I spent way too long focusing on industry popularity instead of what would actually grow my business.

This week is a cautionary tale for younger producers in the space: make sure you’re investing your time into things that will grow your happiness or your paycheck.

I’ll also give you some tips on how to approach industry events, and share where I’m focusing my time these days.

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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 310. In this episode, I am going to share my journey in the health insurance industry over the past decade as a cautionary tale about why you need to put your personal happiness over industry popularity. So this one gets a little deep, I warn you.

I share my own journey over the last decade. As somebody who has sought popularity in the industry, who has built some brand awareness in the industry, but I’m here to tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. And I want to use this episode today to share my own personal journey of where I was and where I am today.

So you can make sure you are focused on the right things. It feels good to be in the right rooms with the right people, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is your own happiness and your paycheck. Are you making money? Are you growing your business? So if you find yourself right now in a season where you admit you’re kind of seeking some industry notoriety, this is gonna be a great episode for you.

But also, if you’re somebody right now who isn’t, but you kind of have a little FOMO. I’m here to talk to you today, too, so you’re gonna love this episode. Like I said, I’m speaking from the heart on this one. Sharing my own journey, sharing things I don’t think I’ve ever shared before, quite frankly. So tune in. It’s about 20 minutes long.

You’re going to love this. Here we go. Episode 310 seek personal happiness over industry popularity. Hey, hey, welcome back to the podcast today I’m going to share my journey in the health insurance industry over the last decade as, a cautionary tale why you need to put personal happiness over industry popularity. Hey, Andy Neary here, CEO and founder of Complete Game Consulting.

This is episode 310. Today’s episode is coming straight from the heart, and I know it actually might rub some people the wrong way. But I have come to learn when I feel I have something to say. I’m just going to say it. And I think today, if you’re listening into this episode and you have experienced what it feels like to, gain some more industry notoriety or you haven’t and you kind of have that FOMO of like, man, I wish I was at the right places, at the right conferences.

I’m speaking to both of you today because I want to share my journey of my growth in the health insurance industry, my building, my personal brand, and the pluses and minuses. And really, I’m going to share some things today probably have never shared before, but I’m coming straight from the heart here. And so I share this topic today because as I look at the industry, the insurance industry, and primarily the health insurance industry, I see a lot of people right now who are trying to obtain what I would call industry status.

And I’m here to tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, and I’m going to use my journey as a cautionary tale of I might have to be careful, you might have to really evaluate where you’re at right now. And my advice for you is seek personal happiness over industry popularity. And we’re going to talk about that.

So let’s just dive right in. So where this episode came from was I was reflecting on my career in the health insurance industry and long story short, you know, first 10 to 12 years of my insurance career, I was terrible as far as sales goals. I was a complete, complete disaster. Mediocre at best, terrible or at worst.

But my first ten years in the insurance industry were a failure. And in May of 2014, Amy and I decided to make the decision to move from Wisconsin to Colorado. And it was a fresh start. It was a chance for for both of us to kind of start over. And it was, looking back, the best move we ever made because we came out of our nine years in Colorado, different people.

This is where our personal and professional development really started. But when I moved to Colorado, I found myself in a market where nobody knew who I was. I was a complete anonymity, and it was there. In 2014, I decided to build a personal brand. Now, at that time in the insurance industry, I got to be honest with you.

People looked at me like, dude, you’re an idiot. What are you talking about? Nobody does this in the industry. I said, watch, I’m going to do it. I’m going to build a personal brand because I did it more on a need than anything else, because I needed it. I needed prospects in Colorado to get to know me fast.

And that’s where my journey began. Getting on LinkedIn. Public speaking started my podcast a couple of years after that. I just wanted to get a message out far, fast and wide. As I like to say, put a megaphone on my message. And here’s what happened.

The more I put my brand out there, the more industry notoriety I gained, and I put air quotes around industry notoriety. And if you remember at that time, you know, 2014, 2015, social media was really what it what you know, not what it is today. And if I laugh at when I think about industry notoriety in the insurance space because prior to social media, if you were in insurance, you didn’t know who other people in other markets were, unless you were part of one of the big associations in your industry, like, you know, neighbor, which was formerly now who or maybe the big guy on the commercial insurance side, you didn’t know anybody else in

other markets. And then now today with social media, our industry has shrunk. Everybody knows everybody, and we all go to the same conferences. Right. So as I started putting my brand out there, 20 1415, my notoriety in the industry started growing. People started to recognize who I was. And at that time, I got to be honest, my industry presence was a lot larger than my sales results, but it felt good to be seen.

And it was there that I started to get a little addicted to the dopamine that came with being seen and. This is where I started seeking industry industry popularity more than I was probably seeking personal happiness. When I started having people reach out to me to want to know what I was doing, who I was, because they were seeing me on LinkedIn and seeing me all over the place.

