The Secret to Growing a Successful Insurance Agency

Everyone wants the secret to growing a successful agency. Here’s the truth: there isn’t one. Shane, Mike, and Tonya break down what actually drives growth (and it’s not a magic strategy, a viral marketing idea, or a one-time win).  We talk about what it really looks like to move from process to profit: refining your workflows, adapting to technology, and committing to the habits that successful agencies don’t skip. 

Learn more at IntegraPartnerNetwork.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

This is IA Forward, your playbook for success as an independent insurance agent. Now, here to help you knock it out of the ballpark are your hosts, James Datum, Mike Basil and Tanya Leed.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to IA Forward and welcome back, everybody. We have just spent the last week together at the Santa Lee Resort in beautiful scenic Galveston, Texas, which looks nothing like Pensacola Beach, but that's okay. We had a great time, lots of great takeaways. And the first one that I want to talk about is the fact that Mike Basil has no idea what the IA stands for in IA Ford.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Is that real? Is that true?

SPEAKER_05 0:55

That is. It is.

unknown 0:57

It is.

SPEAKER_05 0:59

I thought it was insurance agency, not independent.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Or it could also be integra agent. So many words. Our job was to confuse the audience, and we did it. Go to that was our that was our goal when we were trying to name the podcast. It was like, okay, what's this going to be? And I remember throwing out this idea, and you know, it was like we were doing these different ideas and different thoughts of things from the past. And it's like IA forward, it could be an independent agent, it could be, I didn't think about it. It could be insurance agent, it could be integra agent. Like it's a mystery, right? The mystery in the marketing.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Well, the mystery was one of our co-hosts didn't know what it meant.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Well, that's kind of not shocking, but also like also normal.

SPEAKER_05 2:15

Anyone that listens enough that seems I think they would think that's part for the course.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Well, I mean, because you also don't know who the outlaw Josie Wells is, or didn't know who the outlaw is.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

No, I still don't.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

I still don't. You still don't you have not I've given you 12 hours.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

You said the homework was due by Friday and it's only Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I've given you 12 hours to watch that movie. It's a two-hour movie. Come on. Why did what it's the anyway?

SPEAKER_03 2:49

You you you have you cannot work for a Texas company, a Texas-based company, and not have at least seen the Outload Josie Wells 10 times.

SPEAKER_05 3:03

Not only have I never seen it, before yesterday, I had never even heard of it. So I go and Google it and I'm like, 1976. Absolutely. It's not like this came out when you were a little bit older. I mean, you're not that much older than me.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

I was three. I was three. You were three. That's right. Yeah. I'm sure I was watching it in the playpen.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

I'm sure that's what I asked you. I was like, were you sitting there in your uh what are the bumbo? You know, with your sippy cup in one hand and your etch a sketch in the other, watching this movie. I you're not old enough for that.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Sitting in what?

SPEAKER_05 3:46

A bumbo. Bumbo.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Okay, what's a bumbo? Here we go.

SPEAKER_05 3:50

It's a bumbo. Isn't that the little uh plasticky thing that bouncy that you put the little kids in that sits real low to the floor but it has raised sides? Okay. I call it a bouncer. I could be I could be misremembering. I would call it a bouncer. No, this doesn't bounce. Oh, it doesn't bounce. Okay. No, no, it's just right at floor level to teach them to sit up. Oh okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

I have no idea what y'all are talking about. I mean, like, I've never seen the outlaw. I've heard in the outlaw Josie Wells because like I remember my my papa watching it, but I've never anyway, but but I have till Friday. This is my homework.

unknown 4:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Well, I'm gonna work myself up to this.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

It's it's it's acceptable. Like I get it, and but I I should have had it in in the orientation material um for non-Texas based team members. Because if you're raised in Texas, you're either a uh Clint Eastwood Western fan, or you're a John Wayne Western fan. You're you're generally not both. Some people might be both, there might be a little bit of crossover. I'm I'm a Clint East Clint Eastwood Western fan. And so I I know John Wayne movies because grandpa and dad and all that, but my preference would have been Clint Eastwood Westerns, and so number one, Outlaw Josie Wells, the outlaw Josie Wells, number two, unforgiven. That was part of that. That was part of the that was in his later years when he's the retired gunfighter, right? You know, the retired gunfighter, William Money from Missouri, not Missouri, Missouri, right? And so anyway, just lay that out there for all of our fans and listeners.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

