How High Can You Fly?

Welcome to the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me on another episode. Glad to have you with me. And today I'm going to be sharing some content around a question, a basic question that I want to ask you as an agency leader. And again, whether you're running your agency, you're managing a team, you're out there leading your clients out in the marketplace in sales, but the question is how high will you fly? And one of the best analogies or visuals for this question is an eagle, right? I mean, eagles are super high fliers. In fact, they fly higher than any other bird by far. Some of the studies say that they show they fly about 10,000ft in some cases in the air, which is incredible. They don't go mingle with the pigeons or the buzzards. Right. They're out there being eagles. And so I want to ask you this question as an agency leader. I'm going to give some characteristics to certain that eagles have, but what does that represent to you in the marketplace as an agency leader of any kind? What's the impact and where maybe are you not flying as high as you should or that you could. Where are you not being your best version possible? So that's going to be the context of today's content. Now before I get into that, I always want to mention some things that are ongoing and upcoming at Sitkins and the Sitkins Group. Uh, I mentioned on a recent podcast that our current Producer Fit program, our world class sales training program sold out. In fact we were over capacity. We have 160 people registered for the current program. But we do have a new eight session virtual program that starts on May the fifth. So May the fifth is our next program that starts, uh, you can go to sitkins.com profit p r o F I F I T to learn more. And I can certainly tell you this concept of being a high flyer, being a results maker, being a high level producer, building high level relationships are all things that we talk about at our Producer Fit program. Bottom line is results that are simplified for you, your producers, your agency as you move forward. So go to sidkins.com profit to learn more about it. And of course you can also learn more about our all inclusive membership where you can send as many producers as many times as you want, including access to our other programs, all for one crazy low monthly price. So you can check that out@sitkins.com aim now let's get into the content for today. On the question of how high will you fly? I'VE already mentioned. Right. Eagles is the representation of this. You think about eagles, they're majestic, they're high flyers. I already talked about how high they fly. But what are some characteristics specifically of eagles that we can take directly into agency leadership? And again, whether this is running your team, whether it's working with your clients at a high level, whatever it may be, what does it look like? Well, number one, that eagles have great vision, right? They have amazing vision. In fact, they can see for miles and miles away. Some of the studies show they can see eagles for somewhere like 30 to 40, up to 50 miles away, which seems impossible to me, but they have great vision. Well, what do I think about that? When it comes to agency leadership, does it mean you have to have super eye vision that you see 50 miles? No, of course not. But I do think when you put it in context, and I heard this from John Maxwell, leadership expert years ago, he said that leaders see more and leaders see before others. Right? Great leaders see more and they see before others. You know, one aspect of the program is a really important aspect, in fact, it leads off most of our programs, whether it's for agency leaders or producers, is this idea of designing your future. And a big part of designing your future is understanding the vision with clarity of what it is you really want. See, one thing that I realized is that if you're not clear on what you really want now, does that mean it's going to be perfect and how you get there? Of course not. But if you're not really clear, hey, this is what I want, or this is what we want, this is the experience that I want to create, right? Whatever it may be, if you're not clear on that, then it's really hard to get momentum. It's really hard to get team buy in. It's really hard to be motivated in many cases if we don't see that end in mind. And so when you think of eagles and the transitions to business and agency leadership, the best agencies I work with have great vision. The great producers that I work with have great vision. Hey, this is where I see this going, knowing there will always be bumps in the road, there'll always be things that will happen that aren't expected. But saying, you know what, I am so clear and focused on this vision that I am going to persevere no matter what. Right? So the first thing that I'll share is vision. And so I would ask you, as an agency leader, how clear is your vision right now? Do you really know what it is that you Want. One of my favorite questions around vision is something that I typically will ask an agency leader on an initial discovery call. So someone who's considering maybe working with us or being one of our private client members in particular, is just to ask about them and their agency. And it comes from Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach. Right. And he calls it the relationship question. It's a great question. It's a question that if you ask yourself, ask someone else, maybe even on your team, Right. So you can use this in different ways to help them be more clear in their vision. It's amazing what comes from this question. Here's the question again. This comes from Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach in the book actually called the Dan Sullivan Question. But here's what it says. If we were having this discussion three years from today, and you were looking back over those three years, what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress? So I'll say it again, because this may be a question if you don't have the book or you haven't looked it up is well worth writing down. Again, I think about how do people have great vision? It's about asking