Don Levin, JD, MPA, CLF, CSA, LTCP, CLTC

For a long time now, we have been sharing with you just how powerful the internet, social media, and the “electronics” with which we have surrounded ourselves have become, and the importance of engaging in all forms of social media to reach potential clients. What I want to share with you now is a bit anachronistic, but something even more powerful: The Power of the Pen, or more precisely, the power of the handwritten note. As we look for ways to stay connected in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, I must confess that there is still no better way to do it than with a written note. I have also found that there is nothing more personally rewarding for me than to take the time to compose and send a handwritten note and to then wait with anticipation for the inevitable response from the recipient.

Many years ago, my wife taught me the power associated with writing a note. After seeing the incredibly positive impact these notes made with the recipients I was hooked, if not out and out addicted. Over the years I have written thousands of such notes while improving business, church, and personal relationships. If you want to really distinguish yourself in the eyes of your centers of influence, strategic alliance partners, clients, and even your friends and family members, take the time to write a handwritten note. Despite access to either personalized cards and stationery or handmade cards from my wife, my biggest challenge: Keeping the notes legible. With each passing day, this challenge has become an ever more daunting task for me. Do not undo the good of the thought and the act by sending something that needs to be forensically deciphered.

Truth be told, sometimes writing the notes can be a chore. I began the practice of writing “pillow notes” of welcome for producers and managers who may be attending conferences with me. I can remember one national agent conference at which I wrote over seventy-five of these handwritten notes. I started writing them two weeks before the event and finished the last of them while seated on the plane bound for our conference venue. Having the hotel staff place them in the room of the recipient, often accompanied by a small token gift of esteem or “goodie bag” made attendance at the conference an experience for the recipients. On more than one occasion over the years, I have been told by these people that the note was the thing that they cared for the most.

After writing a couple dozen notes at the ILTCI conference a few years ago with only an occasional acknowledgement, the power of a handwritten note was reaffirmed for me a couple of weeks later with a friend of mine. With no ulterior motive, this gentleman went above and beyond the call of duty and performed what I considered a true tender mercy in going out of his way to do me a tremendous and unsolicited favor with the family history (genealogy) work in which I have been engaged. I was so touched by it that the next morning I arose early, and even before I went to work out I sat and penned a note expressing my heartfelt gratitude to him and popped it into the mail so that he would receive it at his home.

The next week when I again saw him, he was standing a little taller, his chest was a little bit more pronounced, and he had a smile on his face from ear to ear. He said that he had never received a note like mine, and that it would thereafter be a treasure to him. We have since collaborated on some projects and a friendship has taken root.

I know that professional associates and staff members with whom I have worked over the years have appreciated the notes and even saved them as “badges of honor,” decorating their office cubicles with them, and that clients have on occasion been genuinely overwhelmed by them as well. More than a perfunctory thank you note that some of us were taught to send after a successful interview that led to an application being submitted, I have always tried to prepare these notes to validate them and their decisions.

Writing any sort of correspondence by hand is going to be noticed by the recipient, especially when they are bombarded day in and day out by digital correspondence. Imagine their surprise and joy when they receive something that is handwritten and personalized to them. When was the last time you hand wrote a note? A posting on a Facebook account may be public praise for the recipient but misses the mark with what we are attempting to accomplish with a handwritten note. Emails do not count! Texts even less! I will go as far as to say that I have come to hate email, and the only thing worse than a poorly drafted email is a perfunctory text message, especially if it is chocked full of abbreviations.

Just last week I received a handwritten note in the mail, and just from the smooth script with which the envelope was addressed to me I knew who it was from, and my anticipation of the actual contents soon placed it in the same category as an unexpected early Christmas present. I was not disappointed after carefully opening the envelope.

I have had the lesson that taking a few minutes to send something personalized and handwritten carries a lot of weight with the recipient and reflects positively on you, the sender, reinforced repeatedly over the years. I have also learned that it is important to use quality stationary and to take your time so that you really do express the desired sentiment. Confidentially, I have been prone to even compose a draft of the note on a piece of scrap paper to avoid errors. I promise you that if you find the commitment to try this and allocate the modest time investment required of this endeavor, this effort will pay you huge dividends. Over the years I have found nothing with a greater return on investment than the time and effort associated with penning these notes. Try it this week because I know you will be more than pleased with the results.

