Why Not You? A Wake Up Call for Agency Leaders

Welcome to the Agent Leader podcast. This is the podcast for insurance agency leaders to learn to grow, to develop, and ultimately aspire to become their best version possible. My name is Brent Kelly. I am your host. It's a pleasure as always to be with you. And on today's episode, I'm going to ask you one fundamental question. One question will be the theme for this entire podcast episode. And the question only has three words. Are you ready? Why not you? Why not you? Now, the foundation of this question comes from this book, Best version possible. I've mentioned it a few times, co authored by Roger Sitkins. In fact, our final chapter of this book is entitled why not you? And as I was looking at some notes preparing for this episode, it reminded me of some things, and I'll mention some things that are in the book, but I want to go beyond the book a little bit and start off by sharing a story. Because listen, every single one of us has some form of self limiting beliefs. We have doubts, we have fears, we have vulnerabilities, we have insecurities. And although sometimes we can hide them more than others, in many cases we can go above some of them and continue to move forward, which I certainly would ask you all to do. I certainly work on that myself. We all have some areas of self limiting beliefs. I don't care who you are, I don't care how far you've advanced. We all have them. It's a, it's, it's a matter of being aware, right, of where they are. In fact, I remember a few years ago I was facilitating, I was leading a sales mastery group. In fact, the average commission, this was a producer mastery group. The average commission was somewhere around 1.3, $1.4 million of revenue. Some very large producers in that room, very successful people conversations. All things were going really, really well. But all of a sudden it took me back as I was preparing this of a conversation I had with one of the attendees and we were having lunch, just having some small talk and talking about his business and things going on. And the comment came up about, you know, my traveling and where I'm going, I said, you know, I get the pleasure of flying into really nice places and nice hotels and nice resorts. And we were happy to hope we were happening to host this event at a really nice hotel and marina. In fact, outside of where we were having lunch, there were these super nice yachts, these very, very expensive, high level yachts and of course, beautiful homes around. And you know, I made some comment that, hey, it's nice for These people to do that, right? To have these yachts and you know, these harbor homes, that's pretty cool. And this attendant just stopped and he's like, brent, why not you? I said, say again? He said, well, why not you? You're talking about this. He goes, maybe you don't want a yacht or a home here on the harbor. I get that. But just in general, he goes, I hear some things that maybe you're doubting yourself, maybe you don't know that or think that you should or have a yacht like that. And I said, huh, that's interesting. I didn't really think about that. He goes, yeah, why not you? And see, the thing about it is, our biggest obstacle, every single one of us, is the fear, the doubt, the insecurities, these self limiting beliefs. And you know, when I talk to insurance agency leaders, especially ones that are thinking about becoming one of our private clients, or when I'm traveling and speaking to agencies across the country and maybe it's a keynote or a workshop, one of the questions that often gets brought up is, hey, what makes a difference between the highest achieving agencies and can we have the pleasure of working with many of them versus the other ones? Right? The good ones versus the elite, the best version agencies. And there are a lot of factors and I've talked in this podcast about other areas and strategies and certain behaviors that we see, characteristics. But if I had to fundamentally get back to the basics of where it all begins, it's their mindset, it's their beliefs, it's what they really think about, who they are, where they really believe they can go, and a vision and a commitment of how they're going to get there. It really does begin with this. Now listen, I talk to very successful, very smart, very experienced insurance agency leaders and I also talk to people that are just trying their best. And you know what I find? Yes, there's some differences in skill sets, but the biggest gap is how they believe or what they believe, why they believe, what they believe. That is the biggest gap. You know, some of the top level people, I'll have conversations and I'll be like, hey, listen, great person, very clear, has consistent methods, but isn't that much more talented than some other agency leaders that I was talking to? But they think differently, right? So my challenge to you as an agency leader, and this isn't just about revenue, but of course revenue is a pretty darn good indicator. But are you thinking too small? Are you thinking too small? One of my absolute favorite books, I've referenced this a few times. In fact, I have a copy here. Next to me is the book 10x is easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan and mainly written by Dr. Benjamin Hardy. 