Dr. Billy Williams - CEO of Williams Family Investment Group: Building a Community, 4 Disciplines to Success, Changing Careers, and the Value of a Business Partner

Dr. Billy Williams  00:00

Sometimes the quality comes after you get into this, after you start doing it and you get better, and you get better, and you get better. But people who wait until everything is perfect. Most of the time, they never ever get where they could go because perfection is the enemy of success. Okay, where activity is the partner of success.

Callan Harrington  00:25

You're listening to That Worked, a show that breaks down the careers of top founders and executives and pulls out those key items that led to their success. I'm your host, Callan Harrington, founder of Flashgrowth, and I couldn't be more excited that you're here. Welcome back, everyone to another episode of That Worked. My guest this week is Dr. Billy Williams. If you've never heard a talk from Billy before, get ready to take notes. Dr. Billy Williams is the CEO of the Williams Family Investment Group, a group of more than 160 partner insurance agencies that produce almost a billion dollars in insurance premiums per year. He is also the founder and president of Inspire a Nation Business Mentoring Services, America's best insurance agent and small business coaching company. He's authored three books, and has been a staple on the public speaking circuit for years. Why? Because he gives actionable takeaways that are dead simple to implement. Billy is a process fanatic, and we dove into a number of his frameworks for building a successful business. We talked about him changing careers at forty-two years old. And he gave me excellent advice. And this advice can be used for anyone out there considering a career change in general. But my personal favorite part of the episode was getting called out for not starting my newsletter. I know it's a priority. I gave him plenty of excuses. And he gave me the exact advice I needed to hear to get it going. It's honestly excellent advice for anyone starting any thing, a company or project, it does not matter. So with that, I'm going to jump out of here and let's get to the show. Dr. Billy Williams, I'm excited for this one. I've been a fan for a long time. Welcome to the show.

Dr. Billy Williams  02:34

Thank you, sir. I'm honored to be here. Thank you for having me.

Callan Harrington  02:37

Yeah. So okay, one of the things that I just want to jump right into is, you've got a great website called IceCreamLessons.com, where you share just kind of a lot of the things that you've learned and some of your principles. Tell us about the four disciplines to business success.

Dr. Billy Williams  02:56

Well, it's not even just business success, it's really about success in general. So you have self discipline, accountability, technology and automation, and then outsourcing. So I'm going to put it into an actual scenario. So people can really understand what I'm saying. Let's say accounting, we all hate numbers, usually, right? We hate accounting, keeping up with our taxes, all that kind of stuff. So some people will say, "you know what, I'm self disciplined enough, I can do it myself. I don't need to go outside. I don't need an accountant. I don't need a CPA. I got this." And then some people are like, "well, I don't think I have the self discipline, so I'm going to make sure that my spouse checks me, honey, make sure on Tuesday, I sit down and actually do the bills, honey on Thursday, please make sure that I do this." So that's accountability. We have someone else helping to hold us accountable. Then there's technology and automation. You know what, I'm not keeping up with this crap, I'm gonna use QuickBooks, my bank will automatically figure out hey, this was for groceries. And this was for gas. And this was for this. So the bank will automatically do that stuff, I don't have to worry about it. So we're using technology and automation. And then at the end of the day, I've tried all those different ways. I'm still not getting what I need to get done. So I'm going to outsource it. I'm gonna go ahead and pay the accountant, pay for the bookkeeper, pay for all that. So in business, what people have to realize is, you're going to fund your weaknesses, okay? You're always going to fund, F-U-N-D, your weaknesses. The key is how are you going to fund it? So, if I have lack of self discipline, but I also have ego, right, and arrogance that says I'm not letting go of this. Well, now I'm going to fund that through wasted time, wasted effort, wasted money, and also opportunity money. I'm losing that opportunity money. So, I'm funding that weakness. If I use accountability- Okay, maybe the accountability will work, maybe it won't work. Either way, if it doesn't work, I'm gonna have to keep funding it. So, those are the four disciplines it takes to really be successful in life in business and anything: self discipline, accountability, technology and automation, and outsourcing. So when you first realize none of this crap works, you can't control it, outsource it. And a lot of times you will make more money by outsourcing it than you trying to hold on to it and letting your ego keep telling you, you can handle it

Callan Harrington  05:31

It makes so much sense. I'm a big believer in the book, Who Not How, where, who- find the right who and they can shorten your learning curve dramatically, and save you a ton of time. I'm curious, when you think about those, is it a linear path? Meaning, should you try self discipline first, then find somebody to hold you accountable to doing it, then look to automate and use technology for it, and then look to outsource? Or, is there certain areas where it's just outsource from day one? Like for me, for example, I outsource bookkeeping day one. I spent about twenty minutes in QuickBooks. I said, nope, not for me. I'm getting a bookkeeper. Everyone told me to do it. I'm going to do it right now.

