Is Your Agency Doing the Limbo?

Foreign. 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 us. As always, the purpose of the Agent Leader podcast is to help you as an agency leader gain clarity, build consistency, and make a commitment to become your best version possible. And today we're going to continue to encourage and challenge you to to become your best version possible by simplifying certain areas of your agency and focusing. And the title of this podcast, and what we want to talk about is this is your agency doing the limbo? Is your agency doing the limbo. And we'll explain that a little more in a minute. And I do want to make sure I welcome our very special guest who's going to help us talk about this topic today, Roger Sitkins, CEO of the Sitkins Group. Roger, welcome back to the Agent Leader Podcast.

Thanks, Brent. I always enjoy being here and it's always fun to share our experiences and knowledge and hope people get some things out of this. They'll go back and actually do what they said they were going to do. They'll use them.

Wonderful. Well, I want to, you know, this topic came up for a couple different reasons. One, that Raj and I were having a conversation earlier this week about this, but it really was spurred on from a mutual event that Rog and I were both part of. We were coaching and consulting with an agency in the mid south, this is a few years ago, and going through some different areas, obviously of sales and leadership training with the agency. And at the end of our time together, we had multiple events, working together. The agency leader stood up to the entire group in front of Roger and myself and his entire team and said, you know what, the bar is pretty low in this industry. Right. Most agencies aren't doing a whole heck of a lot, but we're going to do a few things extremely well and we're going to raise the bar and get very focused in a key area. And they did. And by raising the bar, and again, they did a number of different things, but laser focus in particular in one area. And they raised the bar. And by doing that, they tripled their organic growth rate in nine months. And it was a really incredible story and it was a lot of fun, but it just showed the power of when you simplify and, and when you focus in the area to raise the bar, it can do a lot of great things for your agency. So, Roger, before I get into our conversation, anything you want to add to my story because you were there as well?

Well, it's a good sized agency. I mean, they were rated 8 million of commission income. So it's not like we were dealing with a small agency. And it was so exciting to see the CEO stand up and say, look, here's what we're gonna do. Cause you know, we've talked about this before. Somebody has to make a decision. And what really spurred his comments were towards the end there, where we were talking about the fact that the reality is that 80% of agencies and 80% of producers, they're going to do okay whether they ever met us or not. And they accept good is good enough. And they were semi successful as we talk about. And so that's the bottom 80%. But I said, you know, the reality is the next 18%, they're really escaping the traps that the 80% get caught in. And then there's the final 2% that really have the best possible results. And you could just see that, that comment there. I was watching him in particular, his eyes just lit up. And that's when he jumped up and said, okay, all right, the bar's real low. We're going to change it. Our organization's going to change. And that's when it starts. It's when the leader starts leading. It was exciting. And again, to go from 3% to 9% organic growth in nine months in an agency that size, that's pretty impactful to say least.

Yeah, it provided a lot of opportunities and options for that agency. And you know, really comes down to what I just said a little bit ago. I mean, they, they got simplified in certain areas and they just got laser focused. And you know, why we're talking about is your agency doing the limbo, is that sometimes you can kind of sleepwalk right through life, through business, through agency leadership. And even though the bar is low, sometimes we find yourself maybe are we doing the limbo that we're still actually playing below the bar. So again, that's going to be our topic today. I do want to mention just the fact that our programs, in particular our all inclusive model and the process, our unique process around the all inclusive model. We work holistically with agencies to help your entire agency build and develop that culture of greatness, to get buy in from your entire agency team, to simplify and walk you through a proven process and to partner you with other agencies across the country to network that entire process. The all inclusive model. We're getting ready to launch off our next series of camps. It starts here in just a few weeks. And so if you want to be part of this exclusive group and a group that's they're going to achieve greatness. And it's so fun to watch and you know, share stories like what Roger and I just shared. Go to sitkins.com aim@sitkins.com aim it's our all inclusive model. We one low flat price for your entire agency, regardless of how many people want to be part of that program. And once every part of your agency, every member of your agency gets the core training, the clarity that we're going to provide through a transformational scorecard, we then have now added 90 day deep dives. So to pick one particular area and the reason why I stress that is just the example that we gave with this agency. One particular area to go deep in to get true transformation, to finally get the results that you've been desiring. So hopefully you can sense my passion excitement as we get ready to kick these off. It's just so fun to see agencies who go, you know what, now I'm finally beginning to achieve something that I've always wanted, which is freedom. So go to sitkins.com aim to learn more about that program to see if it's a fit for you and your agency. So with that, Roger, you ready to talk about the limbo?

