Lessons Learned When Starting Out As An Insurance Producer

Today we hear from Matt Starkey about his journey when starting out as an Insurance Producer. 

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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!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to another episode of the
Preeminent Producer Podcast.
Today we are going to behearing from Matt Starkey about
his kind of beginning days, ofhow he started the agency, some
of the challenges he faced, aswell as some of the lessons
learned along the way.
So if you find yourselfstressed out, maybe a little
fearful about what the futureholds you're trying to produce,

(00:22):
but maybe not seeing the resultsthat you currently would like
to see, take a listen to whatMatt has to say, learn some of
the lessons that he learned andapply them.
So here we go, let's dive in,and I'll catch you at the end of
this episode.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
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

(00:56):
the trenches and have traveledthe journey to becoming a
preeminent producer.
You'll discover what it reallytakes 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 (01:19):
Okay yeah.
I thought I'd share just alittle bit about my story when I
first started my first agencyand a little background on that,
some obstacles that I faced foreither a newish producer
starting out producing or maybea newish agency principal, you

(01:53):
know, forming or having recentlyformed an agency.
So we'll kind of see where thisgoes.
But basically my backgroundwhen I started my first agency
when I was 30 years old, and mybackground up to that point I
had been an underwriter for afew years and a surplus lines
broker for a couple of years.
So I knew coverage pretty welland I had worked for a couple of

(02:15):
years prior to starting thatfirst agency as a marketing, a
placement person at anotherretail insurance agency.
But I really had zeroproduction experience.
I had never written a singlepolicy, I was just a placement
person.
And one day I sat down and Ilooked at the accounts that I
was working on to place and itwas a half dozen or so accounts

(02:39):
and I noticed that the totalcommercial PNC premium maybe was
100 grand for those sixaccounts.
Yet the workers comp premiumwas closer to a million bucks.
Now I knew absolutely nothingabout workers comp but that got
my attention and I sat down witha buddy of mine at the same
agency who was also in thatmarketing department, and I said

(03:03):
, bob, that wasn't his name, butI'm leaving his name out of
here intentionally I said, bob,look at this, he goes.
Yeah, I said, you know, I don'tknow.
And Bob didn't know eitheranything about workers' comp.
But other than they got to buyit.
Yeah, the commissions are alittle lower, but, boy, look at
the premiums, you know, and therates seem to keep going up

(03:27):
every year.
I said, bob, why don't we startour own agency and specialize
in workers comp?
And he said you know, we weredumb kids.
And he said, well, okay.
So we said those were the dayswhen agency I'm sorry, carrier
appointments were were difficultto get.
And yet it was hard to getthose appointments.
So we set up a lunch with amarketing rep from kind of a key

(03:47):
workers comp carrier here inCalifornia.
They, like a lot of othercarriers here.
They went, they're no longeraround, but this is many years
ago.
And we said, fred, we'rethinking about starting our own
agency.
And he said, well, I wonderedwhen you're going to get around
to that.
And we said, well, we'll do itif you'll appoint us and he said

(04:08):
, well, let me go make a phonecall Again.
Days before everybody had acell phone, went and made a
phone call, came back, said,okay, you're appointed.
We said, great, now what's thisexperience mod thingy we've
been hearing all about?
I mean, we knew nothing, youknow, but it was sort of like
the Bumblebee analogy.
We just, you know, got it going.

(04:31):
So we got off.
Well, by the way so I havealready mentioned I was 30 years
old.
To get that agency going, Iemptied my small savings account
of every dollar that I had tookout a second of my home, set up
through a private party, a lineof credit for $200,000.
Set up through a private party,a line of credit for $200,000.
And we got into that to thetune of about a hundred, and I
had a four-year-old and anewborn, and so there was a lot

(04:55):
of pressure for me to producesomething.
I had never actually done up tothat point and got off to kind
of a non-auspicious start.
The first account I've sharedthis with you guys before I
think the first account that Iwrote I don't even remember what
it was now, but the depositcheck bounced.
And then the second accountthat I wrote after 30 days found

(05:17):
out they had declaredbankruptcy.
So here I am, you know ahundred thousand or so in debt,
no more money, the two kids andboy.
That doesn't motivate you.
And of course I'm thinking Ileft the secure job that I had,
that I was pretty good at,making a decent income and so
that provided a lot ofmotivation.

