What Independent Agents Should Expect From a Network

Choosing the right agency network can shape your agency’s growth, profitability, and long-term success, but most agents are only looking at how many carriers they get and the commission split. We're discussing what independent agents should expect from a network, what often gets overlooked, and why “fit” matters more than buzzwords or promises.

Whether you’re evaluating a network, already part of one, ortrying to build a stronger independent agency, this episode will help you think more strategically about the partnerships that support your business.

Learn more at IntegraPartnerNetwork.com

Learn more at IntegraPartnerNetwork.com.

Transcript

Announcer: [00:00:00] This is IA forward your Playbook for Success as an independent insurance agent. Now here to help you knock it outta the ballpark or your host, Shane Tatum. Tonya Lied, Mike Basil and Robbie Javo. 

Tonya: Welcome to IA Forward. We just got back from several days in sunny and not so sunny Tampa, Florida at the INA conference and.

This podcast, we kind of wanna talk about the things that we learned there. Some great takeaways, so maybe not so great takeaways and how we are seeing the future of the independent channel after spending several days with other networks. 

Shane: Uh, it was cold. I mean, it was very fitting that we went to a hockey game, right?

Like. It was freaking cold in Florida. I'm sorry it was cold all 

Tonya: over the 

Shane: country. 

Tonya: Yeah. Today in Florida it is colder than it is in Juneau, [00:01:00] Alaska. 

Shane: No, there 

Tonya: is something wrong with that. 

Shane: Yeah. 

Mike: Wow. 

Shane: Not, 

Mike: I don't have time for any of this. 

Shane: Listen, darn. 

Mike: I met New York, said the Buffalo guy, right? 

Shane: Yeah. Yeah. It was 

Tonya: there.

I just can't even fathom going to a football game outside. In Buffalo. I mean, I'm from Louisiana, so our stadium is inside because we like things to be climate controlled. Right? I am, you know, if it's 120 outside, I can go to a football game inside. Well, if it is 45, I can go to a football game inside. Why do y'all do this?

Shane: Yeah. Y'all have mosquitoes. The size of bald eagles, like there's not, you have to have inside. Football games in Louisiana. Right. 

Mike: So there's a pride factor to it for sure. Because the stadium that's currently being built, this was all a [00:02:00] big deal, a big to-do to begin with. When this was all being planned, is it, is it going to be a covered stadium or is it gonna be open air and eventually.

The majority was open air plus it's a lot cheaper, but, and that's super relative. But the thing is, it's like you don't just go to the game, right? You just, you don't just show up for a Bills game, you know, park your car, go walk up to the gate, go in, watch the game and leave. That's just not how it works.

Lots around the stadium that are owned by the bills open four hours before the game. The privately owned ones open before that. So you're getting there four hours before the game starts. 

Shane: Oh yeah. 

Mike: You're tailgating, you're going to the game and then you're probably gonna tailgate for like an hour afterwards, or you're just gonna sit in traffic.

So it is an entire [00:03:00] day. And I mean, you wanna talk about layering up. 

Shane: Yeah, 

Mike: you go to one of these games in December and you're going, you know, under John's, you know? Oh yeah. And you got regular pants, snow pants, you got a long sleeve shirt, you've got a sweatshirt, you've got your coat. And this is like ski apparel.

You're not just showing up there, you know, with oh, you know, Hey, here's my, here's my designer coat and I'm gonna go in here and I'm gonna be all right. But. So you get all that on and you're, you're pretty much fine. You put those hand warmers in your gloves and the, the thing that really gets you though is it's the, it's your feet.

You're on that concrete and that concrete, the, that coldness just goes straight through to your foot. 

Shane: Oh, yeah. 

Mike: And you can put those foot warmers in there, and you can have two pairs of socks on. It does not matter. Your feet aren't going to be cold. And I like, I don't get [00:04:00] these people you, and you see you every single Bills game in December, it's snowing and you see that one idiot out there with no shirt on or the overalls with no shirt on underneath that.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Tonya: So I wanna point out that how Mike just described going to a Bills game was exactly how I was dressed for the hockey game this week. Like all of those layers. He went through that and I'm like, I had on one more layer then than that and we were inside. So I can't imagine doing that.

However, I am a Louisiana girl where we start tailgating on Thursday. So whenever 

Shane: I, I think, I think it was the first time I, I had witnessed anyone wear gloves indoors. 

Robbie: Indoors. 

Shane: I'm, I just, it did kind of, I mean like, here's the funny, this is what's really funny. It was the first time I've seen that [00:05:00] Tonya has gloves on indoors.

Right. 

Tonya: They matched, though. 

Shane: They matched. Of course they, 

Tonya: yes. 