Absolutely.

Okay, so as I introduce this and we talk about this, this is not in any means to, you know, sit here and say, oh, you know, your agency isn't very good in this or that. But I will tell you it's going to create some awareness as we talk about some of these things. What I want you to do as an agency leader is to say, is this maybe an area that maybe we are kind of doing the limbo? We're kind of sleepwalking or bending ourselves to get below the bar versus finding ways to hop over the bar to achieve excellence. And there's three key areas that I want to talk to you about, Roger, and get your opinions and your take on. One is where do agencies limbo in their mindset, right in their focus and their attitude. Whatever you, however you want to describe it, I want to ask you, where do you see agencies that do the limbo and maybe in their strategies or the behaviors or specific actions. And where do you see agencies do some limbo as far as the results they are getting and the results they could be getting, which is pretty exciting. So I want to start with mindset. Just keep this real simple, Roger. Where do you see, where do you think agencies are limboing below the bar in terms of mindset in a lot of areas.

But I would say so much of it is just the thought process, mindset, how you think, how you interpret things. And I see that too many agency principals and producers have self limiting beliefs. They say, well, I know that agency is growing by 12% or 15%, but that's not us, we. And the minute they say that's not us, their brain says, you're right. It's sort of like in golf, you know, don't hit it in the water. And the brain says, hit it in the water. What a great idea. At least that's what happens to me. Okay, the things is that they, they know certain things. And again, it's not just self limiting beliefs, but they hear things, they know things and they say, yeah, but example, the 80 20, we talk about it all the time and yet what we see is those agencies that are playing below the bar, playing too low, doing the limbo, go, yeah, that, that 8020 might be true, but that's not. No, we're okay. And their attitude is, well, every account is a great account. Every account is a great account. That's not true because agencies don't realize that so many of them have profitable accounts, subsidizing, unprofitable, but every account's a great account. So rather than having a mindset of ignoring 80 20, and we talked about this recently as a result of our Elite 50 program, our sales mastery program, one of the biggest producers in there, where he said, you know what, not only am I going to embrace 80 20, instead of ignoring it, I'm actually going to embrace 20 80. I'm going to know those 20% of my accounts that are 80% of my revenues and I'm going to know the 20% of things I do personally that get me 80% of my results. Because one of the things Brent and I haven't even had a chance to talk to you about it because it was, it came to me this morning during my workout listening to a podcast about high performers, the best performers. And there were two words that were used that were truly our mindset and actual flow into a bunch of other areas. But the two words were routines and processes that the best have a mindset of what's my routine and then what are the processes that in our vernacular we're going to go deep on, we're going to master. So the mindset of the best, not the ones doing the limbo, are no self limiting beliefs. I've got to think bigger. I've got to stop thinking small, playing small, playing small ball. And I'VE just got to find out that what are those things that when I get a laser focus on, and I'll allow 80% of the agencies, you know, as a competitor, let them be quoters and floaters, and that's fine. But I just know that I've got to take my game up. What's that next level look like? And those are the ones that are curious for learning. And, you know, they're the ones. I realize I'm preaching to the choir here because they're listening to your podcast, but the people that are really committed to it is the same. There's a better version of me out there and what am I going to do to make sure I've got a great future as an agency owner, as a producer, etc. So those are some of the things.

