In this episode we are joined by Webb Milward, the Head of Strategic Development at Raegan Consulting. Tune in as they navigate the trends to look out for in 2024, the Run vs. Build agency, Screamin’ Mimi’s, and so much more!
Navigating 2024 with Webb Milward Transcript
00;00;02;00 – 00;00;18;29
Chip Arenchild
Welcome to Know your Risk and insurance Coverage with Risk Prone, where we will discuss all things insurance for you and your company. Risk Pronate is a network of independent agencies who offer specialized insurance across business sectors.
00;00;19;01 – 00;00;43;21
Chip Arenchild
Regardless of where you are in your insurance journey. We want to invite you to join us to think about insurance differently. Know your risk and insurance coverage with risk Pro Net provides answers to all your insurance questions. A welcome to know your risk and insurance coverage with risk Pro net. Today we’re talking with Webb Millard of the Reagan Consulting Group.
00;00;43;21 – 00;01;05;01
Chip Arenchild
And I’m really excited to talk to Webb because he brings some of the ideas that he’s working with companies across the United States right now, trying to solve the problems that are similar for all of our agencies. And so I think you’re going to find my conversation with Webb pretty enlightening. They’re probably all ideas you’ve already been thinking about, but he does give some good examples on how to move them forward.
00;01;05;03 – 00;01;09;24
Chip Arenchild
And he’s a really good resource. So Webb, thanks for joining us today.
00;01;09;26 – 00;01;12;24
Webb Milward
Hi, how are you? Thanks for having me.
00;01;12;26 – 00;01;33;25
Chip Arenchild
We’re doing great. We’re doing good. I’m really excited about catching up with you, mainly because as we head into 24, a lot of the things I think we can talk about, agencies and listeners can put into practice as part of their planning and strategy for 24. And, just a little background on Webb. Some of you all know Webb from the like I said, the CRB.
00;01;33;27 – 00;01;44;19
Chip Arenchild
And then he left to join Reagan about three years ago. And so, Webb, give us a little background on yourself and and what led you from leaving the council to go to Reagan? And we’re glad you’re there, by the way.
00;01;44;21 – 00;02;07;24
Webb Milward
Sure. Know this is a great conversation to have and looking forward to spending some time together. My family in Kentucky actually runs an insurance agency, so I grew up kind of around the broker space and grew up really valuing, the role of an insurance broker, the role of insurance in a community, in an economy. That’s a fourth generation agency in Kentucky.
00;02;07;26 – 00;02;27;08
Webb Milward
And while I never worked there, I was always really interested in that work and in the passion that really fueled a lot of that work. I really enjoyed going out with my dad to a restaurant, and he knew everybody in the restaurant, right. And they were clients that were friends and friends that were clients and just really always thought that was a a pretty unique thing.
00;02;27;08 – 00;02;46;00
Webb Milward
And if you think about all of your listeners and all agencies around the country, they are an intimate part of the fabric of their communities, right? They’re they’re on the boards. They’re involved in the in the schools, the hospitals, the charities. They really spread a wide net around town. And I think that’s a really, really cool thing that our industry does.
00;02;46;00 – 00;03;14;28
Webb Milward
And so I’ve now been in the industry 17 years. The first 15, as you said, were at the SIB, the last two plus, with Reagan Consulting and, you know, here at Reagan, for those of you that don’t know what Reagan does. We’re a consulting firm that exclusively focuses on insurance distribution and the insurance brokerage space. Our goal every day is to work with quality top performing agents and brokers around the country.
00;03;15;01 – 00;03;40;26
Webb Milward
Our firm was founded about 30 years ago, and during my time at Cab Tip, I always knew and admired Reagan and was fortunate to get an opportunity to come work for them a couple of years ago. So in my capacity here, I’m a consultant with the organization and I spend a lot of time doing strategic planning, helping firms get to kind of that next level, try to get bigger, faster, smarter, perpetuate to the next generation.
00;03;40;28 – 00;03;43;25
Webb Milward
You know, whatever it might be. So it’s work. I really enjoy it.
00;03;43;27 – 00;04;11;20
Chip Arenchild
Well, you’re good at it. I let everybody know. We recently had web speak at our Risk Pro Net Principles meeting in San Diego, and that’s what precipitated the idea to get some of this out into the onto the airwaves and in web. When you talk about working with agencies across the United States, and I think people know who Reagan is ready to know name and and you do such a good job of getting your information out for people to use and take advantage of, whether it’s through the newsletters.
00;04;11;23 – 00;04;37;12
Chip Arenchild
I know a lot of our members are already Reagan utilize Reagan as a consulting firm as well. We talked a lot in the spring meeting about where we’re changing. You just described being part of this fourth generation insurance agency. And you know that that intimate relationship brokers have with the community. Yet we’re in this continuing fueling M&A activity that’s been going on for years now.
00;04;37;14 – 00;04;59;13
Chip Arenchild
How has that changed the landscape? I know what it’s kind of changed. On what the role of a broker is in our firm with who were competing with and how do you do those things locally versus trying to spread your net and, and build specialization and, and grab market share. So we’ve talked a lot about the idea of what are some of these trends that we should be paying attention to as agency owners and trying to grow an agency.
