RHS 111 - Kat Ternes on the Secret to Insurance CRM Success

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Speaker 1 Are you ready to get spicy?

Speaker 2 These Doritos Golden Sriracha aren't that spicy.

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Speaker 2 Um, a little spicy, but also tangy and sweet. Maybe it's time to turn up the heat or turn it down.

Speaker 2 It's time for something that's not too spicy. Try Dorito's Golden Sriracha.

Speaker 1 Spicy,

Speaker 2 but not too spicy.

Speaker 5 In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home.

Speaker 2 Hello everyone and welcome back to the show.

Speaker 2 Today we have an absolutely tremendous tremendous episode for you.

Speaker 2 Conversation with Kat Turns, the Vice President of Revenue at Agency Zoom, but she does so much more than whatever you may think Vice President of Revenue does.

Speaker 2 And just it has been absolutely wonderful getting to know Kat and working with her. And she puts up with me and the barrage of feature requests that I put in Agency Zoom is as we really

Speaker 2 kind of bake our agency deeper and deeper into the agency zoom tool. I mean, it is a huge part of our agency, it's a huge part of how we operate.

Speaker 2 And we talk about just we talk about, you know, the industry and the kind of choosing tools. And we talk a lot about a whole bunch of different stuff.

Speaker 2 And it's just an absolutely tremendous conversation.

Speaker 2 I mean, this is just, again, this is another one of those conversations that just, this is why I do the show is getting to talk to people like Kat and having a good time and just hopefully delivering a tremendous amount of value.

Speaker 2 I mean, we do talk about agency Zoom a little bit at the end, specifically how I'm using it and why I enjoy the tool and just how I think you should go about thinking and how we think you should go about considering a tool such as Agency Zoom, whether you choose Agency Zoom or anyone else that's in the marketplace.

Speaker 2 You know, that's who I use. But I just want to be pretty clear that

Speaker 2 I am not an owner in Agency Zoom or an investor or whatever. I'm not

Speaker 2 an advisor

Speaker 2 or even,

Speaker 2 I have no, they're not a sponsor. I just think the tool is tremendous.

Speaker 2 They've done, you know, in the last 24 months, incredible amount of feature improvements, and the flexibility and the scalability of it has made Agency Zoom a big part of our agency.

Speaker 2 And Kat's just an awesome person who I tremendously enjoy. And, like I said, put up with me.

Speaker 2 So, I wanted to have this conversation with you because this is the kind of conversation that she and I have all the time

Speaker 2 as I pepper her with things that I want to add to Agency Zoom. And she's a good sport about it and is just so incredibly smart about our business and sales and growth and business in general.

Speaker 2 And I just think you're going to love this one. And if you don't know Kat Turns, happy to introduce you to her and make sure you connect with her, Facebook,

Speaker 2 LinkedIn. I don't think she has a Twitter.
So, all right, guys, before we get to Kat, I want to give a quick shout out to another new sponsor.

Speaker 2 I mean, just a tremendous sponsor that I want to share with you, and that is Propeller Bonds. I've talked to you about Propeller Bonds.

Speaker 2 I've had Aaron Steffi, co-founder of Propeller Bonds, on the show before.

Speaker 2 You can go back and listen to that episode.

Speaker 2 I don't know what episode it was, but however you're listening to the show, just, you know, if you want to listen to the full episode where we talk about Aaron's history and then really get into Propeller in general and what it's all about, I encourage you to do that.

Speaker 2 Just search whatever product you're listening to this on, whether it's iTunes or Spotify or wherever.

Speaker 2 But Propeller Bonds is changing the game. Like there's no reason for retail insurance agents to be surety experts.

Speaker 2 Like if you're not already a surety expert, you don't need to become a surety expert, at least most of you, the vast majority of listening to this do not need to become surety experts.

Speaker 2 However, you should be offering surety to your customers, particularly your contracting customers, but really anyone of your customers who has surety needs.

Speaker 2 Like we don't want them having to search for someone who they don't already trust. Like they're working with you, they already trust you, offer bonds.

Speaker 2 Now, you might not be offering bonds today because you don't want to put the stickers and stamps and go through all the rigmarole that the traditional bonding process made you go through, which I completely get.

Speaker 2 I have a drawer over here with stamp machines. I've never used them.
I don't even know what to do with them if I did have to write a bond.

Speaker 2 But Propeller Bonds does away with all of that. You get this customer URL

Speaker 2 and you can just search for whatever bond you need in whatever state you need that bond in.

Speaker 2 They got thousands and thousands and thousands of bonds and you can fill out the form, get a quote, pay for the bond and have the bond certificate delivered by email in like 10 minutes. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 Even less than that if the bond is, you know, depending on what kind of bond it is and they got all kinds of bonds. So Propeller Bonds is changing the game for us.
It's part of our drip campaign.

Speaker 2 We don't necessarily lead with bonds yet, but we offer it as part of our, you know, we make sure everyone's aware of it as part of our onboarding process.

Speaker 2 And then throughout our drip once they become clients we're letting them know hey if you need a bond we're here for you we can help you and then we provide them with a link so um you're gonna be hearing more about propeller bonds uh especially now that they're a sponsor of the show but um not just because they're a sponsor we use propeller i love propeller i think uh very big things for them are coming and um and it's definitely a tool you want to know about again i called tarmica i called donna and i'm calling propeller right now Okay.

Speaker 2 You can

Speaker 2 mark this here. You can actually mark it when I did the episode with him because I talked about it back then too.
But, you know, told you about Propeller. Get it on your radar.

Speaker 2 Get it into your product mix. You'll be happy you did.
All right. Let's get on to cat turns.

Speaker 5 What's up?

Speaker 6 Already being recorded? That's what happens.

Speaker 6 Oh, my God. Sorry, I was like, Typical life.

Speaker 5 You got to step your game up.

Speaker 6 True. Oh, my God.
If you saw my calendar calendar today, even you would shed a tear. You're like the busiest person I know.
And you would shed a tear for my calendar today.

Speaker 5 I get it. Wow.
It's a good thing that you're getting one of the most important calls of your day out of the way early.

Speaker 6 Yeah. And I just got my coffee.
One of the team members came in at like 10.

Speaker 6 So I just got like fresh coffee at like 10.30.

Speaker 5 So fresh coffee or your first coffee?

Speaker 6 Fresh coffee, not my first.

Speaker 6 I was going to say, if you're getting your first coffee at 10 a.m., you're a better person than me i'm usually starting my second pot at 10 o'clock in the morning i could have that much because i don't have enough time to go to the bathroom that frequently like i don't have i can't take in that much liquid in a day and expect to do my job that said this was coffee three

Speaker 6 of like you know a cup at home a one on the walk here i walk 30 minutes every morning now to work. I don't drive.
I just walk.

Speaker 5 It's awesome.

Speaker 6 And yeah, it's like, I call you guys realistically. Like if it's a really peaceful morning, I like keep my mind to myself.

Speaker 6 And then if it's, you know, kind of a hustle-bustle morning, I'm like, I might as well just call somebody and start my day and ruin their life too.

Speaker 6 But I just have to hand during my walk.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I like that. That's what my drive time.
Like if I know,

Speaker 5 if I know I got to go pick the kids up someplace or I got to drive somewhere to pick them up.

Speaker 5 You know, where I live, like everywhere is 15 to 20 minutes away. So it is, that's like the perfect time.

Speaker 5 You just call and like, I kind of get pissed when I cycle through like the two or three or four people that I would meet that I could possibly have something to say to and none of them pick up.

Speaker 5 I'll be like, well, what am I supposed to do then? I'm in the car and I'm not talking on the phone.

Speaker 6 What is wrong with people?

Speaker 6 I can tell when any one of you guys are doing it, whether it's like you or Bradley or Namoli, like any one of you guys doing that kind of nonsense to me, that you're like taking your kids somewhere, you're going somewhere.

Speaker 6 because for whatever reason there's like this cohort of you guys that i've spent enough time with that i text with too often but you guys all use voice to text

Speaker 6 and then when i try to go back and look at what we were talking about and this great idea you guys had it's just gone

Speaker 6 like voice recording is just gone so i look like i'm a psychopath talking to myself all day every day and in reality it's you guys sending me the little like voice memos of like three minute brain bursts, like Jimmy Nuchon type shit.

Speaker 6 And yeah, I lose it. I lose it a lot.

Speaker 5 Yeah. What's funny is

Speaker 5 so Namoli voice texted me the other day and like the text machine had to like cut it up. It was like, it was probably, he probably talked for like two minutes.

Speaker 5 So instead of doing like the hit the button and hold it, he was obviously, I don't know,

Speaker 5 he was do whatever he was doing. And at the very end, he goes, and it was perfect, perfect English.
Not a single word was out of place except for the end where he says, this is voice to text.

Speaker 5 And as soon as he said that, every other word after that, like the last two sentences, just complete garbage.

Speaker 5 And I was like, I wonder if the phone was like waiting for him to say that and then just started screwing everything up.

Speaker 6 I don't know. I get the amount of things I get that end up out of order.
The other thing too, and this is so embarrassing, but I was just on a call with another agency and told them this.

Speaker 6 I am the like.

Speaker 6 latest adopter in the product adoption curve that anyone could be in an elevated position leading an innovative company like i could not be any more like regressive of tech and like in my position so the thing that is new and novel to me but again makes me disorganized and incapable is the reply function

Speaker 5 i'm trying to the in-thread reply yes yeah yeah yeah

Speaker 6 reply it's super cool very functional again with like you jimmy neutron humans but it is

Speaker 6 so difficult because I lose stuff or you guys go back and respond to stuff that I already had stopped talking about. I thought,

Speaker 6 no, conversation was not over.

Speaker 6 So yeah, it's one of these days, I may become like an early adopter or like an innovator at an innovative company. But right now, as this human, like squarely in the early majority.

Speaker 6 I struggle. Like I talked to you guys and oh my God, I, you would believe I was like 75 years old and just completely inept at using my phone.
I can't.

Speaker 5 Well, you can text pretty fast. You can back, you can, you can text pretty fast.

Speaker 6 It's because I have my Mac. So I text you

Speaker 6 from my Mac while I'm sitting in meetings that I don't want to be in. So that's why I text you so fast.
That makes sense.

Speaker 5 Cause the other day we were texting back and forth. I was working on, I was working on something with Zoom.
And

Speaker 5 so I was tech, while I was working on it, I was texting you.

Speaker 5 And then you're, like, as fast as I could finish the text, I was getting replies because, you know, you get the little bubble.

Speaker 5 And I was like, Jesus, she's a fast, like, this is, but I also do know that there's like a half dozen to a dozen of us that just pepper you all day long with different things.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 6 my words per minute is like

Speaker 6 in the upper 90s, I want to say, like, it's

Speaker 6 insanely fast on my computer, so much so now

Speaker 6 that I actually type faster than my computer will

Speaker 5 like the cursor will be out ahead of the words. yeah yeah

Speaker 6 ahead of the words and it's like typing the words aren't showing up as fast as i'm typing them and my e key right now is sticky so i end up like e and then t and then another e because it's trying to type two e's from sticking but i actually type faster even than the sticky

Speaker 5 supposedly the new macs have solved that problem because i've had my

Speaker 5 Mac into the thing twice for sticky keys. And I love everything about Mac.

Speaker 5 It's far superior than any other machine ever the user like i said this someone the other day um they were you know i was complaining about why we can't use macs in the insurance industry and over um

Speaker 5 and

Speaker 5 i although they're starting to fix that problem but um

Speaker 5 someone was like well and i said look do you ever like use your computer and something doesn't work like it just doesn't work well when you use a mac that doesn't happen It just always works.

Speaker 5 Now, other than this little keyboard issue they have where occasionally these keys get a little wacky, but you can fix them.

Speaker 5 Like the programs, like Loom, every like five or six Loom videos on my Windows computer, it just freezes and it doesn't work.

Speaker 5 That has literally never happened once on my Mac. And I'm like, how do people with Windows operate? They just operate in this world where, like, oh, it's just a bad computer day.

Speaker 5 The computer's not working. And I'm like, when I, before I had to go to Windows, there were never bad computer days.
It just like always operated the way it should.

Speaker 6 Well, the embarrassingly wonderful part, too, again, and me being like a geriatric millennial,

Speaker 6 I got TSA pre when I started traveling for conferences and stuff.

Speaker 6 But before that, of course, being amongst the general borders of planes, I could drop my MAC onto every conveyor belt, like shuffling through my bag and dropping it, dropping it onto the floor.

Speaker 6 I think. I left it on top of my husband's car once, like was carrying it in my arm.
And we like pull out of the garage and you see it like goof, like down the front of his car.

Speaker 6 And like the hood of his car looked worse than my Mac did sitting bounced against the front of my garage. Like,

Speaker 6 even my again, technology ineptitude, like how well I treat my poor computer, it has done great.

Speaker 6 Like, indestructible in so many levels. And the communicativeness and the actual integration and everything, like how easy it is to use my phone and my Mac together.
Yeah, I'm

Speaker 6 a sucker for it. Like, I grew up in a PC world.

Speaker 6 I used them. I like was nerdy and built my own computer when I was in high school.

Speaker 5 Like I could see you as nerdy.

Speaker 6 Yeah. Yeah.
It was, it makes sense. Um, I think that's maybe when the curve ended.

Speaker 6 I think I got to like pinnacle nerdiness and I probably got bullied enough that I was like, you know, maybe we should lay off this nerdiness.

Speaker 6 And I just have not improved any technological knowledge since like the early 2000s, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 5 The interesting part is like now being a nerd is cool. Like, for so long, like, I, so I played sports and was in honors classes.

Speaker 5 And, like, I would be on my baseball team and I would be the only one, or on my foot, especially on my football team, nothing against football players, but I would be the only one in my entire football team out of like, what, 30 guys or whatever that was in an honors class.

Speaker 5 Everyone else. So they don't have to be like busting my chops about this or that.
And it's like, oh, you know, like, I'm not as cool because I'm in the honors class.

Speaker 5 And now that is like completely flipped. Now, like, if you're smart, it's like super cool to be smart.
And

Speaker 5 it just wasn't the case when we were growing up.

Speaker 6 Like, you were learning yourself.

Speaker 6 I think I was like really preparing like people to be accepting of being a nerd. Like, why would you pay money to go to college and then like not want to do well?

Speaker 6 But obviously there were plenty of people that didn't feel like doing well. That was me.
So like, yeah, I thought I was going to law school.

Speaker 6 So I like really needed to have everything lined up and do well.

Speaker 6 So it was fun, but was a nerd there. And like, I remember like telling people on like a Friday morning that I was going to class.
And they're like, didn't you go to the bar last night?

Speaker 6 I'm like, well, yeah, I'm a normal social human being. They're like, why are you going to class? I'm like, because I'm a nerd.

Speaker 6 Now I'm a like advisor for a student organization at a university here that has nerdier kids than where I went, but still like not dramatically different.

Speaker 6 And like they yell at each other that they're not going to class.

Speaker 6 Like they'll go like pull each other's like hungover butts out of their dorm room beds and like take each other and bully each other to go to class like i used to get bullied for like going and like why don't you just stay home we're gonna get breakfast we're going to waffle house it's like no i'm going to class now you like get bullied if you like need to sleep in and you're ill and you're skipping class it's like yo skipping class isn't cool anymore

Speaker 6 I just missed it. Like, I should have been apparently part of like the, I think it's Gen Z is like the college kids now.
Who knows? I should have been with them

Speaker 6 maybe I could be better at tech I don't know

Speaker 5 their life is too cushy I'm glad I'm glad I grew up when I did I I like the fact that it wasn't as everything is so cushy now it's just so cushy like it's easy and feels like I shouldn't say easy because nothing's easy but like life is just easy today like I look at I just look at the lives like I coach all these little kids in Little League and they're great kids and I love them all to death.

