We talk with Mike Urgo of the Urgo Agency as he shares his journey into business, navigating the waters of non-profits, banking, community involvement, politics, and business ownership and development.
Where you can connect with Mike Urgo
Website: https://www.urgoagency.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeurgo/
Follow the podcast at @itsjustbusinesspodcast on all the major podcasting platforms.
Connect with us:
To get in touch with us, email the podcast at itsjustbusinesspodcast@gmail.com.
Join us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn - we appreciate your support!
www.itsjustbusinesspodcast.com
You can find Dana @adashofboss, @dana.dowdell and @hrfanatic
Dana Dowdell – Boss Consulting – HR Consulting
Google - https://tinyurl.com/y4wxnavx
You can find Russ @reliable.remediation
Russ Harlow – Reliable Remediation – Disaster Restoration
Google: https://g.page/r/CXogeisZHEjMEBA
We talk with Mike Urgo of the Urgo Agency as he shares his journey into business, navigating the waters of non-profits, banking, community involvement, politics, and business ownership and development.
Where you can connect with Mike Urgo
Website: https://www.urgoagency.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeurgo/
Follow the podcast at @itsjustbusinesspodcast on all the major podcasting platforms.
Connect with us:
To get in touch with us, email the podcast at itsjustbusinesspodcast@gmail.com.
Join us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn - we appreciate your support!
www.itsjustbusinesspodcast.com
You can find Dana @adashofboss, @dana.dowdell and @hrfanatic
Dana Dowdell – Boss Consulting – HR Consulting
Google - https://tinyurl.com/y4wxnavx
You can find Russ @reliable.remediation
Russ Harlow – Reliable Remediation – Disaster Restoration
Google: https://g.page/r/CXogeisZHEjMEBA
Dana Dowdell 00:06
I'm Dana,
Russ Harlow 00:07
and this is Russ,
Dana Dowdell 00:08
and you're listening to it's just business.
Russ Harlow 00:11
We're a couple of small business owners who are trying to figure it out as we go. And as we grow our businesses, we want to help you grow yours. If we've learned anything, it's not personal. It's just business. Hey, Russ, what's going on? How are ya? Live in the dream?
Dana Dowdell 00:28
Oh, good.
Russ Harlow 00:30
You know, that's how businesses sometimes
Dana Dowdell 00:33
we're going to talk with a guest about living his dream, we're joined by my friend, Mike Urgo, he owns our Farmers Insurance, location. But he also is really an expert in leadership, consulting, and coaching and really helping other small businesses and business owners figure out how to do it better. So Mike, welcome to the podcast.
Mike Urgo 00:55
Oh, thank you guys so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Dana Dowdell 00:57
So this is like a BNI connection. So if anyone is like, Oh, how do all these people know each other? BNI?
Mike Urgo 01:05
Yeah, it's a great group. Yeah.
Dana Dowdell 01:08
So tell us a little bit, you have a really cool kind of background into being an entrepreneur and where you started and where you are now. So tell us a little bit about your journey.
Mike Urgo 01:19
Yeah, so um, I guess, from fairly early on, I thought that I wanted to be in business for myself, um, you know, out of high school, I really wasn't sure what I was going to do. ended up working for a number of years in a supermarket and really got a lot of experience there, actually, and went over into banking for a while. And it was at that time, when I was, had been promoted to a branch manager in banking, I had an opportunity, somebody introduced me to, to open, there was a location available by the beach for like a seasonal beach store. And I said, you know, this is a good way to kind of try my hand at entrepreneurship. So opened a little beach store, the tiki guys surf supply, right down in the sprocket. And it was great. You know, I had that for eight years, I realized pretty quickly that wasn't going to be probably able to be a year round thing for me. So ended up you know, having that but also ended up having, you know, working other jobs after that summer, back into banking for a little while, went into actually worked at a car dealership for a little while, and ultimately ended up kind of finding my way back into my own business through some consulting and actually helping other business owners. So I kind of did that for a number of years. And still did some other things kind of along the way and found I found myself just over the last few years into politics, believe it or not, I actually was volunteering a lot of my town and there was an opportunity to, they needed somebody to serve in a leadership role. So I ended up being becoming the first selectman, which is like the mayor in the town that I'm in, I serve two terms that just finished up last November. At that same time was kind of funny, because when I had been volunteering, and there was some, there was this need for this leadership position, I had just opened my insurance business. So I had kind of migrated over from the consulting into the insurance end of things, which seemed like a good match for me, because I had been in finance for so long in banking, and it was kind of parallel industry really. So I ended up opening the Insurance Agency, the Urgo agency over here in North Stonington, Connecticut. And we in basically did that along with the town at the same time. So it was a very busy few years. And I now that the town is wound down, back in November, I kind of have gone back into my leadership consulting along with the the agency but I guess my journey has been one of a lot of different positions. And that kind of helps me out, as I'm working with, you know, individuals and business owners on the consulting side of things, but I've always kind of wanted to be my own boss, I guess you'd say. And that kind of led me into, you know, these businesses that I've gone into and had some success.
