Episode 10: Is Your Agency Ready for an Intern?

Intro & Welcome

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Being an agency owner isn't for the faint of heart. Strategy, market conditions, building a team that lasts. This is From the Field, where Josh and Joe help you do it all without losing your mind.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hey there, and welcome to From the Field with Josh and I. Josh, how's the day? It's going great, buddy. Always, always a pleasure. Likewise, for sure. So we've had a lot of feedback lately, Josh, from people regarding the episodes we've done on hiring. And yeah, and there's been a common theme we've gotten asked a few times, and that comes back to the idea of either short-term hires or paid versus non-paid interns and interns in general. Like, uh is this a viable route to go? Should I hire one? Shouldn't I hire one? What are the pros and cons? I know you had a lot of experience with

Should You Hire an Intern?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

it. Uh just want to start off with kicking it to you and hearing your thoughts on that question.

Systems First: The Litmus Test

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah, I mean, we get asked a lot. Should I hire one? Should I not hire one? Um, I mean, I think it's a pretty clear line in the sand. Like, you should not hire one if you don't have good systems in your office. Because these people, there's limitations, right? If somebody's coming in for the summer, you might get them for eight weeks, nine weeks, ten weeks. You're probably not gonna get them licensed, you're probably not gonna get to know the clients. Like, there's some limitations. Your jobs, especially your basic jobs, you should have SOPs written out on how to do them. Right. If somebody's missing, somebody else should be able to pick up that manual or how to and do those basic jobs. So I think it's a really great litmus test. Like if you have good systems, hire one tomorrow. Hire one every summer. Okay. But if you're not ready to hire one if you don't have good systems, I think it's a great, great test for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So when when you talk about kind of those standard operating procedures, are there anything specific that you can think of, one or two main ones that if I'm bringing somebody on, I should make sure that are in place?

What SOPs Do You Need?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yeah, I I think front line of phones is very easy, right? Like what do you really need to do to do that? You need to know how do we answer the phone. You need to know uh, you know, answer it with a smile on your face, be understanding of what the client is is requesting, you know, clarify that and give them a reasonable turnaround time. Like somebody could start in our office right now. We have a manual that you could open that says, how do we greet, says, what do we say, says, what do we need? If it's a claim, this is what we need. If they're asking for this, this is what we need. Very easy. One to two page document that if you're taking a phone call, this is how we handle it. You're just a switchboard operator at that point, right? You're just taking the right information and getting them what they need. Sure. And and somebody could start tomorrow and run that role for us. Uh one of our best interns of all time. I mean, she was here two different summers. She came back for a Christmas break and worked here. Uh, you know, phenomenal friend of the family, and and has just been a bright spot. Didn't know anything about insurance. Okay. But she'd walk in in the morning, you know, everybody kind of walk in, kicking the dirt. Hey, good morning, good morning. She'd come in at nine. We started her a little bit later. Good morning, Mr. McKinley. How are you today? And I'm like, I I'm doing great now. You know, and it was just she'd walk around the office and say that to everybody, and she'd answer the phone, good morning. You know, and it was like, even if they were kind of mad, she was she was pretty good at that. So I think that having that energetic effort, um, whether it's through a co-op program for your high school, through community college, something like that, we've had great experiences with it. And I would encourage you to, and I think it it does put that test on there of what can we have somebody start up and do

When Internships Go Wrong

SPEAKER_01 3:26

right away. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

And I think in my experience, through again, three different districts, a lot of different agency owners, a majority of the time when interns have been brought in, it it hasn't brought a lot of fruit with the fact um they were they were brought in for for the summer. And and here's what I've seen on my side. Real similar to an associate agent, kind of like you said, having the standard operating procedures, realizing that shadowing is not the same as training or mentoring, right? Again, it just it it feels like if you're here and you just follow me around, it's gonna click for you. And and that doesn't happen. So I think the idea that especially a non-paid intern, somebody that's non-paid, I've got two sets of of I got another set of hands and a set of eyes, like it's a positive. And that's not necessarily true. So I had in the first year, I had no idea what I was doing. I go back to 07 and I got a non-paid intern um from Western Illinois University. And he was he was great. But I remember sitting down and and saying to him, what should we do? Because I didn't, I didn't know I didn't know what we should do. And we ended up door knocking, which he probably looks back um almost 20 years later and goes, man, that was that was a horrible summer. We he had to be mortified. Just knock it on doors. And we did, we knocked on doors pretty much all day because I didn't know what to do. So I think I think that was a big piece of it. You know, I think the other thing too, that if I went back and the other thing I see repeated time and time again is tuning into what makes this a valuable internship for the intern. Because then you can start to reinforce if they want to go into this possibly for a career, it's it's important then that we are mentoring, that we are giving them kind of the the roadmap and they can really see what a day in the life is and and and how the entire business evolves compared to just being worried about what we need. So I think it's a it's a two-way street there.

