Leaders See More

Welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me on today's episode, every episode of the Agent Leader podcast. My purpose, my mission, my goal for you as a listener, as an agency leader is to help you gain greater clarity, help you build consistency, and to help you make a commitment in whatever area of life or business. A commitment to your team, a commitment to your clients, a commitment to your community, but I would say most of all, commitment to yourself. A commitment to yourself to be your best version possible. I am flying solo on today's podcast, so I'm gonna be sharing some things that are in my mind, in my heart, that I have learned, that I am learning and that I will continue to learn moving forward amidst the craziness of COVID 19 and first of all, my wish for you, and I'm recording this here in late April, so hopefully, hopefully the end of some of the specific lockdowns and the quarantine is getting near the end. And you know, my first wish for of you listening out there is that you are healthy and that you are safe first and foremost. I know I'm not the only one who's ready and excited to get back to some level of what normal used to be. And I think we're all going to experience a new normal. We're aware of that. But I wish that you're healthy and safe. But at this point, probably one of the biggest things that I wish for you is that you're sane, that you are doing okay just in your mindset and your attitude because that certainly is a critical issue. And you know, all joking and kind of my smiling aside, there are people going through very difficult situations right now. I'm very well aware of that. For a lot of agency leaders, producers, some of it is just more the fact that this new normal and certainly being quarantined can make us a little bit stir crazy. I don't know about you, but just on a personal level, my life has changed. It will continue to change. Not only am I a consultant and a trainer and a coach to agencies across the country and I had the opportunity in this field. It is an amazing industry that I won't say that we're recession proof completely, but we're certainly recession resistant, right, with what we offer in the insurance agency world, but not only am I a consultant trainer guy, but I'm also a father of five kids, four who are going through elearning and a husband of a wife who is an amazing stay at home mom who works way harder and continues to work harder than I can ever imagine and all her responsibilities. But I find myself doing my job as much as I possibly can personally at home and becoming a kindergarten teacher and a fourth grader assistant teacher and working with my junior higher, my high school to make sure their things are getting done and keep them motivated. So there's a lot of new things going on for me and I know there's a lot of not a lot of new things for you as well. What I want to share today, and as I stated, all that was how do you take all of the again, just the noise out there and external things that are happening that we see and watch and then our internal self, all the things that are in our own mind, our fears, our worries, maybe some things that you're excited about. I mean, it could be on both sides of the spectrum. And my guess, in the course of a day you experience highs and lows like, oh, this is going to be great and we're going to do this and this is happening all the way to in the next minute or two, oh crap, you know, what are we going to do about this or what about that? So as we continue to learn of this new normal and what will be a new normal, what I want to share today is one of our key principles, as I said on the onset of this podcast, is clarity. How do you continue to gain greater clarity and get more specific on how you prioritize when you get more clarity? One of my favorite quotes comes from Leroy Imes, author, who says this, that a leader is one who sees more than others, sees, who sees further than others see, and who sees before others see. Now, just to break that down, the quote again, a leader is one who sees more, who sees further than others and sees before. You know, I don't think any of us saw this specific COVID 19 situation the way it is coming. You know, if you said, oh, I knew this was coming, I knew this was happening, I would have a, I would challenge you that maybe you're fabricating just a bit. But, but as it began to evolve and develop like all of you, you have to start thinking as a leader, as one that people are looking to. And when I say again, a leader is influenced. So whether it's your clients who are looking to you, your agency team that is looking to you, community members, people in your family that are looking to you, you've got to be able to see more and you've got to be able to see further before others do. And that's not always an easy thing to do. Another favorite quote of mine I just read amidst all of this, COVID 19 comes from Andy Stanley. I love Andy Stanley. He's a preacher, but talks a lot in leadership, has some great leadership podcasts. But Andy's quote is this. A leader can afford to be uncertain, but they cannot afford to be unclear. Let me say that again. A leader can afford to be uncertain, but they cannot afford to be uncertain. Unclear. And as I was thinking about that quote, I mean, this time speaks to that quote better than ever. And that quote was given before COVID 19, just in general terms of