Okay, so here's the non-insurance thing I learned. It may come as a shock, like fashion isn't necessarily my forte. Tanya already knows where this is going. So, our very first meeting of the day. Let me paint a picture before I start. We're in the conference area, and we have our tables set up in your standard U. Okay. I'm looking across the center of the U. So I can see Shane in the middle, and then Tanya is beyond Shane, a few seats down. So I have a good sight line on both of you. And you know how I get sometimes. So I'm I know Shane is talking because his lips are moving, but I've lost focus because something has caught my eye. Squirrel. Yeah, so I'm I'm just sitting there minding my own business, trying to pay attention, and I see down at the end that Tanya has jewelry from her wrist to her shoulder, it seems. Okay, and I'm thinking, how like how much how much weight is she hauling around here? So I decided that I'd make my own version here. So, you know, I have also accessorized. Yeah, so hey, I got the wristband. In case things get a little, you know, if we we're going, we're going hard here. I got the wristband. Never know when you might need some tape. Yeah, yeah. Never know when you might need to measure something. So I got the soft measuring tape.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

I like that. I like that.

SPEAKER_05 7:56

You know, in case a baseball game breaks out, I got the elbow pipe, elbow guard, nine, and then I got the you know, 90s ankle weight, ankle weight.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Like hey, I didn't know what that was at first, but now fitness here.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

Yeah. So I learned something. Yeah, that's what I learned. So I missed Mike.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

What did you learn the name of it was?

SPEAKER_05 8:17

Uh I don't remember. Stacking, stacking.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Stacking.

SPEAKER_05 8:21

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

So were these, I missed it. I'm obviously not observing at all. Um, were these bracelets? Is this is that what stacking is? Is bracelets.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah, I had a I had a watch and uh, you know, it's like a stack of bracelets, and I I usually wear a nice little stack. Like it's just a it's a layer and it gives depth to your outfit.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

You know, I got up this morning and I was like, I need depth in my outfit. So I I'm doing that.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

And I just want to say that same day, my husband looked at me and he goes, You look really normal today. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

Just skip beautiful, pretty, and cute and went straight to normal.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Went straight to normal. So I like it. Yeah, apparent apparently a stack of bracelets is is normal too. But by the way, I have a check-in with another non-Texas employee, and that is the fabulous accounting guru, Miss Deanna Cassidy. And she says, no, she has not seen it either. She has seen that it's available on a live stream, but she's never watched it.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Well, that's because she's also from Louisiana and not Texas, evidently.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

So there's lots of uh orientation that is needed. Uh, maybe re-onboard some people on our team, uh, on our teams, and and and and let's maybe get this out into I think I think we get it out into the part new partner onboarding process as well, uh, as we are expanding across the southeast and northeast and midwest, that there's probably a reality that um everyone needs the exposure to the outlaw Josie Wells in their life.

SPEAKER_05 10:33

This is what I'm picturing in my head. You know, when you come up on, you know, in the past when the Patriots were really, really good, and they'd show you the heat map right before the Super Bowl. It's like, who's rooting for the Patriots? And it was just the little right there in New England. That was it. Everything else was the other color, everybody else. I feel like this movie is like, who's seen this movie? And you show up the maps there, and it's just Texas, you know, it's got the color, and everything else is just blank.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

So there was a time in in my life in our marriage where the girls were younger and we were not as activity involved through the you know, weekends and things like that, and it they would do one of those like 20, you know, entire week on either TBS or or whatever. This probably goes back 20 years now of playing the outlaw Josie Wells, almost like The Godfather would play for like a week or 24 hours or 48 hours. The Outlaw Josie Wells or Clint Eastwood Westerns. You know, you might get you might get um uh several of them running back to back. And Julie would walk through and be like, are you watching that again? Like this happened for several years in our marriage. Like that's a that's a thing. So she despises it, by the way, in case anyone wants to know, but it is required, it is required watching, I think, for some reason.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