Shane: I would never expect anything less from you. Um. Yet I was not surprised. Like it was like, oh, Tonya's got gloves on. Of course she does. Right? And yes, they match your outfit. Of course they do. Like it wasn't even, there was no shock. There was no surprise.

It was just the first time I think I've ever seen that. And I, I just, just to point that out, right? I mean, very normal. It was very normalized. 

Robbie: What were they? Were they smartphone friendly, Tonya, or did you have Of course they were. Yeah, that's, 

Tonya: they were cashmere and smartphone friendly. So they were really soft and really warned.

Yes, 

Mike: that's right. I would not have guessed those to be usable with a smartphone. No. 

Tonya: Yeah, that's 

Mike: impression. 

Tonya: Well, I mean, you know, what would I do without that? Right? I mean, then I'd have to take my gloves off. To use a cellular communication device [00:06:00] would be the point That would be completely inefficient.

Mike: Very, that's right. 

Tonya: So back to INA, now that we've, we've had the discussion of what it's like to tailgate with the bills, and I would like to have that experience maybe in September before it becomes the frozen tundra, just to, just to see what it's like versus SEC tailgate. 

Announcer: Okay. Yeah. 

Tonya: But Shane, why don't you share with our listeners a little bit about INA.

Why we are members of INA as the Integra Partner Network and why we attend this particular conference. 

Shane: Yeah. This is free advertising for INA, by the way. Uh, you're welcome guys. Uh, so the Insurance Network Alliance, uh, for years and years there's been agent associations, right through the independent agent channel.

Um, what's, you know, referred to. Inside the industry is the big eye, the independent agents, uh, independent insurance agents and brokers of America. [00:07:00] Uh, there's usually a state association. There's also PIA, professional insurance agents. Uh, there's usually state, some state associations and so forth. So, you know, having associations for various things.

Every industry has their trade association, right? And they have their, uh, political action committees and they have their. All of that stuff that goes with, you know, the background of being a member of an association. And, uh, several years ago, uh, probably I would say eight or so years ago, uh, a small group of agency networks, uh, we were not part of that original group at the time, uh, but a, but a few guys got together and decided that agency networks were.

Had become so prominent in the industry that it needed its own association. It needed, uh, the Insurance Network Alliance. And so, um, that was very, [00:08:00] you know, kudos to those guys. Um, very thoughtful to look at that and pay attention to that and look around. And so they formed, uh, the Insurance Network Alliance and it has grown over the years to more members, uh, as more networks have.

Come into the industry, uh, some national, uh, some very small. I talked to one network that was there, I think they had like 25 or 30 members. It's a very, very small network. And, uh, they, you know, so all the way up to national networks with four to 5,000 members in their, in their network. And so, uh, all, all sizes, uh, all shapes and sizes, so to speak.

And, uh, lots of carrier involvement, lots of vendor involvement, and so, uh, very similar to other trade associations. Just a very, very, uh, [00:09:00] unique, maybe niche area within, uh, the insurance industry. And so, uh, we've been a participant for three years now. Uh, we've been a member for three years and, uh. We'll continue to be involved and see if we can learn how to improve our network.

As we kind of look around at the way things are going and how things are shaping up in the industry, 

Tonya: one of my takeaways is the fact that Shane said Mitch just then. Mm-hmm. And I say niche, and if you have listened to our podcast over the last 300 plus episodes, this has been an ongoing conversation.

And during one of the panels. That conversation was had by other people as well. So that discussion, that disagreement is not only on this podcast, but apparently it is a national challenge. 

Shane: It, it's at least a countrywide issue. Uh, two friends to panel members. [00:10:00] Uh, one says niche, the other says niche. And it, it, I'm like, look, there you go.

Like. That. Okay. It's not just us. That's exciting. It's exciting.

Mike: Was all well and good. I honestly just go because it's not 14 degrees there. It's always something nice. 

Shane: It's always in the south. Right. Um, which Tonya brought up a good point a little bit earlier. I think we were one of the only, um, southern based networks. Uh, that were, that were at the conference, most of them were, uh, Midwest or northern based networks, or possibly mountain or west.

I think there were a few out. 

Tonya: Mm-hmm. Out, 

Shane: out west. Uh, but from a southern, we don't, we don't consider the Western guys, even if they're in the southwest. They're not really southern. 

Tonya: No. 

Shane: Right. Southern stops at Texas, I [00:11:00] think is you agree with that? Is that a fair assessment? Southern stops at Texas. Right.

And so, um, you know, that was kind of interesting, the interesting thing that you pointed out it 

Tonya: was Yes, yes. Because everybody was like Ohio and North and then California and Yeah. I think there was only one other group there from, from the south. Yeah. And so that was definitely a few days of hearing Interesting.

But along with that, you have different ways of thinking, and I think that's one of the reasons that you attend a conference like this is to get different people's thoughts that are doing a similar thing. And why do they do what they do? We do it better. Just so you know. 

