Running the Wrong Way Enthusiastically is Stupid - Mistake #1

Welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me. As always, I am honored and humbled that you are a listener of the Agent Leader Podcast. Appreciate you very much and appreciate the nice words that I continue to receive from many of you agency leaders out there that are trying to grow, whether it's professionally, personally, in your life, in your business, your career, and as always, the goal, the purpose of this podcast, the Agent Leader Podcast, is to help you gain clarity, consistency, and to make a commitment to become your best version possible. Many of you already know that I'm the vice president at the Sidkins Group. And one of the joys, I mean, really is a joy that I get to experience every single week, really every single day in many cases is the ability to have in depth conversations and sometimes they're really deep conversations. In some cases they may be more of a Q and A format, I guess, depending on what we're doing. But I get to learn so much from agency leaders that we work with, whether it's in our private client group or in one of the training programs that we're hosting out there for producers or agency leaders or sales managers. We just did a program for account managers. So you learn so much every single week of things that are working, things that are not working, things that are happening out there in the world today. And one of my pleasures I get to do on this podcast is to be able to share some of these experiences and learnings that I have back to you, the audience. And so what I want to do, and this is going to be over the course of the next five weeks, next five podcasts that I'm going to, going to have, is that I'm going to take something. We, we are launching a CEO workshop at Sitkins. So certainly we'll give you all an opportunity to, to learn more about that. And if you want to sign up, if you're an agency leader, wants to be part of our five session virtual workshop that starts on September 28th, we would love to have you, but we did a initial webinar for agency leaders just to kind of raise the awareness of this, get some things out. And it's all based around the five mistakes that agency leaders, agency CEOs make and what to do about them. So what are the five top mistakes that we see? It's kind of a negative connotation, but it's what we can learn from those mistakes. Right? But the five mistakes that we see out there that agencies CEOs make and things you could do about them. So what I want to do on this podcast, just to create more awareness and help you as a listener and share some things with you that I think you'll find very valuable, is to go through each of these mistakes. And I'm not going to go know really deep into these for the time that we have, but just take each mistake one by one and just address them. Talk about some key areas of the mistake, some things that we see that do work, some examples to share. I mean, one of the best things in working with agencies is to be able to share some examples of agencies that have either overcome this mistake or just seemingly avoided it by doing some of the right things, the right habits, the right behaviors, whatever it may be, and things that you can learn from as a listener. So that's what I'm gonna be doing over the next five weeks, and I'll share the mistake number one today. I do want to mention a couple things here at the beginning as well. Just as reminders, we've got a few virtual programs coming up. Outside of the CEO bootcamp that I mentioned on September 28th, we also have a producer camp and a CRO, our sales leader camp, that both start on September 10th. So depending on when you're listening to this, it's coming up here pretty quick as I'm recording this. But September 10th, we still have some open spots available. So if you're a sales leader or you're a producer, you run to up your game and really take it to the next level. These camps will be available for you. We launched our first two producer camps in May and June. We just finished up the second camp and just continue to get great feedback and response. So we're excited to launch number three, starting September 10th. And again, also one for sales leaders as well, and then leads into our CEO or agency leader boot camp starting on September 28th. And as I mentioned, I'm gonna go through the five mistakes. And so let's dive right in again. There are five mistakes now. Are there more mistakes? Could we have 23 mistakes? Yeah, probably. But there's five kind of overall mistakes that we see agency leaders and CEOs make. And as I said, I get the opportunity not only to learn from agencies, but learn from my team and Roger Sitkins and his almost 40 years of experience and just seeing. What do we see that works? What are we seeing where agencies maybe fall short and they just have blind spots, right? We all have them. You know, I have blind spots. And sometimes it takes a mentor or a coach or a Peer or my wife, somebody to say, you know, you may want to consider this, you may want to think about that. And so that's some things that as I approach this, it's not with vile, it's with just caution. The fact that I really care about agencies and agency leaders and things that we see there are just very basic things to be aware of that will make a big difference in your agency and the success of your agency. So number one, the number one mistake