RHS 104 - Heath Shearon on Becoming the Mayor of Insurance Town

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Speaker 9 in a crude laboratory in the basement of his home.

Speaker 10 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show.

Speaker 5 Absolutely tremendous episode for you today. We have Heath Sharon, the founder of the Insurance Talent Podcast.
Now, we talk a little bit about Heath's recent...

Speaker 5 we talk a little bit about Heath's recent transition from Encompass, where he was a marketing rep, agency ambassador, whatever,

Speaker 5 to being full-time on the Insurance Town podcast, what that meant,

Speaker 5 when he realized he was ready to make that transition, how he made that transition, and where he sees the Insurance Town podcast goes.

Speaker 5 We talk a little bit about the industry in general and ultimately want to know what the future looks like for Heath. and it's just an awesome awesome conversation

Speaker 5 couldn't believe like with with Brad Fulmer a couple of episodes ago I couldn't believe I hadn't had heath on the show yet and was excited to share him with you if you don't know who Heath is if you do already you're gonna enjoy this and if you're not subscribed to the Insurance Town podcast I think it's a great ad to your iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts the insurance town podcast is a great ad so we'll get to heath in just a minute.

Speaker 5 Before we do, I want to give a big shout out to our sponsor, Advisor Evolved, the greatest insurance websites in the history of the world. There is no other option.

Speaker 5 If you're using another website provider, then just understand that you have chosen to use a lesser option than Advisor Evolved.

Speaker 5 I've been, you know, I've been Chris Langell's buddy for maybe 10 years.

Speaker 5 I always bust his chops about being from Jersey. And, you know,

Speaker 5 Chris and I talked before Advisory Wolves even a thing. He was still an agent.
And watching him grow this company, watching the quality of his work evolve, although he always made good websites.

Speaker 5 I mean, this Rogue Risk is probably like the third or fourth website that he's built for me. And I just,

Speaker 5 I've never had a problem. He knows how to fix things.
He knows how to get them done quickly.

Speaker 5 His websites work. They rank for SEO.
They're fast, which is so important. They're not filled with garbage plugins and third-party nonsense that slow your website down.

Speaker 5 And all this stuff matters today. I mean, SEO is one of the primary, you know, inbound SEO traffic is one of the primary places that Rogeris gets new leads every month.
And

Speaker 5 that's in large part thanks to Chris Langel and the work that the Fine People at Advisor Evolved do. So I want to give a big shout out to them.
Also, I want to give a shout out to Mick Hunt and

Speaker 5 Premier Strategy Box. I know I always give Mick shout outs, but I just think the world of Mick and think the world of what him and his people do.

Speaker 5 And if you need kind of managed, if you need one of your teams managed, if you need your producers trained, if you need your agency Zoom or your automation tool set up

Speaker 10 with high-quality emails

Speaker 5 and kind of automations and follow-ups and all that kind of stuff that matches your language,

Speaker 5 what Mick is doing at Premier Strategy Box, in my opinion, is best-in-class agency consulting, revenue-driving services. And it's worth knowing, Mick.
It's worth knowing his team.

Speaker 5 Check them out at mypremier strategybox.com. MypremierStrategyBox.com.
Go to mypremier strategybox.com.

Speaker 6 All right.

Speaker 5 Let's get on Heat Sharon.

Speaker 10 Yo, dude.

Speaker 10 Coming in on mute.

Speaker 9 What's up, bro?

Speaker 10 Podcast Master coming in on mute.

Speaker 9 You know it, dog. Well, I know you come in hot with the recording already started.
I got to make sure I'm muted before I get started saying something.

Speaker 10 What's up, man?

Speaker 9 Man, I'm just chilling.

Speaker 10 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 9 I've been recording all day. So.

Speaker 10 Yeah, you said today's your batch day. What does that mean?

Speaker 9 Oh, I recorded four today.

Speaker 9 And so

Speaker 9 it's just been a morning full of recordings.

Speaker 10 It's been good.

Speaker 10 That's the best way to do it.

Speaker 10 You know, before

Speaker 10 Rogue,

Speaker 10 that's how I tried to do it. I would actually do batch weeks.
I would basically try to get like four to six recordings in over the course of one week and then take a couple of weeks off

Speaker 10 just to kind of clear my mind and all that. And plus, it's just easier.
You're kind of, once you get in that podcast mode, you're questioning, you kind of get in that question mode.

Speaker 10 But yeah, that's the best way to do it. Sporadically, like right now, I'm.
doing one or two a week. So I'm only ever one or two weeks ahead.
There's a lot of pressure on that.

Speaker 9 Yeah, Yeah, that's how I started off the first year. And then now I'm trying to get like 12 weeks out so I can enjoy the summer and not have that pressure.

Speaker 9 But again, I worry about having dated material sometime, but that's all right. I'm still learning this game.
I'm not a pro like Ryan Hanley, but I'm getting there, bro. I'm getting there.

Speaker 10 Don't take anything I do as pro. I

Speaker 10 look at like Cass or Carruthers or Flowers and Scott Howell or Caitlin. Look, they're all so much more pro than me.
I'm the least pro of the whole group.

Speaker 9 Yeah, but you've been doing it longer than everybody else. So,

Speaker 10 yes, but I also

Speaker 10 do it mostly because I like talking to people, not because I want to have a podcast. Um, truthfully, you know, I record these because people find them interesting.

Speaker 10 I have I have more conversations like this off air than I do on air. I just like talking to people and learning about what they're doing.
And then I just record these because people seem to like them.

Speaker 10 But if people stopped liking them, I would still have conversations.

Speaker 9 Right. No, I'm with you.
I'm the same way, bro. I'm the same way.

Speaker 10 Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, that's how you and I met.
I mean, you just randomly called me one day on the phone, I think, from wherever the heck you were in Arkansas.

Speaker 10 And, and I think you were like, dude, you know, I've been listening to this Agency Nation. You know, I'm listening to this Agency Nation podcast and you don't even know I'm from Arkansas.

Speaker 10 And you're with Encompass at the time, I think. And,

Speaker 10 then we just, we chatted for like an hour, I think. You know, we just were chatting and had a good, great conversation.
And then, you know,

Speaker 10 you know, been, been buddies ever since. So it's, I'm surprised it is the first time you're on the show.

Speaker 10 That's, that's, I, I was thinking about it the other day. I just did this with Broker Brett.
So Broker Brett's coming out the week before you.

Speaker 9 Dude, we did it again. I just reported Broker Brett.
He's coming out tomorrow.

Speaker 10 You son of a bitch.

Speaker 9 Dude, you always beat me up.

Speaker 10 Mine's coming out Thursday. I'm emailing Cass's people right now, telling them to get it out now.
Get it out right now.

Speaker 9 We have great minds think alike, bro. Yo, Broker Brett's cool, though.
He's ADHD, like a son of a gun, though. He's all over the map.
We had a good conversation.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I enjoyed, I enjoyed, I enjoyed that. And it was the same kind of deal.
Like, I've known him for three or four years now and communicated with him. a lot.
We've had calls.

Speaker 10 I've actually been on the podcast that he used to do with Nick Lamparelli for Insurance Nerds. I've been on that show and talked to them.
And, and I was like, I, you know,

Speaker 10 I think people, there's definitely a general misconception that I take this podcast more serious than I do, because I just like saw him. I was like, man, when's the last time I had Brett on the show?

Speaker 10 And I said, well, holy crap, I've never had Brett on the show. So then I sent him a message, you know, what I think I actually DM'd him on Twitter, which is weird.

