Podcasts about master agency

In today's episode of The Hero of the Hour podcast, Mark Murphy has an insightful conversation with Bob Ball, a veteran of the Financial Services Industry since 1978, excelling as a top Agent, General Agent, and Coach for financial advisors.He notably transformed a scratch operation into a Master Agency during his 18 years at Guardian Life Insurance Company. As President of LEAP SYSTEMS, Inc., he expanded insurance selling systems and training services. Bob's recent role as a consultant for Guardian led to the creation of the innovative asset aggregation tool, The Living Balance Sheet, benefiting over 250,000 clients and empowering 2,000+ financial professionals. His passion for teaching financial advisors to convey their value has earned him a highly regarded reputation.In this episode, you will find out how Bob journeyed from a modest upbringing to becoming a prominent influencer in the financial industry. Mark and Bob will discuss the importance of being elite in your profession and striving to be better every day. Bob will share his experiences as a top financial advisor and the significant impact of creating The Living Balance Sheet on people's lives.Bob will explore the concept of financial balance and the dangers of chasing high returns without proper protection. He will also offer valuable advice on creating multi-generational wealth and the importance of making informed decisions regarding insurance, risk, and savings.Listen now and enjoy!What You'll Learn in this Show:Bob's journey from a successful college basketball career to a prominent figure in the financial industry.The transformational impact of The Living Balance Sheet on clients and financial professionals.The significance of protection and insurance in achieving financial balance.The dangers of chasing returns and the value of a disciplined approach to wealth-building.The importance of liquidity and maneuverability in responding to life events.Bob's perspective on legacy and the profound impact of everyday interactions.And so much more…Resources:Mark B. Murphy websiteNortheast Private Client GroupMark B. Murphy LinkedinNortheast Private Client Group Youtube ChannelBooks:Get Mark's Book Here: The Ultimate Investment: A Roadmap To Grow Your Business and Build Multigenerational WealthExtraordinary Wealth: The Guide To Financial Freedom & An Amazing LifeThis podcast is for informational purposes only. Guest speakers and their firms are not affiliated with or endorsed by PAS or Guardian, and opinions stated are their own. Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS). OSJ: 200 BROADHOLLOW ROAD, SUITE 405, MELVILLE NY, 11747, 631-5895400. Securities products and advisory services offered through PAS,...

As CEO of SIAA, Matt Masiello has responsibility for executive management of the largest alliance of independent insurance agencies in the United States and its related companies, providing leadership to senior executives of SIAA and Master Agencies across the country. His more than 28 years of experience at SIAA and SAN Group have instilled in him the skills, knowledge, and expertise to lead SIAA and SAN Group (SIAA's original and largest Master Agency operating across the Northeast). Matt has responsibility for the overall success of both companies, as well as providing strategic vision and leadership for their futures. SIAA has 48 master agencies covering all 50 states with 13% of all U.S. independent insurance agencies as members, which write over $10 billion in premium, making SIAA the largest national independent insurance agency partnering network. Matt is also the author of the book, Insurance Agency 4.0, available now. Highlights from the Show Matt has been in the independent agent channel for nearly 30 years, for his entire career SIAA started in 1995, and is a national alliance of independent agencies with 48 master agencies, and has three focus areas: Market access, which has become table stakes today Generating top line revenue for agencies beyond commission to help them thrive Agency development services to help agencies when starting up, through to the most mature agencies They also help carriers interact with and manage relationships with independent agents by providing scale and coordination to the carriers, as well So much of the economy is concentrated in small businesses, and that's true of agencies, too, where 70% of agencies are under $1.2m in revenue With all the talk over the years of threats to the independent agent channel, Matt is extremely excited about the prospects for the channel today Some of acquisition and consolidation at the upper end of the channel has helped to spark innovation and entrepreneurialism on the smaller end, including the starting up of new agencies He's lived through other threats that were supposed to end the channel, like banks moving into insurance in the 1990s or the internet in the early 2000s Today, there's a lot of talk about Embedded insurance, which is being talked about as putting agents out of business Matt sees Embedded taking some sales But he also sees a lot of situations where Embedded isn't designed to respond, like people with more complex needs, multiple policies across lots of products (Home, multiple Autos, Umbrella, Life, etc) Part of the way agents will survive is through being purposeful in the kind of customers they target, and ensuring they have the tools to serve those customers and offer them value That goes for the value agents offer to carriers, as well, including market access but also providing the advice, guidance and other valuable services that carriers need agents to do Some advise agents to pull back from spaces where direct or digital are too threatening, like personal auto, but Matt sees that being the wrong answer We talked about how US car makers pulled back from selling sedans, but consumers still buy them from other manufacturers – the US car companies just weren't making sedans people wanted to buy People are still buying personal insurance and need protection, so just be sure your offering meets their needs The key is not to go after the price-sensitive, monoline shopper, but look for the one who needs multiline protection and values advice, guidance and support You have to know your segment, but then recognize that its changing and has evolving needs, so you must interact with it differently The days of just quoting someone's auto policy are gone as 70-80% of people are starting their insurance journey online, so an agent needs to be digital to interact with those people, and then take them on the rest of the journey for the broader insurance needs they have rather than just thinking about the single policy SIAA acquired Ryan Hanley's Rogue Risk, bringing Ryan into the fold This is about having an incubation path for people who want more freedom but aren't yet ready to own their own agency yet It also gives SIAA a test bed or sandbox to try the new digital tools and processes or ways of working that could help the channel thrive Some of the startup insurtech carriers/MGAs may or may not be solving an insurance problem, but they've created something within their transaction or experience capabilities that traditional carriers haven't solved for, which is valuable for the industry The core challenge of the industry is that we're doing things based on the constraints of our processes, but the consumer doesn't care This isn't just about the end consumer, but agents, too – carriers need to think about the cost of doing business with that carrier as agents will avoid carriers who make their lives harder or more onerous Matt sees this as the greatest time to be an agent as he's ever seen It may look different from how it's looked in the past, but that's true of any period in time, and that's ok – as long as you're willing to embrace what's changing Now is the time to come out swinging, implementing digital capabilities and be on the offense in demonstrating the value your provide your customers and your community This episode is brought to you by Ascend (useascend.com/futureofinsurance) and by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of UPbeat Music, available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Google Play. Just search for "UPbeat Music"

In this episode of Perfect Balance: An Advertising Law Podcast, host Po Yi is joined by London-based David Bond, partner and head of advertising at Fieldfisher, for a discussion about numerous contractual issues and standards advertisers should consider when negotiating global agency agreements.

In this episode, David and John speak with Tim Basa, president of Telegration Inc. Tim shares how this Master Agency uniquely aligns itself to deliver an inspiring atmosphere that supports its agents' business objectives. Tim also sheds light on the recipe he uses to identify fitting agents, as well as the secret sauce he uses to keep them motivated. Discover the Master Agency world, hear about some great technology showcases coming up, and even get a quick ear-full of David's best attempt at covering Tubthumping by Chumbawamba.

Robert Molinaro, Vice President of Chorus Communications. Mr. Molinaro provides an overview of the company and leading Master Agency on the East Coast. He also describes what Chorus is doing to empower entrepreneurs and women in our industry. The company is hoping to have at least a dozen entrepreneurial incubators active in 2019.This show is brought to you by Talk 4 Radio (http://www.talk4radio.com/) on the Talk 4 Media Network (http://www.talk4media.com/).