00;04;59;13 – 00;05;09;25
Chip Arenchild
And I know you specialize in this, so can you tell us some of your thoughts and things you’re seeing with your clients right now? And what can we take away going into 24 that we should be thinking about?
00;05;09;27 – 00;05;30;10
Webb Milward
Yeah, that’s a great question. And as you said, certainly the pace of consolidation and the rate of M&A over the last decade has created just a massive amount of scale in the industry, you know, unprecedented levels of of scale and firms with over $1 billion in revenue that can really bring a lot of resources, to the table.
00;05;30;10 – 00;05;59;25
Webb Milward
But we still see, you know, despite that trend line, we still see tremendous opportunity for privately held agents and brokers. Yes. The world may have evolved from how they did business a generation ago and how they built those relationships in their community, their state, their region, whatever their aspirations are. But we still see a tremendous opportunity. Yes, yes, you are consistently and relentlessly tackling some of the things that we’re going to talk about today.
00;05;59;27 – 00;06;22;09
Webb Milward
And, you know, we spend a lot of time out in the market with these firms helping them, you know, shape their strategy, helping them think about where to invest a dollar of it might turn into $10 next year. And what that looks like. And we know you can’t do everything. And we know it’s really challenging sometimes to to try to solve every problem.
00;06;22;09 – 00;06;47;20
Webb Milward
But what we’ve tried to do over the course of this year, that has been a lot of the work I’ve been doing, is really trying to define for folks, what are those key things? What are those 5 or 6 things that if we put all of our focus, time, effort, energy into this and some money obviously into this, we will see returns, we will perpetuate, we will continue to prosper, we will continue to thrive.
00;06;47;20 – 00;06;52;12
Webb Milward
And so that’s what I think we could talk about today would be kind of fun for your audience.
00;06;52;14 – 00;07;17;26
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. You know, you get a group of, people in the insurance business together. You almost automatically always end up talking very quickly about producer recruitment. And now that has changed with, the Covid and the work from home and everything else to staff recruitment, where do you see recruitment on the importance scale going forward? I mean, I think it’s paramount for all of us, obviously, but building a strategy and being able to execute is another thing.
00;07;17;29 – 00;07;19;21
Chip Arenchild
What are your thoughts on that?
00;07;19;23 – 00;07;39;04
Webb Milward
Yeah, I would put your people, talent and recruiting as the number one priority. And I think most of our team here at Reagan would, would agree with me. I think that is the, the gas in the, in the tank or the lifeblood of any agency. You know, so many firms call us, hey, we want to deliver organic growth engine.
00;07;39;04 – 00;08;04;01
Webb Milward
Hey, we want to improve our organic growth rate, improve our sales velocity. Well, how are you doing that right. Who is in the car making that happen? And it’s it’s your talent, not just producers, but really talented account executives, account managers and other specialists that help the business, you know, close deals and services, challenging and complex deals. And so I would put recruiting as number one.
00;08;04;01 – 00;08;25;00
Webb Milward
This is an issue that I’m really passionate about. And I’ll tell you why. Finally, to to slightly beat up on our industry and its history, but hopefully in a fun way. You know, for so long ship our industry did a really good job of just optimizing the friends and family network. I think about how most of us came into this industry or came into this business.
00;08;25;00 – 00;08;32;10
Webb Milward
It was that side door approach, you know, a friend of a friend, your uncle, your college roommates, dad, whatever it was.
00;08;32;18 – 00;08;38;19
Chip Arenchild
Right? Like almost universally, no one got into the insurance business intentionally on purpose.
00;08;38;19 – 00;08;40;00
Webb Milward
Yeah. That’s right, that’s right.
00;08;40;05 – 00;08;58;07
Chip Arenchild
And that’s still common today. And I think your comment on friends and family is so true. And when we see who’s coming into our firms and talk to other firms, there’s a component there that you can’t ignore. And they’re usually good people. But there’s also without having another wheel spinning, I think we’re missing the boat.
00;08;58;10 – 00;09;26;26
Webb Milward
Yeah. So that goes to your question of now you’re competing against these firms that have amassed huge amounts of scale, and they are throwing a lot of time and money at recruiting and bringing in your talent and then trying to, you know, list out some of that talent no matter what their role, role or responsibility is. And so my sort of comment here, the premise of the comment is, I’m not sure we can continue to survive on friends and family networks alone.
00;09;26;29 – 00;09;43;19
Webb Milward
You know, I think we have to expand not just the pipelines of talent, but the diversity of the talent and where we’re trying to source that talent and not just hitting the same sources over and over again because it worked one time, 20 years ago.
00;09;43;21 – 00;10;06;19
Chip Arenchild
And how does that approach tie in to a firm’s overall strategy? So we you know, you talked a little bit about not only producers and account managers or operations staff, but those specialists that are needed. And it’s not only in industry, but it’s also behind the scenes with data and things like that. The needs that we have to run an agency these days is so much different than it was five, ten years ago.
00;10;06;21 – 00;10;13;19
Chip Arenchild
How do you align this recruitment with your overall growth strategy? You guys talk a lot about that when you’re working with firms.
