, but guess what? They do. I own it. And we're going to get better. How do we fix it? So. All right, couple more questions I want to ask you, Roger, on the recap here. Let's look for, we look back a little bit, but let's begin to look forward into next year. And if you had your little crystal ball, I know things change. I mean, we can look at even a year ago, I never saw that one coming. But when you look at 2022, which is right on the horizon. And we start looking at, you know, we're starting to get out of some of the, you know, the pandemic discussions that we've had. We know it's still around, I get all that, but just starting to move forward out of this, into this kind of new era that we're in. What do you see? What does 2022 do you believe, Roger? What does that look like for independent insurance agencies?

Well, for the average one, it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. Not, not much will change. The advent of technology, it'll continue to impact the distribution system. As far as personal lines, small comm lines, small benefits, although we're seeing that, of course, going up also for me, Brent, I think the biggest thing is that those that are really committed are going to say, okay, what? And I'll use our book best version possible. But what is the best version possible of myself as a leader of our agency overall? What does it look like? And how do we get total buy in and total accountability to that? Because the ones that do that realize, you know, as great as we are, this can be so much better. And just taking advantage of everything they have and saying, okay, it's been a tough couple of years, no question about it, but how did we improve as an organization? And one of the most important ones, just from a pure sales perspective, is to understand, based upon a recent study, and you and I've talked about this on the podcast before, that 78% of business to business buyers, okay, prefer that they're meeting with their salesperson, whatever they're selling, be virtual. They don't want to waste the time. And yet most agencies haven't even come close to mastering virtual. They've not practiced it. They're not reading and studying about it. They don't have a green screen. They don't have a green screen. Just all the little things. And so when I look at the best, they've made a commitment to the viral. Plus, here's the other big thing, the viral something else. We talked about sales capacity, okay, what percent of the time are the producers actually out there selling? And if the perfect schedule says they should have 10 appointments a week and they only have four appointments a week, they're at 40% sales capacity. So how do we up that by strong service, handoff and all the basics we talk about. But then how do we use virtual, okay, how do we use technology to basically double our number of appointments in a year? That's as basic as it gets. And people aren't doing it, Brent. They haven't made a commitment to it.

Yeah. And you know what I continue to see too, and looking forward, and this again, this is not necessarily a new trend, but it'll just continue to accelerate. But I think more importantly is how our agencies, and in particular producers going to shift their mindset and strategies. Kind of what you just said, you mentioned the virtual world, but we've said it for years. You know, the idea that technology is here to stay, we know that that's not a new thought and it'll continue to rapidly accelerate. The question I would ask independent insurance agencies into 2022 is how are you actually utilizing it? And what I mean by that is, is technology in your mind with your, with your clients trying to replace the relationship or you're trying to leverage and enhance the relationship. And I think there's a distinct difference because we'll see sometimes, oh well, technology's got it all. I can go back and just do whatever. Well, no, what you can do is allow technology to take the place of certain areas to allow you as a human being to understand the power of relationships, understand how you can be more proactive. The fact that you can use this thing between your ears, call your brain, to add value, to ask the right questions, to position yourself as an expert in a certain area. And that to me is such an opportunity for independent insurance agencies into 2022. Some of them are beginning to do this, others continue to think, oh well, I'll just get by. And guess what, you know, it's getting more and more challenging out there in the marketplace.

So one of the things just to add to this, one of the books we've talked about is that humans are underrated and it's such a strong read. But if you think about what's happened with the information explosion, if you look at a spectrum of where an agent can really do well in an agency, and if you start off on the left hand side and go to the right and the left hand side, it's all about data and information. And on the right hand side it's knowledge and wisdom. Okay. And what we see happening is that the data and information that's all over the Internet, you can get that. And even now, most of the knowledge that you need or somebody would need to make an informed decision, they can get on the Internet. What they still can't get, especially on the larger accounts, is the wisdom. It's the risk advice, it's being a trusted advisor to your best clients. So if an agency can be honest with itself and say, hey, are we on the left hand side of the spectrum here, just data and information? Or if we totally move to the right side, wisdom and knowledge and wisdom. And that we truly are risk advisors. And guess what? Advisors get paid a lot more money than commodity brokers. It's pretty simple. So that to me is a huge challenge of say, how do we become the wisdom people? How do we help impact people's business? How do we help impact their life? We can get there. Wow, what a difference.

