0:01 Hey, it's Monday morning. I mean, you
0:03 walk into the office with coffee in hand
0:05 and the place feels alive and your
0:07 producers are moving around. They're
0:09 chasing a few quotes. One stuck in a
0:10 service call, another one following up
0:12 with a prospect that they talked to 3
0:14 weeks ago and the phones are buzzing.
0:16 Your inbox is full. And for a moment,
0:18 you think, "Yeah, the team's really
0:20 working today." But as the week goes on,
0:22 that feeling starts to fade. By Friday
0:24 afternoon, when you finally pull up the
0:26 numbers, you realize that, well, it
0:29 looks exactly like last week's. and then
0:31 the week before. And that's the thing
0:32 nobody warns you about when you start an
0:35 agency. The hardest part isn't getting
0:37 it off the ground. It's figuring out why
0:39 after years of work, it still feels like
0:41 you're pushing a boulder uphill. You can
0:43 see the potential. You know your people
0:45 are capable of more and they care about
0:47 the clients. They work hard. They show
0:49 up. But somewhere between the effort and
0:51 the outcome, there's drag. Something
0:53 invisible slowing everything down. So
0:55 you start doing what every good does.
0:57 You try to fix it. You motivate. You
1:00 offer incentives. You hire new producers
1:02 hoping this time it'll be different. But
1:04 after a few months, the story feels the
1:05 same. The numbers aren't bad, but
1:07 they're not moving. And if you're being
1:09 honest, you've probably had that quiet
1:11 thought. What am I missing here? Why
1:12 aren't we growing the way we should be?
1:14 So, if that sounds familiar, hey, you're
1:16 not alone. Every agency I've coached,
1:18 whether they're doing 2 million or 20
1:20 million in revenue, ends up wrestling
1:23 with the same three struggles. They look
1:24 different on the surface, but under the
1:26 hood, they're very much the same. And
1:27 here's the part that stings a little.
1:29 Most owners don't even realize it until
1:32 they've already lost a year or two of
1:34 progress. So, in this video, I want to
1:35 break down these three hidden struggles
1:38 that keep even good agency stock and
1:40 show you what the top performing firms
1:42 do differently to finally break through
1:44 them once and for all. So, let's get
1:46 into it. Hi there, I'm Randy Schwancez
1:47 and welcome to the Big Nition channel.
1:50 The home of the triple threat solution,
1:52 sales training, salarium, and sales
1:54 management platform all in one
1:57 integrated system. All right, let's
1:59 start with the first one, and honestly,
2:00 this is the one I hear about more than
2:02 any other. How do I keep my producers
2:04 motivated? Every owner I've ever worked
2:06 with has asked this question in some
2:08 form, and I get it. I mean, you've got a
2:09 few rock stars at the top who seem to
2:11 wake up every day ready to win, and
2:14 then, well, you got everybody else. Some
2:16 do okay, some are just surviving. Well,
2:17 if you're being honest, some have been
2:19 sitting in the same chair for years
2:21 without much to show for it. And of
2:23 course, there's always that bottom 20%.
2:26 And a lot of cases, well, they're not
2:27 really producers. They're account
2:30 managers who won't prospect or they're
2:33 the retired in place. And the truth is,
2:35 no amount of motivation is going to move
2:37 them. So, don't waste your time. But the
2:39 group that actually matters, the group
2:40 that determines how fast your agency
2:43 grows, that's that middle 60%. These are
2:45 the people who've got potential. They've
2:47 got the skills and the relationship and
2:49 the talent, but for some reason they're
2:51 stuck in second gear. And most agency
2:52 owners look at that and think, "Well, we
2:54 got a motivation problem." But after
2:56 talking to hundreds of producers, I can
2:58 tell you most of the time it's not
3:01 motivation as much as it's fear. They
3:03 want to win. They want to grow, but deep
3:05 down inside they're afraid. Afraid of
3:08 rejection, afraid of hearing no, afraid
3:10 of being pushy, afraid of not being good
3:12 enough. And that fear hides itself
3:14 really well. It doesn't always look like
3:16 fear. I mean, sometimes it comes across
3:18 as procrastination or the inability to
3:20 manage time. Sometimes it looks like
3:22 being busy. You see them over there
3:23 working, but they're working on all the
3:26 wrong things. So, when an owner sees
3:28 that, they try to pump people up. They
3:31 hold a meeting, throw in a bonus, give a
3:33 pep talk, but all that energy fades by
3:35 Friday because it's aimed at the wrong
3:37 part of the problem. I mean, you can't
3:39 fix fear with motivation. You fix it
3:41 with clarity. And here's the framework I
3:42 always come back to. It's simple, but it
3:45 changes everything. Experience drives
3:47 belief. Belief drives action. Action
3:50 drives results. Let me say that again.
