RHS 114 - Daniel Seong on Building a Good Life Out of the Insurance Industry

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Speaker 2 How did I get here? I love improvisation when it comes to acting, but when it comes to a real-life plan, I stick to a script. Cue the music.

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Speaker 6 In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home.

Speaker 7 Hello everyone and welcome back to the show.

Speaker 11 Today we have an absolutely tremendous episode for you with Daniel Sung, the founder, president of Great Park Insurance out in California.

Speaker 12 You've probably heard some of Daniel's story.

Speaker 11 I've been on David Crothers' podcast. He's been on the insurance guys, been on Cass's podcast.
And I just, you know, it's wild.

Speaker 11 You know, sometimes I listen to all the podcasts from the other great podcasters in our industry and I just, you know,

Speaker 10 I just hadn't had Daniel on the show.

Speaker 12 And I felt like I know him so well.

Speaker 14 I follow him.

Speaker 10 We interact online all the time.

Speaker 16 I have tremendous respect for the guy, and it was just weird that, like, we, I think we had spoken on the phone for like 15 minutes one time, like a few years ago, but we had never actually spent time.

Speaker 18 And that's really what this podcast is.

Speaker 15 We don't rehash his story, he's got a tremendous story, it's amazing.

Speaker 20 We talk a little bit about it, but really, go listen to one of those other episodes if you want to hear the deep dive on Daniel's story.

Speaker 22 I just wanted to get to know the guy, like, he just, you know, husband, father, business owner, you know, um,

Speaker 15 veteran, just tremendous, tremendous guy.

Speaker 8 And I just wanted to get him known to get to know him better.

Speaker 18 And the beauty of this podcast, I get to do that and share these conversations with you.

Speaker 16 So I think you're going to absolutely love this show.

Speaker 13 I know I did.

Speaker 12 Even if we didn't record it, this would have been an incredibly meaningful conversation to me.

Speaker 18 It was incredibly meaningful, is incredibly meaningful.

Speaker 22 And, you know, I think hopefully now I can consider Daniel a friend.

Speaker 12 And I think he might think the same, and that's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 12 That's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 20 At least for me, it is. So

Speaker 15 just enjoy this show. You're going to love it.

Speaker 17 And if you do love it, you know,

Speaker 14 leave a review, subscribe, tell a friend, whatever, all the things.

Speaker 13 It helps the show grow, helps more people find the show.

Speaker 11 And I appreciate that. Before we get there, I want to talk about today's sponsor, and that is Tarmica.

Speaker 8 Guys, I've been talking about Tarmica for like two years now.

Speaker 12 If you're not on Tarmica, you are missing out in the small commercial game.

Speaker 22 T-A-R-M-I-K-A.com. T-A-R-M-I-K-A.com.

Speaker 19 Tarmica makes small commercial profitable.

Speaker 18 Our entire agency is based around small commercial.

Speaker 22 We could not be what we are in the 18 months that we've been in operation if it wasn't for Tarmica, hands down.

Speaker 12 Like,

Speaker 13 couldn't be what we are if it wasn't for Tarmica.

Speaker 20 They've been a tremendous partner of ours, and it has just been such a pleasure to have them as a sponsor for as long as we have, because I just feel like every time someone signs up for Tarmica and starts using it, it's a, it's the industry gets a little better.

Speaker 12 We get a little better as an industry in serving small business customers.

Speaker 22 So, t-ar-m-i-k-a.com.

Speaker 11 Go to Tarmica, get the demo. If you write small commercial, it's a no-brainer.

Speaker 18 It just is.

Speaker 12 There's not really a whole lot to say at this point beyond that.

Speaker 22 Just T-A-R-M-I-K-A.com.

Speaker 19 And on that vein, one of the companies making small commercial profitable is Codery, Codery Insurance,

Speaker 17 C-O-T-E-R-I-E, codery, codery insurance, small business insurance.

Speaker 11 Guys, I had an agent on Twitter the other day ask me about, you know, who are the top,

Speaker 18 who are the top

Speaker 7 like

Speaker 14 tech, tech forward

Speaker 16 carriers.

Speaker 18 And out of the five that I listed, Codery was one of them.

Speaker 11 I mean, the way they make, how easy they make quoting, how easy they make binding, issuing.

Speaker 20 You can even send,

Speaker 10 like, like, let's say someone comes in and you can send them a link.

Speaker 11 They can fill out all the information, quote, bind, issue right there.

Speaker 14 And, you know, and sometimes, I know you guys are saying, well, Brian, we want to touch and talk to every one of our clients.

Speaker 18 Well, yes, of course you do.

Speaker 10 But sometimes the customer just needs to get something done.

Speaker 11 And it's not the type of policy that you need to have some hour-long, epic.

Speaker 9 fact-finding discussion with.

Speaker 11 Sometimes it's somebody that just needs, you know, a $500 GL policy.

Speaker 10 And if they can answer a few questions, get that done, you're doing them a service.

Speaker 16 And Codery is one of the few companies who are stepping out front to really help agents deliver that kind of service right um there's a reason that small commercial is tough to be profitable and codery is one of the companies that is helping solve that problem we use codery here at rogue risk and uh we're proud to be partnering with them and and frankly we look forward to partnering even deeper with them and making them a more integral part of our agency just because I think they're headed on the right path.

Speaker 16 I like the people.

Speaker 11 I like what they're doing. They're smart.

Speaker 13 You know,

Speaker 11 Ray Lynch, former Liberty guy, just super smart people over there.

Speaker 17 So go to Codery, Codery Insurance, C-O-T-E-R-I-E Insurance, Codery Insurance, just Google Codery, C-O-T-E-R-I-E today.

Speaker 8 Get signed up.

Speaker 11 If Codery fits your mix, if you're trying to write small commercial, highly recommend them.

Speaker 12 All right, let's get on to Daniel Sung.

Speaker 23 Ryan, how are you?

Speaker 7 Damn, what's going on, man?

Speaker 6 Feel like in a long time, no talk.

Speaker 7 Yes, that's actually true. That's why.
It's too long.

Speaker 7 I think we chatted for the first time, well, like two years ago.

Speaker 6 You know, I mean, it feels like I know you because, you know, just being in the same kind of network and things, but right? I mean, we really don't know each other.

Speaker 7 Yes.

Speaker 7 Not as well as I would. It was funny.

Speaker 7 I was getting ready for the show and I don't do, I never do a ton of research on anybody, mostly because I either know the person really well or I purposefully don't want to do research because

Speaker 7 I don't know, I just like being curious. And I feel like if you over prepare, you're less curious, whether that's right or wrong.
That's just the way I've always done it.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 I had our conversation filed under, well, I just know him really well.

Speaker 7 So, you know, and then I started thinking, I'm like, well, you know, I think we we spoke on the phone for like 15 minutes one time, like a few years ago, but I don't, I don't know that we've ever, ever actually like spent a lot of time.

Speaker 7 So one, I'm very happy that we're finally getting to spend some time.

Speaker 7 I think it'll be fun for people that are listening to hear us catch up.

Speaker 7 But it is pretty amazing that in today's world. I can live in New York.
You can live in California.

