Starting Your Day With Impact

Foreign welcome back to another episode of the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly. I am your host. As always, I am honored, I am excited to be with you on today's episode. Excited to share some, some really good learning that I've had over the past several weeks. In fact, I've been on the road quite a bit. I have highs and lows of travel schedules with trainings. But over the past many weeks I have been part of and been able to lead a CEO FIT group, a leadership group on strategic planning. I've been able to be part of an elite 50 group. So the top top producers sharing ideas and information. Our producer FIT program that we run both for our private client members and also we have some outside agencies and producers that attend and also been a part of a few private events. In fact last week, actually I'm just getting back from. So when this, when this gets released, it'll probably be last week, but just getting back from a private client group, a producer program that we did specifically for an agency. And it was four sessions. We do. Our producer program is two live sessions and two online sessions. So this was our last live session. And you know, it's always interesting. I tell groups all the time. I mean, I come in, have the opportunity to work with leaders, agency leaders, certainly their production team, operations, service. Right. Different roles. And what's interesting to me is although I share new ideas maybe they haven't heard before, or to reemphasize ideas to move forward on, I get so much learning. And so although the travel has been tough, certainly for my wife, she's an absolute saint. I've got two weeks left of some travel, some events and then I've got a break here heading into the end of the year, which will be great. But it's amazing not only to build relationships, obviously when you're face to face with people, they're just so powerful. But what you learn, I mean the insight that I've gained and so I want to share from this last week. And again, this is a private producer camp and there's some things that certainly we go through throughout the different sessions with a format. But when I do a private group, it's a little more customized and if an agency wants to go deeper in a certain area, we certainly go there. I want it to be about them, right? Not just about my content, but where they want to with things. And of all the things that I share with this producer camp over the last day and a half that I was part of, it's interesting, you know, we have different strategies that revolve around high performance teams. And we certainly talked about that quite a bit. And that was a really big issue with this group. We talk about 80, 20, we talk about a continuation process versus just a renewal process. What does that look like? And relationship management and executing our points of differentiation into a selling system that, that, that really is unique and compelling and asking great questions and getting people better at their skills. Right skill, being able to communicate and ask questions. And all those were very impactful. But it was interesting yesterday, as I was doing the last half day in the morning, I spent some time going over something that we have trained around the last year and a half, maybe almost two years now, something called the Greatness Tracker, which we borrowed stole from a mortgage lending company. So they get credit for that. But it's not anything that's proprietary. In fact, we've customized it for agencies. Because really what the Greatness Tracker is, is, is an understanding that, you know, and I say this all the time, that we don't choose our results, we choose our habits and our habits choose our results. Right? And so the Greatness Tracker is this idea that if we can just do the right actions, the right activities, the right behaviors that will lead to the outcome that we want. And I often see with, with agency leaders and sales leaders in particular, that we try to manage numbers, right? A producer has a goal, for instance, of I want to write, you know, $100,000 of new revenue this year. And they come write 75. And the conversation is, well, what are you going to do? Well, I got to, I guess I got to write 25,000 more. Yep, you're right. Go do it. You got it. And that's the plan. Go write more. But there's no behavior change, there's no strategy change, there's no change in actions of how to actually do that. And so the Greatness Tracker is a great tool that we use. And there's 10 sections on or 10 areas on it. And you can design a Greatness Tracker however you want. We've put a lot of time and energy into ours of what it would look like with a lot of our models. And we've had agencies that have used it extremely successfully. We have agencies that haven't really used it. And so we don't force it upon anybody. But boy, it's a great tool to use. And again, there's 10 areas that we talk about that if we can just do these things every single week and you're not going to be perfect at it, but if we can focus on these areas and then give ourself a score so we can be accountable to it. How did I do? And some weeks are going to be better than others. And if I didn't have a good week, why, what happened? And how do I get back on so I don't fall off the horse, right? And I get back on or when I fall off the horse, I guess I get back on because that's going to happen. Happen. It's the idea of progress over perfection and being focused in the right areas. Again, not just focused on the numbers, but the activities and behaviors behind it. But I want to share, I want to share some things today on one area of the Greatness Tracker that we have. That was kind of a. I don't want to say it was an add on, but most people don't really talk and think about it when I'm talking to a group of sales