Shane: Well, ev, everyone has their secret sauce, right?

And. No one wants to share that secret sauce. And really some of that secret sauce is all the same. Just a different word to describe it. 

Robbie: Different. Yeah. 

Shane: [00:12:00] But I, I, I think that that does kind of take us down one path that we can go down, and that is to agents out there, whether you're, uh, an a, a future agent, or whether you're an existing independent agent.

Networks are, you know, all shapes and sizes and, you know, 80 plus percent of the independent agents in the marketplace belong to some network. And I think when you've seen one network, you've seen one network. At this point, it's not that different than if you've seen one independent agent. You've seen one independent agent.

Things are are different. There's different contracts, there's different, um. Secret sauces, there's things that everybody thinks they do differently, better special. And I'm not saying that that's not true. What kind of, one of the major themes that stuck out to me is I tried to keep perspective [00:13:00] of our agents and our agent prospects.

Our future agent prospects was, you know, we're not for everybody, but you know, neither are the other networks, right? And so. If you look at it that way, then it's about finding your fit really, if you get down to it. And, uh, that, that just something that spoke to me because I think there's a lot of that going on in college, high school recruiting, college athletics.

It's about finding your fit. And you see all these examples of these athletes who weren't very good over here in one place, and then they moved to another place and all of a sudden they're an all American. And so I think finding your fit as an independent agency when it comes to an agency network is really, really important.

And I think it's really, really important that agency networks find their fit in the agents that they're working with. [00:14:00] 

Tonya: I love that we have a tendency to share our secret sauce. Several years ago, Shane, when, when we decided to do the IA Forward podcast. That's what we wanted to do differently is we didn't want it to be a secret.

We wanted to share our thoughts and our ideas and how we saw agents finding success and how we were finding success with our retail agency. We wanted to be able to openly share that information and not keep it to ourselves. And to me, that is part of our secret sauce, right, is that we don't have secrets.

It goes back to, you know, our core values. Uh, number one, honesty wins, right? Number two, serve others. And if we can share our secret sauce, our secrets to success with other people, all that it does, all that it that does is it strengthens the IA channel, which is good for all of us. 

Robbie: Yeah, I think that definitely resonates.

Like I, I think about what Shane always says. [00:15:00] When prospecting, sharing information and not being salesy, right? So we give you the information, you make the best decision for you and your family. I feel like that resonates, that, that creates a connection, I feel, uh, to build relationships. And I think that's a, it's a feel good type of situation.

Whenever they, they come on board. 

Mike: I mean, look, here's the bottom line. There's like a hundred. Groups out there, there's only so many ways you can slice the Apple, the market stuff. There's gonna be multiple people who do the market piece the exact same way. The commissions the exact same way. That's just the way the world works.

Right. So you've gotta, you've gotta make your decision based on something else. And that is up to you. Like, if you need to be a part of a group that has 2000 agencies because there's something about that that feels better to you, then you [00:16:00] should go in that direction. That is what you should do. Uh, if you wanna be a part of something smaller or you wanna be a part of something where the people that are in that group seem to have something in common.

Then you should find that. But if, if anyone is telling you, you have to pick this group and this is the reason, and that should work for everyone, that's that. That does not make sense. 

Robbie: That's what I tell people, Mike. Am I doing it wrong? 

Mike: Uh, just kidding. Just founding out that I've now got the Texas region, so now I'm, I'm gonna, you know, I, I'll be a little slower responding to emails and calls, but, um, bear with me 

Robbie: a little different accent folks.

Just be prepared. 

Shane: That's awesome. 

Tonya: I don't know, but I did get an email the other day, um, from our CRM letting me know that Mike, you were my [00:17:00] new boss and supervisor for my region. So I was very excited to, to find that out. But going, it's all coming out 

Mike: now. 

Shane: It's a. Mike. Mike is, uh, it's a, it's a hostile takeover 

Tonya: that, 

Mike: remember I was about to say.

Tonya: Yep. Our, our CEO in training is, is training for new things. But, you know, one of the o the opening session at INA was Captain Michael, um, Aho, am I saying that correctly? Really, uh, really great, great presentation and. He wrote, it's Your Ship and several other books based on being a US Naval, uh, ship Commander, graduate of the Naval Academy.

Just a really great presentation, and one of the things that he said in talking with your people was [00:18:00] asking the question, what are you most proud of in your life? That no one at work knows about. And I can remember years and years ago I was talking with one of the supervisors at the radio station, um, and I was probably 20 or 21 and I said something about, uh, the reason that I left early on Tuesdays, 'cause I would always leave on Tuesdays at three o'clock, was that I would.

