I don’t know about you, but I dream every night. Dreamsare fascinating. On one level, they provide insight into ourthoughts, goals and fears. But they are also completely bizarre inhow they have you jumping from one random scene to another. Withthat thought in mind, I want to share the followingfairytale-turned-dream-turned-nightmare that may sound a little toofamiliar…

Once upon a time, there was a producer who built a nicebook of business. Figuring he could dobetter on his own, he started a new agency. Of course he neededsome help, so he brought along his favorite accountmanager.

The freedom was nice. The producer (now also the agency owner)continued producing and the account manager continued managingaccounts.

Over time, the business grew to the point where another accountmanager was necessary, and then another. Eventually, they needed areceptionist and a bookkeeper and, well, you get thepicture.

With visions of “really growing this thing” and wanting moresales energy in the office, the producer/owner decided it was timeto hire another producer. It wasn’t the big boost he was lookingfor, but there was some new business.

Life was great. He was making so much money!

Each night, he would lay down to dream about how great thingswere. He would dream of prospects lined up at the door. He woulddream of big bonus checks. He would dream of things getting evenbigger and even better, as hard as that was to imagine.

But one night, as his dream self sat counting commission checks,there was a pounding at the door. When the broker went to see whoit was, he was terrified. It was the big bad ACA wolf!

“Little broker, little broker, let me in!” said thewolf.

To which the little broker replied, “No freakin’ way!”

The wolf responded as expected. “Then I’m gonna huff, and puff,and blow your stick office down!” And he did.

The little broker was scared and decided to go see the Wizard.It was a close call. He almost didn’t make it there. Along the way,he was ambushed by Progressive Flo who kept shooting at him withher price gun while she ranted, “Price?! You wanna talk price?!I’ve got price for ya!” (Yeah, it’s weird, but dreams are likethat.)

Next, the Wicked Warlock of the West threatened to steal all ofhis clients by giving them “free stuff” while laughing maniacallyas he drank a milkshake. (Dreams are so bizarre! Like thatcould ever happen!)

Then he finally saw the profile of a friendly face. It was hisfavorite carrier rep. But something didn’t seem quite right. Therep wouldn’t look at him, no matter how hard the broker tried toget her attention. As he passed and looked back at the oppositeprofile, he saw a much less-than-friendly face and could hear therep muttering something about “the exchange” and a new distributionchannel. Huh?

Shaken, he finally arrived in front of the Wizard and admittedthat he was scared, that his heart wasn’t in it like it once was,and that he didn’t feel smart enough to put his office backtogether. “Please give me courage, and heart and wisdom,” hepleaded.

In his wise, wizardly way, the Wizard told him, “You alreadypossess all three of these things. You’ve simply misplacedthem. Rebuild your stick office with the ‘bricks of business’ andyou’ll find everything you seek inside those new walls.”

“What the hell does that mean?!” the broker demanded. “Where arethese bricks I need to use?”

He heard the Wizard rambling something about the “bricks” beingprocesses, procedures, proper producer training, knowing his KPIs(key performance indicators), planning, etc. In other words, abunch of stuff about running the agency as the business it hadbecome. But before he could ask any more questions, hefound himself in a completely new scene.

He was at a rally of some sort. Or was it a conference? Herecognized everyone and he liked what they had to say much morethan what he had seen and heard on the way to see theWizard.

• “You just need to sell more voluntary and everything will beOK.”

• “Buy our solution, give it away to your clients, andeverything will be OK.”

• “Use our automation service to do more of what you’ve alwaysdone and everything will be OK.”

Deep down, he knew these things didn’t really make sense, butthey sounded so much easier than rebuilding with the Wizard’sbricks. He left feeling so much better. He felt like his old selfagain. Like the emperor he remembered himself to be.

And as the “emperor” started the walk back to his office, hisconfidence received another huge boost. The streets were lined withcheering fans who, oddly enough, looked a lot like hisclients.

• “We love your new voluntary product!”

• “We so appreciate all of your free stuff!”

• “Thank you for doing more than you’ve ever done before forus!”

But then there was that darn little kid tugging on his mom’sarm. “Mama?” he asked, “Why isn’t the emperor wearing anyclothes?”

He looked down and immediately saw that the kid was right. Therehe was, in the middle of all of his cheering fans (er, clients?),and sure enough, he was completely naked.

He was terrified. He was embarrassed. He wanted torun.

Then, from somewhere in the distance, he heard alarms going off.Or was it sirens? Either way, it sounded like a terribleemergency.

The ringing snapped him awake. It was just his desk phone. Whew!What a relief. He was safe and sound in his little stick office. Itmust have all been a crazy dream.

But just as he started to feel better, the receptionist buzzedthrough. “Excuse me, sir,” she said, “There’s a Mr. Wolfe here tosee you.”