Jason Feltman: 0:00

It's a coffee talk.

Craig Pretzinger: 0:01

It's a coffee talk. And if you've ever listened to us before, don't just go away because we said coffee talk. Yeah. I don't want to hear about this culture. Yeah.

Jason Feltman: 0:09

I want to talk about culture, because I know we're going into a New Year. Happy New Year. Mr. Craig.

Craig Pretzinger: 0:14

Well, Happy New Year. Mr. Jason.

Jason Feltman: 0:16

Yeah. Well, you know, one question that always comes up is about culture in the agency, how do you build a team that's, you know, happy? How do you build? And you and I have had many times that the agency was great, or the agency wasn't great. Right? So what are the ingredients? What are the elements that make up a good culture in an agency? And I have a few of them for you? Oh,

Craig Pretzinger: 0:46

do you? I do. Insurance dudes are on a mission to escape big hit by our agents,

Jason Feltman: 0:53

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

Craig Pretzinger: 1:01

Hi, I'm Craig Pretzinger.

Jason Feltman: 1:02

I am Jason Feldman. We are agents we are insurance is. One fact about this is a great culture in an agency is by design. It doesn't just happen. So if if you're not thinking about this, if you don't, if you're not really thinking about how do I make this agency great, how do I what do I have to do to my for my team, not to my team, but for my team in order to create a great culture. And I know I thought about this so many times when I first started in man, horrible at the culture, but I realized that even more coffee, which is part of it, right? offering them, it's an offer. And that's what's crazy, and we just talked about selling. And when it comes to our team, like, you know, moving back from that selling to towards the to new clients and our our current clients, but then moving into helping our team. And that's who that we're selling now. So that's, that's what I think is incredibly important. And not to even if you are selling on the front end, you have to look at it like you're selling to your team as well. Yeah. And so how do we sell a good culture in our in our agency? I'm doing, I have three, three things. Three things. And as we're starting the new year, I think every agency needs to do these three things. First, yeah, get your pin up. Maybe look the end of it, and then say you so yeah. First thing is core values. Oh, yeah. Core values, what are core values? And why are they important? Well, why? Why? Why are they important? Why? Because these, this is the way we operate, right? Yeah, this is the quick guide on how to handle any situation. In the agency. There's so many times we're quick to show a process of oh, this is how you make notes or like, like a tactic. But we need a philosophy, we need a way to handle every situation, right?

Craig Pretzinger: 3:18

Like selling with integrity, right? Like having something like this is our one of our values. Right? Right. And it's and it's it's also really important that they're not just BS, like you see a lot of like, the really big corporations, and they have all our values up on the wall. And then, you know, you talk to the people that work there, like, yeah, none of that. Right. Yep. So I think I think that a lot of folks maybe get a bad taste in their mouth about values because of that. And you know, a lot of people have come from the corporate world where it just was sort of said, but not done. But I would guess that at some point, when those values were established, they were believed and they did, they did do it, right. And then right, at some point, it gets too big and all that happens. But for us, it's really important because it helps to make decisions, right? You can look and say, Oh, this is this aligns with our values. Let's do it. Right. So

Jason Feltman: 4:12

really pretty simple. And you can you can come up with it with your team and figure out like, the way I describe this is, if somebody does your core values, they should be the perfect team member. So they do all of them, then they should be like the perfect person for your agency. So how do we do this? And to your point is, you know, is it can't just be wishy washy. So if you have a core value, like integrity, list it but then tell the www, so why is this important to the agency? Another w w w w h w, why it's important, how it can be used in the agency. and give examples of of that, right. So

Craig Pretzinger: 5:03

w, H E,

Jason Feltman: 5:05

I know I started switching the stuff around

Craig Pretzinger: 5:07

the Wii. Wii. I like it. But

Jason Feltman: 5:13

yeah, so that's the first one. And in the best way to use the core values is to hire. And anytime anything goes wrong in the agency link back to the core values. Well, this is not following the values. And this is what we do here.

Craig Pretzinger: 5:34

Yeah, this is what will he do hear there

Jason Feltman: 5:37

is a heavy duty here. So that's it. And then the second one is mission.

Craig Pretzinger: 5:46

Oh, and this is not just some position? No,

Jason Feltman: 5:50

no, it's not Mr. Greg, not

Craig Pretzinger: 5:52

some position your agency's in.

Jason Feltman: 5:55

But what is what is what is the mission of your agency? What is the thing that your all of your agents in you can get behind? How are you going to operate? What are you guys striving for? If you were in a boat, and you're rowing? What is this island that you're getting to this heaven island that you're getting to write? What is the mission that you guys are on? And I think it's important to, to come up with that mission that everybody can stand behind? It's the batteries, it's everybody's batteries in the agency to keep going.

Craig Pretzinger: 6:31

Oh, it's an electric? Yes,

Jason Feltman: 6:34

it's definitely electric. The leads

Craig Pretzinger: 6:36

are the gas. Right?

Jason Feltman: 6:40

Yeah. So mission incredibly important is well aligned,

Craig Pretzinger: 6:44

right. Like it has to be articulated. And not just something you slap together. Like, we're here to help people get insurance. Yeah, probably something a little stronger. Right.

