How Simple Conversations Can Make a Big Impact

Joey Giangola: Mr. Brian Blakely, how are you doing today, sir?

Brian Blakely: I'm doing great, Joey. How are you?

Joey Giangola: Brian, I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. I want to know this first before we get into anything. What's a place where you think everybody's watching you, but really nobody cares?

Brian Blakely: Okay. I guess that's my deal. I don't know why anybody would really be concerned with what I'm doing. Or I catch myself maybe not posting to social media much or anything like that. I just don't know why anybody would really be that concerned with what I'm doing. Maybe I feel like I'm not that interesting. So, I don't know. That's a hard question to ask. I guess I would hope that people, like in my community or my friends, would be concerned, but I know that they're busy and they have their own lives, so I don't know. I wonder why people would be interested in what I'm doing from day to day, and maybe that's just the old school mentality that I've got, but I don't know if I'm that interesting.

Joey Giangola: Well, that's a definitely very thoughtful answer. Mine's very simple, and it's the airplane. If I'm sitting in an airplane, I feel like I'm just on full display here, and I feel like everybody's watching what I'm doing, what I'm doing on my phone, and really they just don't care. But I feel very exposed, and I don't like it.

Brian Blakely: Yeah.

Joey Giangola: But yours is definitely a better answer. Brian, I guess the next question is moving this over to the world of insurances. Is there anything that you are maybe hyper aware of in your conversations with clients or just your day-to-day actions that they don't care about maybe as much, and we, maybe, put too much emphasis on something that, ultimately, the end client could care very little about?

Brian Blakely: I think right now, especially this year, in the insurance world, when it comes to, especially, on the personal side, but also on the commercial side when it comes to rate increases, why rates are going up, what changes are being made, things like that. When I sit down with people and actually kind of go through, "Okay, here's why we're seeing rate increases, your home insurance is going up as far as what it's covered for, and things like that, here's the reasons that we're doing that. Or here's the reason why the companies are doing that." And even giving them a peek behind the curtain as far as, "Okay, here's how insurance companies, they plan for so many claims, but then here's what they do with the rest of that money. But there's unforeseen things, as far as construction costs and things like that." And I bring that up because it feels like I'm having that conversation multiple times per day, even to people that aren't clients but just in casual conversation. And people don't care about stuff like that.

Brian Blakely: It also seems like I'll get people that'll come into my office, and they'll either be a little bit desensitized to the rate increases because they've seen it at the gas pump, they've seen it at the grocery store, they've seen it everywhere else. But the flip side of that is people come into my office and they're mad, and this is the last straw. They're sick of paying everywhere else. They don't understand why their car's getting older and they're paying more for insurance. To get back to your original question, I think there's a lot about insurance that people, they just have better things going on in their lives or things that they just don't care. As long as it's there when they need it, they don't care.

Brian Blakely: And there's so much that we can educate people about, and that's really what I've tried to do is just give people, "Okay, here's why. Here's why you're seeing a rate increase. And it may not make you happy, but at least you have a better understanding of here's the reason that you're seeing this rate increase and here's what we may be able to do or maybe can't do," and all that stuff. So, I think that there's a lot when it comes to insurance that people, "Make sure I'm covered. But other than that, I've got other busyness in my life." So, it's been a good year just having conversations. And I don't know how much people retain of that stuff, but it seems like when I sit down and have conversations with people lately, they're like, "Okay, I get that. That makes sense. I can move on with my life."

Joey Giangola: Yeah, it's interesting that you bring that up. It is, I guess, nice in a way that the rest of the world has caught up and taken some of the heat off of insurance in terms of annual price increases. I never thought about it that way until you mentioned it. But do you find a level of, I guess, maybe, appreciation for at least pulling back that curtain a little bit? Because, again, it's something they may have never considered, and I mean, does it at least provide a little bit of comfort or sanity to the whole thing?

Brian Blakely: Yeah, I think so. I mean, the reaction that I get from people is, again, they still may not be happy about it, but I think they appreciate knowing, "Okay, well, they're not just spending all of my money on commercials. They're not just paying the CEO's big bonuses or things like that at the carriers. Here's what they're using my insurance money for." And when you tell people, "Look, the industry as a whole last year paid out more in claims than they received in premiums, and so that's not sustainable." And when you tell people, they understand that insurance is not a not-for-profit business. They've got to make money so that they can pay the claims, and people may not like it, but they understand that if we don't have insurance, that's the thing that keeps us when disasters come, that's the thing that keeps us from turning into a Third World country.

