Finding Peak w/ Ryan Hanley - AMA: Leading a Remote Team, Training Programs & Advice to My Younger Self

Episode Date: August 17, 2023

Spartan philosophy, built in the black-ops lab of business: https://www.findingpeak.comFinding Peak podcast: https://linktr.ee/ryan_hanleyReady to master the art of remote leadership and build effective training programs?We discuss these and so much more in my first AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode of the podcast...Strap in as we embark on a journey through the complexities of maintaining unity and connection within a remote team environment. We'll get hands-on with the power of regular meetings, random check-ins, and the unifying force of company swag.I’ll share with you my own experiences and insights on how to celebrate team win in a remote setting and the importance of intentional connections within the team.Navigating the challenges of training and managing remote teams can be tricky, but fear not. We delve into the process of onboarding new employees remotely, customizing training approaches, and developing a modular program for company-specific training. From the benefits of digital training platforms to the importance of cultural understanding and process familiarity, we'll equip you with the tools you need to ensure your remote team is on the same page.In the final leg of our journey, we get real about underwriter-agent relationships, focusing on solutions and how to help agents get to a 'yes'. I open up about personal experiences and the frustrations that come with submitting accounts to underwriters. Further, we discuss the concept of service in solving problems and the importance of a killer instinct in life. To round off, we end on a lighter note and indulge in my love for conspiracy theories and the role of entertainment in our lives. So tune in and buckle up, because this is going to be one insightful adventure.Resources Mentioned:Reach out to Ryan HanleyRyan Hanley InstagramRogue RiskFinding Peak--Recommended Tools for GrowthOpusClip: #1 AI video clipping and editing tool: https://link.ryanhanley.com/opusRiverside: HD Podcast & Video Software | Free Recording & Editing: https://link.ryanhanley.com/riversideWhisperFlow: Never waste time typing on your keyboard again: https://link.ryanhanley.com/whisperflowCaptionsApp: One app for all your social media video creation: https://link.ryanhanley.com/captionsappGoHighLevel: It's time to take your business workflow to the Next Level: https://link.ryanhanley.com/gohighlevelPerspective.co: The #1 funnel builder for lead generation: https://link.ryanhanley.com/perspective--Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9This show is part of the Unplugged Studios Network — the infrastructure layer for serious creators. 👉 Learn more at https://unpluggedstudios.fm.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

crude laboratory in the basement of his home. Well, everyone, and welcome back to the show. Today we have a special episode, A Ask Me Anything episode that if you guys enjoy, I would love to do more of these. It's kind of a Q&A format. Recently asked all of you to submit questions about really anything that you wanted to know

or wanted me to answer. Got a whole bunch of questions, which was awesome. Appreciate everyone who submitted questions. I pulled out, I think three or four questions that I'm going to address on today's episode that I just thought were interesting and engaging and that would add some value to you guys. But if you enjoy this format, let me know

and we'll do more of these. And you can always submit questions. I've kind of been trying to dial in my social media usage just because super busy with Roe Griske and other things that are going on. So the best place to connect with me would actually be Instagram. I just find it to be super easy to manage

and respond to people and I like to share images and different stuff. So I am Ryan underscore Hanley, H-I-N-L-E-Y on Instagram. So go there, follow me, ask questions, whatever. I also post a ton of updates and different stuff that we're learning at Rogue or in general thoughts. And I've just been using that platform quite a bit to grow and share. And it's really the best place to connect with me. So go to Instagram. If you have questions, leave the questions there. And then if we start building up a regular flow of questions, we'll do more of these

Ask Me Anything episodes. But in the meantime, I got some great questions. I want to go through. A couple of them are general and a couple are specific to the insurance industry. So for those of you who listen to the show that are part of the insurance industry, you're going to get some stuff specifically for you. For those of you who are not, you're going to get a ton of great kind of insight or hopefully a ton of great insights. I have to actually answer the questions and you have to enjoy them. But not everything is insurance focus. Some of it is kind of ubiquitous to business in general. So we'll get to all those in just a second. Guys, a couple of big announcements for you before we get there.

