Andy Neary: 0:00

When I look at the most successful advisors in our industry, and I compare them to everybody else, and there's a lot of people stuck in mediocrity, right? And I said, Okay, what separates the best from the rest? Drive and discipline definitely in that category, but Jason it goes back to something you said the best also invest in themselves. 100% you would you would be surprised how many advisors come to us for help, but then want their accompany to pay for the investment? Yeah, and it's like, Guys, it's never gonna work that way. It won't you have your own skin in the game exact have to pay it you have to you have to invest in yourself, even when it feels uncomfortable. Even when you don't think you have the money right now. Go all in on yourself. Betting on yourself is the best thing you can do.

Craig Pretzinger: 0:45

Insurance dudes are on a mission to escape big handcuffs by our agencies

Jason Feltman: 0:50

powered by uncovering the secrets to creating a predictable, consistent, and profitable agency sales.

Craig Pretzinger: 0:58

I am Craig Pretzinger.

Jason Feltman: 1:00

I am Jason Feldman. We are agents. We are insurances. It's so funny. I don't think a lot of agents think about the fixed costs that they have, right? They have this agent and to your point, a lot of them are expensive. They haven't sitting in the seat, and you're like go out and get business and it's like, Dude, you could bring them business so much more inexpensive than it cost for them to go get business, because it's gonna take them hours and hours and hours just to reach someone. But like, dude, they're sitting there, they're your most expensive cost. Why not? You know, spend a little bit that will be less expensive to get people to them so that they can actually close the deals. 100%. But we don't do that.

Andy Neary: 1:45

I mean, just think about the math guys. Right? It's it's not that difficult today for an agency to have bring in at least $100 million for premium if you've got a few producers, right? If we use the math 10%, which we all think is low. That's $100,000 on marketing. Do you know what$100,000 In marketing would do for your agency if you used it the right way? Yes, your producers would have more leads and they know what to do with? Yes. But that's the problem. We've done it. Yeah, you guys have proved it. Yeah.

Jason Feltman: 2:17

Yeah. No, it's crazy. And I know I understand like the the there's a there is a pain element. There's a you know, you're scared and stuff. There was one point that when I first started doing this, that we built up to like we were doing $80,000 a month and marketing spend. And I was like, my stomach was hurting, because it was like this could go sideways. Like, you know what I mean? But it was really just knowing those numbers, understanding that we're still doing the same thing we did on the littler scale, but on a on a bigger scale. But like, there's no way that we would have even came close to the same results without that kind of spend. And it came back to us exponentially in return. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, I understand the emotional behind, there's a total emotional, but to your point earlier, there's a math element to it. So if you know the math, then the let the math guide the emotion, not the emotion guide the math.

Andy Neary: 3:21

I'm in a group right now my own coaching. And one of the mentors that leads the group says it to us all the time. The only difference between you guys running your businesses and somebody like Patrick bet David or Ed my lead or Lewis Howes they spend a heck of a lot more money on marketing and ads than you do.

Craig Pretzinger: 3:42

Right, more leads higher priced product. I mean, it's all it's, it's the same thing, right? Business is just moving the How much does it cost to bring them in? How much the lifetime value? You know, here we go.

Andy Neary: 3:54

If we got if we had more agency owners understand that game of math, I think we'd have here it kind of goes back to where we started the conversation. One thing that drives me every day to do what we do, is I feel not enough agencies know how to grow organically anymore. Because that's why you see a lot of most of the independent selling. I don't think they're selling out of out of desire, they're selling out in need, they're done, they're tired, they're just I need to sell and it's why m&a is the number one strategy for all the big houses nobody knows how to grow organically anymore. Because there is a lack of of agencies that understand what you two understood which is Wow, yeah, we apply marketing a good strategy to our game plan and throw some ad money and dollars at it. Holy cow this thing turns into machine. Yeah, few

