Podcasts about over sixty

EPISODE 128 | Estimated Prophets: Nostradamus & Cayce Even though almost none of the things that prophets say will happen actually do, we still persist in believing in the capability anyway. We do not like to change out minds very much. Two of the biggest prophets that still hold sway today over Western culture are Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce, and we'll take a look at each one in turn. Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. You can also SUBSCRIBE to this podcast. Review us here or on IMDb!  SECTIONS 02:35 - Built to Last - Nostradamus' career and style, Virgilianised syntax, Les Prophéties and the Mirabilis Liber  06:53 - Aoxomoxoa - Into the 20th century, Erika Cheetham, "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow", some prophecies  12:48 - Blues for Allah - The King of Terror wears a blue turban, more prophecies, modern rehashings and interpretations, Over Sixty's Travel Trouble section for 2025 22:13 - Shakedown Street - Nostrafakers, Mabus the 3rd Antichrist, Ray Mabus, Dennis "prophetofrevenge" Markuze, John "rogue scholar" Hogue 28:38 - Ship of Fools - Nostrascams, Gangnam Style, Rudolf Hess uses Nostradamus 32:08 - American Beauty - Edgar Cayce gets his voice back, starts a lucrative career as the Sleeping Prophet and has weird food ideas 36:01 - In the Dark - Cayce sells pseudomedical "cures", then loses it in 1932, makes lots of predictions and travels around in time, the "root race" and polygenesis, Atlantis and more 42:14 - Wake of the Flood - Cayce's Earth Changes, Lori Toye's I Am America maps, Gordon-Michael Scallion's prophetic doomsday maps, billionaires start buying land Music by Fanette Ronjat More Info EPSIODE 53 | Time to Get Ill - DST, Y2K & 2012 Episode 08 | Time Cube - Four Is the Loneliest Number Entry for Nostradamus on the Museum of Hoaxes website A translation of Nostradamus prophecies More translations of the prophecies  Nostradamus's Cherry Jelly recipe on Tasting History Nostradamus Predicted 9/11 on the Museum of Hoaxes Crystalinks prophecies page Nostradamus' 2025 predictions revealed on OverSixty Dennis Markuze - The Prophecies of Nostradamus  HogueProphecy website An Idiot's Biography - John Hogue Edgar Cayce on Crystalinks Edgar Cayce's life & readings page on his official website Edgar Cayce: The Would-Be Sleeping Prophet Earth Star magazine Arizona Corporation Commission Finds Payson Couple Defrauded Elderly Investor The Shocking Doomsday Maps Of The World And The Billionaire Escape Plans in Forbes Follow us on social: Facebook Twitter Bluesky Other Podcasts by Derek DeWitt DIGITAL SIGNAGE DONE RIGHT - Winner of a 2022 Gold Quill Award, 2022 Gold MarCom Award, 2021 AVA Digital Award Gold, 2021 Silver Davey Award, 2020 Communicator Award of Excellence, and on numerous top 10 podcast lists.  PRAGUE TIMES - A city is more than just a location - it's a kaleidoscope of history, places, people and trends. This podcast looks at Prague, in the center of Europe, from a number of perspectives, including what it is now, what is has been and where it's going. It's Prague THEN, Prague NOW, Prague LATER   

Karesa McElheny lost all her beautiful red hair in her early 40's. She wore wigs for a while until one day she just didn't. Now she's confidently bald and at age 65 she feels sexier and more feminine than ever. Hear how she navigated through this huge life change and embraced her new look; how her new husband whom she met at age 53 helped support her; and a little bit about how they keep their relationship strong (because it's always important to hear those parts). Work With Molly Here:Click This Link!To follow Molly on Instagram and get to know her even more, click HERE!For Karesa's Instagram click HERE!