Josh's Lawn-Mowing Intern Story

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Boy, you just put me in the way back time machine. I uh it made me have a flashback, probably a little shake of one. I had an intern my second year. I went down and spoke at my fraternity house. Hey, you know, they had a talk at chapter about jobs or whatever. And any of you guys from Peoria want a job, let me know. Well, some kid hits me up. And I hired him, and I'm still 20 years later, I'm friends with the guy. He's three, four years younger than me. Sure. I didn't have anything for him to do. Like what I thought I needed him to do, we we kind of did. We went around and met some people and we did whatever. And all of a sudden he was just there. And I'm like, man, I gotta get him to do something. He mowed my lawn. I sent him home. My wife goes, What is going on? I'm like, hey, the intern's mowing. She's like, What do you mean? I'm like, I'm paying him. I have to have him do something. Like, I don't know. And again, 20 years later, this kid is a he's a business owner in Peoria. Like, we're friends, we've been clients. He texted me last night about his kids' baseball team. But he started off literally mowing my lawn because I didn't have, I didn't know what to do with him. So I think that there are times where you're not ready to do it, and there are times where it's going to be uh very helpful. So I had that one. Um, but yeah, thanks for bringing that one up because I that made me think of it. Man, that was I I'm gonna text him later today and say, remember that time?

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

I paid you $10 an hour and you mowed

What Would You Want as an Intern?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

my lawn in this.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

That's a great story. That's a great story. Let me ask you kind of a one-off question. Um if you could go back and you could have interned for for a successful agency owner, what things would you have wanted? Like what you know what I mean? What are the things that looking back, if somebody would have taken you early on as an intern and you knew this might be a career that you wanted to have, what what are the one, two, three things, if I'm watching this and I'm gonna bring somebody on, I would consider doing?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

I mean, I think I would want some shadowing. Okay, but I think it would be limited. It it would be I'd want to see interactions with the client because I want to see somebody that was really wanting to learn about the client, asking questions, not just selling, right? Like in my opinion, when I was younger, insurance salesmen were used car salesmen. You know, I didn't have a positive, you know, impression at all. So I would have liked to sit in on some appointments. I think that's an easy sell to the client. Hey, this is you know, Jimmy, he's our intern, he's gonna be sitting with us. He's a junior at University of Illinois. And I think that would be okay. So a little bit of that, but also can't be a good idea. I want to interrupt you real quick.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

You said you said something there that's really, I think it's profound. You said I I want to sit in with the client interactions. I'm not as worried about sitting in on the selling, where most people, those are those are synonymous, right? If I'm in an appointment, I'm selling. So I think it's I think it's really telling with your level of success that you're talking about sitting in with the client doesn't necessarily mean that I'm selling. I just want to point that out because I think for most people, that's the only reason we we're gonna sit with the clients to sell them. And you're saying something completely different. So I think it's notable.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Well, it it is and it should be, right? I mean, there is a difference. Our clients have enough needs anyway that we don't need to, you know, think them up for them. Like people are all worried about stuff. Like I'm sure you guys do at night. Like when we had babies, like little ones, we used to call them the nine o'clock conversations, right? Get the kids to bed, and it's like we'd pull out the mail, like, okay, you got to go, you know, get the oil change tomorrow. Hey, we got this bill from here, hey, it's this, like adulting. And that was when the stuff that was on our mind was there. People already know there's things they should do, they should save more money. They're worried about are they paying too much for this? Is this done right? That when you're meeting with them, man, just ask them questions and and and listen to what's going on in their life. People have enough needs and enough worries. We don't have to invent them for it. Right. Well said.