Dana Dowdell 04:15
I love how you talk about government as like, yeah, I tried my hand at government, the first selectman, like the biggest boss of the town.
Mike Urgo 04:24
Well, it's funny, I, you know, I had, I was very involved in the town before doing it. I was the chair of the school modernization committee. And that was a really big deal over here, because we read, you know, we renovated our entire schools system, so I kind of saw that through. So I was kind of a good person to consider doing it. And the, the guy that was doing it, he didn't want to run anymore. He only served one term and kept kind of nudging me on it. And I was like, Well, I know, it was kind of, you know, well, and that's kind of how I've always felt and I think a lot of entrepreneurs can share that feeling right? I'm gonna, if I'm gonna do something, I just send me an email. arch, you know, because I feel like I can try to do my best at it if I have, you know, the most control, I guess you'd say. And, and it was certainly an experience that I don't think I'd trade it, it was definitely a lot of challenges, especially in the political environment that I was in. But you know, between COVID, and certainly the just the national scene was really, really hard. The four years I was in office, and that did rain down locally. So it was, I was not sad to move on from it. But it was, you know, it was a great experience.
Russ Harlow 05:35
What's the biggest thing that you took out of it that you kind of move forward in both in your leadership training and in your own business? Because sometimes in local government, it can be like herding cats?
Mike Urgo 05:47
Yeah, um, I don't know, I think I was always a pretty patient person, even before that experience, but I think it really even drove home, the need for just more, just more patience, and really more of a willingness to just be collaborative, you know, and try to hear, you know, different voices and not judge. You know, I think those things are all important in business, you know, whatever industry, you're in just being able to kind of try to connect with people on whatever their level is. You know, and really, I think, just come across and, and be someone who cares about their position, whatever that is, whether it's in government or, you know, whether it's an insurance or certainly in the consulting end of things, you know, really kind of hearing that just listening. And so I think those are some, some skills that are really kind of fine tuned over the last four, four years.
Dana Dowdell 06:39
I feel like you are really good at saying yes, like, Yes, I'm going to open up this Tiki surf shop like, Yes, I'm going to run for first selectman. Like, has that ever bitten you in the ass at all?
Mike Urgo 06:51
Well, you know, you know, Dana, because you're, you're a yes, person, too. I know that. Yeah. It's, yeah, I mean, I think it is hard because you want to, I'm a helper, right? I want to try to help in any way I possibly can. And, like, I always look at my life is like, I want to try to be as useful with it as possible and make an impact and like, just be helpful to others. And, and so there's, with that comes a lot of opportunities and people see, you know, that you're doing a good job, or that you're somebody that would be helpful. So there's a lot of asks, I have gotten better at saying no to things, you know, I have, it is hard, certainly, but it as far as it biting me in the ass. I mean, I think what happened was when I went, I lived in Westerly, Rhode Island up until 12 years ago, and when we moved to Connecticut, it was actually an interesting opportunity, because a lot of the stuff I was doing kind of wound down. So I was like that, you know, I was very involved with the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life over there, I was on a number of boards and commissions and those things kind of wound down at the same time I moved. So when I came here, I actually didn't have much going on. I was like, Alright, this is good, you know, and it didn't take me long to kind of get right back into anything. I honestly think the busy people are the busy people, right? And, and if you're gonna be one of those people, you're just gonna have a lot going on. My main thing is that I have family and I try to, especially recently really, you know, try to make sure I'm not overcrowding my time to not, you know, focus on the really important things, which is certainly my family.
