October 6, 2023 • 13 mins
Properly structuring your day as an insurance producer is huge! In this episode of The Preeminent Producer Podcast, that is what our coaches dive into.
...
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to stand out from the competition? Do you find it challenging to grow your book of business and create a fulfilling career?
Then welcome to The Preeminent Producer Podcast! Each week, we'll be tackling important topics, sharing proven strategies and insights from successful producers that are in the trenches and have traveled the journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer.
You'll discover what it really takes to become Preeminent & build your book of business, in a way that isn’t being taught anywhere else. Our hosts are experts in the field and have built thriving businesses by becoming the most trusted adviser to their clients. Welcome to your journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer.
Let’s dive in!
Ready To Grow Your Book Of Business?
For More Information go to:
https://www.thepreeminentproducer.com/
Also, check us out on Youtube: / @thepreeminentproducer
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As an insurance producer on your journey to
becoming a preeminent producer,how do you structure your day to
achieve ultimate success?
This is a question we got andthis is a question that is going
to be answered in this episodeof the Preeminent Producer
podcast.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to
stand out from the competition?
Do you find it challenging togrow your book of business and
create a fulfilling career?
If so, then welcome to thePreeminent Producer podcast.
Each week, we'll be tacklingimportant topics, sharing proven
strategies and insights fromsuccessful producers that are in
the trenches and have traveledthe journey to becoming a
(00:37):
preeminent producer.
You'll discover what it willtake to become preeminent and
build your book of business in away that isn't being taught
anywhere else.
Our hosts are experts in thefield and have built thriving
businesses by becoming the mosttrusted advisor to their clients
.
Welcome to your journey tobecoming a preeminent producer.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You know, as producers we live a different
kind of a life and sometimesit's frenetic and many times
we're not in control of our day.
And when I was a young guy Iattended a lot of time element
seminars and then found out thatthey really didn't work very
well for me because I could geta call that upsets everything
and we're kind of at the whim ofour clients many times.
(01:21):
But what I did find is that Icould find structure in a week
and I can tell you the way thatI do mine, and Matt could be
different and Christian could bedifferent, and you may steal a
little from me and a little fromMatt, a little from Christian
and kind of create your owndynamic.
But here's what I've done withthe structure of a week.
Mondays are typically meetingdays for me.
(01:43):
I have meetings in the officeand all staff meeting with our
staff here, and then I have myown team meetings and I try to
set as many meetings as I can onMonday, because it's such a
terrible day and it's a hard dayto reach out to prospects
because they're kind of verybusy getting their week started
as well.
What I do is the team the allstaff meetings kick the week off
(02:05):
with the staff obviously myteam meetings.
We find out what my schedule isfor the week, what I'm going to
need from them, what they'regoing to need from me, and then
we meet again on Friday.
We'll get to Friday in a minute, so I try to pack all of those.
Tuesday, wednesday and Thursdaywe are playing the game.
In other words, we're in it.
We're trying to sell insurance,we're servicing clients I'm not
servicing a team of servicingthem and I try not to have any
(02:28):
internal meetings or any othermeetings between about 10
o'clock in the morning and threeo'clock in the afternoon.
Those are prime times, or mebeing available to my clients or
me reaching out, trying todevelop other centers of
influence or prospects.
Friday is a mop up day.
Friday morning again, Ireconnect with my team finding
(02:49):
out what happened this week thatI need to know about, because
they do all the service on theseclients and they need to know
for me what happened in my weekand it also gets us an
opportunity to get ready to playthe game again the next week.
So I've tried to structureTuesday, wednesday, thursday or
really those days that we focuson outreach to clients and
prospects, and then Monday andFriday are kind of mop up days.
(03:13):
Also, saturdays can be used,although I know my kids are out
of the house and have been, andwhen I would come into the
office on a Saturday it wouldbreak my heart to see a young
producer here.
I don't want to see that.
I want to see them with theirlife in balance with their
family.
But that's kind of the daywhere I would get ready, I would
research prospects, I wouldresearch to make sure if I'm
(03:34):
reaching out to somebody they'rehighly qualified.
So that's kind of the way I'vedone it.
And, matt, how about you?
What do you do?
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Thanks, rick.
Well, two things that you dothat I don't do.
Let me start there.
I don't structure the week likethat.
I don't structure my week.
That's an interesting thought.
And the Tuesday, wednesday,thursday, you know, we know
we've always always heard thingslike sending out emails,
promoting things, doing webinars, podcasts, whatever.
(04:05):
Those are the action days.
So that's pretty interesting.
