Episode 109: YOUR Superpower Unleashed

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, and welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I am pumped and I'm excited to bring you something today that I've never taught on before on this podcast. But, you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, my friends, this is something that is preeminently critical to your success, the growth of your business and your life. So please make sure you have something to write with, something to write on so you don't miss one critical moment of what we have for you today. And if you need to pause this and go get it, please do. And please think about it like this for just a minute, for about the next 20 to 25 minutes. Let's put your blinders on. Let's forget about everything else going on out there. Let's close the calculators. The calculators also being the things that are going on around you. All those distractions. Yes. That little device that resides in your hand way too much.

And let's just take a deep breath.

Let it out. Let's grow. All right, so what I have for you today is your superpower unleashed. Your superpower unleashed. Yes. My friends, based on my observation, over 35 years in our industry, in your industry, I've observed that the majority of the people have 33, three top personal gifts, talents, vital functions, or, if you will, superpowers. And we want to unleash your superpowers all of the time. And I want to give you some strategies today how you can do it, starting right now, right here, starting today. So please get ready to design the future of your life and your business, because we want you to be able to create a business that, that supports your life. We don't want your life to support your business. That's not the way it was designed to be. You know, I'm thinking about one of our recent brand new platinum coaching members who was struggling with that, the design of her life. And we were able to share with her the balance wheel. And it really helped her get clarity on exactly what she needs to be doing to have a business that supports her life. So excited for her massive future because she's a huge thinker. Anyway, let's get started on you today. And what we have for you. So, yes, it's true, you can have more, you can have more, you can earn more, you can have more free time by actually doing less. That's right. You can have more by actually doing less. But you've got to really be focused. Follow one course until success every day. I'm going to say that again throughout this training today. Follow one course until success every day. Focused. You've got to be laser focused every day. You've got to shut down the distractions. You got to clear the calculator consistently. You know, the main thing is the main thing. And you got to make sure that your time is protected all of the time. Because ultimately when you do this, when you protect your time, when you let everybody else know that the calendar is blocked, when you don't cancel those appointments with yourself, that's when it gets really, really special and it allows you to do the things that bring you more joy. And that's the first point I have for you today. You should be doing more things, or the majority of the things that you are doing should be bringing you joy. And if they don't, then maybe things need to change. I learned from one of my greatest mentors, Jim Rohn, who said, if you want things to change, you've got to change. If you are willing to change, everything will change for you, my friends, that is at the core. You know, if you are not getting what you want by doing the things you have been doing, then something needs to change. Because if you keep doing the things that you've always been doing, you're going to get the same things you're currently getting now. So we need to change. We need to look in the mirror of truth and sometimes make those changes critically, critically important. Because if you will, you will have more joy by doing less. So we want you doing the things that bring you joy. And I'm going to give you some strategies in just a minute how to do that. We want you to be doing things less. We want you to be doing less things that you just tolerate. Things that you tolerate are things that, all right, I know how to do it. It's easy to do. I tolerate it, but it really doesn't bring me joy. You should be doing less of that. Do more of the things that bring you joy. Do less of the things that you just tolerate doing and eliminate the things that you hate doing. Eliminate the things that you hate doing from your life. So you want to spend the majority of your time doing the things that bring you joy. You want to do less of the things that you tolerate and you want to eliminate the things that you hate doing from your life because that will allow you, that will allow you to get more done, to earn more, to grow your business faster. It's not super complicated, my friends. It's a mindset. Our mindset is our skill set. A lot of this is based around something that I learned in my personal growth and development. I'll suggest about 15 to 20 years ago and it's called the Pareto principle, the 8020 rule. It was developed by Vilfredo Parento, who was an Italian economist back in about 1897. And he observed that when people invest 80% of their time.

