From Comfort Zones to Milestones: Celebrating 250 Episodes of IA Forward Insights

Celebrate with Shane and Tonya in the 250th episode of IA Forward! From the power of discipline over motivation to the best way to create a "stop-doing list," this one is full of practical insights, a look back at the most popular episodes, and a thank you to the listeners who made it all possible. 

IA Forward to can help you take your agency from good to great. Learn more at iaforward.com, and follow IA Forward on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Transcript

Announcer: [00:00:00] This is IA Forward, your playbook for success as an independent insurance agent. Here to help you knock it out of the ballpark are your hosts, Shane Tatum and Tonya Lied. Welcome to 

Tonya: IA Forward and welcome to the 250th episode of our podcast. What? Really? This is like a crazy milestone. And I just want to thank our listeners for being with us for this many episodes.

I cannot believe that people are still listening to us after 250 episodes. 

Shane: I can't believe that we've talked that much. Secondly, just look, two marketing kind of minds, salesy marketing kind of brains. The commitment to actually do this for 250 episodes and not go You want to do something different? Do you want to, like, do we need to keep doing this?

Just that alone is more discipline than either of us have had in our [00:01:00] lives combined. 

Tonya: We would be remiss if we didn't give a huge shout out to our fabulous producer, Dave Maxwell, and I will say that these two marketing brains would not still be doing this most probably if we didn't have him in our lives.

Shane: Yeah, that's an understatement. We need Dave and Dave makes it work. And I just get to show up and talk because of Dave and because of what Tonya does on her side. Of the creation of this thing and I'm blessed Tanya's blessed, you know more blessed maybe blessed squared I just get to show up and talk i've said that before to people they're like, how did you start podcasting?

Because I just show up and talked and Tanya gives us a topic most of the time and okay Occasionally 10 of the time maybe I have a topic that I want to bring to the table But I don't It's rare. So I just get to show up and I love it and this is cool. And so congrats to us very cool stuff 

Tonya: And a huge thank you to [00:02:00] our listeners again.

We love getting to do this for y'all. We love sharing information We love to hear your feedback. So please keep that coming. You're the reason that we do this shane What do you think are the top three things that you've learned over these 250 episodes? 

Shane: Number one, learning how to speak without a ton of pauses, I've learned so much about how to speak, which is transition to in person speaking.

It's transition to our agent conference every year and being able to speak in front of big groups. It's transition to being better at speaking to our team as our team has grown. Carrier communications, like all the communication aspect has been a big win for me on this. Comfort zone is a myth, if you just push through.

Being uncomfortable is a good place to be and trying something new was a [00:03:00] huge deal for me on this. I do talk a lot, but can I talk randomly about a topic? How much energy am I going to have to put into this? Is it getting anxious about it? We've had situations where I forgot we were podcasting because we had a calendar change and you messaged me and I'm like, oh yes, and we jump on and you throw a topic out and we just go.

I don't know that I could have done that three, four years ago. And so there's a big personal development piece here for me on that. And then lastly, through the guests that we've had. Just different perspective, like how important it is to listen and hear different people's perspective and the podcast outlet.

Not only gives us that by all the different podcasts that we may follow as a society, different people follow different podcasts for different reasons, but Our guest process has been really rewarding for me. I always learn [00:04:00] something from Tanya on different perspectives, particularly around creativity or marketing or branding.

And so just that process as well has been incredibly rewarding for me. 

Tonya: If you want a chance to go back and listen to some of our greatest hits, I want to share our top three most downloaded episodes. Number three was episode nine, and this is still one of my very favorites, and that was Being Independent, Shane's Walmart Survey, and The Power to Walk Away.

And it's a podcast that talks about the idea. Of what being an independent agent to you means. And that's a totally different thing than what being an independent agent means to the world. We talked about the perception of the big brands versus what we do. We talked about the choice model and the power [00:05:00] of it.

And then having the courage to walk away from the big brand to do your own thing. 

Shane: That feels like yesterday, the survey and that was decade and a half ago. I've totally forgot about that. I can't believe that was episode nine. That's crazy. Perspective terms that we use still to this day, the consumer doesn't understand independent agency.

