Not Viral, Just Consistent: What We've Learned About Agency Ownership in 300 Episodes

We’re celebrating 300 episodes the only way we know how: with real talk, a little chaos, and the lessons that actually matter when you’re building an agency. We didn’t get here because something went viral. We got here because we kept showing up. In this milestone episode, we break down what consistency really looks like, why most people quit before the results show up, and how agency owners can stay in the game long enough to win it.

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Transcript

 Tonya: [00:00:00] Welcome to the 300th episode of the IA Forward Podcast. Shane, I need you to be in rah rah mode, please. Just for one day. Shane: I have one Tonya: day. I need it from you. Shane: I have been practicing this and it's. It's not happening. Like I, I Need a title for this episode have literally been like, okay, I have to be excited because Tonya's gonna be excited and I have to be excited and I'm doing it for her and I'm failing because I'm like, but I am, I'm, I, I really am excited. Like I, I just don't have a way of outwardly expressing it. Is that, does that mean I'm like. Like got a problem. Stoic. Stoic. Is that, uh, yeah, maybe. I don't know. I'm too even keel, right? Like I need a little more like let's go, let's get I don't, I can't even fake the [00:01:00] Let's go. I don't, you can't. Well, obviously I wanna say Tonya: thank you to, I'm sorry. Go ahead Mike. Mike: I was just gonna say, obviously Robbie and I have not been a part of the 300, but we are proud of you guys for what you've accomplished here with that. And you know, I am able. To show you guys my excitement level love, and be super excited for you. So that's awesome. Hey Shane, I got you. Shane: That is fantastic. That really is. The real question is, is, is that a hat you normally have or is that a new hat for this occasion? 'cause I, I gotta know. Mike: So the truth of the story on this hat is that, um. We have some Jewish friends and one of their sons, uh, had their bar mitzvah. Yeah. And, uh, part of that party was these hats. Shane: Okay. Alright. I like the hat, so that's impressive. I I [00:02:00] do, I do. I see. Why can't, why can't I be creative like that? Right. Why Look at Robbie coming out. I mean, uh, Mike coming out of his shell and showing his creativity side, right. It's aggressive. Mike: That. Yeah, me coming out of my shell is a term I've not heard in quite a long time. Tonya: I'm just having this vision of Marcel the Shell in his videos. Do y'all watch those? Shane: You ever seen these? No. No. Okay. It's okay. Lightness. Lightness. No. Marcel the Tonya: shell. He's just like this little happy guy. And anyway, okay. I'll have to listen to that, but I wanna express my gratitude to our listeners. Like, thank you so much. We do this for y'all. And when we started doing this, Shane did not believe that this was a good idea. I, we've told y'all this over and over and over again and, and it really took a few years of convincing Shane that we should do [00:03:00] this and. You guys have listened to us and let us know that this means something to you and it's helped you in your agencies and it's helped you grow and kept you sane sometimes. And so that's the big thing for me is thank you guys for the opportunity of doing this. Four, 300 episodes. I look forward to 300 more because that means that I'm still employed about six years later. So that would be absolutely fantastic. And I'll tell you, that was a little bit of a concern for me. I was like, when we started this, like, what if I say something and Shane is like, okay, you can't play with us anymore and you need to go do something else. And in 300 episodes, that has yet to happen. Shane: H how, how many, I mean, this is kind of one of those things, you're probably not gonna have this number, but like, I know we've talked about the average podcast episode is like seven, right? Or not EPIs, the, the average podcast 10 is like [00:04:00] seven episodes, right? Right. So. How many actually make it to 300? That's a good question. Right. We, I know we don't have that answer, but I'll, I'll, I'll throw that out there. Um, what percent actually makes it to 300 for, also for clarity. All right. Just, just to redeem myself a little bit here, I didn't say. That a podcast was a bad idea. I, I said I didn't know if I wanted to be involved in a podcast. I also said, everybody's putting out a podcast. We're just going with the flow. And I don't know if the podcast world is like a fad or if it's, you know, it was, that was really kind of the. The thing that I wrestled with. And then when we started doing it, I, I mean, you talk about a guy that talks a lot, getting an opportunity to get his [00:05:00] words out once a week on a podcast. It was very, um, like it become like a, a, a, a, a therapy thing for me. Like, okay, let's record the podcast. Because when we first started Tonya, we did two a week. We did. Wow. We were really ambitious. Really, really ambitious. 