10x is easier than 2x and the subtitle of the book at the top says how world class Entrepreneurs achieve more by doing less. And in the book there's so many good examples and things they talk about. So go get the book because it's fantastic, fantastic read. But this idea of thinking 10x and how it changes your perspective to go 2x bigger, which would be a great accomplishment, typically means I do a little bit more of what I'm doing, I improve slightly, I work a little bit harder, and those are all good and noble things. But to think and to grow 10x, you've got to begin to change the way you view the world view your agency view, what's possible. In fact, in the book, oftentimes you'll think, well, 10x, that's not possible. Well, that's not possible. Unless what? Right. Unless we begin to reshape the way that we do things. So what I want to do for the remainder of this podcast and again, I want you to think a bit different. Different. And I hopefully provide some clarity and awareness for you as an agency leader of are there areas or gaps where maybe I as a leader or maybe my leadership team, maybe just overall the professionals on our team, whether it's sales, service or any. Again, anyone on the leadership, maybe we're thinking, maybe we're thinking too small, maybe we've had limited thinking, maybe we have too many self limiting beliefs. I'm going to identify three different areas that, that could highlight maybe where you're not thinking big enough. Again, going back to the fundamental question, why not you? Why not you? Why can't you have some of the things that others have? It doesn't mean that you're doing this, by the way, because it's just about, just about the money or just about the things. To me, I believe in every human there's this, this hunger, this capacity for growth to achieve our highest level. And not just because of the outcome and the tangible things which are great, but because as a human being we want that highest level experience. Okay, so let me start with number one. I think there's oftentimes when I'm talking to agencies who aren't thinking as big as some of the other agencies, there's simply a lack of clarity in their vision. Right. The lack of clarity in their vision. I think two things can happen. Number one is they haven't really thought about what's possible because they're just stuck in. This is the way we've always done it, and this is the way it's going to be. And it's good. Good is good enough, right? So maybe there's just not that vision of what's possible out there. But here's the other thing that happened is maybe they think about a vision. Maybe they have passing thoughts or daydreams, so to speak. But because they're not firmly planted or documented or discussed consistently, we get distracted. Right? There are things that. That pop up so you lose sight on what you really, really want. You get distracted. We talk all the time, and I've had Roger Sitkins on this podcast. You know, we get distracted by the gimmick of the month, right? Because you start to do something that matters, and you really do work that matters. It gets hard, right? So it's easy to find something shiny and go, well, that was kind of hard, but let's just go try this, because that looks pretty cool and I don't want to miss anything, right? So we get distracted. You also could just get tired or bored. I mean, one of the things that we talk about in our programs with our private clients is get your MBA. MBA is not what you think it is. I love MBAs from a college experience, but it's mastering the basic activities. We just do the basic things again and again. Yeah, but that's kind of boring and mundane maybe, but the outcome, the results is pretty darn excited. Right? And again, what can happen in that with. If we. If we're not willing to embrace some of the consistent efforts that it takes to fulfill the vision. Right. We'll start telling ourselves again these beliefs of, well, it really wasn't worth it anyway. It's not that big of a deal. It doesn't really matter. So begin to sabotage our own vision because we weren't firm enough at firm enough in the foundation in the first place. All right, So I wanted to share that. That's the first area. I just ask yourself, like, is my vision the vision of our agency? Is it clear? Is it compelling? Is and are we truly consistent, right, in our efforts to get there? Are we truly consistent in our efforts to get there? So that's number one. Number two, the thing that I see for agencies that really take the next level, that this question, why not you? They say, well, absolutely, it should be me, is that they take massive action. They take massive action. One of the things we've talked about as an organization, and you're going to Hear more about this from us, probably in different podcasts, because something we're really passionate on is that the best agency leaders, the best agencies, they made a courageous decision. They made a courageous decision to take massive action in a certain area. They're willing to face some of the brutal facts of the situation. They're able to be honest. As the phrase has been around for years. All progress starts by telling the truth. They're just really honest. Now, the truth could be pretty good. The truth could be average. The truth could be ugly. But we're just going to tell ourselves the truth and knowing that where we are, we're now going to make and take a courageous decision. You know, so often you'll hear agencies, and maybe this is you, maybe not, but they'll talk about things forever. Well, maybe we could do this and maybe we should do this, or, I don't know, maybe we could do this or, I don't know, maybe. Maybe we could try that. And I'm all for planning and preparation. In fact, we talk about that all the time. Right? There is power in planning and preparation. But at some point, you gotta move from aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim. You gotta fire. You know, I had a mentor years ago, say something to me, and I love this quote. I use it all the time because it's very, very powerful for me. He said, hey, Brent, you can't improve a result until you go get a result. So stop thinking about the thing you're going to do. Do something, get a result, even if it's not the result you want. Go get one so you can actually make improvements. And to me, that's part of taking massive action. And maybe when I say massive action, that word massive seems like sometimes massive action is just the fact that you've been stuck for so long that getting off the seat to take that action is a. A massive action, right? So just think about that. What is your next action? This idea of, why not you? Why are other people doing things and not you? Well, again, this isn't a comparison thing, but, you know, there's more in you. Well, you've got to take action. There's a definition that most of you have probably heard about luck. I mean, this has been around forever. Luck. Fact, I had a. An assistant football coach. I go back a lot of years for this. And just the way he talked you always, Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. And I agree. I think a good part of luck, you know, I ask people, do you believe in luck? Have you been lucky? Well, typically the people that are lucky is they have prepared for something that they want, that they desire. The opportunity presents themselves. Now here's the last one that he didn't say that I think is important. And by the way, it's in this principle number two, you gotta take action. You might be preparing for something, you might have some form of an opportunity, or maybe you don't see it as an opportunity. And this is the problem is that because it's not the perfect scenario, I'll wait till next time. Today isn't the right day. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next month, maybe next year. Two years will be ready, three years will finally be right. Eventually we'll get this thing. We'll get this thing right. So I think about, you know, these questions he asked. Why not you? Well, the people that have, have achieved some of these things, again, they're not always the smartest, they're not always the most talented, they're not always the most experienced. You know, they don't do everything right. But first of all, they were clear in the vision of what they wanted. And secondly, they got off the seat and they took action, right? So the second one I want to talk about is where maybe are you lacking action steps that you need? All right, here's the third one I want to get into of why not you? And this is going to involve more than just you. Because when I say why not you? I'm talking also from an agency perspective. The, the best agencies that we have the pleasure again of working with that continue to grow, continue to develop, continue to get high level results. They realize that average agencies, even good agencies, can build some followers, but the best agencies build future leaders. Why not you? Well, first of all, if it's going to be just only about you, you're going to have a problem. So this is the idea of, yes, you got to lead yourself, but you've also got to be willing and able to lead others or at least certainly find other people in your organization that can help you lead others. There's four areas when I think of this, that really jump out within this idea of leading others. Well, and building your agency, why not you? It takes more people. In fact, the top agencies, they can say, oh, that's easy for them, they have more people. Well, yeah, but the highest level agency leaders do the least amount of things. They just do those least amount of things at the highest level, right. This gets back to the idea of doing what you do best, right? Delegating, finding other people. You know, I mentioned the book 10X, the other book that Dan Sullivan writes. And what he talks about is, it's who, not how, right? So many agencies think about, well, how do I do this and how do I do this and how do I do that? How do I. Well, a question they should be asking is who would be best at doing that? So just acknowledgement of what you do best. You got to start by leading yourself and then, of course, leading others. So the four things. I'll get back to four things. Number one, as an agency leader, when I say why not you? You and the leadership team need to model the characteristics and the attributes that you believe are most important. Now, I know that sounds mundane and that sounds simple, but here's something I want to share with you. If you're a leader, this is true for every leader. People are always watching you. They're always watching you. How you act, how you treat people, the cadence at which you move, the frequency of how you do things. You could go down the list of all these things, but people are always watching you. I know that as a dad with five kiddos, I can say to my kids lots of stuff, but they know deep down inside after a certain age and doesn't take that long. Wait a second, dad, you say all this stuff, but do you demonstrate that you told me to be nice to this person who wasn't nice to me? Do you do that? So these are things thinking about as a leader, if you were leading yourself, what kind of things would you be most proud of? Right? Like, in fact, here's a better question. If you were leading you, would you follow you? And if so, why? And if there's certain things that would hesitate for you to follow you, what are those things? So just again, be aware of those things. Number two, and these are all gonna work together within this idea of leadership. Number two is motivation. Now, I don't mean motivation just in the simple, Ra ra ra. Let's go get em. I love those speeches. I love motivational speeches. I think they could be good. I also chuckle about motivation. It reminds me of the Zig Ziglar quote. And Zig said, you know, motivation is great, but it doesn't last. They said, well, yeah, Zig, motivation doesn't last. He says, well, neither does bathing. That's why I recommend it daily. I always love that quote from Zig. But motivation, it's not only about rah rah, let's go get him and let's do these things. You know, motivation is also about getting to know not just the hands so to speak, of what people are going to do on your team. But the heart, right? The things that they want and they desire and to align those things, right? The best way to motivate someone is to first of all understand what they want and need and desire in their own life. Every human being, even the most giving, generous human being on this earth still has selfish ambition, certain desires they want. And if we don't know what those are and can't align with those, well, it becomes very, very difficult to motivate. So motivation is a huge one. Another area I want to hit on, and these are all m words with leadership is mentorship. Mentorship. Now, there's no doubt the best agencies, they have champions within their agencies who mentor certain characteristics that others can follow. And this is why you know, leadership as you build this out and build more leaders, finding mentors for younger people or newer people, in fact, anybody and everybody has certain