Go to dance class. And what I was actually referring to was the fact that I taught at the studio on Tuesdays from like three 30 to nine 30. Right. Um, and he's like, dance, Tonya doesn't dance. And I was in shock because I, I'm a competitive dancer. I was a competitive dancer and I did all the things and, and outside of my work environment, that was my identity.

And the fact that I [00:19:00] was in a room of people that I worked with that had absolutely no idea. That, that was my identity and what I was really proud of was shocking to me. And when he brought that up, it, it was kind of one of those things that it brought back that memory. And I thought ever since then, like, I wanna know what, what do my people love to do when they're not at work?

How can I recognize that and. It was a reminder of do we ask our people that? Do we know that? What are they most proud of? And is it something beyond family? Is it something that we can help them develop? And if we do, are they stronger at work because we know that

Mike: yeah, that was. I enjoyed that part. The o he was really engaging by the way that he did a really nice job. The other thing that resonated with me [00:20:00] from his, uh, uh, section or presentation was, uh, when he got into talking about this is one of, this is a pet pee of mine, so this is why it resonated with me.

But you can't always just rely on saying, well, it's always been done that way. That is such a crutch, uh, especially when you're trying to work through something. Oh, it's always been done that way, so we'll just continue doing it that way. That's just lazy. There's always a different angle. There's always a new way to look at something.

You can always, you know, especially in insurance, everyone's doing things the same way. If you can find something that gives you a little competitive advantage, that is going to work in your favor every single time. 

Shane: Yeah. Uh, missed. Robbie and I missed, missed that, that session, uh, because of the, uh, mini ice age that came through, uh, Texas for a couple of days.

And so we had to push our flight. But, [00:21:00] you know, both of those, those topics, uh, resonate and I think that's, you know, that's something that. Social media for instance, you know, has kind of exposed, talking about Tonya's point of things that people don't know about you. I mean, I think there's probably less things today in, in that setting that we, that we would not know about somebody unless we're not on social media with them.

Uh, you kind of, you know, look and see what, or they're not a poster, right? That's, that's obviously things that happen. Not everyone lives their life on social media. Um. There are some people who, yeah, Mike is one. And, um, there's some people that literally Robbie's 

Tonya: the other. 

Shane: Yeah, yeah. Some people, 

Robbie: Mike, 

Shane: some people like take us to the, you know, to the restroom with us in the morning.

Like, stop, like this is too. This is too much, right? Like, I [00:22:00] don't need you to, I don't need you to take us there. Right? Like, I don't need every waking that 

Tonya: Mike though, when he comes to Integra. 

Shane: Yeah. Well, 

Tonya: is he's gonna have the conversation about the toilet paper, so I don't have to bring my own in anymore.

Shane: A, it's a different problem. Different problem. We do have an update on the tp so, uh, situation, uh, a little bit later in the podcast, but, um, you know, it's, it is, it is harder to f. To not know as much right about people, 'cause people put it out there. Um, but there's, there's also the deal of like, you know, what do people love to do outside of, outside of work?

Or what is their, what is their, their thing, right? What, what do they absolutely love? And, uh, I think, I think knowing your people, that's really important and. Uh, I think that's part of slowing down and talking to people, which resonates with going to conferences in general. I think one of my biggest takeaways, um, [00:23:00] from just being there was, and, and this is little, little backstory on that, is I got burned out.

I went to a lot of conferences in the first half of my career in. I did it a lot and just hit a, a really busy season of life and stopped. I just stopped going. And that's not always really good when you are leading an organization. Uh, you know, so for our agents out there that are, you know, well I don't, I don't like to be in the community or, or be social or, or whatever.

Right. Um. I, I think we have to fight through that. And I wouldn't say it's a mistake that I made because I, I was very present while my, my girls were going through, uh, activities and that was the cause of me putting, you know, hitting the pause button [00:24:00] on things. But getting back out there over the last year, two years, um, and then it keeps resonating every time I go.

It's really important to be out and about, uh, to meet people, to Tonya's point, to get to know people, right. Uh, to develop relationships with people. And that has become a really, really resonating thing for, I, I would say for me over the last 18 months is I've been more involved in things. I've, I've gone to, uh, more community events.

In, in various ways. And I have been a little more present, a little more visible. And so I think meeting people, it's kind of re-energized me to continue to meet people, to continue to do that. And, uh, you, you have to kind of force yourself to do that a little bit, right? Maybe if you're, especially if you're an [00:25:00] introvert, you know, uh, but there is something good about that and, and getting to know people.

Robbie: You not an introvert, Tonya? 

Tonya: Actually, I am. I am a true introvert. I'm very outgoing because I've always had to be because of the jobs that I'm in, but I am a true introvert. Most people just don't know that 

Shane: Robbie's not buying it. Robbie's not buying it and feeling. 

Robbie: No, but to piggyback on that, Shane, I, my, one of my favorite things about the conference is meeting people, meeting reps that we may have existing relationships with, or, uh, future possibilities with certain carriers.

