Many agencies struggle with stagnant growth despite hard work, not due to external factors, but due to internal issues like fear, lack of clarity, and poor leadership structures that hinder producer development and agency progress.
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Hey, it's Monday morning. I mean, you
walk into the office with coffee in hand
and the place feels alive and your
producers are moving around. They're
chasing a few quotes. One stuck in a
service call, another one following up
with a prospect that they talked to 3
weeks ago and the phones are buzzing.
Your inbox is full. And for a moment,
you think, "Yeah, the team's really
working today." But as the week goes on,
that feeling starts to fade. By Friday
afternoon, when you finally pull up the
numbers, you realize that, well, it
looks exactly like last week's. and then
the week before. And that's the thing
nobody warns you about when you start an
agency. The hardest part isn't getting
it off the ground. It's figuring out why
after years of work, it still feels like
you're pushing a boulder uphill. You can
see the potential. You know your people
are capable of more and they care about
the clients. They work hard. They show
up. But somewhere between the effort and
the outcome, there's drag. Something
invisible slowing everything down. So
you start doing what every good does.
You try to fix it. You motivate. You
offer incentives. You hire new producers
hoping this time it'll be different. But
after a few months, the story feels the
same. The numbers aren't bad, but
they're not moving. And if you're being
honest, you've probably had that quiet
thought. What am I missing here? Why
aren't we growing the way we should be?
So, if that sounds familiar, hey, you're
not alone. Every agency I've coached,
whether they're doing 2 million or 20
million in revenue, ends up wrestling
with the same three struggles. They look
different on the surface, but under the
hood, they're very much the same. And
here's the part that stings a little.
Most owners don't even realize it until
they've already lost a year or two of
progress. So, in this video, I want to
break down these three hidden struggles
that keep even good agency stock and
show you what the top performing firms
do differently to finally break through
them once and for all. So, let's get
into it. Hi there, I'm Randy Schwancez
and welcome to the Big Nition channel.
The home of the triple threat solution,
sales training, salarium, and sales
management platform all in one
integrated system. All right, let's
start with the first one, and honestly,
this is the one I hear about more than
any other. How do I keep my producers
motivated? Every owner I've ever worked
with has asked this question in some
form, and I get it. I mean, you've got a
few rock stars at the top who seem to
wake up every day ready to win, and
then, well, you got everybody else. Some
do okay, some are just surviving. Well,
if you're being honest, some have been
sitting in the same chair for years
without much to show for it. And of
course, there's always that bottom 20%.
And a lot of cases, well, they're not
really producers. They're account
managers who won't prospect or they're
the retired in place. And the truth is,
no amount of motivation is going to move
them. So, don't waste your time. But the
group that actually matters, the group
that determines how fast your agency
grows, that's that middle 60%. These are
the people who've got potential. They've
got the skills and the relationship and
the talent, but for some reason they're
stuck in second gear. And most agency
owners look at that and think, "Well, we
got a motivation problem." But after
talking to hundreds of producers, I can
tell you most of the time it's not
motivation as much as it's fear. They
want to win. They want to grow, but deep
down inside they're afraid. Afraid of
rejection, afraid of hearing no, afraid
of being pushy, afraid of not being good
enough. And that fear hides itself
really well. It doesn't always look like
fear. I mean, sometimes it comes across
as procrastination or the inability to
manage time. Sometimes it looks like
being busy. You see them over there
working, but they're working on all the
wrong things. So, when an owner sees
that, they try to pump people up. They
hold a meeting, throw in a bonus, give a
pep talk, but all that energy fades by
Friday because it's aimed at the wrong
part of the problem. I mean, you can't
fix fear with motivation. You fix it
with clarity. And here's the framework I
always come back to. It's simple, but it
changes everything. Experience drives
belief. Belief drives action. Action
drives results. Let me say that again.
Experience drives belief. Beliefs drive
actions. And actions drive results. So,
if you're not happy with the results
someone's getting, don't start by
changing their actions. Start by
changing their experiences. Because it's
those experiences are what built the
beliefs that shape everything else. Let
me give you a couple examples. You have
a newer producer that needs to make more
cold calls. You've got a veteran that
should be asking clients for
introductions. Or you've got someone
that well needs to ask tougher questions
to get a prospect to be honest with
them. But for all of these people,
somewhere in their mind, they believe
that's pushy. People don't want that or
it won't work that way. If that's their
belief, they'll never make the calls.
