'Tis the Week Before Christmas...and 3 Things to Consider Now

Welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me on another episode. And as I record this, it is the week before Christmas Eve, so tis the week before Christmas and I want to before I get into the content today, which actually is about what to think about and do in this kind of this holiday season time is I want to wish you personally a very merry Christmas. Your family, your friends, your community. I know it's been again a very difficult year for many of us and I just wish you and your family have a prosperous new year and certainly some rest and relaxation and some rejuvenation in your spirit and your soul and certainly just in everything that's involved as you move into 2021. So want to start off with that. Also want to reinforce of what I we just announced the team, it's been a couple weeks now. The podcast came out last week which was a live audio recording of the workshop how to 3x your agency's growth in 2021. Again, as a reminder, if you, your agency, want to be part of a movement, a journey, an experience of professional fitness to 3x different areas of your agency, we have an all inclusive model that we've announced never been done before. The best price point, the best cost, the best value that I can possibly imagine. You and your agency have access to all of our world class programs. Sales training, service training, sales leadership training and leadership training, agency leadership training. And you don't have to attend all those, but they're all available on your roadmap, so to speak, of what you're looking for. We're going to be hosting monthly masterminds. We're going to be getting deeper into our peer community and we're also going to be having access to all of our tools, all of our resources, all starting at $497 a month. Okay. It's not going to last long. We continue to get more people that want to be part of this experience, part of this movement. If you want to learn more and sign up. By the way, no payment till January and then we get you started in our programs in January as you deem necessary or most necessary for you and your agency. You can do one, you can do them all. But just the value of one program is way better a cost point than just paying for one of the programs. So be part of this movement. I think like we find with agencies that partner with Sitkins is that once they get into some of the content and the movement and the experience and the mindset shift and the skill set shift and start to see results. You realize it's something that's very special. And again, hopefully you hear the passion in my voice. You may say, oh, well, you're trying to sell something, something. Yeah, I am, because I believe in what we're doing and the movement and the impact in the industry. And I know more agencies need to hear this because they're struggling, they're plateaued, they're frustrated, they need help in culture, they need help in consistency, they need help in making better commitments. And they just want to have more freedom. And so I want you to be part of that experience with us. So go to sitkins.com aimsitkins.com aim to be part of this experience. Which leads me to the content for today. And I did a LinkedIn post earlier this morning. I just asked a question. I love to do polls and ask questions to agencies and insurance professionals. And the question was pretty simple. I said, what do you do? Or what do you most focus on the week leading up to Christmas? And you know, you may be listening to this right before Christmas or maybe it's after Christmas, whatever the case may be, but just in the holiday season, you know, what, what are you most focused on? And you know, obviously you need to spend time with family and as I mentioned, you know, just have some rejuvenation time and just get away from 100%. Agree with all that. But I think there's a lot of free time. I'm doing air quotes here. You can't see it, but free time that you may have, you know, you're away from some of the hustle and bustle, hopefully if, you know, if you're a sales producer or an agency leader and you've got those one ones, maybe it's like, well, I'm just trying to close those out. But if you get past some of that, it's, what is it? What can you do? And there were three things. I was kind of looking through this and thinking about a lot of our coaching clients and things we've talked about and learned. And I think oftentimes some of the things that we like to do, we don't do because we say we're too busy, which is a whole different topic. And I've covered that in this podcast before. But to really get results focused and right now, what are some things you can do to not limp across the finish line in 2020 or limp across this whenever you're listening to it, right, Whatever you're doing, but to truly gain momentum and get traction so that you really build into 20, 21. And so there are three areas that I want to cover today. I'll be pretty brief on all of these, but I think you'll get number one right now. What would you do the week before Christmas if you've got some time and again you're thinking about, what can I do? Well, number one is get really focused on your pipeline. Oftentimes I hear people, and of course, it's just very real right now as we ended this year. People say, man, it's really hard to get ahold of people, hard to make things happen. This fourth quarter they get busy with Thanksgiving and the holidays and all this stuff's going on. Well, listen, your sales process with future ideal clients, if, let's say they're one ones for next year or fourth quarter or maybe it's seven one, I don't know what it is. Of course, it could be coming up soon too. But your pipeline development focus starts now, right? To start to think about, if I have some time here, let's really get serious about the pipeline. Who for? An agency or my own book of business? What