leadership. Well, think about that. I mean, I think we're all uncertain. We have to be uncertain to a degree. Right? We don't know when things are going to open back up. We don't know when businesses are going to come back. We don't know how and when some of this is going to happen. Right? We don't know what businesses are going to be allowed to do and what we're going to be allowed to do. So there is uncertainty. That's just obvious. And I think we need to be transparent with everyone, our team members, our clients. At a great call this week with one of our Sitkins Network private members. And, you know, he was talking to me, he's like, listen, the more transparent I can be to our clients, that we don't have all the answers, the more they're going to trust us. We're going to do what we can, but we're going to be very, very clear on the fact that we don't know everything. But on the flip side, back to the Annie Stanley quote, is that we can afford to be uncertain, but we can't afford to be unclear. And that's what this client said to me. I don't know everything, and I'm going to be transparent about it, but I'm also going to be clear on what we are doing. I'm going to be clear on how we can respond, how we will respond, how we are responding. And you can take that quote again, whether it's internally to your team and at your agency, or externally to your clients, your carriers, your centers of influence, your community members, whatever it may be. But we don't know everything. And we'll be honest and real about that. I think if you pretended to know everything, you would look fake and you would be. But we can be very clear. And so, you know, clarity helps us prioritize. And so just a question to think about. And obviously this is a monologue podcast, so I'm not going to get any direct feedback from you, but just as a listener, I want to ask you a question. And just to think about it, maybe I can ask this question and you could pause the podcast and think about it, or when I'm done, write some things down. But in what ways has this crisis, has this challenge of COVID 19 increased your clarity? In what ways has this crisis increased your clarity? Because I think, you know, I'm not the only one. I know in having many conversations with agency leaders out there, all over the country, it has in many cases exposed some weaknesses that maybe we've been able to get away from. Away with, I should say, for quite a while. And in some cases, it's probably showed where we're really good and we didn't realize it. Right. So it's the idea that, you know, any type of challenge or crisis is going to expose some weaknesses that you've been able to cover up, but also it's going to show this is where we're pretty good. This is where I'm pretty good. And so I would just ask you that question. In what ways has this crisis, has this challenge? Again, I'm always careful of using the word crisis, but that is what we're living in. But what ways has this crisis increased your clarity? You know, just to share some examples that I've heard from our coaching clients, you know, I think I'm sure many of this will be true for you, but I've heard things like, you know, we've really realized the importance of internal communication, that, you know, we could kind of get away with internal communication when we're face to face, you know, in an office setting together, because we can just walk by and say things. But we realized that the depth of our communication, what we said, how we said it, the meaning, the purpose behind it, wasn't very deep. And now we've realized that, you know, we need to be more clear on what we're saying, how we're saying it, being intentional, being proactive. The same is true with client communication, the relationships that oftentimes we can just kind of get away with things, and things are okay. And now we go, wait a second. What do we need to be communicating? How should we communicate with our clients? How do we need to be cognizant of their feelings? What's in it for them? You know, one of the key principles that we teach and coach around with our agencies is we've got to move conversations from quotes and transactions to risk advice and relationships. And we say that and say that and say that. And say that. And I think most people go, yeah, I'd much rather have deeper relationships and conversations around risk advice than just, do you want a quote? And we got to add this and do this. And it's very transactional. And I think what a lot of people have told me is they realize that, you know, certainly to reach out to prospects or future ideal clients, of course, we've got to be super careful and sensitive to how we do that. There is no doubt about that. But if we're reaching out in terms of we really want to help you, we have some things that we can share with you that will be beneficial, certainly from the commercial side to your profitability, to your clients, to your employees. And this isn't about. No, this isn't about me trying to sell you something. This is me trying to truly add value to you. Well, you owe it to your future ideal clients to do that. And that's that whole idea of moving from quotes and transactions to risk advice and relationships. And I will say this, and I've said this to some of our clients, that if you're really struggling to have a conversation, pick up the phone or reach out because you think you're going to be insensitive in the sense that, you