Latest / Elevate The Hustle / Ep. 31: We Made $17K Our First Year. Here's How Erb & Young Got to $100M | Brett Young & Matt Main

Transcript

Ep. 31: We Made $17K Our First Year. Here's How Erb & Young Got to $100M | Brett Young & Matt Main · Elevate The Hustle

0:00
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't trying to open an agency.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to build a team.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Like we and we say it all the time in here, we're team builders.
0:05
SPEAKER_02: Elevate the hustle.
0:07
unknown: Yeah.
0:12
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to Elevate the Hustle, where we break down what it actually means to build teams, scale companies, and lead with intensity.
0:19
SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Dan Mayton.
0:21
SPEAKER_03: I'm Dom Picharillo.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: And today we're here with Brett Young and Matt Main from Urban Young, and we're excited to hear about their journey and their entrepreneurial spirit.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: Let's go, guys.
0:32
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the show, boys.
0:34
SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having us.
0:37
SPEAKER_03: So, first and foremost, first question I ask everybody.
0:41
SPEAKER_03: You two will be no different.
0:44
SPEAKER_03: What does the word hustle mean to you?
0:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna I'm gonna hand that off.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Bray, you can go first on this one, man.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: It's a that's a good question.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: Find a way.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Find a way.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it takes.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I think sometimes it's hustled, is perceived as like working really hard, but I I don't I do think that's part of it.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: But I think if you said somebody hustles, they they always just find a way.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a tough one to follow on that.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: What do you guys think?
1:10
SPEAKER_01: That's hard to follow.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: No, yeah.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: First of all, yeah, thank you guys for having us on.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: This is awesome, man.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: That's uh I love the opportunity to rip, especially with Brett.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, man, hustle.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: I had a I had a JV coach in high school that said it best.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: He says, Man, it doesn't take talent to hustle.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: So if you get out there and give 100%, you're probably gonna win at least more games than you lose.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's what the, that's what the difference is, right?
1:34
SPEAKER_01: We're all gonna lose at some point, but I think it's just winning more than you lose and having the mentality, just keep pushing forward and be consistent in your efforts in order to win more.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's it.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: And I I think that's really one of the ways that you can help somebody is by teaching them something like hustle, which really just boils down to, and if I could use one word like Brett did, I would say consistency.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: I think hustle is consistency.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're doing something consistent, chances are it's your it is your hustle.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: It is your hustle.
2:02
SPEAKER_02: I have to ask this now.
2:03
SPEAKER_02: Do you think hustle can be taught, or is it just something that's in you?
2:07
SPEAKER_01: Mine personal, personally, I think hustle can be taught.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: And I only say this, I I say that because that's one of the ways that you know we we consistently develop, you know, especially personal development, we consistently develop ourselves and others.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: Um but I would ultimately I would say yes.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: I would say I think there's some innate, like natural ability at that.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: Some people are better than others.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, some people, I mean, proclivity for certain personalities to be able to hustle more, be you know, better at sales.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: But I just think generally, yeah, I think I think a hustle can be taught just like nearly anything else.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: That's a personal opinion, though.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: I could be right.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: I agree with that.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: I think uh hustle is is a to me, it's a conditional uh learned behavior, right?
2:50
SPEAKER_00: If you take somebody that's in an environment where hustle isn't celebrated, um, it's probably gonna be lower on the priority scale.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: But you put somebody in an environment where hustle is celebrated and recognized and cheered on and uh becomes one of those attributes that uh gives people significance.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: That could be when you're a kid and you grow up in an environment with a with a sports family or a family that that makes that part of their value system.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I think that's that kid gets that growing up.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: And then I also I agree with Matt.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, take somebody and put them in an environment where that becomes kind of a a core staple of becoming significant and belonging.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: I think that that that you you see people that happened to me.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: That happened to me.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I when I was younger, I didn't have as much hustle.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And then I got older and around uh some mentors, um, and I realized real quick if I wanted to be in the room, that was required.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: And so all of a sudden, what became, you know, a guy that was lazy became a guy that um wanted to be celebrated for having that attribute.
3:51
SPEAKER_03: Do you do you have like a moment that it just clicked for you and you're like, oh shit, I can do this.
3:57
SPEAKER_03: I got it.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a slow bleed.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: I could tell you the time period, but I don't know if it's like like a usually one of those moments are like usually embarrassing moments, like something embarrassing or something bad happens in your life that you go, okay, that was it, like day of decision.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: I think for the hustle, it wasn't that way for me.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: It was almost like, okay, this is what these people do, and I want to be these people.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: So it was like, okay, this is an attribute that I have control over.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Like Matt said, I don't I can I don't have all the skills that they have, but man, I I can at least, I can at least show up before everybody gets here and I can leave when everybody before, you know, after everybody leaves.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: That was something that I could do.
4:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think I agree.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: I think I agree with that, bro.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: That's a great statement.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: So talk to us about Urban Young.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: Two that February 2011, you started this with your brother, I believe.
4:45
SPEAKER_03: Is that is that accurate?
4:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, two brothers, right?
4:48
SPEAKER_00: One was my younger brother, my blood brother, uh, and then one's my older brother, who's uh my brother from another mother.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: So um, but if you put both of them on the screen, I think you'd probably say the older brother from another mother looks more like me than my younger brother.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: But we all look kind of look the same.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's three of us.
5:04
SPEAKER_03: And tell us the story.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: How did it happen?
