Show Notes

• The 1%
• How to equip kids for success later in life
• Hard work
• The role “how we think” plays in success
• Ready, FIRE!!
• Making others around us better
• What Greg learned from Horace McKenzie
• Leaving a legacy

Connect With Greg Hatcher

Website: https://www.hatcheragency.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greg.hatcher.77

Summary

Greg Hatcher started The Hatcher Insurance Agency from scratch, and grew it in just three years to become the largest health insurance agency in Arkansas. He discusses why playing sports growing up is “the difference maker later in life,” and other qualities of high achievers.

Full Transcript

Brian  

In 1990, Greg Hatcher started the Hatcher Agency from scratch with a loan from the bank, an assistant, and 500 square feet of office space. Three years later, the Hatcher Agency was named Arkansas Small Business of the Year by Arkansas Business, and it had already become the largest health insurance agency in the state. Greg, and the Hatcher Agency, had been the number one producer ever, since leading the state of Arkansas in health insurance sales every year since the inception of their business in 1990. Greg, and the Hatcher Agency, have earned numerous awards and recognitions, including lifetime status in the Million Dollar Roundtable, which recognizes the top 3% of life insurance producers in the country; and a lifetime Golden Eagle Award by the National Association of Health Underwriters, recognizing the top 1% of health insurance producers nationwide. In addition to his personal and business success, Greg is a magnanimous philanthropist, generously contributing his time, talent, and dollars to causes and organizations not only in Arkansas, but around the country. He has received awards and honors far too numerous to mention. Among his greatest accomplishments, Greg founded the Arkansas Wrestling Association, and helped get wrestling programs started in 65 high schools and in 13 colleges around the state. For his efforts, Greg was inducted into both the Arkansas Wrestling Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. As if that isn’t enough, Greg is also the author of several books, including “55 Steps To Outrageous Service”, and “Every Game Is Won Or Lost Between The Ears:  How To Think Like A Champion”. Welcome, Greg, and thanks so much for joining us on Life Excellence.

Greg  

Good to be here, Brian.

Brian  

Greg, you and I have known each other a long time; we have very similar philosophies about just about everything. I’ve really admired the level at which you do life; I often use the term “action-oriented super-achiever”. I have to tell you, if I had names and photos of everyone I’ve ever known who falls into this category, you would definitely be at or near the top of the list. Greg, every guest I have on the show has achieved excellence in his or her chosen profession and one of my goals for the show is to bring out the qualities that have enabled them to be successful. In today’s show, I’d like to unpack and discuss the success qualities of high achievers. Now, given your history of not only being successful yourself, measured in a multitude of ways, but also your commitment to helping others achieve success as an athletic coach, business owner and mentor, I’m super excited to glean your perspective on what it takes to be the best to be a champion on the field, in the boardroom, and in life. Are you up for that?

Greg  

I’m ready.

Brian  

Alright. Let’s start. Greg, with the concept of 1%, you’ve spoken and written about the idea that – well, of course – everyone wants to be great, everyone wants to be successful, however they define that, but only 1% will actually do what it takes to get there. Tell us more about that. Why isn’t everyone as intentional as you, and others like you, about being the best in every domain of their life?

Greg  

That quote’s coming from one of my books where I had a page at the beginning that said “This book is for the 1% and the other 99% either won’t understand or they simply don’t want to do it.” When I first started out, I thought that everybody could do it or they wanted to do it and my wife used to always say, Greg, they’re just not going to do it. I guess it really gets down to people’s desire, what they want to be. I’ve always believed [what] Zig Ziglar said, “Whatever you can see and believe you will achieve.” If somebody asked what were the three factors that are most important when you’re hiring a super salesperson or a super-achiever – it was actually on a workshop that I was going to – and the three things were kind of interesting; number one was coachability, number two is work ethic and number three was previous success. Really, when you think about it, if you talk about a whole bunch of successful people together, those three things really could be the differentiator. A lot of people, when they get successful, they stop being coachable. Or when they get successful, they stop working hard. I think what worked for me was, I’d had some failures in my life, mainly in sports, where I wanted to be more than I was. So you develop this work ethic to try to overcome those obstacles and before you know it, they become habit. The thing that I love about sales, is that they only count your victories, they don’t count your losses. So if you have that work ethic, and you just keep going, there’s never enough. In other words, I’m not money motivated, I’m win/lose motivated. So a lot of salesmen, if they get out there and they do well, they’ll sit on their laurels and make enough money. I’ll go home – I never did it for the money, I did it to win. So you just keep coming and that work ethic becomes a habit. So I think you become what your habits are. And I think, getting beat in the wrestling room, not getting as many hits as I wanted on the baseball field, the struggles that I had in sports; I was such an over-achiever and hard worker there that when they unleashed those same traits on the business world, it was really, really easy, because in the business world, people don’t have coaches that are yelling at them to do their best. They’re not necessarily the best trained athletes. When you’re a college athlete and you’re going against other college athletes, they are at the absolute peak, and you go in the real world, it’s just the average Joe. And if you can keep the that same intensity and those same traits, it’s easy to achieve in business. There have certainly been plenty of athletes that get out of shape and stopped doing all the things they did to be great. But if you can hang on to those good things, I think it makes it really easy in the business world. So a desire to get better every day is really important. A lot of people, they get out of college, they think they’re through learning. I’m still going to sales workshops and still reading books on how to get better. I’d say, if you ask me what’s the number one thing, I would say it’s the coachability and desire to get better.

