RHS 053 - Tracy Cotton on Maximizing Your Value as an Insurance Producer

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

Speaker 5 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. Today, we have one of my favorite people in the entire industry on the podcast, and that is Tracy Cotton.

Speaker 5 And the reason I like Tracy Cotton is because when you look at Tracy Cotton from the outside, right? She's

Speaker 5 you would think mild-mannered, mannered, you would just, you would think polite, and what you get is

Speaker 5 funny and ironic and sarcastic and thoughtful and introspective and dynamic. And, you know, just, I just, I love

Speaker 5 having this conversation. It was just, it was just so much fun.

Speaker 5 And anytime I get to spend time either, you know, virtually or in person with Tracy Cotton, I take that time because I think that she's just the treasure of our space and I think that she's one of the great people and

Speaker 5 I think that anybody who could have Tracy Cotton working for their organization should consider themselves lucky. And

Speaker 5 the truth is I told her many times that the moment she wants to come work for Risk, that I'll get licensed in North Carolina and Tennessee and any other state she wants and I'll go get appointments with any carrier she wants and she can, you know, I'm joking, but I just, that's how much I, how highly I think of her, and how

Speaker 5 much I think that, you know, this, she's just awesome, and she's a worker, and she's a salesperson, she's a marketer, and she just gets it.

Speaker 5 And I love that she focuses on ag business, something I don't know anything about.

Speaker 5 And I just think you're thoroughly going to enjoy this episode with Tracy Cotton because you are absolutely going to take something away.

Speaker 5 We push into many different aspects of the industry, a lot of which has to do with the relationship between producers or between producers and leadership and what that means and how it's evolving and what recommendations she has and I have for producers who may not love their fit with their current organization and how they can approach different things.

Speaker 5 So I think you're going to enjoy it. I certainly did.

Speaker 5 And it's just a pleasure to share these types of episodes with you. Before we get there, I want to give a big shout out to Advisor Evolved.

Speaker 5 If you need a website, which you do, if you don't have a website, then slap yourself in the face right now.

Speaker 5 Like if you don't have a website right now that's functional beyond just like being a postcard online, literally take your hand and slap yourself as hard as you can across the face because you need to wake up.

Speaker 5 But see, here's the deal. The people who are going to benefit from an advisory evolved website are people who are looking to grow their business because it's not just a website.

Speaker 5 It's not just a pretty picture in the magic box. It's a tool.
And I use Quote Vids almost every single day.

Speaker 5 Quote Vids is just one of the tools that comes with an Advisory Evolved website, and I use it almost every single day. It has completely changed the game for me in terms of my ability to.

Speaker 5 deliver that human experience in our digital space. It is part of my human optimized agency.
And when people ask me like, oh, what website provider should I use, there's literally no other answer.

Speaker 5 It's Advisory Evolved. It's Chris Schlangel and his team.
There's There's literally no other answer. It's Advisor Evolved.
You can go check out the other ones and you can even choose them.

Speaker 5 You'll be making a bad decision and that's okay. You just know you've made a poor decision.
And then at some point you will come back to Advisor Evolved where you should be.

Speaker 5 All right, go to advisor evolved.com. Advisor Evolved.com.
Check it out. Get your new website.
Get up to date. We live in a digital world, my friends.
Everyone's working from home.

Speaker 5 Everyone's shopping online. You got to have a good website.
Advisor Evolved is the only website option in our industry.

Speaker 6 All right.

Speaker 5 Now on

Speaker 5 to the magnificent Tracy Cotton.

Speaker 4 There she is. What's going on?

Speaker 7 That's what you get when you like have a zillion Zoom meetings and you don't want to enter the room unmuted every single time.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I get that.

Speaker 4 I haven't sold a single policy on Zoom, not one.

Speaker 4 No?

Speaker 4 I haven't haven't had the need to. I haven't had one client where it even made sense.

Speaker 4 Every account I've sold, big or small, has either been through email or phone. And I've sold two in person.

Speaker 7 So

Speaker 7 you do know what just dropped this week, the new Jeb Blump book, virtual selling.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I see the pictures of it everywhere.

Speaker 7 So yeah, I went ahead and grabbed that. We'll see.
I've got a couple of good friends that are pretty excited about it.

Speaker 7 It's funny. It's not like that we haven't had video for a while.
It's just how to use it, I think is probably the interesting part. So

Speaker 7 it just also blows me away he whipped it out so fast. So that's interesting.

Speaker 4 Well, that dude, I mean, one, I mean, one, he's awesome, but he also is like a content factory. So

Speaker 4 he, he,

Speaker 4 he just he can he can pump stuff out.

Speaker 4 You know, he's, you know, it's funny, you know, these, some of these authors that make a living selling books, they're just so good at seeing a trend and just getting a book out about it.

Speaker 4 And it's not that they haven't talked about it before, but just, you know, I mean, right now, that's probably the perfect book. Sell, you know, via Zoom.

Speaker 4 I mean, that's the perfect book to put out right now because every company is going, How the heck do we do this? Like they've never sold anything before.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I've got, I was just on an accountability call with this influence circle of influences that I have and they're selling furniture. How do you do that?

Speaker 7 So he will take people on a virtual walk through the showroom and he's got camera on the gimbal and he's super excited about it because the company he works for isn't really interested in doing what he's doing.

Speaker 7 They instead spent, I don't know, probably like thousands of dollars on videos where they have people who like staged and did this specific video and talked about the furniture.

Speaker 7 And he's like, that's all well and good, but I think that I'm going to do better actually one-on-one with somebody in the Zoom. And we're walking through the showroom and we can actually interact.

Speaker 4 I've got their full attention. Yeah.

Speaker 7 And they're not going to start a video and maybe get bored halfway through and check out and go do something else.

Speaker 4 The other thing too with that, it's so specific to people's tastes.

Speaker 4 And there could be one piece of furniture in one of those videos that someone doesn't like and it throws off another piece of furniture that maybe normally they would like because they can't see it or the room's a different size.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 yeah,

Speaker 4 you know, I don't think that anyone really, I think the most interesting thing about this is

Speaker 4 about COVID in general and just everything that's come out of being locked in our houses and having to go virtual more is

Speaker 4 everyone who thought that they had the answer and it would always be the answer is

Speaker 4 right and wrong. And everyone that thinks that they knew what the answer was going to be was both right and wrong because,

Speaker 4 you know, I mean, I would tell you that with my

Speaker 4 digital disposition and comfortableness, that I thought I would be calendlying. I haven't had one person use my calendly to set up an appointment.

Speaker 4 I thought it would be, you know, email to calendly to Zoom.

Speaker 4 That doesn't happen once, not one time, never. People are just like, oh, can we meet at two o'clock? Sure, I'll call you on the phone.
Okay. Now I do use Langell's quote vids tool a lot.

Speaker 4 So I do use that. So what I'll do, so my process is, instead of using Zoom, what my process has been is package it all up.
Do the quote vid where I break down.

Speaker 4 I try to keep it between three to five minutes max try to break down. Here's why I decided to do this and use this carrier and so I give them the prequel.