I see in mindset, Roger, just to, I guess, get my thoughts on this, too, when it comes to mindset, because, you know, I'm just a huge believer. And it's not just a believer in it. I see it. And you know, you made the comment on a previous podcast you were on, I think earlier, too, is that at some point you got to make a decision. And, you know, whether it's agencies that have worked with us, and certainly, Roger, in your history, you've seen agencies who have 3x and 4x their overall revenue of their agency over several years. And that's like, oh, you know, or if it's an agency that went from 5 million to 10 million or 5 million to 7 million, whatever it is, you know, I have other people that go, well, that's them. Well, why, what's the difference? Are they, are they smarter than you? Do they have more, you know, do they have all these extra resources? Do they have that, you know, that magical pill that people joke? No, they just decided that that's what they wanted to do. And it's a mindset issue. And it's easy to say, but it reminds me of my favorite quotes that said this. If you don't place high value on yourself, rest assured, the world's not going to raise the price. And I see so many agencies like, well, this is just kind of who we are. Now, again, if that's a decision that you want to make as an agency leader that you're, hey, I'm just good with it. I am so happy in my life, my business, that I don't want to make any improvements, well, then, you know, that's, that's, that's your world and that's okay. Right? You got to make Your own decision. But it's the agencies that go. We would like to be. Wouldn't it be neat? I hope. And by the way, Roger, there's that drug out there, remember? Opium. I hope that we grow by this amount or whatever the case may be. And the other thing, too, you mentioned 80, 20, and we talk a lot, obviously, about 80, 20, and. Oh, yeah, yeah, the sickness talks about 80, 20. But so few agencies actually really implement or execute 80, 20. One of the things that I always tell producers in particular is as you get better your craft, and this is a mindset issue, as you get better in your craft, and I always say, let's stop for a second, go. Now, you do think you're going to get better, right? Of course, yeah. Well, as you get better in your craft, shouldn't your clients and people are like, oh, yeah, maybe they should. So why are you working with the same type of clients you are today that you did five years ago? Is it a mindset issue? Right. And so those are things to think about. So the last thing I want to add, I know I'm going a little long here on my response, but you mentioned best version possible. Possible. And my guess, if you're listening to my voice right now, and you are, is that you've had times where, whether it's been before you've fallen asleep or you're in the morning or some point you can see or visualize the best version of your agency, you know, working as highest caliber, the best relationships, the best processes, the best strategies. And then that, that blink of an eye, it's over. And then you go back to what you're always doing. Well, I would challenge you to really examine what that looks like as your best version and identify what are the traps, the gaps, the roadblocks. What's that bar that's preventing me from getting there? And say, how do I begin to eliminate that? That's a big part, obviously we do, Roger, with our clients is begin to really have them understand that. Let's identify the areas that are keeping you below the bar that shouldn't be. And a lot of it is we call head trash. So some of my responses, Roger, anything you want to add to that or do you want to get to the next part?

No, one thing to add is just that the people that have that internal self talk that they're justifying why they're average and what they're really doing is they're accepting their own excuses. Well, here's why. Here's why. You know, they get as crazy as well. You know, I just can't get these people to do this or they won't return my phone call. Or atmospheric conditions are not conducive to selling today. They do all these excuses at the end of the day, the end of the week, the end of the month, end of the quarter, whatever. They're going, oh, yeah, that's why. But I'm still doing okay. I'm still doing okay. You know, I just. Why? Why is okay good enough? That just. That's always baffled me, and I guess just because the industry is so good, but it is time to take your game up a whole lot of notches and not. Not be in that. The limbo. You know, actually, when we said we were going to talk about this, I looked up the original song, and one of the big phrases there is, let's go lower now. Let's go lower now. Why don't we just go higher? I don't want to win the limbo match. Okay, so let's move on.

Well, yeah, and you say, let's go lower. Here's the thing. We, you know, we challenge agency leaders on this, and some of our. Our private coaching calls and some of our masterminds. The fact that, like, you're either growing or you're not, like, there's no. There's no plat. You don't just stay where you are. So you got to make a decision in that. And so when you say, let's go lower, go lower, sometimes that happens and we don't even know it. Right. Because it happens so slowly. I want to get to strategies and behaviors. So we talked about the limbo. What are some strategies and behaviors? And I guess the question I would ask is, you know, where do agencies act below the bar, Their actual strategies, their processes, their behaviors. And I do want to kind of tee something up, Roger, because you said it so many times, and maybe you were going to say this anyway, but I want to make sure you get to it is the fact that this, your current business model is what, Roger? It's perfectly designed to what?

