RHS 177 - How to Dominate the Scratch Agency Game with Stephen Turnbull

Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today.
Smart Choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices.

Speaker 1 That's why they offer a tool called AutoQuote Explorer that allows you to compare your progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies.

Speaker 1 So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode at progressive.com.

Speaker 1 Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations.
Prices vary based on how you buy.

Speaker 2 When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like aloe or skins, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing, but an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling and for shoppers, buying simple.

Speaker 2 For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

Speaker 2 With Shop Pay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening.

Speaker 2 So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between.

Speaker 2 Businesses that sell more, sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skins uses.
Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash WestwoodOne, all lowercase.

Speaker 2 Go to shopify.com slash Westwood One to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash Westwood One.

Speaker 3 October brings it all. Halloween parties, game day tailgates, crisp fall air.
At Total Wine and Moore, you'll find just what you need for them all.

Speaker 3 You'll find thousands of wines, spirits, and beers at the lowest prices. Mixing up something spooky? Total Wine and Moore is your cocktail central for all your Halloween concoctions.

Speaker 3 You'll always find what you love and love what you find only at Total Wine and Moore. Curbside pickup and delivery available in most areas.
See TotalWine.com for details.

Speaker 3 Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly B21.

Speaker 4 In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home,

Speaker 4 Hello everyone and welcome back to the show.

Speaker 7 Today we have a tremendous episode for you, a triple tremendous episode for you, a conversation with Scratch Agency owner, podcaster, all-around, incredible dude,

Speaker 7 someone who is kind of showing what it means to take the bull by its horns, as you will. Steven Turnbull from T5 Insurance out of Utica, New York.

Speaker 7 I'm an enormous fan of Stephen, what he's doing, how he's doing his work, his focus, his dedication, how he plays to his strengths.

Speaker 7 I think that Stephen and the kind of the crew of scratch agencies that he's hooked up with are kind of redefining what it means to be a scratch agency and showing that

Speaker 7 there's nothing to be scared of.

Speaker 7 We don't have to be scared of being a scratch agent, that you can do it, that you can make it happen, that there's success to be had, that there are opportunities to be had, and that hardworking producers who are not given the opportunity to grow inside of legacy agencies can split off and be highly successful.

Speaker 7 And I think Stephen and like I said, some of his crew that he's created around this whole, you know, the Scratch agency, you know, this kind of, we'll call it a cohort of scratch agencies

Speaker 7 are just doing absolutely tremendous work. And

Speaker 7 Stephen kind of came out to Albany back in the spring, early summer-ish, and we sat down at Dinosaur Barbecue, and we just talked business and what he was doing.

Speaker 7 And I tried my best to give him, you know, just some insights from what I learned launching Rogue and different stuff like that. And just watching him grow and be successful.
It's been incredible.

Speaker 7 I'm an enormous fan of Steven.

Speaker 7 I'm rooting for him every day. And just

Speaker 7 this conversation was absolutely wonderful. There's a little bit, you're going to hear a little bit of a hiccup in the middle.
We had some technology issues, some internet connectivity issues.

Speaker 7 I've kind of done my best to kind of cut those out. But if you hear a little screwiness in the middle, that's that.
It takes two seconds. We get past it.

Speaker 7 But

Speaker 7 just absolutely tremendous episode, absolutely tremendous conversation. And I highly encourage that you keep an eye on Steven, what he's doing,

Speaker 7 because I think he's going to be a primetime player in the years to come. And

Speaker 7 you heard it here first, unless you heard it somewhere else first, and then you heard it there first. Okay.
So before we get there, guys, love you for listening to this show.

Speaker 7 If you enjoy the show, I'm cranking out episodes. I'm having great conversations.
I'm having tons of fun again. I think the

Speaker 7 doldrums of the personal issues that I've had over the last year are kind of starting to shake off and I'm feeling like my old self again and just getting back into rocking and rolling and having awesome conversations.

Speaker 7 And this is one of them. If you enjoy it, share the show with a friend.
I mean, that's how we grow the audience. That's how we get more people involved.

Speaker 7 That's how we get more people talking about the stuff that we talk about in this show.

Speaker 7 If you enjoy this show, then you obviously have some affiliation or affinity to kind of the ideas, the concepts, the methodology that I practice

Speaker 7 in the guests practice and in this format and all that. And would love for you to share with your friends.
Just helps grow the show, and all that is real good stuff.

Speaker 7 Also, if you love the podcast, you will really love the blog, finding peak, go to findingpeak.com. It's free.
Sign up. You get an article every Friday.
It'll make you better at what you do.

Speaker 7 At least some of of it will, or hopefully, it'll at least entertain you on a Friday morning.

Speaker 7 Although, what I'm really trying to do is give you just little tools to add to your tool belt to be the best version of yourself. That's that's the whole point of finding peak.

Speaker 7 And I want to give a shout-out to SIA. Um, SIA is just a tremendous supporter of us.

Speaker 7 Obviously, they're our parent company, but they don't have to be as good to us as they are, they don't have to be as good to their members as they are. Um, and I'll tell you, you know, the people,

Speaker 7 the corporate people, the people at home office in New Hampshire, man, they're trying, they're working hard, and they're doing everything they can. I know that's easy for me to say.

Speaker 7 I'm sitting here on a podcast in Albany, New York, and, you know, and they own my agency. So it's easy for me to kind of stroke them and act like, you know, whatever.

Speaker 7 But I promise you, they're working for their members.

Speaker 7 They're working real hard, having tough conversations, working through the new kind of economy that we're facing and finding ways to make members more productive, more efficient, more successful, and ultimately help make them more money.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 so, I want to give a big shout out to SIA.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 7 if you're interested in joining a cluster, a network, or whatever you want to call what SIA is,

Speaker 7 I think you absolutely should consider SIA as one of your options. I just, I think you should.
I've loved it. I've loved the people.
They've been nothing but good to me.

Speaker 7 They've been nothing but good to most of the people I know who are members. So

Speaker 7 I highly recommend you check them out. Last but not least, Tivly, T-I-V-L-Y.com.
T-I-V-L-Y.com. Tivly is the only sponsor of this show, and they are

Speaker 7 just an incredible company. We've been, we've been paying Tivly.
We don't, we, even though they sponsor this show, they, we pay them at Rogue. We, we, we're a, we're a, we're a client of theirs.

Speaker 7 We're a partner of theirs for over 18 months, well before the acquisition with, with SIA happened. And

Speaker 7 one of the few tools that right now, I mean, obviously, things can always change, but I have no reason to think that they would. Tivoli is one of those tools that I just wouldn't get rid of.

Speaker 7 Just absolutely positively, they're a partner I wouldn't get rid of. They're so willing to help and find ways to make whatever you need work.

Speaker 7 I love working with great people. And if you want to learn more about them, go to tivly.com or go back in the archives of this show and listen to my conversation with Mark McClure and Kim Reed.

Speaker 7 I think you'll love that. So, with that, guys, let's get on to the tremendous Steven Turnbull in this conversation right now.

Speaker 8 I'm going to shampoo.

Speaker 4 Anytime I get my Zoom setting, anytime I'm

Speaker 4 invited to a Zoom, it puts Mikhail's name in there for some reason, but

Speaker 4 whatever.

Speaker 4 How you doing?

Speaker 6 I'm good, bud.

Speaker 6 I'm excited to chat.