This week on the I Love Data Centers podcast: MicroCorp’s New Cloud Elements Division and the Anatomy of a Telecom Master Agency, I interview the President of MicroCorp, Phil Keenan. When I first met Phil in Atlanta nearly 3 years ago, it was obvious he was different than every other executive I had met working in the telecom industry. He cut through the typical positioning BS right from the start, wanted to execute quickly, and viewed the industry through the same lenses I did. Truth be told, with the launch of the Cloud Elements Division of MicroCorp in April of this year, the vision of what we planned in our very first meeting has now become manifest. Our conversation covers the specific function and role the “Master Agency” plays in our industry and how a service provider can be successful in the indirect channel. We also discuss the who, how, what and why of MicroCorp’s new Cloud Elements Division. Most importantly, however, we discuss how the lessons Phil learned selling vacuum cleaners door to door in the UK helped shape him into the executive he is today. Show Notes: 1:12 Episode starts 2:15 Phil’s backstory 3:33 How Phil got into tech 10:19 What made Phil switch industries and move to the Channel? 13:02 The difference between the way Phil views the world versus how traditional telecommunication master agents view the world 17:23 What made Phil interested in Open Spectrum? 31:28 How does an indirect channel operate and what purpose does a master agent serve? 34:25 Why can’t carriers and service agents fill that role? 39:29 What’s the issue with letting the service provider do pre-qualification with the customer? 44:16 What is Cloud Elements and how will it empower agents to do more? 50:07 How does Cloud Elements affect the engagement between an agent and their client? 55:02 Phil’s ideas that have been valuable to his interaction with the community he works with 57:12 What will the next few years look like for MicroCorp? 1:00:22 The importance of trust 1:01:34 Phil’s first time walking into a data center 1:03:26 At what point did you realize that this was the industry you wanted to work in? 1:04:58 Common misconceptions service providers have about the channel 1:05:48 What it takes for a service provider to be successful in building relationships with master agencies 1:12:56 What do you think the main component to your success was? 1:14:18 What is some advice that you wish you had had five years ago? 1:18:35 What advice would you give an agent just starting out?

Kevin graduated high school in 1982 and quickly went to work for a credit union as a computer operator. Over the years that grew old and in 1986 he went to work for US Westas a sales consultant. Working for a company that had all their technicians on union labor did not work well and in 1990 he went to work for MCI. MCI was a very dynamic fast moving company and Kevin had several finance jobs before landing as a National Sales Account Manager working with fortune 100 companies. 2006 was a tough year for telecom because companies were not making their Wall Street projections. That year Kevin decided to step out and start his own Master Agency and named it Tranquility Networks. Tranquility Networks was founded in September 2006 by Kevin Jacobs and Christopher Gardiner. Then Kevin created Vos Technology but was unable to create the Master Agent contracts needed for each carrier, so in 2010 Vos Technology merged with Tek Efficient, a Master Agent and IT Consultant. They have over 100 vetted technology providers and a one-stop shop for everything from Voice Services, Hosted to Cloud. Kevin Jacobs is widowed with 2 grown children Taylor (26) and Connor (22). Kevin resides in Parker, Colorado Loves to ski, bike, play softball and do anything with friends.

Garry Kinder is back on the show to talk about the common denominator of success. He shares his key industry insights and talks about why you must set and measure goals. Learn more at MarkMiletello.com. Note: “Where The Insurance Pros Meet” is an audio podcast and is meant for the ear. A transcript of the audio is provided for referencing a particular section or for you to follow along. Listen to the episode to get the most out of our show. We use both speech recognition software and human transcribers to create the transcripts so they may contain errors. If you’re going to quote us in print, please be sure to check the corresponding audio. TRANSCRIPT Speaker 1: Where The Insurance Pros Meet, episode eight. Mark Miletello: Goals are set to be met. Speaker 1: Where The Insurance Pros Meet is a podcast that brings the greatest talent in the world together: managers, coaches, and producers. The very best experts the insurance and financial services industry has to offer. Get ready to change the way you do business to have your most successful year ever. Now here's Mark Miletello, a top 1% producer, manager, and your host of Where The Insurance Pros Meet. Mark Miletello: Welcome to the show. We're glad you joined us. I'm your host, Mark Miletello. Today we have a repeat guest on the show, one of the industry's greatest mentors, coaches, producers. I guess you've been in this industry for six decades now, five to six decades, but a true icon. Mark Miletello: How long has it been? Garry Kinder: Well, I came into this business in 1953 when I was a junior in college. I was at a university where you could get a degree in insurance, and I did that. My bother encouraged me to start selling life insurance when I a junior in college, so that's '53 to 2017. Mark Miletello: Well, that qualifies for six decades, 64 years. Congratulations and welcome back to the show, my mentor and one of my just ... personal friends Garry Kinder, welcome. Garry Kinder: Glad to be back. Mark Miletello: Well Garry, thanks for taking the time to join us. Last show, it was just one of the most exciting times for me to have someone that means so much to me... share. And really what I wanted to do on the last show was dive in and get to know you, and get to know you as a person. It was more about, I think, learning and walking through your life. But one thing that we did touch on a whole lot that I'm glad that you decided to come back, and I hoped that you would, is I really wanted to get in and talk about the things that you do so well, which is mentoring, coaching and teaching. And let's talk about the success and how to be successful of agents. Is that okay with you? Garry Kinder: Sure, sure. Mark Miletello: Garry Garry Kinder: You can ask the questions. Mark Miletello: Go ahead. Garry Kinder: No, you can ask the questions. Mark Miletello: Well, I think one of the first messages that I've read coming into this industry, and I believe maybe even you shared it with me. There's an old speech by Albert E. N. Gray, it's called, The Common Denominator or Success. I think anyone in this business should have, or maybe even knows about that, and really you can probably research it, find it. I think everyone should read it when they enter this business. But the crux of that speech he gave back, I guess ... I think it was, what, 50, 60, 70 years ago? It was a long time. Garry Kinder: Sure. Mark Miletello: The idea was that successful people form the habits of doing things that failures won't do, right? Garry Kinder: That's right. Successful people form the habits ... I'm giving you the exact words that he used. Successful people form the habits of doing the things that failing people don't like to do. This could've been given to students in college. It could've been given to athletes. For an example, students in college, what is a failing student in college, what is it they don't like to do? Mark Miletello: Study, go to class. Garry Kinder: They don't like to study. Go to class and study, that's right. And the ones that are going to class and studying, they don't like it either. But they do it because they have the discipline to do what they ought to do. Now you take athletes ... I've played athletics in high school and college and I've played with some pretty dad gone good people, but they never made it. They never got past the first practice because they were not willing to do the things that failing people don't like to do. And failing athletes don't like to practice. Who in the world would like to practice? They want to play. They just want to go play, but you got to practice. So, the common denominator of success is doing things that failing people don't like to do. Mark Miletello: Well, you've been in this- Garry Kinder: That's true in our business. Mark Miletello: Yeah. I mean you've been in this industry now for six decades, which congratulations. And can't tell you what you mean to this industry and you mean to us out here in the field. And obviously, you've been around a lot of people that have been both successes and failures. So, what is your interpretation of that? In your opinion, what are some of the things in our industry that successful people form the habits of doing? Garry Kinder: Okay, so in our industry the things that the people. First, most people do not like what I'm going to say, I mean that people do. Most people do not like to make phone calls after phone calls after phone calls to referred leads, to friends, to people they're associated with in religion or studying, or whatever. But they don't like to do the things that failing people don't like to do either, and that is they don't like to make phone calls. But the great ones discipline themselves to make calls every week, every day. Now some people turn it over to one or two days a week, and that okay, but the successful ones make the phone calls. They don't like it, but they do it. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: Same thing to do with the loser. The loser doesn't like doing it, so it doesn't do it. Mark Miletello: Yeah, I'll tell you ... Well, number one is just making the calls because we know this is a numbers game. It always has been, and it always will be, getting in front of enough people. I think there's a lot of things that go into that but when you're coaching ... and I look back at the times where you've coached me. When you're coaching, what are some of the first things that you focus on in trying to launch an agent to have a successful career in the very beginning? Garry Kinder: Number one, you must memorize scripts, and there again, a lot of people don't want to memorize scripts. I've had people come to me, Mark, and I can' tell you the number of people that have come to me over the years and said, "I don't like ... the script doesn't sound like me." And I said to them, "Well, that's good." And they said, "What do you mean." I said, "What I mean is, if it sounded like you, it wouldn't work." You got to memorize these scripts. Then, the second thing in my opinion, most important ... these are the two most important things that people in our industry need to do, is have good scripts memorized. They sound like you. They're natural as can be, that's number one. Number two is keeping good records. And I'm telling you there's a lot of people in our industry that don't like to keep records. We're watching the World Series right now, do those people keep track of their batting average? Why they calculate it when they hit first ... If they get a single to the right field, when they hit first base, they recalculate what their batting average is up to. Mark Miletello: What their worth is? Garry Kinder: That's right. Mark Miletello: I mean the difference in the worth of a professional athlete can be one minor percentage of their ... Yeah, especially major league baseball, it's once a week the stats come out, all the stats. Yet we start a business and we don't even write down our simple goals, so I think you're right. I knew you were going to say that because that's one of the things you had me do when you mentored me back in the year 2000. You had me keep the stats and you said, "You can't monitor what you don't measure." And so, I started measuring and monitoring those numbers, and those numbers just kept increasing and increasing, and my stats grew better and better. Especially, in professional athletes, that's what they're paid for those stats, right? Garry Kinder: Sure. And that's what we must do. You've used our planning procedure, where you put down what you're going to do every year and then break it down into months and then break it down into weeks and then break it down into days. You want to keep good records. You want to have good scripts. You want to have good records. You want to study. A lot of things you must just discipline yourself to do that the unsuccessful people don't want to do. Mark Miletello: Well, I'll tell you, I'm coming from now, Garry, the management side of things. As you know, most of my career I was an agent. I find it hard when ... and you say when you're recruiting as a manager, you either hired them wrong or trained them wrong, it's all your fault. I agree with that, but sometimes it's hard. I find when it comes to measuring and monitoring, I there's a fine line between an agent wanting to do that for themselves, and a manager demanding those type of activities. Do you find that you being in a management position that ... Is it the agent's job, or is it the manager's job, is the question? Garry Kinder: Well, it's a little bit of both. But Mike, I've had people come to me ... I remember one when I was starting my management career in Bloomington, Illinois. I started in the business in '53, and I started in the management in '57, '58. And I'll never forget it, a young man in Bloomington, he came to me and said, "I don't like to keep records." This was in the recruiting process, "I don't like to keep records and I don't like to memorize scripts." I said, "Well then you don't need to join this organization." At the time I was representing Equitable, which is now a different company, but I still have a license with them. But this young man, he said, "Well, I went down, and interviewed Prudential and they said that I didn't have to do that." I said, "Well then, you need to go down there. If that's what you want, go ahead. Because here you are going to memorize the scripts. You are going to keep score." Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: But if the manager in the first place in the has to tell these people, "These are the things that you're going to need to do the first few years. You're just going to have to follow some of the things that I tell you to do. We'll write them out and we'll have to do because I cannot take any part of your success if you won't follow exactly what I'm telling you to do." So, I believe that it's more of the management than it is the agent. Because if you get the right agents and you don't train them right, you're still going to have a problem. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: So, you got to recruit the right people, you know that, in the first place. But then once you recruit them you must keep ... have them memorize the scripts, keep the records, make the phone calls, get the referred leads. They got to do all that stuff and if they aren't willing, we need to part company. But hopefully, you part company in the interviewing process. But it's the manager, in my opinion, Mark, whether you [inaudible 00:13:13]. You hire some people, and you've heard me say this before, and that is that 10% of the people that you recruit, you really don't have to tell them a whole lot. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: Because they follow everything you say, 10%. 30%, you picked the wrong person, you've got to get rid of them within 30 days, or hopefully in today's world, in pre-contract. You don't want them getting started with you just because you need an agent. So, 10%, they'll run away from you. But then you will make, we say, usually about 20% of the people you recruit over a 5, 10-year period, you're going to make a mistake. You just plain made a mistake, and you need to take care of that quickly. The ones that stick and stay ... So that's 10%, they'll run away from you. 20% 30%, you picked the wrong person, so the rest of those people you'd have to give them scripts. You'd have to meet with them regularly and go over their past seven days. And then, what do you got going for the next seven days? And I believe in people can work ... in the beginning, I don't want them working seven days a week, but I'd like to have them work six days a week. And I'm certainly going to have them work five days a week and put in a lot of hours. So, their leader's the key. Mark Miletello: Well, I think I agree, and I guess it did bring me back to the training that you gave that you'd said in the beginning, "It's really the manager that ... " And if look back over the agents who had success under me, those agents actually did do the things that I asked, and they did right away. And little by little they began to fly, so to speak. Then, I would say, three to four of my best agents are now mentors of mine. That's how it works, right? You become mentors to each other and that's the goal. But I think you're right that looking back, it was the agents that said, "Okay Mark, I'm going to trust you until I find a reason not to. I'm going to listen. I'm going to say the things that you say I'm going to do." In fact, the two of my best agents did that to a tee. They followed everything that I said until they slowly started finding their own voice and all that. Garry Kinder: Well, early in the ballgame in management I met a college graduate that was engaged to marry my youngest daughter, Carol, and his name is Kurt Ladd, and he wanted to come into this business. I said, "I'll bring you into this business if you will do everything I tell you for the first two years if you'll do everything I tell you." And brother, he did it. If I told him to memorize these scripts, he memorized them. If I told him to keep records, he kept the records. His early years, he moved to MDRT, he was a young kid, 23, 24 years old, and his qualifying for the million-dollar roundtable. He's a money motivated guy. He's really good, servicing clients. But he also, he keeps a lot of good business rolling and having good clients. He keeps his business rolling. He was in here early, in my office this morning, it was 11:00 in Dallas now, and he was here about 8:30, 9:00, he came in and asked me two or three questions. Here's a guy that's been in the business now getting close to 30 years. Mark Miletello: Right. I go back to that Albert E. N. Gray, The Common Denominator of Success, I mean a couple of things pop out to me in addition to memorizing scripts and keeping good records. But one is work ethic, and I think there's no substitution for that. Too many times in this business it'd be easy to say, "It's 3:00 or 4:00, I'm done. I'll just put it off." It's easy to put off tomorrow, what we can do today. So, I think that's one that I'll add to the number there is work ethic. I remember when I started was my goal is ... first, I didn't know a thing. I didn't know a thing. I was new to the industry, new to the business, and one thing that I could control, Garry, was my work ethic. That's the only thing that I could control. I said, "I'm going to beat my manager to the office every day. In fact, I'm going to be the first ... " I don't think I knew what that meant back then, so it was strange that I decided to do that. But later, looking back, I realized that, that put me in a position for things to happen when I ... First, a CPA that passed away, one of my favorite and best friends, and was CPA, he passed away. He said, "Mark, very few people do this. First, you've got to show up, number one, and then you got to do what you say you're going to do." That meant a lot to me because when you show up things happen, right? So, I think work ethic is the thing that failures don't like to do. Garry Kinder: That's right. There was a fellow that I spent a lot of time with. He was a doctorate in college, teaching in college with a doctorate degree and it was in Atlanta. He was on the insurance side of the college where he was teaching, and I got to know him very well. He always said what you just said. He said, "Show up. Show up on time. Show up ready to play. Show up. Show up on time. Shop up dressed, ready to play, and show up ready to go." He said, "And you'll beat 90% of the people if you show up. Show up on time. Show up dressed, ready to play." So that's what you said. That's pretty much what you- Mark Miletello: That's right. I think like you said, it goes both ways. It's the manager's job to set the path, to set the scripts, to set the training, so help keep a good record. And to some degree, you can hold them accountable. I mean most of this business, we're looking for entrepreneurs, right? We're looking for the contracted entrepreneurial-minded individuals. So, I think really, that goes back to us as agents, is we must show up. We must show up ready to play. And to me, like I said, is that I could control my work ethic ... You and I talked about it on the last show, activity. That's the only thing I felt that I could control, and that came from the work ethic, right? I mean the activity didn't come from the thin air, it came from the work ethic put behind that. I remember my manager, first, I beat him in the office at least for the first year, and then I probably got lazy after that, I'm sure of that. But also, I would turn in a weekly report and you had me do this. My manager said that I built my own weekly report and I turned it in every week. I told him what I did wrong that week. I told him what I did right that week. And I told him next week what I was going to accomplish, and he told me I didn't have to do that. I said, "Well, I need to be accountable to someone and I will let myself down, but if I say and tell you, Garry, I'll do something I'll do everything I can to make sure that happens. I don't want to let you down, right?" So that really helped me in my work ethic, is to be accountable to someone. Garry Kinder: That's true, it's true. My brother and I, we had the first person ever inducted into the Gamma Hall of Fame, was our manager. He was the first person inducted. His name was Fred Holderman. Jack