'cause we did two a week and it was, it was a little bit exhausting for a while, so Tonya: Yes. Yes. But for your statistics. Shane: Okay. Tonya: Less. Okay. 90% of podcasts don't make it past seven. Shane: Okay. Tonya: Less than 3% make it to a hundred. Wow. And well under 1% ever reach 300. Whoa. Shane: So this Tonya: is not like a successful launch thing. This is longevity, this is discipline, and this is consistency. And so like we actually did what we were supposed to do. Robbie: [00:06:00] You know, Shane may have been a little reluctant to, you know, do the podcast up front, but after your first few episodes, Tonya. I caught him, uh, signing autographs outside of his office, uh, with a few of the employees. So I think, uh, there you go. I think, I think he enjoys it. Shane: I set up, I open the door and set up a table, like, is that, should I do that? Should I open the door, set up a table and say, you know, autographs on, you know, and just. Just see what people do when they walk by and look at me. But he said people walk because he gave them. So Tonya: what Robbie and Mike, y'all may not know this, but for Christmas this year, I actually bought Shane a light up on air sign to have his official on air sign that he has yet to put up in his office. I haven't put it up Shane: yet. It's right here. It's outta sight, but I haven't, I haven't done it yet. I, I, it's, it's coming. It's coming. I gotta figure some things out. This right here has gotta, gotta work itself out, right? [00:07:00] So, Mike: well, my wife buys anything, or my kids, and they want it on the wall. They have an expectation that that's a four to six month wait before I get around to putting anything up. So, you know, everybody's just, you just gotta have the expectations in the right place. Robbie: That's right. That's right. Mike: Yeah. Tonya: So how did we get to 300 episodes? I mean, seriously, this is a lot. Shane: It, it is, and I, I think this parallels the insurance agency business really, really closely. And I, I, I really think that it's, it's a great topic because even though we're celebrating 300 and. You really, what, what was it? It was, it was showing up. Like that's, uh, that's, that's the thing that comes to my mind is it was showing up and doing it. Right. It wasn't just talking about it. I mean, we talked about it for a couple of [00:08:00] years. Like you, you encouraged it for a couple of years, you pushed for it, but really it was, when we stopped talking about it, we started showing up and doing it. Regardless of the result, right? Like you can go back and listen to some of those very first podcasts and I mean, my ear doesn't hear the stuff that Tonya's ear hears, but I mean, it's not as bad as, as I would make it out or she would make it out, but like, it's drastically different today than, uh, than it was day one. And you know, when you start out as an agency owner, you. You're not the best. You're not necessarily the best agent in the world either, right? Like it. It's like anything. You just keep showing up. You keep doing it over and over again, and eventually you become decent at it, pretty good at it. Then maybe you become. Like, I would say we're elite at this point in the top 1%, [00:09:00] right? Mm-hmm. I mean, I've never, I really haven't gotten to say that I'm elite at anything in my life. So I'm gonna go ahead and throw it out there that we are elite when it comes to the podcast world. 'cause we're in the, in the top 1%, uh, or even less. And so, yeah, Tonya: significantly less than 1%. Shane: Yeah. So, you know, the showing up thing is. And, and, and every day just getting after it is the first thing that comes to my mind. Tonya: I mean, we didn't get here because something went viral. We didn't get this big applause or overnight growth or anything. We got to 300 simply because we didn't quit. We didn't give up. Shane: Yeah, I mean, we haven't done the Kelsey Brothers things and sold our. Portfolio for like a hundred million that I'm aware of. I don't, I don't think we've done that. I mean, you know, I don't see us down that path necessarily, but we've, we've got, um, we, [00:10:00] we, we had an intentional plan with this podcast and, you know, to promote the independent agency system, um, to be there for independent agency owners to give, you know, whether it's interviews we're doing, whether it's. Lessons learned, talk about it openly. The, the failures, like, I think that's another thing is just sharing our failures. And maybe, maybe a lot of people aren't willing to do that because, I don't know, maybe they just don't have that in 'em to share their failures. I have zero problems sharing my failures. It's just not something that bothers me. And, um, I think that's a big part of, of how we got here as well. Tonya: Now there's two distractions that, um, within a podcast that, that can make people quit. And one of those is noise. And then one of those is silence, right? So people [00:11:00] are either telling you, Hey, you know, you're not doing this right. You need to do this better. You, you know, the critics, the shiny objects, the opinions, and all of the things, right? And then the other side of that is the silence. When your downloads go down or there's no comments or there's no validation that what you're doing is, is helping anybody. And I think those same things apply to owning our agencies, right? I mean, you're gonna get silence, you're gonna get noise, your growth is gonna be slow, leads are gonna dry up. Uh, markets are gonna shift like they have over the last three years, and you're looking and everyone else is claiming to be crushing it. Right. And you are only really seeing what they're doing really, really, really well or what version they're sharing with you. And so sometimes you could just really feel like you're on an island. Mike: Yeah. I think [00:12:00] this gets back to a conversation we had a few episodes ago, uh, where we talked about staying off the rollercoaster. You need to keep an even keel. You have to keep showing up. You have to keep getting after it. And you cannot pay attention to what other people are saying because to your point, Tonya, people will embellish what they have actually accomplished. So for the agency down the street to say they've