Simplify Your Strategy – Magnify Your Results Podcast
On each episode Brian Margolis helps entrepreneurs, sales pros and other professionals create a simple weekly strategy using The Pillar System. A system that's helped multiple individuals become 7 figure earners and is licensed by some of the largest companies in the world to help their teams grow through simplification Some episodes have a 2nd part where Brian helps guests review and refine their initial pillars and solidify the CAP strategies they can use to turn pillar execution into a habit.
On this episode I help Chris, a successful insurance agent who has begun building and training a team of insurance agents under him. Chris is really good at what he does as both an agent and a leader, but was grinding way too hard and letting important things fall through the cracks. With his updated weekly strategy, the sky is the limit in his leveraged business.
To hear other episodes go to https://productivitygiant.com/simplify-your-strategy-magnify-your-results-podcast/
Simplify Your Strategy – Magnify Your Results Podcast
On each episode Brian Margolis helps entrepreneurs, sales pros and other professionals create a simple weekly strategy using The Pillar System. A system that's helped multiple individuals become 7 figure earners and is licensed by some of the largest companies in the world to help their teams grow through simplification Some episodes have a 2nd part where Brian helps guests review and refine their initial pillars and solidify the CAP strategies they can use to turn pillar execution into a habit.
On this episode I help Chris, a successful insurance agent who has begun building and training a team of insurance agents under him. Chris is really good at what he does as both an agent and a leader, but was grinding way too hard and letting important things fall through the cracks. With his updated weekly strategy, the sky is the limit in his leveraged business.
To hear other episodes go to https://productivitygiant.com/simplify-your-strategy-magnify-your-results-podcast/
Brian Margolis (00:00:00):
This is Brian Margolis and welcome to the simplify, your strategy, magnify your results podcast. We're on each episode, I use the pillar system to help a sales pro entrepreneur or other results based professional, create a weekly strategy to run a simple, more lucrative business strategy. So simple. It can fit on an index card, but so powerful. It's actually helped create multiple seven figure earners and is now licensed by some of the largest companies in the world to create strategies for their teams. If you'd like a free copy of my book on exactly how to do this, or want to be considered as a guest on a future episode, head on over to productivity, giant.com. Enjoy the episode. All right, so good morning, Chris. Good afternoon, whatever, whatever we're in. We're we're ready to rock and roll. So I'll give just a little bit of background, cause Chris is a little different than some of the other episodes and case studies that we've done in that.
Brian Margolis (00:00:59):
Chris and I have actually worked together in the past and a number of years back, he went off into the insurance business and we were able to, and I say way, but I give him full credit evolve the things that go along with the pillar system and focus management and stuff. Chris was the in my opinion, the poster child for, you know, we had some long talks and he, he finally came to the conclusion that I need to focus on way less, like turn off all the noise, stop trying to do this, stop trying to do that. And, you know, his, he, he kinda got, cause Chris was already a super hard worker and a, and a great sales person in my opinion. And so we really, he really got focused on just doing the things that, that made him money. And so, you know, you went from not being maybe in the best position in the world to, you know, earning multiple six figures you know, selling insurance which was great. And the reason we decided to record an episode here was now Chris is in the process of not only selling insurance products, but he's actually building and managing a team, which, you know, brings a whole new dimension into it. And so he's got a split, his focus in his time between not only producing himself, but also recruiting and training and supporting a team. Would that, would that be a pretty accurate representation, Chris?
Chris (00:02:40):
Absolutely. Yeah. I've been building for about about a year and a half so far, maybe a little bit less than two years, but you know, but it's been we've been attracting a lot more people so definitely a need for the pillars more so now. So yeah, I would, I would say that's correct.
Brian Margolis (00:03:01):
Just a quick logistical thing. You were louder before you seemed to be, not as loud now, did you change something or move away from your microphone? No. Okay. All right. You're just being calm today. Crazy. Chris is being calm. Alright, so, so, so let's kind of just, let's just break it down. Let, let let's start from the beginning. Yeah, that's good. Okay, so, so let's, let's just kinda start from the beginning and say, you know, we'll, we'll kind of go down the different, different pillar paths here. So right now, question one, right? What is something that, you know, you already know how to do effectively, that if you just did more of, or were more consistent with would have the biggest impact on your business. In other words, you know, based on what you just told me, I imagine you need to generate leads. You need to set up appointments, right. Things like that for your own stuff, but then also you need to be, I guess, recruiting and supporting and training. So what are those things that you already know how to do them effectively? You can get that response. You can get a result. You just need to make sure weekend and week out you're actually doing them. What would you say? Some of those things are?
Chris (00:04:23):
Absolutely. Can you hear me okay? Yep. Okay, great. So you know, I've been, I basically was working about 25 leads a week in order to hit the numbers that I needed to with. So I'm really good with, you know, setting appointments you know, going and seeing clients and it got to a point where I was working even more leads. So, you know, going out there and just producing, if I focused on the activities themselves with how many appointments I was to set how many people to physically go see in Dornoch? I got that part really. I got it down. Now how's that to
Brian Margolis (00:05:07):
You're dialed in with the process.
Chris (00:05:09):
Yeah. I'm dying. I'm doubting what the process regarding that things I could do it more effectively or, or better with is, is recruiting and managing my time a little bit better when it comes to recruiting now, because I'm not out in the field as much, because there's no way that I can do what I was doing before with the amount of time that I was putting in with even the amount of leads, like 40, 50 leads a week that I was working. So I've had to dial it down and have less time in the field because we're bringing on more people. So you know, we have a lot, a lot of momentum going on in the team right now.
Brian Margolis (00:05:44):
So, so let's put affectiveness to the side just for a second. And from your personal production, right? The way your system is set up right now is the company that you're part of, they generate leads. You then have somebody, you then have someone that works for you that calls those leads and sets appointments for you, correct? That's correct. Okay. So that part of your game is dialed in, you know, which it didn't start out that way, but that's how it in. And it looks like at this point you can control, which is a great problem to have. You can decide how many appointments you pretty much want each week. Would you, would you agree with that?
Chris (00:06:23):
Yes. generally speaking, most weeks, yes. Right.
Brian Margolis (00:06:27):
Okay. Now, do you, the way your business is set up, do you, what's the word I'm looking for? Do you tell the person, Hey, this is the amount of leads I want each week, or do you kind of pick days of the week and say, these are the days I'm in the field, fill my calendar kind of thing. Is there any kind of assist, like, is there anything you have to be focused on, put the recruiting and team building to the side for a second. We're going to get to that to make sure your personal production stays where you want it to be. Is there any kind of anything you have to focus on? Like, you know, or is it all kind of automated and you just show up for the appointments
Chris (00:07:06):
At this point? Yeah. So I choose how however many leads that I want to work. So right now I'm working about 30 to 35 leads a week. And now I know off of those, let's say 30 leads a week. I know I should have anywhere from 12 to 15 appointments a week personally, that I can run because we, we have it down to a science where we know how many appointments and how many leads that we need to generate those appointments. And from those appointments, how many applications that I should be able to do consistently. So so with that being said, you know, I run about 30 to 35 leads a week. I know I'm going to have about, about anywhere from 40 to 50% for my appointments. So as an example, Monday is where pro Monday is kind of an office day for me.
Chris (00:07:55):
But during that day, I do have my appointments that are setting appointments for, for Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly where I'm going out there every hour and a half seeing my clients. So my busiest days are usually Tuesday and Wednesday when it comes to producing. But usually I might be at the office on Thursday, or I might have a couple of appointments to run on Thursday, but I'm usually able to get most of my production done between Tuesday, Wednesday, and maybe a little bit of of using Thursday based on the leads that I'm, that I have.