producers and sales leaders. And the very last one was an idea of having a morning routine and do you have a morning routine? And we got to the end of the Greatness Tracker and we probably spent, I don't know, 45 minutes. We just kept asking questions and what does it look like? Because it was really impactful, right? Really impactful. So the title of this podcast, I think as it goes out, is going to be starting your day with impact, starting your day with impact. And the idea that I ask is how many of you in the room have a true morning routine? And I would say maybe 10% did, and those that did had something that was okay and something's better than nothing. But here's the idea, and we do this in a lot of our trainings and ask the questions about having a morning routine. But here's a better question. How many of you, and this is true for you as an agency leader of any kind, do you start your day with? The first thing you do is you look at your smartphone and see what's in your email inbox or what's in social media, whatever it may be. And oftentimes we find out the answer is, yeah, actually we do. If we're honest, we say, yeah, I guess I do. And the very first thing that we do when we wake up in the morning is that we react to something else. That's the first thing. I mean, we open our eyes to start a brand new day with all the opportunities and possibilities in front of us. And the first thing we do is to see what other people are needing from us or what other people are doing or, or whatever it May be. And we immediately start our day in a term that we have at Sitkins, an acronym, hawg. HAWG Hog Activity. It stands for hysterical activity on the way to the grave. And typically we live our entire day like this. It's just like running around in circles and we go here. It was actually funny. At this private group in Nebraska that I was just with, I did an illustration. If you've ever been to a live event where I talk about 80, 20 and being proactive, I typically do this illustration illustration. And it looks terrible, honestly when it's done, it looks silly, but people remember it and they actually asked me to do it again. I did it in the first session. Could you do that again? That was really impactful. But it's just the fact that we live our days in hysterical activity and we're always typically responding to someone else's agenda, someone else's needs. Now to be fair, that's going to happen, right? There's no doubt that throughout the day things are going to pop up, things are going to happen that aren't expected or planned. I'm not silly enough to say that doesn't happen. Of course it does. But my challenge to the group and my challenge to you is what are the things that you can plan for, prepare for, be more proactive on so that these things that do come up don't become, you know, everything is a crisis, right? Everything is reactionary, right? We're going to get enough reactionary things even if we're prepared. So how do we better prepare and be more proactive on things that we need? And the thing that really took hold was, well, let's start our day at least proactive, at least we can typically control that. Now I've got five kiddos and one of them is only two and I've got a six year old. So are there times even at early in the morning? For me, I start my morning routine at 5am Some people love the idea, some people think it's silly. I don't really care what time you start your morning routine. I really don't. I think there is power in getting up early and kind of the sunrise. I do think there is. But hey, if your schedule allows where it's different for you. The biggest part of a morning routine to me is just we want to start our day with intention, not in crazy activity. Start our day in intention. Because for me again, sometimes I wake up early and who knows, maybe the six year old threw up or the two year old's crying. That happens. But most days I get up early enough. I get up 5am at least, typically, sometimes earlier, even sometimes a little bit later, but around 5am and start my day with intention. Start my day by trying to fill my cup. And I didn't get this idea early on because to me, there's an aspect of waking up to focus on you that comes across selfish, right? And I'm a servant leader mentality. We need to serve others. But here's something I want you to understand. This is really important and why I want to talk about a morning routine a little bit and starting your day with impact is because if you don't fill your cup with whatever it is, and I'm going to give some ideas and things that I do that you can use, people ask me this week, hey, what does yours look like and how does it do it? So I'll share some of that doesn't have to be yours. But if you don't fill your cup first thing in the morning, how do you pour into others? Oftentimes your cup is barely full. It's got a few drips in it because you've never filled it up. You were drained from yesterday. You wake up in hysterical activity and you try to pour into other people, your clients, your team members, and it's dripping off the cup because you don't have a lot in there. And by the end of the day, it's probably empty, right? And so you got to start your day because here's something I heard from a mentor. You cannot give what you don't have. You can't give what you don't have. And so this morning routine is so powerful and we talked about it at length and this has happened in many presentations, but all these different things about being proactive versus reactive. And so I'll share with you kind of how I designed my morning routine. And I always tell people, listen, it doesn't mean it has to be yours. I want you to, you know, I'm one of those that success leaves clues. So I find people that had success in something and I've, you know, read books and listened to videos and talked to successful people about their morning routine and learn from them and go, that's a pretty good model. It doesn't mean my model's exactly like theirs is. I start thinking, you know, this works a little better for me. One of the best models out there. And I've gone through a couple programs with team members and had accountability partners around. This comes from Robin Sharma. And Robin does have a book called the 5am Club. I will tell you, I have not read the book. I've went through several of his programs, so I have a pretty good idea of the theories behind it. But Robin has a 20, 20, 20 formula, which kind of became the foundation of my morning routine. There was three different areas. The 20, 20, 20 represents the first power hour of your day. So 20 minutes. 