Ways I FAILED My Way To Success - Happy New Year!

I expect to fail 100+ times in 2017. Some of these failures are going to be EXPENSIVE. Many are going to be PAINFUL. But all are going to be necessary. Why?

To achieve GREATNESS you have to risk.

To reach a high level of success, you have to be willing to mess up, fall down, and get dirty.

Now let me be clear. I don't like failure. But I do LOVE what occasionally comes INSTEAD of it. Those few times you hit a home-run, knocking that ball out of the park. The occasions when you stretch farther than you thought you could......and instead of missing you reach what was once an unthinkable goal. Failure is the price we all pay for success.

I wish you a Happy New Year. 

Stay focused on your goals - and don't be afraid to go for your dreams in 2017!

~ Uncle 'D'

The Art of Goal Setting

Your ability to create visions and set goals is essential to your personal and professional lives. Visions allow you to see yourself at some point in the future, while goals offer a road map to reach these visions. There is nothing more rewarding than having visions, setting goals to reach these visions and focusing in as the visions become reality.

Goal-setting is a powerful process of becoming clear about your ideal future, designing an action plan to get you there, launching into action and persisting until you reach your destination. The key to goal-setting is your ability to turn this vision into reality.

The Art of Goal-Setting is understood and appreciated by top athletes, entertainers and successful people in all walks of life. A person who learns how to set goals lives each day with a sense of clarity, confidence, purpose and passion.

I was first introduced to the Art of Goal-setting in the late 1980’s while maturing as an Underwriting Manager at Economy Fire & Casualty in Freeport. Rather than seeing goal-setting as a chore, I learned that the process of goal-setting was stimulating, energizing and rewarding. Goal setting made a lot of sense to me. Without goals, I would have no sense of direction.

The Art of Goal-setting to:

• ·        Decide what is important in my life.
• ·        Determine what I want to achieve.
• ·        Separate what is important from what is irrelevant.
• ·        Be motivated.
• ·        Facilitate my ability to benchmark progress.
• ·        Gain self-confidence as my goals become reality.

Think of goal-setting as your navigation system. Goal-setting allows you to identify what is important in your life and turn your thoughts and ideas into specific, actionable and measureable goals. Importantly, your goals will protect you from becoming distracted by other people’s agendas and expectations. In designing your goal-setting navigation system and charting your own course, you will have control over your destination.

Research on goal-setting and peak performance substantiates that most successful people are goal oriented. They have learned how to turn their vision into action. They have a knack of bringing the future into the present so they can take action now. Greg Norman, the legendary golfer stated that “setting goals for your game is an art. The trick is setting them at the right level, neither too low nor too high. A good goal should be lofty enough to inspire hard work yet realistic enough to provide solid hope of attainment.”

A common acronym for setting goals is SMART. The S stands for Specific. M is for measurable. A stands for achievable. R is for realistic. T stands for time bound. Think of a goal as a dream with a timeline. Every goal needs a target date for completion.

If you do design SMART goals, do not lose sight of your “big picture” goals – your future vision. SMART goals can help you climb the ladder of success step-by step, only to find that it may be leaning on the wrong wall. I would like to offer the following 5-step strategy for effective goal-setting.

Step 1 – List your goals A to Z.

The Art of Goal-setting begins with writing your personal and professional goals from A to Z. Don’t hold back. Write down whatever comes to your mind. Go nuts and take pride in the length and diversity of your list. This exercise will give you energy and motivation. It is also fun.

Some of your goals will be short-term while other will be futuristic. Don’t worry about that. Just focus on writing down goals that are important to you. You may wish to ask yourself the following questions: 

• ·        What is my purpose and mission in life? 
• ·        How do I want to focus my time and energy? 
• ·        What are my developmental needs at this point in my life? 
• ·        What does my ideal lifestyle look like?

Your goals will cover a wide range of categories including family, career, education, financial, physical, spiritual, community service, etc. The A to Z exercise will allow you to establish a “Big Picture” of what is important to you and what you want to do with your life. Many of your A to Z goals will be “lifetime goals.”

Step 2 – Prioritizing your goals.

After you have gone through the A to Z exercise, begin listing your goals on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being most significant to you at this point in time, and 1 meaning it is not a priority right now. Here are a few questions that should help you prioritize your goals:

• ·        Which goal(s) will give me the most energy?
• ·        Which goal(s) am I most committed to?
• ·        What goal(s) offers the most value to me?
• ·        What goals are fully within my control?
• ·        In five years, how important will this goal be to me?

The process of prioritizing your goals will allow you to break down your A to Z list into smaller targets. You should gain greater clarity through this exercise.

Step 3 – Setting your execution strategy and achievement timeframe.

