Small Farm, Big Harvest: How Focus Beats Hustle.

Most insurance agents don’t have a lead problem, they have a focus problem. We open with a simple story about two farmers and one watering bucket, and it lands hard: if you try to water an entire forest, most of your trees die. The same thing happens when you spread your marketing across too many towns, too many niches, or too many channels without enough repetition to be remembered. 

We walk through what we see as the number one tip for building a successful local insurance business: become omnipresent in a tight area and attach your name to a specific solution. Dave breaks down how he shifted from driving all over Illinois to building a “Medicare celebrity” reputation by defining his avatar, showing up where those people already spend time, and using education-driven community outreach. It’s not about slick scripts or instant leads. It’s about consistent visibility, real relationships, and a clear message that makes people think of you the moment the problem comes up. 

We also talk about authenticity and referrals. We’d rather prove value than pressure someone to hand over names, because trust compounds when you serve people well. You’ll hear the “Cheers effect” framework, plus a blunt reality check for brick-and-mortar agencies: if your door is locked when your sign says open, your marketing is quietly destroying credibility. 

If you want practical local insurance marketing ideas that feel simple, human, and repeatable, hit play now. Subscribe for more, share this with another agent who needs focus, and leave a review so more local agency owners can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Promise

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the Invisible Agent Podcast, the show for insurance agents ready to go from unknown to unstoppable, where visibility, strategy, and real-world execution meet. Hosted by Dave Cheatham and Mike Sorensen.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Hello and welcome to the Invisible Agent Podcast, going from unknown to unstoppable. This episode, we're going to be covering the number one tip that we see to build a successful local insurance business. My name is Mike Sorensen.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

And I'm David Cheatham. And uh so uh, you know, thinking about this, and I just heard this, the the local business insurance. And Mike, I think we were talking briefly, and you have some some story about a watering bucket.

The Watering Bucket Business Lesson

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Yeah, it was uh when you really hear the rest of the story, it actually kind of really puts into perspective like, what are you doing in your in your insurance business? It's actually a story about um two farmers that were each given uh a watering bucket. Have they both held the same amount of water? The only difference was one farmer had a group of about 10 trees he had to water, while the other farmer had a forest of trees he had to water, a large, uh large map. So they each went ahead and started watering their trees. And for someone who has one watering bucket, it takes a long time to water a forest full of trees with one watering bucket that house the same amount of water as the guy who has only 20 trees in his area to water the trees. So at the end of the story, they get to the point where the trees that were closest to the farmer who was kind of watered the forest, those are the ones that actually stayed alive. And the ones that were outside of that area all died, while the farmer who had just had the 20 trees to look after, all of them survived. And it was a really cool story to look at people who actually run an insurance business because typically the area you're working in, the ones that are closer to you are the ones that get fed and the ones where you actually can do work and actually help and see more often market to, and the ones that are really far away from you, they typically don't get any attention. And if you do try, you can never give them enough, you can never actually market to them enough because you yourself only have one watering bucket, which is all your time, energy, and money. If you're an agency and you have one mark one water uh watering bucket that has all your time, energy, and money in, isn't it smarter just to water the twenty trees that are right next to you than to try to work an entire forest? So it was just a really cool story about people who are trying to grow a business right now, who are trying to be everywhere, but they're not focusing on the one area they're actually in, which would be easier and you would grow a lot faster if you just focus on that area. So just a real, real, real quick, real quick

