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How I’ve Been Zeroing In on What Matters Most Making Time
‘It’s a convenience-based culture,’ he continued, ‘People are time-starved and crave convenience in what they do. It knows no bounds.’”
help me get to my final goal. In this way, I can try to prune away the nonessential and time- wasting activities and really focus on the purpose for every action.
The other day, I was reading the Houston Chronicle, the major newspaper from the city in which I lived and worked for many years, when I came across a quote that really stuck
As spring, my favorite season, kicks up into full swing this month, I’ve not been doing so much spring-cleaning — at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, I’ve been working to declutter my life and my priorities. I’ve realized that, as I’ve gotten a little older, I’m finding that I don’t want to live my life constantly under the gun like I used to, that I want to carve out more time for what really matters. For me, that means getting back to the essentials. To that end, I’ve been revisiting the timeless directives from Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Last month, I wrote about habits four, five, and six, and their potential to revive the spirit of compromise in America. But the first three habits have more to do with taking control of your own day-to-day priorities. Covey’s first habit is “Be proactive,” which is, of course, easy to understand but can be difficult to implement. It’s absolutely essential that if you ever find yourself somewhere other than where you want to be, you need to initiate a plan to take control. I always try to do my best to avoid letting circumstances dictate my course. That leads directly into the next habit, “Begin with the end in mind.” With every new task I begin, I try to examine how it will or will not
However, that doesn’t mean that everything should be all go-go-go, all business, all the time. That leads into the third point, “Put first things first.” At some point, a little late in my life probably, I realized that I couldn’t do everything at once. So, I began to closely examine the structure of my priorities for my business, my personal relationships, and for my individual development. The key, I’ve found, is to have your priorities established upfront, before a dilemma arises. That way, when it comes time to choose between two competing priorities, like an after-hours business networking event or a preplanned date night out with your wife, the choice is clear: The higher priority item wins. And if there is still a conflict, compromise helps! Firmly establishing your priorities doesn’t make a busy life easy, by any stretch, but it does tend to clarify things. God knows I’m still learning how to get everything I truly care about done, but as I regularly return to those three habits of Covey’s, I’ve found myself less “time-starved” than ever before.
in my head. In an interview, Scott McClelland, president of the H-E-B grocery store chain, was asked what he thought the “next big thing” would be for grocery store food. It may seem like an unlikely source for inspiration, but McClelland’s answer came with some profound implications. He said that, above all, “Anything that is convenient is what we’re going to continue to see.” He cited the difference between pregrated and block cheese in the supermarket, and the fact that people will pay steep premiums just to cut down on the amount of work they need to do for their food — precut watermelon, for example. “It’s a convenience-based culture,” he continued, “People are time-starved and crave convenience in what they do. It knows no bounds.” His answer got me thinking about the endless list of tools we have to make our lives easier, all the ways in which everything is constantly at our fingertips or at the click of a button. It truly is a convenience-based culture. But then, I thought, if this is true, why are we busier than ever? Why are we spread so thin between our responsibilities and our passions? Why are we in such a hurry all the time?
–Brad Johnson
President, Risk Services of AR
Specialized Insurance Programs for Specialized Industries. • www.insurica.com • 1
Meet Melissa Davenport
Meeting Your Customers Where They Are
3 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics to Grow Your Business
Guerrilla marketing strategies, with their low-cost methods and innovative approaches to advertising, can be the key to growing both large and small businesses. Here are three examples of guerrilla advertising that, with enough creativity and boldness, you can use to maximize business growth. Leave no surface untouched and no medium unused. Ambient marketing is one of the more common guerrilla marketing strategies, and it is a great way to raise local awareness for your brand. It involves advertising in unusual spaces with unusual methods. A recent example of this is how Taco Bell announced their presence in London in 2018. They created the illusion that Big Ben was ringing by mixing its sound with Taco Bell’s signature bell sound. They played it on speakers attached to rickshaws, which were driven around the city. While this is certainly a more elaborate example, ambient marketing can be as easy as using more unconventional surfaces, like sidewalks and drinking glasses, to market your product — so long as it is creative enough to make a potential customer take notice. Engage internet users where they are. The marketing strategy that used to be known as “word-of-mouth,” “network marketing,” or “creating a buzz,” is now known as “viral marketing” on the internet. This is not a new concept in and of itself, but it can be made even more effective with some creativity. Major fast-food chainWendy’s utilizes this strategy with their Twitter account. Their account takes on a personality, as opposed to just being a place to make announcements, which works well in their quest to get away from the cynical idea of the soulless, profit-mongering corporation. Having an online presence that engages people where they are, instead of making posts and waiting for potential customers to happen upon This tactic, sometimes known as a grassroots movement, has many different facets. However, the goal is to ultimately win a customer’s business by engaging with them on a more personal level. This approach often involves using the internet to ask supporters of your business to repost or retweet material from your social media pages. You can also encourage your employees to engage with real people in places where your target demographic likes to spend their time. The goal is to foster genuine relationships with customers that make them feel cared for by your company and eager to keep coming back. them, can help your business stand out online. Form real relationships with customers.
