Episode 100: Secret Habits of UPP Agent Success and Achievement with Bill Butler

Welcome to the 100th episode of 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 Ps 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.

Greetings, everybody. This is Mike Stromco coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And this podcast is a very special podcast for many, many reasons. But my friends, if you've been following our podcast since the early days, this is podcast number 100, the century mark, the C note. Yes. And we are so privileged and we are so proud to bring you the best of the best. Not only agents, but business minds across North America and beyond. And it's been an absolute privilege. But the good news is we're just getting started. But I thought for this particular podcast that we would bring on a very special guest today, and I am privileged to have him on the podcast again, Mr. Bill friggin unstoppable Butler. Bill, how you doing?

I'm doing good, Mike, thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be number 100.

Now you've earned the right, my friend, to be number 100. And I think we should go ahead and spill the beans in just a moment. But what our initials mean. Because we get that question a lot, don't we?

We do.

Do you know what? I was born, actually.

What's that? Tell me, Mike.

The B, F, U, B. I know.

Where it was born, but I think we have some people who may not.

Yeah. So. Well, and I know it might come as a shock to some, but the story might have been skewed a little over the years, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah. So anyway, this little acronym or stromsoism, as I was positioned on a podcast recently, it was born in a boardroom in Bam, Alabama. To those locally in Bam or Birmingham, Alabama, I was down there masterminding with some other agents years ago. And as we do in our platinum coaching circles, Bill, as you know quite well, I do share and trade ideas and we share and trade personal development stories and everything else. And that's what we're going to dig in today and find out from you, Bill. I couldn't be more pumped and excited about today, by the way, but. And that's one of the many, many reasons we're doing having bill on this 100 podcast because he just did something that was absolutely off the charts. More in a minute. So we're down in the boardroom and bam. And I'm just sharing ideas, you know, that I've implemented in my own insurance agency business. And the dude at the other end of the table from Alabama, his name was Terry. And he goes, mike, that was frigging unstoppable. And so somebody else in the room, who you and I both know Bill, said, picked up on that. And this guy's got a steel trap for a memory, right?

He does.

We went back with to an email discussion group later, a couple of weeks later, and we're trading information and he starts out, he's. He picked up on the conversation. He goes, terry said you were frigging unstoppable. And so I'm going to rename you MFUs, Mike friggin unstoppable Tromso. And so somebody else in that email discussion group said, well, then I went back and said, well, his name is Russia and it's rfu. So I said, rfuc, blah, blah, blah. And somebody else in the group said, how do you pronounce that?

Well, let everyone. We'll let everyone out there listening and fill in the blanks.

Yeah, well, or some that are watching.

Some that are watching. You can.

So it's rfuc. We'll leave that to your wild imagination. So anyway, that's the backstory on it. So people in our coaching circles and our platinum coaching circles have picked up on, on that. And so we've all got the handle bfub, mfus, cfub, et cetera, et cetera. So it's been a lot of fun. And it's a little insider secret that we're now sharing with the world. No longer private.

No longer private. That's okay.

Yeah. So speaking of not private. So.

Bill is not only one of our highest achieving platinum coaching members. Bill made a decision to jump into coaching back in 2015. Bill, can you think back when.

Why? So I actually, I know the exact point when that happened. I was listening. Mike used to do webinars and he had on A webinar, James Malincheck. And that was actually the first webinar that I listened to before, after attending a boot camp. And I asked the question of James Malenchek, what's the one thing that I could do to improve myself as a business owner? He said, hire a coach. Aha. The light bulb went off. I should hire a coach. And that's where I jumped into coaching and haven't looked back since. And it has been a wild ride, but one that I continue to invest in because it's, you know, I couldn't get the value. The return on investment is, you know, I couldn't put a number on it.

Wow. Thank you for sharing that. So in our coaching circles, we trade information. We share information, we share our wins, we share our lessons. And just for those who don't know what we're talking about there, lessons are also known as what, losses?

Yeah, failure. You got to fail forward. You got to fail to succeed. Otherwise, you just get nowhere. So.

Yep. Yep. And, you know, I say this with great sensitivity to anybody out there who's recently lost a loved one. Our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to you. But at the end of the day, we also say, if you fail, nobody died. We're good. You can recover. You can do this.

Yeah.

So at the end of the day, we believe that. So in our trading of information of most recent success stories, I do remember back at an early boot camp that you attended, maybe prior to that webinar that you were on. I remember you coming up to me at the break, because at that particular event, I want to say it was 2014 in Orange, California.

It was.

And you came up to me at the break and said, you keep talking about this Automobile University. I want to know more about that. And what do you have in Automobile University, anyway? And so I promptly, I think that night went out and got my bag out of the car of all my CDs and everything else that were in Automobile University. And I remember you taking pictures.

That's right.

All of my CD collection from inside my car, which was Automobile University. And that told me right then and there, I said, that dude's going somewhere because he's focused on learning more and becoming more. So.

Yeah.

Thanks, Mike. And I gotta tell you, some of those I already had and I hadn't listened to. And then I got back after that bootcamp and took action. That's the other thing that, you know, I've learned in coaching is, you know, everything's great. You can go to a seminar, you can Go. There's a lot of training out there in this industry to better yourself, but it's real easy to dump all that on the airplane flight home, watch a couple movies and then just get back to the way things were. But the real people who succeed in this industry take action on those ideas when they get back.

Yeah, if you keep doing the same thing you always been doing, you're gonna get the same thing you've always gotten, right?

Absolutely. Same results, same action, same results. So yeah.

So fantastic. So that is when I learned that Bill's a learner. And if we want to have more, we have to become more because we attract exactly what we are and who we become. So he has become not only a great agency owner through the practices that he's learned from his platinum coaching members, our one on one days, etc. Etc. He's built a great agency that is going places. More specifically that you have a smack recipe and it's niche driven. So I couldn't be more proud about that. Before we go on to the next thing that I really want to pull out of you, anything to add on that?

Well, I'm a huge fan of Jim Collins and I can't talk to agency owners enough about his teaching and learning. In fact, after the book we're going to talk about that. I just got done listening to that caused kind of this whole thing. I'm listening to Entrepreneurship 2.0, which is really great audible listen, just came out recently. I've listened to all of Jim's books a couple times and while you think those are huge corporation ideas, you know, he's talking about IBM. They're business principles. Whether you're a three person insurance agency, a multi state operation, business principles are business principles. And Jim Collins has some really dialed in business principles to help you take your agency to the next level. And I think that's probably one of the biggest catalysts for me personally. You know, every different things speak to different people. But you know, Jim Collins and his teachings have really spoken to me and my agency and what we've built and how we built things. And so, you know, you have to continue to learn. And every time you listen to a book, read a book, you hear different things, you hear it a different way, you're at a different point in your evolution of your business, things change and you hear something different. So you know, you have to continue to be a learner because you know, technology, the industry, I mean, things just are changing so fast in this industry. You've got to, you know, continue to Innovate.

The day we stop learning is the day we start growing. Right.

I've heard that before.

So by the way, that means I second or I agree for those who are watching live on another from the inside circles. But one other thing, Bill, I just learned this this morning. I haven't had a chance to share it with you yet.

I'm all ears.

Because believe it or not, I personally develop and train and grow every single day. So it was a small little thought process. At the end of a 70 minute training which was very deep and very heavy with content.

The leader said, you know, it's really this simple. Businesses are simply businesses with people serving and helping people.

I heard that after this huge, deep 70 minute training, I'm going, wow, that was a great thought. Businesses are simply businesses with people serving and helping people.

It's really that simple. Now underneath that, that's a whole different training.

Yeah, that's where the coaching comes in, figuring out how to make all that work.

Well, It's a simple three step blueprint called the three Ps, People, Processes and promotions, in that order. Thanks for the lead, Bill, but I'm going to divert back to you because this is all about you today. So Bill is one of the most successful agents in our coaching program. Everybody's successful in their own rights, but he's an action packed dude and that's one of the handles he flies by. So what we do is we trade information, we share our latest greatest reads. Audible is my mistress. The CDs are gone. Audible is my mistress in my car. My wife knows about her, so we're all good there. And so I was introduced to a book, I'm going to say two or three months ago, but my library is backed up a month or two. So I finally got to this book in my library.

Mike, who introduced you? I want to know who introduced you to that book because.

I don't remember, to be honest. All right.

And I run in multiple circles because of the coaches that I study under. Just for everybody's observation out there, I have three, three that we invest in in our businesses to continue to become more. So it could be somebody from one of those circles because I sit in my own masterminds, even though we lead masterminds in our circles. So I don't know.

So, so I don't know who to thank for this.

I'll figure it out during one of those moments. So anyway.

All right, I'll thank you.

Yeah, no problem. Hopefully I'll have my pad right there on the bathroom counter. And we won't reveal anymore because that's probably tmi. But anyway, so somebody introduced me to this book, and I went through it on Audible and I was like, oh, my God, that was one of the best two books that I've gone through in the last two years. It's called Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. And I thought, go ahead, Bill. For those of you watching, Bill's got his copy right there. Honestly, I don't have my copy with me, so props to you.

And I said, that's one of the best books I've been through in the last two years. Now, I will preface this for some of those of you out there. It's got a lot of rough language in it, but if you could just disregard the language and focus on the story and what this person ultimately achieved in his life. And he achieved these things in his life because of a decision.

And that's what I want to pull out of Bill today. So. And in addition to that, this dude did not have a very. In fact, that's not even fair. He had an incredibly tragic and difficult upbringing in life, and he still beat the odds, so to speak.

I would think he would say it was he started in the sewer. Like, that's actually what he says in the book, is he started in the sewer. And I, you know, the book is great. I've read a couple excerpts out of it. I did. I would highly recomm the audible because they give additional. It's not just reading the book. David Goggins breaks in and gives anecdotes like a podcast throughout the book. It's a long listen. It's 13 hours, but it's worth the investment. The beginning part about his upbringing is pretty tough to listen to. If you've had some abuse issues. I just throw that out there because that was his upbringing. But.

Inspirational story and, you know, I've done like one fifth of the stuff that guy's done and similar. Similar things with within the military. And that's part of why it spoke to me and, you know, got me hooked in when Mike told me about the book.

Yeah, well, let's give credit where credit's due, by the way. Bill is one of the reasons that we have our freedom today. And I want to publicly thank Bill again for his service to our country. So Bill served all of us and allowed us to enjoy the freedom that we get to enjoy today through his service in the army, and he's an Army Ranger. So thank you, Bill Sua Sponte is one of the things you taught me, Rangers lead the way is another thing that I picked up. So props to you.

