How Much Do You Work per Hour? – Shoptalk Series, Episode #15

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck talk about their per hour work rate and the significance of staying in your lane.

Episode Highlights:

• How much is Kyle’s work rate per hour? (1:30)
• David mentions that he made four dollars per hour at his first job. (1:53)
• David shares a conversation he had with someone about the Grain of Salt theory. (2:47)
• David mentions that back in the day, the minimum wage was as low as it was because there wasn’t much of a change. (4:36)
• What’s the current minimum wage? (4:46)
• David shares that this episode precipitated from a conversation that he had with a guy about the significance of staying in your lane. (6:02)
• David thinks that a lot of people don’t stop and think about their rate per hour. (6:16)
• Kyle thinks that the only time you do it is when it takes a long time to get the deal done. (6:33)
• David talks about the conversation that he had with a guy that he knows well, but he’s not going to mention his name, and the guy was talking about his staffing company. (6:41)
• David shares that the guy was blinded by the premium, but he wasn’t seeing that he was the fifth agency those people had. (7:24)
• In David’s opinion, if you take your time on the front end, it’s not like you’re investing days of your life. (8:37)
• Kyle thinks that getting blinded by the premiums is natural. (9:27)
• Does Kyle know someone who knows how much they make per hour? (9:38)
• David thinks that if you’re a producer, and you’re not keeping a log of your time, you’re ruining it. (11:37)
• Kyle thinks that he ends up losing his time when he has to deal with the smaller business that’s either been referred to him or spending his time quoting, or answering questions and phone calls from them. (12:26)
• David shares that if you want to be a trusted advisor and you have a value proposition, you have to identify your work rate per hour and figure out on the front end if those deals are worth your time. (13:15)
• Does David have other formulas? (14:17)
• Kyle mentions the only issue that always drives him crazy is when the insured is not willing to give the correct information. (17:15)
• David mentions that once you’ve been in the business for a bit, once you’ve done some research, and you’ve been on a few calls, you know who you’re going to have success with. (18:34)

Key Quotes:

• “I got a raise to five bucks an hour and I thought I had made it… I thought I’d made my ascension into the aristocracy at that point. It was fantastic. I was 15 making five bucks an hour. That was like legend status at that point.” – David Carothers
• “You’ve got to define who you want to go after. And don’t deviate from that.” – David Carothers
• “I think that’s where we fall, man. We have such an opportunity to be in a lucrative occupation where you’re gonna just score serious coin if you write the right type of stuff, that we don’t stop and look at efficiency and how we’re investing our time and what we’re doing.” – David Carothers
• “You get blinded by the premiums and I think that’s a natural thing, but you’re totally right. I think you need to sit down, and figure out what your worth is when you’re going through this.” – Kyle Houck
• “Agency principles by and large, when they’re looking at efficiency, when they’re looking to enhance profitability, they always look at the inward portion of the operation to make sure that the service people are turning enough tickets on time, you know that they’re issuing the certificates as quickly as they come in, getting all their tasks closed out all of that because it’s tangible and easy for them to measure.” – David Carothers
• “The difference between the most successful people in any form of business not just in production, but in any kind of business, is they understand their value. They know what their value is, when you go after this stuff, you might get some endorphin release in your brain that gives you temporary pleasure over the fact that you closed something.” – David Carothers

Resources Mentioned:

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