Episode 106: The BIG Payday Thanks to Massive Vision

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit podcast. 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, friends. This is Mike Stromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory, and I am here with a very special guest today. I am pumped and excited to learn more about vision because my friend and colleague, Anthea Mumby knows more about vision than anybody that I have collaborated with recently, and she has taken it up to another level. So I said, perfect opportunity to bring her on the podcast. She comes from up in Canada, Eh? Good morning, Anthea.

Or good afternoon, I should say, good afternoon, Mike.

How's it going?

It's going great.

Yeah. I remember a session, one on one session that we had. Not only did you provide me this awesome hat, which I still wear proudly, I've got lots of other cool stuff and you brought me other goodies. And you have such a giving heart always for people to help other people. And I'm so grateful for you and our relationship because of that and many other things. But welcome to the podcast. And just to get started today, let everybody know in case somebody hasn't heard of you or doesn't know you well, share a little bit about your history, who you are and where you're from, and we'll get going.

Sure. Excellent. Well, great to be here. Thanks for the opportunity to chat with you today, Mike and your listeners. So our family insurance brokerage was started in 1975, and my dad, like many insurance brokers at the time, started the business in the basement of our family home. So I grew up in it. You know, people say, how did you get into insurance? And back in those days, we used to take typing class and it was in grade nine. Typing, I learned to type. And you know, my dad, my dad put me to work. You know, I say, he put me to work. He says, you saw an opportunity and you wanted to work with me. So it's somewhere in the middle, I'm sure is where the truth actually exists. But yeah, so I basically did every job there and saw huge opportunity and saw a really big vision for the opportunity for what this business could be like.

And so I basically said, I'm in. I'm all in to do this. Continued on through university, my insurance licensing concurrently with my education outside of insurance. And a few years later, I ended up buying the brokerage from my parents. And my husband joined the family insurance brokerage. So he came in kind of as a succession plan on the life and group benefit side of things, whereas I kept the P and C piece. So that's how it all started.

From the basement. I didn't know that. Amazing story. I remember my dad in the early days had a desk in the garage and he was selling insurance from the desk in the garage. So we have another similarity in our backgrounds.

Yeah, yeah.

And that means anybody can do it, right?

Absolutely.

Anybody can do anything they want to do if they have the right vision.

Yes.

That's what we're going to dive into today. See, vision is the art of seeing things that other people can't see. And having that vision, that visionary talent, if you will, is truly a gift. And you've got that gift. So I can't wait to dig in a little bit more. So you had a vision for the Mumby insurance brokerage when you had, if you will, complete control. Tell us about how that came about, what you saw, and some of the results that happened because of your vision.

Sure, sure. Well, going back to my teens, before I even had that control, one of the things was I said to my dad, I said, we are sitting on a gold mine of opportunity here, dad. And because we were very niche specialists, we were very like, we knew exactly our ideal client was, and we catered to them. And so that's where I saw the opportunity. I said, this is a gold mine. I want to be part of this and let's grow it together. And so ultimately. And that's what we did. And then ultimately, when I ended up a few years after buying the business is when I really said, okay, let's get even more clear about the vision. And let's not just have it in our heads like myself and Douglas has had. We need to get this out into the world and we need to talk about it, we need to share it. I don't want to have a business plan that's sitting in a binder on the bookcase that nobody knows about.

Right.

Because how can they contribute, Right. If they don't know about it?

So, yeah, only action, A decision and action are the only two things that are going to get anything done. Right.

Yes.

And we're either going to win or we're going to learn.

Exactly.

Tell us how it didn't end up on a bookshelf in a binder or whatever it is, how it became reality and how you grew it.

Yeah, yeah. So Douglas and I created the vision together, and as the owners, we knew that that was our responsibility. We needed to be the ones as a leadership team. We needed to create that vision together. And then we needed to make sure everybody in our team knew it and knew it really well. So we had it on the monitors at the office. We had it. We talked about it all the time. At team meetings, we would say, okay, like, you know, how are we doing with our vision? We had, we had it printed out as posters in the workspace all around us, and we used it as part of the hiring process.