00;10;13;21 – 00;10;37;20
Webb Milward
Absolutely. I think we talk a lot about building a C-suite and what that looks like. What are the roles and responsibilities needed to be competitive in today’s environment? You know, we’ll look at an org chart, for example, to help, and we’ll be able to identify, you know, what’s missing, what’s critically missing. That’s not here or or maybe even it’s just the firm has not leveled up to where they are now.
00;10;37;20 – 00;10;59;21
Webb Milward
You woke up one day and you’re three times bigger than you were 5 or 10 years ago. And maybe the same people in the same roles and the same responsible things don’t align with the size of firm and the opportunities or the challenge that you have today. And so all this to say, this is why recruiting for me is number one, because I think too many firms, unfortunately it’s under prioritized.
00;10;59;23 – 00;11;24;28
Webb Milward
They have a limited appetite for recruiting. They lack an aggressive enterprise level recruiting strategy. It’s like Chef Jeff really brings in, a candidate because he bumped into someone at an event or at a ballgame, and these little one offs happen across organizations, and that’s just not enough to turn the ship and to have an enterprise level impact.
00;11;24;28 – 00;11;43;24
Webb Milward
It’s got to be systemic. It’s got to be a program. Why are the best college sports teams good every year? You know, they have a system of recruiting. It’s not because they got lucky with one good quarterback or one good, you know, point guard. It’s because it’s repeatable. It’s happening year over year and they’re thriving on that momentum.
00;11;43;26 – 00;12;02;28
Chip Arenchild
Yeah I think the industry and the reoccurring revenue stream of how our business works doesn’t necessarily dictate that. You have to be really good at that. Right. And that’s that’s crept for so many years. And now I don’t think that’s that’s true any longer. And it’s those firms that can execute. We all are trying to do the same things.
00;12;02;28 – 00;12;26;18
Chip Arenchild
Right. It’s not like there’s a holy grail that no one else knows, but its ability to execute and getting help to execute, to understand how to build that enterprise level recruiting strategy. How have you been able to take that back to a cost factor for a firm meaning, hey, if you really want to do this, depending on your size, you can expect to spend X so someone can know what type of investment they need to make.
00;12;26;20 – 00;12;30;25
Chip Arenchild
What is the hesitation with people getting on board with that type of strategy? Have you noticed?
00;12;30;28 – 00;12;50;10
Webb Milward
No, there’s usually not much hesitation and obviously all the cost would be relative to the size of the firm in their in their aspirations. But I will say when we spend a lot of time talking about is putting a system in place. It’s going through pacing them through questions like, do you have a defined pipeline that looks just like your prospect pipeline?
00;12;50;10 – 00;13;15;10
Webb Milward
On the business side? This is where I get really passionate about this. We have all these people in our shops that are incredibly gifted at looking at a prospect pipeline, attacking the building, relationships and turning those, those names and firms into clients. Why do we do the same thing? On the recruiting side, we get a pipeline of talent instead of of names and firms.
00;13;15;10 – 00;13;36;00
Webb Milward
It’s individuals now and we just attach it, you know, we make them love us and we bring them in just like we would a client. So all the same, habits and routines are there. It’s just about creating a system. So that’s one example for your listeners. Sales meetings once a month or once a week, whatever you do. Are we talking about talent prospects in the sales meeting?
00;13;36;00 – 00;13;47;29
Webb Milward
Just like we talk about business prospects or producers, bring the names of recruits to the sales meeting like they bring the names of their prospect accounts to the sales meetings. Right. These simple to us.
00;13;48;01 – 00;14;06;13
Chip Arenchild
So if we take that process you just describe in those sales meeting, are there are the names coming from the production staff or are you are you recommending that you have your whole firm out looking for people, or are you going to the Young Professionals group and clubs? I mean, I have some ideas around diversity and where we could find more salespeople.
00;14;06;13 – 00;14;11;04
Chip Arenchild
I identifying those areas to go recruit from. What are you seeing out there?
00;14;11;07 – 00;14;31;25
Webb Milward
You know, first it’s it’s got to be everybody in the boat. Right. Enterprise level strategy. And so everyone can contribute a friend, a neighbor, an associate, all of your people, no matter their role or involved in the in the community in a variety of ways that could benefit your firm and making sure that you’re just connected about that.
00;14;31;25 – 00;14;50;25
Webb Milward
So you avoid that one off. Oh, we got so lucky. We just happened to run into this person. You know, where there’s really a plan in place. And then to your other question, I think what’s really key is someone owning it. Well, you’re 10 million, 50 million or 500 million. Who’s owning this process? You would not have a sales team without a sales leader.
00;14;50;27 – 00;15;17;24
Webb Milward
So why do you have recruiting without a recruiting leader? Whether that’s an internal or external recruiter, whether that’s your HR function or a number of people within the HR function, or you have an executive sponsor like yourself that sort of owns it, someone’s got to own this so that the system, you know, starts to create momentum. And that’s where you get to a more proactive, a more aggressive, you know, a more connected approach to talent recruiting.
00;15;18;01 – 00;15;46;18
Chip Arenchild
Well, it’s it’s the number one problem that comes up. Like I said earlier, every time we get together with different friends, it’s where you find producers. What are you doing. And no one, you know, there’s no holy grail, right? There’s no like, honey hole that, someone has in. They’re not telling somebody about it. How does the recruitment in that passion you have maybe tie in to agency ownership or where is ownership concentration come into some of the things you’re noticing these days as well?
