The Real Reason Your Marketing Isn't Working

If you feel like you’re doing “marketing” but you still blend into the background, this conversation is the reset. We sit down with Kate Carroll, our director of marketing with experience across major brands and the insurance space, to unpack why so many agents stay invisible and what actually drives steady growth for a Medicare agency or any insurance business in 2026.

We break marketing down into three pillars that hold up everything else: visibility, credibility, and relationships. Visibility is not about blasting ads once a year. It’s staying top of mind with consistent, low-pressure presence so prospects recognize your name when they finally need help. Then we dig into credibility, because once people hear about you, they Google you. We talk practical credibility signals like an updated digital footprint, a complete Google Business Profile, Google reviews, consistent branding, and even the small stuff that quietly shapes trust, like using a professional email address.

Finally, we get real about relationships and referrals. Insurance is personal, and transactional selling burns people out fast. We share how trust is built through micro commitments, clear standards, and follow-through over time so clients feel safe sending their friends and family your way. If you want a repeatable insurance agent marketing system that compounds, this is your roadmap.

Subscribe for weekly strategies, share this with a teammate, and leave a review if it helped. What pillar are you committing to strengthen first: visibility, credibility, or relationships?

Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

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_01 0:27

Hello and welcome to the Invisible Agent Podcast, where we teach you how to go from unknown to unstoppable by giving you all the strategies in the world to grow your business. Every single Monday we come out with a brand new podcast to make sure you get this each week so you can take what we teach you in this Monday and implement it Tuesday through Sunday and start over again on Monday. And today's topic is probably going to be one of my favorites because it's something I see not a whole lot of agents doing in the industry, which is not a slight, it's just the honest truth. And it's going to be talking about how you should be looking at marketing and how I mean these three real pillars that we're going to kind of talk about and why they're so important, not only to

Visibility That Keeps You Top Of Mind

SPEAKER_01 1:05

the business, but it's also important to your reputation, how you're going to grow inside the business. And the first one is my honest to God, probably favorite, which is visibility. And Kate, you have an extreme amount of marketing background. So do you want to give us just a heightened view of what visibility means to an insurance agent, whether Medicare, life insurance, or whether you're selling steak knives door to door? Why does this matter?

SPEAKER_03 1:29

For those of you listening uh or watching, my name is Kate Carroll. I am the director of marketing here at Ephemic Financial Solutions Group. Uh, I've been had the pleasure of being in the industry since 2015. Uh I've got to work with a ton of amazing companies like Berkshire Hathaway, Clinique, Alex and Ani, to name a few. But my preference is to get to work with individual businesses, right? And getting the opportunity to come here, uh, relocating from Rhode Island last year, all the way out up to the Chicago suburbs, to be able to share my knowledge of the industry with agents like yourselves, agents that are listening, watching, excited to be here and share those notes.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Thanks, Kate, because your background is super important to why I think you're the perfect person to talk about these three pillars. And these three pillars are the reason why there are businesses out there, especially in the insurance space with all the kind of market shift, why they're actually surviving. And it's not because they're right, it's not necessarily because they're spending the most on marketing, it's not because they're maybe even writing the most clients. They've actually created these three pillars and have them dialed to a T where the functionality and the growth of their business has already been done because they've established these three pillars and they're unbreakable. So the first one, which I want to cue up real quick, is visibility. Again, my personal favorite. And Kate, I would love to give your take on the modern insurance agent or modern insurance business right now and why visibility in 2026 is the first pillar and you know, probably one of the most important ones in at least growing your business without you having to consistently be in the business every day.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Yeah, no, thank you. I appreciate that. And happy to kind of uh clear the air on these pillars because if you have a strong foundation in any business, it starts with your pillars that are going to hold the support of, you know, the actual foundation that you've built up. And one of the first ones that I really like to cover is visibility. And most agents are invisible and they really don't even realize it. You're gonna see a lot of people think, you know, well, I've been in the industry for 15 years or people know me. I already have clients, but I always like to push back and say, okay, all of that's great, but are they consistently seeing you? Because visibility is about staying top of mind. A huge mistake agents make is disappearing for nine months out of the year and then suddenly showing back up. You know, for example, during AEP going, you know, call me for Medicare. That's not branding, that's seasonal panic. And the agents dominating local markets are the ones creating consistent low pressure visibility.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