Sharing the vision. How can you contribute to this vision? You know, do you want. Or do you even want to be a part of it? Some people might say, no, thanks, it's not for me.

Okay. It's just a business decision. Right? They made a decision to do something else.

Yeah, exactly.

So you were able to see these things, the vision, have the vision, and you presented it to your team. How did you get buy in from the team?

Because we told them that we needed their help with the how, that we really were going to be relying on them to contribute to this with the how that we didn't have all the answers. We didn't. We were, you know, we said humbly, we don't know everything. We can't say that we have all the answers for everything. And this. And it was three years in the future. So, you know, we can't predict the future, but we need. We're asking for your help, we're asking for your contribution. We're asking you to, you know, figure out how we can all, as a team, get there together.

Fantastic. So you got their buy in, they bought in, they believed in what you were sharing with them, and you started getting massive results.

Absolutely fantastic.

So, so what happened after that? I mean, you really raised your retention levels because, you know, there's a complicated business plan out there, right. And it's present in most businesses.

Everybody want to write, might want to write this down because it's really long. Right. Get clients, keep clients. Right.

There's a lot around that I get that. Seriously, get clients, keep clients. And you got really good at both. But one of the things you got super, super good at was keeping clients, AKA retention. Tell us more about that and how your vision helped grow that to an almost unmatched level.

Sure, sure. So, you know, our retention was. We were always consistently in the mid to low to mid-90s for client retention. And the vision again was, well, how are we going to do some of the how piece of, you know, by winning awards, by having really proactive client communication.

By specializing in the right fit client. All of these things that were built into the vision is part of how we got to that and maintained that client retention consistently.

So 100% agree with the fact that when your why becomes big enough, the how becomes easy. Right?

Yeah.

Why becomes big enough, the how becomes easy. So you figured that out and you built that into your culture and your culture in the agency, by the way. Absolutely phenomenal, right?

Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of fun. I mean, there's days that, you know, there's moments, of course, let's be real there. It's like, okay, there's challenging times, but for the most part it was, it was, you know, we had fun. You know, we did, we did things that would kind of keep everybody engaged and. Yeah, so it was, it was good. It was good. Yeah.

Well, you know, those challenging times are just growth opportunities. Right. Because progress comes from pushing into areas of discomfort.

Absolutely, absolutely.

But you built that how. Congratulations. Which resulted in the why you're doing it along in combination with your vision. Again, congratulations on that. And that's why you became an award winning agency.

Yes.

Before I get to some of the awards and accolades that you earned, talk a little bit about your ideal client. Because I heard you say that a second ago.

Sure.

What does that look like in your vision?

Yes, it's really important.

Yeah, go ahead.

Oh, yeah, well, it is, it is really important. So going back to 1975, my dad actually was the one, I have to give him the credit for having the concept of being a niche specialist, coming to, you know, starting the insurance brokerage in our hometown.

And it was really about, let's be really clear, let's just own that niche. Like, let's be known as the insurance specialist. For architects across Ontario and beyond.

Being.

Known for that, being those specialists, being the expert and saying no to other opportunities where they didn't make sense, where, you know, the potential client would be like, price, price, price, price, price. We just, we just wouldn't even play that game. We wouldn't even go there. You know, one of the things in the vision is it talks about we don't deviate from our sales process and we're very clear about the ideal client so that we can serve them and provide the best client experience for them.

Fantastic. Yeah, that seems to be a common theme. I get to collaborate and speak with a lot of high achieving agency entrepreneurs all across North America. And what you just said seems to be a very common theme. So I hope everybody's picking this up as you listen and study the podcast. Niche marketers having a specific niche, not being everything to everybody. Great stuff. So I've heard you talk about the architectural niche before, and ultimately, at the end of the day, you ended up writing a book, correct?