I started to get to, get addicted to that, and I, I started to sign up for the industry conferences, sign up for the all the events that, you know, people were going to in the industry because I felt the need that if I was going to grow my personal brand, not just with prospects but my peers, I had to be everywhere.

And it was successful. Now, I got to be honest, building the brand was the best thing I ever did for my career because it did put me around other people who are playing at a high level. It definitely created recognition with prospects, which is what I wanted to do because I wanted to grow my business. But at this time in my career, in 2015, I was doing it for the wrong reasons.

Now fast forward 2017, because of the industry, notoriety or presence I had created specifically on social media, I was invited to join a mastermind by another industry peer who I didn’t know at the time, and this put me in a room with other people who had created some industry notoriety. And it was there where I really started chasing popularity.

And I have to be honest, I mean, at that time, I was spending more time worried about what the industry thought of me than growing my book of business. So I’m being frank with you. And by joining this mastermind, I felt like I had received membership into the in-crowd. And this is where I really started to. Get hit hard with FOMO.

You know, if I wasn’t at all the conferences, if I wasn’t at every mastermind event, I felt left out. And so I was so concerned about being at the right place at the right time, around the right people, that before before I knew it, my calendar was filled with what I would just coin as industry appearances versus actually spending quality time growing.

My book of business and if you looked inside my book, you would question whether or not I was actually growing any kind of revenue. And I look back now almost, I don’t want to say in disgust, but it was I look back and just laugh at how off kilter my focus was at that time, because I was more concerned about being at the right conference than I was winning at an agent of record letter.

If I’m being honest with you, and this is stuff I’ve never shared before, and I’m speaking to that individual who might be listening to this podcast right now, who is who also finds him or herself spending all this time and all this money signing up for every conference that exist in the industry, and you’re jumping on one plane to the next, flying to one big city to the next.

And at the end of the day, you’re not actually spending a whole lot of time in your business. And where I found myself at this point, 2017 is I was investing time and money going to the events that were not helping me grow my revenue whatsoever, but it was growing my industry status. I also felt like an imposter.

The more I attended these events and these masterminds, more imposter syndrome I dealt with because it felt good that people in the industry knew who I was. But guess what? So did the people in my office and they knew I wasn’t doing shit. And I was more concerned with making sure I was at all the big industry events. But I was completely failing back home as a boyfriend.

The LinkedIn post made it seem like everything in my world, from a business perspective was handy dandy going great, but behind the scenes my life I was not happy. There was no joy in my life because I was so addicted to this industry status, and I wanted to talk about this today. Like I said, this might actually rub you wrong if you’re chasing industry popularity right now, but I’ve watched too many advisors become popular only to burn out professionally and personally because they’re so damn concerned with being at all the right events around the right people.

I see all the pictures on LinkedIn. And I laugh when I hear people use phrases like industry, celebrity. There’s no such thing as an industry celebrity. There are only people who are doing their job. And so my advice to you today, this episode is more coaching than anything. My advice to you today is if you find yourself chasing some industry status, I caution you, check yourself.

Is it actually helping you get closer to your business goals and check your personal happiness? Is it getting you close to living the life you want? Because I know for me, it felt at the time when I was stuck in this, wrapped up in this ten years ago, that it was everything I was supposed to do with my business. But all it did was take me farther and farther away from growing my book and actually living a life I enjoy.

In my epiphany occurred later in 2017. It was either 2017, early 2018. I was having a conversation with a mentor and in the industry, somebody I owe a lot of a lot of gratitude to, and we were just talking about, you know, my business where it’s going, what I’m doing. And I can remember he made a comment to me that I’ll never forget.

And we were just talking about, you know, what I could be doing to continue to, quite frankly, grow my status. And he said, you know, I can put you on the cover of magazines.

And I remember hearing this and. I paused for 2 or 3 seconds, and it was the response I gave him that I think kind of was the epiphany in itself, because when he said, you know, I could put you on the cover of magazines, I said, that’s great, but I’m going to be honest with you. You won’t put me on the cover of any magazine until I actually do something worth being on the cover of a magazine.

And just saying that was my slap in my own face to be like, dude, wake up living this life that is all about the appearance of success is doing nothing for your business, nor is it doing anything for your happiness.

To be put on the cover of a magazine when the reality is my business isn’t really doing much at all. What’s the point? Free marketing. All right. And I share this because I see so many people right now addicted to the popularity that comes with status in this industry. And if you are there, I empathize. I was there too, but I’m here to tell you it’s not worth it.

