Earth Day has come and gone, and I somehow forgot to find a home for a few tasty hyperlinks, which give tips on how to be green at the office.

I was about to send them to the bin when it occurred to me: In these times of climatic peril, it’s really not enough that Earth Day is only 1/365 of the calendar year. In fact, I propose we ditch Monday and replace it with Earthday. No one likes Mondays anyway, and they make up a whopping 15 percent of the entire year. So let’s agree to replace that soul-sapping day with the more inspiring Earthday.

Anyway, without further ado, here are those links I was telling you about. If you’re pressed for time but want to do something green that’s next to effortless, just turn off your computer before you leave the office tonight.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/ten-ways-to-cut-your-carbon-footprint-at-work-459967.html
http://www.thegreenoffice.com/carbon/result.php
http://www.energysavingsecrets.co.uk/ReduceYourCarbonFootprintAtWork.html
http://green.msn.com/Articles/article.aspx?aid=3

Posted by Jeb Foster at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

Our goal with the Agent Blog has always been this: Provide useful sales and marketing tips that can (a) be applied immediately and (b) yield immediate results.

Well, we've recently come across some amazing—and rare—video footage that fits those criteria. Perfectly. The video, which is only a few minutes in length, contains more than just a simple tip or trade secret. Its paradigm-busting, game-changing, totally revolutionary message will change the way you look at insurance sales—and the world. It will help you sell more policies. Heck, it will help you live a more fulfilling life. We're reluctant to show this video since it will likely render this blog moot. (After you watch it, you won't need anymore sales or marketing tips.) But if our goal is truly to help you become a better agent, we cannot in good conscience keep it from you any longer.

Without further ado, here it is.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
 

It's true, according to Finnish researchers who have compared a speeding ticket database with that of all the trading portfolios in Finnish households. From the Consumerist:

Their findings suggest that for these speeders, a sensible long-term investment strategy simply isn't interesting enough for them. They crave the thrill and excitement of churning over their investments more frequently. Each successive speeding ticket and investor received correlated to an 11 percent increase in their portfolio turnover.

According to the findings, people sporting sensation seeking traits can generate behaviors including risky sexual behavior, frequent career changes, drug and alcohol abuse, gambling, and participation in extreme types of sports like bungee jumping or sky diving. Which kind of implies that speedy motorists—at least in Finland—may be of greater risk to insurers than originally thought. :)

Sensation Seeking, Overconfidence and Trading Activity

Posted by Megan Mahan at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Back in 2006, Jeb reported that Mariah Carey took out an insurance policy on her legs:

The thing that lends the body-part-insurance publicity stunt a modicum of credibility is that these stars really do owe a chunk of their paychecks to certain anatomical assets. Although it smacks of self-promotion, the practice has a certain amount of logic behind it.

Which is interesting considering that I've just learned that Tom Jones recently insured his chest hair to the tune of $7 million.**

For a second I wondered how Tom Jones's chest hair positively impacted his timeless career. Then I quickly turned my attention to more important things, like this compilation of Carlton Banks dancing to Tom Jones.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

**This Friday Fun fact was brought to you by holycrapfacts

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Recently, a veteran insurance agent decided to become the proprietor of a web-based t-shirt company. Here’s what his web site, TheBobJohnsonProject.com, has to say:

After 39 years in the insurance industry, the one thing Bob Johnson really wanted to leave behind was his tie. Now recently retired, he has decided to spend his next 39 years in comfort, only wearing his favorite, most well worn t-shirts. He thinks you should, too. In an effort to express his creative side, Bob has taken what he knows best (Insurance and Life), combined them with his wonderfully rich experiences, and has produced your new favorite, old t-shirt.

Bob's web site also prompted this question: What's your second act going to be? Assuming you're hard at work incubating your nest egg, what do you plan to do in your retirement? Stay busy? Head to the lower latitudes and settle into a nice little routine? Start a boutique t-shirt shop?

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

I’m speechless.

The words “sexy” and “insurance” … together … to form the name of a new social networking site for insurance agents.

From the About Us page at SexyInsurance.com:

Sexy Insurance is the world's first social networking site for the sexiest industry on the planet - insurance! The team behind Sexy Insurance is a boutique web 2.0 development shop called Dynamia Interactive. We're set up in Boston. We hope you like the site, and we are ALWAYS open to suggestions!

The site operates much the same way Facebook does. (I know this because I visited Facebook.com for the first time last week … I never said I was on the vanguard of this whole interweb phenomenon.)