And it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be expensive either. Like visibility, because those nine-month hibernators essentially come out and then they go to every lead vendor, they go to every direct mail or some new age wave, and they're like, I want to do all these, I want to send out 5,000 mailers in my community. It's like, yeah, that's gonna, that's gonna be significantly expensive in that time period when visibility really can just be done on time and free things, especially online. I mean, you can do a ton of stuff online for free.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

100%. You know, even start just post jumping in because you really just, you know, kind of struck something. You know, it doesn't have to be paid for, you know, you can post educational content consistently. You can go and attend local events, you know, sending out newsletters, you know, posting client success story, leaning into the free resources that you already have access to to increase that visibility are are tools in your toolbox that are readily available to you. You just have to have the intention, right? And that consistency behind it to act on it.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

And the the the visibility, and like I don't think there's a higher leverage move for, again, I don't care if you're selling steak knives door to door or you're selling insurance, like being able to be searched. And if someone typed your name into Google and they found websites, social media profiles that actually were built out, not pretty much plain Jane posted back in COVID, like just being searchable gives already the next step of well, we'll get into a pillar later on, another step of like being an entity that is at least face value credible because you were at least able to be found. They gotta give you that. And my you know, and the visibility aspect is honestly, it I wouldn't say it saved my life. It did not save my life, but it drastically enhanced my life because I was in Arkansas two years ago driving down. For some reason, it took me like in Arkansas to get to like Memphis, but I blew out my tire literally on the side of the road, and I was in God knows, I don't know, I was about 80 seven eighty miles outside of Memphis. No no on the side of the road.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

It was like you've all been there before, though. You're not alone in that, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Oh, yeah. Everyone's been in Arkansas with a blown out tire in August. In yeah, no, it was like 100 degrees outside. It was horrible. Point of the whole story is like I sat there for two hours, but about an hour in, this and I I try to stress this because I don't want to offend anybody. An older woman, maybe on Medicare, maybe entering, maybe just look great for her age. I don't know, came up to my window and was like, hey, do you need help? And I was like, like, I got a tow truck, it's gonna be here in like two hours. And she said, one second. Went to her car, came back, got her phone, Lily typed in tow trucks near me, and called a tow truck that was closer than where I was, because I just used the triple A thing on my like car insurance. I don't know. And had one in, had one to me in like half the time. Just because she looked up a tow truck company that honestly, again, not insurance agent, but was visible online and they got to me way quicker than me sitting for another probably hour and 15 minutes waiting for the tow truck that I originally looked for. So again, just being searchful, that tow truck company could have been absolute garbage, but they got there quick. So just being searchable, being able to be visible, got that place the business. And for you, if you're not the best insurance agent, but you just have a presence online, there are probably people who are better than you. And that's okay. We all understand that. But just being able to be found is the first step to getting clients and honestly, spreading your presence as well, because visibility is one thing. Then it's taking it to the next step, which we'll get into here in a second. But that is my visibility story that again did not save my life, but it definitely enhanced my experience because it was hot, it was dark outside, I was in Arkansas, it was crazy. But that ultimately, that was just a perfect story of like the consumer is doing that. I don't care what state you're in. As long as they have internet connection, that is what they're doing. Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

No, and I mean, and and at its core, right? We as humans, we we trust familiarity. So even being, you know, recognizable, you know, from an online perspective repeatedly, it is going to help build that trust. You know, most prospects aren't necessarily going to remember your exact information, but they will remember that they kept seeing you everywhere. And that really matters. You know, you want people to say, I feel like I already know you. That right there is marketing gold. When we can build and develop relationships from that sense of visibility and familiarity that you're creating, you can't duplicate that. You really can't.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

High volume visibility, because you just are literally out there, morphs into pillar number two, which is