From Driving Everywhere To Local

SPEAKER_02 2:53

story about that. When looking at that, like for you who grew an insurance business, uh, I would say rather quickly, like what is, I guess, where does your head go when it comes to hearing that particular story?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Yeah, it makes complete sense. I mean, I I go back to the time when I was driving all over the place in Illinois, you know, from the Wisconsin border to Lake Michigan to the Iowa border down to almost Springfield. And the amount of time I was in a place was not necessarily the strongest. And over time, when I started changing marketing and people were asking me questions and I was getting closer to home, it's one of the things that totally changed my mindset. And uh, you know, I've said it before, but you know, my dad always used to say, learn from others so you can succeed and do things faster or easier and you don't make the same mistakes, right? Could be, hey, if somebody else puts their hand in a fire and is burnt, you shouldn't either because you've learned from that, right? So I I learned and I've refined, and I'm not saying people can't go out and market all over the place. They absolutely can, but I think this is what's our concept of the watering the whole forest. The more efficient I can be in my business, the better, which local was really a key for me. And and I'll tell you what, I would I would fight it with um carriers, agency, insurance agents. And I said, that's fine, do whatever you want to do. I will teach you a model that I know works if you work the model correctly. Uh, which then came down to that omnipresent, right? How do I become omnipresent in an area? And for me, at that time, I was really working in the Medicare space. And so I said, I want to become the Medicare celebrity in an area. And because if you think about it, we all are in the same situation. I don't care how much money you have or anything else, we all still have limited resources.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Correct. I mean, no one's got a limited money, no one's got a limited time, no one's got a limited energy. We are capped and limited on some capacity.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Correct. Correct. I mean, even if you have a lot of money and you want to spend all that money, I'm still gonna be limited on time. And I might be limited on other resources as well. So, you know, our our gas tank can only go so far without putting more gas in it.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

So, so I I looked at how do I become a Medicare celebrity? And I really took a different focus on my business. And I was growing, but when I changed my focus to figure out how to become that omnipresent Medicare celebrity in an area is really when my business started taking off. And instead of focusing on the limited resources I had, I focused on the resources I had and put them in the right places at the right time so that if somebody heard Medicare in the area I was marketing, they thought of Dave immediately. You know, they didn't think about my company. I had a company, right? I have a company name, I've had the company name. That's how I came up with the company name, Family Financial Solutions Group. It wasn't just Medicare, but I really started focusing on Medicare. I didn't care if they knew my name right then in there. I wanted them to know me as the person and uh and really grow the brand of David Cheatham. And you know it's you have a question about Medicare, you want to go to Dave. You have a problem with going on Medicare.

unknown 6:09

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

That's what it was. That didn't happen overnight. That's not like uh I'm gonna get 10 leads tomorrow or 10 leads next month from doing this brand build, essentially.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

No, yeah, yeah, great point. I know it didn't happen overnight. It was growing faster, but I didn't get that brand build overnight. It took time and effort, right? You know, some people I I love that people go, oh Dave, you grew really fast in two years. You grew really fast in four years, like the amount of clients I I really had. And yes, that's true, but people didn't know my name with Medicare for a long time. I got referrals and then that built up. I did other marketing that built my name, but it was me. It was not my company. Uh, you know, there's a lot of people that talk about branding and things like that. I I'd rather put money in ways that they're gonna know me and who I am by a relationship versus the other areas. So, really kind of going into that Medicare, Medicare celebrity, the Medicare authority, whatever that was. I didn't go by the Medicare guy or the Medicare, you know, I hear that all the time. No, that that's not what I went, because I also didn't want to pigeonhole myself into only Medicare.

Omnipresence And The First Steps

SPEAKER_02 7:23

So when when it comes to omnipresence, like what is that for people who don't know? And then two, if you want to become omnipresent, what are like the what would be like your first like three steps to doing so, just for the anyone watching or listening?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah, omnipresent to me is you take your niche, you take your avatar, and uh and I said, I want to be a solution to this group, which was the oh I'm sorry, I'm the Medicare celebrity. It's not only that, I did it on the life side in a different way, but um, I'll use Medicare celebrity as one of the easier ones. And I said, okay, that avatar, which we've talked about before, but you're really focusing in the avatar. The avatar is not Medicare. So for a long time, my avatar was not the person going on to Medicare, it was the person already on Medicare. And I said, okay, if that was it, now I have to know where all those people are in my local area. And so then I said, okay, now I know who my avatar is. I was really defined in the avatar. Now I said, okay, where are those individuals at? And I had to be in those places. I had to get my foot in the door. I had to build relationships with those people. So an example for me would have was and what I did every day. I would go to a different coffee place or um local shop that had individuals that were my avatar. And it wasn't the same place every day, but it was the same place every Monday, the same place every Tuesday, the same place every Wednesday, same place every Thursday, same place every uh every Friday, right? So that I started knowing me. And there's other things you need to do, but but that that was one of the things I did, right? That was one of my strategies. And then the other one was I started doing some online stuff. And this is before online was really big, but I had success in another area of my business with doing blogging. And I'm not saying you're doing blogging today, but I had to make sure my blogs and where I was online targeted those those individuals. But the other thing, again, another place was wait, my target market, people are already over 65, already retired. There was a local mall here. It was in Schomburg, Illinois, and they did walk, they had walkers. And not everyone there was over 65, but a lot of individuals there were over 65. It did two things for me. I was able to lose a little bit of weight, but I was also able to be there. And people, you see the same people over and over again. You get to say hello, you get to know them. The key was I was not there to sell insurance, I was there to build relationships. And when you build relationships, people want to know what you do, and then you get to have a conversation. And there's some definitely tactics and things like that in doing that, but that was another thing I did. Another area was people were in other areas on a regular basis, but my market was individuals that were retired. So I didn't have to work in the evening. I worked during the day. So I said, where else were seniors at? So senior centers. How was I able to get into senior centers? Um, I'm a I have a background in education. So I said, let me teach, let me educate. And people would say, Oh, what are you talking about? These people don't need education. They're already on Medicare. You'd be amazed on how many people on Medicare would come to my seminars because of how I titled it and what I did. And we had, I had people all the time. In fact, I was so busy, I had to hire somebody to go out and book those meetings for me.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