Over SIXTY tracks in this amazing Drum & Bass set from Ralph X feat. Fred V

Welcome to Seniors We Love, a podcast designed to honor the people who have made a difference in our lives. Who might not have gotten the recognition they deserved any other way.  Most of us go through life making a difference, even if only in small ways. Most people have accomplishments that are never recognized. These might include running the school school PTA, volunteering for 10 years at the local food bank, coaching Little league or simply walking through the community cleaning up trash. It could be a small invention or traveling to remote places or caring for others. Everyone has a story. There are so many seniors who shouldn’t be forgotten.  Their activities deserve to be remembered, cherished and celebrated.  For example, there is a lake in the community where I live. Someone started a group to clean up the lake twice a year. This person promotes the event, recruits the volunteers, They work tirelessly to find sponsors to provide the materials from gloves to bags, ladders and pick up trucks. This person's story should be remembered.  Another one of my neighbors was very involved in having a church built many years ago. While I knew he was attended the church, I didn’t know how involved he was in the design. He was a boater. If you look up in the church, you can see the bottom of a boat. Very clever. I didn’t learn that until I attended his funeral but how cool would it have been to hear the story and have it available for others over the years! I want to know: what was the motivation behind behind what they do  Where does the passion come from   Why are they giving their time And a lot more You see, that's the kind of stuff I think we really want to know. Maybe they are a grandmother and they want to teach their grandchildren about taking care of mother earth. Who’s talking about them and remembering them. For all the people that walk around the lake or attend the church, do they know the backstory?  Do you have seniors like this in your life that have a story that isn't being told? Please reach out to me as I  want to talk about them or to someone who can talk for them and share their story.  That’s what seniors we love podcast is going to be about. Mixed into the conversation will be things that seniors need to be thinking about or things that caregivers might need to think about for their seniors. At some point we might talk about taking away the keys or we might talk about health insurance or we might talk about final expense planning or we might talk about hospice. Topics and conversations that relate to seniors that many of us might not be aware of. My name is Debbie DeChambeau and I am your host. This is my 4th podcast and If you want to listen to my other podcasts they are titled Divorce Exposed, Business In Real Life, The Business of Insurance and I hope to release Single and Over Sixty soon. I’ll link to them in the show notes which you can find at seniorswelove.com I’m super excited to share these stories with you. I hope they motivate and inspire and provide talking points for your family as we remember the seniors we love.  If you have someone you want me to talk about, please reach out to me at seniorswelove@gmail.com  This episode of the Seniors We Love Podcast is brought to you by Lynn Michel Insurance. If you have a senior in the US, most likely they are on medicare. It’s a health care plan with many options that many seniors aren’t aware of. From DSNPS to Troop, MOP to PDP, the acronyms alone can be confusing. When you work with an agent for prescription drug or part D coverages, they go through some stringent certifications. This applies to part C, Medicare Advantage as well. Talk to Lynn Michel and get all of your questions answered about your health care options through Medicare. Call them at 301-996-2328 or check out their website lynnmichel.com (spell it out) Enjoy Seniors We Love. Tell your friends and family so that we can spread the word about the important people in our lives  

Did you know that people are turning 65 at a rate of 10,000 people per day and that number isn’t expected to decrease for a few years?  That’s a lot of people turning 65. A lot of the people who have had Great accomplishments throughout their lives Their stories might not have been told and if they have been, they might not be remembered. Welcome to seniors we love, a podcast designed to honor the people who have made a difference in our lives. Who might not have gotten the recognition they deserved any other way.  It’s where we share stories of people who have made a difference  Mixed in we talk about some of the difficulties they’ve experienced and some of the joys of their adventures. Trailblazers in their own subtle way. I hope throughout this podcast to share those stories of people who really made a difference and mixed in between some of the stories will probably be some of the difficulties of the senior life that people experience  My name is Debbie DeChambeau and I am the host of this podcast and in 2019, I am also a caregiver. I didn’t plan to be a caregiver. I didn’t go looking for it.  People tell me they don’t know how I do what I do. It’s something I have heard all of my life. Honestly, I just do what I think needs to be done and I keep moving forward. I’m a survivor. I don’t think twice about it. I focus on having a positive attitude  and I think in many ways that’s what keeps me going In many ways I might have set myself up for it because I am so caring. I’m not afraid to jump in and try to figure it out. And I’m not that good at saying NO.  My sister passed away in November, 1999. She was 34 and left behind 4 children. A year after her death, her husband was floundering so I was asked to care for her two youngest children for awhile. I went from two kids to four overnight. I figured it out. I was raising 4 children for over a year. What a challenging time that was in my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I managed the care for my biological father during the last year of his life. You see he ended up in the hospital once a month and would be there for a week at a time. It was an hour away, but I drove there every day, met with the doctors, coordinated the care then came home to take care of the 4 kids. He would misbehave in the middle of the night and they would call me to come and sit with him because they didn’t have anyone else. While caring for him was different than the caring I’ve done for others, his taught me a lot that has helped me over the past 10 years. I also have a step father. Actually if you want to learn a little more about me outside of this podcast episode, go to episode 1 of Divorce Exposed, another podcast I host and you’ll get a lot of my backstory.  