Stress Management, Rude Kids, Meeting with our Competition, Quantity over Quality

"More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate."

— Roy T. Bennett

I was awakened by a camel licking my face. Good morning, thank you for stopping by my free internet soup café. I’ve got some chicken broth; I’ll add some other ingredients as I write. Excuse me while I chop some carrots.

I attended a board meeting yesterday, one of our members was asking about stress. How much is too much? Is stress necessary, how do we deal with stress for ourselves and our employees? One of our members pointed out, stating “the world creates pressure and we create stress.” Can you pass me that onion?

There is pressure in everything we do. I hear folks say, “there are not enough hours in a day, I can’t do that, I’m at my wit's end,” all signaling a high level of pressure. So how do you manage stress? I’m no doctor, but as a business owner for 25 years, here’s my input on the pressure question. 

Get organized, get up early, prioritize, and minimize or stop drinking booze. I’ve had some very stressful times in my life, and if I can do those four things, I find more time to complete the tasks I need to be done. Another way to eliminate stress is to build a team of people that help manage your weak spots. We can’t do everything; as you grow your company add people that have skill sets that you do not possess, try and find people smarter than yourself, and then lead them to your definition of a promised land. Understand stress is real, it’s important, but it must be managed.  In the bottom drawer, you will find some cilantro, can you chop it and hand me the stems, we’ll use the leaf as a topper.

I left my meeting and met with a friend from Nebraska, Kerry is a mutual business owner, we connect every quarter to check-in, he’s a wise man, I learn something every time we meet.  As we were talking to Kerry, I noticed the next table over a similar conversation going on, a few adults and a young 20ish professional. While all the adults were engaged in conversation, the young professional was constantly checking his phone.   Time to add some cream.

I thought, “how rude?” Are you more important than the folks sitting at that table? If you are a young professional, the email, text, or Instagram photo can wait until lunch is over. Don’t disrespect others by looking at your phone when engaging other humans; it’s rude.

We left there; the girls headed to the condo; I parked my car and knocked out some email. I took a call from a fellow insurance agent. He found me on LinkedIn; he had questions, I’m transparent, I answered his questions. He started our call by stating the following: “I’ve never met someone so prolific of a writer as yourself. I’m not sure about your quality, but you have that quantity thing down!”. I laughed, “thank you, I’m like a baseball player, I strike out a lot, but occasionally I’ll hit a home run.”   I think I want to just use salt and pepper to season today, let’s keep our soup for today simple.

He needed some help; I gave him a couple of referrals to some folks that had helped us when we launched in Denver. I like helping other insurance professionals in their quest for success. 

I worked an hour or so in my car, using my phone as my hot spot, killing email, catching up on a little news, took a 20 min nap, and then headed west to meet another insurance agency owner. We met Michelle at a chamber event, she does exactly what we do, upon meeting her, she asked, “would you guys be open to a cup of coffee?” Of course, we like to meet other insurance professionals, even our competitors. Our attitude is there is more business out there than we can possibly manage, forming good relationships with other successful firms have served us well over the years.  

We met her last night for a soda pop, she’s amazing, we had a nice two-hour chat about our journey’s, fellow competitors, how we could refer business between our firms.  She focuses on niche’s we do not work, and we have some carriers that she can’t access; we left promising to meet again. I might do some consulting for her firm; she needs some updated policies and procedures. 

Ok, let’s combine all the ingredients into the crockpot, we can let it cook all day and when we arrive home, we’ll have some tasty soup to share, you can start “eating on it” in about an hour, I hope you are hungry and I hope this soup matches your hunger, it’s one of my callings, making soup for those who hunger for mental nourishment. 

No promise on the quality, but I have that quantity thing down!

"More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate."

— Roy T. Bennett