Brian  

What does coachability mean to you? You’ve mentioned that a couple times. What does it mean if you’re interviewing people for positions in your company or just assessing that with anybody? What does that look like to you?

Greg  

It just means the constant ability to learn to get better, to not think that they’re through learning [and] that they have to still do it their way. I have salesmen that come see me and they’re like, can I ride with you for a day? Can you tell me what the secret is to sales success? I have different answers over the years and different times, but one of the ones that really was interesting to me is I always ask people now who’s your number one competitor. We did it today in a staff meeting; we had some young guys [and] I said, hey, who’s your number one competitor, and the guy named another competing insurance agency. I laughed, and I said, no, that is not the right answer. We asked around and somebody got it right. They said, time is our number one competitor. When you are doing all the things right, your only competitor is time. So it gets down to an efficiency level. Imagine you had two salespeople, they both knew their product better than anybody else in the world, they both were motivated, they both were well dressed, they both were coachable. They both were smart, they both had great people skills. And you’ve put them off to the races to see who would sell. You think, well, that it could be very close. But if one of them is a much better time manager than the other, over time, he will murder the other because both salespeople can sell every time they’re in front of the customer, but who’s smart enough to not do paperwork between eight and five? Who’s smart enough to, when they’re in the car, be on the cell phone the entire way, not listening to the radio; who’s smart enough to dictate their emails versus type. It’s all these little factors. I had a salesman come in one time, he says, hey, Greg, I want you to help me on sales. And I said, well, first of all, tell me about your time management. He said, well, I don’t need any help in that regard. I’m at the highest level. And I said, are you now? I said, I learned in wrestling that there are different levels. I thought I knew a lot about wrestling until I started coaching with a guy that was a four time NCAA Champion and Olympic Trials finalist and World Champion. We were working on some stuff, he goes, no, no different level, this is a different level. So I asked him, I said, well, since you don’t need any help on it, tell me what you do when you go to the restroom. And he looked at me and said, well, I go to the restroom. I said, well, then you’re not at my level because I’m working even if I’m in the restroom; I’ve never gone to the restroom and not had my phone with me. So there are different levels. That’s kind of a crude example, but literally, I’ve never wasted those minutes. And so they add up over time. It’s really just wanting to be a no limit person trying to be the best you can be. And I don’t do it because I feel stress or pressure, I just, at some point, I developed habits to try to get it all done so I could go to my kids practices and their games and other things that were important. I just learned to be extremely efficient. Even if a person’s a better salesperson but they’re not as efficient, the efficient guy’s gonna win.

Brian  

Now that’s great stuff. I appreciate you sharing that, Greg. Greg, sports have been part of your entire life and you’ve mentioned wrestling, you’ve mentioned sports, in a couple of different ways. Growing up, you played sports, I think you played three varsity sports all four years at Alma College, which is where we both went to school. You’ve also invested a tremendous amount of time coaching all five of your kids’ sports teams. You feel so strongly about its importance that you’ve called sports the difference maker in life. Again, you’ve mentioned it in every one of your answers already – sports. What do kids learn through athletic competition that equip them for success later in life? Why are sports so important? How did it help you translate what you’ve learned on the field or on the wrestling mat or on the court, into the marketplace?

Greg  

Well, I’ve learned so much from sports. John Smith is the head coach at Oklahoma State for wrestling. He told me once, he said, Greg, for a guy who’s really, really successful, your greatest success is that you were able to produce extremely competitive kids in a really affluent environment. He said, it almost never happens. If dad’s become really successful and has nice things, kids just…it just doesn’t happen very often. I said, well, what I love about sports is you can’t buy your success. There’s no way to do it; you have to go out there and compete against somebody else. And you have to pay the price for that success, you have to put in the work ethic to do it. So I love, for my kids…I didn’t grow up trying to be successful or affluent or have money or those things. It just kind of happened as a result of my struggle, frankly, in sports, that made me have such a work ethic; because it was important to me that when I developed it, I couldn’t stop doing it. I’ve always told my kids, I don’t care how much you win, I just want you to be the hardest worker on the team. If you’re the hardest worker on the team, we can live with the results. Well, what’s happened is they – all five – put forth that kind of effort, but due to some success, I was able to a coach them, and B, get other coaches that were really good. So when hard work meets opportunity with good coaching, good results occur. I would not say that any of my kids are freak athletes, they don’t jump high, they don’t run faster than other people, they’re not necessarily bigger. I will say that they can run farther than other people. In other words, the one gene that we have is that we can run marathons. We have the endurance gene, and if I only had to have one gene, I’ll take that one because that will let you do all the hard work. I’m proud to say all five of my kids became way better athletes than I did. I don’t think their genes are any better; I just think better work ethic from an earlier age with better coaching and great desire. I’ve often said, you can learn everything you need to know in business on the sports field. Would you rather have a 4.0 graduate that doesn’t know how to compete or would you rather have a 3.0 graduate that absolutely will fight you tooth and nail until the end? It’s really hard to beat somebody that never, ever gives up. And so, I love the combination of good students with good athletics, good athletic background, but most of all, kids that will compete. When I hire people at the agency, I want athletes, because I know they’ve had to be on a team [to] get along with others, that they’ve had struggles, that they’ve had somebody in their launch, and that they have to keep working through obstacles. One of the things we say in wrestling is wrestle through it, they’ll wrestle through those obstacles; doesn’t mean we won’t hire somebody that’s not an athlete, but it certainly is a plus. I can always tell when I’ve hired someone who was not a teammate, because they have trouble being a good teammate. Sometimes, even if they’re from an individual sport, they don’t know how to sacrifice for others, it’s too self-focused. So I love some team sports, love some individual sports, like wrestling where you’re out there all by yourself, and you have to figure it out. So it’s a long answer.