They just don't. And I highly recommend you go back and listen to that episode. We don't have time to rehash the whole thing today. It's just a really great consumer perspective, and it really caught my attention in the original moment that we discovered this, but also when we talked about it on the episode, how it brought it back and what you think your customers understand versus what they truly understand.

Tonya: Number two was episode 76 titled People Are Insane and How This Affects the Insurance Industry. And I really think people just downloaded this one because of the title, because [00:06:00] it was one of my favorites. But it was about auto insurance rate increases. This was before the hard market started, we were talking about this.

But the big topic of it was listening to listen, instead of automatically assuming. That it's a problem to fix and also that we as agents tend to overthink how much people are thinking about their insurance. 

Shane: Yeah, this is comical in that we were talking about rate increases before the hard market. Oh, did we just not understand what we had in front of us at all?

That's a little bit comical and again here. With this theme of what people really spend their time and energy on versus what we think they spend their time and energy on. Our little bubble, our insurance bubble, we get caught up in it and we use acronyms and we use terminology that people don't understand.

We assume that people are following the same kind of things that we're following, and they're not. It's no [00:07:00] different than you're not reading medical journals like your doctor does, and you don't understand the latest tools and methods in healthcare. The doctor doesn't come in and talk in cryptic language to you if they have a really good point.

Bedside manner. They talk to you in terms of common sense and try to give you a Comparable that you can relate to and I we have to continue to get better at that as well 

Tonya: Our number one most downloaded episode was episode eight and one of my personal favorites Let's talk life insurance with jeff havard and robbie jaboor And I don't think I have ever laughed during a podcast session the way I laughed during this one.

It really makes a lot of sense when you listen to it, because we are talking about how to successfully add life insurance products to your portfolio. We talk about relationship building, how to lead with life insurance from a personal and [00:08:00] commercial perspective, golf games, marketing. But if you just need a great laugh, episode 108 is a good one.

Shane: If you have ever been in a room with Jeff Havard and Robbie Jabbour together, you just start laughing. I remember sitting down to record. The episode and laughing started, somebody made a comment and Jeff took a jab and Robbie took a jab back and it just started. It's a great episode. Jeff's an incredible guy as well as Robbie and very intelligent.

This is not shocking, but then it is surprising as a property and casualty podcast that your life insurance topic made the number one podcast. And the only thing that's a little disappointed and I'm a little hurt on is that the gap between the 1, whatever that number is, and 250, so I don't know if that means we're falling down on our game, like we're losing our edge, like we need to pick it up a little, or [00:09:00] it's just that We've made it to the top, and now we're just trying to stay there.

Tonya: That episode was just so much fun that maybe people even listen to it more than once. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, check it out. Episode 108. Uh, you'll love it. And there's really great information in it. Not only is it funny, it is a fantastic way of looking at expanding your portfolio and how to add life insurance.

If you have that PNC. Personality. But our topic today, if you've listened to any one of the 249 previous episodes, you have heard Shane mention the stop doing list. I've been hearing Shane talk about the stop doing list for almost eight years. However, he's never really given Great instructions on how to do that.

He just says make your stop doing list I don't have time to stop doing stuff to try to figure out how to make a stop doing list [00:10:00] and Earlier this week. I found a process To create a stop doing list. 

Shane: This is very comical that we're talking about this when I got this kind of thought from you I was waiting to Go into my make fun mode.

And we're going to do that a little bit today. The fact that we're going to create a process for stop doing list. The answer is stop, make a list and just stop. Now we're going to give you a more formal process because that's what we do. We need complicated. We don't need simple and we're a complicated creatures and we're such an advanced society today.

That we need to create more around this idea of stop doing list and I was waiting for that intro because I knew it was coming We're 250 episodes in the honeymoon is over. We're down into the real jabs in Are you [00:11:00] serious? What are you talking about? But hey, I know this is split. I recognize half of the room on this topic is going to be like, thank goodness you're giving me instructions, and the other half of the room is like, Why do you need instructions to stop?

You just stop. What's so hard about that? So I'm going to pause there. I'm going to tee that up for you to just help us understand why we need this process in order to, to be better here. 

Tonya: I really started thinking about making a list of the number of random process ideas that are being thrown at me in a day.

In the amount of time that I look at LinkedIn, Instagram, email, my head can't even fathom the number of processes that people are selling right now because it's January, and we're all trying to figure out ways to do this [00:12:00] better. Yes. The stop doing list, like I said, you've been talking about all of this time.