By prioritizing your goals, you have set the stage for an execution strategy through which you are able to define the following plans:

• ·        Lifetime plan
• ·        Five-year plan
• ·        One-year plan
• ·        90-day plan
• ·        Weekly plan

Your Lifetime and Five-Year Plans represent your vision of the future – essential points of your long term destination. These “big picture” plans are vital. However, it will be your ability to execute the weekly, 90-day and one-year goals which will launch you to your ideal future.

Your one-year goals should be power-packed, the kind that require you to stretch your capabilities, increase your resources and make meaningful improvements to your personal and business lives. Your one-year plan should include meaningful, relevant, motivational and realistic steps to your long term vision. The 90-Day Plan supports the one-year goals–an essential means to benchmark your progress, reevaluate your priorities and make sure that you are focused on what matters most. It is difficult to reach your one-year goals without 90-day Plans.

As I look at my career, the Weekly Plan is an essential key to my success. I have made it a habit to come to work each week with a Plan to accomplish specific objectives that support my 90-day and one-year plans as well as my “big picture” future vision.

Step 4 – Visualization.

Mental imagery is essential to goal-setting. Your ability to see yourself at the point of goal actualization is a key component to successful goal-setting. Goal-setting breaks down unless you have great clarity about your vision.

Step 5 – Goal Actualization.

When you achieve a goal, take time to enjoy the satisfaction of what you have accomplished. Celebrate the moment and absorb the implication of the goal as it relates to your future self. If your goal is a significant one, reward yourself appropriately.

On occasion, you will not accomplish a specific goal. You must not lose confidence or get frustrated. The failure to actualize a specific goal is not important as long as you learned a lesson from the process and gave it your best effort. Walter Cronkite once said, “I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got.”

The Art of Goal-setting may be one of your most important life skills. The process will ignite your passion for the future.

Good luck and have fun!

~ Uncle ‘D’

Want to 10x your business? Customer "X"perience is key going into 2017!

You may have heard the trendy term of “10X your business”, which was really made popular by the indomitable Grant Cardone.

If you have done any research about "10x" at all, what you mostly see is that you have to develop an almost conqueror mentality. That every department needs to act, perform, and be a sales department. Sell, sell, sell. This is also paired with an over flooding of marketing in order to get your brand name into the minds of your target consumer through the power of pure brute force.

Now I’m not here to debate whether that’s a good idea or not, because it DOES work. Getting attention for your brand, sell/cross sell, and follow up are fantastic and also necessary. But what I wanted to discuss real quick is the one piece you may be missing - Customer Experience.

But what we have found is that a lot of companies aren’t embracing what I feel is the TRI-fecta for 10X’ing your business. Where Sales and Marketing have been the two corner-pieces for growing a business, we feel that there is a third piece to the puzzle if you want that true explosive growth that comes with 10x. This third piece is providing exceptional customer service, by delivering a first class customer experience.

Delivering a second to none customer experience for your customer, not only encourages them to want to do business with you again, but to also spread the word about you with their friends and family. In today’s digital age, the consumer across almost ANY industry knows one important fact, THEY HAVE OPTIONS.

Just remember that all of your customers, were at one time, “first time” customers.

Too often we see our business clients get the sale, and then that customer simply becomes a statistic, instead of a relationship. Now that company’s financials may look great, double digit year over year growth, but unless you are will to provide a customer experience that keeps your current customers coming back for more, your days are numbered, or at the very least you are leaving money on the table.

Now I know what you may be thinking, “I provide great customer service, and my customers always leave happy.” And that may be true. But going from good customer service, and making that a great customer experience can tend to provide another level of satisfaction.

Good customer service is something that everyone expects.

But creating an unforgettable customer experience is something that people don't forget and that they want to share.

This can be as simple as utilizing proper CRM, to add a personal touch when someone calls back to inquire about their order or to place a new one. Being addressed by their first name, knowing their recent purchases, or mentioning there is a sale on a specific piece of merchandise they purchase frequently are all small ways to not only provide good customer service, but a great customer experience.

Through proper analytics, and allowing your customer service efforts to help guide both your company marketing and sales efforts, are just the tip of the iceberg of delivering a fantastic customer experience, and helping to 10X your business.

If you would like to discuss how we may be able to help you 10X your business by developing a customer experience strategy for 2017, give us a shout.

Happy Holidays!

~ Uncle 'D'

How to prepare for the death of your spouse

Clients who are preparing for the imminent death of a spouse have to manage important financial matters to cope with the loss, according to this article on MarketWatch.

They will need to obtain certain documents, such as death certificate and last will and testament. In fact, this article suggests getting at least eight certified copies of the death certificate as they'll be needed for different reasons (for example, clients will need to furnish one to their life insurance companies to receive death benefits) and getting additional copies at a later date is often difficult and time consuming.

Moreover, the article suggests they gather other paperwork, including a copy of their marriage license; the spouse's Social Security number and last statement; their spouse's insurance policy; passwords and logins for online accounts; the spouse's birth certificate; and the spouse's military discharge papers and veteran's benefit statement.