Brian Blakely: That's what rebuilds communities and rebuilds homes and gets people whole. So, I think the other part of it is when you sit down and talk to mortgage brokers and realtors and give them an idea of, "Okay, here's where things are on the insurance side," and give them an idea so that when they're sitting down with clients and they're trying to come up with their numbers or they're trying to give them expectations as far as, "Okay, here's what you may see from the insurance side." They're busy enough, realtors and mortgage brokers, trying to get to get business closed, but if you can give them a little bit of information to go back with and be like, "Hey, here's what we're seeing on our end. It may help you on your end and give you an idea where we're coming from." I think having your referral partners a little bit more educated, as well, it's been a benefit for us.

Joey Giangola: So, continuing on that line of the conversation, take me inside the conversations you're having with, maybe, new business, guys that you're talking to for the first time that you haven't experienced? What's the conversation like there as you reach out to those folks? And what's their level of, maybe, understanding or frustration with the market, and how are you navigating that?

Brian Blakely: I just had this question at the end of the day yesterday with someone we were working on quotes with, and she had gotten some other quotes. I think she'd gotten some online, and she talked to other agents and she goes, "It just seems like it's a lot of money." And so, we talked with her about, and I told her, I was just honest. I said, "Look, you're buying a house and getting it insured at a very weird time in the insurance industry. There's really no way to sugarcoat it. It is what it's." But going through it's like, "Okay, we're insuring your house for X amount of dollars. Let's say it's 300,000. Well, it's not just a house. We've got personal property. There's liability coverage that goes in there. We pay if you can't live in your house for a period of time. So, I understand why you think X amount of money is a lot. And compared to what it maybe would've been last year or two years ago, it is. But here's what you're getting with that premium."

Brian Blakely: And also kind of telling them, "Look, there's some companies that we can't even get quotes with through our system. We've got to send in pictures along with a list of five or seven different things, even get a number on a quote, which is unheard of." And I'm no different than any other agent across the country. They're frustrated with the extra steps that you have to take or not even be able to get a quote back. But I think being as honest with them as you can, but also, I mean, there's certain things that they care about and certain things that they don't.

Brian Blakely: Just give them the, "Hey, we're going to be able to get you into this house. We're going to be able to get you covered correctly. Hopefully, I'm not saying it's going to be next year, maybe it's two or three years down the road when the market corrects a little bit, we take a look again, and we try to find something that's more affordable." And we do. We tell people, "This is the best that I can do. I'm not saying I'm the only game in town, but this is the best that I can do, and here's what we can provide for you, as well."

Joey Giangola: So, now maybe take me inside the agency a little bit. Have you had to make any adjustments in just the way that you guys are doing business? What's new? What's on the table? How have you been operating in that environment? And do you have anything fun or interesting up your sleeve?

Brian Blakely: As far as what we've done when it comes to reviews and things like that this year, we switched over to Better Agency, as far as our rater, about a year and a half ago. And when the writing was on the wall the end of last year, beginning of this year as far as the rate increases and what things were going to look like, one thing that we did was set up some automation so that when clients were taking a certain percentage of a rate increase, they got an email that went out to them that was sent out through Better Agency. They had a link to my calendar so they could schedule an appointment and simply come in and talk about what was going on.

Brian Blakely: And we've had a really good reception from that. The email, it makes it sound like that their rate's going up about 300% when that's usually not the case. It seems like, since COVID, people haven't been as willing or as eager to come in and just sit down and do a policy review and go over that stuff. So, that's been good for us. One thing that we've implemented where I don't have to make those phone calls every single day. There's emails and text messages that go out to them if they're interested in scheduling an appointment. So, that's one thing that's been really handy for us. And we implemented some other technology things.

Brian Blakely: Not anything too crazy, just links, like a simple jot form link that we can send out to folks that, maybe, work second or third shift or work during the day and can't get out to us. So, we send out a link. It's very basic information that we can take their information and start running a quote. We're getting a lot more people who want to communicate via text message. They don't want to talk on the phone, and they really want to do things when it works for them. And so, we've implemented GloveBox for our mobile app. We're really trying to be an agency where if you want to come in and talk to us, you can. If you don't want to have a conversation over the phone, but you still want to communicate with us in other ways, we're trying to be on both ends of the spectrum and meet people in the middle where they want.

Joey Giangola: Yeah, the idea of doing it when they're available, I think, is something that has escaped us, maybe longer than it probably should have, and it's catching up maybe a little bit. That's personal theory.

Brian Blakely: Yeah.

Joey Giangola: But do you think that there's even more opportunity to push in that direction going forward? Maybe we're still not even quite to where the customer maybe might expect or is the most convenient?