I digress.  When my step father passed away, he had a brother that he looked after every month. This was my Uncle Merrill. On the way to the funeral, I learned how much my dad was helping his brother. I said to my uncle, if you ever need any help, let me know, I live in a big house and I’m happy to help. It was my way of letting my dad know how much I was part of his family. Another story for another podcast. Little did I know that within 6 months he would be living with me. He was with me for almost 10 years. I was his caregiver and I’ll talk more about him in another episode. My mom and I have had an interesting relationship over the years. For the first 30ish, she was an alcoholic. Once she was in recovery, we made up for all of the lost years. I always told her there was a room for her in my home when she needed it and that I would never put her in a nursing home. I don’t believe in that.  3 years ago, my mom moved in with me. It was a short visit because she had fallen off the wagon and it was like reliving my teenage years. Fast forward 3 years and she is again in recovery but she’s also very sick and currently in hospice. I’m her caregiver. It’s so much more than I ever imagined. I’m good at providing medicine, doing laundry and keeping people doing the right thing. I’m not so good at some of the other duties of a caregiver. I really don’t like changing the porta potty or cleaning the wounds. With my sisters children, I had a husband who helped and I was 20 years younger! With my uncle, he did almost everything for himself, or at least tried to.  My mom is a primadonna. She wants everything done for her. That might be because she currently weighs 79 lbs. And  is also a fall risk so she can’t do much. But she doesn’t make it easy. Living with my mom for the first time in 30 years has been quite an adjustment. I’ve learned so many things about her that I was never aware of. Or maybe I just forgot or didn’t see them because of the alcoholism.  There’s a reason we didn’t get along when I was a teenager, but I don’t think I was the issue! (wink wink) Because of the caregiving I’m doing for my mom, I decided to create this podcast. I’ve learned so much about her and I think it needs to be shared. Not in a negative way, but in a way that inspires others.  I want to showcase how amazing people are. The little things that make a difference that don't always get talked about. I’m also an insurance agent. I started working for my step dad when I was 15. After my sister passed, I stepped away from the industry for awhile. I kept my license and did my required continuing education credits each year. I’m a certified insurance counselor, so I’ve taken a lot of classes. I kept my insurance license because I didn’t know what the future would hold.  While caring for my mom and trying to figure out her medicare benefits, I was so  overwhelmed. I figure if I’m having trouble with this stuff, how can seniors and other caregivers figure it out. I’m an insurance agent and I’m struggling. I realized why I kept my insurance license all these years. I’m now back in the insurance business as a medicare agent. I’m a resource for anyone eligible for medicare, helping them navigate the confusing waters. It’s a world filled with acronyms. Mops, QMB’s DSNPs to SEP’s. And the list goes on for the acronyms! I started my own insurance agency called Lynn Michel Insurance. Lynn is my middle name, Michel is my youngest son's middle name. He hates that name so I’m hoping to showcase how beautiful it is! I’m also hoping he’ll decide to join me in the business one day. If nothing else, It’s a lot shorter than DeChambeau!  So if you know a senior that needs a review of their medicare insurance, I’d love to be the person you talk to. Technically, I’ve been an insurance agent for the past 40 years, and at the time of this recording I’m almost a year in the medicare space. Being new is a good thing. I’ll be thorough, do the research and provide you with the options that you are looking for. Everything is fresh because of all the studying I’ve been doing. While everything is highly regulated by CMS (centers for Medicare and Medicaid services) and I mean highly regulated, I’ve also completed the certifications for Part C and Part D. Talk about complicated. So if you need someone to talk to about medicare, go to LYNNMICHEL.com or call me at 301-996-2328.  As a caregiver and as an insurance agent, I understand this complicated world of looking out for the Seniors We Love. I’m super excited to share these stories with you. I hope they motivate and inspire and provide talking points for your family as we remember the seniors we love.  If you have someone you want me to talk about, please reach out to me at seniorswelove@gmail.com  Seniors we love is my 4th podcast. If you want to listen to my other podcasts they are titled Divorce Exposed, Business In Real Life, The Business of Insurance and I hope to release Single and Over Sixty soon. I’ll link to them in the show notes which you can find at seniorswelove.com

ARE YOU PROTECTING YOUR MEDIA? EP 35 - In this episode of The Business of Insurance Podcast, Debbie DeChambeau discusses concepts that agency principals and marketing professionals need to consider around the content being created. With marketing platforms changing faster than most people can keep up with, it is often hard to understand their impact right away. For example, if your employee creates their own brand on social media in an effort to attract new business, do you own it or is it theirs? If an employee is hosting your podcast and decides to leave, can you replace them? What about your video’s? Do you owe them any compensation for the media that continues to run online after they leave? These are just a few of the issues we discuss in this episode.   JOIN OUR FACEBOOK AND LINKEDIN GROUP FACEBOOK GROUP WHAT YOU’LL LEARN FROM LISTENING Conversations you should be having with your marketing team and legal counsel How to put all the marketing information in one location  What are the obligations surrounding the voice or face of your digital media? ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love