Doing the things, or excuse me, when they invest. Yes, when they invest 80% of their time doing the things that they love to do, that bring them joy, that ultimately they will gain more results and doing only 20% of what they used to do. And if you begin to understand the Pareto principle, you will begin to see it develop right before your eyes in your life. It is magical. I remember that happening. Once I fully understood the 8020 rule, I started thinking about it even more and more. I started observing everything in my life. And it is true when I focus 80% of my time on something, it really compounds the effect and the results of that. And I'm going to share with you my own personal situation in just a couple of minutes on how that developed in my life. The 8020 rule. 20% of the input, time, resources and effort accounts for 80% of the output. Which is the results or the rewards? Let me say that again. 20% of the input, time, resources and effort, so you're actually doing a lot less, accounts for 80% of the results and the rewards. So you can have more by doing less. But you've got to get super clear and it's super, super important that ultimately at the end of the day, you design your business to support your efforts within the areas of your superpowers, your personal gifts, talents, vital functions. And you too will have the 8020 rule working for you. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, my friends, the Pareto principle can help you double your business when properly implemented in an insurance agency business or any business for that fact. Alright, so if you're learning this today and you know somebody in another business, let's say your insurance agency business is heavy in commercial lines, share this with your customers, help them grow their business. Because at the end of the day, my friends, the law of reciprocity is always in effect. The law of Reciprocity is always in effect when you help your commercial customers grow and they grow, their sales are going to go up, their payrolls are going to go up, and if you have their insurance, the premium is going to go up. Therefore, your commission is going to go up. Super simple. Your own acre of diamonds has everything that you would ever, ever want. And if you're watching this on YouTube, yes, my friends, there it is. Your diamond. You want to continually polish your jewel, your acre of diamonds, my friends. By the way, if you're listening to this via one of the channels, whether it be Google or Spotify or anything out there, we also produce these on YouTube. Just go to YouTube unstoppableprofitproducer.com you'll find all of the last 50 to 60 podcasts. You have the visual as well. So because remember, when we hear, we learn. When we hear and see, we understand. We want complete understanding of the strategies that we're teaching and the amazing guests who are bringing strategies to you as well. Let's get back to your business and your life. Okay, so the 8020 rule, the Pareto principle, can help you double your business. Okay, again, I got to remind you, follow one course until success every day. You've got to be focused. How do you plan your day? When do you plan your day? Our greatest encouragement for everybody. When possible. Of course, it's not possible 100% of the time. It doesn't happen 100% of the time in my life. But it's my goal. It's my endeavor. It's what I set out to accomplish every single day. And I do accomplish it at least 90% of the time. I plan my day the night before. I plan my day the night before. Why? Two reasons, primarily. One, when I get up in the morning, I know exactly what I'm going to do. I am crystal clear on what I'm going to do. I don't have to think about it. I don't have to sit here and twiddle my thumbs. Hmm. What am I going to do today? No, I know. I know where I'm going. I've designed my calendar to support our business that supports our life. It's really quite simple. Simplicity, clarity, certainty. Three keys to your success. Secondly, your subconscious is constantly at work, even when you're sleeping. So at the end of the day, when I design my day the night before and review it, I start thinking about it. When my pillow. When my head hits the pillow at night and I'm thinking about it all of the time. Have you Ever waken up in the morning and you're thinking about something that needs to be done that day that you had thought about the day before? Exactly. Your subconscious is at work, is at work all night working for you, even while you're sleeping. Very powerful strategy, my friends. Be focused on. Follow one course until success every day. Now, as far as beginning to identify, as far as beginning to work on your top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions, or your superpowers, you have to understand this as well. The amazing, the late, great Vince Lombardi, the guy who has the trophy, the championship trophy named after him and in the National Football League said this. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. Let me say it again. The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary. So there's going to be work involved and there's going to be effort that's involved before you can really get to the point where you know what your top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions are and they may change as well. I remember delivering this training to our coaching members recently and a couple of the coaching members popped up. They had heard this two, three, four years ago and they said, yeah, mine have changed. They've evolved. Over time I've gotten clearer on who I am and what I'm really, really good at. The things that bring me joy and the things that I just tolerate, that I want to continually eliminate and by eliminating the things that they hate, that's part of how we help people in our unstoppable, profit producer coaching programs. So let me share with you some strategies, some thought processes from two incredible, high achieving, nationally recognized, well renowned, renowned coaching members within our coaching programs. There is a coaching member named Russell who is out on the west coast, a niche player, a dominant niche coaching agent. By the way. Both of these agents have been in our platinum coaching program on their fifth year, maybe longer, and they've learned the strategies and they deliver the strategies on how to operate within their top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions or superpowers. And they absolutely dominate. So Russia is a niche player, learned years ago, tried one niche, had some success, but not mega success that he was really looking for. In his first niche, I think it was fire sprinklers. So he learned the strategy of niches or niches to riches by doing less, by operating within the 8020 rule, by operating within the areas of his top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions, and moved that over to his second niche, which he just fell upon because he was ready to receive it and ready to implement. He took the steps he was laser focused on what he needed to be doing. Started marketing to this particular niche in a unique way that nobody else was doing. Here he is today the dominant player in the marketplace that he chooses to participate in. He has to stop marketing strategically on a planned basis, a few weeks in advance so he can go on vacation again. Yes, that's the life that he's designed for himself. And because of this, he was interviewed by the oldest and most well renowned insurance agency magazine in America. And they pulled out of him in that interview and that his revenue per employee, yes, revenue per employee is three times, three times, my friends, the national average. Because he is laser focused within the 8020 rule on his top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions, aka his superpowers and doing the things that only he can do. He's got people around him, there's not too many of them just absolutely killing it. Doing the things that are within their areas of their top three personal gifts, vital functions, superpowers. And has an absolute dominant agency that is extremely high value because of his focus in this area. Another high achieving platinum coaching member privileged to be by her side over many years, Claudia up in the Northwest also focused on the things that she does well. She's identified her top three talents, gifts, vital functions, superpowers and works within those. Has surrounded herself with an incredible team, 100% personal lines, knows exactly where they're going and what they're doing. And if you saw her numbers, you would be blown away like I consistently am. And this is not just like one or two years. This is over a decade or more consistently, consistently in the mid-90s in retention, consistently growing in their policy count. They have somebody within their organization who is primarily in sales helping people with the sub niche within their personal lines, agency that's focused on this person's top three talents, gifts, vital functions or superpowers and selling only earthquake to their existing acre of diamonds. And beyond that, building a dominant niche within their awesomely successful personalized agencies. By focusing on these things and that person who's doing that has more joy because that's what she loves to do. Claudia was telling me a story recently about this person was so on fire about what she's doing. She was up at like 3 or 4 o' clock in the morning working on that niche because she's so full of joy doing it. She's doing less of what she tolerates and she's eliminating the things that she hates to do. Those are done by other teammates who do it. I'm sure a Lot better than she does, my friends. That's just a few of the stories of agents who are dominating because they are operating within the areas of of their top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions, superpowers. It can happen for you if you will get focused following one course until success every day my friends. So let's talk about your top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions. So let me throw out some examples for you. Okay? So at the end of the day.