was in Mount Vernon, Illinois. I was in Bloomington, Illinois. He had an actual page that we went sent him every week, and it better be there Monday morning on what we did last week and what we got going next week. We had to do that, and he was dead on it. I mean if you missed a week he would call you up and let you know, "If you're going to do that, get out of here." He was tough. Mark Miletello: Well, I think we need to get back to that in leadership roles. And as agents, we should want to do that. Out of all the agents that I've mentored and coached, there's one agent out of all of them that I told this story too. And I told him what I did, and I told him how it helped me. And how you mentored me to great success. Still to this day, Garry, and I don't require that. As after this call, I'll probably go back to requiring that, but I asked that if you want to achieve greatness, here's what you do. And I've only had one agent in the last nine years, for the first year of this career, send me a weekly report. And as you're a dynamic growing team it's easy for someone to fly under the radar. And most people want to fly under the radar, but he didn't. Garry Kinder: Sure. Mark Miletello: If I get a report every week that says, here's ... What I was able to do in that weekly report, Garry is I was able to ... He wasn't flying under the radar. I looked at just those comments that he made, and I said, "I can help this guy." And I'd pick up the phone and we would talk about those things. I remember one , he said, "A client said not because of this, this, and this." And I said, "Would you mind getting that client on the phone?" He goes, "Yeah, but he said no." It was literally over $7 a month, this client, and I don't remember the whole story. But at the end of the conversation, the clients go, "I didn't know all that. I didn't realize that. I'd love to do business with this particular agent." So those weekly reports, that's on the agent as well. I think the agent must want to, or need to, be accountable to someone. And you helped me do that more than anyone in my career. I guess I was so very fortunate early on to have someone like you coaching me to do those things. That now I realize are the principle of The Common Denominator of Success. Garry Kinder: That really is true. I sent you a copy of this, right? Mark Miletello: Yes sir. Garry Kinder: Common Denominator, and anybody that's listening to us, did you sent them a copy of this, or are you going to? Mark Miletello: Well, this show is going to be on MarkMiletello.com. It's going to be on the new Vanmark.life, Van Mueller, and myself partnership. Garry Kinder: Oh good. Mark Miletello: And it will be linking everyone back to Kinder Brothers website where they can follow you, purchase your books. I just did not know if this article that you sent me was copyrighted or not, or how it could be used. Garry Kinder: It can be used because nobody owns this anymore. The guy that wrote it, as you know was, Albert E. N. Gray, who was a Vice President of Prudential, but now it's available to anybody. The company that does a lot of training in our industry, they have- Mark Miletello: NAFA? Garry Kinder: Yeah, NAFA. They have this available. Of course, Kinder Brothers has it available, so it's lived out its time. Mark Miletello: Okay, good. Garry Kinder: Yeah, there's a word for it, I can't come up with it right now. But there is a word that's. Mark Miletello: Statute of limitations. Garry Kinder: Yeah, there you go. Mark Miletello: Something like that. But no, if I have you’re okay, then I'm sure that's good enough, and we will make it available. I've kept that in my file, probably one of the oldest and longest running articles, that no matter how many computers I've had over 20 years, I've kept this article, and I've gone back and read it from time to time. So, we will share that. Garry Kinder: That's good, because of people like you, and I have three or four or five others, that are throughout the industry and they read this every year. Every year they start the year by reading this Commons Denominators to Success. It won't go away. I won't change. It's just something that people ought to pay attention to, like some books that you want to read repeatedly. It only takes about 15, 20 minutes to read this. Mark Miletello: Well, you had mentioned making phone calls and memorizing scripts, keeping good records, of course. And I had mentioned work ethic. I think the last thing that pops out to me as one of the things that successful people do, no doubt, and I think now being on the management side of things I see it more than I did previously on the production side of the business, is continuing education, evolving our knowledge, acquiring designations. What do you say to those out there that have been in this business for 3, 5, 10 years, and how does it affect them not moving toward, let's say designations and things like that? And do you agree with me that, that is one of those things that successful people do? Garry Kinder: Oh yeah. Successful people, there you go again, do the things failing people don't like to do. And one of the things that successful people do in our industry is to read good materials. And to read things like The Common Denominators of Success. Reading a good book. At Kinder Brothers, we have 11 books and five or six of them are for management, and five or six of them are for agents. But everybody needs to read books. Everybody needs to study, and they need to read good books. Mark Miletello: Well, I think I would, over the last few years, I've been working on building a training platform at Vanmark.life. I've been working on building duplicated ... Say's, duplicatable systems of training video's, things like that. I myself have been so busy building that I have backed away from furthering my own education and growth. And since this podcast has started and I've been interviewing the greatest A-list talent that our industry has to offer, people like yourself, and Van Miller, and Tom Hegna, and on and on and on. I've kind of been forced to read their book before I have them on the show. And I've got a lot of great talent lined up that I'm in the process of reading four books at one time. I don't know, it's like re-energizing me, Garry. It's reshaping the way I think and feel. I don't know, I think sometimes we forget that we forget what you just said. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Well, it's an old cliché, but readers are leaders, and leaders are readers. There's no question about it. I have met very, very few people in my career that are outstanding that don't come back and say, "I read this book. Have you read this book? Have you read this book?" They're people that are reading books all the time. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: And then there are books marked that should be read every year. And this little Common Denominator of Success should be read by everybody at least once a year. And when you do that, like I read this, this week ... When you read this you say to yourself, "You know what? I forgot that and I'm glad I'm reading that. I forgot that." So, there are certain things, like the book, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, should be read every year, by everybody that's listening to us. Mark Miletello: Well, let's talk about your books, Garry. I mean you've written 11 books. Last show we talked about The Professional Sales Process. We talked about for managers, Building the Master Agency. I think you've probably written more books in this industry than anyone that I know of, and, the most popular and most read books. What do you suggest ... obviously Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, Albert E. N. Gray's, The Common Denominator to Success? What I've given our listeners on our website is, I list a, My Library, which is about 30 to 40 books. I think a lot of agents out there, Garry, especially agents that aren't plugged into maybe a company that promotes or they're not connected to an industry organization, there's a lot of those out there. So, I think sometimes they don't know where to go. They don't know where to start. They just read a book here and there because they come across it. One of my missions has been, Garry, is to provide a list of some of the greatest books. So, everyone that I have on this show, either on the air or off the air, I try to get a list of their three to five greatest books that they've read. And so, it's growing my library, but when Tom Hegna or Garry Kinder tells me that I should read this book, I think it's important that I should read it. So Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, your books, The Professional Sales, are there any other designations, if you will, or books that we should definitely shoot to acquire? Garry Kinder: Well, let me be a little bit in giving you information about one of our last books that I wrote, and I dedicated it to my brother, Jack, when he had his stroke, but it's, 50 Lessons in 50 Years. I got people in there that I've known over the years, but it's 50 lessons and where did I get my lessons? Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: 50 Lessons in 50 Years. So that's a book that I would recommend to people. Now there are other books, like Hegna, I like his books. I like people that are making the million-dollar roundtable. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: People that are producing at a high level and they've written some good books for us to read. Mark Miletello: Yeah, they're not just talking about it, they're doing it. Garry Kinder: That's right. That's right. Mark Miletello: Well Garry, thank you for the time on this show. We'll wrap up here. I want to ask you this, do you ever plan on retiring? Garry Kinder: No, I don't, if I'm healthy. It seems like I talk to somebody about that, what seems like every day, but I know it's not every day. But I've talked to two people about ... they've asked me if I want to retire? I'm like, "I'm not retiring." If I have good health and as long as I'm excited about what I'm doing I'm just going to keep on working. That's one of the great things about our business, and that is some people get out to 45, 50, 55, and retire, and that's okay. I'm okay with that. I say God bless them, they've had a good career. But then there are others that I ... and you named a couple of them here today, but there are some other people ... The great thing about our industry is you can continue to produce and continue to be part of the industry and never bother anybody in the industry. But work with clients that love to have you work with them. Mark Miletello: Well, I think whenever we go back to talking about The Common Denominator of Success, I think one thing that I've gained from associating with our industries greats, is that when you have a career that is rewarding as yours has been, I think it's no longer work. It's work for those that are struggling, that are not doing the things that successful people do, it's work. And you can't wait to retire. You can't wait for something bigger and