The other thing I don't do alot of is Saturdays.
I do some, you know I save thatfor what I'll call my creative
type work.
You know I do write variouswhite papers and reports and use
them for marketing purposes.
(04:26):
I do a lot of that on Saturdays.
I try not to spill over ontoSundays.
But, rick, you got my attentionwith that.
Structuring your week, that'ssomething I'm going to give some
thought to.
And yeah, you're right, youacknowledge it, it's going to be
different for each of us.
One thing that's probably a lotof people have in common with me
(04:49):
on the following is man, I getmore productive stuff done in
the first two or three hours ofthe day, the morning hours.
Then I do the entire rest ofthe day.
Things blow up, you know,whatever some issue comes up
with the client.
You know things that are out ofour control and I just have a
lot more energy in the morning.
I'm kind of an early bird.
I do start around 6am and thosefirst couple hours before the
(05:14):
staff arrives, or you know, youcan just get a lot done.
Another thing I know we'vetalked about before is and this,
the following, takes somediscipline, but whenever I've
done it it really helps, notonly to, you know, keep a to-do
list, that's just old school,but I do it but to actually
(05:37):
clean up and structure thatto-do list the night before so
that I hit the ground running inthe morning knowing exactly.
Again, I don't always do that,but whenever I do the benefits
are so great.
And a silly little thing andthen I'll shut up and let
Christian chime in.
But a silly little thing inkeeping again a to-do list is
(05:59):
especially when you prioritizethat the night before.
So it's really good when youstart lining through certain
things that you get done againin those first couple hours.
It's a pretty good feeling, youknow.
You feel like you're actuallyaccomplishing something.
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Amen brother, amen, no, I think that I definitely
have.
Every day I have it to-do list.
It does carry over from thenext day, but it's a scratch pad
and I think the important thingwith that is and a piece of
advice I'd give people is makesure certain that not only do
you have your list of items youhave to do, but you absolutely
(06:34):
prioritize them on.
Use this, which is making methe most amount of money.
That's what this is about.
So if it's prospecting, okay,that's priority number one.
When you're prospecting as ayoung producer, never go a day
without prospecting.
No matter what you have doing,you have to put yourself first
(06:56):
and you have to prospect.
Prospecting meaning it could belooking for businesses to go
after, it could be working onyour scripts, it could be
working on your email drops, itcould be working on taking up
the phone and calling the people, whatever that is.
That should be your toppriority, especially as a new
producer.
But I will say I've been doingit for 30 years now.
(07:17):
I still prospect and have thaton my list because my feeling is
I'm paranoid that if I go a daywithout prospecting I'm going
to dry up.
So I do do that every singleday.
One thing I just wanted to sayis, when you're prospecting,
think about how your prospectday is going.
(07:38):
What I mean by that is it'sreally easy, like with
restaurants never, ever, ever,ever, ever call between the
hours of 11 and two.
Just don't do it.
You will look like an absoluterookie and you're not going to
get through to who you need toget to.
Typically, most restauranttours are in there actually in
the early mornings, eight, nineo'clock or… they're working on
(08:00):
Mondays.
So just a piece of advice,because we do a lot of
restaurants.
That's a great little tidbit,but okay, I guess that's all I
have.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
But Let me jump in.
You mentioned prospecting and Ilove Christian because I try to
do the same thing andprospecting in terms of trying
to do something every day alongthose lines.
And again, prospecting can takeshape in different forms, right?
(08:34):
Not just the traditionalpicking up the phone and cold
calling, yeah, but to dosomething every day.
And I just wanna mention thatthere's a really cool tool that
this group developed and Jerryreally took the lead on it, and
it's that tool about knowingyour numbers and breaking down
(08:57):
if you wanna achieve a certaingoal by the end of the year in
terms of your production so youwanna add 150,000 of new annual
commission Reverse engineeringthat and figuring out literally
what do I need to be doing everyday to achieve that, and when
you do that and prospecting isobviously a key component of
that and when you do that andwork with this tool that Jerry
(09:21):
developed, you can see prettyquick that how do I put this you
don't have to be just anabsolute workaholic to achieve
even some pretty ambitious goalsIf you are disciplined enough
to make those just picking anumber here those eight
prospecting calls each and everysingle day.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Then you can get yeah , another thing that I've seen,
at least with newer producers,and they get tripped up where
they're gonna prospect but theydon't put it in their calendar.
You absolutely have to knock itout.
You have to put it in yourcalendar.
It's you time.
Put yourself first.
Tell your staff I'm makingprospecting calls.