Maya Angelou got it right when she said: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Remember that co-workers, subordinates, bosses, clients, prospects, and particularly friends and family, are all people with feelings that need to be validated. Take the time to personalize and humanize all your communications for maximum results.

“The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.”
—Julia Ward Howe

Over the years, I have learned that there are two great powers in this world; one is the sword, and the other is the pen. There is often a great competition between the two, but as we attempt to make sense of the violence and tumult in the world around us, I know that wars have never started because of a kind word penned in the proper spirit.

I am reminded of a passage in John Maxwell’s 25 Ways to Win with People:

“When you give people credit verbally, you uplift them for a moment. When you take the time to put it in writing you have the potential to uplift them for a lifetime.”

I cannot say that each of your notes are going to be as dramatic as what Mr. Maxwell confides, but I know that one of my prized possessions kept for more than forty years is a handwritten letter I received from one of my NCOs after I had left my unit in Germany thanking me for my leadership and personal investment in he and the rest of my assigned soldiers. The fact that he took the time to find an address for me at my follow-on assignment in the United States made it even more poignant to me.

Share a kind word or thought with someone you know today. It may be the difference in their having a good day or a bad day.

I recently observed my twenty-third anniversary in the long term care insurance industry. I am not certain that the adage, “Time flies when you are having fun,” would be applicable, but it has prompted me to pause for a moment and to reflect on what has been a wonderful career in which I have genuinely helped countless people protect themselves and their families against the ravages of long term care. In some ways I was truly fortunate that my first claim occurred within the first six months that I was in the industry, thus making the “intangible promise” associated with the contract a very real thing to me as I helped the family negotiate the claims process.

One of my professional associates (not in the LTCI industry) asked me whether I still have the same “fire in the belly” that I had all those years ago, and to that query I could enthusiastically respond with a resounding “Yes!” He also wanted to know whether my attitude regarding the requisite activities at the point of sale had changed after all my years in management. And to this query I responded in the negative. Because I have “kept my hand in it” over the years, and still consider myself a Long Term Care Advocate (producer) at heart, I can honestly say that the belief system I embraced while a student in the Basic Training Seminar has remained largely intact and only the techniques and available tools have been subject to a few minor tweaks over the years.

Some of you reading this article may find this next statement shocking or even border on braggadocio, but I have always believed that the sale of traditional long term care insurance is a one-appointment sale. After about three or four months in the business of having to return to the clients’ house for a second go around where I largely had to repeat the interview and further answer questions, I discovered the importance of simply asking, “What do you need to think about?” or “Would six to eight weeks be enough to consider what you actually want this policy to provide you?” After asking one or both of those questions, I soon found myself closing about 90 percent of my appointments on the first go around. It simply made sense to do this, and so I really focused on identifying and personalizing need, creating the requisite sense of urgency that prompted the client(s) to answer the call to action in that first interview, and demonstrating the value associated with owning a policy. I have encountered producers who have made it a two-, three-, or even four-appointment process. Even after all these years, I do not know how one can make it more than a two- appointment close unless one is shifting to a different form of protection or lacks the confidence to ask for the application.

I can also remember how genuinely angry I would get at myself and how I would replay the interview in my head as I drove to my next appointment or worse, home with my tail between my legs, on those occasions when I had not closed the appointment during the initial interview. I learned that sometimes all that had prevented the sale from occurring was not asking that one additional question. That mini epiphany was enough to transform me into a long term care advocate.

Ignorance is defined as the lack of knowledge. I determined that after I had educated my clients, and they were no longer ignorant, that the decision to purchase a policy should be a no brainer. Yet I still encountered those who believed that “It won’t happen to me,” and that they “Would be in the ten percent unimpacted by long term care,” or, despite the irrefutable evidence to the contrary, they would remain in denial and unaffected by long term care. It was only after I realized that if I were conducting the interview in the same tried-and-true method, that the failure to close was not a shortcoming or worse, a failure, on my part, but the harsh reality, in the absence of ignorance, I could not fix stupid.

That may sound harsh, or even a tad egotistical, but because of the passion with which I approach each interview, I have simply come to expect to close every appointment when the client has the requisite health, wealth, and has been afforded the opportunity to become informed and aware of the risks and consequences of not purchasing a plan.

