The rain was entirely welcome and we got a nice drenching last weekend. That has moved on and we are back to cold nights and warm days. I played golf today and yesterday and I'm sporting a little bit of a sunburn from the two days of bright blue skies and intense sunshine. It was about 67 degrees both days after overnight lows in the mid thirties.
My assistant, Cora, worked her last day on Friday and she is off to Manila next weekend to rejoin her husband. It will be a transition for me as I will be working without a direct assistant for most of February. Anthony's top assistant, Connie, is also out effective Friday on a medical leave. She will have surgery on Tuesday to remove a tumor that is attached to one of her ovaries. My new assistant, Veronica, will be backing up Anthony as he produces about $55,000 -$60,000 a month in net retained income and helps pay the bills and keep the lights on. I will work with Cindy in the office, who is the assistant to Renee. Connie is expecting to be well enough to continue work from home by the end of February and she will return to the office in Mid March. At that time Veronica will be working with me and Gail in the office. I've decided to attempt to reduce staff because I have some great young talent in the office that I need to boost their salaries and I want to use the fact that we will end up with a net reduction in salaries after the increases to sell this to upper management. I am in the middle of reviews right now and then will move on to salary administration and handle the raises and promotions for 2012. Fun times in River City.
Darla and I took Cora out to lunch on Wednesday and gave her our personal goodbyes. Friday, we had sixteen of the staff go out to Olive Garden to send Cora off in style. We returned to the office about 1:30 and I used the men's room.
This is a potty story so be prepared. I went in and there was a God awful reek in the room. I was washing my hands when the toilet flushed and an older fellow who I had never seen emerged. He was white as a sheet and sweating profusely. I asked him if he was okay and he said that he thought he had food poisoning. Suddenly, he jumped and ran back to the stall where I heard him retching and then I heard some splat sounds and a load groan. It turns out that he was firing from both ends simultaneously and hadn't got his pants down. I again asked if there was anything I could do for him and he asked me to wait. He emerged from the stall about five minutes later carrying his underwear that were loaded and dripping all over. He tried to to stuff them in the trash receptacle and spewed debris all over the wall. Some of it even got on me as I tried to dodge the onslaught. I'm about 9 when it comes to poop stories and started to laugh, but the guy looked about ready to die. I asked if I could call someone or get him some help. It turns out it was his first week with the other insurance company on our floor and he was too mortified to walk back into his office with his poopy pants. He had tried to call his wife who dropped him off at work and was in another office building not far from ours, but she hadn't answered either the office phone or the cell. He sheepishly asked if I could drive him over to her office, that he had keys to the car and could at least get the car and go home and clean up. Now, I am not a total neat freak, but my car is always clean and immaculate and the idea of this guy getting into my clean car was not sitting well with me. I had a towel in my gym bag, so I set that out on the passenger seat and rolled down all of the windows and drove him over to his car. He wanted to shake hands and was thanking me profusely, but I was all of a sudden Howie Mandell and just waved at the guy and wished him well. The car reeked and my gym towel had a silhouette of this guy still on it. I threw it in the trunk and rolled down the windows and opened the sun roof. I also sprayed some car deodorizer on the carpet to mask the smell.
When I got back to the office, it was in an uproar. One of he guys had gone into the restroom and it was thrashed by this guy. There were piles of excrement all over the walls and floor of the stall and the smell was emanating into the hallway. Anthony had put a sign on the door that read "Bathroom closed. Do not enter. (Trust Me!)" I called a couple of the guys into my office and told them the story and we were all in tears laughing about it. How did I get involved in that? The guys thought it was hilarious because they know how I am about my car. It will be interesting to see if the guy shows up for work on Monday or just decides to retire.
We finished 2011 very strong and were up a little over 7% in written premium and over 19% in net retained income and I am thrilled with the results. We made over $800,000 in profit and I am shooting for $1,000,000 in 2012. I will be giving up a lot of my agents this year to Matt and concentrating on my local agents and doing marketing with the younger underwriters. Matt and I have a trip planned up to Chico on Thursday of this week to have him meet my agents up there and take them on. It is a tough decision for me, because I have always been an active underwriter even over the years that I have been managing the office, but I have too many people now and I can't give the customer service to the agents that they deserve. Matt is 29 years old and hungry and will be able to get out and market to the agents and will also give them first rate service. I will probably end the year with just $1,000,000 in written premium after I give Matt a lot of my agents, but it is time. I think I will see him grow a lot of these agents to levels they haven't been with us in years. It will be a tough transition, but I will be able to do more mentoring and concentrate more on marketing to the agents and getting out with all of the underwriters to do marketing calls.
