Category: Leadership Speaker

Now, More Than Ever, Associations Must Engage Members

In my role as an association keynote speaker, I know that now, more than ever, associations must re-engage their members. Association membership has been in trouble for quite some time, and membership loss and membership engagement with those organizations have worsened during the pandemic.

In February 1, 2018, Associations Now published the results of a Member Loyalty Study that listed several reasons why members did not renew their memberships to associations. Of the top reasons, three of them deserve note here:

34% of members who dropped out said it was too costly
26% of members who dropped out said the association was providing little value
9% of members who dropped out said the organization had declined in quality

Unfortunately, with the pandemic, these same problems increased. Michael Hickey, also writing for Associations Now (September 25, 2020) noted:

“Losing members is an unfortunate reality for every association. This is especially true in 2020, when new outside pressures—particularly the financial turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—might have more people ready to cut membership fees out of their expenses, on top other reasons [reported above] that people let memberships lapse.”

Business as Usual or a New Mindset?

There is no doubt that 2020 was a year of “financial turmoil,” but as a keynote speaker for associations I know that to attribute membership declines and a lack of engagement to lockdowns does not tell the whole story.

Unfortunately, in some associations the decline has gone on for years. Ironically, associations are needed now, more than ever. The glue that holds professionals together is the professional association.

Jan Hill, writing for Onelegal.com, a website directed at law associations, listed 10 advantages to belonging to an association. Among those advantages were: getting your name “out there,” job prospects, mentoring programs, networking and resources. If we couple those advantages with the survey above, it is apparent that there is a vision and mindset problem because the advantages an association offers are exactly the things members need.

Associations should be “blasting off” with new members at this time – and they’re not. COVID should be serving as a catalyst for expanding association membership and not a damper.

What is needed is a new association mindset. Whether the association addresses financial services, accounting, agriculture, manufacturing or dentistry, members need the combined expertise and common bonds shared with like-minded people.

Does your association have the mindset and the vision to engage existing members and to attract new members? If, as the survey showed, more than a third of your members may be dropping out because they think it’s too costly, or if more than a quarter of your members have left because they see little value, what is your association’s vision for new programs or services or engagement messaging? Very seriously, if members are leaving because of the declining quality of your association’s professional benefits, what is the collective mindset for improving that quality?

As we are being led out of the pandemic, the association must be there to lead the way and to put a public face to your industry. A healthy industry must have healthy associations. It will take mindset, vision and grit.

Book Scott Burrows, association keynote speaker by contacting him through this website or his office at: (520) 548-1169

Are You Determined to Know the Truth About Insurance Sales?

My career as an insurance and financial services keynote speaker wasn’t something, I fell into one fine day. I learned the insurance and financial services industry from the bottom up. Despite personal and physical hardship and sacrifice, I made it into the Million Dollar Round Table in five years.

Keeping Current

It’s important to me that I keep current with the insurance and financial services industry from a motivational speaker point of view and also for my knowledge base. As I am a virtual as well as in-person speaker, I was interested in a link sent to me by an old associated that was entitled The Truth About Being an Insurance Agent. As it was published recently, I wanted to understand the current thinking.

As my passion is motivating insurance and financial services industry sales people to achieve their best, I was interested in the section in the article “Why do insurance agents fail?”

The authors listed several reasons including: unrealistic expectations due to a lack of renewals; a lack of sales mainly due to a lack of industry knowledge and sales savvy; inadequate lead generation; running a business can be overwhelming and focusing on commissions instead of the needs of the customer. While it is impossible to find fault with the points, they seem to fall short of the actual reasons for the failures.

Mindset, Determination and Grit

My philosophy of insurance and financial services sales is based on three underlying principles: mindset, determination and grit.

As to the issue of unrealistic expectations leading to a lack of sales, if this were the case, no one would go into the profession at first, nor would anyone focus on generating leads. Or, for that matter, who would create an insurance and financial services business or want to make a difference in the lives of their clients?

If a new agent has a realistic mindset about what it takes to create a business, if they are determined to go after business and to generate leads, if they have the daily grit to deliver exceptional customer service and to run an outstanding business, they will succeed.

My philosophy is not based on hollow words. When I entered the insurance and financial services business, I was still undergoing physical therapy following a horrific automobile that left me a quadriplegic. In my recovery, I developed the mindset to see myself heal, the determination to do whatever I could to improve inch by inch, step by step and most important, to have the grit to get better and be better every day.