Speaker 6 I've wanted to have have you on the show for a while. And just, I actually, you know, for a whole bunch of reasons, I had a whole mess of stuff going on.

Speaker 6 I had a few weeks where like I just wasn't recording and wasn't just, you know, I missed a couple of weeks of the show. The good news is I got a, I got a big backlog going now, which is great.

Speaker 4 I love that Saber's jersey behind you.

Speaker 7 That's baller.

Speaker 6 Who is it? Whose jersey is that?

Speaker 4 So it's Reinhardt's jersey. when he was there and then Eichel Reinhart and Opposo signed it.
So that's when they did the Kraft Hockeyville thing and they came to Clinton and did the game. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So there's a, there's a legendary picture on the NHL's Instagram of me with my jersey pushing some 10-year-olds out of the way trying to get it signed.

Speaker 4 I'm like, wow, that was, wow, that was really aggressive. Now the entire world's looking at it.
That's great.

Speaker 4 That's awesome. That's cool.
That's awesome.

Speaker 6 Dude, well, man,

Speaker 6 you've had quite the journey over the last year and it was, it was awesome to spend time down in New York at Benz's thing. That was cool.

Speaker 6 Dude, like,

Speaker 6 you know, I know you got the podcast and tons of people are listening to and it's awesome. And you and Sean are doing really cool stuff.
But like,

Speaker 6 for people who listen to this show, who maybe haven't heard of what you're up to or what you're doing, give them the, give them the quick lowdown

Speaker 6 just on

Speaker 6 T5 and all that and what you're up to. And then

Speaker 6 we can get into the fun stuff.

Speaker 4 Yeah, sure. Well, I appreciate you having me on.
And like you said, it's been a wild year.

Speaker 4 It's been only nine months of starting T5. And I've been listening to your show for a while.
And it's kind of a surreal experience to be here now with you as an agency owner.

Speaker 4 So I appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 4 I've been in the industry for about seven and a half years now at this point. And I started my career working for my family agency here in Utica, New York.

Speaker 4 They had a long history, and I was the fifth generation on track to take it over. And one thing led to another where that didn't end up happening.
And I left and started my own

Speaker 4 just purely out of the, you know, purely out of the feeling of wanting to do business differently,

Speaker 4 which you can relate to, I know, and just wanting to, you know, start my own baby and give it a try. So did that in May of last year.
Like I said, we're about nine months in.

Speaker 4 We've got the podcast going, got married in September, did it all at once.

Speaker 6 So it's been a, it's been a roller coaster of the last nine months, but it's been rewarding and exciting and all that good stuff that comes with starting a business and jumping right ahead first so it's been good yeah and you're crushing it right i mean you're doing great you're writing tons of insurance i mean it's not like you didn't um at least my understanding you know from listening to some of your stuff and talking to you is that um it's not like you limped into it you know you kind of kind of got right in and and running it it's like you had the treadmill going and you just jumped on it running it running at full speed um which is which is really really cool yeah well i yeah the treadmill was going i think the exciting part and to my advantage, too, was I just had so much bottled up in my head that I wanted to do in my previous agency that I wasn't

Speaker 4 able to do. I wouldn't say allowed.
I just wasn't able to do it. It was an older lifestyle agency.

Speaker 4 The staff had been there for so long. You're trying to change old ways.
And it was just kind of one of those situations where I was just hitting my head.

Speaker 4 And I had all this stuff bottled up inside my head of different ways to do things, different customer interactions that

Speaker 4 now I could do.

Speaker 4 You know, now I could, I could build that foundation and just there's no more of oh we we did it this way it's this is what we're doing um so you know that's the biggest thing i'm focusing on now it's just me and the agency still i don't have any staff and

Speaker 4 um

Speaker 6 you know it's just building that foundation making sure that foundation's nice and set before um you know we continue to keep going so but it's all been all been good stuff yeah one of the funny things about uh when we were down in new york together um for everybody listening a few a week ago or a few weeks ago i can't remember when yeah week ago was was it last week yeah it was last week it seems like two months ago but it was oh my gosh life moves so fast like i can't believe that was only a week ago but so last week from from recording this whenever you're listening to it um we were down in new york uh doug benz put this awesome like mastermind thing on and what was funny is uh turnbull and sean fitzgerald are walking around with their laptops and little bags while we're like going around because you know that's that's the startup agency life is like someone calls something's got to be done like the only person to get it done is you and um i you know it's it's it's awesome and it's part of the deal and it's one of those memories and we've all done it i did the same thing you know what i mean you know you you every single person who started an agency from scratch especially if you're bootstrapping has has done that thing well if you if you started it in the laptop world you know what i mean maybe you were walking around with a with a binder you know what i mean back in the day but uh um

Speaker 6 you know so so that's the life it's all good but it's it was funny you know just everyone's kind of walking around and then these guys got their their computer bags with them you know just in in case and yep um you can tell who the scratch guys were yeah yeah you know and and look like that's part of the deal like that's part of the thing that i think um being willing to do that being willing to to one it's it it's what makes you a good agency owner because you're not taking your responsibilities lightly by being like ah i can take a day off as a scratch agency owner single single guy single person

Speaker 6 You can't take a day off. You can't, you know, your clients are bought insurance from you.
They're trusting that you're going to be there when you, when they need you and you kind of have to be there.

Speaker 6 And that's the, but, um,

Speaker 6 but, you know, these are the days. And, you know, and I remember these days too, like, um, these are the days that you really remember.
Like, I think, I think it really

Speaker 6 cuts into you. They're the scars that stay with you that allow you to push through some of the, some of the even harder shit that you're going to have to experience as you start hiring people.

Speaker 6 People are really tough as you start taking on more vendors, more partnerships, more whatever.

Speaker 6 Like, you know, things, things, you know, it seems tough at the beginning, but it only gets harder as you go for different reasons. And

Speaker 6 I think it's cool. It was, it was fun to see you guys doing your thing.
And the mix of people there was awesome.

Speaker 4 Well, Friday, Friday.

Speaker 4 Did I just lose you?

Speaker 6 Yeah, just for a second. You're back now, though.
You said you were on the World Trade Center loop and you got a call.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I was on the World Trade Center loop. We're about to head into the museum and I had to issue a binder quick.
So I was sitting there on the phone pumping that out.

Speaker 4 I didn't have the laptop with me that time. I said, I'm going to risk it and not bring the laptop, but it was kind of funny.
You just like, okay, can we wait five minutes?

Speaker 4 Just taking the view for an extra five minutes. I got to send this out quick.
Yeah. Yeah.
To your point, that's something I'll never forget. And it's like part of the journey.
And just.

Speaker 4 I think it's important to sit there and allow yourself to enjoy that as part of the journey, right? Instead of just kind of manifest over, oh, I got to do this. It's like, hey, this is all part of it.

Speaker 4 And this is what you're building. You'll remember these days.
So I'm definitely, I'm definitely a visual person.

Speaker 4 You can see the trust the process sign behind me i've got some signs in front of me where i sit in the office and i think it's important to like constantly remind yourself especially starting an agency um you know the end goal or whatever that may be for the next steps to get you through those global reality is hard times yeah the reality is you made this decision to do this thing right and i think that's the part that a lot of people forget is like like

Speaker 4 or I think, let me put that a different way.

Speaker 6 I think that's the part of the thing that people who haven't done it romanticize is like,

Speaker 6 oh, you know, I'm still going to live my life or I want to live my life. It's like, no, no, no, no.
Like, maybe you can, but there, but there are trade-offs.