5:06
SPEAKER_03: What made you guys say, you know what, we're gonna we're gonna get in, we're gonna become entrepreneurs.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good question.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I got introduced to network marketing back in high, let's see, when I was coming out of college, did a decently high-level um was an insurance product.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: And so I sold that, built a team across the country, uh, worked with two guys who built um two billion dollar organizations internationally, one of the best in the in the world, learned a lot, learned how to lead a voluntary army, learned what entrepreneurship was, learned about residual income, learned how to make something fun, learned how to help uh people elevate their skill sets, including myself.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: And I fell in love with it and did that for about five years.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the end of that career did it at corporate benefits level.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: So I was uh facilitating that insurance product in big organizations, small businesses.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: And I got introduced to uh the P and C world while I was in that path, and a guy told me uh about that uh this industry, property and casualty.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, well, tell me about that.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Well, it's an escalating price point.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Right now you're selling a product that's$200 a year, and I could sell something that's$2 million a year.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, that's a lot more zeros than what I'm selling.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: I like that a lot.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, there's also things called expiration dates, X dates, right?
6:23
SPEAKER_00: So which means I know when people buy it.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: So I can target them at the same time that they have that they're gonna buy it.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, well, what I'm doing, I'm, you know, I'm going out and I'm educating people in the marketplace.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: They don't even even have it, let alone have a specific date that they buy it.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I really like that too.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, and then the third thing is they have to have it.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: It's a compliance thing, right?
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Everybody on the uh the planet has it, like like everybody that has a heartbeat has it.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a huge market.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, well, that's really good too, because most people don't have what I offer.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: I have to teach them what it is and and and and educate them.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: So those three components, I was like, man, I'm hooked.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: That's a much, I think that was a much better business model.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: So um at that time I was working with Rod, uh, who's my older uh brother from another mother partner, and uh, we were building that business.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: So I'd like to take all these concepts that I love uh of you know, creating culture and having events and having people belong to something and feel part of something and elevating their income and taking themselves from uh, you know, knowing nothing about business and teaching them about sales and leadership and be able to take that into an industry that I perceived that needed new life.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: It didn't have this young, youthful, uh up-and-coming brand, if you will.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And um, so we took those concepts and we started a PC uh agency back in the day, uh, what was it 16 years ago now at the time?
7:44
SPEAKER_00: So, and then my brother was getting out of uh college at the time, he's a college basketball uh player, and he was really good.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: And uh was like, well, we need a point guard.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Well, good, because I had an internship at uh uh UCF that I do not like, and I don't want to do anything that has anything to do with that.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what you're doing, but I'm in.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: And so that was uh yeah, about six almost 16 years ago today.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And it's been it's been a fruitful journey, a tough one, but those guys are those guys are absolute studs, and it's it's a it's one of the greatest gifts of my life to be able to to lock arms with those boys and get to run every day with them.
8:22
SPEAKER_02: Did did you yeah, any of you have like insurance experience in the P and C space, or did you guys just kind of teach yourselves?
8:29
SPEAKER_02: Like, how did that work?
8:30
SPEAKER_02: It's a great question.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: So those guys had none.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, I went and I was I wasn't trying to open an agency.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to build a team.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: Like we and we say it all the time in here, we're team builders, you know, like um we wanna we love building teams.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: We love the the the the the recruiting, development, and retainment of talent, like getting people to work together.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: And so I went and I I went and worked with a P and C agency, a small mom and pop shop, right out of uh uh right out of that to to build an uh a business inside of theirs, right?
9:01
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to be an operator and I brought three other team members with me.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: I had a team because that's what I was doing, and I was in I was actively recruiting to build that inside of their system.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And they just weren't ready for it.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of issues with it.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: I signed a big non-compete.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know any better.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: They offered me the contra, you know, a deal that deal was never inked in a contract.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: They ended up changing the deal when renewal season was coming.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: It was just a really bad experience.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, you know, it wasn't like this big conflict, but I just don't think they were ready.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: So they were changing their mind all the time.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: And and it ended up being like, uh I basically had got all the negative side of that deal, but none of the positive.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: So um ended up leaving that about 13, 14 months in.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, went to all the big shops, tried to figure out like how to do the same thing, how to build a team inside the big shops.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: That didn't really exist.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And so uh Rod in his infinite wisdom, who had never sold a property casualty policy in his life, doesn't know about carrier contracts, doesn't know the chicken and the egg conversation of how hard it is.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, why don't we just start our own?
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you would say that.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you would say that.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, of course I've thought about that, you know.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's pick the let's pick the hardest path is always what Rod says.
10:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's always the best path.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: It's always the best path, you know.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: So and I was like, man, you know, like if we you like that's gonna take us a while.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: He's like, okay, well, how fast until we get to a hundred policies a day?
10:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, first of all, you've never sold a policy in your life.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: You want us to open this shop, you have no idea how it goes, and now you're telling me how do we get to a hundred policies a day?
10:30
SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you, it's his expansive uh questions that had us start this business.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we started, you know, from scratch, and I was the only one with a year's worth of experience, and those two guys couldn't spell insurance, and we fumbled our way through.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: We had no idea what we were doing, and we we built it by doing all the wrong things first, really fast.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And if you do things enough, if you do things wrong, but you do them fast enough, you can iterate faster than everybody else.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: And by the time everybody's trying to figure out how to get it done, you've already done it 15 ways that are wrong, and you found a way that does work.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's one of the competitive advantages I think that we've had as a partnership is just that we move really fast.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're not afraid to try things and pivot.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, uh, you know, being embarrassed, you know, doing things that maybe, you know, that don't look great on paper, but once you click, all of a sudden people go, Oh wow, they've always had it figured out, and that couldn't be further from the truth.
11:32
SPEAKER_03: It's it sounds like you guys are a bunch of entrepreneurs.
11:34
SPEAKER_03: You're just you're just okay with failing and moving really fucking fast.
