Insurance Unplugged

Scott Howell (0:01)

What do you feel like insurance agents need to do in terms of branding themselves, their agencies, the carriers they represent?

SPEAKER_2 (0:08)

When you are marketing something you're not in control of, you're not in control.

Scott Howell (0:13)

The very last thing I do, I get agreement from them, and then I end the call with making damn sure whatever I say I'm going to do gets done.

Bradley Flowers (0:25)

How many hours did your team spend last week on policy reviews? Quote comparisons, loss run extractions, now multiply that by what your producers cost per hour. That's the number that out market eliminates. The reason that I love Ascend is they're the only vendor focused on helping agents automate all of their manual finances and accounting practices, which is really the boring stuff, but that's really where the rubber meets the road in terms of profitability to your agency.

Scott Howell (0:51)

We're going to write business with carriers that make it easy for us to write business with.

Bradley Flowers (0:57)

If the conditions have to be right for you to succeed, your success is conditional. It's not real success.

Scott Howell (1:03)

Play like champions, man. Here we go.

Insurance agents from around the world, welcome to the Insurance Guys Podcast. My name is Scott Howell, your fearless host and leader, insurance agency owner and insurance evangelist for I Protect Insurance and Financial Services based out of Huntsville, Alabama. And before we get started in today's episode, please help me welcome, he is a six foot three sophomore from Mobile, Alabama. Parade first team all American, rivals five star recruit. He is a fantastic insurance agent and a great American. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together and welcome the incomparable, Mr. Bradley Flowers. How are you Bradley?

Bradley Flowers (1:47)

Man, I'll tell you, there's nothing else I love doing more than this podcast with you. I enjoy doing it. I was actually thinking earlier when you and Clint were talking about your heart attack, like, you know, you could definitely do this without me. I don't think I could do this without you.

Scott Howell (2:01)

Why you said that?

Bradley Flowers (2:02)

I don't know. I just wouldn't think without me, it would be the same show. I think without you, it would not be the same show.

Scott Howell (2:09)

But I don't know. I don't agree with that. I've always said, and I have friends in the industry that don't know you, but are in the industry as C-Suite executives and attorneys that have always agreed with me when I say that you are the glue that binds this show together because you can carry your own weight on this show like you.

Bradley Flowers (2:37)

Maybe so.

Scott Howell (2:37)

And I have, and they've always agreed with me on this too. You're the insurance agent that all of these agents that are listening to, you know, points to as, hey, man, I'd really like to be like that guy. I'm just, I'm just the, hey, the world crazy guy.

And that's one of the things that pisses me off so much. And I don't have anybody to blame but myself because I'm the one that put myself in this situation. But like when I go to a Paradiso Mastermind or any event in the industry, the expectation is, is that Scott's going to come in with his shirt off like Burt Crusher drinking a beer.

Bradley Flowers (3:20)

You built a brand.

Scott Howell (3:21)

And I'm the wild crazy guy that just, you know.

Bradley Flowers (3:24)

Yeah, you're like Johnny Knoxville. You're the Johnny Knoxville of insurance.

Scott Howell (3:29)

I would say more Burt Crusher because I know for a fact that most events I get invited to are just simply for my comedic timing or whatever.

Bradley Flowers (3:39)

There's value in that though.

Scott Howell (3:40)

Well, there is, unless you're the guy that's just the, you know, the fat guy with his shirt off that everybody makes fun of and laughs with, but kind of laughs at too, you know.

Bradley Flowers (3:50)

It's kind of, you know, I was talking with, I think it was Hanley or somebody, like you're at an insurance conference or somewhere and, you know, an insurance, a listener sees you, you know, they're expecting podcast Scott and they're expecting podcast Bradley. And you can't always give it to them. You know what I mean?

But what I was getting at was, is, you know, when we do these sessions, it's like work.

Scott Howell (4:13)

It is.

Bradley Flowers (4:13)

You know, and to be honest with you, in the days and weeks leading up to it, I'm kind of dreading, not hanging out with you, just dreading doing it, because it's not something I do every day. I don't build that muscle, you know, but every single time when we get on the last episode we're doing in that session, which is what we're doing right now, I'm like kind of sad that it's over.