Brian Margolis (00:08:29):
And just so everyone understands when you say work the leads or run the leads or whatever, what part do you play in that? I know again, I know you have an appointment setter that does the appointment setting. Do you do anything? Do you do any, I'm just talking about the pregame. Now, do you do anything pregame between the lead and your appointment? Do you do any kind of confirmation calls or you don't do anything you just show up? No, I just show up to
Chris (00:08:56):
The appointments for if I have time in between those appointments, I knock the doors.
Brian Margolis (00:09:02):
Oh, like in the neighborhood. Okay.
Chris (00:09:05):
Basically the, what I mean is any, any leads that did not set appointments that are in the area? I can, I can go and see them in between those appointments to keep the activity high.
Brian Margolis (00:09:16):
Gotcha. I gotcha. Okay. So then what about post appointment? Okay. In other words, if they don't fill out the application there on the spot, is there still an opportunity for them to buy after? Is there still any followup ever required?
Chris (00:09:37):
Not really. What, you'll see, what I really found in my business is that if they don't really buy right then and there which most of the, I mean, most of the time we, we sell about 30%, maybe a little bit higher, our closable you know, right on the spot. And then you have a certain percentage that, that you can kind of follow up with. But, but mainly I focus on, you know, seeing the appointments and if I don't close them right then and there, I might, you know, maybe do a followup call to, to to see if they change their mind. But most of the time, if I don't sell them, I'm just onto my next appointments and I don't really follow up and I don't really need to.
Brian Margolis (00:10:17):
Okay. So, so it's, it's, it's like if you have less leads, you may follow in the past, maybe you would have followed up more, but now because you have enough leads and enough activity, it's not the, the, the juice isn't worth the squeeze to keep following up with those people. Is that correct?
Chris (00:10:35):
Yeah, I would, I would, I would say so, but even before I didn't follow up as much because what you find in my business is that again, if they don't make a decision right on the spot that most of them you know, you don't go back and sell it. It's just the way that it is. I mean, there's, if it's a big enough sale I might follow up with that would be worth it. But generally, you know, these people are procrastinating to some degree and, and they just, they don't make a decision.
Brian Margolis (00:11:04):
Okay. And it's not something we have to put into your, your weekly strategy. And, and, and the, the reason I brought that up again, you know, is not just for you, but for those who are going to be listening to this is, you know, you want to get, you know, I find that people, especially in the sales game, like yours, and then now getting into the management game is that sometimes people try to be too efficient and it's like, look, if you have more leads than time, if you're in that kind of business where you can call on so many people, a lot of times it's okay to skip over a dime. Right. Like, I'm sure, I'm sure. I'm sure if you follow it up, you had some crazy, consistent follow up thing week in and week out every once in a while you might close one, it's just not worth it. The return on it.
Chris (00:11:50):
It, it it's, it's, it's not, absolutely. It's not it just go to your next appointment or go to your next person.
Brian Margolis (00:11:57):
Okay. So, so would you, would you then say from a consistency standpoint, your, your personal stuff is dialed in? There's nothing you really have to focus on in terms of just doing stuff consistently
Chris (00:12:11):
From a personal production side. Yes. I mean, I've won awards. I'm, I'm one of the top 25 in the entire company as a personal producer. So I believe that I really have that dialed in.
Brian Margolis (00:12:23):
Gotcha. Well, I'll be impressed when you're top three, but anyway. All right. So
Chris (00:12:28):
There's a lot of great people in my company, my friend, but again, I know, I mean,
Brian Margolis (00:12:32):
Okay. So, all right. So now let's, let's talk a little bit about the recruiting and management side and then the training. So again, just let me summarize, which is now because of your success, you are able to bring on agents, recruit agents, and then I guess, you know, help them support them, train them, so to speak. And in return you get an override, right. You get us a small commission on what they do, correct? Correct. Okay. So kind of like they make a dollar, you make a dime. Okay. And so, yeah,
Chris (00:13:09):
Or four or more
Brian Margolis (00:13:14):
You'll get your technical sense, buddy. Alright. So yeah, the, so really when it comes to this part of the business, this is where there's leverage, right? Like you can only run so many appointments at a time. This is where the leverage, it becomes more like a business. And so correct. If I just, you know, if I said in that department, is there something that you need to be doing more consistently, right. Again, we're going to get to effective all that, but is there anything you need to do and consistently in the recruiting department and the training department and the support department?
Chris (00:13:54):
Yes, there is. And what they would be is you know, I guess factoring in the activities for recruiting you know, the time to recruit, and I know that there's different tools and different places to recruit, but these, these are things that I need to be more effective with as far as recruiting consistently among some other things.
Brian Margolis (00:14:19):
So, so, so give me, okay, so, so give me an idea. Let's just talk about recruiting. Let's separate, I'm going to separate recruiting from the training and support. Okay. Yes. So just the initial recruiting and that recruiting process. So what kind of things do you do right now that generate new agents?
Chris (00:14:42):
I would say reaching out to people on LinkedIn, reaching out to people on Instagram. I could definitely be doing better with these things and being able to track it better. But most of our recruits now we do get some from the company every once in a while, you know, because we are growing really well. And we're not, we're not counting on that. Yeah. but, but but most of our recruits come internally through what we call in a term that we used to use before, which is tap hurting. And that means other agents that are bringing other agents on our team right now. Cause we have about 25 agents right now, but it's it really comes down to showing them, building them up their confidence into recruiting people. So it's mainly been internal. Okay. So, okay. So even in, okay, this is good, cause I really want to break this down.
Chris (00:15:39):
So, so even in the recruiting world, okay. There's multiple ways you recruit some is you recruit through your other agents, right? Like almost like they, they refer a friend almost, right. Like they, they, somebody and they bring on that somebody correct. Okay. There are a lot. And again, that person, and we don't have to get into the weeds here, but it's not like a multilevel deal. It's if they bring them on, you're still the one responsible for training them and stuff. It's not, you know, it's not the person who brings them on well, so yeah, I mean, we kind of have a saying is that you know, if you, you can't really bring them on, unless you can take them out personally and train them it, we do have a referral bonus program where people that, you know, can get a bonus if somebody produces well you know, which is very obtainable for people to hit, whether they want to recruit or not.
Chris (00:16:31):
So there are some incentives there, but outside of that you know, it's not MLM in any way. You know, it is that if you bring them on that, either you or somebody in your management can train them and you really have to be the GoTo person, we support you. We're going to help you. We do a lot of that, but outside of support, you have to be able to train them effectively. Got it. Which means it's important. And I remember having this talk with you a while back, but so it is important then that you bring on good people because you can waste a lot of time training, bad people, correct? Correct. Yeah. For sure.
Chris (00:17:19):
All right. So what do you do, Chris? Livanos okay. What do you do? What does Chris do to generate good agents from your team? What you call internal. Yeah. and before I answer that, I want to also let you know that I do use ZipRecruiter to attract agents, but as far as just so you know, but to internally, what we focus on is I have people there's a few ways that I suggest that now I have people on my team who are pretty good recruiters as well. So they use LinkedIn, they use Facebook, they use social media and other words to generate prospects. Now, when it comes to know, when it comes to internally, you know, every person that we're thinking about bringing on, you know, hat number one has to see our company overview. I need to have a conversation with them.