So yeah, that was one of the hooks for me in the book is David Goggins. And just a real quick preface on this because that kind of leads to why I'm invited here today. So you know, David Goggins tough upbringing, decided he was going to join the Air Force, joined the Air Force, couldn't be a pararescue guy because he couldn't swim. So he wound up as a forward air controller, meaning he goes out with the army and calls close air support. So he would go out, I was in the infantry, we'd get these Air Force guys attached to us and they'd call in the air support for us. And so you'd have this Air Force guy out. And that was what David Goggins did in the Air Force. And he wound up joined at 175 pounds, left at 290. So he was a big dude when he got out of the Air Force and was working for eco lab, killing cockroaches at restaurants, wasting his life away. That's what he would say. And he decided he would become a Navy Seal. But he had to lose 106 pounds in three months. So he did that. Wound up getting into Navy seals. Took him three tries to get through hell week. Just Google hell week if you don't know what that is. And wound up passing, becoming a Navy Seal and then kind of went on to do some incredible feats beyond that. And he also went to Army Ranger school. So just for the military people out there who this makes sense to, I'm Ranger qualified. I'm not a Ranger. So for the military nerds out there, they know what that means. I served in the 101st Airborne Division and Ranger qualified. So I went to Ranger school. David Goggins went to Ranger school. So there's always that hook and you know, Ranger school he talks about in the book as well. And that's, that's a huge grind. So.

It kind of hooked me in. So I started, you know, you're reading a book and you start Googling who you're reading or listening about. And I go to David Goggins website and I see this four. So I literally started listening to this book three or four weeks ago. And I had a one on one coaching call with Mike and we're collaborating, he's giving me some advice and he said, you know, I'm reading this book right now and David Goggins talks about callousing Your mind, you gotta, you know, do a lot of pull ups and your hands get callous. You gotta callous your mind because things get hard. And so Mike brought that up. So I googled David Goggins and He has this 4 by 4 by 48 challenge. And what that means is, and it was coming up March 5th, and this is like two weeks ago, and you run four miles every four hours for 48 hours. So that was the challenge. And initially my, my brain said that that doesn't sound too, like too much fun. I don't think I want to do that.

But then I thought about a little bit more and thought, well, I can run four miles and I can probably run four miles every four hours for 48 hours. So what the heck, I think we should do it. And this was like a week ago, so I just decided to do it out of the blue. And I really actually haven't done any training or running since COVID or really 2018, which is probably a huge physical mist. And I might talk about that a little bit, but that's kind of what, you know, his message really is that we're only giving 40% effort at any given time. And that kind of comes to what we were talking about at our last platinum coaching session last fall. And I cop to that, to our group.

So 40% effort. To who do you refer when you say that?

Everybody. Like David talks about, you know, whether that's physically, mentally and, you know, and I talked about it at our platinum group, Mike. And I'll share this with everyone that everyone. I really appreciate the kind words about the success of the agency and all the hard work I put in. But I had to confess to my coaching group that I wasn't actually giving all my effort. And I get a lot of congratulations. I've had some success, been recognized for some of my work and what I've done as an agency principal. But I'm actually not applying myself as hard as I could. And I had to tell everybody that in our coaching group in a Zoom call with eight other agency owners or 10 other agency owners, which really sucked to say I'm not working as hard as I could. And that's the other part of David Goggins book that really spoke to me is because I knew four or five months ago that I was letting Covid be an excuse about not working hard, about, well, it's Covid. The office is shut down. We're not selling as much. We don't have to do whatever. I'm in my home office. I don't have to do whatever, you know, my comfortable home office. Yeah, my comfortable home office. You know, it's easy to punch out at 4:30 and walk and commute to my living room, which is the commute, because there's no drive home. I just walk out of the office. And so, you know, I think not only is, you know, is that an excuse, but in this industry, I think, you know, once you get to a certain level of success, it doesn't take much to keep that level of success in this industry. You know, we're in the insurance industry. For anyone who's not not in the insurance industry listen to podcasts and you get to a certain level of success in the industry and it just kind of keeps coming in and you don't have to work as hard, and so you have to keep driving. And that's part of the message that really spoke to me in David's book that.

Said, you should probably kick your own butt to go do something to tell yourself that you need to work harder. And so I decided to do this 4 by 4 by 48 challenge with no training and no, no real plan of how I was going to get it done, except for Friday afternoon, five hours before I was going to start it.

So what really, I mean, give me something internal. There's something within you, within your mind, your heart, your soul, whatever it was that caused you to decide, I'm going to do this. What was that?

Well, I think, you know, throughout my life, I've kind of had those. Those moments. I did a triathlon five years in 2018 with zero training just because I told a buddy I was going to do it. And, you know, you make a commitment to doing something. And, you know, I've heard you say it many times, Mike, a commitment is doing what you said you were going to do long after the mood you set it in is left. David Goggins talks about in that book, you know, like, yeah, we make a decision to climb Mount Everest, not on the top of Mount Everest. You make that decision sitting in your living room when you're nice and warm. And so you have to continually push and challenge yourself to get outside your comfort zone. And part of that is pushing yourself mentally or physically to help you realize, yeah, I've got more to give. And if you're pushing yourself physically to give more, it's easier. Yeah, I can put more effort in at the office or I can put more effort in my personal life. You know, I'm in Rotary. I can put more effort in fundraising, you know, whatever it might be fundraising. And so, you know, that's why I've kind of drawn to those challenges, because.