yourself great questions. And this is a fantastic, fantastic question. If we were having this discussion three years from today and you were looking back over those three years, what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress? And why that's such a great question is, of course, you're putting yourself in the future, so to speak. But you're starting to think about the things that you did right throughout that to help you to get where you want to go. And again, it's just a great thought exercise to go through, but it helps to expand your clarity. Certainly it helps to expand your vision and some certainty around it. Right. We're never going to have full certainty. There's always going to be levels of uncertainty. But if we don't have a compelling picture of our future, it's really hard to fight for it. You may want to write that down if you're not in a car. If you don't have a compelling picture of your future, it's really hard to fight for it. Right? So that's number one. Again, part of that is going back to eagles. It's just this great vision. All right, Number two characteristic of eagles that applies to agency leadership is that eagles are tenacious. Now, can they be mean? I suppose I don't know all the personality styles of an eagle, but I'll Tell you they're tenacious. And what I think of tenacious is that they face their challenges head on. If an eagle is in a skirmish with another bird or trying to fight for prey, it's going to fight until it wins. It's going to fight until it wins. And regardless of the competition, whether it's an internal competition, whether it's an external competition, whether it's a fear, right, that they may have, it's this idea of being tenacious and fearless in what they're trying to do. And I can tell you, one of the things that I see with agency leaders is that when things get a little bit challenging or hard. And by the way, this is true for all of us, right? In different ways. But it's the ability to be aware. Am I really fighting? This goes back to the first part, right? Part of having that compelling vision. But am I really fighting for everything that I want? Am I being tenacious? Maybe another word for it word is to be persistent. And this comes, you know, persistence is one of the chapters in Think and Grow Rich. And this idea that one of the biggest differences between successful people and unsuccessful people are not because someone's smarter or has more knowledge or resources, that certainly could be part of it, but it's the people that persist. It's the people that say, you know what, Tuesday, a lot of people would quit because it was a hard day, but not me. I will persist into Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or the next week or the next month or the next year, right? That's the part of being tenacious. And that's a characteristic that agency leaders have is listen, going back to, I'm going to fight for what I want. And I certainly don't mean this in a way that's you're being mean or vicious or you're not manipulating other people, right? This isn't I win, you lose in all these cases, Right. I want to make sure I'm clear on that. But it's this idea, the fact that I believe in so much of what I'm doing, I believe so much. And just give an example from a producer perspective, I believe so much that the client will be better off after working with me and her agency because I so believe in the value that we provide and the experience that we deliver. That I would be doing myself and them a disservice if I didn't fight for it. Right. Again, doesn't mean it didn't mean about it. And there's a lot of characteristics and things you have to do within that And I've done other podcasts and we could have a whole separate discussions on those kind of things through a selling cycle, for example. But for right now, just to understand that if you want to fly high, if you want to have that ego characteristic, one of the things that you have to do is that you have to fully believe in what you're doing and be willing to stick with it, to be persistent even when things get tough. And I think that is one of the biggest difference. I certainly see definitely with salespeople, but of agency leaders of all kind. Alright, number three, characteristic of eagles, or if you want to be this high flyer, right, in your profession in the field out there as an insurance professional, that eagles are great hunters. This kind of goes again along with the last one I mentioned. But let's talk about specifically what that means to be a great hunter. Well, first of all, you don't see eagles on the ground like pigeons or buzzards scavenging for food. Here's what's left over. I'll take the easy stuff. That's not very good, right? That's not what eagles do. Eagles know specifically what they want, right? And then they go get it. So let me just provide a couple examples of this and we can do one from a team approach, right? Leading an agency team, and one maybe from leading a client approach of being a great hunter. You know, one of the things that I see with agency leaders, and this is much easier said than done, right, I understand and respect that. But I think oftentimes I see the agency leaders, they settle to find people that are a good enough fit for their agency. And I know finding people is a challenge. I get all that. I've been through that, I've worked with agencies on it. It's not easy. But I will tell you, the easier thing that many agencies do is they say, well, at least this person can do this and this. They seem to be okay. And then they get frustrated. Why they're not getting the level of performance they want. The great agency leaders know, I know exactly the type of person I want for this particular role. I understand the attitude that I want. I understand that this person is coachable. I understand this person is hungry, right? There's a lot of different factors to that. But the bottom line that I would say here from this podcast perspective is that they know who it is they want and they'll go get them. And they're constantly aware of it, right? A big part of that is awareness. It's like one of those things. Whereas if I tell you Right now not to think of a red car. Your