Chris (00:18:19):
We ask and answer any questions that we may have, but we have, what's called an expectations, which is we go over what they can expect from us as far as leadership and the company. But we also go over what we can expect from them. Now this is what really determines, you know, if they're going to be a good fit and they understand the process because, you know, we don't, we only hire full time. We don't hire any part time agents. You know, we go over these things. So after we have a conversation and we really sword and weed out that lets them know, Hey, if, Hey, should you be here or should we bring you here? Yeah.
Brian Margolis (00:18:55):
Okay. So, but I think what I, what I understand, so what I think what I'm asking is for, and ma, and I don't know what the answer is from, I'm just talking about the, you have multiple pipelines of recruiting and we're going to talk about those ZipRecruiter, your own personal stuff, all of that. From the internal recruiting, what you were calling, the internal recruiting, where your agents bring on people, right. Is there anything you do each week or need to do or can do to make more of that happen or to make it more effective? Or is it just kind of one of these things where now if they do want to do it, they do it like, it doesn't really help to incentivize or work with them on it or whatever.
Chris (00:19:42):
In other words,
Brian Margolis (00:19:44):
Teaching them how to recruit better.
Chris (00:19:48):
Yeah, so we, we, we do a leadership call that we do. And you know, we, we really, we not only you know, show people how to kind of reach out and, and again, we could do better with this, but we mentioned the ways we haven't really gone over like like a lot of training as of yet to show them how to recruit, but, but we really show them how to put somebody in the car with them that they know, and really just go out there and beyond them with the ride for a ride day, to be able to see what's involved and to see if it's something that they would want to do. Right. So that's, so that's mainly how we're doing it. But we're also using social media, but we really show it. We really tell people, Hey, just jump in the car with me, come out and see what a day in the life is. You know, being an agent, you know, watch what we do. And if it's for you, great. If not, you know, at least, you know so that's kind of how people process
Brian Margolis (00:20:45):
That's part of the recruiting process. And yes, that's also in a way it's kind of automated because you have the scheduled leadership calls and things like that. And it's during these scheduled calls, right. Where you where you talked to the other leaders and stuff about how to do this better ways to do it, things like that, right? Yes. Okay. All right. So, so that's probably not going to wind up in your pillars then, because it's not something you have to focus on each week. It's not something you right now need to get better at because you kind of know how to do it. Right. And so now it's just a matter of teaching others how to do it
Chris (00:21:28):
And sorry.
Brian Margolis (00:21:29):
It kind of automated into your system, right?
Chris (00:21:33):
Yes. And we also go over personal development and we really kind of just show them how to build a belief and value in themselves. Yeah.
Brian Margolis (00:21:40):
Okay. So that's in the training and support department. We're, we're not even, we're going to come back to that, so, alright. We're still on the recruiting thing. So see, here's what I'm looking for. Chris. I'm looking for those things that if you do them every week, whether it's 30 minutes of this or four of these, or whatever, week in and week out that it's going to drive the targets, the top of the recruiting funnel, right. At least get people into it. So you can find out if they're a good fit. And it sounds like at least from the internal recruiting part of it, it sounds like that's not really something you have to focus on each week because it's already handled by these leadership calls. If there's a social media tactic that you find effective, you're going to share it on the call, right. If there's a ride along tactic that you find effective, right.
Brian Margolis (00:22:32):
To maybe even help eliminate someone who maybe shouldn't be an agent, you're going to share that, right? Yes. Okay. All right. Good. All right. So we don't, we don't have to worry about that. Look, I like simple, man. I like simple, you know, I like a two pillar killer. There's some of my best clients. Okay. Let's talk, training and support. Oh, actually, no, no. Let's not go to training and sport yet. Sorry, let's go to the second type of recruiting. You talked about ZipRecruiter. Is that just you post ads or the company posts, ads, and then you have to sort through,
Chris (00:23:07):
Yes.
Brian Margolis (00:23:08):
Okay. So tell me, tell me what that process looks like.
Chris (00:23:13):
Because of my position in the company, they have a ZipRecruiter post that goes for me, that we refresh, you know, every so often. And you know, I get responses from there. I would like it to be more honestly, but it's pretty good. And I call them, you know, and usually it's got to obviously be an in between what I'm doing, which again, I'm trying to be more better with as far as consistently, but, you know, days like Mondays and Thursdays or the later part of the week, you know, I can call these individuals have conversations them.
Speaker 3 (00:23:46):
And if it sounds good to have them over at the office to meet with them. And so I'm kind of reaching through their sorting to, you know, to bring them on.
Brian Margolis (00:23:58):
So let, let, let me pause. Let me pause you there and say, okay, let's figure out not when you do it. Right. Cause that's the second part of the pillar system. The first part of the pillar system is, okay, what do I have to make sure it gets done every week, as long as I do ABC and D everything else takes care of itself. The second part of the pillar system, which is okay now, how do you actually hit your pillars consistently? Right? That's when we get into, you know, structuring your days, planning your weeks, the cap strategies to make sure those things get to get hit. So I just want to, I want to stay focused right now on the, what has to get done. So the process of when a application comes through zip recruiter, I'm sure you get some kind of email, right? Yeah. And do you then have your appointment set or schedule a call? Do you just reach out and call them? How does this work?
Speaker 3 (00:24:54):
I reach out to them personally. Okay.
Brian Margolis (00:24:57):
Okay. You reach out to them personally, and then it's just that at that point, it's just a game of back and forth, right? Correct. Okay. Do you have any kind of internal rule or system? When I say internal, I mean you, how many times will you call them until you're like, they're not serious. They haven't returned my call
Speaker 3 (00:25:18):
Probably three times. Okay.
Brian Margolis (00:25:21):
And then how many of these are you getting a week? Would you say would range?
Speaker 3 (00:25:30):
Well, I would say that I definitely get more when I, when I re when I, yeah. I would say zero to five.
Brian Margolis (00:25:36):
Okay. Alright. And do these ever fall through the cracks where you're like, I just didn't have time to get to them?
Speaker 3 (00:25:47):
Yes, because I might just have to, like, might've got busy with something and I ha and I have to call him on a different day.
Brian Margolis (00:25:54):
Okay, good. Alright. But then they didn't fall through the cracks. You just didn't get to them right away, but correct. I guess what I'm saying is, do you ever, do you ever get to the point where you're like, Oh man, it's been like four days. I haven't called this person?
Speaker 3 (00:26:07):
No.
Brian Margolis (00:26:09):
Okay. So are you happy,
Speaker 3 (00:26:11):
But I could have a better, I could, I could have a better followup system. It's more, it's more reactive. It's more reactive as compared to being proactive honestly for that.
Brian Margolis (00:26:21):
Okay. Good. All right. Let's talk about that for a second then. Are you, are you a kind of paper and pen kind of guy? Like, do you like to just print out the resume or the application and that's how you kind of work them? Or do you set up some kind of CRM or Excel sheet or something?
Speaker 3 (00:26:41):
You know, I just more, more paper pen. Okay. But ZipRecruiter you can. Yeah. I you know, I don't really print out the resumes. I will, you know, view them and there's some notes that I can put on there, you know, as to, to do, to doing that, but okay. And where do you get better with? Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:27:02):
Where do you currently keep that?
Speaker 3 (00:27:07):
Well, our company and, and, and I could do better with this, but so I'm not really doing that effectively. You know, as far as like, you know, following up or have a system for it, but our company did launch a program where you can put that those people in put notes and that way it's kind of in front of you, so you're tracking it. So we, we do that, but normally it's I don't, I don't store it in any type of CRM or if I remember to call, I'm going to call. Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:27:35):
So yeah, we need to dial this in. Okay. I'm glad your company has this, but here's what I have found with a lot of salespeople, entrepreneurs, whatever, especially ones that are on the road a lot and doing this. Sometimes those systems are more hassle than they're worth. Cause then you're like, Oh, I gotta put them in. Then I got are honestly, would you just rather write down their name somewhere with some notes?