Speaker 4 I, with the email link to the video, I also include the PDF to the

Speaker 4 proposal, and then we just get on the phone and we talk about it. And

Speaker 4 I've just found that to be a lot easier because

Speaker 4 people get all messed up with video. You know, some people care what they look like, some people care where they're sitting, some people don't have the time, some people have background noise.

Speaker 4 And I'm just like,

Speaker 4 I just don't want to have to deal with that.

Speaker 7 I don't blame you but I

Speaker 7 and I've been using video proposals for

Speaker 7 a little over a year I don't remember what got me just pushed me to finally do it other than it was my sales process yeah because I deal with so many smaller accounts that I just can't spend a tremendous amount of time going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth

Speaker 7 And I don't know how if I'm going to reach them though, right on the first call back. You know, I've got the proposal ready.

Speaker 7 And I know that, you know, like Kelly Donahue Purrow would tell you, don't send out just a PDF naked, you know, and let them figure it out. And you need to walk them through it.

Speaker 7 Well, I also don't know if I'm going to catch them on that call. So by me going ahead and doing the video proposal, I've got, you know, I've walked them through the whole proposal.

Speaker 7 And I'm here to tell you, Ryan, I would say probably.

Speaker 7 As far as my closing ratio on a video proposal,

Speaker 7 I would say that it's probably 70 or 80 percent. Because by the time that they've already watched it, all their questions have been answered.

Speaker 7 I've highlighted all the things that I know that they're probably going to ask because I do know that part in advance, at the very least. And

Speaker 7 they just call me up and say, I saw it. Let's do this.

Speaker 7 And it does, that does shorten my process.

Speaker 4 That's an important

Speaker 4 love. I love the video proposal, huge proponent of it.

Speaker 4 You know, I,

Speaker 4 it just to me, at this point,

Speaker 4 because I agree, because this is, everyone is so busy, right? So you could spend the next two weeks trying to catch them at the right moment.

Speaker 4 And, you know, they're busy, they're on the phone, they got something going on. They, they send you the voicemail.
Hey, I got this proposal. Are we going to chat?

Speaker 4 Or you just send them that email with that link and password and you go, hey.

Speaker 4 the answer to all your wildest dreams is behind this gated website and you watch this video and all your wildest dreams come true. And, um,

Speaker 4 and I love it. And the other thing, too, that I like about Chris's thing, and I know other platforms have this as well, is like there's this button that he puts on there.

Speaker 4 It just says, like, accept proposal, and it doesn't do anything. I love that.
It's not like you're actually accepting the proposal, like, like you, you know, the coverage isn't bound.

Speaker 4 It's just them kind of visually going, Yup, I'll take this. And now, your next call is so easy.
Hey, so happy you decided to do business. You know, any final questions? No? Okay.
How do you want it?

Speaker 4 Boom, boom, boom, done.

Speaker 4 And we're now, now that call is not, and they feel like they engage with you because the like screen in a screen, well, no one can see because this is a podcast, but like, you know, that little like picture in a picture thing, you know, where so they can see you talking, they see your face, see you're animated when you're talking through a proposal.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 yeah, I am Zoom selling.

Speaker 4 You know, I'm not negative on it. I just haven't needed it yet.

Speaker 7 But video proposals are no doubter at this point in my mind well the the thing that it did for me and i i'm totally jealous because we don't have uh chris's product i had to do it on my own and i started using vidyard just because i had used can't remember maybe it was loom started out with that didn't particularly like that as well started with vidyard because it was a market shared in plug and it was super easy and i can do some anything i need to with it and i love doing a little personalized thumbnail so that they see it and are more likely to open it.

Speaker 7 A lot of my clients, I don't, I don't get to see some of my clients face to face. As in, I just got a call just a couple minutes ago.
They're about four hours away.

Speaker 7 They're in another part of the state. They were referred to me by NC State, a program that they're going through.
And that's fantastic. Maybe we'll do business with me.
They won't, but I may not.

Speaker 7 actually meet them face to face. The Zoom idea is great, but at the very least, even the video proposal, I've run into those people later and they knew me

Speaker 7 because they got to see that video.

Speaker 7 And not that they couldn't look on our website and there's a picture of Tracy or they couldn't go on LinkedIn and there's a picture of Tracy and I'm all over the place, but they they felt like they knew me.

Speaker 7 We'd only talked on the phone and I'd only put that one video proposal out. We'd never zoomed because that was, of course, not as big a deal as it is now.
But I'll be interested to see.

Speaker 7 I think that there'll be a place for me on it. I'm actually looking for the idea

Speaker 7 with

Speaker 7 the video idea of being able to walk through a showroom. I'm looking at it from the other aspect of

Speaker 7 could I possibly get a farmer to be willing to zoom with me and walk me through their farm. That would save me the, you know, the several hours round trip.

Speaker 7 And, you know, and if they're going to be out there walking around doing something anyway, just take me along with you and, you know, show me and walk me through it and let me get a better feel for what you've got going on, knowing that I'm not going to be able to come out and visit you and the timetable that you have, or it's just not a convenient thing, or maybe you just don't feel comfortable with me being there face-to-face with you, mask or not.

Speaker 7 I don't know what that will look like because I think that they probably won't care. But that possibility is something that I'm thinking is an interesting one.
I'd like to kind of play around with it.

Speaker 7 I think there's just a lot of possibilities out there that people haven't

Speaker 4 thought through yet.

Speaker 7 And I know that for myself,

Speaker 7 we've got to be the ones thinking through it.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 that's basically one of the things that I wanted to talk to you today about is,

Speaker 7 you know, whose responsibility is it when it's time to recreate the wheel,

Speaker 7 is it up to the producer? Do they get to have that kind of say in what they do for an agency? Is it respected? Is it accepted?

Speaker 7 There's a lot of questions out there and I know that that's been on my mind recently in part because I've spent the last few years doing things a little bit differently.

Speaker 7 I've been really fortunate because the agency that I worked for five years ago when I said, I've got this niche I want to work on. What do you think? They were like, do we have markets for it?

Speaker 7 And I went, yes. And nobody else in the agency is working on it.
Nobody else wants to.

Speaker 7 And they said,

Speaker 7 know, go ahead, go for it. And then I went, well, then I'm going to do this and then I'm going to do that.
And okay, well, whatever you want to do. Not that they were going to

Speaker 7 necessarily pay for me to do any of those things.

Speaker 7 That wasn't going to mean that they were going to like fork over the cash for me to go out and get a separate website just for that particular marketing angle.

Speaker 7 They weren't going to necessarily get me business cards. They were going to have my logo versus their logo on.

Speaker 7 But they also didn't care as long as I was, you know, busy doing selling business, they were okay with it. But I think there's a little bit of a controversy there as to, is it a threat?

Speaker 7 If I'm an agency owner and somebody wants to start branding themselves within the agency, is that cool or not?

Speaker 4 So there's a lot there.

Speaker 4 So there's a couple things. I think that,

Speaker 4 well, one thing I wrote down that I have to get out of my brain just so I can answer your question is,

Speaker 4 and this is the way that I think, I think there is a tremendous piece of content that you could create to teach farmers how to do a video review of that they could then send to you.

Speaker 4 So you don't actually have to even be on the call, right? You're like, here's what I need to see. And you could show them, here's how you do a video.