Speaker 10 Adam Sheridan is the only other human that DMs me on Twitter. And that's like our special space.
So Adam, I'm not calling you out, bro. Keep doing it.

Speaker 10 And that does not give any of you other people who are listening license to DM me on Twitter. But

Speaker 10 I DMed him on Twitter and I was like, yo, dude, you got to come on the show. Like, I can't believe you haven't been on.
So that's funny.

Speaker 10 So everyone listening, the inside joke is, you know,

Speaker 10 without planning. Heath and I are constantly stealing each other's guests.

Speaker 9 So yeah, dude. And I try to get guests that nobody else has on.
And then sure enough, Haley will have them or I'll have them right before you.

Speaker 9 It's just funny, uh, and that's part of the game, I guess, with the uh, the podcast deal, I guess. But uh, because everybody makes their circuits and it makes their rounds, yeah.

Speaker 9 And you beat me to Mick Hunt, too. You had him on your show, and I had him like several, I guess, a year later.
But either way, uh, that dude's amazing.

Speaker 10 That dude makes the best, mix the best. Mick Hunt from my strategy box or uh premiere strategy box, but go to mystrategybox.com, my strategybox.com.
Go to my strategybox.com.

Speaker 9 A future sponsor of the Ryan Hanley show.

Speaker 10 No, current sponsor.

Speaker 10 Oh, is he? That's right. Okay, current.
My bad. Yeah.
Hey, there's no, no one better in the um

Speaker 10 in the agency management consulting game. And obviously, it does a lot more than that.
But what I've always been impressed with about Mick, and you know, I want to talk about you too, obviously.

Speaker 10 But what I think, what I love about Mick is I actually met Mick at Billy Williams'

Speaker 10 event in

Speaker 10 Florida in February of 2020. So this is like a month before the zombie apocalypse.
We're down, maybe it was January, it doesn't matter. We were down in Texas at Billy's thing.

Speaker 10 And there's this dude sitting behind me and he's, you know, talking every once in a while and he's saying some shit. And I'm like, I really like what this dude is saying.

Speaker 10 Like he's saying some stuff and I'm like, I'm like nodding my head. I'm like, wow, this dude sounds really smart.
So finally, one place turned around. I'm like, who are you? Like, how do I not know?

Speaker 10 Like, the stuff you're saying is so on point. Like, and the way he was saying it was so authoritative.
I was like,

Speaker 10 how do I not know who this person is? So then we started rapping and we ended up going to lunch both days together. And now,

Speaker 10 you know, now he just busts my balls about the bills all the time. But, but yeah, his, his, he's, they're locked in over there.
That's, they got a lot of, they're producing a lot of winners.

Speaker 10 Let's put it that way.

Speaker 9 Dude, that's how the best relationships happen is who the hell are you? And why don't I know you? That's how most of my relationships start.

Speaker 10 I think that's a general miss by a lot of people and myself early in my career. So I don't want to pretend like I somehow came out with this understanding.

Speaker 10 You know, just in general, I feel like we don't randomly reach out to people enough.

Speaker 10 Like we just don't like you, you know, and I'm not talking about just blowing up somebody's email with 10 million requests. That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying.

Speaker 10 You see someone who's doing something or saying something or engaged in something and you are genuinely intrigued or feel like you can add value that's the best way to reach out um

Speaker 10 man those those random touches even if in the moment the person doesn't lock in you know they're they're like you know because a lot of times everybody you know you me everybody it's got 10 million things going on maybe that moment you can't completely go down the path but you definitely take a mental note oh man you know it was really cool that person to reach out or geez that resource they sent me that was cool And then maybe a month, maybe a year, whatever later, you, you, you, you come back to them and you go deeper.

Speaker 9 No, I 100% agree. And that's the way I've built most of my relationships in this, in this getting industry for the last 20 years, is just reaching out to people.

Speaker 9 And one of the things that I think I do that a lot of people don't do is, you know, when I hear a guest on your show or on whoever's show, you mentioned a whole host of shows earlier.

Speaker 9 I'll pick a phone and call them. If they leave their contact information anywhere in the show, I'll just be like, dude, I enjoyed hearing you on the Hanley show.

Speaker 9 I enjoyed hearing you on whatever show. And people want that.
They go on these shows for that. And some people don't do that.

Speaker 9 And so I try to encourage people after my shows, like, hey, reach out to this guy, talk to him because he's got a lot to say. And he came on the show for a reason.
Yeah.

Speaker 9 You know, and I think that's really cool. And that's how, again, how I got to know you.
You left your contact somewhere and maybe you slipped your cell phone out there.

Speaker 9 And I was like, dude, I'm calling him.

Speaker 9 And so. you know and again we've become friends since then yeah now we we text every week or we talk as much as we can so yeah and i appreciate that.

Speaker 10 Yeah, no, it's good, man. And the other thing, too, I think about the podcasting thing, and we've talked a lot about this because behind the scenes, and for you listeners, you may not realize this.

Speaker 10 There's no reason that you would, but

Speaker 10 the

Speaker 10 a lot of the podcasters in our space, we, we, we talk to each other.

Speaker 10 We share, we actually got a Facebook group chat thing where most of the time we just make fun of cast, but occasionally we do share information.

Speaker 10 And, um, and my point in saying that to you is that uh, I think it's not combative. Like I bus chops about, you know, about Carruthers and Flowers and Howell.

Speaker 10 And, you know, we're always kind of like, it's like a friendly competition to a certain extent. But at the same time,

Speaker 10 it's at least for me. And I know, I know that you share this value as well.
So I'm going to speak for you. I think

Speaker 10 it's really about just our industry growing, being more connected.

Speaker 10 And that's why I never care if you or anybody either comes out with a guest right before or right after that's the same, because you're going to talk to somebody a completely different way.

Speaker 10 Like you're going to ask them different questions. You're going to go down different paths.
You're going to be interested in different things that I'm going to be interested in. And

Speaker 10 I have my own philosophy on how I like to talk to people. You have your own philosophy.
Scott and Bradley do their own thing. Cass is a different way.
Carolyn is a different way.

Speaker 10 you know caitlin you know all the different podcasts they all have different ways and i think when someone does do the circuit you could say

Speaker 10 i feel like it's good to listen to a couple of those because you'll get something a little different from each one No, I completely agree.

Speaker 9 And I like what you said there because a lot of times I'm listening for or talking to him about a totally different avenue because I come from a different background than you do.

Speaker 9 I come from the South. You come from the Northeast.
I come from second generation. You don't, you come from starting up your agency a year ago.

Speaker 9 I come from you know 20 years on different sides of the fence. And so, my question is going to be different.
And I'm not near as intelligent as you are.

Speaker 9 Some of the words you say have no clue what they are. And I have to google so many of your words that you say.
And so, the mayor's not that smart, but it's really cool.

Speaker 9 I forgot what you said the other day, and I wrote it down to look it up. My wife is like, You're an idiot, you don't know what that means.
But it was a really good word. I appreciate it.

Speaker 10 Um, but yeah, I read too much as a kid. I, I was, was, I'm secretly very dorky and I like reading books.

Speaker 9 It's not that secret.

Speaker 10 I'll play it. So, you know, well, yeah.
So not so secretly dorky. And I don't even know.
My wife makes fun of me all the time. She's like, why do you talk like that?

Speaker 10 And I'm like, I don't even know that I'm saying these things. And half the time.
I don't even know if I'm using the words right. I just like read it one time and it sounded good.

Speaker 10 So I don't even know where it comes from.