Speaker 7 We can, you know, pretty much never have actually connected in even over the phone and feel like we know each other pretty well yeah yeah i i i agree and um it's easy to find information on you because you're everywhere and you know everyone but um but yeah i i it's it's an honor and i'm i was looking forward to this well it's an honor for me i didn't you know i didn't know when i booked this that i had like the fastest growing tick tock celebrity

Speaker 7 like in in the financial industry space like like million followers, just absolutely dominating. I didn't know, you know, you're the, you're the celebrity, man.

Speaker 6 No, no, not at all, not at all. But, um, but yeah, it's just, we have a little family channel and I have fun with the kids and the wife with it.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 So I, you know, not to, I mean, I guess I didn't plan on starting at that spot, but like, just, you know, tell me about that, because, you know, you say you love a little family channel, but you, you do have a lot of followers and stuff.

Speaker 7 Like talk to me a little bit about just the,

Speaker 7 what it's like when you're doing this. Yeah, I'm assuming you started it, you know, relatively just sharing some information.
You know, they're actually super valuable. They're cool.

Speaker 7 I, to be honest with you, I signed up for TikTok to watch your TikToks,

Speaker 7 which is cool. And

Speaker 7 I think they're awesome. But like, I'm sure when you started it, it wasn't.

Speaker 7 like to be, you know, to have all these followers. You were just sharing information.

Speaker 7 So what was it like when you started to see that number spin and you were like, oh my gosh, people are really connecting with what I'm putting out there.

Speaker 6 Yeah, it's so it's kind of a sad story. When we, so we started our first video was January 4th of this year.

Speaker 6 And Christina, my wife, she has two older brothers, the oldest one being about 47, 48 years old, a spouse that works

Speaker 6 at home, or she, you know, she's a homemaker and they have three kids.

Speaker 6 And all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, we get a phone call that he had a stroke and it's been, it's been almost a year now but he's completely just paralyzed

Speaker 6 so so thinking about that you know i i told myself i said i am not going out like that so i wanted to create tick tock just so the kids could have memories and video of daddy being silly and just kind of spending time together so uh for christmas my third daughter bought me a dad joke book, 365 jokes a year.

Speaker 6 And I was just going to read one joke and just kind of laugh and that was going to be a daily tick tock video and now it's kind of evolved into a you know more of a family channel but we went from so january 4th was our first video and up until right around may

Speaker 6 i i think we had about 450 000 followers and all of a sudden in june uh we got up to 1 million

Speaker 6 We were growing by 100,000 a week. I think one point it was 100,000 in four days.
and our biggest day was 50,000 in one day.

Speaker 7 That's crazy.

Speaker 6 It really is. And, you know,

Speaker 6 I think the

Speaker 6 people, I mean, if it's all about editing and the content, but if you look at our videos, they're single frame shots, majority of them.

Speaker 6 Because when Christina and I, you know, and we started just answering questions that our followers would ask.

Speaker 6 And it's a very simple concept and there's really no editing. We push record, we answer the question.
So it's a single frame, a lot of our videos.

Speaker 6 So, you know, we're our network is kind of growing a little bit as people are reaching out to us and we're talking to different influencers. And they put sometimes

Speaker 6 two, three days into editing a 60-second clip.

Speaker 6 And we think that's really cool because the video, there's all this stuff going on. And they're telling me, no, Daniel, we're trying to do what you do.
A single frame, no editing,

Speaker 6 no context no all this fancy stuff but still you know get viewers to watch your videos so um but it's it's a very simple basic channel but uh a lot of it is marital advice um you know raising kids or just kind of how we do things yeah and then i have this silly thing about you know me eating and i do the kind of this perfect bite type of thing and you know just to kind of make it fun but i'm noticing uh the audience really does tell you what they want to see.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 6 And what they want your channel. You know, when they come to your channel, they're coming to your channel for this one specific thing.

Speaker 6 So in the beginning, I thought about doing all these different types of videos, but we're really narrowing it down.

Speaker 7 How do you feel? And I know this is,

Speaker 7 you know, this was something to a much smaller scale that I... that Sydney and I dealt with a lot at trustedchoice.com and Agency Nation was like, same kind of deal, right?

Speaker 7 Like, I completely agree with you and think you're

Speaker 7 100% your audience tells you what they want

Speaker 7 by views, by comments, by shares, by feedback. They, you know,

Speaker 7 what stuff gets the numbers. But

Speaker 7 one of the things that we used to talk about a lot was

Speaker 7 sometimes what they want isn't what you want to create or what you think is the most important thing to create.

Speaker 7 So how much does the feedback you get how do you how do you manage the feedback versus what maybe you're inspired to create that day or whatever

Speaker 6 yeah so we i mean we're we're we're a wholesome channel yeah we're not edgy we're not right controversial um but a lot of the things that we share sometimes become controversial and there's this even a war or battle within the comments from the followers but um

Speaker 6 we ultimately want to take the direction of, hey, look,

Speaker 6 this is for people who are having trouble in business sometimes or just in life or parenting or raising kids.

Speaker 6 So we really don't try to sway from that. We really do have a general direction where we want to take it.

Speaker 6 But also knowing that, hey, you know, there might be a question out there that we've never thought of, but this person is really in need of some advice.

Speaker 6 So when we actually have a lot of people who are DMing us privately and sharing with us, oh my gosh, your story of being on food stamps, working your graveyard shift to really hit home with us because that's what we're going through right now.

Speaker 6 And those are some of the best messages that we get. And sometimes I'll say, hey, look, what's your phone number? And I've reached out to a few people and just complete strangers.

Speaker 6 But you know, just me reaching out for that five minutes really does make an impact on them.

Speaker 6 Not because we're just huge influencer but because it's just somebody that went through it um and can share a little bit of insight with them to just let them know hey it's gonna it's gonna get better you know there is a light at the end of the tunnel but uh you know but you have to work right you have to get after it and it's just it's not going to happen overnight you know it's going to take maybe a few years to to really get through this So it's just, you know, encouraging them, empowering them.

Speaker 6 But also, we started TikTok And I think the whole craze was probably about four or five years ago when TikTok was just really booming.

Speaker 6 And I think the best time to get into it was right when COVID hit. We're meeting a lot of people who has 5,000, 1 million, 15 million.

Speaker 6 And they started right at that time where a lot of people were home and they were on their devices. And we really just started right after.

Speaker 6 But even with TikTok, you know, it's my, the best thing about it is my kids think their daddy's cool now, right?

Speaker 6 You know, but, but they never thought that we would get to 10,000 followers because why would anybody be interested in what their daddy says?

Speaker 6 And all the things I make videos of, it's just what we tell our kids on a daily basis. But,

Speaker 6 you know, I think that almost kind of validated my advice to them because now there's other people following. And what's really neat is I think TikTok, they localize it first.

Speaker 6 They spread it out to the for you page around your local area, and then they kind of branch it out.

Speaker 6 But now, Ryan, every time we go to the mall, we go to the grocery store, Home Depot, anywhere we go, we get people who come up to us and say, hi, you know, say, hey, you guys are on TikTok.

Speaker 6 So that's been really fun too. Yeah, it's wild.

Speaker 7 That's so cool, man. I mean, it's just, it's,

Speaker 7 I think it's cool that you reach out to people. I think that the world needs as much positivity as it can get these days.
And I think,

Speaker 7 you know, I think your message and

Speaker 7 I haven't said I haven't consumed every TikTok that you've created, but in the ones that I've watched and stuff, like

Speaker 7 I like that you marry

Speaker 7 empathy with responsibility. You know, I think that's a really, I think that's a really powerful mix.

Speaker 7 I've talked a lot about how I'm a huge supporter of Jordan Peterson and his work and his message. And I find it to be similar.
I mean, obviously he's a different person from you, but the

Speaker 7 mix of being empathetic to someone who is in a position where they're in a dark place for whatever reason or in a place they don't want to be, but at the same time, helping them understand that while you're not alone, you,

Speaker 7 you know, you still got to do the work to get to the, to get to that place, you know, if you want to get there and not have the same thing happen again.

Speaker 7 I think it's wonderful. I mean, I think the, and I'm,

Speaker 7 you know, just as an outsider and again, you know, just watching you, I couldn't be happier.

Speaker 7 I think the people who watch your channel couldn't have gotten a better person to listen to and watch from. And I think I couldn't be happier for you that you've had this success.

Speaker 7 I think it's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 6 Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you.

Speaker 7 Yeah. So, okay.

Speaker 7 So, we talked, we talked about TikTok, but, you know, I'm one of the things that also really impresses me that you, there's a lot that you do that impresses me, but another one of the things is just the general way in which you,

Speaker 7 I'm going to put this in a different different way.

Speaker 7 I find when I consume anything that you create, whether you personally have created or someone on your team or whatever, and whether it's something that has to do more about you or whatever, or the agency, it feels like

Speaker 7 anything that you're a part of, or at least most of the things, there's

Speaker 7 a pretty decent attention to detail. And I'm wondering, is that,

Speaker 7 you know, where exactly do you think that comes from? One, do you think it's true? And two, where do you think that comes from?

Speaker 7 And why is it something that you seem to consistently pull through your life?

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 6 I think it's a level of self-respect.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 there's so many outcomes that's come from this, but I've always, it's teaching my kids: no matter what you do, you gotta put your best foot forward.

Speaker 6 And it's, I always, Ryan, and you know this, you're exactly like this.

Speaker 6 Like, at the end of the day, I always wanted to be able to come home and look in the mirror and said, you know, and say, you know what, I tried today.

Speaker 6 I absolutely did my best today. The outcome might not always be what you're wanting.

Speaker 6 But a lot of times we don't have control of that outcome. We have control of what we can do.
So even with the office,

Speaker 6 there's a few things that we put a lot of attention to.

Speaker 6 And even growing the team,

Speaker 6 I've struggled with leading by example. I've struggled with clearly getting my vision from my head through my mouth to the team.

Speaker 6 But it's something that we work on on a daily basis. And I think leadership and respect from the team doesn't happen overnight.

Speaker 6 I think there just has to be this consistency and discipline that comes from the leader throughout years and years and years.

Speaker 6 And it's tough, right? I mean,

Speaker 6 it's lonely at the top, but it's... A lot of it just comes down to self-respect.
And a lot of people say, well, you probably got that from the Marine Corps. And I probably did to a certain degree.

Speaker 6 But also just

Speaker 6 watching my parents, you know, when I was a kid,

Speaker 6 just being so consistent and detailed. But that's something that, you know, we do at home.
And also that's something that we try to, you know, kind of carry over into the agency.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 I

Speaker 7 had never thought of discipline as a

Speaker 7 a show of self-respect, although I completely, I mean, that seems to make complete sense to me.

Speaker 7 You know, I one, have you ever read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear?

Speaker 6 No, I haven't. Yeah,

Speaker 7 I would recommend it if you're into reading. I'm not sure if you are, but if you are, there's a book called Atomic Habits, but it's by a guy by the name of James Clear.

Speaker 7 It's a fairly straightforward read, but one of the main concepts in there is really

Speaker 7 it's about building habits. And there's some books that are kind of like wonky on habits.
They just, it's kind of like a duh kind of stuff. It's not real deep.

Speaker 7 What I really liked about how James Clear broke down this concept was

Speaker 7 we wake up every morning and we have a certain amount of willpower, almost like a video game, right? Like we have like a power pack, like a little green line.

Speaker 7 And through the day, every decision that we have to make breaks down, you know, uses up some of that willpower.

Speaker 7 And if, you know, if you get good sleep and you take care of yourself and you're healthy, maybe you're, you're, you're...

Speaker 7 you have more power if you're exhausted and you're eating crap and you're hungover, then your willpower bar is very low. Okay.
Well, his his

Speaker 7 idea with habits is the reason habits are important is because when you develop a habit particularly a positive habit it doesn't use as much of the willpower

Speaker 7 thing

Speaker 7 and and and my reason and my reason for bringing that up is um when we go through our day as leaders we're trying to do something we're trying to get things done there are a lot of very difficult decisions that we have to make even if they're not earth shattering to the overall they're decisions they're

Speaker 7 And that decision will have a repercussion, large or small. And each one of those decisions is whacking down that willpower.

Speaker 7 And what I've found is, and this is something I've really, really had to work on at Rogue,

Speaker 7 is that

Speaker 7 you never know when the really important decision is going to come up.

Speaker 7 The person who calls you and says, Daniel,

Speaker 7 I'll sponsor your TikTok channel for $10 million, but you have to change the name to this thing over here, right? And you need to do this extra segment every week that isn't part of your show today.

Speaker 7 And now you have a major decision that is presented in front of you.

Speaker 7 And if you only have a tiny bit of willpower because you haven't had the discipline to put habits in throughout your day, now you can't be the best version of yourself when you need to make that decision because you didn't know that was coming.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 I found that to be a challenge and something

Speaker 7 I'm actually working on it right now. I'm trying to be healthier and get more sleep and all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 7 Because you just, you never know when a decision or an opportunity or something is going to hit you that you have to make a really, you have to make a really important decision.

Speaker 7 And if your willpower isn't there, if that bar, whatever it is, isn't as filled as possible as it could be, then

Speaker 7 bad things start to happen. You cut a corner.

Speaker 7 You don't dot every I, you don't cross every T or whatever. And,

Speaker 7 on you know that's where mistakes mistakes start to come in

Speaker 6 yeah i completely agree and i think that's where i always tell people i say 50 of winning is just showing up

Speaker 6 and then if you're decent you know you become you know the top 30 20 but that even 10 but that two percent is a dog fight and that's exactly what you just mentioned right is when you when it really really matters and you have to make that tough decision as a leader right do you make the right decision or do you make the easy decision so i think you nailed it yeah it's it's just um

Speaker 7 it's it's interesting man i mean your story is is so complex and i don't want to make you retell the whole thing because you've done an excellent job on different podcasts like with david cruthers and and uh the insurance guys and i'd highly recommend anyone who wants the full back story to go listen they're awesome episodes um and i highly recommend those but you know i'm I'm really interested.

Speaker 7 So you've kind of, you've gotten through these, some of these hard times, right?