Yeah, I mean, your current business model, which is. And maybe you don't purposely have a business model, but your strategies and behaviors you follow on a regular basis, that's your business model. And your current business model is perfectly designed for you to achieve the results you're currently achieving. If you look at your book of business as a producer and you say, gee, I wonder why it's like this. It's because of your business model. If you say to yourself, as you're for the agency overall. Gee, I wonder why we've only got a 3 or 4% growth rate. It's because of your business model. It's those things you've allowed to become normal. And so if you don't challenge yourself on, hey, what's my business model? Because whatever I'm doing today is perfectly, perfectly designed for me to get the growth that I'm having, for me to get the profit, for me to have people buy in at the level they should. It's your business model. And again, unfortunately, Brent, for so many people in our industry, it's not a purposeful business model. It's just what's evolved over time. And we're. We're doing okay. We're doing okay.

Yep, I, I hear that. Is there, is there anything, I mean, you talk about the business model. Is there anything that jumps out at you, Roger, as far as specific strategies? I know you mentioned, you know, the 80 20, and that's a philosophy and a strategy, but anything else, as far as behaviors that jump out, you receive. Boy, there's a behavior that agencies are continuing to do below the bar.

The two words I said earlier, the routines and processes. When you just challenge yourself as an individual, whether you're the leader, whether you're a producer, account manager, whatever, but just challenge yourself on what are your routines? And one of the ones that we talk about all the time and preach on, and I personally am at about 98% execution on it now. It's a Sunday review debriefing. Last week, pre briefing this week, looking at my calendar, looking at the events, looking at the routines, you know, what time do I get up in the morning? What's the meditation, you know, what's the workout, whatever. Just, are you, are you in a great routine? And do you have your core processes nailed where you just, you've mastered them? And what we see for average or less than average, Agencies and producers is one of our favorite acronyms. Hog H A W G. It's Hysterical activity on the way to the grave. And then it hit me recently that actually we have some cane hogs. So another acronym, cane C A N E. Continual and Never ending hog. So continual and Never ending Historical activity on the way to the grave. We're really, really busy. Boy, are we busy. But we're just getting average results. And so I'd much rather have people be exceedingly purposeful, exceedingly deep on a few things, such as, let's just look at pipelines. Do you know what a future ideal client looks like? Do you have that avatar, do you know exactly who they are? Are you identifying them? Are you marketing to them? Have you completed a targeted account strategy plan? How to get in the door? How are you going to get referred to them? Or are you doing what? I just see so many people below the bar, and I use this term and people always laugh when I say it. When we're doing either virtual or in person events, I say, are you aggressively waiting for the phone to ring or the clicks, pings, rings and dings happening where you have an opportunity to chase an unqualified prospect? And then the other thing is just that so many people today, whether it's service, sales, leadership, have forgotten one of the best tools out there. It's called a phone. And they're trying to communicate everything electronically, which I'm a huge fan of. I mean, we adapted so many things digitally through the years that we use as part of our business, but one of the best things we can do is pick up the phone and talk to somebody because it doesn't ring anymore. But people are just waiting for other things to happen. And again, aggressively waiting versus aggressively getting out there and saying, strategically, these are the things I have to do. Behaviors, these are the things I have to do. Good example. Below the bar, you don't have to rehearse your presentations. You can just go out there and wing it and you'll do okay. Really? Really? I don't think so. If you've got an opportunity with a future ideal client, that's an A or B potential client, and you're not practicing it, you haven't rehearsed it three or four times with an accountability partner, practice, partner, partner, you haven't filmed yourself doing it ahead of time. I wonder why the closing ratio is so low in the average agency because they're just absolutely going so shallow in their preparation. Whereas the ones that get it, the ones that are playing above the bar, their attitude is that every event, every opportunity deserves my very best. And I will be relentlessly prepared for every opportunity. And this gets back to, am I prepared for the week? Do I know what happened last week? And lessons learned? Am I prepared for this week? Am I meeting with my high performance team? Does my team know that we have the same goal but different roles, which you've talked about so much recently? The goal is roi, retaining and obtaining ideal clients. And what do we have to do as a team to do that? That's our goal. What are our roles? And I could go on for hours on this, obviously, but at the end of the day, understand this whole thing, again, your current business model, better known as the way we do business, it's perfectly designed to get you what you're getting. I guess the business model needs to change if you want to get above the bar and get that 2x3x, 4x5x growth rates because they're doable. We have people doing it all the time once they make a decision to change the way they do business, to change their business model.