Today it’s much different. You know what’s interesting is growing complete game consulting. I would actually argue, even though we’ve pumped out more, can we pump out more content today than I’ve ever had before? More people in the industry know who I am probably than ever before. I probably am not as popular as I once was, and that’s okay.

I am totally happy with it. But when I decided to grow this business and go all in on complete game consulting, I really I made the decision that you know what? I’m just going to grow it the way I want it. And I don’t give a shit about industry popularity. And guess what? The more I leaned into that, the more the brand grew.

And today it’s a lot different when it comes into how I’m investing my time and my money. Because today we’re only investing the time and the money in things that grow the business, not things that make us more popular. And I wanted to to share a couple things with you that I have started to really leverage in the last 2 to 3 years that have helped me stay focused, help me grow my business, but at the same time, and probably most importantly, helped me grow my happiness.

Number one, I apply a rule in my business today, in my life that if I’m going to invest money in my career, it must do one of two things. It must grow me as an individual, or it must directly impact my bottom line. If it doesn’t, I’m not investing the time nor the money. So I want you to look at your business right now.

And where are you investing time and money? Is it going towards growing you as an individual and or a professional? Or is it going directly to impact your bottom line? Because if it’s not, I challenge you to question whether or not you should be focusing your time there and your dollars. The second rule I have started applying to my business is that the only time I travel is whether I am.

It’s for a client or a speaking engagement. Other than that, not getting on a plane, I’m not going to a big city to the back of a hotel room to visit another conference. Why? Because it wasn’t doing anything for my business. And what’s funny about that is the more I shied away from attending conferences, the more leads we get now from conferences, because we have clients who are kind enough to refer us to other people.

And while they’re attending the conferences, we’re getting referrals and we’re not even there. But I made a decision that the only time I travel is if I’m going to visit a client or I am speaking at a conference. Other than that, I ain’t jumping on a plane. And so again, I want you to audit your calendar. Are you traveling?

Are you going from here to here to here, from one place to the next? And is it actually doing anything to grow your business? Or is it focused on growing your status? And then the third rule that we have definitely leaned into with this business that has helped us grow more than anything, especially with the amount of content we put out.

There is likes and comments. Do not pay your bills. You have one job. Grow your business. Talk to your prospects.

I get people who reach out to me when it comes to LinkedIn content and in between you and either they’re literally comparing their content to mine because their content gets more likes or comments than some of my content. And I laugh because all I want to say to them is great. How much of those posts, how many of those posts have led to business?

Because I can tell you, when we put our content out on LinkedIn, we’re generating no less than a couple leads a week. Are you? And I don’t say that to be arrogant. I say that because too many people in this industry, when it comes to building industry status, are so damn focused on the likes and comments their posts are getting, but it’s doing nothing to grow your business.

So when we started applying these three rules, how we invest our money and our time in this business, what I surround or where I put myself when it comes to travel and the fact that we only have one job, we only have one focus, and that is to talk to our prospects and work with our clients. When we started applying these three rules, our business skyrocketed, and we’ve been blessed to grow exponentially every year for the last three years.

And I really, truly believe it’s because of that focus. It’s because we are investing our money and our time as a business in the right things, the things that impact us as human beings, things that grow us as a team, and things that grow our bottom line. We’re not jumping on planes that are taking us travel, having us travel to things that are not moving our business forward. And all we care about is talking to our prospects and working with our clients. I know it’s a boring strategy, but it works. And you know what the best part about it? We’re loving life.

My popular as once as I once was in this industry? Probably not. Heck, maybe I was never popular. I don’t know, I can tell you sure as hell a lot happier.

So is my business. You know, besides putting out our daily social media content, which is probably our number one channel of lead generation, I’m pretty content being off the radar, growing my business and doing the things that bring me joy. I would much rather be on a paddleboard on one of the dozens of lakes we have around us here in Wisconsin, then jumping on a plane, going to another big city to attend another conference that really does nothing for my business.

So a challenge you to think about where you are spending your time and your money right now. I know this episode might have rubbed you the wrong way and I’m okay with it, but I had to speak it. I had to set because I want to make sure that you’re not only growing a business that allows you to make more money and allows you to have more freedom.

I want to help you grow a business that you frickin love and allows you to enjoy life. And I want to make sure you are as focused on being a good husband or wife, mother or father as you are a good advisor. I want to make sure you’re focused on your health, taking care of you as much as you are growing your business.

Because there is no point in a chasing industry status. If you feel like shit, your relationships are like shit and you just don’t enjoy who you are. Because I’ve been there, I’ve done that and I don’t want it to happen to you. So that’s my advice today. Seek personal happiness more than you are. Industry popularity. And I promise, not only is your business going to love you, you’re going to like yourself a hell of a lot more.

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.