Own Your Business, Don’t Let It Own You: The Power of JOMO

What if the real key to success is JOMO (the Joy of Missing Out)? Shane and Tonya break down how to stay focused, make intentional decisions, and let your business serve you—rather than the other way around. 

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Transcript

Announcer: [00:00:00] This is IA Forward. Your playbook for success as an independent insurance agent. Here to help you knock it out of the ballpark are your hosts, Shane Tatum and Tonya Lied. Welcome to  

Tonya: IA Forward. Last week I was listening to an episode of Game Changers with Molly Fletcher. She was interviewing Molly Sims. 

They were discussing how reinvention is always possible and what that looks like at different stages of your career. That really made me listen a little more because so many of our listeners are producers that are looking at becoming agency owners or they are agency owners wanting to take the next step. 

And so my brain was going that direction. And then part of the conversation, they used the term JOMO. And it made me pause because we, we talk about FOMO and we hear about FOMO and FOMO is such a big deal, but I'd never [00:01:00] really heard the term JOMO before. The Joy of Missing Out. And the idea of the joy of missing out, like 10 years ago, would have just been stupid and I would have been, oh yeah, I'm not going to do that. 

But I can embrace that idea at this point in my life.  

Shane: Feels like an old person thing, just to be blunt.  

Tonya: Thanks Shane, appreciate that.  

Shane: Really though, I'm with you, 100 percent agree. And I just wonder if it is an age thing, an experience thing, completely. Have situations where it is very joyous that I missed out. 

I know that is not natural Especially when you're in a driven culture or you're in a driven time of life Not that we're not driven today. We're pretty dang busy. We're pretty dang driven. And so I really believe that It just comes with maybe some experience of, wow, I'm glad I didn't jump on that or, Ooh, I'm not in the middle of that mess [00:02:00] now because I missed out on it and it's a God send and thank goodness. 

So I actually resonate pretty well. We never want to miss out on opportunity as salespeople. It's like we live for that and we are driven for getting to yes, but sometimes missing out is a blessing.  

Tonya: I want to talk about FOMO versus JOMO for agency owners and the whole fear of missing out thing when it comes to the latest technology, those carrier opportunities that pop up, marketing trends, networking events, and it creates this constant comparison to other agencies. 

I see so many agents that are focused on what. Other agencies are doing on social media, things that are going on within our industry. I don't think people are focusing on their [00:03:00] business because they're being distracted by this FOMO of all the other things.  

Shane: No big one right now that. Really jumps into my mind is AI. 

I know in our upcoming Integra conference here in the next month or so down in Galveston, we have a session that I'm really excited about on AI from our AI partner, Strawberry Antler and future podcast guest eventually. And AI is one of those things that. Reminds me of some things that were going on 20 to 25 years ago with just the internet. 

What would eventually became known as SEO. And just if you're not online and you're going to be left behind and now it's if you're not in the AI arena. And you're not investing in AI and you're not using AI to make you stronger, then you're going to die. Your agency's going to die. It's not true, but it's what we do with the comparison game and pick on social media [00:04:00] because it's easy to pick on. 

Like we do it personally, but we do it in our businesses and it's not any different in a peer evaluation environment between agency to agency or this one agent is much better at their social presence and. Lives everything online and presents a picture of success and you don't really know you don't know if they're successful You just know what they're presenting. 

And so then you think okay, I need to go do that But then you just left what was successful for you. It is a major issue That I see And this is a great topic, because FOMO, maybe the opposite of it, becomes JOMO, and maybe that's where we want to go here.  

Tonya: Three years ago, I sent out my favorite Christmas card ever, and it was this beautiful picture of my husband and I and our dog, and we were all dressed alike, and it was a gorgeous shot. 

It really was. And the [00:05:00] top of it said, Our real life looks nothing like this. And then when you turned the card over, it had five or six outtakes of this particular shot where the dogs got her tongue like stuck up my nose and all of these weird, crazy things that happened to get. The one perfect Christmas card picture and people still talk about that Christmas card because it was real and it was authentic. 