I think it's important to, to keep those relationships going. Um, you know, we kind of talk about the tenure of reps and. You know, we'd like to think that most like to stay with a certain company, but you know, most of the time they don't. So knowing those people, building those relationships, I think will open up [00:26:00] opportunities in the future with, with other carriers.

Tonya: I wanna piggyback on what Robbie said, which was a piggyback of what Shane said, and I don't know why we're talking about Piggybacks, but anyway, 

Robbie: you're 

Shane: triple, you're triple piggybacking. 

Tonya: I'm triple piggy, triple piggyback here, and I just like four Mike's head is about to explode, but. We did have several meetings with carriers that we had really, we have relationships with currently, right?

And I really enjoyed those because that's some of the first time that some, some of the first times that I have been in those meetings, uh, very positive, uh, that it seemed very symbiotic. What can we do for you? How can we help you write more business with us? I seemed very successful. And then we had one that I kind of felt like a whipped dog when we left, right?

It was like 20 minutes of I, of, of the Spanish Inquisition. I just felt as [00:27:00] though we will being attacked and it was, she was very pleasant. I mean, it was a nice whatever. But it didn't feel as though it was relationship building. It felt more of an attack. Why aren't you doing this? You know, you have to do more.

You know, what, what, what are you doing wrong? As opposed to how can we serve you? And as a, as a network, that's one of those things that I think we do really well is try to figure out how can we serve our agents? How can we serve our carriers? What can we do to be the most efficient, to think as owners?

And it was a reminder for me of not everyone thinks like that. 

Shane: Yeah, and it was, it, it is a, a, a nice reminder of several things. One, [00:28:00] you know, it, it's very easy to react in a, in a, in a situation like that, right? It's very easy to become defensive to, um, really burn a bridge. You, you could easily burn a bridge.

When you're kind of backed into a corner like that and you're, uh, the other party is not, you know, maybe being, maybe in their minds, they're, they're, I mean, obviously they're doing what they think is right. Right. They're doing their, their approach is, is what they, they believe is the correct approach and you do have to breathe and respond.

Uh, it's a reminder that the insurance industry, as large as it is, I mean. It is the smallest $10 trillion industry on the planet. And, you know, it really even gets more small. I was talking to one individual about, um, the reinsurance [00:29:00] marketplace, and it gets, it gets even smaller there, right? When you're trying to negotiate, uh, with a reinsurance, uh, organization.

And so within the independent agency space. We always find ourselves in situations where a, a rep that we work with that we, you know, either didn't have success with or did have success with, ends up somewhere else. And, um, what, what you never know is when that rep, you know, let's say that one that you struggled with or that you, you, you, that frustrates you.

Um, maybe if you. If you burn a bridge and you cause a problem and you, you know, you, you don't handle that well, you don't handle that, that friction well as an agency owner, you never know when that individual is gonna end up being the rep For [00:30:00] now your largest, most valuable carrier relationship, and we've had that happen, right?

We've had it happen both ways, most of the time. It's benefited us because that rep knew us somewhere else and then they went to the next company and the first people they're calling is us. They we're the first people they want to do business with. That's, that's what's happened most of the time. There's been a few times, however, where the rep we had trouble with, the one that scolded us, showed up at a really important carrier for us.

And we had to, had to manage that, right? You had to manage how to deal with that, how to manage the conflict and so forth. I, it, it reminds me so much and, and I think it helped me, helped, um, my youngest daughter with in athletic [00:31:00] recruiting, you know, we went to camps, she went to camps. I drove her to camps.

I didn't get to, they didn't let me hit, but I wish they would've. Um, it, we would go to these camps and sometimes the reason we would go to these camps is because there was an assistant coach or two that we felt like was going to end up as a head coach somewhere else one day, and it, it paralleled the insurance carrier marketing rep environment.

Almost to a t And Emma's recruiting experience actually is Exactly, that's exactly what happened. She went to a University of Texas camp, which her mother, my wife, I didn't know if I was going to be able to stay married through taking her to a [00:32:00] Texas camp. I mean, she is an Aggie through and through. So I take her to this camp and.

I, she actually, we went like three different years to this camp, and in three, all three of those years, the two assistant coaches at those camps ended up being head coaches when her recruiting window opened up and both of those coaches recruited her for their programs and she went to play for one of those head co.

One of those coaches. That she originally met as an eighth grader at at, at the University of Texas softball camp, where that her coach, coach Jen McFall, was an assistant coach and now she's a head coach at the University of Kansas. That was so amazing to me that, that it actually worked that way. And if you look around, you know, if you've got a kid out there, baseball, [00:33:00] softball, any sport really, and you've got these assistant coaches.