The podcast is going to be moving off of, starting in September, is going to be moving off of the agency intelligence main feed. So if you are listening to this in the agency intelligence main feed, then I would encourage you to subscribe to my specific feed, my specific kind of, whether it's iTunes or Spotify or whatever, otherwise you will stop hearing the show. So we're going to be going to only my feed. It's not going to be pushed out through that kind of feed

that has all the shows and the agency in the podcast network feed. It's just going to be my feed. So if you want to continue to get the show, if you want to continue to listen to the episodes, we have a tremendous, tremendous fall schedule guests, different kind of content formats. We're going to be coming out and testing and trying to really deliver a tremendous,

amount of value to you guys through this format. As, you know, we're learning a tonnet rogue. I want to share that stuff with you. Also have some amazing guests lined up. And if you want that stuff starting in September, got to be subscribed wherever you listen to your podcast to the Ryan Hanley Show feed. If you're listening to this through the agency intelligence feed

starting in September, that will be done. You will no longer be able to get it there. Great. Guys, and the last thing is, you know, I said on the last episode, I'm not doing sponsorships anymore. that is 100% the case. I'm doing that so I can mostly, one, I just don't have time to manage sponsors, but mostly I want to focus specifically on value to you.

I want to focus on sharing content, sharing ideas that helps you grow, that helps you, you know, just live the life that you want to live as much as I can provide you with solutions, heuristics, values, people that you should follow who can provide you those things. But if you do get value from this show, What I would appreciate more than anything is just sharing the show, right? Sharing the show in whatever way you think makes sense. Tell somebody about it, text it to somebody, email it to somebody, share it with your team,

push it out into social media. And if you're feeling super froggy, ratings and reviews on iTunes really helped. I checked the other day. You know, we have 91 ratings and a 4.9% rating on iTunes for this show, but we haven't had a new rating or review since 2021. I think some of that has to do with people listening to this show on the agency intelligence feed and not my feed specifically. But if you're feeling super froggy and you want to jump over there and leave a rating and review the show, that helps as well. Because as I reach out to guests that aren't in the insurance industry that are outside of my main industry, they look at that stuff as a validation point for whether or not they're willing to come on the show.

So the more ratings and reviews you have, obviously the more positive ratings and reviews you have, and the more current ratings and reviews that you have, it helps me reach out to more interesting guests from outside the insurance industry, bring them in, have them share their expertise, thoughts, whatever with you guys. So we would very much appreciate that. So, okay, so that's kind of the business, share. We rating review would be tremendous. If you're not into either one of those things, then just listen, and I appreciate you for that. Also, I guess very last housekeeping update, I am going to start sharing the video recordings of the conversations that I have as well.

And if you're watching this or if you're listening to this and for some reason want to watch, I'll have this, the video version of this up on YouTube as well. So if you go to we're at YouTube, just search Ryan Hanley, you'll find me. And if you don't, it's Ryan M. my middle name is Michael Ryan M. Hanley on YouTube. So like YouTube.com slash at Ryan M. Hanley is my YouTube. So I will have the videos and recordings up on YouTube as well just because people have been asking for that. There's a, there's some segment, you know, of the listeners and stuff that that like to listen or like to watch on YouTube for whatever reason. No judgment. Just they like to do that. So we're going to start providing value there as well. Okay. So with all that, let's get

to these questions. I got three or four of them. And let's see, where do we want to start? So let's, this first question is, Hey brother, what's the best tips around leading and being engaged remotely? I live in Florida and we're scaling our team out through North Carolina and other states,

and I find it sometimes to, sometimes tough to be apart when you're not in the office. and that is a absolutely tremendous question. So remote leadership is incredibly difficult. There are many things that you have to think about. Most notably is that it is very easy for even high performers to feel like they're on an island. And I'll tell you, I feel this way sometimes. You know what I mean?

I work from home a lot. We do have a co-working space here in the Greater Albany area. Technically, it's in Troy. It's been our kind of headquarters since the very, since the first day that Rogue existed. and we have a couple shared office spaces that we rent that are specifically ours. And that's kind of a good place. But there's only four of us here in the Albany area. The rest of our 20, if you count our VA's 25-person team is spread throughout the entire country and the world, obviously, with some of the VAs.

And, you know, that is a dynamic that's very interesting. Now, what I'll tell you is during COVID, during anything like that, we were, we weren't impacted at all. Like it meant like obviously the businesses we were working with there were a lot of impacts to society. But like in terms of our day to day activity, COVID had a zero impact by being remote and by being native remote.

Like we're natively remote as a company. But the biggest thing we have to watch, particularly as leaders, is this sense of being on an island. And you could look at a high performer and say, geez, they're doing great. you know, they're fine. I'm going to, I'm going to kind of ignore them or give them space or or whatever and focus on the people who are having problems or our problems. Now, you obviously,

it's our nature to give the squeaky wheel the grease. But if we only focus on our highest performing or our problem children, I guess you could say, as leaders, then what happens is our high performers will start to deteriorate. And the. reason for that is they feel alone and they maybe don't feel appreciated they feel like they're not getting attention because even if we're very good at what we do we still have this narrative that is constantly going on in our head so we use slack heavily slack's very big um we also uh include we do regular uh every third week we do an all hands meeting um each department has their own meetings regularly scheduled, right? So regularly scheduled meetings very important. I hate over meeting.