Let's talk about that last part you just said, because I think, you know, I think if a lot of agency leaders that I speak with, when you start talking about results. Now again, we've mentioned the thought process, right? The thinking, the attitude, and just understanding that the current model, the processes, the strategies, those have to be aligned in many cases, obviously they have to be changed or improved to get the results that you want. But I do think, and you mentioned results that a lot of agencies just kind of assume that, you know, again, because the results are pretty good, even at the bar, below the bar. But I guess my question to you, Roger, is what's possible if, you know, if agencies really do simplify and focus, we talk about and say, you know what, we're going to make a decision, Gosh darn. And I'm tired of being just good because I want to be great. I want to be elite. And I'm willing to focus in on a couple key areas and really make these significant changes. What's possible from the results of these agencies, if they want to go from below the bar to jumping way above it? What does that look like?

Well, it's doing the things we've talked about here so far, but this whole concept of what's possible, we challenge producers and agency leaders with that question all the time. And we say, is it possible that there's a best version of you sitting out there waiting for you to arrive? Oh, yeah. What does that look like? Well, let's see. They have fewer accounts paying more money each. They have a very high closing ratio. They have overflowing pipelines. The producers are spending 80% of their time in the green zone versus the red zone. All those things we talk about, well, those are possible. And here's the key thing, Brett. And. And for all the listeners, if somebody else has done it, it's possible. It's possible. Now, they may have certain unfair advantages you don't have, but you could still get close to it. It's always crazy to me. I remember the story Joe Polish talked about, the guy from Genius Network who I've had an opportunity to meet. And he talked about the days when he was in the carpet cleaning business and he met this really successful entrepreneur, and he just wanted to ask him questions. The guy was huge in real estate, and they were just talking about where he wanted to go. And Joe said, you know, I just. I really want to get my business up where I'm doing. I can't remember the number X amount of dollars per month. And the guy looked at him and said, joe, is anybody in that carpet cleaning business in our marketing area doing that today? His response was, yeah. And then the guy said, then I guess it's possible. Tell me what they're doing you're not doing. And that changed his life. And every time we've told that story, you could just see the light bulbs come on. Producers go, oh. So the reality is that most of the people that are listening to this are saying, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. The key to this. And I had a session yesterday with 73 producers online. We talked specifically about this. I said, look, that best version possible of you, that business model that you really want to get to, when you make those behaviors and strategies repeatable, okay? Not sporadic. In other words, it's something that. This is what I do. It's part of my routine. It's part of the process I follow. When you make those repeatable versus sporadic, when you make them systematic versus sporadic, what happens is your results are predictable and guaranteed. When you don't do it, guess what? Your results are predictable and guaranteed. So it absolutely is doable. But the mindset has to be there. The strategies and behaviors have to be in place. And then you have to look at it and say, you know what? The whole concept of being semi successful, that good is good enough, is no longer acceptable to me. That what I'm going to do is I'm going to determine what my business model is going to be moving forward. I'm going to make a decision to stick with it. Not. Not the shiny new there goes another squirrel. Oh, there's a rabbit. But clearly, having the words you use so much now that I absolutely love simplify and focus. Simplify and focus. Because again, when you do that, it's predictable and guaranteed. What happens. It's a choice people have to make. Brent?