Dana Dowdell 08:25
I also, you know, I remember when I first moved to Norwich, I got really involved in community stuff. And part of that was I helped plan a winter fest parade twice, two years in a row. And I think it kind of was like, I had a moment where like, why the fuck as an HR consultant? am I planning a winter fest parade? And I think for some people, like it doesn't make sense. But I think for others, and I feel like this is probably the case with you were like, that involvement. And that service helps you in business as well.
Mike Urgo 09:00
You know, I think it was kind of funny. So when I was in banking, not not to knock banking, but I spent a fair amount of my career in banking, probably 13 years. And honestly, I wasn't feeling like I wasn't feeling the purpose in my work, really. And I'm not, you know, I mean, I think there is purposeful work, nothing against banking at all. But like, where I found my purpose was in volunteerism. And so because I wasn't getting it in my career, I felt like okay, I'm going to do in other ways. So I would find myself doing that fact, we, you know, I was a founder of no sto fest out here, which is become a pretty big deal as far as a street fair event, as well. Um, as far as like, you know, in helping in business, it definitely can help in a lot of ways. I mean, you certainly make connections, and I think just connecting with other people and you know, in my position like as best especially on the leadership side, I mean, I would often in my end up in leadership roles and all these things, whether it was founding something or just being you know, maybe not in charge of a whole thing but but You know, whether it was, especially in my real life or life days, you know, we had different positions entertainment coordinator, survivorship coordinator, all those kinds of things, I learned a lot back then on being, you know, kind of willing to move into different positions and being kind of, you know, just getting, you know, working with volunteers.
Russ Harlow 10:23
So I think that's really valuable is a really valuable experience, working with volunteers, leading volunteers, because you have to really have the patience. And because they, they're not forced to be there, they're not getting a salary or anything else, and they want to be there. But they also they that you need that patience, you need to meet them where they're at. And I think that's a great skill in business. I mean, when you're dealing with clients, or you're dealing, you know, teaching people how to deal with clients. And you I heard you saying that before meeting people where they're at. So tell me about how you help. Not only do that yourself, but teach people how to learn, you know, how to meet people where they're where they are?
Mike Urgo 11:05
Yeah, I mean, I think I think the on the biggest thing with trying to, you know, work with other people on things like that, a lot of time, it's just really trying to look at yourself, and being honest with yourself, and when myself having to have these conversations with people, I do a lot of listening. And, you know, try to help them discover, you know, what it is within themselves that they have to really look at, we all have our own faults, right. And it's, it's really helpful when you can start to know what they are. A lot of people don't have that, you know, they don't have they don't have that perspective. And it's pretty empowering once you kind of figure out okay, geez, I know, I'm really not good at that. I'm big on trying to capitalize on your strengths. I mean, you know, we all have weaknesses. And I think, you know, over the years, early in my career, I just remember, it was so much focus on Oh, we got to really beef up these weaknesses, you know, and we all have weaknesses, and we're not going to be good at certain things. And that's just okay. I mean, so trying to work with people to figure out what their strengths are. You know, and I think on the volunteer side of things, you're right. I mean, I always think with volunteers, it's funny, like, if you start to get burnt out as a volunteer, then you should probably stop doing whatever you're doing. I mean, because there should be somebody else who's willing to step up like you're volunteering, there's no, there's no reason to continue if you're not enjoying it anymore. And I think that's something that everybody that people need to remember. And I know myself, you know, I've had to remember at times where I started to burn out on things. And actually, you know, that's kind of why I decided not to run again, for office like I, I wasn't, like, totally burnt out. But I knew I was going to be burnt out if I did it another term. And it's better to have somebody else that's willing to step up and have the enthusiasm because there's always somebody that'll step up. You know, I think there always is.