Speaker 5 I think of them as my own children. They live this cushy little nerfy life.
And I like, I, I, I look at that and I know every adult ever has said this about children, but maybe it's just true, right?

Speaker 5 Like every generation is like a little softer than the one before. And maybe that's the way that it should be.
But like, I just, these kids will complain about something.

Speaker 5 And I'm look, I'm like, look, you little nerf babies. Like, I don't want to hear about your, your batting, your batting gloves are wet.
Like, oh my God, I can't, coach, I can't hit.

Speaker 5 My batting gloves are wet. I'm like, what are you, what are batting gloves? When I was a kid, we used the same bat.
We all had one bat. We used the same glove.

Speaker 5 Like, we all shared the same four helmets. Like, what are you talking about? Now everyone has their book bag with their own helmet, with their own, I'm just like, I call them, I call them little nerf.

Speaker 5 Whenever they bitch, I'm like, you little nerf babies. I'm like, don't even, I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you're just squishy little nerfy life with your batting, your wet batting glove problems.

Speaker 6 But I am, I really appreciate that because i have been in like competitive sports like all the way up through college like super super competitive and they were all i think because my parents were so demanding of me they were all like single performance so like i figure skated i was a competitive trap shooter like my performance was almost solely based on like how i performed that way if i didn't win there wasn't another kid on the team to blame like my parents just like reamed me for being terrible and not practicing and not doing what I was supposed to do.

Speaker 5 Now

Speaker 6 seeing the difference of that, like single participation versus team participation, and then like thinking about how kids like go through like mental toughness or like how much equipment do they have, all that.

Speaker 6 I'm just like, yeah, you guys are kind of a little squishy. But to be fair, I am solidly a millennial.

Speaker 6 I will like wear that as I either badge of honor or my like scarlet letter, whatever spectrum somebody's on. I'm a millennial.

Speaker 6 Um, I do appreciate somebody said this the other day. They're like, Millennials, just like expect to get a trophy and a pat on the back, and a participation award for everything.

Speaker 6 And you know, as the person now who hands out awards, I'm like, Yeah, but like, you guys also gave us those awards.

Speaker 5 Well, yeah, this is all boomers' fault. We have to just all the boomers who bitch, it's their fault.

Speaker 6 Like, why did you make me a participation trophy? Like, don't get the trophy. And I never would have known any different.

Speaker 5 Yeah, 100%. I was saying this on a pod, and then we'll get to insurance stuff.
I was saying this on a podcast the other day. Actually, not an insurance podcast.

Speaker 5 I was interviewed for like my buddy's got a podcast here locally that was on. And

Speaker 5 we were again, we were talking about Lily is such a big part of my life that's just like on my brain right now. But, but I do think, I don't know, I try to be,

Speaker 5 I try to not necessarily go as far as my coaches went because, like, my coaches like throw me me into a fence. And that was just like from missing a ground ball.

Speaker 6 You know what I mean? And,

Speaker 5 you know, obviously that I don't know that that was right. I mean, I look back on it fondly.
And at the time, it seemed perfectly natural, but, you know, I guess that's not what people want today.

Speaker 5 But I said to, I said to my son and his buddy who were in the car with me. Actually, no, it wasn't.
It was my other son. My two sons were in the car.
So five and seven.

Speaker 5 We're talking and something came up and they asked me about something. I can't remember the the details, but I basically like,

Speaker 5 we were at a gas station and I just turned around. I looked at him before I pulled away and I was like, you guys don't understand how much of a competitive advantage you will have that

Speaker 5 you I'm in that I me and your mother are trying to instill like competition and like a slightly like alpha approach to the world because the world is filled with betas today.

Speaker 5 Everyone's a freaking beta. I mean, just look at the conversation on I'm not even talking about politics, just every topic.
It is people who, I was bullied once in my life.

Speaker 5 So now I'm going to complain and make excuses and yell at you. And like, whatever, you know, I couldn't be a libertarian if I didn't believe that they had the right to be bitchy betas.

Speaker 5 I think that's perfectly fine. But I said to them, like, more than ever before in history.

Speaker 5 embracing competition, understanding how to push yourself, how to, how to push through some of these things, even at a young age, it is going to give you so like you are going to be this shining light versus all these other kids that have just been given everything.

Speaker 5 And I really do believe that, that, like,

Speaker 5 you know, I'm never going to change the world, but if I can help my kid stand out by not giving him a nerfy light, well, I live, I mean, based on the house, we live a pretty fucking nerfy life, but like in general, trying to, right?

Speaker 5 Like, I do, I do believe that. Like, we have to embrace the fact that you're going to grow up with a bunch of, you know, who bunch of betas who want this padded room environment.

Speaker 6 We see it here in insurance. There's a bunch of people that are like, so and so won't integrate with me and I'm going to whine about it.
Or like, I have the captive agent. Now I'm independent.

Speaker 6 It's so hard. It's like, you knew this going into it.
So it's that like. heads down, like I'm going to grind through it and like get it done.

Speaker 6 Or like heads up, I'm going to like, you know, pout and cry and like complain about it like for me like yeah everybody's facing like the same garbage and there's definitely people that have nerfier lives than others you know have like a squishier opportunity but all things considered like

Speaker 6 especially work yeah

Speaker 6 like there's still a lot of work to be put in and you don't go into many scenarios and get caught off guard like whatever you sign up for like if you go into sales you know you're gonna have a quota like if you go into service you know you're gonna have people yelling at you every day.

Speaker 6 Like, you know, these things. So, like, what you sign up for, and then whether you are like squishy and whiny in this beta personality and you're like,

Speaker 6 or whether you are like this alpha personality and you're like, fuels my fire, gets the job done. Like, I'm working harder for it.
Like, that's still, like, it's a differentiator now.

Speaker 6 It's going to be that much bigger of a differentiator when the, like, it's not a 50-50 split. You know, it's going to be more often than that that people are whining and complaining.

Speaker 6 And I will call out too as i've like developed professionally and gotten further along in my career i think i get a little more grace too like if i text you and i'm like hanley we're not talking today like i'm taking the day off you're like cat you know you're not a whiny squishy person so if you're telling me you need the day off and you're sick like okay yeah chill i believe you you know so you get a better amount of like appreciation from people when you're like all like putting forth your best effort constantly completely Like my middle sister, it's middle child syndrome.

Speaker 6 I think like, God, you like bump her in the car and she used to cry about it. Like total beta personality, you know?

Speaker 5 No, I think, I think you're completely right. And I think that, um, I think, so I listen to Andy Frisella a lot.
I don't know if you know who he is. Um, he's got a podcast called the

Speaker 5 it's MF Reality or

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 5 Something something. It used to be the MF CEO.
Now it's something else. But basically, he, um, I don't know, I don't know how to describe him.

Speaker 5 He's, uh, he owns, he owns first form, I think it's fitness, the pharmaceutical company, and it's got all kinds of fitness gear. It doesn't matter.
It's a, it's a, it's a

Speaker 5 supplement and fitness company. And he's got this podcast and it's like one of the top five podcasts in the world.
But, um,

Speaker 5 but his, his perspective is very much

Speaker 5 maybe a much more old school take, right? And one of the things he talks about all the time that I think is important, I think very relevant to,

Speaker 5 as we'll transition here into something related to business and insurance, is that

Speaker 5 the difference in his perspective between, say, the betas and the alphas, and I just don't know a nicer way to describe the type of person than beta

Speaker 5 is

Speaker 5 the beta individuals have a hardship and they're like, woe is me, excuse. I don't have this.
I don't have this. This is why I can't get it done.

Speaker 5 And what they don't realize is the alpha people have the exact same hardship. They just go, oh, I'm going to figure out how to do this.
I'm going to call this person for help.

