Interviewee Name: John Klotz, President
Company Name: Northwood Mortgage Life Insurance Corporation
Website: http://www.northwoodmortgage.com
John Klotz – Your Invisible Mentor
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
John Klotz: I’m an insurance and investment advisor and have been in the industry for close to 20 years. I own my own brokerage.
Avil Beckford: What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?
Earlier on in my life, I wanted to go to medical school or something like that, but it wasn’t in the cards for me. I learned about myself in that process that what I really wanted to be if you think about what a physician is, a physician is a trusted advisor regarding your health. It’s someone you go to about your health and generally what he says is supposed to be in your best interest and you should follow the advice. I think if I was to apply that to my life, I would say, as an advisor what you want to do is position yourself as that trusted advisor. So when you want into a doctor’s office they have diplomas on the wall saying basically that finished medical school that they are board certified, and are professional at what they are doing. If you walked into my office you’d see 20 plaques on my wall that would say the same thing.
So I guess a failure for me would be that I didn’t pursue something like that. I found something else and sort of took what I liked about that area and applied it to the profession I’m in now. And I would hope that if people are looking for a financial advisor that they’d want someone who is educated, who’s got designations and carries himself as a professional.
Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?
I was a Senior Vice President at a downtown firm and was doing extremely well there. I made a decision to leave and form a partnership with Northwood Mortgage to set up their insurance company. It was a big decision because I was doing very well, earning a very comfortable living, and a lot of my expenses were being taken care of. But I knew that in my heart of heart that I wanted to run a brokerage. I wanted to be my own entity. I could stay there and continue to do well, or I could take a chance.
I actually went to my son who at the time was six and I said, “Jeremy, dad has a good job and he is doing really well and he likes the work, however he’ll never be the owner. But he can stay and be very happy or he can take a risk and go out and form his own company, but it might mean that for a while the presents I get you might not be as nice as you were getting before.” And this little six year old kid looks me in the eye and says, “Dad take a risk, go for it.”
I didn’t want to look back on my life and go, “I was scared,” because they have interviewed older people asked them, “What’s your one regret?” and their regret is that they didn’t take enough risks. And here was my shot, and by the way, it hasn’t been total smooth sailing. But now at least I have a lot of answers that I wouldn’t have had, had I stayed put.
Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?
I’m not sure I can answer that but I can say three things that changed my life. I come from a family of professionals. My grandfather was a doctor, my father was a surgeon, my eldest brother is a surgeon, and my two siblings are lawyers. I’m surrounded by people who work really hard. We’re a family that dedicated themselves to being the best, and that sort of moulded me, and I knew that I’d want to be in that circle as well.
I would say my family moulded me not to settle for things, to go for the gusto, and my father had a huge impact on me. My dad died about two years ago at the age of 83, but he worked as surgeon until he was about 81. His health really deteriorated and he really should have left a little earlier. But what I admired about him was that he just loved his work. He loved the interaction and it really killed him to retire.
So I have a real different view of retirement planning than most people. For other people it’s about acquiring a certain number of dollars in the bank and then saying, “Screw off” to everybody. To me retirement planning is not that at all, it is basically finding something that you love, pursuing it, maybe refining it during retirement by not doing as much of it or having more holiday time, but still sticking with your passion.
Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?
- There are a few of them. One of them was I started a speaking series, Toronto Talks 10 years ago, and I put on an event every month. I’ve never really done a ton of public speaking, but I’ve always wanted to run a speaking series and I remember the first week we got the speaker and we threw out a bunch of emails about it. Fifty people were going to show up and I was going to emcee the thing. I remember being really nervous that first night. I practiced in front of a mirror and went over and over how I was going to present the speaker and what I was going to do. So that was 10 years ago and we hosted about 120 sessions, so I’m really proud that I was able to build something – a speaking series that a lot of people know about. And that’s been a really great thing.
- I’m proud of basically taking a risk and setting up this brokerage here at Northwood Life which took a lot of guts, and I’m still building it and there is still a lot or work to do.
- I’m most proud of my kids, I have two young children and I have a very solid marriage and I’m really proud of that when I see everyone around me divorcing and splitting up. I’ve got the most solid marriage and I have two amazing kids, and I would put this at the top of everything.
Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?