I have notes in my margins of my calendars of, hey, do I need to do this? Does this need to go away? And usually I just implement it as I'm going along rather than making the list and saying, okay, how am I going to implement all of these things? I'll just say, hey, do I really need to be doing this? Going back to the book essentialism.

No, probably not. Okay, let's just make that go away or probably because I know if I put it on a list I'm never going to get around to stop doing it if that makes sense 

Shane: It does i'm laughing because it does like that's the thing. We can't just stop the whole point is stop It's funny because I know what you're talking about because i've done it as well and I continue to do it I'm making fun a little bit, but I actually Need to be pointing that finger back at myself as well.

Just like you said, you're going to get organized. So you start making more notes in the side of your [00:13:00] planner or whatever. And you're like, I do the same thing. Like I make more notes in my moleskin and I make notes about getting organized and I make notes about being better. I make notes about planning to create the stop doing list.

And then I can't find it in my moleskin as I start flipping back through because two weeks go by. And I know we're going to go into this really, actually very good. Process that you have discovered and one thing I will lead with which is not necessarily Part of the process i'm gonna say this is like a four or five step process here that we're gonna go through I'm gonna go back i'm gonna say there is a zero like a level zero.

There's it's starting with one I'm gonna add one that's not here. I need you to just pause. I need you to just literally stop I need you to breathe that could be quiet time. It's just nothing five minutes One minute preferably make it 10 or 15 minutes But most people that struggle with this can't do that you get too antsy things [00:14:00] start flooding into your brain I need you to stop for some period of time set an alarm set a timer do whatever you need to do And I just need you to do nothing.

I need you to clear your head. I'm going to add that as step zero. Because as we start going through these steps, what we make a lot of mistakes on, this is the failure, speaking about failure here. One of the things we do is we don't separate our busyness before. We start into this. We just start and we didn't clear our head.

We didn't get our head as empty as possible. You think, okay, I'm gonna, Oh, I'm just going to make a list and that'll get everything out of my head. No, more things are coming into your head. I promise you, you're not going to empty your brain. That process of emptying your brain doesn't work without full quiet pause.

To just get empty as best you can. And you're not going to be 100 percent empty when you go through this, by the way. You're going to be 50 percent empty. You're going to be [00:15:00] some percentage that you're still going to clog up. But you're going to be better than you were if you just said, Okay, I'm writing it down and I'm going.

Don't do that. Don't start there. Start at zero, which means empty your brain and your thoughts for some period of time. 

Tonya: Shane, that piece of advice coming from a marketing brain to a marketing brain is very humorous to me because making our brain stop is hard. I'm, I am the queen of the calm app. And I'm saying that out loud and I'm thinking that is the stupidest thing that during the parts of my life where I need some calm and I need some focus and I need some time to recenter that I'm not using the tools that I've paid for to help me do that.

How dumb is that? 

Shane: It's but it's natural. And the other alternative. Because I understand the struggle with that, to just sit and be. Like, my wife's favorite scripture is, be still and know that I am God. [00:16:00] In a lot of things, you'll see little things, and a lot of people have this, be, it'll start with be still and done.

And it's really vital here. The alternative for the crazy brain, People out there that can't stop their brain that their brain won't turn off and you hear some voices and all that stuff that comes with that. Do find something you can do that's mind numbing. I don't know what that is for you, but there are things that are mind numbing.

And what I mean by that is you can do it and be busy with it, and for whatever reason, you look up in 30 minutes and you haven't really thought about a lot of things. You've just been so focused on that mind numbing task. For me, It's chopping firewood, stacking firewood. It's mind numbing to me because if I'm not concentrating, I'm going to chop my foot off or I'm going to pull my back or I'm going to do something because it's exerting that physical energy.

I don't know why, but it literally numbs my mind to the point of [00:17:00] my brain stops running. And now, as soon as I stop, my brain's running again. But during that period of time, 15 minutes at a time, 30 minutes at a time, whatever, I have to take a break. As soon as I take a break, my mind's racing again. As soon as I go back to chopping the wood, stacking the wood, hauling the wood, it's back to mind numbing stuff.