Speaker 3 (00:28:01):
Yes. Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:28:04):
So here, here's what I'm going to suggest. All right. For a pillar. Okay. Because let me, let me ask you something. Are there besides zip recruiter, right? Besides zip recruiter, I imagine that you also have names you want to stay on top of, of people maybe that you recruited or started a conversation with, or that your team sent to you. Would that be correct too?
Speaker 3 (00:28:34):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (00:28:35):
That you want to follow up on or?
Speaker 3 (00:28:39):
Yes. All the above. I mean they also have access to the recruiting into the portal as well, to be able to upload those contacts so I can see them as well.
Speaker 4 (00:28:50):
Yeah. But that's okay. We're getting too complicated now, though, right here, here, here. Here's the, here's the, let's just talk about the goal and this is, this is great. This is where I wanted to get to for you. Here's all you need to really do. Right? Let's think of it this way. If I said update and let's call the let's call this, well, what do you want to call this? The recruiting sheet, the potential agent sheet, the like what, what job?
Speaker 3 (00:29:21):
Recruiting? Recruiting pipeline. Okay. The recruiting pipeline. Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:29:26):
We'll figure out the logistics here in a second, but here's what, here's what you want to do. In my opinion. You want to update and review the recruiting pipeline twice a week. Now let me explain what that actually means. Okay. So let's say today happens to be, we're talking on a Saturday, cause we're nuts, but you know, let let's say this was a weekday let's say today was Wednesday. And the last time you updated and reviewed, it was last Friday. Okay. Then if you, if you, on Wednesday, what you would do is you would look back on wherever you're taking notes or keeping this stuff or whatever it is. Right. And you would then put note, you would update your recruiting pipeline list. Okay. So let's call that pen. Let's say you're keeping it on pen and paper. Right? Well, we'll decide this in a second, but let's just say it's pen and paper, or it's an Excel sheet. It doesn't even matter right now. So to complete this pillar, you would look, you would look back at everything. That's come in since Wednesday, make sure every new recruit has been added to the list. Maybe some have maybe some haven't you look at your calendar, right? You make sure that list is up to date. So that's the update part. Got it.
Speaker 3 (00:30:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:30:58):
The review part. Then you review it. Then you go down the list line by line. And I'm not saying you have to reach out to every single person that's on there, but you need to reach out as you go down the list. Okay. I should reach out to that person again. I should call that person again. I should do that. Right. So if you updated, okay. If you updated and reviewed that list once a week, I was going to say twice a week, but maybe we just start out once a week. Nobody would ever fall through the cracks. Right. So, so here's what I'm thinking. Could you use an Excel sheet? Right? And then do you bring your computer with you on the road?
Speaker 3 (00:31:51):
Usually? I have just my iPad with me and my laptop stays at the office.
Speaker 4 (00:31:58):
Does your iPad have Excel on it?
Speaker 3 (00:32:02):
It does. Okay. So
Speaker 4 (00:32:04):
Because here's all you really need to keep on this sheet, right? Here's all you really need to keep is you just need to keep their name, write their name, their contact info. And when's the last time you reached out to them, right?
Speaker 3 (00:32:21):
No, I did. No. Just so you know. Brian, I did, I did. I do have this. I'm just not the best with it. Just being honest. So it's been difficult.
Speaker 4 (00:32:34):
What do you mean you have it? Where is it? What's it on Excel. Okay. Well that's right. So you have recruits inside of an Excel sheet, right? Yes I do. Okay. So, so that's my that's that's exactly. My point is, remember you're I know you're going to hit your pillars, right? Once we have your new a pillars established, I know you'll hit your pillars. So if you update and review that sheet once a week, nobody will fall through the cracks because, and here again, here's what I mean by update and review update means you have to update it. You got to put in anyone new that didn't make it in. You can delete anyone who's no longer viable, right? And then review means you go down it line by line and reach out to every person. Now you can choose to spend a morning doing that, where you can choose to do it over the course of the week.
Speaker 4 (00:33:32):
The pillars not done until you've gone down line by line and reached out to everyone that you want to reach out to that week. And if you want to skip a name, you can maybe just talk to them on Monday. You don't have to reach out to them again. Does that make sense? I know it sounds too simplistic, but if that's all, you probably got it updated and reviewed your sheet once a week. No, one's falling through the cracks because I know you're the kind of guy that you might talk to someone and all of a sudden, you're going to scribble notes in your notebook, write about them and all that kind of stuff. Okay, great. But then when you go to update that sheet the next time, whether it's later that week or the following week, you go back in your notebook, if you even need to and you know, update that sheet.
Speaker 4 (00:34:20):
I agree. Okay. So, so that's going to be one of your pillars is update and review your recruiting pipeline sheet. Jot it down. Alright. Now let's talk about, so that's ZipRecruiter and that all goes in and that's going to include everything. Internal guys will wind up on their ZipRecruiter. People wind up on their, whatever, okay. People you're talking to might wind up on there. Right? You might have people you're just having conversations with on social media and you might want to just keep them on there. Right. And by the way, I don't want to sugar coat this. It might take you two hours to do this each week, right. To kind of go down line by line and reach out to those people or hit them up again on social media or whatever you need to do. But it's critical to your business that if you're going to grow with agents, you have to stay on top of you. Can't let these things fall through the cracks, right? Correct. Okay. Let's talk about your personal recruiting. All right. Let's talk about your personal recruiting. I think what you were telling me was it sounded when you started talking earlier that it's very heavy media based, meaning from what I gathered, number one, you're you interact with people on social media, right? Maybe people who are interested, you're starting conversations with them, that kind of thing. Right. Maybe even people you've known from the past and other businesses and stuff, but then also I imagine you're posting on social media to attract people, right?
Speaker 3 (00:36:01):
Yes. Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:36:04):
When it comes to the posting, have you found that to be effective? Do you ever get people who reach out to you and go, Ooh, what are you up to? What do you do? Right. Sounds like something I don't want to be involved. Okay. So posting works. And then do you also, again, I don't want to put words in your mouth. Do you also reach out to people like out of the blue, but like just start conversations with people maybe, you know, from something else or whatever.
Speaker 3 (00:36:31):
Yes. But I would like to do that more. And I find myself not being able to do that consistently
Speaker 4 (00:36:38):
Welcome to the world. Welcome to the world of fillers. Right. Okay. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about posting. All right. Let's talk about posting for a second. How often again, these are minimums. How often do you feel you need to post?
Speaker 3 (00:37:05):
I've been posting I think three, three times a week would be good. Okay. But, you know, I used to post more, but I don't post as much as of lately. You know, so you know, it's a couple of times a week is generally what I do.
Speaker 4 (00:37:22):
Well, we'll look, I mean, here's the other thing though, for what you're doing. I think it's not just about posting frequently, but it's about, it's more quality. It's like, are you going to say the things and put the kind of pictures up or whatever that's going to attract the right kind of person. Right. Like just posting for posting sake doesn't necessarily mean anything but posting something effective does. Right. correct. You know, you're probably going to figure out over time, if you haven't already that certain things make people reach out and go, what are you up to man? Right. I want to make some money or whatever it is. Okay. The now when you say post three times a week, do you have it set up? So you can post to multiple platforms at once. Like, do you have like a hoot suite or a program? Or if you put a post up, it'll go to LinkedIn and it'll go to Facebook and it'll go to Instagram and Twitter or whatever else you use or do you do all those individually?
