EP 308 – 3 Tactical Tips To Take Your Insurance Business To The Next Level In 2025
I recently attended a business-building workshop and wanted to share with you some amazing insights I learned.
This week on Bullpen Sessions, I’ll share how you can take your business to the next level operationally; learn when to delegate, how to structure your calendar, and the “never arrive” mindset.
Resources:
- Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyneary/
- Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_neary/
Video Transcript:
This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors.
Hey, hey, welcome back to Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary, and this is episode 308. In today’s episode, you are going to learn three tactical tips. Take your business to the next level in 2025. I just embarked on a two day workshop private workshop with Brand Builders Group, an organization I am a member of, and they broke down my business and it was uncomfortable.
We are doing a lot of things right right now to get us where we are today. But I will tell you what got us here isn’t going to get us to the next level. And I had to learn some hard lessons last week that I’m going to share with you. But I also had some amazing takeaways from the two day private workshop that is going to help us take complete game consulting to the next level in 2025.
And I want to share these three lessons with you. So I’m excited for you to dive into this one, because if you are driven to take your book, take your agency to the next level next year, what you learn today is going to be awesome. So tune in, buckle up. Here is episode 308. Hey, hey, welcome back to today’s episode.
In this episode, I am going to share a recap from a recent two day private workshop I did with a group that I am a part of called Brand Builders Group, and I’m going to share the lessons I learned over those two days that you can apply to your business. Welcome back. This is episode 308. Yeah. Let’s talk about, what I went through two days, for two days last week in Nashville, with the Brand Builders Group, which is an organization I am a member of that helps build your brand.
And the goal with this workshop, this was a private workshop. I had signed us up for, and primarily myself as the owner of Complete Game Consulting. The goal of this two day workshop was to get some clarity on our marketing and our sales processes, so we can take our business to the next level in 2025. So in this episode, I’m going to share what I learned.
It was, extremely uncomfortable, to go through this two day workshop. I’ll share the details on that. And yeah, I’m going to share three tactical tips today that I think you can use to take your business to the next level in 2025. I know we’re going to leverage them, so I hope you do the same. So let’s level set last Thursday, Friday, August.
Excuse me October 10th October 11th I spent two days in Nashville at the, Brand Builders Group headquarters. Their headquarters is actually an open working space, which is a beautiful spot in, Music City Row in Nashville. And I spent two days figuring out where the heck we’re going to take complete game consulting. You know, over the past three years, we have experienced some tremendous growth.
We’re very blessed to work with some great insurance producers, agencies, insurance carriers, insurance companies. And we’ve hit a point where we have experienced this growth. But I know what got us here is not going to get us to the next level. So I wanted to spend these two days with a team that has already done what I’m looking to do so that we could grow our business and, you know, the problem with our business quickly became apparent as we opened up the workshop on Thursday and if you’re an agency, an owner of a business, an agency listening in right now, I think you’re going to resonate with what I’m about to say.
You know, one of the biggest. Exposures to doing a workshop like this is to learn the truth. And when you’re a business owner, sometimes the truth is you’re the problem. And I will tell you, after spending two days with the Brand Builders Group team, that was very apparent. You know, if we’re going to get to the next level as a company, I need to get out of my own way.
And if you’re an owner of your business, I think you can understand what I mean. We are often the biggest inhibitor to our own growth, and in my case. I can be the cog in the wheel because of people pleasing. If you’re a people pleaser like me, I think you can feel this. I allow myself to say yes to too many things from time to time that I shouldn’t have.
I allow myself, to let others put their ideas and their priorities in my calendar. And I don’t always do a good job putting guardrails around what we’re willing to do, what we’re willing not to do, guardrails around my calendar. And when you’re in people please mode, it’s easy to end up finding you and your team doing things you shouldn’t, be, making, promises you shouldn’t, and it’s part of my nature, but it is absolutely an inhibitor to our continued trajectory.