00;15;46;18 – 00;15;59;03
Chip Arenchild
Because I could see where depending on where you’re at as a firm, you may or may not have an appetite to want to do this and may not feel as valuable. If you think you’re runway shorter or longer, or whatever the case may be.
00;15;59;05 – 00;16;22;18
Webb Milward
Yeah, this is a phenomenal question, but and I think this will be a huge trend next year, it already is a trend. I think it’ll get twice as big next year. But you know, top performing firms are taking this question very seriously. So great. You built the the talent recruiting muscle. You’re bringing in great people. And within about a minute they’re going to ask about ownership opportunities.
00;16;22;18 – 00;16;46;04
Webb Milward
Right. It’s a different game now. They’re going to want to know what the pathway to partnership is. They’re going to want to know how they can get equity or ownership. They’re going to want to know what that looks like, and not because they’re being necessarily unprofessional. They just want to know, now, what does my path look like if this goes well, if I become a top producer or I become a really quality account executive, what’s the next step?
00;16;46;04 – 00;17;07;11
Webb Milward
And so is it ownership equity? Is it synthetic equity? There’s a ton of options there now. But what is that path. And so you know I think this is going to be that next problem for firms to solve if they haven’t already. It’s number one is recruiting. Number two is now that the people are here there are employees and our colleagues.
00;17;07;11 – 00;17;39;27
Webb Milward
There are our teammates. How are we going to create a pathway for partnership or ownership however you describe it. And so the the parallel I would pay for you in this conversation is historically just like the Friends and family network a minute ago. Historically, ownership is tightly held amongst the couple family members or a couple of agency principals, and there’s no clear strategy for how to widely distributed or spread it around to motivate performance to ensure the firm perpetuates.
00;17;39;29 – 00;18;11;05
Webb Milward
Right. A lot of times firms wait too long and the principals age out and it’s too hard to buy them out or perpetuate. And so what we’re seeing a lot of really quality firms doing today is getting ahead of this problem now and solving for this ownership position. And what they’re doing is they’re just steadily expanding their consistently and proactively expanding ownership to to enhance alignment around wealth creation, to ensure both generational perpetuation.
00;18;11;07 – 00;18;26;15
Webb Milward
We’re all in this together. We’re all gonna reap the benefits. I might not know more than you, but we’re headed in the same direction and we’re all going to benefit. And I think that is a really cool thing happening in our space right now. And we’re certainly doing a lot of those projects for firms when we help them perpetuate.
00;18;26;18 – 00;18;44;28
Chip Arenchild
I would echo what you said, I would agree. I think the most important thing, what you mentioned just has to do with communication and expectations of people coming into the business and just wanting to know that’s that’s something that’s inherent in this, in this age group. I don’t how you want to say it, but people want to know more.
00;18;44;28 – 00;19;05;28
Chip Arenchild
People are smarter now, right? They’re more sophisticated. They have access. They know how these things work. They’re thinking about it and just telling them this could happen doesn’t usually satisfy that itch that they have, right. You need to be able to demonstrate a clear plan, what can happen, show them some numbers and say if you can be part of this, you have a chance to do something great and stay here and build it right.
00;19;05;28 – 00;19;22;03
Chip Arenchild
And we always kind of fall back on our, you know, we don’t want to hire you or you. If we hire you, it’s the only reason you’re leaving is death, disability or retirement. Right. We’re not we’re not looking to just turn and burn and plug a hole. We’re trying to find a long term solution. That includes you as part of it.
00;19;22;06 – 00;19;53;14
Webb Milward
Yeah. And I’m sure many of your newer listeners are finding this out every day. You know, generation ago, that conversation might have happened five years in, you know, $30 million book. I’m a rock star producer. Now. I’m going to go to the CEO and ask about ownership. Well, now, as you think about recruiting and some of the people you’re trying to attract to your agency, they’re asking that question at the first coffee meeting, and you better have a, an answer that is, crisp and clear and easy to communicate.
00;19;53;16 – 00;20;11;20
Webb Milward
There can’t be a lot of math tied up in it. There could be some crazy matrix around how they get ownership. If they do 17 things, it’s got to be, you know, one, two, three. And this is what it looks like at our firm. And by the way, you can you’re welcome to talk to anyone who’s a recent shareholder or a recent owner in our organization.
00;20;11;22 – 00;20;19;03
Webb Milward
And they’ll tell you, you know, what that journey’s been like for them. And it is profound, how much of a competitive advantage that can be.
00;20;19;06 – 00;20;38;12
Chip Arenchild
So on that note, as people are bringing in that next group, what do you recommendation on including them in strategy and conversation and moving the agency forward? That’s another thing that I’ve noticed, right? People want to be involved earlier and they have ideas and they want to share them and they want to. They want to see if they can be executed upon.
00;20;38;12 – 00;20;53;19
Chip Arenchild
And I think that’s a good thing because they care. But it also creates some, friction at times and in misalignment. So investment strategy along with ownership would is there a correlation there that you see. Are you talking to people about.
00;20;53;22 – 00;21;16;12
Webb Milward
Yeah for sure. I think a lot of firms really large agencies, the leaders are still wearing too many hats. Right. The the roles and responsibilities probably aren’t as clear as they should be. I mean, you might even reflect, you know, later today on how you have too many hats at your agency and, and you’re still doing stuff you did ten years ago that you should have said by now.