Over time, it's easy to recede back. It's hard to stay at that. You know, I'm going 100 miles an hour every day, all day long. And so, you know, for me personally, I kind of go in fits and starts, and, you know, I'll sprint really hard for, you know, four or five months and then. And then take a little break. But I get a ton done in those four or five months. So, you know, these activities, like, you know, this challenge that I completed just this past weekend, are one of those things that, you know, continually get me out my. Outside of my comfort zone and push me to become more. You know, it's Covid. I put on a little weight, and so, you know, like, all right, let's jumpstart this thing by walking 48 or running 48 miles. It's probably a good way to kickstart the metabolism. So, you know, that's just. It's. It's something that I've done throughout my military career, business career, and personal life to help me refocus my energy, because it's easy to get distracted.

So I think you just said the answer to this, but I'm going to ask it again anyway. And as we learn from our coaches, we need to hear things multiple times, say seven times as an example.

So why did you do this?

Because I wanted to prove to myself that I could, you know, like, you know, I. There's two things, Mike. One is we didn't do a fundraiser for my Rotary club this year, and I thought it'd be a good opportunity. So, you know, there's that opportunity. And then also. And so, quick, shout out. I think I've raised close to $2,000 or over $2,000. Get off my chair. I got the cat down here scratching my chair. Sorry about that.

And so, you know, fundraising. I'm very active in our Rotary Club, and I saw it as a good opportunity to do something because we had to cancel our fundraiser last year. But then also just. It's one thing to think that you can do something, and it's another thing to go out and cash that check and do that.

Event, whatever it is. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do X and then go out and do it. And. And, you know, I got a lot of inspiring messages from people on social media saying, you know, you inspired me to get out running again. You know, I'm not doing anything. You know, I could never do that. And it's not that, you know, David's challenge wasn't that you had to run four miles. It was he's. And this is exactly what he said. If you can't run four miles, walk four miles. If you can't walk four miles, bike four miles. If you can't bike four miles, do some exercise for 40 to 60 minutes. I mean, one of the iterations, Mike, he did jumping jacks for 40 minutes.

I wasn't aware of all that. So that makes me feel better. You inspired me so much. Of course I put out there that, yes, I'm going to do the next one. So bicycling four miles sounds good to me. Yeah.

You know, and so well, it's exercising for 40 to 60 minutes, Mike. It's not biking four miles. So you got to ride your bike for 40 minutes. Let's be clear.

I'm good with that. But so let's, let's go ahead.

Yeah, but you know, and that's the thing is, you know, you don't have to be superhuman to get outside your comfort zone. And that's, you know, that's part of the inspiring message that David has in his book is, look, you don't have to go from 40 to 80%. You need to go from 40 to 45. And then once you, you know, it's exercising that muscle, whether it's actual physical or in the office being more focused on a day to day basis, you know, I'm going to tell you, I was in the office, you know, I finished my last section and at 7pm on Sunday night, and I was smoked. You know, I had, I was, I had nothing left. Left it all out there. But I was up at 7am on the computer doing what I, doing what I do every day for work. Motivated and focused and, and you know, it didn't, it was, didn't even feel like work. It didn't even feel hard. It was like, well, this is nothing. I'm just. And I motored yesterday and you know, I'm motoring again today. And so, you know, doing these things, whatever it is in your life, you know, if you challenge yourself and you accomplish even part of that, it helps you become more, you know, as you said.

Yeah. So what I'm hearing is everybody out there who's either watching and or listening to this, you should find that one thing in your life that's going to be the fuel for your motivation and make that a consistent habit. Do you think there's anything to do with the physical aspect here?

Bill, for me there is there, there always has been. You know, I joined the military at 17, so there's a lot of, and I was in the infantry. So that's a lot of physical, you know, there's a lot of road marching, there's a lot of running, there's a lot of, you know, physical activity involved with, with that job that I did. And so that's always been a challenge. You know, it's who's the fastest 2 mile guy or who, who's doing more pull ups or who's doing more push ups or who's carrying more weight. And so, you know, that physical challenge for me has always been there. And so, you know the problem I've always had and I'll admit it, you know, my mom actually asked me yesterday, she goes, so why don't you like train a little bit before you do these things? Because you always seem to do these. And then you're like, you're a wreck. You, you hurt yourself or you're not. Like, you don't train before doing it, you do the training afterwards. But it's like the thing, it's the thing to kickstart me. Like, well, if I had only trained before I did this. So, you know, I do it in reverse. I don't train for the event, I do the event and then I do training. But that's just, I'm a little nutty like that. But everyone's got to find their thing to kickstart themselves and you know, that's the only way you're going to get any improvement. And you know, I'm, I was ready for that next, that next thing personally. And you know that you shared David Goggins with me right at the right time and that message hit me at the right spot because I was, I was willing to hear it.

Yeah. So I think that's the what we're looking for there. You use that as your kickstarter. You're a fire ready, aim guy. So am I. So it is what it is. But we, you know, nobody died, so we're good. So kudos to you. What I want to do is pull out of you for the next five minutes or so or whatever makes sense for you. So you made the decision to do this. You, you either one day, in the evening, sometime during the day, you said, I'm going to do this. And you are very much a decision guy. When you decide to do something, you're action packed and you just do it. So props to you. You decided to do it bigger than that. You decided to do it and combo it with your philanthropy, giving back mentality, heart and soul. Props to you for doing that. Way to go. And raising money for people worldwide, whether it be ending polio, benefiting water systems, combination of both. Thank you for that. So you've got your reasons and you decided to do it. And did you feel at some point as you got up that morning or whatever? And by the way, where do you, where are you from, Bill?