And it was like, yeah, we all try to get the perfect picture and living at the beach. People trying to get the perfect beach. picture and I'm like, really, just go to Gulf Breeze and take it in the parking lot of the Publix because that is so much more authentic than this perfect picture that you're torturing your family trying to get at the beach. 

And people Identify with that authenticity, and that's the joyous part. I mean, [00:06:00] nobody's agency, nobody's life is as perfect as it looks in social media or in whatever they're presenting at whatever conference that you're attending.  

Shane: There is the real world, which is becoming more and more, to some degree, separated from the world we see in social media. 

I embrace LinkedIn and I'm on LinkedIn. Sometimes I feel bad because I feel like sometimes I'm taking jabs unintentionally at, at other individuals that are, and I'm not trying to do that. I'm just offering a counter or opposite view. Authenticity shouldn't be something you have to say that you are. It's one of those things where you just do. 

If you have something to say and you have a message to get out there. If you're just authentic about it, it will come through. It will be genuine and you don't really have to try. If you have to try to be authentic, it's not authentic. It's made up [00:07:00] authenticity. You should be able to just be. And that's who you are and people accept that or they don't accept that. 

And that's where it starts the rub. What if people don't accept the message I'm giving first? Who cares? Those aren't your people because your people will accept and follow the message that you have to give them, even if it's two or one, we publicize. Celebrity. We publicize wealth. We publicize success. We are such a driven culture and it is good in a lot of ways and it is bad in a lot of ways. 

I love just this idea of agency owners finding their people. And being who they are and allowing that to naturally morph itself into success, and it will, it will, if you're supposed to be doing this, like if you're supposed to be doing what you're doing on agency ownership, sales, et cetera, you may be some situations. 

I tell [00:08:00] this to people all the time, Hey, you may be an incredible account manager and you need to go be the best account manager at an agency. I've said that to someone before, and I don't think they took it well. I'm sure they didn't, because they were trying to be an agency owner, and they didn't need to be an agency owner. 

I don't need to be a salesperson anymore. Let me say that publicly. Like, I've, I'm not in the weeds of the insurance policy. I'm not in the technical sense. I've backed away into a different realm, into a different stage of life. Helping people start agencies, helping agency owners know how to grow and learn how to grow their agencies doesn't always make me the best insurance agent or the best producer. 

And I am 100 percent okay saying that publicly because you know what? The best players don't always make the best coaches. Matter of fact, rarely. If ever, do the best players make the best coaches? That's why Michael Jordan's not coaching. That's why Derek Jeter's not coaching. And I have learned to embrace that. 

And I have [00:09:00] learned to be at a spot where I'm saying to people, Hey, it's okay to be successful. You don't have to necessarily look like the guy or gal across the street on social media who's painting you this picture. Most of the time that stuff's not real. Why are the people that are out there the most successful on social media? 

Why are they focused on that more times than not? It's because they're not the best sales producer or agency owner, honestly, which is why they're great at what they're telling you that you need to do.  

Tonya: FOMO is exhausting. It's distracting. And what I see from a business strategy perspective is that It's leading to these reactive business decisions as opposed to allowing you to keep the intentional strategy that you put into place. 

And if you're as ADHD as I am, that's something you really have to watch out for. And when you do that and you [00:10:00] have that reactive, Oh, I've got to grab this, that causes financial strain. Own your business. And when you start buying every tool and spreading financial resources and time resources and human capital resources too thin because of FOMO, then it not only overwhelms you, but it's going to overwhelm your staff, too. 

Don't ask us how we  

Shane: know this. I'm laughing because I'm literally like, okay, she's basically just showing the world Our world not to be the dead horse here. It does drive your people crazy. It does throw disruption into your world. And it's something that we really have to be disciplined about. That's the key. 

The ability to stay focused on what's working and be honest with yourself about what's working. We are doing that right now in our organization, both in our retail operation and in our partner network, our agency network. We are looking at it and going, wait a [00:11:00] minute, are we chasing a rabbit? Are we distracted? 