Dana Dowdell 12:58
You mentioned working at the grocery store taught you a lot. What other experiences Well, what did you learn while working at the grocery store? Because there's many people who are like, I'm too good to work at a grocery store, but you obviously learned some really amazing things from working there. But what else did you learn that you apply to your leadership consulting?
Mike Urgo 13:20
Yeah, um, so I mean, those are some of the best memories that I have. And actually, some of the closest friends I still have, you know, I have I had the opportunity to work in milkweeds when I was 17, and I was there for, you know, six or seven years, I think. And so I worked there during my college years. So my college experience was, I was a commuter. So like, my college friends were, like, worked at the grocery store, you know. So, you know, like, one of the, some of the things I learned, so the owner of that store, you know, he's since passed. But like I got, I ended up with a pretty good relationship with him. He's an older guy. And McQuade and he was very, he was like, very particular about things. Like when he came in, like, you stood up straight, like you made sure you know, it was like, you're on attention, and everybody kind of felt that way. But as I got to know him, I got to understand, like, his perspective on things, and I really, it's helped me to really pay attention to the little things, you know, like, you know, he was big on, like, the bags that were in storage behind like the cashier, right, like, they had to all be facing the same way. They had to look, you know, he wanted to look right, like a little thing like that, that you wouldn't think anything of, there was a lot of little things like that, that he would pay attention to. So a lot of the details and really just expecting a lot out of you. You know, I think I think in a place like that, you know, you just kind of really were I was able to build really strong relationships, at least I was personally. So I think, you know, I think just the relationship building end to things early in my career. And and I also was able to see early on that if you worked hard it paid off and they were great there because I did start as like a cashier and I worked my way, kind of off. By the time I left, I was assistant manager. And so it was, it was a good, it was really a good vantage point to see, you know, a lot of different things. So I'm very appreciative of that experience.
Russ Harlow 15:15
How did the business leadership consulting kind of grow? Did you just kind of start with talking to a friend and helping them along? And then all of a sudden there was somebody else was like, oh, yeah, talk to Mike.
Mike Urgo 15:29
Yeah, yeah, it was kind of a little bit like that, you know, I just, I just kind of, you know, when I left. So my first, I guess, maybe my second, when I was in banking, I ended up leaving when the market kind of, I guess, crashed in 2008, there was a big change where I was asked, so I said, I'm going to go into nonprofit, I'd been a volunteer at the American Cancer Society for a long time, I actually ended up taking a job there for a couple of years, and that was a great experience as well. But as I decided to kind of move along from that, I had a lot of people that were kind of asking me, you know, I was doing little things, whether, you know, a lot of these volunteer things you end up doing, and it kind of was like, Okay, well, geez, I might be able to get paid for that if I did that somewhere else, or whatever, you know. And so it was kind of some of that where you end up, you know, turning something that you had a passion in some way or another into a little job, I would say that was my kind of first round of consulting. And what I found at that time, you know, I was, I wasn't getting enough Bigger, bigger projects, or bigger clients to really sustain me to be able to continue to do that, hence why I kind of migrated into the insurance side of things. But I never really like let it go. And then, you know, basically, how I've kind of now revived that, after finishing with the town, certainly, I have a different perspective, I think I have a lot of different experience. And I think people are very interested in working with me now. Just because of that experience. I mean, I had the opportunity certainly work with government, you know, people as well as you know, really all sorts of folks that might need my assistance. So it's kind of opened the doors, but that was kind of how it started was, you know, really some of the little things that I was doing and saying, Okay, how can I potentially monetize this?
Dana Dowdell 17:26
And it also sounds like the relationships are what kind of helped you get there, that whole thing that you learned in school, like, it's not what, you know, it's who you know.
Mike Urgo 17:35
I mean, it's so true. It's, you know, you know, do you know, obviously, you know, through the BNI I mean, we we kind of preach that every week, and yeah, I mean, you know, just knowing the right person, or, you know, and I'm not like super great with names, either, but I remember people I remember faces, and I have a lot of contacts of folks that I can go back to my brain and say, okay, you know, I remember I knew this person here, and I can research it if I have to revive the brain cell that I can't really remember it in. But, um, but yeah, I mean, I think you're right, you know, I think the the connections are just key. And I just think the other thing is just like being, you know, a good person to everybody you meet, because that just, you know, it's like, people remember that and they're willing to refer you. They're there, they're willing to make a connection for you, if they if they feel good about you as a human, you know?