Speaker 6 Like, you got to bring your freaking computer with you everywhere.

Speaker 6 And you, you know, you got to tell your wife or your partner or your friends or whoever you're with, like, or your kids, like, hey, I, I need 20 minutes to go do this thing.

Speaker 6 Like, it's, it's a non-negotiable.

Speaker 4 I have to, right?

Speaker 6 You know, I've been with people who've had to walk off the beach or,

Speaker 6 you know, whatever.

Speaker 6 i think it might be my computer my computer is like freaking out right now it says i'm good and shows we're still recording on my end yeah

Speaker 6 yeah i don't know i actually i'll tell you what i i actually have no idea what is going on my computer screen just went black and it's all up and it's because my mac blew up the other day oh god and uh and went blue smoke on me and i have another mac coming and i'm on a pc which is the worst computer in the world oh we can we could talk about this for hours because i'm on a pc and i went to the mac because of

Speaker 4 the hawksoft and pl rating stuff it does you can you can work it on a mac but it's just way too

Speaker 6 yeah many things you got to do and it's easier to do the pc so i'm yeah i i feel you there i um you know one of the reasons that i'm actually not on hawksoft is because of that requirement like i looked at hawksoft a lot and i was like because because early on all i had was a mac right all right all i had was a mac computer that was what i had and i I didn't have the money to buy a new computer at that time.

Speaker 6 So, like, um, even though things are really wacky, it seems like it's still recording. So, we're just gonna keep.

Speaker 4 Yeah, um, actually, the Hawksoft, the Hawksoft for me was fine. There was a back end you get through, but the PL rating, uh, the raider was the reason I had to move to PC.

Speaker 6 But, anyways, yeah, yeah,

Speaker 6 you know, it's like it, you know, what's crazy to me is that, you know, so, so

Speaker 6 we're on, we're on next year right now for our agency management system, and

Speaker 6 they recently came up with some patches. And now you can use a Mac and everything

Speaker 6 on Nexture. But when we first started looking at it back in August, you couldn't.
And they're like, well, you know, not a lot of people asked for that. And I'm like, really?

Speaker 6 Yeah, I guess. I mean,

Speaker 6 I just, for me, my issue is that if I'm like... 100% effective on a Mac, on a PC, I'm like 60% effective.
I'm just not.

Speaker 6 Like, I feel like a committee designed the UX, which it probably did of Microsoft.

Speaker 6 And, you know, when you look at a Mac, it's like, no, someone who actually uses this thing every day built it, not a committee, which I think, yeah, I think is a good like analogy or metaphor, probably analogy, I guess, to

Speaker 6 our industry. Is like, when I look, when we look, when you look at the user experiences in our industry, right? The, the few that wow us or that excite us or seem like the future,

Speaker 6 they they

Speaker 6 it feels like someone was like, you know what? This is the way it's supposed to be done. Let's do it this way, let's get after it this way.

Speaker 6 Like, here's how I want people to go through the flow, here's what I'm seeing, and then everything else feels like a group of risk managers sat in a room and said, Let's come up with the,

Speaker 6 you know, let's come up with something that we all agree on. That's the, you know, that has every feature that could possibly have, because God forbid, you know, it just,

Speaker 6 yeah, you know, it, it, it, uh, and a good example of this, I think, is like better better agency, right? Like better agency, um, you know, we're, we're working with them on some things, um,

Speaker 6 uh, and,

Speaker 4 you know,

Speaker 6 a lot of people have mixed opinions about better agency. There's a lot of mixed opinions.
And I think some of that was they went a little hard on their marketing a little too early, right?

Speaker 6 And I think they would even agree that they made a lot of claims early that were not actually real. Now, today, a lot of those claims are very are true, like they actually make good on them.

Speaker 6 But I look at a tool like that and I'm like,

Speaker 6 that's a user experience that you can train one of your producers or CSRs on in an hour.

Speaker 6 You know, we're six months into next year and we still have questions every single day about how to use it. It's just incredibly complex.
And that's not a knock on next year.

Speaker 6 Epic, AMS 360, they're all the same. Like, you know, they're so complex.

Speaker 6 UX is so daunting that it's very difficult.

Speaker 6 But, you know, but what better agency doesn't, you know, what better agency doesn't have is every field, every button, everything, you know, it doesn't have, you know, it doesn't have the full scope.

Speaker 6 So there's this trade-off that we have to make in trying to design how we're going to one, run our agency and two, the experience that we want to give

Speaker 6 both our team and our customers that doesn't seem like it's been fully figured out yet. So when you were starting to jump into your own software, the software that you were going to use.

Speaker 6 And I, and I hate that, I don't want, we don't want to talk about specific software because that conversation gets kind of boring.

Speaker 4 i'm more interested in like what was the thought process that you were going through when you had to make these decisions because early on some of these decisions can can be booms or they can be they can cripple you so yeah um how did you go through that thought process yeah well to your point too i i got a little bit down the rabbit hole in the beginning i would say and and then kind of just popped my head up and was like what are you doing here with trying to change what you're used to so i was we have we've already mentioned them so i was on hawksoft at my um my previous agency.

Speaker 4 And so that was just an easy swap for me. I was already familiar with the system.

Speaker 4 For me, it was just like the familiarity of it, because the last thing that I had to do with starting the agency was try to learn a new system, right? I just, I already knew it. I think it works well.

Speaker 4 It works well for what I need to do. And then the CRM I was on at the time wasn't talking to Hawksoft.

Speaker 4 So that's how I got kind of down the rabbit hole of wanting to find something that was more integrated.

Speaker 4 And to your point, I did talk to better agency and look at that, but it just didn't make sense to change everything up at that time when I was, you know, three, four months in and necessarily didn't want to because I was familiar.

Speaker 4 I knew, I knew where I needed to go in Hawksoft to do the things I needed to do, and then I ended up just taking on a new CRM that had the integrations already set up with Hawksoft and working through there, which was again something that was familiar.

Speaker 4 My old agency, I was the only one that was using the CRM, so it's not like there was somebody else that knew bells and whistles that I didn't, right? I would train myself on it.

Speaker 4 I was the only one using it. And so for me, it was just what's going to be the most familiar so that I can just focus on growth and selling policies.

Speaker 4 And then, you know, down the road, if there's something else that makes sense that's going to solve a problem for us,

Speaker 4 we can certainly look at that. But it was just what's going to be the best thing to be able to grow as fast as possible.

Speaker 6 So that definitely feels like, you know, one of the things that I wanted that I wanted to kind of key on in our conversation today was around how you, how you kind of, you know, had the treadmill on seven and just jumped on running, right?

Speaker 6 I don't think that's common. I think a lot of people out of the gate struggle.
They, they have months where they don't write business or they write tiny bits of business because they, you know, just,

Speaker 6 you know, it's hard. It's, you know, doing all these different things.

Speaker 6 And it seems to me like what I just heard was one of the, one of the keys for you was that you used familiar systems and making that decision allowed you to focus on what early on is the most important thing is not redefining the customer experience or revamping every part of the process, even the things you might have disliked.

Speaker 6 It was working with familiar tools so that you could sell business that you could pay the bills.

Speaker 4 Yep. Does that feel right? Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Nailed it on the head.

