 What's up? Happy Saturday morning. Welcome to insurance influencers where we find Freakin power players and influencers in our industry and we bring them on we get to know them We take a deep dive and they share knowledge with you These are two of the craziest freaking dudes in our industry. You're gonna love them I love them already if you weren't at 8% nation 2019 then you missed out because they were dropping some bombs from stage Dude Scott Howell Bradley flowers welcome on gents. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us Cody It means a lot to be here. Love what you guys are doing really enjoy it I'll tell you a story about Cody. I got 8% nation There ran to a sound check real quick didn't think I would really get a chance to speak to you at 8% nation And you took the time to come on stage where I was up there trying to figure out exactly what we were gonna do You took the time to come in there and you were extremely busy. I know that and And spend some time with me and that meant a lot to me if you spend five or ten minutes with me Just just chopping it up for a few minutes. I really appreciate you dude. Thank you, buddy It was an honor to have you guys on stage doing a live podcast from stage and you guys did super well One of the biggest hits of the whole thing, man. It was great You know, I was telling somebody Spoke it up a big event in Tennessee this weekend and we spoke to about 50 carriers and brokers and then we spoke to About the same number of young agents there and I have a really I have a really hard time gauging how well I do in an event like that because I'm sometimes I'm like, you know, I feel like I did well or that we did well But I also don't want to be the guy that goes on stage at the American Idol I'm My mom says I'm the best singer in the world. You guys agree and they're like no don't ever sing again So I You know, I think anytime I go on stage and come off and people ask me how I feel like I did I just have no You know, it's the only people I know to ask are the people that were there to determine whether or not they got Out of it and that's what matters. Exactly. Well, it was it was good, man It was you know what I love about you guys is you work well off of each other really well You're not afraid to Hurt anybody's feelings, you know, you you do your thing, you know, you're not looking You just you just you know what I mean? You guys are just you're authentic. You're genuine You're yourselves. You have fun. Well, there's no agenda. You know what I mean, like We're just we're just doing what we know know to do, you know We're sticking to our mission and and that's that, you know, you know, every every time we have a podcast episode I would say 90% of the time one of the things I say is I'm no different than the 250,000 insurance agents listening to this right now. I have the same problems I have the same issues both in my personal life and my business life and I have the inability to ever perceive myself as being anything more than they are and Maybe that's a mistake on my part. Maybe that's a mistake on my part Maybe I should feel like I'm you know, this podcast host and all this other stuff, but I Don't know. There's something inside Inside my personality that just does not allow me to feel that way. I just totally totally well For those that don't know these two gentlemen do the insurance guys podcast. It's probably or I mean It's got to be the most popular insurance podcast in the world, correct You know, I mean, there's a lot of good ones out there. Yeah, I mean Yeah, we haven't Speak for itself, you know, you guys you guys had freaking Gary Vaynerchuk on couple for crying out loud. Come on. Come on Yeah, but I'll let that speak for itself I think yeah, just like everything else in life, whether it's a television show Numbers speak for itself. All I know is Bradley and I get a lot of Positive comments and people asking for advice relative to the insurance industry and for us. That's really what it's about We don't look at numbers. We don't look at somebody ask us for our Our numbers a couple weeks ago and we intentionally don't look at that stuff simply because We don't want to get into that thing. I mean, it's just it doesn't matter All and it's you know, I was on a panel at a Local event here the public relations council of Alabama and that was me for other people And of course they were wanting analytics and you know, what analytics do you track and this this that the other and that's more Yeah, you know a quarter thing, right? You know, I was like, look the literally with the podcast especially the only thing I track is impact Like how many are reaching out how many people are saying, oh my god, you changed my life. Oh my god I implemented this or or hey, you're you're an idiot like what that's that's the only thing It's like the whole you know, I saw a facebook post this week from a guy that ran one of these like spammy Entrepreneur page that all they do is share other people's content and make it their own And he had 6,800 likes on an instagram post And that many comments and I'm like You know, that's this vanity metrics, you know, like let's look at engagement. Let's look at converge and let's look at that kind of thing You know We could have we could have a thousand listeners to our podcast But if 800 of them are reaching out to us that's much more important than having 250,000 and 10 people reaching out I think that's a I think that's a good thing for anyone that's ever wanting to start one too It's like if you're doing it for the listeners and nobody listens You're going to stop doing it if you're doing it for the listeners and you get a bunch of listeners It's probably going to go to your head, you know, you guys are genuine You're authentic at great personalities and you don't care, you know, you you love doing it You know secretly for me and I've told bradley this before I've shared this before for me it's a Little bit of a mini vacation to come down here because like I've got my wife here with me this this weed We'd left all the kids at the house You know, we get to spend some time