11:38
SPEAKER_03: I mean, possible, right?
11:39
SPEAKER_03: Just possible.
11:41
SPEAKER_03: Like that's really the recipe.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: You're you can't one of my favorite, one of my favorite points of that story.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: I've heard this story a couple of times, and Taylor, the the younger brother, T.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: Y.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: Taylor, says it.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he tells it as well, but he tells it a little different version.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: He he's got such a great wit and such a great sense of humor.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of this, he says, you know, listen, three full-time guys first year, we killed it.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: We killed it.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: Netted$32,000.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: Three full-time guys.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: $32,000.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: He's like, so absolutely murdered it first year, you know.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, humble when you talk about that's yeah, it's like I don't know how you start with more more humble beginnings than that.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's great, man, to be able to run, you know, at such a high level now.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And I love the way you said that, Brett, is like, you know, even as big as we get, we run at such a we run lean, but we also run at such an agile pace, you know, like we have the ability to transition so quickly still, because you know, you three guys and the three leaders, the guys sitting at the top, um, I mean every one of you guys, entrepreneur at heart, but each one of you brings something to the table that is different than the next.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: And your strengths, just that, you know, each one of you guys picks up where where the last one left off.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: And it's such a it's such a breath of fresh air, especially coming from a corporate side and still moving into something as big as we are and having the opportunity to rip with you guys.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: It's like, it is really like coming into a, you know, I grew up with four brothers, so it's like coming into a group of of brothers again that you know consistently are like, yeah, man, all right, that didn't work.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: Let's uh let's go to the next one and let's see if we can kill this thing.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's what's really fun about this.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: I think that's again that the chat the challenge, but also you know, the opportunity to create at the same time.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: I love the way you said that team building and and you know, creators in the same space.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: So that's cool.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: So so how long did it take you to get to a hundred policies a day?
13:37
SPEAKER_02: Oh, good question.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: Good question.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: 19 years.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: What time what time is it right now?
13:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: It's like we're still not quite there.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: We have not cracked the code.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: We almost did uh it was a we we almost did uh very recently, and uh I we were joking about it because I was laughing, and I was like, it's only been 15 years, and we're just you know, we're very close.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: I know we haven't moved as fast as you want to move, but you know, we're almost there.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: So I'll let you guys know when that happens.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just think you just got to increase your time horizon.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, we talked about that, just just longer time horizons.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: That's just like you would ask, well, what has to happen for us to do that?
14:18
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, if you say that question to me one more, you've been saying that question to me for 15 years, you know.
14:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, what at what point did you guys know?
14:24
SPEAKER_03: You're like, you know what, this is gonna work.
14:26
SPEAKER_03: This is the there we threw a bunch of shit at the wall.
14:30
SPEAKER_03: We were trying to figure out, but I think we're close.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Good question.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: I I think maybe, yeah, you know, I bet all three of us would have the same um answer.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: I think at about three and a half years, we knew, okay, like we've kind of got this figured out.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, there wasn't there wasn't enough revenue to justify that belief, but you know when things are working because you have that consistency, right?
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Like you're seeing predictable results, and then you're like, okay, well, if I just increase the inputs, I can increase the outputs, you know.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I yeah, I think around that range of that time when you looked at it and go, okay, the wizard is consistent.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, and therefore it's like, okay, well, how do we just do more of that?
15:14
SPEAKER_02: What was the thing that like turned like was there one thing or maybe a couple things that you did where you were like, okay, these were the things that really ended up driving like the growth of the agency.
15:28
SPEAKER_02: And maybe those things are the same today as they were 13 years ago, or maybe they've changed over time, or but just curious, like in the early days, like was there one or two things?
15:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's a good that'd be that'd be great.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: It does not change.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: I still see it with agencies today, I still see it with operators today.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Like it is the they're it's tried and true.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: And I would argue that's not even just insurance, it's it's primarily just business in general.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: But um one was segmentation uh of responsibilities and roles, right?
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of times we just are doing everything and we're all over the place.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, that hustle mentality makes us believe that we get a badge of honor for wearing 16 different hats um and working till 10 o'clock at night.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And trust me, don't get me wrong, like that's required sometimes, but in being intentional with it is was super important.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: So what we did was we we had everybody doing everything at first.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: We did we were just like collaborating and working together.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: And when we segmented out responsibilities and we started really having more of an assembly line type process, that really exploded the business.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: That was number one.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: And then number two uh was a lead gen model.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: We had a a true lead gen model that we were dedicated to and that we were measuring and that we were um consistent on.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: And that you know, created consistent top of the funnel uh you know uh traffic.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And when, you know, when that happened, you know, all the rest of the business can be optimized.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, until you do that, there's really nothing to optimize.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: So both of those two things uh were super, super important.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: And obviously within segmentation, there's a lot of details with that, but that was a big deal with the three of us.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just doing whatever's needed for the day, we really started to get strategic on what each person was gonna focus on and what their responsibility were and how we measured success with just the three of us.
17:34
SPEAKER_03: At what point did you guys decide, hey, we're gonna turn this thing into a final machine and go from one location to I mean, you guys got dozens now.
17:44
SPEAKER_03: How how did that come about?
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Man, I I it was always the dream.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: It was always the plan.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: Like when, you know, like we wouldn't have started the business if that wasn't the object.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, the desire to build something really big and give people an opportunity to um because keep in mind, like, right, that's where that network marketing.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: That's what I loved about that space.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: You take somebody with no background, no experience, no nothing, and they come in and they're completely green and they the door opens of what's possible for them, right?