Speaker 5 And I'm going to invest in this thing. And I'm going to take a longer view on it.
And I'm going to put in the work and an extra hour here. And they just find ways to navigate around it.

Speaker 5 And that has been, and what's been interesting is, I think, I think at different times, and this is very, I think this is very honest, hopefully, is at different times, we do, we can waver in both camps.

Speaker 5 It's not like all the time you are this driven, competitive, focused, on point human. And I think that's another misunderstanding that a lot of people have is like, it's,

Speaker 5 it is, it is constantly just that like one, just get 1% better. That mentality is like, give me, let me get 1% better today or, or some positive percentage better today than I was yesterday.

Speaker 5 And, and those little tiny increments really add up over time versus this other mentality, which is I never want to to put in the work, but I want to be at that same level.

Speaker 5 And, you know, that's when I think like being in some of these groups on Facebook and some of that stuff can can almost be a negative if you're looking at someone posting and going, geez, I'm never going to be where they are, or they're only there because their dad or their parents or their mom had this agency or got them this job or whatever, or they got this investment from this company.

Speaker 5 And instead, instead of looking at the fact that there's probably

Speaker 5 a million other challenges to get to that point, and that's why they keep pushing.

Speaker 6 I wish I could remember the book because when I was working with my like mental coach and going through all of like really advanced stuff in trap shooting, which is like such a game of it's awesome, by the way, that you're a trap shooter.

Speaker 5 I love trap shooting a kid. I never did it competitively, but it was like one of my favorite things in the world.

Speaker 6 Yeah, my sister's still exceptionally good at it, like doesn't maintain a full-time job because that's almost her full-time job. Like, really?

Speaker 6 Crazy, crazy good at it. Yeah, I don't have the capacity to like, you know, be here doing agency Zoom stuff, texting you guys all day, and you know, shooting,

Speaker 5 but super fun.

Speaker 6 One of the things I was learning back then that I think people, to your point, like, they either see like I need to be that person and can't get there because they don't understand the work that gets put in, or it's like so distant and so aloof from them that they like check out.

Speaker 6 And something that I had to teach myself in that like mental fortitude was

Speaker 6 the A, you know, alpha A players, whatever the case may be, they do have grit.

Speaker 6 And we talk about grit all the time, or, you know, people that are like A players, like you and I talk and really talk about grit. Like, yeah, you like stay gritty, you like stay in it and all that.

Speaker 6 But there's a matching component to grit that is actually able to be taught and able to be nurtured when you're exhausted. And that's resourcefulness.

Speaker 6 And like you build up, like gritty people learn how to build up their resources.

Speaker 6 Like you said, people or using a Facebook group rather than like an obstacle and like, I'll never be this person as a resource. Like, then on your days that you're like, my grit is just not there.

Speaker 6 Like I am almost at wit's end. You lean off grit a little and you go into resourcefulness and they're kind of each other's like yin and yang to better perform.

Speaker 6 Cause like you said, you can't be just gritty. Like we don't expect anyone to like just get, you know, shot at all day, every day and expect them to like be mentally fine.

Speaker 6 You know, we just saw like Simone Biles, like exceptional competitor, say, like, I can't do this anymore. Like, you can't take all the way to the world and do it endlessly.

Speaker 6 But like, resourcefulness is how you like think about operating. Like, it's the fact that you like come back out and you're there for your team.

Speaker 6 You know, you lean into like other skills and other value that you can present still in that given time.

Speaker 6 And when I like started learning about that and thinking about resourcefulness, which is something that can be learned and can be planned, it made being gritty a lot easier.

Speaker 6 Like I am naturally like a kind of an aggressive gritty person, but it made it easier on me too, that I wasn't then like an anxious person. I wasn't hostile.

Speaker 6 I would go home really gritty and my husband would get like super peeved. I'd be like being very gritty during dinner.
I'd be like, just do this. And he's like, could you, could you chill?

Speaker 6 Could you chill? So like that was

Speaker 6 a really helpful like yin and yang was the difference between like grit and resourcefulness and how you do need a good balance of both.

Speaker 5 Yeah,

Speaker 5 I like that a lot i think um i think that's why you see a lot of partnerships work in our space and and in even in the startups and technology like you when you're when you're having that day and we all have them we probably have them multiple times a day and certainly multiple times a week where you just you're like geez it just feels like i'm never going to get to this place that i want to get to and as much as you're grinding and you're putting in the hours and you know you're doing the work there's just moments where your brain is just telling you whatever it is call it the lizard brain if you're whatever call it whatever you want, is just, you know, and to be able to pick up the phone or to have a book or to have a go for a walk, an outlet, whatever that tool is.

Speaker 5 And I, and I think, you know, I don't know that I would have called it resourcefulness, although I really like that. I wrote that down.

Speaker 5 You know, I always think of them as like tools. Like, what are my tools to get myself back to where I want to be?

Speaker 5 Because that was one of the things that I took away from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear around the idea. And there's another good book

Speaker 5 that's up there by Cal Newport called Deep Work. And

Speaker 5 they're almost like should be in like a set, but both talking about willpower. And

Speaker 5 I think Benjamin Hardy wrote in a good, I think it was him, The Power of Willpower, or Willpower Isn't Enough, something like that.

Speaker 5 Listeners will know.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 those three books.

Speaker 5 They all tell a similar story, which is basically willpower is great and can get you through a lot of situations, but it's a declining balance. Like you don't have infinite willpower.

Speaker 5 You basically start every day, kind of by how much you sleep and what state you're in when you go to sleep and the quality of your sleep and all that kind of stuff, how hydrated you are.

Speaker 5 You wake up with a certain amount of willpower. And then throughout the day, your willpower diminishes.
And the people who are able to persevere

Speaker 5 what they, they've built into their day tools, tricks, whatever you want to call it, ways to recharge that willpower or at least stabilize that willpower for a period of time so that you're only using it on things that you need willpower for.

Speaker 5 And that was really the whole core, the crux of James Clare's book was, was habits allow you to do important tasks without losing willpower, right?

Speaker 5 So that when you do have an issue, you, you have your willpower. You're good to go.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 6 the knockoff version of this book that just traded willpower for resourcefulness. I just, I must have read some like psychologists, the like rebranding of it, you know, 15 years ago.

Speaker 5 Well, these guys probably, these guys are all authors, so they probably stole it from wherever you read it from.

Speaker 6 You know, like it's one way or another, but that was what they were talking about, resourcefulness.

Speaker 6 If you can build resources, you can build mentors, you can build, like you said, habits, you can build like comfortable behaviors into your schedule that like, you know, if you're lacking on willpower or grit around 1:30, like don't schedule your biggest, most important meeting at 1:30.

Speaker 6 Like, that's when you should go to the gym, that's when you should, like, get outside and get fresh air if that's your thing.

Speaker 6 Or, you know, like we were talking about, that's when you call and bother each other and like say stupid shit for 30 minutes. So, yeah, um, yeah, I think I read the knockoff version, you know.

Speaker 5 So, your ears must have been ringing today, or maybe they maybe they weren't because they probably ring all day. But, uh, I have, so it's a, it's, well, it was 11 a.m.

Speaker 5 when we jumped on this call Eastern Standard Time, and I had already had

Speaker 5 two text discussions and three phone calls related to agency Zoom. And I think all of which your name came up in.
So that just to just so people get a feel for the communications that happen around

Speaker 5 like different features and how to set different things up and all the things that are going on with Zoom.

Speaker 5 I've had that five conversations today before 11 a.m. Eastern.

Speaker 5 And now I tell you, all the, all the curmudgents are going, Ryan, this is why your agency's not bigger because you're talking about a tool all day, not selling policies. But

Speaker 5 like that, it's just funny how literally that five conversations, technically one of the conversations was a text conversation that then carried over into a phone call, but there was a gap between those two.

Speaker 5 So I'm going to count it

Speaker 5 before 11 a.m. before this phone call.
So

Speaker 6 just to get.

Speaker 5 Just so you people know when Kat's talking about all these text conversations, this is real. This like really happens.

