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Monday Morning Motivation Week of August 19

Last week we discussed strategies to become “the authority” on your topic. Here are a few more strategies to consider.

It’s no surprise that I LOVE starting the week (and everyday) with words of wisdom. Today’s are:

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show them.”
– Steve Jobs

3. Know Your Audience and Add Real Value

Knowing your audience is the core of the marketing process—without it, you wont know your audience’s pain.

Seek to understand the personal goals, frustrations, and daily struggles of the individuals included in your audience.

What do I mean by being “real”? People think frequently and often, “What’s in it for me?”

 You need to be seen by your clients as something they value and can use. This will aid in making a real connection with them so you can be a reliable resource.

4. Be Consistent

Consistency is a key component to establishing your reputation as an authority and building the trust that comes with the reputation.

5. Engaging With Your Community

Cement your position as an expert in your community by being open and engaging with them.  This doesn’t mean just placing a small sponsor add in an events fundraiser booklet or responding to comments and answering questions.  You need to get out and meet your “tribe” through volunteering at events, community and fundraisers. Additionally, have conversations with them by asking what they need. Most importantly, follow up and through based on your conversations.

6. Build Relationships With Experts and Influencers

Reach out to experts and influencers within your niche and in related niches that target the same audience that is your best customer. These folks are strategic alliances and could be your best referral source.

While it takes time and work to position yourself as an authority in your field, the benefits you receive will be worth the investment.

As the most trusted expert, whether you are a real estate agent, mortgage professional, builder etc., you will be the first choice in the minds when they need to hire someone that provides the services that you offer.  This is because you have not only helped them to know, like and trust you, but you have also clearly demonstrated the expertise that proves you can help them solve their problems or overcome their challenges.

Please review ALL of my Monday Morning Motivation blogs HERE

Visit us anytime online for tips and training on how to build your business. Click here!

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Monday Morning Motivation Week of August 12

I LOVE starting the week (really everyday) with words of wisdom.
Todays are: 

“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”
~ Meredith Hill

For the last few weeks, we have been talking about niches and niche marketing.

There are so many choices and options today when people are looking to solve a challenge or problem. 

How do they make that choice?

One way is that they find a trusted expert or authority who has built a relationship with them and has proven their expertise on their topic.

When your community needs someone that offers YOUR products or services, will you be TOP OF MIND and  the authority they turn to for assistance?

Here are some strategies to become “the authority” on your topic:

1. Focus on a niche

Don’t be the proverbial “ jack-of-all-trades and master of none”.  If you want people to see you as an authority, specialize in something.  Pick a niche that narrowly focuses on your ideal Customer. With this level of specialization, you can focus on what they need and/or want. You will be better able to personalize your message to speak directly to your ideal client(s) and connect with them emotionally. This is vital to your success in becoming an authority.

Don’t be afraid to experiment until you find the right niche for your business and community.

 2.  Choose the right channels. 

Once you have chosen your niche, you must also select the right channels to share your knowledge and expertise.  You don’t want to waste your time sharing your knowledge in place where your community is not spending their time.

Do you know if they spend their time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, or somewhere else?

Knowing this will increase your engagement with your future clients based on your relevant, focused  content.

Next week, stay tuned for item #3: Adding real value by knowing your audience.

Please review ALL OF MY Monday Morning Motivation blogs. Visit us anytime online for tips and training on how to build your business. Click on the link: https://www.vargasinsurance.com/blog/category/monday-motivation

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Monday Morning Motivation Week of July 22nd

I LOVE starting my week with positive words of wisdom. This week’s are:

We have to get back to the beauty of just being alive in this present moment. ~ Mary McDonnell

Last week I started talking about being present, I talked about my trip out to Phoenix and how I was not being present with my wife, Kathy.

My second thought to paying attention is to remember that our time together is limited.

If there are changes you want to make in your personal or business life, start now. There will never be a better day to begin making improvements than today.

Don’t keep putting off the things that you want to do or should be doing. For example:

  • if you want to start eating more healthy foods, go to the grocery store and buy healthy food, buy supplies to start your own garden
  • If you need to exercise more, go for a walk tonight or find a buddy and work out
  • Is your relationship with your spouse wavering? Spend alone time talking tonight
  • Do you want a new job? Start sending out resumes. Tomorrow is promised to no one

You cannot continue to waste time thinking that you’ll take care of your issues at some later date.