You got to be, this is a got to find a balance here. But making sure the entire team gets together, making sure that each individual unit gets together. And then the other part is, as a leader, randomly reaching out to people is huge, particularly if you're using a tool like Slack or Teams or whatever, I just like tools that work. So that's why I use Slack instead of teams. But, you know, just random, hey, how's it going? What are you up to? What's working for you this week? Any big wins this week?

Anything I can take off your plate for you? Is there somebody I need to connect with you on the team? What's happening? How's it going? You're doing a great job. Like just these little drop-ins to your team members randomly go a very long way. It shows that you care. Additionally, you creating some sort of company culture, creating swag.

Like we found when we created swag items, T-shirts, you know, whatever, that that had a great impact. Because now people are wearing them in Zoom calls. They feel like they're part of something. Even if they're working from home, you're wearing your company logo, you know, be it a polo or a sweatshirt or a t-shirt or a T-shirt, that goes a very long way. Like some of these things that may be a company, you know, people will say, well, a company your size doesn't need that stuff. Or why are you wasting money on that? It's not a waste of money if it's pulling people together, right? If it's making them feel like they're part of something bigger.

Because when you're in an office, you always feel like you're part of something bigger, right? It kind of smacks you in the face every day. When you're working remotely, it is very easy to feel like your contribution is not appreciated or your contribution is not being noticed, et cetera. And we as leaders have to be very, very active. So when I'm doing like, so during our all hands meeting, I'll usually take the first five to 15 minutes depending on what I want to say and do like a little monologue. And that monologue will include shoutouts to team members that I think are doing great,

maybe a story from the week. I'll share big wins. I'll share how different departments have done things that I think are exceptional or interesting or some big task that they knock down. But we have to be over the top with pulling people in. Because when we feel like we're on an island, what we do is a lot of negativity starts to seep into our head. We start to tell ourselves stories about, man, they don't appreciate me or, man, I'm working so hard and no one even knows I'm doing it or, or, you know, why am I killing myself for this company or nothing, you know, this certain process doesn't work, but no one wants to hear it.

And the answer is, you know, a lot of times, if we're not intentional about these things, that could be true. We could be overlooking that person. And what we don't want is for anyone to feel like they're alone, right? That is the key to remote leadership is do everything you can to let every team member on your team know that they are not alone. And depending on the size of your company, that's going to be more difficult for, say, the CEO. You may have to really push this cultural thing down to your next management layer so that they're also touching everyone and making sure they're checking in. When you're in an office, you can just walk by everyone's desk. Hey, how's it going?

Little chit-chat, a little water cooler stuff. maybe company picnic once a month, very, very easy. In a remote environment, we have to be super intentional about touch points, about reaching out, about bringing people together, a little contest, little, you know, sometimes we do picture contests or people share like, you know, a picture from their weekend or, you know, whatever. Stuff like that draws people in. It allows them to understand our culture.

And as the top level leader, whoever, you know, if you're the CEO of that company, you have to over-share. You have to over-even if it's not in your disposition, you have to over-share because the opposite, if you are kind of quiet and keeping to yourself as a CEO, and you're like, you know, I need to get my work done. Yes, I get that part, but when you run a remote company, you can't work in isolation as a leader.

People feel like you don't exist. They lose touch with the company. You are a lynchpin. You have to be there. you have to be vocal and you have to be intentional about it. So hopefully that helped. Hopefully there's some good tidbits in there. Remote leadership is very difficult.

Leadership in general is very difficult, but remote leadership is a challenge. And the best thing I can say is be intentional about making sure no one feels alone. If you do that, the tactics specific to how you do that are going to be your company, your brand, your culture, what you want. but if you are intentional about making your people not feel alone, you will get a lot of runway out of that. And as long as you're sincere about it, they'll be very good.

Okay. So that's the first question. Thank you for that. That was tremendous. Let's go on to our second question here. This one is specific about training. How did you create, set up, and monitor the effectiveness of your training program? We desperately need to hire CSRs, but I want us to at least have a training framework in place.

So this question has two parts. I'm going to tell you what we do today, and I'm going to tell you what we are currently building right this second. So we today have someone on our team who is dedicated to training, and they come in and they do like one-on-one kind of hold someone's hand through the processes. We will send people out to, I really like Hartford's account manager training. So we'll use third-party trainings through carriers, use those. as well when necessary, depending on where the person is. But today, it is a lot of one-on-one,

obviously virtual, but one-on-one walking through tools, talking, asking questions. Those first couple weeks are very kind of driven by that one-on-one relationship with the individual in our company who is responsible for training new team members. That being said, and we've created some SOPs and different resources. I've shared with a lot of people. the one call close PDF that we have. We take them through things like that, you know, whatever. So that's been good. As far as how do we track or manage it,

it's mostly done by that, by that the individual who is the head of training and her job is really to say, this person's ready. And if someone's struggling, then they come to her and she figures out a solution. It's very customized to that individual person. It's very labor intensive.

And while it works, it tends to be, you know, it's not uniform and it tends to be very dependent on the person. And then you might find out that that person doesn't know as much as they said they know. And there's a lot of challenges to that. So what we are currently building is that same training professional while still doing that with the employees today, is building out essentially we're, I think we're going to use, we might use teachable or another one of the kind of coursework programs, like you would buy a SaaS course or whatever.

We're going to use that, but we're going to internalize it and basically build out moduled program that is specific to rogue risk, that new sales professionals, CSRs to start will go through and then we'll build out trainings for other departments in the company as we see fit. But what I want to be able to do is take every single individual who comes through this company and walk them

through a uniform process that talks about our culture, talks about the products we sell, talks about the tools we use, and then, depending on their position, breaks down very specific skills, processes, et cetera, to that position. And this is teaching them kind of the rogue way. Like this is our digital producer school.

And we are doing this because, you know, we've kind of picked now to do it, one, we didn't have the processes. This last year of our existence has been a lot of process documentation, a lot of fixing processes that had been broke and we were kind of just like had bubble gum and band-aids. We are kind of formally fixing those processes and then documenting them. And it's now time to kind of put that into something that we can train at scale because, you know, the whole goal of Rogue has never been to have five or I think we have eight producers today we're hiring two or three more in the not too distant future but the goal is to

someday have a hundred producers here and and and to get there and to have everyone be on page one if if someone goes through our training program and they don't like what we are i want to know like immediately i want them to there to be no questions what we're about how we operate and what it means to be uh a team member here at rogue risk and then and if they don't like that if that doesn't doesn't make sense to them. If they don't connect with that concept, then they can just pull the rip cord themselves, right? I mean, a big part of a successful relationship

is that a lot of times people take a job hoping it's gonna work. I want them to get so much information upfront that they know it's gonna work for that. That's a big part of it, and aspirational today, but that is where we're going. I think that a formalized, consistent process that people can go to that is specific and unique to rogue risk or whatever,

whatever your, you know, in this case, whatever your agency is. And these tools are relatively low cost. You know, I think we're, I think we pay like less than $100 a month and we can send as many people through it as we want. This, this training and the uniformity of this training when you're growing at scale is incredibly important. And, you know, so that's kind of how we're doing. We're literally going to make it like a, you know, someday probably have a subdomain, school.orgress.com.

And then when we get a new employee, they can go through it. Or if a current employee is having an issue, they can log in and walk through that module again, learn how to do that thing or someone moves positions. All that training is already set up. And people know exactly what they should be doing, how they should be doing it. And there's no questions around that. This is going back to our first question. And it's why I answered that first question first around remote work.

In a remote work environment where, you know, most agencies train people like you sit next to the best CSR or the best producer and you shadow them, right? That's, which is an incredible way to learn, not scalable, but incredibly effective. What the reality of a remote work environment is that you just don't have that ability. Like, you know, we're today not at a place where we can fly people in to some centralized location and get tons of training. We don't have a headquarters like that, nor do I necessarily see us building up enough, uh, human capital mass in any particular location.

that that would make sense. So in order to have a similar impact and effect at scale with a remote environment, we need a digital tool, a digital training platform. And after evaluation, you know, we came up with one of these course tools and we're just going to build it out. And then there'll be quizzes at the end of each module. So we know the person is at least at least downloaded some of that information into the brain. And then we can track the completion of that. And, you know, hopefully someday I'd love for people who've gone through kind of the rogue producer school to, you know, almost look at it as a badge of honor because they learned, you know, this type of production, digital production.

I would like to, you know, we're in the process of creating a best in class for digital production. There's, you know, there's, you know, Mick Hunt's a new platform, Patty, there's killing commercial. There are other sales trainers out there who have amazing programs for the things that they're great at. But I would put our digital sales process up against just about anybody. That's certainly what we do best. And we want to be the best in the world at everything we do. And training is a big part of that, not just to do it, but because there is no way to model out results. If you don't know what people are capable of and how long does it take to validate

and all this kind of stuff comes from consistent and proper training. and that's why we've prioritized this task in the business. So that's how we're doing it. I hope that helps. And when that's done, I'll talk more about it. Happy to answer any questions you guys have about that. I want to answer one more question. This one will be specific to the insurance industry.

And then we have kind of a final question that is not related to the insurance industry that I'm happy to answer it about. What's up, guys? Sorry to take you away from the episode. but as you know, we do not run ads on this show. And in exchange for that, I need your help. If you're loving this episode, if you enjoy this podcast, whether you're watching on YouTube or you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, I would love for you to subscribe, share, comment if you're on YouTube,

leave a rating review if you're on Spotify or Apple iTunes, etc. This helps the show grow. It helps me bring more guests in. We have a tremendous lineup. tremendous lineup of people coming in, men and women who've done incredible things, sharing their stories around peak performance, leadership, growth, sales, the things that are going to help you grow as a person and grow your business, but they all check out comments, ratings, reviews, they check out all this information before they come on.

So as I reach out to more and more people and want to bring them in and share their stories with you, I need your help. Share the show. Subscribe if you're not subscribed. and I'd love for you to leave a comment about the show because I read all the comments or if you're on Apple or Spotify, leave a rating review of this show. I love you for listening to this show and I hope you enjoy it listening as much as I do creating the show for you.

All right, I'm out of here. Peace. Let's get back to the episode. So the last question has to do, well, I'll just read the question. As an underwriter in the commercial insurance space, I'm really, and I mean really, in all caps, interested in the 80s. agency side of the world. What makes agency tick? How can I be a better underwriter and best partner to work with to help them land large accounts with my agency. Underwriters in general get a bad

rap on social media, it seems. I would love to get a professional mentor in the agency space that can share knowledge and dialogue with me and help me up the agency platform ladder to learn more about that side of the business. One that could help me to grow in my role as a production underwriter and agency manager. How would you suggest I go about doing this? How would you suggest? I go about doing this. Any ideas? Would an agent out there be willing to mentor me or is this a totally ridiculous idea? All right. One, this is not a ridiculous idea. It's a great idea. I love, you know, one of the, one of the biggest roadblocks in production is underwriter relationships. Now, there are some carriers that are very good at underwriter relationships. Two that come to

mind for me are Cincinnati and Acadia. You know, both have an underwriter first culture, both have underwriter, both operate in a way in which underwriters can actually make decisions. Unfortunately, so often underwriters have had their ability to actually make decisions outside of what the technology tells them to do. It's frustrating, right? Like, you go through a portal and maybe you get a decline on an account that you otherwise think shouldn't be declined, and then come to find out, so you go to the underwriter and you're like, why is this being client and understand this is a great account, et cetera, assuming that it is, the underwriter will basically tell you most of the time that their hands are tied.

If the portal says no, the answer is no. Well, then, you know, what's the underwriter doing that? And I think that's, I think that the power that has been taken away from underwriters is a big part of the, what's behind this question is that agency owners and agency professionals in general feel very frustrated by underwriters who seemingly are there to tell them no. If you want to make friends with an agent, help them get to yes. Right. It's a completely, and I'll tell you, for most of the underwriters that I've worked with in my life,

this is not the way that they address most problems, right? They're like, well, I can't do this because, and I can't do this because, and I can't do this because. And you're like, oh my God, you're just telling me no, no, no, no, no. And it's like, that doesn't help me. I don't grow as a professional. I don't grow as a producer or an agency owner hearing all. all these knows, like how do I get to yes? Teach me how I get to yes.

That type of mentality, we call it inside of rogue being of service. We, you know, I'm always talking and training the team around the ideas of being of service. You know, the idea of being of service, you know, essentially just means like, you know, operate from a helpful standpoint. Instead of saying, if someone, you know, as an underwriter, if an agent calls you with a risk, instead of just going, no, we can't do this because of this, go, you know, here's, here's how I could do this risk. Here's what this could look like.

I could write just the GL and then, but you got to go someplace else for the comp and the commercial auto, but I'd love to get on the GL in case our underwriting changes someday, and that would be a great account for me. So let's get a yes on the GL and then maybe you place the rest with someone else. Or, man, you know, there's this one aspect of this submission that is really tough for me. is there possibility that they would actually not do this? Or would they put a gate on this? Or what if they fixed up this particular part of the building?

Or, you know, I'm seeing this on their website. Is this actually true? Right? Like, I'm sure every producer can relate to this concept. I had a really nice size construction account come in about a year and a half ago when I was still producing on a regular basis. And I'm like, this is knocked down. This is a great account.

I'm like, it was probably going to be like, probably all in with the package and the comp. We were going to hold on their commercial auto as a different effective date. And it's probably like a little 30, $30,000 account, which was a nice account for me. And I submit this account and I'm like, this is a freaking no-brainer. Like I knew, like, they did, they did like carpentry stuff, but it was in a state where that wasn't as big. deal it wasn't New York and the comp made sense and went through the whole thing and it looked good in the raider I got pricing and um you know submit and you did because of the Carpenter class it did have to be you know just kind of looked at by an underwriter and uh two days later I get a

decline so two days later after that submission I get a decline just the decline and you're like so now I'm like what the is going on like why did I get a decline on this account this looked like this looked like a perfect account and now I just get a flat decline 48 hours later like that's infuriating to me so come to find out the underwriter looked on the website and saw that they put roofing on one page on on their website in one spot now what they what they meant was what the what the what the person actually meant was because they don't do roofing I mean I knew this business was that if they were doing a remodel or carpentry remodel they could like fix up the end

of a roof or something, right? Like just if they like damage or something with damage, they could just fix it up. They're not roofing, you know, and they're certainly not going on routes. They just that, that, you know, the fascia and all that kind of stuff, like they could do all that. And so the underwriter's flat declines it. And I'm like, why? And I, so I email them and I'm like, why was this decline? And then they send me a screenshot of that. And like they don't do roofing. They're like, it's on their website. Doesn't matter. They do it decline. And you're now you get murderous, right? You're like, I want to reach through my computer screen and strangle this underwriter because that's three grand in revenue for us, say, just at a flat conservative 10%

commission rate, I was like, that's, they don't do roofing, don't care, right? So instead of, hey, do they actually do roofing? Because you didn't submit roofing, nowhere else on the website other than this one place, do I see the word roofing? Do they actually do roofing? No, they don't do roofing. Here, I can have the owner sign a statement that they don't do roofing and then have them remove it from the website, right? Like, that was the. solution that I provide and they're like, no, no, we saw it, you know, decline. And that kind of not helpful flat decline, one, it makes you feel like you don't matter to them. Right. So if I'm a producer and an underwriter just flat decline something with no real explanation and then when I bring

them solutions, they just throw their hands up like, no, can't help you. You feel like you don't matter. And the return is I now don't submit business to you because now I know you're not trying to help me solve problems. You just want to tell me no because that makes your job easier. So I think that the first bridge, if you really wanted to be proactive, was start talking in terms of yes. Like, how do we write this? Or even, you know what? This one's a hard no.

But geez, when you get one that looks like this, if they don't do this little thing over here, we could absolutely write that. And we'd love those. And maybe here's two that I declined from another agent that maybe you want to take a run it. And or that, you know, whatever. Just the idea is work to yes.

If you want to be an agent's best friend, help them get to yes. right? That's the whole key. You're supposed to be a team writing new business, but most underwriters are no first. You're like, why are you even here? Like, all you do is tell me no. That's the general perception agents have. And if you can change that by working more towards yes and helping them find yes and talking in terms of yes, you're going to make a tremendous number of friends. You're going to move up that agent's ranking in terms of submission. They're going to think about you first. And I think as an underwriter, that's what I would want is for people thinking first. So cool.

All right, great question. All right. Last and final question for this very first AMA, Ask Me Anything episode of the podcast. Here we go. Let's see. If you can go back to your younger self and tell yourself one thing, what would it be and why? So when I saw this question, it actually made me a little nervous because I didn't have an immediate answer. But I did do some thinking about it.

Now, this one is going to be specific to me. And actually, it came from something I said to my kids after I had read this and then I said it to my kids over the weekend. And then I was like, that's what I would tell myself, right? So that's where this came from, so you know. So I'm going to answer this in terms of what I actually said to my children. And I wish that someone when I was younger had said this to me. The context of it is we were, my kids play baseball. Baseball season is officially over, but they still love to play.

And on Saturday, what they wanted to do was go over to the fields and take batting practice on the field. So I have a nine and seven-year-old sons. They both play travel baseball. and we're over there and I'm throwing in pitches and, you know, my kids, I think, unfortunately, like a lot of kids today, lack a killer instinct because our world has softened so much and everything is about feelings and where our feelings, which is like the worst advice ever, we are not our feelings or our emotions. You know, some of that killer instinct has been taken out of my kids,

don't necessarily, or let's just say they have undeveloped killer instinct. Yet both are incredibly talented. It's wild. Like I look at them and compare them to me at similar ages. Now, I know they're young, but they take baseball very seriously, so there is a level of that. They, I was all killer instinct and no skill. I was like a hammerhead. I just ran and dove and swung the bad as hard.