Speaker 6 I wish it didn't it's one of those things that i have to plan for in my resourcefulness that i just get bombarded suddenly like everybody's talking before 11 a.m around 2 p.m they've started to get nosy and it's about time to bombard cat with text also i have to admit because like who you know i don't know who's listening you have a ton of people that listen i'm like super super proud of our team the last two months we have had over 200 agencies sign up every month

Speaker 6 and we migrated our pricing plan which has been like an adventure since October of last year, making sure that like we could remain affordable for like people that truly need our software all the way to like we could remain revenue positive when I have you know some of the largest agencies in the country you know onboarding and stuff like that.

Speaker 6 We finally made that migration this month and

Speaker 6 we were going to need 200 and

Speaker 6 I want to say like eight to 13 208 213 agencies to cross the 7,000 agency mark. And I have to admit, I'm a little stressed.

Speaker 6 I'm leaning into my resourcefulness instead of my grit right now because we're going to come up a little bit short, like 200 back to, like two months or 200 back to back.

Speaker 5 What's the date? What's the date you need to have this number by?

Speaker 6 I need to have it by the end of the month. And we're sitting at, I need to sign in and like look, but we're sitting at like agency.
It's the 29th. So we got like two more days.
We've hit on.

Speaker 5 How many do you need? How many do you need?

Speaker 6 I'm going to look. I'll tell you how short I'm going to come up on being like legendary at this because until last month, we had never had 210 plus two months in a row.

Speaker 6 And I said, I was teasing people on Facebook when I said how proud I was of the team that we could do it again. And if we did it again, we'd break 7,000 agencies.

Speaker 6 We are sitting right now and we've hit our revenue goals. but we're sitting right now at 6,979.
So I'm 21 agencies short with two business days left in the month.

Speaker 6 And we normally sign up about 10 agencies a day. Like that's, you know, if we extrapolate 200 agencies a month, process.

Speaker 5 21. So I'm going to, I'm going to do a push on social when we get done with this.
And we'll see what kind of juice that we'll see if we can juice this number up over 20 over to get to the 7,000.

Speaker 5 And then we'll have to do, we'll do a quick, I'll get it, the number from you and we'll do a quick update on a future podcast because that's cool. So, all right.

Speaker 6 So, um, but it's a good example where you can't always just be gritty you know like we have lived into these recent like we've lived into like being gritty the last few months like being just absolutely like exceptional you know on how many new agencies are coming on board and like i threw it out there you know like i posted on social at the end of last month and said like hey we've done like really great super proud of my team like they're awesome and now we're getting really close to like it'd be nice to do it again.

Speaker 6 We've hit all of the goals that like the business sets.

Speaker 6 But my own personal goal, I kind of either need to lean into resourcefulness and just say, like, it's okay to have a moment of rest, or I have to get gritty real quick here.

Speaker 6 And it's really fun to like be at that crux with such a like close.

Speaker 5 Well, my next call after this call at 12 p.m. is with an agency that wants to talk about agency Zoom.

Speaker 5 Just so you guys know, they are neither a sponsor nor am I paid for this, but I do take calls about people joining agency Zoom.

Speaker 5 Um, so, uh, yeah, so that all being said, maybe, maybe maybe just for for anyone who's listening who doesn't 7000 needs a lot of agencies um you guys have been around for a long time um

Speaker 5 but i would say particularly for the independent space the last 24 months or so have been rapid feature uh i don't want to say improvement but that's probably fair you're just adding tons of features and so maybe just just for the agencies that are listening um who who haven't heard of zoom or just maybe you've heard the name but not really 100% sure.

Speaker 5 Are you guys an agency management system? Are you a CR? Where do you fall? You know,

Speaker 5 really, what is agency Zoom and why should, knowing that most of our audience is independents, why would an independent think about like, where would it fit into the agency?

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Speaker 6 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 yeah so i like i mean that's a fair call out of like one over the last 24 months it's become super feature rich i joined at the end of 2019 to like work on the independent channel so that's about our time clock you know that we're approaching here that things have really like ramped up and changed and it's changed our vision you know when i first came here we were very much like a little sales tracking like a lightweight little crm we i think we'd integrated it with qq like the month before i got here so we were like sitting on top of some agency management systems but we still weren't like a full-blown crm we weren't doing what i think of as like our core competency and that we need to keep doing and i think it's a conversation that you and i can have ryan that a lot of agency owners need to start hearing is

Speaker 6 I'm definitely not an AMS. I have like absolutely no interest in going there.
I have some really awesome partners there. You know, we integrate almost with all of them.

Speaker 5 You have partners. Let's not call them awesome.

Speaker 6 We have, yeah.

Speaker 5 There are no, that's my words, not Kat's words. But there are, you AMSs need to pull yourself together.

Speaker 6 I mean, if an AMS could put together a 24-month sprint like we did, there'd be some awesome ones out there. I just need them to pull together a 24-month space.

Speaker 5 They're all owned by venture capital, so that's never going to happen.

Speaker 6 Well, we're... We're owned by agents and, you know, run by agencies.
We have an agency advisory council that makes almost every decision. So that's pretty fun.

Speaker 6 And that was something we put into place last summer um that was a very smart decision by the way thank you i try to make as many of them in as small amount of time as possible um

Speaker 6 we are and i keep telling everybody this because like crm is such an annoying like concept and your ams really doing like half the job it should should be your crm

Speaker 6 so we're an employee enablement software and i want to talk about that like more and more and more on stage i you know have some conferences i get to go to that i like want to tell people about.

Speaker 6 A CRM lets you run a report quickly and easily, but I still have to run a renewal report and then I have to hand a spreadsheet or a list to my CSR to call all my renewals or call my rewrites by a producer.

Speaker 6 If you look at an employee enablement software, like Agency Zoom is looking at by every line of business, by every type, whether they're a VIP, whether they're the person down the road, is looking at a curated experience that the agency owner can set, and it's delivering out what your expectations are to your employees.

Speaker 6 So if you expect service work to be handled quickly because it's a one-to-one relationship, you know, between your employees and your team and your insured, good, like that should move quick.

Speaker 6 If it's claims work where then suddenly you have your carriers and your adjusters and everything that could be holding you back, but there's still accountability to be had there, that's a different conversation.

Speaker 6 That's different expectations that you should set and should be able to monitor, you know, and address. And it's the same thing with sales.
You know, we started in the sales space.

Speaker 6 I'm a sales leader like through and through. I'm in charge of a lot of our operations here, but like I still like fall back on my sales behaviors more often than not.
Like sales is the same way.

Speaker 6 Like if everybody's operating off of post-it notes and, you know, notes on their desk, that's impossible to track. Like you don't know how much is slipping through the cracks.

Speaker 6 And if every person you ask in your office says, well, I just put it on a post-it note because then I remember and I'll follow up with that person and like I can give that person a better experience.

Speaker 6 It's because as an agency owner, we don't know how to use a CRM.

Speaker 6 And there are no CRMs out there that let you actually curate the experience. It's the idea of like employee enablement is delivering.

Speaker 6 the right tee ups to everybody in your agency, no matter of what the customer, you know, prospect is is going through, compared to campaigns.

Speaker 6 You know, CRMs are like, build your report, give it to them on a list, or throw it into a campaign, and it's really one size fits all.

Speaker 6 I'm sorry, but a Facebook lead that's commercial and in a rush is a lot different than a Facebook lead that's personalized and is

Speaker 6 best friends with one of your current clients already. And nobody treats it that way.
Like there is nobody in the game treating it that way.

Speaker 6 And that's why we have such terrible adoption of CRMs is because your producers don't want to be on it.

Speaker 6 You should, you know, your CSRs don't want to be on it because they're fighting against the grain of how this technology is built. And that's how we're different.

Speaker 6 You know, you guys set rules, which is what we hear about like automation. You know, you set your rules of engagement and your automation around what are your expectations.