Speaker 4 package it up and text it to me and then i can do everything i need to do off of this video here's how you do it here are the things i need to see and then they can just take the phone out without you, video the thing, email you the video, and boom, now you're working.

Speaker 4 And you don't have to be on the call with them because that adds a layer to it that is probably unnecessary.

Speaker 4 So there's a cool piece of content that you could create, like, you know, showing people how to do it, how to, how to, whatever that is that you need to see.

Speaker 4 Because I've never rinsed a farm or whatever. So, so you know that better than anybody.
You could. It would be cool.

Speaker 4 You could, you know, have someone, you know, have someone film you as you're almost almost doing it on one of your clients.

Speaker 4 So you could have like cuts from you actually showing them the shots to the b-roll would be behind you showing you getting the shots. And you could come up with a really cool thing.

Speaker 4 Call Sydney. She'll help you put that together.

Speaker 7 That's amazing.

Speaker 4 That would be a really cool. And then like when they call you with the interest that they get referred to you, you could say to them, look, I'm about to send you a video.

Speaker 4 It's three and a half minutes long. It walks you through exactly what I need from a video perspective to see your farm.
You just send me that video. And once I have that video back, I can get to work.

Speaker 4 And then that gives you another cool touch point. It feels like you're, you can set it up in a way that it makes you look like, geez, man, she knows our business so well.
Wow.

Speaker 4 And then you're also being very respectful of their time because you can say, look, you have so much shit going on in your day.

Speaker 4 Once everything's done, once you've fed the pigs and shucked the corn or whatever, you know what I mean? Like put everyone out in the pasture, you know, just walk around real quick and get this video.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 you would, I just think that would be really cool. I had to get that out of my brain before I answered.

Speaker 7 Well, I appreciate you doing that because literally I have farm friends that are out there working on TikTok. I'm not even on there yet.
And they're out there doing videos on TikTok.

Speaker 7 So they can do that. They can take the time to do a video review for me.
That's brilliant. Brilliant, Ryan.
I'm going to do it.

Speaker 4 I'm going to do it. All right, cool.
So I had to, you know, sometimes you get like something wedged in your coconut, and until you extract it, you can't think about the next thing. So, all right.

Speaker 4 So, to your question about the next thing, I,

Speaker 4 there's so much there. So,

Speaker 4 you and I have talked about this

Speaker 4 on more than one occasion, but you know, kind of where you're at is very similar to where I was at at the Murray Group, and that they were supportive in so much as they said, go ahead, do your thing,

Speaker 4 but it wasn't like

Speaker 4 it wasn't like they wanted it to be part of,

Speaker 4 it wasn't part of their philosophy. They didn't believe in it.
Absolutely. They weren't supportive in like, hey, this is amazing.
Let's run with this.

Speaker 4 They were just like, if this is what you want to do, we're okay with you doing it. And then ultimately, there were some issues with,

Speaker 4 you know, there were people who, and this.

Speaker 4 This isn't the, unfortunately, the Murray Group isn't the only company in which this has happened to me, where people started to think like I was the owner or I was more than just a producer because of how out front I was.

Speaker 4 So, okay. So, I can, I, I think,

Speaker 4 I think that this is a common problem for producers who create content. I think this is a very common problem.

Speaker 4 And I have a couple ideas.

Speaker 4 My first idea is,

Speaker 4 and this is probably the most draconian, is

Speaker 4 there are plenty of agency. agency.
It's 100% an ego thing, 100%.

Speaker 4 Yeah. If there's a problem, and I would say that just go find an agency owner who would be willing to support you.
Now, there are tons of caveats to that. I'm sure you have a non-compete.

Speaker 4 I'm sure there are issues with all kinds of different stuff, right? You'd, if you don't have a non-compete, then you would have to go BOR everything.

Speaker 4 You got to tell all your clients or someplace else. I mean, there's a lot of issues to that.

Speaker 4 I think you have to figure out how much of a problem it is.

Speaker 4 The other side of of it is like, and you maybe have done this and I'll ask this question and then be quiet. But

Speaker 4 I think that there is also a point at which like, you know, if you, I don't know, if you've gone in and just like, I don't want to say put your foot down, but just said like, look, guys.

Speaker 4 I'm producing this. Here's what's happening.
Like, I need to know what this looks like for us in the future.

Speaker 4 Because if the answer is just you kind of turn the other way, but you're not really supportive of it.

Speaker 4 That doesn't put me in a position for success long term because I feel like I'm operating with one hand behind my back because of the current relation. So if you have issues, talk to me.

Speaker 4 I'll talk to you. Let's figure this out because I think if we, you know, we can be in a similar spot.

Speaker 4 Maybe you've already done that or whatever, but I know a lot of producers haven't had that conversation.

Speaker 4 And I certainly, and I'm, this is first-hand experience, I never, a lot of the issues I had at the Murray Group were because

Speaker 4 I was too immature at the time to sit down with them and have that conversation. So it kind of got to a, it didn't work out exactly the way that I had hoped long term.

Speaker 7 Well, and

Speaker 7 that's, that's an interesting thing. Two things on that.

Speaker 7 The first is, and I actually reached out to you at the beginning of the year when I went from being more of a hybrid role where I was selling and servicing and doing a lot of inside and then was trying to grow grow my own niche with that that I became a full producer.

Speaker 7 And with that, of course, comes those types of things that they typically will do, like signing a non-compete after all these many years of working for them. But that was the smart thing to do.

Speaker 7 That was what they should do. But then what I actually had to go back and look at is I'm reading through this non-compete and I'm realizing, well, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 7 So I get that you're going to have all the clients that I've already written and all the clients that I will write as long as I'm an employee here. I get get that.
But guess what?

Speaker 7 While you weren't caring what I was doing, I was building a brand that I now don't want to exist without, or at the very least, I don't really,

Speaker 7 I mean,

Speaker 7 I could exist without, but I don't want to exist without. So

Speaker 7 I need you to confirm that I can take farm-to-fork insurance agent. I haven't trademarked that, but by golly, that's what I'm known for.
That's where my tagline is. My little owl, my little logo.

Speaker 7 It's just my little logo. And I want it to go with me because who cares about your insurance? I still want to be able to use that.

Speaker 7 And that's, that's what I've been doing on my own dime for these last four and a half years before you decided that you wanted me to be the full producer. And then since then,

Speaker 7 I also recognized the opposite. Like I, and there was also content, of course, that I had created during that time period, which still is not being utilized on the actual company website.

Speaker 7 But that actually is the part that's finally getting ready to change. and they have approached me and said hey

Speaker 7 so we want to put content on the website now and we realize that you have an idea of how to do that and you already have some things you want to do and then we're going to probably end up having to train some other people because you're going to still be the face of the farm and agribusiness and farm to fork but we may need somebody else over here that wants to be the face of work comp

Speaker 7 I get that. I think that's great, but they don't know where to start with that.
And they're going to come to me on that. And that's great.
But

Speaker 7 I really am surprised at this point that, you know, it hasn't happened already.

Speaker 4 But along with that,

Speaker 7 so I started this podcast a few weeks ago. Yeah.