3:52 Experience drives belief. Beliefs drive
3:55 actions. And actions drive results. So,
3:56 if you're not happy with the results
3:58 someone's getting, don't start by
3:59 changing their actions. Start by
4:02 changing their experiences. Because it's
4:04 those experiences are what built the
4:06 beliefs that shape everything else. Let
4:07 me give you a couple examples. You have
4:09 a newer producer that needs to make more
4:11 cold calls. You've got a veteran that
4:12 should be asking clients for
4:14 introductions. Or you've got someone
4:16 that well needs to ask tougher questions
4:17 to get a prospect to be honest with
4:19 them. But for all of these people,
4:21 somewhere in their mind, they believe
4:23 that's pushy. People don't want that or
4:25 it won't work that way. If that's their
4:27 belief, they'll never make the calls.
4:29 Not because they can't, not because they
4:31 don't know how, but because they've
4:33 already convinced themselves it's not
4:34 going to work. And that's what I call
4:37 the belief window. Every producer, every
4:39 human being looks at their world through
4:41 one. On one side is what they believe is
4:42 true. On the other side is what they
4:45 believe is false. On one side is what
4:47 feels appropriate. On the other side
4:49 feels uncomfortable or wrong. And until
4:51 you help them adjust that window,
4:53 they'll just keep bumping into the same
4:55 invisible wall. So what do you do? Well,
4:57 you create new experiences to shift
5:00 those beliefs. That's your real job as a
5:02 leader. You can't just tell someone, "Be
5:04 confident." But you can put them in
5:06 situations where they see that the thing
5:08 they're afraid of isn't as scary as they
5:10 thought. Look, I'm human and so are you.
5:12 I suffered from a lot of this kind of
5:15 avoidance behavior. And I, like everyone
5:17 else, knows that if you don't fix it,
5:18 you'll be constrained by it. You'll
5:20 think I'm an idiot, but that's why I did
5:22 a firewalk with Tony Robbins. Not just
5:24 once, but twice. He calls it turning
5:27 fear into power. I hated that fear
5:29 controlled a lot of things in my life.
5:31 So when I got a chance to do the
5:33 firewalk, I signed up and even that was
5:35 scary. Fortunately, I had a friend, Mark
5:37 Pantac, that put his arm around me and
5:39 we went together. That night at
5:41 midnight, we all went outside of the
5:43 Holiday Inn in Plano, Texas, and walked
5:46 on hot coals about a 8 to 10 foot long
5:47 strip. And that gave me a new
5:49 perspective on life. You see, most
5:51 people don't believe you can do that
5:53 without getting burned. So they'll never
5:55 try it. But here's what's incredible.
5:58 Before I did it, over 50,000 other
6:00 people had already done it. So, if they
6:01 can do it, why can't I? And after the
6:03 firewalk, that became my new mantra. If
6:05 they can do it, why can't I? Oh, it
6:08 helped me in so many ways. Get over fear
6:10 of public speaking. Get over the fear of
6:12 making cold calls. Get over the fear of
6:14 starting a business. I mean, I think you
6:16 get the point. That experience drove my
6:20 new beliefs. Those beliefs drove new
6:22 actions. Those actions created my
6:23 results. You probably don't know this,
6:25 but I grew up in love, Texas. I went to
6:28 college for only three days and then I
6:30 quit. My dad never made more than
6:32 $23,000 a year, and he didn't provide a
6:34 lot of leadership growing up. In years
6:36 after the Firewalk, I've written six
6:38 books. Not bad for a college dropout. I
6:40 started a training company. I've trained
6:43 over 10,000 producers. I started a
6:45 technology company. I've stayed married
6:46 to the same woman for 40 years. And I've
6:48 raised four daughters. I'm telling you
6:51 the formula. Experience drives beliefs.
6:53 Beliefs drive actions. and action drives
6:55 results. If you're not getting the
6:57 results you want, create new life
6:59 expanding experiences. So, there are a
7:01 lot of ways to create experiences. Role
7:03 playing is an experience. Go to a
7:04 workshop in another city with a bunch of
7:06 other producers and see if you think
7:08 you're as smart as they are. Or go to a
7:10 Porsche driving experience like in
7:12 Atlanta or LA and let a professional
7:14 driver take you on a hot lab. That'll
7:16 make you pucker. Or go skydive. Jump out
7:18 of a great, perfectly good airplane.