Yes, we did.

Yeah. So we wrote a book, Insurance exposed, what architects need to know.

My husband Douglas also wrote Group benefits exposed.

What you need to know.

That was really about. And in that book, we had pictures of presenting at architects conferences.

And testimonials from architects. There was a lot of marketing within that book that would, again, set us up as the niche, the experts that we were in and still are.

And because of the book, I heard you just starting to describe pictures in the book Insurance Exposed, and I didn't know what you're gonna say next, but.

Not that kind of picture.

Good testimonials, people with clothes on and all that kind of stuff. Good stuff. Anyway, yes, it's family friendly, that book. So. But in all seriousness, you wrote these books and presented them to a marketplace. What happened within the marketplace after you shared your book?

Oh, it was so interesting because we would go to the architects conferences and we would have, you know, we had these books and people would be coming running up to us saying, will you sign a copy? You know, it was. Yeah, it was like, wow, Instant, instant. Again, stardom and expertise and being a specialist. So. Because again, we knew architects are readers. Yeah, they are, very much so. That with. Yes, yes. So again, know your clients. Knowing our clients, knowing that they read a lot.

We knew having a book was going to be one of the best marketing tools, client retention tools, as well, that we could ever use for that particular niche.

Fantastic. We had the vision.

Virtual high five. Way to go. So you became the authority in the marketplace, in a niche marketplace. And I also heard you say architects are readers. So you had done, if you will, your marketplace research. Right. Your client avatar. You understood who they were, the conversations going on in the back of their mind.

Yes.

And how did you develop all that? Is it just something that naturally flowed within your vision?

A lot of conversations, thousands of conversations over many years. But, you know, it's knowing your client, and then you can utilize all of those conversations and be able to say, okay, this is the avatar. This is what's important to this client, and let's build that into the vision for the brokerage moving forward.

Fantastic. Congratulations. So great stuff. I hope everybody's picking up all the gold nuggets that are being dropped right now by Anthea through her vision. Great job, Anthea. So you had.

Low to mid-90s retention consistently in the insurance brokerage side. Great job there because ultimately, at the end of the day, get clients and keep clients. We want to keep as many as we can because ultimately that's where the wealth in the insurance agency business is. You know, that's what we talk about, the three Ps. So you became an award winning agency because of everything you built through your vision. Talk more about that. You won some awards. Tell us please.

Yeah, yeah, okay. All right, here's my humble brag.

So yeah, we did, we were very, we were very thrilled when we won awards for, you know, best insurance agent in our, where we live. You know, there were a couple of different awards over the years, but it was all about again, division, the values, asking people to vote for us, so saying, you know, hey, we have. If you found that your experience with us has been great, we would love to your vote of confidence to help win this award. So yeah, it was all of those things happening as part of that vision.

So you had earned the right basically through your investment in yourselves and becoming more and doing the work that was necessary and writing the books, getting out there, spending time with people, listening to them and how you could help them, how you could better protect them, how you could support them. It was all a culmination of that.

Yes.

Congratulations. So you became an award winning insurance agency, well recognized in your marketplace like nobody else. So you had a vision for your future maybe beyond part of the insurance agency business, did you not?

Absolutely.

And how did all that come about?

So the vision of knowing the right time to sell to the right buyer, the best buyer.

We were every, in my view, every business is meant to be sold at some point in time. So that was right. Knowing when to do it was.

That.

Was the complexity part of it. But ultimately it was always there in the vision. It wasn't written in such a way that, that our team members would know that because obviously highly, highly confidential and not something that we, you know, could really talk about with our team just for our own business reasons. And I know in some businesses it may make more sense to be more transparent, but in ours it wasn't. So it was in there, it was just in kind of discreetly written in the wording and for Douglas and I to know when was the right time, that was where it took some thought. But we ultimately ended up selling to the absolute best buyer for our book of business just last October 2020. And yeah, super excited, super, super happy with that decision and everything that's Unfolding now as a result of that.