Speaker 7 And it's super exciting.

Speaker 7 I, through one of my ag contacts, through somebody that I knew on Twitter that already had an ag-related podcast, I called him up because I've been wanting to do it for a long time and it just seemed too complicated.

Speaker 7 I'm not very good at editing and things like that, especially on the sound end was afraid of it i tried to use some of the software before and it just seemed really cumbersome

Speaker 7 he said you know i'm using anchor it's super easy you basically like you can just like trim by like putting your fingers on a screen and move it around a little bit next thing you know you can hit save and publish and it does all the work for you i was like done

Speaker 7 i'm gonna do a podcast and he goes I have an idea, Tracy. I know somebody who's doing somewhat the same thing that you do, and she's out in Kansas.

Speaker 7 And I just think the two of y'all should get together.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 that in itself, of course, opened doors, and it was fantastic. And she's been the most incredible co-host to be working with that I could possibly ask for.

Speaker 7 And we do come from different backgrounds, and it is wonderful that we get to play off of each other.

Speaker 7 And now we're starting to have guests, and we can ask them different kinds of questions, and we can really build on what the two of us are doing.

Speaker 7 But she's the one that said, now we've got to make sure and and put a disclaimer at the end. And I went, okay, a disclaimer.
What do you mean?

Speaker 7 And she said, well, because of who she works for and she was afraid that if they heard the podcast, they'd want to regulate it.

Speaker 7 Oh, no, you can't say that on the podcast because if you say that in its conjunction with our name,

Speaker 7 that could, you know, we don't want to, we don't want to make sure you're not putting out the wrong information out there.

Speaker 7 We, you know, you actually have financial products that you could be, you know, talking about and that would be wrong.

Speaker 7 And because it's on their on her end it's a little bit more heavy in that and i hadn't really thought about it but then once she actually came up with the wording for it i was like oh bingo that means that if i don't mention my employer on this podcast then it's my podcast it's a personal podcast and it gets to go with me That's brilliant.

Speaker 7 Thank you so much, Vicki Gibson, for figuring out the disclaimer at the end. And she's the one that insisted on it.
But it was because of the experience that I've seen

Speaker 7 somebody, maybe I'm talking to right now, go through. And what does it look like? I know that I surely didn't want to have a cease and desist over something as silly as

Speaker 7 something that I really care about. And maybe nobody cares about what I'm doing with it.

Speaker 7 They haven't cared yet, but I just don't want them to care down the road because it's something I created while I was in that employment, if that makes sense.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I

Speaker 4 yeah, I don't know who the owners of your business are, but I I do know that old men be getting grumpy and you got to be careful. You know, I

Speaker 4 said to my wife one day,

Speaker 4 I said, I am positive that someday I will be old, but God, I hope I'm not an old, grumpy white guy because they be, when they get grumpy, shit gets real hectic.

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 4 I think you're doing the right thing.

Speaker 4 So I love this idea. I love it.

Speaker 4 One thing to help you with the editing, I would say, is talk to Cass. Cass has got a little side hustle that he's doing, helping me.
This podcast is completely packaged by Cass's company.

Speaker 4 So Cass, yeah. So what I do is I record this podcast.
And Cass and I are going to be doing an episode about like niche podcasting. He's coming on.
We've just both been so busy.

Speaker 4 We haven't been able to hook up. But

Speaker 4 this podcast right here, I do the intro i record the intro and i and obviously i record the interview and then i send those two files to uh one of his people and they do the intro music they do the outro music they package it all up um

Speaker 4 if there's any like like there was certain like sometimes someone will say something and they'll come back and go hey i really wasn't supposed to say this

Speaker 4 and i and i think that's super cool not like a curse word or something just like maybe they give a stat out that was right um like like you're your co-host right like maybe she says something that she didn't mean to say and it would actually impact something you know i'll go in and i'll just chop that up but basically i take the finished interview and the finished intro and i send those off and then i get an email so uh every wednesday night and sunday night the episode goes out to the podcast networks and then every monday and thursday the blog post the corresponding blog post goes live and i just get an email that says hey block you know podcast live on Monday morning.

Speaker 4 And then I start sharing it out. And, and that's, and that's what I do.
I will tell you that that has changed the game for me, absolutely changed the game because now I can do an interview like this.

Speaker 4 And in the back of my mind, I'm not going, oh, shit, it's gonna, I gotta package this up and it's gonna take all this time, and then I gotta upload it to this thing and do it because that

Speaker 4 one, that work for my personality is soul-sucking. And two,

Speaker 4 you just, who has the time, right? I mean, so I, you know, Cass's thing has been a game changer, complete game changer for me. So I'd reach out to him and talk to him about that because

Speaker 4 it's, it's a gate, it was a game changer for me from a podcasting perspective.

Speaker 7 And that's, that's good to know. I had,

Speaker 7 I knew that Bradley and Scott for insurance guys were using an outside service that I think that's actually somebody that they know

Speaker 7 maybe in Alabama. You know, they like to do a lot of local things there.

Speaker 7 They a lot of people.

Speaker 4 They want to stay away from Alabama as much as possible.

Speaker 7 You know, well, you know, I ended up, the one time that I got to be on their show, I got to do it in Vegas back when you go to Vegas, and it was like fantastic. So

Speaker 4 I'm just joking, by the way, I love Alabama, but oh, and I love Alabama too.

Speaker 7 You know, I'm right here in the midst of it between North Carolina and then looking at Tennessee, and Alabama's right there with it. So that's just down the road.

Speaker 7 But no, I just, I think that as far as the angry white guys, and I

Speaker 7 we talk a lot. I say we, as in you and I, but the rest of

Speaker 7 my circle of friends. And we all feel that.
We feel that from lots of different aspects.

Speaker 7 We've been, you know, perhaps we've kind of been poked fun at at times, like, you know, oh, you know, that's really cute what they're doing with such and such.

Speaker 7 And then literally. Those are the same people who are now actually like doing the thing or paying somebody to do the thing.

Speaker 7 They're doing the thing that they made fun of. And I think that's ironic.
And it's just the way that it goes sometimes. But I mean, I don't take offense to it for the most part.

Speaker 7 And, like you said, with what you've been doing,

Speaker 7 it's there's the two sides to it.

Speaker 7 You've got the okay, so maybe they aren't afraid of me doing what I'm doing to brand myself or to create my own content, but it's because they don't think that there's any harm in it, and that's great because they think that it's good for the agency, that's great.

Speaker 7 But if there's not any

Speaker 7 willing to like back me up, as in actually like help with the expenses of, say, for instance, a podcast, if that's what I was asking for, but I'm not, or there was something that I was asking for, and that's just been harder to come by.

Speaker 7 But on the other hand, I also recognize that I've got a really good friend that he is a heavy hitter. He works for one of the name brand agencies, one of those large, large alphabet houses.
And

Speaker 7 he's so excited about doing his own content and his own video now that he's doing like on LinkedIn. And the reality is

Speaker 7 he knows that he can expect their content,

Speaker 7 their name brand to keep doing what it's been doing for him. He recognizes that in order to move forward and keep moving forward,

Speaker 7 he's going to have to do a little bit of self-branding. And he also recognizes that

Speaker 7 he can't count on somebody else's content to do do all the work. It's not going to be completely about the niche he's in.