Yeah, I have nothing to add to that because I think that was so well said. I just want to ask all the agency leaders, as we kind of wrap up this podcast today, is it this? I'm going to ask you a very simple, actually, two questions. Number one, I said earlier, what's really possible for your agency? What's possible? And the second question that goes along with that is, are you ready to transform? Are you ready to transform? And you know, we talk a lot about transformation and even at Sitkins, you know, we teach and coach. It's not about the information. There's an abundance of information. You got some information from the podcast today and it's good, it's helpful, but that doesn't mean that you're transforming, that you're really making the changes. So a couple things I want to share with the audience, and I mentioned this on a previous podcast and do it again, is that we have an agency transformation scorecard. And this is a scorecard for your agency. There's 10 areas that you're going to rate yourself and I've got a video on there explaining what it looks like and how you can to best rate yourself. But if you just go to sitkins.com scorecard sitkins.com scorecard you can go on there and give yourself a rating. Because the big part of it, if you're going to transform, you have to know where you are to where you really want to go. And you know, I'm a big believer. And Roger, you've heard me say this so many times that to create the right actions, we have to have the awareness. And so this is going to help you as an agency really identify 10 key areas that we see that the best version possible agencies achieve and just see where you're at. This isn't something to beat anybody up, but it's a way for you to have awareness, to take the right actions. And then as you complete this, it's on our page again, sitkins.comscorecard you'll get a PDF back identifying your key areas and give you a great awareness tool. And with that, depending on where you're at or what you really want or where you want to go, I want to invite you again as we kick off our programs here in late summer, early fall and we get in going back to the agency transformation process and this experience with agencies to have access to all of our programs and be able then to take deep dives from there transformation. And Roger, as I wrap up, any additional thoughts you want to share, please do. But you know, part of transformation, one of the biggest challenges of transformation for agencies is getting buy in with your team. And we know that the fact is, is that you're going to have people on your team who may resist changes of any kind. And so we want to do at Sitkins is help facilitate and make it as simple as possible for your agency team to say, you know what? This excites me. This gives me energy. And it's kind of that new, you know, more oxygen, right? You're pumping oxygen and going, okay, you know what? I'm excited about this because now I can see what this really means and where we're. So we want to help you with that. We want to help you build consistency in your agency, that you have a repeatable process that works and to help you stay focused. And the last part, just what Roger said, is to help you execute, actually execute by simplifying and focusing in the right areas. Right. And get very deep into specific areas. Because the biggest inhibitor agency success when they try to grow and change is distractions. There's always the next thing to do, and it helps to keep you focused. So you look back and go, wow, I can't believe how far that we've come. So, again, that's sitkin's.com aim or siskin's.com aim if you want to check out that model, that process that we have for you. And again, we're going to be kicking off in a few weeks, so time is starting to run short. And as far as the transformational scorecard, sitkins.com scorecard where you can complete your own survey on there and get started with that process. So, Roger, before I wrap up, anything you want to add to that?

Well, the beauty of the scorecard is really cool because what it does, it gives you a base to work off of. We always say transformation is moving from where you are to where you really want to go and when the scorecard's completed. And I didn't realize this when we first created the tool, but the feedback we're getting from people is they're saying, oh, so that's why we're getting the results. And so what the scorecard really does is it allows you to see. Be totally open with yourself and honest with yourself. It allows you to see what your current business model is, and it becomes pretty clear the areas that you need to improve to get the results you really want. So it's a choice people have to make. Brent?

Yeah. Well, thanks again, Roger, for taking time to be with us in the audience. And again, I'm hoping you took some notes and I got some nuggets today. And. And again, this is really a session to hopefully encourage you, but also challenge you. And that's, I think, you know, as coaches, you know, Roger and I are natural coaches. It's just in our blood. And that when we see people, when we see agencies, when we see professionals, that there's just that opportunity to be elite, to be great. We don't want anybody to miss that opportunity. It's what we do. It's what we love to do and want to help you in any way that we can. So if this podcast has also provided value to you, to you, please leave a review, share it. We're looking to grow and help more agencies like yourself. So with that, I wish you all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.