I just want to make my personal prediction for this movie that it's like a guy who squints a lot and has like 47 grudges and lots of personal vendors, and nobody communicates, everything escalates, and he doesn't let anything go. Lots of unresolved issues.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah. Well it's right after the Civil War is the setting of the Western, so you can go from there.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

So well, we will check this out, and and now that we have talked for 12 minutes about absolutely nothing that has to actually do with the Integra Partner Agent Conference. We lost our audience. We did tell you that it was in Galveston, and that's what you guys know, but it really was a fabulous few days there with a hundred of our partner agents, several members, 20 plus members of our staff, lots of carrier reps from all over. Um what were some of your biggest takeaways besides the fact that Mike didn't know what I well I I'll I'll start with the end and work backwards.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Um it was great, number one. It it never it always amazes me how it feels like we're not where we're supposed to be. Then we we get there, it all comes together, and we get a lot of feedback around best one yet, right? And best one yet. And we do try to, it's it's very difficult. Um, Holly, Holly's job, the charge I gave her probably eight years ago is you know, unfortunately, hosting a conference means you gotta you kind of gotta one up yourself every year. And then you gotta one up yourself within a budget every year. And so um we'll get to thanking our sponsors maybe in just a little bit, but you know, we couldn't do it without them, number one. But the end of the conference, just because of the way it worked out, we heard from a guy out of Austin named Haas Pratt. Yes, he's from Texas. His first name is Haas. H-O-S-S. You can't you can't make that up. You can't make up a guy from Texas named Haas. Uh back to Westerns, surely y'all are Bonanza fans. I don't even want to go there. And there was Haas from Bonanza, but Haas is an AI guy. So a Texan named Haas teaching us about AI. How can that get you can't get better than that? Um, Haas was fantastic. Yes, absolutely fantastic. And it was really, I had heard him in January. That's how we got him. And um, I was impressed in January. I was even more impressed at our conference. Um, it wasn't just theory, AI theory, it was AI in practice, like how to actually use AI to help you in your agency. Like, here's an instructional guide. Like, here are the things you do. Fantastic. And so, my my number one takeaway was one that we need to be more practical all the time, because that's what Haas did is he brought us logic and practic in practice. He bring he gave us how to do things. He didn't just talk theory, he didn't just talk uh, you know, blue sky. It was here's what you do, here's how you do it, these are the tools, use these things, do it this way, and this will be your result. And he's a hundred percent right. Yeah, that was he was tremendous.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_05 16:27

Um for me, that would have been in my you know, top couple, but since you already took that one, I'll uh I'll move off that one. For me, this happens to me every single time we get together with the agents, but I think it's worth talking about, and it is the community within that group that they've cultivated and their willingness to help each other. I think in insurance or a lot of businesses really, you can get very guarded very quickly. Oh, you know, they're going after the same clients I am, they're only 75 miles from me. We could have you know the same prospects. You could go through a whole list of things in your mind that would stop you from helping others, but there is truly none of that within this group. Uh, my favorite part is for someone who isn't familiar with our with our uh process at the conference, we have ribbons that go underneath the names of everyone that's there for various things, and we do have some fun with it, but there's one specific ribbon that says newcomer, and I noticed that people were going out of their way to go find the people that had the newcomer ribbons and were talking to them, and you know, if they had some apprehension about this part of being new or that part of being new, they would talk them through it. Uh, there was one panelist in particular who said, if you're new and someone says they're not going to help you, you let me know. And that's one of our senior guys, uh, one of our senior partners, I should say. I just thought that was tremendous.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