On the brighter side, more consumers surveyed say they are more likely to purchase a long term care insurance plan because of personal or family-related experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been most helpful in younger clients who have “lived the nightmare” of long term care with elderly parents.

While I long ago came to terms with the fact that we are offering a product that people do not want to consider for myriad reasons, including their own mortality and morbidity, I also realized that, like a lot of myths, it is our job to educate and make them aware of the pertinent risks and consequences and help them get out of their own way. The excuses we most commonly hear range from “It is too expensive,” “I am too young and can bank the premiums and save some cash,” “I am young and healthy,” to “Nobody in my family has ever needed it,” and “How do I know that your company will even be around if I ever need to file a claim?” Talk about an uphill putt!

Much like the specter of life insurance, which forces a potential buyer to contemplate his or her own mortality, most prefer to simply avoid the topic entirely until we peel back the onion, layer by layer, again using education and awareness to help them protect the ones they love. Overcoming this denial or reluctance is key to their accepting and planning for their mortality and building a strong financial plan for retirement and beyond.

With life insurance, when you deliver the death benefit your client is dead. The policy is for the people he or she leaves behind. With long term care insurance your client is very much alive, and thus the policy is for the living!

I also had to accept the fact that unlike a shiny new car or an exciting flat-screen television with all the bells and whistles, I was largely offering my clients a promise. A pledge, a piece of paper, based on an intangible promise that the assets and resources offered by the contract with the carrier would be there in their time of need. It is not about having a flashy animated PowerPoint presentation or glossy brochure but bringing sincerity, professionalism, and passion to every interview we conduct. The mindset that this is an interview should also dictate that the client will do more of the talking, or in a two-to-one ratio to what we are saying. Long term care insurance is all about helping them make an emotional decision to buy based on need and urgency, followed up by the logical reinforcement of this emotional decision.

So, again, it all comes back to education and awareness, and ensuring that your client is no longer ignorant or lacking in the requisite knowledge to make an informed decision.

As a “young” agent, I was taught that, after ten years in the industry I would be considered “older than dirt” and would have truly earned my spurs. Having eclipsed that milestone twice over, I can now say that the emotions that I experience when the sale does not occur have subsided from anger and frustration to those of acceptance and sadness for the client. A sale is not going to change my life, but the absence of a sale will likely impact theirs with the odds of a long term care incident very high. Tempering these emotions is the realization that while I can eliminate ignorance, it is not within my power to eliminate denial or to fix stupid. All I can do is to bring my “A” game to each interview, to be as professional and transparent (in a good way) as I can be, and to provide them with the relevant information necessary to make an informed decision.

A friend of mine who is ten years older than I and has been in the industry longer than I have, recently experienced a severe health scare (he was dead on the kitchen floor until he was revived) that I thought would prompt him to retire. When I asked him about it, he quietly said, “Only about ten percent have coverage, and we know that seventy percent need it, so I guess I will keep working until I cannot work any longer.”

He laughed when we recalled the ignorance and stupid dichotomy, and simply added that he hoped to find more of the former and less of the latter.

For many years as I have conducted a workshop on the subject of long term care aptly entitled What’s Your Plan, I have shared an anecdote from my own life which illustrates why my wife and I own a robust long term care insurance policy.

It happened some years ago when we were gathered at a swimming party with our five [married] children and more grandchildren than I could count as they bobbed in and out of the water. I felt like a re-incarnate of George Bailey from Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life and that I truly was the richest man in town. I was thrilled to be surrounded by so many of my progeny. Imagine the shock and disappointment I experienced as that feeling was quickly dispelled when I asked for some assistance with the application of some suntan lotion on my back and the sentiment of “that is gnarly Dad, and I am not going anywhere near it,” was repeated several times. When I pointed out that I was neither a leper nor a carrier of any communicable contagion, that it was merely hair on my back, the head shaking and facial contortions did not subside, and it was only when my wife made her appearance that I received some begrudging assistance. In hindsight, I believe it was at that point in time that we made the more-or-less permanent switch to a spray-on applicator for future holiday sojourns.

A lesser man might have been scarred by such abject rejection but being quick on my feet, I pointed out to them that they had merely confirmed for me that in a crisis involving long term care that they would be absolutely useless to me. “If you won’t even apply suntan lotion to my back, what chance do I have that you would ever bathe me or toilet me?” Their response? “Oh Dad, you know that we would take care of you.” While they may believe this, to this day I harbor serious doubts, and remain grateful for my long term care insurance policy, because I know that life is busy for them, and that we are no longer a Walton-like society of homes with two and three generations residing under one roof. Our families are dispersed across the country, with more women in the workplace, fewer children being born, and life is busy! The COVID-19 pandemic that continues to haunt us was another great wakeup call for many families that long term care for an ailing family member can be a great challenge, and that there is a fair amount of truth to the adage that says “one parent can take care of six children, but six children cannot take care of one parent.”

This anecdote and gentle reminders always receive the laugh that I hope for and is a poignant reminder to many of the participants in my workshops that they too are vulnerable to the new normal in our society.

Imagine my surprise when on a recent holiday to a fashionable resort in Cabo San Lucas I witnessed my suntan lotion experience playout right before my own eyes. A family of two parents and their three adult children rode from the airport to the resort with us on the prescribed shuttle and they talked about all that they were going to enjoy over the coming week. We saw them nearly every day at one of the two infinity pools that graced the grounds of the resort, until that fateful day when I witnessed the father asking his children for some assistance with the application of his suntan lotion. I did not hear the word “gnarly” spoken, but from the body language exhibited, and the good-natured request for a pair of rubber gloves, I knew that he too was in the same boat as I. He must have noticed the slow manner in which I was shaking my head because later while we were in the pool together, he struck up a conversation. The conversation soon turned to our children and how different today’s generation has become in terms of their willingness to “serve their elders” is how I believe he expressed it. He went on to share that he and his wife had “nursed” his parents at the end of their lives, and how difficult it had been to juggle careers, family, and the burden of long term caregiving.

I shared with him that I had been a caregiver to all four of my grandparents at one time or another from as young as age 13 when I assisted my grandmother on the weekends in taking care of my grandfather. He was horror-stricken to hear that I had assisted with changing soiled bed linen and personal clothing because my grandfather was bed-ridden with stomach and colon cancer, and later, a colostomy. When I shared that as an adult, I had changed my grandmother’s diaper (while she was living in a very upscale nursing home), I knew that he was reliving his own experiences with his parents.

For those who have read other articles in which I have shared my vacation experiences, the expectation might be that I followed up with a home interview during which this gentleman and his wife purchased a long-term care insurance policy and everyone lived happily ever after. I would love to report that this was the outcome, but like many people who still do not believe the evidence even when it is right in front of them, I came to realize that the denial with which this gentleman had cloaked himself was going to remain impenetrable and would adversely impact his family in the future.

Even though I was on holiday, when he presumed to begin to recite conflicting statistics about the likelihood of requiring this care, as well as how much it costs to purchase and maintain a long term care policy, I took it as an affront, and a challenge to educate he and his wife who had joined the conversation. I quickly agreed with him that long term care is expensive but, by comparison, a long term care insurance policy is quite inexpensive if not downright cheap by comparison.

I then dazzled them with my array of cold hard facts:

• 90 percent of all couples [of any kind] will be impacted by long term care at some point.
• 80 percent of all men who require care are married; 80 percent of women who require care are not married, largely due to the fact that they were their partner’s caregiver and were repaid for this effort by them dying on them.
• 79 percent of all women who reach age 65 will require some form of long term care assistance before they die.
• 70 percent of all folks over the age of 65 will require long term care.
• No matter when you purchase the plan, or how long you pay on it, a policyholder will recoup their investment within the first 90 days of a claim.
• Further, that with the new hybrid plans that offer both life and long term care protection, Live-Die-Quit, is a mantra that serves everyone. Nobody has ever successfully argued with me that they will not die and utilize the death benefit of the policy.

Even though we were staring out into the beautiful blue waters of the Sea of Cortez, I knew that he was still knee-deep in the Sea of Denial. His wife had pretty much accepted what I had said and was nodding her head in agreement and voicing that many of their friends had already purchased plans. Much like Archie Bunker of All in the Family he dismissed her comments, and I knew that I was staring at an object as immovable as El Arco, the arch, where the Pacific Ocean becomes the Sea of Cortez.

With a pleasant smile, and wishes for a good day, I dog paddled off to the other side of the pool, satisfied that I had done my best to eliminate ignorance (the lack of knowledge) and recognizing that, once again, I was unable to fix stupid.

It was shortly after this exchange that I witnessed another guest whom I had observed over the past week slowly moving along the edge of the pool utilizing a walker. He was shuffling along with a bag attached to the walker and, when he found one of his family members, I observed him reach into the bag hanging from the walker and extract a bottle of suntan lotion. While he was too far away for me to hear what he was saying, from his gestures I knew what assistance he was asking for from the younger woman I presumed to be his daughter. I glanced over at my denial-ridden acquaintance and smiled at him. The Fates do have a sense of humor. The look of recognition or just confusion on his face was enough for me to recognize that he was slowly learning the gnarly truth about long term care…

I can remember the sheer terror that accompanied gasoline prices cresting the $1 per gallon mark back in the 70s just in time to accompany my foray into the driving world. I can also remember paying over $4 per gallon while living in Richmond, VA, some fifteen years ago. Today, when I go window shopping, I regularly see new car prices that eclipse the purchase price of our first home while I was attending law school back in the early 1980s.

Surprisingly enough, even with rising health care and custodial costs, and the heretofore referenced regular costs of living inflation, total annual premiums for long term care insurance policies sold continue to decline! Are rates being reduced by the carriers? Not that I have heard. Have underwriting conditions and actuarial projections reduced the costs associated with owning a policy? Hardly. Has the cost of care declined? Nope; a steady increase of about 3.9 percent per year has pretty much been the norm. So, what has driven the amount of premium on the average policy to decline? I suspect that it is fear. Fear? Fear. Fear of not making a sale, fear of scaring away a prospect, fear of facing clients and addressing topics such as in force rate actions.

If that answer comes as a surprise, an alternative answer could also include poverty consciousness and fear, with both elements squarely in the hearts and minds of the insurance producer offering long term care protection to their clients that simply may not be enough coverage.

What do I mean by poverty consciousness? Simply put, it is the inability of the insurance producer to get beyond his or her own myopic vision on what is or is not an affordable premium to pay for this invaluable protection. If I just struck a nerve and you are one of these producers who cannot imagine collecting, much less personally writing, an annual premium check of $6000 to $8,000 for long term care protection that provides coverage for two clients with a monthly benefit level for each of them of approximately the same value, then we have identified the problem.

I have always likened a shared (or joint) plan that covers two parties with a monthly benefit for each party equal to the premium for the plan as a great plan as it then affords me the opportunity to ask the question, “Would you rather write this check once a year or twice a month?” It is a very powerful illustration of the way clients can leverage their money in ways that may never have occurred to them or their financial advisor.

So, unless you are independently wealthy, or living on the fruits of a multi-million dollar book of business generating a six-figure stream of renewals, or have a spouse with a large income, or inherited a nice chunk of change, I would encourage you to lose this fear or reticence and do, once and for all, shed your poverty consciousness. The discussion with our clients needs to be one focused on risk and consequences. If they are not receptive to the probabilities associated with this great need, then be prepared to pivot to the concept of consequences. “Okay George, I really believe that you believe that you will be in that lucky 10 percent that does avoid the need for long term care in your own life—but what if you are wrong? What are the consequences to your spouse, your family, your finances, and the legacy that you wish to have survive you?

Fortunately today, in addition to traditional stand-alone long term care insurance policies, we can now offer the alternatives of asset-based products, life with long term care riders, as well as annuities with long term care provisions.

If you are suffering poverty consciousness, the best advice I can share with you can be summed up in three words: Get over it! As my good Italian friend would advise: Fuhgeddaboudit. The disservice you do yourself is only eclipsed by the disservice you do your clients. Remember that in addition to being a word, fear can also be a mnemonic: FEAR—False Evidence Appearing Real. Don’t fall into this trap.

Over the years I have written about the Power of One and the incredible achievements that are made possible by simply doing one more_____. You fill in the blank. It can be as simple as making one additional dial, or making one additional contact, or better yet setting one more appointment in a phone session. It can be running one additional appointment per week or making one additional sale per week or month. The beauty associated with the Power of One is that it does not matter whether you are the newest producer or the most veteran President’s Club Leading Producer. When projected out over an entire year it can really add up. In terms of long term care insurance, an extra (placed) sale per week can be worth $200,000 in additional placed premium, which, at an 80 percent placement rate, can translate to $130,000 cold hard cash in your bank account. This can translate to college tuition, new car, vacation home, or anything else that currently has the spotlight in your life.

We have all heard about how monumental the difference one degree of temperature can make in water. At 211 degrees water is hot and will scald you. However, at 212 degrees, it boils. With boiling water comes steam, and steam can power a locomotive. Harnessing this power changed our country and fueled our historical Manifest Destiny as East and West were united.

What is required to achieve the Power of One or the extra degree of 212? Focus. Attention to detail. Diligence and repetition. Desire and vision. Sometimes it requires sacrifice. When I was in college, I dated a girl with whom I shared a passion for bowling. Many of our Friday and Saturday nights were spent at the lanes. I was what we would euphemistically refer to as a “streaky” shooter. I could rattle off five or six strikes in a row and then narrowly miss just as many spares. One night I was with my family and bowled three games: 109, 234, 109. Like I said, streaky.

One day while still in college I got off of work early and, with time to kill before picking up my girlfriend, I headed to the lanes. Because I was the only one in the place, the very bored counterman elected to keep score for me. I generally loved bowling by myself because if I was in a “groove” I really wanted to throw the balls down the alley just as quick as the pinsetter could reset the pins. I was hot that day, and by the 7th frame I was flirting with perfection. A few people had straggled in and were standing at the counter as they watched the score sheet projected up on the ceiling. While I was clearly in the zone, I was also aware of the soft buzz emanating from the counter. I threw my eighth ball for a strike, and my heart started racing, and the buzz grew a little louder. After the ninth set of pins all went down I could feel the blood coursing through my ears and I actually had to take some deep breaths to batten down some of the adrenalin that was really starting to cascade through my entire body.

The first ball of the tenth frame took all the pins down and I stomped the floor and pumped my arm as the crowd at the counter started hooting and howling. It was at this point that I allowed myself to first think about the personalized bowling ball and bag that had been promised me by my girlfriend if I ever bowled a perfect 300 game. I started to mentally pick out the color of the ball.

The second ball of the tenth frame was what I call a nervous strike. I had just missed the pocket and had to wait with bated breath while the five pin wobbled several times as it decided on whether it was going to go down and preserve the streak or disappoint the crowd. It fell, and I mentally chastised myself for nearly jinxing my success by thinking about the ball and bag.

At this point, the counterman is having to remind the crowd gathered at the counter and spread out behind me to be quiet because “he is one strike away from a 300 game.” Much like you don’t talk about a “no-no” when a major league baseball pitcher is flirting with either a perfect game or no-hitter, I physically winced when I heard his words.

I stood at the line, ball cradled in my hand, and began my approach, and as soon as I let go of the ball I knew that I had failed. The dream was gone. The result: the dreaded 7-10 split. Two pins on opposing sides of the lane. The disappointment expressed by the crowd was audible and when I rolled my final ball it went cleanly down the center of the lane missing both pins.

We didn’t bowl that night or many nights thereafter, and I did not share with my girlfriend how close I came to the elusive new ball and bag until the counterman blabbed about it some months later. That was some 43 years ago, and I still remember the feeling of that errant ball leaving my grip. It is the same feeling that I experience when my beloved Chicago Cubs narrowly miss out on an opportunity to win a single game or the division title over the course of a season.

The moral to that story is that I failed to achieve a desired outcome because I allowed myself to be distracted and to lose my focus. I have often wondered if I had remained alone without a crowd or had not gotten ahead of myself in assuming success, whether I might have enjoyed bragging rights all these years to a 300 game. Don’t miss out on qualifying for that leading producer conference, or MDRT qualification, because you take your eye off the ball. Put forth the extra effort that will get you over the top by employing the Power of One and achieving the power of 212 by attaining the extra power associated with that extra one degree. As we continue to age as a society, living longer and dying slower, the need associated with long term care has reached pandemic proportions. Our clients need to hear our words and to answer the call to action that you present to them. Remember that ninety percent of our business is belief, and the other half is activity.

There have been any number of books written that compare the disciplines of golf and big business. These books emphasize the necessity for consistency, preparation, and diligent practice. This is also what makes both disciplines often a winner-take-all scenario. Just as no one remembers who loses the Super Bowl or the World Series, much can be the same to all the professional golfers who have come in second to the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods when each of them was dominant in the sport of golf.

For the financial advisor/insurance producer, success can sometimes be measured in terms as simple as either you get the deal, or you don’t; you write the case, or you don’t. But what if just a few small improvements, subtle changes, a tweak here or there, a focus on the Power of One or achieving that extra one degree to reach boiling temperature was enough to change your business and allow you to dominate your piece of the vineyard? Would you embrace these changes and be willing to perpetuate them if it meant sustainable growth and dominant success? Of course you would!

In 2011, Phil “Lefty” Mickelson was the second highest paid athlete with earnings in excess of $62M (with some $53M from endorsement contracts). In 2015, Lefty earned $51 million between PGA tour prize money as well as the numerous endorsement contracts that he has inked courtesy of a very diligent agent. His 18 hole per round stroke average was 70.5 for the 2015 campaign. That was good enough to usually keep him competitively at the top of the leaderboard in each tournament. His consistency contributed significantly to the degree of success he enjoyed despite the psoriatic arthritis with which he is afflicted.

I was curious to see how his earnings compared for the players who made up the lower tier of qualifiers on the PGA Tour. That same year, one such player was a man by the name of Roger Sloan. I had never heard of him and attributed it to the fact that I simply do not follow golf that closely. So, what kind of money did Roger earn during that same time period? About $133,000. Not too shabby for hitting a little ball around the course. He enjoyed no endorsement relationships back then and his per round stroke average was 72.5, or just about two strokes per round more than Mickelson. That is one extra swing on the front nine and one extra on the back nine. That is how competitive the tour remains to this day. Shoot, I would be thrilled to save one or two strokes each hole! For these guys however, one miscalculation or errant swing can mean the difference between victory and defeat. The two swings that Lefty kept in his bag was a differential of only 2.8 percent and yet was all the difference he needed to be a multi-millionaire.

In 2019, Sloan eclipsed the $1M in earnings, bringing his ten year career total to $1.845M. This year he has made the cut 17 of 27 times, finished in the top 25 7 times, top 10 three times, and has one second place finish. His current round score is now 71.034. That is the difference one stroke can make on the tour.

Getting back to 2015: Mickelson $51M v. Sloan $133K. By my calculations that is a differential of 383 times more money. Two fewer swings per round netted Mickelsen an extra $50M that year. Like the PGA golfer, small mistakes and miscues, a lapse of concentration, a bad decision, or failure to execute according to plan can be worth millions to you and your business.

So, what would a consistent 2.8 percent improvement on your placement rate, closing rate, lead conversion, referrals, submitted premium, placed premium mean to your business? Over the years I have seen producers just “miss the cut” in terms of qualifying for some incredible company-sponsored leading producer trips falling just short of either placed premium or an anemic placement rate. To this end, I remember an instance while I was employed as a Divisional Vice President, that I had been placed on alert by the Chief Sales Officer to be prepared to inform the number one producer in the company that she might not be eligible to attend the leading producers conference because of her 59 percent placement rate. The cut off was 60 percent, set in stone, and not influenced by the $600,000 of placed premium ($200,000 was the qualifying threshold) that she had achieved. Fortunately, a surge in the final two weeks of the year got her to 60.2 percent and I never had to have that ugly conversation. But imagine her reaction—anger, frustration, disappointment—that would have been directed at me when it was her failure to achieve the requisite standards. That was one ugly bullet I was very grateful to dodge.

Whether it is a diminished total of placed premium or a lack-luster placement rate, the absence of that extra one degree or effort to achieve the Power of One can be the difference between failure and success. Make the commitment to yourself, your clients, and your business that you will strive for the green jacket and put forth the extra effort that will make you a winner.

While we all know there is no such thing as a unicorn, that does not stop us from writing stories, creating cartoons, and other fairy tales about them. Nor is there concrete evidence that the Loch Ness Monster exists, and yet that tale persists. I have a friend who believes that he has seen Sasquatch. I would also add the concept of Time Management to this list of things that do not exist, yet people continue to dwell on it.

