Perseverance is one of the most admirable traits in all endeavors.

We love to watch the Olympic athletes push themselves to - and then beyond ‘The Limit”.

And ‘Mother Nature’ provides some of the most astonishing feats of perseverance…think of the salmon fighting upstream…even up water falls.

Yet, at what point is it that the ‘perception’ or ‘guise’ of perseverance become out right foolishness?

For example, The fly.

We’ve all witnessed what I will call ‘The Death Fight of The Fly’…This is when the fly is ‘fooled’ by the ‘perception’ that a glass window is not really there…So the fly demonstrates incredible perseverance and repeatedly, incessantly, persistently, almost loyally, hurls itself again and again up against the window PAIN (spelling selected on purpose) and often until it is exhausted and dies of fatigue.

FACT: No matter how valiant the effort made by the fly…the barrier is not going to yield. EVER.

Often, observation of this ritual makes you think the fly is just not that bright…right?…..Be careful.

Here’s why I say that…

After more than 20 years in this great industry I’ve witnessed a very similar ‘death flight’ by many agents who persevere and persistently continue to do the same thing that used to work and seem to prefer to continue to hit their heads against the ‘window PAIN’ as if never knowing that regardless of the efforts made they will never make it through the barrier.

In today’s world with the average person getting bombarded by over 3,000 marketing messages per day, you must have a systematic manner of breaking through the clutter…which is a real barrier….with MULTIPLE INFLUENCE CHANNELS and not just the typical one strategy approach and continually hitting your head up against the window pane just like a fly.

I will be covering some specific strategies in my next few entries on what types of Multiple Influence Channels you must use if you want to be smart and more effective in today’s marketing environment.

Til then, hopefully you’ve banged your head up against the PAIN enough so that your ears have popped out and you’re ready to listen.

Licensed and Lethal,

007

They finally arrived! After 1month of waiting my Smith Tycoon sunglasses showed up. They are pretty much the coolest glasses around. (I’ll show them to you in the next video)

I have to make this quick because I have to go have lunch with my Grandma. She’s invited me over for Retirement community lunch. So lets get to it!

It’s true, our awesome group of agents in the Insurance Mavericks just keeps growing, and impressing me at the same time. Hopefully Jeremy won’t mind that I highlight him here, but he did such a great job I can’t help but show you.

First here’s the email I received from him this week.

******

BB,

Wow! The first edition of my “Value for Life” is grossing me [right now] a lot of good e-mails giving me kudos!

I have nothing in there about insurance because I don’t want it to have to go through compliance of my carrier! I consider it my Personal Newsletter.

I am so glad I spent $50 on this project. I look forward to doing it in September! Hopefully, the bridge will be crossed between customer to client! It really is better than sending a postcard or anything else I’ve done to connect with current clients.

One other thing, is I only sent it to my “A” clients [you know, the ones who don't squeak so they don't get the grease]. The greatest clients who get neglected because they don’t have a complaint.

attachment: my VFL edition. The costumes are great, hope you enjoy mine in my newsletter.

Best Regards,

Jeremy

*******

And my response…

Jeremy,

CONGRATULATIONS!

Great job implementing, and I love the costume!

Good work, you are the second agent to report back to us that you’ve been implementing and seeing great results.

We’ve got a new video coming out today or tomorrow, so be on the lookout for it.

Beach

Now I just had to show you a glimpse of his letter, you’ll get a kick out of it, and it’s a great example of really differentiating yourself.

So now you see what we mean when we talk about personality in your marketing. Here’s another quick tip from some emails I’ve been receiving.

—–

Also, wanted to give you another tip on differentiation and making your personality “Stick” with your readers and prospects. You’ll want to create a “Public Persona Name” for yourself. Currently it says “Jeremy Snowden, Agent” that’s boring.

Create a tag line for yourself. As you know, my partner and I are the “Insurance Mavericks”. I’m helping another agent who loves Hawaii figure out a tagline for herself “A little piece of hawaii with every policy” she is going to be handing out little sandal keychains, her office is decked out in Hawaiian garb, and she’ll be putting Hawaii videos and themes on her website. (If she follows my advice.)

You could easily use the “guitar playing superagent” or something along those lines.

Let me know what you come up with.

Beach

Please leave us a comment below on what you think, questions you have, etc. We love to hear from you!

Hardees and Carl Jr. fast food chain are taking a bite out of the fast food industry and boosting profits like never before. Was it the racy Paris Hilton commercials? The answer is… Yes! That is part of it. And although I could be one of the very few men who’ve never seen the commercial or video so I don’t know exactly what she says…but from what I’ve read what is equally important it is HOW she says what she says.

Her commercial breaks away from the hum drum drab of robotic marching like lemmings going over the cliff style marketing. It appeals to the targeted audience of the men who want to over indulge. And that is exactly what Hardees and Carl Jr. wanted to do. They are using several SMARTmarketing^TM principles.

1) Paris video broke away from the norm to get past the reaction oh, another one of those.

How is your marketing distinguishing you and your agency as special and apart from your piers?

2) Targeted exactly who they wanted. Men who are blue collar over indulgers.

How is your marketing targeting exactly who you want or are you specializing in generalities?