~ Uncle 'D'

Do you have a toddler using a car seat? This video is a must see!

Six strategies to reconfigure insurance agencies free up capital and fund growth

Almost all agencies have grown by acquisition, resulting in a mix of facilities.  Many older satellite-office locations are oversized and single purpose in nature: former agency headquarters or large offices built for when the industry needed many more account manager/CSR/producer workstations and principal agent office space than today.

So it’s no surprise that on the cusp of 2017, we have far more invested in facilities than needed—and in an ideal world, we would reduce satellite-office configuration and cost. This would make agencies more efficient and free up capital to invest in new channels that better meet changing customer needs. 

The question is not whether this should be done. It’s how. As one agency CEO told us, “I know we have facilities that aren’t suited to our needs, but given the capital investment I can’t afford to do anything about it.”

But we need to do something about it. 

New channel creation shows no sign of slowing down: It takes time and money to internally develop or purchase. Given the expense of regulatory burdens and other financial pressures, how can agencies fund new services, delivery channels and technology?

1. Plan to align resources to market opportunities. This directive may sound obvious, but all too often agencies neglect it. Avoid jumping to the ease and convenience of addressing a specific site before determining the overall market potential; develop a “clean slate” view of your agency’s total distribution. We’re often surprised by the significant unrecognized opportunity in markets that management believes have low potential. Use data to ensure that staff resources are aligned at locations where room lies for greater income—and focus divestment or restructuring with an eye toward minimum market impact.

2. Leverage the Financial Accounting Standards Board new sale-leaseback rules. With a strategic sale-leaseback, agencies sell a satellite-office but still operate from the same location. This has become an attractive option under a recent FASB accounting change. The new rules enable agencies to enjoy immediate recognition of gains on a sale as tier-1 capital that’s non-dilutive to shareholders. Strategic sale-leasebacks unlock agency satellite-office capital to fund a host of strategic initiatives. These include book-of-business growth, new technology and satellite-office redesigns.

3. Downsizing a satellite-office via a sale-leaseback can provide unique benefits. Besides any immediate capital gain, expenses shrink due to reduced square footage. This also lessens costs for facilities upgrades or technology implementation. Additionally, an agency will often not have to pay for the construction and development costs of a downsizing—in fact, downsizing can be a provision of the sale-leaseback, meaning the new landlord pays for demolition, construction, and build-out to resize the space.  

4. Subdivide satellite-office or re-negotiate leases to reduce space. In a sale-leaseback downsizing, the square footage the agency no longer uses will most likely be leased to a co-tenant, which can help increase foot traffic and customer opportunities.  For smaller satellite-offices, the co-tenant may be a small law firm or CPA office. For large satellite-offices, the co-tenant may be a full retail space, such as a coffee shop.

If an agency has the time, resources and desire to retain satellite-office ownership, leasing a portion of an underused satellite-office or the entirety of an unused one can generate income. As a landlord, the agency may be required to update, upgrade or renovate new tenant space. This arrangement also requires resources for continued tenant maintenance, and monitoring potential co-tenancy and ongoing regulatory issues.

If the satellite-office is leased, the option to downsize may still exist. In many cases landlords will renegotiate—especially if the satellite-office occupies a desirable location—or the request can be packaged with other location options.  Alternatively, the agency could downsize on its own and sublease the unused space: a worthwhile option for agencies with adequate resources or real estate experience. But it could also invite the stress of hosting a less-than-stellar tenant. Partnering with a company that offers design-build services may be a better solution. An agency should also check its lease and talk with its landlord as to whether vacating or building out the space and then sub-leasing the vacancy are allowed.

5. Sell unneeded or struggling satellite-offices. Closed, soon-to-be-closed, or re-tenanted satellite-offices are prime candidates for sale, either individually or as a satellite-office portfolio. If an agency contemplates selling satellite-office assets, it may want to start the process sooner rather than later.

6. Build a new satellite-office. Sounds counter intuitive? Sometimes a new satellite-office may prove more efficient.  In some cases, agencies saved money while enjoying a brand-new, right-sized satellite-office with lower operating costs. But this depends on many factors, including an agency’s rent, the real estate market and the price of new build in the area. If building a new satellite-office is right, an agency can either handle it or connect with an experienced developer for a long-term sale-leaseback.  This may be especially relevant if the new satellite-office absorbs business from several existing facilities.

Regardless of how far along your agency is in implementing—or not implementing—a distribution analysis and restructuring plan, move now.  Physical facilities, while important, do not have the same value to customers as in the past. Furthermore, there’s greater need than ever to fund new channels and technology.  Agencies that lag in these areas will only face greater challenges to remain competitive. Then, satellite-office closings could become far less a matter of choice.

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