Success Is Not An Event; It Is A Habit! By Dave Beaty

Success is not an event; it is a habit! is brought to you by our good friend Dave Beaty. Dave recently created this  and I asked Dave to share his valuable presentation with you. Enjoy.

NAIFA 2016 Practice Building TED Type Talk
By David Beaty ChFC, CLU, LUTCF
NAIFA National Trustee

Success is not an event; it is a habit!

Habits produce the results that you have been getting. We are where we are today in part as a result of the habits we have developed.

What if you want to make a change in your results? Do you? Really?

I confess that I have produced MDRT results for many years at just under the Court of the Table with one year Court of the Table. I asked myself ‘What is keeping me at this plateau?’

Which do you find more difficult:

• Finding the inspiration to do what you know you need to do to make a difference, or
• Knowing what to do next that will result in the greatest benefit, or
• Both?

I really struggled with both of these questions for several years.

I have kept score of results for many years, this helped me get to MDRT and maintain my past production. Do you keep score?

While serving as NAIFA National Trustee, I have had less time IN my practice. With the help of a coach and while traveling and interacting with some of the top producers in our industry I have had the chance to work ON my practice.

Ben Franklin shared a thought with me ‘He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else!’ What are your excuses?

What I realized was that my lack of growth in production was the result of the excuses that I have been telling myself.

I have not been doing a good job of keeping score on my activity. I have kept records on my results, applications, premiums, and FYC. I have not been letting my staff help me with activity such as setting appointments so that we can increase our productivity. I have my son Brent as our planning associate and his wife Melissa as our part time office manager. They both do an excellent job; they know their job and do it better than anyone has before them. I must learn to let them help grow our practice by using their skills to increase activity.

So, I started the first quarter of 2016 to keep score of activity. You might ask after 35 years in the business why you are doing that. What you measure multiplies!

Do you want the same results or do you want different results? Different results come from new habits. How do you encourage new habits? I believe that you repeat those activities that you are rewarded for doing. Do you have someone that recognizes your success every day? Tracking your activity will let you be rewarded for doing the right things every day. You can win every day and become your own fan club.

What does keeping score of activity mean to you?

I have tracked applications, premium and FYC for years. I needed to track activity, so I started keeping score on appointments. What you measure multiplies!

Then I asked ‘What is the one thing, that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?’ 

Repeat That.

My answer was to have 20 names to contact each week to set an appointment. My staff can make some of those contacts but will also need to make an additional 10 contacts. So how do we do that?

We all have been told to ask for referrals, right? As I started to record referrals, it became clear that I have been offered referrals all the time, just did not record them. When I ask the ‘referral question’ I got a strange look. It dawned on me that I already had received information on several people without asking the ‘question.’ Hey dummy write them down.

We now keep score on activity of:

1. Contacts made & by whom
2. Appointments set
3. Appointments made
4. Applications written
5. Premium written
6. FYC written
7. Names for the next week contact list (Friday 3PM)
8. Referrals received
9. Referral centers to meet with next week
10. Centers of Influence meetings held

What you measure multiplies! That is true in our practice.

Over the next six weeks I will be out of the office about half of the business days, yet with a little stretch I may qualify for Top of the Table this year based upon the results over the last 6 weeks.

I must admit Top of the Table was not my goal as I started this year. I did not believe I could do that.

Do you have the skills to do Top of the Table? I did not think I did either. Was that my excuse or is it yours?

I have heard presentations for years about making significant breakthroughs, but never really saw what had to be done to get there. What is the one thing that you could do that would dramatically change the results you are getting? I had to keep score to see the answer to that question. I found that keeping score of my activity and my results helped me find the answer to that question for our business.

How are you going to find your answer?

It is true that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Thank you!