And that guy went on to be our partner agent of the year for the second time. So um, he really means it. Um, that's Brian Bash out of uh Lake Way, Texas, or now I guess Le Grange, Texas. But um, but yeah, um it was phenomenal the amount of information that was shared. And I was talking with uh one of our agents on Thursday night, and he was telling me that how much about how much the conference had evolved. That he said, you know, that he didn't used to feel like it feels now that that people didn't used to share quite as much information as they do. And now he just really feels like it's an open book and people are talking and talking about success. And um, he is one of our more successful agents, and and he was saying that you know, people will ask him, you know, like, what's the secret? What's the secret? How did you grow? And he said, I tell him, but nobody believes me. He's like, There's no secret. There's no secret. It's figuring out what your processes are, it's evolving your processes to the technology that's available, and then sticking to them. And he said, you know, when when I get out of those processes, then the agency doesn't do as well. But when I do what I'm supposed to do, then that's the secret, and it's not a secret.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Yeah, I I think that's a great thing to kind of pause on and talk about because in society and certainly within the industry, within the insurance industry itself, there are a lot of, I don't know, we would, since we've been talking about old westerns, uh, there are a lot of snake oil salesman kind of things that go on, like get rich quick schemes, like do this. If you implement this, this thing, if you do it this way, you're gonna be successful, you're gonna make, you know, 10x your revenue, you're gonna do all these different things. And you know, that's that's just not reality for 98% of the people. Uh, there may be some really incredible, you know, unique things that people might want to do or might have landed on that made them super successful. Like we have one agent that uh agency, multi-owner agency now, um, that in the beginning they were at zero. Like they started from scratch, and uh one of those agency owners had a relationship with a really successful mortgage brokerage in the same office, same um, same area, and they generate, they were generating like 400 leads a month from from that environment. And it allowed them to grow really, really quickly. Um, it allowed them to be extremely successful, and they had to kind of reset themselves three or four times on processes. Now, not everyone is going to have a resource right out of the gate to give them 400 leads a month. Like that's just not that's not normal, right? And so in the majority of the cases, it's roll up your sleeves, it's network, it's go to work, right? It's get get busy. Um, and to To the conversation you had, there isn't really a secret sauce, right? There's just there's just get busy and get after it. And um I think that's a really good point that the longer we've gone, the more open and willingness to share has has happened. And I think it took some a few people being willing, right? And then that just sort of snowballed. Um, the other thing is we have tried to build a culture around sharing ourselves, like our own failures. Like, you know, hey, we've tried this, this didn't work. Hey, we've tried this type of agent, this type of background, this didn't work. We've uh we've got a retail operation here in East Texas that's kind of a live lab, and we we've talked openly, like we tried that, that didn't work here. Maybe it works in suburban San Antonio, but it's not gonna work here in Huntington, um, and on and on and on. And I think one of the worries is that would become clickish, but to Mike's point about the newcomer, um it hasn't. Like people are welcomed in. Uh, and and I think that's more back to the boutique network setting that that is we don't really have to police it. The the the members, the net members of the network, the partners in the network, they kind of police it themselves.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Um, I can't imagine us even trying or needing to police that, that that just like, uh, but there's no need to. I mean, our agents are absolutely fantastic about sharing information, wanting other agents to be successful because they know that if we're a strong group, then that's great for profit sharing, that's great for profitability. And the stronger we are together, the really and truly the stronger we are individually.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

Yeah, I mean, that's not what we always see, right? With conferences and things. And um, we've seen things that haven't worked out for organizations uh because of the click nature, clicky kind of nature. Uh, and and I I'm just very, very happy and excited to know that that has not that has not happened in our culture. Um, that's just not what we do and not not the way it works out. Um, and and you know, I think the helping each other, again, it wasn't something that I experienced early in my career. Like early in my career, there was definitely pockets of uh of people who would not share. And there were there were there were agents who were not interested in um uh they they just they just wouldn't they wouldn't tell you. Like they was like, no, you're a potential competitor, just like Mike, Mike mentioned. Like, that's it's just kind of silly when you really think about it. When I think about it in hindsight, it it it just it's just really silly that people have that mindset. Um I've seen it circle back around, you know, 20-fold to people uh around sharing and then learning nuggets from others. And it's really taught me a lesson. Like not that I was ever afraid to share. I think I've always been kind of willing and open to share whatever we're doing and whatever's going on and who's having success and where the failures might be, but they our our agents have taught me a lesson around that. Like this willingness to share with others is sort of a way of life.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

That's why we have this podcast, right? Sure. I mean, we're giving away our secrets. We're we're we're we're sharing our secrets to success, which are processes and how to be profitable and how to start from the beginning and build a book correctly and how to fix it. I mean, that's what we do every week here. Um, and apparently our our podcast on um profit sharing, our our our first pro our first podcast on profit sharing was extremely successful. Our our agents really enjoyed that one. And um, I know that they're gonna enjoy the the second one as well. So got great feat back on that, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