is my future ideal client pipeline? What does it look like? Who do I want? What's that? What does that mean to me? And then begin to actually tactically start to make some lists and ideas. And when you have that, you'll get clarity on how you can begin to present yourself. Right? How you can begin to have different value propositions others will have. So my first thing I would share with you is if you're not talking and thinking about your pipeline now, because what typically happens is this. You go, well, you know, this year is kind of wrapped up and it's going to be a better year next year. We're going to get going at it, right? And then you go to Christmas and New Year's and next thing you know, it's the first or second week of January. Well, I'm just kind of getting back in the swing of things. You know, it's kind of my LOL time. And then all of a sudden it's spring, it's summer, and we've never really addressed pipeline. And you're back to doing the same thing you did the year before and you're struggling, oh, I wish I wasn't so crazy, you know, right now. Start the process. Start the conversation. You know, one of the things that I love too is that people say, well, you know, let's say, for example, that someone just renewed and they don't want to talk to me in January or February or March Brent for a fourth quarter renewal next year. Guess what? You're not there to give them a quote, right? You're not there to give them a quote. You're there to say, hey, all I want to do is see if there's a fit in a discovery session, just to have a conversation to see how you handle risk, right? To help to see if you, how you handle risk, how you manage risk, and see at some point if there may be a fit for us to have future conversations. There's no pressure. I'm not here to sell you anything. I just want to get to know you and your business and how you control how you handle how you manage risk and risk exposures and again, have that different conversation. We go much deeper in this and our producers camp how to do this. But just for right now, on this podcast, think about you and your agency and what you need to do in this time Tis the week before Christmas, or maybe it's the tis the week before New Year's Eve to really get focused on pipeline. So that's number one. Number two, and this really goes into what I just said, number one is positioning. What are you going to do? And you've got some time. I got a half a day today where I don't really have a lot of stuff going on. What should I do? Well, maybe I should begin to think about how we really position myself, how we really are positioning the agency, not to be a comparison point, but to truly become the point of comparison in the marketplace. And that doesn't happen overnight. That doesn't happen by wish or hope. That happens by work, that happens by practice. What does that look like? What are our true points of differentiation? Do we have them? Do we know them? Would my team really know? What is the impact they have on our clients? Do we have evidence to support that? Am I working and practicing on the questions that I would be asking to unlock some new thoughts and ideas in people that maybe would ignore me in the past? How do you currently do this? What is your process for this? And we talk a lot about this in our camp, but just to think about open ended peer to peer questions, asking questions that assume they're being done, that are peer to peer questions, that are open ending, that allow dialogue, that make people say, you know, I don't know, no one's ever asked me that before. But you don't show up in March or June or October and go, boy, I hope this magical question pops out of my head. That's preparation, that's practice. And that begins that's how you begin to position yourself. And so, you know, again, if you've got some time right now, as you get into stuff and maybe you're not overwhelmed at some point, maybe it's the first week of January, right, when you get back into it, I'm not going to sit here and go, boy, it's great that I just have some extra time. It's now I'm going to win. Now I'm going to position myself to win. I said this year, in 2020, when the pandemic started, that right now the agencies that are going to win are going to be positioning themselves today to produce tomorrow. It's going to be a challenging year, but they're going to position. They're not going to waste time and say, well, I guess since we're not going to answer right now, it's just over. No, I'm in a position so that when the time is right, right, and I get better at my craft, that I'm going to be more. Have more opportunities to open more doors, to have deeper conversations and of course, write more business. That's what it's all about. So number two is positioning. Number three, which may not be a huge surprise, maybe it is, is personal accountability. Right at the pinnacle of everything with successful producers and agency leaders, service team claims. I don't care what your role is at the top of any ladder of success, so to speak, if that's what you want to use is personal accountability. And it's often talked about, but it's rarely executed. And, you know, you think about, of course, New Year's and New Year's resolutions, and we all know the stats, they're terrible. Most people, you know, I think it's somewhere 90, 95% of New Year's resolutions never get done or abandoned within a few weeks, honestly. Well, why is that? Well, because most of them, they're not really true commitments. They're passing thoughts. Now, wouldn't it be great if. Wouldn't that be neat? If I would like to this year, I will. And they're good intentions, right? I think we need that. But there's no accountability around them. There's no accountability. So I would begin to think now, during this holiday time to yourself, what does my best version look like? Right. If 2021 were going to be the best year possible