Speaker 4 So your question is like, what, what, what do you think attributed to me turning the treadmill up to going full speed right away? Is that what you're saying? Yeah.

Speaker 4 So I think something that I did, and admittedly, I did not do this on purpose. It's just something I did.

Speaker 4 My previous agency was last name agency, my last name, right? So I was, um, that's who I was known as.

Speaker 4 But I think something that I did, again, that was not on purpose was created the brand of Stephen Turnbull.

Speaker 4 And so when people wanted quotes or whatever on social media or they got referred to me, it was always to my cell phone or to my personal page.

Speaker 4 And then it was just the fact that I was Stephen Turnbull with X, Y, and Z Agency. It wasn't necessarily just me under the umbrella.

Speaker 4 And so when I did go off and start my own, it was, oh, well, we've done business with Steven, we're going to do business with Steven, or we see him now in a different light.

Speaker 4 And now, I'm still going through that

Speaker 4 transition of, you know, I'm very much community focused in the way that I bring in business and my inbound. And so, I'm still trying to train kind of the community in different things.

Speaker 4 And I'm now with T5, right? But it's been an easier transition than I think because most of my branding and stuff has been around the personal brand of me. Does that make sense?

Speaker 6 It absolutely does.

Speaker 6 So there will come a day, most likely in the not too distant future,

Speaker 6 where you're going to hire a producer, right?

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 6 as a producer, building that personal brand, using your cell phone, your personal email, whatever, you know, text messaging,

Speaker 6 that makes a tremendous amount of sense. And it allows you to do something like what you did.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Now that you're an agency owner, right?

Speaker 6 How are you, have you thought about what what are your feelings on like

Speaker 6 you know now you know jim jones or sally smith comes in and she's doing the same thing now calls are going to her personal cell phone people are texting her it's it people are doing business with sally smith not t5 yeah that scare you does it worry you do you think or are you are you of the camp like hey if i treat them well it's all good they'll be here and it's all good like how do you you know did does

Speaker 6 it worked for you in this transition very well i can see why it did and i think it's amazing But does it, does that same philosophy now that you're the agency owner, does that make you nervous?

Speaker 4 Um, no, and I'll tell you why. I think if when I bring on producers, I think T5 is going to have the culture.

Speaker 4 I don't think I know T5 is going to have the culture where they're going to be able to do those type of things within the culture.

Speaker 4 The reason that I, again, not on purpose, was creating that personal brand was because it was not possible for me to do under the agency.

Speaker 4 And I mean, not possible in the sense as um i was the only one rowing the boat in one direction right um so trying to to simply do business different ways implement e-sign i mean you have to understand this agency my family agency has been around for 156 years so i joined in 2016 i was the first new hire for 22 years wow So when I joined, fresh out of college in 2016, it was, why is the website say under construction?

Speaker 4 You know, what is social media, this and that. And then I built all that up to the point where I was rowing the boat in one direction.

Speaker 4 Now, the experience and the headaches and the feeling of banging my head into the wall time and time again,

Speaker 4 because I've had those experiences, I now know what I want to do differently now that I'm in the role of the owner to provide that young producer, that new producer, the tools that they need to build their brand with T5

Speaker 4 and not have any roadblocks. And, you know, I'll be able to continue to remind myself when I become the first time boss of a producer or whatever that is,

Speaker 4 with the experiences that I had and to try to provide them something different.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I love that. And I think I do, I, I completely agree with you.
I think that experience is going to pay so many dividends for you when you start to hire people.

Speaker 6 You'll be able to talk to them about the things they're feeling, about the questions they have. And there's, there's an empathy that.

Speaker 6 I'd like to believe I have, you have, because we've, and many others, because we had these experiences of just getting no or getting questioned or seeing seeing results and having people just dismiss them because it wasn't the way business was normally brought in or whatever.

Speaker 6 I feel like it does give you a competitive advantage sometimes in the hiring because you can talk to producers in a way that doesn't seem like a boss talking to a producer.

Speaker 6 It seems like someone who's been there before talking to someone who's there now. And that is definitely a big competitive advantage.

Speaker 6 You know, it's funny to me in our industry, this conversation is often frowned upon. You know, a lot of traditionally, nah, they shouldn't have their own brand.
It's all about the agency.

Speaker 6 It's all about the agency. And, you you know, one of the things that's really interesting is that's so much ego.

Speaker 6 There's so much ego in our industry, especially because, as you know, last name's on businesses. It's all about that last name.
It's all about that last name.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 6 Now, I look at my buddy. So this morning, I'm looking to buy a house and a buddy of mine owns probably the best real estate firm.

Speaker 6 in the town that I live in and want to purchase in. And his name's Mike Field, Field Realty.
And I look at this dude and like, in the real estate industry, this is not a thing, right?

Speaker 6 It's like, he's got this one woman. Her name's Joanna.
She's great. Her pictures are on all the signs.
It's, you know, Joanna. Ah, shit, I'm going to forget her last name.

Speaker 6 She probably doesn't listen to shows, so it doesn't matter. But, you know,

Speaker 6 being in the real estate, but you know, Joanna's, she's awesome and I know her, but like, she,

Speaker 6 it's her brand. It's just.
field realty right so the colors are red with field realty behind her but all the signs are like her with her arms crossed and her face and her name.

Speaker 6 Her names are on the sign above the field realty logo.

Speaker 6 It's like, why is it that the real estate industry, and I'm sure people have reasons and thoughts behind this, but the real estate agency or industry does this so well, this.

Speaker 6 personal branding of a, you know, what would be equivalent to a producer in real estate. And in insurance, it's like, nope, you, I don't want your name anywhere.
It's not about you.

Speaker 6 It's about the agency. Like, what do you think it is about our culture? Is it just simply ego? Is it the way we're compensated? Is it the business model? Why do you think that is?

Speaker 6 Like, what is your take on that?

Speaker 4 I just think everyone's scared of change. Yeah.
You know, I just think everyone's scared of change.

Speaker 4 And I want to preface this comment by just saying, like, there's there, one of the things that has amazed me in the first nine months of owning an agency is how many different ways there are to skin the cat, right?

Speaker 4 My family has an old lifestyle agency. You go into the office at 8.30 to 5, you're there until 4.59 and paper, you name it.
And they're they're very successful and they have been. And that's great.

Speaker 4 But the, where was I going with that? The, um,

Speaker 4 what was the point? What was the

Speaker 6 why the real estate industry is better at oh, scared of change, scared of change.

Speaker 4 And, and, and, and I think

Speaker 4 to, to, to go back to the personal branding thing, I always remember I once asked my father who was in the agency about getting outside producers.

Speaker 4 And we have never had a outside producer that wasn't last name, to your point, about last name. And this, I guess this kind of answers the question before, so I apologize.
But

Speaker 4 I always said, why don't we try to hire a young producer, blah, blah, blah. And the first reaction was, well, what happens if they leave?

Speaker 4 And in my thought, my immediate answer is, well, that's your fault as the owner. That's our fault as the managers or whatever.
And people are going to leave and whatever,

Speaker 4 move or don't like the job or whatever. But if you're providing that culture and

Speaker 4 transitioning into your next question here, providing them the opportunity opportunity to grow their brand or do whatever they want to do along the scopes where it makes sense for your agency and the growth so that they enjoy their job.

Speaker 4 You're doing a good job. The agency's growing.
There should be no reason for them to want to leave.