(10:05):
Get in the habit of that, nomatter how difficult it may or
may not be.
If you're gonna be successful,you gotta do that, and it not
only sets the stage for you tobecome consistent in your
behaviors and create a habit,but it actually will be another
way of emphasizing in your mindputting yourself first as a
producer.
You have to put yourself first,because shit happens during the
(10:28):
day, guys, and it's gonna knockyou off the center and you're
gonna not be doing what youshould be doing, which is
prospecting and sellinginsurance.
I know I've said this before,but one of my best ways of
prospecting is just I've got itin my mind that anywhere I am,
I'm looking around.
I mean it could be on the sidesof trucks, it could be as I'm
walking into a restaurant, I'mlooking to the business next
(10:50):
door.
There's a zillion ways toprospect, but you gotta put it
first.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, christian, I think you said something.
I'll try to be quickly here.
Quick here.
We did a training for ourmembers earlier this year, I
believe Paul, on owning yourcalendar, and I think Christian
just spoke to that.
In other words, you really liveyour life from your calendar
and when you block time out todo things, make sure those
things are money-makingactivities.
(11:16):
They are not service activities.
They are things that eitherhelp you obtain or retain
insurance clients, and taking anotice of a change of car is not
a money-making activitiesactivity.
So you've gotta own yourcalendar.
And again, if you join us, whichI hope you do, you know these
are the kind of things we wannadelve into in detail about how
(11:38):
you can do this.
And again, as I say a lot oftimes at the end of these
podcasts, just the fact you mustbe curious, you must be
uncomfortable, maybe, with whereyou are in your career in this
amazingly wonderful industry andthe fact that you're looking
out, you're looking into theareas of how can I get better.
(11:58):
That's what we're all about andthat's what we wanna do.
We wanna help you in thisindustry.
Christian's got a lot ofexperience in this, matt.
So do I.
We love the industry so much wewanna help you get better.
So you love the industry, youbecome preeminent in this
industry and you have an amazing, amazing career.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
All right, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
It's interesting that eachcoach had something different to
bring to the table in thistopic of structuring your day.
Ultimately, it is worth takingthe time to evaluate your day
and really assess where yourtime, effort and energy is going
and really focusing on thoserevenue-generating activities.
So until next time, guys.
(12:39):
We'll see you in the nextepisode of the Preeminent
Producer.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Podcast.
Thanks so much for joining uson this episode of the
Preeminent Producer Podcast.
If you're enjoying the show,please feel free to subscribe,
rate and leave a review whereveryou listen to your podcasts.
That helps others find the showand we greatly appreciate it.
Once again, thanks for joiningus and we'll catch you in the
next episode of the PreeminentProducer Podcast.
As an insurance producer on your journey to
becoming a preeminent producer,how do you structure your day to
achieve ultimate success?
This is a question we got andthis is a question that is going
to be answered in this episodeof the Preeminent Producer
podcast.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to
stand out from the competition?
Do you find it challenging togrow your book of business and
create a fulfilling career?
If so, then welcome to thePreeminent Producer podcast.
Each week, we'll be tacklingimportant topics, sharing proven
strategies and insights fromsuccessful producers that are in
the trenches and have traveledthe journey to becoming a
(00:37):
preeminent producer.
You'll discover what it willtake to become preeminent and
build your book of business in away that isn't being taught
anywhere else.
Our hosts are experts in thefield and have built thriving
businesses by becoming the mosttrusted advisor to their clients
.
Welcome to your journey tobecoming a preeminent producer.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You know, as producers we live a different
kind of a life and sometimesit's frenetic and many times
we're not in control of our day.
And when I was a young guy Iattended a lot of time element
seminars and then found out thatthey really didn't work very
well for me because I could geta call that upsets everything
and we're kind of at the whim ofour clients many times.
(01:21):
But what I did find is that Icould find structure in a week
and I can tell you the way thatI do mine, and Matt could be
different and Christian could bedifferent, and you may steal a
little from me and a little fromMatt, a little from Christian
and kind of create your owndynamic.
But here's what I've done withthe structure of a week.
Mondays are typically meetingdays for me.
(01:43):
I have meetings in the officeand all staff meeting with our
staff here, and then I have myown team meetings and I try to
set as many meetings as I can onMonday, because it's such a
terrible day and it's a hard dayto reach out to prospects
because they're kind of verybusy getting their week started
as well.
What I do is the team the allstaff meetings kick the week off
(02:05):
with the staff obviously myteam meetings.