Your family, your career, and your whole life are happening right now. If you don’t take any action to maintain or increase your happiness, life will pass you by. It’s okay to plan for the future, and big decisions should not be taken lightly, but you have to live your life daily without creating regrets.

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Monday Morning Motivation Week of July 15th

I LOVE starting my week with positive words of wisdom. This week’s are:

The best way to learn to be present and develop presence is to have the experience of someone you respect and admire being present with and for you. ~ Mark Goulston

As I have mentioned in earlier emails, I was a speaker at IAOA in January. This gathering, our country’s youngest and brightest independent insurance agents, is one of the highlights of my year.

The trip started with our airplane ride to Phoenix. I don’t know what you do on an airplane, but I usually work writing blogs, creating  posts and/or laying out chapters ideas for the book I’m writing.  

Suddenly, I got a look from my wife, Kathy that screamed, “hey, I’m over here, why aren’t we communicating?”  

I put my laptop away, we watched a movie, fell asleep and had a great flight.

The conference is 2 ½ days of presenters and break-out sessions all day. The event is choreographed so that all of the members in attendance get maximum exposure to one another. Kathy spent this time by the pool, visiting the local things to do and working on her hobby.

When the conference was over, we hung out for a couple of days to enjoy the weather, but so did many of the other independent agency owners. And everywhere that we went at the hotel, we ran into each other and started chatting about how we’re doing, what we’re doing and our “secret sauces”. 

One of the agents asked me if I was afraid of sharing my secret sauce.  I replied, “you may already know the sauce, but you still have to cook it.” I borrowed that from a chef friend of mine!

Here are a few of the most common barriers that keep us from being present and mindful:

  • Thinking about the past and the future
  • Multitasking
  • Being in denial
  • Obsessing on thoughts or observations
  • Pushing away thoughts or observations
  • A lack of intention
  • A lack of compassion
  • Judging, analyzing, criticizing or evaluating

Judgment is one of the most common ways that keeps you from being mindful. Whether you are judging your experience as good, bad or ugly, it’s an obstacle to being fully present in the moment. We do this all the time. Everyone does. The way to do it less is to notice it and move your thoughts on and not let judging interfere with your ability to be mindful. It’s ironic isn’t it? You have to be mindful about being mindful.

Try spending a few days noticing all the judgments you make throughout the day: 

  • “What is that lady wearing?” 
  • “Yuck, this food is gross!” 
  • “I should not be the one handling this!” 

Any time you catch yourself playing Judge Judy, notice it, label it as a judgment, and resist the temptation to judge yourself for being judgmental. More irony, right?

Pay Attention!

When I came to this realization, my first thought was paying more attention to Kathy. I know how I feel when people don’t listen to me or pretend like they’re listening to me, so I have to apply the Golden Rule:
Treat her as I want to be treated.

This one is easy because I want to treat my wife better than I want to be treated. There’s an episode of the Cosby show (sorry), “The Dead End Kids Meet Dr. Lotus” when Theo is given great advice from his father. He’s told to repeat these words: “I will pay more attention to my partner.” 

Remember  “Tomorrow isn’t promised, all we have is today.'”
~ Sylvia Solomon

My second thought? Next week!

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Monday Morning Motivation Week of July 8

I LOVE starting my week with positive words of wisdom. This week’s are:

“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.” ~ Mark Zuckerberg

Last week, I talked about the responsibility of small business owners. Facebook is a good example because it’s where many people spend their day (and nights) scrolling.

There are two primary features:

● Personal Profile (Get over the fact that we, as marketers, need to share with the world ourselves and our families, warts and all! People want to do business with you and not a sanitized version of you.

● Posts 

Profile 

  • What is the One Job of your profile?
  • What is the One Measurement of your profile?

Posts

  • What is the One Job of a specific post?
  • What is the One Measurement of a specific post?

There are of course a variety of post types. You could have a picture, a video and/or a story (includes a picture or a video). You can now add polls and all sorts of things.

But isn’t it easier to think about One Post at a time? A few thoughts:

  • Gathering friends and followers is not the NUMBER ONE job of your profile.
  • Gathering followers is not the job of EVERY post.