Speaker 6 That experience gets curated for that insured or prospect. And then your team doesn't have ambiguity on what they're supposed to be doing.

Speaker 6 And that's just fundamentally so different, you know, than what's out there.

Speaker 5 So I agree with everything you said. I hate the term employee enablement.

Speaker 5 Just hate it, everything about it, because it means, it means nothing.

Speaker 6 It's like something that I'm trying to get people to like key into. We can rename it now.
You know, I have, I haven't spoken on stage in a long time.

Speaker 5 You need to catch your name.

Speaker 5 The definition, this is an

Speaker 5 And then subtext employee name makes sense to me. But like if you were on stage and said, we are an employee enablement to I'd be like, oh, where's the fucking bar?

Speaker 5 Like, you know, like, I just, you know, it's just

Speaker 6 looking for the bar.

Speaker 5 Yes, I don't, uh, but that's just that's that's probably an offline comment. So, I'll, uh, I'm gonna leave it in, but I probably should have shared that with you offline.

Speaker 5 That being said, all the other stuff you said, I completely agree with. I mean, I think it's, it's, there's a couple of things about agency Zoom that I like.
And I want everyone to be clear.

Speaker 5 I want to be super clear on this. I, you guys are not, I'm just a user.
I'm just a user. I'm not even on the stupid advisory committee, even I, even though I said I would be on it, I'm not even on it.

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 6 we're voting again in August.

Speaker 6 You got nominated. You might be voted on.

Speaker 5 I like to use the word might just aggravates me.

Speaker 6 I don't get the pick. It's not the people who text cat at two o'clock every afternoon, you know? That's a gigantic.
It should be.

Speaker 5 It should be. Volume of text should count.
That all being said,

Speaker 5 I don't actually, I actually prefer my current position, which is I get to give you all the stuff that I want. And I don't actually have to do any of the work of being on the committee.

Speaker 5 So that's actually the best case. Actually, don't vote me on.

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 5 what attracts me to the tool is a couple of things. I like one today

Speaker 5 because I think now certs is terrible. And it could be amazing, but it's terrible.

Speaker 5 So if the guys from now certs and ladies from now certs are listening, understand that you have all the potential in the world and you're blowing it.

Speaker 5 So,

Speaker 5 you know, I, I think that that, that being said,

Speaker 5 what my, my entire team only works in agency Zoom. We only go into now certs when we have to.
And

Speaker 5 I, and I think that's one of the core functionalities that makes it so powerful is that my,

Speaker 5 we call them client success,

Speaker 5 but, you know, account managers, CSRs, whatever, they are working hand in hand in the same system, working off the same activity feed, you know, working off the same notes um

Speaker 5 same files although one of my feature requests i recently put in was a slightly a foldered file management system which i know is coming um

Speaker 5 and you know some of these things because now they don't have to log out and log in or use a different tab it's all right there in front of them in you know what i what i think is a this um we'll call it card system or um visual kind of workflow we can visually workflow all our our processes.

Speaker 5 So we have sales pipeline, which we spend a lot of time building out and then different triggers. And, you know, just to give people an idea of what

Speaker 5 we've built, our sales pipeline is actually probably a little longer than I would like today, but it actually works really well for our team.

Speaker 5 So new lead comes in, you know, notifications to the appropriate team members, and then touch points go out to the clients, text message, email, hey, we, we got it, we in touch. Okay, whatever.

Speaker 5 Then we have gathering info. That probably makes sense.
Then once we've gathered, and I know checklists are coming too, and I can't wait for that feature as well.

Speaker 5 I did say when I invited you, I was going to talk about all the features I wanted.

Speaker 6 When checklists come,

Speaker 6 launches, it might be there.

Speaker 5 No, it's awesome. I love it.

Speaker 6 I don't know when this goes live, but by the time people are listening. Yeah.

Speaker 5 It's not a complaint. Look how quickly all this crap happens.
I love it. So,

Speaker 5 so, so, but today we're using just a regular checklist. So, my, my producer has a checklist that soon he will have to, and it'll be

Speaker 5 men and women, however they self-identify,

Speaker 5 will be, you know, they'll be able to click check boxes to make sure they have all the appropriate stuff. Once they have all the appropriate stuff, they move it over to ready to quote.

Speaker 5 Now that notifies my quoting person.

Speaker 5 She comes in and she,

Speaker 5 now, now he has to check. I'm using he and she because that's what they are today.
So don't woke me.

Speaker 5 They have to check all the boxes because that's what the account manager said. This is what you need to have.
And they can't move it to ready to quote quote until they check all the boxes.

Speaker 5 Boom, ready to quote. Co-manager comes in or co-person comes in, moves it to quoting.
Now we use a series of tags. And we're, I talked to Andrew Ryan a little bit about this today.

Speaker 5 And we have some more thoughts for you on this particular topic. I know that's one of our text feeds, but

Speaker 5 today we're using tags to notate, hey, send to underwriting, waiting for feedback, whatever. And then we move it over to uh proposal ready.

Speaker 5 When it goes to proposal ready, now my producer gets a notification because I want him reaching out to people people and contacting people he shouldn't even be worried about the quote so now he comes back in at proposal ready looks at the proposal presents the proposal moves it to presented and then when he sells it he moves it to ready to issue csr comes back in again getting notified moves it uh issues the business in the carrier system puts it to sold now the best part about that is one Those people don't have to keep coming back and checking.

Speaker 5 When it's moved over into that column, they get a notification that says, hey, you got a new piece of business that's ready to to issue. Great.

Speaker 5 And part of the work process is at the end of the day, we try to close out our ready to issue.

Speaker 5 Quoting won't always be closed out, but we like to get everything out of ready to quote and everything out of ready to issue every day.

Speaker 5 And then

Speaker 5 they can just be doing their work and they just get notified when something happens. And at any given time, I can come in, snapshot what's happening in our sales process.

Speaker 5 And then all that is pushed down to reporting that allows me to say, okay, you know, what's happening?

Speaker 5 So that to me that just the sales process not even thinking about the service center but just thinking about that process that i just outlined and how and how clean it is and how easy it is for us to manage to like when i look at it i'm like boom i know what oh that lead came in i can see matt's already got it he's gathering info like It is so easy to manage to.

Speaker 5 That's why, you know, regardless of what agency management system I switch to, you know, I'm basing that decision off their integration with you guys.

Speaker 5 And then obviously I'll just peer pressure you into developing a deeper relationship with whoever I choose.

Speaker 6 Right, right. More to it, Claudex.

Speaker 6 I think it's a good call out too, that you're saying like it's easy to visualize.

Speaker 6 And the part that's really important there is like the visualization is only worth so much if the team wasn't using it, but it's really easy for your team to use. It is.

Speaker 6 drag and drop like you are visualizing it they're able to look at it the same way you do and they just drag and drop drop it into the next stage. And the customer's getting that curated experience.

Speaker 6 Like, when we hear campaigns again being bucketed or a curated experience, the customer is getting a curated experience.

Speaker 6 So, you don't have to be concerned that, like, sitting in ready to quote means that the customer hasn't got a text saying, Hey, we are prepping your work. Is there anything we forgot?

Speaker 6 Or do you have any questions that have popped up? Like, you don't have to wonder if the person sent that text, it goes from that.

Speaker 6 And you can stay laser-focused on managing your business, you know, working on the business.

Speaker 6 Your team can stay laser focused on working in the business, you know, and that ambiguity or the lack of ability to know because people are frustrated and can't use the technology and it's not picturesque, you know, the UI or the UX isn't there is just an entirely different ballgame.

Speaker 6 You know, we have over 65,000 users on there. everyone from like you said a CSR who's doing little tiny things up to you know a commercial lines mid you know mid-account manager type person person.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 6 And they all have to use it, you know, I think my, I actually just checked because somebody said, sent me a text late last week and said, Kat, I just put my dad on there.

Speaker 6 And I didn't think much of that, you know?

Speaker 5 And I was like, oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 6 Like, good to have your dad on. It's a second generation agency and all of that.
And I don't think I realized even that the current agency owner is the age that he is.