Speaker 7 It's not going to be specific to him or what he can actually bring to the table for somebody.

Speaker 7 It doesn't do that relationship building that I think that it's an opportunity to do when you're creating the right kind of content.

Speaker 4 So I have a couple of thoughts on that. My first thought is they are going to be okay with you until you are more popular than they are.

Speaker 4 And then it doesn't matter how much revenue it's bringing in, you're going to have problems. I'm just, I'm calling that shot right now.

Speaker 4 You know, I've done things in the past that

Speaker 4 were very advantageous for people that weren't me and still had my hand slapped and, you know, all kinds of different stuff.

Speaker 4 So my point, and I've seen, and not just me, I've seen this a time and time and time.

Speaker 4 And we, you know, we have a mutual friend who's also in North Carolina, who now works for a gangster agency that before had the same exact thing happen to him, right? So, like,

Speaker 4 what happens here? This is unfortunately, um,

Speaker 4 this is unfortunately a huge ego issue, particularly with the baby boomer generation.

Speaker 4 And I'm sure there's baby boomers out there who're gonna hate when I say this, but male baby boomers do not want to be upstaged. They just don't.
It's the reason they haven't retired yet, right?

Speaker 4 Like, this, this generation refuses to retire, which is okay, but the problem is when you have people in general, that they do,

Speaker 4 it's not a generation that is used to sharing,

Speaker 4 sharing the hierarchical structure, right?

Speaker 4 They've worked to get to where they are and they've earned their position and that's perfectly fine, but they're not good at sharing that position in general.

Speaker 4 So what ends up happening is as long as they see what you're doing as a nice little side project for the agency, it's pat on the head. That's great, Tracy.
We're so happy for you.

Speaker 4 The moment that the podcast and the blog and your brand start to become something that is being highlighted in trade journals, that people are talking about, that clients are asking about, that people might, you know, they're at a chamber event and someone goes, hey, that Tracy, man,

Speaker 4 it's great that you've brought her in and made her such an important part of the agency. And they're going to be going, in their mind, they're going to be like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 In the back of their head, they're going to be like, that motherfucker thinks that she owns this place. Screw that.
That's what's going to happen. I'm telling you.
And

Speaker 4 it's a shame, but it's what's going to happen. It just is.
I can just tell you that. And I hope it doesn't, but I've just seen this time and time and time and time again.

Speaker 4 The moment you get to a certain level, it's wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This isn't a side project anymore.
We need to take ownership. What are you saying? Let's,

Speaker 4 we want you to send this through legal before you say that.

Speaker 4 Can you make sure that our name is part of the logo? You know, are you, have you mentioned our carrier partners yet? I mean, you're going to hear all this crap and you're going to go, what the heck?

Speaker 4 I'm the one that freaking built this thing. Like, why don't you just let me keep rocking and rolling? And everyone will be happy.
I'm putting business through you. You're taking a piece of it.

Speaker 4 Like, I'm not asking you for money. Like, let me do my thing.
And,

Speaker 4 and, and, and I've just, this has happened over and over and over again across the country. And it's a shame, but it's what happens.
Now, not every time.

Speaker 4 There are leaders who step up to the table and go, I hit the freaking gold mine. I got Tracy.

Speaker 4 I'm a rock and i'm gonna what do you need let's go go go be the ag freaking queen of the southeast of the country right we'll put all our money behind you i just think that that's rare and if you haven't seen it already like if they haven't seen it then i struggle you know i have no idea who your ownership is but i struggle to think that they're gonna like all of a sudden see the light maybe it'll happen maybe it won't um you know i told you the other day you emailed me and i was like shit if you leave i'll hire you tomorrow i'll go get rogue be rogue will get licensed in north carolina and tennessee and you can go do your thing.

Speaker 4 You know, I don't, I just think, and there are plenty of owners. I guess my point is,

Speaker 4 there is this whole generation of owners, not just in age, just in mentality, right? There's this whole generation of owners who

Speaker 4 are thinking that they would, they would buy that brand from you and see it as an asset to their business and they would build it and nurture it and fan the flames and give you the resources to go as far far as you want to go.

Speaker 4 There's not as many of them, but they are out there. And,

Speaker 4 you know, it's not like that would be an easy transition, but it's there for you. And, you know, I guess that's my point.

Speaker 7 Well, and I think that you're right on that point. And that's those expectations.

Speaker 7 I think that

Speaker 7 I just, I want to see, I want to see more producers either kind of step up and go, okay, well, I recognize that I can't just sit back on my laurels and just expect the agency brand to sell, you know, to sell something.

Speaker 7 And, you know, and some of them are just super good at whatever they're going to do. And I get that.

Speaker 7 They don't feel the need to have to do anything different because they are good with, you know, the logo on their shirt.

Speaker 7 You know, they've got the, you know, they've got their nice polo and it's got the big agency logo.

Speaker 7 Why everybody has to have a tree when we still cut down too many of them to make paper out of, I don't know. But every agency I know practically has a tree and their logo somewhere.
And

Speaker 7 the logo is great, but if that's really what they think is going to sell,

Speaker 7 I think that the producers need to maybe kind of step up too.

Speaker 7 I see that as something that kind of goes both ways, that there are going to be agencies that are going to see the value in how to promote the agency better.

Speaker 7 And then they may end up having some pushback from those guys that are like, yeah, but I'm doing great with what I'm doing.

Speaker 7 Again, they may be of a certain age group and they are still having better luck with conversations on a golf course than they are with trying to get a Zoom meeting with somebody.

Speaker 7 They don't virtual what? You know, I just go and hang out at the Elks Lodge or whatever it is that they do. And I think that it's still a model that's working to an extent.

Speaker 7 I just don't see how much longer that can work. And I also just recognize that it can't, you know.

Speaker 4 Trace, why can't we have both? Why can't we? Why can't we have the guy who goes and crushes the Elks Lodge?

Speaker 4 Go crush the Elks lodge do it drink the cheap draft beer and play the bingo and whatever the hell you do and tell old war stories and it's freaking amazing right that's amazing if you can crush that environment rock and roll i guess what bothers me is why can't

Speaker 4 i hey i crush the elks lodge and then sit right next to you and go and you do this podcast ag virtual thing and that's freaking amazing too.

Speaker 4 Both freaking amazing.

Speaker 4 I guess what I don't like, and I guess this is a life thing for me. And this, you know, this is my second interview today, so I'm very soapboxy.
So I apologize to everyone. But

Speaker 4 I guess

Speaker 4 as a life thing, I don't understand why people put their shit on other people, right? Like,

Speaker 4 you're not saying to the agency, you guys are all jerks because you're not podcasting. Correct.

Speaker 4 All you're saying is, hey, why don't you support my podcasting efforts efforts in the way i do business so that i can help bring more revenue into the agency you go do exactly what you want to be and i just don't like that so often what happens is we say

Speaker 4 that's different from me so i'm gonna take my stuff and i'm gonna put it on you and um i just don't like that i really don't like that like i think I think it's a big problem with a lot of the stuff that we're dealing with in the country right now is everybody on every side is trying to take their stuff and put it on everyone else instead of just living their life.