(05:37):
So my business partner at thetime and I we both went to our
respective offices, we lockedthe doors and we just started
making phone calls because wewere desperate.
So we were lucky enough to.
During the course of thosephone calls we stumbled upon a
certain niche that helped and ifyou can develop niches, that

(06:01):
really helps that particularniche.
It was kind of short-lived butit was good while it lasted.
It was a special program we raninto for P&C coverage for home
builders here in SouthernCalifornia.
So they developed pretty goodpremiums and we had a real
competitive program.
So that helped us get through.
We eventually paid off thatline of credit that we were into

(06:23):
, you know, for 100 grand or soand finally kind of got things
turned around.
The other couple things that wedid that I think got us turned
around is we realized thatdifferentiation is a key.
And so we developed really kindof cutting edge state of the

(06:44):
art appearing proposals.
So way back when we were doingreally nice computer full color
graphic proposals.
They were so nice and sodifferent than anything that our
competitors were doing at thetime that one of the most common
things we'd hear from ourprospects.
When we gave them the proposal,they would say, well, is this
for me to keep?
Can I write on this?
Because it the proposal.
They would say, well, is thisfor me to keep?

(07:05):
Can I write on this?
Because it would.
Just, they were kind ofstunning.
Nowadays everybody does thatsort of thing.
Back then they were anattention getter and the other
thing we did is we starteddeveloping good referral sources
.
So those are kind of the thingsthat got us through that rough

(07:25):
patch.
But it was pretty scary.
So my real motivation was forgetting up at 5 am every morning
.
Getting to work was challenging.
I was broke and in debt and acouple of young kids, so that's
a good motivator.
So a couple of lessons that Ilearned from that and that I

(07:46):
would share really briefly wouldbe if you're going to start out
producing and you don't have abook of business or you're going
to start an agency and maybeyou don't have a book of
business.
It can be done.
But you got to go in with youreyes wide open.
Realistically, you're going tohave to sacrifice.
Now that other very famousStarkey in the world, richard

(08:10):
Starkey.
Some of you guys will know,rick, I know you know Ringo
Starr we're not related as faras I you know.
He wrote a song and it don'tcome easy.
So you know that's a lesson forthat.
You just have to keep in mindit don't come easy, you're going
to have to sacrifice, but is itworth the sacrifice?

(08:30):
Well, I know all of us involvedin preeminent producer would
say absolutely.
And Rick, you've outlined thisbefore.
What makes this such a greatindustry, such a unique sales
industry and sales position?
So many good things going forit.
But you got to go in with youreyes wide open.
There really might be some leantimes at first.

(08:55):
And then I thought I would justkind of wrap it up real quick
with five kind of big picturetips that I think I'll share
with people.
One and I've said this beforeand I'm stating this as tip
number one because I think itbelongs in that position

(09:16):
Differentiation is everything wehave in this industry right now
round number is about 680,000licensed insurance agents in the
US.
That's a lot of competition andthat number over the next
decade is projected to go up toover 700,000.
So you gotta do something tostand out.

(09:37):
So keep in mind differentiation, it's everything.
Number two, a tip that I liveby is develop referral sources.
You know your hit ratio onleads that you drum up through
some cold call type mechanism istypically going to be one out
of four, maybe one out of five,you know, but on referrals it's

(09:58):
probably going to be one out offour, maybe one out of five, you
know, but on referrals it'sprobably going to be one out of
two.
So developing referral sourcesis a great way to go.
I mentioned niches.
If you can develop or find orcreate some niches, it's a very
efficient way of marketing.
It in turn develops more andmore referrals and kind of be a

(10:20):
snowballing you know type ofimpact.
So niches is really good.
I'm fond of saying Rick andPaul, I know you've heard me say
this before, probably adnauseum, but I think it's really
valuable once in a while totake a step back and think about
what we're doing.
How can I differentiate?