I did play golf both days this week. I snuck out yesterday afternoon and played the white tees with an older couple that were using one of those golf cards to try out different courses. I shot a 41+41=82 and thoroughly enjoyed both of them as we told jokes and learned a bit about each other. Today was our Super Bowl tournament and my driver decided to give me fits today. It was one of those days where my scrambling was excellent. I chipped in on two holes for par and sunk at least five putts of over 20 feet . I shot 40+43=83, but maybe hit five drives that were in the fairway. I played with Boyd who shot 82, Tom who shot 80 and another 4 handicapper who shot 83. It was the type of day that if I was driving the ball well, would have shot in the mid 70's. Oh well.
It was my Mother-in laws birthday this week and she turned 70. Earl and Frances came into town on Saturday and treated all of us to dinner last night at the Outback Steakhouse. It was fun and and we enjoyed the meal and the conversation. Alicia and Don joined us along with Lucas, who was pretty well behaved for a 17 month old.
Darla has been hot and heavy on the Silpada trail, having parties Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today. In fact she just got home and it is 6:45 PM. She is bound and determined to get back on the incentive trip list. The group is going to Oahu in January of next year and she wants to go and maybe stay over and visit her brother on the big island.
Pete and I in my office will be returning to Scottsdale in March for what is becoming our annual trip to see our carriers and to see some Spring Training baseball. Our carrier partner, Colony, has again offered the use of their corporate apartment and this year we will have the ladies fly in with us for Saturday and Sunday and then Pete and I will stay over Monday and Tuesday to see all five of our carriers. We will also have dinner on Saturday night with one of our carrier underwriters and her husband. We will be there in the middle of Spring Break, Spring Training and over St Patty's Day. We will leave on March 16th and stay until the 20th. The girls will fly home on Sunday night.
Well, that's it. Sorry for the poop story, but it is blog worthy, as Darla calls it. Not one to tell over dinner though. I hope you are all doing great. Be well and keep living in the Lord. Ciao.
My assistant, Cora, worked her last day on Friday and she is off to Manila next weekend to rejoin her husband. It will be a transition for me as I will be working without a direct assistant for most of February. Anthony's top assistant, Connie, is also out effective Friday on a medical leave. She will have surgery on Tuesday to remove a tumor that is attached to one of her ovaries. My new assistant, Veronica, will be backing up Anthony as he produces about $55,000 -$60,000 a month in net retained income and helps pay the bills and keep the lights on. I will work with Cindy in the office, who is the assistant to Renee. Connie is expecting to be well enough to continue work from home by the end of February and she will return to the office in Mid March. At that time Veronica will be working with me and Gail in the office. I've decided to attempt to reduce staff because I have some great young talent in the office that I need to boost their salaries and I want to use the fact that we will end up with a net reduction in salaries after the increases to sell this to upper management. I am in the middle of reviews right now and then will move on to salary administration and handle the raises and promotions for 2012. Fun times in River City.
Darla and I took Cora out to lunch on Wednesday and gave her our personal goodbyes. Friday, we had sixteen of the staff go out to Olive Garden to send Cora off in style. We returned to the office about 1:30 and I used the men's room.