for me, we hear that, oh, it's going to be a great year. But if it really is, what does it look like? What are the things that you're doing? What are your behaviors? What are your Actions, what are your habits? What are your strategies? And then if you want to have some fun with it, which I think you should, is what would that mean? What would be the results of that? What would your life begin to look like? How would it be different? And then address yourself. Okay, so these are the habits and behaviors and strategies that I need to have to have a great 2021, and that's what it would look like. That's pretty cool, right? Hopefully start to get that vision, that picture of the future. That would be pretty awesome, pretty compelling. But then you got to say, okay, what is holding me back? What's stopping me from that? If you can envision it, and I don't want to get into Think and Grow Rich, but there's some real stuff here. If you really envision and see it, your brain will not create something that you couldn't achieve. It's just that most of us never get past the fear, the doubt, the confusion, the uncertainty, the hysterical activity. So I would just ask myself, okay, with behaviors, strategies, habits, I need to do what it would look like. That's pretty awesome, pretty compelling to my future vision. How am I going to be accountable to that? What's one or two things or whatever it may be for you that I must do, not should do, that I must do. I must do this so often. I got this from Tony Robbins. We have softening statements. You know, I think it would be great if this would be why I kind of want to do that. No, what must you do? I must do this every week. And guess what? Here's how I'm going to make the commitment to be held accountable. Now, certainly you could make a public declaration and talk to people, but find a mentor, find a peer, find a coach that says, listen, I want to be here in my life, in my business. This is the thing or things that I need to do, I must do to accomplish it. I need you to hold me accountable. Because guess what? You're going to have a bad week. You're going to have an off week. And we know what happens to most of us. We could have three really good weeks. You could be killing it. I mean, January 1st, 2nd, 3rd week of January, you're killing it. In the fourth week of January, guess what happens? Life happens. You get a little bit off track, whatever the case may be, something happens, and you go, oh, well, maybe next year. I mean, that's what happens. It's crazy. You just missed a week or a day, whatever the case may be, and your accountability partner is going to say, Listen, I thought this was really important to you. Get back on track. You're right. I need to do that. So take absolute personal responsibility. One of my favorite acronyms, apr, Absolute personal responsibility for your future. I love the Jim Rohn quote, is that if you don't design your life, if you don't design your future, there's a good chance someone else will. And guess what they have planned for you. Not much. Right. Take control of this. I mean, who would have predicted all the craziness for this year? None of us could. I have no idea what's going to happen in 2021. We'd say, oh, there's no way there'll be something like it was in 2020. Well, hopefully not. But what if there is? What if there is? How are you going to be personally responsible for your results and your success? What is that going to look like for you? So the three things again, tis the week before Christmas, the holiday season. You know, if I had some free time and I'm challenging you as a listener, you got some free time, so to speak, right? Outside of family things and all that, love that, take advantage of that, get away from all this. But you know, you've got a few hours here of some quiet moments, pipelines, what does it really look like? What is my future? Ideal client. Have I thought about it? How did I begin to tell a better story? Which is number two to position around that. And lastly, how am I going to hold myself personally accountable to have the success that I want? So those are the three things. Thanks so much for being a listener. This will likely be my last podcast for 2020. That being said, I may just get inspired and just do one anyway, but we'll see what happens. But if it is my last podcast again, I want to wish you, your family, happy holiday season, Merry Christmas, happy New Year, all the best to you. And again, one last call to action for you. And again, this comes from my heart of hearts because I want to see agencies transform. I want to see agencies engaged in a proven process. I want to see agencies get their entire team, their culture bought into something that's going to really reshape their future. Our all inclusive model is launched and for limited time until we have 100 spots filled up and they're growing every day. The price point is 497amonth. 4 97amonth. Think about what you typically pay, that's 497amonth today. And this is your entire team development. Or maybe it's just your development. Maybe you get your team on board later. It's access to tools and resources that are proven. It's a monthly mastermind with other peers, growth minded agency leaders and professionals that want to win. And it's just being part of a community, right? An ongoing community that cares and that is focused and will encourage and challenge you to be that best version possible. So go, go to sitkins.com aim if you are part of this. If you want to be part of this movement, this journey, just go to sitkins.com aim and you can learn about other programs and offerings we have there as well. But again, this is by far the best offering we have out there for agencies and we I really want to make this something that's special. So sitkins.com aim and I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, all the best, and your success. Thanks for listening.