as I could. Like skill technique, not so much, right? Like, I mean, my dad was my coach. My dad's a great guy, but he was a football player trying to teach his kid how to play baseball, and it was really just like swing harder and keep your eye on the ball. So like, I didn't get a lot of technique training. I don't know that I would have taken to it even if I did. I was like a bull in a china shop. That was my, that was the way I played. I was all hustle, all heart, less skill. I developed skill as I went, but certainly at their age, it was just a hammerhead. But I wanted to win, and I wanted to be successful. I wanted to get on base, and I wanted to take an extra base, and I wanted to dive, and I, all that kind of stuff. That's, I like, it would like, it would

like offend me, even at a young age if, like, a ball got by me if I was playing on the infield. I played a lot of infield and eventually became a catcher, but like, it, it would, like, offend me if that happened, even in practice. Like, these guys, they miss a ball. They're like, me you know whatever i i i it just boggles my mind that that's the way that thought process but so we're talking about the game and um it was actually my younger son was like you know we're here we're sweating it's hot out we're at this field doing this work i mean i love doing these things with them but at the same time there's like a million other things i'd rather be doing um than just you know sweating out here if they're not going to engage so um i had so basically what i said to my younger

son, which is the answer to the question. There's no redos. Fucking go as hard as you can. You don't have to win. You don't have to be perfect. Your technique doesn't have to be the best. But go as hard as you can all the time. Like, you get one life. That's it. And I know that's heady for young kids. But like, I talk to my kids like they're adults, just so you guys are aware. I don't do the, I don't, I don't hide things from them. You know, we try to, you know, some of the sex stuff that keep kind of bottled up. But like, for the most part, I talk to them about heady concepts because the world is real

and it's hard. And I can get hit by a freaking bus tomorrow. And do I want there to be unsaid things, lessons, ideas that that I live by today, that are core values and virtues for me today as a 42-year-old, that if I were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, would I regret not having said or should? shared certain concepts or ideas with them, I don't want that to be the case, which is why I talk to them like adults. So, but if I were to go back and in that moment it triggered me, it would be that all this nonsense, work-life balance is bullshit. It's consulting nonsense. It's TED Talk

BS that sounds super good, but isn't how you actually win, right? Winning matters, I guess. Winning matters. So go can hard. Go hard. Like, like, it's, You know, I've been doing a lot of stuff on Instagram and sharing a lot of concepts and ideas as I continue to develop and grow as a person and try to kind of find peak performance in my own life. And, you know, I keep coming back to this idea of like so many people want to rest. They want it easy. I don't want it easy. I want everything to be hard. I want it to be hard.

I want it to be work. I want to be pushed. I want to be stressed. And I want to know that when I get to the end, whenever that. is that I went as hard as I could and that I did everything I could and wins and losses, you know, uh, uh, for sure, but, but, well, I don't, I don't even think of it as losses. I think it wins and lessons, but like you're going to have losses. There's going to be failures. Those things are going to happen, but they don't matter if you're going as hard as you can

because if you're going as hard as you can and you have a loss, do you know what you do? You keep going. And, and this is the thing. We give up, right? We give up. Everyone gives up. You, you, you know, you're not feeling, you're not feeling it that day. You know, that's what my son said, oh, dad, I'm not into it today. So you're not into it. I said, we drove all the way over here. It's sweating. It's hot.

I'm sweating. It's hot. I'm throwing pitches to you. You have a bat in your hand and you're not feeling it today. Come on, man. Like, we're here. Engage. Like, can engage in the world and go hard.

I don't care if you hit the ball. Honestly, if you swing a miss or you hit a pop up or if you were in a game, you hit a hard ground ball and got out, doesn't matter. Don't care if you strike out. Don't care what the result is. I am completely detached from the outcome. But go hard. Like if at the end of the game, you didn't try as hard as you possibly could,

even if you win, you didn't win. Because what you taught yourself is you could win without going as hard as you can, which becomes a habit, which becomes a negotiation tactic for the resistance. The next time you want to do something hard, right? The resistance starts going, you don't have to, you might be successful if you don't go as hard as you can, right? That's what the resistance starts with praying in your ear. You don't have to try as hard as you want. You still might win, even if you don't go as hard as you want, right?