Speaker 4 But, um, it's particularly in our business with this conversation.

Speaker 4 I think that's what happens way too often is instead of just appreciating the difference, they they want to tell you, they want to either not support by just being silent or literally try to keep you from being as successful as you could be.

Speaker 7 You're right. You're absolutely right.
And I know that that's that's

Speaker 7 whether it be sales style or or or how you go about branding or marketing that that one true way

Speaker 7 that it's not one size fits all and if it was then boy it would be really boring I think that it's much more fascinating to be able to see what people come up with and continue to come up with I just I think you're right that that polarization is where we're running into trouble where it's literally crippling certain operations.

Speaker 7 And I've got a good friend. She and I talk regularly and she is

Speaker 7 an agency manager in Georgia. That

Speaker 4 she

Speaker 7 is,

Speaker 7 you know, she just feels like so much of her time is spent because she's not really selling insurance anymore.

Speaker 7 She literally works with the CSRs and she's working with the producers and she's working with agency management, which is still doing a little bit of both.

Speaker 7 I mean, most of them are still doing some, still selling some.

Speaker 7 And she says, I spend all of my time

Speaker 7 trying to build bridges just for somebody else to come over and you know set another one on fire and she's like i just every time i think that i've got everybody kind of on that team aspect and they all are all together on it then somebody else has to come along and it's and it we see it with technology you know when it comes into an agency and you've got agencies that are you know going to pieces because they they don't know how to use something new and there's all that push and pull and i mean it's kind of scary out there but i actually know agents that are like, well, you know, I'm just hoping that that person will just go ahead and retire.

Speaker 7 If they don't want to play by what we're doing, they just need to go ahead and retire.

Speaker 7 And it's like, yeah, but you know, if they still could come in and be supportive, even if they're not going to be able to be 100% functional on all the all the technology, they still have something to offer.

Speaker 7 I mean, there's still something there. And if everybody can respect that, that's the thing.

Speaker 7 If, you know, if they're going to come back in and they're just going to, they are the negative Nancy that's coming in and and talking about how terrible it is and they aren't going to do it.

Speaker 7 That's different. Maybe they do need to retire.
But because we've seen that. We've, and we've seen that, you know, I know that back when I used to do some consulting, I know that that was

Speaker 7 kind of the thing. We knew that sometimes some new, something another wasn't even going to go over an office until such and such actually retired.

Speaker 7 Until so-and-so retires, we're never going to change agency management systems. Until so-and-so retires, we're never going to try to actually start using new CRM.

Speaker 7 We aren't going to do email marketing. You fill in the blank.
And that push and pull is,

Speaker 7 and yet the rest of the world is looking at us like we're fools. I mean, they're looking at us as an industry and wondering why we can't move forward.

Speaker 7 It's because we can't even decide how to move forward.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 that's producer autonomy, but it's also, and it's an industry thing. And I think that you just hit the nail on the head with that.

Speaker 4 I was on the call with a carrier the other day, and they said,

Speaker 4 so we were talking about,

Speaker 4 I am, I'm part of their technology council,

Speaker 4 which is, which is really cool because I, one, love this carrier, and two, I think, I just think they're doing a lot of things right and they're asking the right questions.

Speaker 4 And I don't know, they don't have all the answers, but I think they're asking the right questions. I really like the way they're approaching.
Okay.

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 4 we're talking about this, and they were

Speaker 4 walking me through an idea that they had.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I said to them,

Speaker 4 I said, are you building this for your top 20% or your bottom 20%?

Speaker 4 And they said,

Speaker 4 our disposition is we believe there are agencies that are leaning forward and there are agencies that are leaning back.

Speaker 4 And we are building everything from now on

Speaker 4 for the agencies that are leaning forward. And we are not even considering the agencies that we believe are leaning backwards.
They said,

Speaker 4 and I said, I literally raised my hands and said, hallelujah. Hallelujah, sister.
It was a woman. I said, hallelujah.
Thank you. You have just, I don't even care what you choose to do moving forward.

Speaker 4 You are already, you've just made a course correction

Speaker 4 in a positive direction. Because

Speaker 4 for so long, the stuff that has been rolled out to the industry, absolutely particularly from carriers has been here's here's what the most agents could potentially use and what happens is the only agents that are would even ever be interested in using it look at it as a piece of garbage because they're like

Speaker 4 that's like five years ago what you just rolled out and then they go how come no one's using our tech and it's because Because you're building for the lowest common denominator agency.

Speaker 4 Let that agency live their life. Let's build for the people who are going to engage with you, give you feedback, use the tool, break the tool, give you more feedback.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 Like that's, and you're only going to get better.

Speaker 4 And then what's going to happen is, and I firmly believe this, that some of those agencies that are leaning backwards are going to look at what's happening and go, oh, wait a minute.

Speaker 4 I think let's engage. This looks fun.
I want to do, I want to be part of that game.

Speaker 4 And now all of a sudden they're going to start to lean forward versus let's put a governor on everybody because we want the guy who's choosing to not engage.

Speaker 4 We want to make sure that he has an option. Screw his option.
He chose not to have an option. That's why we live in a free market capitalist environment.

Speaker 4 That's why we live here in America is because he gets to choose to not engage, just like those of us who want to engage have chosen that decision.

Speaker 4 And I don't know that we all should have to wait because he or she, although most of the time it's he, most female-run agencies are fairly forward-leaning,

Speaker 4 you know, he's chosen to just kind of take it easy. And what what the counterpart to the to the woman who said this to me said, he said,

Speaker 4 He goes, he goes, what we've written down is

Speaker 4 we asked the question, this is what he said, we've asked the question of our team, how many of our agencies are losing so slowly that they believe they're winning?

Speaker 4 Oh.

Speaker 4 And I was like, oh, that's like some Confucius Buddha. Like, that's some real hardcore stuff.

Speaker 5 Like, you'd hear that like in an MM song or something, you know?

Speaker 7 That's like sitting in a boat and it's raining and you think all the water. and the bottom of the boat is just from the rain and it's actually because you're sinking.
Yes.

Speaker 7 You just don't realize that because you've got all this water there, that, oh, you know, this is okay. We're cool.
No, it's this is actually water coming in because you're sinking.

Speaker 7 You're not just sitting in a rainstorm.

Speaker 7 I just can't even.

Speaker 7 That's, and that's a really, that's a really interesting thought.

Speaker 7 I was on the phone yesterday morning with an executive for a company that it was a carrier that is really trying to up their game on crop insurance.

Speaker 7 And I've got the opportunity to go and speak at a crop conference. And even though I don't sell crop specifically, they felt like at least I understood the audience enough.
Well, I do and I don't.

Speaker 7 I wanted to know more about their audience.

Speaker 7 And I thought, well, if I talk to one of the carriers that I know does a lot of business in that state and happens to be one of the sponsors, so why not give them the opportunity to give me a little feedback on what they'd like us to talk about?

Speaker 7 And his thing was, you know, so we've got,

Speaker 7 we actually are now providing farmers with on their cell phone, they can report

Speaker 7 the crops. They can go ahead and take the photos for the claims, all the things that you would expect from, you know, those 1-800 number companies that are already promoting their app for.

