Do You Disclose Your Compensation?, Shoptalk Series – Episode #13

In this episode of The Power Producers podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck share some of their personal experiences with disclosing commissions.

Episode Highlights:

• David shares a story about last night when he was up working until almost four o’clock in the morning. (1:56)
• Has Kyle heard the story about David and Steven Stamkos at the Philadelphia airport? (2:34)
• Kyle feels that a lot of people don’t really recognize hockey players. (4:07)
• David mentions that a little while back, he was in a thread regarding commissions inside of one of the agency groups that he’s in. (6:44)
• David shares that it was interesting because the top of the thread was an agency owner complaining that one of their clients asked them how much they made. (6:55)
• David mentions that he’ll tell the client or the prospect that his absolute favorite thing to talk about is his personal compensation. (8:18)
• Kyle shares that the only scenario he can think of where people are not going to do that is if they don’t have a value proposition. (9:30)
• David mentions that there are states where you’re required to disclose your compensation. (10:09)
• David shares that he has a sheet that shows what their commissions are for every line of coverage that they’re placing for someone. (10:21)
• What would be Kyle’s response to a client  that says, “Well, just exactly how much is Florida Risk Partners getting for placing my workers’ comp?” 
• David mentions that commissions are embedded into the rates that are mandated by the state. (14:16)
• David shares that if they’re asking you how much you get paid, it’s because they’re questioning how you get paid and what you’re doing to earn that. (16:49)
• David shares his advice about disclosing commissions. (17:43)
• David shares a story about a guy that reached out in the community last night, from Killing Commercial. (18:17)
• David mentions that in the middle market, you always have to be patient. (23:09)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I guess it depends on what your value prop is, right? I mean, if you don’t have one, then you might not want people to know.” – Kyle Houck
• “When I go into a meeting, I’ll tell the client that my absolute favorite thing to talk about is my personal compensation. I want them to know I don’t care if they know how much I get paid or not. Because I feel like we do what we need to do to earn that money.” – David Carothers
• “I’ve gone through and pointed out all the things that may be missing like credits, or the fact that they don’t have a good dividend or a dividend at all…point out all those things, and show them what you’re going to do for them.” – Kyle Houck
• “We want to be viewed as professionals, we want to be treated like professionals, but we act like idiots, right? We act like it’s not our clients’ business to know how much we get paid.” – David Carothers

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes