“We commemorate those who improve our gene pool—byremoving themselves from it in the most spectacular way possible.”(Image: Shutterstock)

Are you familiar with the Darwin Awards? From Google: “Chlorinating thegene pool. We commemorate those who improve our gene pool—byremoving themselves from it in the most spectacular waypossible.”

For those in our industry who have created an agency environmentthat embraces change, you should be celebrating thechlorination of the industry pool taking place. May I introduce the“Darwin Awards: Insurance Agency Edition.”

AWARD — I thought you loved me

KevinTrokey is founding partner and coach at St. Louis-basedQ4intelligence.

The remains of T.R. Aditional, a 20-year industry veteran, werefound last month in his office. He was curled up in the fetalposition clutching “love letters” (actually Broker of Recordletters). T.R. will forever be remembered for his catchphrase,“It's a RELATIONSHIP business, you fool!” Upon closer inspection,the BORs weren't love letters. Instead, they were breakup lettersfrom ex-clients who ­needed more than he could offer.

AWARD — Look at me

Agency partners Rocky Starr, Benny Ninja and Chris Ruptormysteriously vanished. They briefly achieved cult-like social mediafame for taking an over-the-top approach to attacking other playersin the market. Despite rumors that they still received 95 percentof their revenue from these sources, they were relentless in theirattacks. The partners were last seen answering the door to a groupof not-so-happy visitors wearing BUCAH jackets.

AWARD — The sky is falling

Ima N. Denial, an agency owner, was found crushed under theremains of her collapsed business. When advised to abandon her oldagency structure and build something more secure, she would lashback, “This structure has always served us well; there is no needto change!” Alas, she wasn't the only victim of her neglect.Countless team members were also lost.

AWARD — I'm so hungry

Joe “Feed Me” Seymour met an untimely, yet also completelyavoidable, demise. “Feed Me” took great pride in only working onreferrals. Those closest to him knew that this really meant hesimply waited for opportunities to show up.

His emaciated book of business is clear evidence that his demisewas the result of malnutrition and ultimately starvation due to thedepletion of his referral pantry.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the pool

Yes, there are two ends of the industry pool, and it's the samesources of change that are driving the two drastically differentoutcomes. In the other end of the pool are those who findthemselves swimming in a blue sea of opportunity. This nextevolution of advisors have the ability to:

• Be seen by clients as the most valuable advisor ontheir team.

• Help clients achieve significant cost savings totheir benefit program, while also increasing the level ofbenefits.

• Grow their agencies at unprecedented rates at boththe top and bottom line.

While one end of our industry pool is being chlorinated, theother is proving to be a fertile sea birthing a new generation ofimpactful advisors.

Darwin would be proud.

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