00;21;16;12 – 00;21;36;06
Webb Milward
And if you’re hopefully recruiting new talent and you’re bringing people up the chain of command, you are able to then transition your book of business, your leadership responsibility, whatever it might be. And everyone’s going to benefit that from that because it frees you up to do better and better things for the firm, because you’re more experienced and you’ve got more, more history with.
00;21;36;07 – 00;21;50;21
Webb Milward
And so I absolutely think there is a little bit of an issue to have with, investment strategy being a little too low, a low appetite to invest in anything that is non-production.
00;21;50;24 – 00;21;52;19
Chip Arenchild
Yeah.
00;21;52;21 – 00;22;07;15
Webb Milward
You’ve been in that office when someone’s hired and they’re not a producer and some rules. I remember when YouTube walking down the hall whispers overhead under their under their breath because they’re they’re showing their disapproval for that higher.
00;22;07;17 – 00;22;27;26
Chip Arenchild
So well, let me ask you I get it, I think I think everyone listening would laugh at that as well. Right. And what do you think was the cause of that to create that attitude. And how do you overcome that. Because that’s that’s a lot of water under the bridge in a firm. If you grow up thinking we don’t want any overhead, we’re going to distribute everything to the partners.
00;22;27;29 – 00;22;43;07
Chip Arenchild
You know, we’re not going to reinvest. We can’t see it. I’m not going to get it back in my time. That’s a big hurdle to overcome. How are you helping people overcome that? Is it just by demonstrating what’s potentially out there if they do it versus staying still?
00;22;43;09 – 00;22;59;01
Webb Milward
I don’t know. They have a choice, frankly. I mean, it goes back to your opening comment about scale and consolidation and the forces out there that you are up against that you weren’t 10 or 20 years ago, and I’m not sure you can afford to to continue with this model of you got to be a producer to work here.
00;22;59;01 – 00;23;24;29
Webb Milward
You’ve got to be a successful producer to be an owner. There’s only one way to do it. And no one else can ever be at the table. And, you know, there is a lot of talent out there that is in non-production roles that are 100% building value for agencies. And they might be technical experts, they might be operational leaders, they might be specialists in a specific industry vertical.
00;23;25;02 – 00;23;47;28
Webb Milward
They probably touch clients every day. They just don’t carry themselves or get compensated like a traditional producer. And so part of it is just evolving from that mindset that there’s only one way to climb the mountain. And, and in fact, today, to, to stay competitive, you better have a number of ways to get up to the top, because that’s what you’re competing against.
00;23;48;01 – 00;24;03;18
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, I agree, and I think it ties back into what’s your strategy. Right. What are you trying to do. What are you trying to build. How do you plan to get there? Who do you need to make it happen as opposed to? Well, we got a 93% retention rate. We’re going to wake up next year. You’ll be okay.
00;24;03;18 – 00;24;33;16
Chip Arenchild
And I think that goes into something you talk about in San Diego with this was the run versus build and value agency and that mindset between the two. I know you’re passionate about that as well. So how does some of this tie in to what you’re seeing in just a run agency? And I know there’s nothing wrong with that versus the build agency and what they’re actively doing and, and are advising clients on how you transition from one to the other is a recommendation on what you need to be thinking about to stay relevant and to move ahead in this environment.
00;24;33;18 – 00;24;51;18
Webb Milward
Sure, absolutely. I love the run versus bill discussion and debate. I mean, and like, there’s a disclaimer to the audit, I understand that you can’t just throw dollars in every single thing. Like, you’ve got to pick your spots and you have to keep in mind profitability, and you got to keep in mind, a healthy balance sheet.
00;24;51;18 – 00;25;11;28
Webb Milward
But but the alternative of not investing in anything, you know, it’s horrifying. At some point, you’ve got to you’ve got to pick a spot and and double down and throw some some time and money at a, you know, an investment, an opportunity that could really create five times as much value for the firm down the road. So, you know, to your comment or question there.
00;25;12;00 – 00;25;46;07
Webb Milward
Yeah. In a, in a run, in a run model, a status quo agency which again is still profitable, really good agency. It’s got median organic growth rate. It’s doing all the nice things. It’s not even a lifestyle agency that’s not even this conversation. That’s like way over there. But, a status quo firm, you know, they are they are going to have that same overhead mentality from a generation ago and, and maybe a hesitation to really come out and invest and expose themselves to potentially a loss because it might not work out.
00;25;46;10 – 00;26;10;01
Webb Milward
But a little firm, a firm that’s trying to build value is going to aggressively invest in a couple areas that they define fit their strategic plan. We want to become more specialized. We want to build recruiting muscle. We want to add more client facing resources. Whatever your strategy is, where are you going to spend the money that’s going to net, you know, exponential growth in the next year or two.
00;26;10;01 – 00;26;32;08
Webb Milward
And so that approach chip combined with the improvement you’ll see in the roles and responsibilities bucket. So let me just worry too many hats. How do we create more bandwidth for our leaders to do the things that will really matter for the agency. If you invest, those leaders will be freed up to do those things. So what’s better for your firm?