Speaker 10 Like, you know, I'm sure if someone did like a, like a fact check on my podcast, it would be like all, all falses, like or whatever the thing is, like, you know, it'd be, it would, that would get crushed in a fact check, I'm sure.

Speaker 9 By the way,

Speaker 9 this is probably to be edited out maybe, but do you know that the most word used on your podcast is probably serendipitous?

Speaker 10 Yeah, it could be.

Speaker 10 You know, I agree with you. I don't, well, you know, I think that, especially recently.
So I will, I will give that to you recently for sure. And I think the reason is

Speaker 10 where I'm at in life and in business,

Speaker 10 I'm very grateful for this particular moment. And you know how,

Speaker 10 you know, how

Speaker 10 a cliche, and I don't know that I'll phrase it properly, but it's kind of, you know, essentially is like, you never know when you're there until it's over.

Speaker 10 I feel like I'm living a moment in my life when I actually am aware

Speaker 10 how happy, how grateful, content, how much love, respect, how much challenge. Like I'm living in a moment right now where I feel, you know, and I'm not saying everything's perfect.
Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 10 It's not.

Speaker 10 Like I haven't paid myself in 15 months, you know, like, you know, there's a lot of things that aren't perfect, but I, I have my, my relationship with my wife, my friends, the people I talk to.

Speaker 10 My kids are amazing, seven and five. My older son is super into baseball, which is like my dream.
You know, I love baseball. So like, I'm in this moment and I'm, I don't know how I got here.

Speaker 10 And I have no other word to describe it other than serendipity. I just, I don't have a way to say, like, I didn't plan to be here, but I found myself in this moment.
I wake up every day. I'm happy.

Speaker 10 I'm excited, challenged. I have love.

Speaker 9 And I don't know how else to describe it so i think that's probably what it is it's it's perfect i think that's another reason why it's a great time for you and i to talk because i'm in that same boat for you know a good majority of my career i couldn't say that i was at that place in my life where i was you know satisfied i feel like right now i've hit the lottery in my career and it couldn't be you know again like you said it's not perfect but it couldn't be any better to be able to get in a place in my life where i quit the company job to go full-time into insurance town is a lot for me and it's it's it's exciting for me and it's it's a happy time for me so the serendipity thing you know i say it to bust your chops but at the same time i resonate with that and that's what makes you so relatable at least to me and i'm sure the gazillion listeners you've got out there because

Speaker 9 it's just refreshing especially in our industry when it's full of negativity and full of you know naysayers and whatnot and to have someone that's you know positive And it sends that vibe, it's super cool.

Speaker 9 So I'm excited for you. I'm proud of you.

Speaker 10 And I'm happy to hear that things are up for you well thank you very much and and i i i want to really get into i want to get into the psychology of of making that transfer in a second i do i want to just piggyback real quick before we get there off of what you just said about the negativity and and um

Speaker 10 you know i i i had a i had a moment on twitter

Speaker 10 today actually and recording this where I saw a tweet from someone who works in the insure tech space for a platform that specifically services agents.

Speaker 10 And this particular individual continues, in my opinion, to

Speaker 10 post inflammatory comments that while I'm assuming the point is to be provocative and to create conversation,

Speaker 10 comes off as very negative and comes off as,

Speaker 10 it just feels very like

Speaker 10 2016

Speaker 10 you know every you know agents are idiots and incapable of doing this and they won't do this and they can't do this and mama mama and i just like

Speaker 10 you know i hate i just can't help myself like the the irish like fiery crazy person that it lives inside of me comes out and i'm just like ah you know i'm back and then you know there's all these you know there's all this commentary and like i basically you you, you, you, you said negativity.

Speaker 10 I just wish in general in our industry, and we'll never get there. And people aren't perfect, and neither am I.
And I do this, and we all do this, but

Speaker 10 I do hope that, you know, I learned a lot of lessons at Agency Nation.

Speaker 10 I was at different times, I was part of the problem.

Speaker 10 I will admit that. I think in 2017, 2018, I started, I got over it, but certainly in 2015, 2016, when the InsurTech Revolution first started, I was part of of the problem.

Speaker 10 I think I really wish we could get to a place where we stopped blaming each other, right? Like, I was going back and forth with Nick Ayers on this,

Speaker 10 which was a very productive part of this Twitter exchange.

Speaker 10 Because I, you know, as much as I don't always agree with everything Nick says, I do think the way he thinks about things, I really appreciate.

Speaker 10 You know, we were going back and forth. And I was like, man, there's no perfect agent.
There's no perfect carrier. There's no perfect association.
There's no perfect tech vendor.

Speaker 10 Like, can't, you know,

Speaker 10 can we cut each other just a little bit of slack? Like, maybe if no one is adopting your technology platform, it's not because agents are stupid.

Speaker 10 It's because you haven't actually solved a real problem. Like you've solved a problem that you perceive, but, you know, I know a lot of agents who aren't heavy tech that make a lot of money.

Speaker 10 So why are you saying that they can't or won't? They've obviously figured something out. Maybe just your solutions are right for them.
And I, and it goes the other way too.

Speaker 10 Agents need to stop holding insurance technology vendors to such a high bar because, man, there's a lot of legacy crap that goes on. And

Speaker 10 it is impossible to just walk in and be

Speaker 10 an end-all solution for people. So I just wish we could all just mellow and understand that agents are part of the game.
Tech is part of the game. Carriers are part of the game.

Speaker 10 Associations are part of the game. And the more we can work together,

Speaker 10 man, we rise a lot faster. And it's never going to be perfect, but that's a little kumbayash.
But that's kind of the mood that I'm in.

Speaker 9 No,

Speaker 9 it's right on because that's a huge problem that I have and I see in our industry.

Speaker 9 And it's easy to get sucked into those Twitter battles or those fights on the groups and the chats and the whatever else because we are passionate people.

Speaker 9 I know I'm speaking for you and I. And most of our industry, if we're doing something, you know, it's a passion that's coming out.
Yeah.

Speaker 9 And, you know, I think about, you know, a quote, I think it's Simon Sinek who says, you know, if you're working hard for something you don't care about, it's called stress.

Speaker 9 But if you're working for something that you're, you care about, you believe in, it's called passion. Yeah.

Speaker 9 And I think that you and I, you know, and a lot of our industry, including Nick Ayers, we're passionate about what we believe in. And so that passion comes out.
And it does come across negative a lot.

Speaker 9 And so I'm hoping that, you know, just by a little something that we do maybe even this podcast could help inspire at least one person to be positive today who knows yeah yeah nick wasn't the guy that i initially bucked at by the way just in case anyone's worrying or wondering right

Speaker 10 i i have a uh an enormous amount of respect for nick for a lot of reasons um

Speaker 10 so dude okay so we've we've chit-chatted about a lot of nonsensical and out-of-context things which i'm sure the audience is very familiar with but i am super interested in and one of the one of the reasons that i wanted to to have you on the show is I'm, I want to, I want to learn more about your decision.

Speaker 10 First, I'd like anyone who is unaware of maybe just a little bit of your history, just give us the quick backstory. But then I want to get into

Speaker 10 the decision to go full podcast, you know, full, full insurance town. Like that couldn't have been easy.
Maybe it was easy.

Speaker 10 I don't know, but maybe give us the quick backstory and then let's, I want to start to talk about that because it's such a bold move. And I'm so happy for you.

Speaker 10 And I just want to learn more about, you know, the mentality behind it.