I firmly believe that time management is an illusion that a great many people pursue but, like a cloud in the sky, can be seen but never touched. I state this as an affirmation because I know that time simply cannot be managed. We can prioritize and micro-schedule, but we all receive the same 24 hours each day, the same 168 hours each week. Sixty seconds to each minute, sixty minutes to each hour. It is a law, and like all laws of nature and man, needs to be respected. Success follows when we are obedient to laws over which we have no control.

I recently had a conversation with a producer who spent twenty five minutes lamenting at how poor he is at time management. After listening to him ramble (his choice of words) for those twenty five minutes, he ceased and it was my turn. I immediately pointed out to him that he had referenced “time management” some seven times in those twenty five minutes, and that he should not be so self-deprecating because of an inability to manage something as illusory as time. I shared with him that we have as much chance of managing time as we do of touching a cloud. Just last week I sat on the modern miracle of jet planes, looked out the window at approaching cloud banks, and realized that as we were flying into them and through them there is never any tangible contact. Yes, there is condensation on the outer surface of the plane, but for the passengers it is largely an illusion.

At the conclusion of my agent session, I made the suggestion to him that rather than attempting to manage something that is simply unmanageable, he would be better served if he focused his efforts to achieve happiness and success by attaining balance in his life and being proactive rather than unbalanced and reactive.

A series of conversations with this same producer as well as several others led me to share that achieving balance in one’s life is really a series of choices that we must make every day, to wit:

• It is about organization, not about making excuses.
• It is about exercising discipline and being diligent.
• It is about avoiding a state of inertia and rising above it.
• It is about prioritizing our activities, not managing the time.
• It is about never uttering “I’m sorry” when it comes to owning your business.

A long term care advocate can be successful by working an honest 40 hours per week. Yes, you heard it right. Not 60 or 80 hours, but only 40. An honest—yes, there is that word again—40 hours will make an advocate successful at the Leading Producer level if he or she employs the above tools.

• It is about working smarter, not harder.
• It is about creating and maintaining balance in the various spheres that comprise our lives—family, professional, personal, spiritual, physical, recreational.
• It is about maximizing—not managing—the 168 hours that we are granted each week.
• It is about focus.

Some life lessons gleaned over the years
More than a few years ago I learned, “Focus on everything is focus on nothing.” You simply cannot spread yourself so thin and expect to remain focused enough to accomplish anything at a level equating to success. That is a formula for mediocrity.

Second, what is your time worth? Only you can assess this and assign a value. It is important to remember and to discipline yourself so as not to chase meaningless opportunities.

Third, it is about answering the question: “Am I investing my time, or merely spending it?” Time invested in an activity such as reading to your grandchildren or family history and genealogy would surely trump the time spent playing Fortnight or spending hours on Facebook or Pinterest. Sorry, I am neither a gamer nor a social media junkie.

Simple math:

• 40 hours of work (five eight-hour days or four 10-hour days—it does not matter) broken down as follows:
  • Four hours education (workshops, webinars, conference calls, self-study)
  • Five hours marketing
  • Eight hours scheduling appointments
  • 20 hours of appointments
  • Three hours of administration
• 49 hours of sleep (achieving the optimal seven hours per night)
• Six hours of physical exercise (six one-hour sessions Monday-Saturday)
• Seven hours of personal spiritual time (one hour daily–scriptures, prayers)
• Three hours of church worship
• Seven hours of service (extended family, neighbors, friends)
• 14 hours of recreation (two hours daily)
• Eight hours date night with significant other (Friday and Saturday)
• 21 hours of family time (for those who do not have immediate family, this could be phone, Skype, FaceTime, letter writing, etc.)
• Four hours of maintenance and housekeeping

Leaves a reserve reservoir of nine hours, and we were generous with some of the above allocations.

These categories can be combined; a family activity that involves hiking or skiing would encompass family time, recreation, physical exercise, etc.

You work for yourself, which means that you are primarily accountable to yourself. To this end, the first question that you must ask, and answer, is, “Would you have hired you in the first place?” Follow up questions should then include, “Are you measuring up?” “Would you not fire you based on your current performance if it was coming from someone else?”

Remember that when performance is measured it improves. When it is measured consistently, it improves exponentially. So, stop managing something that is not manageable and focus on the greatest resource you have in your possession: You.

“All good performance starts with clear goals.” —Ken Blanchard.