00;26;32;10 – 00;26;43;17
Webb Milward
You bringing in a $10,000 piece of new business, or you shaping a strategy that can help them bring in $1 million over the next two years? And where’s your time better spent at this point in your career, right?
00;26;43;17 – 00;27;06;23
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. No, no easy answer. Right. And yet everyone’s hung up on the deal. So that roles and responsibilities an interesting thing as well because it’s as people need clarity. Right. And I think so many firms you’ve got a top down hierarchy just by default. Right. It just ends up being that way. Have you ever read anything by Mike Weinberg on, you know, he’s pretty good sales consultant out there.
00;27;06;23 – 00;27;35;03
Chip Arenchild
Was it Jeb Blunt? Those two guys do a lot of stuff with. He wrote a book called Sales Management Simplified, talking about how most sales organization, whether it’s insurance or anything else, you get there because the founder had that motor and that drive to go out and made it happen. And then they tried to hire people like themselves, but invariably that goes from working to where you just start hiring and then I’ll send you end up with, I’m not going to call it mediocrity, but you don’t have all these same drivers and they’re not being managing.
00;27;35;03 – 00;27;50;04
Chip Arenchild
You’re not driving the results. And then you build up all this momentum that isn’t getting you what you want, and now you got to reverse it and change it. And I think some of that comes to roles and responsibilities. No one knows when to call it, when to do stuff. I’d like to hear more your thoughts on what are you trying to implement?
00;27;50;04 – 00;27;52;25
Chip Arenchild
Rules and responsibilities inside of firm?
00;27;52;27 – 00;28;27;29
Webb Milward
Yeah, I would boil it down to are you making strategic hires of dedicated leaders who can work on the business? They’re not in the business every day. They’re not overwhelmed with with client service and account management. They’re not grappling with their own book of business, how much new business they’ve written this quarter and where their performance is. But really strategic hires with sort of specialty focuses, not specialization, just specialty focuses could be operational, could be anything that are working on the business every day.
00;28;28;02 – 00;28;52;06
Webb Milward
They’re helping to set that long term strategy and then execute it. You know you doing that is great. But you also have like three other jobs at your firm. And so how are you going to think about the investment strategy, how that will impact roles and responsibilities, how ultimately free up leaders to do other things so they’re not bogged down by the mundane that they’ve been doing forever.
00;28;52;08 – 00;29;18;23
Webb Milward
That’s where you could see all this connect. So now to bring some of this home, you’ve got recruiting, right. That will help with the roles and responsibilities, bandwidth issue that will help with a lot of that kind of growth. Different picture growth for the agency, right. The ability to grow exponentially to be a little more disruptive, to take some shots downfield because you trust the team you’ve hired to do it.
00;29;18;25 – 00;29;29;03
Webb Milward
And so you can quickly see how, you know, recruiting roles and responsibilities. And ultimately, that investment strategy can come together in a pretty exciting way for agency.
00;29;29;05 – 00;29;46;10
Chip Arenchild
So what’s the time frame for something like that? Do you have a recommendation where you start with the firm? Is it just is it starting with recruiting? Or if you these things all overlap and they’re all intertwined. And so you almost need to be kind of moving them all along at the same time. But but of course what do you recommend?
00;29;46;12 – 00;30;03;25
Webb Milward
Probably a little unique to each firm. I mean, I would recommend just a really strategic assessment of where they where they are, where are they really an honest assessment of scale 1 to 10. Where are we as a recruiting organization? You know, still 1 to 10. Where are we in terms of specialization?
00;30;03;27 – 00;30;24;07
Chip Arenchild
Do you find that most firms think highly of themselves? And how hard is it to get people to do a true, brutal, selfless assessment? And I always believe that we tend to think big. And I think it goes back to this reoccurring revenue over at the annuity. That and we’re better than we are. Right? And like in other industries, you’re never taking the foot off the gas.
00;30;24;07 – 00;30;34;20
Chip Arenchild
Right. But but we’re allowed to kind of fool ourselves into thinking we’re, we’re this great firm doing all these great things because, you know, are the revenue keeps flowin. But I don’t know if it’s true.
00;30;34;23 – 00;30;59;14
Webb Milward
You know, it’s it’s funny. Well, our industry certainly has no shortage of healthy egos and healthy levels of confidence. I think some of that’s external and some of that part of the sales and marketing approach that we all have to building relationships. But when you get people in a room to up and it’s, strategic planning retreat or a half day or a full day or whatever it is, they are very honest with where their firm stands.
00;30;59;14 – 00;31;20;14
Webb Milward
And so we find that we get pretty accurate data. You get a lot more force fives and sixes than you do. 7/8 nods. You know, on a scale of 1 to 10. And that’s a that’s a good opportunity. I mean, part of it is just everyone in the leadership being on the same page with, with where maybe we have some challenges or areas improvement, you know, where we have some real opportunity.
00;31;20;14 – 00;31;42;17
Webb Milward
And so, you know, specialization is another one. A lot of firms have specialization, dabble in it. But kind of like recruiting is an intentional is an enterprise level. Are you pursuing natural advantages? Are you building out leading practice groups? Are you putting the money behind it to support that? Or do you just have a really, really talented person who’s done well and built a huge book?