20 minutes. 20 minutes. So if you can wake up the first day or the first hour of each day, this becomes powerful. The first 20 minutes. This is Robin Sharma version. I'll just give the high level of his version. The first 20 minutes is to move, to move your body, to exercise, right, to get your heart rate up, because there's things that are released. And I'm not going to get into the science behind it because I couldn't explain it well enough. That happens when you start to move your body and most people think, oh, my gosh, you're telling me the first thing I do is I wake up, I can't even open my eyes, and I got to move. Yeah, it's really powerful. And then the next 20 minutes is to think. Now, there's different ways to think. There's journaling, meditation, prayer, whatever works for you, but just thinking, because I can tell you, and I do enough live trainings around the country with enough people that it's very small amount of people that actually spend time in thinking. Time to really think about what is working, what's not working, what do I need to do better, how do I become my best version. Whatever type of thinking you're doing, but just strategic, deep level thinking. I've shared this probably in other podcasts, but the George Bernard Shaw quote that says 2% of us truly think, 3% of us think that we think, and 95% of us would rather die than actually have to think. And it's true. I find myself sometimes, if I'm not careful, I mean, whether I'm doing my own prayer, which is a big part of my life, and I struggle with it. I struggle to sit in quiet and think because my brain's like, oh, I got to do this, and I got to do this. And to quiet your mind, to think or to meditate, I do some of that, and it's been very powerful for me. So thinking is a big part of it. The other quote I'll share, I may have said this before, too, but this is the power of thinking is, I think many of us. This comes from Keith Cunningham of the book called the Road Less Stupid. He said running the wrong way enthusiastically is stupid. Running the Wrong way enthusiastically is stupid. And sometimes thinking you're like, wait a second, am I running the wrong way enthusiastically? Like, I'm doing all this stuff, but is it the right way? So it gives you time to think about that and then the last 20 minutes is learned. Learn something new. Read a book. Just read part of a book, you know, I mean, just a few pages of a book. Watch an informative podcast or listen to an informative podcast. Listen to this podcast, right? Watch a TED Talk, whatever it is. There's so much information and resources. I mean, work on stuff in your business. I told the group yesterday, I said, you know, a lot of these are specialists in different industries. Build up your business acumen. You know, leadership, sales, communication, finance. I don't care what it is, right. Certainly your niche. What are they talking about? What are they doing? Learn about that stuff. 20 minutes a day over a course of a year is incredible. What a competitive advantage you'll have on people around you. It's incredible. In fact, the late, great Charlie Tremendous Jones said, you'll be the same person today as you will be in five years, except for the books you read and the people you meet. Very powerful quote. Very true, too. So that's a 2020. It was move, Think, Learn, you know, and I was telling the group the other day, I said, you know, I do mine a little bit differently again, it's adapting. So for me, my challenge to you is it doesn't have to be that. My big challenge for you is if you're not having some form of morning routine, you should start something. Right? Even if it's 10 minutes, right? Start small, think big, start small. 10 minutes. For the first 10 minutes, I'm going to be proactive on my day. I'm going to think about my day. I'm going to do something. For me, it's going to help me be better before I dive into everybody else's stuff, right. Whatever that may be. So mine looks something like this. I wake up again about 5am and I spend typically about 30 minutes. I do my thinking time first, so I do some devotionals and I spend time. And I've got a Bible app that I do. And again, that's my thing. I'm a person of faith, so that's important to me. May not be for you, but that's what I do. And I spend some time and I do some meditation around that just to kind of get myself centered. And this is probably the hardest part for me is that first part. I already explained that I have a hard Time sitting still. But it's important because it allows me to kind of center myself and realize what's really important, right? And I do some gratitude. Then I do some journaling around that as well. So I do some gratitude of what am I thankful for? What am I grateful for? Because sometimes we overlook that, right? And I talk and I look at my journal. I actually write out. Even though I have my digital calendar, I write out my entire day on my journal. I use a Best Self company journal, Best Self. I don't get any endorsements or money from them, but I use them. So I'll mention it. But I write down my entire