Russ Harlow 18:28
So how do you focus in when you work with people? And leadership? Are there certain situations that you're typically kind of coming in and helping them with or you just kind of helping them organize their business or get their head straight? I mean, what is it that you kind of really love doing working with business owners?
Mike Urgo 18:47
Yeah, I mean, I think, um, I don't want to say it's like crisis consulting, but a lot of times it is, it's like, you know, people that are just, they feel like they just lost and they can't figure out what's ails them, you know, and so, I've had a fair amount of clients like that, that it's, you know, basically trying to, you know, basically I, I can help them kind of calm the situation down with whatever they're dealing with, and, and, you know, figure out, Okay, let's get through the smoke here. And, you know, what are our priorities. So I think it's a lot of that kind of stuff that I'm pretty good at. I mean, I've come in and hands on roles, too. So I'm, you know, helping to build while I was trying to build help to build actually a third party movement with this Griebel Frank for CTE is part of the SAM surf American movement Alliance, I had been consulting as kind of their, you know, basically consulting director for a while and so I've done that kind of thing, too. And I've got another client that I'm kind of doing that kind of work for right now as well. So, you know, it's kind of a variety. And of course, you know, I have that going along with the insurance business, which is in and of itself a big, big deal and I'm very, very blessed that I have a couple of really strong staff that take the lead on Most of that, so I do a lot of business development on that.
Dana Dowdell 20:03
We were talking before we started to record about how you're kind of niche is really helping leaders figure out their strengths. But what do you see leaders doing poorly, from a business perspective, from a leadership perspective, from a staffing perspective? Where do they fuck up?
Mike Urgo 20:24
Well, I think the biggest things that people screw up are the interpersonal relationships. You know, and I'm sure you see that Dana is and you probably come in, and you're having to save the day on those types of things to or fix the fix the issues after the aftermath. But, um, I really think that's where people tend to fail more than ever is like, not really being thoughtful enough about whatever decision it is they're making, and how that might affect other people. And, you know, there's just so many variables with, with decisions, be it a big decision, or a small decision that affect potentially affect others. And we really need to be thoughtful about those things, you know, it's not good enough to just, you know, kind of, say, well, we'll deal with it or, you know, you know, basically, like, I'm in charge, you know, they're gonna have to deal with it, it doesn't matter, whatever. I mean, that's only going to create problems. You know, I think a lot of times, the biggest problems that we see are egos, you know, we all have egos, everybody has different sized egos, and some are bigger than others. And a lot of times some leaders with large egos get into these positions. And, yeah, it's problematic. And those are people that are kind of, you know, they can be tough to work with. But, you know, if they can get to a place of kind of self realization, you know, there's there's hope. And it's not,
Dana Dowdell 21:46
I find, it's not the idea of taking into consideration, the impact of what you're telling people to do, is not negating what you plan to do, right, there's more that goes into the messaging than just keeping in mind of what other people's the impact is on other people, right? Like, from the HR side of things, I always talk about how, you know, if you have to do a layoff, right, that's a difficult message that you have to deliver, there are certain things that you should be doing along the way, that make that decision easier. It's not just a matter of not doing the layoff because you feel bad, you have to make a business decision. But what are some things that businesses can do and leaders can do to help with some of that difficult messaging in those situations?