Speaker 4 You know, and I think it's two with our age, with the insurance industry, I think it's like two separate sides of the aisle: the people that are wanting to change and the people that just don't want to change.

Speaker 4 And there's very little kind of in the middle. There's so much fear of changing the Apple card versus we got to be ahead of the next best thing.

Speaker 4 And, you you know, I think from the branding point, going back to your question,

Speaker 4 it's probably sure part of ego. Like, this is my, you know, my business, and you're going to go out there and brand yourself separately, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 4 But I just think it mainly comes down to the fact of the old lifestyle agencies that just are scared of change and scared of doing things a different way.

Speaker 7 What's up, guys? Sorry to take you away from the episode, but as you know, we do not run ads on this show. And in exchange for that, I need your help.

Speaker 7 If you're loving this episode, if you enjoy this podcast, whether you're watching on YouTube or you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, I would love for you to subscribe, share, comment if you're on YouTube, leave a rating review if you're on Spotify or Apple iTunes, et cetera.

Speaker 7 This helps the show grow. It helps me bring more guests in.

Speaker 7 We have a tremendous lineup of people coming in, men and women who've done incredible things sharing their stories around peak performance, leadership, growth, sales, the things that are going to help you grow as a person and grow your business.

Speaker 7 But they all check out comments, ratings, reviews. They check out all this information before they come on.

Speaker 7 So as I reach out to more and more people and want to bring them in and share their stories with you, I need your help. Share the show, subscribe if you're not subscribed.

Speaker 7 And I'd love for you to leave a comment about the show because I read all the comments. Or if you're on Apple or Spotify, leave a rating review of this show.

Speaker 7 I love you for listening to this show, and I hope you enjoy it listening as much as I do, creating the show for you. All right, I'm out of here.
Peace. Let's get back to the episode.

Speaker 6 I was thinking about this the other day, actually, while we were on our, while we were at Doug's thing down in New York,

Speaker 6 you know, I feel like a big part of this change too, or this, this, the difference, and I don't know, I don't know your dad, I don't know your uncle, I don't know, you know, your, your previous agency, I just know you.

Speaker 6 But I think a big part part of that friction is that the legacy of our industry is risk managers. People were, everything was risk, risk, risk, risk.

Speaker 6 Everyone says we're risk managers, risk management. I'll be honest with you, I don't know anybody who's 45 and under in this industry, maybe a couple that are like hardcore risk managers, right?

Speaker 6 They're salespeople. It doesn't mean they don't appreciate risk.
It doesn't mean they don't appreciate what we do.

Speaker 6 It doesn't mean that they, they aren't good at what we do, like from an actual nerdy insurance standpoint, but they're salespeople.

Speaker 6 To be good at this job today, the people that get in it, the people that love it, the people that are grinding, that are pushing, they're growing, they're salespeople. They're salespeople.

Speaker 6 Men, women, whatever, they're salespeople.

Speaker 6 I feel like that hasn't always been the case. I feel like the people who built this industry were true risk managers.
And because of the nature of everything was local, you just sat there and

Speaker 6 you walked around houses and you nitpicked cracks and steps and handrails and painting peeling from building or whatever, right?

Speaker 6 And it was like, oh, that wood chip could have, you know, some chemical in it and we need to, you know, mitigate that. And it's like, eh,

Speaker 6 I get that those,

Speaker 6 and I'm not saying right or wrong. You know, I think it's an evolution.

Speaker 6 I think some of it is the homogeny of insurance products, you know, where, you know, 20, 30, 40 years ago, the difference in coverage from carrier to carrier was very wide.

Speaker 6 There was a huge, wide gap, right? So knowing how to do these things and what carriers to put it with and was it was a big part of the business. And today it's like

Speaker 6 personal auto, home, umbrella. I mean, these things are so homogeneous.
I mean, you.

Speaker 6 I can't imagine there's even very many words that are different in a policy form. And in a small commercial bop, it's almost exactly.

Speaker 6 I mean, I cannot, there is no difference, no no meaningful difference in any way shape or form between most of the standard bops that you'll see in the market so so like i feel like today you're a salesperson you're a marketer you're trying to grow talking to someone who who grew up who lives who breathes and thinks risk management and that feels like one of the like a primary driver of the difference.

Speaker 6 I don't know. I mean, that's just a theory.
I don't know. What do you think about that?

Speaker 4 Is that something you see?

Speaker 4 Yeah,

Speaker 4 I definitely agree with you. I think obviously social media and the, you know, the way to connect virtually and different things have provided us a different way to sell.
I just think one of the,

Speaker 4 I've said this all along. I tell people all the time, if you do your job and do the right thing, you're going to be

Speaker 4 successful, right? Especially in this industry. If you just do your job, are available for your client and do the right thing by your client and doing the right thing, by the way, may be, hey, Mr.

Speaker 4 and Mrs. Smith, I'm sorry, your home and auto is in the best place, but we'd be happy to look at it next year.
You know,

Speaker 4 that's the way, and I hope this answers your question, where I'm going with it, but that's kind of the way that I've grown my brand. I've never made a cold call.

Speaker 4 I haven't been that types of salesies person. I've led with the educational, you know, I'm here to help you solve a problem and type of I'm here if you need it.

Speaker 4 And with the referral relationships I've made and my community involvement, it's just kind of morphed into me being the local young insurance guy, you you know, that's getting after it, which has worked out very well because my pipeline is continuously full just from inbound referrals.

Speaker 4 So instead of to your point, nickpicking different, you know, different aspects or trying to sell with that or whatever, it's just kind of more.

Speaker 4 I hate to use the word like holistically, you know, trying to just be there from an educational standpoint and,

Speaker 4 you know, do the right thing by the client. Does that, does that answer your question at all? Or do I go off again on it?

Speaker 6 No, no, it's good. Do you think that your town plays a role?

Speaker 6 How much do you think being in Utica, which, you know, being a smaller town in upstate New York with a community of people who tend to know each other, tend to stay there, tend to, you know, that that's their town.

Speaker 6 You know, how many people in Utica? 50,000? I mean,

Speaker 4 that's six, I think 60 or so. Yeah.

Speaker 6 60,000 people. So it's, it's big enough to have plenty of opportunity, but not so big as, you know, you probably know a lot of the major players.
Everyone's kind of seen each other.

Speaker 6 Like, you know, if you go to a, to a larger market,

Speaker 6 that, that local man about town game, I just, I don't know that it works as well, or it certainly is significantly more difficult. Do you think that,

Speaker 6 do you think part of your success too is that your way, your disposition, your preferred method of growing an agency fits very well with the geographic location in the community that you're in right now.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I would agree. I would, I would say so.

Speaker 4 and and but and i don't think i wouldn't tie it just to utica and the the the workup of what utica is about i would always tie it into like i'm i'm very present right so yeah i've i've at 28 years old i was already the president of the rotary club i serve on the local chamber commas board i'm vice president was a vice president of the bni group like all these things that i've already kind of just engulged myself in to try to get me out there because again even when i was working for my last last name insurance insurance agency, that was great, but I needed to create the brand in me to get out there and get my own people.

Speaker 4 And now it's the same but different with T5.

Speaker 4 And just being present and being able to be the insurance guy that, oh, you have your home in Ottawa or your small business or whatever it is with me, and you see me out at the chamber event, or you see me out here at your soccer game, or whatever that is.