INTERNSHIPS, LEADERSHIP AND UNDERWRITING Ep 34 - The core of this podcast is to talk about Insurance and what an amazing industry it is. From talking to company employees, association staff and those that are contributing to the industry.  Our guests in this episode are both underwriters and members of IAIP. From their start as interns to their adventure into the agency side, they provide a unique perspective into many aspects of the insurance industry. In this conversation we discuss: Internships and how they are a great introduction into the insurance company side of the business Leadership programs offered by IAIP Which side is your bread plate and which side is your water glass? The value of being Voluntold (no, it's not a typo!) Why you need a concise elevator pitch RESOURCES International Association of Insurance Professionals  Facebook Group ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love

  EP 32 - If you are an insurance professional, an agent bringing in new business or the principal of an insurance agency, this episode is for you. If you aren't in the insurance business, but want to learn more about LinkedIn, you will find a lot of value in this podcast episode. Our guest today is Karen Yankovich. We met last fall at a podcast conference. She is a LinkedIn expert helping professionals build a profile and utilize the platform for business development.  She is a fellow podcaster and is the host of Good Girls Get Rich, so I’d encourage you to listen to her podcast for other tips around LinkedIn and marketing! QUESTIONS WE ASK What should the focus be on the LinkedIn profile? When is the best time to post? Why are keywords valuable for LinkedIn? How can we find business using LinkedIn? Is LinkedIn still relevant today? JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP FACEBOOK GROUP RESOURCES Transcription service that is reliable and reasonably priced - Rev.com  Karen’s podcast - Good Girls Get Rich Get free tips on linked #linkedinquicktips Check out upcoming LinkedIn workshops  Freelinkedinworkshop.com ABOUT OUR GUEST – KAREN YANKOVICH Connect with Karen on her digital platforms:  Website LinkedIn, Facebook.   Twitter Podcast - Good Girls Get Rich Instagram ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love

LEADERS UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF HARD WORK WITH JESSICA PRUITT EP 31 - Jessica Pruitt president of Lebanon Insurance agency. She was recruited from a fast food restaurant, worked her way through different departments and is now owns  the insurance agency. Jessica discusses the work she did over the years that she thinks positioned her for being the right person to run the agency. Her office is located in a part of Virginia that is somewhat old school, so she had to deal with prospects and clients wanting to speak to a man. Some finally agreed to work with her and some took their business elsewhere. She’s persevered and grown the business as a woman and is beginning to make a name for herself in her community. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS This podcast was recorded at the regional conference for International Association of Insurance Professionals. For those of you that have been around for awhile, you might know it as NAIW, but they did a rebranding a few years ago to open it to both men and women. I had to privilege to interview several of the attendees of the conference. Watch for those conversations in future episodes. The most impressive benefit for being part of this organization is their focus on leadership training. Personally, that in itself is worth the investment of this organization. Most of our leaders don’t get trained, they just end up in the role. To be an effective leader, there are some important skills that you need to develop, and IAIP has a program for building leadership. IAIP offers a training unique to insurance professionals, both on the agency and company side, so if you are not familiar with them, check them out. Their national conference is in Las Vegas June 6-8th OF 2019. I’ll link to their website in the show notes, but I really think it’s worthwhile to investigate. I wouldn’t look at this as a networking event, although I believe that meeting with your peers in the industry is an added benefit, but the training and the leadership component, is invaluable. CHECK OUT IAIP CONFERENCE HERE If you like what you hear in this podcast. Please share with a friend or coworker! This is one of many episodes you’ll hear from the International Association of Insurance Professionals regional conference in March of 2019. ABOUT THE REGIONAL CONFERENCE I mentioned that I found that conference by accident. I was doing some research on insurance speaking opportunities  and the IAIP regional conference showed up. Ironically, I was planning a weekend vacation to the beach for my birthday and discovered the conference 4 days before I was scheduled to leave. I reached out to the conference organizers, said I’d be in the area and asked if I could interview some of their guests. The members  were so accommodating. We did our recordings in a penthouse suite overlooking the ocean. If you are familiar with Ocean City MD, we were at The Dunes Hotel. One side was The Ocean the other side was the bay, and Jolly Rogers. I haven't been to Jolly Rogers since my kids were very young and had no idea how big the park was. Seeing it from the top floor of The Dunes Hotel was super special. I’ll include a few pictures in the show notes at The Business of Insurance .com You’ll hear a variety of stories in upcoming episodes of women pioneers in the insurance industry. I know that you’ll find them inspiring. Technology is changing the way we do business but when you hear some of the stories from those who have been around awhile, the slow changes might make more sense to those of you newer to the business of Insurance! THE BUSINESS OF INSURANCE FACEBOOK GROUP One last note, I’ve started a FB group called The Business of Insurance. Its will be a group for running your agency from leadership to sales, marketing to management and everything in between. CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE BUSINESS OF INSURANCE FACEBOOK GROUP If you are more of a LinkedIn user thaN FB, don’t worry, that group will be live shortly. ABOUT OUR GUEST – JESSICA PRUITT Jessica Pruitt  is the owner of Lebanon Insurance Agency. Connect with her on: Her website LinkedIn Facebook  ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love