You're not really going to camps because you think your kid's gonna play at that specific school. You're going to camps to expose yourself to the what if. Right. To the maybe. And I think there's a lot of parallel to that with what we see at the INA conference, at meeting, um, meeting carrier reps. I mean, the reality of it is, is that you just never know.

Right. And the more people you meet and the more people you know and the better interaction you have with those individuals, the future opportunities do tend to open up and ex and, and, and, and really become a big, big part of your future growth. 

Mike: So, so we're talking about. You know, keep it together. Don't act like a lunatic.

And then you start talking about assistant coaches becoming head coaches. [00:34:00] And I just feel like you guys are testing me right now. Are 

Shane: we, are we, uh, are we, are we gaslighting you here a little bit? Is that what you're saying? 

Mike: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, that. 

Tonya: Let's talk about, about that. I'm gonna 

Mike: Big boy. And I'm gonna hold it together.

Tonya: Oh, no you're not. Oh, no, you're not. Congratulations on the new head coach at, uh, at the Bills. And he, uh, he was a fabulous assistant coach for us for one year at LSU. Uh, he probably didn't have quite that success, uh, at, at Carolina. But I am hoping for your sake and for all of our sakes, that um, he has a, he, he creates tremendous opportunities for you guys.

Mike: Yes. Thank you very much. 

Robbie: You know, my biggest disappointment, it, it with the bills losing Mike. Not, not the fact that Josh out is not gonna have an opportunity to win a Super Bowl, but I really got used to you ending our podcast with the [00:35:00] Bills. One z kind of missed that. 

Tonya: Well, 

Mike: you guys could give me an Integra onesie.

Shane: Yes.

That's awesome. Hey, so, uh, was he not the Bill's offensive coordinator? Didn't they stay in house? 

Mike: Yeah, they stayed in college. Yeah. Which is fine. What I, I'm not gonna go on tirade. I'm just gonna say this. If you wanna get rid of McDermott, I thought he was a decent coach, but I get it. The fact that the general manager in this particular scenario retained his job is mind blowing to me.

Shane: Yeah, 

Mike: absolutely. Mind blowing. Yeah. 

Shane: Yeah. I mean, he's responsible for putting the team together, right? Mostly. So, yeah, you're right. You're right. I think that had to have been a Josh Allen move, right? Like the oc. There's gotta be a great connection between the OC. The new head coach and, and Alan, there's just got to be right.

Mike: Uh, maybe [00:36:00] so, but, but if you wanna talk about good leadership in the owner of the Buffalo Bills goes out in front of the world. Yeah. And he calls out one of the players and then that the general manager didn't even want this guy. 

Shane: Oh, God 

Mike: made it. 

Tonya: Yeah. 

Mike: Us draft him like. How is that leadership? 

Shane: Yeah. Yeah.

That's not good. Kind of jaw 

Tonya: dropping. 

Shane: That's not good. 

Tonya: That is Brian Kelly leadership. 

Shane: Yeah, 

Mike: sure could. 

Shane: That's called. That's called, I have more money than everybody else, and I can say whatever I want to say. That's what, that's, 

Robbie: yeah. May maybe it's a motivation tactic to get that player going, but me, and I did not expect that 

Tonya: I had a coach that was that kind of coach, and that's the last way in the world.

To get success out of me. Yeah. 

Shane: Not good motivator. 

Tonya: Yeah, 

Shane: absolutely not. 

Tonya: So back to INA. Oh yeah. One of the phrases that [00:37:00] I heard, uh, one of our speakers say that I thought was so interesting, especially coming from someone in his position, was that claims paying integrity is one of the biggest problems that we have right now.

Shane: Yeah, this one resonated with me a lot. It caught my attention and, um, I, I, he did, he did also say for context that it's not that we need to be paying claims that we shouldn't be paying. Right. Like, like we, we don't need to be just, you know, anything goes. So it, it, it, there is, there is balance needed there, but he, he did kind of.

Strike a nerve and, and he's, uh, you know, the largest ENSI mean, so he's got the right, right? Like he, he's in a position to [00:38:00] affect change here, um, especially within the, the excess and surplus lines market. But I think it's, it's everywhere, right? Um, it's this fight between, uh, plaintiff's attorneys and, and personal injury lawyers, and.

Really the legal side of the legal industry versus the insurance industry, right? And we need both industries. And, um, there, there is somewhat of historical war and probably future war going on there, uh, around litigation that takes us down. Kind of some ugly paths sometimes. Um, but in reality. I what, what he also said was that, that, that reminded me, and it should be, it should be something that we hang on to, is we are, you know, the, the cliche is we sell a promise, right?

The contract is a promise. Hey, you pay us this [00:39:00] premium, something happens, we're gonna pay your claim. And, um, that gets distorted sometimes, right? And it, it becomes. You know, how can we avoid to pay the claim right in, in, in certain circles And, um, that is telling a story, um, that we don't need to be told.