The Predatory Internship Model

SPEAKER_01 9:15

I think there's too many people selling the fear. Uh, I had one though, I'll tell you, I like this one. There's a there's a certain life insurance in a financial services company that likes to hire summer interns. Okay. Right. Oh man, and they love to hire summer interns. My wife actually interviewed and and got given that job. Okay. And she did it because she was gonna stay in Champagne for the summer. Sure, her uh lease was through also. Sure. And uh she calls up and she's like, okay, like where do I go for training? They're like, Well, your training's at home. She's like, No, no, no, I I'm staying down on campus this summer. I want the job down here. Like, no, no, no, you need to go home because basically you're gonna tee up all your friends and family. Gotcha. And like, there is that model. We've all seen that internship, right? Where it's like, we're gonna hire 12 college kids and they're gonna go out and sell $100 a month life insurance and $200 a month Roth IRAs. Like, and then what's gonna happen is not that this is a pyramid, but I'm your leader and I'm gonna collect all the residuals from you once you go back to school. Yes. So summer internships and financial services and insurance probably deserve the bad rap that they've given because it a lot of it is like see how fast you can call your family and get them on board in 90 days. Yes. Without a doubt. Very true. I love I love that though. She always talks about that whenever she sees that company. She's like, they offered me a job. They wanted me to go home and sell all my friends and family life insurance all summer, and then I was gonna go back to school.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Yes. Well,

Putting Interns to Work on Your To-Do List

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I love it. For sure. So, so just kind of kind of summarizing, we talked and in an episode, two or three episodes ago, about the importance of uh the standard operating procedures bringing on anybody. So this is this is basically an extension of that, even with an intern, is and I think you bring up a good point. We've talked about this in the past. You've talked about this, the hiring of an intern almost being as if it's a uh your your processes inside your office is in the dark, and this is the flashlight shining on it. So you get a real clear idea whether or not you you actually have got good processes or you have no processes.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah. And I think we all have a to-do list. You know, these are the things that I wish I could get to, and we're probably working on the top two or three at any given time. Sometimes that summer intern or winter intern gives you the opportunity to go down to number four or five on that list that you would do if you had enough time. And it's just an easier one. Hey, maybe this is a campaign. Maybe they're gonna call our clients and catalog you know, a line of business that we don't have notes about. You know, hey, hey, we're cataloging all the life insurance you may have, even if it's not with us, knowing that if something happened to you, we're likely the call they're gonna make. You know, you might have picked up a life insurance policy 15 years ago when you lived in Massachusetts. Now you live in Illinois. If something happens to you, we're the likely call they're gonna be call us looking for. Sure. Could we catalog what you have just in case something ever happens? Just a catalog of insurance, something that's that's client-friendly, but uh you know, not selling. Another one would be, you know, emergency contact. You know, who would be your trusted neighbor? Um, that that if something you were out of town and we need to get a hold of somebody, there was something wrong with your house that we'd be able to call, you know, the little things like that that are very client-friendly, but don't require a license, don't require really any knowledge of the industry. You just gotta be a good person.

Exit Interviews Matter

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah, good good point. The uh the last one I want to touch on real quick, just very high level, is the idea of I think this is true with clients leaving to go to competitors. I think it's true with interns being done with their internship. Is I think exit interviews in general to get information for your next intern is it's a huge deal. So to be able to say, what did what did you love? What actually moved you forward? What things did we miss? And I think once people are are leaving and can can you know openly share, you can pick up a lot from the person leaving that says, you know, I wish there was more of this or less of this or this, man, this was transformational, right? So you can take the things that work well, leverage them the next time, and and adjust the things that didn't. But I think I think it's true too with clients because sometimes we call clients when they leave and we think it's rate and we find out it wasn't rate, you know, and and that allows us to go back and coach our team and do a better job. So I think I think not leveraging the information from people that have been through the process is a mistake as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah, I mean, I I would encourage anybody, you know, if you're thinking about co-op programs, intern programs, those kind of things, just just take a look at your business and and see are you ready at this point? Is there something that could come in right now and by Friday they can be proficient? If so, it's not gonna hurt you. It's only gonna help. You're gonna get some fresh blood in there, some good ideas. You know, a little enthusiasm goes a long way because you know we've talked about it. The the negative Nancy in the world right now is pretty prevalent. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Anything you want to add on that? I think we hit hit quite a few things.

Closing & Call to Action

SPEAKER_01 14:06

No, we had a few people ask us about you know the hiring stuff, and I think it was an important follow-up episode for us to do, just talking about the short-term or maybe your non-traditional type of employees you could bring in and fill some of those holes. So I we did want to address it, and I hope I hope it was meaningful conversation for anybody out there.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Absolutely. And as Josh just said, if you've got additional ideas or questions relative to hiring, put it in the comments, reach out to us, let us know, and we will formulate an episode just for you because if you've got the question, I guarantee there are other people that do as well. So with that said, Josh, good seeing you, and I will catch you on the next one. Thanks for having us, guys.