So we live in Minnesota and it's March, So it's not 75 degrees and sunny.

So what is that? What was the temperature when you got out there first thing in the morning?

So the, you know, we started it. I started at 10pm the event. David Goggins said 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Friday the 5th. So depending on where you were in the world, everyone was starting at 8pm Pacific Standard Time. So, you know, he had some 30 or 40,000 people all doing this worldwide at the exact same hour over, over this, the course of the event. And so, you know, 10pm was my first iteration. I went out and ran too hard, way too fast and kind of messed up my right leg right out of the gate. And, you know, it was, I think it was 26 degrees. And so, you know, not only is it dark out in Minnesota at 10pm in March, but it's also very cold. And so, you know, there's that mental part of, you know, forcing yourself to go do something that you, you like. You know, the first couple were, yeah, okay, this is kind of cool. And then, you know, that was 10pm The 2am Wasn't quite as fun. And then you're doing 6am and, you know, the thing you have to consider in this whole event is you're doing an activity from, you know, say 2:00am to 2:40am and you get done and you gotta, like, get some nutrition. You know, I work, you know, I got in an ice bath at the end of this thing. And so. But then in, in three hours and 20 minutes, I gotta be stepping off for the next four miles. So it's not like I get in bed and go to sleep for, you know, eight hours. It's. I get two hours of sleep and then I gotta get up and start getting ready again. And, you know, after, you know, eight cycles of that, you're starting to get really messed up physically, mentally. You know, I woke up the second 2am and the. I got the electric blanket wrapped around me, I got my legs up elevated. I'm trying to warm up from the ice bath before I Have to go back out in the 26 degrees. The cat's sleeping on my lap. I'm all nice and warm, and it just is like, why am I doing this? And that's kind of what you're getting to. And I. And David talks about that a lot in the book is why. And you get to that. You know, why am I running this marathon? Why am I doing this event? Why am I, you know, I set this huge production goal for my agency, and you get, you know, you're in July, and you're only 40% of the way there when you wanted to be 60%, you're like, why did I do this to myself? And you have to be able to answer that question. Those moments. And, you know, making a commitment to other people is a big way to do that. And, you know, Mike talked about the philanthropy part. You know, I had people donating money about me completing this thing. And, you know, I don't want to let them down. I don't want to let myself down. I don't want to let, you know, all those people like, rah, rah, giving me little gifts and the happy high fives and Facebook. But then a big motivator for David and a little bit of a motivator for me, too, is all the people who want to see me. You know, there's people on Facebook who are like, yeah, I hope that sucker blows up in the middle of the night and he doesn't finish. And, you know, I want to prove them wrong.

How many iterations were there, bill?

There were 12. So you had to do that 12 times. So 12, 4 miles wound up being 48 miles. So, you know, the end of. Took me an hour. Yeah. Every four hours.

You're out on Friday night at 10pm and finished Sunday, Saturday morning, 6am Saturday morning, turn around 10am Saturday, 2. And throughout the whole weekend. And what time did the last iteration start?

6:00Pm, 6:00pm Sunday. And I. It took me, you know, I had a leg injury, so I was only able to run three of the 12, which also sucks because for me, I don't like walking as much, and it takes longer, and then you just have less downtime between each iteration. You know, I basically lost about 25 minutes each time. And that's sleeping, that's eating, that's, you know, a little bit of rest. And so didn't finish until almost 7pm Sunday. So, you know, it's not a full 48 hours, but you got to finish the whole thing in 48. So, you know, from start to finish, it was, you know, 30, 30, 45 hours of, you know, constant grinding.

So I also learned something in my own personal training development this morning that to piggyback on the wonderful things you're sharing. Thank you, Bill, for being willing to transparently share. This says 90 days of pain for a lifetime of gain. So you did 48 hours of pain, which ultimately, if you think about this, will translate into a lifetime of gain because what you went through will carry with you for a long, long time. Would you agree?

I would agree. And what's funny is you're going to, if you do these things, if you challenge yourself to do these things, you're going to be able to draw on past experiences. As David talks about it a lot in his book Cuts about the cookie jar. Either that's happy memories or something that you've accomplished in the past. And, you know, from a sleep deprivation standpoint, and, you know, it wasn't as. I wasn't as hungry as I was in Ranger school, but just the grind part of it, of continually, almost continual movement for that 48 hours with very little downtime and the sleep deprivation part, because I probably only got about eight hours of full sleep over the, over the course of those two days. And that was the closest, like, just thinking back from what I did when I was in Ranger school. And so. But that was 20 years ago. You know, I went through that when I was 23. I'm 45, admittedly. And so, you know, that was, that was, you know, I think now, like, ah, you know, I did that thing a long time ago. And this brought a lot of that back for me of, yeah, I accomplished this thing. I did this thing. And so you're able to draw on all your past experience when you challenge yourself in the present, all those challenges from the past, and they help you to accomplish those. And then, you know, it makes it easier to say yes the next time you want to challenge yourself.

Absolutely. So, Bill, congratulations. So you made the decision. You did 12 iterations every four hours of four miles of activity. You attempted to run the entire time. You got injuries. They prevented you from running the entire time, but you walked, you did whatever you had to do. I don't know if you were crawling at some point, but the bottom line. Say again?