together and And we can get away from the office and it seems like I'm down here every week But I was telling the buddy of mine my best friend from high school called me with an insurance question Who by the way doesn't even have his insurance from these with state form, but I digress Um, he called me the night before last and I was saying to him I said, you know, it feels like I go to mobile every week, but in reality, I really don't go down there Uh, but maybe once every two or three months and one of the things I'll tell your listeners people watching your podcast right now And it's something that I got from louis howl who has one of the biggest podcasts in the world Uh, louis louis is the one that came up with the idea that kind of struck struck a chord with me that Hey, if you're really going to do this Uh, you need to batch file your podcast so that you don't feel like you know, you're just doing it all the time Well, and it's hard to you know, like I respect you because you're a guy that I can tell you make content a priority Right Creating that daily content, but if you're like most people it's hard even myself You know, I had this idea I was going to do a local podcast here every and we were going to do it weekly I did one episode and never did it again. You know, whereas when you batch them It allows you to be consistent and that's one thing that I think we've done really well Is that we consistently release one every wednesday at 7am 8am eastern We release a podcast and it's because the backs that were able to do that if we were doing weekly Hands down one week a month something would come up and you wouldn't be able to do it Right, right. So so one of the things I'll tell you kody and I'm speaking directly to you Not to your audience right now unless they want to start a podcast two things. I'm going to say Do not stop I don't care what happens. I don't care In barring a nuclear holocaust where all the power grids in the united states of america go out do do A podcast 50 episodes and release it at the same time every week So here comes my second tip for you where we are right now in the world of podcasting and technology Is everybody has a podcast now podcasting has gone from when bradley and I started It was kind of in its infancy stage and someone insurance Yeah, well just everything and then the last two years every human being on the I just helped One a really good friend of mine who I played college basketball with just started a A basketball podcast that's and I and I it's pro one And he's he's got some of the biggest names in the world of professional basketball online And I basically walked him step by step on how to start a podcast now. Let me tell you where i'm going with that because of the Amount and number of podcasts that are out there now that people can listen to It is it is probably most important That you have that consistency that you're putting that podcast out every week because If you decide that hey, we're going to take a month and a half off from podcasting There's so many podcasts out there that you're going to lose hundreds or thousands of listeners And now they're watching something else or listening to something else And you may never get those people back It's true So those are the two big things I would I would suggest to you as you don't want to know Many episodes you guys are on right now, but like a dozen like a dozen. Yeah You gotta get to 50 and you gotta do it at the same time every week or you're gonna lose And even johnny our producer He's like something strange is gonna happen at 50 and that's where you kind of really start to see good I don't know if it's something with the Some of the algorithms on the podcast platforms or if it's just you You've built up that core fan base and then you have the second fan base Which are the people that listen every now and then and then you start getting A wider scale of guests where you may have a guest on that appeals to an additional, you know, we had gary on I mean you can imagine how many people listen to just that one episode and have never listened to another one So you get you get kind of those three kind of segmentations of listeners at that point it's and that's when you can really you know, and it isn't as a matter of fact You know 10 minutes ago. We recorded our hundredth episode. So we're Yeah Congrats gents. That's awesome so so You know Tell me what questions you guys have got for me today What do you think your audience would like to hear and we'll be happy to answer any of them that you got man I love it, man. Well, dude, that's why I love, um, you guys are you guys are so good at this now You can tell you've done it so much that like there was no agenda here either I'm like, I'm gonna jump on camera and it's gonna be great So sydney sydney roe was just on our podcast a few minutes ago and at the very end of it she goes Man, you you asked some incredibly good questions Sydney I've done it a hundred times I've done it a hundred times. That's it. That's it Something I thought of that you guys just mentioned because you gave you give several tips for someone That would want to start a podcast What's each of your favorite podcast to listen to? Not not of your own Another podcast that's not yours. Yeah So so it would it would depend it's like asking me, you know people throughout your life ask you What is the your favorite movie you've ever seen? Yeah, my response to that is first you got to tell me what genre we're talking about, right? You know, is it a horror movie comedy? Say it's comedy. Say it's comedy. What is that? Uh, probably my favorite comedy of all time was raising arizona with nicolas cage. Do you remember that? That movie just owned me when it came out. I need to go watch it. I don't yeah raising arizona christmas vacation of Old school old school because it reminded me of my friends and the stupid shit we've done. Um, those Step brothers was phenomenal Yes, um But yeah, those would be three of the big ones for me. That would be the campaign that was Yeah, that was This question this week That was one of we did a q&a with uh the