Speaker 3 (00:38:19):
I do it individually. I've tried some of the other things, but it's, I don't know if they've corrupted it, but I mean, there's some times that I might post a picture and it says that it can't upload to this one. It cannot upload to that. And it's just it's more frustrating than, and it,
Speaker 4 (00:38:36):
Okay. What, how many platforms do you post to? Is it Facebook? Linkedin, Instagram and Twitter. Linkedin. Facebook and Instagram. Okay. Okay. But I've been focusing a lot more of my time on LinkedIn. Okay. But I would imagine you should really be posting similar stuff on all three, right? I mean, it's, it's a different, it's a different audience. So sometimes you might want to, you know, but, but how about this? Could the pillar be three by three posting, three posts on each platform three times a week, I guess it could. Right. And again, sometimes you can post the exact same thing. Sometimes I don't really know much about Instagram and stuff, but sometimes you could make it Instagram friendly, I guess. Right. Just alter it a little bit or something, right? Yes. Okay. So three by three posting. Now, as you know, I know you've read the book a couple of times, this idea of reference documents, right.
Speaker 4 (00:39:46):
I would create a reference document for this pillar and that reference doc could be, it could be a word document. It could be an Excel document, whatever. But I imagine a lot of times you just have ideas for posts, right? Like, Oh, if I posted this, that might be cool. Or maybe you read about some guy's technique for posting. And you're like, Oh, I should try that. Like, I'll post a case study. Right. This is Bob, Bob became an agent, whatever it is just Bob now, you know, bebop, whatever. Right? Like there's all different things about Bob. What about let's figure we get that in there somehow. Right? yeah. So I guess, I guess what I'm saying is that way every week when you go to post, all right, you go to do your thing. You're not starting from scratch. You're not just going to post what you feel like at the moment you actually open up that Excel sheet or that word document, and it will give you ideas and links and things you've written out maybe for future posts.
Speaker 4 (00:40:53):
Right. And that way you're not starting over every time. It's like, Oh yeah, I forgot. I wanted to do that. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Because I'm sure you have ideas all the time. I know you have ideas all the time. Cause I remember when we used to work together, you always had ideas. Right. And too many, two men. Well, but that's okay. So you put them into your reference documents, right? If you follow my system, if you go to the planning, your day planning your week video, whatever, there's a place on your weekly card to jot those ideas down. And then when you change the card each week, you will put the, the 80% of them you'll end up crossing off. But the ones that you still like a week later, you put into the appropriate reference documents. Right. What that does is that makes that pillar way more effective.
Speaker 4 (00:41:40):
It's like, you're not starting from scratch every week when you have to do it. Right. You're not just posting, you're not just posting something just to get one done. You're actually posting effective things. Right. Okay. Correct. The interacting with people on social media. I don't think we need a pillar four because that's a classic, urgent, significant reactive thing. If someone writes you back, you're just gonna, you're going to keep that conversation going is my guess. Right. That's not like something you have to focus on. It's not like you have 42 messages and you don't respond to people or do you
Chris (00:42:16):
You know, I know, I mean, it's not really like that. You know, I, I do find that nowadays it's tougher to like sometimes get back to certain people. Like I mean, it's just cause you're busy or you're helping people. And, and I, you know, before, when I used to do other businesses, I used to, you know, really be on top of the messaging responding right away. But it just seems like that's not able to happen, but for good reason, but it's not like I have a million people reaching out to me and I don't respond. It's not like that.
Speaker 4 (00:42:48):
That's what I'm saying. Like, you don't need a pillar that says, okay, remember to actually go on to Facebook and respond to people who wrote me messages about what I do or right. That's okay. No. And if that becomes a problem, we can add a pillar, but that's fine. Right? Th that's that's good downtime stuff. You're sitting in your car, your weight, and you've got a bunch of messages you start interacting with people. Okay. The what about, what other methods do you use to recruit besides social media personally, or is the majority of it done on social media? Which wouldn't surprise me
Chris (00:43:23):
Social media and internally I do want to start reaching out to contacts that I know from the past. I just you know, I haven't done it, you know normally I've been going after people who are already in the same business, it's an easier transition. They don't have to get licensed, you know, just maybe a, the wrong wearing the wrong Jersey in the wrong vehicle and, and can come here. But I do want to start. And what I do find is that when I recruit new people meet what we call me a fight. There's probably a better word for them. But when I recruit neophytes they're very coachable. They don't bring a lot of bad habits. Not everybody does, but they just seem to, they just seem to follow instruction,
Speaker 4 (00:44:15):
Your business, you have a system that works, you already know that system works. And it's kind of like, you know, someone's been doing it for a long time. They're going to kind of want to do it their way, which you know is not, it's not the end of the world, but I understand what you're saying. So, okay. So let's talk, recruiting these neophytes as you call them. Right. so, so that's, I imagine what that really comes down to is going through your, your contacts, your phone contacts and your social media contacts, and then reaching out to them. I mean, is it any more complicated than that?
Speaker 3 (00:44:56):
No, but it's, it's it's, it's not being done. It's just not, it's not complicated,
Speaker 4 (00:45:03):
Chris. We're having this conversation because you're an absolute, super talented animal in this world. And I know just like the first time around, if we just get you focused on a few things and you hit those few things this week, everything else will take care of itself. The pillars are never that complicated. Right? That's the, that's the great part. Okay. So could it be as simple as, and again, your brain, there's a couple of ways to look at it. One way is to say, okay, every week I'm going to spend 30 minutes looking for and reaching out to again, I'm just going to use your word neophytes, right? People, you know, who are not in the business, that's one way to do it. The other way to measure. Just, just say, every week I'm going to reach out to three neophytes. Very simple.
Speaker 3 (00:45:58):
Did you say 30 minutes a day or? No,
Speaker 4 (00:46:00):
Everything's a week. We're talking, we're talking pillars every everything's a week. Look, I can tell you right now, Chris, if you spent 30 minutes a week reaching out to neophytes, making that initial outreach to them, you would, you'd run out of people at about six months or you'd feel like you ran out 30 minutes a week is a lot, which is fine. I'm just saying, does your brain work where you'd rather go, I need to spend 30 minutes a week doing that and get in as many as I can. Or does your brain go? I just need to make sure I reach out to three a week or five a week or whatever the number is.
Speaker 3 (00:46:40):
It would probably be the three or five a week.
Speaker 4 (00:46:42):
Okay. Let's start out small. Cause you're not doing any of it now. Right? It sounds like you do it. And then you stopped doing it for a month or two, and then you do it again, right?
Speaker 3 (00:46:53):
No, I haven't even really started doing it yet.
Speaker 4 (00:46:55):
Okay. All right. So could it be three a week and reach out by the way, doesn't mean they have to respond. You just send them the initial message or leave on the initial voicemail if that's how you choose to do it. Yeah, we could, I could do three weeks. Okay. Are we calling them neophytes or do you want to come up with a better name before I write this down? I'm happy with
Speaker 3 (00:47:24):
Aye.
Speaker 4 (00:47:26):
This, do you guys call them Neo fights inside the team and the company. Okay. Then let's use that. Yes. All right. Reach out to three neophytes. Alright, done. I'll be expecting a call next time.
Chris (00:47:39):
United, United spell that, right?