Mike Urgo 22:39
Well, I mean, you're describing kind of a situation, that's probably more common than not, maybe it's not layoffs, but maybe it's an employee who's just not up to snuff or whatever, right. So I mean, a simple thing like regular evaluations, I mean, employees deserve that they deserve to be told they deserve to know like, how it is they're performing. And by the way, if they're performing badly, that's your opportunity to tell them, and then it's not like when you have to fire them or something like that. It's a surprise, it's, listen, we talked about this in your evaluation, you know, we, you know, this, we haven't seen the improvement, I mean, these are the kinds of things that, as you know, are really helpful to a business having success. So having some of those best practices in place, you know, will go a long way to, you know, helping if there are difficult things to talk about. And then I honestly think, you know, in, you know, in many other things that are just difficult to talk about, I mean, just coming at it from a human angle, you know, I can tell you like having to deal with the COVID situation as the, you know, the chief elected official in town for basically two years. I mean, you know, when that first came out, I tried to be as there was a lot of having to really be, I was very empathetic to people. And it was, it's kind of hard, because I think as you know, when you just look at the mask thing, for instance, like there was just, people had such opinions on these masks. And I always looked at it like, for we're trying to protect other people. And like, you know, let's just be patient about this. It's just a mask, you know, but like trying to make sure that I'm messaging that in a way that's not trying to antagonize people that are really angry about it, because they have whatever reasons they have for it as well. So I always had to kind of tread that line on all these things to really just be thoughtful about, about everybody. But you know, just being again, just being kind of thoughtful about, you're not going to, in any position, probably be able to please everybody. But if you come at it as a human with some level of vulnerability and honesty, I think those things can go in a really long way.
Russ Harlow 24:45
It can be challenging, trying to please everyone because you often end up pleasing no one and maybe even angering everyone at the same time. So I mean, that's a great lesson coming out of that, and a lot of us as businesses have had to deal with that, both with clients, I mean, still, we're going into people's homes, and we still are often asked to wear masks. And we're always like, Yeah, okay. And you just gotta meet people where they're at. I mean, this is where we are, again, we've come back to that. Tell me more about the story about how you now you're growing both of these businesses side by side, and how that's kind of a drain on? How are you balancing? That? I guess, is the fair question?
Mike Urgo 25:24
Well, it's a good question. And I think it's one of those things, you know, I've talked to different people that'll that, you know, you talk to some people, it's like, well, it's hard to do to, you know, if you're doing too many things, you can't really do anything really, really well. And I would agree with that, to an extent, I think, in my case, I'm fortunate because I have a really good staff, it's at the HR, on the insurance side of things on the consulting side of things, I mean, it's just me that still, I'm taking on only what I can, I don't, I wouldn't take on any more than I could do. But because, again, I have a strong team, you know, at our at the Urgo agency, you know, I've been very fortunate to be able to have a good balance, because, you know, um, how I manage things is, you know, I meet with my team, you know, regularly, a couple of times during the week, and then also, you know, we'll meet individually to make sure. So I think those are a couple things that are important, at least for me, as a direct supervisor, I always want to meet with my, my whoever, any direct reports, I want to meet with them with some frequency to hear from them. And it's not even an agenda necessarily, it's just to hear from them, to make sure that they have an opportunity to share any feedback or concerns. And that really goes a long way. And one of the other things that I've done to help balance things is I give a lot of flexibility to my staff, a lot. Like, I have one staff member who I'm so appreciative of that, you know, she and I have worked together for many years. And actually before here, you know, she works from home, whenever she wants to, I have the ability to be able to let her do that, you know, not every business is like that, I understand that, you know, if you're in retail, and you need your staff there, but I do have the ability to allow for these kinds of things. So I do allow for them as much as I can. And I think you know, if you have a happy staff, it makes you be able to balance things a little bit more than you might think you could.
Dana Dowdell 27:20
So you're saying that the people that work for you are helping you grow? Right. So this is an HR question, but like, you know, it seems like you've mastered it, right. Like, you've worked for a really great owner at McQuaid that, you know taught you all these things and through your journey and in other businesses like you've developed these leadership skills that almost come very naturally to you. So like, yes, egos part of it, but like, Why? Why did business owners fail on the employee management.