When you’re working to mitigate risk within your organization, there’s more than money at stake. Your business; your livelihood; the livelihood of your family, not to mention all your employees and their families, are on the line. That’s why it’s absolutely essential that you have more than just an insurance agent on your side; you need someone you can trust, someone genuinely invested in the future of your business. You need someone like Melissa Davenport, an account manager at Risk Services/Insurica for the past three years, with more than 10 years of experience in the insurance field. “It may sound corny,” Melissa says, “But honestly, I just enjoy helping my clients manage their risk. They rely on us to protect their most precious assets, to basically keep them in business and put food on the table for their families. With everything from buying a new car to a new building, that’s really what it comes down to.” It’s a responsibility Melissa takes seriously. In a field that can be bewildering to the average business owner, she knows that success hinges on getting everyone on the same page. “Every day, I’m teaching insurance to my clients,” she says. “I’m well aware that there are account managers outside of Insurica that refuse to make time for the people they serve, but that’s just not me. I try to stress that there are no ‘dumb questions’ when talking insurance, and that I’m here for all of them. I love that part of what I do.” Outside of the office, Melissa is usually busy running her two young kids, Isabella and Haley, around town and spending time with her husband, Stephen. When she’s not carting the kiddos from sport to sport, they’re together playing fun games and doing puzzles. The latest hit: “Greedy Granny,” a goofy game in which the kids have to carefully snatch toy biscuits from a “sleeping” grandma without tripping the mechanism to wake her up. But whether at home or on the phone with a client, Melissa throws herself fully into the task at hand. We’re honored to count her among our team, and eager to watch her continue to grow and thrive in her role at Risk Services/Insurica.
2 • www.insurica.com • Specialized Insurance Programs for Specialized Industries.
Driverless Cars Spell Big Changes for the Insurance Industry
WILL FEWER ACCIDENTS LEAD TO LOWER PREMIUMS?
in cars that still require drivers, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are already
Ten years ago, self-driving cars seemed like science fiction. Today, they’re poised to become a factor of daily life for pretty much everyone in America. But how will these autonomous vehicles affect the insurance industry? Well, for one thing, it seems like liability is going to steadily shift away from human drivers and squarely onto the shoulders of automakers. In fact, with Google, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla already accepting liability for self-driving vehicle crashes, this reality is already here. But as the kinks are ironed out in technology, proponents believe that insurance liability will become a much less serious problem for these manufacturers. If you take into account the fact that 94 percent of accidents are a product of human error, it makes sense that implementing machines would drastically cut down on collisions. Though, of course, any skeptic will tell you that this remains to be seen.
preventing many types of accidents from occurring almost completely, leading some insurers to offer steep discounts for ADAS features.
Some experts even believe that by 2040, accidents will become so rare that many individuals may stop carrying car insurance altogether. We may be biased, but it seems difficult to imagine a world in which full coverage isn’t preferred, if not mandatory. Still, if it means fewer accidents on the road, we’re all for it.
Some people may expect insurance premiums to actually drop as autonomous vehicles take over the road, at least in the long run. Even
Sudoku
Have a Laugh!
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INSIDE This Issue
Brad Johnson Makes Time page 1
Maximizing Creativity and Cost- Effectiveness in Your Business Meet Melissa Davenport, an Account Manager Who Cares page 2 Driverless Cars Spell Change for the Insurance Industry Sudoku page 3
Discover ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ page 4
Revisiting a Classic ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’
positivity and self-confidence may have been groundbreaking ideas back when Eisenhower was president, but today they’re a given. While this may make some of Schwartz’s ideas feel old hat to modern audiences, the essence of what he wrote in 1959 still rings true today. In fact, one could argue that several core concepts of this decades-old work are even more applicable today. A running theme in Schwartz’s book is the incomparable benefit of treating people like people. While many personal and business dealings hinge on the power of a handshake, there’s something refreshing about the common human decency of Schwartz’s outlook. So many motivational works today focus solely on personal reflection — “Thinking Big” reminds us that there is great power in simply being good to other people. Perhaps the largest takeaway today’s readers can find here is to take on more and think bigger. “Thinking Big” is replete with real-world success stories of people doing precisely that, from students collaborating to solve supposedly impossible problems to wounded paratroopers making their way across the mountains of Burma toward safety. Whether you’re dusting off an old copy or picking it up for the first time, this classic is still worth a read in 2019.
In this issue we’re diving into an old classic that helped define the modern personal development genre and has helped millions of readers improve their lives. “The Magic of Thinking Big” flew off shelves when it was first published in 1959, propelling author
David J. Schwartz from university professor to foremost authority on motivation. But does his seminal work still hold true 60 years later? Is there still magic in letting yourself think big in the 21st century? In a word, yes. The lessons in “Thinking Big” are broad, but their wide applicability is also what makes them timeless. While today, many authors and motivational coaches — from “influencer” culture to “growth hacking” — focus on whatever is new and shiny, Schwartz focuses on the fundamentals.
This can make the opening chapters in “Thinking Big” feel excessively familiar to those who have read other personal development books. The power of
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