It’s Not Beyond Your Ability

Never think that success is reserved for other people, it is right there for you. If you are determined to be successful in the insurance and financial services business you can do it. When I was recovering from my accident, I was surrounded by many terrific people who encouraged and pushed my healing. No one pushed me harder than I pushed myself.

However, there was one type of “visitor” I never allowed in my life: negative people. On your road to success, there will be negativity.

The truth is this: you can be successful. Be determined to be successful and have the grit to build something great for yourself. Let no one tell you otherwise.

Book Scott Burrows, Insurance and Financial Services Keynote Speaker today, for your next convention or sales meeting, through this website or by calling (520) 548-1169

Is Your Team Determined to Fight for Diversity?

Never before in the history of our nation has diversity been more of an issue than it is now. It is time for change, but it takes an active mindset to change the corporate vision. Are you determined to help in that fight?

Dollars and (Common) Sense

Business writer Caroline Forsey in her online November 2018 article “5 Awesome Benefits of Diversity at Work” raised several important points as to what a diverse team can do to benefit a company. These measurable effects include fostering innovation, development of better ideas, elevating a company’s culture, and improving customer service. Forsey went on to cite several impressive sales and performance statistics of diverse teams, among them:

Companies in the top quartile for being gender diverse are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above the median.
Companies with the highest levels of racial diversity brought in 15 times more revenue than those with the lowest levels of diversity.
Diverse companies are 70%more likely to capture a new market.

Want to hire the best and brightest sales people? Statistics also show the 83 percent of Millennials want to work for more diverse companies, and overall close to 60 percent of employees want their workplaces to be more diverse.

If employees want more diversity, and it’s been proven that diversity improves sales, why isn’t it happening at a faster rate? It comes down to intention, and the determination, the daily grit to make it happen.

Sally Duby, writing for Forbes magazine (July 8, 2020) in “Walk The Talk To Create Diversity In Sales, Part One” raises four important points where corporations must have the vision to bring about the changes needed to be more diverse.

Leaders within a company should identify functional areas that need diversity; HR and the functional leaders should set concrete goals and steps to improving diversity; train the entire management team on the hiring and interview process to remove unconscious bias; and, in my view, the most important, encourage team members to refer diverse people.

When team members in the field are invested, when team members see how diverse sales efforts yield positive results, they will push for more diversity in their own workplace.

Duby concluded:

“Hiring a diverse workforce requires intentionality. It involves truly assessing where your company is at with its current hiring policies and having difficult conversations.”

Are You Determined to Fight?

Many factors made me a successful sales person and a champion of diversity. My accident took me from being a martial artist and football player to being a bedridden quadriplegic.

It was in that hospital bed that I saw myself with the mindset of being well. To rise up from that bed took every fiber of determination and daily grit to move again. That philosophy of Mindset-Resilience-Grit shaped my life and my sales abilities.

However, I did not get well by myself. I had a team of healthcare professionals who fought beside me. They were as diverse as you can imagine, but to my mind they had no race or religion. They were my friends. They fought with me and for me. I dearly came to love them.

When we pull together, we are all made stronger. When we believe in each other, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.

To book Scott Burrows, Corporate Diversity Speaker, for a virtual or live presentation contact us through this website or by calling: (520) 548-1169

What Do You Ask of Others That You Don’t Demand of Yourself?

As a keynote speaker on leadership and accountability, I have found that in terms of all the issues causing C-level executives to struggle, far and away, “accountability” is their biggest challenge. Leadership cannot survive without accountability in their organizations.

Business writer Shannon Howard, in a recent article “Holding employees accountable: where most leaders fail,” stated that C-level executives are often “not accountable for their own behaviors or deadlines.” She expanded that point by saying “When leaders fail to meet deadlines themselves, they’re not modeling the kind of behavior they want to see from their team. Let’s be honest: It’s hard to hold someone to a standard you’re not willing to hold yourself to.”

Accountability cannot be sporadic; it must be specific and consistent. If a leader is inconsistent, the leader is holding employees to a relative standard, which is often like having no standard at all. In fact, studies have determined that about 15 percent of CEOs keep ineffective employees on staff for far too long. In the long run, ineffective employees who refuse to be held accountable will damage the entire organization.

Echoing this sentiment, Joseph Folkman, writing for Forbes magazine said “Sometimes in organizations, it is really hard to focus. When we are sending multiple messages about what is critical and what others are accountable for, accountability dissipates. If you want people to be responsible, then you must clearly define the results that you want them to deliver, and let them have a fair amount of control on how they deliver those results.”

