The Two Greatest Investments You Can Make

Hi, Brent Kelly here, the Sitkins Group with my profit tip Professional Fitness to help you gain clarity, consistency and to make a commitment to become your best version possible. I heard a quote recently that was not written or given during COVID 19, but I think it's more applicable now than ever before. It comes from leadership expert and pastor Andy Stanley who said this. A leader can afford to be uncertain, but a leader cannot afford to be unclear. Now think about that for a second. A leader can afford to be uncertain, but cannot afford to be unclear. You know, right now we're faced with a lot of uncertainty. There's no question about it. We don't have all the answers, nor can we give answers on when certain things will return to whatever new level of normal will occur in the future. But we cannot afford to be unclear unclear on the most important things that we can do to better ourselves and better others around us. I want to talk today about the two most important investments that you can make. When you think of investments, most people think of investments in terms of money. You make deposits to the bank. Over a period of time, those investments will grow. Well, the same is true with these two important investments. The first investment is investing in you. The greatest investment that you can make is into you, your personal and professional development. The late great Jim Rohn said many years ago he said this, he said, if you work hard on your job, you'll make a living. If you work hard on yourself, you can make a fortune. I heard that first as a 25 year old young insurance producer and it sort of made sense, but I didn't quite get it. Looking back 17 years later, I understand what it means to invest in yourself. It is the best investment that you can make. What are some things that you can and should do to invest in yourself? Well, number one, it's pretty obvious. What are you learning right now? What are you learning? Are you reading books? Are you listening to podcasts? Are you watching videos? Are you looking at articles? Not articles of news and hysteria and all the world is doom and gloom. I'm talking about things that are going to help you improve a skill, a process, your mindset, whatever it is to learn, learning is so critical. Just invest a little bit each and every day, each and every week into yourself. Next is connecting. Right now it may seem like a crazy time to connect with people, but I've had more deep conversations with people, clients and others. And they're not always tactical or strategic. Just conversations to connect with people, just to understand where they're at. And I'll Talk more about that in a minute. But just connect with people and find mentors and coaches and people that will support you and challenge you. I think it's so important all times, but especially now. Obviously we want encouragement and support, but we also want to be challenged and people call you out when sometimes maybe you're giving yourself excuses. Last is preparing. If you want to invest in yourself, prepare to be the best. I had a mentor years ago who said this to me, said Brent. If you wait for an opportunity to come and when it arrives you have not prepared, it's already too late. We don't know when the new normal will be here or whatever that new normal will look like. We don't know. But I can tell you this. If you are waiting, if you are reactive versus proactive when those opportunities come your way, and they will at some point. If you haven't prepared yourself, if you haven't prepared for the conversations, if you haven't prepared on skills you need to improve, if you haven't prepared on whatever level of things you need to prepare for, it's too late. So invest in yourself. These three areas are critical. Just understanding. We've got to learn, we've got to connect, we've got to prepare. Next is investing in others outside of the greatest investment. Investing in yourself. It's investing those people around you. We talk all the time at Sitkins about moving conversations from transactions and quotes to relationships and risk advice. We've got to be risk advisors. We talk about that frequently. But the first part is relationships. The best way to grow and to earn great relationships is to simply have empathy for other people, understanding their unique situation. Stephen Covey said it so well in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Oftentimes, the conversations that you may be having now, they may turn into strategic and tactical conversations. And I'll talk about that in a second. But the first thing is just how are you? What's going on? How's your family? Basic things that we think about that sometimes are forgotten during this time. So don't ever forget to show empathy and just putting yourself in someone else's shoes. You may be doing okay, your agency may be doing fine. I don't know, maybe not. But if it is, think about your client's situations. Secondly is empowerment. If you want to empower other people, one of the best ways to empower other people is to educate. So it could be empower, educ and educate. And that requires you to do your homework. Certainly when it comes to clients and future ideal clients, in some cases your centers of influence. Have you done the preparation? Have you really done a risk analysis and a risk review and started to think about some of the things that your clients and future ideal clients are dealing with and will be dealing with so that you can ask really great questions to empower them to make better decisions, helpful financial decisions, and personal and professional decisions as they move forward? The last way to connect with others and to invest in others is to equip them. What tools, what resources do you have as an agency leader, as a producer, as an insurance professional that are going to help your clients, future ideal clients, anyone else? Give them tactical solutions, action steps that they can use on their behalf. And this goes back to, first of all, caring about them, secondly, empowering, educating them. And when you've done those things, you then can equip them not what you think is important, but what they think is important. There's nothing more powerful than compounding consistency. When you make investments in yourself and others, you may not see the fruit for a while. That's fact. But there's nothing more powerful than compounding consistency. I just challenge you right now. What investments are you making in yourself every day and every week? What investments and deposits are you making into others? One side note, by the way too, our next Producer Fit program is coming up June 2nd. If you have not registered for that, go to sitkins.comprofit sitkins.com profit. You can learn more about our upcoming virtual program. Our first one sold out very quickly. The second one is selling out very quickly as well. So hope to see you on Producer Fit and I wish you all the best in your success. Thanks.