And I had a strategy and an idea and how they were compensated very well for doing exactly that. And I spoke during the day, not to turning 65, but people over 65 in a very specific niche. I talked to them. I had in one year, I had well over 150 seminars that I did and uh in in less than 12 months, right? All of a sudden, in the communities that I was in and where I gave the direction where I need to speak in, people started hearing Medicare, boom. They would see me in a grocery store, they would see me at a restaurant, they would see me, whatever. And all of a sudden I heard the whispering of that's Dave, or once, you know, that's the Medicare person. Uh, you know, I let my clients, all my clients know if I could help anybody on the Medicare, if there's a question, please have them call me. I'm more than happy to help them. I don't want people paying more than they should. I don't want them stuck, I don't want them confused. So, you know, I never asked for a referral, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

And you I think what you just said was kind of like the way you did, in essence, kind of, right? Or like, hey, if you know someone that can use these services, great. It's not like write three of your friends' name on the sheet of paper so I can call them. Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Right. Yeah.

Authentic Service That Creates Referrals

SPEAKER_01 11:48

You know, I think one of the things we've talked about so many times is you have to be authentic to you, you have to be you, how you do things. I didn't feel comfortable with that. I don't feel I because here's the deal. If you came to me and asked me to write down three, three names of people so that you can go talk to them about, I don't care what it is, I'd be like, no, I'm not going to, right? A quick example of that. We have new gutters on our house. And the gutters weren't really about the gutters, it was about the clogging and the leaves, because we have tons of leaves around us. And and uh, you know, I'm getting up in age and I didn't want to go up and clean out gutters. I don't want my wife cleaning out gutters, I don't really want to hire somebody all the time. And we also have other issues, right? So I said, um, okay, how do we do it so we don't? I so I bought this system, I bought into it. And if they asked me to refer them to this day, I wouldn't. Because ever since it was put on, we've had issues in the same exact area. And so I didn't want I didn't want that. So my idea was let me prove my worth. Let me actually do what I say I'm gonna do, yeah, build that relationship, and people do it. It's amazing to this day. We still get referrals from people, and I'm not trying to get referrals. We we try to turn that business over to other people, to other insurance agents on a regular basis because I'm not trying to grow my business. I want to service my clients because that's a commitment I made. I'll never stop doing that. As long as I have a client that's that's alive, I am going to service them because it's a commitment I made and I love doing that. But uh I if you do this business the right way and you truly are authentic and want to help people, people know it in their knower and they're gonna do it. But that becomes that Medicare celebrity because here's the deal they're sitting down with their friend at dinner or breakfast or lunch, and they get a prescription and they're on Medicare and they go, Yeah, I just got put on this prescription and I just had to spend a thousand dollars. Oh, can you believe I went into the pharmacy and they wanted, you know, $700 for this prescription? Next thing you know, I get a phone call from somebody I don't even know who they are, and you know, Jan Lake, who's not a client, I'm just looking at one of the lakes that is in my office from a picture I have, right? Said, Hey, I should give you a call because you might be able to help me. I was just given this prescription. And immediately all of a sudden we have a conversation and they end up becoming a client of mine, maybe not immediately, but they go into our process and everything else, and it's that. And and that's that Medicare celebrity effect, which kind of goes into the multimedia influence and building that Medicare celebrity effect. I wanted groupies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