And there's something to that. And so, if you can't be still, pause, and go calm, and just go quiet for one minute or five minutes, then do something that's mind numbing and see if that actually helps you. get to that same place for that same short period of time. 

Tonya: Mine is speed turn drills for dance.

Working on getting chaine turns as fast and tight as possible and running dance drills. And we actually have a room set up in our house. that I can go in and do that. We have like our dance room, yoga room, workout area. For me, it [00:18:00] is speed drills for dancing to really loud music. So know what your thing is that will clear your brain.

Like Shane said, that's a fantastic place to start. But let's create our stop doing list. The first thing I want you to do is grab your calendar from last year. I hope you have not thrown your calendar away. Whether it is a physical calendar, if it's your digital calendar, for me it's a combination of the two.

But grab your calendar and know that this is going to take probably about an hour to two hours. So 

Shane: this was the funny part to me, is the hour, two hours, the two to four hours was referenced. Did you find it a little bit comical that This person that struggles with this like us like you and I that we were actually going to be able to focus For one to two hours or two to four hours on because it says find a quiet place.

See i'm not crazy I'm, not dumb. It says find a quiet place be still but [00:19:00] she says we should reference this. This is Rachel Hollis 

Tonya: And she sends out a weekly Postcard via email. And this is her annual calendar audit that she has been doing for forever. And it says that you're going to do this for two to four hours.

Let me just tell you, I can't be still that long. I can't focus on any one thing for that long, especially that involves sitting down. But to me this can be easily done in an hour. 

Shane: That's the irony of it. Let me be clear up front as I make little sidebar remarks This is awesome And rachel knows what she's doing and I am listening and so i'm just saying i'm trying to bring some realism into this To help you it's okay like When I saw two to four hours, and I knew what you were going to say, I can't stay quiet and sit still for five minutes.

Like, how am I going to do this? How are the people who need this the most going to focus for two to four hours? [00:20:00] You're not, but you got to fight your way through it. It's okay. If we're just got through with winter break and I was throwing batting practice to my Daughter who plays softball and she's plays in the big 12 and very high level She would hit 10 Rockets in a row and then pop one up the 11th pitch and it's ah and she focuses on that one pitch that one ball That she pops up not the 10 Rockets.

The reality of it is that she's not gonna be perfect. We aren't perfect beings You're not gonna be perfect So when you take instructions like this when you start a plan like this It's okay to not be within the perfected range That the developer of the plan is suggesting. It's a suggestion. And if you do this for 30 minutes, great.

If it takes you an hour, great. Just don't get caught up on that. Because that's what happens. We don't need to do that. We need to just do the work. Gather the tools. Grab the calendar. Grab the notebook. And sit down. [00:21:00] And do it as long as it takes you to do it, even if you have to stop and start and stop and start and go get a drink of water and go get some coffee or whatever.

Don't get caught up on the suggested two to four hours. 

Tonya: Review your year week by week. Go through your 2024 calendar. And for every event, and we mean everything from business meetings, workouts, volunteering, dinner with your spouse, hanging out with friends, going to a child's ball game, dance recital, everything in your calendar.

Look at it and think, was this worth my time, energy, and resource, and did it align with my goals? Did it make me be a better person? Did I enjoy it? For every single thing on your calendar for 2024. That sounds overwhelming. But once you start going through, You're going to see some patterns 

Shane: really quickly.

So, I'm the commitment [00:22:00] guy. And what the asterisk by commitment, honor your commitments, I'm that guy. I've, I've spoken to a group of people about honoring your commitments. We're in a society that doesn't commit. And, and that's a problem. Here's the way I deal with quitting. Here's the way I deal with my stop doing list.

I give myself permission. Annually to quit and so when you're looking at this and trying to decide was this worth my time? Was this worth my energy? It was this positive. Did I enjoy it? All those things that Tanya just mentioned just because you've done it just because you committed to it last year most things that you commit to most things that are volunteer that are energy drains Have some type of annual commitment There's a few things that you might serve on some boards that have three year terms and two year terms and things like that I get it But there's a lot of things that are like I don't have to keep doing this like you [00:23:00] can Stop and that's an important part of this I'm, not a guy that's commit to something and never show up or commit to something and bail in two months I'm, not that guy.

