How the 30-Second Rule Will Transform Your Leadership

The most crucial point in every conversation you have is the very first 30 seconds in today's Agent Leader Podcast. I'm going to discuss these most important 30 seconds, why they're so important, and the positive results it'll give your business and your life. Every episode of the AgentLeader podcast is brought to you by Agents of Growth. You can Visit them at agentsofgrowth.net they provide purposeful, inspiring business growth for insurance professionals. Hey there, friends. Brent Kelly with another episode of the Agent Leader Podcast. And hopefully my tease didn't put pressure on you to say that the first 30 seconds in every conversation are the most important, but it really is, right? You never get a second chance to make a first impression. You know, oftentimes when you go out and you network, for example, I did that for many years as an agent, you'd have to have like your pitch, right? Your elevator pitch. And right now I was thinking about my elevator pitch as a speaker and a trainer to the insurance world, and it sounds something like this. Hi, my name is Brent. I help insurance leaders communicate with purpose, connect with confidence, and lead with greater influence so that they achieve world class results. I would love to see how I could help your organization. Hey, here's my card. Would you like to grab coffee or hop on a call sometime so you can learn more? There you go. Right? That would be the 32nd, or in this case, maybe 15 second pitch. And now while this is true, and I was thinking about this, while this is true of what I do right for insurance professionals, I do help insurance professionals and leaders communicate with purpose, connect with confidence, and lead with greater influence. I'm proud of that. This is not the best way to open up a conversation, whether it be a networking event or whether you're working inside your office, or again on the phone, wherever you're having conversation. Yet this is to some degree, and again, this is an example of a networking conversation, but this is an example of how most people start conversations with others, and that is by talking about themselves. So a few years ago I heard something called the 30 second rule, and I thought it was fabulous and I started to apply it and try it in my own life. And I'll tell you right now, I'm not always perfect with it, but when I'm consistent, you can really see the power of this 30 second rule. So whether it's with prospects, clients, business partners, in my family, it's been one of the best communication and leadership ideas I've ever learned. This 30 second rule. And it's something that any one of us. Any leader, any business professional, any sales professional can and should apply in their daily conversations. You know, most of the time, we focus our conversations on who we are, what we do and or what we want. Now, this could be true at a networking event, in the office, or on the phone. The point of the 32nd rule is to make sure. This is the point. The point of the 30 second rule is to make sure that in the first 30 seconds of every conversation that you say something encouraging about that person. The first 30 seconds of every conversation, you say something encouraging about that person. It's amazing how simple. It's very simple, obviously, but yet how effective this practice truly is. Because here's the deal. Every one of us wants to feel encouraged. We all want to feel encouraged. Encouragement gives people energy and instills motivation. As my mentor, John Maxwell says, leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand. Right? It's so true. We touch a heart before we ask for a hand. Our time. Our time is the most precious asset we have. And when we give someone our complete and undivided attention, you make them feel like a million bucks. And I promise, not only will they feel like a million bucks, you'll feel like a million bucks as well. Again, when you give someone your most precious asset, your time, especially in that first 30 seconds, William King said this. I love this quote. A gossip is one who talks about other people. A bore is one who talks about to you about himself. And a brilliant conversationalist is willing to talk to you about yourself, right? A gossip is one who talks about other people. A bore is one who talks to you about himself. And a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks about yourself. Right? Talks about you. So when you give someone a genuine compliment. A genuine compliment. Let me stop here for a second. No one should be giving insincere compliments, right? You shouldn't be giving insincere compliments. You're just making stuff up, right? That's. People can see through that. But when you give someone a genuine compliment, how do you feel? How do you really feel? Are you grateful? Do you have a bit more energy? Do you stand up a bit taller? Of course you do. We all do. When someone gives you a compliment, you just, you kind of have a sense of pride. It makes you feel good. Especially. Obviously, a sincere compliment. And this is especially true in the first 30 seconds of every conversation. So some people ask me, how do you get charisma? How do you come in? You know, I always joke that some people come in to a room and they light it up. Others, they come in and they blow out all the candles or turn off all the lights, right? And how do you energize a room? Here's a way to energize a room. Start giving sincere compliments and just watch the results. Imagine if you're in a room of 20 people, right? Dinner party, networking event, convention, whatever, workplace function. Instead of going around and being like, hey, Joe, how about the, you know, how about the Cubs? Or hey, let me tell you what I'm doing. If you went over and again, especially if you know these people to a degree and think of something that you could say to encourage them, something that maybe they did positively something you heard about that