Speaker 9 Okay. So the quick story, you know, just, you know, for people that don't know who I am, I come from, you know, 20 years experience in this business, second generation.

Speaker 9 And I've always been, you know, either a carrier side, agency side. But my biggest footprint, I feel like, in this industry has been on the association side.
You and I share that.

Speaker 9 Other side of the fence, I was a real big PIA guy.

Speaker 9 My wife runs the PIA of Arkansas. My father actually works for the Big IA in Arkansas.
And so I've always been heavily involved in associations.

Speaker 9 And I got put on some national councils and boards and things like that. And I would travel all over the country and get to go to different events, similar to you, whether I was speaking or attending.

Speaker 9 And, you know, one of those events I went to.

Speaker 9 gosh,

Speaker 9 seven, eight years ago. Again, a fact check that's probably wrong, but however many years ago.

Speaker 9 And when I got to the event, my name badge, you know, had, you know, they always say your name and your company.

Speaker 9 well this one said the mayor on the name tag and it had you know the company i was working for underneath it and i was like this is not my name tag what is this all about and i think i was in like missouri somewhere and uh so i was out of my element a little bit out of my state anyway and they're like no we changed your name tag to the mayor because we've had at least six or seven people today come up and say well where's heath you know where's he sharing where's he going to be where's his booth or where he's going to be speaking or what you know, roundtable discussions he at.

Speaker 9 And so it was flattering for me because I was just a redneck from arkansas and for them to call me the mayor it was a super cool thing and so uh when the pandemic hit you know fast forwarding um the pandemic hit i'd always had this dream i think i talked to you about it a year and a half or two ago about starting a podcast and i never did do it i sat on my thumbs and just said i'm not going to do it uh i don't have enough to say or i'd have all these self-doubts and whatnot and finally pandemic hit in february or march i mean and my wife was like you have no excuse it's time to do it i had good friends of mine you know, that would push me into that direction.

Speaker 9 And it was like, you got to do it. You got to do it.
And so I finally just, you know, said, okay. And, you know, your friend and mine, Sid Rowe, was one of the biggest proponents for me to do it.

Speaker 9 She goes, I'll be your first guest. And that'll give you some credibility right off the bat, you know, having Sid Rowe, the wonderful person that she is, come on.

Speaker 9 And to this day, she's like a sister to me. And she flipped the script on me, my first episode, and started interviewing me, which I thought was interesting.
And,

Speaker 9 you know from there you know the podcast just it's grown little by little to a point to where i started getting my first sponsor you know you know about three months in and i thought it would take me forever i talked to you know bradley flowers you some other people early on i was like what are my numbers supposed to be where am i supposed to be at and i kept checking the numbers like every 10 minutes i'd refresh my numbers like most early podcasters do and um you know bradley gave me the best advice at one point and said don't look for a year.

Speaker 9 Don't even look at your numbers, which is impossible for a podcaster, but don't look, especially a new one. And I kept looking and finally I just turned it off and didn't look anymore.

Speaker 9 And about three months in, I had my first sponsor come in with Canopy Connect. And then

Speaker 9 from there, and I think you've actually hooked up with him. But then, you know, after that, you know, I had another sponsor come on.

Speaker 9 And then I landed a really large sponsor at the end of 2020 and, you know, got to the point where I was like, holy crap, I can actually do this, and it affords me the opportunity to do what I enjoy.

Speaker 9 And that's talking to people, as we talked about earlier. And I enjoy through doing this, you probably get the same thing most people do.

Speaker 9 I get agents that call me every week, or carrier reps that call me every week. And like, hey, I heard this on the show.
What do you think about this?

Speaker 9 Or I want you to come speak on this panel, or I want your ideas on this or that. You know, I really am building authority here that I did not dream that I had.

Speaker 9 And again, it just started snowballing into a place where,

Speaker 9 you know, my wife and I prayed about it and we thought about it a lot. And, you know, in I guess March of this year, I decided I'm out.
You know, I'm leaving Encompass, all state.

Speaker 9 No bad ill will towards them. It's just something I wanted to do.
And I had a dream and a passion to do this. And I have a real, you know, ministry mindset as it is.

Speaker 9 And so I look at this as a way, you know, for this to be a ministry for me, to be a calling for me, so to speak.

Speaker 9 And, you know, it's probably more than you want it, but it's exactly what led me to where I'm at today

Speaker 9 to jump out of my own. I think

Speaker 9 got my LLC and everything started in April, and I'm just full-time in Insurance Town now.

Speaker 10 It's awesome, man. I'm so happy for you.
I mean, I still remember the conversation that we had. You were driving from Arkansas to some

Speaker 10 other state that I, you know, I couldn't point out in a map. And,

Speaker 10 you know, I just. you know you're doing you're going some meeting to another agency or wherever you're going and you know you we were just talking about your ideas.

Speaker 10 And do you think, you know, I remember you talking about, you know, who should I interview? And how do I get interviews? And I was like, dude, just freaking do it. Like, just do it.

Speaker 10 And if you do it, what's going to happen is people are going to listen. You know what I mean? Like, that's, that's what happens.
Like the crazy part is that people start listening. And,

Speaker 10 you know, it just.

Speaker 10 And I completely agree with not looking at your numbers because

Speaker 10 honest to goodness, I couldn't tell you how many downloads I have. I know approximately.
It goes up a little bit. It goes down a little bit.
You know,

Speaker 10 when Carruthers and Cass and Flowers started talking, started talking shit, I had to put them back in their place,

Speaker 10 you know, which is fine. You know, everyone forgets that,

Speaker 10 you know, I've been here for a while. So,

Speaker 10 you know.

Speaker 10 I think what's amazing is that you stuck with it.

Speaker 10 And I don't mean that like you stuck with it, like you were incapable, just it is so difficult early on when you launch those first half dozen, dozen podcasts and it feels like no one's listening.

Speaker 10 You know, you see 100 downloads and you're like, oh my God, I put this much energy and effort and passion into something and freaking 100 people listened.

Speaker 10 And I just say, man, what if you made those 100 people's day? What if those 100 people, you just changed the way they think about whatever it was you're talking about.

Speaker 9 Man, it's worth it. You know, you think about, and you've probably been there too.

Speaker 9 I've been in rooms where I've been speaking to a crowd and it's, you know, maybe 30 or 40 people in the room and you're giving your keynote and you're doing your talk or whatever.

Speaker 9 And you think about that same scenario. Let's go back to that 100 number you threw out.
I'm in front of 100 people every week.

Speaker 9 You know, whether I'm interviewing somebody or talking from my own mic or whatever. It's just cool to know that every week I'm in front of, you know, now more than 100.

Speaker 9 But, you know, it's cool to know that those people.

Speaker 9 so if you're thinking about starting your own podcast in whatever industry that is it doesn't matter those numbers because again if 10 people out of that hundred people got something out of it and better their career or changed something in their industry you've changed those people and i've gotten those emails and i know you have too to say man if i would have listened to your podcast i would have never adopted this or never done that and it's changed the way i do business

Speaker 8 What's up, guys? Sorry to take you away from the episode, but as you know, we do not run ads on this show. And in exchange for that, I need your help.

Speaker 8 If you're loving this episode, if you enjoy this podcast, whether you're watching on YouTube or you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, I would love for you to subscribe, share.

Speaker 8 Comment if you're on YouTube, leave a rating review if you're on Spotify or Apple iTunes, et cetera. This helps the show grow.
It helps me bring more guests in.

Speaker 8 We have a tremendous lineup of people coming in, men and women who've done incredible things sharing their stories around peak performance, leadership, growth, sales, the things that are going to help you grow as a person and grow your business.