Are we watching too many other people? Are we really being honest with ourself about what brought us here and what worked and what we really need to be focused on? Because here's the thing, as you get more and more successful, as you progress and you will be successful, the more successful you are, the more. 

Different types of opportunities show up at your feet, they show up out of nowhere, they're just everywhere and it's because you are successful, not on a fake basis, not because you were trying to do something your neighboring agent was doing, not those reasons you're growing, you're successful, other people all. 

Start to look around and look at you and they're like, what are you doing? The next thing, you know, you have Clients that are maybe running at you with opportunities that you haven't ever had before And the question is are you staying disciplined to what got you to the level that you [00:12:00] are most of the time? 

We don't, because we're salespeople. Most of the time, we don't even know we're distracted. We think this is an opportunity, and it's really a distraction. And it is because of the dreaded FOMO phrase. You think you have to do it because you fear exactly what it is, that by missing out on this, your agency's going to stagnate, or your agency's going to slow down sales, or go backwards, or whatever. 

Not true. More times than not, this thing that you think you have to do, this opportunity that's in front of you, if you will stay disciplined and keep doing what it is that you do really well, more narrow, not less narrow in terms of your scope and your focus is the right answer. Most of the time. We think it's more. 

We think it's being a personal lines agency and getting into commercial lines. We think that's the answer. But at five or six million in [00:13:00] premium in personal lines and pushing through and being 10 or 12 million in premium in personal lines and being better and better at doing that and narrowing down to the right customer in order to be better and better every day. 

That's way more valuable. Bull. To the marketplace in terms of agency valuation in terms of a support and service staff that knows what they're doing and isn't pulling their hair out versus, say, five or six million in premium and personal lines. I'm going to go over here and open up a commercial lines department and fight my way through becoming an expert there. 

And you can switch these, vice versa. You can do it both ways. I'm just seeing more and more agents who double down on what they do well, be more successful in the long run, and the short run, and they're just more healthy. Okay, sure, there's less diversification, so there's maybe risk in some people's eyes. 

Man, you're [00:14:00] creating your worry in a lot of ways. You're creating your worry around what if. The market tanks. Okay, what if? But what if it doesn't? What if it doesn't and you go from a 20 percent profit margin to a 30 percent profit margin at twice your size because you doubled down and zeroed in and became more narrow, not more broad. 

Something to think about.  

Tonya: Especially those of us that are natural salespeople like you and me and most of the people that are listening to this. Do boring well. As as the fabulous John Dunn would say, That's why this happens. We get bored with doing the same thing over and over again. So that's why I liked this idea of Jomo as a business strategy. 

There are great opportunities out there. But not every opportunity is your opportunity. There's the whole mindset of if it's not heck yeah, then you say no. The [00:15:00] problem is if you have a mindset like most salespeople, everything feels heck yeah in the moment. And I started implementing a 48 hour rule. 

Especially when seeing anything online that I want to get involved with, or if somebody brings something to me, my natural inclination is, heck, yeah, let's do it. This is fantastic. And 48 hours later, I have thought through it and it's okay. Yeah, that is a good place to be. Or. It's not. And this has to do with networking events, marketing tactics, personal growth and development. 

When people say, Oh, you need to read this. And my natural inclination is to go on Amazon or go on Audible and grab it. And I'm even waiting those two days now to decide, okay, is this something that I want to invest 12 to 14 hours of my life reading? By waiting, getting away [00:16:00] from that heck yes or no theory to the 48 hour rule, creating that intentional focus versus scattered attention is really helping me. 

Because it's not that I'm trying to make a moral judgment over something as good or bad, it's, is it right for me or is it just creating a distraction?  

Shane: I love having the buffer or the wait time. Your bank account will thank you. As salespeople. We have this tendency to sell ourselves on our own ideas, and that gets us in a bad spot. 