So that was one thing I had to work on, and it became so clear and so obvious on Thursday morning, and it was not easy to hear. Trust me. The second exposure that became very clear as we embarked on this workshop was that, I often am guilty of feeling like a full calendar means you’re accomplished. I don’t know about you, but when you look at your calendar, I like to call it an intimidating calendar.
To me, when I see my calendar and it’s full of coaching calls and, you know, prospecting calls and it’s full of travel and all this stuff, I can feel good. It can feel like you’re accomplished. But is it actually getting you closer to your ultimate goal? And for me, it’s not so much, what are you it’s not so much.
Are you filling up your calendar with the right things? Because my calendar is always full. It’s what you’re filling the calendar up with. And I’m going to talk about that today as well. And then the third area where I became very exposed in this two day workshop and very guilty of is spending too much working, too much time working in the business and not enough time working on the business.
I like to say when you’re in the bottle, it’s hard sometimes to read the label on the outside of the bottle, and I am definitely guilty of that. And it was interesting, you know, about midway through Thursday morning where it got really uncomfortable because it was like time and time again, I was being told, you realize why this stuff is happening?
It’s happening because of you. And they did it in the most positive and polite way. I stopped them about halfway through Thursday morning, and I said, I got to share this story with you. This analogy, what I’m experiencing right now is what I would consider a very pivotal moment in my business, and it was a pivotal experience I had.
I had similarly twice in my baseball career, because I can remember when I was a junior in high school, the summer after my junior year, my Legion coach, who was a very respected Legion coach in the area, told me that Andy, you’re good, but you’re not good enough to pitch at the Division one level. If that’s your goal.
And I can remember hearing that and getting pissed off, of course, but also using that as a little bit of a chip on my shoulder to prove him wrong. And then I said there was a second pivotal moment. Very similarly, my junior year at UW Milwaukee, where my pitching coach, just like my Legion coach did about four years previous, told me, Andy, you’re good, but you’re not good enough to pitch professionally.
And I got pissed off and I used it as a chip on my shoulder to prove me wrong. So here I was Thursday, feeling like I had that pivotal moment again, this time in business, not in sports. And that was being told that you’re good enough to grow the business to the point you have, but you’re not good enough to take it to the next level.
You got to get better. And that’s really what I want to talk about today in the advice I want to share with you today in this episode is if you want to take your business to the next level, you are often the thing that’s keeping it from doing it. It’s not anything on the outside. It’s not your boss.
It’s not your team. It’s not your prospects. It’s not your client. It’s not market conditions. It’s you. You are the thing that is keeping you from getting to where you want to go. And if you’re able to recognize that you can actually overcome it. So as uncomfortable as it was to hear it Thursday, I knew I was the problem.
I was okay taking it in because the only way we’re going to grow to the next level is I’ve got to fix me. And it’s easy to feel like everything is going well, right? Our business has been growing tremendously for the last three years. We’re doing everything right, aren’t we? But when it is, this is where you can start to feel like you’ve arrived, right?
And the second you feel like you’ve arrived is the second you start sliding backward, you start taking your foot off the gas because you’re in the comfort zone, right? Money’s coming in. Things are good. It’s paying for your lifestyle. And then you start coasting. And the moment you hit that point, you start sliding backward. Now, if you’re tuning into this episode and you’re, I don’t know, less than five years from retiring or selling your agency, take what I have to say right now with a grain of salt, but I’m willing to bet that’s not you.
That is not my typical listener. And I’m here to tell you, if you want to take your business, your agency, to the next level, you’ve got to get out of your own way.
And even if it feels like things are going well right now, money’s coming in, revenues coming in, you’re organically growing because of premium increases. What got you here is not going to get you to the next level.
Because the mindset you’ve applied up until this point isn’t the mindset that’s going to take your business over seven figures or multiple seven figures, if that’s your goal. As my baseball coaches reminded me, you’re good, but you’re not good enough. And I remember having a Dominic Frank Kenny on my podcast. It was actually one of our most popular or popular episodes we’ve ever had.