I don't encourage that But I do think there's some type of annual stop start opportunity that we should implement and give ourselves the authority to do. It's okay to drop some of those things. It's okay to stop doing some of the things that you absolutely do not like to do that drain your energy. 

Tonya: It may be that you're in a different life cycle this January than you were in January.

Last May, it may be there's a situation in your life that has changed. It may be that your relationship with your spouse needs more energy in 2025 than it needed in 2024. It may be that one of your children needs more attention this year because of an activity that [00:24:00] they are doing. It may be that coming out of the hard market, Your business needs to be a different focus than it was last year.

It may be that you want to be more focused on your spiritual life. It's not that you're quitting. It's that you're in a different place and you need to create time in order to grow. 

Shane: We're starting our third year, my wife and I, Julie and I, of the Bible Recap, Tara Lee Cobble. Highly encourage for those that.

are looking to read the Bible through in a year. It's a process to read the Bible through in a year. We thought we would read the Bible through in a year and be done. It's chronological, so it's the one big story of redemption that scripture actually is when you put it all together in the right format.

We're starting our third year and When we committed to that, to do that, we had to clear some things out. We had to say, well, we're going to do this every day. This is a daily commitment. We had to create time. We had to let some things go. We don't know how we would kick [00:25:00] this out of our life at this point.

That's how important it has become. To us is we are committed to it. I don't think there will be a time where we won't do that. But because of that, we have made some decisions to let some other things go. It's just part of the process of allocating what is important. Understanding that you have to fight through the potential FOMO for those that don't understand FOMO fear of missing out Which is a big part of our world, especially with social media today.

That's great that aligning yourself with your goals Is it something that I need to keep doing? Or, do I need to do this other thing, or do I want to add these other things into my life? And you can't just keep stacking those things. Like, this is things we went through with our girls when they were younger in high school.

Like, you can't be three places at one time. You have to decide which of the friend group things do you want to do. You can't go three places. It doesn't [00:26:00] work that way. Understanding how to prioritize that and make a decision Here's the funny thing. My experience is once a decision's made, you feel better.

Tonya: 100 percent absolutely. 

Shane: Once you say, this is what I'm going to do. Everything else just comes into focus. That's the funny thing about it. Our overcome brains and our creativity brains that are marketing and salespeople that are most insurance agencies, by the way, and insurance agents, by the way. We want to be all things to all people.

We want to be in everything. We want to be everywhere. And the, trying to create decisioning around what to choose is so anxiety created for us. Like, we, we create so much anxiousness on ourselves and when we do make that decision, it's almost like everything just fades away. Whew. Okay. Got it. Done. I'm good now.

It's extremely rewarding to make a decision. That's a big part of this as well. 

Tonya: I want you to take a notebook or open a [00:27:00] Word document, open an Excel spreadsheet, whatever you are most comfortable doing, make three columns. One that says worth it, one that says not worth it, and one that says self care and fun or however you want to word that column.

So worth it meaning commitments that are valuable. Not worth it, meaning things that drain you and then the self care and fun, whatever. Those are moments that recharge you. Those are the moments of why we live. Take those events as you're going through the calendar and pop those into one of those three columns.

Worth it, not worth it, why I live my life. 

Shane: I love this because it reminds me so much. Of, I'm gonna date myself a little bit here, the old HGTV show, Clean Sweep. Did you ever see this show, Clean Sweep? No. The reason this was such a cool show for us is because Julie loved it. Like, she was like, oh, [00:28:00] it's Clean Sweep time, it's Clean Sweep time, we're gonna watch the show.

And I'm looking at it like, this is amazing, but I don't even know how to even remotely start here. Clean Sweep had a three option. Their, theirs was, you had three piles, and it was cleaning out a closet, cleaning out a house, cleaning out a room, whatever it was. And like, their big deal was have a garage sale, have a yard sale, have a garage sale, and have a sell pile, have a keep pile, and have a throwaway pile.

And it was so funny to watch these people because the throwaway pile was always the smallest because people struggled with the throwaway. That's the not worth it equivalent here for me. And that's the stop doing. We have such a hard time with the not worth it. 

Tonya: My thought process going into this is not worth it being the draining activities is each one of these, I'm starting there.

Does this drain me? That's the first question I ask. Does this drain me? Is it, is it worth it? If the answer is no, it doesn't drain me, then it goes. [00:29:00] into one of the other two places. That was actually the column I chose to be number one, because if I started with this is a valuable commitment, this is worth it, then everything's going to go there.