It all comes around to having the determination to hold yourself accountable and the vision to see it through.

Holding Yourself Accountable

New York Times bestselling author Ramit Sethi writing for Success magazine, outlines several steps of accountability that any executive as well as individuals can incorporate into their daily lives.

To summarize the steps: Create a schedule for what you want to accomplish, stop procrastinating and commit to it.

Set better goals: what are the goals specifically, how will you measure them, can you reach them and in what time-frame? Are your goals relevant to your success or are they unimportant?

Are you determined to be uncomfortable? Seriously, if you share the specific plan with those who will carry it out, there can be no equivocation on your part or theirs. If there is no vision of success, if there is no day-to-day grit in doing what must be done, then chances are it won’t get done.

Don’t forget about honesty and authenticity in this accountability equation. Be a leader and ask questions: can you achieve these goals, who will be responsible to get it done, how will we know if we are accomplishing what we had the vision to complete?

The objective for any leader is to demand of others no more or less than what you demand of yourself. Accountability is a shared vision of success. If everyone is held to the same standard of accountability, then accomplishment will follow.

Do you have the determination to lead and to hold those around you accountable? If you have that vision, expect that greatness may very well be the outcome.

Book Scott Burrows today, Leader and Accountability Motivational Speaker, through this website or by calling: (520) 548-1169

Where Will Your Organization Find Its Future Leaders?

As a motivational leadership keynote speaker, I often field questions from attendees as to how they can identify new leaders. Oftentimes I will answer, “How about the person standing next to you?”

The conversation may sometimes end at that point, or the person next to the guy answering the question might say, “Me? Oh, I’m not a leader, just a follower.”

How Would You Know?

Any organization, your organization, is looking for people to step up and lead. The problems are usually two-fold and are reflected in the brief exchange just a few sentences above. On one hand, most companies are always weighing their need to find leaders against their perceptions of how much it costs to recruit good leaders, and on the other hand, existing employees who could be fantastic leaders never think of themselves that way.

Marcel Schwantes, in a recent inc. magazine article entitled: “12 Ways to Identify the Future Leaders of Your Company Right Now,” discussed three important points (among many) worthy of deeper discussion: 1) focus on potential, not performance, 2) evaluate someone’s investment in the company’s future, and 3) farm your own in-house talent.

All three points require determination on the part of the executive team. Are you determined to see the potential in people? Are you determined to see those employees who are deeply invested in the company vision and with it, do you have the vision to do what it takes to transform them into leaders?

The Contract

If the organization is seeking leaders, future leaders within the company must have the determination and vision to be recognized as such.

As an employee, do you feel you have the potential to step up and lead? Are you invested in the future of your organization? If called upon to lead, do you have the daily grit to help elevate your company to the next level? Finally, if someone in your organization believes you have the tools to be a leader, will you shy away from the challenge or embrace the opportunity?

In 2017, the Wrike, Inc. collaborative work management platform published an inciteful article entitled: “9 Ways to Develop Your Leadership Skills.” It addresses any employee who wants to be recognized by their organizations as potential leadership material. The top three attributes are: practice discipline, take on more projects, and learn to follow.

All of those commitments require a seriousness of attitude and a directed focus to accomplishment. Discipline is a nice enough concept, but how many employees have the discipline to learn more about the job, to motivate others and to be dependable about doing quality work?

Leaders do more than what is required of them. Leaders see something that must be done and they will do it. More workload is often related to discipline. If employees are disciplined and they become more efficient, they can accomplish more.

Leaders learn to follow, and for many, this point is a problem. Following requires humility and acceptance. Many who claim to want to lead often have problems sublimating arrogance. In short, they are not team players. To lead and inspire great teams means to be willing to see many perspectives, to appreciate others and to help forge a common mission.

Organizations are looking for you, if you have the determination to do what it takes to be found.

To contact Scott Burrows, Inspirational Leadership Keynote Speaker, connect with his office today through this website or by calling: (520) 548-1169

Category: Leadership Speaker

Scott Burrows, Association Keynote Speaker

Now, More Than Ever, Associations Must Engage Members

Scott Burrows, Insurance and Financial Services Keynote Speaker

Are You Determined to Know the Truth About Insurance Sales?

Scott Burrows, Corporate Speaker on Diversity & Inclusion

Is Your Team Determined to Fight for Diversity?

Scott Burrows, Leadership and Accountability Keynote Speaker

What Do You Ask of Others That You Don’t Demand of Yourself?

Scott Burrows, Motivational Leadership Keynote Speaker

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