We find out what my schedule isfor the week, what I'm going to
need from them, what they'regoing to need from me, and then
we meet again on Friday.
We'll get to Friday in a minute, so I try to pack all of those.
Tuesday, wednesday and Thursdaywe are playing the game.
In other words, we're in it.
We're trying to sell insurance,we're servicing clients I'm not
servicing a team of servicingthem and I try not to have any
(02:28):
internal meetings or any othermeetings between about 10
o'clock in the morning and threeo'clock in the afternoon.
Those are prime times, or mebeing available to my clients or
me reaching out, trying todevelop other centers of
influence or prospects.
Friday is a mop up day.
Friday morning again, Ireconnect with my team finding
(02:49):
out what happened this week thatI need to know about, because
they do all the service on theseclients and they need to know
for me what happened in my weekand it also gets us an
opportunity to get ready to playthe game again the next week.
So I've tried to structureTuesday, wednesday, thursday or
really those days that we focuson outreach to clients and
prospects, and then Monday andFriday are kind of mop up days.
(03:13):
Also, saturdays can be used,although I know my kids are out
of the house and have been, andwhen I would come into the
office on a Saturday it wouldbreak my heart to see a young
producer here.
I don't want to see that.
I want to see them with theirlife in balance with their
family.
But that's kind of the daywhere I would get ready, I would
research prospects, I wouldresearch to make sure if I'm
(03:34):
reaching out to somebody they'rehighly qualified.
So that's kind of the way I'vedone it.
And, matt, how about you?
What do you do?
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Thanks, rick.
Well, two things that you dothat I don't do.
Let me start there.
I don't structure the week likethat.
I don't structure my week.
That's an interesting thought.
And the Tuesday, wednesday,thursday, you know, we know
we've always always heard thingslike sending out emails,
promoting things, doing webinars, podcasts, whatever.
(04:05):
Those are the action days.
So that's pretty interesting.
The other thing I don't do alot of is Saturdays.
I do some, you know I save thatfor what I'll call my creative
type work.
You know I do write variouswhite papers and reports and use
them for marketing purposes.
(04:26):
I do a lot of that on Saturdays.
I try not to spill over ontoSundays.
But, rick, you got my attentionwith that.
Structuring your week, that'ssomething I'm going to give some
thought to.
And yeah, you're right, youacknowledge it, it's going to be
different for each of us.
One thing that's probably a lotof people have in common with me
(04:49):
on the following is man, I getmore productive stuff done in
the first two or three hours ofthe day, the morning hours.
Then I do the entire rest ofthe day.
Things blow up, you know,whatever some issue comes up
with the client.
You know things that are out ofour control and I just have a
lot more energy in the morning.
I'm kind of an early bird.
I do start around 6am and thosefirst couple hours before the
(05:14):
staff arrives, or you know, youcan just get a lot done.
Another thing I know we'vetalked about before is and this,
the following, takes somediscipline, but whenever I've
done it it really helps, notonly to, you know, keep a to-do
list, that's just old school,but I do it but to actually
(05:37):
clean up and structure thatto-do list the night before so
that I hit the ground running inthe morning knowing exactly.
Again, I don't always do that,but whenever I do the benefits
are so great.
And a silly little thing andthen I'll shut up and let
Christian chime in.
But a silly little thing inkeeping again a to-do list is
(05:59):
especially when you prioritizethat the night before.
So it's really good when youstart lining through certain
things that you get done againin those first couple hours.
It's a pretty good feeling, youknow.
You feel like you're actuallyaccomplishing something.
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Amen brother, amen, no, I think that I definitely
have.
Every day I have it to-do list.
It does carry over from thenext day, but it's a scratch pad
and I think the important thingwith that is and a piece of
advice I'd give people is makesure certain that not only do
you have your list of items youhave to do, but you absolutely
(06:34):
prioritize them on.
Use this, which is making methe most amount of money.
That's what this is about.
So if it's prospecting, okay,that's priority number one.
When you're prospecting as ayoung producer, never go a day
without prospecting.
No matter what you have doing,you have to put yourself first
(06:56):
and you have to prospect.
Prospecting meaning it could belooking for businesses to go
after, it could be working onyour scripts, it could be
working on your email drops, itcould be working on taking up
the phone and calling the people, whatever that is.
That should be your toppriority, especially as a new
producer.
But I will say I've been doingit for 30 years now.
(07:17):
I still prospect and have thaton my list because my feeling is
I'm paranoid that if I go a daywithout prospecting I'm going
to dry up.
So I do do that every singleday.