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, um, and we wanted to create a place where we provided that.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: First we had to provide that for ourselves.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, but then after that, you know, it was always the the the the beginning with the end in mind that, you know, at the end of this journey, we wanted to be able to have, you know, people that we showed up in their testimonies, we showed up in their stories, we made an impact, we made a difference, and and and um so it was always the case um to do that.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: But then about seven and a half years in, um, we did our first acquisition.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: We took, we doubled the business.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: We had two separate teams on one on the coast, one in Orlando.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: And at that point, it was off to the races.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: At that point, you couldn't put the genie back in the bottle, right?
19:00
SPEAKER_00: There's a certain level of scale where you're better off keeping things small, but if you go to the next level, you're better off making it 10 times bigger.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, and when that happened, that was kind of like, okay, here it is, it's time to run.
19:14
SPEAKER_03: So when you guys get to that point, right?
19:16
SPEAKER_03: And I know you said it was always the vision and the dream.
19:20
SPEAKER_03: Are you like a little scared, or you're like, no, we already have the bumps and bruises from being entrepreneurs for the last, you know, seven, eight years and let's fucking go.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I mean, that's a yeah, another great question.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: I I it never goes away, man.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, a mentor of mine back in the day, he said, uh, higher the level, bigger the devil.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: And I love that because it's just so true.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not I'm not I'm not, you know, scared of going out and generating a lead.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Whereas before I was scared to pick up a phone, you know what I mean?
19:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm not scared uh on a non-renewal from a you know uh a policy when before I was like, I've never called an insured to be able to tell them that like they don't have coverage, right?
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I gotta find new coverage, or uh I've never gone through a claim before, right?
20:06
SPEAKER_00: So like that was scary.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Now it's not.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Um I've never had to, you know, back in the day, I didn't have never had to fire anybody or let somebody go.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Now it's you know, it's not is that I mean, obviously it's not fun, but it's not that big of a deal.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I'd never been sued before, right?
20:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, that's part of the deal.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Like dogs don't bark at parked cars.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, it is what it is.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Like you get, you get, you get sued, you know.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: Um there's just things that is unfamiliar.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And when it's unfamiliar, it's scary.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: And then you become familiar with it, and it's not scary anymore.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: But if you're growing and you're continuing to do things that are in alignment with at least my purpose of trying to continue to elevate and be better, there's always the unfamiliar, right?
20:52
SPEAKER_00: There's always that next level.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: So I still have the same fears today that I had when we first started.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: They're just about different things.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I try to remind myself that like I've been here before.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: I might not have been in this situation before, but the feeling that I'm feeling and the process to overcome it and the process to work through it is the same back in the day when I was walking into a lender's office trying to get them to use us for their closings for a homeowner's insurance piece of business.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing, it's just a different, different scenario, same muscle.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: What was your lead gen strategy that you guys came up with?
21:29
SPEAKER_02: And like if you could dig into that a little bit, I'm just curious.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: So we, my my partner's background was in referral marketing.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: So he was in medical sales.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And so he would walk into doctors' offices and they would refer uh different medical services that were needed for patients, right?
21:48
SPEAKER_00: And he did that with oxygen sales, he did that with outpatient, he did that with um uh medical care for behavioral hospitals, he did it for uh there's a lot of things that he did it for, and he led sales.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Teams and and what they would do is they would generate uh opportunities through setting up the doctors and establishing relationships and being a resource and being thought of and being top of mind.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: And so that referral marketing playbook, that referral marketing process became how we entered the marketplace and how we entered the community.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: And so we established partnerships, um, informal uh relationship partnerships where we could be a value add to clients.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And now there's a lot of there's a lot of centers of influence that when their clients need insurance, who do they call?
22:40
SPEAKER_00: What do they do?
22:42
SPEAKER_00: What do they say?
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And we would just uh, you know, we we we build those bridges and we work to help them make more money.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: We help to make them look better.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, many hands late make light work.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And if you have a lot of those set up, um and you're the you're the go-to person in a community, you you can have a very predictable lead gen model that is very low cost of acquisition.
23:06
SPEAKER_03: Matt, you're coming from corporate America, and you you you go in and meet, you know, these three hustler entrepreneurs who are let's go build.
23:18
SPEAKER_03: How is that like?
23:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's well, first of all, I'd say awesome.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I we up until recently when we changed all of our desks, I sat right across the hall from Brett and Taylor and and Rod.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: And uh and I would lean over probably, I don't know, what is it every day, and just tell you guys, hey, if there's a group that has more fun than us, I've never met them.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I've walked into probably what, thousand at this point, thousands of agencies across the state and across the country.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: So uh really cool to build.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: I you know, it's funny to hear Brett go through this stuff too, because I I'll never forget, you know, and I've I've been in the insurance industry for God, 25 years, 26 years.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, you got me beat it.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for a lot for a long time.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: And I've done just about, I mean, just about everything.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: So again, when I talk about like seeing every model and looking at a bunch of stuff, I mean I've I've worked with everybody across the board from commercial side, bonds uh through carrier side, all the way to um political aspirations, everything.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: And then coming back to this side, it was cool because the first time I ever walked into the Urban Young office, which is the same, technically the same office we have now, but it was just one section.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: And now we have the entire building, right?
24:32
SPEAKER_01: So when I remember I walked in and it was uh it was three guys.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: It was, I think Brett, you weren't even here.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: It was Taylor, uh, Matt Eckberg, and Tori Scarborough, just in it like a closet, you know, and just ripping.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: And I and I remember, you know, I was I was new to the carrier side.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: It was just, hey guys, you know, just you know, I want to try to get you to write new policies and stuff.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'll never forget.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: I wrote notes in uh in Salesforce, which we used at the time.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: I said, follow these guys, let's make sure they get big.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: And it didn't take much.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: And I think now, Brett, we're we're close to a hundred people, you know, and that was 2017, 2018.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, you guys have scaled something really big.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: And then the opportunity uh came up where I had a chance to work with these guys full-time about two years ago uh to build something out and have uh a chance to create and build something with these guys.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't even think we knew exactly what we were gonna do at the time.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: We kind of I think we even made up a title, agency distribution, you know, VP of agency distribution, which I Brett, I don't even know what that still means, to be honest with you.