know, they think you're going to try to sell them something, then you're already doing the wrong stuff. You're already missing the opportunity, missing the point of being able to add value. Think through the conversations. What does it mean to them? What's the impact? And the other part of that certainly is just having relationships that, you know, you can. You have their cell phone number. A lot of these we, you know, we've talked about with our clients that, you know, if you don't have their cell phone number, you probably don't have a great relationship in today's world. That's just the truth, or whatever it may be for you and your business. But I think it's increased clarity in that area. We've seen our clients talk about increased clarity in the fact that they've just got to improve processes that in many cases, we've been getting away with some processes that aren't very good, that we don't really have any type of sales process. We don't really have a renewal, as we call Sitkins, a continuation process. We're continuing the relationship and that because we don't have one, we've got a little bit of exposure there. We got to think about this differently. We've had agencies that talked about greater clarity and understanding the principle and ideas behind the 8020 rule, which I've talked about in this podcast many times before. It's like, well, yeah, 80 20, we know that in most cases, 20% of our clients produce 80% of our revenue for the agency. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Brent. Roger Sitkins. We've heard it. It makes sense. There's books, there's things out there that talk about it, but guess what? It's not until you realize what would happen if we lose the top 5, 10, 15, 20% of our clients or a portion of them. Of course you're not gonna lose them all. But what happens if we're not being super careful as we move forward and we get into more of sales activities? We can't afford to waste time and work on the wrong client. Doesn't fit our profile and our minimum account size. We just can't, we can't be profitable. So I've seen agencies talk about being more clear there. So there's some things I wanted to share, but what I want to transition. This last part of this podcast episode is really the idea of your thinking. I want to challenge your thinking a little bit. Are you an abundance thinker? And there's a difference in my belief of abundance thinking. That is everything will be great no matter what, right? The eternal optimist. I am certainly I lean to towards an optimist. That's just my personality, my attitude. Some of that is probably books I read and people I talk to. I try to surround myself with people that will certainly challenge me, but will also lift me up and get me to think differently, think higher, think deeper. But there's abundance, which is okay. There's a difficult situation. The whole idea that you've heard, I'm sure many times before, that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and we kind of laugh out of it. But think about it. We've been dealt some lemons here. Many of you have been dealt some lemons. And we can wait and we can hope. And I'm a believer in hope, right? Especially faith in the right things and hope that we're going to do things. But hope isn't a strategy. So we've got to take these lemons and go, okay, what are we going to do to squeeze out some lemonade here? What can we do from an abundance thinker? Some of the best companies in the world. Now, as I name a few of these, I was writing this down earlier, a lot of these are technology companies. There's a list deeper. You could look at all kinds of companies and do studies. But I do find it very interesting that companies like Disney started in 1929amidst the great Depression. Microsoft and Apple launched in the mid-70s amidst pretty difficult financial situations. In fact, it was interesting. Steve Jobs came back to Apple and they reinvented themselves in 2001 after 9 11. Netflix started in 1997 before the dot com crash in the late 90s. Airbnb we all know now today, started in 2008amidst the recession. So there are companies that have, and I could go down the list that have either started or reinvented or expanded themselves and maybe not immediately during, but they were doing the right things that as it led out, really did some great things during difficult times. Why? Well, I think a big part of it is how they thought and how their leadership thought. And how do we begin to think abundantly? What are some of the strategic changes we could make? These don't have to be that. We just change everything we do. I shared in the last couple podcasts that our principles, our core principles, our core philosophies, those aren't going to change, but some of the strategies will, as they should. I'm sure we're all using technology in a much greater depth than we had just six weeks ago. We use a lot of technology at Sitkins, but I've used it even more and will continue to use it more. But these companies that I mentioned and I think as we talk to agencies right now, this is the time, even though we're not going to see it today or maybe even tomorrow. But I really, truly believe this. I've been thinking about this a lot and talking with agencies and how they think, how they're communicating with their team, that we're not going to see it today. But how agencies are preparing themselves today mentally processes, communication, technology, certain strategies. That