3) Celebrity attachment. Paris Hilton scores very high in recognition and her name has proven to have a long shelf life. Although she could be considered risky because you never know when she would do something again that you may not be proud to have your business associated with her, but this is calculated against the audience and odds are if she did another one of the even less clothed videos the exact same targeted audience would be there watching with the remote control in one hand and a GIANT Hardees hamburger burgeoning with calories in the other hand!

How can you use the SMARTmarketing^TM principle of celebrity attachment with your agency. Note, a celebrity is a celebrity based on recognition so a former or current news anchor in your city as well as recognized atheletes etc can all be used for this purpose and this also has the added benefit of positioning you too.

4) Newsy. Just the fact they used Paris made the event news.

How can you make sure that you get free media by using this principle?

5) Positioned against. They are using the opposite of hum drum. A contrarian. In a world of fast food restaurants jumping on the Jared from Subway lose weight wagon and trying to become a diet destination location –Hardees and Carl Jr.s parent company is saying basically -If you want calories and sustenance and don’t care whether you have a waist line or a circumference that is described in terms of girth then Joe Lunchbucket you are at the right location!

How can you position yourself against the competition? Polarization is not always a bad thing, but contrary just to be contrary is not the goal, find a place to make a stand such as price and say something like Your mom always said you get what you pay for so can you really afford to risk your financial future with barely get by coverage? Our agency provides you Not too much. Not too little. But Just right coverage. Easy. Fast. Dependable.

There are ton’s more we could discuss here but will not.

But in review, was the commercial controversial? You bet your bippy it was. Did it shake up the industry? Absolutely. But it was not controversial just for the sake of being controversial; it was sending the message of being something different.

Now enter the InsuranceMarketingMavericks. Controversial? Some would say yes. Different. Yes. And will they shake up the industry? You better hope so! Because we’ve been hearing from insurance agents across the nation and the challenges of running an agency are not getting any easier.

If you are like me, and one of the few who have not seen Paris Hiltons Hardees or Carl Jr. commercial then that’s fine. But it is NOT o.k. if you have not seen the InsuranceMarketingMavericks.com videos. So get more insurance leads now by taking the first step and watching BeachBroker star in a series of great videos.

Free insurance marketing tips await the mavericks who dare to watch these great videos!

Licensed and Lethal,

007

The mavericks exposed!

Don’t look now, but the Mavs’ have come out from behind the curtain, and reveal their identities…kind of.

We know we look ridiculous, but it was fun and hopefully really helpful to you. (We failed to mention the reason for our silly costumes in the video, see below!)

Watch The Video Now->

As you know there are a multitude of “insurance villains” out to beat up insurance
agents and make our lives difficult. You have the Ultimate Villain Mastermind, Corporate Carl who
loves to find ways to shrink agent commissions, and IMA DRAGON the underwriter who never wants
to write any business.

We face these villains on a daily basis, and to keep ourselves anonymous, we’ve donned these
superhero costumes.

Please leave us a comment and let us know if this video was helpful (or just entertaining).

These are a couple emails I got from some of our ‘maverick friends’ recently.

I wanted to share them with everyone because I believe the lessons are extremly valuable.

From: K**** T**** [mailto:******@farmersagent.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 11:45 AM
To: ‘Beach Broker’
Subject: RE: i’m SORRY!… lets try this again

Dear Insurance Mavericks,

My name is Ken.

Let me start by saying that I’m a new insurance agent for a captive company. I have just completed my 3rd year and have hit the goals that are required by the company. It feels great! However, I feel like I’m pounding my head against a wall, chasing business, not writing enough business, not marketing on a consistent basis, and I’m flat broke. I want to take my business to the next level, if you know what I mean.

About a month or two ago I received and email to your site and have been going there and reading the articles and information provided and its confusing. Here’s why. I need help. I need to know where to begin. What should I start doing today, some guidance or direction to get moving to the next level. How to finance it.

I listened to the podcast and it’s hard to envision what I want when I’m in the grind of the day, feeling like it will never happen. But I feel like I know what I want I just don’t know how to get there.

I’m tired of price shoppers. I’m tired of cold calling. I’m tired of being broke.

If you could let me know what I need to start doing today. Where my first step should be.

Thanks for the great emails and the media it does help.

Happy 4^th!

Ken *****

MY REPLY:

Ken,

Put on your thick skin, because I’m going to be a little harsh here.

In a nut shell you need to get your head straight. You need to give yourself credit for accomplishing the goals you have, and then use that momentum to move to the next level. Don’t downplay what you’ve accomplished.

Making it 3 years in the business is tough to do.

Now, you want to know what to do first.

1. Establish your position in the marketplace. What value do you offer that others don’t, can’t or won’t?

a. Go watch the video on the power of positioning on www.insurancemavericks.com/video

2. Write an article that offers value to your potential clients, that is within the topic of your position.

3. Find some other agents to joint venture with. Obviously you’ll need to approach those guys who aren’t selling what you sell. So if you are doing life, then find a p&c guy, get to know him, and then send the article that you wrote to his list. Make sure you include a letter from him, and then Follow up with those names on the phone.

We’ll continue giving you the information you need to succeed, but you need to take action.

Also, if you haven’t downloaded the ebook, you are missing out on some incredibly valuable information.

www.insurancemavericks.com/video

Beach Broker