Speaker 7 You had the business, the business went went up, you know, you were on food stamps, you're working through, you've built yourself back up a whole second time, you know, you've been in the military, you know, life hasn't been easy, but now you're in a place where if someone were to come into your story today

Speaker 7 and snapshot, you might get some of the nonsense. And I've gotten this at different times in my life too, where they're like, you know.

Speaker 7 everything's so easy for you daniel you know i mean what are you talking about like look at your life man you got this great agency the branding you know all these people beautiful family everybody's love, the TikTok thing.

Speaker 7 You mean like they could snapshot it and start to

Speaker 7 like not like tear you down a little bit, like diminish all the crap that you had to work through and struggle through to get to this moment, which, which, you know, which is, at least from the outside,

Speaker 7 looks amazing.

Speaker 7 How do you, like from here, now that you're not.

Speaker 7 You know, I'm assuming you're not grinding every day, got a little bit of money in the bank, you know, things are a little bit better, a little more comfortable.

Speaker 7 How do you keep yourself sharp today in this next phase of your career in your life?

Speaker 6 Yeah,

Speaker 6 what a great question.

Speaker 6 And first, I want to say life is a lot better now than it was when we were really, you know, struggling.

Speaker 6 But just so everybody knows, you know, we are nowhere near where we want to be, and it's, it does not look, or it is not as good as it seems, you know.

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 6 it was interesting because

Speaker 6 the the business that we're in ryan man you know i i never knew how good it could get

Speaker 6 and and i don't have a huge agency i think our i think our size is we're an eight million dollar agency now um 95

Speaker 6 personalized before the beginning of this year and then we have about five percent commercial and our our sole focus this year was to really grow the commercial side so now what's really encouraging is we're new business every month we're looking at about 50% premium is commercial.

Speaker 6 So we're really growing that. It's a lot of fun, new goals, and things are working.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 to think,

Speaker 6 there's so many things that there's so many points I want to make here. Yeah, yeah.
But you know what I did this summer, Ryan? This is how good we have it now. This summer, so my kids,

Speaker 6 my son, who was six years old a year ago, he started tennis

Speaker 6 and then my second my fourth daughter started or two months later started tennis

Speaker 6 and then my third and fourth and they also and then my so everybody plays tennis now

Speaker 6 and we're just we do about 22 hours a week during summer for each kid and we were just in it right

Speaker 6 i i gotta be honest i have not been so unfocused in my life with the agency. So during summer, my schedule was I was in the office a couple couple days a week because I was just out with them.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I thought about, man, I couldn't do this 10 years ago.

Speaker 6 And to have premium keep growing every month

Speaker 6 this year and to have revenue increase with me less in the office.

Speaker 6 It just, what a joy.

Speaker 6 What a joy. Yeah.

Speaker 6 The business that we're in.

Speaker 6 But what's really interesting now is my oldest daughter is a junior now.

Speaker 6 And we're having that talk about what's your future, what do you want to do, what school do you want to go to.

Speaker 6 And one of the conversations were,

Speaker 6 well, what if I come work with daddy after college?

Speaker 6 And it hit me like a box of bricks.

Speaker 6 And I knew that time would eventually come because I have five of them, right? One of them's got to come work with me at least, I would imagine.

Speaker 6 But to realize that she's going to possibly be here sooner than later,

Speaker 6 It almost, I almost felt vulnerable and I felt exposed in a way

Speaker 6 because daddy talks to them about business up here where they have no experience at all. So everything that I say is this just, wow, it's wisdom.
Yeah, yeah. But

Speaker 6 it hit me because they could actually walk into the office and find out that there's all these imperfections. There's so many areas that we're not doing right that we can improve on.

Speaker 6 So it it scared me a little bit. But that's kind of my next, I'm getting pumped up just even talking about it with you is there's so much room to grow.

Speaker 6 There's, there's, you know, why are we an $8 million agency right now? Why? Why can't we be a $30 million agency? And what do we need to do to get there?

Speaker 6 So I always talk to the team and my kids about you always have to operate with the end in mind. You know, if that's your goal, then all the work from now to that goal should you should welcome it.

Speaker 6 You should welcome all the sweat and the work and the hours that go into something like that. If that's, if you're focusing on the end in mind.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 So I'm really excited for this second part of my life with the agency. We have new goals.

Speaker 6 And that's what's kind of pumping me up. I'm more excited now than I think when I first started the agency.
And when I, my first five years, I took seven days off working a couple jobs, right?

Speaker 6 I was working from home and I didn't have a team. I was building, I was doing EOIs,

Speaker 6 ID cards, binds, code, everything I was doing by myself. And with the second job, my income was around 400,000 that year with the second job.

Speaker 6 And I could have done that forever, it seems like, but I had a goal and to get to that next goal, right

Speaker 6 you know there's some changes that you have to make obviously so um and i don't know why i mentioned that right now there was a point i was trying to make but yeah but i'm just i'm just excited and i'm excited to grow it and i'm excited that my kids are going to be coming into it and and i'm going to make the decisions now so that when my kids do come into the business i'm not embarrassed yeah i'm not

Speaker 7 wouldn't be

Speaker 7 that that is one of those fears that um i can completely understand why you have that but

Speaker 7 you know

Speaker 7 hopefully you don't take this the wrong way But I could say probably with 100% certainty that it's irrational. You know what I mean? That they would come in and be blown away by what you're doing.

Speaker 7 Like, I get, I get it. Like, I, I completely understand what you're saying.
At the same time, there's no way that you, that, that you would, that you would be embarrassed when they got in there.

Speaker 7 I, you know, geez, I mean, I just think about

Speaker 7 how emotional it would be to have your junior and high school daughter tell you that she wants, that she's considering versus college, coming and working or college in addition to,

Speaker 7 although save the money and

Speaker 7 go work for you. You'll get a better education today.

Speaker 7 I shouldn't say that.

Speaker 7 But,

Speaker 7 you know, what an amazing, just, you know, the amount of respect and trust and

Speaker 7 caring and all that and testament to how you've dealt in the relationship you build with your children that she would consider that because um that's wonderful i mean the other side of it too is man she she's probably going to be a baller i mean she comes into the business at 18.

Speaker 6 i mean geez i mean think about how much of a start that she'd have on everyone else um in the space i mean it's you don't need a college education to do this job yeah yeah but you know you know what i would do ryan Just so that I make sure that they appreciate it more, you know, I would have them go to school and then also I would have them work somewhere else, you know, somewhere in the insurance space.

Speaker 6 Yeah. Right.
And then come work with daddy probably in their mid-20s late 20s just so that they can appreciate you know what what they have here that's what my wife did so my wife worked for um

Speaker 7 she uh went to university rochester that's where i met her so we both went to university rochester and then um she went and worked for marsha mclennon in new york city and she worked for Marsh in New York.

Speaker 7 She then worked for Marsh in Boston, moved back to the New York office. That's whatever.

Speaker 7 But she worked for Marsh for like three years, I think, doing, you know, mega, you know, the big, huge accounts, the fortune, you know, the Dow Jones 30 accounts or whatever. And

Speaker 7 then when we decided to move, we both were living in New York City at the time. We decided to move home to Albany, where we're both from.