Not quite. But if I would have, my mom would have been very concerned at that point.

You know, something funny, and I hope this was okay. I didn't even ask your permission, but I did because it was out on social media, by the way. I watched the whole progression of Everything on social media. So proud of you, Bill. Good job, man. But your mom, I think that was Saturday morning after I got back from my bike ride is when I saw this. And you put up a picture of the sunrise and I saw your mom comment on that. And this is what I said to Cindy. I said, oh, Bill, thank you for putting up a picture of the sunset. I missed it. And I said to Cindy, I said, this is Bill's mom. How come she didn't say, bill, are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help you? No, she didn't care about any of that. She, she was bummed out she missed the sunset. I mean, wtf, right?

She was actually super concerned in the background because she. The ankle, the leg that I had problems with is the leg I broke in the army, old army injury. And she's, she just, she's like, you're gonna do permanent damage. Like, well, I think the army already did that to me. So we're just gonna have to grind through this and bionic leg this thing up and finish. So that's what we did.

Yeah. So, you know, kudos to you. Back to 40%. It's been your observation through your growth, how many years in the industry, by the way?

So this coming up on this May will be 18. Ish.

18 years in the industry. How many years in an agency ownership chair?

2017, I was named president of our family agency.

Okay. So about five years, four to five years. You've already been recognized on the coat corner of Rough Notes mag, on the COVID excuse me, of Rough Notes magazine, as the top agency in the nation. And we you self proclaim and talk about through your observations and interacting with other agencies all over North America, you feel you're in the top 3% of agencies. Is that accurate?

I. I'll take the Pepsi Challenge.

Okay, fair enough. Why do you feel that way? And what's the difference? And you already alluded to it, but I'm going to a point here. So through this achievement, through this growth, through this positioning and everything else, it appears that a lot of others are out there, have fallen into the thought process. Complacency kills. It's okay to arrive and it's okay to be settled. Why do you disagree with that and how does that correlate with the top three agencies, top 3% of agencies in all of North America?

Well, I think, you know, for me and I look at what I've been able to build and you know.

Since starting with coaching in 2015, you know, I've really, I Started on the wrong path initially, and then I regained my focus on what I needed to do to build.

A great agency. And I'll use that analogy because I think it's very easy to build a good agency in this industry. You know, good customer service, good clientele, good employees or good team members. But to build a great agency, that's a differentiator. And a reason I say that is, you know, Jim Collins talks about that a lot in good to great is, you know, there are very few. There's a lot of good businesses out there, but there's very few great businesses out there and they stand the test of time. And so, you know, I think the things that I've been able to do in my agency, because I've been focused and, you know, Mike's got an acronym, follow one course until success. I'm a little bit of a dog with a bone. Once I decide to do something thing, I do it and try and see it through to completion. And I think that's a recipe for my success. And, you know, if you have 20 projects half done, you've got nothing completed. So, you know, if you just focus on a few things and do those well, that will set you apart from your peers. And, you know, how we, how we offer customer service, our relationships with our carriers, you know, continually, even though we're, you know, admittedly a smaller insurance agency, we have to be better. Because I don't have the size to rely on in the modern independent insurance agency industry to say, you know, Well, I got 15 million on the books, I got 25 million on the books. You know, my agency's under 10 million. And so, you know, I have more pressure on me from the carriers to be better and be successful. And so, you know, continually striving to be better than the biggest agencies and a great. If you're a small insurance agency out there, I cannot, you know, sharing David and Goliath, we actually have the advantage as a smaller agency. We can make decisions faster, better, and turn. Turn the ship to become better than the larger agencies if you're smaller, faster. So, you know, though, you know, that was. That was also a game changer for me is reading that book and realizing, you know, I have actually more advantages as a small agency to guide my own path than as a larger agency. Just. Just because, you know, I don't have to ask a board of directors. I make the decision, we do it, and the team's on board because I provide the vision behind it.

That's a wonderful place to be. I would Agree. That's a privilege for you. So I just wrote down something that really just kind of hit me out of left field just now after all that I took in through your story. Thank you so much for sharing on this 100th episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. Huge honor, huge privilege. Thank you, Bill. Habits of success and achievement. And that is the sum of what Bill is talking about today. What Bill Talked about, the 4x4x48 challenge that he decided to go through is just one of the habits of success and achievement. It is part of the fuel that he has brought to the table in part of his formula for habits of success and achievement. You know, jumping into coaching, deciding to be niche driven, deciding to invest in technology, being disciplined and only hiring the right people, being disciplined and only working right, and all of that. Bill, if anybody else is listening out there and maybe they've got a long list of things they'd like to fix in the next year that are not going right, what would you say to them?

I would say pick the top 12 items, 12 calendar months, and you can start in any month. It's March, so start in April and go for 12 months. And so pick 12 items and then pick the top three and then pick the top one and focus on that in April and don't worry about the rest, because if you get that one item done in April and you complete it in April, then you can move on to item two, which becomes your next biggest thing. You know, it's so easy. You know, again, in this industry, I joke a little bit. My to do list is 52 years long and when I die, it won't be done. You know, there's always something to do in the insurance industry as an insurance agency owner, the next checklist to build the next thing, the next piece of technology, you know, whatever it is, there's always something else. There's the next client to call and the client renewal. There's always a renewal to look at. So you're never going to be done. So you've got to focus on the things that are going to have the most impact in your business. Because my business is different than yours. And so you got to figure out what's going to have the most impact in your business and then just get it done.