Brian  

That’s okay. You mentioned kids, you mentioned that you occasionally hire people who haven’t played sports. I wanted to ask you about that, because lots of kids play sports, probably most kids play sports, and you know that some kids just aren’t built that way. In your experience is there another background or other activities outside of sports that you look at and say, hey, this is an example of what I’m talking about, even though it didn’t involve sports?

Greg  

Well, I’m going to give you my real answer. I’m not worried about politics, or whether it’s politically correct, but one of the things that I have learned is that when a person becomes a mother or a father, they become a much better employee. Because when you become a mother or a father, you learn to quit just looking at things from your perspective, you have a higher power, your kids are almost always more important to you than yourself. So they learn how to sacrifice, they have to get more organized to get it all done in the day, they have to get along with others, at school or with other parents, it’s like they just grow up. Consequently, when someone is not married, not in a good relationship, sometimes they don’t know how to do that as well. So, there are lots of factors; I’ll look at how they get along with others, what kind of parent they are, is this the kind of employee that we’re going to want or not want – so a lot of those. I also say that working out fixes about everything. Every day I come to work, there are 50 people with their hands out. They want this, they want that; whether it’s money, time, somebody’s always grabbing at me. Well, I never go to work anymore…I work out seven days a week. I never show up to work if I haven’t worked out because if I haven’t gotten those endorphins going, if I haven’t gotten the stress out, somebody might do something [and] I might react badly. For example, the Will Smith incident at the Oscars. Would that have occurred, in my mind, if he would have done an hour bike ride before he showered and went to the Oscars? Probably not. Because it just calms you down on all the intensity. But if you didn’t get enough sleep, if your cup’s full and something goes the way you didn’t want it, you might do something silly and then it costs you forever. So I’ve learned over the years, those nights when I’m like, I don’t have time to work out this morning, I’ll just go in. I bite somebody’s head off unintentionally, because there’s so much coming at me every day. So I’ve learned to do that and it calms me down and keeps me in shape and gets my endorphins going and I make better decisions.

Brian  

That’s something I’ve always admired about you. We’ve had the occasion to attend meetings where we’ve traveled together and we’ve been staying in the same same hotel. And I have to say, I don’t think there’s one morning where we’ve stayed in the same hotel to attend an event where I haven’t seen you in the gym. And if there was, it’s probably because you were either there before I got there, or maybe you were coming after I got there. That’s always impressed me about you. The comment about the askers is a nice segue into talking about mindset. You wrote the book, “Every Game Is Won Or Lost Between The Ears:  How To Think Like A Champion” and that’s a book about mindset. We could talk about this concept alone for hours but Greg, help us to understand the essence of mindset, and the role how we think, plays in success.

Greg  

Well, one of my favorite lines is “The game is not won in the game, the game is won before the game.” Another way of saying that is, the horses are in the barn, okay? There’s nothing you can do now, your preparation prior to the game really determines the outcome. It’s not like…I know we have gamers, some people that play better with the lights on, but for the most part, those people that play better with the lights on, in my opinion, have paid the price and know they deserve to win when the opportunity comes. So they’re willing to take the shot to win. We don’t win every time. But I wrote “Between The Ears:  How To Think Like A Champion” based on all my coaching experiences and another guy who I coached with – of youth athletes, all five of my kids – and every time something would happen, I’d say that’s another chapter. My son is the quarterback for Texas State University right now, that’s a division one school in the Sunbelt. He started at Alabama and Arkansas State. He started for three years now as a college quarterback – off and on sometimes, you rotate in and out – but there are so many predicaments that he’s going to be in or could be in. I’m always telling him, you have to know the answer before you get there. If you’re in a situation where there’s drugs, you better know the answer, [you] can’t make a decision then. Are you going to help your teammates? Are you going to stop this or that from happening? Are you going to play it safe? Are you going to go forward and throw the deep ball? If it’s there, are you going to watch your film after every game, whether it’s good or bad? All of these things are part of the mindset to his success. When I dropped him off at Alabama his freshman year, I just told him, you go to practice, you go to another practice on your own and you do extra film on your own. If you do that for five years, when you’re all done, if you’re drafted in the first round of the NFL or if you never play it down, you can live with that, but anything less than that you may have trouble living with it. Well, I can’t motivate an 18 year old with a talk like that. I can just state the facts. But he’s done it every year. He’s in year five right now and he’s done it every year. He’s on track to be able to live with whatever the outcome is. And that book has story after story. For a youth athlete, or even a high school or even a college or pro-athlete, if they read it and they bought in, you almost couldn’t go wrong. So I really enjoyed writing that book. When my mother read it she said, I finally understand you after 40 years. She never really understood until she read that book.