Mike Urgo 27:57
So often, I think a lot of people fail because they're not willing to empower other people. So it's, that's a really hard thing to do. And when you when you talk about empowering other people, you're talking about letting I always say look at it, like you're allowing that person to fail. I mean, you're allowing them to succeed, but you're allowing them to fail, like you're allowing them to make a mistake, and realizing that they may have to learn through that mistake, you have to truly let go. That's where you can become high, highly efficient, is when you can really, truly let go and let these folks, you know, do the jobs that they need to do. So I think that's one area that business areas business owners really struggle in. You know, I think as a new business, you know, I think one of the areas that a lot of businesses can struggle is if they just under if they under Plan for like the capital that they might need. I mean, a lot of times people just unfortunately run out of funds, and it really ends their business. I mean, we know how many new businesses go under. And, you know, I think people in most any business that they're in, if they really prioritize growing their business as one of the things that they do regularly, you know, that's one of the keys to success, I think, is you got to carve out that time, you know, Dana and I go to BNI I mean, that's one of the big things I do to to carve out time for my insurance business. You know, I talk to people I meet with people, I talk with them and and I hopefully bring in more business and you know, it's worked so far.
Russ Harlow 29:30
Do you do anything out because you said you were focusing on business development for your business, and not getting stuck in the weeds because you have some good staff who can do that for you. And I think there are a lot of business owners that can learn from that. And if you can't do business development, I think in me you personally but as a business owner out there, in general, that you need to find somebody who can do business development for you. So what are some of the things are you doing to other than BNI to grow your business and are you disciplined in that area? Are you like these are the So I'm going to do I'm going to talk to this many people or I need to get out and, you know, find my clients, and this is where they're hiding. And, and go seek them out. What are you doing for business development?
Mike Urgo 30:10
Yeah, I mean, I think we're disciplined in some areas. And I think there's certainly room for improvement and others. So I mean, we have, I have, I have lists of people that we're regularly calling, I mean, that's one thing we still do in the insurance business, as we make phone calls I use, I use social media, that's one of my other pronged areas, I, I've actually just beefed up my website or go agency.com to hopefully have a better SEO presence out there. I also a member of a chamber. So I'll attend those types of events as well. And it's not just me, I actually have asked my staff to get involved in one thing each. So they're Lynn, for instance, has joined the fresh connections group, which is a women's networking group. And so I think she's seeing some results there. And Hannah, who's young on, she's actually in college, she's really young, and she's joined the young professionals group. So, you know, I'm trying to not just on even though I take that way, on myself, for the most part, you know, I'm trying to include the rest of the team to be able to do it. But I think whatever business you're in, you have to figure out where it is that you, like, can get the most business out of and go to go to get involved in something like that. And I really love the BNI philosophy, go there and bring something to the table. Like, don't go there and try to suck up business cards from everybody and try to you know, get as much business as possible, like, go there. And, you know, maybe if you have time, like hey, can you volunteer for some position at whatever group this is? Or can you help at a fundraiser they're doing or whatever, and like, get yourself kind of involved in it. And I think the key is trying to figure out what it is that's going to really benefit you. Because as Dana and I, we were talking earlier about getting kind of sucked into a lot of different areas, like you got to try it's nice if you can find things that are really going to eventually benefit you versus being off on some different thing. That's, you know, it's really nice. But, you know, ultimately, we all have to live, we all have to put food on the table. So it's trying to find that balance.
Russ Harlow 32:12
Well, Mike, we do appreciate you stop by the podcast today. Where can people find you if they're interested in connecting?
Mike Urgo 32:19
I'm on LinkedIn, that seems like a pretty good spot for people to message me or whatever. And as I said, I've also got the website or go to the Urgo Agency. So you can connect with me there as well. And it was my pleasure to be on thank you guys for asking me.
Russ Harlow 32:36
Yeah, no, it's awesome. And I think we'll have all those links for everyone in the show notes as well. So if they want to connect, they'll be able to find those there. Thanks our listeners for being here. And being part of this. You know, if you've gained anything or you know, somebody who would like to hear that message that was shared, for the conversation with Mike today, share it. We appreciate you every like and share that gets out there. Leave us a review or rating on Spotify or Apple iTunes. It makes a difference. It helps his podcasts out a little bit. Because, you know, we're not exactly monetizing. And I don't think you guys want to hear commercials. But let's get the word out there and tell everybody about what's going on. It's not personal. It's just business.