(10:42):
How can I develop more referralsources?
Are there any possible nichesout there, et cetera.
But think about what we'redoing.
So it's so easy to get wrappedup in the day-to-day insanity
and chaos of marketing activitythat sometimes we're not going
about this, maybe in thesmartest way that we could.

(11:02):
So I'm a big believer in youknow, it's that concept of the
e-myth.
That book by Gerber I think itwas Michael Gerber, I think it
was his name he talks aboutworking on your business on your
business, not in your business.
It's that concept.
And then, finally, I would sayyou got to be yourself.

(11:25):
Play to whatever your strengthsare.
If you try to imitate someother successful producer that
you know it's not going to work.
And these business owners thatwe deal with, I think they're
looking for authenticity andthey can see through if you're
trying to put on a certain DJvoice or are using closing
strategies that you're notreally comfortable with.

(11:47):
But somebody told you they werea good idea.
So I would say I wouldrecommend anybody.
Be yourself.
Don't try to imitate somebodyelse or be somebody you're not,
you know.
So I think, if we all keepthose things in mind, take a
step back and think about whatwe're doing once in a while,
we'll all be well served.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Matt, I think you've said a bunch of good things,
which doesn't surprise me, and Ithink one of the things that we
talk about and I think thiswould apply to so many
businesses is business ingeneral is not fair.
It's hard, people will lie toyou, they won't treat you fairly

(12:29):
, and I think if we were talkingto realtors or attorneys or car
salespeople, it would be thesame story.
But it's worth it in ourindustry because of what you
just said.
But I think the thing thatkeeps you on track is just what
you said, matt you found yourwhy, and it was you're in debt,

(12:51):
you've started an agency, you'vegot to pay this stuff off,
you've got a family.
All of those things are yourwhy of why you showed up, kept
your nose to the grindstone, dayafter day, doing the hard work
that later turned out to be abig win for you, and I think
that's what this is all aboutfinding your why in a very

(13:12):
difficult industry, but anindustry that's worth it, that
makes you work harder than thenext man or woman, that drives
you and is the force that pullsyou towards success.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, rick, absolutely.
And something you said therejust stimulated another thought,
and that is it's such a greatindustry, you know, if you get
through the lean years, whatever, it's such a great industry.
And another great thing aboutit is there's a and maybe this
is true for every sales industry, I don't know, but there's a

(13:48):
lot of mediocrity in ourindustry, and a former business
partner of mine was fond ofsaying once in a while he would
say you know, you don't reallyhave to be a Phi Beta Kappa to
be head and shoulders above mostof the thundering herd of
agents out there, and I thinkthat's true.
Again, it's easy to get suckedinto that vortex of just being

(14:10):
so busy that we're not reallythinking logically and
strategically about what we'redoing.
But if you do that and figureout your, why figure out your
differentiators?
It's not that complex.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
No, it's not.
I think I heard Lou Holtz saysomething, and if you ever want
to hear some really entertainingthings, listen to Lou Holtz
speak.
When he was talking to hisfootball team, he said you know,
you don't have to be the bestfootball team in the United
States, you don't have to be thebest football team in this
state or even in the city, youjust have to be the best team in

(14:48):
the stadium on that day.
So, as we go, we don't have tobe the best insurance agents in
the world.
We don't even know who that is.
We have an obligation, obviously, to be professional and
knowledgeable, of course, butwhen we're in a competitive
situation with another brokerand we're trying to take
something over on a VOR, we justhave to be the best of the