day, make sure, am I doing the right things? And what is my goal for the day? What is my overall purpose? Who do I want to be today? Not just what do I want to do, but who do I want to be today? And then I write down my three big rocks. If I can only do three things, what would they be? Make sure I do those things first. And then I also have a reflection at the end of the day that I do in that journal later. But that's the first 20 minutes or first 30 minutes, typically. Sometimes it's even a little longer. It's kind of a 30 to 30 to 35 minutes for me. Typically, you know, prayer, meditation, journaling, and then I go work out. For me, I typically work out 45 minutes, so it's longer. I love to work out. It's kind of my. I don't know, it used to be a challenge, like, oh, I won't work out now if I don't work out. I feel. I feel terrible. I hate when I don't work out. My wife knows that. She's like, you didn't work out today, did you? I'm like, no, that's why you're grumpy. So I just need to go release something and get my energy up and pick up some weights or get my heart rate up or whatever it is, because I just feel like I've accomplished something. You know, if I can do one more rep, if I can do this hard workout, I can do harder stuff later today, no problem. And then sometimes during the workout, it depends. I will listen to a podcast. I'm learning why I'm working out. So I kind of double dip. Sometimes I don't. Depends on what I'm doing that day. And I'll come back and maybe do some reading on a topic I'm looking at for a few minutes. And then by that point, the kids are waking up and all chaos Breaks loose in my house. But that's my morning routine. I just want to share that because they'd ask at the group and other people ask me as well. But here again is my challenge to you. I want you to think of one thing you can do to start your day that may be a little bit selfish. That's about you. And it's not selfish, because again, you can't give what you don't have. And so by filling your cup up saying, what do I need to do to be my best version today? Is it spending some time in prayer or meditation? Is it worth me to learn something? Because just think about this as a leader. Everything you learn, one of your responsibilities to share it with other people. How cool is it? You know, I know it's cool for me when I read a book and I've already shared some quotes on this podcast and I think of something, I share it. And I realized, you know what? They never would have read that or saw that or heard that if I didn't read it first. And I've had people that share that with me, and it's because they spend time working on themselves that they help me get better. And as a leader, our job is to add value to people. And you can't add value to others if you're not adding value to yourself first, right? So think of one way to start your day to be a little bit selfish, whether it's learning something, spending time in prayer, meditation, and get your body moving. Right? I think it's so important. I know some of us don't like to exercise, but I can tell you in professional fitness that we talk about the Sitkins Network being your best professional, right? What does that look like? A big part of that correlates to our physical fitness, our spiritual fitness, our relationship fitness, being at the highest level in these certain areas. And I know physical fitness is a huge deal, and you just have more energy, you feel better, and we see that time and time out. So spend time on yourself, because this a little bit me on my soapbox here. You only get one body, right? You only get one body on this earth. Take care of it, right? And put yourself in the best position to perform at the highest level. So that's my podcast for today. I guess I went almost 20 minutes here. It looks like I wasn't. It's funny, I took a picture on Instagram, put it on my Instagram stories. I'm starting to do more of those, but I have just about. I don't know, I don't know seven, eight lines on the board and it's weird how that turns into 20 minutes. So hope you enjoyed this and you got value out of this. If you did get value out of this podcast. Other podcasts that have been on the the Agent Leader podcast. Love for you. Not only subscribe but also leave a rating review whatever platform you listen. I'd appreciate that trying to reach and impact more agency leaders help you gain clarity, build consistency in your agency and just make a commitment, a higher commitment to become your best version possible. Also, if you're interested in learning more about what I do and what we do at the Sidkins Group, and particularly with our Sidkins Network, just go to sidkins.com learn more about some of our programs and resources. We have free resources and we have paid programs. We have a lot of stuff on there. Want to help agencies become the best version. So just go to Sitkins S I T K I N S with that. I'll be back again. I will tell you that I've had some interviews on this podcast. More are coming. We're making a commitment to do a few things on this podcast. I know people have gotten value. I get value of having interviews with some of our agency leaders that we work closely with and kind of sharing, having them share their experiences. I also want to get some of our elite producers that attended that camp that we had to hop on here and show some things that they learned because there's just an amazing amount of information and learning they can share with the group. So going to be having more of that. Also going to bring Roger Sitkins on here time to time, probably at least once a month to kind of share what he's learning, working on. And Roger's always got something new he's thinking about and his experiences provide more value to this podcast. So with that, I wish you all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.