He joined me, I want to say, a little over a year ago, and we were just talking about his career. He’s had an extremely successful career as a health insurance advisor, multiple seven figure book, a business. He said something on that podcast that has stuck with me. He said, Andy, one of the reasons I think I have been successful and have been able to continue success, sustain success is because after 19 years, I still don’t feel like I’ve arrived and I share that because I think that’s a big problem in our industry today, as whether you’re a producer or an agency owner, there comes that moment where you do experience success and it’s a very,
very risky moment because at that moment you have two choices. You can become your own biggest fan and feel like you’ve arrived. And that’s a very, very bad place to be, in my opinion. It’s like building a house on sand. When you become your own biggest fan and you feel like you’ve arrived, you stop growing. Your second choice is you can say, I know I’ve had a lot of success, but I know what got me here won’t get me there.
I have to continue evolving and improving what I do. If I want to take my business to the next level. So first thing is figure out where are you? Are you are you somebody who has had a lot of success and feel like you’ve arrived? Feel like you don’t have to give anymore or push anymore? Or are you somebody who has had a lot of success but you’re not satisfied yet?
You know that what got you here won’t get you there. I can still remember, a call I received from a client, a now client that I’ve had for 3 or 4 years. It was my first prospecting call as a coach or owning this business where I truly had imposter syndrome. It was, an advisor. A health insurance advisor called me up.
Already had a lot of success. He, I think, had a $2 million book at the business of business at the time. And as I’m listening, I in my head, I’m going, why does he need my help? The guy’s already had a ton of success, but here’s what he said. He said, Andy, the reason I’m reaching out to you is I’ve seen what you’ve done, what we’ve done online.
You’ve grown a brand. It’s really cool, you guys, I, I, I’ve grown my book to 2 million. But I know what I had to do to get it here is not going to get me to 4 million. I need to do something different. And he came to me to help him grow a brand. And that was my moment when I realized, this is why this guy gets it.
This is why this guy is going to grow to 4 million. He’s had a lot of tremendous success, but he knows what got him here isn’t going to get him there. He knows he has to evolve. He has to improve. He has to change the way he prospects. And so bringing it back to what Dominic said, even after 19 years, I still don’t feel like I’ve arrived.
That is a very, very important mindset you have to have. If you’re going to take your business to the next level, is you have to have this feeling that you have never arrived. So when I look back on the two days I spent in Nashville, you know, and I think about what I’m taking away from those two days, outside of being absolutely excited about what we are, bring in the market in 2025, and I can’t wait to share everything with you.
Here are three lessons that I took from the Brand Builders Group workshop that I know is going to help us take complete game University school out, complete game consulting. Excuse me to the next level in 2025, but I think it’s going to help you do the same if you pay attention and you take what I have to say here and you apply it to your own business lesson number one, I want you to look at your business right now and figure out where you might be people pleasing.
Where could people pleasing be holding you back? Are you letting other people’s priorities take precedence over yours? I know what feels good by helping other people, but is your calendar more full with other people’s priorities or your own? That’s number one. Where should you be saying no that you’re not right now? Where are you saying yes to opportunities that are completely unnecessary.
I know they feel good at the time. They might actually feel like an opportunity, but in the end of the day, they’re getting you away from your actual goals and your actual priorities. So where do you need to say no more? And where is your calendar filled with completely unnecessary meetings? You see, the people pleasing is why calendars get filled up with unnecessary meetings, unnecessary calls.
When you are in that constant mode of trying to please other people, you are letting them put their priorities and their goals in your calendar. And so you look at your week and you feel good that it’s full. Remember what I said full calendar equals accomplished. But the reality is it’s full of other people’s goals and priorities. You’re actually not getting any closer to achieving yours.