Brian  

Greg, a lot of what you’ve been talking about – and in the story where you’re describing your son at Texas State – is about going the extra mile. Now it’s a concept; everybody knows what that means. It’s not rocket science and yet not everyone strives to be the best. Why do you think that is? What opportunities does that create for people who are driven and willing to work hard?

Greg  

I’m going to answer that in a roundabout way. I had four daughters and one son. And my son, I was always playing him up a year or two in the early years. Sometimes he played on a football team where he was one or two years younger. So he never felt like he was a superstar and he wasn’t quite as sure of himself. That really continued for a long, long period of time in his life. So you’re always coaching people differently. For him, it was always…I told him he could do it. I always told him I was sure he could do it. I envisioned in the future him doing it. And just think how powerful that is, when you’re a six or seven year old kid and your dad thinks you can do it. That makes a big difference. Even as a college athlete, I always let him know, or as a high school athlete, I let him know I always thought he’d be a college athlete. He’s a college athlete, I always let him know I think he’s as good as anybody in the NFL. And so that affects the outcome. If he’s not, I tell him it’s okay to live with that too. But in the end, I always go back to – you’ve heard Nick Saban say “It’s about the process, not the result.” I always go back [to] if you put the work in, it’s going to work out. I always remind him, if you’re going up there every night until 10 o’clock working and the other guy’s not, even if the other guy is a little better, over time, you will pass him up. We’re now to the point where when you pay the price and put in those kind of hours, there’s only a few people on the planet who do that and so it deserves success. When I started my insurance agency, I was 28 years old. I came to the office at six in the morning, I worked until six at night, then I was home until nine o’clock to see my wife and one child. And then I went back nine to midnight. That was my day for one year, I didn’t buy a new pair of socks, I didn’t buy new shorts, nothing. I was on a credit line and I had to be successful. I just made the commitment that I’m going to do those things. Well, it’s not surprising that we grew and that I was able to do better than most other insurance agents because they weren’t putting in that price. They weren’t paying that price. So same thing in life, if something’s important to you, and then sometimes you have to do it to survive. I had to do it to survive, to be sure that we were successful.

Brian  

You mentioned the cost, that the excellence or going the extra mile comes at a cost. You alluded to it a little bit. But if you could tell us more about it, what sacrifices do people have to make to be the best? And why is it worth it? Surely you talk about that in the Hatcher Agency with agents. Tell us more about that?

Greg  

Well, that’s a great question and I love giving you the answer. I am always telling my kids, that of all the people I’ve coached, all the agents that I’ve worked with, that not one of them that paid the price ever said the price was too great. They all would tell you it was worth paying the price to be better. One of the examples Tom Peters used in his book “In Search of Excellence” was he said if you play a basketball game and one team scores 100 points and other scores 99, that one’s a winner and one’s a loser. If you do that 30 times in a row and you’re only 1% better than your competition, you win all the time. So it’s worth doing just a little extra. Zig Ziglar talks about trying to get water out of the well; when you start pumping and you prime the pump and you start pumping the well to try to get the water out, you don’t know if it’s 20 pumps or 21 or 101 or 105, but if you’ll stay with it until the water comes then you get all the water you ever wanted once you get it flowing. Well, it’s the same way in business and sports, etc. I don’t know what it’s going to cost but whatever it’s going to cost we’re going to pay the price and once we paid the price, we’ve got success, and it’s always worth it.

Brian  

That’s great. I just wanted to make sure I touched on…you had talked a little bit earlier about how you encouraged your son, how you told him that [he] was a great player, that he had NFL potential. I call that concept “holding a vision for someone until they can hold it themselves”. That’s really great. It’s a great story that you told. It’s a great concept for parents. And the way you told it, I think, is very clear and easy for parents to understand. Translate that to the marketplace, though, to business, because you’re doing the same thing when you’re managing people, when you’re leading people. What does it look like in that domain?