Speaker 4 I definitely think the small town feel helps. But I also, I think it on top of that, it's helped that I just kind of make myself seen in the community and,

Speaker 4 you know, known as the young gun insurance guy, if you will, for as much as I hate to say that. Yeah.

Speaker 6 No, no, I think that's great.

Speaker 6 I think that

Speaker 6 I think my point there, and I think you made it perfectly,

Speaker 6 was

Speaker 6 you kind of have to fit who you are, what you like to do, how you like to prospect, how you like to grow your business to,

Speaker 6 yes, the customers you want to serve for sure, but I think the community that you're in in and the and the

Speaker 4 the

Speaker 6 i will say disposition of that community it matters like you know you take you take the way you're doing things and you put yourself in you know boston or westchester or long island not that it wouldn't work but it may not work as fast right because now there's a ton of people a lot of transients a lot of people who don't care that you're the man about town they're just looking to get through their life they're busy as they don't know who you are from Adam, doesn't matter.

Speaker 6 You know what I mean? It's a different way in your town, being a person about town, being a guy who supports Utica, who invests himself, and that really matters.

Speaker 6 Now, if you were to go hardcore Google paid ads and search, probably doesn't work as well, or certainly doesn't get you the traction, right?

Speaker 6 You'd say it did for me here in Albany, which, you know, if you count the surrounding areas, we're about 750,000, 800,000 people,

Speaker 6 you know, or someone who's in a larger market, you know,

Speaker 6 they kind of have to take different tactics. So it definitely seems like today,

Speaker 6 local, that local kind of man, woman about town, it works incredibly well in some regions. In other regions, it may still work, may take a little more time, may not allow them.
to get off the ground.

Speaker 6 And you almost have to fit like, yes,

Speaker 6 fit your marketing strategy, your sales strategy to the customers you want to serve for sure.

Speaker 6 But I think today, even more, you have to, you have to, or maybe not more, but certainly as a strong piece of the puzzle, match it to the community you're in as well, the geographic region that you're in, what the disposition and flow.

Speaker 6 Because here, you have two types of people that live in Albany, New York, basically. You have state workers who've lived here forever, who don't give a shit about anything.

Speaker 6 And then you have people who are from some other place that are here because it's the seventh largest government and one of the most corrupt governments in the world. New York is terrible.

Speaker 6 Don't move here.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 they don't give a shit, right? So like, I have found that in the, so if you go Albany, local doesn't mean anything.

Speaker 6 But if you go, you have to drill all the way down to like my buddy, who's like Latham. Like Latham is a town of like.

Speaker 6 15,000 people. You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 Latham is a, is a small suburb or Clifton Park, another, you know, again, these are, these suburbs are probably more like 30,000 people in themselves, but like it, you know, you have to really drill down for that to work.

Speaker 6 Where,

Speaker 6 you know, for the, for the, for my ex-wife's family agency, the Murray Group, you know, Albany was their local, you know, back when that agency was started, local had much.

Speaker 6 had a much wider reach yeah i don't know i think it's

Speaker 4 i think it's important to to to identify it but i also think it's important to um you know sprinkle in other ways you know one of these things like i said with with starting the Scratch Agency with the podcast with Sean, and we've met a good kind of core group of people.

Speaker 4 We have a weekly call. We're all new agency owners, I think, within at least two and a half years.
And there's like me that has never made a cold call.

Speaker 4 It's completely community-based, inbound referrals.

Speaker 4 And one of the other guys in there is just strictly cold calls and he does super good, you know, but like we have learned off of each other of he has a his office is in a spare bedroom in his house and he just hammers the phone all day long and is very successful.

Speaker 4 And I'm i'm on the complete under

Speaker 4 opposite end of the spectrum and i'll say like that's one of my flaws i need to be better at doing more outbound stuff like that instead of just kind of um the inbound uh referrals i got a question for that though why is that a flaw i well i would say i i would say i think there's a little bit of missed opportunity

Speaker 6 if you're but if you're cold calling you're not you're not asking for referrals you're not following up on referrals you're not out at an event right like i you know and i go back and forth in this this is is this is an honest question you know this is like no wrong no um it's like you know if if like i i used to i don't as much anymore um i used to listen to gary vaynerchuk a lot and um

Speaker 6 one of the things that i thought was really interesting about gary vaynerchuk and one of his takes was um

Speaker 6 don't try to fix your flaws double or triple into your strengths And if one of your, if your strength is being the community guy, you're great at leading organizations of gathering people together, connecting people, being about town, you love it, you're good at it, people know you that way.

Speaker 6 Why not find ways to double and triple into that versus trying to learn how to cold call, which is going to suck the life out of you? Because it's not natural.

Speaker 6 Like for this other guy, it's obviously something that puts life into him that

Speaker 6 for him, you know, that really drives him because he's willing to do it all the time. Cold calling, I hate it, right?

Speaker 6 I absolutely hate it for me, but but I also don't love being out around town and doing events. I really like digital marketing.

Speaker 6 That's what, that's why I double and triple into digital marketing because that's what I really like. So, you know, I think that

Speaker 6 I would caution.

Speaker 6 I don't say caution. Caution is the wrong way.
That makes it sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 No, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 6 I think it's worth thinking about.

Speaker 6 Is that really a missed opportunity for you?

Speaker 6 Because

Speaker 6 unless you're trying to make T5 into a

Speaker 6 middle market powerhouse,

Speaker 6 why do you need to cold call? And even then, I don't think you have to cold call to be good at that. I think that, you know,

Speaker 6 I just, I always think about, should I try to learn a new skill or should I just get better at what I, what I like doing and already know how to do and just become the best, right? I don't know.

Speaker 4 Nope, you're absolutely right. Yeah, that makes complete sense.

Speaker 4 Here you go again, Hanley. Getting my mind spinning.
Now

Speaker 4 I'm going to think about this for another week, just like my first employee.

Speaker 4 Well,

Speaker 6 that was an interesting conversation.

Speaker 6 Again, I don't know right or wrong. I just like, I think about these things and, you know, I consider everything an experiment in my life, everything.
I just, they're all experiments and projects.

Speaker 6 I have very few things that I, I mean, I have like core values that obviously dictate my life and what I believe in.

Speaker 6 But, but, you know, when it comes to business and it comes to these kind of things, I think projects and experiments.

Speaker 7 And, you know,

Speaker 6 I tried cold calling. I've tried, I've tried a lot of different things.

Speaker 6 And I did a lot of what you're doing early early in my career and found that, you know, going to the networking events constantly, like

Speaker 6 I, it's not

Speaker 6 to me, I run out of steam doing that, but I could literally make videos right,

Speaker 6 you know, last night at midnight, I'm working on SEO on my website because it's fun, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 6 I just, you know, so like, but for other people, that would like, their brain would melt and it would be terrible and they would hate it. So I think to myself, like,

Speaker 6 versus trying, versus trying to deplete ourselves in places that, that drain our energy, why not just be the

Speaker 6 man or woman in the things that we, that we do really well and love, I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 4 No, you're absolutely right. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah. It's,

Speaker 4 man, you got my mind spinning about a lot here. But I mean, just it like perfect example.
And I don't want anybody listening to this to be like, oh my God, that's a great idea.

Speaker 4 I need to do it because I'm going to have the same outcome. I think it was a lot of luck.

Speaker 4 But when I first started, when I first announced T5, I knew I have to be as loud as possible about now Steven Turnbull's with T5 because it was always, you know, with the other agency.