DIFFERENT MARKETING IDEAS FOR INSURANCE EP 30 - This episode is a follow up conversation to episode 29. If you didn’t listen, I would encourage you to listen to my conversation with Ben Page before listening to this one, so that the concepts will make more sense. Normally I would offer my thoughts at the end of the episode, but since our conversation was so long, and believe it or not, I edited out about 15 minutes worth, I decided to make it a two part series to be more respectful of your time. Aside from selling ideas, Ben brought up several topics from social media, online reviews, writing a book and referrals that I think we could explore a little bit. This will be a higher level look at those topics and maybe one day I’ll take a deeper dive into more of them.   REFERRALS So let’s start with referrals. I love talking about referrals. It’s the core of what I’ve spent the past 20 years doing. Helping professionals see the opportunities that come from a solid referral strategy. I thought I’d elaborate on the process a little here. It’s important that you get in the habit of telling people that you get most of your business from referrals. Remind people because they will forget. For those clients that you get from referral remind they regularly because they understand the value of doing business through referrals. If someone found you online, educate them on your referral process. I’m not suggesting that you pay for referrals or have any type of a contest for referrals. Personally I think that’s a little tacky. While there’s nothing wrong with sending a starbucks gift card or something like that when you receive a referral, I like to see that as a surprise, not something that is promoted. You want quality referrals, not just a referral from anyone with a license. The more you educate people on the type of clients you want to work with the more you will see that type of business referred to you. I also want to be clear about the educating people on referrals component. There’s a sleazy way to do this and a casual professional way to do this. The sleazy way is to ask for 5 names of people you can call. Ugh….I hate that and would never do something like that. I know some of you listening have done this and think it’s ok. It doesn’t work in my world. What I like is to plant the seed. Educate people and remind them, because they forget. Be casual but consistent and you will see referred business. It’s like I say on this podcast, if you like what you are hearing, please tell a friend or coworker. I’m asking for referrals, in a very subtle way. STRATEGIC PARTNERS In one of the other podcasts I produce called Business In Real Life, I did an episode on strategic partners. If you want to listen to it, I’ll link to it in the show notes, or look for the podcast and go to episode 7. You can also go to my website, selectbizteam.com and look for it there as well. That episode is about creating a marketing plan for  your strategic partners. For example, making a list of the strategic partners for your industry. As an insurance agent selling business insurance, these would include business bankers, business attorneys, CPA’s that work with businesses and financial advisors that do a lot of 401k type of business. If you are selling personal insurance, you might have realtors, mortgage professionals, financial advisors and and maybe a home builder  as your strategic partners. Start by making a list of 20 people in each profession. You could have 100 names that you are working with, but that’s ok. You’ll weed some out because they aren’t a good fit or they don’t do enough business to support the type of clients you work with. Once you’ve made your list, see who else knows them by checking LinkedIn, FB and other social platforms. Next step start inviting them to coffee. Have a list of questions you want to ask them about how they run their business and find out what types of clients they are looking for. You need to discover who they refer to , what it would take for them to refer to you and how you can best help them. Maybe you’ll offer a comprehensive review for their clients and have it approved through them before you show the client or maybe you offer to create an event together and invite a few clients to introduce to that strategic partner. The point is to start the conversation. For some, you might need to have a few, for others, you’ll only have one and for the last group you’ll find an opportunity to do something right away! The other part about working with strategic partners is tracking. This is the essential component of referral marketing. TRACKING THE DATA That’s a good segaway into talking about CRM’s. Ben brought this up in our conversation and I really think it’s worth elaborating on here. Old school, pre computers, we used 3x5 cards. We had several boxes we stored them in and made notes on them. It took a few minutes to write things out, but it was easy to take them with us, we didn’t need any electricity to make them work and the information didn't get lost in cyberspace somewhere! It was a system and I’m a big believer in systems. Today, all of that has been streamlined into the computer in the form of a CRM - client relationship management system.  Ben mentioned that a lot of agents are frustrated with the CRM their agency has so they use sticky notes, write things in a book or have an excel spreadsheet. They have several systems because there isn’t a good electronic tool to organize the sales function. When I first started using computers, I loved a program called ACT. I haven’t really found anything to replace it but their original online version was so bad that I had to move away. I’ve heard they’ve gotten better, but I’ve moved to a different platform today. Everything I do is in the cloud, so I needed something that would be mobile with me!  