I’ve always had mentor. One of the mentors I have now is my partner Art Appleberg, who has basically taken Northwood Mortgage the brokerage he started 20 years ago and grew it into a 200 person sales force. We’ve set up a model on the insurance side that is similar to but not identical to the mortgage brokerage business. But I’m trying to follow – Art is full of all this wisdom – how to build a brokerage. He has done it on the brokerage side and I’m doing it on the insurance and investment side. He is a great mentor so it’s always good to go in and tell him what’s working and what’s not. The thing about mentors is that it’s not all about glory. You also have to talk about what’s not working. That’s been really great for me.
I’ve had other mentors along the way. At my last employment the owner and I were very tight and I always talked to him about how I would do things. Mentors have always helped me.
Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?
Never say die, constantly improve, and that whole kaizen that the Japanese constantly look for better ways to do things. Always keep your eyes open, always act professionally like I told you about that “Good Loser” letter. That’s professional, if a client says, “I don’t want you as my adviser,” instead of being snotty, respond with a “Good Loser” letter. I never send angry emails, ever. I’ve received them, but I never send them because that’s on record forever.
Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?
There are different readers, so let’s say I’m thinking about someone who is going into a career. One of the things that I did is that I wrote down a list of the things that I wanted in a career. And I knew when I entered this business that I wanted something with an education path; that was important to me. And I knew that I wanted something where there was no limit to your upside potential. And I knew that I wanted something where I could grow old with my clients so it wasn’t always a new sale every week it was about building relationships. And I didn’t want things like territories, but I wanted to be able to move all over the place. And I wanted something with real scope.
I wrote that 20 years ago, I created that list, I wanted an education path, I wanted a career with no limit on the ceiling, I wanted open territories and I wanted the opportunity to be a professional, to really embrace something. So what I would say to people listening to this is if you are looking at some sort of career, whatever, I would say know what you want because if you know what you want you will pursue it.
One of the failures I had is a job that didn’t work out, they let me go. I was selling office equipment and I didn’t enjoy it. So 20 years ago, I wrote down what I wanted in a new career, so I would say know what you want, write it down and set a plan.
Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?
A lot of marketing that you do in insurance can be personal. A lot of people join golf clubs to meet people. We ski every weekend. I really try at times to keep my business and personal life separate. I let everyone who I’m friends with know what I’m doing but I try not to be in their face. There are people in my field who can be in your face and that has always bothered me. I definitely try to keep my kids away from the business. I don’t want them to see me as this prospecting animal. You can work all the time in this business, it’s interesting, the people are interesting, and the clients are interesting. My challenge is that I need to turn it off when I go home, and that’s the question I’d like to address. When I go home, I’m there for my kids and my family. We go skiing, I’m there for them and I try and turn it off.
Avil Beckford: What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?
I don’t have any. My life is evolving, I’m proud of it and I’m able to keep my family in a certain lifestyle, I feel professionally fulfilled, I own my own business and I’m good. I don’t have those big regrets.
Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?
- I need to work with people I like, and that’s a great lesson. I’d rather take a lousy opportunity with great people than a great opportunity with lousy people because if you are with great people you’ll synergize, you’ll figure it out, you’ll go forward and you’ll have great fun.
- Stick-to-it-tiveness – I’ve been doing this for 20 years and what I’m finding as I get older and mature, instead of being cast to the side I’m getting better and better at it and getting more established.
- Find something that you love.
- You can’t judge something right away, you have to give it a year till you can even think about judging it. I wasn’t sure I would love this business, but I wrote down what I wanted and I gave it a year and within two weeks, by the way, of being in the insurance and investment industry I loved it and knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do.
- Set long term goals and give things a chance.
Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?
We are a family of skiers, we like to ski. I’m dedicated to my two kids and that’s my downtime and it’s really important for me that they grow up well balanced, respectful and educated and I’ll do anything for them. Unfortunately sometimes I need a little bit more downtime that just for me, so I try to keep physically fit and try to read a lot. I’m constantly taking courses for improvement so that’s kind of my downtime.
Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?
Sometimes just setting time aside to think about them. Great ideas require downtime. It requires just sitting in your office or a beach. I find when I go away on holidays sometimes my best ideas come then.
Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?
Just do it – Nike
Avil Beckford: How do you define success?
I think there are many levels of success. There is this thing called “top of the table” in the business where you are “top of the table” and they say there is no point to be on the top of the table if there is no one there to sit with you. I thought that was great so it’s not just about financial success. I think you need to have family success, and you need to be around people you care about.
Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?
I think it’s finding something that you are truly passionate about and creating a plan.