PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 2022: Returning to the New & Improved Normal

2022: RETURNING TO THE NEW & IMPROVED NORMAL

I really wish I was sitting across the table from you having a conversation rather than you reading this. I’m writing this article at the

By: Lyndsay Kooistra Big I Oregon President end of January and beginning

LaPorte Insurance of February. Who knows what the next few months have in store for us. I’m out of the prediction business! My expectation is that we’re starting to “go back to normal,” whatever that means. In anticipation of that, this article is going to take you through a series of questions I want you to ask yourself or discuss with your partners or friends. • My first set of questions are: Will we ever go back to the way things were prior to

Covid? Will our businesses be the same?

How do we go from surviving back to thriving? I was introduced to Sara Bradshaw Ray Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Big I Oklahoma and founder of MyNetwork. I’m part of her mastermind group for insurance leaders. Our warmup for our late January meeting was “I’m most excited about 2022 because …” My answer was “I’m excited to go back to a new and improved normal.” • Second set of questions: What does that look like for your agency? What are you excited about for 2022?

I was in a Zoom networking call mid-year 2020. There were a lot of participants from all different industries going around the Brady Bunch squares answering the question, “What is your positive takeaway from Covid?”

Most of the people were insightful, addressing their ability to find more time for work, their families, picking up new hobbies, etc. When it was my turn, I was proud to advise I was right not to get my degree in early childhood development! This was shortly after I was on a Zoom call with new clients and my kindergartner son kept interrupting with questions about how to log into school online and I looked down to see my one-year-old daughter under my desk with a marble in her mouth. (We don’t even own marbles!)

• Third set of questions: How have you gotten better since Covid? How are you making lemons out of lemonade? Did you add vodka?

I suppose one positive thing from Covid is that we all know how to work remotely from home or other locations. The issue now is how to stay connected. Think of your agency as a three-legged stool that supports the business. We have internal team members, carrier partnerships, and client interactions and relationships.

I have been missing all of the fun things we did as an agency pre-Covid.

Our charity work, Christmas Party, Summer Picnic, potlucks, anniversary celebrations … the list goes on! I want us to keep the camaraderie and culture we’ve created over time. We’re together but in a new way.

I often think of my old job as a carrier marketing representative. Not having the ability to go into an agency, sit down to talk about all the new things going on, pipeline, build relationships, etc.

We’ve had some fun and engaging meetings with our carriers’ partners, complete with trivia games and gift cards for lunch. It is really hard to engage, so reps are trying to figure out what engages and moves people right now.

We’ve had to change our approach with current and new clients. Meeting in person works for some, and others only want Zoom. I think most people are excited to see us again, smiles behind our masks, to talk insurance and learn more about their business and how we can best insure them. • Fourth set of questions: How do we motivate our salespeople when networking and cold calling is so different? Are we going back to an office or are we going to work remotely indefinitely? If our new normal means less in person, how do we stay connected? How do we get together, share knowledge, keep our company culture and values?

We ended that mastermind meeting with: What is the one thing you’re going to focus on in 2022?

• These are my last questions to you: Is your focus going to be on connection, process, prospecting, networking? What did you learn? What are you going to do about it?

What is my answer you might ask? Focus. I want to focus on focus. Redundant, yes, but my goal is to spend time on what is important to my clients, agency and family. I wish you all a very happy, prosperous and focused 2022!

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