Greg  

Well, there have been many of my employees that I’ve hired, and what happens is, maybe you’ve hired someone to be an account executive, but all of a sudden, a position opens up, somebody leaves, somebody retires, and you have to put somebody in before they’re really ready. That’s the best way to get good in a hurry is to get dropped in the water and sink or swim. So I have to put them in and I’ve had people come crying to say I can’t do it. I’m like, you can do it, I can see it in you, you absolutely can do it, we’re going to get some blood on our knees, we’re going to skin our knees, we’re going learn some things and that’ll just make you better, quicker. So no different than I had to do with my son, I have to tell these employees they can do it. One of the things that we do at the Hatcher Agency, as well, is when I hire new people – I do the males, somebody else does the females, for obvious reasons – but I’ll take him suit shopping. I will often buy four or five suits for him. The deal is – we have Dillards in town – when they have a suit sale, we’ll go. But I go pick the suits out with them – the shirts, the ties – and I tell them how important it is to look great getting off the bus, that you have to look like success. Well, if you don’t think dressing somebody up and make them look like a million bucks makes them feel better about themselves, it does. We just had…I have five pairs of shoes in my office right now for five of the young guys. We just went and we picked out their shoes and we get them dressed and we get them off to a good start, we give them a chance to be successful. Same thing in sports, I’m going to try to give them some matches or some games where they can be successful. And then when they do, really emphasize, look, I told you you could do it, I knew it. Everybody wants a coach that believes in him. And not to stay on the sports side, but I think you’ll find this story quite interesting, that tells it all. But when my son was a senior in high school, we had a threat at the high school that a guy was going to come and shoot up the school the next day. So there was a warning, there was a letter, there was some signage that tomorrow, I’m going to come to school and I’m going to shoot people up. And you know how terrifying that would be as a parent. That night, about half the kids in the school were not going to go to school the next day. And the problem was Layne had a baseball game the next day, and I called the AD, who’s a friend of mine, and I’m like, hey, is there any way he can just come to come to the baseball game and not to school? And he said, no, you have to be at school half the day to play in the baseball game. And I said, well, I’ve got to tell you, I’m a tough guy, but it kind of makes me nervous. Wouldn’t it be worth just missing one little old day and still let him play baseball, than to have to miss the baseball game? He can’t let his teammates down. I said you kind of put me in a position as a parent, am I being a dummy sent him to school where he could get shot? I mean, you never know, these threats sometimes are real. And he said, if we shut down the school every time there was a threat, then kids would be making them all the time and we’d never have school. So Layne went to school, and about 11 o’clock, I got a call from my wife screaming. And she said Greg, Layne has written a suicide note, you have got to get up to school and get him. In his phone he had written this note and it was tied to my wife’s phone and she could see the note. It basically said, if you’re reading this…he talked to each of his sisters, he talked to his mother, he talked to his good friends. And when he got to me, he said, thanks, Dad for believing in me before I could even believe in myself. So I drive to the school, I get to the principal’s office, they announced on the loudspeaker to get him out of school, and they bring him to the principal’s office. And I’m like, Layne, what is this note that you’ve written? And he’s like, what do you mean, what note? I said, Mom’s got this information on your phone. And he got disgusted with me and he said, do you really think I’m suicidal? He said, I wrote that note in case the shooter does come to school because as a wrestler – he was a four time state champion wrestler – he goes, who do you think’s going to have to attack the guy first? Who do you think’s going to have to try to stop him? So I wrote a note, just in case. Now, if that isn’t a mindset, or being prepared before things come then I don’t know what is.

Brian  

Wow. Well, that’s a great story. And I’m obviously glad that Layne’s okay. It’s kind of tough to move on from that actually, that’s such a compelling story. But I’m going to switch gears. Greg, one of the things that’s always impressed me about you is what I call speed of execution. I’ve seen over and over again, that when you have an idea or something you want to implement, the pace at which you execute is always lightning fast. Tell us about this quality, and why it matters and how it’s different from the way most people operate.

Greg  

Yeah, I don’t know, where I got it, why I got it, how I got it. When I started my agency, it was me and an assistant and about six months in, her family inherited a bunch of money and she didn’t have to work anymore. She let me know she was leaving and my dad called and was checking on me and I said, hey, man, I’ve just lost my assistant, I just lost half my staff, me and the other. I’ve got to figure out what to do. Well, he called back later that day, and he goes, hey, I’m calling to check, how’s everything working? Did you get your problem solved? I said, what problem? And he said, well, the one about your girl leaving, and I said, oh, I already have someone else hired. He said, as long as you can deal with your problems that quickly, you’ll be okay. He later sent me an article about entrepreneurs and it said they have a patience level of zero. I always tell my staff, if you bring me a problem, I’m making a decision, and I’m making it fast. It might be right or wrong, but you’re getting an answer. I guess I just believe that making a decision, even sometimes if it’s wrong, is better than taking forever and never getting to one like so often happens in big companies. So I did work for Blue Cross Blue Shield for a while, they were a great company, but they were a big company. I love being able to be nimble and move quickly and take action. I think that’s what I probably love about getting to be an entrepreneur the most. So I think the key is just make one and then make it work.

Brian  

Well, that’s definitely worked for you. Again, that’s something that I’ve noticed several times, actually, and I admire that about you. Let’s jump back into sports as a metaphor for life – you’ve really discussed this already in different ways – but talk about the opportunity to not just become better ourselves but also to make others around us better. When you look at the very best professional athletes, the superstars of their sport, people like Michael Jordan in basketball and Tom Brady in football, they not only played at a high level themselves, but I really believe they made their teammates better. Even in individual sports, people like Tiger Woods in golf, Michael Phelps in swimming, Usain Bolt in track; they cause their competition to be better. Why is this important? How can we be intentional about helping those around us to learn grow and play at a higher level than they would on their own?