Brian Blakely: Oh yeah, absolutely. And even I look at the agency, and some of it is just having the time to sit down and really do that, but I know that there's more that we can do in the renewal process. There's more that we can do to make it easier. There's almost a conversation before the conversation as far as having them let us know, do they need to maybe add something on a personal article's policy? Have they finished square footage that maybe they didn't even think to talk about or tell us about?

Brian Blakely: We can make it easier when we have the actual conversation, and that's just one example of things that we can do to make it easier. I think the insurance industry is getting better. I think that realizing that InsureTech and things like that aren't there to hurt us, but if you utilize them the right way and pick what's right for your agency. The other danger, I think, with Insuretech, and the thing that I really try not to be. And the other thing is get your team involved. If they like it, if they don't, you've probably got some team members that they don't want one more thing that they have to put info in or that they have to learn about or whatever may be.

Brian Blakely: So making sure that the technology that you have that you use it. But yeah, I think that there's only ways for us to get better. There's a lot of things that I want to do in my agency that I haven't done yet because I just don't want to overwhelm either myself or team members or whatever. But if you can find the right mix, I think we're at a time where we can do a lot of great stuff. We can meet the customer's needs, and really meet them where they want to be and make the experience better.

Brian Blakely: Sorry, I'm going on a tangent here. But the companies that I work with aren't necessarily different with the other independent agents that are here in town, and the product that we sell as home and auto insurance, and when you get down to it, if the houses or the car is covered when it needs to be, that's what the insurance is there for. But the thing that every agency has to do is we have to sell the experience. Nobody wants to necessarily buy our product, but we've got to do what we can to make that experience for both our clients, our referral partners, and even our team members as easy as possible.

Joey Giangola: I don't know if you'll have an answer to this question. It might be just ridiculously unfair. But when you got into the business, did you have any expectations as to where you'd be to your point in your career now? Do you think you've got to a point that you thought you might be? Or did you have an expectation that you haven't quite fully got to yet, thinking back however many years when you first sold your first policy?

Brian Blakely: So, I've wrestled with that. It's funny that you asked that. I've wrestled with that probably the last eight to 10 months. I'm not where I want to be, and I was hoping this year would be the time where I could get where I wanted to be. And just with the market changes and things like that, my time has really been focused on the service side of it. We had an agent that started with us at the beginning of the year, and it just didn't work out on either side. And so, I had to take back some of the responsibility that I was looking to push off. But, look, no, I'm not where I want to be. My book size is not where I want to be. From an income standpoint, I'm not where I want to be.

Brian Blakely: But at the same time, I'm just coming in every day, doing the best that I can, and I know that there's going to have to be some extra time that I've got to spend when it comes to processes and procedures. I've got to make things better from a technology standpoint. I've also got to make things easier for my team members, the CSR that I have now, and even the virtual assistant that we're using. There's a lot of things when you're the agency owner that you have to get better at, and there's tough lessons that I've learned along the way, but we'll get to where we want to be. But I've realized a lot, and it's bothered me the last 10 months, I'm not where I want to be.

Joey Giangola: Well, don't beat yourself up too bad, Brian. I mean, I guess, I was even curious of just your experience and expectation in the industry itself, too. How have you felt about that? Do you think the industry has gotten to a place where you maybe thought it would, and I guess maybe your place in it? So, maybe go ahead and throw a little blame back on insurance in general, if you want. I don't need you to deflect at all.

Brian Blakely: Sure.

Joey Giangola: But, I mean, is there anything that has maybe not gotten to where you thought it might be just when you first started?

Brian Blakely: No, I don't know about that. My experience as an independent agent has been really good. I've worked for a captive agency before, and so I know that side of it too. As far as being hamstrung with just one company. I think that there's things, from a customer service standpoint, from a claims standpoint with the industry, where the communication could be a lot better, especially when it comes to claims. I wish that I could know where things are at when the claims process. I don't need to know all the detail, but it would be nice to know, even just on a weekly basis to get a report from the carriers.

Brian Blakely: "Okay, here's where we're at on things." That would be really handy because there's times where I get a call from a client, and they're fired up, and I have no idea what's going on. And I've got to get in the middle of it and settle everybody down, where it'd be nice to know some of that stuff upfront. If we're going to be able to give our clients the best experience possible, we've got to keep up that way. So, I don't know if that answers your question.

Joey Giangola: There is no wrong answer, Brian. There is no wrong answer. I wanted to go back real quick to we were talking about the conversations you're having inside the agency. But I did want to ask about conversations you're having outside of the agency in terms of the podcast that you're doing. You're talking to vocal folks in your community. I'm always impressed. I see it all the time. Just how's that going? What's your experience been? And what have you gotten from that over the, it's been, what, I would say, several years now? Three, four years maybe?