Speaker 8 But they all check out comments, ratings, reviews. They check out all this information before they come on.

Speaker 8 So as I reach out to more and more people and want to bring them in and share their stories with you, I need your help. Share the show, subscribe if you're not subscribed.

Speaker 8 And I'd love for you to leave a comment about the show because I read all the comments. Or if you're on Apple or Spotify, leave a rating review of this show.

Speaker 8 I love you for listening to this show, and I hope you enjoy it listening as much as I do creating the show for you. All right, I'm out of here.
Peace. Let's get back to the episode.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 10 Yeah. I'm, I, I,

Speaker 10 you know, the podcast for me, you know, I don't really write that much anymore. I don't do the videos to the industry anymore.
Obviously, that's not my job. Um,

Speaker 10 you know,

Speaker 10 but

Speaker 10 the only thing that I wouldn't give up is this show. You know, I just, I would do it if I had zero sponsors.

Speaker 5 You know what I mean?

Speaker 10 I mean, I have some sponsors. I don't push the sponsors really hard.
I have a few companies that help me pay the bills and really is my only personal income.

Speaker 10 And it's not that much, relatively speaking.

Speaker 10 I don't work the sponsors as hard as Carruthers does or Cass does or Flowers do or probably even you do.

Speaker 10 And probably to my own detriment, but at the same time,

Speaker 10 I don't, you know, I think we all approach this for different different reasons. And I, and, and I don't think anyone is right or wrong.
I don't think who you interview is right or wrong.

Speaker 10 I think that's the beauty of this particular genre of communication is that

Speaker 10 it can be whatever you want it to be. You know, like I have another podcast that I do, which is a lot, which is Capital Region Business Podcast, right? It's a local podcast for the Albany area.

Speaker 10 Man, there are days that I don't want to do it.

Speaker 10 But I've started to get introduced and people have started to reach out in my local region. I didn't even know who they were.
And I'm learning their stories and their stories are awesome.

Speaker 10 There was a guy who won. I didn't even know this.

Speaker 10 His gym, his gym is

Speaker 10 probably 10 minutes from where I'm sitting. He built this physical apparatus called the Focus Master.
It's like a boxing martial arts thing.

Speaker 10 Then you, it's like, you know, when you see like in Creed and and they're like pop pop pop pop pop with the bags and the guy's doing the bags with his hands it's like that except you can do it by yourself so it's pretty cool well he won this dude won sweat ink with jillian michaels like national tv reality show was in la for eight weeks filming this thing and like kept making the cut and making the cut and made it to the final round and ultimately won

Speaker 10 I mean I had no idea. And you know what I mean? We had to interview him and tell his story.

Speaker 10 And now, you know, he emailed me the other day and was like, hey, you know, I got a few new members because of that. And I'm like, this is why we tell people stories.

Speaker 10 Like, this is why you should do the work.

Speaker 9 You're exactly right. And that was one of the things for me when I started my podcast.
And again, the mayor thing was kitschy and cute, but I love the whole small town feel thing.

Speaker 9 And I love the whole, you know, the community looking out for each other. And, you know, I love the idea of connecting others and enhancing one's day any way that I can.

Speaker 9 And so for me, the insurance town is as cliche or as nichey or kitschy or whatever, you know, small town thing it is.

Speaker 9 For me, it fit my personality perfectly because, you know, that's what we do as, and as you have in your own agency, you know, now you see in how important that is.

Speaker 9 You always did, but even more now to get involved in your community, get involved in things and do things like that.

Speaker 9 And so for me, that's what I wanted to do for our industry and connect people and to have people, you know,

Speaker 9 going back to my very first sponsor when they first called me and were like, hey, I had 12 new people sign up from listening to your show i was like holy crap you know that's what i'm doing this for and you know when i get you know other people that come on other you know sponsors that i won't you know bug your show with my sponsor names but you know and they start calling me hey i got new sponsor i got new this i got new customers or like i said those emails you get of hey i adopted something new because of what hanley said on your show or because of whatever said on your show it's uh it makes it all worth it man uh and it makes it so much i guess it makes me feel good about what i'm doing uh i'm finally doing something i've always had a passion for the industry, but be able to do what I love and to do what I enjoy, and that's running this yapper of mine.

Speaker 9 Um, it's just fun, man. Um, and if I can give back to someone's day every day, it's just fantastic.

Speaker 10 Yeah, the other thing, see, I, I, I, I mean, I know you're calling it kitschy, but I hope no one takes that as

Speaker 10 as anything other than I think what I think it is awesome the way that you're presenting it because

Speaker 6 our

Speaker 10 it's probably the reason why I've become, you know, know, not just since I started the agency, but just over the last few years, going to Bold Penguin and then leaving the industry for a time and then coming back into the agency, like, you know, moving from agency nation to bold penguin, not that there was anything wrong with bold penguin, I just became slightly more detached from the industry.

Speaker 10 They didn't really, at the time, were not selling to agencies. It was more carrier-related.
And I became a little more detached.

Speaker 10 And then when I went to the fitness industry, obviously I tried to stay up with what was going on, but I became very detached. And then when I came back,

Speaker 10 what was amazing to me, and I feel such an obligation to continue to add value back to the industry because when I, as soon as as soon as I got canned and I was like, you know, my first thought was I'm going back to insurance.

Speaker 10 There's no doubt.

Speaker 10 And as soon as I kind of announced that I was coming back to insurance, it was like I had never left to a certain, you know, in terms of the friendships and the partnerships and the connections, it was like, it was like I had always been there.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 10 I'll

Speaker 10 always be forever thankful for that because I don't know that the industry realizes,

Speaker 10 nor do I, do they need to, but for me personally, it was incredibly meaningful, like as meaningful as anything professionally in my life that it was kind of like, oh, okay, come on back in.

Speaker 10 You know what I mean?

Speaker 9 Not, you know, prodigal son has returned.

Speaker 10 Well, I don't know about all that. You know, I just, I just mean like, you know, it was just nice that

Speaker 10 you could just call people and it was like, oh, hey, you know, you know, whatever. This is, there's what you missed.
Like, let's get back to work. And,

Speaker 10 and, and I think what I like about your show is you reinforce the sense of connection that agencies and agents have to each other, producer to producer, agency owner to agency owner, you know, account manager to account manager.

Speaker 10 And then across all those chains, there's such a bond, even in quote unquote competitors, that I don't know unless you're in it, you understand. And I think it needs to be nurtured.

Speaker 10 And I think you're doing a really good job of it.

Speaker 9 Man, I really appreciate that. One of the biggest compliments I ever got, and I try to stay humble, but you know, a compliment that I've hung on to forever.
When I was working at a company called EMC,

Speaker 9 my boss back then, you know, he called me a lot of bad names, but he told me

Speaker 9 that,

Speaker 9 you know, no one that he's ever met met understood the industry better than I did. And, you know, it meant a lot to me because, you know, I may not be the smartest insurance guy.

Speaker 9 I don't know big words like Ryan Hanley, but, you know, but I do.

Speaker 10 You're doing that southern humility thing to me. And I've spent too much time in the South to fall for it.

Speaker 9 So, but, you know, but honestly, though, I never felt like, you know, I knew coverages like the back of my hand, or I never understood the latest and greatest marketing tools. But I knew the industry.

Speaker 9 I knew how the industry worked. And I knew that, you know, this industry, more than anything else, is one big, great community.
And it is a way that we can connect to one another.