25:34
SPEAKER_03: So welcome aboard, Matt.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: You're higher.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but uh the I think the fun part, you know, for me is the fact that we do get to have a creative mindset as we continue to build the process.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: The second part of that, and what I absolutely love, and this is the true mission.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: Um, every year we do a summit and it's unbelievable.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: Brett gets up on stage, Taylor gets up on stage, rockets, but we bring up our top operators, every, you know, it's just an amazing two days, just everybody, you know, belly to belly and things that we do.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: And it's very important to how we build.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: But I love getting here, hearing the message.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: And the message is is that we want to create extraordinary lives.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think it's written on nearly every wall in our office is be extraordinary or you know, creating something extraordinary.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: The mission is truly to create, you know, more six and seven figure earners in this, in this model than anybody else across the entire nation.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: And having those super high aspirations, you know, the way Brett told it, I think that's super important because really at the end of the day, if you don't have those aspirations, I mean, there's where are you running to?
26:42
SPEAKER_01: What's the mission that you're trying to accomplish?
26:44
SPEAKER_01: So having that just bigger than self mission to do that across the entire country is really fun.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: I I think personally to me.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: And I it really matches uh my goal as well, which is to meet everybody in Florida.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: So I've got this, you know, big goal.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm there's the distribution right there, yeah.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: That's the that's where we get the distribution model from.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: So I think, you know, to to kind of you know, look, look back and everything that I've done coming from the corporate side and and watching that grow and watching that company company go public, and then you know, learning all the background, learning about the carrier side, already having been on the agency side, what it allows me to do is just add perspective, right?
27:25
SPEAKER_01: So when when we talk about it, these guys, you know, we come up with all these ideas.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: I think Brett has three to four thousand ideas a day, you know.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, true definition of ADHD.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: But it's like, okay, great.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, I love that idea.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about how that fits into this industry, how this fits into the market space.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, what are what what's everybody else doing?
27:46
SPEAKER_01: How do we do that?
27:47
SPEAKER_01: So it really gave us the opportunity to create a model and create a system that, truth be told, I can tell you right now is better than any other model I've ever seen in the market space.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's one of the neat things too, is that because we get to create, we get to look around and say, okay, great, what doesn't exist?
28:04
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the things that these guys have done such a great job of, you know, Brett, Taylor, and Rod and building these teams is number one, is they've created an unbelievable talent pool that just is the best at training and and uh and helping people grow from a personal and a professional aspect.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: But then second to that is that it gives people that are coming into this industry an opportunity to look at it and say, hey, oh, wow, insurance, not real sexy, kind of a boring industry.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: But man, you know what?
28:33
SPEAKER_01: Those guys are having a lot of fun.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: So that's an opportunity for us to look at it and say, hey, that's that's really cool.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: I'd love to have some fun too.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and by the way, it's the most stable and lucrative industry that you could possibly go into, as Brett mentioned.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's ultimately, you know, just a circle backstand and say, hey, what's it like to be on this side?
28:50
SPEAKER_01: Is I don't know if there's anything like it.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: Um or at least if there is, I I've never seen it.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: So really funny.
28:57
SPEAKER_03: I will say, I will say that insurance is like sneaky fun.
29:02
SPEAKER_03: Because if you're you know, if you're at that bar at FAA convention, those guys, those girls and guys go hard.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: And anybody that's in insurance that's watching this is gonna be like, oh yeah, yeah, no, no, we know we know what you're talking about.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:17
SPEAKER_01: I think I I think I left on I think I left on Thursday, Thursday night.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: I think I left at like 3 30 in the morning, you know.
29:23
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, we're and you were probably like the first person to leave the bar, right?
29:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's still 400 people there.
29:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you missed the afters.
29:33
SPEAKER_03: That's the best part.
29:34
SPEAKER_03: I know it gets crazy.
29:35
SPEAKER_03: No, it's true, man.
29:37
SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about the million-dollar operator, which I think you hinted on.
29:40
SPEAKER_03: This is something new that you guys are launching.
29:43
SPEAKER_03: Um, tell us about it.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: Um that's uh man, I you know, honestly, Brett, I'd love for you to rip into this only because it's kind of the the brainchild of just a collective of what we've come, we've put together.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: But you know, you guys have have built such an amazing thing and you know, launching here real soon, 9-1.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: So we're launching it on 9-1.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, Brett, I don't know if you want to rip into that or yeah, that'd be great.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I appreciate it.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, Matt, Matt is just like it's so it's so good to work with him every day.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's just got like such an extensive knowledge base, probably more than anybody that I've met in this industry.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's literally, he's not kidding, he's worked every, you know, he's worked every industry in niche, a crevice.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: He's seen more agencies than uh, you know, nobody, I mean, he's probably nobody's been in more agencies than Mr.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Matthew Main.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: So the the the wealth of information that he has, but just this instincts on um what the actual agent needs, cares about, wants, and what's available is is best in class.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: He's been just an uh unquantifiable ad to this team.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as he walked in the door and we we we shook hands to work together, he's just elevated the whole leadership, you know, uh group.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: So uh it's a it's a huge competitive advantage to be able to do stuff like this, which is um, you know, the million dollar operator community was kind of a birth child.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: We we we started a podcast years ago and it was an opportunity to just meet with people and chat, talk.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: And it was just this big need for agents and producers and uh young operators to have a place where they could fail and learn and grow and be in tight knit with people that were doing the same thing, but on a backdrop that was built to be able to actually help them.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to go into a Facebook forum with a bunch of agents, like you know, it's like, but that doesn't help you.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: That's to get information, but not to get direction.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: And so the million dollar operator community was to say, look, we're not gonna work with everybody.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody's gonna become an operator with us, not everybody's gonna become a team member with us, and that's okay.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: But how do we expand our impact?