Speaker 4 (00:47:41):
Yeah. Don't worry about it. You can't do. That's why we're not on video. I'll be expecting my call next week. If you're like I needed a third one.
Chris (00:47:51):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:47:54):
Anything else in terms of recruiting ways you recruit that I'm not thinking of?
Chris (00:48:02):
No. I mean, that's basically it, I mean, I don't know if we're gonna go onto the training and support stuff, but yeah. I mean, as far as recruiting, that's basically it,
Speaker 4 (00:48:11):
That, and then that's exactly where we're going. Let's talk about training and support. Right? Let's talk about training and support. So again, let, let you know, we've got three questions, right? What is something? And I know we kind of shortcut it earlier, but that's fine. Cause you and I are both pretty familiar with the pillar system, but you know, what is something you can already do effectively that if you just did more of, or more consistent with would have the biggest impact on your business. So we're looking for anything that in the training world that you just need to make sure you're doing consistently. Right? Then we have question number two, you know, what is one skill that if you significantly improved on would have the biggest impact on your business? So we're saying, okay, what could you get better at? What if you spent time getting better at what has the biggest return on investment in terms of training and support?
Speaker 4 (00:49:02):
And then question number three, you know, what is something you can organize plan or create prior to taking action that would make the action much more impactful? And so what we're looking for there is, is there anything in the training and support world where if you created something each week organized and prepared, it, it would make all the training and support more effective. Right? So let's kind of keep those things in focus and let's start with consistency. Right. Is there anything you need to do consistently or more of each week when it comes to training and support?
Chris (00:49:43):
Yeah. one of the things that, you know, when somebody, when an agent comes on board, I feel I do a pretty good job of this, but it could be better is when new people come on board they have to, you know, get through the contracting process and, and you know, sometimes I don't look at it as much, meaning that, you know, people will come on board, they'll get contracted. Like they'll, they'll say, Hey, I want to have this company, this company, this company. And they go to place the order, meaning that they want to request those carriers. In other words, you know, but it's not, they're not signed yet. You have to go back in and actually sign the contracts online to start getting that part kind of is something that I should be looking at more. But I designed it
Brian Margolis (00:50:36):
Because they show up to their first appointment or something and they get someone that wants to buy and then they realize they're not actually finished.
Chris (00:50:43):
Well, it doesn't, it doesn't really go that go that fast. You know, or that, or that far into it. But you know, I guess, you know, launching people, making sure that we're on top of it more and we've discussed it, you know, within our team to be able to manage that a little bit better, but you know but, but I, it's also making sure that they have, you know, we do select what carriers to, for them to select what companies to represent. But sometimes they delay it on signing. Sometimes it's a little bit of a delay of how fast they get launched. But I did design something called the new agent checklist, which is something that I give to every agent to be able to show them what they need to do from a to Z. I just realized that there was something missing in our, in the industry for this.
Chris (00:51:32):
So, so I designed it and it really just shows them what to do from a to Z to get prepared, but generally people do use it, but it's, it's a better when we do talk about it a lot, but it's really having the managers on the team and myself really focused on focus on that more and more quickly, and making sure that they're, you know, going through the processes to be able to get out there and sell faster. And also so I don't know if you want to, I don't want to talk about too many things, but you know, did you want to kind of stop there?
Brian Margolis (00:52:06):
Yeah. Let, let, let's stop there and see some look, somethings can be dealt with, with a pillar or other things. Sometimes it's just putting something automated in there. Sometimes it's a task. So let's talk about this because look, this falls under question number three, which is what is something you can organize planner create. I would almost say organize in this world, you know, that makes something else more effective. And if you can organize this every week, it makes the whole process more effective because now you're not constantly chasing around people and things like that you'll lose the bandwidth. So right now they get this checklist. Right. Do you, where do you see, or do you have some kind of dashboard or anything, like, where are you able to view how much of this checklist is done or what still needs to be done? Is, is there a place for that or is that just, you have to actually do it manually and go through
Chris (00:53:03):
It's something manually that I have to go through. And I design something where I'm using a platform that I worked, where I recorded videos to get people through it. And then I know what, what step that they're on you know, by, you know, how much of it they've watched or how much of it they've completed on there. So I have done that and I, and I kind of started doing that. But where I'm kind of getting hung, hung up on is when somebody comes on board, you know, making sure that, you know, I do send them the welcome email, which includes a lot of the documents, but it's making sure that, you know, they you know, get into there and start doing it. Cause when I send them the email, they do have a checklist, you know, as far as the items there. And I do have it in a video form that I invite them for, you know, but it just, it just seems like cause it's something new that I designed, I'm trying to get people more focused on completing the videos. You know, so I I've been trying to come up with a solution, you know, more so for that. But cause our company is making some changes, so,
Brian Margolis (00:54:16):
And that has everything to do with signing, contracting, picking out the carriers, everything it's the whole, the whole thing to, so that they are capable and able to sell. Right?
Chris (00:54:27):
Yeah. Like having their presentation booklet put together, like I've put all that together. So that way they know what to do. And you know, sometimes things are not really completed or they take up there a little bit of too much time with it. It's there, it's just that. And, and I guess just like with anything else, people are gonna, you know, either, really do it or, or, or somebody not, or, but not do it, but we just, I felt like I needed to design something.
Brian Margolis (00:54:56):
All right. But could you, to me, it's, I think it's almost more important that the managers, right. That are handling it, whether it's you or one of the other managers, it's almost more important that they have a checklist that, of everything that has to get done as well. Right.
Chris (00:55:13):
So could it be actually I did, I did design something for that, you know, called the the manager launch program. Okay. I just actually designed it. So that way the managers know they can go down a checklist and make sure that everything's done. Okay.
Brian Margolis (00:55:32):
Could it be as simple as it is? The word is the word when they're done everything, when a manager has made sure they're done everything right. Meaning let's pretend it's you on this, in this case, when you're talking to a new agent and you're kind of going through, okay, you did this, we did this. Okay. You're ready to go. Or, Oh, you still need to do a, B and C. Right. You guys refer to that as that person has now been launched.
Chris (00:56:03):
We don't really use that, that word, but you know, ready to go yet.
Brian Margolis (00:56:07):
You use, so when an agent is literally done the checklist, what do you consider that? What do you call that? Like, I don't have to worry about completed.
Chris (00:56:17):
Yeah. We just, yeah. We just say it's completed and we're like ready to go. Okay. You might just, for your
Speaker 4 (00:56:24):
Own terminology, you might need to say something like, okay, that agent's launched or that agent is, I don't know, greenlit. Right. Like they're ready to go. I, some managers made sure they're done everything. Right,
Speaker 3 (00:56:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (00:56:40):
Okay. Let's just use the word launch for now and then you can change it later. Could it be as simple as for you? Right. Cause here's the real thing it's really you staying on top of it is what you're saying to make sure that people are either launched or they're going to get launched or they're going to complete or not complete it and you can move on. Right.
Speaker 3 (00:57:05):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (00:57:06):
Be a simple, do you have some kind of list or access to a list of new agents, right. That you can look at or print out every week and just kind of see, you know, find out launched, launched, still not launched, you know, incomplete, all that kind of stuff. Is there some central source for that or no?
Speaker 3 (00:57:33):
It's kind of hard to, I mean, we do have a portal which I can see all of them, my agents and, and in my hierarchy. And it shows what carriers they have if it was actually signed it doesn't show the checklist thing. That's something aside from our team. You know, so it doesn't really show that, but it shows the carriers, you know, if they've been approved or not, you know, but nothing that says they're completely launched. And that's why I started working on a document that a manager can use to make sure that when all those steps are done, that person is, you know, ready to go or launched. In other words, I just really haven't rolled it out yet.