is all going to be seen in the coming 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 months. And this is when agencies are going to completely separate themselves from the competition, those that truly do desire to be their best version possible. One of my favorite books, John Maxwell book. I mention John quite a bit called Leadership, just came out a year or so ago. Great book. Talks about the 11 essential changes that every leader must embrace. And so this book is about shifting right in leadership and the changes that are going on. And I read this book prior to this covid19 and now I look through it again and I'll probably read it again in the coming weeks because as I was glancing through it, I'm like, oh my gosh, I see this totally even different. Six Weeks later than the last time that I read it. But one of the chapters in the book is about moving from this idea of maintaining to creating. Now, right now, there are agencies, there are businesses that their goal is to survive, and for good reason. I get it. But if you're surviving right now, and I think most agencies are certainly surviving, we're going to have an impact here in the coming months. There is no doubt with some of the things that are happening and just our clients and who we're working with. But if it's just about how can we maintain? And that is the entire thought process, I think long term, you're going to be in trouble. The idea is, okay, we're going to maintain, we're going to do those things to maintain. But now how do we begin to think and have strategy to create? And John talks about four zones in this book. He said there are four zones that most of us as leaders, as individuals, that we live in and our companies because of that. There's the coasting zone, which is basically, I don't really care about doing anything. I don't want to do it. And if I'm still around, fine, I'm coasting. And by the way, just a quick aside, the insurance agency world is one of the only businesses, I might say the only, but it's one of the only that you can coast. And in some cases, you can actually increase profitability and revenue. Why? Because rates go up now. Again, we're going to see some things happen here in the future. But the coasting zone is. I don't care. I don't think anybody listening to this is in the coasting zone. Because why would you spend 20 minutes of your day listening to some guy ramble on about clarity and vision, agency success if you're coasting but the next is comfort zone, See the coasting zone, then the comfort zone. And the comfort zone is I just do what I've done. I just do what I've done. And I do believe that there will be many agencies who will come out of this just waiting for things. At some point, we know it's gonna be a little different, but it'll be back to somewhat of normal. If we could just wait it out and get back there, we can get back to doing the comfortable things we were doing that are okay and we can get by, but aren't nearly, as you know, the highest level we could perform at. But that's okay. We're comfortable because we don't want to ask any difficult questions. We don't want to challenge ourselves to get much better. You know, we don't want to do things differently. That may ruffle a few feathers. We're just comfortable, right? The comfort zone. And I've talked about that before on this podcast as well. The next zone is the challenge zone. The challenge zone is. I haven't done it before, but I'm going to try it. I'm going to learn new skills. We're going to add this one step to process that we've been talking about for three years. We have, you know, agencies we work with, and again, there's just. They're building blocks. You want to continue to build and get better. But, you know, we ask all the time, just from an insurance standpoint, a risk management standpoint, are you doing an annual risk review on the top 20% of your clients, like a true annual risk review? You spent time preparing, you spent time asking the right questions, because that's what you are, a risk advisor. And most agencies say, well, we do. Most of them, we do a pretty good job and it'd be not great. So maybe for you, that's your first challenge. Whatever it is, though, it's a challenge zone. I'm going to do something. We're going to commit to doing something we haven't done before. That's a good place to be. But I think the best place to be, the last zone, the fourth zone, is the creative zone. The creative zone. Here's the creative zone. I haven't even thought it yet. I haven't even thought it yet. I had a great mentor of mine who does a lot of personal growth and development, and he truly believes this. We have to get ourselves prepared to get new thoughts. That may sound a little weird to some of you, but I think there's a reason why thoughts are downloaded to you. No, not every thought is a good thought. If we chased every thought, we'd drive ourselves crazy. But I do think when you get in the creative zone, you go, you know, my best idea hasn't even been created yet, hasn't been thought of yet. That's how great companies, great agencies survive and then thrive, is because they're always willing to learn and listen. Learn and listen. Learn from others, learn from whether it's agency leaders, people out there that they can, and I would say this, learn by just taking time to think. In many cases, just taking time to think, to download, to process, to evaluate what happened? Why