So Medicare groupies.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

The Medicare groupies, yeah, Medicare groupies, right? So, in a way, and not in the same fashion of, hey, they're following you um, you know, everywhere you go, but that following. I wanted a tribe of people, and out of that tribe would be leaders.

The Cheers Effect And Being There

SPEAKER_01 14:35

But what I thought about one of the best ways of it thinking about Medicare celebrity is I started calling it the Cheers effect. I'm dating myself a little bit in my age, but in the 80s, the television show Cheers was on.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yeah, but everybody knows her name. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, yeah. You have a better voice. I can't sing. But when they would come in, what would it be? Right? Norm would walk in, everyone knew him at Cheers. Norm! Right? Everyone knew him. And that's what I said I wanted. If I walked into a place, they knew who I was.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

But you don't you don't get Norm didn't get there because he sat behind the bar and just waited for everyone to come to him. Like he was he was a great person at building relationships. I mean within the show, like I've seen enough episodes it'd be dangerous to know that he wasn't the quiet guy just sitting behind the bar and not doing anything, waiting for someone to order a drink. Like he's out there like trying to get orders, trying to have conversations with people, making conversation happen instead of people just always coming to him. Yeah, yeah. He's he's that's that's a relationship builder 101 right there. He he went out to seek it, not wait for it to come to him.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he sat at the end of the bar, you know, Sam would serve him the drinks, or you know, Woody would serve him the drinks, or you know, Rita would serve him the drinks, right? Who depending on who's there, but you know, Cliff was there, but they would always have conversations with one another. Yeah. They're uh they're putting themselves out there in their own unique way. You know, if you watch the show, they're all different, unique. But here's the thing the one thing that was always consistent was norm was always there.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yeah. And that's I think besides that, it's like that is the biggest thing is like just being there. And I think you you mentioned before, like having an avatar, you then understand where they are. So you can be there. Oh, this is actually a really this is funny. There's a really funny story about this. There's a show that I I watched, and they're talking about uh at a wedding, they're like, Hey, how do you how do you go home with the girl? And they're all trying to think of these these strategies of how to go home with the girl, I'll go home go home with the girl. Like thinking of clever things to say, and one of the guys just stepped in the group and said, just be there. Like when she goes to the bathroom, when she gets out of there, be there, which goes to get a drink, be there, which goes to get food, be there, when you're on the dance floor, be there. And lo and behold, went home with the girl. So it's like I think we overcomplicated a lot where it's just like find where they are, be there, make conversation and connect as humans. Like that is a basic foundation, but I think we like to make it more complicated than it is, because it's it just sounds better when it's more complicated, but when it's appealing, that's that's it's not to say it's easy, but it is simple. It is simple.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah, right. I mean the the KISS methodology for for marketing, you know, keep it simple, stupid, right? I think we overcompliment complicate so many things. I'm not saying it's easy. Right. I'm not saying it's just gonna come naturally to everybody. Hopefully, as you've listened to these podcasts and learned and you'll continue to learn, right? You have to be who you are, not somebody else. But keep it simple. Uh the process, if you if you learn your process and are comfortable in your process, it just becomes natural. But uh consistency in any business, I don't care what it is, consistency is important uh and being present. I always have to be present. I have to be present in my business, I have to be present with my my relationships. And there's very few relationships you have that when you're not present, that they're gonna grow and flourish instead of most of them will die if you're not, right? And uh I have some really good friends from college that if we saw each other, we're we're more acquaintances than before we were like best friends. Right. And and I'll tell you, sometimes that bothers me because we were like best friends. Now I see them, you know, through Facebook or other things, and we see maybe each other once or twice a year or, you know, every three years. And we care for one another, like, but it's not the same type of relationship as I have with my close friends here in Illinois, or even my close friends that are in other parts of the country that I get to see on a regular