Speaker 7 She actually went and worked for another agency in the Albany area versus her dad's agency because she didn't just want to come back and go right to her dad.

Speaker 7 And then she worked there for like six months. I was basically telling her, like, you're an idiot.
Like,

Speaker 7 she's not actually an idiot, but I was like, you know, your dad is this amazing agency and he needs you. And, you know what I mean? And then she moved over.

Speaker 7 But like that, when she came in, she came in with both. And one of the cool things for her dad was now you're bringing in someone to your office.
who has all this experience and

Speaker 7 understanding that they can then compare against what you're doing and add different processes and features and thought processes that may not be there. So it gives you this amazing advantage.

Speaker 7 And they, like you said, have an appreciation for what you've built and

Speaker 7 all that. So, I think that's a smart idea, but it's got to be a pretty cool feeling.

Speaker 6 Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to raise my hand here because I've always had a question for you.
Yeah, I never reached out. I never reached out to you.

Speaker 6 But, in the same respect, with your daughter not going into her dad's agency, and you know,

Speaker 6 I bet that was an option for you, too.

Speaker 6 But, but you, you know, for whatever reason, you didn't.

Speaker 6 And you started rogue insurance or rogue risk in the start of COVID.

Speaker 6 First time in the history, something like this have ever happened where the world shuts down.

Speaker 6 Businesses are 40, you know, 40, 50 years in business, they're shutting down. You know, everyone is scared.

Speaker 6 Like you got to share with me the mindset and the thought process. And did you, once you did it, a month or two into it, did you, were you second-guessing it?

Speaker 6 I mean, you got to tell me because you got to have laws of steel, my friend.

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Speaker 7 Well, I either that or I'm a moron. I'm just, I was too dumb to quit.
Um, So I'll say,

Speaker 7 just to give a little context to this,

Speaker 7 the way things ended with trustedchoice.com was less than optimal. The way things ended with Bold Penguin was less than optimal.
And I was straight shit canned by the fitness business.

Speaker 7 So I walked out of there

Speaker 7 saying to myself two things. One, I was floored that,

Speaker 7 you know, I started to say to myself, myself, like, is something wrong with me? You know what I mean? Like, what's wrong with me that I've had three jobs that by all accounts should be good jobs?

Speaker 7 And all three of them ended suboptimally, with the third being the

Speaker 15 most,

Speaker 14 you know, whatever.

Speaker 7 I won't get into details, but I've just done it on other shows. So

Speaker 7 it's 8.36 on a Monday morning, October 6th of 2019. I'll remember it forever because it was like like this surreal moment.

Speaker 7 And you want to talk about like a meeting, like a business style, like never bring a knife to a gunfight. I show up for our stand, our sitting 8.30 meeting,

Speaker 7 which my, which my, the founder of the business had confirmed, which he never did. So that was kind of weird.
Hey, you're going to be there, right? Yeah, I'm going to be there, of course. And I'm in.

Speaker 7 gym clothes because as the CEO of a fitness business, that's what you wear. You wear like Lululemon.
That's just, you know what I mean? Like, that's what you wear.

Speaker 7 You don't, you don't get dressed into suits or whatever because you work out during the day because you want to be around your members. So you want to like engage with them.
So, um, so whatever.

Speaker 7 Uh, and he shows up with his attorney in a, in a suit. I knew I was in trouble.

Speaker 7 But okay, so I leave that meeting and

Speaker 7 I said to myself, like,

Speaker 7 this is the universe. God, if you believe in God, I do, but, but, the universe, the muse, whatever you want to say, telling me that

Speaker 7 I have to go do something on my own, that this is, it was time that I had had these opportunities.

Speaker 7 All of them have ended suboptimally.

Speaker 7 I learned lessons from all of them.

Speaker 7 what was I going to do? Go work for someone else again and just have the same thing happen again. Like, obviously, there was some friction that I wasn't seeing.
And

Speaker 7 I called my wife and I said, it's time.

Speaker 7 Like I have this, I have notebooks, both, you know, figurative notebooks and literal notebooks filled with ideas and thoughts from conversations that I've been a part of, you know, 10,000 conversations in my trusted choice days, conversations I should have never been part of on the 42nd floor of the travelers building, listening to.

Speaker 7 you know, the executives who know the industry, who, who, who, who sweat out things that you and I will never know about the business, you know, having these conversations, I was sitting there listening and I just said, I would be,

Speaker 7 I, I would be doing myself, my family, obviously, whatever it is that's pulling the strings in the universe a disservice if I don't take a shot at this, because it keeps ending poorly.

Speaker 7 Like to keep doing this would be a mistake. And

Speaker 7 she agreed for some reason. I did go talk to my father-in-law.
So I did say to, I went and I sat with him and I said, look, this is what I want to do.

Speaker 7 Is this something that you would be open to me doing with you somehow, you know, in the agency? And he said, I think that it would be a better idea if you did it on your own.

Speaker 7 And I don't mean that as he wasn't being a jerk. You know what I mean? He was my father-in-law and I have a tremendous relationship.

Speaker 7 And he just said, I think this, this sounds like something you need to go do on your own. And

Speaker 7 that I've been working every day since. And, you know, just because our industry takes forever to get anything done,

Speaker 7 I wasn't able to open, even though the business was formed January 2nd, I wasn't able to open the doors because of appointments and whatever until March 9th.

Speaker 7 And March 16th, the zombie apocalypse hit upstate New York. So

Speaker 7 that was really tough. I was fully committed to.
killing commercial middle market. We're going to go out and dominate this.
I'm going to marry digital and what David teaches.

Speaker 7 And all of a sudden, I couldn't get anyone. I mean, who are you going to call in March of 2020? Who are you going to call on the phone? So

Speaker 7 I'll be honest with you. Like, this is going to sound crazy because I know that it's not, this isn't reality.
But

Speaker 7 a big part of me says.

Speaker 7 that COVID, at least for me, and

Speaker 7 this is going to sound odd to say this, but it was,

Speaker 7 again, again, the universe, God, whatever you want to say, showing me that middle market commercial was not my path, that this wasn't what I was meant to do. I was raised in a town of 900 people.

Speaker 7 I grew up, you know,

Speaker 7 the moments that you've had in your life, I lived those as a child.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 small business.

Speaker 7 the people that run those businesses,

Speaker 7 that bleed on the floors that they sweep every day, like those are are the people that I care about, connect to, want to help, give a shit about.

Speaker 7 And during that time, and just the fact that I couldn't do anything with middle market is when I pivoted to small business and ultimately became the driver of what Rogue is today, which our tagline is small business insurance on autopilot.

Speaker 7 And, you know, that's that's been my mission: is, you know, we, our goal is, is

Speaker 7 125,000 small business accounts in five years. That's, That's what we're trying to get to.

Speaker 6 125,000.

Speaker 6 You know, I think that's so smart, Ryan. I think that's so smart that you are able to identify exactly where you naturally fit in.

