Growing an agency, doing it the right way, from 7 to 29 employees and 2 locations with Dan Bowers.
Take Aways
- Well, I’m into people who believe in what they do.” And that was what this guy was all about.
- I root for the underdog. We’re all a little bit of our brother’s keeper.
- I never saw myself as a follower, like in middle school, high school
- I kinda got along with all the groups. I didn’t hang with any group
- I was always in the top 10 in new business production and taking care and client retention. But after 14 years, I kinda got to that pinnacle that there was no place else to go.
- So I wanted a new challenge, and the new challenge was to own my own business, not work for somebody else.“You’re number one,” and then I left four months later, I mean, because I had kind of achieved everything I could achieve there, because it wasn’t about the money anymore. I was making good money. It was about achievement. It was about personal development and achievement.
- All good salespeople have an inner drive to be the best. I think I certainly have a drive to be the best at whatever I do. But then realizing that maybe I’m not the smartest guy or maybe I’m not this or maybe I’m not that. But I figured I can outwork anybody. That’s the way I looked at it. And so, you know, maybe something would take a really smart guy two hours to do. It might take me five. But I was willing to put in the five, I mean, do what it takes to make it.
- But what he taught me is how to be endearing, how to be liked by people. And, obviously, it was instrumental in getting me where I’m at.
- I think that different people all the way along impact your life if you’re willing to listen, you know? And I always taught my kids and I think my parents taught me that if you’re willing to listen, you know, even the homeless man can teach you something if you’re willing to listen. But if you’re unwilling to listen, if you can’t hear somebody else speak, you’re gonna be on that treadmill the rest of your life, because you’re not learning anything.
- I was the seventh employee of the organization. I mean, you know, ebbs and flows, but I was number seven. That was in 2001. So they had been in operation for 19 years at the time, and I was the seventh agent. Currently, we sit with two locations now, one in Alamosa and one in Colorado Springs. There’s 29 employees. So we’ve had some exponential growth over that last 15, 16 years.
- I continued to use my philosophy that hard work is what gets it done, you know? If it takes 60 hours a week, it takes 60 hours a week. If it takes 90 hours a week, it takes whatever it takes. We’ve got a great team that we’ve hired that support our clients and our customers. I think one of the biggest factors is customer first. I mean, we take care of the customer. That’s been my philosophy since I got in the insurance business.
- I partnered with them for one reason, integrity, what they say is reality.
- I actually compartmentalize people, I mean, to a degree, because everybody’s got good and bad, I mean, everybody, including me, including you.
It’s really all about doing it the right way. I mean, if you do it the right way, you would end up doing very, very well. But you gotta do it the right way.
Show Notes