Speaker 9 And relationships have always meant a lot to me. From going back 20 years ago, I still have friends of mine.

Speaker 9 And what's even funnier is when I first started calling on agents 18 years ago, I had agents I would call on that changed my diapers at conventions when my dad was an agent.

Speaker 9 And so it's just really cool to know that, you know, I had that kind of relationship going that far back.

Speaker 9 And I could still call on those people today and they're still friends, whether they're in Mississippi, Arkansas, New York, or Utah. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 9 It's cool how we're all connected together.

Speaker 9 And then even further, when I got in the podcast thing, and I hate this term, but when people, you know, you become insurance famous or whatever the hell it is, you know, it's one of those things that.

Speaker 9 uh it opened up so many more doors for me and when i got invited to be a part of the facebook groups that you know as you talked about earlier or i'm having phone calls with ryan hanley or carruthers or cass or people that I've looked up to in the industry and become really close friends with different people that I never thought I would.

Speaker 9 And it's really cool. When people call me and say, hey, I'd like to be on your show, that's so humbling and a very cool thing to be a part of.

Speaker 9 And it just shows, I mean, I'm absolutely in love with this industry. Obviously, my, you know, God family, but then this industry is just, you know, a love of mine that I'll never forget.
So I'm cool.

Speaker 10 It's cool to hear you say the same thing that when you left and came back, it was, you know, one of those welcome welcome with open arms type of deal uh and i you know i was one of those people that for a year or so when you were gone i was like dude this is not the same you know i looked for your videos and i looked for your voice and you know i've been a fanboy of ryan hanley's for a while and so it was cool to have you come back and i was one of those i couldn't wait to hear you back in on the airwaves wow thank you um i do miss i do miss doing the videos with all the camera tricks and stuff i will say i mean i'm never probably going to ever do those again but that um i go back you know it's funny and go back and watch those sometimes you know i i don't go back like and search for them i'll see them pop up like you know on youtube when you're scrolling through stuff and all of a sudden boom it'll show you one and it'll be like oh you know i'll watch this and i because i forget you know i forget did a lot of those i think my last one was like 55 and then

Speaker 10 um

Speaker 10 I tried to do 56 on my own. And

Speaker 10 my former employer at the time asked me to stop doing that. So

Speaker 10 that's when the videos kind of came to. I think I had to give them a different name.
I think I moved it from the show to the Ryan Hanley show. That way I wasn't breaking any trademark infringements.

Speaker 10 But I don't want, I've, it's all water under the bridge, actually

Speaker 10 have redeveloped a good, a good, solid relationship with our friends at trustedchoice.com these days, which I'm, which I'm happy about. That's a very good thing.
So that is a good thing. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 10 You know what's you know what's funny? This is off topic, but um,

Speaker 10 do you ever see the movie, uh,

Speaker 10 oh, King, the latest King Arthur, Guy Ritchie's King Arthur?

Speaker 9 Really cool movie with the Charlie Hunnam?

Speaker 10 Yeah, yeah. The bad, badass, badass King Arthur.

Speaker 9 Sons of Anarchy.

Speaker 9 The Sons of Anarchy guy.

Speaker 10 Yes, 100%. Yes, that one.
I can't remember the subtitle, but that King Arthur. So in that movie, he says something that I don't know why this quote has always stuck with me, but it has.

Speaker 10 And it's actually like worked into my real life. And I would file, you know, my new, my, my, my, the reflaming of my relationship with, you know, Chip and everyone over at trustedchoice.com

Speaker 10 from this is he says in that movie, he says, it's better to have friends than enemies, right?

Speaker 10 And he says it like three or four times, like in different situations where like someone who was of a different nature would have like

Speaker 10 beat the guy up or fought him or something right he's like he like lets him off the hook and kind of brings him, you know, brings him, brings him in, and they become friends.

Speaker 10 Whatever he does with the Viking, he does it with the guy that was trying to sell the shirts or whatever, whatever. I can't remember the whole plot.
Go watch the movie. But, um,

Speaker 10 but but I've, that's stuck with me since I saw that. And I've always, I've tried to be,

Speaker 10 I don't say I always win, but I've tried to not hold grudges and say to myself, like, it is better to have friends than enemies. Like, that is a better thing.

Speaker 10 Like, and, and maybe, maybe it's why I've been a little touchier

Speaker 10 on the socials when people start blaming each other for stuff. Yeah.
It's because, you know,

Speaker 10 that doesn't get anybody anywhere. You know what I mean? We don't, we don't move forward and we need to move forward.

Speaker 10 That's the truth, I guess, is, is, and this is kind of where I want to take the remainder of our conversation is from my, you know, being that you have a podcast now and you've been doing it for a while.

Speaker 10 One of the beauties of the podcast is that you get to

Speaker 10 talk to, examine,

Speaker 10 get the perspective of a lot of different people from a lot of different places in the industry. And I feel as strongly as ever that we have to keep moving forward together.

Speaker 10 That rhyme was unintentional.

Speaker 10 And,

Speaker 10 you know, I don't, I don't know. I just, I don't think we can do it alone anymore.
That's my thing.

Speaker 10 That's why I actually had a, Billy Van Jura was kind of bashing aggregators and stuff, which I get where he's coming from. That's not a knock on Billy.

Speaker 10 But I said to him, like, you've never seen Indium then. Like, you've, there are, you know, you've never maybe spent any time with CLI and what they're doing.
Or smart choice. Canyon lands, what?

Speaker 9 I said, or smart choice.

Speaker 10 Yeah, smart choice. Like, there are, there are networks and aggregators out there

Speaker 10 or even goosehead, goosehead, you know, goosehead agents. Billy Wagner is an enormous proponent of Brightway and the things they're doing.
Like they're,

Speaker 10 yes, can aggregators be a, be a negative, maybe,

Speaker 10 but man, done right, they can really be a productive place. And, and I don't see startup agencies.
I don't, I'm blessed that I have this show.

Speaker 10 I've been able to get, I've, I've leveraged this notoriety to get appointments unequivocally. You know, my, my,

Speaker 10 my, my business plan and my performance and COVID do not necessarily justify, you know, some of the appointments that I have.

Speaker 6 I'm aware of that.

Speaker 10 Like I'll make good on it down the road, but it certainly doesn't justify it at face value. So if you don't have this platform and you try to go out on appointment, it'd be effing impossible.

Speaker 10 So I don't, if we want fresh blood in the space, then we need aggregators. So that's why I said to him, you know, take a look at Indium.
And you know what he did?

Speaker 10 He called Indium and then he tweeted me back and said, I was wrong. They're different.
And there are others. I'm not just, I use Indium.
That's why they're not a sponsor or anything.

Speaker 10 I just, I love Chad.

Speaker 9 Well, I love Chad Eddie too. He's a good friend of mine.
But so on that note, and this is a soapbox I probably stand on too often, but and I say this a lot on my show, probably.

Speaker 9 But, you know, if you look back 10 years ago, let's say, the talk around the industry was the small independent agents are going to go away. They're going to be bought up and mergers and acquisitions.

Speaker 9 And, you know, you're never going to have it. If you're longer, if you're smaller than 5 million in premium, you're not going to make it or whatever that arbitrary number was.

Speaker 9 That's a total different shift now. You fast forward to 2020, 2021.

Speaker 9 I think that it's a different shift now to where the ones are going to be making it or the ones that are going to be still around 10 years from now are the small mom and pop shops that can pivot, that can, you know, change directions quickly.

Speaker 9 They can adopt technology quicker. you know, they're more nimble.
And I'm proud of that.