31:50
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do we make a bigger impact?
31:52
SPEAKER_00: And the, and and you know, for us, it's we want to give it away.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Like we want to take all the things that have helped us go from zero to a hundred million, and we want to teach it and we want to train on it, and we want to create this group of people, and it's you know, agency owners specifically, that can take their business and break through the million-dollar plateau.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: We see, and I've lived this multiple times, obviously, going through this, but also we see it with so many other operators we work with.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: There's just these plateau levels that people get to.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And they're they seem like you can't overcome them when you're in it.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: But when you step out of it and you have an unbiased perspective of where you've where you've broken through those revenue plateaus, it you realize that it truly is an opportunity for someone just to have a structural shift, a structural change, to have that mentorship, and they're able to do that.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: And so, um, you know, a lot of the stuff that we did on that podcast, it was about breaking through the million-dollar plateau.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: And we got a lot of great feedback from people.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: I started getting a ton of calls.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: People wanted coaching, people wanted to chat about it, they wanted some sort of direction.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: They asked us how we train, they wanted uh, you know, documentations and things we do.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And after kind of trying to piece this together, it's like, you know, this is a big need.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: It's a big, big opportunity.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: And so, um, and if, you know, uh if and if we give enough value and we show people obviously a chance to kind of hit those different levels, look, a lot of them will end up saying, you know what, I'd rather just work with you guys.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather just run with you guys, man.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: That'd be great.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, for us, it's a way to build community and then also elevate the brand uh at the same time.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: So we launched September 1st.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, it is behind the scenes, man.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: It is we're doing training videos, we're doing behind the scenes.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: It's all it's raw, it's uncut, it's unfiltered.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what do you what happens uh behind the walls?
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is it?
33:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, and so we're just pushing tons of that content into this community.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: We're doing live training calls, we've got big kickoff events, and and we're gonna be doing some big stuff, but ultimately it's gonna be a land, uh, uh a sounding board and a place for operators to stand from all over the country to be able to get true resources, systems scale, systems of scale that they can take in their agency and then go from point A to point B.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome, man.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: The other thing that I'd add is, you know, again, walked into a ton of agencies over the course of my of my career.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the things that I've learned is when you're an agency owner, you know, it feels like you're on an island a lot of times.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: You know, when you're looking around and you're like, man, I I really need some help.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, where do I turn?
34:30
SPEAKER_01: Who's who can who can help me here?
34:32
SPEAKER_01: And and not just the guru stuff, not just the raw rah stuff, but the tactical stuff.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: Like, like how do we how do we build that?
34:39
SPEAKER_01: How do I build that?
34:40
SPEAKER_01: How do I recruit?
34:41
SPEAKER_01: How do I refer a market?
34:42
SPEAKER_01: How do I train?
34:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, how do I bring people on?
34:44
SPEAKER_01: How do I retain?
34:46
SPEAKER_01: So all these things that I think agency owners, you know, look around and either they don't know where to turn and or they're trying to learn it themselves and they're just figuring it out, uh, you know, the way that these guys did it is, you know, trial and error for 15 years.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, what if you didn't have to have trial and error?
35:05
SPEAKER_01: What if somebody that's done it run it to the highest level possible?
35:09
SPEAKER_01: What if that person could just turn and you could just say, hey, what did they do?
35:13
SPEAKER_01: What's the what's the best version of how we get this done?
35:15
SPEAKER_01: So Million Dollar Operator was created so we could link agencies and agents from all over the country.
35:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, because this is this is absolutely scalable to to anybody anywhere that's looking to run an agency, open an agency, or try to get something that could help them.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: And I think the end of the day, it's it's a matter of just making sure that those people have an outlet and a network that they can connect with.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: Really, again, truly a community where they can they can run it at a fast level and a fast pace and and learn even down to the nitty-gritty.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: I love the way you said that, Brett.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: Just the raw inside look at what we do.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's opening the gates and saying, hey man, this is this is the opportunity for you to see exactly how a hundred plus million dollar agency does XYZ.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: So really tactical stuff.
36:03
SPEAKER_03: What's what's what's the goal?
36:06
SPEAKER_03: How many, how how do you guys 100,000?
36:11
SPEAKER_03: 100,000, 100,000.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: How many well be more what do you uh help me understand?
36:17
SPEAKER_00: You mean for the community?
36:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, how many people like if you guys go and and and have, you know, I don't know, hundred people sign up or a thousand people sign up in a year or whatever it is.
36:29
SPEAKER_03: Like, what how do you view how do you view it if it's success successful?
36:34
SPEAKER_03: What does success look like?
36:36
SPEAKER_00: In that container of our business, I'm not measuring it by how many people sign up.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: Right now, there's already people that are pre-launched, and you know, um it's a success, right?
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Like, so I just want to add a tremendous amount of value.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: I want I I that was one of the biggest things.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, we had to join an aggregator when we started.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: I had to search out for mentors.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: I didn't, you know, nobody had processes of procedures.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh they need, you know, somebody tell you what their lead gen models are, but they don't know tell you how to do it.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Scripts, talk paths, objection, you know, uh rebuttals, like what do I do in this?