Very cool. Very cool. I I think I think that's a reality. Most agents don't understand contingency profit sharing. They don't there's been such an exodus from the exclusive channel. There's so many new independent agencies. Um, because it's not it's not your traditional sales bonus, right? Like a lot of the exclusive channel, a lot of organizations, it's generally built around sales, just sales, uh, not necessarily sales plus profitability or growth plus profitability. Uh, and I think the independent channel's so good about that that it aligns well with our carrier partners. Uh, if if if we make them money, they they reward us for that, right? It's kind of the way you you think about it. And so that makes us more money and that that filters back through and cycles back through the channel. And it it's complicated.

SPEAKER_05 27:45

Like when you put that slide up there in the small groups that had the table. I mean, that sucker makes the periodic table look like it's grade school. I mean, that that thing is yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

That's actually what Todd, uh, who is who is Shane's brother that is in charge of our premium finance uh division. And he looked up and he's like, is that the periodic table? And I'm like, no, no, I don't know what it is, but it's not that. Um but yeah, and and speaking of that presentation, we had eight different breakout sessions this year, and I really enjoyed that. Um, and and I'm gonna say this out loud. I actually really enjoyed the one on ENO.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Okay, I mean, you know, I I I've never said that out loud before, but the the one on the in in uh IDB Pro and Isaac Pepp did that and talked about uh some products that are included with his ENO service. And it was really neat. I really, I really enjoyed that. But you know, he's a cool guy anyway.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

So yeah, they do a great job. It really does. And adding value, right? I mean, thinking about adding value to something like ENO, right? Right. Um, just really, really cool. Um, you know, I think the when you when you think about the the tables and the the laughing about you know looks like a period the periodic table. You know, there are really smart people that are sitting in a room somewhere cranking out the numbers to come up with, you know, what what a loss ratio and a premium dollar amount, you know, what extra compensation can become available. Um none of that, none of that is by chance, all of that is is by design. And you know, somebody didn't did choose 2.86 as a random number. And that's there's nothing random. There's nothing random about it, right? Um, and so I I really think it's very creative of our industry. Uh, you know, the insurance industry is extremely creative, even though it gets a bad rap for not being creative and being old and sort of you know dusty and you know not willing to, but but it's that's just not true. Um it's actually very creative, and it deals with a lot of a lot of changing risk through uh various things, right? Uh storm seasons, you know, convective storms, uh climate cycles, um hurricane risk, fire, wildfire now, that's a huge one, right? Um, and you know, and then you get all the geopolitical stuff that comes in that changes the outlook on the economy and what's happening here and there, and uh so so we are not a boring industry. And I say that to young people all the time. And if by chance a young person stumbles across our podcast and is interested in this industry, let me just tell you, it's extremely exciting.

SPEAKER_05 31:07

I profit sharing to me, I think it's just such a great concept, and to me, I I think it might actually be the catalyst for the camaraderie that you can see within our group because it is this tangible way of showing everyone that everybody profits from every single agency in the group being strong.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

To quote uh Aaron Husman, it's like communism in a good way.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

Good communism. Probably not timely, probably not timely for us right now, but um, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