Credibility That Gets The Appointment

SPEAKER_01 8:55

credibility. Because if they can stop seeing you, it's almost implied that you are a credible business and a probably an expert in your field. I see it all the time. I see YouTube ads, I see Facebook ads of like the same businesses literally all the time. Cause I love, I love watching YouTube, but I can't escape a social media platform without seeing the same people. Like I am a I I binge content of like Dan Martell and like Alex Shimozy like like crazy. But I can't go to Facebook, I can't go to LinkedIn, I can't go to TikTok, I can't go to any Instagram. Like they're always there and they're always top of brain. And that's that's where it's like you can't you're an algorithm's dream.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

What was that? They said you're an algorithm's dream. Oh yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

They uh they I'm probably like 99% of their like algorithm, like like all their like metrics are like, do we have one guy in Wisconsin that is just binging you like crazy right now? So that's but that's me. But like I can't escape it because they're I found them one time and I just kept seeing them. I was like, God, I gotta look into these guys, and now I'm obsessed. Like, that's just that's how it started. But that is also how like agents, businesses can be, because if they're they're providing education, they're providing value, they're maybe even if they're doing it really well, they're providing community for other people to connect as well.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

That is where things come full circle. But like, that's not gonna happen if you send out a mailer during AEP.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

That's not gonna happen if you decide to use screen art for three months, you know?

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Visibility is great, right? It's gonna get their attention, but that credibility is gonna get you the appointment. Because once someone hears your name, what's the first thing that they're gonna do? Nine times out of ten.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

They're gonna say who the hell you are.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

They're gonna Google you. Yeah, yeah. Well, what's this guy about? Let me go see. And this is where a lot of agents accidentally are going to lose that business without realizing it. Why? They have no reviews, they have an old Facebook profile picture, they have no website, they have an incomplete Google business profile, random inconsistent branding. Or you know, really one of the most detrimental things to any business is that they have no proof that they're active. Consumers today investigate before they engage, especially in Medicare, because trust matters more in this space, really, than than any other industry, in my opinion. From from work in different industries, this is key.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

They don't want part-time Patty, they want full-time Frank. And that's not like a man-woman thing. That is literally like they just don't want to put their biggest healthcare decision. Yeah. Or like if you're doing life insurance, that's a huge decision. If you're doing like financial planning, another huge decision. They don't want people who have inconsistent looking profiles because are they in the business? Are they not in the business? Are they doing this full-time? Are they semi-retired? Like, geez, I just was talking to a guy on LinkedIn. He's got a full-out built-out profile and he's semi-retired. It's like giving the whole opposite look. It's like what you want to do is make sure like what you're putting on these pages, the credibility you're putting out there, the education you're putting out there, you want this to make it look like you are the expert in your field. And most, I say most don't. Again, if you if you post content three times a week, you're probably in the top 1% of people in the industry just doing it. And when it comes to the content, it's like what kind of content you post, that's a whole nother podcast. But yeah, credibility.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

You can talk content for days.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Visibility and credibility, that is not something like just because you got AHIP certified doesn't mean jack. Like, because the consumer doesn't, I mean, they care to us like you want to make sure you have the certifications. But when they're researching online, they don't care that you got AHIP certified. They want to see that you're a full-time present and that this big decision they have that they have to make isn't being done by someone who's part of my language, half-assing the job. Or at least from an online standpoint, looks like they're half-assing the job.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

Right. I mean, it's at this point, it's one of, you know, the most serious decisions that they're making with their healthcare and and ultimately financial decisions. So that credibility, more importantly, is about reducing, you know, uncertainty. Yeah. You know, you talked about it, uh, Google Reviews a little bit, you know, earlier, but Google reviews are basically like the the modern uh word of mouth at scale, right? Ten years ago, someone's gonna go over, maybe ask their neighbor, hey, do you know a Medicare agent? You know, I'm getting close, I gotta start doing some information and I gotta take this seriously. Now they're pulling up their phone, opening up their computer, and they're typing in best Medicare agent near me.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

That's the now.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

And it's at their fingertips. It's at their fingertips. And it's not a hard piece of information to to really get at all. It's for most people, like you want to be in that, like at least from the Google Review side, like you see the first three businesses that rank in your area. And if you're not in the top three, like the significant amount of chances that you get picked go substantially far down if you're not in that top three. So, and there's we can talk strategy about how to get in the top three all day long. But the whole point of this is like, don't give me actually I gotta reverse to that. Another point before we even move on from this, is like if you have an ad Gmail or at Yahoo Outlook, please, it's not that much money a year to get a professional email. Because I don't think you're going to your doctor and emailing your doctor and he hasn't at yahoo.com or you know, hotguy74 at yahoo.com because your doctor is not emailing off that account. Get a professional email account because credibility means a lot. And for me, if I'm working with any sort of business, like for myself, my financial planner, PNC guy that all had credible entities because I know they're professional and they want to have that look. I love the look aspect.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