Check it out, create a page, and network with your sexy colleagues! Yee haw!

http://www.sexyinsurance.com/

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

‘Twas the day after Christmas when all through the office
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

I hope your Christmas was safe and jolly.

Posting will be light for the next few days; we’ll get back to full speed in January. In the meantime, enjoy the last few days of 2007. You might check out this list of best-of-2007 lists. I’m nostalgic already!

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

How to Survive the Office Party

How to Feel Good About Giving Less

How to Recover from an Eggnog and Champagne Binge (Not that We Encourage Such Things)

How to Re-Gift Without Raising Eyebrows

How to Celebrate Festivus—‘the Holiday for the Rest of Us’

How to Turn Your Boss Into an Elf

Posted by Jeb Foster at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Do you wish that prospects would return your calls? I’m sure you do. But do you also wish that your current clients would stop calling you and wasting your time?

These phenomena may be completely unrelated, but I suspect there is some kind of karmic link between the two, and maybe, just maybe, if you spend more time catering to your current clients, more prospects will call you.

By now I’ve lost any left-brained readers, if not all readers. This line of thought has entered the metaphysical realm, and that’s never been my comfort zone.

But what if?

And if there isn’t a connection, and you’ve put more energy into existing clients than is necessary, what have you really lost? They say it’s up to five times more expensive to get new customers than it is to retain existing ones.

For you new agents out three, that’s not much comfort. You probably consider it a luxury to be hassled by current clients. Who else could you call to erase your karmic debt?

Posted by Jeb Foster at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

A Cautionary Tale

In the spirit of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Chapter I
Roger just insulted a prospect. A very promising prospect...

He innocently referred to the old lady's lap dog as a ‘drop-kick dog,’ and the joke that drew guffaws at the bar last week now draws only cold septuagenarian eyes.

And this after he had twice called her Maude, despite her insistence that he call her Mrs. Tuttle. Each time she corrected him, Roger felt like he was being slapped on the wrist with a cold metal ruler.

Mrs. Tuttle had approached Roger wanting a panoply of expensive insurance products—life insurance, long-term care, annuities. You name it. His pupils had turned into dollar signs.

Continue reading "The Story of Mrs. Tuttle" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
 

What do a doctor with a framed medical school degree on his clinic wall and a peacock with tall, bright feathers have in common? Answer: Expensive plumage. To be more specific, they’ve both got expensive plumage that sends signals, or messages, to potential patients or mates that they are reliable, trustworthy and safe.

In the case of the doctor, the framed degree sends a signal to a patient that a lot of sweat, tuition money and all-nighters went toward earning the credentials to practice medicine. The patient spying the Johns Hopkins medical degree while nervously sitting on the butcher paper receives the comforting signal: I can trust this person to stick the needle in the right place, because they don’t hand out degrees like that to anyone on the street.

Continue reading "Sending expensive and honest signals" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

It's Friday, I'm freaked out about my upcoming public speaking event, and InsureMe has a company-wide meeting all afternoon. So for today, I'd like to introduce you to: Danger Bird.

Danger Bird took a ride on [fellow colleague and author of the InsureMe Affiliate Blog] James' car yesterday morning. He managed to get the whole thing on video. Said video is burning up Digg.com (it was the number one video yesterday) and YouTube (with about 5,000 views).

Check it out for yourself—and pass it on!

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

You've probably been in this situation before: You're talking to a prospect about, say, whole life insurance. You've given them a rate quote, talked about how the policy works and the benefits of it. You go in for the trial close and in return the prospect tells you:

"Maybe."

You're at a crossroads, friend, and you've got to know exactly how to handle the 'maybe' or the prospect is going to walk.

See how Tommy Boy ruins the 'maybe' after the jump.

Continue reading "Don't Ruin the Maybe: Another Sales Lesson from Tommy Boy" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
 

The Clio Awards are the ad industry's equivalent to the Oscars. Straddling the world of commerce and that of art, many of these ads also skirt the edges of decorum. Still, most (if not all) of the winners are have some element of ingenuity. What’s not always clear about the ads, though, is how well they promote their products or services. (You sometimes get the impression that ad agencies make ads to impress their critics from other ad agencies.) Leaving aside effectiveness, most of this year’s winners shine in one area: they’re entertaining.

This spot from Travelers got a nod for visual effects.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Megan
Bio

There are exciting things afoot here at InsureMe which have been keeping us plenty busy today. So, to transition into the weekend, please enjoy this InsureMe classic:

Posted by Megan Mahan at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

There was a great article in last week’s New Yorker about the commuting habits of American workers. The article says the average American spends 51 minutes in transit each way.