Speaker 4 (00:58:16):
Okay. And let me ask, let me ask you this. What's the timeline, if someone's been an agent for more than 30 days and they're still not launched or completed or green-lit, is it ever going to happen?
Speaker 3 (00:58:32):
It is, but they're on the clock. I mean, if they, you know, go 60 days without putting in a piece of business, they get termed terminated automatically out of the system. So
Speaker 4 (00:58:43):
Yeah. Well, you don't have to monitor that though. That's being monitored,
Speaker 3 (00:58:47):
Right? Yeah. But but, but some people don't do go 30 days and, and sometimes it takes them that long to get everything done. So.
Speaker 4 (00:58:58):
Okay. Do you have any kind of list of where you can, you can, you can pull up the agents who've started over the last 60 days, like sorted by date?
Speaker 3 (00:59:13):
Not really like, like actually I think there's one report that I could run where it shows their hire date, but so, so yes.
Chris (00:59:23):
Yes I can do. Yes. I can do that.
Speaker 4 (00:59:25):
Thinking for what I'm thinking to handle this for this pillar is I'm thinking that you can actually print that off each week and then run down it, right. Review it. And anyone who is not completed yet, you can reach out to them or the manager. Correct. In other words, you've got to keep you, you know, you've got to, you've got to keep your own notes or your, I don't know your system well enough, but I guess where I'm going with the pillar is could you just review, like could once a week you just review the new agent list. Right. And what that means is you print out the last 60 days and you highlight anyone who, you know, has not been, is not finished. Right. And then you reach out to the, the managers or the or, or the person.
Chris (01:00:32):
Yeah. I would probably have to do that honestly more than one time a week.
Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
Okay. Let me ask you another question. What happens if you don't even do this? What's the downside.
Chris (01:00:45):
If I, if I don't do this at all, as far as a pillar, or if I don't
Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
On top of it,
Chris (01:00:53):
If I, if I don't stay on top of it, then, then people aren't going to be getting stuff done that they need to be done. And, and they're just gonna, because they don't really move forward.
Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
They don't know it or they're lazy and you have to make them do it, or they don't know it has to be. Right.
Chris (01:01:10):
No, actually I would say that there are some people that are like that, but you know, but sometimes, you know, like, you know, sometimes people don't read things carefully and they don't follow it step by step. Sometimes people try to rush through it you know, but there are some people who are lazy. I, I will admit that, but it doesn't seem to be the, the, that seems to be the lower percentage of the equation.
Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
Okay. Could you have, I guess the way I'm looking at it is at, could your managers, could your managers keep a well, I guess you're, you're the manager above all of it, right?
Chris (01:01:51):
Yeah. I do have people on my team who are in management and people on their teams.
Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
Right. And do they,
Chris (01:01:58):
We have, yeah, we have, we have about 25 agents.
Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Right. So do you feel, do you feel like those managers, will they stay on top of it if you don't or do you have to stay on top of everyone?
Chris (01:02:13):
As far as right now with the way things are in the current this current
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
Timeline with, with everything, I have to probably make sure that the managers are being on top of it just to kind of roll it out, you know, but I really do see that you know, what I would like to see happen honestly, is that they, when they complete that, that launch, they send that to me. So we know they're good to go.
Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
That's kind of what I was. Yeah. That's but yeah, but I think as far as the pillar goes, I think it could be as simple as once a week, you need to review the new agent list. Right. You're saying more than once a week.
Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
Yeah. The reason I'm saying more than once per week is because you know, where everybody's kind of at different, I would say different stages. I do spend more time on this and you know, sometimes. Okay. What do you, what do you think there's a lot going on right now? Review it twice a week. I would probably say two to three times a week.
Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
Okay. Well, why don't we say minimum of two times a week? Yes. You can always do it more. And the new agent list is just you printing out or using Excel. However you want to use it. Right. You could, I mean, Excel might even work better for something like this, because that way you don't have to keep re going over all the same agents every time. Right. So every week when new agents are added, you can just add them into your Excel list. And then when they're launched, you can delete them, right?
Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Yes. Okay.
Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
So let's call it review and you'll work out what system works for you, but review new agent launch list times to twice a week, right?
Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (01:04:18):
Okay. Does that make sense to you though? I don't. I just don't want you to go along and agree with it.
Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
No, it makes sense. Okay. And I understand it,
Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
An Excel thing, whatever, delete them. And then hopefully that list isn't that big every week and you know exactly who to stay on top of.
Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
I did have something like this before, honestly, Brian, but it was, I think I had too much too many columns and it was just, you know, it needs to be, it needs to be really simplified.
Speaker 4 (01:04:46):
It just, it, it really just needs to be their name and whether their name and you know, what they still have to do. Right. Yeah. And you might not even have to put what they still have to do. You might just put their name and then when you call them and you get them on the phone, you actually have a conversation, then you guys can figure out what still has to be done. Right. Sure. You'll decide. But yes, definitely simplify it, definitely simplify it. Okay. As far as training and support goes, what else do you need to be doing as the manager more consistently? I know you already have training calls, right. That are scheduled or is that just a leadership call?
Chris (01:05:37):
We have our leadership call. We have our team calls on Monday, which basically are, you know, we go over what our commitments are for the week of what we're going to accomplish. Everybody jumps on there and we have some training and we do recognition. Tuesday through Friday is a conference call where we jump on for 30 minutes, go over our numbers, share some stories you know, inspiration. And then we also have a Saturday, which is the leadership mastermind call that we have. Okay.
Speaker 4 (01:06:08):
Yeah. But the actual new agents though, when do they get trained? That's more of the ride along stuff. Yes. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. So
Chris (01:06:18):
No, I do send now when some, when everybody comes on board, I send them an email, which includes all the documents that they need along with the new agent checklist training videos of me making calls, live, meet how I present, you know, they get everything right. So they do get that. But most of the training is when they go out in the field and, and you know, get to get trained for four to six days. And that's, if they really need it, I mean, if we bring on somebody who's experienced. Right, right, right. You know, we, we still have them review the system and then they can start following it from there.
Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
Got it. Okay. and then, and down the road, you could almost hire a part time training coordinator, where are checklists, where you teach someone the checklist and they stay on top of people to make sure, you know, they get done what they get done. I mean, somebody could probably do that in five hours a week, right.
Chris (01:07:13):
Five days a week.
Speaker 4 (01:07:14):
And you could pay them to do that, pay him a, you know, 20 bucks an hour or something to do that. Okay.
Chris (01:07:21):
Yeah. Also, I, I guess I didn't mention this too, but this, it goes along with the recruiting stuff is that I also am starting to use monster where I'm reaching out to people, but I'm probably going to have the person that sets appointments for me, you know, call and reach out to resumes to be able to do that. But I've started doing that a little bit as well.
Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
Okay. But that'll just fill the recruiting pipeline. So as that pipeline gets updated, you're still going to have to update and reveal it. Right? Yes. And that update and review pipeline sheet, I imagine sometimes it's gonna take you 20 minutes to do and other weeks it could take you two hours if you have a lot of recruiting going on. So sure. It just is, it just is what it is. The, the, so as far as the effectiveness of the training and support. Okay. Is there anything that, a skill that you need to be getting better at? Is it, do you have a learning pillar? Is there something that if you got, if you got significantly better at any skill, would it have a big return on investment for you? Like what's your, what's your bottleneck either in your business or helping other people? Is it the roleplaying? Is it the closing, the objection handling, like
Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
I don't really know how to you know, how to answer that question because if you could let me ask it differently.