If you really think about it, if you step outside yourself, and look at characteristics and your own traits, and be really brutally honest with yourself. I am A really good projecting numbers guy, I can make any situation look good on paper. My dad [00:17:00] told me at an early age, as I would bring ideas to the table, he was like, you pretty much can project anything really well. 

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to cut your revenue in half and I want you to double your expenses. And if it still looks good, come back to me. And he knew right away that I was really good at selling myself on a concept. My wife would testify that is accurate and true still to this day. If I go into something and I have my mind made up and this is what we're going to do and this is I have already sold myself that this is awesome. 

Even though I don't know. What do you think? 50 50? What do you think? Based on working with me for nearly seven or eight years now, 50 50, 50 percent of the time, it's a good idea. 50 percent it's a mind changing idea. Three months from now, two months from now,  

Tonya: it's accurate. So if  

Shane: we're just open and honest on podcast today, if I'm telling you to be authentic and transparent, then I got to be the same. 

And this is the truth. We are salespeople. You can sell yourself on [00:18:00] just about anything. If you're probably the type of salesperson you are, then you're capable of selling yourself first. And this is where we get ourselves in trouble, as owners. This is the stepping out of the salesperson mindset, stepping into an ownership mindset, becoming CEO of your agency. 

Type thing, even if you're a single solopreneur, you still gotta separate those thought processes. You've gotta be salesperson when it's time to be salesperson, and then you gotta step out and be CEO when it's time to be CEO. This is where Jomo, Joy of Missing Out, becomes extremely rewarding. Because if you do that, if you step away from your sales persona and maybe you become a really good listener and customer to who you are and what you're saying and what you're trying to sell yourself, then you just might find that you pass on a few things that you look up at a month, two months, a year and go, Ooh, glad I didn't blow money on that. 

Glad I didn't get myself down [00:19:00] that rabbit hole. I know that the bigger we get, the more we go, the more important this is. And sometimes I forget that. Sometimes, as the Integra CEO, I forget I can't just do something and then change my mind. It's not healthy for the people around me. It's not healthy for all of our people. 

I know we're not big. We're 36, 37 employees. 32 partner agents today and growing, but we're not quite, it's not quite like turning around the Titanic type language, but it's not driving a Ferrari either. We can't just move and turn on a dime and everybody stay sane. Like it, it will cause some sanity problems if I do things like that. 

And sometimes I do. Sometimes I accidentally do it, and I forget we're not a six person company anymore. I know that even the smallest agencies, even the ones looking to start a new independent agency, and they're going to be solo for a little while. It's [00:20:00] going to be more healthy if you take on that CEO mindset as soon as possible, so that you can stay focused on the things that you need to be focused on. 

Tonya: I want to be careful that it doesn't sound like we're suggesting that you go stagnant and be happy with where you are and not look at anything new. We're trying to encourage ourselves and you. To be strategic and make sure that the things that you are doing are the things that are really going to move the needle, that your strategy is set, that you're not randomly reacting. 

Because here's the thing. When you embrace this idea of Jomo in your agency. You're going to be doubling down on what works because you're going to have time to do that. You're not going to have the distractions. You're going to have a little bit of extra revenue because you're not constantly buying the things. 

So we're not saying don't do anything. We're [00:21:00] saying be strategic about what you choose to do. And going back to sanity, that's the whole idea of the joy of missing out. It's about focus, it's about strategy, and it's about sanity.  

Shane: It's exactly the opposite of what it sounds. Tanya's nailed it. It's a great point to drive home. 

I don't want you to do less. I don't want you to be content. I want you to do more of the thing you do really well. There's a difference between do more types of things. And double down and do more of the things that you do really well and that you've built your building your business on and you found success with if you're just for some examples, if you are a incredible seller of accounts, personal lines. 

You're not going to leave any policy out there. You're going to make this client all you got to have it all your full time client, middle of the road. You're not in high net worth. You're not in the non standard [00:22:00] arena. I want you to do more and more of that. I don't want you to do that, become super profitable and go. 

