I have been in insurance for almost a decade. Currently, I train hundreds of insurance agents, I’m the President of Sales for a major Insurance Broker, I have my own Insurance Agency, and I go out into the field to stay on top and help my agents. I have had my ups and downs, but because of my goal setting and focus my wins greatly outweigh any losses. Hopefully, you can learn from my experiences and achieve your next level of success that much faster. Read on to get my thoughts on setting goals and what has worked for me.
Make Your Goals Big
I know you’ve heard this before…but I’m going to remind you again. You need to make your goals big, and by big, I mean HUGE. Most people underestimate what they are capable of, so obviously, they never achieve what they are capable of. Don’t cut yourself off at the knees before you even get started. If your goal is not scary to you, it’s not big enough.
As an example, I challenged myself to write $100,000 in premium, in 100 days. Honestly, it started as a bet, and it’s a great story, but since we’re talking about goals right now, I will save those details for a different post.
If You Fail…You Still Win
Here is the big secret, if you fail to achieve your massively big goal, you still win! For my $100,000 goal example, even if I failed and wrote $80,000, I still walk away with $80,000. I don’t think any agent, regardless of contract level, is going to be disappointed that they rolled $80,000 in 100 days. It doesn’t matter if you fail, as long as you went for it. If you fail, then you fail successfully. If you fail and miss your mark by 10%, 20%, even 30%, and earned $70K in a hundred days, that is still a great increase in income! How many agents do that? And that’s extrapolated to $200,000/$250,000 a year in issue paid business. That’s a lot of money! So there is no real downside to shooting for a huge goal. It’s always been true for me, I know it will be true for you too.
Make Your Goals Specific
Make your goals very exact, hit it on the head! For example, I wouldn’t say just I want ‘$250,000 coming from my agency per month’ but I’d drill down and specify that it should come from 25 producers or less. I don’t need a bazillion agents writing one app a month to hit that goal.
I not only want that income for myself, but I want to change my agent’s life financially. If I have $250,000 coming in a month from twenty-five agents, everyone’s doing at least $10,000/month. That’s good money, I mean depending on your lifestyle and expenses, but for the most part, across America that is considered a healthy income. I don’t care if you live in New Jersey, California, or the Midwest, $120,000 a year is not too shabby and your income will just go up from there (especially with my tips & coaching). I think that is a really important goal and I write down every day.
Learn From Others
You have to find a handful of people to learn from to keep you motivated and thinking big. And I say a handful because if you’re spending your time listening to everyone who has a podcast and YouTube channel you’re going to get confused because everyone has different ways of doing things. Also, it’ll just take up a lot of your time, don’t end up “always learning, never doing”.
Personally, I like to follow Grant Cardone to learn from. You can’t not get motivated by listening to a Grant Cardone speech. I did a coaching call with him a few years ago and I’ve used Cardone U. That guy is really motivating.
Write Down Your Goals Every Day
The key is to write down your goals. I write down my goals every day when I wake up and when I go to bed. I have a notebook on my nightstand just for this. I think about my goals first thing in the morning which helps me set my priorities, and at night to reflect on my progress.
Tell People Your Goals – They Should Think You’re Nuts
If I put something out there I’m doing it to challenge myself, and then it’s public so I’m going to rip it! Writing it down is an important step, but you need to make sure you’re affirming it and telling other people about it too. Hopefully, they think you’re nuts! When you tell others that helps to make sure you don’t use a crutch like saying “oh well maybe I’ll add an extra two weeks and I’ll write 100K in 120 days” or make excuses “I’m too busy this week because of [insert any excuse here]”. It’s so important to find ways to hold yourself accountable to your goals.
Now I challenge you to use these tips on setting your own goals for the next 30 days and see how your life changes!
To Recap: