IN PICTURES: Allstate’s MEGA Agency Conference Lived Up To The Name–Here’s What I Learned (and some pics!)

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So hanging out in an airport lounge in Miami waiting to board my flight to Chicago.

Figured I’d take a couple minutes to reflect on the big Allstate MEGA Agent conference I attended last week in Austin.

This conference brings together the top Allstate agents in the country. It was a great group of folks who  really work very hard and want to do things the right way.

People always tell me to post more videos–here you go!

Interesting, though, how susceptible they are to Allstate’s whims.

Allstate’s focus on requiring agents to generate new business to hit bonus goals–and their sharply shifting goal metrics–put incredible pressure on agents to buy third-party leads.

Most of the folks I talked to said they would much prefer NOT to buy leads but they feel they have to under Allstate’s model. Really interesting considering all the bad recent Allstate TCPA press.

While it was a real pleasure to spend time with these folks and help them to understand the impact of the FCC’s new one-to-one rule, my favorite part of the trip was chatting with Jonathan Gaudio– Allstate’s number on agent nationwide.

This guy reminded me a lot of me.

First of all he was a huge fan of mine (of course) and reads all my stuff. And I’m a big fan of mine too. So, there you go.

More videos

Second, the guy has a real winner’s attitude– “winners win” as he (and I) like to say. He’s not afraid to keep moving, keep pushing. And he’s confidant and adaptable. He’ll do what works and he’ll switch gears when he needs to.

Third, the guy took time out of his day to take the stage (right after me) and talk to attendees about how they can grow their own agencies. I really like to see a guy who has attained so much success share tips and tricks with others so they can succeed as well.

I watched his presentation and I was really impressed by how analytics driven he is. That’s one place where we are actually not similar– I never do any modeling, market research, or analysis on my business moves. Yet things just keep working out. 😉

Any way it was a real honor to be there and the best part-all  the praise these folks gave me. That’s the thing with winners– they’re not afraid to praise others. Losers are always  stingy where winners are most boisterous– with their applause.

True pleasure.

See you next year!

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Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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