So well, credibility isn't just, you know, online either. You know, it's not, it's more than the Google search. It's how you speak, it's how you follow up, you know, whether you're showing up prepared to to your events, you know, is your branding polished, right? To your point, the the email, but really more importantly, you know, it is your communication, does it feel does it feel trustworthy? You know, people are constantly asking, does this person feel established?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

And we're not asking for perfect. We just want established.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah. And you know, again, be you as well. Like, don't try to be something you're not. But like there is the we talked about the online credibility, but the offline credibility of are you where seniors are looking to get information? Because if you're not, they will find someone who is, in their eyes, more credible because they're at the places that they need to help the most. And depending on what you're at, who your avatar is and what you're looking to do to help grow your business, like you want to be where your avatar is. Again, and that's again, probably a whole nother podcast that we can absolutely divulge into. But yeah, that's visibility. Yeah, just tune in for the next like five weeks because we're just generating all that excitement. All the right now, you're just getting it first look in. So visibility done at scale kind of turns into credibility, and credibility at scale will lead into this third pillar, which is relationships.

Relationships That Beat Transactional Selling

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Because the moment you find in you have individuals reaching out to you because of the expertise you gave their clients, or they submit you at a fair, maybe you're at a networking event, because you are visible and you take your job seriously and do it well, that is going to give you positive PR to your, especially if you're working more of a community-based agent. Like you will find pillars in the community that where seniors go to get their information and they're reaching out to you. And the relationship aspect, this is not a, if none the script if done correctly, this shouldn't be a transactional business. If you do, you will burn out. It should, it's almost inevitable. Um, though those short-term transactions do not last, unfortunately. And building relationships in the community that help one, your presence, your reputation, and also helping their clients will make a lasting impact not only on the community itself, on that person's business, but also on your business yourself, because we can only do so much. And I don't think there is a single bad thing you can do by developing strong community relationships in your area with people who are like-minded and care about people just like you. I I've yet to see an opportunity where that turns bad for you. The only thing you say is like it's just long term.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

It's not like you know, like let's call a spade a spade. Like this industry still runs on relationships. It always has and it always will. Technology has, you know, changed how people find the agents, but it it did not change how trust is built. And I think some agents have forgotten that, you know, being obsessed with lead volume that they forget the lifetime value of a relationship. You know, the opportunity to have one, you know, strong client that that turns into referrals, spouses, friends, parents, community connections. Like those are those long-term rewards that you know sometimes get lost because you have to have that intention to really build those lasting, concrete, tangible relationships with people, you know? That only happens if people like working with you, right? You know, that's that's beyond your product knowledge. It it's you, you know, relationship marketing isn't manipulation. It it's it's consistency, you know, checking in outside of renewal season, remembering names, you know, sending those birthday messages, following up, you know, being involved locally, you know, making people really feel remembered, you know. People don't refer agents because the agents know Medicare. They refer agents because, you know, there's that mindset of I trust this person to take care of someone that I care about. You know, that's different.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

It's the way they make the way you make them feel too, because we recently, I mean, it's a bunch of story by we had some agents of ours that uh openly have said that referrals, they don't get referrals, and referrals are not easy to get or I'm trying to exact the exact word tracks like referrals don't work in Medicare because people just care about the extra stuff. They don't care about the the person, the the agent that's helping them. And you know, if you don't make someone feel comfortable or you don't make someone feel like this is is a relationship that is going to last, and that you are genuinely sitting on the same table, same side of the table as them, and you're you're trying to walk with them through this decision together instead of blasting orders out, telling them what they need to do because you're the expert and you let them know that, you will 100% win the battle.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Hey, Medicare is the war. It's deeply personal, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