(The prize for the longest journey to the office goes to an engineer at Cisco Systems, who travels 372 miles each day to get to and from his job.)

Barring a radical new commitment to public mass transit and a reversal of urban flight, we can expect average commuting times to increase. Further, we can assume that more and more people will use their driving time as an extension of the work day—a scary thought given the data on cell phones and driver distraction.

How long do you spend commuting each way? If your commute is lengthy, what rationale do you use to justify the lost time in transit? What do you do in your car (besides pick your nose)?

Read the New Yorker article.

Leave us a line or two (or as many as you’d like) with your story.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Giving Thanks
It’s time to give thanks that we’re not in the college admissions process.

Some of you may have children who are currently in this dreadful process, waiting, in agony, for word from colleges. You have our sympathies here at the Agent Blog.

Tech Tip 1
Check out this incredibly cool and useful tool that lets you send voice recordings from your phone to your e-mail account. It’s called Jott and it may change your life.

Tech Tip 2
Recently I posted about our increasingly passwordy world. In the comments to that post, the founder of PassPack, a free online password storage service, put in a word for her product. As it happens, I decided to give PassPack a try. The verdict? It’s pretty cool.

NBTOB: New Blog on the Block
There’s a new blog in town. We at the Agent Blog welcome the arrival of the Insurance Industry Blog—the new effort from the indispensable Insurance Information Institute. I’ve already added it to my trusty RSS reader.

Life Tip 1
Don’t let success go to your head—you may end up a real jerk. Here’s proof.

Life Tip 2
While you’re not letting success go to your head, make sure you don’t develop an anxiety problem.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

That's a crazy headline, no?

I spotted this story on Digg.com this morning, which notes that the Thames Valley (UK) police have programmed Homer Simpson's infamous "D'oh!" into their on-board computers. Homer will sound off upon spotting an uninsured driver.

The automatic plate readers also say, "Here's Johnny!" (à la Jack Nicholson from The Shining) when turning up a stolen car, and Dan Aykroyd's famous, “People like this are a menace to decent society," when spotting a car linked to a crime.

Cops say the catch phrases quicken their reaction time.

I'm not totally sure about that, but I'm a fan of anything that makes the work day more interesting. :)

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Say you walk into a Mexican restaurant to order lunch. You get to the front of the line and order the chicken tacos, easy on the guac. In turn, they hand you a veggie burrito.

“I didn’t order a burrito,” you would likely say. “I ordered the chicken tacos.”

Instead of amending your order, the employee says, “Yeah, we heard what you said. But the burrito is actually easier for us to make and we earn $.50 more. We’re pretty sure you want the burrito anyway.”

I’m going to take a shot in the dark here and say if this happened to you, you’d be pretty miffed. In fact, you probably wouldn't be keen on buying anything from that establishment again, regardless of how tasty the veggie burrito was.

And yet, some of you insurance professionals do this to prospects every day: they request one thing; you give them another and call it good.

Continue reading "Tacos, Burritos & The Importance of Listening to Prospects" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Happy Monday, y'all. I hope a phenomenal weekend was had by all and that you have, by now, watched the first Agent Blog Wrap-Up featuring Aurora Borealis. The fan mail is already streaming in. I have a feeling Aurora Borealis is going to take off from here.

Once you've watched the video, don't forget to leave a comment on last Wednesday's post. You could $100. So far no one's posted anything, making your chances of winning...well, pretty awesome.

I've spent most of this afternoon reading up on insurance news and various hot topics through my favorite sales and marketing blogs. A couple things piqued my interest but not enough to send me into a 700-word diatribe. So without further ado, here are today's links:

Not Much Employer Backing for HSAs [The Health Care Blog]
Sidecars (relating to reinsurance) [Specialty Insurance Blog]
Minn. Boy Sues Parents Over Injuries Sustained in Accident [Insurance Journal] Make sure to check out David Rossmiller's stellar commentary of this story here.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Even those who don't celebrate Christmas can surely appreciate the art and skill that went into making a Christmas tree entirely out of soda cans.

The making of this tree looks pretty arduous; there's no disputing the fact that I lack the patience (and the free time) to complete such a task. If time and resources are keeping you from building your own soda can tree, you're in luck. This one's for sale on eBay!