That's not a, that's not the story we need to be telling. We need to be telling the story about coming through for our clients. We need to be telling the story about taking care and fulfilling the promise. And I thought he was, I thought it was really good for him to say, hey. We've got to do a better job in our industry of paying claims timely, um, you know, uh, and, and, and accurately, right?

And, and fully as, as they should be paid. When it is there, they should be paid, right? Um, we, we ought to be able to [00:40:00] do that. Now, do we need to fight against. Um, nuclear verdicts. Do we need to fight again and have some tort reform? Absolutely. We need both of those things, right? And so don't misunderstand, it's not a one-way street here, but, uh, we need to be better at, at being able to tell the good side of the story of.

Putting people, you know, uh, to use a tagline of, of a, an exclusive agent company. You know, putting people back where they belong, right? Putting people back where they were, that is something that we need to, to be doing a better job of. 

Tonya: One of the things that was a takeaway for me goes back to a, a podcast saying that you and I did years ago, and I, I think maybe we should do this again now that we have, uh, Robbie and Michael board was insurance speak and [00:41:00] there was one speaker that I wish that I would've counted the number of acronyms that he used in the first 10 minutes.

Because it was unreal and I had no idea what this man was talking about, and I could not Google or check GPT. The acronyms fast enough to be able to understand what he was talking about before he would use the next acronym. Right? And we do that as agents and we start by the phrase of, let me get a quote for you.

Well, I mean, first, I know the quote is not an acronym, right? But it's a, it's an insurance speak term. That really doesn't mean anything. Besides, we are gonna lead on price and how can we, as independent agency owners be a trusted advisor if what we are talking about doesn't resonate with our customers because they have no idea.

Of the vernacular [00:42:00] that we are using. 

Shane: Yeah, and I, I think I, I mentioned this to you as well. I'll say it again publicly, like, you know, in his defense, um, the room is full of, you know, extremely experienced insurance professionals. And if it's anyone's fault that, you know, there's a couple of people in that room that have less experience.

It's me, it's my fault, right? Like I have this thing about taking people from outside, you know, 20 plus years of insurance and saying, Hey, I think they would be really good at moving into the insurance space. Which is, you know, that's what happens is I, I throw you into the, uh, throw you to the wolves at times because it's like, yeah.

I forget you haven't been inside the insurance industry for 25 years. But I think it's a great reminder that we shouldn't, we shouldn't hang our hat on these [00:43:00] acronyms. We shouldn't hang our, hang our hat on insurance speak, because what happens, okay, is that individual that's speaking in that room, in that manner is going to go to the public domain, and in his case, he does run a publicly traded company.

He's gonna go into the public domain and he's going to confuse people, or he's going to misspeak because he is using insurance speak. And that's what happens to us. We talk to each other, like we get onto our, um, you know, lightly get onto our team internally around using insurance acronyms and using insurance speak.

Because what happens is, is you end up talking to. The non-insurance person, the same way you talk to your colleague and you, you convert yourself to a singular [00:44:00] language and you can't do that. And so you've gotta go out here to the least common denominator is the way kind of my, my brain works there and go, okay, don't do that.

Like, I'm, I gotta explain, I gotta talk and I'm not, I'm not talking about mansplaining things. That's not where we're going here, we're talking about. Using terms that the world can understand. 

Mike: I didn't understand the term you just used. 

Shane: You don't know Mansplain man. 

Tonya: Oh, 

Shane: Tonya. 

Tonya: Yeah. So 

Shane: Tonya, give us the definition.

Tonya: Okay. 

Shane: Mansplain us to the men. 

Tonya: And this goes back to my, my not so fondness of Brian Kelly. So when Brian Kelly came to LSU. There is an event that is hosted for female fans at the university every year called Golden Cleats, and it is a fundraiser specifically designed for the coaches. Personal foundation.

[00:45:00] Right. And so it's a invitation only fundraiser. You go, you hang out with the coaches all day. You do a player's workout, you hang out with the players. It's, it's a thing. You go into the locker room, you go into the classroom and. He took 200 women who were invited to golden cleats and ex mansplained to us what a quarterback does.

And what a tight end does and the difference between the offense and the defense and all of these things. And we are just mortified because we are so used to getting really in depth information and he's telling me what a center does. 

Announcer: Sure. 

Tonya: And. We were, and so at the point that it was opened up for questions, he got mad because we're [00:46:00] asking super specific questions about the changes that is he going to make to make our team successful.

He ended up getting his bodyguards and leaving the facility because these women aren't happy that he has just mans sprayed football. To us. Right? So basically it is the idea of assuming that because we're women, we don't know topics that are maybe historically more male dominated things, or just that it's a, it's a thing that since she's a girl, I have to put it to her in a way that she won't understand it.