areas they could use mentorship in. But to me that is so foundational. So look for people on your team that do things at the highest level. Now, maybe you don't mentor everything, but hey, watch how Joe does this. In fact, go hang out with Joe for the day or start to hook up. We've got some of our agency or private clients right now that have created mentorship teams, right? Start thinking about who else on your team can be a voice in a certain area in mentorship. And if you do these things correctly, if you're modeling, if you're motivating and of course you're mentoring, you're going to get to the level you want, which is to multiply your agency. Why not you? Why not you? Well, because it takes more than you to ultimately get to the highest level that you want. So multiplying again is idea that I'm not here to create just more followers. I'm here to create and develop more leaders. That's what I aspire to do. And I'll just be very blunt and honest here. One of the challenges that we'll see with agencies when you try to create and develop more leaders, I mean, there's a number of challenges. I don't have the time, I don't have the energy and if I have the right people. But one of the things that jumps in is coming back to the self limiting beliefs of oh, well then what happens to me? There is always a higher level of what a human can do, right? So starting to thinking about this from a leadership perspective, when we come to multiply leadership in our agency, this isn't about Taking away you or the things you do. It's about you doing what you do best, enhancing your best qualities and characteristics and allowing other people to do what they do best and add even more value to you and your agency. All right, so this is the fundamental question, why not you? And I just want you to think about this from the perspective of a belief system. Now, we talk all the time about beliefs, behaviors, results. I think every agency, at least I hope every agency, wants to get better results. And there's a number of indicators. We can look for that. But to have the best results, you've got to align those with the key behaviors. What are the key behaviors that drive the results? And sometimes we go, why aren't the behaviors lining up with results? Well, maybe because if it comes back to the very beginning, our beliefs are not in correlation with the behaviors we want. Do we really believe the things you want? Would you want to do the right behaviors if you didn't have a clear vision of what it is that you're trying to accomplish and you weren't consistent in discussing that vision? Right. Would you have the right behaviors if you never took action? You know, like, do your beliefs match that? And then of course, the behaviors that again, continue to empower and educate and build your team. These are all critical areas that we see with agencies. So I want to share this today. I wanted to keep this podcast fairly short. Again, I will put a plug in for the book just because the fact again, the last chapter, we talk about why not you? And I'll say this again for probably the 50th time on this podcast. This is a great business. You could never ask yourself, why not you? And you could say, hey, I'm good, I'm good enough. Things are fine, I don't want to mess anymore. I don't really care about you. Why not you? That's your choice. I will say this, the agencies that we work with, in fact, the only agencies that we will be working with are those that will think at the highest level, think abundantly, think about not just it's not possible, but what's possible. They align their beliefs and behaviors to get the results. They want to be part of a community of high level thinkers. They want to be encouraged and they also want to be challenged because they never want to get to the end of their career and go, huh, why not me? Why didn't I do this? And never have a life of regrets. So if you're interested in learning more about what we do, how I work with agencies, there'll be some information here. You can always go to sitkins.com bookacall it'll be a very brief call. Get to know more about your agency. But again I can't say this enough. If you're not a high level thinking agency, if you don't really want to truly be that best version possible or certainly aspire to be that, then probably not a good fit. But if you really want to take the next level, then again I would challenge you and encourage you. Let's just have an initial call, learn more about you and your agency and see if there's a fit as you move forward. So I want to thank you for being a listener of this podcast and if we can help if you have topic ideas, reach out to my team. We'd love to put more things out there for you that are most relevant to you and I will continue to be reaching out to some more guests. We'll get scheduled here through the remainder of 2025. So with that, wish you all the best in your success. Take care. The Agent Leader Podcast is brought to you by the fine folks of the Rough Notes Company. They are publishers of the insurance industry's leading magazine and technical insurance content. RoughNotes magazine profile successful agencies plus keen insights from respected experts on a host of must know topics. Rough Notes Advantage plus provides the tools to help your agency grow, providing authoritative information on complex coverage issues. Visit them and learn more@roughnotes.com Wait, you're still here? Hey Agent Leader Podcast listeners, Brent Kelly again, I want to first of all thank you for listening to the Agent Leader Podcast and your continued support support. If you would like to have more content come your way, please help us by sharing the podcast, subscribing to the podcast, telling people about the podcast and if you as an Agent Leader are truly ready to take that next step in your agency, you're committed and want to be that best version possible agency. Don't wait. Go to sitkins.com bookacall sitkins.com bookacall we want to provide the blue blueprint for your agency to help you create more impact with less effort. And it all starts by going to siskens.com bookacall all right, now you can actually go. Thanks.