Greg  

You just teed me up. We have six bronze signs in our office. The bronze sign means we’re going to spend a lot of money because it’s that important. We want everybody to see it. And one of those signs is about Dan Gable, who was considered one of the best wrestlers ever to live. He was the head coach at Iowa. So imagine this. Dan Gable won every match he ever wrestled in high school and he won every match he ever wrestled in college, except the last one. Then he won the Olympics without allowing a point and then he went on to coach Iowa. He won 15 national titles in 25 years, and he won 25 consecutive big 10 wrestling titles as a coach. Someone asked him, which is a greater honor, to become the best wrestler ever or to become the best wrestling coach ever? And he answered it this way. He said it’s a greater honor to teach someone to be the best than to be the best yourself. That’s what my bronze sign says. But I translated that into business, who’s more valuable; Dan Gable, the wrestler, who won just two national titles and one Olympic gold or Dan Gable, the coach, where his wrestlers won hundreds of national titles and numerous Olympic golds? So in the business world, if you have one guy that can sell lights out, but another guy can teach other people to sell lights out, the one that can teach other people to sell lights out is much more valuable to the company. There’s a series out right now that somebody told me about, about Magic Johnson, and it’s called “Winning:  The LA Lakers”. It’s a story about his leadership, how he changed the Lakers, how Showtime came, how he went head to head – even got in a fistfight – with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar because Jabbar was more laid back and didn’t want to leave the team. He was a leader right from the beginning. So no question that we actually talked about it in staff meeting today because we have little four man teams for service. I’m like, if somebody in your team’s not doing right, lift them up, don’t let your team – the way we pay incentives is we pay the whole team or none of the team. If anybody on the team messes up and we don’t meet the standard, the whole team fails. We encourage them to work together to do whatever it takes to make their team win and take care of the customer.

Brian  

That’s terrific. I’m curious about all the other plaques, maybe you could share one that stands out; we probably don’t have time to go through all of them, although that would be time well spent. What’s another one that just jumps out at you?

Greg  

“If you help enough other people get what they want in life, you’ll have all you ever wanted.” That’s Zig Ziglar. We have one on the front of the building that everybody has to walk through as they walk in the door and I know it verbatim. If somebody screws up and makes themselves more important than the customer, I have them go re-read it. It says, “The Hatcher Agency was started September 1, 1990 with a simple mission and that’s to provide the most outrageous service, not in the insurance industry, but in any industry. The key to this is to brainwash yourself on the way to work to do what’s easy and convenient for the customer, instead of what’s easy and convenient for yourself.” Because we’re all selfish, we all want the easy way. We all want to cut corners, we all want people to just buy, and us not have to do service. But I try to convince them that there is no way to get that done. The only way to have security in this world is to do a better job than other people so that they know that they’ll want to be with us. You’ve heard the story about in the jungle, when you wake up, the tiger’s trying to eat the zebra and you better be running. Well, that’s what the business world is like – somebody’s trying to take your business every single day. A funny story; we were at practice one day with these ten year old kids and I was reading a chapter from “Between The Ears” – I’d read a chapter each day to them – and I told them, I said, every day we go out there and play soccer somebody’s trying to beat us. Every day when your dad goes to work somebody is trying to take his business from him, or your mom’s business from her, and they’re trying to get theirs. I said, if your mom and dad are not successful and they start losing, eventually they lose their car and then they lose their house. I mean, it’s the way it works. One of these kids went home that day, walked in to the family dinner, he’s like, hey, Dad, how was work today? That was a funny question for a ten year old kid to ask. And he’s like, well, it was pretty good. He said, Dad, are we winning? Are we going to keep the car? Are we going to keep the house? That dad was in sales and he called me. I said, well, it’s the truth, if you’re not winning, eventually you’re going to lose the house and the cars. So I try to teach my kids that we’re going to work hard, we want to win, because it’s the only security we have. That’s a terrific lesson. Greg, you’ve stated that one of your secrets to success is the relationships you’ve had through the years with people 20, or even 30 years, older than you. I have to tell you, I smiled when I read about your friend, Horace Mackenzie, because I had a similar friend named Lille. My wife, Heidi, and I used to go on double dates with Leo and his wife, Frannie. We were in our 40s, and they were in their 90s. Now, I’ve also found it valuable, for very different reasons, to have friends who are younger than me. Tell us about the importance of building relationships with people who are older and younger than we are and also with people whose perspectives or worldview might be different from ours. Well, you just said it – perspective. You know, Horace Mackenzie adopted me as his grandson, he didn’t have one; he had two granddaughters. He was so wise. I always say, listen to the wise old man, they’ve been there. If you try to learn everything from your own experiences, you’re going to be way behind somebody that will learn from somebody else’s. So, I wasn’t seeking that out, but if you’re just friendly and if you genuinely like people, you’ll have a lot of friends. I do love people and want to help people. So I was helping him with his Medicare claims and he helped me with perspective and life. There’s a movie out right now called “American Underdog”. It’s the Kurt Warner story, the great pro-football player. I was talking to the kids about it and I told them they all needed to watch it. Well, Kurt Warner was focused on football, football, football, football and he was struggling. But when his mother and father-in-law got killed by a tornado in Arkansas, and the woman that he married had a son that was blind, he was able to put football in perspective. Once he had it in perspective – it wasn’t life or death – it allowed him to take risks. This is a big thing when I’m talking to people about…the number one question I get from people is, how do I help my kids be successful? I said, the first thing is – and I told Layne I wanted him to watch that movie before his scrimmage this Saturday, which he did – the first thing that is so critical; is Summer Sanders, who won the Olympic gold in swimming, I read a book on her and she said the reason she was successful is because her mother took her to practice every day at 5:30 in the morning and never told her to win. She said, she was there, she dropped her off, she watched her swim, she took her home, she knew that her mother loved her whether she was first or last. And because she knew she had that security blanket, it allowed her to go for it and risk loss versus a parent who’s constantly saying you have to do this, you have to do that or a sales manager who says you have to hit these numbers. We have no quotas at the Hatcher Agency. I don’t believe in it. We don’t. It’s not like you have to make these numbers. I just say you make more money when you sell more. Let me help you do more. I want you to take risk. I don’t want you to play it safe and meet my quota here and then be safe, hold on and save the next sale for next year. I want you to blow it out. And by the way, every person at the Hatcher Agency is on commission. If you’re the receptionist and you bring in an account you get paid commission. I want everybody on an incentive, a trajectory to do well. So just knowing when somebody’s got your back helps them achieve more than anything else.