I’m currently using something called Zoho. I don’t love it, but it’s something I started using about 10 years ago. I went through the process of trying a lot of free programs and I must say, they didn’t have the customizing capability that I wanted. INFORMATION FOR YOUR CRM If you aren’t using a CRM or are thinking about it, I would suggest you start with an excel spreadsheet. Write out all of the data that you regularly collect on prospects. The basics like name, address, company, etc. are standard but what else are you collecting. Do you have their Date of Birth, spouses and children's names, do you collect their CPA, their financial advisor, their attorney information? I’d work with a spreadsheet for a few weeks, making sure you have all the information you want, then look for a CRM that allows you to customize the program to match your spreadsheet. A CRM is really just a glorified spreadsheet, but it also has some other features built in that make it more powerful than a spreadsheet. MANAGEMENT CRM OPPORTUNITIES From an agency principal perspective, having a good CRM is essential. Producers might come and go but having a CRM with a lot of prospect information is invaluable. Requiring your producers to use your CRM keeps all of the information in one location so that anyone can access it. If you have a producer that leaves, you’ll still be able to pursue the prospect because all of the information is in your CRM. One of the things you can do with the CRM is keep track of conversations. As an insurance agent, that’s essential and it’s also valuable for someone in sales. Your CRM should be able to identify who made the note, the date entered and allow for a follow up date to be set from that conversation. The better CRM’s will sync with your calendar and notify you each day of what tasks you need to complete. Now lets say you are tracking birthdays to send cards or call on their birthday….set the calendar in the CRM and you’ll be reminded. The right CRM will allow you to print out the calls and tasks for the day. This will keep the producer on task and not let any opportunities slip through the cracks. It also lets the agency manager see what is in the producers pipeline which can help with projections from a work flow and financial perspective. EMAIL MARKETING A good CRM will have a good email marketing component or will sync with one of the more common email platforms like Constant Contact or AWeber. You can set up ‘drip’ campaigns for prospects to stay in front of them throughout the year if you didn't win their business last time. I’ve had many people tell me that they use their google or outlook calendar to keep track of to do’s and prospects. That’s good for the individual producer but unless everyone has access to that calendar, a lot of information could get lost, so in the big picture, I don’t think thats the best route for an agency. TEST DRIVE YOUR CRM Do your research. As I mentioned in episode 29, SalesForce is a great program, but it’s not super easy to learn and can be very expensive. It can be modified to fit your business, but at a cost. HubSpot has a CRM that is free but I’d only consider that if you are a solo agency. It’s also very limited. I haven’t used the paid version so I can’t really comment on it. If you use hubspot, I’d love your feedback on the CRM tool they have available. Ask your peers what they are using. Take a test drive before you make a solid investment. Give a lot of thought to how you will use your CRM from seeing what’s in the pipeline and where the prospect is in the sales process to keeping track of strategic partners;  track your wins/losses; size of sales; marketing activities to develop the business and how many touches before you actually obtained a meeting. There’s so much data you can get from a good CRM that can help with your sales activities. Having all of this in one location allows the sales manager or the business owner great data or making decisions about managing the sales team and forecasting business. I think finding the right CRM can take awhile so if you aren’t using one now, just use the spreadsheet and try a few out before you make the big leap. This isn’t something you want to keep switching because it’s time consuming to set up and to learn to use effectively. GOOGLE MY BUSINESS Another area Ben mentioned and this was briefly, but I think its essential is online reviews. A simple place to start is Yelp and also GMB also known as Google My Business. If you haven’t set up these two accounts, please do so before the end of the week! Particularly GMB. That’s really an episode in itself. But think about it,  where do most people search….hopefully you said Google. Having your GMB account set up helps people find you easier. One of my clients is an accountant and she just moved to Delaware and will be working in both MD and Delaware. We had a conversation about GMB and the next week she set up her account in Delaware. She had 3 calls within 30 days for business in Delaware and that is the only type of advertising she did and I wouldn’t really call that advertising…..she just created her account and that’s how she was found. I would also recommend that you have your clients go to GMB and leave reviews. Unless something happens to Google, they’ll be seen there for awhile! IS THERE A BOOK IN YOUR FUTURE The last topic I want to talk about is writing a book. Stay with me….this might not be as unrealistic as you think. First of all, while it might seem like everyone is writing a book these days, there is no reason why you can’t be one of them. I mentioned in my conversation with Ben, that I use my book as a marketing tool. If I have a prospect I want to meet with, I’ll package up the book, and mail it to them with a note. ”Please enjoy and let me know what you think.’ I’ll call them a week later to make sure they received the book and then ask if I could have 5 minutes of their time to introduce myself. 80% of the time they say yes and then we take the conversation further. I was one of 5 co-authors of my book and we each had a different reason for writing it. Having a few co-authors made it easy to complete. Each of us had different tasks and the cost of production was reduced because there were several of us. So if you like the idea, consider bringing a few people together to write the book. BOOK MARKETING There’s a whole marketing strategy behind writing a book if you want to get recognized on Amazon and other book publishing platforms. If you use the book as I am, you don’t really need to worry about the marketing strategy but we were #1 Amazon best sellers for a short time! You can also use the book as a platform to get on other podcasts or as a guest blog post. Publicity is good for your agency! Wondering what would you write about….well, insurance is fairly boring so you might want to find something a little more exciting. What’s your niche in the business? Are you working with start up business owners? Companies with multiple locations? What if you wrote a book that talked about sales or marketing strategies for that specific niche? What if you wrote about leadership or HR issues? Risk management isn’t a bad idea either. I know some of this seems boring but so many people don’t know about these things. Don’t write