Consistency And Brick And Mortar Reality

SPEAKER_01 18:25

basis. But being authentic and present and being consistent in that are two really big keys to grow that really successful local insurance business, which kind of goes into, you know, you don't need to have a brick and mortar store, right? You don't have to have a brick and mortar insurance business. What kills me is the businesses that they say they're open nine to five, but yet they're never there.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Almost can almost consistently, someone who worked for a carrier, myself, and we had to go actually try to find contracts with uh brick and mortar agencies. And the number of times that I would go there at nine o'clock or ten o'clock or noon or two or three or four or five, uh the person running the show was literally never there. Like, oh, not in for the not in for today, oh, not in for the rest of the week, yep, they're out the rest of the day and it's eleven o'clock. Like the biggest asset, especially if you're having a brick and mortar, is like you being there. Like when walk-ins come, you can service the people walking in right then and there. If you have to have your front end assistant tell you, no, they're yep, sorry, Jan's out for the rest of the day and it's 10 o'clock. You know how easy for it is of that lady to turn around and be like, all right, next Medicare agent that I can go to.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah, and and it's interesting because even you know, I'm not always in my office all the time because I'm we're doing other things, but we have people in the office that can help people, and most people don't come anymore asking for me.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

It's also not your goal anymore. Like if a Medicare beneficiary came through the door, you're like, okay, you know, it that's not my focus.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Right. But you know, it's yeah, I can't tell you how many businesses, uh, insurance company businesses I've walked in, right? And no one was there. The door was locked, and it still says, you know, 830 to 5, 9 to 5. It doesn't say how I'll be back. Like, you know, it doesn't even say open or closed. I've I've seen some that, no joke, you go to the door and the sign is on. It says on, the door is locked, the lights are off. I'm like, what is that?

SPEAKER_03 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

And it sounds odd, but if you have enough people seeing that, that's not good. So understand again, you can be in the community, you can do things, you can do authentic things. But if you have a brick and mortar, allow your brick and mortar to also be a marketing tool, but you have to be there. At least somebody has to be there. And they have to understand that if you're not there, is not maybe all day, but they come in. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mike's not in today, um, or he's gone for the rest of the day. But let's get you in the calendar.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Let's step that's been missed in a lot. Like I I've been turned away with like, oh, well, he'll be back probably next week. You can just call him then. It's like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

It's amazing to me on how some people do things, but I I think really to me, the number one tip if we go into this, and hopefully, I think things that we've talked about, anything else, the number one tip to build a successful local insurance business is to take your time and resources and become that celebrity of whatever you're doing. And uh Medicare is an easy one, property and casualty, you can do it. Life insurance, right? And maybe not be life insurance, it's a different way, right? Understand how to market, but be a solution and let them know that's what you do. And if you do that and become that omnipresent and be an influential influencer in those areas in a local way, instead of spreading the water, like as you said, through the whole entire forest, let's water 20 trees instead of trees.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

So the forest of trees, the 20 tree guy, those all those all those lived because 20 trees right next to them.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

It's right, yeah, yeah. Let's water the 20 and not the 500.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Right, right. Yeah, yeah. That's the point. So uh and and those 20 will grow and flourish and uh versus the other ones that die off. And uh those business, the small business.

The One Tip And How To Help

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Businesses, insurance businesses, if if you think your insurance business is dying or struggling, uh, there's probably other reasons for it. I we would love to have that conversation with you if I ever want to reach out to us, because we we love, we love helping people grow an insurance business. That's what I I do. I've done it, I've helped other agents. Mike, you're you've done it. It's something we truly have a passion for. And uh, please just take the opportunity. But here's here's my biggest thing. If you found value in what we've talked about today in this podcast and you've been finding value, please share it with other people. Keep listening. We're not out there that we're we're growing this organically. We're not paying to market this because we truly have a goal and truly to help the local insurance businesses go from that invisible agent and going from unknown to truly unstoppable. And we truly hope that these are helping you to become unstoppable in your insurance business. I wish you guys have a great day.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

We do not do any paid marketing to promote this podcast. It only grows if you find value in this and share it. Keep following as we show insurance business owners how to go from unknown to unstoppable. Thank you for listening, and we will see you next week.