Craig Pretzinger: 4:44

edits. No, you test it. You don't test it at$80,000 spin you tested at a friggin $5,000 spared and then the oh it worked right. And I think that that's where I was in that same. You're hit with so many things and the agent comes in especially like a captive PSC Agent comes in. They're learning all this stuff. They're learning how to be a boss. They're, there's, there's a million different people marketing different marketing things to them when at the end of the day, the the cheapest cost per sale right acquisition costs, if there is is buying internet leads, put a bunch of dials on him and transformed your people and closing them, like in this world, right? Like that's, you're not going to find anything else under what, three 400 bucks. acquisition costs, which you have to have, it can't be higher than that you're not making anything right. And so yeah, it's just it's wild, that then there's other people like, Oh, I'm waiting for the phone to ring I'm going to aggressively stare at this thing until it rings and nothing happens. Right? They they ended up the

Andy Neary: 5:45

question for you guys. So on this because I really this this topic, I love this topic. Because did you guys hit a point when you had your your marketing dialed in with this, and you are generating leads? And you almost like consistent, predictable leads? Where you said we could probably go apply the same concept to another industry? Did you ever hit that point? Yeah, yes. We just hit that ourselves, because we're in the process of building our own game plan here, right? Yeah, it hit me because I'm like, wow, once you see what it takes, or how to build this little machine, you're like, I told my team the other day, I'm like, we could literally take this process we've just built and apply it to another product.

Craig Pretzinger: 6:27

Yeah, you do anything? Because it's the same numbers for everything. Right? Like, I had, I can I can talk about conversation I have with with my wife here because she won't ever listen. But she was talking to so she works in in biotech, and you know, they launch products and whatever, you know, that treat cancer and or test for cancer or something. And you know, it's good. She's not listening. But she walked through the, you know, here's the development, here's it, and then I just like I rattled off the, you know, here's the metrics, like when you when it goes to market, this is what they need to do. They got to cover the r&d with you know, and, and it's just this, it's the same thing, everything works the same. And she's like, No, you don't understand our industry works different. I'm like, No, it's

Andy Neary: 7:10

It's okay. But they may call it different things. But yeah,

Craig Pretzinger: 7:14

same process. All the same, all the same thing. Yep. It's, it's, it's everywhere. Yeah. And often, like, what's interesting is m&a, like going and buying those other agencies is a quick path to growth, right? And, and it's easy if there's a bunch of extra cash, or if they're going to the low multiple annual financing for cheaper, where they'll do a carry back, whatever, right? There's a lot of opportunity there. But we've actually put the numbers side by side like spending and growing organically or you'll paid organic. To do your business can be less acquisition costs when you put the numbers on what you get when you actually buy something, right. And there's also that add, there's the people that leave, right, you're losing 20% When you buy it. So it's just interesting when you actually go and look at the numbers. There's a lot of folks talk about a lot of things, but they don't actually put the math on it. And that's what I love.

Andy Neary: 8:11

I love that math in it. But I think it goes back to Jason, you said something earlier, we talked about patience or lack thereof. Yeah. Right. It's are you willing to show up every day act urgently in the moment, but put patience to your long term vision? You know, and what I mean by that is like, I get up every day, right? I love the process. I'm sure you guys are the same. You get up you have to act urgently in the moment the activity, but put patience to it as well, because you know what you're doing today is going to set up a big tomorrow. And I think that's where some agencies fall short. When it comes to how do we use marketing to create that big win down the road, they lack the patience to say I am spending dollars today, knowing this is going to create an amazing reserve return a year, three years, five years from now. I think they're too focused on whatever I spent today, I want to create a return next week.

Craig Pretzinger: 9:11

Right? It's like I think this happens with with every type of marketing thing that that we as agents get. So everything will work as long as you do it, right. Unless you're like, insulting them. Like you can knock on doors, it'll work. But you have to do it forever. Right? You don't just do it for a week and then stop. You can send mailers it'll work, but you have to be consistent. And so we know that applying action is going to create a result. That's just a fact. It's a law. It's law, right? Like that's the laws of nature right there.