president or the ceo of the big eye of tennessee And that was one question she asked. Yeah My mind's gonna be I don't listen to a lot of insurance stuff if you can imagine that. Um, Yeah, a roguin podcast just because I like learning a lot of Like he's not scared I just like learning about I just saw today had Edward snowed it on I cannot wait to enter that to listen Um, another you have to be in the mood. It's called business And to give an example of their first effort and so they do seasons. Um, have you seen business wars? I have never really actually recommended that to me And so for example, the first one was netflix versus blockbuster And so there's a narrator Tell the story And then they have actors doing voices like of the actual conversation So it's more of a tv show and podcast for documentary tv show It's really really cool just to get like some I pick up business advice from it, but that's really not what it's meant for Yeah, yeah, so for me, I would say In the insurance space, um Mike stromso's upp podcast for property and casualty agents It's so Scott howl It's not even funny because you literally have to get a pen and paper out when you listen to that podcast Because he gives actual very tangible very tangible advice It's everything he says on that podcast. I'm a I'm a mike stromso They are in the middle of their upp and they go the unstoppable profit producer Workshop they do out and I think it's in san diego this week But might just give tangible advice on on people processes and promotion that a lot of Fluff, it's just get you down pen and paper out and get ready to write some shit down And it's not it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. It might be it's a little bit if it Seems a little bit more towards the the traditional ways of doing this But Mike is he has a way of putting it back together to this day and age, you know It's a very good podcast. You're like when I just listen to something That's not a lot of fluff and I'm gonna get some things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's good Love rogan love, uh, tom cigar and burt krischer. They have two bears one cave. That is a Hilarious Two bears Hilarious podcast some of your guests will be And it but it is absolutely you you you like, uh I can tell you like you're a comedy fan. You like to laugh, you know, you I do I love Scott one time at a halloween party Dressed up as cut People I love look does that not fit perfect. I had the road the whole the exact costume when he was out there and said You know waves hey shitter's full had that exact costume on the whole thing. Oh, yeah Oh, that's good. Halloween is my favorite Holiday because I love to dress up and costumes and things and I just absolutely in fact I'll give you a little insight So in order to differentiate ourselves from other insurance agencies out there, you know We always talk about how to differentiate yourselves So what we do halloween at my agency is as our agency staff Dresses up as a group as a group like some group thing that we do last year. It was toy story I was Andy and and then we have a professional Photographer Was uh Oh, sorry. I was woody. Anyway, we we we dress up and then have a professional photographer come take a picture And we use that picture for our christmas card That's our christmas card to send out I love doing it. It's fantastic. You had the pie chart What would it say something like how great is It's customer service. Yeah, it was like awesome in blue. Then he had this one little strip of yellow and it said awesome in yellow Yeah, yeah It's not a good kind of creative and stuff like that. But uh, yeah, anyway, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get off on it No, no, I love that. That's that's that's a good unique thing You know the people can like sort of think I saw the box and be creative because our industry can be so stinking boring I love that. I love that. Yeah. Well, what's your uh, go go ahead. Good What I was just gonna say what other questions do you have for today? Yeah, I would say uh What would you say is like how do you guys look for when you book your guest? Well, what's what what's kind of the is there a is there a Science to it. Does it really matter? Well, let me let me back up first and say that there's nobody that does a better job of Booking than than bradley does and any podcast because bradley's not afraid to ask Anybody to come on the podcast if you think of a name of somebody he's either Already invited them or he's about to invite them. Um, we are this close This close to getting frown all Oh, just a matter of scheduling. Yeah. Yeah, you know what? Cardone's office was the first place that came to mind. So that's okay. That's good So what I would say is when we're thinking about podcast guests the first thing you got to think of What value is that person going to bring to this show? If it's somebody that we even think Uh Is gonna be a little pitchy. We don't even you know Um, you know in the beginning we did a lot of we did a lot of selling, you know I would type out, you know, hey, this is our podcast here. It is on apple You know, we've interviewed this person, you know a lot of like, you know Just to just through the noise so to speak, you know, and it was funny in the beginning. We had Tom Hagna on Who's a big player in the life insurance space? And and you know, we at the time had a they still do have a decent um Listener listener base of state farm agents and tom is Worshiped among state farm agents and it's like man, how in the world you get Tom Hagna on? I'm like my phone I go to facebook and I say hey tom wants to be on my pot like like the guy was like, what do you know? You're contacting the agent you like going through the book in the public system like I picked up my phone I got a facebook and I mess Is that it because that was that was one of my next questions is how do you approach? You know what I mean? So so it's been a hundred percent to the dms Um slide into the dms Slide into the and and you know So that's kind of how we started a lot of selling and then about I would say 20 ish 15 20 episodes