done all these wonderful things, there's nothing stopping them from embellishing. All of that, and the bottom line is. You need to show up. And another thing that's important, I think that's a little off the topic of how we got here, but another thing that's really important is not burning bridges and not having people saying negative things about you because you didn't return phone calls or they had this bad experience talking to you. Like I, I can honestly [00:13:00] say. The reason I'm here today is because I didn't burn bridges when I was 21 years old because the entire process of me getting from my very first job as an intern in an agency to now is a pretty straight line, and it was all because I showed up. I did what I was supposed to do. I didn't burn bridges when I left places, and then they brought me back. That's happened two or three times now. Yeah. Shane: You know, you, you mentioned, you know, people will embellish things and the first thing that went into my brain was, you know, the mom posting little Johnny hit a triple. You know, and then what you wanna do is, is in the comments, you wanna say ground ball in two errors, right? Like, you know, Robbie: that's the truth, you know, be the truth. Yeah. Shane: To the game changer crowd out there. Um, you know. According to Game [00:14:00] Changer stats, uh, little Johnny's hitting seven 20 on the season, you know? But we all know that's not real. That's right. Robbie: Right. You know what amazes me is 300 episodes in. And you guys have managed to bring a different topic to the IA channel, uh, every episode, which kind of, kind of think about that. Like how many different things can we talk about, you know? Shane: Yeah. Because insurance is boring, right? So how can you possibly come up with that many topics? You know, you know, there's, there's a few variations and tweaks and re re, you know, things come back around. I think that's kind of where we are today is, uh, you guys bring fresh voices and, and thoughts and additional thoughts to the podcast and it, it's okay. Like the things that we talked about two years ago, it's not even [00:15:00] recycling. Like there's a whole new audience that needs to hear some of that information is right. We need to, we need to hear things in a repetitive mode. Right. And I, I really think that's a great point because. We kind of need to take the pressure off of ourselves to not worry about that. Like, oh, well, didn't we talk about that a year ago? Like, okay, so what, what if we did like, talk about it again? Because if it's coming back up, it's probably important and somebody probably needs to hear it. And, and I think that's a big part of, of. Staying consistent in a podcast and continuing to put out content. I mean, really it's, it's create value, right? Create value for people that are listening. Watching on YouTube now, um, I mean, we've adjusted as well. I mean, you know, I, I challenged Tonya through Tonya Curveball, uh, her and Dave a few, uh, just, you know, a couple months ago almost like, Hey, I think we need to. [00:16:00] I think we need to do this differently. I think we need to throw some video out there. I think we need to, to kind of challenge ourself to go to the next level. And, um, here we are. Right? And so that's something new. We get a whole new group of hopefully listeners, additional listeners, without losing people along the way from the guy who didn't even wanna do it. Hey, where's the video? I, I know, I know. And it's like, do we really wanna put our face out there? Like, you know, the face, you know, I have a, you know, you have a face for radio type stuff, like that's Tonya: me. I have always had a face for radio, but now I get to be more seasoned and people are seeing me where this could have happened in my twenties, and I was a lot cuter. Robbie: Gosh, you look great. Tonya: But what Robbie hasn't brought up, and I'm shocked about this 'cause he's being humble, is after 300 episodes, Robbie's first episode [00:17:00] is still our most listened to episode. Robbie: That's unbelievable to me. I don't, I don't know how that happened. Shane: I, I really, I think the thing that bothers me about that is we have, we have to give Robbie some credit, so that kind of bothers me a little bit. Right. And then. But we, we gotta give Jeff, uh, our That's right. You know, Jeff Haard hate to even say his full name right now, publicly. Like, you know, all kidding aside, we, we gotta give Jeff credit. I mean, that podcast, you wanna laugh, you go listen to that podcast because, you know, the two of them in the same room was fun. There's just no way around. It was the Tonya: Ultimate Bromance podcast. It was, I mean, it was. Shane: It was. And, but, you Tonya: know, but, but Robbie and Mike are starting to develop that. Yeah, they really are. Shane: Don't worry, Mike. A little jealous Robbie: coming. Shane: Don't worry. Let's gonna get there. [00:18:00] Mike's like, who is this guy? Who are we talking about right now? What are we, what do, who came before me? What's going on? So Tonya: Robbie, you have worked with so many of our partner agents, bringing them on board, being with them through their agency lifecycle. What do you think that is the best piece of advice that you share with our agents to help them when they get to this? I just don't know if I can do it. Keep going mode. Robbie: Well, you know, we don't shy away from our faith. You know, I, I, I actually, you know, was talking to a prospect not too long ago and he kind of struck me as an individual that is a man of prayer. And, you know, he was talking about the opportunity and, and I said, you know, you need to