Dr. Billy Williams  06:13

But the thing is, you had to discover your weakness, and you had to be humble enough, and not arrogant. Ego is what you do. Arrogance is what you refuse to do. So you didn't let your arrogance take over and said, "I'm not going to give that to somebody else. I can master this." I have partners, who literally I'll give them a project, a project that will take ten minutes, if they outsourced it to somebody. Three weeks later, I'll come back and go, did you get that done? "Oh, it's still on my desk, you know? Still waiting?" Why didn't you just give it to somebody? "Because I know I can do it myself." But why? Why? Because remember, you always find your weaknesses. So now you just cost us three weeks of revenue. Three weeks of things that you should have been doing outside of this. You just cost us all this opportunity costs, because your arrogance wouldn't admit you couldn't handle it. So, to answer your question, if you already know that you're not good at something just from trial and error and history. Why? Why go through the whole linear progression? Just jump right to the I'm going right to a bookkeeper. You know what I mean?

Callan Harrington  07:18

I agree.

Dr. Billy Williams  07:19

If you already know your weaknesses, then don't think you're suddenly going to change your weaknesses overnight.

Callan Harrington  07:25

So, here's a question. How do you go about- what's your process for- Alright, I've decided I want to outsource this. I've never looked in this. I don't even know where to start? How do I go about doing that?

Dr. Billy Williams  07:35

Ask someone who already does it. Here's my rule when it comes to things. If I can't figure it out in ten minutes, I'm gonna go find someone who who's already doing it. I don't sit for three hours trying to figure out the computer stuff. I don't sit for two hours trying to figure out how Instagram works. I don't- ten minutes. If I can't figure it out in ten minutes, I'm finding someone who already does it.

Callan Harrington  07:59

Makes complete sense. And when you say somebody that's already doing it, that's if I own a consulting company, I'm gonna go ask other consultants on how they're managing their bookkeeping?

Dr. Billy Williams  08:10

Exactly.

Callan Harrington  08:11

So, one of the things in, you know, a lot of the things that you write about, you talk about and you're very big on, and as we just kind of kicked off with these four disciplines is process. Where did that come from? Where did that start?

Dr. Billy Williams  08:24

My childhood. My dad was military, I grew up all over the world, you know. And so process was all I knew. I was a national level tennis player, went in the military, was a pretty good bowler, you know, played sports, all this kind of stuff. And so I always figure out the process to everything. What I've learned- the process shaves off so many hours and days and weeks of just unnecessary learning. So, I always look for the process. If I can't see it from start to finish, if I can't step it out, then you just gave me an ingredients list. You didn't give me a workflow, you know, you're didn't give me a recipe. So, growing up my father, everything was always, what's the next step? Okay, great you did that? What's the next step? And even in school, when I was studying geometry, or trig, or anything like that, he would always say, "how would you apply this in real life?" Well what do you mean Dad? I just need to know it for the test? You know. "No, how would you apply this in real life?" And so he would always make me think, how would I apply this in real life? And that's always stuck. And then when you go on the military, everything you learn in the military, you have to apply or people die. Right? And so, that's always been my structure. So when I came out of the military, and went into insurance, I was blessed. I went to work for Allstate, and Allstate- all the captives are phenomenal training organizations- Allstate, State Farm, Farmers, Nationwide back before they fired all their agents. I mean, all of these captives were phenomenal training organizations.

Callan Harrington  10:06

For our listeners that are maybe unfamiliar with that. So a captive, as Billy had mentioned, the State Farm, Allstate, these are insurance agencies-

Dr. Billy Williams  10:15

They sell one product.

Callan Harrington  10:16

Yeah, they can only represent Allstate, they can only represent State Farm. So they have to kind of fit within that mold. So, didn't mean to cut you off there. Just wanted to make sure I cleared that up a little bit.

Dr. Billy Williams  10:26

No, no, no, I appreciate you letting the audience know. So when I went to work for Allstate, everything they did was a process. I could see from start to finish how everything worked. And it worked really well for me. It was a great education that they paid for. That's how I look at it. And all you guys that are out there that are like, "I wanna go work for myself." You know, that's fine and dandy, but understand you'll always fund your weaknesses. This is like the fourth time I've said it. You always fund your weaknesses. So if you don't know what the hell you're doing, you're going to waste a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy to learn it. Or you can go be a part of an organization, and let them give you a paycheck while you learn it. So I chose to go to Allstate, let them give me a paycheck, while I learned insurance, and I learned what I was doing. Then once I graduated after my four years was up with Allstate, which I was there for four years, then I went independent. Getting back to your original question, it all stems from my childhood.

Callan Harrington  11:28

You know, you bring up a point. This comes up quite a bit. And so I started out, I was a captive agent at Northwestern Mutual before going independent myself in the early part of my career, and the training that I got from Northwestern Mutual. To this day, I still tell people all the time, younger people, they're like, "well, I'm interested in sales." Go do the internship at Northwestern Mutual. You will learn more during that that will stick with you forever. And because they've invested so much into that process, into that program, into proving what works. It's not going to be easy, it's going to be incredibly difficult,ut there's so much value in that. And there's also value in- specially when you're thinking about starting a business, see if you even like that business. You may go in there, test it out and absolutely hate it. But for you, you were very successful with that. And as I understand it, you sold that Allstate agency, and then moved to go to the independent side. Why make that change? And just for our listeners real quick, that aren't familiar, independent agents, they have freedom to go out and represent any product. So if they're talking to a homeowner, let's say that homeowner's a business owner, they could sell them business insurance, they can sell them Travelers, and Nationwide, or Safeco, or a number of different carriers that are out there to really kind of tailor what's best fit for them. But why make that change?

Dr. Billy Williams  12:48

I had just outgrown the captive model. We're all afraid of a height. I don't care where it is. Some people are afraid of a stepladder. Some people are afraid of being on a roof. Some people are afraid of being in a building. Some people are afraid of an airplane. Some people are afraid of going out in space. There's all some height that we're all afraid of, right? But there's also a level that we're just not comfortable with. So, somewhere in between the height we're afraid of and the level that we're comfortable with is where we reside on a regular basis. I had outgrown the Allstate model. For me, for me, for what I wanted to do, for the freedom I wanted, for the way I wanted to hire, for the way I wanted to take care of my customers. All that, plus I wanted to invest. My plan, when I retired from the army was to never have to work work. Like I didn't want to have to work a twelve hour job and do all this kind of stuff. I've already retired. I've done that. So, I've gotten to a point where I wanted to acquire agencies, I wanted to buy other agencies, because that's a fast way of scaling and growing. And I was told that I couldn't. And so at that point, again, ego and arrogance. Ego is what you do. Arrogance is what you refuse to do. My ego said, you can run other agencies, you can acquire other agencies, you can make this a big organization. My arrogance said, there's no way in the hell you're going to put up with somebody telling you you can't do it. So at the end of the day, I made a decision. I felt like I had the skills, the training, and everything I needed to be able to go out and build the organization I wanted. Now, that's not a knock on Allstate, because there's a lot of successful Allstate agents, and there are a lot of people that have been there for 20, 30, 35, 40 years and they're happy and rich and- but it just wasn't for me.

Callan Harrington  14:45

I'm curious about how old were you when you came out of the military and you started at Allstate?

Dr. Billy Williams  14:48

Forty-two.

Callan Harrington  14:49

 How big of an impact did that have?

Dr. Billy Williams  14:52

Oh, it's everything. I mean, just like you said, Northwestern Mutual was you. Then, military's anything- you have to understand, I was in the military, for twenty one. My dad was in for thrity five. I grew up in the military. So literally, up until I was forty-two years old, all I knew was a military lifestyle.

Callan Harrington  15:14

How did you make that transition? What was that transition like?

Dr. Billy Williams  15:17

It was not easy. Getting out is easy. Dealing with lack of structure, lack of order is difficult. But what it did, it made me an instant leader, because I thought in a process. And here's the difference between leaders and non leaders: leaders think in a process, non leaders just throw it out there, whatever happens happens. So when you're in a room, say you got five people in a room, and it's like this one person, everyone goes to this one person, and everyone listens to this one person. And everyone wants this one person's viewpoint. Why? What makes that one person different? It's two reasons. Number one, they think in a process. So when they talk, they talk in a process. So everyone in the room can envision start to finish, "guys, we need to go here, we need to get this done, someone needs to handle this, someone needs to do that, then we can come over here." So they can follow your thought process. Because you're thinking in a process. That's number one. Number two, you can communicate your thoughts. You're not stumbling, fumbling, bumbling, you're clear, concise, you're communicating what you're thinking. So that's literally all it takes in this country, to be a good leader is to think in a process and to clearly communicate your thoughts. Think about all your influencers. Think about the Instagramers the YouTubers, all this other stuff. What is it that they do? Because there are billion YouTube channels. Why is it that 500 of them are better than anybody else? What do they do differently? They put it in a process, meaning they probably post every Tuesday, and every Thursday, at two o'clock, they post about a specific topic, they make sure that they're entertaining and doing all this, and they communicate that, and people can gravitate to that. So being a leader in this country is really simple. And people don't realize that. I've lived all over the world. Being a leader in the United States is really, really simple. If you've got the discipline, the discipline, whether that's self discipline, accountability, technology, automation, or outsourcing, if you have the discipline to learn a process, and have the communication skills to explain that process to the masses, whether it's religion, whether it's selling cars, whether it's selling vacuum cleaners doesn't matter.