Brian  

The story about Summer is interesting. I interviewed Peter Vanderkaay, who’s a three time Olympian and he told a very similar story about growing up. He was in a swim family; his parents both swam, his brothers swam. I’ll never forget him talking about this – it’s basically the same point that you mentioned with Summer and her mom – was that he said, no matter what happened at the meet, if whether he was first or whether he was last, he said they’d get done, and they were all there as a family, and they all went out for lunch or for dinner or for ice cream, and it was exactly the same, regardless of the outcome of the meet. That seems counter-intuitive, though. You think about somebody like Tiger Woods’ dad and it seems like he had a very different strategy. Why is it that you think the one that Summer’s mom used or that Peter’s parents used works more than, say, the Earl Woods, philosophy or strategy?

Greg  

Well, I think they both can work. I was actually going to say that; sometimes we succeed because it’s succeed or it’s over. Like when I when I had to work those hours to make the agency work. I had to do it, or we might have gone bankrupt. I had a $100,000 credit line and I went $96,000 in it, which means I was $4,000 from bankruptcy. But an interesting story on that. Seven years at Blue Cross, top salesman, I have all the credentials, I’m in the same business, I know what I’m doing. I went to all the banks to try to get the $100,000 credit line, not one bank would loan me the money. I had a beautiful plan. My dad told me go to every bank. Here’s the interesting part. My dad was a college president but at that point in his life, he was the vice chairman of a bank. He waited until I was denied at all the banks and then he went to his bank and said, I’ll co-sign the loan for him. Because to get $100,000 loan in 1990, you had to have $100,000 assets – I didn’t have it. The interesting part is he only had about 200 grand to his name. So he risked 50% of his net worth on me. Now, he never said a word about it – like, son, you need to make sure you do this, or I’ll lose half my retirement – he never said a word. He just signed it. It took years later for me to realize, because I was just a dumb 28 year old, what he had really done. Imagine, if you had to sign 50% of your net worth on a loan for your son, you’d be pretty darn sure wouldn’t you? So I realized then that he was sure. But he didn’t ask for life insurance to back it up. He didn’t need any of those things. So there are times when I had to do it. You take a Mike Tyson – typically most boxers, they come from a tough environment, they fight their way out of it to start, but when they get there, how do they handle it? So if you take a Summer Sanders and a Tiger Woods, both very successful, but as you know, Tiger’s had some challenges and setbacks along the way. I think if you have the opportunity to do it, that the Summer Sanders way allows you the greatest success. Tom Brady’s pretty darn successful and he hasn’t had any great setbacks. He had great work ethic. He had really good parents that helped. Kobe Bryant was driven but he really never broke along the way. So I think it’s a combination. But I do think the security blanket of knowing that you are loved, regardless of the outcome, will still produce the highest results and have the fewer breaks on the way.

Brian  

I totally agree with that. There’s another component that comes along with that, regardless of the outcome on the field, right? When you’re talking about relationships with your kids, when you’re talking about pouring into them in a way that that’s going to nurture them and help them to eventually be strong parents, so there’s definitely more to it. I know you’re committed, Greg, to not only creating success for yourself and for your children and future grandchildren, but for others as well. You started coaching kids – and I didn’t know this before I was preparing for the show – but you started coaching kids before you even had children of your own. I know you also want to leave a legacy for future champions who won’t even ever have the opportunity to know you. Why is leaving a legacy so important? What can everyone do to make sure their focus not only on success for themselves, but also on making a difference for others?