pray about it. I was like, you know, God will give you the guidance and, um, he'll, he'll help you, you know, make the right decision. And so. I [00:19:00] think you gotta take a step back and you gotta look at, you know what Shane's talked about over the last year, the infinite game. You can't get caught up in what's going on today. I mean, although today is important, you have to look at, you know, it's kinda like when you start your own agency. The first few months, as you guys know, are tough. You're learning new things and you may get to a point to where you think. Gosh, I don't know if I can do this. You gotta have that mindset where you can go down 12 months, you can look back and you're gonna say, I wish I would've done this sooner. We hear that all the time. Every agent that joins us, that's successful, every single one of 'em says the same thing. I wish I would've done this five years ago, 10 years ago, or whatever. So just understanding the long term, the infinite game, uh, you know, I, I, I think that. That puts them in the right mindset to be able to endure today. Mike: You know, I think one thing that agents in a broader [00:20:00] sense, or in broader terms, tend to have a difficult time with is getting past this idea that their peers are always their competition, and that is not the case. So when you join a group. Uh, you now have all these other agents that have gone through these same things that you have that you can lean on, or in our case, if it's us, you know, it's us that you can also lean on because Integra's been in that same spot. You don't have go it alone in these types of things. You know, other people have been in these same spots, rely on them to give you a little bit of help in getting through those tough spots. Robbie: Yeah, that's a great point, Mike. You know, one of the things for our group, um, you know, we have a conference every year and a lot of the agents have renamed it the Integra family reunion. So to your point, they're not competing against [00:21:00] you. They want to help you, they want you to succeed. And, you know, that's, that's true for us. We see it in our Agent Connection page, we see it at conference. Uh, and you're right. That's very important Shane: there. There's a. I have a little bit of a story behind that, um, you know, the independent agency system. Traditionally, when I go back to my, my early days, uh, which would've been in the nineties, I, I feel like the eighties and nineties independent agency system. There was a, uh, there, there was a, a cultural difference then where you didn't talk to your competitor. Like you, you really were kind of on an island and agencies, agency owners in, during those days, those multi-generational agency owners, they built, they built a culture around competition. Yes. But even within their agencies, it became. Just something you [00:22:00] didn't do was highly frowned on. And, um, I think it kind of, it goes from the sports world. Like this was something I had to kind of figure out, uh, and maybe, maybe correct a little bit when, when I played, uh, for Oklahoma State, I played for the great Gary Ward, just an incredible coach. Um, you know, six 15 or 16 College World Series. Um. Like 15 straight, I think big eight championships, like just an incredible pedigree. You know, coach Ward's culture, which I highly respect, was you don't go to battle with somebody for nine innings and then shake their hand and act like they're your friends, right? Like that was just that maybe boomer old school, just like tough ball coach kind of mindset. And so we were ridiculed. For sportsmanship, right? [00:23:00] Like, you know, it was like bad. We we, the Oklahoma State Baseball program was you. We embarrassed a lot of teams that would come to shake our hands after the game where their coach didn't know and warn them. And we were going out down the right field or left field line, depending on what dugout we were in to talk with each other. We shook. We shook each other's hands, but we didn't shake our opponent's hands. Now for those of you in modern day 2026, you know, with kids on the field and you're, you're cringing right now, right? You're cringing about, so about the whole social aspect of that mindset and what are we teaching our kids? I mean, keep in mind this is major college baseball. This is big stuff. And so, um, this was just the way he coached. That's the way the eighties, nineties, and even early two thousands looked in the independent [00:24:00] agency system. Like you went to conferences and you went in, you went in silos around at the conferences, you didn't, you know, the agent associations struggled a lot because of this sort of mindset. Are exclusive agency friends. Um, as more and more agents have exited that system and joined the independent agency system, many of them obviously we have experience with joining our network. They taught me a difference here. Like they actually showed me how exactly what Mike, exactly what Robbie's talking about is that. You can actually learn from others, and so many of your peers want to help you. Like I, I have been absolutely blown away at some of the, uh, more [00:25:00] experienced members of our agency network who pour into less experienced members of our network, like voluntarily, like, just like, hey. If you ever need my help, some of them have literally called me, Hey Shane, if y'all ever need my help with a newer agent, an agent with a little less experience, I am willing to serve like no strings attached, just I'm willing to serve. That is incredible. Like to the testament of those individuals, uh, and the culture there. And, and, and, you know, so many people, like I get credit for building a culture as leader of the organization, but the culture's actually been created by the members of the network, the partners within the network itself. And so this, this is huge that they're, to Mike's point, they're not, you don't have to silo yourself. Your, your peers don't [00:26:00] have to be your direct competition, um, especially in personal lines. 