Episode 112: Today’s Cluster F and the First P

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 Stromoso bringing the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I am pumped and excited to share with you a topic that that is rampant throughout our industry right now. Current relevant. We haven't talked about it for a while, so I want to make sure that I bring this to you super, super important today. And we're going to talk about the cluster F that's going on right now within the first P, and the first P being the people. Now, the people always includes you as the leader of an organization, but it also includes the people that you're leading. And right now is a time that we've never experienced in our history, at least my history in 47 years in business, but prior to that and talking with the five generations of people that we're operating within right now as a society. Yes, five generations of people. I learned that in my own personal training and development this year. It's an unprecedented society that we're dealing with right now in addition to everything else that's happened. But let's get clear. I hope you never have the thought that you're in the new normal, because there's no such thing. It's simply the next normal. And if we want things to change, we have to change. I've got a quote right here from the iconic John Wooden. If you've ever studied John Wooden and know who he is, he's phenomenal. I was privileged and grateful to see John Wooden speak before he passed. He's about 95 and a half. One of the greatest evenings of my life and learning from the iconic John Wooden. John Wooden said, among many other things, though, failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. Don't let that happen to you. If you want things to change, you've got to change. You've got to start thinking outside the box. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, my friends, life begins at the end of your comfort zone. You've got to get out of your comfort zone. You, you've got to get used to being uncomfortable in today's operating environment. And if you're not willing to do that, your fate may not be the fate that you're planning. So at the end of the day, you've got to never be complacent, you've got to never be settled and you never have to feel like you've arrived because that's never the place you want to be. Let's get to helping you and the cluster F right now that's going on within the first P which is our people. So first and most importantly, you, you've got to make sure that your mindset is right in the right place all of the time. So you've got to work on yourself first. Once you work on yourself first and get yourself in the right mindset, then you're going to lead people. But how do you find people? And that's what I want to talk about with you today, right now, finding excellent team members. Because the focus of the unstoppable Profit Producer program is you want to have excellent people working within world class processes and systems and then simply promote the heck out of it. You'll grow your business, create wealth and have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And even in our incredible coaching circles, people that are in our programs, that have been in our programs for some time and even those that have been in for a short time are experiencing pain in finding excellent people. People are more comfortable right now just sitting at home collecting.

X amount of money and has made it very, very difficult. In addition to that, they become complacent in sitting at home. And so the remote workplace is a place that's leading our efforts to get people back into the office. So people are finding other ways to find people, other ways to run their business, other ways to service their clients, other ways to get new business. Because as you know, the business plan is pretty simple. Get clients, keep clients, get clients, keep clients. And that's our goal. So we need to support that. So our great encouragement and something we definitely teach with all of our coaching programs. You've got to have a great hiring system in place and that's all encompassing. Everything from recruiting to interviewing to offering, to onboarding, to training, to motivating, to actually leading, to enforcing accountability. It's all encompassing, all in a row, just as laid out. But it really starts with the recruiting and our greatest encouragement. I was on today in group sessions with our platinum coaching members and one of the last things that I went on, a small rant about my friends, I said to them, you, you always have to be recruiting. You always have to be recruiting and you always have to be recruiting. If you're not always recruiting, you're going to get left behind. I was just in a session with my own leadership team. We've got some situations right now that we're working with in our own growth and development as an agency where we need to start thinking differently. We've got some tough decisions to make, but we're going to make them fast. Okay? We're not going to think about it or talk about it. We're going to make that decision fast because at the end of the day, we've got to always be recruiting. And even if you find that next great team member and you actually bring them on, don't stop recruiting, please. Ever. Always be looking. Always have the next one or two or three lined up whenever possible. And that's what people can't seem to find right now. They can't seem to find one. So what do they do? I'm going to share with you what we've done. Let's get back to the hiring system real quick, though, because you've got to have this in place. You must have this in place when you go out on the recruiting trail, because we're also finding people are disappearing within an hour or two, if not faster than that. Sometimes in today's world, they're getting snatched up so fast. And if you don't have it all together when that person raises their hand, or we've had days where three people have raised their hand in the same day, and if you don't have three, that rock solid interviewing offering and hiring system in place, you're not going to be able to get them. You're not going to be able to evaluate them. Let me share with you really quickly how our interviewing system works once the candidate passes your filter system. So the filter system is. And I'm going to get to the filter system. In fact, let me go to the filter system right now. The filter system is how you find people. And that's where people are experiencing challenge right now. How do we find people? And when we find people, they're so comfortable on their couch, they don't want to do anything. Okay, so where do you find them? First of all, you've got to have a great recruiting ad. And we have ads that have been developed through people we work with, with people on our own team that know the psychographics, the demographics, the geographics of people. And these ads were designed to talk to their heart, to their head, and to the conversation that's going on in the back of their minds. And so we've developed for service people, for salespeople, for admin people, for support people, for director of welcomes. They've all been designed exactly to reach the right kind of people. So you've got to have those ads in place. We have them created and that's what we share with people in our programs. And our industry invested significant time, our teams invested significant time to create them, to tweak them, to match them with a particular marketplace and the needs you've got to invest. If you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use 100% of the ways. Let me say it again, just like the promotional realm, when you're recruiting people, you've got to use 100% of the ways to reach people. I mean, in our Platinum Coaching program just this morning.