Jason Feltman: 9:44

One thing that I believe is that I think the more you can delay gratification in your business, like the more goodwill you can put out into the world, the more you're going to be able to return when you ask for something So like and then I think like, like when you look at really big baller business dudes, they understand this the most they understand like the long term like the longer longer play. And I and I've thought about this a lot. And you see really good marketing people do this where they're just given away for ever, ever ever. Gary Vee talks about the Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. But let's take it back to Jesus. Like now the reason being is it's the Bible is the number one selling book. Let's just take away all the remaining

Craig Pretzinger: 10:36

it does have time on its side for be the dumb Yeah. And it was first to market,

Jason Feltman: 10:40

the number one selling book of all time. Yes, right. All market that Jesus did, is give the whole time and we're still talking about him. Right. So that's like, to me, like the ultimate play in like, reciprocity is just give, give, give, give, and never really ask for anything. But like, I. So that's an extreme example. But like us as business owners, like the longer that you can delay the gratification, like, the bigger the returns will be.

Andy Neary: 11:14

I couldn't agree more. I think if you go at it with the confidence that I'm not going anywhere, I'll be here five years from now. And that allows you to wake up everyday, again, act urgently, but be patient about it confidently patient. But it you said something else, Jason that I think is really important. What you're saying in your marketing is if you spend if you focus your marketing on giving, the same mentor I mentioned earlier uses a phrase called save the best for first, share your good stuff. It almost gives you this air of how do I say this? Because I feel it when I reach out to prospects? You almost owe me a meeting, because I've given you so much, right? Not that I'm saying that to them. But in my head, I'm like, This guy owes me a meeting, we have given these this team so much content, they're gonna say yes. And I think I think you're right, the more you just focus on giving, it tends to create amazing inbound opportunities. And when you actually apply the outbound activity, it elevates your eye outbound activity to levels that you've never experienced before.

Jason Feltman: 12:13

100%. And you can even relate that to your staff. You can relate it to do to yourself, you know what I mean? Like, the more you can create margin for yourself, the more like you like doing what you do, the more you can create a situation where your staff shows up and are excited about work, the more they're going to be excited and, and sell to, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's exponentially better to create, to give, and I think so many times, we can be frustrated as business owners and kind of lose sight of that. And then we get into this, like mindset of like fear. And we're not giving as much we're like, Well, why aren't Why aren't you doing this? Why are we doing you know what I mean? And it's like, Dude, that's that cycle is, is how you how you can really go down in flames. Okay, now.

Andy Neary: 13:10

Yeah, I think the traditional hand to hand, prospecting, combat we've all dealt with early in our careers is we our activity was always we do something with wanting something in return, right? I mean, that's a cold call a cold call is I'm picking up the phone with wanting something in return. They send one email to a prospect hoping it creates an appointment, I'm doing it to get something in return. Versus what if we just pumped out marketing every day without wanting a dang thing in return? And then eventually we'll ask, but when we ask, there, Gary Vee talks about this, they almost feel guilty. So they say yes, because we've given them so much.

Jason Feltman: 13:46

Right. 100%? Love it. What are some tactics that you can help some agents out with? Why don't you give them some good?