60% of the market isn't in the independent agency channel. There's a lot of market share to go after that. You're not gonna be competing with your buddies. Just a fact, Tonya: Shane, you're telling this story and, and I love hearing you talk about playing for Gary Ward, but Kurt ti like watching Indiana's coach. During a game, I mean, I have never seen a coach get so mad because their players, because his players scored. I mean like you can see his players get a touchdown and it's almost like they should have done it better. They should have done it faster. They should have done this. They, you know, you never see any joy. Or emotion, like there was finally just a little bit this week after the Oregon game, you could see that he actually was enjoying the [00:27:00] victory. But that was the first time I have ever, for the entire year even seen him be happy after winning a game. Right. And that goes back to that idea of the, of being even keeled and, and Shane talks about this and y'all, I have tried that for two years and it doesn't work for me. And that's okay. Like it, I've really struggled with this. I've prayed over this. This is what our CEO wants me to be. He wants me to be something I'm not. I have, I've tried to do it. I've journaled on it, I've written on it. I've, I've done everything that I can to be the person that he wants me to be. And guess what I can. But then I thought about it and I'm like, well, we can't all be just like Shane. I mean, we can wanna be just like Shane, but, but we can't. Robbie: You can't be like, but Tonya: I can look at women and men within our organization like Mitzi Fox, like Brian be, I [00:28:00] mean, we have agents within our organization that get excited and do have this rah rah thing, and I was finally. To the point that I'm just like, okay, I can't be something, I'm not, I can try to be even keeled and, and I can make the, the decision to, to, to choose systems over emotional decisions and just keep going, but I have to have my intensity or. I just can't be me and accomplish the things I wanna accomplish. So that's one of the things that I wanna, you know, tell anybody that's listening or watching. Yes, we talk about being even keeled all the time, but if what makes you you is. The energy that you have and embracing those highs and sometimes embracing those lows. And that's what you need to do to have progress. What works [00:29:00] for one of us works for one of us, right? Shane: Yeah. I, I think, I think the clarity on that is most people can't. Like, you know, the, the excitement is great. Like I get excited. I, when I, obviously my girls would say, yeah, excitement is getting beats per minute. Does this not look like excitement to you? What? I don't know. I wanna Robbie: know what it looks like. Shane: So, you know, I had Tonya: been at ball games when his girls had great success. There's not excitement. Shane: There, there's, there's excitement. When I was, when I was coaching my girls, you know, I, I, I've done my share of fist pumps and excitement and, you know, um, catchphrases, whatever, and, and, and jumped up and down a little bit and got excited. Um, you know, I did that as an athlete. I, I was, I was, I got excited at times. Right. And that was [00:30:00] sort of a learn thing. I would say. It was something that. Was learned because as a, as a high school and an early college athlete, I was the direct opposite of that. I was overly emotional. Right. I know you don't believe that today, but I was, I was actually, I played, I was smaller, so I played angry and I played with so much emotion that it affected my actual play. And so that became sort of a learned thing. And, and I think that's the point. Like, no, everybody's not gonna be. Stoic or even keeled completely, and there's a time to, there's certainly times to get excited around the winds, right? And, and having winds and being excited about that. My, my thing on that is witnessing people who can't handle the down the, the down portions of that, right? They get so high that they can't come back [00:31:00] from. The struggle, right? That they, they actually, it actually takes them into depression. It takes them into something else. That's where I encourage people to be a little more even, right? Like if you, you have to know yourself. Like if you can go up here, over and over and over again, and then fail and pick yourself back up and be back to where you need to be. Then you can play the infinite game and you can stay in the game. Right? Um, but if you can't do that, you have to watch out, right? Like, you have to understand that if you can't bring yourself back from the failure, if there's not an internal engine. Right. If you need that outward motivation and you don't have that intrinsic motivation to bring yourself back from the depths of despair, the struggle, the, [00:32:00] the loss, right, the failure, well, then you gotta control the high, right? Because way up here and way down there is not gonna work. Bumping up and going up and getting excited is fine as long as you can control the downward slope. And feel and, and understand how to deal with that. I think, I think that's the thing about even keel that I would want people to understand. It doesn't mean never get excited. It just means control the fact, control yourself in a sense that you know what you're capable of when the failure comes. 