LA Times Studios Business’ Post

Transcript

I never thought I would be in insurance. No one does. But I do, at the end of the day, love what I do. There's a challenge to it. I don't think I would ever be one that can just do one job and that's it. I have to. I kind of like chaos and this job definitely has it. When I got out of college I thought I wanted to be a sports agent so I went and worked in the entertainment industry and worked myself up from the mail room. I think what that taught me was work ethic because you get paid nothing and I didn't grow up with a trust fund. So I was living at home and driving to Beverly Hills and and starting at 6:00 AM and ending at 7:30 at night. And that was just, you know, cutthroat fast-paced environment that I started. I looked around and I just saw, you know, maybe there's something else out there for me. And so I had some friends that were in the insurance business and said this is something very different, but I think you would actually enjoy this role and I think you could do very well in it. What I got myself into very much is, you are your own brand, your own business. You use your organization for the services, the experts, the resources and all this different stuff that we talked about in the insurance space. But at the end of the day, They're buying from you. It's your relationship, it's your brand, it's the trust that you've built with them for you to oversee. As small as a half a million dollar spend to a $50 million spend or $100 million spend. So they're buying from you because they trust you. Everybody has the ability to do it. It's just a matter of, one, are you going to throw yourself into something that is uncomfortable and not pleasing? There's nothing about this process that's pleasing. It's tough in early days when you have no clients. You're just getting told no all the time. You're picking up the phone, you're out networking, you're doing everything you can to build your brand, but gain that trust of a company or a person to allow you to represent them. You have to be, I think, just relentless in your pursuit of overcoming the no, being able to deal with rejection. So you just have to constantly bang your head against the wall and eventually you'll get through the door on a couple of things and then you kind of breathe and you go, OK, everything that I'm doing, I'm doing for a purpose and I'm seeing the results and it still happens today. I just have thicker skin and it's a lot easier to take those losses when you have a client pace that appreciates what you do and you can move quicker past those losses. And I think over time it just becomes so part of your everyday, nothing really surprises you. It may irritate you or make you mad because you're like, you've got to be kidding me. Like here we were and, and this just got totally derailed and it shouldn't have for things that you can't control. And I think that's the toughest thing is you know that seven steps forward, 4 steps back. But it's also afforded me a great life and, and I like the strategic aspect of what I do, but I really truly know that I'm impacting not only businesses, but I'm also impacting their employees' lives and how they're navigating the system and feeling supported and there's an advocate for them as well, so there's enough positives that outweigh the negatives I feel. Depends on the day. People look at sales professionals no matter what Industry organization, you know, they always have a little bit of a reputation and a little bit wild, a little bit crazy, a little bit unhinged. I emphasized to people that I talked to in our business that are coming up and our rookies and, and, you know, are in our training program and those types of things is don't ever discount the relationship and the sales cycle is long. So don't get frustrated, You know, celebrate those victories as much as someone picking up the phone and talking to you rather than hanging up on you. The fact that someone will even get coffee with you. Those types of things may not equate to dollars, but it's a step in the right direction of building that brand, your brand and building that relationship that gets to that payday of a client's hiding with you that first client, and then continuing to build on that momentum and and carry it over to the next client and the next client.