Speaker 4 And so it was end of May. I bought a Yeti cooler.
I got a big T5 logo. I slapped it on there and did a, we're open for business, big giveaway.

Speaker 4 Got, I don't know, 120 people that entered into it locally, but I wrote three homeowners policies from it that paid for the cooler three times. Yeah.

Speaker 4 You know, and, and, and then got people on my email list. And like, that's still like the community stuff.

Speaker 4 I think it's so much more than going to the networking events or, um, you know, I just started a referral program that I have kind of internally and I have not put that out there and said, hey, we're doing this great referral program.

Speaker 4 You'll get a $5 coffee gift card and this and that and all that crap. I've just done it internally for the ones ones that I've had.

Speaker 4 But, and, and that's been, oh man, that's been eye-opening because I'm actually tracking each and every one. Um, and I, I'm, I'm at like an 80%

Speaker 4 closure rate with those, uh, those and just inbound referrals so far for 2023 on the ones that I'm tracking. So, um, yeah, I think to your point, there's, you, you bring up a great point.

Speaker 4 You know, why not double down on exactly what has worked well up into this point?

Speaker 4 And, uh, because again, I'm still just by myself and there's so much more that I want to do that's around the community involvement and around the inbound referral type thing that I just either need to wait until I have some more help or more time or something.

Speaker 6 Cause think about you start cold calling because cold calling is a skill.

Speaker 6 And I, anyone who cold calls it as part of their business, I give a tremendous amount of respect to because it is its own skill that seems easy, but it is incredibly difficult, right? You read.

Speaker 6 You read a cold calling ebook or listen to somebody on a webinar or go to a presentation or whatever, and they talk about it. And yes, the things they're saying, you're going, yeah, I can do that.

Speaker 4 I can say that. Oh, there's a script.
That's great.

Speaker 6 I can use that script. Yeah, yeah, this sounds great.
And then you do it and you're terrible at it for a very long time.

Speaker 6 And unless you're one of those people who just naturally can do it. And, but not that you can't learn the skill, but there are people who just, you know, they gravitate towards it.

Speaker 6 And it's like, okay, you're, you're, you're a solo guy. You don't have any backup yet.

Speaker 6 You're now, you're having a ton of luck or not luck. I don't want to put it like luck.
You're having a ton of success in these community.

Speaker 6 We'll put all the things you've talked about in community-based agency. And

Speaker 6 you don't have any designs to be in 17 states and all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 6 You want to dominate your market and you can make so much money and maybe expand to some towns outside, at least for now, right?

Speaker 4 So like,

Speaker 6 think about how much. how much time you're going to waste trying to learn how to do something like cold call.

Speaker 6 Like you're going to waste a lot of time you're going to make you're going to waste days days and days and weeks and maybe longer trying to get accounts in and even then those accounts that you get in cold calling you're going to have to service those accounts right that's going to be a nightmare and um

Speaker 6 you know that to me i don't know that's just that is the way that i've kind of started to think is like if i want to do outbound prospecting what i did was and granted i you know having sold the agency sa had the budget to do this I hired producers who know how to do that work, right?

Speaker 6 Because they like it and they're good at it. And I don't have to learn how to do it.
I respect it. I think it's amazing, but I don't have to do it.

Speaker 6 And I've kind of gotten to the point, and this is just whatever, is that

Speaker 6 I don't really want to learn new shit unless it's absolutely necessary. I want to hire people that know the shit that I don't know.
And I just want to be really good at the things that I'm good at.

Speaker 6 And then just bring in people who love to do, find enjoyment in, know how to do, are excellent at all the other stuff. Because,

Speaker 6 man, learning new stuff sucks and it takes forever.

Speaker 4 Well, and it takes so much time, like you said, right? Yeah.

Speaker 4 You know, that's the one thing I love about how much inbound we do just from how, you know, the sales process or marketing process, however you want to categorize it that we talked about is

Speaker 4 most of everything that comes in is so warm. You know, it's like, Sally told me to call you.
Here's the problem I'm having.

Speaker 4 Or Sally said, you're the best one you know here's everything let me know it's not and i've never really been that type of like a salesy person um you know i can sell but it's not it's never been like a high pressure type of sales uh strategy um so that is what i enjoy too about you know just sounds cliche but it's just coming down to making the relationships and you you morph those relationships and um to your point too like the amount of opportunity that's out there is unbelievable i had a

Speaker 4 i never i didn't have this relationship in my previous agency, but I kept driving by this local mortgage company. And I'm like, why have I not even tried to reach out to him?

Speaker 4 Found the guy on LinkedIn, got his email, sent him a video myself. I was like, hey, who's, here's who I am.
This is what I'm trying to build with T5. And here's why I think we'd work well together.

Speaker 4 And with that week, he sent me two deals. And now everybody is his office is sending me stuff.
And they're just feeding me like a happy pig. And

Speaker 4 that was just from a simple opportunity and just saying, hey, I know you may have a relationship already, but if you don't, or if you can't get in touch with that person, whatever it is, I'd be happy to help.

Speaker 4 Here's who I am, and here's why I think I could benefit you. And it's worked out well.
So, um, you know, I think that's the strategy that I enjoy, dude.

Speaker 6 I mean, that's that's awesome. One, it takes, it takes balls, right? You, you, you, you did cold outreach to that person.

Speaker 6 Two, I love the fact that you use video to do it, it immediately separates you, it immediately humanizes you.

Speaker 6 Um, you know, those you know, loom videos, video, whatever, you know, whatever you're using, little videos, boom, boom, or bomb bomb, whatever the fuck it is. Like that stuff is

Speaker 6 those little things are so personal.

Speaker 4 I love Loom videos. I love that stuff.

Speaker 6 We use Loom, you know, I tried Vidyard.

Speaker 6 I actually not only is it cheaper, but I prefer Loom personally, but just after testing Vidyard for a year, but

Speaker 6 it just,

Speaker 6 I love that. I absolutely love that.
And now you have this consistent flow of leads coming in. And as long as you do some touch-ins and do a good job for his clients,

Speaker 4 that's a referral source for years that you could have that'll just be feeding you and it's amazing to your point about video too for anybody listening like don't narrow your focus to just video proposals i think candlely i told you this in when we were in the city but i had the opportunity and got really close to purchasing a small book um just about only six months in and i did a like a five to six minute video on who stephen turnbull is what my vision is of t5

Speaker 4 um you know just why I think it'd be a great opportunity for me and the family that was selling the small book. And

Speaker 4 the facilitator of the sale called me specifically to say the family wanted to let you know that somebody offered almost double what you did, which wouldn't have made sense for me anyway.

Speaker 4 So that's fine.

Speaker 4 But they specifically wanted me to call because they appreciated your offer and the personalization you made in this and that. And so like, that was just.

Speaker 4 me instead of writing out this big letter on my letterhead and signing it saying i'm the best one call me and let me know when to write the check it was just a quick video it's like hey here's who i am and i'd love the opportunity to have a conversation about buying your business.

Speaker 4 And if it wasn't for somebody coming in and paying double, I probably would have got it.

Speaker 4 So yeah, I, I think just like think, I always try to, again, it sounds cliche, but always try to think like, what's everyone else not doing? Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 6 I, um, there, you know, the classic a million, this is cliche almost at this point, but, you know, Warren Buffett's quote around when other people are fearful, be greedy.