'cause the failure's coming, I promise. It's just, it is what it is. The failure is coming. Robbie: Yeah, there's a balance there, right? Like you gotta be able to, like you said, to do both because you will fail with certain things, you know? I mean, it doesn't mean you're gonna be, you know, whatever business that is, whether it's agency or not. It doesn't mean that that agency's gonna fail, but there's [00:33:00] gonna be parts of your process and your walk through your agency that are gonna work and some that aren't. So you gotta have that mental balance. Mike: I think it's important to know your triggers too. So for me personally. If I, you know, this happens to me, I mean, I'm just going to be honest. I will get an email from somewhere and it will have something in it that makes me angry, and my first inclination is to respond immediately. But then I have to stop and I say, well now wait, let's, let's not respond to this email for two hours and then come back to it, read it again, and then I'll come up with my, my answer then. You know, it's, it's understanding those things that get you got and make sure you don't let 'em get you. Tonya: Okay, Mike: Rob? It goes back Tonya: to Tonya's life. Tip number two. There are three things in life. We cannot change the truth, the [00:34:00] past and other people. Mm-hmm. And the only thing we have any control of is our attitude toward those things. And if I start to get upset, my husband will look at me and he will hold up two fingers and he will go. Two, and then I start to tell myself that and that I'm okay. Shane: So we're gonna need a list of those triggers, Mike. Um, so we can send you some emails, Robbie: right? Yeah, Mike: I don't think so. You know, I think sort of along that same line, another thing that's important. Um, in knowing yourself is as your agency grows or as it morphs in a different way in terms of maybe you have a merger with another agency, or it's time to start hiring people. You have to be really mindful of [00:35:00] who you are and decide what type of personality that you would match up with. Especially when you're talking about mergers. If you're someone who runs hot a lot. Um, if you go and merge with someone with that same personality, that could be very problematic. Shane: Hmm. Yeah. That's good. That's a good point. Uh, a lot of mergers struck, uh, fail because of that right there, right. The, the blending of cultures, that's, there's a note to self for all of us. A podcast topic in the future is, you know, cultural blending of mergers and acquisition. Um, that's a, that's a real struggle, right? Mm-hmm. Um, that's a real struggle for people. Cultural alignment. Um, did it work? Do the people fit? Does the new leadership, who's, who's gonna lead, right? Who's, who's actually gonna be in charge? There's gotta be some final decision maker in every [00:36:00] organization. It, it can't, at least from a committee standpoint, you can't do it from a committee. You can't, you can't manage by committee. It's just not gonna work. Robbie: Mm-hmm. Tonya: Thinking back to this being our 300 episode, there are so many times that we could have stopped. There are so many times that, especially during softball season for Shane, he was traveling. There's times during the summer in, in January when I'm traveling, we actually use the process of putting this podcast together to figure out how to work remotely, how to be able to do what we love to do to. Have this as a lifestyle business and still be able to be functioning in working full time. Right. And that was something that neither one of us had really figured out 100% how to do. And [00:37:00] this pod, this podcast has taught us that. Yeah. You know, we, it never really occurred to me till now, but the, the great. Armageddon freeze of 2021 in Texas. Uh mm-hmm. You know, where everything froze for a week to 10 days and nobody could go anywhere. Shane: And you know that, that was not too far away from the starting of the podcast. And, um, you know, those two things. Were very instrumental in remote work for us and, and, and to, and, and just figuring things out. And I think that that is also part of the agency ownership, you know, especially the producer to agency ownership leap. Um, the, the podcast as an example here, showing up and doing it over and over again is just letting [00:38:00] go of maybe the. That it's gotta be perfect, that it's, that it's got to be just, you know, fully fine tuned before we, we go public with it. I mean, it's really helped me be better at that to not get so worked up about, you know, what's the final product look like now, you know, obviously we don't. I wanna look like Yahoos. I mean, you know, we don't wanna be goofy and necessarily be, uh, well goofy's. Okay. But, um, you know, we don't, we don't wanna be just total ignorant right. When we produce something, but doing things and putting it out there and, and, and just being able to, to, to just get better at it, like. I, this is little, this is, this makes me feel dumb, but like I talked to myself and listened [00:39:00] to myself on afternoon, evening walks for several weeks, maybe even months in during some of our first podcast, and in the early days of our podcast, I don't do it as much anymore. But I did it, you know, at, at first I was like, am I a narcissist? Like, this feels weird. Like I don't think I am, but I'm literally speaking for like five minutes and then I'm listening to myself talk, like, what did I just say? It helped me learn how to be a better