Speaker 4 (01:09:03):
If you could snap your fingers and be a 10 in any area, right. Skill-Wise, I'm either the greatest, you know, recruiter or I'm the greatest creator of effective scripts or the greatest objection handle or the greatest whatever teacher of that or whatever, you know, what skill, if you could magically snap your fingers and be the absolute world-class at it would have the biggest return on investment in your business.
Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
I mean, I would, I would say recruiting. I mean, we, we, we do have a lot of good things down. We train our agents very well. You know, it really comes down to of course we can all do things better, but I would say you know, recruiting, but when we bring people on, whether they're new you know, and just so you know Brian, when we bring people on, when they see what we have compared to how they normally get involved in the industry where they don't have anything, you know what I mean? It's like, they're like, wow, this is so cool. You know, we, you know, but I would, but I would say, I would say recruiting cause we train people very, very well. I think you don't look, the part we can always help with is objections and how to handle those things. I always try to do a better job of dealing with people you know, being much better with that. Do you know, I am working, right.
Speaker 4 (01:10:35):
So you're basically saying for yourself though, better at recruiting, meaning being more effective, like you're messaging to potential recruits, right. To get their attention, to make them want to work with you or reach out to you, right? Yes. Do you think that's a learnable skill?
Speaker 3 (01:10:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
Could you Google, you know how to recruit people for your team? I mean, I, I know there's people who are just great recruiters period. Right.
Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
Do you see that as a learnable skill through books and videos
Speaker 4 (01:11:14):
And Google searches and all that kind of stuff? Yes. Okay. Then I would suggest just to start out 30 minutes a week of recruiting training for yourself, this is for yourself, right? 30 minutes out effect, 30 minutes a week on effective recruiting learning. Because I imagine there's some great stuff out there on building teams and getting people interested in what you do and just even direct response copywriting. Right? Just how do you create a post that attracts the right kind of person, right? How do you have a conversation with someone to say the magic words that makes them realize this is something they should take seriously? Right? That's all part of it. And I will tell you this, that is something you should definitely have a reference document for like, as you find different trainers and books and links and sources and search terms and all that, you want to keep a sheet of that, an Excel sheet or a word document, whatever. So each week when you go to do that, right, you can, you don't, you're again, you're not starting from scratch. You have all these things already in there. It makes sense because I guarantee you there's some, you know, it's like 80, 20 all the time, but you know, you might find one recruiting technique or line or way of approaching people, or even a market. You never thought of right. To recruit in that could change your whole business, but it might take you a while to find it, right?
Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
Yes. So I would say that one, do you think we missed anything today? Is there any area of your business we're not addressing? And obviously if you think of something later, you can just let me know, but I just want to make sure there's nothing obvious we're missing. Yeah. I think, I think we touched on a little, no, definitely most important things that I can think about right now. And I'm just gonna work on, well, you're not going to do anything yet. We're not done, buddy. I'm about to hit. I'm about to hit you where it hurts. Let's talk about personal pillars, Amy, if you're going to, I already know that your ability to create the habit of pillar execution. So is there anything else when you hit your pillars each week, is there anything else that you want to make sure it gets done? Anything in your personal life that isn't happening and you want to happen more frequently or get better at
Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
My health.
Speaker 4 (01:14:30):
Okay. Let's get more specific.
Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
I don't
Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
Constantly eating better.
Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Mmm.
Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
Check. Check, right? Yeah. All right. Well let's just start going. We're we're going to say, yeah, let's just, let's just start with working out. Okay. Could it be as simple as working out twice a week?
Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
Yes I can.
Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
Okay. What do you call, what do you like to do when you work out? What are your, what are we calling a workout?
Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
I generally, I mean, I know it's harder right now with everything going on, but I like to go to the to the gym. I like to use weights. I like to do the elliptical, you know, cardio stretch, go in the sauna steam room. I mean, I know that's other stuff out kind of outside of it, but I like to swim. I like to swim a lot, so
Speaker 4 (01:15:40):
Okay. So, you know, you know, if you're calling something a workout, right? Like if you were at home, what would you do at home? If you couldn't go to the gym, is there something you can do at home? Or
Speaker 3 (01:15:53):
There are things that I can do. They just don't get done.
Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
Right. But all right. Give me one example.
Speaker 3 (01:16:00):
I mean, I could, I could do a, just using body weight, you know, just, just doing squats. I could walk, I could you know, I could walk, I could run, I could you know, I could you know, do lunges. I mean, some you know, a lot of different things at the house you know, I could do, I could do like you know, I could do pull ups on the stairs. No, I'm just kidding. All right. So, so there's just,
Speaker 4 (01:16:32):
What about two, two workouts a week? You can do more if you want, but to each week to each week, get the momentum going, right?
Speaker 3 (01:16:49):
Yeah. So I guess it would just be me figuring out what I'm going to be doing for those. I mean, I, look, I know I listed those what I could be doing, so I just have to be doing that
Speaker 4 (01:17:01):
Luck. You can spend 10 minutes coming up with some stuff you can run up the steps, do step runs. I mean, I don't care get to the, you know, when things open up, get to the gym more, it's a good, the weather's still nice doing things outside, you know, going for a long bike ride. You know, I mean, to me a workout, whether you're talking about a workout is getting your heart rate up. Right. I don't think I wouldn't count walking in your case. That's just my opinion, but you know something to get your heart rate up, right? Absolutely. Again, right now, I don't even care what it is. I just want, I just want the upward spiral to begin. Right. I just want the upward spiral that again and again, the week starts on with pillars week starts on Saturday, ends on Friday. So anything you do during the, on the weekend is a, is a bonus.
Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
Absolutely. from an eating standpoint, is that something you want to tackle right now? Or do you just want to start with the workouts? Workouts will be fine. Start one step at a time. Right? All right. So here's your pillars. You're ready. This is what we got. We got update and review your recruiting pipeline sheet. Once a week three by three posting, meaning you're going to post three times on all three platforms. You're going to reach out to three neophytes a week. You're going to review the new agent launch list twice a week. You're going to spend 30 minutes learning about effective recruiting, and you're going to do two workouts a week.
Speaker 4 (01:18:51):
Now here's the way I want you to look at your pillars as you mold these over, right? These don't have to be the final new set of pillars for you, whatever. But the quantit question I want you to say is look on Friday night. If I do these things on Friday night, do I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my business is moving in the right direction? It's just a matter of time and pressure, right? I'm working out now. I'm getting better at recruiting over time. I'm consistently recruiting, right? All that kind of stuff. People are being launched. Everything's being handled. When I do, when I do these six things, my life is good. My business is good. Right? Makes sense. Right. I love them yet. My life is good. My business is good. Alright. And again, hopefully over time with the recruiting thing, what I have a feeling is going to happen like 80 20 is you're going to realize that one method of recruiting is dominating all the others and you can just singlehandedly focus on that. Alright. You ready to build a, I already know you're, you're darn successful. Ready
Brian Margolis (01:20:08):
Now and now. And you've built a nice team. Now it's time to take this team building to the next level. Sound like a plan.
Speaker 3 (01:20:15):
Yeah. I'm really excited to be able to share some updates. I appreciate you very much for your time. And so I thank you for having me.
Brian Margolis (01:20:23):
Got it. Thanks for listening to another episode of simplify your strategy, magnifier results. If you know someone you think could benefit from this episode, be their hero and share it with them. If you'd like a free copy of my book, or you want to be considered as a guest on a future episode, head on over to productivity, giant.com have a great day. And thanks again.