37:10
SPEAKER_00: There was just no how-to playbook.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: Like someone gives you carriers and then you're on your own.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: And so for us, I love teaching entrepreneurship.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: I just love it.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: That's why we do, we have an independent operator program, and and that's why I love it.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: Because I want, I love watching people go and elevate their their life.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: It's it's amazing.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's kind of a um for me, it's really selfish.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: I I really love the aspect of having the container to be able to teach.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, I think it'll be valuable for the people that are in there, but candidly, I don't, I don't know if I have a a number as far as how many members.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's it's uh it's it's more of a passion project than anything else.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you have a different opinion, Matt.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: No, that that's a that's a great opinion.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: I think um, you know, we recently uh recently read a book called Gap in the Gain.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: Not sure if you guys have read that book.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Amazing amazing title, by the way.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: It's just an unbelievable book.
38:11
SPEAKER_01: And uh at the end of it, it just kind of says, hey, what are some things that you were looking to accomplish in your life?
38:17
SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the things that we consistently harp on is just the ability to affect lives.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if there's a number that you can put on that.
38:26
SPEAKER_01: I think that as a as a mission, you we're just trying to help as many people as possible because we recognize that there is a gap.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: There is a gap.
38:36
SPEAKER_01: There's a huge gap.
38:37
SPEAKER_01: There's a huge gap in in somebody that's a great producer to running an agency.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just there, there's this, there's this, there's this huge need, as Brett said, to to be able to try to help somebody break through these plateaus.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: And we've just seen them over and over and over again.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: So there's an opportunity to give that experience and and allow people that opportunity, then I would say, yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't put a ceiling on it.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the things that I've learned being as a part of this organization and being a part of Urban Young, is it's the first time in my career, absolute first time in my career where there is no ceiling.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: There is no ceiling.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: Every other place I've ever been, there was always a ceiling.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: All it we always said, hey, when we get to XYZ, this is the number that we want to do.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: Or yeah, hey, look, you're capped here.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: These are the, you know, these are the boundaries that you have to adhere to.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: When we're here, there is none.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: So when I said when you ask us what, you know, what's success look like, I'd say everybody.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: I'd say everybody.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: What's the opportunity?
39:36
SPEAKER_01: What's the opportunity to affect everything?
39:37
SPEAKER_01: What's the opportunity to I want to I want to get to everybody.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, but no, what's the opportunity to affect every life?
39:45
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what's the opportunity to change the industry?
39:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, what does that even look like?
39:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, so I think you guys would say the same thing, right?
39:53
SPEAKER_01: Elevate teams, you guys are coming in with a model that is that is truly different than what other people do, or at least that's what, you know, the way that I see it, my opinion.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: But I would tell you, I mean, that's the idea.
40:03
SPEAKER_01: The idea is to create something that we know is better because we've seen where the gaps exist, and then give that to people and say, hey, what if there was a better way?
40:13
SPEAKER_01: What if there was a better way?
40:14
SPEAKER_01: Would you be willing to take the leap?
40:17
SPEAKER_01: And would you be willing to devote yourself to this process or whatever is available to you there so that you could actually get to a higher level faster.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: You could attain something at a much higher click.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the things that we're kind of seeing in our industry as well, especially with the the advent and innovations of AI, is you know, people want to move a little bit faster too.
40:38
SPEAKER_01: They want to get to that point a little bit faster.
40:40
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, let's get the opportunity to allow people to create legacies.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the idea.
40:45
SPEAKER_03: I think that's the idea.
40:47
SPEAKER_03: Do you think, I mean, from based on what I'm listening to, you guys are saying, hey, the system's currently broken, there's a better way of doing it.
40:54
SPEAKER_03: We we figure it out the way and we're gonna share it with the world.
40:57
SPEAKER_03: Do you think people understand that the current model is broken?
41:03
SPEAKER_03: Or do you think they're just kind of stuck in it and they've been doing it the same way over and over and over again and they're just trying to figure it out?
41:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have my opinion.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to answer that because I again I I've walked into agencies that have been doing the exact same thing for 30 years, and now we're sitting in a soft market, and all of a sudden they're watching revenues tank, they're having to get rid of employees, they're letting people go, they don't know what to do to change.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: So I'd say there is a there is a whole in this industry specifically in insurance, it's such an old school mentality because it's just such an old school industry.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think I mean, proof's kind of in the pudding in the sense that you've got agencies that have been around for decades, you know.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: I guess at this point, there's probably some that they're centuries old and you're looking around saying, hey, they're doing the same thing.
41:52
SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's worked for so long.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, if the market shifts, are you gonna make a shift with it?
41:56
SPEAKER_01: Do you need to?
41:57
SPEAKER_01: What are the things that you need to do to make that change?
41:59
SPEAKER_01: But I would say, yeah, I mean, I I would say it's um well, it's it's it's hard, it's hard after being and seeing so many, so many, so much opportunity for these agents to grow and them just not knowing how, not knowing how, not knowing what the next step is.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: I'd say like the markets are already like it's it's I'd agree with that.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: So like you even the captives are dealing with the same thing.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, it used to be, hey, you know, service the business and have a good lifestyle, right?
42:27
SPEAKER_00: Have a nice agency, right?
42:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not that way anymore, right?
42:30
SPEAKER_00: It's a shift of new business focus, it's lead generations and conversion, and you are a distribution tool to sell more widgets, right?