There'S a franchise sandwich organization that's national. I'm not going to name names right now. Right now, as I speak, they have a $10,000 finder's fee out for one employee. They will give $10,000 as a hiring bonus for one employee that joins their firm. I don't know the rest of the characteristics. That is insane, my friends. We've got a Platinum Coaching member who lost somebody because they went to the carrier side because the carrier was offering a significant bonus. So let's reverse that when you find that right person. How much is a good employee worth and how much is a good employee worth to you in the long run? You've got to understand these things, right? At the end of the day, are you going to offer a bonus? If you're going to offer a bonus, how much? When are you going to offer the bonus? Is it going to be half down? Half in 91 days? What's that going to look like? You can do anything you want. That's the beauty of being an entrepreneur. You can do anything you want to make it happen for yourself. So invest in the tools both online and offline. Online and offline, we use a program called Career Plug and we have a very special platform that is 50% off the retail rate and it's loaded with all of our job and hiring ads, our interview forms, etc. Etc. You'll probably see that somewhere around either this video or the audio to this podcast. So we invest in that and we have used this platform and we have started recruiting nationally. Yes, that's how we're thinking outside the box. We are recruiting nationally for consumer facing agents who are going to take excellent care of our customers. We can't find anybody locally, so that's what we're doing. We're taking it national. And we have been interviewing people and interviewing people all over the country for our platforms because that's how we're going to work, that's how we're going to conduct our business. We're not allowing our small minded thinking in any way, and I'm not suggesting that any of you are. My great encouragement is to think. Think bigger than you've ever thought possible. Think outside the box. Expand your horizons in today's small globe world, my friends. It's a big place out there. Take it out there and make it happen for yourself. So when you invest in these tools, the online tools as an example, you've got to understand how to use them properly. And that's something that we cannot go into on this podcast. They're checking, just not enough time. So use the tools and once you invest in the tools, make sure you know how to use them properly. And one of the things that our team has become very skilled at in our national reach is making sure that we're talking to the people that want those positions. So, you know, part of our headline reads, hey, how would you like to walk less than 100 steps to your daily office while totally digging your insurance career? That's one of our headlines. How would you like to walk less than 100 steps to your daily office while totally digging your insurance career? We just interviewed somebody less than an hour ago halfway across the country who saw that headline. She is awesome. In fact, we've got two right now. We can't make a decision because they're so neck and neck with that headline. Okay, now that's just the beginning of it. My friends will stay on the online ways to reach new people. There's a program out there within Career Plug called Indeed and there's Reverse Indeed. So you go into the program and you look at it and you look like you're searching, okay, for people in that realm and you are pulling resumes that they're out there searching for a new home and you're proactively going after them. It's called reverse reverse recruiting and it's a strategy that we also teach. LinkedIn is a huge help. Now you can do LinkedIn stalking and go after them proactively, whatever it takes. Okay? You got. If you want to get something that you've never had before, you've got to do things that you've never done before. Okay? So if you got to go stalk people on LinkedIn and proactively reach out to them, you got to do it, my friends. Okay? Calling other agencies as a prospect. Now, I know that may not be the greatest strategy and A lot of people may not like what I just said, but it's a possible strategy. If you are in a position, you've got to have somebody. You can't guarantee that somebody's going to be happy at another agency anyway. Because if you built your agency around what we teach, your agency is a place that people want to hang their hat on a. Let's pause here. A career basis. Not a job basis, a career basis. And of course you should always have your separate career page up, which is on the back end of your website with a separate URL pointing to that backend. So people can be prospecting and checking you out 24 7, 365 to see if they feel that you are a good fit for for them. Your blog is always a place to always be recruiting all of the time. Personal email list. Everybody's got a personal email list. Use it. Use it. We've created a custom email for people to use to their own personal email list. Specifically giving back first while you're recruiting at the same time. Okay. Text message is to keep people in your marketplaces or beyond that, as often as possible. Follow up to remind them, follow up to remind them, and follow up to remind them. Remember, always be looking to give first. What more can I do to help you? By the way, this is the reason for my text might be an example. And you cannot stop. You cannot stop. You cannot stop. If you're involved in a networking group, go to the