For example: A post may have the specific job of featuring a video about the newsletter topic you are writing about tomorrow. You may want to point people to your “link in the profile” where they can sign up to your newsletter.

  1. The post points to the profile.
  2. The profile has the link that points to the page.
  3. The job of the page is to get people to engage with us and sign up for our newsletter.
  4. The job of the newsletter welcome email is to set the stage for what’s to come and on and on.

The real beauty of One Number (and One Job, One Measurement, One Source) is the simplicity. It narrows our focus and aligns our efforts, making it easier to know you’re on the right path (or not).

That’s it for this series! I would LOVE to know what you think of my messages over these last few weeks. Send me an email or connect with me on social media.

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Monday Morning Motivation

As you know, I LOVE to start my week with positive words of wisdom. This week’s are:

“With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything.”
~ Antoine Griezmann

Last week I finished with creating a NUMBER ONE for you! To do this, you’ll want to clearly list your goal and your approach.

The approach is where we’ll find the ONE NUMBER.

If your goal is $120,000 a year in revenue, then your average monthly goal is $10,000 a month.

The number 10,000 the goal broken down to a more achievable number. 10,000 is not your ONE NUMBER.

Let’s break it down further.

If you sell houses or mortgages and on average, your commission is $2,500 per sale. That’s 4 houses or mortgages a month to hit your goal.

Note, 4 is not your ONE NUMBER either because this is a goal, not the approach.

  • How much effort does it take to get to the closing table?
  • What effort are you applying now to get to the closing table?

The answer to these questions is your ONE NUMBER.

If you know that face-to-face meetings will help to get to 4 sales per month, then the number of face-to-face meetings could be your ONE NUMBER.

Your Turn!

* What’s your goal?
* What’s your approach?
* What kind of effort will it take you to get there?

Write it down.

● Goal

● Approach ← this is where you derive your ONE NUMBER

● Effort Troubleshooting Your ONE NUMBER

There’s a huge likelihood that you won’t pick your ONE NUMBER correctly the first time.

Often times, we accidentally pick the goal number and mistake it for the approach number.

The Goal is the finish line. The approach is how we get there.

Goals include:

  1. Revenue is a goal
  2. The number of homes sold in a set period of time
  3. Making 150 calls to get referral partners is the goal.
  4. Getting face to face with houses or mortgages buyers is the goal.
  5. Getting to the top of the mountain
  6. Learning the best path to the top of the mountain

The ONE NUMBER is how you get there.

This may take a little work, but this is important as you set out to achieve your goal.

The secret of priority management is working on the tasks that move the goal forward.

It’s not about getting stuff done. It’s about getting the RIGHT stuff done.

Pick your ONE NUMBER, even if you change it in a week or two later. It’s important.

One Job

Let’s apply this to marketing. Next week!

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Monday Morning Motivation

You know that I LOVE to start my week with positive words of wisdom. Here we go:

“Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night. -Michael Jordan

Last week, I’m sure I kept you in suspense with what I mean by “Goals vs. Effort”.

The concept of ONE NUMBER is separated into three areas:

  • Goal
  • Approach
  • Effort

Example: What is the effort necessary to (literally) climb that mountain.

We review the trail map: there are 30 paths to get us there:

  1. Some are difficult and challenging
  2. Some are manageable
  3. Others are that smooth green line AKA “a cake walk.”

The last one, more often than not, may be a likely option for some of us to take. However, we decide to plan the excursion.

We train by going to the gym for a month, and hit the stephill climber in anticipation of the mountain climb. This is the effort.

We have our provisions: we bring a liter of water and two energy bars.

Some of us worry about the goal. We may commence a level of effort we deem necessary to achieve the goal. We may not spend enough time thinking about the right approach for our goal. We may apply a lot of effort with no particular approach in mind. This could lead to us not attaining the goal to our satisfaction.

The magic is choosing and sustaining the approach. This will help to identify if there is an approach problem or an effort problem.

Let’s Create a ONE NUMBER for You!

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Morning Motivation – Week of June 10

I LOVE starting my week with positive words of wisdom. These words inspire me. I LOVE sharing the same words of wisdom with you for inspiration too! This week’s words of wisdom are:

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
~ Tony Robbins

Last week, I talked about setting up your “Number One” goal.  An example of a goal could be focusing your marketing and sales efforts by understanding how to leverage your “One Number.”