that I see agencies make is that they are running the wrong way enthusiastically. Well, what do I mean by that? Running the wrong way enthusiastically. Well, I got that name, that title. I gotta give credit where credit is due from a great book called the Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham. Just the title of that book is a great title, right? The Road Less Stupid and Keith Cunningham. I mean, I'm not going to share his whole story. I actually wasn't familiar with Keith until I heard him on a podcast and of course read the book. But he had had huge success in business for a long period of time. Not just a millionaire, but a multi millionaire and multiple businesses, and then lost everything. He talks about how he lost everything through. He said, you know, there was obviously market conditions, but he would just say he paid a lot of stupid tax is what he called it, and learned lessons and then was able to rebuild everything and more. So back to that multi million level status. And the whole book is tied around just thinking about your business. I mean, if I had to summarize it. And he asked some great questions in different areas. So first of recommend that book, the Road Less Stupid, if you're an agency leader, I think it'll give you some questions to ponder. You go, oh yeah. But at the very beginning of that book, before he even gets into some of the specifics, he just said one of the things that he's discovered and learned in working with businesses is that running the wrong way enthusiastically is stupid. And you know, as I read that and thought about my own life in business and now working with agencies, I'm like, there are so many agencies that are running really, really fast, really, really hard, but without really clear direction, right? Without really understanding of where they're going, why they're going there. And it may sound simplistic, but it's true. I mean, I don't care how fast you are. If you think from an athletic perspective, if you're not running the right direction, I don't really care if you're running out of bounds in a football game. I don't really Care, you don't do any good. You're fast, you work hard, but you're not very effective. Right? So it's really more about the effectiveness. And you know, my guess this is that, you know, asking you directly and do you work hard? Now I, you know, got a lot of different listeners on this podcast, but if I just ask most agency leaders, do you work hard? You would probably all say yes. You know, I mean, yes, of course, of course we work hard. Of course we do that, Brent. But the question is then, okay, if you know agencies that listen to the podcast like this, right, you wouldn't listen to this if you didn't want to get better to some degree, right? But, but so if the people listening to this all want to get better, why do some agencies, some agency leaders, Right, whatever it is. But why do some agencies have higher organic growth rates, higher retention rates? They have much better agency culture, while others are stagnant and frustrated? You know, is it work ethic? I think we've already talked about that. Probably not in many cases. In some cases maybe, but not for people listening to this and desire to get better. Is it resources and tools? Could be. Could it be the people? Yeah, I mean those absolutely could be. But I think all of that really leads to one thing. I mean, it really comes down to one simple yet challenging difference. I think highly profitable growth agencies with a strong culture, they have a plan. They have a plan. Now you, well, that's pretty simple. Well, let me ask you, do you have a clear plan, not just a theoretical plan? Right. I was thinking in the shower the other day, I've been thinking today I'm all for ideas, right? But they're just theoretical ideas. They don't do much. I'm talking about a plan that is clearly defined, that is consistently communicated in your agency and that inspires full agency commitment. It's part of the agency DNA, right? It's who you are. And here's probably the biggest thing that I want to share with you. I think it's too often we think of plans, we think of something that has to be, you know, it's got to be this 47 page document, right, of this plan. I'm talking about a plan that doesn't just live in the head, which is important. It lives in the heart, right? It's something that's meaningful. Now we believe as citicons and working with agencies, you should have understand the mission and the vision of the agency and be able to clearly communicate that with your team. To say, this is what our team Rallies around, this is who we are, this why we do things. I think that's important. But I also know agencies that, even if it's not a bunch of data or words written down, it's just how they live their day, how they model leadership, the way that they do things. So that, to me, is also just part of the DNA. It's not just a head issue, it's a heart issue. And I think those two have to be combined so you could have all the heart in the world and go, I really care about this and care about that and have no plan in your head of how you're going to achieve it. Those are just theoretical ideas. Those are dreams, right? And I'm all for having dreams, but you got to be able to attach, you know, to connect the dots at some point, and then you've got some that are just head. You know, this is. We're going to get into every little nook