brain has just thought of a red car. So part of it is, hey, I want to identify specifically the type of person I want for my organization. And I'm going to have my antennas up all the time, right? Because we can find these people in lots of different places, maybe unexpected places. But I'm going to know right now it's going to make me a great hunter, right? If I see something that I might have wanted that I hadn't thought about before, it's probably too late, right? And that happens a lot. And that's because we're not as focused or clear again on what it is that we want or who that we want. In this case, the same is true from a sales perspective, right? For insurance producers, one of the things that we teach specifically in our producer programs and others is the fact that you've got to have a future ideal client list. Not suspects, not prospects, but future ideal clients. What is the profile? What are the characteristics? Obviously we believe in specialization. If you can do that. I believe most agencies and producers should be specializing, but understanding the needs, the wants, the desires and saying, that's the client I want. In fact, I'm going to create a board. I'm going to, besides just having a spreadsheet, I'm going to create a board or using a CRM, I'm going to make it visual, I'm going to be hungry, I know exactly what I want, I know who I want and I'm going to make sure that I go get it. That's a characteristic of an eagle and a high flyer. They're great hunters. And a big part of that is they know what they want. And then here's the other part, right? Here's, I guess stage two of being a great hunter. When you get there, they know what to do, right? Eagles know what to do when they get to their prey in this case, right? So if you get to someone, do you have processes in place that once you get to that point, you've identified who you want? Right. On either case that I just gave and then you get there, do you have a process that you take them through that you continue to fine tune? That works, right? Do you have an agency and hiring process? Do you have a sales process outside of look, copy, quote, pray, right? So that's one of the things to consider. And if you don't, it's going to be challenged to be a great hunter. There's nothing worse than then getting to the prey and then going, well, now what Right now what do I do? Because other people that might be wanting to eat some of the same things I'm trying to eat here. Right. Hope that doesn't sound morbid, but you get the point, right? In the terms of insurance professionals. And so that again, one of the characteristics is are you a great hunter? Whether it's hunting for people for your organization or certainly hunting for clients for your book of business. The next one I want to talk about is really interesting. This was when I was doing some studying. I know, believe it or not, I've been studying some different characteristics of eagles and I did not know this, this was interesting. And I thought, wow, how powerful is this? Eagles, as they get to a certain age, kind of go through a metamorphosis. That's the best word I can use. They reinvigorate themselves. They have this way to be had, this vitality about them. And what I read is the fact that eagles at a certain age, typically at about 30ish. I mean, I'm not an eagle expert, but at some point they go in and they either go, you know, if they're mountains, they may go to a mountaintop or a high tree and they actually go in and like knock off their beaks and their talons and regrow them in a different way. Instead of just dying off, they kind of knock off the old stuff, so to speak. I don't have a better way of saying it to in many ways transform themselves. You know, here's the thing and here's the analogy I want to give. You're going, what is he talking about right now? But I mean, think about eagle of 30 years. That's a pretty good life for a bird. And they've probably had a lot of successes, right, these high flyers. But they say, you know what, I'm not done yet. And the lesson I took in reading this and just thinking about why they're doing that is obviously they're adding longevity to their lives. But I think about so many agency leaders and producers that get stuck in their own ways and die, so to speak, not physically, but growth wise, because they have this thought process. And maybe you've had this thought process of, well, that's the way we've always done it, right? It worked 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even five years ago. And I think success leaves clues. I think we need to understand things that work. But to say I'm not done growing yet. What are some things that maybe I've taken for granted? What are some things that maybe I've Gotten stuck in. What are some things maybe that I've been doing for a while that really aren't working as well as they could or should. Right? That's the lesson to take from this. The fact that. Not that you have to fully reinvent yourself, but I so often see, and certainly with insurance producers, but this is true for agency professionals in whole, is that we plateau, we stagnate because we think we've gotten to a certain point and, well, that's good enough. And maybe financially it is pretty good. But I always find deep down in our gut, in our soul, when we've come to a place, we've done some things that have been fairly successful, however you want to define that. And we just kind of say, that's good enough. That's the way we've always done it. This is where I'm always going to be. It's a pretty decent place. There's something deep down in our gut, in our soul, that says, no, it's not right. No, it's not. There's a best version of me. I'm never going to attain perfection, but darn it, I'm certainly going to keep plugging away to try because I owe it to myself. I owe it to the people around me to do that. And so when I think of this, the fact that eagles, after all these years, they go in and knock off their beaks and their talons to regrow them, to say, listen, there's more life in me yet. One of the things that Roger Sitkins always says, and certainly this is true for more veteran insurance professionals, but he says, hey, this, are you