speaker. Still not what I wanna be. I don't know that there's ever a final, you know, resting place there, but it's like. I, I'm better than I was. It's also helped me be a better communicator in general, like still fail, but at the same time I'm much better than I was three, four years ago. All of these things are improvements [00:40:00] and this podcast has been a big, like almost individual, you know, like self-development improvement work on yourself type of. Activity that we've just done publicly. Like we, we've just done it, right? And, um, it's taught me a lot. And I think that's another parallel to owning, starting an agency, owning an agency. Running an agency is it's okay to not be the best agency in the world on week number one. Like, it's just not realistic. Your goal is, are you better in week two than you were week one, and are you better at the end of year one than you were when you started? And just keep going and keep going, keep showing up. There is a reward, like, you know, the agency business three to five years can be extremely rewarding. [00:41:00] Certainly when you get to that seven or eight year mark, it can be overwhelmingly rewarding. Almost like. Pinch yourself and, and so I think that's just a reality of where we've come from here. This is the result of thousands of conversations showing up when we're tired, recording when life is hard doing it anyway. And it's been about commitment. And those are all things that you have to deal with as an agency owner, right? Tonya: And you have to decide on your processes. And your processes will work right. When it is a quiet season, keep going. When it's, it's noisy, you have to figure out how to stay focused and when you start questioning yourself on whether or not it's worth it, it is worth it. Absolutely. [00:42:00] It's, it's extremely rewarding and it's an extremely rewarding business model. Yes. Yes. So if you love insurance, if you love property and casualty insurance, we would love to talk to you. Uh, the Integra Partner Network is open around the country to help you be a successful, independent agent. Uh, Robbie and Mike and I would love the opportunity to talk with you and share more about what we do with agents to help you guys be successful. Robbie: Awesome. Tonya: I knew Mike was gonna have some kind of snarky comment. I'm waiting for it. Mike: No, I don't have a snarky comment. I was just waiting for the football picks because I'm not, listen, I'm not superstitious because that's for weak minded people. Right. So I'm not gonna say I'm that, but I also don't wanna just [00:43:00] go, you know, without doing the picks this week. Robbie: Right, right. Did you just put your Tonya: onesie on? Shane: Yes, yes. These guys onesie on. Okay. You must Tonya: once again, model the onesie because that is part of Yep, Shane: yep. It's not a jacket. That's what's I, it's, it's, it's actually something that it. It's sort of distorting my view. I'm just starting to see the onesie concept and Mike and the onesie. I'm, I'm a little bit tarnished. I think I'm, I'm worried, like, does Josh Allen have a onesie? That's the question. I feel like he probably has a Bills onesie. I feel like it's the whole Bills mafia thing. They actually have bills, uh, onesies Christmas onesies, so. Yeah. Tonya: You know, uh, Holly and I have always been co-chair of the rah rah committee, [00:44:00] but I think I might have to step down and, and let Mike take over in my position. Robbie: That's awesome. Tonya: So if we're gonna talk picks, I redeemed myself. You know, after the, the college football playoff quarter finals, I was just kind of wondering, since I missed every single one of them, I think, um, I was just wondering if I should retire Miami. Yeah, I did. I did. That's right. Miami. I did pick Miami, but I was starting to wonder if I should retire from college football. But this week, this week I was good. So I think Shane wasn't quite as good this week. Shane: I, uh, what, what? I don't even remember my picks. Um, uh, obviously didn't pick Miami. I think, I think I picked Oregon to win there, but I needed, I think my pick was, I needed Miami to win to make the Aggies look better. Um, but I think I picked Oregon there. Just, I don't know. Carson [00:45:00] Beck. I got a quick doubting him, I guess. Um, yeah, he's, he, he, I've been, I've been an anti Carson Beck guy, and I, I need to. I guess he's kinda shutting me down on that. So, um, but I'm going to Indiana either way, even though it's Miami's home field. Um, I just think they've, I just think they're, they're, they're trying to become the second best college football team in history behind the 2019 LSU Tigers. Um, you know, but I, I, I think they're trying to make a, make an appeal to certain parts of the country that they might be. Just as good. So I'm going with Indiana on that pick. Yeah. There Tonya: will never be a team like the 2019 LSU Tigers, you know, all during that game, especially in the last half. They kept, they were starting to, to, to compare the two. I'm like, y'all just don't go there. Robbie: Mm-hmm. Tonya: But anyway, I [00:46:00] am, I am with you that I definitely think it's gonna, it's gonna be Indiana. Robbie: They're just, they're just so sound, they're very, very disciplined. You know, I read a, a stat on them the other day that they don't have any four or five star recruits on this team, which is unbelievable because of the amount of four and five star athletes they're playing against. Mike: Yeah. Robbie: So, yeah, I'm going Indiana, man. Mike: I'll go with Indiana as well. But speaking of doubting. Last week, Robbie, you doubted Robbie: I did Mike: my