Andy Neary: 13:56

Well, it kind of I'll say it goes back to who you're talking to? What are you saying? How are you saying it? Where are you saying it? You know, if I could just share some nuggets there. You know, when it's when it's comes down to the who we actually use a exercise we call a five star Prospect Profile, which is, number one, tell me who your favorite client is today? And then tell me why. And the only answer you can't give me is because I make the most money out. Right? But but when you dig into the why it comes down to demographics and psychographics. And the way I love to describe psychographics is if you're looking at an athlete, the demographics of the height, weight and speed, all the stuff on paper, right? The psychographics is Okay, how's that athlete? When he or she is on the field, when it's crunch time? How do they act? How do they behave? How do they perform? Prospects are no different demographics are all the good things on the paper, the industry, the number of employees, number of reps, size of revenue, whatever it is, but psychographics is Who are these people? What do they believe? What do they stand for? And if you cannot clearly identify who the best fits are for your agency that way psychographically your marketing will turn into Gold if you focus your marketing on the psychographics I love that's number one. Number two, then is what are you saying? I don't know if you've guys, if I could grab it, I'm actually a certified guide by story brand. I don't if you ever guys, you guys ever read the story brand? Yep. It's storytelling, right? Is there's a hero with a goal, who has a problem? Who needs a guide with a plan to have success and avoid failure? If you use your marketing to tell that story? By the way, the hero is not your agency. It's your prospect, right? You guys will be shocked how many times I do that exercise. And I say so who is the hero? And they go, we are? Oh, no. Your Prospects the hero? If you apply storytelling, your marketing, it gets exponentially better. And then the How are you saying it and the water use? Or where are you saying it? It just comes down to? Are you are you putting out video content? Podcast, content, articles, blogs? And where are you putting that stuff? Are you on LinkedIn? Are you on Instagram? Are you doing webinars? Are you doing podcasts? Are you sending out email newsletters? If you do all of that stuff, you almost can't not create activity, if you apply a cold calling and all the other stuff you have to do. If you're clear about who you're talking to, you're gonna find the right people. 100%. But it comes back to the secret we've been talking about. Are you willing to get up every day and do it over and over and over again?

Jason Feltman: 16:23

Yep. So what

Craig Pretzinger: 16:25

do you what do you say to folks that that are kind of waffling on getting up and and doing it all?

Andy Neary: 16:32

If I had an answer to coach discipline and drive into somebody who doesn't have it, I think I'd be worth 10s of millions of dollars. It's hard. I think Dr. And I totally does it. I will I will tell you, our best clients, ironically, are typically former high level athletes, because we have a lot of them in the insurance industry. They get it? Yeah. Coach, if I went if you went through our roster of people we've worked with that have had a ton of success. They probably played a college sports, sometimes even we just worked with a guy who's in the insurance industry that was a defensive back in the NFL for seven years. Think about

Craig Pretzinger: 17:09

think about the level of consistency and discipline. They've had their entire set.

Andy Neary: 17:13

I put it this way. Athletes like that don't need to be told to work out they just want to know what the workout is.

Craig Pretzinger: 17:20

They need a coach because they've had a coach their whole life. I mean, you know, they get it.

Andy Neary: 17:25

Yep. stuff. Yeah, I think so for if I'm a producer right now, and I'm struggling and I'm listening to this. I think it's gut check time look in the mirror and say, Do I have the drive and the discipline? Am I willing to and discipline I think can be taught because that's time management. That's sure how you're taking care of your health. How are you sleeping, all those things that go in go into being productive every day? The drive, you've got to you've got a gut check yourself and look in the mirror and say do I want to do I love this enough that I want to do this every day? Yeah. And by the way, if the answer's no, no harm no foul, go do something else. But find a way to do something you love.

Jason Feltman: 18:02

100% did it. That's true. That's the that's the contract. That's my go to with employees. Like like the wrong employee on the team. That's the conversation. Do you want to do this? You know what I mean? It's like, that's my move. I get them to fire

Craig Pretzinger: 18:20

them to apologize to him, but they're gonna have to quit. Yeah, well, because there's a misalignment, I need to do what I need to and he's like, it worked. Right?

Andy Neary: 18:29

There's giving him the space to know that it's not it don't be don't feel bad, right? Yeah, if you don't love this, you're not a fit. Don't feel bad. Like go find something you love.