Brian Blakely: It'll be three years next month. So, I started in September of 2020. It's been a great experience for me. What it is, it's a small business podcast where I interview small business owners in the state of Nebraska. Instead of doing Zoom calls or things like that, I'll travel to the business where we're setting up the interview in their shop for someone that maybe works from home, we set up in their office or whatever it may be. But it's actually sitting there having that personal face-to-face conversation about their business. And I'm part of a networking group, and there's a lot of good conversations that happen there, but there's a lot of good conversations that happen outside of that group when we're leaving or whatever it may be, and things that I learned about them from their business. And so, all small business owners, I think, go through the excitement, the fear, the anxiety of just getting the thing off the ground of trying to make enough money to keep the doors open.

Brian Blakely: But then, as you work through that process, working with employees, paying employees, adding new products, those types of things. There's so many great stories, and I've had a lot of people that have emailed me from different states and different towns and want to be on the podcast, and I haven't done that because I want to keep it local. I want to keep it in Nebraska because there's so many. I mean, podcasts are getting bigger and bigger and bigger all the time, as far as the market being more saturated. I really just want to focus on Nebraska. The other thing that it has done, that was not the reason that I got started in the first place, but the other thing that it's done for me is it has given me an opportunity. I've gotten some business from it. You sit down, and you have an hour long conversation with someone about their business, they're more willing to sit down with you and say, "Okay, I'll let you take a look at this," instead of just a cold call where you're walking in or calling them or whatever it may be.

Brian Blakely: But it has also given me an opportunity where, if I want to look at a certain market from the commercial side of it, and I just want to say, "Hey, can I just get a copy of your Dec pages?" I want to see if I've got companies in Nebraska, in my market, where I can go out and I just want to see what's available out there and what hangups there may be. If they're not into buildings that are older, if they've got, I don't know, whatever may be, those different types of things. But if I've already had a conversation with them, they're more willing to say, "Yeah, sure, you can take a look at it."

Brian Blakely: It just gives me an opportunity to get my foot in the door with either some of these carriers, or maybe I can come back to them with a quote and be like, "Here's what I came up back with. I'm not going to hound you all day about it, but it looks like we may be able to help you out." So, that's not why I started it, but it's been a really good lead generator and able to help me figure out what markets I've got that I can use to my advantage.

Joey Giangola: All right, Brian. I've got three more questions for you, sir.

Brian Blakely: Okay.

Joey Giangola: And the first one is, what's one thing you hope you never forget?

Brian Blakely: Wow. Coming with the hard hitters. I hope I never forget how hard it was to get started in this industry, but how rewarding it is to keep going. I've actually had to start over twice. Before I was with a captive company, and it didn't work out. So, I started over as an independent, and it makes me tired just to think about having to start all over from scratch again. But where it's gotten me now, I hope I never forget just that process. And for, I guess, the other part of it, too, there was a time where I didn't know if I was going to do this. I thought maybe I was going to go do something else because it was really hard and it was stressful. But just taking, doing the hard stuff, I guess.

Joey Giangola: All right. Now, on the other side of that, what's one thing you still have yet to learn?

Brian Blakely: I think I'm a pretty good insurance agent. I don't think I'm a great leader. And so, I've still got a long way to go when it comes to being a leader. I'm getting there. But as far as things like delegating, things like putting processes and procedures in place, things like just being aware of your team members and their emotions and where they're at, even from day to day as far as how things are going for them. Not just getting wrapped up in the business, but taking a step back and realizing that you need to take care of your people. Sometimes I'm not the best at that, so I need to get to be a better leader.

Joey Giangola: All right, Brian. Last question to you, sir. If I were to hand you a magic wand of sorts to reshape, change, alter, speed up, really any part of insurance, what's that thing? Where is it going? And what's it doing?

Brian Blakely: I wish that there's a way we could make, from a technology standpoint, that we can make things universal. And I mean that by the downloads that come through, just the way that we do things, especially as an independent agent where I've got to learn so many different things because of the carriers that I represent. If there's one way that I can make it universal, but still let those companies have their specifics and have them be different, that would be the thing that I would change.

Brian Blakely: A way where we didn't have to worry about double entry, where we didn't have to worry about all the things that we have to learn, and just a way to make it easier where things are more universal because that's the one thing being an independent agent. If you come from the captive side or you come from another industry, there's so much to learn, especially when you first get started. I think it can be overwhelming for some folks that just aren't ready for it. So, making it a little bit more universal, making it a little bit more one way, I guess, would be the thing that I would change.

Joey Giangola: Brian, this has been fantastic, sir. I'm going to leave it right there.

Brian Blakely: All right, sounds good. Thanks, Joey.