Not because they can't, not because they
don't know how, but because they've
already convinced themselves it's not
going to work. And that's what I call
the belief window. Every producer, every
human being looks at their world through
one. On one side is what they believe is
true. On the other side is what they
believe is false. On one side is what
feels appropriate. On the other side
feels uncomfortable or wrong. And until
you help them adjust that window,
they'll just keep bumping into the same
invisible wall. So what do you do? Well,
you create new experiences to shift
those beliefs. That's your real job as a
leader. You can't just tell someone, "Be
confident." But you can put them in
situations where they see that the thing
they're afraid of isn't as scary as they
thought. Look, I'm human and so are you.
I suffered from a lot of this kind of
avoidance behavior. And I, like everyone
else, knows that if you don't fix it,
you'll be constrained by it. You'll
think I'm an idiot, but that's why I did
a firewalk with Tony Robbins. Not just
once, but twice. He calls it turning
fear into power. I hated that fear
controlled a lot of things in my life.
So when I got a chance to do the
firewalk, I signed up and even that was
scary. Fortunately, I had a friend, Mark
Pantac, that put his arm around me and
we went together. That night at
midnight, we all went outside of the
Holiday Inn in Plano, Texas, and walked
on hot coals about a 8 to 10 foot long
strip. And that gave me a new
perspective on life. You see, most
people don't believe you can do that
without getting burned. So they'll never
try it. But here's what's incredible.
Before I did it, over 50,000 other
people had already done it. So, if they
can do it, why can't I? And after the
firewalk, that became my new mantra. If
they can do it, why can't I? Oh, it
helped me in so many ways. Get over fear
of public speaking. Get over the fear of
making cold calls. Get over the fear of
starting a business. I mean, I think you
get the point. That experience drove my
new beliefs. Those beliefs drove new
actions. Those actions created my
results. You probably don't know this,
but I grew up in love, Texas. I went to
college for only three days and then I
quit. My dad never made more than
$23,000 a year, and he didn't provide a
lot of leadership growing up. In years
after the Firewalk, I've written six
books. Not bad for a college dropout. I
started a training company. I've trained
over 10,000 producers. I started a
technology company. I've stayed married
to the same woman for 40 years. And I've
raised four daughters. I'm telling you
the formula. Experience drives beliefs.
Beliefs drive actions. and action drives
results. If you're not getting the
results you want, create new life
expanding experiences. So, there are a
lot of ways to create experiences. Role
playing is an experience. Go to a
workshop in another city with a bunch of
other producers and see if you think
you're as smart as they are. Or go to a
Porsche driving experience like in
Atlanta or LA and let a professional
driver take you on a hot lab. That'll
make you pucker. Or go skydive. Jump out
of a great, perfectly good airplane.
You'll be able to challenge your
courage. Or give a speech in front of a
friendly crowd. do something for crying
out loud to challenge your beliefs about
what you're capable of. And please, Mr.
and Mrs. Agency owner, you who control
the checkbook. You've got the ability to
do something great here. Don't let your
beliefs stop you. And here's the other
half of the equation. It's clarity. When
people know what they want and why they
want it, you don't need to motivate
them. They'll do that themselves. And
that's why I spend so much time on goal
setting. Not the annual, hey, fill out
the spreadsheet kind, but the personal
kind. sit down and ask your producers,
"What do you want? Why do you want it?
What does success actually look like for
you?" And if you're not afraid, get the
spouse involved because that will create
a lot of leverage. Because here's the
truth. High performance always equals
clarity of want. See, once people are
clear, focus gets easy. Once focus is
locked in, execution becomes natural.
Clarity drives focus. Focus drives
execution. That's the chain. And it
works every single time. When you build
that environment where people are clear
on their goals, focused on high impact
activities, and supported with the right
experiences, that's when the middle 60%
of your producers start to move. That's
when your agency starts to compound.
Struggle number two, attracting and
growing new producers. So once you start
making progress with your existing team,
the next challenge hits you hard. How do
you bring in new producers and actually
grow them into high performers without
growing broke in the process? I was
talking to a guy not too long ago. is
president of a large agency and also the
head of an association made up of some
of the top firms in North America. And
he said something that stuck with me. He
said, "Randy, if we hire 10 producers
within 5 years, we're lucky if four are
still here. The other six, they're
gone." Now, every one of those people
costs money. Salary, benefits, training
time. You can almost put a check mark
next to each one. Quarter million,
that's a million half dollars walking
out the door. So, no wonder agencies
hesitate to hire. But here's the irony.
