E80: Tony Caldwell On Future Proofing Your Agency

In this episode, James talks with Tony Caldwell, CEO of One Agents Alliance.

To learn more about One Agents Alliance, visit https://www.oneagentsalliance.net/

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Episode Highlights:

• Tony shares how he started his own business when he was ten and went into the insurance business after completing his political career. (2:45)
• Tony explains that future successful independent agents will have a much deeper and richer understanding of their clients and customers. (9:13)
• Tony mentions that independent agencies should stop thinking of themselves as a service organization and start thinking of themselves as sales organization that takes care of the service needs of their clients and customers. (14:25)
• Tony explains that agents must recognize and understand that they cannot serve everyone and cannot compete with algorithms to stay ahead of the competition. (19:45)
• Tony mentions that Covid enabled people to be more comfortable in having face-to-face conversations using technology and that things will get easier in the future as technology advances. (25:49)
• Tony discusses how having a telepresence robot aided him and allowed him to work from anywhere in the world while remaining in the office remotely. (31:29)
• Tony believes that those who experiment, fail, learn from their mistakes, and never give up are the ones that will be successful in the future. (41:27)
• Tony believes that one of the keys to success is to envision your future, make a decision, set a goal, and believe that the universe will align to provide you with what you seek. (46:20)
• Tony advises business people to stay focused on assisting clients and customers to do better in the future than they have in the past. (52:59) 

Key Quotes:

• "What we really are focused on is helping develop people taking their skill sets, whatever those may be, and helping them to build a successful agency, successful businesses with their unique skill sets, along with all of the tools and techniques and opportunities that we can bring to the table from a larger both regional and national organization." - Tony Caldwell 
• "I think that technology is bringing back the opportunity to take the drudgery out of some of the work that we do, giving us free time to spend more time building relationships. And so, I think the future of independent agents is very bright, but I think it's different." - Tony Caldwell 
• "Agents have to begin to think both more broadly from a geographical perspective, but also more narrowly, from the standpoint of becoming real experts in something and focusing on that rather than trying to be all things to all people. And I think that's the recipe for success in the future." - Tony Caldwell