The 1231 formula. Game changer. By the way, how did you originally learn that?

I learned that from James. I actually learned that from James Malincheck because he was speaking at Unstoppable Boot Camp. It felt like it was impromptu. He just Hopped up on stage like after a morning session or something. And Rift, he just riffed for half an hour with a 3M flip chart writing down on the stage. And that was some of the best content of that whole weekend was James Malintech talking about. You just have to simplify what you're trying to do because there's so much. Do I work on the website? Do I work on my chatbot? Do I work on email? Do I send out a newsletter via snail mail? Still, I don't know. How do you do all that? So you got to figure out what's going to work for you and then get it. Just get it. Take action and get it done. That's been my key for success.

1231 formula, baby. That's great stuff. Thank you so much, Bill. Habits of success and achievement. And you have certainly exemplified that. It's part of your smack recipe. I know I've said that two or three times. Tell everybody in 30 seconds, if you're willing, what's your smack recipe?

So a smack recipe, just Google smell, ac, big S, big M, small A big C. And it's specific, methodical and consistent. Comes from Jim Collins. And it's a recipe every business has, whether you know it or not. And the most successful businesses have changed the fewest ingredients over the course of not 3, 5, 10 years, 20, 25 years, regardless of market changes. And it's your recipe, so you have to make sure it's a good recipe.

Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing about you preparing yourself through your habits of success and achievement is you're ready for pretty much anything that might come out you at you.

Correct, Correct.

So recently an opportunity came knocking at your door and you were ready for it. But. And may we go ahead? Yeah. So you were able to acquire an.

Agency first one for our agency. Yep. So we had a carrier rep call us out of the blue and say, hey, Bill, we have an opportunity. One of our other carriers. You have. It was, you know, we have. With this. With this carrier rep, they're looking for a buyer. Would you be interested? And that was October of 2020, middle of COVID And we closed February 1st. So, you know, four months closed a deal.

So what I really wanted everybody to hear, congratulations, by the way.

Thank you.

That's set your smack recipe into the next transition level, if you will.

And will mean more freedom and more opportunity for you to do some other great things, which is fantastic. But why you? Why do you think they chose you? Did they tell you?

Well, I think it goes back to the Relationships with carriers being recognized. And, you know, I tell this to my team all the time. Look, you know, it's not the popular thing to say in insurance, but I can always get another client. I cannot get another carrier relationship, you know, if I don't have carrier contracts in this business as an independent insurance agent, I have nothing to sell. And so those, those are like gold for us. And so I maintain those, I foster those. And, you know, our carrier reps for our agency appreciate that. So. And then they also see everything I'm doing in the background, whether I'm big with them or not, you know, that we had under. And just, just so everyone knows, I had under $100,000 with the carrier rep who recommended me. And now we're over, you know, almost 400,000 with that rep. So, you know, it didn't have to do with size. It had to do with them knowing that we're a good agency and a good fit for the agency we acquired.

Because they practice habits of success and achievement and because we attract exactly what we are and who we become. And Bill's to be highly commended for becoming who he is not only as an agency principal, but as a high achieving, high performing independent insurance agency in his region for now. And I might suggest that it's going to go well beyond that sometime in the future. And we didn't even get to that today. But it's because of the habits and the disciplines that he's built in and he constantly is challenging that envelope. Which is what you did with this 4x4x48 challenge, right, Bill?

Absolutely. Yep.

Yeah. Kudos to you. And so anything else you'd like to add concerning the challenge and why you did it, to encourage and inspire somebody else out there. Because I know that like you said earlier, so many people were inspired, encouraged. They were, you know, cheering you on and everything. Not only through the philanthropy part of it, to, you know, help people through rotary, to end polio and to build water wells and underserved areas of the world. But, you know, just, hey, they wanted you to lose in the beginning, but once they decided he's not going to give up, they wanted you to win.

I just think, you know, people, if you're, if you don't think you can do something, you're not going to do it and you've got to commit to doing it. And, you know, I said this when my, to get my mom retired from our small family insurance agency, you know, we had to burn the ships. And it's the old Viking adage, you Know, the leader of the Vikings would burn the ships when they landed on the shore when they were going to sack the town, because, you know, there's no retreat. And you know, it's again, it's so easy in this business to get comfortable and you know, the mediocrity to feel like you have arrived and you know, hey, you're getting profit sharing, you're winning trips from carriers. Well, if you're at a certain level, you can maybe win a trip from a carrier without having to do anything just based on premium volume and how things go. And that can feel like arriving, but that actually is mediocrity. And so, you know, if you have to do something to go out and challenge yourself, whether that's do a crazy physical challenge like I did, then go do it and, and put everything you have into it. And if it's, you know, if it's challenging yourself to read a book every two weeks for the year, you know, make a commitment, tell somebody else and just start doing it. And that's the big thing is just start.

Commitment is the thing you said you were going to do long after the mood you set it in has passed. Absolutely. And Bill, the thing that came to my mind just now is goals. What's your thoughts for people out there who may or may not have goals? Who may or if they have goals, they don't know what they are because they never look at them. What do you have to say to them?

You gotta in. You got to have a bhag. You got to have a big, hairy, audacious goal. It needs to be a 10 year goal and it needs to be something that consumes you. And you think about it when you.