The reason it's so expensive is because
they don't have a process. They treat
hiring like an event instead of a
discipline. See, there's a whole system,
a rhythm to locating, recruiting,
hiring, training, and developing
producers. And most agencies skip the
first three steps entirely. They start
at the hire and wonder why it doesn't
work. See, when you talk to agency
owners, you'll often hear the same
story. They meet someone who's friendly,
smart, and well spoken. They think,
"Yeah, this one's going to be
different." So, they bring them on, give
them a desk, a phone, and say, "Go get
them." And if they're lucky, that person
flames out fast. If they're not lucky,
they stick around for years, not
producing much, but also not leaving.
And that's not a people problem. That's
a leadership problem. So, you got to
fall in love with this business again if
you want to recruit people into it.
Because if you don't believe this is an
amazing career, one that can create
wealth and independence for young,
hungry people, they'll feel that. You
won't persuade anyone into an
opportunity you don't fully believe in.
So, start there. Talk to people from
outside the industry, strong
salespeople, ambitious professionals,
and help them see what's possible here.
But then back it up with structure.
Train them properly. Don't hand them a
phone book. Hand them a plan. Give them
a sales process that works. Teach them
how to build a prospect list, set
appointments, and close deals with
confidence. And when you interview,
learn to tell the difference between a
producer and a pretender. Producers
produce. Pretenders make excuses. If you
can't see that distinction early on,
it'll cost you later. Now, let's talk
about the third big struggle, and this
is the one that keeps most agency owners
up at night. How do you run your agency,
grow your own book, and still find time
to lead your producers? It's hard
because you're constantly pulled in
multiple directions. You got to book a
business. That's how you make most of
your money. You've got a team of
producers that needs direction, and you
have an agency to run. You got to meet
with underwriters, HR problems,
accounting issues. It never seems to
stop. And what generally falls off the
get it done list is sales leadership.
You don't mean neglect it. It just gets
buried. And when it does, your growth
flatlines. Most owners I talk to feel
guilty about it. They know they should
be holding better meetings, tracking
pipelines, coaching producers, but it's
timeconuming. Why? Because you have weak
systems, so it's easier to just blow it
off. You hope producers are smart and
motivated enough to figure it out. After
all, that's what you did. But think
about it. If your accounting team did a
crappy job of tracking receivables,
payables, or profit margins, you'd fire
them and start over. But when you do a
crappy job of training, coaching, and
developing your producers, you justify
it with a bunch of excuses. That's not
leadership. That's neglect. Your role as
a leader isn't just to manage. It's to
develop. You got to coach your people
the way that a basketball coach trains
players, does drills, repetition,
feedback, skill building. I mean, you
can't just hand them the playbook and
hope they'll win. You got to practice
the fundamentals until they become
muscle memory. So, in this third
struggle, the really issue isn't time,
it's structure. It's creating the right
rhythm so leadership becomes natural,
not another thing on your to-do list.
And that's why I built what I call the
triple threat solution. A system that
ties together sales training, sales CRM,
and sales management into one platform.
Because when you have everything you
need to train, coach, and develop your
producers in only one place, it gets
easier. When your sales and leadership
playbooks are matched with your CRM
technology, everyone becomes more
productive. But here's the big takeaway.
Your agency will only grow at the rate
your producers grow. And your producers
will only grow at the rate that you lead
them. You probably won't take more time.
You'll just use your time better. So,
when you've been in this business long
enough, you start to notice a pattern.
It's never the market or the carriers or
the competition that holds an agency
back. It's almost always something
internal, a mix of fear, bad habits, and
missing structure that quietly keep good
people from performing their potential.
And when you finally see that clearly,
when you can name what's actually
slowing you down, something shifts. You
stop reacting, and you start leading.
And that's what this whole conversation
is really about. Not motivation, not
recruitment, not management, leadership.
Because when you lead with clarity,
everything else follows. Producers don't
need another speech. They need someone
to help them believe again in
themselves, in the business, and what's
possible if they go allin. Once you
remember why you got into this game in
the first place, growth stops feeling
like a grind. It starts feeling
inevitable. And that's what we built Big
Nishion for. To give agency leaders a
way to translate all that potential into
progress, not through more meetings or
more pressure, but through rhythm. A way
to connect with what you want with what
actually happens every week. Look, if
that idea resonates with you, if you're
tired of working harder without seeing
movement, then I'd like to invite you to
take a look at what we call the growth
capability review. It's a short, focused
conversation designed to help you get
clear on where your agency stands today,
what's holding it back, and what kind of
growth is truly possible. There's no
pitch, no pressure, just clarity. And
clarity is where all growth begins.
Because you can't manage what you can't see.
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