Speaker 6 And I don't think enough people take a step back and evaluate because, you know, to be honest with you, you know,

Speaker 6 we were 95% personalized, but it just sounds cool to say we're 70% personalized and 30% commercial. It just sounds cool.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 And I think a lot of us just kind of get trapped in that. And that's why I feel,

Speaker 6 you know, and that's why people like you and all the other leaders in the industry is like, it's so good that you guys are creating these platforms where, I mean, I guarantee you, you probably have never turned down a Facebook request where some new agent comes into the business and wants some advice.

Speaker 6 You know, I think it's just so neat. And I don't think people do that enough where they reach out to people and just say, like what you did, right? Or what I did.

Speaker 6 did uh and i think it's so crucial but for you to have that self-awareness because to be honest with you are there a lot of small commercial agencies that are very successful absolutely absolutely and there's a lot of pl agencies that are successful um i didn't know i didn't even know there was such a thing as a cluster when i first got into the business yeah you know i had to read up on deductible right so it was and personal alliance was just a path of least resistance.

Speaker 6 It was just easy for me. And

Speaker 6 we're in Orange County, California.

Speaker 6 there is we'll never run out of potential clients personal alliance clients right so it was just that's the way i did it and i wouldn't even dare step into middle market i just don't know what you know you know but how cool is it that you went through you have all these connections you have all the knowledge in the world so that when the middle market does come up for you you know how to attack it i think that's so cool yeah and and and let me just let me just say this also how cool is it that we're in an industry and not even in the industry but we're on the independent side.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 6 I just, I'm having lunch with a buddy of mine who is

Speaker 6 with a very, very big captive carrier for a very, very, very long time, 15 plus years.

Speaker 6 Very successful. And they're one of the highest producers in the captive world here in Orange County.
We're having lunch. because he wants to come independent.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Unbelievable.

Speaker 7 It's, you know, I think,

Speaker 7 So, going back to your point about the taking frame requests, I, um, and I, I see this in the people that I envy, and envy is the wrong way.

Speaker 7 I'm okay envying people, like the people that I want to emulate, the Chris Paradisos. Um, Crows is a great example, um, you know, Cass is a great example for as crazy as that asshole is.

Speaker 7 Um, you know, they,

Speaker 7 they, um,

Speaker 7 there is a serendipity to life that I I believe in.

Speaker 7 I believe that

Speaker 7 you have to have a pretty big ego to believe that you can predict what's going to happen. And that

Speaker 7 all you can really do is connect with as many people as you can, help as many people as you can, give as much as you possibly can, and hope that when you need to take some of that back, that you've deposited enough into the bank the the the the karma bank account i'm i'm mixing like 17 religions and thought process here that that that it's there for you and what i've found in my life is that that has been true over and over and over again and

Speaker 7 and that it's the people if you're just a taker if you just take if you just find oh you know i'm going to connect with this person because i want to sell them something or i want them to give me something or i want them to do something for me if that's all you ever do then

Speaker 7 those opportunities, those things, your road is much, much harder.

Speaker 7 So what is a, you know, if

Speaker 7 you're reading some business consultant book about time blocking and all this nonsense, and you know, they tell you, don't take that 20-minute phone call with the rookie from Illinois, who

Speaker 7 may never be anything ever to you, ever. Don't take that 20-minute phone call.

Speaker 7 I feel the exact opposite and always have. I'm going to take that phone call all day.
And did I make one less sales phone call or send one less sales email? Yes. Yes, I did do.

Speaker 7 I did do one less of those things. But to me, the 20 minutes with the kid from Illinois is a way more valuable deposit into the universe than the sales call.

Speaker 7 Because I can always make another sales call, but I may not always have the opportunity to connect, share time, add some sort of value to the life of some other person.

Speaker 7 And that is how I've lived my life as much as I can. And obviously I'm not perfect, but

Speaker 7 I've just found that man to be, that's, that has been a valuable strategy. What it ends up being, though, is a very zigzaggy strategy.

Speaker 7 And if you have to be okay with that, you have to be okay with that.

Speaker 6 Yeah. And I think that's why our industry is so great because.

Speaker 6 And I'm not sure if other industries are like this. And I've talked to clients and other people who are in business.
And it's, it's, you know, they'll,

Speaker 6 I mean, they'll knock out the competition as soon as they can. They'll punch them out.

Speaker 6 But, you know, like today, after our podcast, I'm having lunch with five other agency owners because we haven't seen each other in a while and we're just, we're going to go hang out.

Speaker 7 Right. But what happened?

Speaker 6 But what happens when we all hang out? All we talk about is the business and family. And we're sharing, you know, what we're doing, you know, how we're doing it.
So, I mean, and we're all right here.

Speaker 6 If somebody online searches insurance,

Speaker 6 they'll get our offices, right? But we're there to help each other out and there's enough for everybody. So I love it.

Speaker 27 I love it.

Speaker 7 That is,

Speaker 7 here's the other thing too.

Speaker 7 And so I've been in the business for 16, 16 years. I started in 2005.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 it has not always been this way.

Speaker 7 This is a relatively new thing. Now, granted, has there always been groups of agents? Yes.
But they would be like, and this is not a knock on Scott Addis, but it would be like Scott Addis's thing,

Speaker 7 where you would have it, you would have one in each geographical region. So you weren't really competitors.

Speaker 7 You know, if you went to a big I event, again, and this is not a knock on a big I,

Speaker 7 everyone would kind of keep their cards close to the vest. They'd shake each other's hand.
They'd go have some beers. They'd go on the golf course together.

Speaker 7 But everyone would kind of keep their tactics and their tricks and their people very close to the vest. It was like, don't send your producers.
They'll get posts. There's all these kinds of ideas.

Speaker 7 And,

Speaker 7 you know,

Speaker 7 that this has changed. And I don't know if it's generationally.
I don't know if it's because of social. I think social is a big, big thing to do with it, us being able to connect.

Speaker 7 But that is completely changed. There's a guy right over here, Coleman Agency, Sean Coleman's his name.
He's actually holds the New York State non-tested, tested, so non-enhanced.

Speaker 7 He wasn't juicing or anything. He had to get tested.

Speaker 7 The heaviest deadlift in the history of New York State, 895 pounds, insurance agent right over here in Troy, New York. And I see him at my gym all the time.
He's a good guy.

Speaker 7 And like, you know, we go and have lunch and I tell him what I'm doing. He talks a little bit about, and we're just like you're doing, right? And you're like, 10 years ago,

Speaker 7 we would have never done those things. It would have been a culture of you do not share secrets.
And today that is different.

Speaker 7 And I am, it's one of the things that I'm the most happy about in our space is that. You can go have lunch with six, the six independents and you're like, not enemies.
You're like a little mafia.

Speaker 7 You know what I mean? Like it's great. It's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 6 And I think a lot of you're, I think you nailed it. You know, I think social has a lot to do with that.
I think Dave Jackson, Nick Ayers, right, creating IAOA is huge, right?

Speaker 6 But also people, Jason, I love Jason Cass, by the way.

Speaker 7 They are a great guy.

Speaker 6 I mean, David Carruthers, you with your podcast, with Bradley and Scott, just bringing people together. Right.

Speaker 6 I mean, because you're not going to have somebody come on and not talk about the business or what they're doing or how they're doing it, right?

Speaker 6 But that just creates opportunity for other people who are listening to reach out to them and start sharing.