So I actually had to rearrange this a little bit for me personally, because I am trying to create the stop doing list. That's my goal with this. Does it drain you? Is it not worth it is the first thing you need to think about and then from there go to the other two. 

Shane: I'm going to add this little thing in there after you break these down the worth it the not worth it and the self care and fun after you break down these three columns then do it again and see if anything needs to move.

See if anything needs to move from the worth it over to the not worth it. Maybe do this two or three times like you go through at one time. And you're like, okay, I got my list and really weren't strenuous enough. You weren't disciplined enough with that first pass. And so maybe do it once and celebrate that win that you actually got this done [00:30:00] and you got a list going and then maybe do it again.

At least go back through your worth it column. See if you need to move some of that worth it column into the not worth it columns. 

Tonya: One of the things that I let go from my life from my first pass at this, and I'm going to take Shane's suggestion on this one, because he's way smarter than I am, and go back and do this again, but I loved hosting my lady supper club every month.

Like. Absolutely loved having a house full of incredible women once a month coming in, making dinner for them, setting a beautiful table, having a fantastic environment for them for us to have a really great night of networking and conversation. And I learned so much from these women over the last three years.

But I'm at a different stage in my life right now. And the idea of doing that in 2025 makes me want to [00:31:00] curl up in the fetal position because I can't do that in the same way that I've always done it. Now could I have made the decision to continue to host Supper Club at my house, done it in a different way, maybe not host it at my house, maybe go to a restaurant instead, maybe have hors d'oeuvres and beverages instead of a full dinner?

Are there things that I could have done differently? Yes. But for me, it was more of, okay, this is draining me. The idea of doing this year. Is draining me. I'm going to take a year off. I'm going to empower someone else within the group and say, if y'all want to continue to do this, somebody else is going to need to do this for a year and two or three other women are like, Hey, we get it.

You're going through a lot. We're going to rotate at our houses. We're going to do the first month of the quarter at miles. Somebody else is going to do the second month of the quarter. Fantastic. It is going to keep [00:32:00] happening. It's going to look different. They've given me the option if I want to come back in 2026 and take it back to my house.

They're absolutely wanting and encouraging me to do that. I was able to look at this group of people and say, Hey, look, y'all, I can't do it this year. Just not in a place. And they were okay with it. 

Shane: People are going to be more respectful and more willing to help you out here if you are just Straightforward with them about it and I don't think we do that enough.

We worry about that. Oh, I can't do that I'm gonna disappoint these people and i'm gonna disappoint my friends You got to take care of yourself and you got to make sure you have the capacity first. You can't serve others I saw a post on linkedin the other day that I thought was really good. You can't serve others And be a servant leader and be servant minded if you're not in serving mindset and you can't be in serving mindset without taking care of yourself.

You just can't. [00:33:00] It just doesn't work that way. 

Tonya: After you have categorized this list, this is the fun one. Figure out which 20 percent of your actions gave you 80 percent of your best results. Look at the worth it stuff and figure out this was really worth it. This was where I used my time most efficiently.

This was where I met the most people. This was the time. That made 80 percent of everything else happen should be your priority for 2025. 

Shane: Love the 80 20 rule. I love applying it here. I never really thought about that. I guess we do that, but in building your calendar, like building your priorities, and I never really thought about it once you get to this place, because you're really only focusing on.

The Worth It column at this point. Yes, self care and fun has its own standing. But really, the Worth It column is the focus and I really like this because [00:34:00] I don't care what you do. The Paretio Principle. The 80 20 rule. That's where it come from. You can't really beat this. Like, you can try to beat it. I've tried to beat it my whole business life.

Oh, surely the 80 20 rule doesn't apply here. Yes, it does. Every single time. And sometimes it's the 85 15 and the 90 10 rule, sometimes. Sometimes it works out that way to an extreme, depending on what you're talking about. But the 80 20 rule always works. It never fails, and you will be so much more energized if you do this.

If you take that 20 percent of your actions that deliver you 80 percent of the results, that's gonna be your priority. It takes all the guessing. Out of it 

Tonya: and when it's in black and white, it's amazing the weight that's going to take off of you. Now you're going to start to second guess it and third guess it.

