Episode 10 : Task Organizers

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give you all the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Millionaire agents and entrepreneurs think and act differently than others. This podcast will give you a simple, proven three step blueprint to grow your business. Over the past 31 years of research in your industry, Mike Stromso has created a unique philosophy called the three people process and promotion. This outside the box thinking and guidance provides agency entrepreneurs just like you the knowledge and tools you can quickly implement to explode your agency business. He has been there, done that, and he's still doing it. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromso.

Hey friends, it's Mike Stromco. Welcome to episode 10 of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I'm coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we're going to be talking about.

Something that people say that they want, people say they need, they're going to do. But when I get back to them and say, how's it going? Oh, excuse, excuse, excuse me. Yes, it's processes and systems. And when you dig down a little bit deeper at the core of processes and systems, not only in our evolution, but of any great company out there.

It'S written protocol documentation. In our world, we affectionately call it task organizers. Yes, written documentation on how to do something. Because if we've had an opportunity to share on excellent team members, you know that you only need three things in the general makeup of an excellent team member, right? A brain, a good attitude, and a good culture fit. And that good culture fit is something I missed for years and now it's ingrained into my head after more lessons than I care to elaborate on today. However, once that excellent team member gets onto your team.

How are they going to do what they do every single day? What protocol are they going to follow? Are you going to be investing all your time to continue to train them or are you going to do some basic training and be able to release them onto their career with very little of your intervention or very little intervention of the rest of your team members? I want you to think about that very deeply for a couple of moments after we get done with this podcast, because at the end of the day, it's everything. And those simple steps when you begin to document your processes and your systems will lead to everything else that you're going to want to do to create a company wide culture of processes and systems and protocol and that this is the way that we do it and this is what you will do. I too was actually in some training yesterday and I was talking with one of our newer team members because now we're in some training on some expertise things that I do get involved in that still because I love, love, love to train and lead. Okay. And the team member said, I was interacting with one of the leaders on the team the other day and she said this is the way we do this. And I quickly said, great.

I'm not going to override what she said because the way we do it is the way that we said we're going to do it and that's we're going to stick to. Right. So I was so elated that our team leadership is on board with what we're doing, has set protocol and has set this is the way that we're going to do it. So that was flipping awesome. And so I'm going to share with you a little bit today about how we developed this friction free agency so every team member can achieve and really enjoy their lives. How flipping awesome is that? When we get to live, have a little bit of freedom, deal with the bumps in the road that come up or the joys that come into our life and are able to continue to operate, it's just an incredible magical environment. And that's what we want for you. And what this means for you is it means growing your business, creating wealth, and more importantly, having that freedom to do what you do. So the first thing is think about this. There's pressure and there's other people, right? This is the first thing that we identified from an awareness standpoint when we began to create our processes and systems. Pressure on other people, the easy blame, right? Isn't it always somebody else's fault? I mean, sometimes we hear that it's the current pain, you know, in the agency world, what do you got going on every day? Phone calls, emails, faxes, text messages, instant messages, underwriters, marketing reps, clients in the office, escrows, deadlines, certificate of insurance needed. Sound familiar? You're not alone. You have the same 24, seven that everybody else does, but you have the frustration of everyone doing tasks differently. I too had that and I'm going to share with you exactly what we did to overcome that. Are you thinking of paying the high dollar fee of an outside consultant who's going to come in and magically solve all of your Problems and create an office or organization procedure manual. And when they walk out the door, all of your problems are going to be solved. Well, you know what, friends? Unfortunately, that happened to a UPP member recently and got a phone call shortly after that. And the UPP member was commenting on how the frustration had mounted because all of the procedures and the tasks and everything that were documented did not match their vision for how they wanted things to be run. And they were almost in a worse position than before the person got there. And so I quickly shared with them our task organizer system. Elaborated on how we take that to the next level with Camtasia trainings, which can be done in multiple formats, how we deliver it, how we coach it, what we do. And she goes, how come you didn't tell me about this before? I said, it's been there all along. Maybe you weren't prepared to see it yet.

All right? So, I mean, it'll show up when we need it the most, right? So I'm so happy that now that they know, and that's what we want to share with you. And it is an easy solution because, you know, this happened in our own organization. And the easy beginning is the task organizer system. Let me share with you some of the benefits and what this means for you. It eliminates team member stress.

It eliminates friction between management in the agency. Team team members gain ownership of running the agency. Isn't that awesome? Their step is elevated just a little bit on how things go around here. And that's what we want because that gets you out of the running of the day to day. It really does provide the best customer care.

And the good news is what this means for you is it increases profits. You have more productive team members because they're happier.

And they're more successful and they have the ownership and have control of their destiny. It's just awesome.