You will you will lose the war. You will because you will not get referrals. Yeah, you may have gotten that piece of business because you know what, you were the only one there, or maybe like the plan you did recommend it was good, but like they didn't feel great about it. And they will probably not refer you. Again, you won the battle, sure, got the sale, but the the bigger picture is that's split off afterwards because hopefully you get referrals from 10 to 20% of your clients, because the rest just ain't gonna do it for you. That about 10 to 20% of your clients, that's where you need the most referrals for. So you can pick and choose who you want to build a relationship with because you know this is just I'm gonna try to find the, I'm gonna try to, I'm gonna try to watch a baseball game as a batter and figure out what pitch is gonna be the home run and that's the one I'm gonna swing at. Like it doesn't work like that.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Yeah, I mean, you know, this isn't this isn't like selling a pair of shoes online. You know, people want to feel safe. Yeah, exactly. That's why, you know, relationship-driven agents are always going to outlast those transactional agents in the long run. You know, when you're focusing on how fast can I close this person versus how do I become this family's trusted advisor for years? That mindset, like set shift alone is gonna change everything. And everything.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

I think you're and when you make your ultimate make that decision and be like, all right, I'm gonna go all in. Like is like being like this relationship advisor, like maybe do more in-depth work with a client if that's gonna be working more with the family, if that's gonna be just more, you're gonna do a better discovery process, maybe you're gonna have a better back-end onboarding, you're gonna reach out to your clients once a month.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

I mean, those relationships aren't built during the sale, they're built in moments surrounding.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Right. And but the thing that is going to be the thing that's gonna hurt a lot of people, because it hurt me until I had one experience that changed it, is you will give a lot more than you will get in the beginning for a longer period than you expect. Like you like you sending out, I mean, I I sent out like birthday cards to my clients every single year and I haven't gotten anything. Yeah, you gotta do more. Like, you gotta do monthly touch points, you have to have some sort of service calendar set up to make sure you know. They know that you're always there, you're always top of brain. But like you will do far more than you expect than than you are expecting right now to get the results that you want. And you will get less than you think in the beginning. So it's a long-term play. But I mean, I was just talking to a guy on LinkedIn about referral, about literally almost the same exact topic. It was referral partners. So pretty much relationships for the most part. And he asks, like, when is your book big enough to do this? How many years in the business that should you do, like to get into referral and like, you know, referral or partnership building? And my answer is traditionally different. Like building relationships with your clients, like that is something that should happen every day and twice on Sundays you should do. Like that is not, that is not the question.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

100%.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

The referral partner aspect of the business, like the people you make relationships with and to get clients back, that is something that is I don't recommend every agent to do from day one because it's a long-term strategy. And a lot of agents don't have one or two marketing strategies right now that get them clients on a consistent basis. So they will try to hire outreach to do it or they'll try to do it themselves and give up because of long-term play. But it will bear the best, sweetest fruit if you give it the time to do so. Cause ultimately it is probably the most, it can be the most consistent driver of clients, but it will take the longest time to develop.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

No, I mean you're building, you know, relationship building in any aspect is about consistency. But in this specific setting, it's not necessarily about intensity. You don't need to become everyone's best friend. You just need to become present, right? You know, that can look like those check-ins to your point, you know, community events, educational updates, client appreciation. You know, I actually I love the utilization of kind of tweaking the standard testimonial and not just kind of throwing up these amazing words that people had to say, but using it to kind of repurpose and highlight and do like a client, you know, spotlight, you know, continuing to celebrate them, continuing to develop, you know, those relationships. Those small touch points again are going to build familiarity. Familiarity builds trust. Trust builds, you know, long-term clients, referrals. And, you know, a hard truth is talking about referrals is, you know, a lot of agents ask for referrals before they've actually even earned that emotional trust with people, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Just because someone bought from you doesn't automatically mean that they're ready to stake their reputation on recommending you. Absolutely. You know, those referrals are going to happen when people can confidently say, you know, I trust this person enough to send someone that I really love and respect and care to them. That's, you know, that higher level of trust that we want everyone to kind of be working towards. You know, and in a noise, you know, noisy market, relationships become one of the biggest like game changers. Yeah. Anyone can buy leads, anyone can run Facebook ads, anybody can copy like plug and play marketing tactics. But genuine trust that takes time and that's real. And that's exactly why it's become so valuable in this space.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Dave talks about uh micro commitments, which is like as as agents, like there are things that we should have clients do to like show that they're committed to like working with you and you know, X, Y, and Z. But on the reverse is like they're looking for micro commitments from you because if you say you're gonna do X, Y, and Z and you do X, Y, and Z, trust Builder. And if you do that over a year, two, three, four, five year period, like I've got clients still to this day that like genuinely they still reach out to me for questions, and I'm I get back to them and they're they're just shocked that I get back to them in such time with the actual answer. And they're like, I I you didn't have to call me back today. Like, I just left you a voicemail. It's like, yeah, got your voicemail though, took care of it already. You're all set. And it's like, and you maybe listen, agents may be listening to be like, oh duh, I can answer questions for my clients. It's like, yeah, but when you do that over a five to seven year period every time, like that's airtight. Like they know you are the guy every single time, and that trust will never ever be broken. So your client will never leave. But also when they have their next friend, family member, cousin, brother, sister, uncle, they have no problem putting your name out in the ring because they know you'll do the exact same thing for them that they did for you.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