they did and say, hey, I heard about, you know, you did this great job on that. Way to go right away. You are making a strong connection. I often hear from insurance leaders on how to motivate their team, how to motivate company partners, how to motivate their clients. Start by encouraging them. You know, most of us know what we should be doing, but that doesn't mean we do it. And this is why this is so important with encouragement. Because some people say, well, jeez, I have something important to say. I need to tell them what they did wrong. You'll get to that. Most people know what they should be doing. That's why I believe the greatest gap in performance is the gap between knowing and doing. And this is where this 30 second rule can be so powerful in your communication, because you instill motivation for people and help them move from knowing to doing. Now, a couple years ago, I was getting ready to deliver my own training webinar. This was a training webinar to 35 insurance professionals. And this is just as I was leaving my position as an insurance agent, started doing some speaking and training. So this was a big opportunity for me, a big opportunity to give value, to build my reputation, and of course, to make some sales. Unfortunately, it was a complete and utter disaster. The video and the audio was cutting in and out. I messed up some of the slides within 15 minutes. Within 15 minutes, only about five people were left. Now, when this misery finally ended, I was ejected. And I thought, well, I blew it. I blew it. Now, just a few minutes after about 10 minutes after I finished this training webinar, the phone rang and I answered it. And it was a person, I'm not going to mention his name, but very well respected in the insurance industry. And he laughed. And at first I thought, oh, my gosh, this guy was actually on the webinar. And he laughed and said, you know, it was definitely rough, but that he experienced similar challenges. And then he said something in that first 30 seconds of the phone call that I'll never forget. He said, brent, I stayed on the entire webinar and I want to tell you have amazing potential. You have a unique ability to communicate and connect through your stories and through your principles. It's too bad that more people didn't hang around because they really would have learned a lot. You really need to keep doing this because someday you're going to be a world class speaker and trainer. Now you can only imagine after struggling through this 45 minutes and having five people laughed after 15 minutes, what those words did for me, for my confidence, and how it began to motivate me to become a better speaker and learn from my mistakes and be a better trainer, help more people. He could have easily just started the conversation by telling me all the things I did wrong. This is a person that had done hundreds of webinars and he would have been 100% right and I would have listened. However, he spent the first 30 seconds on the phone call encouraging me and that inspired me to get better. So how does the 30 second rule motivate people to achieve more? In the book 25 Ways to Win With People, the authors describe the power of motivation. I want to share four bullet points that they talk about in the book on motivation. Motivation helps people who know what they should do to do it. Motivation helps people who know what habit they should break to break it. Motivation helps people who know what commitments they should make to make them. And motivation helps people who know what path they should take to take it. See, this is exactly what this person did when he called me and encouraged me after my webinar disaster. As a leader. As a leader. Whether you're a CEO, president, manager, sales producer, customer service rep, or anyone who has influence. And if you've listened to any of my podcasts, you know that leadership, one thing and one thing only, right? It's influence. But if you're in any of these things, if you have any type of influence, and by the way you do, the first 30 seconds is the most important part of every conversation. Try today, try tomorrow. Try this week to make the first 30 seconds of every conversation encouraging and powerful. Think of ways you can thank someone for what they've done, discuss an accomplishment they have achieved, or simply acknowledge a personal attribute. Like many things that I talk about and I believe the 32nd rule isn't complicated. Some people say, well, jeez, that's not very complicated, but it's really, really effective. And by the way, it's not easy because it requires you to take the time to value people, to pour into people, to listen to people. It'll take your effort and it'll take discipline. But you'll find that if you apply this practice into your life, this 30 second rule, you will improve your relationships and you will gain more influence. Hey, thanks again for listening to the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, and if this podcast episode or other episodes have brought value to your life and your business, do me a favor, would you? Could you go to itunes or Stitcher radio and leave me a kind review? It helps to get the word out. Also, I'm really excited to announce the first week of June, I am launching my very first insurance professional communication masterclass. So if you want to be a better communicator, if you want to get better results, if you want to gain influence, then this is a program that you want to take. It's four weeks long. I'll be delivering it live every week and also access to recordings. Just go to brentmkelly.com and you'll see the icon there on the top right half of the screen. Or go to brentmkelly.commasterclass. we'd love to have you on the program. I'm only taking 25 people on this first class until the next episode of the Agent Leader podcast. We need leaders. We need insurance leaders. So go out there. Lead with passion, lead with purpose, lead with persistence. All the best to you and your success.