So here’s what I want you to do. I’m going to share tactics with each takeaway. I want you to look at your calendar, and I want you to audit the following. Number one what meetings can be reduced in frequency or time? So are you hosting any weekly meetings that could actually be monthly meetings. Are you hosting 60 minute meetings that only need to be 30?
Where can you reduce the frequency and the length of meetings already on your calendar? This is the same exact exercise I went through with Brand Builders group number two. What meetings can be eliminated altogether? How many meetings do you have throughout a week that are completely unnecessary? It’s almost like you had them for the sake of having a meeting and checking the box.
I bet you if you audit your week hard enough, you’ll find them at number three. What percentage of your meetings? I want you to literally look and audit? What percentage of the meetings that you are conducting every week are dedicated to your goals and priorities, versus dedicated to helping someone else achieve theirs? Now, this is a very tricky question because I’m in a coaching business.
Our business is all about helping others. Your business is all about helping employers bring the right insurance packages to their business, right? But you have to spend a large percentage of the time working on your priorities. Takeaway number two where in your business are you doing things that you should be delegating to others even though you’re good at them, doesn’t mean you should do them.
That was a hard lesson I just learned last week. Andy, I know you’re good at certain things, but that doesn’t mean you are the one who should be responsible to do them. So here’s what I want you to do. This comes straight, straight from Dan Martell’s book Buying Back Your Time. If you’ve never read it, go get it in one of the chapters.
I can’t remember which one. He shares his drip metric drip matrix exercise, and it’s to figure out what roles, what tasks you should be delegating or getting rid of altogether. And what Drip is an acronym for is D is delegate, R is replace, I is I want to say invest and P is produce. And the point of doing this exercise is anything you put in the the box that is labeled delegate.
These should be items that do not bring you joy, nor do they help you grow your business, nor do they bring any revenue to the business. You got to make a list of those things that do not bring you joy, and do not help you generate revenue. Those are tasks you must find a way to, delegate immediately.
I’ve even challenged my own clients who do not own their own agency. They’re a producer working for somebody else. Where can you go to your leadership and say, I need to delegate this? I’m doing things that do not bring me joy, nor do they generate any money for this agency. R is replace this. This list is a little tougher.
What are the things that bring you joy? Excuse me. Said that wrong? What are the things that don’t bring you joy but actually generate revenue for the business? Yeah, there might be things you’re not you’re doing right now you actually don’t like. Correct. But they actually do help you grow your business. Make a list there. Those are the things you have to start replacing yourself.
You start have to start letting somebody else do that. It’s not easy. At one point in my time when I started my content, I was editing my own content. I started to get really good at my content, didn’t like it, but it helped me grow our company because content helped us generate a ton of leads. But at some point I had to say, Andy, you can’t be doing this anymore.
Yes, it grows your business, but you don’t enjoy doing it. Let somebody else do it. Pay for somebody else to do it. So where in your business do you need to be replacing yourself? The AI is invest. These are things in your life that you love to do, but they may not generate any money for your business. What are the causes you love to give back to the community?
Events you love to be a part of. Hobbies. Family time. This is the stuff that does not help grow your business, but you absolutely love to do. This is the stuff you’re setting aside right now. Where does that fit into your weekly calendar? And then the P, which is the place you need to focus, produce. What are the things you love to do and generate revenue for the business?
Because that’s where you’ve got to spend 80% of your time. And so doing this drip matrix is going to absolutely help you figure out what you need to delegate or eliminate, what you need to replace yourself from over time, where you need to invest more in happiness and joy, and where you need to focus 80% of your time so you can produce what you do best.
So that grit matrix exercise is fantastic for figuring out what things you should be doing and what things you should be delegating. Now, the other piece of advice I’m going to give here is what are the repeated tasks you and your team are doing on a weekly basis that you’re still doing manually? That should be automated? That was one of the takeaways from the workshop.
They helped us write a complete marketing and sales email sequence, start to finish, external emails, internal emails for our team so we could automate everything. What are the repeated tasks in your business right now that you do every week that should be automated, not done manually? I see way too many agencies spend way too much unnecessary time doing manual tasks week in, week out.