Enjoy the photos and check back here tomorrow afternoon for the final installment of the InsureMe Insurance Blog Wrap-Up—the holiday edition. :)

Posted by Megan Mahan at 02:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Busy day at InsureMe today. We received yet another best place to work award (we were recognized as the number two best place to work by the Denver Business Journal!), gave thanks with a company Thanksgiving potluck, and debuted out new mascot in the InsureMe Insurance Blog Wrap-Up.

I'll be out most of next week (making the insanely long drive back to Iowa), but that doesn't mean the Agent Blog is going on hiatus. Our Director of Marketing, Lori Reed, will pop in with a couple of juicy tidbits. Lori's been on the marketing scene for a long time (but not before dabbling in geology) and she's done great things for InsureMe's agent base. (Check out her bio to learn more.)

So check in with us next week and keep an eye out for Lori's posts. Should be good stuff.

And now, to help you slide into the weekend, I present you with this week's InsureMe Insurance Blog Wrap-Up. Enjoy. :)

[Bonus link]: Check out some extra footage of our dancing mascot. You won't be disappointed!

Posted by Megan Mahan at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

My life is a musical one. Which is why I absolutely loved this recent post on Seeds of Growth: Everything I Know about Business I Learned from Rock-n-Roll.

The post, in turn, got me to thinking...what are some good theme songs for the insurance industry?

Here are the first couple songs that came to mind:

Get A Haircut [And Get A Real Job]—George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Bad Reputation—Freedy Johnston (sadly)
Shake It Up—The Cars
Let Me Down Easy—Chris Isaak (because sometimes the prospect goes with the competition)
Objects It The Rearview Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear—Meatloaf (for our property-casualty friends)

So, I have a good feeling we can add to this. Fire away via 'comments'! I guarantee I'll have more to add in the morning. :)

[UPDATE 10.25.2006]: Take a look at Escape from Cubicle Nation's Top 10 business playlist here.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

My mother's cousin has a farm in rural Iowa. He passed along this photo this morning to let us know how the 2006 harvest was going.

Pretty impressive, to say the least. Hope the owners of these vehicles (can you call a tractor a vehicle?) have good insurance.

Thanks, Lynn!

[Please note: the water jug that has amazingly remained upright on the tractor ladder. That, my friends, takes skill.]

Posted by Megan Mahan at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

You've gotten your insurance license. You're getting tips every day from the InsureMe Agent Blog and Resource Center. You're closing InsureMe insurance leads left and right.

You're enjoying a successful career and you need a classy wallet in which to store your earnings.

Why not try out this replica bacon wallet from Archie McPhee? It's sleek, it's hip and has lots of room for goodies.

Have a good weekend, everyone. :)

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Oh, Friday.

I heard someone once say that they wished every day was Friday. That makes no sense to me. If it was Friday every day, we'd never get to the weekend, right?

Anyway, I found a neat download by way of Lifehacker that I thought I'd pass along to you. It's called the Citrus Alarm Clock, and it allows you to personalize as many alarms as you want, using whichever audio tracks you want. Check out this screenshot and excerpt from Lifehacker, Wendy Boswell:

[...] this week I've got to take the kiddos to about five different places. I set up alarms for said events, with different audio files for each one (Ladysmith Black Mambazo for camp, Mindy Smith for soccer, Rolling Stones for the dentist, etc.)

Citrus Alarm is a free download and is compatible with both PC and Mac. Just think, instead of that irritating Outlook reminder, you could be serenaded by a song of your choosing to remind you of that 1PM appointment with Mr. Client.

Personally, I hate alarm clocks; I don't own one. I can't stand the digital display or the ticking sound of passing hands that comes with a traditional alarm clock. But I'm going to give this a go, both at work and at home. If nothing else, it allows you to personalize your spaces and I'm all in favor of that.

Have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here Monday, same bat time, same bat channel, etc.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

The saga continues for Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt as the pair has now been formally charged with murder for financial gain of two homeless men.

According to a recent LA Times article, federal charges on the two women will likely be dropped to pursue the murder charges, for which they may face the death penalty.

As you may recall, the two women were first arrested on suspicions of mail and life insurance fraud, after two transient men were found dead—with dozens of life insurance policies taken out in their names. Golay and Rutterschmidt allegedly claimed they were relatives of the men in order to collect policy procedes. That's the short version.

The defendants have both pled not guilty and Golay's attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, (okay, I just wanted to say his name) said that his client is innocent and that he's certain they're going to win the trial.