00;31;42;21 – 00;31;46;06
Webb Milward
You know that? Again, it’s a very similar conversation.
00;31;46;09 – 00;32;02;25
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, I think specialization is a great one to drill on. We know we all, I think, inherently believe that if you, you know, we have a running joke, if you write three of anything, you’re an expert. And I believe it’s true. Right. But you got to know someone’s business people want to do. You got to bring value to the transaction.
00;32;02;25 – 00;32;22;24
Chip Arenchild
These days, I kind of say that selling on charm, it’s always going to be a relationship business. But selling on charm is less and less important. You got to bring value to the transaction. And and with all the disruption that’s trying to happen in our space, I think that’s going to be more true than ever. As we move forward, creating specialists as opposed to what you just described.
00;32;22;26 – 00;32;31;22
Chip Arenchild
People that are good at one aspect of the industry are a segment of the industry or the marketplace, and we call them a specialist, but we’re not doing anything with it.
00;32;31;25 – 00;32;57;07
Webb Milward
No. And and to your initial question there, I mean, what do we advise a firm to do? I mean, it’s just so now and and think taking these these five attributes, these five elements, you know, recruiting, ownership structure, management strategy, roles and responsibilities and then specialization taking a real honest look at where are we, what are we absolutely ahead of the market, where maybe are we a day behind or a dollar behind?
00;32;57;07 – 00;33;22;03
Webb Milward
And what do we think is a part of our future? Strategically, where we can continue to grow and perpetuate this business? And that’s certainly what we hope for here, Reagan. I mean, that’s what we’re out there. I hope supporting and contributing to every day is helping firms just get to that next level, not a revenue threshold, necessarily. Just perpetuate and remain successful and prosperous as privately held organizations.
00;33;22;08 – 00;33;50;22
Webb Milward
And so that’s definitely an exercise I would encourage, you know, your listeners, if they’re pondering this conversation in that dynamic between what’s a status quo firm and what’s a value builder firm looks like? You know, those are certainly five of the there are many five of the main attributes that I think are worth, review. And then what other thing I would say to you is maybe a takeaway for the group here is take a look back at the past.
00;33;50;24 – 00;34;15;07
Webb Milward
What is an example of where your firm followed the status quo and how you can how can you avoid that in the future? And then more positively, going forward, in what areas of your business is a critical for you to meaningfully, meaningfully invest to be a value builder? Where are we? What can we do next year that we will reap the rewards of for five years or ten years?
00;34;15;07 – 00;34;20;12
Webb Milward
And so hopefully those are some good kind of takeaway questions, you know, as we were at.
00;34;20;14 – 00;34;41;09
Chip Arenchild
So we have this adoption of new processes or adoption of new technology. We have change management happening throughout our firms, throughout the organization. And I think it’s a struggle for most to have a plan around change management. Are you seeing anything or any deliberate things happening, that you recommend on how to how to build that muscle?
00;34;41;11 – 00;35;04;28
Webb Milward
You know, I think it goes back to our conversation a minute ago about strategic hires of dedicated leaders who are working on an aspect of the business. You know, you will be a CEO with no background in technology, no real interest or aptitude for technology, and lead the technology efforts for your agency. Now, you can be a part of those conversations and of course, the CEO you’re always going to be.
00;35;04;28 – 00;35;32;12
Webb Milward
But are you hiring people that you can really count on and trust to lead that area for you? So I think for me, it always starts with the people. And that’s, you know, where this conversation started. It’s it’s it’s it’s looking at where you might have some leadership that will help shape the strategy. You might have some ideas about what work best at your firm, but how are you going to ensure that someone’s owning it every day because you’re not going to be, and making sure someone is beating the drum?
00;35;32;12 – 00;36;02;12
Webb Milward
On cultural adoption of the technology, on integration of the technology, on explaining and educating the producers how to even use the technology. Right. Oftentimes we spend a bunch of money on adopting technology. No one uses it. And so I think that that’s part of this whole the spirit of what you and I are touching on today is just this connected, enterprise level approach where hopefully a firm can can shift into value builder mode and see some really, really disruptive growth over time.
00;36;02;14 – 00;36;20;17
Chip Arenchild
Well, I think it’s been enlightening. The things you’ve shared, and I do believe the future is as bright as it’s ever been in our industry. For people that are willing to take some of the suggestions you’ve made and be able to execute on them, and I think you will separate yourself from the pack rather quickly, because there’s so many people that aren’t going to be willing to do it and weren’t going to be able to do it.
00;36;20;17 – 00;36;26;26
Chip Arenchild
So I’ve enjoyed hearing those ideas and whereby I always like hearing what you have to say.
00;36;26;28 – 00;36;27;15
Webb Milward
Thanks for having.
00;36;27;15 – 00;36;34;11
Chip Arenchild
Me. Thanks for being on today. Is there anything else you want to make sure people are aware of? To be thinking about going into 24?
00;36;34;14 – 00;36;58;16
Webb Milward
I’m with you. I think it’s it’s the greatest industry in the world. I’ve certainly enjoyed every day I’ve gotten to work, in the broker space and with our clients and, and great firms around the country. And, you know, everyone is enjoying some really great growth, historic growth these last few years, record levels of profitability. You know, I don’t think the growth is ever the problem for most agencies.