You've created the standard, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And that that is that is a standard. Again, standards do adjust when you start to grow and stuff, but that's when you have to start hiring and do all their other fun stuff. But you're the one that holds the freaking line as far as how you treat your customers, both in the sale and post-sale. But those micro commitments, that just shows like what you said in that room when you said, I'm gonna be there for you for the rest of your life, blah, blah, blah. Wasn't just hot air. Like you committed to that standard. And I've if you commit to a if you find what your standard is, if it's saying, like, hey, when you call me of questions, you're gonna have the carrier card, you're gonna call them, not me. Like, cool. That's expectation.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

No, talk talk's cheap. Let's call it space spade, you know. Um you gotta, you can't make empty promises, right? If you say you're going to do something, you need to honor, you know, and also going to be a part of that. Credibility, building trust, you know, those long-lasting relationships, you know, making good on your promises. If you said you're gonna follow up with information in X

Micro Commitments And Consistency Standards

SPEAKER_03 27:20

amount of time, you know, that has to be your standard. That's what we're doing. We're doing consistent follow-up. We're following through on the promises that we're making to are we teasing a are we teasing a fourth pillar?

SPEAKER_01 27:31

That's a spoiler. Is that consistency?

SPEAKER_03 27:33

Listen, we could talk marketing pillars all day long. Consistency is key. Consistency is key in any piece of your, you know, business, not just it's embedded in all three of those pillars.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

I think it's like the the foundation at the base of it. The base of the actual pillar is consistency because relationships aren't gonna grow, credibility isn't gonna sustain or grow, and your visibility is never gonna happen unless you consistently put it out there. Like that's that's the only way this works.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

I mean, credibility is, you know, it could be its own, you know, just freestanding pillar, you know, because in, you know, today's consumers investigate before they engage, you know, someone's going to call you, you know, before they call you, excuse me, you know, before they answer your ad, before they trust that someone's recommended you, you know, they're going to research you, whether whether agents like it or not, your digital footprint is now a part of your first impression.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah. And if you don't have one, there are still people in this space, if you're listening, you can make money not without being online. Will you make as much as you could? Absolutely not. Like you will do far better if you have this ability just to have some sort of visibility visibility, to have that credibility where you are the expert in your field, which will ultimately, those two things will help and strengthen relationships in any community if done consistently. That is like your secret sauce. If you want business that doesn't stop and you would physically have to shut your doors, turn off your phones to essentially stop growing, those three things plus consistency will never hurt your business.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

