Losing Motivation and Drive
- Thread starter Milkman1265
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #12
- 736
ha, im just feeling stumped, it doesnt feel rewarding anymore.
im getting married and a house later this year so i'll have huge bills coming in, but it doesnt make me want to work more, it makes me want to work less.
I know i need to work more to make more money, but at this point i'm just lazy and unmotivated to move.
i will be going on a vacation for honeymoon in a couple months so i guess that will be a time off, but leaving work is always an anxious thing for me. I can't leave more than 2 days without worrying bout the customers calling in or what now.
I'm running a one man operation with 1 PT admin that is shared between me and a office mate. She'll take memos or notes, or phone calls.
I'm doing all the service work and it sucks! 5 hours of emailing responses, inspection recommendation follow ups, mortgagee/AI changes, certificates, sending out renewal bills, checking over renewal policy to see everything is ok, paying bills and billing people. its tough work,
but its hard to train someone that WANTS to do it good. i hired a full time admin, but she sucked at it and kinda just googling and facebook all day. its hard to train someone who wants to be a good admin...
i also have no time to go see my referrers, i have a group of life agents that send things my way, but servicing the book has kept me form visiting them, having lunch or just hanging out to keep the relationship. either they slowed down with p&c referrals or their referring to someone else!
im getting married and a house later this year so i'll have huge bills coming in, but it doesnt make me want to work more, it makes me want to work less.
I know i need to work more to make more money, but at this point i'm just lazy and unmotivated to move.
i will be going on a vacation for honeymoon in a couple months so i guess that will be a time off, but leaving work is always an anxious thing for me. I can't leave more than 2 days without worrying bout the customers calling in or what now.
I'm running a one man operation with 1 PT admin that is shared between me and a office mate. She'll take memos or notes, or phone calls.
I'm doing all the service work and it sucks! 5 hours of emailing responses, inspection recommendation follow ups, mortgagee/AI changes, certificates, sending out renewal bills, checking over renewal policy to see everything is ok, paying bills and billing people. its tough work,
but its hard to train someone that WANTS to do it good. i hired a full time admin, but she sucked at it and kinda just googling and facebook all day. its hard to train someone who wants to be a good admin...
i also have no time to go see my referrers, i have a group of life agents that send things my way, but servicing the book has kept me form visiting them, having lunch or just hanging out to keep the relationship. either they slowed down with p&c referrals or their referring to someone else!
- 15,041
Service work is draining you. You are going to have to find someone to do the admin work for you. They are out there, you just have to do a better job of hiring. You can train how to do it, you can't train work ethic. The problem is the first one you hired had no work ethic.
whatsa
Expert
It happens to everyone.
Go buy a new car, get a new bill, and you'll need to produce againOkay, that is probably bad advice
Dan
It reminds me of when I first started in the business as an commercial underwriter. One of the more successful agencies I worked with had an unusually high number of partners who owned either their own airplanes (nothing fancy, but expensive machines nonetheless), or large, pretty nice boats.
One day I pointed this out to the CEO of the agency, and he replied without missing a beat: "I encourage all my producers to buy expensive toys. The more toys, the more debts, the more they produce!"
It happens to everyone.
Go buy a new car, get a new bill, and you'll need to produce again
Dan
Definately bad advice. You are in debt and if it turns outhat doesn't motivate you, you have compounded the problem. Nice to be debt free.
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- 100
Any high-performing colleague's you could meet with and get ideas from on how to get the sales back on track? I'm always talking with the 25 year agents and the 2 year agents and see what they're doing to succeed.
JayShinkle
Expert
- 27
My dad was in the business over 40 years and I know have been for over 25 years. He gave me a book by the famous Frank Bettger call "How I turned myself from a failure to a success in the life insurance business". It is a very old book but will help re-motivate you. I too many time throughout the years have got into a funk. Just got through one with the crappy winter we had in the Kansas City area. The best line of the book is about ENTHUSIASM. I won't try to explain the whole book but he says that you have to be enthusiastic to work, sell, perform. But, sometimes you are not so, he explains the time in his professional baseball career and later in his life insurance career that "sometimes you just have to ACT enthusiastic first, then you will become that way. It sounds dumb but find the book and you will know exactly what I am talking about. In the car in the morning turn off the radio and repeat, "it's going to be a good day'. say it over and over again! To be enthusiastic . . . you have to act enthusiastic first.
- Thread starter
- #19
- 736
I try very hard to be enthusiastic to work and help and sell. But lately its very hard to keep a straight face when facing consumer problems. I feel like I dont have the energy to deal with the problems and just want to focus on servicing the existing book.
But I know myself this is not the correct way to go. I think its my market, I have all 500 to 900 dollar accounts. I want to do 50 10000 dollar accounts vs 500 small ones.
But I know myself this is not the correct way to go. I think its my market, I have all 500 to 900 dollar accounts. I want to do 50 10000 dollar accounts vs 500 small ones.
The little accounts are the ones that keep the lights on and the doors open. If all you had were big accounts, losing one or more of them would be far more painful. A $900 account renewal at 15% is far less painful to lose than something 10x as large.