42:37
SPEAKER_00: And obviously the service aspect is important, but it's a means to an end to get to to build more revenue.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: And the that's from compensation restructuring to distribution disruption to uh technology development to implementation of how um uh those carriers are are are incentivizing bonus.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: Like there's a lot of components that have shifted that have put the um old school agent at a disadvantage.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I I think it's it's I think a lot of times we don't know what it is, Stan.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, it's just too hard now.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: And it's just it the the cheese has moved.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: And um, so you know, there's a cool opportunity to be able to give people a blueprint to engage in a different methodology, a different way of doing things that will allow them to move where the cheese is instead of where it has been.
43:32
SPEAKER_03: I like that.
43:33
SPEAKER_03: And and I think, I mean, you know, we look at it and we we've been doing this for four and a half years, and you know, we're two guys wearing hoodies, uh, and and we're we're we're the anti insurance guys for for probably insurance guys.
43:50
SPEAKER_02: I was an insurance guy, I was they used guys searching.
43:55
SPEAKER_02: My first my first insurance job, they used to if I didn't shave for like two days, they'd be like, You didn't shave.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: today.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: I'd be like, I know.
44:02
SPEAKER_02: They're like, you have to shave.
44:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm like, I'm not visiting with clients today, and does shaving affect how I do my job?
44:09
SPEAKER_02: They're like, those aren't like we're telling you that you have to shave.
44:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, all right.
44:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, first thing I did when I started my agency was grow a beard, which I had for several probably like a year or two.
44:22
SPEAKER_02: Until my my now wife, she and I met and she decided she didn't like the beard and I said okay I I actually listened to her.
44:30
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
44:30
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: We got we got by a carry yeah if I shave my beard I I'm not allowed to come home until it grows back.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: So we're we're inside offense.
44:38
SPEAKER_01: We got told by a carry a carrier rep the other day said is do the women in your office also grow beards?
44:43
SPEAKER_01: Because this is Yeah.
44:47
SPEAKER_03: Yes they do.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: And you have a problem with that and Dom, you know like that that brings up a good, you know, it's actually funny but it's actually a good point.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Like part of that shift again is how do I one of the biggest problems if not the biggest challenge that agency owners face is how do I recruit talent, develop talent and retain talent, right?
45:08
SPEAKER_00: It's all about talent.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: Like at some level fundamental level you're running an agency, you're doing fine.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: Like it's you, maybe a couple people like I get it you it it's worked but going to that next level you don't do it without talent.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: And so and it's usually it's usually predicated off of do you have an environment that's fun and people are engaged and they want to build the business with you and there it's exciting and it and it's fun.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: And I agree with you that insurance can be stable I love insurance.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: I think it's fantastic but that's on how the outside world in here it's exciting it's exhilarating it's fun we do something important right it's it there's there's you gamify it it's objective like there's big wins there's money like and being able to install that type of culture is the fundamental problem in agencies all across the country there is one giant meteorite coming for this industry and that is a lack of young talent.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: Period end of story that's it they're all like there is a massive exodus and that's why you're seeing so much MA and the fundamental problem then is everybody wants to poach people that are already in the business because they don't know how to go get people outside of the system develop them up and just be somebody that's a that's a good producer or a good relationship management or account manager and then stay for a long period of time.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: That skill that process that that system that ideology those philosophies are the most important thing in an agency and that's what we love to teach more than anything.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: You know processes and lead gen and all that stuff of course that's fun but that's just fundamental to business.
46:40
SPEAKER_00: But the secret sauce and component is getting people to really engage and want to build with you.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: And we've been blessed to be able to learn some cool things that um that have helped us do that.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're not the fastest we're not the best we're not the sharpest we don't have there's nothing that we do that is best in class other than culture retracting developing retaining people.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: And those things can be taught and they are more of a process than they are just a personality.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I get really excited because some of my my good friends some people that I love very dearly they own agencies in other states.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: They own different places and they've taken a leap of faith to do these things and build this book of business and they're stuck.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: They've got families they've got kids they've got bills they've they've taken they've put they've put in debt into this stuff and you know you can only talk to so many people one-on-one right until you you want to just come in there and help them do it.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: And so this outlet that we're building is an opportunity for us to really do that and get feedback for our operators we still want to have an understanding of what the true problems are within agencies because ultimately if we get that feedback we can come back and we can help our operators be more successful too.
47:49
SPEAKER_03: Where where where can people find out more about this if they want to get more information give give give give your plug here.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah the million dollar operator dot com you go to the website the million dollaroperator.com uh go over there take a look take a peek get behind the scenes it hasn't dropped yet uh September 1st we're uh we're ripping and and rocking and roll also have a uh a free live training that I'm gonna do on September 9th with Mr.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: Matthew Main and uh and Rip.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: It'll be great.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: It's a it'll show you we're gonna do some showcasing of some cool training and and kind of elevate some of these fundamental problems that agency owners are experiencing in the marketplace how they hit those revolution ceilings and then how to go to the next level.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to drop by the website take a look register um and then also man you know Mr.
48:38
SPEAKER_03: Matthew Maine's super active on LinkedIn hit him up uh you know he's got all this beautiful he's got this beautiful hair the the the but the best hair in the industry for sure hands down so shoot him a DM look at that dom might give you a run for your money man he might give you a run for your money so um so no it is something LinkedIn we're guys we're super active drop yeah drop it in the comments who has better hair dom or Matt we're gonna we're gonna start a poll right here we appreciate we appreciate you guys coming on uh love what you guys are doing in the industry and I mean thanks man you know you you guys are you guys are obviously killing it and continue to kill it and I I almost want to say make insurance great again I I I don't know I feel I feel like make insurance fun again I feel like where we're going here we hope we hope everybody enjoyed the show and uh go check out Brett and Matt and go check out the website and uh thanks everybody for watching and we'll see you guys back here next week