Speaker 6 So I think you guys have just created this ecosystem and really you've changed the industry culture in a way. Now, there's a lot of agencies who are not a part of our groups here, but that's okay.

Speaker 6 With the small percentage that we do have, look what we're doing. Yeah.
And you guys are the pioneers of it. And this, it's, it's, uh,

Speaker 6 I would be proud to say all my five kids are in the business i would just be so proud you know because it's man it's just opportunities are endless i'm happier today than i've ever been um and again i don't have millions in the bank by no means but i'm doing all the things that i want to do yeah i'm doing all the things i want to do and it's it's wonderful

Speaker 7 I want to go back quickly

Speaker 7 to a comment that you made about during the summertime when your kids were playing tennis, which, by the way, the videos of your son playing tennis were awesome.

Speaker 7 And I heard you on a different podcast talking about

Speaker 7 how proud you were, about how hard he's worked. I mean, it's just amazing.
I'm kind of going through the same thing. My oldest is seven, and this was his first year.

Speaker 7 Kind of, he was in t-ball, but this was his first year of like real baseball. And he was on the travel team.
And it was like, and I was coaching. And like, it is,

Speaker 7 it is, it's a very, it's a very interesting feeling a very uh interesting feeling to watch your kids do something and like the pride that you feel for them and all that like i'm gonna get emotional just talking about it but um and now my youngest one is in it too so it's pretty cool but um you made a comment about uh you were only in the office a couple days a week and that you were you were amazed or i'm gonna forget exactly what you said but that you were able to do that that you've set your business up in a way and and i think something and and my thought when i heard you say that was was one, that's amazing.

Speaker 7 It's awesome. You're obviously doing something right, both from a hiring and process perspective.

Speaker 7 And I know that you've had some really smart, process-driven people into Great Park just from your social. So that's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 7 I would love for you to talk a little bit about

Speaker 7 just from the leadership mental side of dealing with that. I feel like a lot of people struggle.
to detach themselves to say my role here

Speaker 7 if you make one

Speaker 7 decision a week that drives the business forward that puts your people in a place to be successful that's you doing your job right because the buck ultimately stops with that so i think it's really difficult i think for a lot of leaders in our industry to say to themselves they'll say i can't i can't get out of the business i can't i got to be here what if something happens and what happened they drive themselves into this like kind of place of bitterness and a little bit of depression um

Speaker 7 So I think it's a wonderful example that you're able to do that. How do you deal with that mentally or

Speaker 7 it come naturally?

Speaker 6 It did not come naturally at all, Ryan. I mean, up until, and just to be completely transparent, this January is when I walked away for the fourth time, quoting and binding this January.

Speaker 6 And you know what it's like, you know, walking away. It's like, but.
I've accepted the fact that

Speaker 6 I'm probably not the best at doing something. There's probably people who are better.
I accepted the fact that I'm going to,

Speaker 6 you should have written the email response this way.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 6 And I just, if what's really helped me was if I'm trying to get to this end goal, I know I'm not going to do it by producing myself.

Speaker 6 So I figured the team is more powerful than my, me by myself.

Speaker 6 So, you know, now do I get anxiety about, oh man, they canceled this month? And

Speaker 6 I always wonder, man, if I would have just stepped in or if I would have handled that, I wonder if they would have canceled. That kind of a thing.
So,

Speaker 6 you know, it's just a lot of it was trust in the team. And so a lot of people ask me, man, how big is your team now? Like, you're just growing so fast.
And I tell people, look,

Speaker 6 we post all the new hires, but we don't post the fires.

Speaker 6 And I go through a lot of people, man, you know, and because I don't hire off of resume. I don't at all.

Speaker 6 I look at their resume to be respectful when they walk in, but

Speaker 6 I want to, how early did they get there? What are they wearing? How are they talking to me? And what's their mannerisms? I look at all those little things.

Speaker 6 And a lot of people that I hire aren't licensed, but we get them licensed. We get them trained.
And some people are licensed, but it's picking the right people.

Speaker 6 I fire pretty quickly. My fastest fire was lunchtime, where they started that morning and I I fired them at lunch.
And it just, it was best for them. It was best for us.

Speaker 6 And they were fully licensed. I thought it was going to be amazing, but I figured it out pretty quickly.
So

Speaker 6 a lot of work. You have to just accept the fact that you're going to train for two, three months.
They might not work out. Did it cost time and money and energy? 100%.

Speaker 6 But if you don't do that, then you're not going to grow. So first, hiring the right people, firing the right people, and then really just trusting them.

Speaker 6 um in the very beginning they were giving me a hard time because they're not used to me not being there so often and i and i tell you it was a couple couple days a week but to be honest it was couple hours every day or two i would go in tuesdays and thursdays for a couple hours in the morning and i would bounce um but you know everything now is online i can see everything all of our phone calls are recorded uh and not that i don't trust them but they know they're aware of that yeah but but also just yeah training them trusting them, making it fun, letting them know that, hey, you have complete control of how you handle this situation.

Speaker 6 As long as you're not abusive to the client or you're not stealing or doing anything illegal, I trust you 100% that you're going to handle this situation the right way.

Speaker 6 So I think that is very powerful, letting them know that no matter what happens, I got your back. So even if they cancel, right, I got your back.
So that's been really helpful. helpful.

Speaker 7 Yeah. I

Speaker 7 have a similar, I have a similar hiring process. I

Speaker 7 look at the resume, but I just care so much about the person. It is, you know, and,

Speaker 7 you know,

Speaker 7 I've made hiring mistakes in the past. I feel like the people I have today.

Speaker 7 I said, I was talking to, so I, I, my first hire for Rogue

Speaker 7 was

Speaker 7 my first non-VA. So we have a VA who's actually coming up on his one-year anniversary with Agency VA.
He's been great. His name is Nathaniel and we love him.

Speaker 7 But,

Speaker 7 you know, my first person here in the States who, you know, Nat's

Speaker 7 great, but he's just, he kind of does, handles transactions. He just kind of shows up and does his thing.

Speaker 7 But my first person here in the States, she,

Speaker 7 you know, had never worked in the retail side of the business.

Speaker 7 She came, was coming, actually coming from Claims, USAA, and um she was um uh marrying a state trooper up here in new york so she was moving from texas to new york and uh i just i got on the phone or the zoom with this woman and like in five minutes i was like i'm gonna hire her like i just i just knew it like because because she was taking a piss right like she was in the british sense not actual you know what i mean like she was she was she wasn't putting up with my crap you know what i mean she was like um

Speaker 7 she was uh she was she i was saying things and she was just not in a not in a jerky way, but but I need people who are going to be honest with me, you know what I mean? And bam, bam, bam.

Speaker 7 And she's come back, and I was just like, this is what I need. So I hired her as an account manager.

Speaker 7 But I immediately, what's interesting, and this is maybe EOS. I don't know if you're familiar with Entrepreneur's Operating System EOS.
Paradiso got me hooked on it. And then

Speaker 7 Namoli has helped me a little bit with it too.

Speaker 7 But

Speaker 7 she was right person, wrong seat. So she was the right person for our business, 100%,

Speaker 7 but the wrong person to be an account manager.