Speaker 7 But this is something that's going to be available for crop insurance. And that's staggering to me because I know that it's a very paperwork heavy.

Speaker 7 line of business and we always made fun of it in the agency about the fact that the lady that sold the most crop insurance in our whole agency and really has done a tremendous job.

Speaker 7 There's certain deadlines they have to hit with what they have to, because it's government-based, you know, it's like flood insurance or something else. It's so regulated.

Speaker 7 But she would be up to like, you know, their office till like 10 or 11 o'clock at night still faxing stuff in, faxing paperwork in for her farmers at the very last minute because it had taken them that long to get back to her with the information.

Speaker 7 And now they can do it from their an app.

Speaker 7 And I said, well, so what kind of engagement are you seeing on that app? And he said, I've got some agencies that love it. They're promoting it to all of their farmers.

Speaker 7 They're getting good interaction. And then some, they're just still really good agents out there and they could care less about it.

Speaker 7 And I see that, but you talking about a carrier that's looking at it from, we're going to continue to put out the things that we know are going to carry.

Speaker 7 our agents forward instead of spending so much money because it is money.

Speaker 7 I mean, a lot of times if they're saying, no, we're going to keep on sending out the paper manual or we're going to keep on, you know, doing whatever it is to keep the rest of the slow crowd or the no crowd

Speaker 7 involved as an agent that writes for that carrier,

Speaker 7 then eventually, you know,

Speaker 7 they're going to lose out. And the fact that they're putting their investment in the agents that they know are going to continue to win as time goes by,

Speaker 7 that's a great bet. And that's a pretty interesting model.
But

Speaker 7 this this VP was just fascinating yesterday. His thing was just the whole idea that they're seeing is in so many agents out there just still assuming they know how the customer wants to be served.

Speaker 7 And that assumption, because we're not asking the right questions, we don't ask the right questions of our current customers. We don't ask the right questions of our prospects.

Speaker 7 How do they want to be served? And to assume,

Speaker 7 do they want to be texted or they don't want to be texted? You know, if we're not asking the questions, we never know the best way for that particular client.

Speaker 7 And we are in that time period now where we have to individualize because that's what they're getting from everybody else. I mean, they get exactly what they want.
They get to design the teddy bear.

Speaker 7 They get to customize every experience they have pretty much in life. If they can't customize how they handle their insurance,

Speaker 7 then we're losing out on that opportunity.

Speaker 4 I can walk into the beer store and build my own four-pack of 16 ounce IPA pounders. I mean, come on.

Speaker 7 And I can't tell you how I want to get my bills or how I want to pay. You're just going to tell me this is the only option I have.

Speaker 4 I have a client who was referred to me, $8,000 in personal lines, said to me, hey, is it cool if I only mess if you only communicate with me via Facebook Messenger?

Speaker 4 I said, yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 4 But you just wouldn't, right? I mean,

Speaker 4 you would assume, you know, this this is some grandiose, you know, what he's like, hey, he's like, hey, man, like, uh, every night when I get home, I check my Facebook Messenger.

Speaker 4 Uh, can you just, can you know, if you have a message for me, I'm not going to look at it regardless during work. So just hit me on Facebook Messenger.
I'll get back to you at the end of the night.

Speaker 4 And I was like, yeah, dude, that's cool. So that, you know what I mean? Like, that's something.

Speaker 4 I mean, and there's probably he's just listening going, yeah, shit, I got tons of clients like that. That's, and it's cool.
But I guess the idea is like

Speaker 4 we have to be able to accommodate that because he is it's going to continue. If I go, you know what, I'm not really good, we don't really do that here.
Um,

Speaker 4 I would rather just call you on the phone. He's gonna go, Oh, well, whatever.
And then a year from now, he's gonna go, you know what, this freaking guy calls me on the phone, you know.

Speaker 4 And then a year after that, he's gonna go, you know what, screw this guy. I'm just gonna go see what Geico has to offer.

Speaker 4 And that's what he's gonna do. And,

Speaker 4 you know, that

Speaker 4 we, I think, again, speaking to the agents that are leaning forward, these are the adjustments that we have to be able to make. And,

Speaker 4 you know, okay, I want to kind of come full, full circle back to kind of the original thought here

Speaker 4 around

Speaker 4 producers, their brand. And because we have, we have a few minutes left and I want to be respectful of your time.
But I do want to come back to this idea.

Speaker 4 I, you know,

Speaker 4 i've i've gotten in trouble multiple times for saying this from both carrier reps um so my this is very brief tangent uh this was a while ago in fairness but i was doing a presentation um in illinois uh at the illinois state association meeting um they had had me in this is maybe like seven years ago and i did my content marketing keynote or whatever and and

Speaker 4 a producer raised his hand he said ryan this is great, but what if your agency won't allow you to do this stuff? Yep.

Speaker 4 And I, and my, and I looked at him and I said, well, maybe it's time to find a new agency.

Speaker 4 And this carrier rep,

Speaker 4 again,

Speaker 4 fat old white guy. And again, I don't want to, I'm not hating a fat old white guys.
They just tend to be grumpy. And they, that's who I get yelled at the most more than anyone else in my life.

Speaker 4 I get yelled at by old, overweight white guys. And he comes, boom, boom, boom.
As soon as I'm done, I can just see him. He's got beef.
He's coming hard. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Speaker 4 You don't understand. That's not how this industry works.
You can't be doing that. Think about what will be happening if producers are just moving around and all the.

Speaker 4 And I just looked at him and I go, I don't know what to tell you, man. Like, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the agency owner.

Speaker 4 I have sympathy for the guy who's trying to feed his family and his agency owner is telling him he can't do everything that he can to make money.

Speaker 4 And he looked at me and he's just like, you don't get it.

Speaker 4 And I just said, that's fine. Look, dude, it's good.
You know what I mean? Like at this point, I was like, and he wasn't, I guess he wasn't being, I'm maybe over-exaggerating how animated he was

Speaker 4 because it makes the story better. But he was upset and he wanted to let me know that I did not know what I was talking about.

Speaker 4 In the back of my mind, I was like, bro, there will come a day when producers are hired guns, when they don't sign non-competes or the non-competes that they do sign are not as strict as they are today, because I wouldn't sign a non-compete today.

Speaker 4 I wouldn't. If Rogue falls apart and I need to go find a job as a producer with someone else, right?

Speaker 4 I wouldn't sign a non-compete. I just wouldn't because I don't trust, I don't trust anybody.

Speaker 4 And I don't know that anyone should trust the future of their family and their livelihood completely to someone else and give them free rein to say, I can treat you like garbage because in two, because for two years after you leave here, you can't actually do what you, you what you know how to do.

Speaker 4 That to me is an antiquated idea. And

Speaker 4 it puts the agency owner in jeopardy. I am firmly aware of that.

Speaker 4 But the other side of the coin is if you

Speaker 4 hire right, if you incentivize properly, if you support, if you give people a path to,

Speaker 4 you know, I don't know ownership in the agency, but maybe

Speaker 4 some sort of

Speaker 4 like shadow profit sharing, maybe just in their own book as a percentage. You know what I mean? There's all kinds of ways.
I mean, I'm just throwing it.