Greg  

Sure. I mean, when I answer that I don’t want to forget to say something about “King Richard”, the Williams sisters movie. I really think that he did a great job preparing his kids in the same way, in a much more difficult situation. I get choked up just thinking about what a great love made those kids competent and the Williams sisters were pretty classy, for the most part, all the way through. I think that starts at home. I did start coaching kids when I was 22 years old. That’s when I learned that being a coach was much more stressful than being a player. I believe that the coach is always the most valuable player on every team because they affect so many. They’re the manager and the leader. After I coached my kids all the way through, what a lot of people may not know is that I live out in the country – used to be out in the country, now it’s really in town – I live on 100 acres, and we have all sports fields on there. So we have a basketball gym, a soccer facility and baseball facility, wrestling facility, tennis facility, equestrian. I have about 250 to 300 kids in my yard every day and I don’t have any of my kids playing anymore. People are like, what are you going to do with that? I said, we’ve already donated it to the non-profit Mighty Bluebird Foundation so that these kids will continue to play. I just believe that sports keep you out of trouble. I am constantly telling my kids from the time they’re five on; no drugs, we’re not going to cheat to get there. If we can’t get there doing it the right way, we’re not getting there. So those are all things that are pre-conceived that we we have out there. But I guess it’s kind of funny, my grandkids will someday play out there and their grandkids, but right now I don’t have any kids or grandkids playing. But I have a zillion kids and I love seeing it. So really giving back to sports helped me, and I just think it keeps them out of trouble. We have a little homework room; you drop them off after school, they do their homework and go right to practice. It kind of helps parents with daycare, too. So we didn’t plan it, it just evolved. [We] couldn’t get a soccer field one day so we got some land and turned it in [to one] and just slowly kept adding things. We have a bunch of coaches out there and everybody has a great time.

Brian  

That’s awesome. What a great way to give back, not only to the community, but to the world. That alone is a great legacy. I know you’ve done lots of other things around the state, around the country, to help kids and to facilitate athletics. That’s very admirable. Greg, we’re talking about qualities of high achievers, and I believe one of the next level success traits is modeling others; finding people who have already done things we want to accomplish and learning from their experience to create success in our own lives. For so many people you’re that person in Little Rock, in Arkansas, around the country. You model success for lots of other people. But I’m curious, who are the people who are playing at the next level that you want to achieve? And what is your next level?

Greg  

Well, they could come from anywhere. I always tell everybody and family it’s so important to travel. When you travel, you see things you couldn’t see at home that inspire you. Movies inspire me. I can see a movie and change my whole mindset on things. Books, so it’s books, movies, and I have a little thing called the wall of fame, which is about eight or nine people on this wall. I had it when I was in college – eight or nine pictures – and underneath each one is a slogan. I always said, if I can be a little bit of all nine of those people, I could be better. Sometimes it’s not one person, it’s take a piece of this, take a piece of that; everything I’ve ever done is copy. But to give you an example, Pete Rose is on that wall, and it says, “Leave behind no regrets, give 100%.” Well, he’s gotten in some trouble, but you could never question his effort. Roger Staubach’s on that wall and it says, “Always be competitive.” Tom Landry is on there and it says, “Never let fame and fortune change your character.” You know Brian Piccolo, a movie, it said, “It’s not the way he lived, but the way he’s remembered.” And I used to always say, by the time I’m 26, I’ve got to get my money’s worth because Brian Piccolo only got 26 years. Jesus is on there, and it says, “You have to pay the ultimate price for success.” Nobody paid a bigger price. So those are just some of the people on there. I just have a lot of good friends, coaches, people that I look up to, but I’m at a different spot in life now. Somebody told me the other day, Greg, you only have 20 summers left, if you even have that. So, at age 60, I’ll be really lucky that for the next 20 years, I can travel with my wife, because if either one of us gets sick, we probably can’t go. So my greatest motivation right now is get your money’s worth, get it done, do things that are important. I was going to some business conference here next week, and a guy’s getting an award and he asked me if I could be there while I’m out of town. I said, which is more important:  me making one more business meeting or me being at that 75 year old guy’s award [ceremony]? I said, I’ll fly back early. I’ll be there, I’ll miss the meeting. The meeting’s not important in the scheme of things. I’m going to the Holy Land this summer, in June, haven’t been, it’s time to go while we both can do it. So everything we have is being rented. Mighty Bluebird Field is rented. I don’t own it. It’s going to be here well after I’m gone. So I think I’m really at my highest motivation level right now because I realize I’ve just got a short window to get more done. Kenny Rogers got a lot more done when he got older, Warren Buffett made more of his wealth after age 65. So I’m as motivated as I’ve ever been to get my money’s worth. Every one of my close friends has had some medical catastrophe already; one prostate cancer, one stroke, one some version of a disease, not ALS, but something like that. I’ve had three hip replacements. So perspective, back to perspective, kind of helps you see what’s really important.

Brian  

This isn’t in my notes, but I’m going to make it my final question. What do you hope people will say about you when you’re no longer around?

Greg  

That he helped me get better, that he made me better.

Brian  

That’s awesome. You make a lot of people better.

Greg  

Still a coach at heart.

Brian  

That’s terrific. You make me better, Greg, you have today, and you’ve made our listeners and viewers better, and we appreciate you for that. Thanks so much for being on the show, you’re a true inspiration. I really appreciate you taking time to be with us today.

Greg  

Well, you’re an inspiration to me too, and Alma College has formed some great friendships and relationships, and it’s a pleasure to serve Alma College on the board with you.

Brian  

Absolutely. Thanks, brother. Love you. Thanks for tuning in to Life Excellence. Please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about the show on social media, and leaving a rating and review. You can also learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.