Speaker 9 And a lot of that, you know, I'm on a different boat than you because I feel like aggregators are a big part of that. Gooseheads are a big part of that.

Speaker 9 The people like that are a big part of that.

Speaker 9 Instead of the big bank-owned giant behemoth agencies, now we're seeing those, you know, to throw out my sponsor and Smart Choice, they'll help those little guys that are startups, and they're going to be the ones that are thriving.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 9 And I love that about interesting going back to the community aspect, and we need each other. And, you know, another shout out, whether you like them or not, is

Speaker 9 the DJ and them over at IAOA and the way they've connected people in a way, whether you're a fan or not, or whether you think it's this way or that way, they've brought about a community.

Speaker 9 And, you know, same thing that PIA or Big Eye has been doing for years, but they found a way to do it that brought people closer through the social media.

Speaker 10 Yeah. I just, you know, IOA

Speaker 10 has the slogan down perfectly, better together, right? That's their slogan. And

Speaker 10 I think that they're 100% right. I think they do amazing things.

Speaker 10 I think that the amazing part about the time period that we are currently living in is you can be a big I member, an IAOA member, a member of Smart Choice. You can have two direct appointments.

Speaker 10 You can, you know, you can have a referral partner in a health benefits company.

Speaker 10 You can use, you know, tarmica and you can use this other, you know, and, and it's okay because that path, that thing, it's like a, it's like, it's like your fingerprint, right?

Speaker 10 Like, I'm getting licensed in Florida and California. I have to go get fingerprinted.

Speaker 10 So, so it's like your fingerprint, like you, the groups you choose to operate in, the technology you choose to use, the systems, right?

Speaker 10 I've been working with Matt Namoli and Chris Paradiso on EOS. I want to implement EOS in Rogue.

Speaker 10 We haven't started it yet, but I've been talking about them and

Speaker 10 they're huge believers in it.

Speaker 10 I know a lot of other agencies, I think, when Stromso was on the podcast, he said that he uses it. And

Speaker 10 it's one way to operate an organization or an agency, but it's not the only way. And it may work for you.
It may not work for you.

Speaker 10 And my point in saying all that is we each get to have this unique thumbprint. And

Speaker 10 we need to support each other as much as possible. in building the thumbprint that is right for us.
And your thumbprint is going to be different than my thumbprint.

Speaker 10 And in some places, it may look similar, but in other places, it's going to look different. And that has to be okay today, right?

Speaker 10 Like the idea that PIA New York and Big Eye New York fight each other tooth and nail over the stupidest things is bananas to me. Like I can't even get involved in it.

Speaker 10 People have asked me my opinion and I'm like, it's, it's all dumb. It's all dumb.

Speaker 10 Like that these two organizations that are supported, that are supporting agents fight each other, like legitimately fight each other on different things.

Speaker 10 And the nuance to those differences is bananas. And I get it, they're both businesses and they're both entrenched.
And to say that one should take over the other, they should merge,

Speaker 10 those are implausibilities. But I do think that

Speaker 10 this idea of us being very accepting of you're a PI agent, I'm a big I agent, or vice versa, or whatever, it just doesn't matter because it's almost impossible for us to be the same.

Speaker 10 And if we can accept that and grow together, there's so much information to share and learn.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 9 And it goes back to one of the things that my wife and I always say, whether it's Big I or PIA or IAOA, whatever, I always say, and I'm going to go somewhere with this, so bear with me a minute, but I always say, you know, whatever you're getting involved in, you're going to get out what you put in.

Speaker 9 And so if you're one of those that sit on the sideline, you put your head down, you only work on your own agency, you don't get involved in anything else,

Speaker 9 you're not going to, you know, you're not going to thrive near as well as if you're involved in our industry, whether it's whatever association you decide to get into.

Speaker 9 You've got to get involved in our community. You've got to get involved in the industry.

Speaker 9 You've got to learn people's, you know, what they want to do, how they do things, because you may not have ever heard of EOS unless you knew Chris and Matt. Yep.

Speaker 10 You know, I may not have- That's actually true. I had not heard of EOS until they threw it out.

Speaker 9 You know, I would have never heard about half the shit I've heard about, excuse me, half the crap I've heard about until, you know, I got involved in our industry over the last, you know, 10 or 15 years and got to know certain things that are going going on.

Speaker 9 I don't know about podcasts. I've never even heard of podcasting until I found your show and other people's shows.

Speaker 9 And so again, if you're listening to this and you're not involved in the industry in some way, form or fashion, or in your community or in a niche

Speaker 9 association or whatever it is, crawl out from under a rock and get involved because the only way you're going to better your industry

Speaker 9 or your agency for that matter.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 10 I, I, I think.

Speaker 9 That's such a soapbox of mine.

Speaker 10 No, no, I think you're 100% right.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 10 dude, I've said it a million times. There's only one rule on this show, and it's if you catch a tangent, you got to stay on it.

Speaker 10 Never cut a story short.

Speaker 10 So I think just to kind of surmise or boil down or take a derivative of what you just said is there is no reason to be or to feel alone if you don't like that feeling, right?

Speaker 10 Like if you're the kind of person that just you're the lone wolf warrior and that's the way you operate, God bless you. It's America.
You can do whatever you want.

Speaker 10 If, but if you feel alone and you don't want that feeling, know that you can email me, ryan at rogris.com. You can email Heath.

Speaker 10 I'm not going to throw your email out there unless you want to, but you know, feel free to reach out because there are so many ways to stay connected and meet other people.

Speaker 10 I have agents that I talk to once a quarter on the other side of the country, and we just check in on each other. How's it going, man? I'm doing great.

Speaker 10 I hired a producer this, or hey, I'm really struggling with my, someone emailed me the other day. Hey, I'm struggling with the third email email in my commercial line sequence.

Speaker 10 What would you recommend?

Speaker 10 Right. I mean, I just said, hey, I'll export my

Speaker 10 email sequence. I'll send it to you.
Use whatever makes sense. I don't care.
So like, you know, those things are so available.

Speaker 10 Oh, yeah. 100%.
Don't feel alone. I guess, I guess is the point.

Speaker 10 If you're listening to this, if you're a producer and you feel like you're on an island in your agency, you know, don't, there are ways for you to stay connected and get connected regardless of where you sit.

Speaker 10 If you're an account manager and you're looking to do something different or you just want to be better at your job or you want to move up, there are places for you to go.

Speaker 10 And all it takes is a simple reach out. So never feel alone.

Speaker 9 No, I completely agree. And it's Heath at insurance townpodcast.com.
I would accept those as well.

Speaker 9 And there's so many people in this industry that have reached out and that have become friends with me over the last.

Speaker 9 you know, year and a half, even that have changed, you know, the way I look at this industry, even from what I already did.

Speaker 9 I've always been in love with this industry but um yeah i love that don't feel alone because i think that uh we need each other in this industry and we're so much closer now than we ever have been because of you know social or because of internet or because of pandemic or whatever you know and i find it fascinating to me and so you know i'm so blessed in and i'm in this industry that i'm in this small town of insurance town and i'm a self-elected mayor there and it means a lot to me and so um yeah I love where you went with that.

Speaker 9 So I appreciate that.

Speaker 10 So my last question for you.

Speaker 10 You can interview anybody in the insurance space, right? We're going to put this out into the world. You can interview anybody in the insurance space right now.
You get to pick.

Speaker 10 They're going to say yes, regardless. You just have to say their name.
Who is it?