Speaker 4 There's all kinds of ways that you can incentivize a producer to have to align their long-term interests with your long-term interests. And that's not easy.

Speaker 4 I am not saying that's easy. So no one sends me DMs going, you don't understand.
I get it. That's not an easy thing, but I'm saying I

Speaker 4 super talented producers should think twice about hiring non-competes. I just think they should.

Speaker 4 It's just a dangerous game. It's a very,

Speaker 4 you are putting, you are giving up way more than leadership is giving up. You are, you are, you are.
You just are. You just are.
That's the way it is.

Speaker 4 And I'm not saying you did anything wrong because I've signed them too, but like, that is my position is that

Speaker 4 you, that, and as a leadership, you're like, shit, I want, can I get a 10-year non-compete?

Speaker 4 How do I make it so that you got to give me, you know, your income no matter what you do for the rest of your life? Like, that's, I get that as a good business owner, that's what you're trying to do.

Speaker 4 I just,

Speaker 4 I don't know that I'll be able to do it because

Speaker 4 I just have been toasted too many times by them. And I think it, it immediately creates a

Speaker 4 what's the word I'm immediately creates a combative, there's, there's immediately a combative nature between the producer and ownership because in the back of their mind, they know the agency owner can say no to anything and there's nothing they can do because for two years they can't do their job.

Speaker 7 I get that. I think that you're right about that.

Speaker 7 But you know, one of the things that I was sitting there thinking, though, as you were talking is going back to your experiences with the Murray Group and,

Speaker 7 you know, they did start to see that you were. making a difference.
And

Speaker 7 as long as you don't get too popular, right? You know,

Speaker 7 that point I get. But I to soften a little bit about, you know, where I know that I'm at personally,

Speaker 7 it's been rewarding to recognize that, you know, that they finally went, oh, well, Tracy actually did know what she was talking about. And that's, you know, and that's not all there is to it.

Speaker 7 And that's, I don't need an add-agirl every time I do anything. I just recognize that sometimes you have to kind of show that it does work.
because they aren't seeing it anywhere else.

Speaker 7 Now they're starting to see it from other places too.

Speaker 7 So, you know, my, my, I guess, the, you know, they're, it's, I'm not the only one standing out in the middle of the desert going, I think this is going to work.

Speaker 7 They also see that it's working for other agencies. And I hate that that took that maybe for them to necessarily go, we'd really like to get some videos done.

Speaker 7 When can we do, would you like to blog and for us to put some more stuff on our website? Because we think that we could actually, you know, get some.

Speaker 7 Yeah, you could actually. I know that because, you know, I know where my stuff usually falls on a page.
You know, even years later, it shows up.

Speaker 4 But

Speaker 7 sometimes you do have to expect that there's going to be a little bit of, okay,

Speaker 7 we don't want to give you a whole lot for this right now. We don't, we're not really ready to fund this whole project right off the bat.
We kind of need to see where it's going.

Speaker 7 And you, you might also need to recognize that, you know, this person may not have really gotten there quite yet. They may need to learn a little bit about it.

Speaker 7 I mean, obviously, neither one of us were very good at the very beginning, and I'm still not an expert by any means but it's taken me a long time to feel more comfortable

Speaker 7 and that person may need to go through that a little bit before they can actually but at the same time I just don't want anybody to be held back on the other hand by an agency that just is afraid to let them fly when it's really the right thing for them to do.

Speaker 7 So they may need to prove themselves a little bit but they also and do the work. I mean, doing the work is definitely, you don't get to skip that.

Speaker 4 100%. Yes.

Speaker 4 And so the other side of the coin is is this is not carte blanche for some 24-year-old millennial, you know, trophy recipient to assume that they should be given equity in an agency that they have nothing to build.

Speaker 4 That's not, that's also not the case that I'm making.

Speaker 4 You know, and I think you make, I think there is a whole other side to this coin. If we had another hour, we could do it.
Exactly.

Speaker 4 Because the truth is, I made a lot of very poor decisions at the Murray Group. So as much as there were things that were misaligned from their, their side, you know, they did,

Speaker 4 it was a good place to work. I also made a lot of poor decisions and I communicated very poorly as well

Speaker 4 what my goals were and what my expectations were. So, you know, that was a learning experience, I think, across the board.

Speaker 4 And, but, you know, I think the point is that established producers, established employees who are, who are hungry, who are, you know, we're not talking about every producer should have,

Speaker 4 should have these type of things, but I'm talking about your good people, your people who you can build an agency around.

Speaker 4 I don't know that tethering them contractually

Speaker 4 is the best method anymore because they have so many options, because the internet and social media and IAOA and Cass's Mastermind and, you know, and all these other groups, they give you, they give all of us so much exposure to what else is available that i just don't know that that

Speaker 4 contractually tethering your rock stars and a combative nature to your business is going to long term create the best solution that that's probably the best way that i can articulate what my position is

Speaker 7 as always

Speaker 7 Fantastic.

Speaker 7 Now I've got content to go make.

Speaker 7 You've given me work to do.

Speaker 4 I can't wait to see this video walkthrough thing. I mean, you can do a whole landing page about it.
There's so much you can could do. It would be, it's awesome.
I think,

Speaker 4 and it's that kind of stuff that just continues to separate you and, you know, and your bubbly winning disposition that is irresistible. You know, that too.

Speaker 4 Just how anyone could choose not to buy insurance from you is beyond me. If I had a farm, you would insure it.
I wouldn't even insure it to my own agency. I'd send it to you.

Speaker 4 Thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 4 And I just, where can people connect with what you're doing? You mentioned the website, but just hit them with it again, your LinkedIn or whatever.

Speaker 4 Just let people know where they can connect with you.

Speaker 7 I'm on everything. Instagram is Inc.wise Tracy.
I have Tracy L. Cotton.
And then, of course, I still have InsuranceWisetracy.com.

Speaker 7 It's a website that I'm not really doing anything right now with just because I wanted to kind of hang on to it. But I recognize that I may need to develop more behind the agency.

Speaker 7 And I'm cool with that too.

Speaker 7 That's what's going to help us both. Then that's what I'm going to do.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Cool. All right.

Speaker 4 And on the podcast there's the podcast and yeah yeah and what so how do they get at the podcast what are they protect and grow and it is available on apple and almost any place else that you can listen to podcasts oh i love that name that's a great name okay well thank you so much you are wonderful and i appreciate you and i'm glad that we got to spend some time together and uh just be good

Speaker 7 i will you take care

Speaker 7 You go fuck yourself in your fat fucking ass.

Speaker 7 Make it in somebody's walk and drive it.

Speaker 4 Wanted to few drinks and smoke a jelly bubbles? Yes.

Speaker 4 darkness.

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Speaker 4 oh,

Speaker 4 take it in slice of a challenge.

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Speaker 4 take it in my darkness,

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Speaker 4 oh,

Speaker 4 take it in slice of the children, take it in,

Speaker 4 taking it in my

Speaker 4 dry.

Speaker 4 Do you want a few drinks and smoke a jelly bottles?

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