00;36;58;16 – 00;37;27;03
Webb Milward
Right? These are great sales organizations with, you know, deep roots in their communities like we talked about. But it’s sort of, okay, what are you doing with that? How are you going to, from an expense standpoint, manage that profitability? Where are you going to invest where you think you can really move the needle? That’s what I get excited about is helping firms kind of navigate, if we’re going to drop our profitability by a couple points, we want to make sure it’s money well spent.
00;37;27;03 – 00;37;29;27
Webb Milward
And so that’s really kind of a fun conversation.
00;37;29;29 – 00;37;53;01
Chip Arenchild
I bet it’s really enjoyable. Well, hey, listen, I would be remiss if we didn’t get off this conversation without talking a little about I want to share everything. A web, in addition to being a super resource, happens to also own a salsa business in Kentucky, I believe salsa, and he’s also involved in some naming, image, and likeness with the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team, if I believe.
00;37;53;01 – 00;37;57;02
Chip Arenchild
Right. So tell us what’s going on with Mami Salsa and how’s that business going?
00;37;57;05 – 00;38;04;05
Webb Milward
You’re nice to throw that plug in there. Yeah. Everybody knows that the best salsa comes from Kentucky, right?
00;38;04;07 – 00;38;06;29
Chip Arenchild
I think it’s even on the internet. Right? Web, I.
00;38;06;29 – 00;38;28;28
Webb Milward
Think I think Tik-Tok is like salsa, not bourbon, not thoroughbred horse racing, but salsa. No, we just, my wife and I on the side of a small business of salsa and hot sauce. It’s in Kentucky, and it’s a lot of fun. I mean, you talk about an entrepreneurial pursuit, much like a lot of our clients and artists and brokers that are so entrepreneur in their mindset.
00;38;29;01 – 00;38;45;13
Webb Milward
It’s just a fun thing that we try to think about. Growing and building have a lot of these same conversations with regard to that business. So yeah, screaming name is Lexington, Kentucky. It’s it’s a lot of fun. And I know that your family, has enjoyed the products over the years. So we appreciate your business.
00;38;45;15 – 00;39;05;17
Chip Arenchild
Well, listen, we like it. Now tell us about the the University of Kentucky women’s basketball and what you’re doing with the Nil there. I think that’s fascinating. It’s a lot of people listening here understand sports and college athletics. Is that was that easy to do? Was it difficult to get involved with that. And how is that as a strategy paying off a little bit.
00;39;05;20 – 00;39;27;16
Webb Milward
It’s a little bit of, of a scary investment because it’s kind of the new frontier of college sports, right? No one really knows exactly how nil. And, you know, even the transfer portal, some of these things are really reshaping how college athletics is done for better or for worse. You could probably have a whole podcast arguing whether it’s good for college sports or not.
00;39;27;16 – 00;39;52;12
Webb Milward
But now in a very, very small, very small way, we did a partnership with, University of Kentucky women’s basketball player who from Kentucky, who kind of aligned with a lot of, the cultural values of our of our company, ourselves and company. And so, it was a really fun experience. I think she certainly helped raise the visibility of our little our little, company.
00;39;52;14 – 00;40;10;10
Webb Milward
But it was also kind of a daunting thing to navigate, as I said, because it’s kind of this new frontier where not everybody is that comfortable with, with how it’s going to go. So we did it once last year. I think it was it was valuable. But it takes the right person and it’s a competitive landscape. You want to talk about scale.
00;40;10;12 – 00;40;21;27
Webb Milward
There are companies out there with a heck of a lot more marketing budget to throw at a college athlete than we have, and so we’ve taken a bit of a pause from that. But for the time being, it was a great experience.
00;40;22;00 – 00;40;41;00
Chip Arenchild
I love to hear, and I’ve often wondered, and I know it’s expensive where we’re at to entertain the bigger sports. Right. But but it does plug you in as a recruiting tool to those sports programs. And so often we have sports, people that played sports get into the insurance business from the competitive standpoint of being driven and being goal orientated.
00;40;41;00 – 00;40;56;12
Chip Arenchild
And so maybe it’s a way to, find a way to get some of those members we’re not seeing right now. So thanks for sharing that. We will have a link to Webb’s, to screen and maybe salsa on the show notes. And I, like you said, the best salsa comes from Kentucky, so we’ll get it going.
00;40;56;12 – 00;41;07;25
Chip Arenchild
So, Webb, thank you for joining us today. As always, folks, reach out to Webb. We’ll have his contact information. And I know you do a great job for all the people he serve, so. Thanks, Webb.
00;41;07;27 – 00;41;15;27
Webb Milward
Yeah. Just make sure you put the radio link above the screen and made me think. I gotta remember my day job and what? Put food on the table? That’s that’s vegan, not the sausage I’m going to.
00;41;15;27 – 00;41;18;28
Chip Arenchild
Cover, but no worries. All right? We’ll catch you later.
00;41;19;01 – 00;41;22;05
Webb Milward
Great to be with you.
00;41;22;07 – 00;41;40;23
Chip Arenchild
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Know Your Risk and Insurance Coverage with Risk Pro Net. For more information about Risk Pro Net, please visit our website. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter for insurance insights from everyone at risk. Pro net. We want to say thank you for tuning in and see you next time.