Speaker 7 Um, so she had a very good friend from Florida who was who had six years of experience and had had kids and needed to take some time off from the business because of the kids.

Speaker 7 But now the kids were older and she was ready to come back. So, then I hired her to come in and replace Sarah as our account manager.

Speaker 7 We call them client success managers, and um, Sarah became an operations person, and and and now I have two people, and Leslie's amazing as well.

Speaker 7 Now I have two people who are right person, right seat. So it was like, I knew I had the personality right for the business.
I just didn't have the right seat for her.

Speaker 7 And then once I found the right seat, and she was great as an account manager, but it just, I could tell.

Speaker 7 And it's like, it's funny, man, when you see that click over and you get right person, right seat, it's like, it's like something changes. You know, there's just like a.

Speaker 7 it's almost like a little like a little like you know what i mean like a little confetti explosion like boom you found it like the the square square you know round peg round hole kind of thing and um

Speaker 7 you know and and and sometimes it's just wrong person wrong business you know i mean that happens too but but that right person i think sometimes we

Speaker 7 you just got to find the right seat for someone if you hire on personality and uh you know or you could do billy wagner's thing and and i love billy to death but like his 65 point three month hiring process or whatever it is which i just i love billy to death i got 15 minutes into him explaining that in a webinar one time and i was like, Billy, this is why you are who you are and you dominate, but I can never do this.

Speaker 6 So you've boomed this last year. So how big is the team now?

Speaker 7 So I have three, I have three people here in the States. Now, I will say,

Speaker 7 I don't take a salary in the business yet. So I'm reinvesting.
And I'm lucky enough with the podcast and having a wife who has a decent job. You know, right now, I shouldn't say decent job.

Speaker 7 She's a great job.

Speaker 7 You know, I'm not taking any money out of the the business. I'm reinvesting that, all of, you know, anything that I would take back into people.
So I have a salesman who works, who lives in Chicago.

Speaker 7 His name is Matt. He's awesome too.

Speaker 7 So I don't want to discount Matt. I just wanted to tell a story about right butt, right seat.

Speaker 7 And then I have an operations manager and a client success manager. So,

Speaker 7 you know, that

Speaker 7 the three of them,

Speaker 7 I mean, I took it, I went on a, I went to New Jersey for four days and logged in like twice and the three of them rocked it. You know what I mean? I mean, they're awesome.
So

Speaker 7 I guess now my goal is to figure out how to keep them.

Speaker 6 Okay. So let me ask you this.
So that's, I mean, that's pretty big success. I mean, starting in COVID, right, in the thick of things,

Speaker 6 where do you see road risk?

Speaker 6 Not even 20, but just five years from now.

Speaker 7 Well, five years would be really tough. My five-year goal would be kind of crazy because of what we're doing.

Speaker 7 So our game plan is everything that everyone talks about with home mortgages, the home, the mortgage referral process, we're doing that, but for small business. So we are,

Speaker 7 if you are any kind of platform with business customers, particularly small business customers, we are the engine that you attach to to build a deeper moat around your business, offer additional value to your customers and monetize those customers by offering them either an embedded insurance product where we can actually embed

Speaker 7 the ability to quote right inside your solution, or we have a full referral platform where people will just forward us emails, calls, and we have we build custom landing pages for our partners as well.

Speaker 7 So, you know,

Speaker 7 my belief is

Speaker 7 small business is so fragmented because small business owners, they don't know who to trust. And the customer experience for purchasing small commercial often is terrible.

Speaker 7 So, what I'm trying to, so my methodology is, I'm going to go find people who are, because, because

Speaker 7 I don't care if the small business

Speaker 7 like knows rogue. I want them to be properly protected.

Speaker 7 Now, obviously, I need them to know rogue over time, but there's so, so many small businesses either underinsure or improperly insured because they don't know who to trust and they don't take the time.

Speaker 7 So they do things themselves. So if I can, if I can.

Speaker 7 take up take a platform that has their trust because they're doing their payroll and we can provide them with the opportunity to get good coverage that's reviewed by one of my licensed people that they then cross-sold things like cyber if they need it, that we're tracking their comp, that we're handling them.

Speaker 7 We went

Speaker 7 versus common belief, we went very broad, very fast. So we write in all 50 states, lower 48.

Speaker 7 we write every class of small business that exists. So I have, you know, wholesale partners, direct partners, you know, network partners, and it's a lot to manage.

Speaker 7 But the reason is, and this is at the core of our business is no customer left behind.

Speaker 7 I believe that no customer should be told, you know, your business is too small or your business is too difficult to work with. I got to fill out.
a cord form. So screw you.

Speaker 7 That's the kind of stuff that that these guys hear or or it's going to take a month to get back to you because really I I don't want to deal with you, so I'm just going to hope you go away.

Speaker 7 Like, no, that I don't believe that that's right. I small businesses are the crux of our country.
It's what makes our country so special: that you get to own these businesses that are yours. And

Speaker 7 I want to be as supportive of that ecosystem as I can. And this is the thing.
So, our goal is to have 6,000 clients by the end of 2022. That's that's our goal.

Speaker 6 Wow, 6,000 clients. Wow.
And it's refreshing and it's actually really encouraging to see how passionate and excited you are.

Speaker 6 In this podcast, there was two moments where you were really excited when you're talking about your kid playing t-ball

Speaker 6 and right now. And right now.
So to have you be that excited, the same as your kid playing T-ball

Speaker 6 is encouraging because not too many people, you know,

Speaker 6 I think you did the right thing. You picked your niche and you're running with it.
I think it's so smart.

Speaker 7 I hope what people take away from this show is that

Speaker 7 I hope what people take away from this is how with

Speaker 7 some passion and determination, you can build whatever the F you want.

Speaker 7 Your thing is different from my thing in a lot of different ways. No better, no worse.
It's exactly what you want it to be and can be whatever you want it to be in the future, right? It was 95, 5.

Speaker 7 Now you're moving towards 70, 30. And that's what you wanted it to be.
That's tremendous. And my thing is different.

Speaker 7 And I think that is the absolute beauty of the independent insurance space is that you get to build what fits you and your life and your family and what makes you happy.

Speaker 7 And all the mechanisms are there and all the people to support you exist. I mean, you could pick up the phone and call.

Speaker 7 any number of a dozen people and they would either give you an insight, a tool, a connection, or or whatever you needed to help you get further. And that's available to everyone if they ask.

Speaker 7 And it's not just,

Speaker 7 you know, people who go on podcasts, it's available to all of us. And that's why I love this space, man.
It's why I do this stupid show. And it's why I love talking to dudes like you.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I love it, man. And again, it's a long overdue.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 Well, hopefully next, we won't take so long the next time to make it happen. But hey, I appreciate you, man.
I think that,

Speaker 7 you know, obviously it's been from afar to a certain extent, but I have the utmost respect for you, what you do.

Speaker 7 And I just couldn't be more happy for you that you are now in a place that you can take some time for yourself and be with your family. I think it's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 7 And I just wish you nothing but continued success.

Speaker 6 Likewise, my friend.

Speaker 6 Thank you again.

Speaker 7 Absolutely. Be good, man.

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