It will only help you grow ever, as long as you continue so there's power even within that implied credibility. You know, the beautiful part of that is going to be that credibility compounds. You know, every review strengthens your reputation. Every helpful post builds authority, every professional interaction increases trust. Every happy client becomes proof. And, you know, over time, your marketing starts working before you even speak to anyone. Right. That's that's a dream, right? Who doesn't want done for you marketing? And prospects are gonna begin, you know, coming into appointments already feeling like, okay, this person knows what they're doing, what they're talking about. And I feel comfortable in that I trust, you know, more importantly, this person with this major decision that that I'm making with my life, you know, then my healthcare, my finances, you know, that changes the entire sales conversation because now you're not trying to convince strangers you're trustworthy from scratch. Your reputation has already, you know, started doing some of that hard work for you.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah, which the whole like uh getting over that hurdle as far as the especially for me, I was a I was 24 when I started selling Medicare. So I had to start, I had to try to convince 65-year-olds of a 24-year-old millennial that I'm gonna stick with this for more than six months. I'm gonna be there for the rest of their life, which will be another 20, 30 years, on a 24-year-old who can't relate to the modern day senior. Like, I needed to figure out how to be credible a lot quicker. And from day one, like I had to do a lot of like, it's hard to promise this right now because ultimately I don't know the future. But I what I will tell you is I'll never leave you alone. Like, if I this business doesn't work out, if this XYD doesn't work out, you will always have someone that you're gonna go to and I'll make sure I hand deliver you to somebody. So, like, again, was it the best sale? But I was 24, I didn't know how to do anything better myself. I pretty much had to sell them on like, hey, like I'm doing everything I can to make sure this works. You helping me and then also referring me only helps you better. So when it comes to when it comes to this whole like scope of how this is supposed to help your business, I would probably say where

Simple Steps To Start Today

SPEAKER_01 31:15

you can, because I want to give at least a few tips on how you can start. Because we just talked about visibility, talked about credibility, we talked about relationships, and we talked about being consistent.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

And this whole podcast is now 35 minutes and it's a whole whale to chew on. The first thing I would identify is who do you want to work with? What type of, and who's your who's your customer avatar, where are they getting their information, and what are their pain points, what keeps them up at night? Because then you can go to where they have where they get credible information, whether that's Facebook, local places. You can then give them the information that keeps them up at night, which would give you the implied credibility. And when you work with seniors, treat them like you treat your own mom and dad, because I guarantee you your mom and dad would refer you a ton, and these people will do the same. And once you get so big and you want to get referral partners, that'll be again another podcast at a later date. But if you do that, if you figure out where your clients are that get the information, you figure out what the pain points are, so you can create credible information for them to consume to get the credibility. You treat your customers with and the prospects with absolute respect and treat them like you would your own mom and dad, you will not fail. Almost cannot. Those would be my if I was listening to this podcast, those would be the three things that I would get done yesterday to start moving on visibility, credibility relationships. And number four is don't do it for a full year and don't stop and eat board.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Consistency is key. Every day we talked about consistency a bunch during this episode. And and that's gonna come with marketing, your marketing efforts as well. You know, asking yourself the question can people, you know, consistently see me? You know, do people trust you once they've found you? And then lastly, you know, do people feel connected to you? You know, are are we doing, are we taking the right steps forward to make, you know, these relationships more concrete? You know, people don't we want to be able to have the opportunity to build lasting connections that, yes, maybe might turn into referrals, but it's more importantly about the effort that you're putting into these marketing pillars that is going to be the deciding factor on what you get out of it.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Exactly. Well, I think that's probably the perfect point to

Share The Show And Send Topics

SPEAKER_01 33:30

end on, in my opinion. So if you are listening to this or you're watching, just know that we don't put any ads or any money into this channel. The sheer number of views and subscribers is purely based on word of mouth. So if you see this channel growing, which it has via views and via subscribers, it's because other people think it's valuable. If you think it's valuable, share with a friend, a teammate, maybe not a rival. Uh, but we do want uh we want to make sure that uh we give valuable information every single week. So you also, I believe, can reach out to us directly if you have any topics that you'd like for us to talk on, which we absolutely appreciate. And or you can find uh you can find at least myself on LinkedIn, you LinkedIn and uh my name is Mike Sorens on LinkedIn. You can find me on there and maybe shoot me a DM topic. We'd love to talk about. But this whole podcast is to make sure we give information to you to teach you how to go from unknown to unstoppable. And hopefully today we took one step to doing so. So I want to thank Kate for joining us on this podcast today and taking the time out to do this. And I want to thank you for giving us the most valuable thing that you have, which is your time and attention. Hopefully, we did great things with it. And thank you for joining us, and we will see you on the next week's podcast.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

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.