What Makes the Elite?

Hello there, agent leaders. Brent Kelly here of the Sitkins Group with another episode of the Agent Leader podcast. Thanks so much for being with me today. And this is a solo podcast today. And the simple question is this. What makes the elite the elite? What makes the elite the elite? Now, when I asked this question, this really is in general terms of an insurance professional, but quite honestly, it's true across any type of industry. I've had the great privilege and opportunity to spend some time with very successful professionals and a lot of different walks of life, being part of the John Maxwell team, doing some other sales programs across the country. Now, certainly with the Sitkins Group and some of our programs and some of the phenomenal agency leaders that I get the chance to work with. And this week, actually, when this podcast is released, it's probably going to be over, but I get the opportunity this week as I'm recording, to work with our elite 50 group. This is insurance producers that have been through a Sitkins program that applied and were accepted into our elite program. And as the name suggests, we're only going to work with 50 insurance producers. So this is a very high level masterminding group. And as I was doing some preparation for this program, which I'll be facilitating and leading along with Roger Sitkins for a couple days, it got me thinking. I'm always trying to ask myself the questions and analyze and use some of my experience and the experience of others and just talking to a number of people of what makes the best the best? And of course, this question is what makes the elite the elite? And there are a number of characteristics that we could throw out. I don't think there's a wrong answer to this. If I had a large room and I asked a question, what makes the elite the elite? I'd probably get. If I had 50 people in the room, I may get 50 different types of answers. There isn't necessarily right or wrong in this, but as I start to look through what are my goals in working with agencies is to be able to simplify messages, to be able to take ideas into execution. And so for the sake of this podcast, I'm not going to dive real deep in any specific area of these, but there are three things that really stand out to me. And not surprisingly, this also fits in line with the profit experience, the professional fitness experience that I talked about before on this podcast that we share with our private client members of the Sitkins Network, which is clarity, you know, understanding where and why you want to go somewhere, consistency. What are the specific habits that I need to do right, that I need to execute upon, and how am I going to go about that? And lastly, is a commitment. Commitment to yourself, commitment to your team, commitment to others, to be your best version possible. That's what I always say about the profit experience. It's clarity, it's consistency, it's commitment. And it's become very, very sticky. It's very, very powerful because the reality of it is it's easy to understand those things, but it is harder to execute. There's no doubt about it, especially when you dive deeper. But let's talk about what makes the elite the elite. And just some ideas and things to get you thinking as an insurance leader. Now, whether this is in leadership, specifically with your agency team, whether this is leading your clients, whether this is leading people in your community, these three areas that I'm going to touch upon of being the elite, I think will apply to every one of them. And I have a alliteration disease. Roger Sitkins, who I work with, has an acronym disease. He loves acronyms. I like acronyms. He loves acronyms. I alliteration. I love that when things start with the same letter. It's just how I keep, how I can remember things. And hopefully this is something you can remember as a podcast listener. But here are my three A's. I have three A's that I think when I think of the best of the best, the elite, here's what they are. Number one is awareness. Awareness. Now, that may seem kind of weird, but I was thinking about this. When I think about the best of the best, those that I've talked to. And of course this week I'm going to have an opportunity to sit down and work with and listen and learn from insurance producers. Some who have two, three, up to $4 million, not premium commissioned revenue. Books of business. Right? These are big books of business. And I've had conversations, I think, well, what does that mean? Awareness? Well, I think awareness is understanding what is my true purpose, meaning what am I really trying to accomplish? I don't see many of the high level. In fact, I'll say this, I don't see any of the high level producers. I don't see any high level insurance professionals or leaders who don't really know where they want to go that are kind of guessing. I hope we figure this out. That live reactively versus proactively, you know, the best of the best wake up every day with intention. They are highly aware of where they are, where they want to go and how they're going to get there. In fact, those are three questions that every one of us should ask ourselves, and most don't, because when we actually are honest, it can become a challenge. Where am I really today? You know, some, some people that I talk to go, you know, I really thought I'd be further along than this. And that's a hard question to ask yourself because you got to be honest with yourself. It's like, you know, when you're deeply in debt, I don't want to look at it, but I got to be honest to get out of this hole, to get out of this mess. And maybe you're doing pretty good, but you thought you'd be doing better. You know, am I really where I want to be? And the best of the best are very aware of those questions. Where am I today? Where do I want to go? And how am I going to get there? So it's this level of awareness. They have this definite. Of purpose. The Think and Grow Rich talks about this over and over and over again, is that I've got to have this purpose. Now, maybe especially for some of the insurance producers I talked to, maybe they were, you know, people, people second guessed him or people never gave him a chance or something in their, in their, in their life caused them to have this deep desire. But they do. They have this definite purpose. I'm going to do this. You know, you talk to the best of the best, and if you challenge them that they can't do something, guess what, they probably will. That's what makes them the best. So this awareness, I am fully aware of things around me. I'm aware where I'm at. I'm aware of where I'm going. I'm not going to lie to myself. That's an awareness. That's the first a. The second a is action. This one seems pretty obvious, but I will tell you that most insurance agency leaders, most insurance professionals, most insurance producers, they don't necessarily take the action that they should or they're not consistent with it and a good idea. We should do this. You know, I should do that. That would make sense. You know, there's no doubt about it. In fact, I always ask when I'm doing coaching sessions, you know, how important would this action be to you and your agency? Oh, it'd be really important. Well, when are you going to do it? Well, we're going to, you know, we're going to, we're going to get to it soon. We're going to get. I thought you just said it was really important. Yeah, it really is. In Fact, it would be a be a game changer. Then let's do it. All right? Let's take action upon it. I think a lot of people get caught up in the perfection trap. And I talk about this in some of my, of my seminars, especially on personal growth and development, that we get caught up in the perfection trap, that until I have the perfect plan, the perfect idea, the perfect solution, I'm going to wait. Ready? Ready. Ready. Ready. Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. And we never fire. Now I don't mean, and I don't tell any agency leader just to go and wing something. Now don't get me wrong, but I do see the best of the best, the elite, they go, you know what? I got enough. I know enough. And I've stated this before, you know, this comes from the great book called the Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham. If you have not got that book, go get the book. It's such a great book about thinking about your business and the important impactful questions to ask yourself. But he says the biggest problem he sees in consulting this is multi, multi million dollar businesses isn't that we don't know what we don't know, it's that we don't do what we already know. And I can tell you that most of you listening right now, as an agency leader, you know enough to be really dangerous, you know enough to be really successful. And many of you are successful. But why am I not doing more? Well, because just not doing the things that I know I should do. It's about taking action. One of my favorite phrases is this. It's much easier to act yourself into a feeling than it is to feel yourself into an action. Now think about that for a second. This is true in a lot of walks of life, but let's just use physical fitness. For example, now I've gotten to a point in my life that I actually enjoy working out. It actually makes me, I look forward to it because I know how I'm going to feel when I'm done. But there are days that I don't feel like it. And many people out there, I don't feel like going for a jog. I don't feel, feel like picking up the weight. I don't feel like doing a crunch or push up or whatever it is. I don't feel like it. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm worn out. Kids are screaming, busy day. I get it right? I don't feel like it. But guess what happens when we know something's important. Let's Go back to the first one, awareness. I'm aware that this will be good for me. I know where I want to go. And so if I can just act myself, if I can just start to do the push up the rep, push play on the dvd, go to the gym, put my shoes on, I don't care what if I take action, guess what happens? I feel better. And the elite understand I just need to take action. Some days aren't gonna feel good, some days I'm not gonna want to. But guess what? I've gotta be disciplined in the important things that are gonna get me to where I want to go. And the elite understand that a small action is better than, than an idea that never gets acted upon. Right. Even a small action is better than this grand idea that I'm going, yeah, tomorrow though, tomorrow we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna really dive into this. No, like just take some small action. You'll feel better, I promise. Right, so number two is action. Number one, awareness. Number two, action. The third one's the biggie. It's the biggie of all the biggies. And no one likes this word either. It's accountability. Accountability, the best of the best. The elite, all the words that you want to use, they are accountable to their actions, they are accountable to their results. If you want something bad enough and you're willing to take action upon it, if you don't have someone around you that will hold you accountable, you're kidding yourself. I just had a great conversation today with a potential private client, member of the Sitkins network. And you know, it's a very common conversation with the best. Because agency leaders, they go, you know, our team's accountable to different stuff in different ways. But as a leader, who am I really accountable to? Because accountability works in all directions. Sales is accountable to service, service is accountable to sales. Same with their claims. All you can look different apartments. Guess what? Leadership is accountable to our team. The team's accountable to leadership and the best of the best. The elite go, I need to figure out who am I going to be accountable to? Because I want it. I want it for everybody. I want it for the team. Again, I owe it to myself. You owe it to yourself to be your best version. Why would you ever want to get to the end of your life or the end of your business career or whatever target point you have and go, you know, it was all right. Could have done a lot more. And one of the most powerful definitions I've ever heard that slapped me in the face it still slaps me in the face. I mean, I am nowhere close to perfect on this stuff. When I teach and train around it, it wakes me up every time. But it's the definition of hell on earth. And that's when you get to the end of your life and you meet the person that you could have become. See, I think the elite understand this. And when I talk to the elite, they don't like to be held accountable. Now, some of them have different meetings and how they're held accountable. I used to be part of a daily accountability group, a text group that. We had a group together that did that. We did it for close to two years straight. Some accountability. It might be a Monday or a Friday or whatever it is, start where you need to start. But they don't want to pick up the phone and go, oh, my gosh, you know what? Now I got to call up and tell I didn't do what I said I was going to do. Guess what? That makes you do. Makes you get it done, right? Makes you get it done. So accountability is so crucial, in fact, at the very top of our agency pyramid that we work with the Sitkins. It's a culture of accountability. Did you do what you said you were going to do? And I'll tell you this, as an agency leader, you are the model. If you don't do what you said you should do or said that the agency should do, why should anybody else? It's no different with me and my children. And I'm guilty. There's times I'm guilty. I'm like, man, I said to do something. I said to remain calm, and I'm the one freaking out. So we have to understand that it goes all the way back to the beginning. Awareness, being really aware of who I am and where I want to go. Secondly, action. What are the specific actions I need to take consistently day in, day out? And lastly, my accountability. Who am I going to be accountable to? Who am I going to be accountable for? All those things are so vitally important to you and your agency and leadership. So, wanted to share this today as I got ready for the elite 50 group. If you and your agency or agency member want to learn more about what we do at Sitkins, how we work with agencies, how we work with producer teams, how we work with sales managers to help them be their best version possible, to challenge them, to equip you with resources and tools, to give you things that you need. But guess what? Push you and challenge you and encourage you to be your best version possible. Because guess what? As a guide, we're not in your agency. Every day. We get that. We want to help equip and empower you, but also give you accountability, as I just mentioned around that, to help you go do the things you want to do. Because you know what, Sometimes things are hard up front, but if we can do those things up front, that may be harder, life is easier, right? Someone told me, and it's my last thing I'll mention on late 50, I said, you know what, there are some things that I don't like about this industry and some of the things that I'm doing, but I do it because guess what? I love taking these vacations. I love being able to do the things that I want to do and having this true financial freedom. I love having more time because I've done some of the hard things up front. And that's what we want for you as an agency leader. So if we can help you, Visit us@sitkins.com S I t k I n s.com I wish you all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.