networking group. If that networking group is something out there like bni, which is worldwide, go sit in as a guest at other groups and tell them you're looking. And tell them you're looking. And tell them you're looking. The sky's the limit. Rotary and other philanthropic organizations spend the five bucks to tell everybody you're looking. We've had some of our platinum coaching members find great people in those particular realms. The Chamber offices, both online and offline. Get. Get out there and make it happen for yourself. If you're willing to put out there a referral reward, tell them about it. Make up flyers. Make up pieces. Make up something unique. Okay, team members. Money pool is motivation. How much is a good employee worth? It seems like $1,000 is the starting point nowadays. And you can create it however you want, but let all your team members know. In fact, I wrote a piece which has been published actually across the country over the last few months and I'm grateful for that. Culture eats strategy and everything else for breakfast. Okay? In that particular piece, I detail the four top ways that people are finding new talent nowadays. Okay? And out of 100%, 50%. And by the way, let me back up for a minute. Four ways that people are finding talent nowadays, and the four ways they're finding the best talent. The best talent, not the best available. Let me say that again. The best talent, not the best available. The ways they're finding this talent is. 50% of the ways they're finding the best talent is their own team members. Reach. Okay? So they put in a motivational pool or they talk to their team members. Hey, we're looking for our next great team member. I would love it if you can help us. This is what we're willing to provide. If you refer the next great team member, be creative. It could be a massive Amazon gift card. It could be cash. It could be time off. It could be. You could wear jeans to work for the next two months straight. My friends, I know that sounds crazy. We have coaching members. That's what their team wants. They want to wear jeans to work. Now, I know in the remote realm, it's not as powerful as it used to be, but I mean, just think outside the box, get creative, whatever in it for them, okay? I mean, custom vacations, whatever, right? 50% of the ways to find the best players are your team members. 20% is people's individual list. Everybody's got a list. So if you got 10 team members times 20%, their lists are huge. Okay? The other 20% is out in the wild, and that's just out in the wild. Your marketing reps, people who know people, vendors, just out there in the wild. And only 10% of the best are found through the online portals. So at the end of the day, my friends, 50% your team, 20% people's individual contact lists. The other 20% is out there in the wild and only 10% the online portals. Let's get back to the list I have in front of you. So I hope you're taking all this in. And if you need to stop and pause and rewind and make sure you get this all written down, please do. Really, really important. You've got to be employing and putting out there into the world all of these things all of the time. You can't sit on your laurels and just think that these online portals are going to start dumping people in. It doesn't always work that way. Okay. Create custom videos about your organization showing why people should join your team over and above and in all other options available to them. Create custom videos showing why you got to be answering this question all the time. Why should somebody join your team over and above any and all other options available to them? Let the team tell them in a custom video. I will drop you a hint. Jointeamsia.com Jointeamsia.com Go there and watch what we've done. Okay, testimonials galore for credibility purposes. Again, showing why they should join your team over and above any and all other options available to them. We currently have a singular word document of 2,500 testimonials that I could print boom onto goldenrod paper today. And if I had somebody that I really, really wanted, I would FedEx that baby to their doorstep and they'd have it the next day. Now we'd write a handwritten note. I'd say, hey Susie, take a look at what people who have done business with our agency over the years have to say about their experience with our agency. Think about the power of that for just a minute. Talking about it to everybody you know, every time. You must allow the process to consume you. As discussed in the book the Strangest Secret, one of the greatest game changing books of my career was the Strangest Secret. Okay, follow up every conversation, every phone call, every email with a handwritten note to the person you spoke to about the convo. Make a copy of your hiring ad, put it in that written communication, include two or three business cards, give them your personal cell phone. I mean, the sky is the limit here. If you want something you've never had, you, you've got to do things that you've never done. That's the bottom line, my friends. Okay? Headhunters and recruiters, yes, they're reality out there in today's world. If I was in desperation state, which I'm very, very thankful I'm not because I'm always, always, always recruiting, I might use headhunters or recruiters. What's a good employee worth? They're out there in the world today, hiring agencies. They, they're separate hiring agencies like Apple. One is one that comes to mind. I've never hired anybody from them, but I've talked to them and used them to interview people.