You don't have to do that. You know, you've already won a couple times. You don't need to keep going hard. Take a break. You should take a break. That's what the resistance tells you. And if the resistance is negotiating with you, if the resistance is telling you that you don't have to go I don't care how much willpower you have. Eventually you're going to break down. So don't even

don't even give it a shot. Don't even give it air. Don't give it any fuel. Just work as hard as you can in the moments where you're there to work. Doesn't mean you don't need rest? Sure you do. I like resting at the end of the day. I think it's a great thing. But in the moments, when you're at work, when you're doing the thing, go fucking hard. Go as hard as you possibly can in those moments. And then everything will shake out. that is my best advice because if I look back at my own life, and I think part of the reasons that I, one of the reasons that I am the way I am today,

is I have regret about my sports career, about my educational career in college, you know, different things like that where I was naturally good at things. I naturally had certain skills. I was naturally athletic. And I leaned on natural ability a lot. and I wish that I had pushed myself even more. I wish that I was the nerd about things that I am today,

the way I like to research things and dive deep into topics and really know them and own them. I didn't do that, right? I was okay being slightly above average, right? I was good enough to keep playing. I was good enough to kind of get into that next level. And I allowed that good enough to be the bar when I probably could have been,

I probably could have been a hell of a lot better at baseball. And I certainly could have done more with my own academic and early professional career if I had committed myself and really worked hard. But I often allowed the resistance to tell me that I was doing good for, you know, for a poor kid that came from a town of 900 in the middle of freaking nowhere with the parental situation and life situation that I had growing up.

Yo, you're doing good enough. That's bullshit. Go, you can, be the best version of yourself. Not the best version of someone who came from some place. That's, that's nothing. That's an excuse. Go as hard as you can in the things that matter

and in the moments that they matter. That's the best advice that I have. It's how I live my life today. It probably annoys the shit out of some people. But I don't ever want to, I would rather someone was annoyed by my energy and my pace and my desire and some of my craziness that comes out of those things. And like, obviously, I've talked to you guys before about having ADHD and now that I'm aware of it, I kind of see it and understand why some people get annoyed by me. But I would rather that people were annoyed by me because I'm, because I work hard or I'm energetic or I operate at a fast pace or I'm willing to make this. and live with the consequences, I would rather people are annoyed with me about those things

versus being annoyed with me because I don't show up. I don't work hard. I don't engage. Those are things I don't. You know what I mean? So that's kind of the tradeoff. That's the advice I would give myself. That was a much longer answer than I meant it to be. But I believe in it so much. I think that however hard you are working today, you can work harder. It doesn't mean longer necessarily. It doesn't mean that you have to throw every other aspect of your life out and forget about your kids or your spouse or your partner or whatever. It doesn't mean you have to do those things. Doesn't mean you have to give up all your hobbies. But it might mean instead of boating, fishing, golfing, and bowling, you can only pick two of those or you can only

pick one of them. It might mean instead of having seven niches that you work on in your business, you work on two niches. It might mean that you actually have to come out of your pocket and pay for some trainings that help you get better at a specific skill like cold calling or cold emailing or leadership or service or whatever. It might mean that you have to go out and pay for some things. The number of people that say,

I would do that training, but my work won't pay for it. I mean, do you know the number of freaking marketing courses and sales courses and stuff? that I've paid for myself, obviously, to get better at what I do. I mean, it's not your, I think it's amazing and companies should pay for training. And we definitely have a training culture at rogue risk. But to think that your company has to pay for your training or you're not going to do it and somehow feel justified or vindicated in that is bananas.

It's absolutely bananas. And it's the resistance talking. If the skill matters for you, if it can make you better, if it can make you the best version of yourself, then it's worth paying for, pay the money, get over it, and go do the work. That's the idea. Work hard.

Work harder than you are today. If you're not giving your, you can't expect results that you didn't put in the work to get. That's not my original quote. I think it's Kobe's or someone else's. But I love that quote or whatever version of it is accurate. So, all right, I hope that resonates. I would love to know what's your thing?

Like, hit me up on Instagram. Ryan underscore Hanley on Instagram. Hit me up and let me know, like, what would be the thing that you would tell your younger self? I would love to know that, guys. Maybe even I'll share a couple of those on a future episode, depending on when they come in. And again, if you have questions,

if you like this format, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know if you enjoy this format. I would love to do more of these Q&As. These were obviously fairly high-level questions, but if we want to get specific, I'm happy to answer those questions as well. I did throw out when I did some of the marketing for the AMA that, you know, you can ask me if I believe in aliens or whatever, too. Obviously, I love the conspiracy theory stuff.

I'm happy to answer those questions, but they're not, they're always, they're a little more entertainment and less tactical for sure. Either way, guys, I love you for listening to the show. I hope you enjoy it. Please remember that come September, if you're not subscribed to the Ryan Hanley show feed, you're going to lose the ability to listen to this show. It's not going to go out through the agency intelligence main feed anymore. So I hope you'll come over and listen to that. And you can always find it at Ryan Hanley.com. Guys, I love you for listening to this show.

I love you for being part of this. If you're watching this on YouTube at some time in the future, hit that subscribe button if you like these. All right, guys, I'm on here. Peace. Close twice as many deals by this time next week. Sound impossible, it's not. With the one call closed system,

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