did it happen? Because I don't know about you. This is something that. Just to give you a quick example of this, because you may think I'm nuts right now, but I know when I'm listening to a speaker or a trainer or someone who's really good or coach that I've worked with, it isn't necessarily the exact thing that they say. It's the thing that they say that inspires a new thought that I hadn't had before. Right. Because it's not always the people that you're around that say, well, Brent, you should do this. And I will tell you this. When we coach and train agencies, I tell people this. It may not be the direct thing that someone on our Sitkins coaching team says to you or even another agency in our private community that says to you. It could be, and that's great, but it might be something that you hear. That thing makes you think about something differently, which then inspires a new thought that you never would have had before. Never would have had before. And this gets you to the creative zone. As I've been talking about this for you and your agency, it really is about clarity. And clarity has so many different moving parts to it. So many moving parts. But going back to what I said at the beginning, a leader is one who sees more than others, sees, who sees further than others, sees and sees before others do. That's what great leaders do. You hear the term thought leader. Well, how do you become a thought leader? The best thought leaders haven't thought the thought yet. The best agency leaders haven't thought the thought yet. But they're open and willing to listen and learn and grow and move from coasting, which, again, I don't think any of you are in the coasting zone. I just don't care to comfort to. Well, I'm good enough to challenge of. Okay, I know there's some things that we've been talking about. I'm willing to commit and to do one of these things. Me and my team, how we're going to do it to the creative zone, which is, am I going to spend time every day, every week, surrounding myself with people, resources, and then myself just spending time that I can think about things that I may not have even thought of yet? You start to do those kind of things, you will gain greater clarity. You can take these thoughts, these ideas from yourself and from others and begin to filter them down to what's most important. The greatest challenge of leadership is leading yourself. That's where it all starts. Say it all the time. The greatest challenge of leadership is leading yourself. And that starts with modeling the way for those around you. If you want others to Be better leaders. If you want others to be better performers, you be a better leader, you be a better performer. I also believe in the concept that if we're going to lead our clients externally and have influence, we have to realize what's a better way that we can gain influence. How can we ask better questions? How can we improve better processes? You want to lead your team better. The same type of philosophy, the purpose of leadership is to add value to other people. This all requires you to be a better leader. This requires you to take time to get your thoughts, to gain clarity so that you can go out and serve others. I always say, you can't pour, right? You can't pour into others if your cup is empty. So spend some time to gain clarity. This time, again, many people say, but, you know, I'm busier than ever. Well, there's a few of you. If you're reactive on things, you may be busy, and I get that. But for others who go, you know, I have more time than I've had before because I'm not commuting, I'm not spending as much time in the office, I'm not getting sucked at some other meetings that maybe haven't been that important, but I've had to go to whatever the case may be. So don't waste this opportunity to be a creative thinker, to be an abundant thinker, to not always think about what's going to, you know, what's going to happen. Because guess what? You don't know in a lot of cases of uncertainty. But what can I make happen right now? What could happen? What might happen? What can I make happen? What can I do that's not been done before? And obviously, within that word, I becomes we. I is we in leadership. Because the purpose of leadership is to add value to others. And when you add value to yourself, you can better add value to others around you. Hope this podcast was helpful for you. I know I was doing my solo podcast here just to kind of share some things in my heart, my mind. As you could probably tell, this wasn't scripted. I had a few notes in front of me and that was about it. I just wanted to pop on the mic and speak from my heart and my mind of things that I'm hearing and. And of all the specific tactics and things you could do. There's many of them. I just want to challenge you. Be an abundant thinker. Be a creative thinker. Use this time. That's unfortunate. It's a challenge for everybody to begin to separate yourself from others, right? Not because you don't care about others, but because you care about yourself and you being your best version possible. Wish you all the best in your success. And by the way, if you enjoy this podcast, if you prior podcasts have helped, this podcast has helped. I'd love for you to leave a rating review on the listening device of your choice that you listen from. We'd appreciate it. Trying to share this with more agency leaders. Wish you all the best in your success.