Craig Pretzinger: 18:39

I think that's so such a better approach to just be like human human and be real and go look, you know, instead of this cat and mouse and hey, you know, you're not in beating them down until they quit, or, you know, just exit in them. If they didn't do something wrong, they're just not cutting it. Then it's like have that talk, you know, you could be that person that actually, like course corrects them. Like they don't get it or they don't love it or whatever. Or, or it might gut check yourself or this this may make people unhappy, maybe they don't like the way that you're running it. Right. I mean, I've I've for many years did not run this very well. And, you know, they did like me, the people that because it was I was Darth Vader. Darth Vader doesn't doesn't win Hartson and loyal employees. Right. It requires it requires a lot of skills, that psychology, I think being one of them probably, you know,

Andy Neary: 19:31

yeah, well, I'll share this guy's I mean, one thing I haven't shared with you guys on the show. I just said to you guys that, you know, I've been fortunate to work with some high level athletes that are now in the insurance industry. Well, that was my story. You know, I played I spent a couple of years in pro baseball, and my story when I got to pro baseball, I got away from all the things I did in high school in college that made me successful. The drive and the discipline to work off the field when nobody's watching It's why my pro baseball career lasted two years. With Tim Waukee brewers. Oh, cool, a cool, but it's also how I spent the first 10 years my insurance career. I wasn't disciplined. I didn't have the drive. I wanted what took you nine years in nine weeks? Yeah, give me the hack. I don't want I don't want to hire. I don't want the hardware. Everybody's you know, and I, it took me a long time to get back to that. Oh, wait, there is no secrets of success here. This is hard work. It's all the work I'm doing when no one's watching. That matters. Ah, oh, it's just like baseball when I was in high school in college. When it clicked for me. That's when my career changed.

Craig Pretzinger: 20:41

And you said, Oh, wait, maybe I'm not right about everything.

Andy Neary: 20:45

Right. Exactly. I was I was terrible employee for 10 years. Oh, yes. Industry.

Jason Feltman: 20:51

Yeah, it's crazy. It's, but sometimes we need to go through that to realize that you know what I mean, and then once once you realize that, I mean, I was I was the I was a bad person in my 20s. Like, not even a bad, a bad. I was a bad employee. I was not, you know what I mean? Like, like, there's good things that I needed to learn. But like, through that, I learned a lot about how to perform by performing very poorly. And that's why I think, yeah, team sports is so good. All the employees that I've ever had, that have had team sports experience, understand what it's like to talk to the team, how to perform, how to train, how to interact with each other. I mean, it's just, it's, it's so great. And I wish I would have done more team sports when I was younger, because I probably could have learned a lot of the lessons that were very difficult in my 20s and 30s.

Andy Neary: 21:46

That didn't help me. But you're right, though, you have to go through those low moments. To finally hit that rock bottom, whatever that rock bottom is in your life, your career to come out of it and say, Okay, I got to do better, right? When I look at the most successful advisors in our industry, and I compare them to everybody else, and there's a lot of people stuck in mediocrity, right? And I said, Okay, what separates the best from the rest? Drive and discipline definitely in that category. But Jason it goes back to something you said the best also invest in themselves 100% you would you would be surprised how many advisors come to us for help but then want their accompany to pay for the investment. Yeah, and it's like guys, it's never gonna work that way. It won't you have your own skin in the game exact have to pay it. You have to you have to invest in yourself, even when it feels uncomfortable. Even when you don't think you have the money right now. Go all in on yourself. Betting on yourself is the best thing you can do.

Craig Pretzinger: 22:44

Yep, we've done it. Maybe we've spent a lot on our coaches.

Andy Neary: 22:50

Yeah. 100%. Andy, thank you

Jason Feltman: 22:52

so much. Dude, you are awesome. I love this conversation. If somebody wants to get a hold of you. What's the best way?

Andy Neary: 22:59

Yeah, I will tell you if they want it. We have a free training if I can just throw out there. Yeah, broker marketing playbook. All they got to do is go to complete game playbook.com And they can download that. It's about a 15 minute training. Really nice training or come check me out on LinkedIn. I'm there every day Andy Neary let's connect. Let's love it.

Craig Pretzinger: 23:19

Awesome. Andy, thank you so much. Appreciate.

Jason Feltman: 23:24

Thanks for an awesome