and cranny how we're going to do this, but there's no heartbeat to it. There's no purpose. There's no mission or vision or why. I've mentioned that before in this podcast. So I think those two have to be together. So my question to you is, you know, what is your agency's plan? What is your agency's strategic plan? What is your agency's financial plan? What is your agency's plan for the future? And if I ask you this question, this is always a key question. It's impactful question. I ask a lot of our private clients this question. What does your team rally around? What does your team rally around? And I know I use a lot of sports analogies and some of you aren't sports fans. I get that. I don't. Obviously, with sports being gone for a long period of time, it's not been impactful to me. But, you know, if you were going to put up a team flag, right, or whatever it is, what would your team rally around? And it goes back to, really, the culture question, right? What do you stand for? What do you believe in? What do you do? And have you thought about that and how it's going to impact your team for the future? One of my absolute favorite examples, and I love to share stories of agencies we work with, is an agency in South Carolina, Atlantic Shield Insurance. Now, I've mentioned, in fact, Hill Shaw, one of the agency leaders. One of the agency principals, Eric Loesch, is the other agency principal of Atlantic Shield. But Hill has been on this podcast before. If you look back, scroll down somewhere, if you Listen to this. You'll see an interview with Hill Shaw, and you kind of get just what makes him very charismatic. And Eric is a charismatic leader as well. They both have differences in agency leaders, but they both believe right in kind of the same thing in what they're trying to do. They were actually. Atlantic Shield was featured just recently. So if you get Rough Notes magazine In June of 2020, they just had an article in there about. About Atlantic Shield. So you can go to Rough Notes and check that out. It's a great article. But I first spoke to Hill Shaw, who is the agency principal, one of the agency principals. It was the end of 2017, and just talking to Hill about their agency, and he was sharing with me, you know, the successes and the struggles of the agency. And, you know, they. Eric and Hill started that agency from scratch in 2005. And by sheer hard work, I mean, you know, they're smart guys, too, right? And they got some smart team members as they grew, but they just worked really hard, like a lot of you do. And just by grit and determination and fortitude and putting in the hours, right? That whole idea, they. They did well. In fact, I mean, if you were to talk to their peers or people in the community say, oh, these guys are doing great. And they were. But they began to realize that there was a problem. They couldn't just simply count on their ability or their work ethic or their team's work ethic to continue to grow and flourish. They, you know, and it's one of those things kind of hard to admit oftentimes for anybody, especially high performers, but they hit a plateau, right? I mean, they would tell you that now they kind of hit a plateau. It's like, we were successful. And from people from the outside, they'd say, oh, what are you guys complaining about? But they were really tired, and they were unsure of how to keep moving forward. It's like, well, do we just put more hours in? We could either do that or we could sell the agency. But if we just work hard, if we just put in more effort and time, which you can do to a degree, at some point, I guess you run out of it completely. But if we did that, we would be sacrificing the most important things to us in our lives. And that's what they told me. It was, you know, my family, my kids, my spouse. And so when we first started talking to them, it was interesting. I said, you know, what's your business plan? What does it look like now? Do you have a business plan? And we Were presented a multi page document, you know, all this different stuff and the plan. And I was, you know, a little bit tongue in cheek, but it's a serious question. I said, well, how many of your team members know this plan, but this plan that you're sharing, that you and Eric have talked about, put together, how many of them really know this plan or would be able to understand this plan or certain certainly could implement or execute parts of this plan or know why they should. It was silence, you know, probably nobody really. So we began to work with them. And this is something to consider on a plan that includes the mission. Right? To me, we kind of going back to the heartbeat, why you do what you do, the vision, hey, here's where we're going to go and here's why we're going there. We started to address the key critical success factors. So not that we're going to do 423 things well, but here are the few things that we're going to do really well and keep us focused. Talk about key performance indicators. How do we track and measure results so that everyone knows if we're winning or losing? You know, one of the things that I realized agencies miss sometimes is that we don't even know if we're winning or losing. Well, that's, that's pretty hard. I mean, it's hard to make adjustments. For example, going back to another sports analogy that if you're in the third or fourth quarter, for example, of a game and you don't know if you're up 10 