I don't have quite the confidence of Mr. Diamond, not after reading the most recent LA Times article. At first blush, it seems the women were really working the system to get away with such debauchery. Needless to say, I'll post updates here as I catch them.

[Related]:
Previous Agent Blog posts on Golay and Rutterschmidt; here, here and here.
MSNBC's update
KTLA News update [video]

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Knock on wood, the blog hiatus is over.

We're back today with some heavy-hitting insurance news: apparently Sagittarians (Nov. 23rd—Dec.21) have lower insurance rates than their cosmic driving counterparts. At least in the UK anyway.

In new findings reported by the UK firm, MoneySuperMarket.com, Sagittarians apparently file seven percent fewer claims and receive eight percent fewer driving convictions; it seems as if Arians pick up the most claims and convictions, due to their "impatient nature." Naturally.

Here's my favorite quote from the article, as made by MoneySuperMarket's Director of Insurance:

"Some drivers will read more into this than others, but it's fair to say we were surprised how closely this year's claims and conviction statistics mirrored traditional star sign traits."

I can't wait to ask my agent come renewal time if there are any additional discounts available based on my planetary alignment.

Big hat tip to RiskProf for pointing me in the direction of this enlightening article. :)

Posted by Megan Mahan at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

I came across this little story by way of the Insurance Coverage Law Blog today, detailing the events of a class-action lawsuit against American Family Insurance Company. The named plantiff, Manuel Hernandez, died in 2004...but counsel continued to try the case as if he were alive—effectively keeping the plantiff's death a secret.

An Arizona attorney happened upon the truth in March and filed a suggestion of death on behalf of American Family, complete with a copy of Hernandez's death certificate. Consequently, AmFam wanted to know how long the client had been dead. However, counsel has referred all questions to the [dead] client.

Here's an excerpt from the Madison-St.Clair Record:

Millar [Hernandez attorney] has confirmed the death of his client, but he has not answered questions that American Family Insurance submitted about his knowledge of it.

Millar objected to the questions, arguing to [Circut Judge] Stack that American Family Insurance should submit them not to Hernandez's attorney but to Hernandez himself.

Yeah. I'll definitely be filing today's entry under "Peculiar Postings."

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

How many times has this happened to you: you go on a sales call and realize you forgot your calculator. Then comes the onslaught of mental math anxiety (MMA).

Say goodbye to MMA forever with this high-tech pen calculator. (Click the link to see a video of the pen in action.)

Okay, probably not the most practical invention ever, but still worth checking out.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

[Hat tip]: TechEBlog

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

By and large I'm not the biggest fan of radio advertising, although I recognize that it's still a viable advertising medium for some businesses and industries. I think the insurance industry, which is still pretty traditional in nature, can probably extract some value from radio advertising, albeit contingent on a variety of factors.

But despite my general distaste for radio advertising, I was intrigued by a recent AdvertisingAge article, which discussed the prospect of one-second radio spots.

The spots, called Blinks, are second-long commercials, generally featuring audio mnemonics like a word or jingle (the article calls to memory the Intel chime and the NBC bells). Clear Channel Creative Services Group, the brain behind the Blinks, has crafted demonstration spots for McDonalds and BMW's Mini Cooper (the spot features a honking horn with a man's voice saying "Mini" and was placed it before short news briefs, according to the article) and it's starting to generate some buzz.

Though the short spots (which may include three-second Blinks, as well) are only in the concept stage, the real value of Blinks, notes AdAge author Willow Duttge, may be in the publicity they generate. I can see that. I can see a weird or crazy Blink catching my attention, sending me straight to Google with one burning question: What's up with that company?

But before you go running to Clear Channel with a fistful of bills, it's important to consider the contingencies.

Continue reading "One-Second Radio Spots: Could Blinks Help Your Radio Ads?" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
 

We have an update on the story we brought you last month regarding the arrest of two elderly women on charges of mail fraud...and life insurance fraud...and possibly vehicular homicide.

Yahoo! News reported today that authorities are investingating Helen Golay, 75 and Olga Rutterschmidt, 73, in the scam of yet a third homeless man. If you recall, the women are accused of preying on homeless men by offering them room and board in exchange for signatures—which they used to open up life insurance policies on the men, naming themselves as sole beneficiaries. Police caught on to the scam after two homeless men were killed in hit-and-run accidents...and thought it was more than coincidence that the women were named in both men's insurance policies.

So much for a nice, relaxing retirement. Check out the full update here; we'll post new developments as they come. :)

Posted by Megan Mahan at 06:12 PM |