Yeah, congratulations on your success because again, you did the work to get to that particular position, to even begin to make that decision. So how did that make you feel at that point through all of your accomplishments, all of the, the books, the accolades, the awards, etc, etc, as you begin to step forward into helping people at a greater level in a different way?

It just felt amazing and it still does. Like, I still wake up some days and I say, you know, and I look back at the vision, you know, that we have and I, and I go like, wow, you know, I'm still blown away because everything that we wrote, we achieved.

We achieved it. So there's nothing on this vision that I can say, oh, we didn't do that. We didn't. Like, it all happened. So, yeah, feels amazing.

What gets written down and crossed out gets done, right?

Yes, exactly.

Through your massive growth years, how often. I know the answer to this, but I want all the either people watching or listening to hear this. How often did you look at the vision and truly contemplate your vision for the future?

Every single day? Yeah, every single day.

Why is that important?

Because what we focus on, that's what happens. That's what we experience. Right. You know, you and I are both fans of Earl Nightingale and the Strangest Secret.

Right?

Right. And that's, it's all about, you know, your vision and your mindset.

So, yeah, your mindset is your skill set, right?

Yes, yes, absolutely.

As Earl said, probably one of the greatest thoughts that I've ever learned so far is we do become.

What we think about. What we think about. Exactly. So we both studied it so many times. So for anybody out there that is maybe thinking about the next steps in their future, because I get to interact with a lot of agency entrepreneurs all over North America and there's many that might be thinking about that next step. Maybe it's time to move into helping people in a different way. What would you say to anybody there watching or listening that might be thinking about that right now?

It's time. It's time. It is always. If you're thinking about it, if you're thinking it's time, then it is time. Right? So it's, it's, you know, like you said, it's action, take action. Imperfect action doesn't have to be perfect. Don't sit in there and think about it like imperfect action is better than no action or feeling stuck and saying, you know.

Or same old, same old. Just take action, get clear about the vision and take some action.

Imperfect action. I love that.

Imperfect action.

Yeah, I love that. Fantastic. Yeah. No.

Analysis, paralysis or anything like that. No, just imperfect action. Make a decision, take action.

Yep.

Fantastic. All right. So one of the things that I definitely wanted to do in our time together today is anything else to add? By the way.

Facet of your journey in the insurance agency industry over how many years?

Oh, my. 40. It was 40 years as of last September.

Yeah. So if you're wondering where Anthea's credibility and experience and all of that is, you just heard it. Forty years in the insurance agency trenches doing it, learning it, experiencing it, doing it, doing it, doing it and more and building an absolutely phenomenal business that brought, you know, for the portion of the business they decided to.

Sell to somebody else brought top dollar. So congratulations on that.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

But you now have a passion for helping other people out there, other entrepreneurs out there with their vision, and you're doing magnificent things with it. And I found out about that and I got in touch with you and we had a conversation about it and I go, holy Toledo. I need to make sure that we also add on a piece about this and learning more about where you're at right now. So thank you for the opportunity to learn more about that right now. Before we go into that, anything else to add?

Well, I just want to say to you, Mike, that, you know, being part of your program and part of your tribe, I mean, this definitely helped us with a lot of the how part and the skills and the mindset, the unstoppable mindset that helped bring this vision to life. So, you know, thank you for everything you've done because I think it's been over 10 years that, you know, we've known each other now, so it really is. Has been very, very valuable in our experience with our brokerage.

Well, thank you, thank you for the opportunity to get to stand by your side over so many years in our programs. And you are a constant at the boot camps in your learning years. And thank you for all you always brought to others around you through your just incredible desire to become more. And you are one of those action packed agency entrepreneur, entrepreneur people that I always respected and admired because of that and many other things. So great stuff.

Awesome.