better. But it seems to me, and I knew what your answer was before I ask, and I just wanted to hear it from you. You love this business, it shows. You love this career. And its just part of who you are, Garry, and we know that, the people that know you, and the people that have followed you. It's part of who you are, isn't it? Garry Kinder: Yeah, it really is. I would say one last thing in this regard because many times I've said to people ... As you know I'm a bible student, and I read the bible. I teach the bible. But I tell people, "I can't find any place in that bible that talks about retirement, not one place." It talks about doing this. It talks about doing that, talks about this. So, I'm for people that want to retire. Mark, a lot of people in our industry that retire, they go do something else. Charity, I could name you the name of the people that have retired and have taken on charity. Do work for a charity they can contribute to. Mark Miletello: It's just highly active people in this industry, right? It takes that ... maybe nervous energy in the beginning, but high energy throughout your career, right? Garry Kinder: Yeah, it's true. It's true. I hit my office virtually every day somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00. Mark Miletello: And that's after working out and running. So, Garry, you are amazing. If there's something, and I know because I know the fellow you are and the friendship that we have, that we're going to have you back on the show in the future as this show gets up and running and the following starts. But if in fact, this was your last interview with me, your last show with me, is there something that you would like to tell the agents out there, the agents that are listening to this? Garry Kinder: Well, I would say that no matter what your position is, whether it's management, whether it's an agent, whatever you're producing, you ought to have goals. And you need to have goals for the year, and then you have goals for the week. Now, you can do it your way, I'm talking to the people that are listening. But you can do it your way, but you ought to have a goal for the year, January through December, a goal. And then have a goal for every week. This is my goal for next week. This is what I got to get done. Then you measure that, and you keep track of that every week. But then you put it into some type of notebook so that at the end of the year you can look at it and see ... Now, let's see, here's what I did every week. Here's where I took a vacation. Here's where I didn't do very well. But here's what I did get done, and I did reach my annual goal. Goals are set to be met. Goals are set to be met. So, you want to have goals that can make you stretch but you can reach them. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: Because you want to make them right. Mark Miletello: Well, once again, you've come back to accountability. So, I agree to the importance of accountability, whether it be goal setting, tracking, measuring, monitoring, I think that's the basis. That's the foundation of a successful agent. That's the foundation of everything that you've taught me. So, Garry, I want to tell you again, thank you for being a return guest on the show. Thank you for the information that you've shared and allowing us to get some insight from you. I would encourage everyone that's listening to this to go to the Kinder Brother ... you can Google Garry, G-A-R-R-Y Kinder. You can come to my site MarkMiletello.com or Vanmark.life, V-A-N-M-A-R-K.life. And of course, you will be able to find the link. You'll find out how to reach ... I will make it available how to access everything that Garry Kinder has out there. So, I just got to tell you how much you mean to me and my career. And it's an honor and a privilege to have you on the show yet again, Garry. Thank you. Garry Kinder: It's my pleasure, and trust this is helpful to the people. If they'll call me, write me, I'll tell them the kind of books they ought to get that is from Kinder Brothers and what other kinds we have that we recommend from other sources. Mark Miletello: You have a great organization there and I've spoken to many people in your organization. So, hey, if you like what you hear on this show, please go to iTunes and rate us. Rate and review, so that others can find it. Once again, thank you Garry, and thank you for the followers and listeners out there. Garry Kinder: Glad to do it.

Garry Kinder shares how successful agents form the habits of doing the things people who fail don't like to do and won't do. Learn why activity should be your primary focus. View more at MarkMiletello.com. Note: “Where The Insurance Pros Meet” is an audio podcast and is meant for the ear. A transcript of the audio is provided for referencing a particular section or for you to follow along. Listen to the episode to get the most out of our show. We use both speech recognition software and human transcribers to create the transcripts so they may contain errors. If you’re going to quote us in print, please be sure to check the corresponding audio. TRANSCRIPT Speaker 1: 'Where the Insurance Pros Meet,' episode five. Garry Kinder: The one thing you can control is activity. Speaker 1: 'Where the Insurance Pros Meet' is a podcast that brings the greatest talent in the world together. Managers, coaches, and producers, the very best experts the insurance and financial services industry has to offer. Get ready to change the way you do business, to have your most successful year ever. Now, here's Mark Miletello, a top 1% producer, manager, and your host of 'Where the Insurance Pros Meet.' Mark Miletello: Welcome to 'Where the Insurance Pros Meet.' I'm your host, Mark Miletello. Today, we have on the show a true icon in the insurance and financial services industry. Our guest has won more awards, touched more lives, mentored more agents, associated with more companies, written more books, and had over six decades in the insurance and financial services. I could talk half probably the entire show of trying to give a proper introduction to our guest, but I know him personally as a friend. I really think that a personal story he would appreciate more. I met our guest 17 years ago. I came from a prior company where I was top three in that company. I had sold 30,000 of life premium back in 2000. When I made a sideways move to a new company, that was the bottom of the barrel of life. I realized that there was a bigger world out there. I was struggling to figure out how in the world could a multiple line agent do more than 25,000 of life production. I was lucky enough, fortunate enough, to be invited to ... I guess at the time, our guest was being ... It was kind of a study group that the company was seeing could he really affect agents enough to hire him on as a mentor for our company. I was invited to drive to Baton Rouge. I think it was six or eight class session. Garry Kinder: Yup. Mark Miletello: After that meeting, my production personally went to MDRT for three consecutive years after that meeting. All the lives that you've touched, all the agents that you've touched, the clients that you've touched, all roads kind of lead back, and all the greats that I've talked to. Personally, for me, I want to welcome my mentor and one of the greats in the industry. I like to call him the great Garry Kinder. Welcome, Garry. Garry Kinder: Well, it's my pleasure, Mark, to be with you. I remember those days over in, I believe it was Louisiana. Wasn't it? That we met? Mark Miletello: That's right, that's right. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: In Doug Jones' office. Garry Kinder: I remember those days. Yeah, I remember that. I guess we did have six or seven sessions. We had a ... That session had a great impact on you, and you've become a tremendous performer. I'm always glad to hear you talk about what happened back there in Louisiana. That's great stuff. Mark Miletello: Well ... Garry Kinder: Go ahead. Mark Miletello: Well, and you've always remembered that session. Someone that has taught hundreds of classes a year, how do you remember? How do you look back and every time we talk and we meet, you remember that? I know you went on to have a great career mentoring with my company at the time. I don't know, you just have the ability, I guess, to really ... remember that class, those people, that situation. Maybe it's all of them, maybe you just have a great memory. Garry Kinder: Well, I do have ... I was blessed as a young kid with memory. I could remember things. I'll never forget going to a Dale Carnegie course. The very first evening, they said, "We want to go around and have everybody introduce themselves." We did that. Then they pulled this on us. They said, "Now, who here know the names of all the people that stood up and told you their name, and where they're from? How many of you are ready to tell us what their names were?" I went around the room and I think I knew every first name except one. That was the first session of Dale Carnegie, and they gave me ... Of course, they give away prizes and that. The first prize was the Dale Carnegie book. I've always been blessed with ... which helps you in this business. Mark Miletello: Wow. Garry Kinder: Remembering names. Mark Miletello: No wonder, no wonder. Well, that explains it. I'm sure you went on to be a leader in that class. I would have given anything to have been in that class with you. Garry Kinder: Yeah, yeah. Mark Miletello: Garry, let's break for some industry news quick. Garry Kinder: Okay. Mark Miletello: Studies show 60% of household’s own life insurance. 34% say they want to buy more. Now Garry, the last 100 appointments I've been on, not one of them have had the right amount of insurance or the right plans, the right type of plans, to meet their own needs and goals. I believe that everyone out there is a prospect right now in this day and time. Garry Kinder: I believe it because not only are you doing that and what you've said here about these numbers from and so forth, that that's all true stuff and it's well researched. ... What is happening, and I'll add another thing to what you said, and that is that there are fewer agents ... and there are fewer agencies than there were say, let's say 10, 15 years ago. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: The opportunity for people coming into the industry is just unbelievable. The opportunity is tremendous. Now, they must go through a period of time of being taught and learning, and all that. Some learn faster than others, but there are fewer agents. There are fewer companies. Mark Miletello: Right. Well, and it's ... I'm excited to have you on this show. As you speak, all these memories pop up into my mind of what you taught me. One of those was accountability of also tracking, and keeping my numbers. I had never done that until then. Yeah, I think they do have much more challenges. Of course, every generation ... every decade probably says that. It's just challenging as any new agent in any time that you start in this industry. It is. If it was easy, then everyone would do it, and everyone would make a ton of money. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: But you're right, it's a great opportunity in the fact that there are fewer agents now. They must break through those first couple tough years, don't they? Garry Kinder: That's really true. That's really true. As you look at the agencies and the companies, there are fewer agencies, but they're bigger. Mark Miletello: They're bigger. Garry Kinder: There are fewer companies, but they're bigger, but there still is a phenomenal opportunity for veterans in the business and for neophytes in the business. It's just a great time to be in the business. Mark Miletello: Well, we're going to- Garry Kinder: Great time. Mark Miletello: Well, thank you. We're going to jump into that, but first, let's get into professional strategies. Garry, this show has a format that follows closely professional sports; and mainly because I believe ... First, it's fun. I also believe that the industry professionals in our industry have much in common with great athletes, with the practice, with the training, with the mentorship, and the coaching. To kick off this show, let's talk a little bit about football first. Garry Kinder: Okay. Mark Miletello: The first book I ... One of the first books I've read in the industry had you, your brother Jack, and Roger Staubach on the front cover, called 'Winning Strategies in Selling.' Tell us about ... Garry Kinder: Okay. Mark Miletello: Since we're going to go with a football theme, tell us how'd you get Roger Staubach on the front cover? Garry Kinder: Well, we moved to Dallas, Texas, the exact same year that Roger came out of the service and moved to Dallas. We were very active in FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The two of us got to know each other really quick. Believe it or not, he had young kids and he ended up having five children, I believe. Back when he was here, he had two or three small children. I had a swimming pool in my backyard. He did not have a swimming pool in his backyard. He was a rookie ... and wasn't making that much money. Back in those days, 1969, 1970, the players weren't being paid like they are today. At any rate, he brought his kids over with a swimming teacher to teach his ... in my pool, taught people how to ... taught his children how to swim. We got to know each other quite well that way. We would ... I did a lot of work with him at the Cowboys. That's back when I did the chapels for the Cowboys, for Landry and for Staubach, anything where he was playing. We just became very, very close friends. We are still to this day. The reason ... that ... some athletes do so well in the real estate business and in the insurance business, ... and Staubach did both. You take the things you did on the playing field and you use them in the business practice. They're very similar. Everything is similar. You got to practice. You got to believe. You got to stick with it. You got to have goals, that kind of stuff. That all made sense to him. Then, so we ... My brother Jack and I, we asked him, "Look, we want to write a book, and we want it to be ... Every book we've written had been geared to the insurance industry. We might like to be ... We'd like to write one that's generic, that every salesperson in every walk of life can read, and get some good information about ... get information from reading the book." That's how that all came about. Mark Miletello: Well, very good. You had mentioned your brother Jack, and speaking of your late brother Jack, I never had the privilege of meeting him. I talk and ... but with a lot of my friends, and industry professionals that had been touched by Jack in the same way that you have touched my career. Can you share with us a bit about Jack? I wish that I had the opportunity to meet him. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: Because he sounds every bit as influential and special of a person as you've been in the many lives in our industry. Can you tell us a little bit about your feelings about Jack? Garry Kinder: Well, Jack was five years older than me. He left ... We were both athletes. He ... became a coach in North of Chicago. Now he's five years ahead of me. I'm just getting ready to go to college and he's already out there coaching one year. He coached North of Chicago five years. He ... called home one day, and told ... There wasn't any such thing as an email. He didn't even write a letter. He just called home and told my mom and dad that ... he's going to go into life insurance business. Well, when he hung up the phone and finished his correspondence and everything, my dad said to my mother, "You know, Jack's lost his mind. Why would somebody ... who's a coach go into life insurance?" Then, about two years ... and I was studying ... I was geared to be a CPA ... I wanted to be a CPA. I took a lot of accounting courses in college. ... Jack said, "You're no accountant. You're a life insurance agent. You're born with life insurance in your brain and in your body. You ... This business is really for you. Now, you ... and you ought to start doing it right now." Now back in those days, that was 1953, people ... insurance companies could hire people and encouraged it, by the way, to be ... if you're in college, you can still start selling and learn how to sell your fraternity brothers, and how you sell to students and all of that. When you graduate, you'll have some policyholders, and you'll have some background. I ... started selling life insurance as a junior in college. When I graduated in 1955 from June to the end of December, I worked my tail off and I went over to our leader, our manager. He was in Peoria, Illinois. I was in Bloomington, Illinois. We were both raised in Pekin, Illinois. Jack was in Pekin. Our agency was in Peoria. I was in Bloomington. We'd all go over to him to set our goals for the next year. This was 1955. Mark Miletello: Yup. Garry Kinder: I went over to see him to set my goals. He said to me after some discussion. He said, "Garry, what are you up to? What are you going to do your first full calendar in the business?" I said, "Well, Mr. Holderman, I'd like to qualify for the million-dollar roundtable." He said, "Let me tell you something, young man. You forget the million-dollar roundtable. Young people like you don't qualify for the million-dollar roundtable. Now, it's going to take you a few years to do that." I said, "Well, let's pretend that I did want to make it in 1956. Let's assume I wanted to make the million-dollar roundtable." He said, "Well, I'll tell you how difficult it will be. You have to pay for a," ... and he drew it all out on a sheet for me. "You have to pay for 100 ... for 200. You have to pay for 200 policies your first year." We didn't sell much term insurance in those days. It mainly ... and there was no such thing as what type of products we have today. I said, "Okay. I'll do that. I'm going to ... I'm going to sell four policies a week." I'll never forget going home to see Jack and tell him what I was going to do. I told my dad. My dad said, "Well, what are you ... what are you up to? What are you going to do?" I said, "Well dad, I'm going to ... sell life insurance." He said, "No, I mean what are you going to do day in, day out?"I said, "Well, I'm going to qualify for the million-dollar round table, and that means I got to sell four policies every week. I got to sell 200 policies." He looked at me like I was nuts, and he said, "Well, what are you going to do with the rest of the time if you're only going to sell four policies a week?" That ... It really helped me. Then Jack helped me along there. Jack was a coach. He did a lot of coaching to me, so I qualified for the million-dollar round table before Jack did. Then, we went on to ... sell ... to qualify for the million-dollar round table several other years after that. End of the 1990s, we ... Jack started qualified with me, but I qualified back there. I was ... in 1956, and I graduated in '55. I had a full year to go in 1956. I got the job done. Mark Miletello: Wow. Well, I'll tell you, Jack, ... Every time I hear you talk about him, it sounds like me and my bigger brother. He's four years older than me. He's one of the greats in the financial services industry. I don't know. I just think sometimes ... I think that's what we are to the agents we mentor. We're big brothers to them because it sounds like you and I had a good big brother that showed us the way and gave us great guidance. I believe ... I think it's safe to say he was kind of a mentor of yours as well. Garry Kinder: Was he ever. He got to the point where he started making MDRT with me. It was too bad he was in Northern Illinois. We both lived in Dallas. He ... was up doing a program with a company in the Quad Cities. I was on Rock Island. He had a stroke. From that point forward, he couldn't walk. He couldn't talk. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: But he could understand everything you said, everything you said. I'd take ... keep people ... some of them, like you,'d know, like Ron Price, and people like that, that you know. We'd regularly go over and talk to Jack. He could talk ... I mean, he could listen, but he couldn't talk. We'd say something that was funny and start laughing, and then I'd take Staubach over there. Staubach would kid him like you wouldn't believe, and get him laughing. He would be laughing, but he couldn't talk. He couldn't walk. He had to be taken care, but he kept his optimism. He kept him... he didn't poo-poo, or he didn't say ... Well, he couldn't talk, so he couldn't tell us how bad it was, but he would sit there and listen. Mark Miletello: You could tell. Garry Kinder: He could listen to every word, and he'd laugh; if it was something to laugh at. Mark Miletello: Well, I think that's what it takes to be successful in this industry. No matter what the odds, no matter what the challenge is, you always keep that optimism. You always have the vision and looking forward. I wish I would have had the opportunity to meet him. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: He was still around when you and I met, but ... Thank you for sharing about Jack, and talking about Jack, and all the ... I mean looking back over your career, can you ... tell us maybe someone that you looked up to in the way that we look up to you, Garry? Is there some ... Some of the greats in our industry that you recall that really stand out, that you've met over your illustrious career? Garry Kinder: Sure. First, our manager, Fred Holderman, in Peoria, Illinois, was the first man inducted into the GAMA Hall of Fame. He was a great inspiration to us. He was ... because he'd been in the business forever. He was the first one inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was just a great manager and a great leader. He taught us two things that I'll never forget: systems. You got to have systems. You got to have a sales system. You got to have a calling system. You must have a system of gathering referred leads. You must have systems. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: You must have systems. He just kept saying that repeatedly. You must have systems. He also said you got to keep score. ... We would have to send to him every week how many dials, how many reaches, how many applications, how many paid cases did you get done this week? We'd send that to him and he would send it back with a ... writing on it. It really helped me, and it inspired me. Mark Miletello: Well, that's what you had me do. Garry Kinder: He also- Mark Miletello: In the meeting, we had together. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: That's what you had me bring in at those training sessions, and it does, and it did. Garry Kinder: It makes a difference. I'm telling you, Mark. It really makes a difference. When we would send those in at the end of every month, he would send ... I think it was like $100 check, which was unbelievably high back in ... and that was in 1955, '56, '57. Every time you turn that in with the whole agency, and some would turn them in, some wouldn't. The ones that would turn them in, he would grade them, and he would pay ... He would send an extra $100. Mark Miletello: Wow. Garry Kinder: He said, "This is what you get for keeping the record, and you had the best ... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Well, there was another guy that was strong. His name was Dale Nelson, and he was up in Joliet, Illinois, not too far from Bloomington. Every month, either he or me, one or the other, would win that $100. We were both selling on average, four paid cases a week. Today, that's unheard of. Mark Miletello: Right. Well, it's funny that you ... Most people I talk to, we talk premium, premium, premium. Every time I talk to you, it's always activity. I think of the systems that you taught me. The activity funnel, which is every time I bring on a new agent, I pull out your activity funnel. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: I talk about taking ... yes, how do you get to MDRT, but then you reverse it all the way back down to the daily activity that it takes? One thing you taught me, and I remember it, and I've used it, and I will never forget it. It's, "Mark, you've only sold 30,000 of life premium in your best year.""Yes, that's right, Garry.""Well, tell me, how are you going to go out and write 100,000 in life? You can't do it. I mean, you can't even visualize it; but what you can do is you can go out and write four applications and a week, and it will set you up. You can't tell how big those are going to be. You can't tell if the client's going to say 'yes,' or 'no,' or whether it's going to get issued or not, or the health of the client, or what not; but you can control your actions." That's something I'll never forget it. Garry Kinder: That's so good, Mark. That is really good. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: It's really true. The one thing you can control is activity. Then, you just go down that chart and ... you watch the activity, and suddenly, you're being highly successful. Our manager ... Go ahead. Mark Miletello: No, no, I just ... I was recruiting an agent the other day and one of our first training meetings. I just said ... I said ... and maybe I got a little strong.I said, "But if I held a gun to your head and said, 'Go out and write 100,000 of life premium,' could you promise me you would do that?" He goes, "Yes, I could with a gun to my head."I said, "Well, no you can't. You can't promise me that." I said, "But if I told you, you had to talk to ten people a day to have five set appointments, to have three applications a week, could you promise me that you could talk to ten ... In fact, you could talk to ten people in an hour if you had a gun pointed at your head." He goes, "You know, you're right. I would walk out of this door and knock on every door I could. I'd talk to 50 in an hour if I had a gun to my head." I kind of had a little twist of what you taught me. Garry Kinder: That's. Mark Miletello: I just shared with him that you can control your actions, but you can't control the results. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: It's really true. You can control that activity. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: That's good. That's a great thing to talk about. Mark Miletello: Garry, I know what it took me to go to MDRT. I have you to thank for that. You've shared with us your story of going to MDRT. You also were involved and got involved in the management side. I know your brother Jack was probably ... Would it be safe to say he was more of a manager, and you were more of the producer? Garry Kinder: That's correct. That is correct. Mark Miletello: You ended up going into leadership as well. Can you tell us about the management side of the business? Garry Kinder: Sure ... sure. Mark Miletello: And when that happened. Garry Kinder: Sure. Well, at 19 ... Let's see, 1958. Yeah, in 1958, I'd been in the business counting my one year as a junior college and a senior in college, selling that ... calling that one year, and then two or three more years. They, at AXA we had this man, Fred G. Holderman, who was the first one inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was always constantly saying, "People like you ought to be in management because you can continue to sell, and ... you can ... coach as you go along. And then, you can recruit people." He sent me over to ... I was at Bloomington, but he called the manager at Bloomington and he said, "I'm going to put Garry in your unit, and I want you to leave him alone because he's got his brother, but I want you to leave him alone." He was telling this on the telephone while I'm sitting there listening to him talking to a manager. He said, "I want you to leave him alone and he'll take care of everything. Give him a good desk and just leave him alone. He'll send all his stuff to me, and we'll get her done. You just sit there and take it." Then when he hung up, he said, "What little do you ... don't know is in the next couple years, he's not going to make it. He's not going to make it. I'm going to need somebody like you in a college town talking to young kids, getting out of college with degrees ... some of them have taken a lot of insurance courses." Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State University both had strong ... insurance courses. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: I took ... I had 16 hours of insurance when I graduated. Mark Miletello: Wow. Garry Kinder: It was a strong place to start. Eventfully, I started hiring people. He told me, "I want you to take over. The man that was there, I've asked him to go to other places and you ... you take over and sell a lot of these college kids." Well, the college kids in my era were getting back from the war. They were tough-minded people. I hired a lot of these people who came back out of the service into the life insurance business. I ... brought them in off the college campus. I had like the captain of the ... the football team at Illinois State University. He came on and he just died about a year ... less than a year ago. He was an outstanding agent, outstanding agent. I hired the quarterback from Illinois Wesleyan and brought him into the business. He decided he wanted to spend more time coaching than being in the insurance business, but I did bring him in. He did do a good job, but he wanted to go back to ... Then he became the athletic director in Illinois Wesleyan, but he had all that insurance background and believed in ...I brought a lot of these kids in, and I knew which ones fit our industry and which ones didn't. I hadn't been out of the business two years ... I mean I hadn't been in the business two years and I'm in ... I'm a ... what AXA called a district manager. Mark Miletello: Which was you were still producing, right? I mean you were still a production man. Garry Kinder: I was still producing. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: At an MDRT level. I was still producing, and I was hiring three or four a year. I was bringing them in. At that time, Equitable had a gold ... deal or a gold ... What do you call it? Trophy, a gold trophy. They had a gold trophy for the leading general agent and the leading district manager. At that time, I was the district manager. I got that gold trophy. I was number one in the country. Mark Miletello: Nice. Garry Kinder: Then, I moved to Akron, Ohio, where I took over an agency. After a couple years, I got the gold trophy for agency managers. In both cases, I could sell Equitable to this day, by the way. AXA still encourages managers to sell. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: Particularly district managers. Mark Miletello: A lot of companies are getting away from that, you know that? Yeah. Garry Kinder: Oh yeah. Yeah, I look at it every day. They're getting away from that. Northwestern, Mass Mutual, Equitable still like their managers to sell. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: But they're ... fewer and fewer companies are doing that. I have nothing against it. It's just that it fit me better because I loved selling. It fit Jack tremendously because he wanted to coach. He was ... a better coach than I was. As we went along, I made a lot more money because I was still performing as an agent. Mark Miletello: I got a funny story to tell you is that ... I'm in a position where, as you know because I went through your agent mentoring. I also went through your management mentoring when I decided in 2008 to ... I'd won a lot of the awards that our company had to offer, made a lot of money. I wanted to ... I was good at recruiting, and bringing people in the business, and helping them, and building processes and systems the same way that you did. Seven years later, ... and I didn't want to be competition with my agents, I guess was my excuse. I was getting very rusty, and I was telling my agents, "You know, this is how I used to do it, and this is what I did." They're like, "Well, Mark, times are different. You know, it's seven years." People ... They looked... I had some great success. I was the number one agent in the company. It was just funny that ... I don't want to put it this way, but kind of sometimes a great producer in your own homeland. They don't see that. They don't know that. That was a different time and a different era. Just ... a lot of things, but also really client meetings. I was getting rusty over seven years, Garry. Last year, I have you know, I kind of jumped back into production just to sharpen my ax again. I hit MDRT last year. Garry Kinder: Good. You know, I didn't realize that. I'm glad to hear that. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: That's tremendous. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Garry Kinder: Yeah. Mark Miletello: Well, looking back over your career, you've told us about all the awards, all the neat people you've met, all your mentors, all the success you had. Is there one thing, an award or a time? Is there may be a client relationship? Is there something that you're most proud of looking back? I know that's a hard question. Garry Kinder: Yeah, that's a tough question. ... What I'd ... would think about and what I felt best about was helping people come into this business, and helping them succeed. Today, I still get a lot of messages, a lot of letters. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: With people like you, and I could name, after a name, after a name. I really, really love being in the business. I got really good feedback, and that helped me. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: I'll tell you one other thing that's a little off course, but I want you to hear this, that at Illinois Wesleyan, I was president of the fraternity of the Phi Gamma Delta. ...People in the fraternity kept saying to me, "You really ought to be a preacher. You ought to be a pastor. That's what you ought to do." Mark Miletello: I agree with that. Garry Kinder: I said, "Well, I don't feel ... I don't feel like doing that." I said, "I don't feel the calling." I went to a pastor that liked me, who was what you'd call a college pastor. He had a lot of college kids coming to his church. I was one of them. One time when I was a junior in college, I went to him. I said, "You know me... a lot of my friends and fraternity brothers are saying that I ought to be a preacher." He said, "Well let me tell you something. If you're going to be a preacher, you will know it. You will be called. You will know it." He said, "Let me tell you something else. You can do more good for the cause of Christ and the cause of religion. You can do a lot more if you're not a preacher if you're a worker if you're a layman. So, don't you pay attention to those kids? You just go ahead, keep selling insurance, and be the best insurance person in town, and ... they'll follow you, and not only in the insurance world, but they'll follow you in the spiritual world." As you know, that's what we teach, that there's the physical side of life. There's the financial side of life. There's the ... the medical side of life. You got all these things that you want to take care of, but you take care of your spiritual life. Everything else will fall in line. Mark Miletello: Well, you know I agree with that. Thank you for sharing. I think I tend to agree. As you go into a leadership position, the proudest moments are not about the awards anymore. You've had the success. It's more about those lives that you were able to touch along the way. I completely agree with that. My next question was going to be what motivates you because your energy level and your ... When I see you at conferences, you're the first one in the gym in the morning. When you're on stage, ... you light up the stage. You wake up the crowd. I think I know what motivates you after this show is you just love the business, and you love sharing it. Garry Kinder: Yeah, I love the business. I've been blessed with health, good health. Consequently, a lot of people say to me, "When are you going to retire?" I said, "I'm not sure." First, there's nothing in the Bible about retirement. You can go there from Genesis through Revelation and you're not going to find ... retirement in there. I'm going to ... and I'm not against retirement. I'm for it, and some people need to retire, but I didn't need to retire. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: I just love the work, got up every morning, go to work. Now, I don't go overseas as much as I used to. I've got several people that help me with that ... in our office. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: I do stay at work every day. I think it keeps you alert. I think it keeps on the ball. Mark Miletello: I absolutely ... I think you're going to be here long after I'm gone. You're going to make it, long time. Your inspiration is felt in the industry, and we thank you for it. You and I kind of had a conversation about the state of affairs. I think every year; every decade has state of affairs and issues. What I'd like to do, Garry is ... and maybe this is going to help the new agent. Maybe look in the future, today and into the future over the next years, and give us a professional prediction. You and I kind of have our conversation before we jump there, we had a conversation about the value of our products and the need for our products. Maybe if a new agent, new ... a person entering the industry could hear a bit of information about what you and I talk about, and the need for our products today. Garry Kinder: That's right. Well, ... I remember way back in college being ... Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State University, as I said, were heavily ... You could take insurance courses ... because they were both very much involved because of State Farm. That's the home of State Farm. They put ... They've helped ... Mark Miletello: Cater to that. Garry Kinder: Those two universities. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: Come up with ... good curriculum. I'll never forget the professor. He did a few works ... He was a professor at Illinois Wesleyan, but he also did some work for State Farm. He ... I'll never forget as a senior, I took my final insurance course. It was life insurance. Life insurance and financial affairs. There was a course on social security. There was a course on this, a course on that. Now he comes, my senior year, and I'm sitting there in the ... classroom. He said ... and he walks in one day like in the middle of the year, and he said, "I'm going to give you today a what it, what it takes to be good in the life insurance business as an agent; because there's some of you in this room that maybe should be going in to life insurance and in sales. Some of you need to go to the home office, but there's a bunch of you ... Not a bunch, but there's a few of you in here that probably need to go into the life insurance business as an agent. And let me tell you how important it is." He said, "People buy automobiles. They have to be sold cigarettes." He said, "People buy ... liquor." He said, "They have to be sold life insurance." He said, "Some people, you know, have to be motivated to get certain things done, and so of the greatest occupations you can go into is a teacher, a preacher, or a life insurance agent. And that's how important it is for some of you in this room that is going to be insurance agents," and a lot of the people in the room laughed, including me. I soon learned that it was one of the greatest things that can be done, and that is to be in the life insurance business. It's a calling. It's almost like being a preacher. It's a calling. After a while, you want to help people get the job done. Some of them are agents that you're training. Some of them are clients that you're continuing to be with. Mark Miletello: Well, I agree. I think that ... I don't know. I guess especially after ... They say you're not in the business until you deliver your first claim. I hate that, but that's I think the way it is, that you don't realize the calling factor of being able to touch a family in the way that ... a life insurance agent can. I tell people that once the food's gone, once the attorney's gone, once the doctor can do no more, ... you're standing there with a considerable check to provide for the family.I agree and as far as your professional recommendations, Garry, you have ... written more books in our industry than anybody that I know of. I don't know that there's anyone out there. I know that you have systems and processes. You've got the activity funnel you gave me, the financial house process. Rather than share with us outside, and maybe you can share with us an outside inspiration ... Out of all your books, is there may be one that ... you would mention to a first-time reader that was following you? Garry Kinder: Yeah, the ... We have a bunch of ... books. In fact, right now, I'm writing a book with my daughter who's been on the MDRT. She's a speaker. She's been on the MDRT. I think maybe you heard her speak. She is a teacher. She's a speaker. She's got what it takes. There are the two best books right now, or out of a bunch of them is the ... 'Professional Sales Process.' Mark Miletello: Great. Garry Kinder: The 'Professional Sales Process.' It's how to sell life insurance from the very beginning of getting clients to the very end of getting referred leads, and ... not only getting referred leads but helping people ... as you say, when you settle a death claim. Mark Miletello: Right. Garry Kinder: I have settled several of those up to families where I was the agent. I sold the policy, got them to take the policy. That's a great feeling. It's really a great feeling. That's one book, 'The Professional Sales Process.' Now, for managers, the best book we have there is 'Building a Master Agency.' Those two books are A to Z. One for agents, one for managers. Mark Miletello: Well, I've read them both. I've read 'Building the Master Agency' several times. I just got to tell you, Garry, that I wish ... I know this has been twice as long as our normal show, and our normal podcast. I just felt it was a special moment to ... and it was an honor and a privilege to have you on board with us. I just got to tell you from the industry, on behalf of the industry, thank you for your energy, your mentorship. Thank you from the clients' perspective, all the lives that you've touched through the agents and managers that you've ... I know you got a lot going on today and a lot going on in a busy career still, and to take the time, I got to tell you how much it means to me. Garry Kinder: Well, I'm proud of you and what you've done, Mark. I'm glad that you're doing so well. Down the line, we can do this again in six months, or whenever you want to ... call me back and ... continue some of the things we didn't get to today. Mark Miletello: Well, you're right. We have so much more to do. Thank you for that invitation, I absolutely will look forward to that. To dive in, I think more of your coaching, and your processes, and your tips, and your books. We wanted to know about you and your life on this call. Thank you for that invitation. Garry, is there any last words you want to share, as well as maybe how people best can follow you? Garry Kinder: Well, stick in there. One of the things you and I talked about was ... from time to time, we're going to fumble, sometimes big sometimes small. No matter what happens, to the people I'm talking to, follow what Mark's talking about, and follow what I'm talking about here. You will do well. You are doing ... You're in a great business. It's a wonderful place to be, and help people ... accomplish their financial goals, because most of them need the help of a strong financial agent. Mark Miletello: Well, thank you, Garry. We love you and we appreciate you. I'm sure anyone can Google Garry, G-A-R-R-Y, Kinder, and you'll find as much information as you want to as far as how to follow him. Garry Kinder: That's right. Mark Miletello: If you like what you hear on this show, go to iTunes, rate and review us, and that way others can follow us. I'm Mark Miletello, your host, on 'Where the Insurance Pros Meet.'