Speaker 6 And he's like, well, I wondered if you know how old your users are. And I'm like, I mean, I'm sure I have like a ballpark, but like, I don't know.

Speaker 6 And he's like, I want to nominate my dad for being the oldest agency Zoom user. And I'm like, there's no way.

Speaker 6 I'm thinking this guy's like in his 40s and his dad might be in his like late 60s, early 70s. His dad's 92 and he's like in his early 60s.
So it is the right breakdown. This guy looks great.

Speaker 6 He stayed in great shape his whole life. So I didn't know how old he was, but his dad is 92.
So I think he might be our oldest agency Zoom user.

Speaker 6 But I literally have a kid that we're mentoring that is a senior in high school and going to college.

Speaker 6 And he's like in agency Zoom learning data and reporting and helping his mom all the way up to an agency owner who's in his 60s and his dad who is 92.

Speaker 6 He's an account manager. You know, he's got his friends that he's had as accounts for years and years and years now.

Speaker 6 And like he likes just having a little mobile app and like just plunking around, checking on things. It's really

Speaker 6 fun to actually have stuff like this if done correctly. The hard part is, like I said, CR, like putting it in the mindset of a CRM or trying to become an AMS, suddenly it's not done correctly anymore.

Speaker 6 It's got to be focused on your employees and your insured.

Speaker 5 I will say for people who are listening who this, a tool like this is something they're considering or whatever.

Speaker 5 I think a lot of people, and myself included, so I've been all over the board with CRMs. And I have said on the podcast before that, you know, I kind of fell prey early to knowing too much, right?

Speaker 5 This is what I've done. I've been in marketing for 15 years.
So sales and marketing and just knowing the tools was part of my job for a long time. And,

Speaker 5 you know, I think people go to like, when they think CRM or whatever they, they think, they think Infusionsoft or HubSpot or, you know, these, just these tools that require like tremendous amount of build out.

Speaker 5 And like, I, I'm, I'm actively trying to find, uh, uh, get onto Salesforce for our agency management system. Now, I think Veruna is the worst.

Speaker 5 And I think they've gonna, you know, hopefully they'll reap what they've sown. And And that being said,

Speaker 5 there's a company called Novadea that looks interesting. We'll see, yet to be determined.
But,

Speaker 5 you know, I just am trying to get on there. And

Speaker 5 I keep coming back to like, I don't actually need all that. Like really what I need is a simple policy repository with downloads, simple that works.
Right.

Speaker 5 Because all the rest of it is in Zoom. And I've actually talked to you many times, probably frustratingly so to you.

Speaker 5 how do i not have an agency management system can i just make this work 100 in agency zoom and there's a few features that make that not possible um just some like address mailing address physical address stuff that that whatever it's fine you guys aren't trying to be an agency management system so it doesn't matter but like um it's close and it's like that that is that that

Speaker 5 that's the answer in my opinion because Really, the policy data with our integrations with the carriers and how quickly carriers are starting to directly integrate into systems and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 5 Like we're five years away from like Ivan's being probably not as important today, unless they do some major changes, which, you know, if you listen to Reed, it sounds like he's doing some interesting stuff.

Speaker 5 So maybe he does open that platform up and modernize it. But

Speaker 5 it just, to me, the simplicity is what

Speaker 5 is what.

Speaker 5 brought me to it is now I can use my marketing brain and do a lot of fun stuff that I want to do and be that true customer experience that I'm looking to deliver, but I don't have to have a freaking PhD in marketing automation in order to deliver it.

Speaker 6 And Salesforce, even, and I feel like tons of people don't realize it, Salesforce is pricey, but it's not cost prohibitive when you look at just buying licenses.

Speaker 6 You're like, that's going to be $60 per person. I have a three-person agency.
Cool. This will cost me $180 a month.
But I mean, I'm in Columbus, Ohio, which is no New York City.

Speaker 6 It's no LA, but it's not cheap. You know, it's not the same as

Speaker 6 nothing to shit on Cleveland, but like it's not as affordable as Cleveland, which is where I grew up.

Speaker 6 A junior Salesforce admin, like a dude that's a couple years out of college, like two or three years out of college and is a Salesforce admin, like can help you build your Salesforce account the way you want.

Speaker 6 Their annual salary in Columbus, Ohio is $95,000. Yeah.
How many agencies are ready to employ somebody even 10 hours a week to get that set up?

Speaker 6 Like, are you ready to take on a fourth of that cost to get your Salesforce set up?

Speaker 6 And to your point, Ryan, 15 years of marketing and sales experience, you would know pretty well how you wanted your Salesforce set up.

Speaker 6 To somebody who's never had a CRM, you're going to build it upside down. You're going to have to build it right side up the next time.

Speaker 6 And then you're still going to make mistakes because you just don't have the breadth of knowledge, like you said, a PhD in any one of these systems.

Speaker 6 to have the architecture be correct to have your team operate in it successfully and it still doesn't do the right stuff it still doesn't doesn't, it still gives them a list of things to do and they still have to manually send out a text and an email and they're still not happy with it and then they still don't use it.

Speaker 5 This is the frustrating part for me is that it's like, this is what I don't get about agency management systems in general. And I know that this is the epic bitch, but I just don't get this part.
Like

Speaker 5 they're doing all these things. And none of like all I need is a simple policy management system.
And I really like community cloud. I really like community cloud, right?

Speaker 5 So like, I like the community cloud cloud feature and i like the ability to easily how easily when you see a well-done salesforce installation when you see how easily you can move information pull information you know move between accounts move between policies roll up data to to really get a true vision of it like i'm like wow that is It's just so easy.

Speaker 5 Like today, it's like, I get into now certs and I'm like, oh my God, I've been in here 20 times today and I still don't know where anything is.

Speaker 5 And for this account, it didn't download properly because, for some reason, for chubbing workers' comp policies, now search decided to beam that to the moon instead of putting it into the policy, right?

Speaker 5 So now I have all these policies with no premium. Okay, so, um, but you know, maybe I'm doing it wrong.
Uh, who knows? So

Speaker 5 it, it, I just look at him like there's such, there's just a few, like, I would love to just create a policy, not an agency management system, a policy admin system with a simple like community cloud-s back end that I could plug agents you know agency zoom into and i'd be like that's that's a whole solution there it is then i can have one freaking person who logs into that and goes okay premiums commissions here here's your policy information oh you want to download your policy form well since cat won't build a client portal into agency zoom i guess we have to back end it into this system so like you know that to me that's all you need all this crap that they're bolting on and just the price of the agency man system keeps going up and up and up and i'm like you're not as as good as crms so if sales and marketing is the key you keep bolting crappy marketing like i saw uh uh an advertisement come out for one of the agency management systems and it was like we have marketing automation now and i'm telling you their screenshot in 2021 I think someone went was was goofing because it was like an unsplash photo from like a computer from like 1997.

Speaker 5 And they're like, look, marketing automation. Like we have six templates.
And I'm like,

Speaker 5 whoever, whoever did that marketing piece needs to be like flogged.

Speaker 5 Like, you know how, like, if you, if you, like, if you're in Taiwan and you commit like a petty crime, they like hit you with this stick that really hurts.

Speaker 5 Like, that person should get that for putting that out on the internet.

Speaker 6 Oh my God. I so appreciate that because there's this like happy medium balance too, even in our world.
And like you said, like, what's agency zoom?

Speaker 6 Like, it's hard to define it because we're talking to everyone from like you to like our agency owner who like ambitiously wants to take on a crm and i have to explain why like that's really not an exciting adventure and they should just like reposition themselves to think about their customer experience and their employees so like yeah the the marketing of like where we sit in the market and our user base like i don't know how many people that are listening like pay attention to product adoption curve but if you guys have worked with insurtechs and ever like beat your head against the wall because you feel like they're not listening or they're not ready for you there's like five or six mindsets there's your innovators, your early adopters, your early majority, your late majority, and then there's your laggards.