Hiring business cards. I've got one in my hand. If you're listening to this only.

Go back to YouTube. On YouTube, just go to YouTube and search Unstoppable Profit Producer. Click the videos tab. All of our podcasts that we've done on video, there's at least 50, 60, 70 of them. You'll be able to see this. This is a card that I picked up in a very high end Restaurant when I was speaking to agency groups down in the great state of Texas. And this when I walked into the establishment with some other friends that I was with right there on the counter, the entrance counter, big, beautiful entrance counter. And I looked at the establishment, I go, oh, my gosh, this place is awesome. The only thing sitting on the entrance counter was join the team, apply online, their address, and then it had their logo and everything else on the back. Simple little business card. You should have something like that that points to your career page, which is on the back end of your website that you can hand out all of the time, just like that.

Smail to state licensing list. You can get state licensing lists, you can get local licensing lists. Just look up all the other agencies in your local market and go to, I mean, hire a VA to do it, Hire a high schooler to do it, Hire one of your kids to do it. But start the list. Have them just go on and start creating the list and snail mail to those people. Show them why. Okay. Check with local junior colleges or local universities for job fairs if you're looking to hire an entry level person in any seat on the bus. We all started somewhere because somebody gave us a chance. We all started somewhere because somebody gave us a chance. Okay, if you belong to any type of other organization, both online and offline, visit them with the sole pitch. Hey, we're looking for the next great team member and we're offering $1,000 finder fee. And if you want to get bold, and we'll match the finder's fee with $1,000.

Contribution to your organization. My friends, I could go on and on about all of the other things that we have done, but at the end of the day, I wanted to give you some quick snippets. That's our top A23 list and beyond of how we're going to find the next excellent team member. Let me do a quick recap for you as we wrap today. One, you must, you must, you must always be recruiting. Always be recruiting. Even if you find somebody, always be recruiting. Number two, you've got to have your interviewing.