in Um, that's when people started reaching out. You know now it's pretty much A hundred percent people reaching out and saying hey, I want to come on And and you know and we turn we turn away more people than than we bring on and I mean and now we have Now we do have the publicist. I mean on a daily basis There's these these publicists for people to get you on podcast and it's okay Come see this kind of podcast that kind of thing We try to stick to a lot of agents, you know I really like interviewing kind of the players in our space and what are they what are they gonna do to You know, what are they doing that we can then take and and help other people? You know that kind of thing um with the occasional You know if we come across an awesome company and they're able to work something out where we can Say hey, look, this is something awesome that you guys need to know about that kind of thing So, you know and we're we're uh There's no process. It's just a matter of those few things with me today. I would agree. Yeah, I like high energy people I like people who have a story. I like great storytellers I like people that can match my energy and can really you know chop it up while they're on the show with me um So those are the and I and I what I really like to do is get like one pretty big agency owner on the podcast Somebody that has a lot of experience and is very thoughtful and then follow that up with like a technology Podcast so that agents learn about a new technology. We're about to I think go on air with glove box There's a new insurance technology that's coming out um and then and then in kind of scattered in between that I like to do small agents That maybe you're just you know small agencies that are You know, maybe have something cool. They're doing or You know a thought leader outside of the insurance industry. We had coach bird on this morning He's today's podcast that just got released Guys like that. They're great storytellers. They have fantastic information And a lot of times they'll say something in the podcast that makes insurance agents go damn I never thought of that that's incredible. So I like those kinds of people They're they're really a fun interview because they're real dynamic. You you you know coach bird you have a relationship with him. Yes I love those guys. I love them Because they'll chop it up with you and they'll get after it. No, he's awesome. Yeah, he he is he's he's uh He's high energy. He's he's a he's a great coach. I I'm definitely a big fan of burt I really am how do you uh Now have you thought about like a uh in our space, you know, you've got some big names like uh, you guys can hear me, right? Yeah, barely barely barely Okay, you guys heard some big names like uh ed my let Patrick bet david Have you all approached them thoughts on them as a podcast? um I've listened to both of those guys, you know, I think I really would love to have ed my let. I haven't even really He'd be great. He'd be a great podcast. He and I would get along like peas and carrots I'd love to have him on there Dude, he's I he's intense. I love it man. He's strong. He's real good. You know what? Andy forcella So andy forcella Is the only person i've ever reached out to that has not got that somehow has not gotten back in some way I don't even know. Scott knows that like even gary You know frank herron like andy is the only one that I haven't been able to kind of get to the person You know And and and to be in you know their defense it was actually early I mean, I think we were on our second or third episode when I reached out to him So that was more of a shoot for the stars kind of thing That's good. Is it a uh Is there some follow-up involved if you want to if you want to grab a big name like that Is there some follow-up involved? Dude, gary took a year and a half Whoa And a year and a half and in that time frame I did agent 2021 I had him at my conference. We had dinner together all of that happened before we were ever able to even get close to a Yes, so a lot of good things had to happen in that time frame What what was something that you did that uh Helped you get someone like him on the podcast like was there a critical move or You gotta do you've got to figure out and this is this is you know I'll give you an example. Um You've got to figure out who the influential person is in the organization and it goes back to the whole like Life insurance sell an employee benefit You've got to figure out who either the gatekeeper is or the influential person In that space. It's it's it goes back to the bread and butter of insurance. You know, um You know, and that's that's really the the key is you know figure out who that is that has that has access to the calendar You know, um, I spoke in a conference one time that uh, and I'm not going to say which one it is. It wasn't yours I had another Influential person in the insurance space hating on me on twitter without using my name Saying something to the effect of you know, name me one insurance speaker at this conference. It has more than 2000 Twitter followers. Well, he was talking about me. I was the only person that was on the At that time and I'm like don't criticize me because I was Tackful enough to figure out who the person was that was running the conference behind the scenes not the face But the behind the scene person don't criticize me because I was strategic to figure out who that is And you just expect to tweet a bunch and somebody's gonna ask you to do it You know, like don't fault somebody for having more tenacity than what you have Hmm That's good That's good. Dude this I love it man. I love it. Uh, is there anything else you guys want to add as someone that I view as an influencer In our industry looking to help people looking to you know, maybe from a From a podcast personal brand Content perspective anything else you guys want to add some final tips for anybody that's looking to do something like that Well, I I think you've got to get you, you know Figure out what you're good at first of all and You know put a lot of content out on social media and do it in a way that Has