Callan Harrington  17:53

I agree with that, in that it's not just where are we going? But it's how are we going to get there? And I have to assume coming out at forty-two, you- Did you look at that as man, I gotta start over? Or did you look at that, as I've got a lot of experience, and I need to find a place to put this?

Dr. Billy Williams  18:13

Well, I chose to get out, I could have stayed in another fourteen years, if I'd wanted to.

Callan Harrington  18:18

Why'd you make that decision?

Dr. Billy Williams  18:20

Because I was forty-two, I had a PhD, and I knew that my upside was good. I knew I had a strong upside where if I'd stayed in too long, it's like sour milk. If you let milk stay too long, it's gonna go bad. And I didn't want to be sour milk. You know, I didn't want to be fifty and then coming out trying to figure out what I was going to do, or fifty-five trying to figure out what I was going to do. So forty-two was the perfect age. I was young enough, hungry enough, aggressive enough. And I had enough skill set and experience to where I felt like I could really maximize who I was and what I was.

Callan Harrington  18:55

I'm curious, what advice would you have for those career changers? So, people that a little bit later in their career. That's a major career change that you've made, just given the time that you had put in there. And as you mentioned, your family had been in there, so this is something you knew your entire life. What advice would you have for those people making a career change?

Dr. Billy Williams  19:14

You know what's so funny? I have not changed my organization very much from the military. If you come into one of our agencies, everything is structured. Everything is orderly. Everything has a process. Everything is written. Everything- I spot check like I'm doing inspections. I mean, all that kind of stuff. So the thing I would tell you is: either find something you love, or find something similar to what you're good at. That's why there's so many people who get out and go work for the government, right? Or they get out and they become a federal employee, because they found something similar to what they do. And if you don't want to do something similar to what you do, find something you love. Find something you're passionate about. Because then it'll never feel like work. It won't feel like a nine to five. I mean, that's the standard advice that you hear everywhere. But that's truly the advice. Because if you come out, and you're not chasing something you love, and you're not doing something you're good at, now all the sudden you have to pay for your weaknesses.

Callan Harrington  20:21

Yeah, you know what though, I gotta say, that's the first time that- I had never heard of "find something that's similar." I think a lot of times you get "follow your passion," or look for some kind of unique idea in the market. But, you know, interestingly enough, I wanted to buy an insurance agency. I spent my career on the B2B tech side, but I wanted to buy an insurance agency. And I tried pretty hard at doing that. Now, I tried doing that part time and nights and weekends, which is tough to do to find an insurance agency. And then I left my previous company to pursue this full time. The second I got out, and I had all of this freedom to go after everything that I wanted, I no longer was trying to buy an insurance agency. And I wanted to do that, because it's such a good model, it makes so much business sense, and I'm very routined. I'm very process oriented. But I was immediately- I got into consulting, because I liked having really complex conversations, because that was similar to what I was doing. And I've never heard it described like that. And that resonates with me to the tee. So I think that's such good advice that doesn't get talked about enough. I appreciate you sharing that. One of the things that I'm curious about is: you left Allstate, you had sold your agency and then went to go independent.

Dr. Billy Williams  20:24

Understand, I didn't open a brand new agency, I partnered with an existing agency.

Callan Harrington  21:45

Walk us through that. What does that mean? Specifically?

Dr. Billy Williams  21:47

 I never do anything without a partner.

Callan Harrington  21:49

Why is that?

Dr. Billy Williams  21:50

I need somebody to cover my weaknesses. I need someone to be accountable to. And I need someone who has a skill set that allows me to scale. And so when I'm by myself, everything falls on me. And everyone's looking to me for the answers. So that means if I don't know something, I either have to go find it when everyone's waiting for me while I go find the answer. Or I got to BS people and act like I know. And neither one of those sits well with me.

Callan Harrington  22:22

How do you find a partner? I know a lot of people want to do that. But don't know where to start, hear all the horror stories, right? And you hear just as much that go well, as that go bad, but of course the ones that are bad stick out. What's your process for finding a partner? How do you evaluate a partner? What are you looking for?