a novel, just a small book maybe 20-50 pages. You could have it look like an ebook or you could make it odd shaped. I’m not suggesting that a book is going to make you famous, but it’s a unique way to create authority for yourself and deliver a calling card that is different than most of your competitors. SELF PUBLISHING There’s something called Create Space which is an amazon platform and you can self publish there and just order the number of books that you need. If you want to know more about any of the ideas I’ve mentioned in this episode, let me know. You’ll find people talking about referrals a lot, but CRM’s, online reviews and book publishing aren’t as mainstream! WRAP UP I’ll wrap up this episode with a thank you for listening. I hope some of the ideas got your attention. If I were to suggest you do one thing from this conversation it’s to make sure your agency has set up its GMB page. It’s simple to do. Just like you post on social media, be sure to post on your GMB page. Update the photo’s regularly too! ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love

DO YOU QUOTE INSURANCE OR OFFER SOLUTIONS? A CONVERSATION WITH BEN PAGE Episode 29 - Taking control of the conversation instead of just doing what everyone else is doing will set you apart from your competitors. Creating your own process takes time and effort, but in the long run, you will develop clients that want to work with you because of how you treat them, not just because of the price you offer. When talking to a prospect, if you are offering proposals because that’s what they are expecting makes you just like everyone else. Develop some targeted questions that aren’t just underwriting based and begin the process of WOWing your prospects and clients. 2019 started with big goals for the podcast and one of them was to publish a new episode every week. For a few weeks, I was consistent, but my mom has been very ill and has been in the hospital more than she’s been out. I’m the only child left,  so I’ve been there managing her care. One of the benefits of being self employed is that my schedule is flexible, but realistically, there are only so many hours in a day. I really want to get back to my weekly publication, so hang in there with me please! As an insurance agent, the lessons learned from caregiving make great stories to share with your clients to make sure they have the proper aging plans in place! No one thinks they are going to end up in a nursing home ….. But are they doing the proper planning in the event something like this happens. If this isn’t an area you are familiar with, please meet with a few estate planning attorneys and elder law attorneys and learn about some of their processes. I mentioned this in another episode, but this is extremely valuable information for you to help your clients that will potentially lead to life and long term care insurance for you. Regardless, it’s good advice to be sharing with your clients if you see yourself as an advisor and not just an agent selling policies.   Why consider International Association of Insurance Professionals? A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the regional conference for International Association of Insurance Professionals. For those of you that have been around for awhile, you might know it as NAIW, but they did a rebranding a few years ago to open it to both men and women. I actually found the organization by accident because I was looking for something completely different, but one of the things I learned is that they focus on leadership training. Personally, that in itself is worth the investment of this organization. Most of our leaders don’t get trained, the just end up in the role. To be an effective leader, there are some important skills that you need to develop. IAIP offers a training unique to insurance professionals, both on the agency and company side, so if you are not familiar with them, check them out. Their national conference is in Las Vegas June 6-8th OF 2019. I’ll link to their website in the show notes, but I really think it’s worthwhile to investigate. I wouldn’t look at this as a networking event, although I believe that meeting with your peers in the industry is an added benefit, but the training and the leadership component, is invaluable. CHECK OUT IAIP CONFERENCE HERE Lastly, before I introduce our guest, I want to thank Wade Galt for his review of the podcast on iTunes. This is the first review and it’s from someone that I don’t know and haven’t spoken with. As much as I’m grateful for the review, I’m flattered by how you perceive the information I’m providing here. I’m not in my 20’s or 30’s but I’m well aware of technology and how it can be used in business and I’m hopeful that every generation listening to this podcast receives value because there’s an old saying that applies to almost everything in life and that is ‘what’s old is new’! Technology provides a lot of opportunities but a strong solid referral strategy passes the test of time. If you are new to the podcast and haven’t listened to the back episodes, check out episode # 24 which is also about sales.   ABOUT OUR GUEST – BEN PAGE Ben Page is an insurance agent, agency principal and a published author. Learn more about him at his website or connect with him on social. LinkedIn Facebook YouTube Check out his book on amazon ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW WITH NICOLE ORISME Episode 28 - Today’s episode is a little different. It’s an edited replay from one of my other podcasts, called Business in Real Life. I feel like this is a topic that is beneficial to insurance agents so I’m sharing it on this podcast. If you are an agency principal, particularly one that is somewhat new or focused on personal lines instead of business insurance, you might not be as up to speed on HR issues as you need to be. This conversation will provide you with some of the issues that you need to be aware of that will help keep you out of hot water. If you are selling or servicing insurance and focus on business clients, this information will also be valuable. It will give you some talking points with your prospects and clients that can set you apart from your peers. If you aren’t in either of these categories, I still think you’ll find some great nuggets in this conversation. Our guest is Nicole Orisme, President of NLH Contracting. She started her business a few years ago and has grown rapidly every year. She helps her clients with creating employee manuals, discusses the