Speaker 6 The laggards are the people that like still don't have a void, you know, like maybe don't even have a cell phone.

Speaker 6 But when you plot 7,000 people or 7,000 agencies and like 64,000 people on this adoption curve, you suddenly end up with people that really get it, innovators that want to do cool stuff like you do.

Speaker 6 And then you end up also with the late majority who are like, I need CRM.

Speaker 6 and you're like why and they're like because i was told i do and yeah i was at this association meeting one time and those kids kept using these three letters and i googled it and you're the ones that came up yeah when people like text me or like send us messages on facebook and they're like i need an mcr and i'm like

Speaker 6 not sure what you're looking for here and they're like you know like somewhere to track my sales and i'm like you mean a crm yeah yeah i'm like what ams do you use and they're like, we have file cabinets.

Speaker 6 I'm like, ah,

Speaker 6 maybe not right yet. Yeah, I like my favorite.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 I want to be respectful of your time. And we're at the number.

Speaker 5 My favorite is when people tell me that their CRM is a whiteboard in their office. They're like, I just like the visual nature of a whiteboard.
And I'm like,

Speaker 5 I mean, yes, I get it.

Speaker 5 If you're working on like 10 accounts, which if you're a middle market person and you have 10 accounts and your goal is to write seven of those accounts for the year and that and they're going to pay your bills and then again some of what we're saying doesn't make a whole lot of sense okay that part i could be like okay you know one congratulations great for knowing what you're doing that's awesome no no no judgment but if like you're trying to run kind of a standard slightly more digital ish agency or trying to get into the digital world and you don't have some function on your computer that allows you to move clients through a visual pipeline

Speaker 5 i don't know how you can be a fit you are at You have to be dropping accounts on the floor. You just have to.
I just

Speaker 6 people too that are saying, like, oh, yeah, I like want to sell new policies and all this.

Speaker 6 And this, like, just, as a sales leader, again, it's just one of those things that, like, the hair stands up like on my arm. I'm just like, oh, like, chills like run up my back.

Speaker 6 I'm just like, God, the amount of people that don't have a goal for their agency and then don't have a goal for their individual people, but they're like, oh, we put it on a whiteboard or we share a Google sheet.

Speaker 6 It's like,

Speaker 6 what for? Yeah.

Speaker 6 Like, what, okay, like, why?

Speaker 5 Are you managing to it?

Speaker 6 Yeah. Like, okay, so like, what, like, if you have 10 up there and it's the last day of the month, like, am I ahead? Am I behind? How do you know that? Like, how do I know if I'm ahead or behind even?

Speaker 6 Like, not only do you as the agency owner have a gut feeling, but like, do I have a gut feeling? Does it matter? You know, like.

Speaker 6 That's the thing that I think becomes hard every time somebody loses the idea of like digitizing and tracking some of this is if you you don't even set your goals, if you don't communicate your goals out, and then you don't hold people accountable to them because they can do whatever the hell they want, it's not gonna go as well as you think it is, you know?

Speaker 6 And like people start with the like, oh, we're just gonna track first. It's like, but what are you tracking?

Speaker 6 Like, what's the purpose of tracking it if there's no celebration for tracking it and achieving it? Or if there's no like, hey guys, we gotta do better next month. If we don't hit it, like

Speaker 6 what for, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 5 And you did just mention the greatest feature in the history of insurance technology, which is the confetti every time you sell a policy.

Speaker 6 Well, I'm sorry, I say that again.

Speaker 5 The greatest feature in the history of insurance technology, the confetti that comes down every time you hit the sold button. It's just the greatest, the greatest feature ever.

Speaker 5 It is the amount of like psych, whether it was a complete mistake or like a joke, the psychology behind every time you hit the sold button, the screen bursts with confetti is just, I'm like, I freaking love it.

Speaker 5 I got mad the other day because

Speaker 5 like we had something in ready to issue that hadn't been moved to sold for like two days. And it didn't have to be, but it just hadn't been moved.
Yep.

Speaker 5 And I was like, I literally on my team call was like, screw you guys. I'm moving it to sold so I get to see the confetti.
Like that, that's happening.

Speaker 6 Boom, get win. You know what I mean? It's like

Speaker 6 a joke. It literally started as a joke because we used to have this little animation that popped up and it like, it was just like a little happy face or something stupid.

Speaker 6 And we're like, God, that's so cheesy. And we're like, what's even more obnoxious and more corny? And it was like this confetti like popping through the screen and like floating down.

Speaker 6 The amount of animation work and engineering work that it ended up taking for us to like, you know, reap what we sowed that we wanted this like new cheesy obnoxious thing.

Speaker 6 And then how attached you guys are to it now. Like.

Speaker 6 load speed on a computer impacts this dumb confetti. So we have to have like almost a different version of confetti for every device that you guys are on.

Speaker 6 It really has bit us in the butt, but now people love it.

Speaker 5 And I mean, it's got to be a million X ROI.

Speaker 6 I mean, why

Speaker 5 there's no other CRM that does it, so why would you, why would you ever leave? Every time you hit the sold button, you get this burst of confetti, you feel like a million dollars.

Speaker 5 It's the best, but it's funny.

Speaker 6 I mean, the funny part was we were doing like poppers in our office, like you know, those little ones you like pulled us, like she said.

Speaker 6 We were like doing that as a joke, like when we were like developing that and stuff. And we're like being cheesy and obnoxious about it.

Speaker 6 And then, you know, like you said, lo lo and behold like everybody like loves it and we're like all right well I guess joke's on us like it actually worked out like how fun

Speaker 5 well um I am not going to title this anything that has to do with employee enablement but I will uh say that this has been absolute pleasure I appreciate your time um I want to say thank you publicly I know you deal with a lot of people like me so I'm going to thank you for me and because I know all of them appreciate as well at least the crew of people that I run with that text you all the time.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 I do think that you guys are doing really good work. It's been a huge resource for my agency.
And, you know, like I said, of all the tools that I would or wouldn't move from,

Speaker 5 you know, you guys are really one of the core pieces. And I just look forward to what you have going on and the continued improvement.
And hopefully.

Speaker 5 I hope that we can report on a future podcast that you hit your 7,000. Now, two days isn't a lot of time, but I hope you get there.

Speaker 6 We can do it. We have many a times had pretty easily 10 sign ups a day.
And we got most of Thursday left, most of Friday.

Speaker 6 We got a little bit on Saturday. So if somebody's really ambitious and likes to work on Saturday, they become my favorite people anyway.
So thanks for having me.

Speaker 6 One, like, thanks for being part of the cool, like, close-knit group of us that like do text and offer ideas.

Speaker 6 You know, like I said, we really do value like what every single one of our agencies share.

Speaker 6 Like we have a roadmap feature like built in that you guys can request stuff but and i i i love all of our teams although i'm being shadow banned from the roadmap because my suggestions are not getting in there that's definitely true um

Speaker 6 the teams that then go investigate which you guys are one of them and it's like very needed the teams that go and go investigate the stuff that gets put on the roadmap and they test it and they beta use it like those are the ones that like make a world of difference those are the ones that take technology from being you know 150 agencies and it's just one person's opinion and it's some engineers building stuff like you guys are the ones that like take it and really build it into what independent agents need.

Speaker 6 So, you know, I wouldn't be here. Agency Zoom wouldn't be where it's at without you guys.

Speaker 6 And that's why I love getting bombarded with texts at two o'clock in the afternoon, you know, two minus an hour and 53 minutes until I just get lit up for 30 minutes with you guys.

Speaker 5 All right. Well, the group text will go out.
Hey, it's time to start texting cat. I, I, you know, oh, hey, look at this.
Look at this agency Zoom. I got the party poppers right on my phone right here.

Speaker 5 My boy just sold two, two policies. I got got the party poppers going on my phone.

Speaker 6 Boom.

Speaker 6 Love it. All right.

Speaker 6 Thanks, Kat.

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