This is a potty story so be prepared. I went in and there was a God awful reek in the room. I was washing my hands when the toilet flushed and an older fellow who I had never seen emerged. He was white as a sheet and sweating profusely. I asked him if he was okay and he said that he thought he had food poisoning. Suddenly, he jumped and ran back to the stall where I heard him retching and then I heard some splat sounds and a load groan. It turns out that he was firing from both ends simultaneously and hadn't got his pants down. I again asked if there was anything I could do for him and he asked me to wait. He emerged from the stall about five minutes later carrying his underwear that were loaded and dripping all over. He tried to to stuff them in the trash receptacle and spewed debris all over the wall. Some of it even got on me as I tried to dodge the onslaught. I'm about 9 when it comes to poop stories and started to laugh, but the guy looked about ready to die. I asked if I could call someone or get him some help. It turns out it was his first week with the other insurance company on our floor and he was too mortified to walk back into his office with his poopy pants. He had tried to call his wife who dropped him off at work and was in another office building not far from ours, but she hadn't answered either the office phone or the cell. He sheepishly asked if I could drive him over to her office, that he had keys to the car and could at least get the car and go home and clean up. Now, I am not a total neat freak, but my car is always clean and immaculate and the idea of this guy getting into my clean car was not sitting well with me. I had a towel in my gym bag, so I set that out on the passenger seat and rolled down all of the windows and drove him over to his car. He wanted to shake hands and was thanking me profusely, but I was all of a sudden Howie Mandell and just waved at the guy and wished him well. The car reeked and my gym towel had a silhouette of this guy still on it. I threw it in the trunk and rolled down the windows and opened the sun roof. I also sprayed some car deodorizer on the carpet to mask the smell.
When I got back to the office, it was in an uproar. One of he guys had gone into the restroom and it was thrashed by this guy. There were piles of excrement all over the walls and floor of the stall and the smell was emanating into the hallway. Anthony had put a sign on the door that read "Bathroom closed. Do not enter. (Trust Me!)" I called a couple of the guys into my office and told them the story and we were all in tears laughing about it. How did I get involved in that? The guys thought it was hilarious because they know how I am about my car. It will be interesting to see if the guy shows up for work on Monday or just decides to retire.
We finished 2011 very strong and were up a little over 7% in written premium and over 19% in net retained income and I am thrilled with the results. We made over $800,000 in profit and I am shooting for $1,000,000 in 2012. I will be giving up a lot of my agents this year to Matt and concentrating on my local agents and doing marketing with the younger underwriters. Matt and I have a trip planned up to Chico on Thursday of this week to have him meet my agents up there and take them on. It is a tough decision for me, because I have always been an active underwriter even over the years that I have been managing the office, but I have too many people now and I can't give the customer service to the agents that they deserve. Matt is 29 years old and hungry and will be able to get out and market to the agents and will also give them first rate service. I will probably end the year with just $1,000,000 in written premium after I give Matt a lot of my agents, but it is time. I think I will see him grow a lot of these agents to levels they haven't been with us in years. It will be a tough transition, but I will be able to do more mentoring and concentrate more on marketing to the agents and getting out with all of the underwriters to do marketing calls.
I did play golf both days this week. I snuck out yesterday afternoon and played the white tees with an older couple that were using one of those golf cards to try out different courses. I shot a 41+41=82 and thoroughly enjoyed both of them as we told jokes and learned a bit about each other. Today was our Super Bowl tournament and my driver decided to give me fits today. It was one of those days where my scrambling was excellent. I chipped in on two holes for par and sunk at least five putts of over 20 feet . I shot 40+43=83, but maybe hit five drives that were in the fairway. I played with Boyd who shot 82, Tom who shot 80 and another 4 handicapper who shot 83. It was the type of day that if I was driving the ball well, would have shot in the mid 70's. Oh well.
It was my Mother-in laws birthday this week and she turned 70. Earl and Frances came into town on Saturday and treated all of us to dinner last night at the Outback Steakhouse. It was fun and and we enjoyed the meal and the conversation. Alicia and Don joined us along with Lucas, who was pretty well behaved for a 17 month old.
Darla has been hot and heavy on the Silpada trail, having parties Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today. In fact she just got home and it is 6:45 PM. She is bound and determined to get back on the incentive trip list. The group is going to Oahu in January of next year and she wants to go and maybe stay over and visit her brother on the big island.
Pete and I in my office will be returning to Scottsdale in March for what is becoming our annual trip to see our carriers and to see some Spring Training baseball. Our carrier partner, Colony, has again offered the use of their corporate apartment and this year we will have the ladies fly in with us for Saturday and Sunday and then Pete and I will stay over Monday and Tuesday to see all five of our carriers. We will also have dinner on Saturday night with one of our carrier underwriters and her husband. We will be there in the middle of Spring Break, Spring Training and over St Patty's Day. We will leave on March 16th and stay until the 20th. The girls will fly home on Sunday night.
Well, that's it. Sorry for the poop story, but it is blog worthy, as Darla calls it. Not one to tell over dinner though. I hope you are all doing great. Be well and keep living in the Lord. Ciao.
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