Jason Feltman: 6:53

At that point, I would say peel the onion. Why? Right? Because

Craig Pretzinger: 6:58

we might lose their things. Why, but why something bad might happen? Why? So

Jason Feltman: 7:03

that? Yeah, yeah, it's got to be, it's got to be a way that you guys operate, it has to be like, we're, we're doing things differently. Because one great one that I love is the Apple think different campaign. It's like such a cool manifesto, if you will, like, like, that's something that you could stand behind that they're trying to change the world, you know, in, that's where like a mission needs to be, it needs to be deeper, it needs to be something that, you know, the whole team can stand behind. They can be proud of that when they're not feeling like like the batteries. The reason I said the batteries is because when they don't feel like operating at 100%, it gives them a reason why they gotta kick it in high gear.

Craig Pretzinger: 7:49

Yeah. And it gives the consumer something to align with to right, like you're, you do this. So they the team understands they do it for this reason, and the consumer realizes they do it for this reason, just like, like Nike, but I think what you're saying, right, or I'm sorry, like apple. It's the same thing. Right? It's it's aligning with the consumer, because they could everybody is different. Everybody's an individual, right? Everybody likes to look at themselves as an individual. So boom, it hits right on. Right on those heartstrings. Yep. So if you can do something like that?

Jason Feltman: 8:22

Yep. 100%. And then third parties, right? Yeah. And the third one is the vision. Nobody, I think we get we get lost in this. This is another thing that we're talking about this morning, was we get lost in this as the owner that we don't over communicate enough with our team on the vision of the agency. You know, what, what is this place going to be like in six months, 12 months, three years? One of the things that keeps coming up as ai, ai and all this stuff. So like, with this new world ahead of us what we've dealt with, with 2020, what would talk about working remote or not remote, like all this stuff? What is your vision for the agency of the future, and in particular, your agency and how, like, You got to have a vision statement that can communicate to your team on the future. And it's got to be a bright future. Because that's the thing that will pull them forward. The the mission gives them the batteries to keep going when they don't feel like it. And the vision is the thing that pulls them forward. Yeah, yeah,

Craig Pretzinger: 9:37

I think the vision also is a great reference point for looking at the team. And if you notice that it's not resonating with some people, then you know that you have the right people, or you have the wrong people on the team, right. So really good as a temperature gauge. And again, it's like all of these things right. As they all work together. They they all make the decisions instead of being about the person It's about these principles, right? It's about Yeah, about these, this vision about these. So it's so important to have it all documented, because now it's not about the person. Right, take all the defensiveness out of it. Yep.

Jason Feltman: 10:13

And you have to give the whys behind it. The whys behind each core value, the why behind the mission statement, the why behind the vision, and how, how it, how it pertains to them, not to you, as the agency owner, but to them individually. And I think that when you get real clear on this, and you think of the agency that you want, in a perfect world, design, the core values, the mission and the vision around that, and get real clear on that. And then start holding everyone to that and start bringing it up in meetings, start preaching it. Right. Then, in six months, in 12 months, you will have that agency that you dreamed up. Yep.

Craig Pretzinger: 11:00

Yeah, it's 100%. Like we're our own worst enemy. And that we we don't believe that we can do the thing that we see the other people doing, right? Like, yeah, I never thought that we could be at 12 million or whatever, right? Like I don't, yeah, just didn't seem possible. Because the cashflow wasn't there, I had every excuse to not be able to do it. Until I did it. Yep.

Jason Feltman: 11:21

Right. And it's just okay, this whole thing of culture and stuff has to be by design. You, you have to be intentional about this. Otherwise, it will go to the default. And I'll tell you one thing, working at in an agency as an LSP is so freakin hard. And the hardest thing to do is to hire new people and get them trained up to be proficient, and to be a part of the team and to to get them up and running. Like that takes up so much of your resources and your agency time money. I mean, you name it. And then you're putting yourself at risk of it being the wrong person and derailing you know, what you've built up in your agency. That I mean, we have to take this seriously and put intention behind it. Otherwise, it will go awry at some point. Yeah.

Craig Pretzinger: 12:18

In the, in the last one we talked about, like the what we did, right? Like, what were the steps, and it was it was pull ourselves back, not talk and then focus on the culture, right? Because the the thing that was broken in my agency for a decade, or almost a decade was was the culture there never was a culture. And I remember saying how does, you know, how does this agent have such a great team I can, as soon as somebody comes in and somebody leaves and it was always it was because we were always desperate, right? Doing desperately. We didn't have, we didn't have the values. We didn't have any of these things laid out. And we expected it just to fall into place. And it's like you said it's by design. It's very intentional. But once it's there, it's there. Like that's it right? You're not gonna change it next year. Oh, you know, we decided to we don't want to go with integrity this year. Right? Like, no, once you have the things in place, because they're your values. They're there. That's it. The hard work is done, right? Yep, that's all just gravy and easy and candy and unicorns. Yeah, it's still hard, but, but it's more effective. 100%

Jason Feltman: 13:23

So if you enjoyed this, like subscribe, yep. Join the group. Oh,

Craig Pretzinger: 13:29

join the newsletter and they pound the like button. Yeah, or yeah, just oh, maybe not that motion. That was weird. Yeah, that. That might be aggressive. Dough is Donkey Kong with the hammer. And that's by