bills. How did that work out for you? Robbie: It didn't, it didn't work out for me and I, and I repeatedly told you I wanted Josh Allen to win. I just didn't think they could go to Jacksonville with the way they've been playing and doing it. However, [00:47:00] now. I am going with, here we go. Here we go. Going with the bills. There we go all the way. Yes sir. Not picking against J 17 again. Mike: That is amazing. This is why people need to start watching the video if they're not. Shane: I, I, I can't bet against the bills with Josh Allen behind, you know, as long as he's under center I'm bet I'm going with the bills, right? Yeah. Until he runs into the Texans defense, assuming they both survive in advance. Right. Um, but I, I, I'm that on my Texans of course, but. I no longer doubt the Texans defense, period. I know they're number one ranked defense. I know they're good, but I just, I know I'm doing two picks in one, but I got the bills and the Texans for sure. I am with Shane on that. I've got the bills and the Texans. I've [00:48:00] kind of got my bills blue on today. I didn't, I did not wear light blue today, which I think I have worn in every single video that we have done so far. Tonya: So I did shift to a, a darker bills blue just for Mike. So yeah, I'm with Shane, but by the way, I love it when Houston wears the shiny red helmet. Oh, I know I sound like a girl. I'm gonna do some color, you know, color commentating there. But I do love those red helmets that they did this year. They just look fantastic. Shane: Uh, the, the, the solid red, all red, red on red uniform is fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go Houston as well. I mean, let that game. Um, that was ridiculous against Pittsburgh. Houston could have actually left their offense at home and still won that game, and that, that is damning [00:49:00] on Pittsburgh and says a lot about Houston's defense. Mike: All, all in one. Yeah. Yeah. Demarcos got those guys playing crazy. Good football on that defensive side. I just hope CJ can. Play better, not make the same kind of mistakes that he did yesterday. But I got the Texans, um, as well. So Bills and Texans in the a FC championship. That'd be a home game for the Texans if that happens. Robbie: You back in the NRG? Yeah. NRG. Yeah. Yeah. Which would, Mike is now trying to figure out how to make a quick trip to Huntington, Texas that week. Hey, you can expense that, Mike, because you can't work. You can come work a couple days. Is our, is is our onsite, is there a February onsite, Shane, that I. Shane: That's funny. We all need to get together and podcast in person, right? That's right. Mm-hmm. Yeah, [00:50:00] that's right. Who else are we thinking? Yeah, start us off, Mike, with the NFC. So let's just do Seattle. San Francisco. I like San Francisco, but no Kittle, no Warner, no bosa. That's just too many guys that are so important out. Mike: And Seattle's defense is. Just as good as Houston's. I, I would say Seattle. Yeah. Yeah, me too. I'm, I'm going with the Seahawks. Um, just too much to overcome on the defensive side. I, I don't want to vet against Purdy, but with his weapons not having all the weapons, I think that, that hurts. I think Purdy's just. Shane: I think he's in a different way. He's, he's just a Josh Allen type winner. Not, I mean, not the same type physical player, but, right. I hate betting against that kid, that dude, he's just like, he is, but I gotta go with Seattle. Me too. And [00:51:00] I don't know if we've all ever agreed like this before. It's a little disconcerting for me. Tonya: That means it's not gonna, all these news upset, loading, upset, loading. Absolutely, yes. All right. Last game, boy, pka did not play particularly well last game. He did have that past breakup in the end zone. That was really important. But other than that, he was not very good. That's not gonna happen two weeks in a row. Mike: I'm going Rams. Yeah. Yeah. I think the Bear's Luck runs out this week. I'm going Rams as well. All right. Three for three. I'm, I'm, I'm a Rams guy going for it. I don't know. I think that it's been so long for Chicago. It's, it's somewhat like the Cubs and sometimes you just got a root for 'em. And so I'm, I'm gonna go Chicago. Robbie: All right. We will see.[00:52:00] Awesome. Mike, did I redeem myself, bro, are we good? Yeah. You're Mike: the day you made that pick? I couldn't have been more excited for my wife to get home. I was like, Melissa, listen to what Robbie said today. And she had that look on her face like, Hmm, that is unfortunate. You call, Robbie: you called that guy a friend. Tonya: Well y'all 300 episodes in. It is. It is Cal Ripkin Jr. It has to be like the key to success is consistency. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to us. Big shout out to the fabulous Dave Maxwell for producing for us for the last 300 episodes. He is truly the unsung hero. Make sure that we come and chat with y'all every week. So a huge, huge thank you [00:53:00] for him. But consistency has built this show and that is not going to change. This is not a finish line. This is just the beginning for us. Shane: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Dave. And, um, you know, he's the. He's the Charlie in the Charlie's Angels. To date myself a little bit, you know, we, you don't see him, but he's the one that makes it all work behind the scenes, so we really, really appreciate him. Um, thanks for listening. Thanks for sticking with us. Let's do 300 more. I, Tonya: I'm gonna leave us today with this quote from Tom Brady. You don't get results overnight. You get results over time. Attitude's a choice. Make a great one.