proper strategies for hiring and firing employees, and does things from an HR perspective that most business owners aren’t aware of. One of the things we discuss is that hiring help, not just in the HR capacity but making the decision to hire someone to do some of the lower paying tasks sooner than later. With technology today, we often feel that we shouldn't hire anyone. Afterall, we can answer our own phone, we can answer our own emails, we can schedule our own meetings. When you are feeling overwhelmed with your work or business and you are trying to figure out why, we have a good exercise for you to consider. It might seem overwhelming, but you only need to do it for one week. Create a chart where you write down what you are doing every 15 minutes. Then take a look at the end of the week at how long things are taking you. Are there tasks on that list that should be done by a minimum wage person or lower wage person that your hourly wage? Most of the time, the answer is yes. The reluctance is to not hire because you might not have the revenue to support it, but what we have heard over and over from this exercise is that you actually double your productivity because you can focus on more revenue generating tasks instead of spending your time doing lower skilled tasks. Something I’ve been saying for a long time is that we need to bring back receptionists and administrative assistants. Before voicemail and email, it was rare to see the business owner answer the phone or open the mail. That was assigned to someone else. With the evolution of technology, those professions have been minimized but the successful business owner understands that having help is how to succeed faster. While voicemail is efficient, how much easier is it for you to read a quick message and call someone back? Sometimes people can leave 5 minute messages, and if you get 5-10 of those a day and you’ve just spent over an hour just listening to voice mail messages. How much did that cost you in productivity? How much time do you spend just unsubscribing or deleting the junk emails? All of that takes time which is time you could be doing tasks that generate revenue or grow your business in some capacity. I share this not to have you rush out and hire someone, but take a look at what you are doing and see if the tasks match your wage level. Does it make sense to make a change? Just something to ponder. Do you have your HR processes in place?  If not, you might want to contact someone that specializes in HR. You don’t need to have someone on staff full time, you can easily outsource this department and pay by the hour or a flat fee for their services. The goal here is that you want to make sure that you are doing this part of running the business correctly. For those of you in sales, knowing a few HR companies can also be a great strategic alliance for you. They have clients that need insurance and you have clients that need  HR! WHAT YOU’LL LEARN FROM LISTENING When you go into business and have employees, you have a lot of issues that need to be addressed. These include: Payroll Handbook Benefits administered correctly Compliance Employee manuals Independent Contractors Risk of not having the proper documents in place. Making sure you are following FLSA Hire an assistant sooner than later! ABOUT OUR GUEST – NICOLE ORISME Nicole Orisme who is the owner of NLH Contracting.  Her website is the same as her company name: NLH Contracting.com.  Connect with her on Linkedin Facebook If you need advice from an experienced human resources consulting firm, contact Nicole.  She and her team can keep you out of a lot of hot water! LIKE THE SHOW One of the ways that we grow this podcast is with people like you sharing with your friends and coworkers. Do you have a spotify account? If so, you can now find this podcast on that platform as well If you really like the show and want to help even more, please go to iTunes and leave a review. This works best if you have an iTunes account. SCHEDULE A CALL One of the benefits of listening to this podcast and finding the show notes is that you can schedule a 30 minute call to get some feedback on a current business challenge. It gives us an opportunity to talk, and see if it makes sense to work together. If you want to schedule a call, click here to access my calendar and schedule a time that works for you. ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love  

TIPS FOR THE NEW PRODUCER WITH KOURTNEY MORTIMER Episode 27 - What’s it like to be fresh out of college and selling insurance? Our guest today talks about some of the challenges and opportunities she’s having. Kourtney Mortimer was a marketing major in college and after one summer internship, she knew a desk job wasn’t in her future. After 3 interviews she was hired as a producer with a wonderful agency. They’ve provided her with a lot of opportunities, from sales training to networking. Her energy is contagious and we should all be so lucky to have a Kourtney in our office! TOPICS WE DISCUSS Being young and selling insurance Best practices for insurance agency marketing Selling your niche or selling the business that comes to you OTHER EPISODES FROM IA&B FUTURES CONFERENCE Marketing Magic with Sydney Roe of Agency Nation episode 15 Closing The Gap with Chris Cline of Westfield Insurance episode 16 The One Thing with Steve Harvill Episode 18 Attitude with Sam Glen episode 20 Listening with Sandra Biagini of Progressive Insurance episode 25 INFORMATION ON THE NEXT IA&B CONFERENCE This is another episode in our IA&B Futures Conference series. If you missed this conference in 2018, I would encourage you to put it on your must attend list in 2019. The date has been set for October 8th and 9th 2019. If you go to the IA&B website you can get the details.  ABOUT OUR GUEST – KOURTNEY MORTIMER Kourtney is an account manager with Reed, Wertz, & Roadman. She‘s a arising star with a passion for golf. Connect with her:   Website LinkedIn Twitter ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love Check out or page on Facebook, The Business of Insurance

Over Sixty million Americans have Jaw Tension or TMJ SyndromeRita Harrison the developer of the Willow System demonstrates an easy technique that anyone can do to help relieve jaw tension and pain.Just take the time to massage your chewing muscles known as the muscles of mastication or masticatory muscles and you will get relief from the consequences of Teeth Grinding (Bruxism) at night, headache, toothache and stress.