Dr. Billy Williams  22:38

This is gonna sound- I don't know how your audience will take this, I have to have some kind of ethical, spiritual likeness with this person. Think of it like a child- do you have kids, by the way?

Callan Harrington  22:52

I don't have kids, no.

Dr. Billy Williams  22:53

Okay, let's say your three year old niece or three year old nephew burns you, right? They were playing with something, and they touched, you and it burned your skin. Well, you're going to be upset about the situation, but you're not going to be upset about the kid, because they didn't do it intentionally. They never sought to hurt you. They never went out of their way to hurt you. They never meant to mean you harm. So you're upset about the situation, you don't like being burned, but you can trust that the person didn't do it intentionally. That's what happens when you have a similar ethics, similar spirituality, similar values. Even if my partner did something that bothered me, hurt me, messed up the business, I know it was never intentional, right? Because that's not their spirit. So when I look for a partner, believe it or not, that's the first thing I look for. Because there's plenty of people that do everything. I don't need to go out and find someone who sells insurance. Hell, that's the easiest thing in the world to do. So it's not about the partner. I don't need to find someone who can drive a car, I don't need to find someone- I don't need to find someone who can do the skill, because there are a million people that have the skill. But do they have the ethics, the value, the morals? If they burned me, would it be by accident? Not on purpose?

Callan Harrington  24:13

Are these people that you're typically have known for a long time that you've been able to test this?

Dr. Billy Williams  24:18

No. But here's the deal, then again, this- you know, I got all these little sayings. Success always leaves a trail, and your values always leave a trail. I go back and interview people that they went to high school with, people they went to college with, because success always leaves a trail, but your values always leave a trail also. So if I hear, and our research, if I see the rumblings and oh yeah, they ripped up this guy and they jumped out of this lease and left it hanging. I don't care what you say. Because what you say is easy. But what does your history say? So if your history doesn't support it, I don't need to know you forever, I do need to know your history, I don't have to personally know it, but I definitely need to find it

Callan Harrington  25:06

Are these partners peers, or are these partners where you're coming in as the majority?

Dr. Billy Williams  25:11

I'm never the majority, I'm always 20% or less. And the whole reason is because I don't like numbers. I'm just being honest with you. When you own more than 20% of a business, what do you have to do? In the financial services? You got to file with the SEC, you got to file with all these other entities, you got to do this on your taxes, you got special forms you got to fill out for your taxes, because you owe more than 20%. I don't ever want to own more than 20% of my partnerships. I would much rather own 15% of 100 agencies than 100% of one agency. And plus, it's like owning rental properties. When you own a bunch of different rental properties, after a while, they kind of take care of each other. So if I'm buying lumber to fix this one, I'm gonna buy enough lumber to go and fix the next two or three properties. So it's the same thing with partners. When I have a bunch of partners, even if I have one that's not doing well, the other ones will subsidize it. So, that model works for me.

Callan Harrington  26:11

So, switching gears for a little bit. I mean, I think that's really interesting. And so you've built a pretty big brand, in particular in the insurance space, you're probably the biggest name within the insurance agency space.

Dr. Billy Williams  26:27

I think it'd be a lot of people who would say that wasn't true. There's the WR Berkley's and the Zander's, and the, you know, all these other guys. I may be one of the larger of the individual people within the PNC world.

Callan Harrington  26:43

Yeah, I guess that's what I mean, specifically. How'd you build that brand? Where did that start?

Dr. Billy Williams  26:48

It started with the first agency. And it started with processes. That's what I'm known for in the industry. When someone partners with me, whether they come on as a member, you have a membership- a mentoring organization. Whether they come in as a partner, they don't need money, they're insurance agents, okay? If you've done this longer than ten or fifteen years, you don't need money, trust me. But what you do need is structure, order, processes. You need someone to captain the ship, right? Because you've built a big ship. But now you realize, I'm a great first mate. But I don't know if I'm ready to take on this Battlestar Galactica type ship here. I think someone who's done that before. It's the same reason CEOs get fired from one company and become the CEO of another company. Because at the end of the day, there's just some experience that even if you failed over here, that experience, no one else can handle that. No one else can even fathom what that's like. So I built it from day one with processes, structure, order, making sure everything is good. And then the second agency came on, and third agency, and the fourth agency, and you know, it grew and then we got over 100. And those processes were still working, still kicking, even as we scaled up and got bigger, bigger, bigger. The processes, we honed them in, but the basic core processes always worked. And so, once you have your core process, scaling is easy. You know, you're just adding to the same process. You're just adding more stuff to the same process. It's like children, I got five kids. My first kid was the hardest kid ever, because we had no process. We didn't know what to do. We didn't have any plans. We didn't have any- there was no manual that said, this is how you raise a kid. Second kid, little easier. Third kid, lot easier. First kid, cough, were at the hospital. Fifth kid, if I don't smell or see blood, you're okay. I'm not worried about you.