I need to be a high net worth agent. Because those are different things. I'm not saying you can't become that, I'm just saying that's where the FOMO, the JOMO, that's where all this intersection starts to happen is because you've grown this agency from zero to say four or five million with this incredible incredible incredible Policy per customer kind of statistic, you've done it with really a portfolio of half a dozen carriers. 

Yes, that's possible in certain areas, and you have this extremely efficient book of business, and then at some networking event, somebody's talking about they're in the high net worth business, and they write these average personal lines accounts anywhere from 35 to 50, 000 in premium. And you start doing the numbers and you start [00:23:00] thinking about it. 

And the next thing you know, is you're building a business plan on how to become a high net worth operator. That's what we're talking about. I'm saying double down on what you do and go from 5 million to 8 million or 5 million to 10 million on what you do. If you start trying to jump out over here and take your upper middle class kind of book of business, home, autos, a few toys, umbrella, maybe some life insurance, you start moving away from that, that you've built your agency on, and you're going to get into high net worth, just an example, you have no idea what's required to build that high net worth business, I promise you. 

That high net worth business, Is a different world, different expectations, different set of carriers, different hours, promise you different hours. You have someone that pays you 60, 000 worth of personal lines insurance and they text you at 8 30 at night. What do [00:24:00] you think you're doing? You're answering the text or two o'clock in the morning. 

You got a book of business over here that you're generating an incredible return on and profit from lifestyle. And one client averages 45 to 5, 500 for the account in premium, different ball game, eight to five kids events. Travel, totally different look. I'm not saying high net worth's bad. Do not misunderstand me. 

If you're a high net worth focused agency, I applaud you. Stay there. Stay in that world, like double down in that world, become the best high net worth agency, boutique operator that you can become. That's all we're trying to say here today is that there is a lot of joy in understanding what you're really good at. 

And looking over there at one or the other, whichever you're not, and going, Heh, that's an awesome business model. Congratulations. And moving on.  

Tonya: Something that [00:25:00] we tend to forget is that our business should serve us, and not the other way around. And at the point that we can remember that, then this idea of Jomo is going to help us reclaim this work life balance that we're always talking about. 

I like the concept of work life experience because I don't think anything balances on any day of the week, but really and truly, we serve our businesses so much more. Usually as business owners, then we allow our business to serve us.  

Shane: Hey, I love the, your business should work for you. Your business should serve you. 

We forget that in a service business, we do provide a service. We do provide things and we are professionals. But why are you doing this? Ask yourself, like, why do you want to be an agency owner? You want to be an agency owner because you want to get the return off the [00:26:00] investment, control your time, control your calendar, all the above. 

You start writing down, why do you want to be an agency owner? Why do I love being an agency owner? You get all of those things. And then you build your book of business and build your agency where you have to actually serve it to Tanya's point. You've got it backwards. That's a gut check moment. If you feel like you're serving your business and your business isn't serving you, a light bulb needs to go off and you need to look at some things. 

It may be as simple. As segmenting your customer base, it may be as simple as taking a look at some of those clients and seeing if there's an opportunity to maybe not continue to write certain clients, maybe not write single policies, maybe not write commercial lines that you're dabbling in or personal lines. 

If you're a commercial lines focused agent, thinking about little ways that you can tweak your business. You may only have a 10 percent tweak [00:27:00] that takes you from serving your business to your business serving you.  

Tonya: I'm going to leave us today with this quote from Venus Williams. I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.  

Shane: Attitude to choice. Make a great one.  

Tonya: Bye  

Announcer: y'all. At the Integra Partner Network, we understand that carrier access is the key to your agency's success. That's why Integra offers direct access to top rated personal and commercial carriers, ensuring your agency thrives in today's challenging market. 

And with our comprehensive resources, profit sharing, and bonus opportunities, technology, and peer support, all while you retain a hundred percent of your book with no penalties to exit, Integra is ready to empower you. And your agency to find sustained growth. Find your way to Integra. Visit IntegraPartnerNetwork. 

com today. That's IntegraPartnerNetwork. com.