Jim Collins just talked about it in Entrepreneurship 2.0, when you wake up in the morning, it's standing in the corner staring at you. It's that hairy monster going, I'm here all day, buddy. And when you go to bed at night, it's standing there saying, I'm going to be here in the morning and you need something to drive the ship. And admittedly, you know, my goal is a huge, I'm not going to share it on the air, but it's a huge, it's a huge goal for our agency to get to where I want us to be. And it's that 10 year moon goal. It's actually a goal that I set in 2019 for 2030. And you know, the goal for our agency within the niche that we play in is massive. And I have no idea how we're going to do it, but it's going to get done. And it's kind of like Kennedy saying, we're going to go to the moon. They hadn't even put a man in space yet when he said that, but they got to the moon. And so you have to challenge yourself. You have to set, you know, a big goal and then all the things that fall in line after that, that's that 12 by three by one principle. So, you know, you have and write it down, share it with someone. And you know, whether it's your spouse, a co worker, or, you know, another owner, another agent, whatever, you've got to put yourself out there. And once I said I was going to go 48 miles on social media, there's no turning back from that, you know, and you tell the world, I'm gonna run four miles every 48 hours and you do a Facebook live video about it at the first one. And you know, people can go out, check out my social media. I got pictures of me wearing ranger shorts. We'll not use the actual term, but these very short military shorts that rangers would wear. And you know, you take silly pictures of yourself before you start the first one. You better finish. So, you know, challenge yourself, but then put it out there because then it makes you cash that check.

The power of public proclamation.

Absolutely.

Public proclamation. That's another strategy. Everybody, you know, you, you can set a goal and you can say, if I don't achieve this goal by 12:31 of the given year, so you could write a thousand dollar check to a charity and you can give it to the charity and you can say to the charity, you know, if I don't achieve this goal by the end of the year, not only can you cash the check, I'm going to give you a second one. You can cash that one too, as an example. I mean, challenge yourself and put it out there.

Our buddy rfuc. RFUC is a great one for if you say anything about a goal, that dude will make you write a check for it. Okay, what date and when and how much are you? Right. You better have a check in the mail. If it's not done by that date and you send it to him, he'll donate to charity, but he'll make you write a check.

Oh, absolutely.

Bill. We could go on and on, but thank you so much for sharing. From the heart, from the soul, from your success, from your habits of success and achievement. On the 100th episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. We couldn't be more proud. We couldn't be more grateful and honored to have one of our high performing platinum coaching members since 2015, the unstoppable bfub bill friggin unstoppable Butler. Bill, thank you so much for being on the podcast.

Thanks Mike. I really appreciate the honor and privilege of being podcast, podcast E100, whatever that's called. So yeah, thanks for having me Mike.

You're welcome. Hey Bill, I think we should do something special since it's the 100th podcast.

Let's do it.

Okay, so hold that book up again.

So if there's anybody who hasn't heard of this book, who hasn't read this book, who would like a copy of this book, what we need you to do is simply. I'm going to pause. Find something to write with. Find something to write on. If you need to pause the podcast, go ahead, I'll slow down. And we need you to send an email to info at unstoppable profit producer.com info@unstoppable profit producer.com we need you to put your first and last name in the subject line and we need your shipping address. Okay, email infounstoppable profit producer.com Put your first name and your last name in the subject line. Email us your shipping address. We will ship you an absolute 100% complimentary copy of that book up to the first 100 people. So first 100 people that are either listening and or watching this podcast, just infounstoppable profit producer.com first name, last name and the subject line. Put your shipping address in the body of the email. We will send it out to you with our compliments, with our gratitude on behalf of BFUB for being on the 100th episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. And also let us know in the body of the email if you don't have a copy of this book yet. Which is the Unstoppable Profit Producer. It's all about the three Ps, which is a proven three step blueprint to grow your business, create wealth and live life on your own terms. All based on a simple philosophy of the three Ps people, processes and promotion. Let us know, we'll ship you a copy of that as well. So it's our honor to give back in a big way out of gratitude for everybody that is subscribed to the Unstoppable Profit podcast. And if you're a first time listener and or watcher and you're not subscribed, please go to the website unstoppableprofitpodcast.com. make sure you subscribe at the top. You can also find us out there on all the channels, whether it be Stitcher, whether it be Google or any other the any of the other podcast channels. We're there. Unstoppable profit podcast. Find us. You can go to YouTube and watch this. From now on, just subscribe to our YouTube channel@unstoppableprofitproducer.com that's the YouTube channel and you can watch this all of the time. But we want to continue to bring great business strategies, thought processes, tips, not only from the highest performing agents in America, but from other people outside of our industry as well. And of course we bring you information, strategies, growth strategies to grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms from our own living agency, laboratory. I've been there, done that, and I'm still doing it. So I know that was a lot of information. So if we can help you in some way and give back to you some way, we are here to do it. Bill, thank you so much. Any last words, my friend?

Just get out there and do something.

Yeah. Talking about it is not going to do it right.

Talking is cheap. Just take action and do something.

Thinking about it is not going to do it.

No.

Only action. Only being action packed. Bill friggin Unstoppable Butler from Minnesota. Thank you, sir.

Thanks, Mike.

All right everybody, we will see you on episode number 101 next week. Stay tuned. We are going big and we are going beyond the moon. All right everybody, make a difference. Be unstoppable, leave no regrets and get out there and take action. We will see you on the next episode. 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.www.unstoppableprofitpodcast.com now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.