Callan Harrington  28:48

So, when you started to, on the marketing side in particular, did you pick a channel? Go all in on that channel? Did you start to- because you've got pretty big channels across YouTube, LinkedIn, in general. And you've built a good sized community. And that's the buzzword right now, right? Everyone's trying to build a community right now. What was it? What was it that really clicked for you that became that outlet? I know you've done speaking and everything. There's all sorts of different things. How did that start? Where did you hone in on first?

Dr. Billy Williams  29:19

I can tell you exactly. For me, it was conference calls. Okay. I built my whole community on conference calls, and webinars are nothing but conference calls with video. So, Allstate had this company called Lincoln Benefit Life. Right? And then they had this other company called American Heritage. AHL. Well, AHL had a critical care policy that was unlike anything on the market. It was amazing. I mean, cancer, heart attack, stroke, all this. They had an accident policy that was better than Aflac's. In my opinion, it was better than  Aflac's, but none of the agents were selling it. They were all selling auto-home-umbrella, auto-home-umbrella, auto-home-umbrella, right? None of them were selling that. So that was my in. That's the first thing I'd tell your people. Look for the gap, right? And work in the gap, live in the gap, because that's where the riches are. The riches are in the niches. You've heard that forever. But what are the niches? The niches are the gaps that are underserved. So, I would go around to different ballparks in the area, Libertyville, Vernon Hills, Mundelein, all these different- Lake Zurich, all these different communities. And I had, on the back of my business card, I had a conference call number. Free conference call, still use it to this day, right? Free conference call number. And I would say hey, while Johnny's out there playing soccer, or Susie, or kids are playing soccer, I'm going to have a conference call in about twenty minutes, where I'm going to talk about accident, cancer, heart attack, stroke, you know, all these different little things. While you're sitting out here, why don't you just go ahead and dial in and listen, and then I'd go sit my butt in my car, and I would hold my conference call from my car. And so I would sit there and I'd do basically a presentation of everyone that called in. And some days I'd have five people call in, some days I'd have fifty people call in. And I did this every Saturday, every Saturday consistently, process. Every Saturday. And what happens is free conference call, when- it gives you a report at the end of the conference call that gives you the phone number of everyone who called in. So immediately, Monday morning, I would start calling those folks and say, hey, I see you called in on my cancer, heart attack, stroke conference call that I did Saturday. What questions can I answer for you? Is that something, is that a product that you think you'd want to know more about? And I'd start selling that product, right? So then I'd sell that product, and immediately pivot into auto-home. So I didn't put the marketing out to go after auto-home, I found a niche and found a backdoor into auto and home. And even today, when I hold a webinar, my webinars will have anywhere between fourteen and fifteen hundred agents on. I've got my fifteen minute lunch and learn, which I think you've seen on my website, inspireanation.org, for listeners. But I do these fifteen minute lunch and learn webinars. And today I did one and it was on how to cross sell during a hard market. Because we're in a hard market right now in insurance. Hard market, for your listeners, means rates are high. Rates are really, really high. And guidelines are really hard. So it's difficult to place someone in insurance. So today, I must have had eight-nine hundred people, agents, that were on that webinar, right? Because I'm putting out value. I'm putting out good information. I'm not selling. I'm putting out value. The sale comes after I put out the value. So now Monday, my team will start calling those folks and saying hey, well you were on the webinar, you know, what's your take away? What can we do for you? What questions do you have? You obviously showed up because there's some problem that you have? What's your problem? Well, let's see if we can solve that problem for you. And I've done that literally for 18 years.

Callan Harrington  33:11

How do you drive people to the webinar today?

Dr. Billy Williams  33:14

Well, right now, it's probably reputation more than anything, but I still do a hell of a lot of marketing. I have a checklist, we- I think it's like twelve different things that we have to do. So number one, we put it on our website, we put it on our blog, we put it out on YouTube, we put it out on Libsyn, which is where I host my podcast. We put it out on my Facebook business page, we create a Facebook event, we create a LinkedIn event, we put it in our LinkedIn groups, we- you you see I'm saying, I mean like we literally have this checklist of twelve different places, maybe even more, of where we're gonna post everything about it. And we put out little snippets, one minute sample, kind of like giving a little taste of ice cream, we'll do a little one minute snippet to say this is what you can expect on that training. And we just keep doing it consistently. It's all about the process. Nothing magical. It's just consistency and process.