or down 10, well that's, it's hard. Right? And I think a lot of agencies, they have an idea, well, we're winning because we're still making money. Yeah, but is that really winning? What does that mean? Define what that means so that you can create performance standards and metrics that aren't just about the number, but the behaviors behind that number. So that was part of that. And then really getting down to the basic what is your team rally around? I asked that question at the bottom of this plan is just, hey, what's the one thing? And we're love that question, love that book, the one thing book. But it's just if you had a focus in one area that makes everything else happen, what does it have to be? And every agency is different. Right? But it could be communication, it could be accountability, whatever it is. But this is what we're going to continue to focus on. And by the way, that can change, right? As you continue to move through things. And they did that and One of the things that we work with agencies on, in fact that we share and we're going to give agencies that attend our CEO bootcamp is a one page business plan. How to construct a one page business plan. And today in looking back, you know, they, they began to use that one page business plan. They now have a plan that the team doesn't just understand, but they're excited about and they're accountable to. You know, back to that question of what is your team rally around? They would say it's this. This is what we rally around, rally around. Now, does it mean it's perfect? Does it ever mean there's never slight adjustments? Of course, it's. We're always trying to improve things. But the idea of, and the idea of a one page business plan is that to get your entire team on one page, which is a challenge part of culture, we think we should have a plan that fits on one page. And so we actually, this is one of the things that our CEO bootcamp that we're going to share with you, allow you to customize and use the one page business plan. And it's hugely powerful, right? It's hugely powerful. But I will tell you, I'll caution you a little bit. One of the things that agencies goes back to running the wrong way enthusiastically is stupid. To find the right direction to run, you sometimes have to slow down to grow. And I think that's where a lot of agencies have the biggest challenge, is that for us to really understand who we are and why we do things and the areas that we need to measure and to really get focused together, we're kind of going to have to take a step back. And that's a hard thing to do because our nature is just to grind through stuff, right? Just grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. Again, I'm all for hard work, but I know if you're listening to me, you're a hard worker. That's not your problem. The problem, or at least the challenge, right, that all of us face, is that is this hard work focused in the right direction? Are we running in the right direction? And that requires you to slow down and think and have some structure around it to be able to make sure that you are running the right way. So the better way is to run the right way and to still do it enthusiastically, right? That's the goal. As Hill shared in the RoughNotes article, he said, We've made 180 degree turn in strategic leadership. And this was in his own words. I love this. He said, we have gone from flying from the seat of our pants to truly having the vision, the resources, the commitment to execute at a very high level. And that doesn't happen overnight. They've worked for a period of time to get there, but by doing it, they've laid the foundation and everything else that they are doing and all the different principles that we help coach them on and that they're working through, it becomes much easier to be able to do those things right, to build processes. When our culture, our plan, is set right, or at least it's improved vastly from where it was. It'll never be perfect, but it can be improved. It can be improved. So that's the number one mistake I see agencies make. They run the wrong way and they're enthusiastic about it. So it's not the hard work, it's the plan. And it goes back to again, what does your team rally around? So as I mentioned at the beginning of this, this is one of the five mistakes that we shared on this webinar we did. And this is one of the five areas, one of the sessions we're going to do an entire session just on this topic. And again, help agencies really understand the importance of a plan, how to begin to create that plan. So if you want to learn more about the upcoming co workshop that we're doing, again starts on September 28th, go to sitkins.com and you can go programs that allows you to see all of our programs sitkins.com programs if you want to go directly to the CEO Bootcamp at sitkins.com CEO-bootcamp so sitkins.com CEO/bootcamp so any other questions, please reach out to us. My email is brentidkins.com always looking to help agency leaders and insurance professionals become their best version possible. So next session, next podcast, I guess I will be sharing with you mistake number two, which if you want a sneak peek, you ready? The mistake number two is we wear busy as a badge of honor. I'm going to talk about the difference between activities and results and what that means for your agency. So with that, wish you all the best in your success. Thanks for being a listener.