One thing I just wanted to sayis, when you're prospecting,
think about how your prospectday is going.
(07:38):
What I mean by that is it'sreally easy, like with
restaurants never, ever, ever,ever, ever call between the
hours of 11 and two.
Just don't do it.
You will look like an absoluterookie and you're not going to
get through to who you need toget to.
Typically, most restauranttours are in there actually in
the early mornings, eight, nineo'clock or… they're working on
(08:00):
Mondays.
So just a piece of advice,because we do a lot of
restaurants.
That's a great little tidbit,but okay, I guess that's all I
have.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
But Let me jump in.
You mentioned prospecting and Ilove Christian because I try to
do the same thing andprospecting in terms of trying
to do something every day alongthose lines.
And again, prospecting can takeshape in different forms, right?
(08:34):
Not just the traditionalpicking up the phone and cold
calling, yeah, but to dosomething every day.
And I just wanna mention thatthere's a really cool tool that
this group developed and Jerryreally took the lead on it, and
it's that tool about knowingyour numbers and breaking down
(08:57):
if you wanna achieve a certaingoal by the end of the year in
terms of your production so youwanna add 150,000 of new annual
commission Reverse engineeringthat and figuring out literally
what do I need to be doing everyday to achieve that, and when
you do that and prospecting isobviously a key component of
that and when you do that andwork with this tool that Jerry
(09:21):
developed, you can see prettyquick that how do I put this you
don't have to be just anabsolute workaholic to achieve
even some pretty ambitious goalsIf you are disciplined enough
to make those just picking anumber here those eight
prospecting calls each and everysingle day.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Then you can get yeah , another thing that I've seen,
at least with newer producers,and they get tripped up where
they're gonna prospect but theydon't put it in their calendar.
You absolutely have to knock itout.
You have to put it in yourcalendar.
It's you time.
Put yourself first.
Tell your staff I'm makingprospecting calls.
(10:05):
Get in the habit of that, nomatter how difficult it may or
may not be.
If you're gonna be successful,you gotta do that, and it not
only sets the stage for you tobecome consistent in your
behaviors and create a habit,but it actually will be another
way of emphasizing in your mindputting yourself first as a
producer.
You have to put yourself first,because shit happens during the
(10:28):
day, guys, and it's gonna knockyou off the center and you're
gonna not be doing what youshould be doing, which is
prospecting and sellinginsurance.
I know I've said this before,but one of my best ways of
prospecting is just I've got itin my mind that anywhere I am,
I'm looking around.
I mean it could be on the sidesof trucks, it could be as I'm
walking into a restaurant, I'mlooking to the business next
(10:50):
door.
There's a zillion ways toprospect, but you gotta put it
first.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, christian, I think you said something.
I'll try to be quickly here.
Quick here.
We did a training for ourmembers earlier this year, I
believe Paul, on owning yourcalendar, and I think Christian
just spoke to that.
In other words, you really liveyour life from your calendar
and when you block time out todo things, make sure those
things are money-makingactivities.
(11:16):
They are not service activities.
They are things that eitherhelp you obtain or retain
insurance clients, and taking anotice of a change of car is not
a money-making activitiesactivity.
So you've gotta own yourcalendar.
And again, if you join us, whichI hope you do, you know these
are the kind of things we wannadelve into in detail about how
(11:38):
you can do this.
And again, as I say a lot oftimes at the end of these
podcasts, just the fact you mustbe curious, you must be
uncomfortable, maybe, with whereyou are in your career in this
amazingly wonderful industry andthe fact that you're looking
out, you're looking into theareas of how can I get better.
(11:58):
That's what we're all about andthat's what we wanna do.
We wanna help you in thisindustry.
Christian's got a lot ofexperience in this, matt.
So do I.
We love the industry so much wewanna help you get better.
So you love the industry, youbecome preeminent in this
industry and you have an amazing, amazing career.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
All right, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
It's interesting that eachcoach had something different to
bring to the table in thistopic of structuring your day.
Ultimately, it is worth takingthe time to evaluate your day
and really assess where yourtime, effort and energy is going
and really focusing on thoserevenue-generating activities.
So until next time, guys.
(12:39):
We'll see you in the nextepisode of the Preeminent
Producer.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Podcast.
Thanks so much for joining uson this episode of the
Preeminent Producer Podcast.
If you're enjoying the show,please feel free to subscribe,
rate and leave a review whereveryou listen to your podcasts.
That helps others find the showand we greatly appreciate it.
Once again, thanks for joiningus and we'll catch you in the
next episode of the PreeminentProducer Podcast.
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