Callan Harrington  34:12

I'm actually- just out of curiosity- I know we talked about this a little bit in a conversation we had last week, but what channel do you find to be the biggest driver to these different events? Is that from a LinkedIn post?

Dr. Billy Williams  34:26

Well, again, we use LinkedIn so many different ways. So we have our LinkedIn business page, I have my personal LinkedIn, where I have like 10,000 followers on my personal LinkedIn. Then I have my LinkedIn group, Fix My Insurance Agency, which is a LinkedIn group. Then I'm a member of about forty other LinkedIn groups. So we post within those groups as well, when we put out events, and they usually don't take them down because we're not selling anything. We're just putting out good, valuable information. We do LinkedIn events. Now the one thing I don't do is I don't do any paid advertising. And that's- I just don't. There are too many free things out there, that will put me in contact with everybody, that I don't have to. Guys- one of the things I will tell anyone, though, join groups and start groups, because that's your community, you own that community, right? But even with that, make sure that everyone in that group also gives you their contact information, so that you own the email list. Because if LinkedIn ever decided to shut you down, or Facebook ever decided to shut you down, now you're screwed, right? So, we always make sure that everyone also gives us their NAPE, we call it NAPE: name, address, phone number, email. We always make sure we have the NAPE information from everyone. But putting those groups together is really, really important, I think.

Callan Harrington  35:48

I think that's excellent. And it's something that's been top of mind for me, email in particular, right? It's the oldest one. And it's still- and if you talk with anybody with a big audience, and they'll say, "you got to get the email, you've got to do a newsletter." Because it's true. And I'll tell you, if I post something on LinkedIn, because I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. And if I post something on LinkedIn, and the engagement is really high, right, people are commenting on it, but I look at the reach and it's going nowhere. It's every time I see them, I'm like, oh my God, I've got to start the newsletter. Because this is like exactly what you say, you don't have control over that. That's in somebody else's hands.

Dr. Billy Williams  36:24

The only thing I truly trust is who filled out something. Those are the only metrics I truly trust. All the rest of it, I think is designed to make you buy more of their marketing than more of their advertising. That's my opinion. And I could be 100% wrong. At the end of the day, my opinion, everything should funnel to your email. That's the whole point, is to build your email list. If you listen to Grant Cardone, you listen to Tony Robbins. If you listen to Robert Kiyosaki, if you listen to any of these guys that are out here really doing it big, where do they make their money? They make their money on their email list.

Callan Harrington  37:05

Yeah, there's no question. And Tim Ferriss, James Clear, they've all kind of said the same thing. And it makes total sense. It's something every day that I'm not doing it, it bothers me. Which is a lot. It's like every day.

Dr. Billy Williams  37:16

What do I say? You fund your weaknesses.

Callan Harrington  37:18

 You're 100%? correct.

Dr. Billy Williams  37:19

How much money are you losing because you're not doing it?

Callan Harrington  37:23

Enough that my temperature is going up right now. So yeah, it's a lot. I know it is. And, and everybody I talked to like, just don't wait, just do it.

Dr. Billy Williams  37:33

Ego and arrogance. So which one is it? What's keeping you from doing it? Ego or arrogance?

Callan Harrington  37:36

You know, it's a good question. I mean, for me, I went on LinkedIn first and waited a solid six months on LinkedIn, and then started the podcast. And for me, I've got a couple of things I want to shore up on the podcast and then jump into email. It's the next one. My plan is to do it this quarter. After I kind of- on the I need to get my podcast on my website, and I want better show notes for the guests, for everybody else.

Dr. Billy Williams  38:03

See, that's all admin. Again, this is your show. So I'm not trying to-

Callan Harrington  38:07

No, it's good. I love it!

Dr. Billy Williams  38:08

But at the end of the day, man, that's all admin crap. That's like people saying, oh, I'm gonna lose weight as soon as I get better at this, or as soon as this happens. Or I'm going to join the gym as soon as I get- just join the damn gym! Just start losing the weight. Just get your email. Who cares if your show notes are good? Who cares? What we care about is: are you putting out quality content? Do you feel like you're putting out content?

Callan Harrington  38:36

I get good engagement. On LinkedIn, I get good engagement.

