You Will Never Be Ready....And That's OK

I'm willing to bet that there's something in your life that you've been wanting to do but reluctant to get started because you just didn't feel you were ready. On today's Agent Leader podcast, I'm gonna tell you that you're never gonna be ready. And that's okay. Hey, are you looking for a dynamic speaker for your next event? Check me out@brentmkelly.com speaking that's brentmkelly.com speaking to learn more about me, my topics, and watch me live action. Well, hello there, friends. My name is Brent Kelly and welcome to another episode of the Agent Leader podcast. Now, hopefully my tease didn't discourage anyone, but here's the truth. You're never going to be ready for anything big, right? For that next big thing that you want. You're never going to be ready. But here's hopefully the encouraging part. That's okay. No one ever is. See, no certification that you have, no training, no book, no program, no step by step process really will ever determine if you're ready to take the next step in anything. Sometimes you just gotta walk out to the edge of the diving board there, right, and just look over the water and jump in. I learned this firsthand. It's been a few years ago, but in 2012, I was an active insurance agent at that time and I was asked to speak in front of a hundred agents or so at a top Midwestern insurance agency. And now this not only was a top notch insurance agency, right, with really sharp people and long track record, a history of explosive growth, but this was an agency that I previously worked for from 2000 to 2004. So needless to say, I knew some of the people in there. Several of the attendings of the audience would be my peers and co workers. In fact, many of the peers were highly successful agents and they had acted as mentors for me when I started my insurance career. And I had all these thoughts in my head, right, asked to come and speak and to tell you I was asked to speak on some digital marketing and some different things that I was doing in my business. But I'm thinking to myself, what in the world could I possibly offer many of these producers that they didn't already know? How would I possibly add value to them? And although I had years, the reason why I'm a full time speaker and a trainer and a coach now is because for years I've always wanted to do this. It's a passion of mine to be able to encourage and challenge and inspire other people. To be their best. So even though this was a lifelong passion of mine, and here I was with an opportunity to be that speaker and command the stage, I had never really done it to that extent before. I was scared to death. And a huge part of me just said, you know what, Bryant? You're not ready. In fact, I had many occasions when I was going to call the event organizer, maybe even email, and just to say, hey, you know what? I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. And by the way, they were going to pay me. This was like my first real paid speaking engagement. But after some time and kind of slapped myself across the face a few times, I knew that I couldn't miss out on this opportunity. So I did agree, and I committed to speak to the group. Now, I prepared pretty hard for this, and I felt that I delivered a solid presentation. But again, it's not about what I think. It's what does the audience think. And afterwards, some of my peers who I was by far the most nervous about, right, Those. Those peers who were mentors of mine who were looking at me, I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, what are they thinking? Who's this? Who am I again to be up there to spe? They came to me right away. They said, brent, that was awesome, man. Thank you for sharing that. There are some things there I didn't know about. You did a great job. Now, this presentation was far from perfect, but it was better than I initially imagined. And here's why I share this story and I think why it's applicable to you. Because looking back at that event, which has been over five years ago, I realized I learned a very powerful lesson that day. One that we all need to learn. And here's the lesson I learned. You will never be ready, but you must always be willing. You will never be ready, but you must always be willing. When you want something bad enough, there will be times when you're going to have to act in faith and confidence, even when you feel you're not ready in practical knowledge, right? Because there's always things that are out in front of us, that are ahead of us, that require us to stretch. And I've talked about that before, that it would be easy to say, yeah, but I'm just not ready. So let me ask you a question. What are you waiting for? Really? What are you waiting for? Because I'm guessing there are some things in your life and in your business that you've put off because you didn't feel you were Ready? I mean, it could be a number of things. It could be maybe calling that big prospect. I've always wanted to call that prospect, but I'm just not ready because I don't know enough quite yet. If I do a little more training, then I'll be ready. Maybe if you're an agency owner and you want to add a new team member, we're not ready. Because what if I add somebody and it doesn't work out? Or maybe it's just launching a new marketing campaign for your business. I mean, it could be a number of things. Right down the list. It could be a number of things. Why? Why do we stop ourselves? Well, it could be due to the fear of failure, right? What if it doesn't work out? What if the prospect says no? Maybe the prospect says, you're an idiot. Who do you think you are? Maybe you add a new team member, it's the wrong person. Maybe it goes haywire. Maybe it costs you money. Maybe you spend money in a marketing campaign and it doesn't work. Could be. Or maybe it's due to lack of confidence. I'm just not as good as what I think I should be. See, regardless, at some point, for you to grow and to develop as the person you want to be, and with that person, develop the business that you want your business to be, you're going to have to begin to do things before you feel you are fully equipped and ready. I have several mentors that I work with, very blessed to have mentors, and my mentor asked a fabulous question on a recent phone call. He said to everyone listening, he said, when is the last time you did something for the first time? When is the last time you did something for the first time? And if you really analyze that question, it can be very powerful. Can it? Because it stopped me in my tracks. I'm thinking, wow, when is the last time that I did something for the first time? Right? Which is basically saying, when is the last time you jumped? Right? There's nothing wrong with getting another certification for getting trained or reading a book, for listening to a podcast, all those things. Because not only do I endorse those things, it's how I earn my living today. I do training and speaking. However, sometimes you have to jump before you think you're ready. Because guess what? You are never, ever, ever going to be fully ready. But you're never going to be everything you've done in life, everything you've learned, you've done before you were ready. Right? You hopped on the bicycle, didn't you? At Some point, most of you. Were you fully ready? Did you fall down? Of course you did. Of course you did. I'm guessing you took a hard test in high school or college before you were fully ready. Did you get a perfect score? Probably not. But you did it, all right? Maybe you took that job, maybe you took that position somewhere. You've done everything in your life before you were fully ready. You had to kind of grow into it, didn't you? And that's the mindset you've got to have to be able to grow and to succeed in life and in business. Because I see so many people waiting on the sidelines, so many people standing on the edge of the pool going, well, it's pretty cold in there. By the way, I say that analogy because I do that every time I go to the pool with my kids. Dad, can you get in? Hold on a second. A second, a second. Like, the water is gonna get warmer if I stay in there for 10 minutes. But that's what we do in life, isn't it? We wait, thinking, well, suddenly things will get better, and then I'll be ready. And then you stand and you stand and you. And you stand and you look back and go, why didn't I just jump in the pool? My mentor, Paul Martinelli, says this. He says you are either stepping forward into growth or you're retreating into safety. You're either stepping forward into growth every day, every week, or you're retreating backwards into safety. Listen, you're never gonna be ready, but that doesn't mean you never start. No one ever got ready by waiting. You're only gonna by starting. Thanks for taking some time to listen to today's Agent leader podcast. I certainly appreciate you. My name is Brent Kelly, and if this podcast has added value to you or your life and you think it would add value to other agent leaders out there in the marketplace, please do me a favor, go to itunes or Stitcher radio and leave a kind review. Or just share this podcast with someone you think it may add value to. Again, my name is Brent Kelly, and until the next episode, go be an agent leader, lead with influence, and grow your business.