Yeah, it's really good points there. And I think it also ties into. And again, this isn't a new thought, but it's so important we see it more and more is it's not just the iq, it's the eq. It's that emotional intelligence. And part of that Roger says wisdom, it's being able to understand relationships and people. But again, taking all that data and technology and allowing you to go deeper, to ask better questions, to build deeper to relationships, to be the wisdom providers. You just said to love, love that. That is a great, great point you make. All right, my final question. We will wrap up our final podcast for this year. You can answer this any way you want, whether it is personally or professionally or both. What are you, Roger Sitkins, most excited for for 2022?

Well, those that are watching us on video, if you turn around and look at you behind you, Brent, that would be it. I'm really, really excited about finally coming out with a book. For years and years and years, people have said, why don't you write a book? Want to. So fortunately, having you as the president of our company now, it's helped free me up to do some things and the two of us going together in the book, I'm really excited about that because just it's common sense. Although as Voltaire said, the only thing wrong with common sense, it's not so common. Okay. But it's truly the common sense of what do you have to do to become best version possible. I'm excited about that. I'm certainly excited about our documentary movie that's coming out that's going to provide a lot of great information for people. And on top of all of that, I'm just excited about the clients we're working with, the clients we will work with because we're going to transform their life and their agency. That makes for a great year to me.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you sharing that. And I would echo certainly from the book and the movie side of things that I mentioned that you know, the word that just keeps coming to my mind, it's just, it's relationships. And I am, I'm excited about developing new relationships. I'm excited about deepening some of the relationships that we have, certainly with some of the things that we're doing both virtually and now some of our in person events that we're going to be putting back in for this year, it's just, there's just, it's just, it's just neat to see. And you know, I say when, when the movie comes out, it's as part of the movie, I think it'll stay on there. We watch the rough draft, Roger. But it's just the idea, the word I said is impact. You know, the impact that, that, that we have the opportunity, the fortune to really, to be able to do what we do and to be able to see agencies that say, you know, thank you or be able to do some of the things that maybe have been holding them back. Whether it was a mindset issue, a personnel issue, a training issue, you know, could be a number of things, a strategy issue. They go, wow, we finally broke, you know, we had a breakthrough. And what it's done for our agency and for our lives, it's been so, so cool to see. So that's me. And it's not a generic answer, it's a real answer. It's an authentic answer. And so there's just a lot more to come. So, Roger, any, any parting words you want to share with the audience here as we wrap up?

Thank you for listening, thank you for all that you do as an independent agent because you impact your communities, as we've said. So let's just make sure that 2022 is the best year we've all ever had.

Yeah. And I will steal one more thing here, my last line, and I got this from, I think, Roger, from you talking about a producer you work with, because someone said, I saw there, is 2022 going to be a better year than 2021? Or will 2022 or what? Or what's been your best year? Sometimes you hear that too. And I love the one of the producers that said to you, what's the best sale you've ever made or the biggest sale you've ever made? He says, well, I don't know, I haven't made it yet. And, you know, so often that people ask me, well, is 2022 going to be better? What's going to be your best year? I'm like, or what has been your best year? I don't know, we haven't had it yet, but it's coming. And so it's just that aspiration, that continual, never ending improvement. And excited for that. So with that to echo Roger's thoughts, thank you again for being a listener. So excited to, you know, to bring some more guests and thoughts into 2022. Certainly, as I mentioned before, if you want to learn more about what we do at Sitkins, just go to sitkins.com from that homepage. You can learn about our programs, have access to our resources. You certainly if this podcast added value to you, subscribe, share, tell someone. We want to continue to help serve our purpose. Our mission, to help independent insurance agencies like yourself. So with that, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and we'll see you back again in 2022. Thanks, Roger, and thanks to the listeners.

Thank. You.