Offer, onboarding system, your hiring system in place before you make this massive effort. Because people will get sucked up in a heartbeat in today's marketplace. We've had somebody lose somebody in an hour or two, and it's becoming more and more common. And what was the solve on that? Well, you know, I'm getting back to the hiring system. I told you I was going to tell you about that. Okay, so we just went over the candidate passes your filter system process. I just gave you tons of detail on our filter system process. After they get through that and they raise their hand, the first thing we do is a phone screen. We've got all the questions written for you, the right questions. If you ask the questions and shut up, you get the information you need. So first thing is the phone screen. The second is the first interview. That's normally one on one yourself or one of your team members. I don't participate in any of that. Our agency does two separate people in the first interview. It is what it is. We do it via Zoom or live and in person. Phone screen, one second first interview. Third is assessments. We do two to three different assessments depending on the position we're hiring for. And we use a professional for that for those assessments. So phone screen, first interview, the assessments. The fourth item that we do is a team interview. Just got done with one of those this afternoon. There were four of us on that session with the candidate. Whole nother set of questions, whole other deeper dive to make sure that we get to know. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, once we get to that point, we need to know. We need to know that we're ready to make a decision. Okay? Because we need to make that offer right now. And where do I find out about the compensation? Normally I find out about that at the end of the team interview. Now, if anybody asks me about compensation prior to that, I will say I will absolutely have that conversation with you. It's only myself and one other team member who handles compensation, nobody else. We will say we'll be happy to have that conversation at the very end today and find out where you're at. And my sole question is this. Okay, fantastic. Let's get the compensation on the table. Go ahead and tell us what your compensation requirements are. Please share with us what your compensation requirements are. Or if you want to twist it a little bit, go ahead and share with us what your compensation requirements are or the range that you're looking in, whether it be hourly or annually. And whatever you do, do not say any number. Let them answer. That'll tell you everything you need to know. And if they. If your budget only says 40k and they say 80k, you know that you're never going to meet them in the middle. Okay? So phone screen, first interview, assessments, team interview. You can do a working interview. We've done a working interview multiple times. When we have somebody that's neck and neck, that's an option as well. Ultimately, at that point, then you're ready to drop the conditional offer on the table. The conditional offer says, we're offering you this. We send the conditional offer the compensation sheet that shows them the value of their chair and all the other compensation requirements. And the employment agreement. The employment agreement. We have a full employment agreement. We get a lot of people say, tell us about your PTO and your vacation. We have a separate PTO and vacation schedule all dialed in, all ready to go. We have a telecommuting phase now. We have a BYOD phase now. We've got all of that dialed in. So that's all stuff that we work with and provide to our members and others to help them in this endeavor. So the conditional offers on the table, at that point, we do the reference checks, we do the background checks, and once we get through all of that, we're ready to go. Now, at the end of the day, my friends, we were talking with some of our members earlier today, and it's very common that members, because they have this all set up, they can get through this in less than two days. They can get all of this done in less than two days. When you're organized, when you're ready to go, and you can do this, too, anybody can do it. That's why we're here teaching and sharing, so we can help you with all of this. Now, the other ninja stealth strategy that I was going to tell you about, because people are having people snatched right from them within an hour or two in today's marketplace, my conversation with the platinum coaching member was, okay, that you lost that person in about an hour. Why don't you always have a conditional offer ready all of the time? And he goes, what are you talking about? I said, give them the conditional offer. Show them what you're going to. You know, the compensation schedule that you're proposing, conditional offer comp schedule and the employment agreement, provide it to them on the spot. Even if you haven't done all the interviews, if you know enough about that person, you want them bad enough, or shall I hesitate to say need them bad enough, get them signed up right now, lock them down with the commitment of their signatures, then do all the screens and the interviews and, and the assessments, et cetera. After you get them to ink the conditional offer, hopefully that'll be the form of commitment that satisfies them, that ultimately will prevent them from looking anywhere else. My friends, the sky's the limit if you just allow yourself to think outside the box like nobody else. Let me repeat it, okay? If you want things to change, you've got to change because. Because you attract exactly what you are and who you become. And to get something you've never had, you've got to do things that you've never done. Get out there and do something you've never done. I remember one of our early masterminding sessions in the early days of our platinum coaching programs. One of the members at that point, forgive me anybody who's offended by what I'm going to say in just a minute. It's never my intent. She goes, you know what I've learned from this mastermind session? You just got to do something every day that scares the shit out of you. And I heard that and I said, that's true, we do. You've got to do something every day that scares the snot out of you. You got to be comfortable being uncomfortable, my friends. If you're not willing to do that, you're going to get left behind. In the words of Will Rogers, Will Rogers said, if you just sit there, you're going to get run over. We don't want that for anybody, okay? My name is Mike Stromso, also known as the Unstoppable Profit Producer, widely recognized as a 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 how to grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your terms, please visit us. The virtual events are located@uppfaststart.com that's upfaststart.com and if you're interested in a live event, a game changing live event, just go to beunstoppablebootcamp.com that's be unstoppable Boot Camp. Both events are designed 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. My friends, I hope this podcast has been helpful to you. If you got great value out of it, please share it with somebody else. Just send them to either Unstoppable Profit po.

We're out there on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google play and on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and search Unstoppable Profit Producer. Click the video button. It's all there for you my friends. All we want is your success and we hope that we're playing a part in helping you make the achievement that you're looking for. And until then, get out there. Because it's only two things, my friends. A decision and action. A decision and action are the only things that are going to get you to the next win or the next lesson. And we're here to support and help you. Until next time, my friends. You rock. Make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets. We'll 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 w www.unstoppableprofitpodcast. com. Now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.