So you might be thinking at this point, this all sounds great, Mike, but how do I get them on board? Thanks for asking. First of all, people are silently waiting to be led. And your job as the leader of an organization to really sell your team members on everything that's good for them and for the organization. You know, Nightingale talks about in his book the Strangest Secret. It's our job as proactive, productive human beings to sell anybody on everything. It happens in our personal lives as well as in our business lives. Think about this. If you have kids or you have another person in your personal world that you influence, it's our job to help influence them on doing the right thing. Like with kids to do right, not wrong, to tell the truth, not to lie, to eat your vegetables and don't eat crap all the time. I mean, you get what I mean, right? And we're selling them on that. You know, if we have a good friend who's thinking about making a bad decision, we want to sell them on why you might not want to make that decision because there's consequences for that decision. We are in the sales game and everything that we do in life, and as a leader of an organization, it's on you. Look in the mirror of truth. It's your job. So we have a complete system that we've put together. Okay, so let me give you just a brief overview of how we did it in our agency. You know, we had done an acquisition years ago, our very first sizable one, and it came with a couple of people, and it came together with our existing office team, and we finally made the decision to bring them all into one office and to work together. And after a period of time, we had this friction. You know, the people that were already, you know, with me were saying, we do things this way. And they're saying, well, where we came from, we did it this way. And I'm going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We collectively all do it this way. And it continued. And I was like, uber stinking frustrated at that point. Have you ever gone home at night and grinded on something.

As an agency entrepreneur or a business entrepreneur? I know you can't see this. I'm holding up two fingers. That means I second or I agree. And it still happens to this day. That particular night after an event, I was grinding pretty good. So I was sitting there in my home office trying to, you know, research and study some materials on how I was going to develop the answer for this. So I'm sitting in a chair and I look up on the bookshelf, and there's this book. And for some reason at that point, because I was prepared to receive it. Got it. I was prepared to receive it. So I reached up on the bookshelf, pulled this thing down, opened it up, and there it was. It had this, like, you know, hymnal music going on around it. Ah, there it is. And so I started reading the material, and I discovered the step by step way of designing your agency business that was based on this core tool called a task organizer. It's a simple one to 15 step document that, if properly done and properly organized in your agency business, will solve at least 80 to 90% of these frictional problems. Within your agency on how we do things from a process and systematic standpoint. It really is that easy. So I was, like, uber pumped and excited that night. So, of course, I woke up early the next morning, couldn't wait to get out of bed because I was excited about this newfound mindset, if you will. So I quickly ran into the office, called a team meeting, got everybody in my office at that point, and I said, I. I found it. I found the process and system operational foundation. I believe for us going forward, it's going to eliminate this friction, and I wanted to share it with you today. So I quickly told them what I had found, and they said, that sounds great. We're on board. What do we need to do? I said, that's the next step. We all collectively together have to begin to create these processes and systems together collaboratively, you know, day by day, week by week. Okay? And I said, I have an idea, and here's what I think we should do. So I handed each one of them a form, and they're looking at it. I said, so, you know, Nancy, at this point, you're doing commercial customer service. And so you're doing some unique things that nobody else does. I said, monique, you're doing support and setup of commercial accounts. You're doing things that nobody else does. I said, I think it was Becky at the time. I said, becky, you're doing personalized customer service. You're doing things that nobody else does. I said, erica, you're at the front desk. You're performing tasks that nobody else is performing, that nobody else does. And then I had Marge, who was kind of my assistant at the point. I said, marge, you're doing things that nobody else is doing, that nobody else does. So each of you have your unique talents and gifts, and so what I want you to begin to do is start completing one of these, each of you, per week, based on what you're doing. And what I want you to think about is the thing that you do the most, because that's your highest priority. And I want you to document that one step through 15, and if it's more than 15 steps, write it on a separate list. We're going to get back to that later because I have another idea. And so when you're done with it, I want you to put it out in the red folder on the counter. Yes, I know it seems equated, you know, wait, paper, red folder, and a counter. Yes, that's the way we did it. Okay. And so I said, you don't have to type them out or make them pretty, I just want you to title it. And by the way, titling is the key, right? So if it has to do with an insurance company like Nationwide, Nationwide Blank, how to submit a claim, Nationwide Blank, how to look up billing information, et cetera, et cetera. Got it. And if it's marketing, marketing, how to send out birthday cards, marketing, how to distribute and nurture email, that kind of thing. So, and so it's all by topic, right? So I said just make sure it's titled properly and then just write out in your own handwriting, step one through 15 or one through five, or one through seven or one through nine, whatever it is, just write it on the piece of paper and put the piece of paper in the red folder on the counter. I will have somebody type them up later if this works for us. Because at that point I had a 14 year old daughter at home who liked to type and like to earn money. So she was going to be happy to do that. So that was really, really good. So at the end of the first week, I looked in the folder and guess what I found? We had done at least two per person. And I'm looking at them and I'm going, wow, this works. Some had five steps, some had eight steps, some had 12 steps, some were all 15 and some actually went on to the back, but that was okay. They were all documented and written down. And I said, wow, this might work. And so I huddled with the team again and I said, hey, great job last week. How did it feel? They go, yeah, I think this can work. I said, so how about if we do two each next this coming week and if we can get at least two done per person, I'll buy lunch at the end of the week. And they said, yeah, that's awesome. I said, what do you want for lunch? And you know, we collectively came up with some ideas. So we got through the week and of course we had at least two done per person, sometimes three. And so we did lunch at the end of the week and I'm thinking, aha, we've got something here. So the following week I said, I'm going big. I am so on fire about this. If we can get, let's average it out our goal, because we had been doing, if it was, you know, two per person times five or six, maybe, you know what, 10 or 12. I said, let's reach a little bit. If we can get 15 done next week, I'll give you $5 each one that you do and I'll be a son of A gun. We got at least 20 done. So we had it. We created a process, we created accountability, we created an award, a reward system, I should say, for all of this. But at the end of the day, that's how we did it. Today we have over 541, I believe, at last count, basic processes that we have documented and transparently some of them are now outdated. So my strong encouragement is to build in an accountability system and figure out who on your team is going to be the one who's going to watch this and keep them up to date. It's critically important as well, because that's one of the areas that we've fallen short. We need to keep them up to date and it has to be the right person with the knowledge. So it's a hard thing. So you know, if we've, if you've heard us talk about our time block study and how that works under our time management segment, that'll be a great podcast that we have coming up for you in the future. Time management. So maybe that person can block, you know, two hours on one day and two hours on another day just to focus on this activity of keeping things up to date. So as an example, just an idea for you, alright, so after we got all those done, we put them on a common drive within our network where everybody could access. And all of a sudden we had the beginning of our processes and systems through the base core.