So now you have a business dreamteamconsulting ca Dreamteamconsulting ca where you're helping others create that vision, whether it be somebody who might be newer in the entrepreneurial journey or might be an existing entrepreneur who's kind of lost their way or there's People out there with personality who can't necessarily see the vision.

Right, right, right, absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting because I. Like I said before, I always had the vision with me wherever I went, you know, so I would go to business meetings or mastermind meetings or coaching programs, and I'd have the vision in front of me, and I would be referring to it or talking about it with another entrepreneur, and I would have. The other entrepreneurs would come up to me and they. They say, grab their phone and they say, can I take a picture? Picture of your vision? And I'd say, okay, yeah, I guess. But is this really going to serve you? Because this is, you know, this is my vision. It's. It's not your vision. And they would say, yeah, what? I just need some ideas and inspiration. So I'd say, okay, no problem. Well, sure. If this. If this gives you something to work with and, you know, go ahead, by all means. And then the next quarter, I would see them at the next meeting, you know, a quarter later, whatever it was a few months, and I would say, so how I want to see yours? How's your vision going? And they would say, oh, man, I just. I'm so busy. I'm so busy, I can't get it done. It's just, you know, and I'm struggling. I'm struggling.

So having those conversations, I said, you know, and just again, knowing so many years as an entrepreneur and knowing the challenges as well as the highlights, that's what's led me to now offering division creation service to help other business owners to get it all out of their heads, you know, and share with me. Just, you know, have a conversation with me so that, you know about the vision. So then I can then take that and distill the golden nuggets, the best ideas, and create a vision.

Document that they're super fired up about, they're excited about, they share with their team. You know, they put it all over their office, like, whatever, you know, however they want to utilize it and be able to see it happen, see the progress.

Yeah, absolutely. That is fantastic. One of the things that I've learned over the last 12 months or so that have really come very crystal clear with me is simplicity, clarity, and certainty. And what you just said is right in that wheelhouse, because what you do is you help people get out of their mind and their heart and sometimes their soul, right.

What they've got hiding in there that they can't seem to get into any kind of tangible vision that they can present to Their team and lead their team and grow by.

Exactly.

And I love that about what you're doing. Great job.

Thank you.

I would hope that anybody out there who really can't see the vision, and if you can't see the vision, it's okay. It might not be one of your top personal talents, gifts, vital functions, superpowers, however you want to classify it, and that's okay. That's why we have amazing people like Anthea out there in the world who can help us with that. Because not everybody's a visionary.

True.

I mean, some people are just massive executors. They execute, and they know how to bring in money like nobody else's business. Can't see the next level.

Exactly.

Anthea, if somebody out there watching or listening to this is in that chair, they can't see it, or they'd like to get really crystal clear on their big vision and want to have a conversation with you. What should they do?

They should pop me an email to antheareamteamconsulting Ca and we'll have a conversation and see how I can help.

Yeah. I can't emphasize enough friends that, you know, getting clear on your vision, having that roadmap, that blueprint of where you actually want to go, is so critically important, because once you can see that, you know, knowing your destination is all you need to get there. Knowing your destination is all you need to get there. And once you get that destination laid out, all you got to do is take massive action. Great stuff. So Anthea A n T H E a. Correct.

Correct.

A N T h e a@dreamteamconsulting ca. And keep in mind that Anthea's in Canada. Eh.

Eh.

So where in Canada are you? I don't think we got that in the beginning.

I'm about an hour west of Toronto.

Okay, fantastic.

In Ontario.

Yeah. So beautiful country. Most of the year. Sometimes during the year, it's got a lot of white stuff going on.

Yeah.

So. And I remember going up through Toronto last round, there's. You have a lot of prospects on the road up there.

Absolutely.

AKA traffic.

Yeah.

A lot of them. Yeah.

So. And, you know, I learned a term today that I hadn't known, so it was worth getting up today. Tickety boo.

Tickety boo.