I will never forget him saying that. Oh my goodness. Um, we had two great panels uh that Shane Shane uh hosted one and I hosted the other, and one was growing on an enterprise agency, a large um 20 plus employee agency versus a lifestyle solo premier small, small two to three employee agency, and and the whys behind both of those and the hows behind both of those. And I really enjoyed hearing the dichotomy of thought. Um, both both panels had extremely successful agents on it, um, but both had very different thoughts of an idea of what a successful agency is.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Yeah, I I love this concept. Um I'm glad that we had both perspectives. I the only thing I wish we would have done a little bit different is had them. I know we had them back to back on days, Thursday to Friday morning, but I think it would have been really impactful in hindsight to have them back to back on the same day, right? Um, so kind of think about that again as we we will definitely recycle those panels at some point in the future. I I love it because I have just experienced this reality that there are really only two types of agencies in the independent agency system. There there tries to be a third, so don't misunderstand me. There tries to be there the a third agency tries to wedge its way in there profile-wise. And um I call those agencies the ones stuck in the middle, no man's land, agencies that are just kind of in no man's land. But I think you have to be intentional, like lifestyle agency, and and and it's really hard to define because we have some lifestyle agency partners running seven or eight million dollar agencies, right? Like they're they're generating significant revenue. At the same time, we have these enterprise level agencies that are just machines at the end of the day. And both owners, both partner agency owners are doing extremely well. Where we see agencies struggle is the ones that get stuck in this no man's land. And this is that area between lifestyle and enterprise. And you have to make decisions. Like if you find yourself in no man's land, you have to figure out do I want to go back to lifestyle or do I want to, you know, sort of bulldoze, push my way through to get to the enterprise level? Because my contention is you can't stay in no man's land. You will either burn out, you're not making more money, you're just doing more stuff. So it'll burn you out. Uh, it'll make your agency less valuable if you were to go to sell because your your profitability isn't there. Um and it's okay to have a little less profitability while you're bridging and pushing through from lifestyle to to enterprise. You just can't stay there. And that's where I feel like a lot of agency owners find themselves, and then they don't know how or what to do. Do I go, do I, do I reverse back? Do I go back and create more lifestyle, or do I plow forward and and and build the enterprise? You know, just like we saw on the panel, it doesn't matter. Both are successful financially, both are successful from a flexibility standpoint. You just have to decide. There's no, it's literally right or left. There, there's no right or wrong on that decision.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

There's one of the things that I found interesting. Go ahead, Mike.

SPEAKER_05 36:11

Oh, I was just gonna say from my perspective, as I listened to those, to me, the scariest one is the lifestyle that's gotten pretty big. Because, you know, if you're already enterprise and you grow some more, I don't know, you've you've already learned how to hire, you've already learned how to delegate. I don't feel like that would be that big a deal to get a little bit bigger, but you can get into a weird spot when you're getting to the higher end of the lifestyle, right? Maybe you've never hired before, maybe you're not even marketing, but it's all referrals. So now what are you supposed to do? You've got referrals coming in from your clients that love you. Are you just gonna turn their referrals away to stay the size you are? Like you can't do that. So that is where I think you can you can kind of get yourself in into a little pickle that you gotta work your way out of.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

Yeah, I I I agree. Um, I I think that's that's that's there's truth in that. There's um um somebody from New York's trying to call me right now, Mike. I don't know. You're the only person I know in New York, and you're not calling me. So excuse me there for a minute. Um but it's it's uh and I again there's no right or wrong, right? I think that's where people, agency owners get stuck too, is like, what should I do? Which way should I go? Like, I can't stress this enough. It doesn't matter. It just matters that you're committed to which way you want to go.

SPEAKER_05 37:55

One thing I found super interesting, though, from both groups, same thing was said, nobody pays for leads.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Yeah, I thought that was interesting. Very heavy referral, very heavy uh referral partnerships, lead generation partnerships, not paying, not paying for leads.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

The other thing that every single member of both of those panels said was that no clients have their cellular phone number. Yeah, I think that's they use their cell phones, but they have a voiceover IP. Uh, they use um either a Google number or they're using Onage or they're using something that forwards and but not a single one of the members of those panels were giving clients their cell phone numbers.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Yeah, I think some of that is just learned the hard way. Um, I've I've known agents that had to change their number, uh, that you know had to go through that process. I think that's now the the standard and should become the standard. I, you know, the whole idea of you know providing customers your cell phone number so they can text you at all hours of the day and night. I I think it's a perceived benefit that actually turns out to be a detriment uh for what you're trying to do in the end, what you're trying to create. And you know, a lot of times agents will will see that in the beginning as their edge, right? Their benefit. Um, those agents that do that have historically hitten, they've hit, they've hit walls, right? They've they've come up against problems with that type of approach. It's it's not as white glove as you think it is.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

And take it from the person who once got a call at 3 a.m. Now keep in mind I had to be at the radio station about 4:30, but got a call at 3 a.m. from a client asking a question that could have been asked at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. Um, people call at weird hours just when they think of things.