7:19 You'll be able to challenge your
7:20 courage. Or give a speech in front of a
7:22 friendly crowd. do something for crying
7:24 out loud to challenge your beliefs about
7:27 what you're capable of. And please, Mr.
7:29 and Mrs. Agency owner, you who control
7:31 the checkbook. You've got the ability to
7:33 do something great here. Don't let your
7:35 beliefs stop you. And here's the other
7:37 half of the equation. It's clarity. When
7:39 people know what they want and why they
7:41 want it, you don't need to motivate
7:43 them. They'll do that themselves. And
7:44 that's why I spend so much time on goal
7:46 setting. Not the annual, hey, fill out
7:48 the spreadsheet kind, but the personal
7:50 kind. sit down and ask your producers,
7:52 "What do you want? Why do you want it?
7:54 What does success actually look like for
7:56 you?" And if you're not afraid, get the
7:57 spouse involved because that will create
7:59 a lot of leverage. Because here's the
8:02 truth. High performance always equals
8:04 clarity of want. See, once people are
8:06 clear, focus gets easy. Once focus is
8:09 locked in, execution becomes natural.
8:10 Clarity drives focus. Focus drives
8:12 execution. That's the chain. And it
8:15 works every single time. When you build
8:16 that environment where people are clear
8:18 on their goals, focused on high impact
8:20 activities, and supported with the right
8:23 experiences, that's when the middle 60%
8:25 of your producers start to move. That's
8:27 when your agency starts to compound.
8:29 Struggle number two, attracting and
8:31 growing new producers. So once you start
8:33 making progress with your existing team,
8:35 the next challenge hits you hard. How do
8:37 you bring in new producers and actually
8:39 grow them into high performers without
8:41 growing broke in the process? I was
8:42 talking to a guy not too long ago. is
8:44 president of a large agency and also the
8:46 head of an association made up of some
8:48 of the top firms in North America. And
8:49 he said something that stuck with me. He
8:51 said, "Randy, if we hire 10 producers
8:53 within 5 years, we're lucky if four are
8:55 still here. The other six, they're
8:57 gone." Now, every one of those people
8:59 costs money. Salary, benefits, training
9:01 time. You can almost put a check mark
9:02 next to each one. Quarter million,
9:04 that's a million half dollars walking
9:06 out the door. So, no wonder agencies
9:08 hesitate to hire. But here's the irony.
9:09 The reason it's so expensive is because
9:12 they don't have a process. They treat
9:14 hiring like an event instead of a
9:16 discipline. See, there's a whole system,
9:18 a rhythm to locating, recruiting,
9:20 hiring, training, and developing
9:22 producers. And most agencies skip the
9:24 first three steps entirely. They start
9:25 at the hire and wonder why it doesn't
9:27 work. See, when you talk to agency
9:28 owners, you'll often hear the same
9:30 story. They meet someone who's friendly,
9:31 smart, and well spoken. They think,
9:33 "Yeah, this one's going to be
9:34 different." So, they bring them on, give
9:36 them a desk, a phone, and say, "Go get
9:38 them." And if they're lucky, that person
9:40 flames out fast. If they're not lucky,
9:42 they stick around for years, not
9:44 producing much, but also not leaving.
9:46 And that's not a people problem. That's
9:48 a leadership problem. So, you got to
9:50 fall in love with this business again if
9:52 you want to recruit people into it.
9:53 Because if you don't believe this is an
9:55 amazing career, one that can create
9:57 wealth and independence for young,
9:59 hungry people, they'll feel that. You
10:00 won't persuade anyone into an
10:02 opportunity you don't fully believe in.
10:04 So, start there. Talk to people from
10:06 outside the industry, strong
10:08 salespeople, ambitious professionals,
10:10 and help them see what's possible here.
10:12 But then back it up with structure.