Some examples of the things that you can be thinking about that might be your top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions. Okay? Is it sales?

Is it service?

Is it marketing?

Are you a closer of big deals? Are you the king or queen of relationships?

Are you the engager of big external relationships? You might be able to build that relationship and turn it over to somebody on your team, but are you the engager, the one that everybody knows? Are you the developer of new big ideas and breakthroughs within your business? Are you a project manager? Are you an inspirer within your organization? Do you excel at recruiting and hiring? Do you like accounting and finances and do you like to, you know, be go through the numbers and go through that grind? Personally I don't. That's why I empower somebody else to do it. Do you like to oversee the day to day tasks running more smoothly? Okay. Do you like to lead the accountability charge, engaging your team and hold them accountable?

Do you like leadership? Do you love leadership? Do you like to lead the communications internally or externally? That's just a small sampling of the things to lead the thought process for you to begin to develop your top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions. Ok at the end of the day, my friends, let me share with you mine. This might be a good point to do that. When I first learned this I, I saw a similar list of the things that are key positions within a leadership role within an insurance agency business. So I started using those, I started churning those and after I started thinking about it over a period of time I started realizing the fact, my friends, I've got three. Okay, here they are. I love, love, love marketing. I love marketing all of the time. Everything around marketing, I love it. I love to figure it out. I love to fail at it. I love to figure out how to accomplish it, to overachieve it online and offline. I love marketing. I love the analytics and figuring out why it's not working, what's going to make it work. Trying again, trying again. Failure, trying again, failure, trying again. Or excuse me, lessons, trying again, lessons, trying again. Okay, I love marketing. We go Into a store and I'll see a marketing piece. I'll start walking over there. My wife will grab me and say, get back here for. Leave the marketing alone for a minute. I can't, honey. I love marketing. So that's number one marketing. Number two, sales. I love to sell. I did it for around 20 years or more in the front lines of the insurance agency business. I love sales. If a prospect. And by the way, I wish I had learned earlier what I didn't know at the time. You don't know what you don't know. Okay. Back in the early days, I didn't have any coaches. I wasn't learning from anybody else. I was just doing it, doing it, doing it. In the words of Michael Gerber, okay, doing it, doing it, doing it. If you needed insurance and you had money, you were mine, baby. And I make sure that I closed you. I mean, there was a position or a time in my journey so far. I had two people at my desk. I was writing two people at the same time at my desk. They were mine, baby. And then I learned how to write good business, how to build an agency to identify an ideal client. And it got better. But there was a period of years when I was just doing it, doing it right and writing right, and I wasn't doing it right. And we're going to talk more about right and the right people in just a moment. Okay? So marketing, sales are two of my top three. And my third one, I learned that especially when I started teaching people in upp and even the pre UPP days, I was still speaking and teaching people. And I identified that I love leadership and I love training. So I would say for a period of time, marketing, sales and leadership and training. And so that's not three, that's four. But I would say that consistently because I didn't know any better. And so about a year ago, I'm going to say, I went back into the marketing room in our insurance agency business and was powwowing with our program director, the unstoppable Andrea Wyatt, about something. And we got onto that subject. The top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions. And I said, marketing, sales, leadership and training. She goes, hey, by the way, I know you teach that. I've heard you say it from the stage at the boot camps and everything else. But I was thinking about that the other day. You know, there's one word for leadership and training. I said, there is. She goes, yeah, don't you know what it is? And I said, no, by the way, I'm busy. What is it? She goes, oh, you know what it is. I said, I can't think of it right now. If I know what it is, I don't have time to think about this. What is it? She goes, you don't know? I said, no, I don't know. Tell me what it is. She goes, it's coaching. I said, aha. Marketing, sales and coaching. Those are my top three. And that's what I operate within 80 to 90% of my day consistently, every single day. I had multiple people yesterday who want some face time. Some will get it, some won't. But ultimately, at the end of the day, people that want to schedule some time. I just finalized one this morning. It's approximately 11 days from now before that appointment can happen. And this is an appointment that I want to happen very. You know, it's a big opportunity. That's the soonest that time for that person is available on my calendar. What a blessing, what a privilege it is that I have so much opportunity knocking every day before me. So ultimately, at the end of the day, that's the design of the unstoppable journey, the unstoppable insurance agency leadership chair that I'm privileged to sit in. And ultimately, at the end of the day, that's where the phrase upplife was born. Upplife. That is the. I couldn't describe it any more specifically than that, how the UPP life operates. And that is what we want for everybody within our unstoppable nation circle. So at the end of the day, what do you do once you identify what your top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions are? What about the people around you? Who are these people going to. You want to do the things that bring you more joy, right? You want to do less of the things that you tolerate. Well, who's going to do the things that you don't want to do that you just tolerate teammates around you, right? Who's going to do the things that you hate to do? Other teammates around you. That's why we created the recruiting and hiring and interviewing and onboarding and motivation and training and accountability system that we've created within UPP to teach other agents within the first P, which is people. Remember, it's people. Processes and promotion are the three Ps that help people grow their agency, create more wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. So what about these people around you? How do you set yourself up to win in the delegation? Endeavor within a business? Or like we like to say, we've eliminated the word delegate. We like to think about it more as the word empowering. How do we empower other people? You see, the difference between delegation and empowering is this simply delegating drops something on to somebody and there's an expectation, hey, I need this done. Just get it done. Okay? Empowering somebody to do it is not only passing it off to them, but making sure that they are taught and they know how and they are capable and ready to do it. They have all the tools that they need to get done. What needs to get done. That's a short description of empowerment. Okay, so the people that you're going to delegate to or empower. Okay, three thought processes for you. I love the power of three, by the way. Okay, first of all, do they get it? Do all the neurons in his or her brain connect when you explain and they do the job? Okay. Do they get all the ins and outs of what you have for them? Not everybody gets it. And it's not a bad thing. It's just he or she might just need to be in a different seat. They've got to be in the right seat. You need the right person in the right seat. Secondly, do they want it? Does he or she generally want to do the tasks that you need them to do? Does he or she get up every day and every morning? Do they come in excited to do those tasks? You can't pay, motivate, force him or her to want it. He or she must want to do these tasks within your organization on his or her own. Sometimes people get it and they have the capacity, but. But they just don't want it anymore. Speaking of capacity, that's the third thing. Okay, so quick recap. Do they get it? Do they want it, and do they have the capacity? Does he or she have the mental, physical, spiritual, time, knowledge, and emotional capacity to do the tasks within your organization? Sometimes this one is negotiable. While not getting it or wanting it are deal breakers, a problem with capacity might be solved, although rarely. And it will involve a lot more training and accountability. And you have to identify yourself if that's something you have time or capacity to do. Okay? You have to set clear expectations and have effective communication because that's the only two things that will equal a task done right. Empower and elevate. Empower and elevate. Empower people and elevate them doing the things that are within their areas of their top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions, and superpowers, and you will have an absolutely incredible magical journey within your business and Your life, you will get to live the upplife and that is what we want for everybody. The other thing that was recently identified, by the way, let me step back for just a minute and be completely clear here. I identified something just yesterday.

One of our leadership team members brought something to my table and said, hey, you had a conversation with this team member a couple of weeks ago that involved her doing this, this and this for one of our large clients. It's come to the front that it might not be a good idea if our team member does these things. I said, tell me more. She said, well, it involves doing this, this and this, going into proprietary systems and actually manipulating information which is not in the area of our duties as an insurance professional. I said, wow, I was not aware of that. That's an exact case in point. I've got to give set clear expectations at the end of the day with effective communication. So what I needed to do is find out more, or I should have said when I talked to this team member a couple of weeks ago. Find out more information about this and then we'll collaborate and make a decision to move forward at the end of the day. Once you design your business to support your life and you are operating within the area of your top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions, the most important thing you need to do then is, is you must stay in your lane. You must stay in your lane. I have got a visual in front of me from platinum coaching member Justin Peterson, who was talking with one of his partner teammates about this exact thing because the platinum coaching member, his partner was not staying in their lane. And that was a huge breakthrough. Remember, ok, you cannot have a breakthrough until you have a breakdown. You cannot have a breakthrough until you have a breakdown. And the breakdown was that his partner, who is. They're both incredible at what they do, but the partner was not staying in their lane, doing the things that only they can do, operating within the areas of their top three personal gifts, vital functions, their superpowers. He kept bouncing in and out. He needed to stay in his lane and they identified that in a breakthrough. And, and now he's got a visual, says, stay in this lane unless you're going to pass. And I've got the visual in front of me. Thank you, Justin, for staying that we've got to stay in our lane. Remember, friends, small choices plus consistency over time equals massive results. That in itself is a beautiful description of the 8020 rule. Less is more, less is more. By doing less, you. You can have more. I hope you got massive strategies out of today's training that will make you more money. My name is Mike Stromso. I am widely recognized as the leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can find me@unstoppableprofitproducer.com if you're interested in attending a virtual or live event to learn to grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms, please visit. For virtual events, visit uppfaststart.com that's upfaststart.com or for one of our upcoming live events, visit beunstoppablebootcamp.com that's beunstoppablebootcamp.Com both events both events, both live and virtual, are designed to to share with you some of the best money making strategies proven over 35 years of research in your industry to help you grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. I hope this has been helpful for you my friends. I wish you health, prosperity and wellness going forward. Get out there, make a difference, be unstoppable and leave no regrets. I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, be unstoppable. You got this. I believe in you. Talk to you soon. 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.