Systematic process we call affectionately the Task Organizers. What we did after that, we started having a bunch of them and anytime anybody needed to do anything, we would say, this is how we do it. If you have any questions. Oh, by the way, on the bottom of the Task Organizers is the date that it was created and the initials of the person who created it. So, and this was, this was an absolute key. Envision this with me, if you will. On the bottom we have a date and we have initials of the person that created it. So let's say it was mh. Okay. And let's say that this task changed. Do things change in the insurance agency business or any business? You bet. In fact, something's going to change by 3:30. Right now it's 3:11. Okay. So things are constantly changing. And that was the cool thing about this whole process. These are all on Word documents within our systems. And so people are quickly able to go into the system, update the Word document, change the date at the bottom left. And if MH created it, we put a MH aw. If AW is the one that updated it. So when somebody needs to Get a question answered. They don't understand a particular facet of it. That's okay. They just go talk to MH or AW because those are the last two people that touched it. And my recommendation is, if it changes again, just keep adding the initials. And these are all people. And here's the key, my friends, other than you, who can answer questions about how this is done, that works twofold, what does this mean for you? You have more freedom. What does this mean for your organization? The people answering the questions have more ownership and leadership ability within the organization because they are beginning to learn how to lead people.

What does that mean for you? It means confidence and more freedom so that you can do the things that you do well to grow your business and to create wealth, my friends. It's really that simple. We have hundreds of examples that we're happy to share with you to give you another level process on this.

Nowadays, you heard me say earlier, we took this to the next level because you know as well as I do, there are steps within this entire business entrepreneur endeavor that, you know, say 15 steps just isn't enough. It's more complicated than that. And we ran into that consistently. So a lot of times, you know, it's one to 15 steps. You know, how we turn on the TVs in the lobby, or how we open the mail, or what do we do with distribution, this or and all that. Right. But if it's more complicated than that, what we started doing was we created custom tutorials to teach people anything via a piece of software called Camtasia from TechSmith. Now, this was a number of years ago. And what I have also learned in my journey is that everything that we have done, we seem to be really early in the evolutionary process, for which I'm extremely grateful. Right. But being so early in the evolutionary process, you know, for instance, Camtasia, back when we first started using it, the investment was 299, $299 per license. Nowadays it's only 199, and it's a fabulous program. But, you know, a lot of the people that we consult with, I Recommend. How about useloom.com usclom.com that's my recommendation because you know how much that costs? Yes. Picture a zero. That's what it costs. Nothing. Okay, so. All right. And my director is saying, don't slam the desk because you get excited. I won't do that. Maybe. Anyway, so the bottom line is this, you know, do something. Okay. And the cool thing with Use Loom is you can create these Custom tutorials that reside on your systems, that teach people in a longer sequence on how you want something done and how we do it here. It's the call. Let's say the name of your agency is the Exceptional Insurance Agency, right? The Exceptional Insurance Agency. So you will say, this is the way the Exceptional Agency does it, right? It's our way. It's the Exceptional Way. And there's no other option, my friends. It's not complicated. It's not difficult. You just got to do the work.

Right? It does come dressed in overalls and it does look like it, and it is work. But if you will back up and do the work, you will find that you're beginning to create this magical infrastructure foundation of a business that will turn into something extremely special. I will tell you this, one of our other UPP coaching members took this particular training and did not follow a lot of what we said. They upped it a level. They went out and had their own custom intranet built with all of this integrated into that online structure. I've seen it. I was blown away by it. I couldn't be more proud of this person. And maybe just someday, because part of our operational processes as well includes an Internet product. Well, we may just convert all this into that as well, because he's done a fantastic job. So, you know, my encouragement for you is also think outside the box. That's where the real innovation is. Outside the box. It's not inside the box.

So what is it that you want? In the words of my good friend Jeb Blunt, how bad do you want it? Prove it. This is Mike Stromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. Implement, execute, take action. Make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. All I'll see you in the next podcast. Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast.com. now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.