10:14 Train them properly. Don't hand them a
10:16 phone book. Hand them a plan. Give them
10:18 a sales process that works. Teach them
10:20 how to build a prospect list, set
10:22 appointments, and close deals with
10:23 confidence. And when you interview,
10:25 learn to tell the difference between a
10:27 producer and a pretender. Producers
10:30 produce. Pretenders make excuses. If you
10:32 can't see that distinction early on,
10:33 it'll cost you later. Now, let's talk
10:35 about the third big struggle, and this
10:37 is the one that keeps most agency owners
10:39 up at night. How do you run your agency,
10:41 grow your own book, and still find time
10:43 to lead your producers? It's hard
10:44 because you're constantly pulled in
10:46 multiple directions. You got to book a
10:48 business. That's how you make most of
10:49 your money. You've got a team of
10:51 producers that needs direction, and you
10:52 have an agency to run. You got to meet
10:54 with underwriters, HR problems,
10:56 accounting issues. It never seems to
10:59 stop. And what generally falls off the
11:01 get it done list is sales leadership.
11:03 You don't mean neglect it. It just gets
11:05 buried. And when it does, your growth
11:07 flatlines. Most owners I talk to feel
11:08 guilty about it. They know they should
11:10 be holding better meetings, tracking
11:12 pipelines, coaching producers, but it's
11:13 timeconuming. Why? Because you have weak
11:15 systems, so it's easier to just blow it
11:17 off. You hope producers are smart and
11:19 motivated enough to figure it out. After
11:21 all, that's what you did. But think
11:22 about it. If your accounting team did a
11:24 crappy job of tracking receivables,
11:26 payables, or profit margins, you'd fire
11:28 them and start over. But when you do a
11:30 crappy job of training, coaching, and
11:31 developing your producers, you justify
11:33 it with a bunch of excuses. That's not
11:36 leadership. That's neglect. Your role as
11:37 a leader isn't just to manage. It's to
11:39 develop. You got to coach your people
11:42 the way that a basketball coach trains
11:44 players, does drills, repetition,
11:46 feedback, skill building. I mean, you
11:47 can't just hand them the playbook and
11:49 hope they'll win. You got to practice
11:50 the fundamentals until they become
11:52 muscle memory. So, in this third
11:54 struggle, the really issue isn't time,
11:56 it's structure. It's creating the right
11:58 rhythm so leadership becomes natural,
12:00 not another thing on your to-do list.
12:02 And that's why I built what I call the
12:04 triple threat solution. A system that
12:07 ties together sales training, sales CRM,
12:09 and sales management into one platform.
12:11 Because when you have everything you
12:12 need to train, coach, and develop your
12:14 producers in only one place, it gets
12:16 easier. When your sales and leadership
12:18 playbooks are matched with your CRM
12:20 technology, everyone becomes more
12:22 productive. But here's the big takeaway.
12:24 Your agency will only grow at the rate
12:26 your producers grow. And your producers
12:27 will only grow at the rate that you lead
12:30 them. You probably won't take more time.
12:32 You'll just use your time better. So,
12:33 when you've been in this business long
12:35 enough, you start to notice a pattern.
12:37 It's never the market or the carriers or
12:39 the competition that holds an agency
12:41 back. It's almost always something
12:44 internal, a mix of fear, bad habits, and
12:45 missing structure that quietly keep good
12:47 people from performing their potential.
12:49 And when you finally see that clearly,
12:50 when you can name what's actually
12:53 slowing you down, something shifts. You
12:55 stop reacting, and you start leading.
12:56 And that's what this whole conversation
12:58 is really about. Not motivation, not
13:01 recruitment, not management, leadership.
13:02 Because when you lead with clarity,
13:04 everything else follows. Producers don't
13:06 need another speech. They need someone
13:08 to help them believe again in
13:10 themselves, in the business, and what's
13:11 possible if they go allin. Once you
13:13 remember why you got into this game in
13:15 the first place, growth stops feeling
13:16 like a grind. It starts feeling
13:18 inevitable. And that's what we built Big
13:21 Nishion for. To give agency leaders a
13:24 way to translate all that potential into
13:25 progress, not through more meetings or
13:27 more pressure, but through rhythm. A way
13:29 to connect with what you want with what
13:31 actually happens every week. Look, if
13:33 that idea resonates with you, if you're
13:35 tired of working harder without seeing
13:36 movement, then I'd like to invite you to
13:38 take a look at what we call the growth
13:40 capability review. It's a short, focused
13:42 conversation designed to help you get
13:44 clear on where your agency stands today,
13:46 what's holding it back, and what kind of
13:48 growth is truly possible. There's no
13:50 pitch, no pressure, just clarity. And
13:52 clarity is where all growth begins.
13:54 Because you can't manage what you can't see.