SPEAKER_05 40:23

Yeah, that is that is you just can't you you're gonna burn out fast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

So what else were some great takeaways from you guys that our that our listeners could really benefit from?

SPEAKER_05 40:39

For me, uh this is something we've talked about in the past, but it just came back around in my mind that I just wish that the term insurance agent was changed to insurance advisor. Because I it really feels to me like that is the way that you will be successful is by advising and not just selling something. You know, it it goes financial advisors, they're not they're called financial advisors because there's this belief that they're going to take a look at your portfolio and they're gonna make these suggestions on what is best for you, but for whatever reason, there's a different perception of insurance, and then there's just you're not gonna go to your financial advisor and say, I just need I need you to make the most money for me that you can possibly make, and here's five dollars. So, you know, just make it happen. But that's kind of what we're doing with insurance. I just want the lowest rate, just give me the lowest rate.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Well, that's part of that part of that comes from the marketing teams that insurance companies have have put in place, right? I think that you know, we have we have made so much comedy out of insurance that it's actually cheapened the process, right? Because I mean the whole thing is about a free quote and let's make it as cheap as possible. And and we've made it so funny, we've taken away the fact that we are protecting the assets, like people's greatest, most important, most expensive assets is we're protecting them. And I hate to say it, but the the emu and the British lizard and the caveman and John Bon Jovi, and you know, what does Travis Kelsey know about insurance? So I mean, like all of the things, but we've made it funny, right? So there's not a lot of respect for a product that is seen as comedic.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Yeah, and unfortunately, you're 100% right.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

And we've talked about that.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Can you say that again just for fun?

SPEAKER_03 43:16

I mean, it's it finally, finally, it it has happened. Tanya is right. Um took like eight years, but here we are, right? Should be celebrated. Comfetti, confetti. Um, no, uh she Tanya's 100% right. On it, we've cheapened it, the brand, the marketing of it, the chase, the really this race to the bottom, so to speak, uh, through the years. And I love that, Mike. You know, I love insurance advisor, I love insurance consultant, I love anything that depicts something that is other than, you know, we're just trying to. Sell you something cheap. Um and that we're just, I mean, I know, I know we're salespeople at heart, but you know, getting the right coverage is important. And as working with a lot of personal lines focused agents, um, you know, there's there's personalized accounts that are ten to fifteen thousand dollars in premium, you know, on average today because of auto and home and second home and some rental properties, and it's really easy to get there, right? With with within the personalized spectrum. That is not sell you a cheap policy. And these are not necessarily the ultra-high net worth type people either, right? These are the this is the the shift in really the American economy. And um kind of my story on this several years ago was going to 30A, uh, which I even hate to say publicly because more people don't need to find out about 30A. Um, you know, during COVID, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about 30A. It's uh it's in the the Emerald Coast area of uh Florida between Tanya and Panama City. Um so it's it stands for County Road 30A, and it's the Wall Street Journal called it the Hampton of Hamptons of the South, and everybody started coming there, and it unfortunately it's rent our our perfect spot. And uh so you know, um hopefully people stay away and get tired of it because we love it. But um I noticed when we would ride bikes through neighborhoods down on 30A, that you know, a lot of one of the things to do with is to have a little placard outside on the on the front of the house or you know, out by the street. And it was the owners of the house. And it was what what what you would notice is that many several years ago now, all of these houses started being different LLCs, right? Like the family partnership LLC, you know, the Tatum Family Trust LLC, the Basil Family Trust, LLC, or whatever. And these were the owners of these properties, right? These are obviously secondary family homes, maybe, maybe uh multi, you know, siblings on this, whatever. And these are not, I've met some of these people. These people are not yacht owners, right? There's they're business owners, they're they're uh successful, uh they're successful professionals. The American economy has created a ton of wealth over the last 30 years, certainly 50 years. I mean a lot of wealth. And when you have that environment going on as an insurance advisor, to Mike's point, if you're selling insurance like just on high volume, and that's not the game, that's not where we're going. That's not what your client, I mean, maybe non-standard specialty auto looks like that, but your personal lines, middle class to maybe the the the I don't know what we call it. Um the uh it's not necessarily super high net worth, but it's it's certainly it would have been considered wealth, you know, 25 years ago, but today that number keeps climbing, right? That net worth keeps climbing that's not necessarily considered wealthy, you know. Um, and so comfortable maybe, but not necessarily wealthy. And there's a lot of opportunity within the independent agency channel that we can solve problems that the exclusive agent channel cannot solve, which is why I see that exodus continuing, and why we see the captive, the exclusive agent companies, the direct channel companies getting into the independent agency distribution channel is because they understand that those assets have shifted, that wealth trend has shifted.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month talking about the growth of the upper middle class. And I think it said something like 31, 33-ish, around in there, percent of Americans were now upper middle class, and that was up from like 10% in in the late 70s. And an upper middle class being a family of three that earns between, I think it's at 130,000 to 400,000 annually. So if you think about the fact that that has tripled in size over the last 45 years, that is so significant.