Speaker 6 And when other people are greedy, be fearful. Like, I kind of, I kind of live by that.
Like, I, well, one, it's certainly the way that I invest, but, but the other side is like, I,

Speaker 6 um,

Speaker 6 like, I will go years and not even look at my investments. And then when the market goes down, I'm just like, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.

Speaker 6 I just, you know, I'll be super active. And then the market will start to go back up.
And I'll just be like, no, I'll forget that I even have the investments.

Speaker 6 Like, I literally won't even think about them.

Speaker 6 I,

Speaker 6 you know, when the market's going up, I literally forget that I even have stuff in the market. But

Speaker 6 the,

Speaker 6 the, uh i think for our industry i think it's i think what you just described is a wonderful way to do it you know like there was this craze for a while uh where everyone was everybody was mortgage brokers mortgage brokers and not that that has gone away necessarily but like there's just everybody was talking about mortgage brokers mortgage brokers and like it just felt to me like okay if everyone's doing the mortgage broker play and not that you couldn't get involved now there's plenty of opportunity i don't want to sound like that but like

Speaker 6 geez, you know, what differentiates you from these other people?

Speaker 6 So, okay, if you're also going to go after mortgage brokers, you can't just say like, I'm going to do a good job right it's humanizing personalizing you know that video says look like i'm willing to put my face out here because a random email is so easy you know i mean you're not really taking a risk or a or even a phone call but like saying here's something that you could share like if i look like a dope or sound stupid you could share this like there's some there's some risk of rep there's some reputational risk in there that i think keeps people from from moving forward and you know i think i think that's wonderful i think it's absolutely what you have to do and dude i i couldn't be more happy and not that it means anything to you, but, but, but proud of you and the work that you did.

Speaker 6 And, you know, we had a great lunch, you know, right when you were first starting. And

Speaker 6 I, I, I just, I think it's awesome to watch what you're doing. And

Speaker 6 I can't wait till, you know, a year or two from now. I think you're going to be an absolute case study on what.
the first, you know, year, two year, three years of a scratch agency looks like. And

Speaker 6 I'm just so happy for you.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Well, just to correct you, it does mean something something to me because I appreciate you.
You've always been super,

Speaker 4 even when I was at the previous agency, I remember we had a conversation and I'm like, hey, I'm this little guy just down the road from you in Utica. And I, uh, this is what I'm thinking of doing.

Speaker 4 You're like, do it. I remember, I remember you're like, buy a computer, buy this system, and you'll be fine.
Go ahead.

Speaker 4 And so to now to fast forward here, and we're talking about, you know, my own agency and stuff, it's,

Speaker 4 it's, uh, it's, it's special. So I appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 6 Well, I think in the not too distant future,

Speaker 6 not that this is the bar for what success is, but I do think that you'll be a household name in the industry in the not too distant future. I think it's tremendous.

Speaker 6 I love what you and your crew of people, you know, the scratch agency stuff that you're doing. I think these are, these are the conversations that need to happen for so long.

Speaker 6 Starting a scratch agency was almost, you know, it was like frowned upon because no one wanted additional competition or no one thought you could do it.

Speaker 6 And the result, and today, I think to be, to be saying, look, like this stuff isn't easy, but it's a, but it's achievable. It's, it's real.
You can do it. Look at we did it.
Look at how we did it.

Speaker 6 Like you can, this could be yours if you want. I think it's absolutely wonderful.
I think that we need to hold up what scratch agents are doing and support them. And

Speaker 6 dude, I just, like I said, I couldn't be more happy for your early success. And I can't wait to see where you take it.

Speaker 6 If people want to learn more about you, more about your agency, if they want to connect with you, see your podcast, like listen to your podcast. Like tell them, give all the all the CTAs.

Speaker 7 where do people go?

Speaker 4 Yeah, real quick before I jump into that, I just want to say if anybody's listening to this and there's in a similar situation, maybe they feel like they're stuck and they can't get out, just remember, and I wish somebody said this to me earlier, that you're the only person that's going to make a change in your life, right?

Speaker 4 You are the only one. There's a reason that the flight attendants tell you to put your mask on before helping others.
And if you don't take that hard decision to do it, nothing's going to change.

Speaker 4 So just do it. I just wanted to add to that because

Speaker 4 I wish someone told me that early on.

Speaker 4 But yeah, like you said i appreciate you saying the podcast sean fitzgeral and i started a scratch agency podcast we're like 17 episodes in and man it has been just fun you know everyone's like well what's the plan with this this and that it's just to have fun we've had great conversations and so you can check us out there uh very active on uh instagram facebook and linkedin at stephen turnbull and then t5 insurance so anybody wants to pick my brain about anything we talked about today or just connect i'd love to connect with new people and uh happy to have a conversation But Ryan, thanks again for having me.

Speaker 4 I appreciate your friendship and your willingness to always help.

Speaker 4 It's much appreciated and look forward to working together in the future here.

Speaker 6 Yeah, same buddy. And

Speaker 4 we'll connect IRL here

Speaker 4 real soon.

Speaker 6 So all the best to you and we'll get out of here.

Speaker 4 All right. Take care.

Speaker 7 Close twice as many deals by this time next week. Sound impossible? It's not.
With the one-call close system, you'll stop chasing leads and start closing deals in one call.

Speaker 7 This is the exact method we use to close 1,200 clients under three years during the pandemic. No fluff, no endless follow-ups, just results fast.

Speaker 7 Based in behavioral psychology and battle-tested, the one-call close system eliminates excuses and gets the prospect saying yes, more than you ever thought possible.

Speaker 7 If you're ready to stop losing opportunities and start winning, visit masteroffeclose.com. That's masteroftheclose.com.

Speaker 4 Do it today.

Speaker 9 10 years from today, Lisa Schneider will trade in her office job to become the leader of a pack of dogs. As the owner of her own dog rescue, that is.

Speaker 9 A second act made possible by the reskilling courses Lisa's taking now with AARP to help make sure her income lives as long as she does and she can finally run with the big dogs and the small dogs who just think they're big dogs.

Speaker 9 That's why the younger you are, the more you need AARP. Learn more at AARP.org/slash skills.

Speaker 1 Hey, Fidelity.

Speaker 1 What's it cost to invest with the Fidelity app?

Speaker 10 Start with as little as $1 with no account fees or trade commissions on U.S. stocks and ETFs.

Speaker 1 Hmm. That's music to my ears.

Speaker 4 I can only talk.

Speaker 8 Investing involved risk, including risk of loss. Zero account fees apply to retail brokerage accounts only.
Sell order assessment fee not included.

Speaker 8 A limited number of BTFs are subject to a transaction-based service fee of $100. See full list at fidelity.com slash commissions.
Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, member, NYSE, SIPC.

Speaker 11 Suffering from dry, tired, irritated eyes? Don't let dry eyes win. Use Sustain Pro.
It hydrates, restores, and protects dry eyes for up to 12 hours. Sustain Pro, triple action dry eye relief.

Speaker 12 When cool, creamy ranch meets tangy, bold buffalo, the hole is greater than the sum of its sauce. Say howdy, partner, to new Buffalo Ranch Sauce, only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Speaker 4 At participating McDonald's.

Speaker 5 Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families.

Speaker 5 With Greenlight, you can set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on your kids' spending with real-time notifications.

Speaker 5 Kids learn to earn, save, and spend wisely, and parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place.

Speaker 5 Sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com/slash podcast.