Dr. Billy Williams  38:40

Then guess what your show notes are? They're admin. So at the end of the day, you're makingit cute, you're making it sweeter, you're making it nicer for us to view. But at the end of the day, we're not there for your show notes. We're there because of the content you're putting out. And that content will drive email. See, perfection is the enemy of success. Okay, please remember that. Perfection is the enemy of success. And perfection is where we hide out, when we're not sure that we're going to be successful. Right? We hide out in perfection. I'm not trying to dog you out. I'm simply saying, your show notes, that's a form of "I need this right." I need to make sure my website looks good. I need to make sure this is right. I need to make sure this- meanwhile, you got competitors out here. Their website sucks. They have no show notes. They're barely on Apple podcasts. Their graphics were made from like PDF slides, right? Joe Rogan, okay? And they're making big money, big money. Why? Because they're doing it.

Callan Harrington  39:47

So, I will tell you this. I did put a job req on Upwork today to outsource all of the show notes and everything else, but I'm an open book on the show. So you kind of going into this I love it. Actually, I think it's going to be great for the listeners to hear because I'll do a follow ups on this, in particular. But you're right. You are 100%. right. I'm waiting until it's perfect. And I know the importance of building an email. I may call on you for accountability on this, Billy, I think. I think we're going to discipline two on this.

Dr. Billy Williams  40:20

Let me tell you something. Have you ever looked at my stuff, because my kids do most of my marketing. The ones that are involved in this are twenty-one, nineteen, and eighteen. They do most of my marketing. And my website looks like something from 1999. But guess what, we probably get 7000 hits, you know, a week on our website. And the- have you ever looked at my YouTube thumbnails? They're Canva. They're made from Canva. And, you know, it's probably some marketing assistant that we hired from the junior college that's putting together this, they're in a marketing class, and I pay him to do it, I don't care. And that's not to say that I don't want to put out quality. But sometimes the quality comes after you get into this, after you start doing it, and you get better, and you get better, and you get better. But people who wait until everything is perfect? Most of the time, they never ever get where they could go, because perfection is the enemy of success. Okay, where activity is the partner of success. Just do the activity. The rest will happen.

Callan Harrington  41:29

Listeners, hold me accountable to this. I am going to get this newsletter. I am convinced that this needs to move up in priority and deprioritize some of these other pieces. Billy, I appreciate that, so don't feel like you're calling me out at all. I love it. That's the best environment I think that we can create is the ability to challenge each other. And when we see something to give good feedback. That's something I personally believe in. So with that being said, last question I have for you: if you could have a conversation with your younger self, age totally up to you, what advice would you give that person? What would that conversation look like?

Dr. Billy Williams  42:07

And you know, so funny, I get asked this question all the time. And I always kind of stumble and stutter, because at the end of the day, I'm one of those fail forward fast people. So I'm going to do it, even if it's half ass, I'm going to put it out there, and then I'll correct it in place. So I think what I would tell myself is build bigger networks at an earlier age. I waited until I was pretty much out of the army before I started building my professional network. Even though the army sent me around the world. I was commander of army college recruiting. So, I literally met all the bigwigs, I mean, everybody you could think of, but my mindset was not in building a network, other than in my military network. So I was very networked throughout the military, and anything associated with the military, but I wasn't networked civilian-wise. So I think I would go and tell myself, start building your professional network earlier. So that by the time you're forty, you got 5000, 6000, 10,000 people that you can reach out to, for experts. Like right now, everyone on my LinkedIn, I have categorized. Because a lot of people don't know you can go into LinkedIn, pull up a contact, put in notes about them, categorize them, do whatever. So if I need a web designer, I go to my LinkedIn and do web design. And there are all my web designers. Web designers in Dallas. There are all my web designers in Dallas, right? If I needed to- a mortgage broker, and I've got an agency in Utah, and I need to find a good mortgage broker in Utah for something, mortgage broker Utah, bam, there it is. So build your network, as big as you can. And as deep as you can. That's what I would tell myself.

Callan Harrington  43:53

I love it. I think that's a perfect place to wrap up the show. Dr. Billy Williams, thank you for coming on the show today. This has been this has been a lot of fun.

Dr. Billy Williams  44:01

Guys, it's- my opinion is worth whatever value you give it. So if something I said is valuable to you, by all means use it. If something I said you feel like it's crap, throw it out and go find someone who replaces that with value. You know what I mean? But it's all my opinion.

Callan Harrington  44:19

I know exactly what you're saying. I love it. I hope you enjoyed Billy and I's conversation. My biggest takeaway was to automate and outsource more. It motivated me to get out of the weeds and to really focus my time on those bigger items that really moved the needle in a major way for the company. If you want to learn more about Billy, you can find him on LinkedIn. Also, if you liked the episode, you could find me on LinkedIn to let me know. And if you really want to support the show, a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify is very much appreciated. Thanks for listening, and I'll see everybody next week.