SPEAKER_03 49:29

Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a big number. Right.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

I can't believe I just remembered a random article from the Wall Street Journal.

SPEAKER_03 49:39

There's been a lot of that, right? There's been a lot of those types of articles in in the Wall Street Journal lately. And um, you know, it's uh it's a reality. And and obviously we got a stock market that's popped above 50 and bounced back to 49 and keeps going back and forth, obviously going on. I mean, I remember when it crossed 10. I remember when it crossed, probably could go back and say I remember when it crossed five, but for sure 10 and 20 was like, holy moly, like that's big deal when it went across 20, because it dipped back down and stayed below 20 for a while. But um, you know, here we are. And um, I don't know. It's just I I think there's so much opportunity there for obviously those in commercial lines, you know, is is is always going to be there, but there's a personal lines opportunity, and that just happens to be what um, you know, a large part of the integra partner network consists of agents that came over from the exclusive agent channel. So that's just a natural gravitation. Our commercial lines is growing, yes, but our personal lines continues to grow because it's it's hitting this market segment that is doesn't appear to be going backwards at all.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

So there are we really had a fabulous time at our conference this year. Any more major takeaways, you guys, that um that you don't think we've covered that were just really, really a uh a great asset um to to our agents.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

I I will add that, and we've heard this from our agent council before. I I think it's something that I've observed over the last couple of years. The sessions are incredible, and yes, we need to keep raising the bar on sessions. Uh hearing agents talk about success and failures are the best sessions to me. But the sharing of knowledge with each other, where what Mike was talking about, that happens outside the sessions. That happens at dinner. Um, that happens, you know. I I I heard I was not there. That happens around the bar late at night. Um, you know, these these are the things that I hear the feedback is, you know, some of the best nuggets of how to be better, how to grow their business. It's it's free to us, right? Like what I mean by that is we're not paying for a speaker, we're not paying for it, it's it's agent sharing with agents in very natural settings. You know, it's not the formal sessions that that provide the most value, it's the informal casual conversations that provide the most value, and that continues to be the case.

SPEAKER_00 52:54

And the food. I gained three pounds.

SPEAKER_05 53:01

One thing I just wanted to add before we wrap up is you know, I there was a lot of people that that had a lot of nice things to say about the podcast, and I just wanted to thank everyone that listens. And you know, anyone who's listened even one time will notice there's no ads in these podcasts, there's no revenue coming from these podcasts. We're just, you know, we're doing this to to share and hopefully provide a little something. So uh, you know, for everyone that listens to it, thank you for listening to Insurance Advisors Forward. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

I'm gonna leave us today with this quote from James Clear. You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

And in the spirit of the outlaw Josie Wales, attitude to choice, make a great one.

SPEAKER_04 53:59

At the Integra Partner Network, we understand that carrier access is the key to your agency's expense. That's why Integra offers direct access to top freedom personal and commercial carriers, ensuring your agency's drives in today's intelligent market, and with our comprehensive resources, profit sharing, and bonus opportunities, technology, and peer support, all of our viewers made 100% of your books with no difficulty to exit directly to empower you and your reading speed of finds the same growth. Find your way to Infegro, that's the Infigure of Harder Network.com synthesis. That's the Infigure of Harder Network.com.