Speaker 6 Oh,

Speaker 9 you know, if you had to ask me this. you know, several months ago, I'd have said Billy Williams, but I had Billy Williams.

Speaker 9 So if I want to continue the southern kissing your ass thing, I'd say Ryan Hanley because you haven't done my show yet. But man, that's a tough one.

Speaker 9 Cause I don't know the answer to that.

Speaker 9 And I'm still trying to learn all the names and the people that I'd want to hear.

Speaker 9 But if I could have any guests say yes to me outside of our industry or in our industry, and I would say Simon Sinek, I'd love to have him on my show.

Speaker 9 I'd love to hear what he has to say. And another person I would love to have on my show that would say yes would have to be John C.
Maxwell. I'm a huge fan of John Maxwell.

Speaker 9 He's such a great leader guy and talks about leadership. And some of my favorite quotes come from that guy.
But as far as within our industry, that's a good question.

Speaker 9 And I don't have a good answer. You may have to edit this part out because I have no good answer.

Speaker 10 No, that's fine. That's all right.
So what Heath needs is good suggestions. So email him, heath at insurance townpodcast.com.

Speaker 10 Good suggestions for interesting people who have things to say in our space.

Speaker 10 You know, for me, one of the places that I would love to go, I would love to interview more CEOs and leaders inside of carriers.

Speaker 10 I find the carrier business to be very, very interesting.

Speaker 10 I think that they are the punching bag of our space, sometimes warranted, sometimes unwarranted.

Speaker 10 And I found carrier people to be very interesting. I just, you know, I think there's a lot more there than you often, I think than a lot of agents assume.

Speaker 10 And I've always enjoyed some of my favorite interviews have been

Speaker 10 people inside of carriers.

Speaker 9 Well, on this note, you know, we'll put this out there because you could probably help me here.

Speaker 9 One of the carriers I've never had dealings with personally, but even in competition with them and hearing from other agents that say what an incredible company they are is Cincinnati.

Speaker 9 So if you've got, you know, a CEO contact with somebody at Cincinnati,

Speaker 9 whatever they're doing.

Speaker 10 But if anyone from Cincinnati's listening, Sean Gibbler would be a great, he's that runs runs all of commercial lines for Cincinnati. He'd be a great uh interview, just recently took that position.

Speaker 10 Um,

Speaker 9 I just hear so many good things about that carrier, especially you know, here in Arkansas, they do really well. And I've heard you talk about them.

Speaker 9 Another one I would love to talk to would be: if we're gonna talk CEOs, it'd be Tyler Asher or Mike Lorocco, some of those type people.

Speaker 10 Oh, we can we can make that happen. Just email me offline.
I know both those guys, yeah, yeah, we can get Tyler. Tyler and Mike are both awesome dudes.

Speaker 10 Um, dude, for me, it would be, I would, I would love to do an interview with Trisha Griffith from

Speaker 10 Progressive. Yeah.
I've met her. She was on a panel in

Speaker 10 at Elevate.

Speaker 10 And she did a podcast. I did a brief podcast with her, a brief thing with her

Speaker 10 for Agency Nation.

Speaker 10 But

Speaker 10 for a bunch of different reasons, we kind of had to be

Speaker 6 a little more.

Speaker 10 I would love to get like a more raw version of her story because like

Speaker 10 um

Speaker 10 she just seems like she seems like kind of a badass and super smart and i also felt that she was very um

Speaker 10 she was very composed so like on stage at elevate 2018 um lorocco took a shot at her because he you know stayed auto he you know in the same thing he took he took a pretty pretty gnarly shot at her right on stage in front of 800 people Not a physical shot, verbal, verbal shot across the bow.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 10 the

Speaker 10 grace and composure that

Speaker 10 she kept.

Speaker 10 If someone had said that about my company, I would have, I would have,

Speaker 10 you know what I mean? I would have been, ah, and she. you know, had this great answer and came back.
It was very composed. And at the end, I don't think he looked like the winner in that.

Speaker 10 And that's not a, that's not not a knock on Mike, right? He was defending his base and what he was trying to do. And I think I don't fault him for it.

Speaker 10 I don't know that it was the best venue for what he said, but I don't fault him for saying it only because he

Speaker 10 has his territory to protect and he was trying to do that, right? And

Speaker 10 but I just thought I was very, very impressed with her. And I would love to be able to do like an hour-long.
a little more raw version and just get more of her story.

Speaker 10 I think it would be very interesting.

Speaker 9 Yeah, that'd be awesome. I'd also love to find some 80-something, 90-year-something man who started in the industry way, way, way back in the day.

Speaker 9 And they're still somewhat involved just to see that evolution and what it was like back in the 50s or 60s in the industry versus now.

Speaker 9 I

Speaker 9 selfless promotions. I just interviewed with Aaron Gordon earlier this morning, and he was talking about his dad, 80 years old, still involved in the agency.

Speaker 9 I'd love to get him on with Aaron and just talk about what it was like. My dad's 77, still slinging insurance.
I hear his stories, but I'd love to hear like those old school stories.

Speaker 9 I'd love to go sit in an old insurance nursing home, so to speak, and just talk to a bunch of old heads that have been there and fought in the trenches and done the old school method when we didn't have Google and internet and the old school knocking doors.

Speaker 9 That would be a cool conversation.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 10 I, my, this is the last thing I'll say and then we'll wrap this up, but uh, my father-in-law, my father-in-law has been, you know, same kind of similar to your daddy, a little bit younger, but same generation.

Speaker 10 And, um you know he always talks about the the the the books you know you you he you know you'd you take the liberty mutual book under your own books yeah and you'd open the book up and you okay how old are you 55 okay and you're this and you'd put this and you add this in there and you're like okay you want uninsured motorist okay okay let's go find that one and what kind of car and and then you come up with this like manual rate right on the spot you have them sign it write a check and then you mail all that to the you're like oh my god you can see why when you think about how it actually had to be done, you know, and you get down to like timing, right?

Speaker 10 Like, so like some of the weird rules around that seemingly are weird today with like e-sign and e-payments, you're like, it happens so instantaneously.

Speaker 10 And you're like, you know, maybe you question why there's so much regulation around, you know, when is a policy officially in force, what does bound versus issued mean, you know, how many days do you have to rescind an offer and all that kind of stuff?

Speaker 10 Like,

Speaker 10 not in the not too distant past,

Speaker 9 you know,

Speaker 10 you'd sign something, put a check down, have a rate, and then literally it would be days or weeks before the insurance company would even know that you had a policy.

Speaker 10 You know, it just wild when you think about, you know, what it was like not too long ago.

Speaker 9 So yeah, it'd be a cool conversation to have that.

Speaker 10 Yeah, yeah, cool. All right.
Hey, dude. Awesome.
I'm so glad we finally did this.

Speaker 10 Yeah. You know, you, you said that I've never been on your show.
Obviously, I'm always willing and look forward to the day that you finally allow me to grace your airways.

Speaker 10 And we'll have a fun chat as well. But appreciate you, dude.
Hey, for anyone listening to this, and I'll have said this in the intro as well. Subscribe to Insurance Town Podcast.

Speaker 10 If you enjoy this podcast, you're going to love Insurance Town.

Speaker 10 Heath gets the highest recommendation from me in terms of, you know, you're probably going to start listening to Heath and stop listening to this show.

Speaker 10 My numbers are going to go down, which I'm fine with. So

Speaker 10 subscribe to Insurance Town Podcast. I appreciate you, man.
We're going to get out of here. Dude, I appreciate it.

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