Tickety boo jumped on before we got started this morning. You had said tickety boo. I said what? You said tickety boo. Where did that come from, Anthea?

Yeah, apparently it comes from British descent, and it just means everything's good, everything's going great. And, yeah, It's a good day. It's a good day.

Well, you know, anybody who has already reached out to Anthea at DreamTeamConsulting CA and is Crystal clear in their vision and knows where they're going is tickety boo, right?

Absolutely. I hope so.

That's what you're going to provide to them. Of course they are tickety boo. They've. Everything's under control. They see their vision.

That's right. Yes. Yes.

Most importantly, I could not be more grateful for the time that we spent together today. And we'll need to take a deeper dive into some of these things surrounding vision, maybe in an upcoming podcast. Are you all in?

Oh, I'd love to. That would be great.

Fantastic. But most importantly, just thank you to you and Douglas for our relationship for more than a decade, learning and growing together. You guys are always awesome. Have an incredible patitude, by the way. You know what a patitude is?

No.

Yeah. I was born in cousins camp. That's one of the things that we teach in cousins camp. You either have a patitude or a baditude.

Love it.

I've never seen you with anything but a patitude or a positive attitude. You've never had a bad attitude, which is a bad attitude. So props to you. Because I remember, actually the first time I met Douglas, Douglas came up to me and he pulled the sheet out of his pocket and he had all of these sayings that preface the day of the week.

That's right.

You remember that? It was fantastic. When we were corresponding about producing this podcast, you said Magnificent Monday or Wonderful Wednesday or whatever.

So, yeah, yeah.

Thanks.

Fantastic. Well, Anthea, thank you for the time today. Thank you for sharing your incredible depth of knowledge, most importantly, your vision for the future and doing something about it, helping entrepreneurs with their vision. You rock.

Oh, thanks.

Everybody. If you want to have a quick conversation with Anthea about the vision for your organization, whatever that might be, might be in the beginning, might be in the middle, might be in the end. Anthea is out there to help. She wants to help entrepreneurs get crystal clear about where they're going. That's antheareamteamconsulting ca. And we'll be bringing some more information on that. Anthea, give my best to your family, to Douglas, to everybody else. You guys are unstoppable. Beyond unstoppable. Thank you for your time today.

Thanks so much, Mike.

Oh, my pleasure. Hey, and everybody out there, if you got great value out of this podcast today, please make sure, if you haven't already subscribe to the podcast@undoppableprofitpodcast.com unstoppableprofitpodcast.com just go there and subscribe. That way you won't miss one episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast and we're out there on all the channels. You can go to YouTube and just search Unstoppable Profit Producer and you'll find all the visuals of our podcasts right there. So you won't miss that. Make sure you subscribe to that. And again, we're out there on all the channels. Apple, Google, and beyond that with our podcast. So please make sure you subscribe so you don't miss one gold nugget that we've got for everybody out there. We love bringing it and we love bringing some of the top agency entrepreneurs all around North America and beyond, like Anthea Mumby. Fantastic stuff. In addition to that, if you're looking for a next great opportunity in virtual learning, we have a virtual learning environment. Upfaststart.com upfaststart.com and of course, we have our live events. Beunstoppablebootcamp.com beunstoppablebootcamp.com is our live events where Anthea and Douglas invested in themselves for more than a decade, becoming more and were able to get to where they are at today. So thank you for that opportunity as well. We love sharing everything that we have learned over the last 35 years of learning in your industry, in the trenches, in our own living agency laboratory, all around the three Ps, people, processes, and promotions. So we look forward to bringing that to you. If there's ever anything more that we can do to support anybody, please let us know. Anthea, have a wonderful wild Wednesday.

All right, you too, Mike. Take care.

All right, everybody, get out there. Remember, a decision in action is all it takes. You got the rest and we have your back. All right, everybody, we'll see you in the next podcast. Thanks again, Anthea.

Thanks, bye.

All right, bye.

Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with some of someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast.com now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.