Wait!
You may be asking, did he say “number one” or “one number?”  
I said BOTH!

When I’m talking about a “number one” goal, it’s not the same as your top priority goal. For example, growing top line revenue is a primary goal.

What, then, is a ONE NUMBER goal?

The ONE NUMBER goal is a measurable numerical digit that you choose that relates to a desired outcome based on a list of goals that will grow your business.

Let’s get specific with using MY NUMBER ONE goal setting as an example:

The Goal:
I want to add to our list of referral partners.
Therefore, 5 is my ONE NUMBER goal. You choose the “by when” date.

Action Steps:
-I establish the number of calls I need to make to find new potential referral partners.
-I set out to make 30 calls weekly to prospective referral partners.
-I secure 1 to 3 new appointments with prospective referral partners.
In my experience, 3 appointments on average becomes 1 new referral partner.

Outcome:
I need a list of 150 referral partners to get 15 appointments to get 5 new referral partners.

The “ONE NUMBER” goal is 5 referral partners.

Next week: Goal vs Approach vs Effort!

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Morning Motivation – Week of June 3

I LOVE to start my week with positive words of wisdom and here are this week’s:

“And what is the greatest number? Number one. ~ David Hume

We all have things that we want to achieve in our lives:
* Getting into the better shape
* Building a successful business
* Raising a wonderful family
* Writing a best-selling book
* Winning a championship

….and so on, and so on, to name just a few.

For most of us, the path to these “wins” starts by setting specific and actionable goals. This is how I approached my life, until recently. I would set goals for classes, for weight-lifting at the gym, and for the type of clients I wanted to attract to my business.

However, I realized that when it comes to actually accomplishing the tasks it takes to make progress with those specific goals, there is a better way to approach this process.

It comes down to the difference between goals and systems.  Let me explain.

Let’s talk about your goals, specifically your “Number One.”

Goal: Focus your marketing and sales efforts by understanding how to leverage your “One Number.”

Overview:
* One Number
* One Job
* One Measurement
* One Source (at a time)

What is the ONE NUMBER? Stay tuned for next week!

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Morning Motivation – Week of May 20

The new week brings new prospects! Are you ready?

Here are your words of wisdom for the week:

“It pays to cultivate popularity. It doubles success possibilities, develops manhood, and builds up character.” – Orison Swett Marden

Last week, we talked about the importance of bringing traffic to your business website, and I promised to share some sources of “free traffic.” If ever there was a siren song of the digital age, “free traffic” is it!

  • Can you get free traffic to your site?
  • Can you build a business based on this traffic?

The answer is YES and YES. However, you must learn how to do it and you must be consistent with your activities.

Are you ready to get on that “super highway”? (See what I did there?)

Here are the main sources of free traffic:

Search Engines

Get your site listed in the venerated “top ten” search results; this is “organic” content. The most effective way to achieve organic search results is to provide quality content – lots and lots of content.

When your website proves to be a useful resource for visitors, you will do well. If you try and outsmart the search engines to get the traffic, you will be “spinning your wheels” (Oops, I did it again!), and it simply won’t work.

Create a content rich site and the search engines reward you by displaying that site when people search with the keywords within the content you provide. The content must be high quality. It must be original. Check out our Vargas and Vargas blog to see our own humble example.

Free Ads

Free ads are a mixed blessing. Free sounds good, right? They usually don’t work. That’s bad!

If you can get a free ad in a place where ads are usually sold, like the free ad you get for subscribing to classified ad sites that are visited by people, it might be worth the time. Be careful of how much time you invest.

However, the ad blasters and automated submitters do not work in my experience and should probably be avoided.

Articles

Without a doubt, marketing with articles/blogs is the #1 free traffic method. You don’t need to be a professional writer to do this. All you have to do is write a short article 300 to 500 words in length, that describes a problem people face and that provides a few solutions you know people are searching for.

Once your article is written, post to your site and to your social media channels. Submit to article directories, ezines and groups on social media. Some website owners are generous and will share your blog to get the widest possible distribution. However I personally have never had success doing this.

Write and submit an article a week and very soon your website will get interested visitors who are proven to purchase. Or, you may wish to write and post more often. Remember, “lots and lots” of content!

Next week, I will share with you the final two sources of “free traffic.” Stay tuned!

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