Hey everyone, it’s Kelly Donahue-Piro here again with Agency Performance Partners, and I want to talk about something that’s really been driving me nuts lately and that is that everybody in this whole entire industry has been so negative lately. I go into agencies and I’m trying to bring my best Tigger bounce and things are going, but literally there is like a black cloud over everybody and here are just some of the common things that I hear.
“Oh well, we shouldn’t bother holding people accountable because there’s no good people out there.” and “Oh, the carriers all have these expectations that we can’t hit. Carriers are cutting commission. Marketing is tougher than ever, why would we spend any money?” and literally the entire conversation is about how this is the world’s worst industry to be in, and I feel so completely different about it. I think it’s a great industry to be in. You know, first of all, this whole renewable income thing guys, great news, not many other industries have it. I wake up in January, I have to go sell myself on every street corner of every insurance association convention to make it all work. I’m happy to do it because I love what I do, but we need to blast through the negativity on everything.
You know, we have to work with carriers – they’re our partners on a lot of things and maybe it’s not always the easiest relationship, but what relationship is? You know, I’ve been married now for almost six years, together for eleven years, there are days where he’s the last person I want to see but I’m committed to working on it, and there’s days when he’s the first person I want to see. So every relationship takes work. Now, as far as finding people, yeah, it’s not easy. There’s all these great people that are awesome out there, but what are we doing about it, right? So this is a challenge or instead of just giving up and going to be like, “that’s the way it is.” How about looking at outsourcing options? How about going ahead and taking a look on Indeed and searching for resumes of people looking for jobs and try to pull people in? How about going to colleges? How about looking at anything if this is the challenge?
It’s either that or just accept it and don’t complain about it. That’s my rant for the day: accept it and don’t complain about it anymore. You know, because if we take a look around, yes the management systems hold us back sometimes on rapport. After all it’s like picking the tallest midget. Let’s be honest some days….but here’s the thing: we find work grounds, we find other tools, we find ways to make it happen. If you want it bad enough, you’ll make it happen. If you just want to be an Eeyore and complain about it they’ll get stuck exactly where you are and that’s fine too, but your insurance agency can’t survive with a negative outlook all the time. It’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be, as all of us are going through the process now of getting contingency checks, carrier trips, you know, take a deep breath. Look around. Is it really as bad as you’re making it out to be? Maybe what you’ve got to do is change your tune, change your attitude and try different sometimes, but this negativity is just something I’m not comfortable with. I don’t think it’s as bad as everybody’s making it out to be, I think a lot of times it’s just something we’re willing to talk about because we’re not willing to put the effort in to change it.
If we really wanted to change something, we’d be on top of it and we’d be at every college campus and selling college kids across the board how cool insurance is, but instead maybe we’re at the golf course or at a longer lunch or at home with our families eating dinner. Which is not a bad thing, but there’s people out there trying to change the world and so if it’s not your thing you have to accept it. Don’t be negative about it, it’s part of life. I don’t know any business that has smooth sailing, we certainly have our challenges here too. So try not to be so negative, it’s going to bring everybody down, your staff, your clients, your employees, your business plan, partners. Just try to be a little happiers, be a Tigger, don’t be an Eeyore and fight through the challenges. No one said entrepreneurship was going to be easy and no one said running an insurance agency was going to be a walk in the park. So let’s just try different, let’s try to be more positive. I hope you take this positive message, go and spread the sunshine, think about all the things you’ve been complaining about for the past couple weeks or months and turn them into an action plan that you can actually bite off on. If you’re struggling, have us come down to your office, I am a pocketful of sunshine and I literally carry glitter in my pocket, a big great time at your agency, and hopefully we can help spread a little sunshine to you too. Anyway, have a great night. I’ll talk to you guys later.