(15:08):
people that are in that fight,if you will, and it changes.
I know what makes us better,but we always have to be
motivated.
We always have, becausebusiness is hard and not fair.
We always have to have that.
Why that goes by golly.
I'm going to get up thismorning, as Matt did, go to the
office early and start makingthe phone calls, start doing the

(15:29):
things that you need to do.
That puts you on the road ofsuccess, that constant,
never-ending movement towardssuccess, yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
You know one other thing that you mentioned there,
Rick, about people are people,so you'll even get lied to.
You know things will happen.
The other thing that willhappen is it happens to all of
us to this day and it will stillhappen to me.
I'll try to minimize it, but inthe process of getting lied to
or whatever, you're going to getrolled.
Sometimes You're going to comein with the best thing and
they're going to BOR it to theircurrent agent or whatever, and

(16:01):
you've got to be able to.
We've talked about this before.
I think Christian's talkedabout this at length.
You've got to be able to pickyourself up at length.
You got to be able to pickyourself up, brush yourself off
and get going again and not notlet that negativity uh uh become
part of your, your, uh, yourpersonality or whatever.
You got to keep that positiveattitude.

(16:21):
And half the battle to to doit's difficult to get rolled and
stuff but half the battle toovercoming that is, I think, to
realize it's going to happen, itto happen, it does happen, and
sometimes we benefit being theincumbent by that sort of
situation, thank goodness.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
Well, you know, and take business, life itself isn't
fair.
Life is not fair.
I mean, people lie to uspersonally, things happen to us
in our personal lives.
We face tragedies, we dowhatever.
It's not just business.
And for me there was anexistence system that I had.
I had a photo of my boys on mydesk and every time I would get
down I'd look at these guys, goGod, somebody's got to feed

(17:01):
these guys.
It's got to be me.
I guess you know they can't goout and forage for themselves.
Yet I waited until they were 15, let them go out and forage for
themselves, can hunt forberries and nuts and things, but
there has to be that thing thatis in front of you that when
you're down you look at it andgo this is why I'm doing what

(17:22):
I'm doing.
This is why I have to keepdoing this.
And, by the way, if you'relucky, you're in this business
and you're succeeding and you'reenjoying it, I mean not that
there will be strategies, strifeand pain and those kind of
things, but but that you enjoythe business.
I enjoy the business.
I know Christian does too.
So I'm lucky we are to be inthis great business.

(17:43):
That can be enjoyable.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
Boy.
That is so true.
I'm so glad you brought up thatlast point, rick, because I had
meant to do that.
Have some fun along the way.
It can be fun.
You're going to be interestingpeople, entrepreneurial people.
You'll develop over time reallygood friendships with a lot of
those guys and you can have somefun along the way.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
All right.
Hope you enjoyed that.
Hope you got some littlenuggets of gold out of that.
I think it's important onceagain in this episode, as well
as our past one, hearing fromRick and really kind of
discovering your why.
That's kind of a common themehere of really understanding and
getting clear on your why Areyou producing?
Do you have to produce?

(18:29):
Because you've got little onesrelying on you.
What is your why?
And then really develop astrategic plan and do what it
takes to get the job done, butkeep your why in front of you.
So if you're not clearing yourwhy, take time today and really
get clear on that.
If you'd like more informationand maybe even need help on
discovering your why or comingup with a battle plan after

(18:52):
you've discovered your why, Iencourage you to check us out at
the preeminent producercom.
Take a look at the programsthat we have, get involved and
get coached by these preeminentproducers and our coaches and
really start to get real results.
This whole thing is designed tohelp you streamline and shorten
the distance of time from youand the success you're going

(19:15):
after.
Why do it on your own and haveit take forever when you can
shorten the distance of time,because you've got coaches there
helping you along the way.
So check us out atthepreeminentproducercom and
we'll see you in the nextepisode of the Preeminent
Producer Podcast.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Thanks so much for joining us on 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.