zero expectation of anything in return, but just wanting to help people And that doesn't you know, I've been I've been saying this for a year now But if I had it to do over again, I love Bradley so much and I do anything for him but I would have probably started a podcast and The niche markets that we sell commercial insurance because instead of You know the way we did this is really mind numbing in the fact that we're we're just talking to other insurance agents Yeah, if if I was going to get in the podcasting world and I was in the insurance space I would be talking about my niche market whatever it was that I was selling Here's the key with that like don't you know, don't do a pod if you're a niche's apartments Don't do a podcast about apartment insurance. Do a podcast about apartments right bring influential people in And a byproduct of that is they're gonna look we do a podcast to the insurance industry. I sell insurance from that podcast right Um Somebody asked me the other day like Bradley, you know social media is great But like I don't really think you can sell commercial insurance on the c side. I'm like dude doing a podcast in Rowanoke, Virginia, wherever you are the Rowanoke business podcast Interview other business people about their business. Yeah video it record it. You've got your podcast You've got your video not to mention 80 little one-minute clips you can put out there. Okay Other business owners are gonna watch it. They're gonna know your name The business owner you interviewed is gonna feel guilted into letting you quote their commercial insurance If you ask for a deck page after you've given them free advertising Other businesses are gonna reach out to you swear to god. This is gonna happen Other businesses are gonna reach out to you and they're gonna say hey, Bradley Can I really please can you interview me on your podcast? It'd be great advertising for your business Yeah, rick the cost is I need your deck page You will sell commercial insurance on facebook on social media like Why does why I mean, you know, so and why am I not doing that? Yeah, I know right? So You know, so we got a guy in Tupelo, Mississippi doing that. He uh, actually eight percent nation That's where we met him. Yeah. He was at eight percent nation It's your it's your conference He had reached out to us before then though. Yeah, and uh, You know Bradley and I I thought it was a terrific idea. He had but we uh, we encouraged him to Uh, we each had a few different ideas, but it was something to where he basically became You know learn more about Tupelo, Mississippi start a facebook page Start interviewing businesses the local businesses, you know You ask a good question and there's there's that's a long answer and it takes a lot of different parts to that I think to get influencer You've got to have the consistency the way Bradley does. I don't have that consistency uh being on social media every day posting great content You got to have a platform like a podcast that They kind of gets your name out there in the industry And if you do it long enough and you have a consistency and here's the big key You post great content whether it's a podcast or on social media Eventually not going to happen in a week not going to happen in a month But eventually over a year or two three four or five You'll start gaining some traction and and and and you may have some opportunities Here's the thing too man is Joe Rogan is this generation's David Letterman. Absolutely. He's this generation's Johnny Carson Like you're you could legit like in as I'm like I'm looking at Saraland right There's 14,000 people in the town of my agency's in like I could be the news station For you anybody could be the news station for that town. Absolutely based off that podcast, you know, look at it that way You know, hey, I'm not I'm not going to uh to to talk about my agency I'm just going to talk about relevant events going on in the community and interview people Right things like that and it's going to drive traffic back to your agency. Everybody's going to know You know Become your own town's net I like that I love that dude that that was some really really good ideas. I'm telling you what if someone doesn't Take action on what we just heard They're missing out because that was strong. Listen. I don't care if you're selling life disability PNC That doesn't matter what products you're selling and this is a this is a Scott Howell right here too Okay, nobody else has ever said this so I'm gonna I'm gonna be the first I was driving down the road last week and I was thinking about Bradley And I was thinking about the insurance industry and and I got to thinking about it And I said, you know, the most clear and concise way that I can say this to people Is that no matter what product you sell in the insurance industry and you're in your town or the city that you live in You need to be that local politician That's running for the school board Or probate judge or the circuit judgeship, you know those guys and girls that do that for about six months All you see is their signs They're they're they're running commercials. They're doing social media and then and then the They don't disappear and then the elections over and they're gone But but if you treat this thing like you're a local person running for office And just work like that all the time to get your name out there You're going to bring some business in the door. There's no way you can't And people will probably ask you to run office later say that again And people will probably ask you to run for office later, even though you didn't intend on doing that. Absolutely Absolutely. Don't do that. That's great. The guy who like Has influence on the politicians Peter's about to die. So dude, you guys are awesome man. Hey They can they can download insurance guys podcast on itunes, right? Anywhere podcasts are Howl or bradley flowers or insurance or gary v insurance, it will come up. Yeah, I love you Thank you guys for being on. Hey, go listen to these guys the insurance guys podcast. They're influencers in the industry Thanks for watching the show