Don't let yourself do that because our brains are going to start going back into that mode. You've done it. You have figured it [00:35:00] out. You have put it in black and white and then take that information and put it in your calendar. I am a huge proponent of time blocking. If your brain works like mine, time blocking is an imperative, but Put those things that are most important in your calendar, put it in your calendar for the next six weeks.

The things that are going to lead you spiritually, like Shane just talked about the Bible recap, which, by the way, this is my second year to do it. And we're in Job. And if she didn't tell if she didn't give me the instructions, you can quit before job or after job, but you're not allowed to quit during job job is rough for me.

And I was thinking, Hey, it's going to be better this year. No, it's not. Job is still rough for me. And I'm counting down the days until we're through job and onto something else. But that's okay. It's a commitment that my spouse and I made to each other. It's a commitment that I made to make my spiritual life [00:36:00] stronger.

And we're going to get through Jobe, and we're going to get to something else. 

Shane: So you've built your new calendar, you've gone through this process, and now comes the last step, which is not part of Rachel's step. This is another Shane step. I added step zero, I'm adding step six. Be disciplined. Which is what we're Tanya is alluding to a little bit there.

Don't get distracted from what your calendar says. Be disciplined with this process. If you're disciplined for a day, you'll be, you got a chance to be disciplined for a week. If you're disciplined for a week, maybe a month, maybe a quarter. And then before you know it, you've made it through the whole year being a more disciplined person.

We have to listen to our calendar. That's the time blocking problem for me. Is I create time blocks I create things and then it pops up and I don't want to do it at that moment and I just decide to hit snooze or ignore and We can't we have to be disciplined and since our audience is mostly independent agencies that are [00:37:00] Smaller to small mid size since 84 percent of the independent agencies across the country have less than 10 employees Here's what's amazing about this Creating a stop doing list and using a process like this to create that stop doing list and create a new calendar is it will give you time and the thing that you need more than anything else right now in your life is time.

And you can't create more of it without doing something like this, without being disciplined, without going through a process of getting rid of things that aren't really a priority for you and moving on beyond FOMO. And so be disciplined with this and listen to your calendar that you went through this exercise to create a month from now.

Stick with it and just keep doing it and keep doing it. 

Tonya: Don't give up. There are going to be days where you don't have this kind of discipline, but don't give up. [00:38:00] It goes back to that idea of if you get a flat tire, you don't let all of the air out of the other tires, you fix the flat tire. So don't let one day or one week where you're not disciplined in this way, make you give up.

No, you didn't fail. You had a bad day. But that bad day doesn't mean the process was bad. On my husband's whiteboard in his office, he has written discipline versus disappointment. And you had a disappointing day. That's okay. Go back to being disciplined the next day. It's like the idea of a changing lifestyle when it comes to food, changing your fork habits, changing your exercise habits.

If you miss a day, or if you eat a honey bun that was grilled at the Waffle House, like, that doesn't mean you have to eat one tomorrow. Get back on it. Get back in your calendar. It's okay. It's about the long term infinite game that we have been [00:39:00] talking about for 250 episodes of this IA Forward podcast.

It's about the infinite game. 

Shane: It's been a blast doing this. I'm way out of my comfort zone. My comfort zone at first, but now I can't wait to get on here and do these episodes and talk about things that matter I posted something the other day as everybody was talking about motivation and new things and by the way You can hire a coach for anything if you want to build a better ant farm I bet there's a coach for that right now In the month of January.

I'm just saying there's a coach for everything. You don't need motivation. You don't. And I posted this on LinkedIn. I believe it. It's not motivation. You're a salesperson. You're a marketing person. More than likely, if you're listening to this, you're intrinsically motivated for the most part. You don't need motivation.

You need discipline. And that's what this gives you. This calendaring, this process gives you discipline. We need discipline way more than we need motivation in our businesses. 

Tonya: Thank you so much for listening to us. I am overwhelmed [00:40:00] with the idea of that. And thank you for your support and for sharing your time with us.

And for letting Shane get all of his words out and letting me get all of my words out. Our spouses thank you for that. 

Shane: Very much they thank you for that. 

Tonya: I'm going to leave us today with this quote from Shane's favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.

Shane: Attitudes of choice make a great one. 

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