Mike: All right, I gotcha. So let me ask this, 'cause I think it ties together the last like two or three things we've just talked about. Generally speaking. 'cause that's the only way we can do this. Who's more well respected or who will [00:47:00] someone listen to more freely? Generally speaking, an insurance agent or someone who's selling them?

Uh, life and health. 

Tonya: Generally 

Mike: financial, 

Tonya: don't separate those 

Mike: things. Or even even a financial planner, let's say, who, who is someone gonna respect and listen to more? A financial planner or an insurance agent? 

Shane: Financial 

Tonya: planner. Financial planner. 

Mike: Why? Well, 

Shane: maybe, um, I, I think it, you know, it depends, and I understand where you're going with the question and.

But I think, and I think it's a a, the point is, is well should be well understood in that the typical PNC insurance agent does not educate. Okay. Whereas the financial planner, um, presents [00:48:00] themselves as a subject matter expert. And so I think the shift has to be that the property and casualty agent. We have to do a better job in our segment of the industry to educate.

And I think that gets confused. Like, I, I even ex, I even wa what I've even had times of confusion about what, what do you mean? Like, you know, we don't necessarily generate revenue educating people, but that's not true. We, we can generate revenue by becoming. The expert and the way you become the expert is that you educate people.

And now I'm a little nervous 'cause I'm afraid I'm gonna mansplain some insurance to the women buyers out there. And I don't wanna be canceled because I did that. Right. So I got a little bit of a little concern now. Um, but we, [00:49:00] we don't stop, right? It's volume for us. Whereas the financial planner, the wealth manager, it's not so much volume for them.

Yes it is, but it's, it's not always just about volume. Right. Um, and so I think that's a great, like, that's a context we need to bring to the table is it can be, you can be better, you can be. More trusted as a PNC agent, but you're gonna have to be a better educator and, and create some subject matter expert branding around yourself, 

Tonya: or you do.

What Brian Besch does, and you become a connector. And so he's not only an educator about insurance, he's a connector that he's gonna put you in touch with a great accountant, with a great attorney, with, you know, whatever [00:50:00] information you need to know, Brian can get that for you. And he has made being an educator.

Shane: Yeah, 

Tonya: his brand. Right? And so Mike asked that question from a generalization of who are people more likely to trust a financial planner or their PNC? Um, their, their PNC agent, and I think we gave a general answer, but there are people in the world that are fantastic at what they do. You know, I grew up with a mom that was an attorney who had two niche commercial markets.

My mom helped my, my mother, uh, part of her practice was bankruptcy, and my mother filed bankruptcies for. Logging, uh, trucking organizations and for financial planning organizations and the number of financial planning companies that my mother filed their bankruptcies on, either personally or at or as, um, or their org, always makes me hesitant [00:51:00] to work with a financial planner because I saw that growing up.

Right. And are, are these the people that I actually. Want to take advice from, and I think that's, that that's very relevant for, for us as agents, is we have to figure out how to overcome the stigma of how the media represents us. Right. And it's gonna be interesting with the Super Bowl advertising. Um, state Farm is doing a, a new, launching a new program that looks like they're going to be hitting independent agents Super Bowl.

Shane: Yeah. 

Tonya: And I'm gonna be interested to see what they're doing. But what that tells me is if they are. Using part of their several billion dollar marketing budget going after independent agents. Again, we are doing something right. 

Shane: [00:52:00] That's right. Mm-hmm. I think it's the market share gain. And back to the agency network, you know, discussion, they, it's the agency network prevalence in the marketplace helping agents become independent agents.

Okay. Um, and. The, the I forward movement, right? Agents wanting to get into the independent agency space and, and there's a threat, right? There's a worry there. Uh, and, and they're trying to take the angle of, you know, there's insurance and then they're State Farm, right? And, and, and they're trying to take that angle that it's just better insurance, right?

It's just all the way around a better thing. And so they're hanging on to. The brand is vital. The brand is, is, is, is super important. Um, and so I think that's the, the interesting take from what we're [00:53:00] probably going to see with their Super Bowl.

Tonya: So guys, we have shared great information today and we really have a lot more to share. With what some of our takeaways are from INA. So let's make this a two part series and our next podcast next week, we will do some follow up with, uh, what we kind of took away from our second and third phase. I'm gonna leave us today with this quote from Lou Holtz.

You're never as good as anyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say. When you lose 

Shane: attitude to choice, make a great one. 

Tonya: Bye y'all. 

Announcer: 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 markets and with our comprehensive resources, profit sharing and bonus opportunities, technology and peer [00:54:00] support, all while you retain a hundred percent of your book with no penalties to exit Integra, it's ready to empower you and your agency to finds.

Growth. Find your way to Integra. Visit integra partner network.com today. That's integra partner network.com.