done yet? Are you done? And when you think about that, like, well, I hope not right now. You can always, when I look at retirement or however you want to view, are you done yet? There may be a different path, you may be doing different things, but just the human nature of the spirit is to say, listen, I'm not done growing. I'll never be done growing. Once you stop growing, you start dying. And so that's the thing that I want to take away from this, the fact that there's this reinvigoration. Do you need to have that in your life or your career? Have you gotten stuck or stagnant? Is it time to maybe knock off your beak or your talent, right? In your case, whatever it is, knock off some rust, Go back and read a new book to excite you, attend a new program, find someone that you can talk to as a mentor. I don't know what it is, but some way to Kind of rekindle that spirit, that fire that may have been dimmed, to say the least, inside of you. So that's. That's the fourth characteristic is this idea of vitality, reinvigoration. The last one may be surprising. I've mentioned this on one of our CEO boot camp programs that we run. But one of the neat characteristics about eagles, as much as they are tenacious and fearless and hunters and aggressive, right? In certain ways, they also are the best bird in nurturing their young, right? They understand the fact that there are other people around and of course, this case, their offspring, but they've got to make sure they nurture them. But it's not just nurturing by coddling. They will take care of their young, for sure, protect their young, but they also will challenge them to spread their wings. And, you know, one of those things, hey, spread your wings and fly, right? Well, they also left their eaglets spread their wings, and when they fall, if they're not flying, they go pick them up again, and they try it again, and they try it again, and they try it again. So what's the lesson? What does this mean for you to be a high flyer in your agency, in your craft, in your profession? Well, here's the thing. We all have people around us that need us. Could be our support team, could be our service team, could be people in our community, right? All kinds of aspects. How well are you doing in nurturing? And maybe it's not people even younger than you, right? Nurturing your young, but nurturing those who look to you as a leader, who want encouragement, who need encouragement, who need to be challenged, right? At times, maybe they're getting comfortable. Who are those people around you? And again, doesn't mean they're younger. It just means that those are people that you have influence around. I've said this many times in the Agent Leader podcast. Leadership is ultimately about influence. And every one of you listening to me right now has influence. And one of those things you have to think about is just like an eagle, how well am I nurturing those around me? Am I equipping? Am I empowering them? Am I serving them at the highest level? Am I coming to them with questions to help them find solutions, right? Going back to what the eagle does is, yeah, they'll let their eaglet drop. And if the eaglets struggle, they don't let them crash to the ground and die. They grab them and say, okay, it didn't work this time, but we're going to do it again. So how are you coaching and leading the people around you. It's one of the huge characteristics of what makes eagles so special. And going back to the initial point of this podcast, ultimately makes them a high flyer. Because those eaglets are learning how to fly young and being encouraged and challenged. Guess what? They, as adult eagles, are going to fly higher than any other bird, just like they're leaders. So I've just given you five characteristics of how you can be high flyers, right? To represent that ego mentality, to be the top leader. Vision, being tenacious, being that hunter, right? Knowing what you want, reinventing or reinvigorating yourself when you're stuck. And lastly, about nurturing those around you. So just think through those. Which one of those five do you do really well? Or maybe you do several well, which is fantastic. Which one or two are you struggling with? Could you improve upon Awareness creates action. And one more line I'm going to borrow from the great Dan Sullivan is this. All progress starts by telling the truth. All progress starts by telling the truth. Be honest with yourself. The first step for any great leader, and I see this all the time with the great leaders, the agencies I get a chance to work with, is they define reality. They say this is what it really is right now and let's be aware of that so that we can make the proper improvements. Not to beat ourselves up, but we can't make the proper transformation in our agency, in our own career if we don't come to grips with where we're really at today. So take some time to do that. Start to make the necessary improvements as you move forward. And if we can help in any way at Sitkins through all the different programs that we have and you're looking to go deeper in some of the areas that I'm talking about here, whether it's in our producer sales program, our leadership or service programs, or getting the opportunity to join our all inclusive membership where you can pick and choose and put as many people in your agency as the program that best fits you and your needs. Moving forward, we would love to help you and see if there's a fit between your agency and our coaching and training. My name is Brent Kelly, host of the Agent Leader Podcast. Thanks again for listening to this. And if this podcast added value to your life, your career, a couple things I would ask for you. Number one is share it with someone. Is there another agency leader that could benefit from some of these podcasts, this content that I'm sharing And number two, make sure you give me a review. I really would appreciate it for the Agent Leader Podcast. It allows us to impact other agencies around the country and hopefully around the world as we continue to expand our footprint and be able to help agencies become their best version possible. I wish you all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.