That could be completed by automation today. I know the human touch can’t be replaced, but we are moving to an automated world more and more every week. Your customers don’t want to interact with you as much as you think they want automation to. Yeah, got to make their life easy. And takeaway number three tactical tip number three to take your business to the next level in 2025.
Are you spending enough time working on your business as much as you do in it? Even if you don’t own your agency? I need you to act more like an owner of your business. You’re an entrepreneur. Where do you need to play CEO with your business? This was a big struggle for me. I don’t spend enough time every week playing CEO of Complete Game Consulting.
So here’s what I want you to do. This is a simple tactic. I want you to go on your calendar and I want you to audit again. And I want you to block a recurring meeting with yourself every week, same day, same time to play CEO of your business so you can focus on your biggest priorities that will move your business forward, whether that be a Monday, a Friday, I don’t care when it is, but you have to have a recurring meeting set with yourself so you can play CEO of your business.
If you’re going to take your book, your agency to the next level next year, you actually have to spend time working on your business. And I’m here to tell you, being part of some mastermind where you focus on your business once a quarter is not enough. You need to be doing this every week. You need to be setting a block of time in your calendar to play CEO every week, if not multiple times a week.
I know that’s what I need to spend more time doing. You see, by taking these three tactical tips I learned the hard way last week. Finding out where people pleasing is hurting your business. Holding you back. Where can you eliminate it? Number two where in your business are you doing when you should be delegate? And number three blocking time to work on your business, not in it.
By doing these three things religiously is going to require you to actually do less. Getting ahead requires doing less. It is my goal in 2025 to actually reduce the number of hours I am directly coaching people. Yeah, for some that might be like what? That’s how we’re going to grow the business because I’ve got to bring in more coaches who are doing what I’m doing so I can focus as CEO to grow the company.
I’m excited to say we’re going to be adding more quality coaches as a result. Getting ahead, see is is about seeing more white space in your calendar so you can spend focused time on your business. Take it from the guy who used to preach a full calendar equals accomplishment, as long as it has the right things in it. And I know this is what I’m going to be focused on. I need to play CEO more.
I need more white space in my calendar so I can focus on the business so I can focus on casting our vision and working on our company’s biggest priorities. And what does that require and actually requires me to do less and delegate the things that I shouldn’t be doing. Replacing myself with the things I do well but shouldn’t necessarily be doing.
So I can focus on where I produce the highest results, and I challenge you to do the same thing. That two day workshop with Brand Builders Group last week was a master course in how to scale your business, and I had to learn a lot of hard lessons. In doing so. I had to be willing to get naked, as they say, and feel exposed.
To realize that I am the thing holding us back from growing to the next level. And I wanted to use the lessons I learned from from that workshop so you can apply the same to your business if you’re feeling the same thing. If you feel like your people pleasing a little too much, you feel like you’re doing too much doing and not enough delegating, and, or, you know, you should be working on your business a little more and you’re too busy just being in it every day.
I’m going to challenge you, take a step back, try to do less so you can move farther ahead. Go find the people. Pay the people to do what you shouldn’t be doing, and your business is going to get a lot farther ahead, faster, and you find yourself in the same struggles. You know where to find me. We can definitely help with that.
This is what we do here at Complete Game Consulting. We help agencies and producers grow their brands, turn their brands into business growth. But I hope you take what you learned today and apply them to your business so you can have a record breaking 2025. I know we’re excited for what’s ahead next year, and I want you to be equally excited.
Be good. That’s all we got for today’s episode of the Bullpen Sessions podcast. One thing that would really help us both and other new potential listeners, is for you to rate this show and leave a comment in iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in to listen to the show. Also, make sure to link up with us at complete Game consulting.com on social media, and please share this podcast with anyone who you think might enjoy it.
Until next time, remember, clarity creates confidence. Confidence creates consistency. Consistency makes you unstoppable.