Episode 128: Stop Learning, Stop Earning

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, everyone. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I am excited about today because it is going to help all of you. We have many, many requests from all over North America on what am I reading? And it is a common question that happens all the time. So I want to help you with that today. And so I am going to take a deep dive on everything that has been significantly influential in my journey so far in hopes that it helps you. Because the day we stop learning is the day we stop growing. The day we stop learning is the day we stop earning more. So whatever it is you want in this world, it's the knowledge that you possess, your mindset is your skill set. That's what you've got to continually get good on, because it plays right into the favorite quote of all time of mine. My life's signature quote, if you will. If you want to have more, you have in business, by the way. In business, if you want to have more, you have to become more. For things to change, you have to change. For things to get better, you have to become better. See, if you will improve, everything will improve for you. If you grow, your money will grow, your relationships, your health, your business and every other external effect will mirror that growth in equal correlation. So the more you grow, the more that growth will equal in correlation. I was reminded by my great accountability partner just this morning that also at the end of the day, we agreed both ways that we need to be disciplined. We need to be more self disciplined every day in every way to cause that growth funnel to continue. And where does it start? It starts with what we put into our head. So I learned from the late, great John Wooden. I saw John wooden, the iconic UCLA basketball coach. Ten championships in 12 years, seven in a row, probably never will be eclipsed. He said, discipline yourself so no one else needs to. My friends, at the end of the day, it is on you. The mirror of truth is always before you. So good luck on what you're doing with it. And let's get started. I have stacks upon stacks of books. I'm going to run through it fairly quickly and pause and start, pause and start as much as you need to so you can get them written down. Let me Say one other thing that I've learned in my journey. When I get introduced to a book or I hear about something that's going to be good and helpful for my mindset and will help me influence other people in a significant way, whatever that looks like. I always, always, always invest in the audiobook and the book itself simultaneously. Audible is my mistress nowadays. My bride knows about her, she's good with that. But I listen to it and then I can start going through the book because I get those little aha moments. So then I go, book, go back and I highlight dog ear and the whole nine yards because that way it becomes permanent for my learning experience. And I also learned from one of our three coaches that at the end of the day, we need to hear things as a human species, if you will. Seven times, seven times, we need to hear it. So once isn't good enough, twice isn't good enough. Sometimes it takes multiple times. Let's get growing, you know, And I was also sitting in a learning event last century, so quite a few years ago, and I was sitting there and I was trying to figure it all out and I was working, working, working. And I don't, I'm not opposed to work. I can work 18, 20 hours a day, every day without much of a problem. Sometimes it's not good for the family balance. But at the end of the day I sit in this conference, I'm going, wow, the people that were teaching and presenting, I said they've got it all figured out. That's awesome. I'm just going to start learning from them and become a massive implementer. That was the turning point, that was my turning point in business that changed things forever. Keep learning from others who have figured out whatever it is that you want to learn and stay focused on the one thing that you want to learn. That's another part of our conversation this morning is the fact that not only do we need to be self disciplined, but focus on one thing. And so we made an agreement heading into next year in our accountability sessions that we're going to stay focused on the one thing that's going to be our week. What's the one thing for the week that we're going to, you know, become massive implementers and learners and everything else on. So please take that for what it's worth. This is a no specific order. Okay. So I'm just going to start with what I have right beside me. I'm going to give you just a quick overall view in my mind what I learned from the book and I Hope it helps you. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. This was one of my original aha moments. Probably about 10 years ago I was introduced to this book and it is about your daily habits. Your daily habits make or break you and you have got to be disciplined in them. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy that is good for all team members or all family members across the board. The Ultimate Sales Machine by the late, great Chet Holmes. Iconic as far as creative ideas for a marketing and sales machine. Great for any salesperson. Great for any marketing person. Okay, Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. It's got some rough language in it. If you know the F bombs offend you, it may not be for you. But I can look past those because I'm looking at the story and because in today's world we need to identify people are out there to hurt us. They don't care about our feelings, they don't care about what they say to us. You are going to get hurt and you have got to have the gumption and the gut to get past that. The Checklist manifesto came from one of our platinum coaching members. Thanks Kirk for that. And this is all about processes. This will help you with your mindset and processes. Great, great read there. My friend Joe Theisman. Joe wrote the book how to Be a Champion Every Day. Six Timeless Keys to Success. It is about those six keys. It helped remind me of the habits that I need to be practicing every day. By the way, if you are listening to this only when you get in front of a computer, go back to YouTube, search Unstoppable Profit Producer and then just hit videos and you will see all of our podcast videos. What I am showing on the screen right now, you will be able to see every book. Okay, Brian Tracy, who I've studied under a lot in my journey so far, goals. This is the book that taught me there's no such thing as time management, which there is no such thing as time management. It's all about the choices that you make as to what you're going to do with your time platform. How to Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt. I met Michael Hyatt live at Dave Ramsey's facility eight or nine years ago when he was just starting out. Great guy. It's a noisy, crazy, polluted world out there, so you've got to separate yourself in every way. John Maxwell, the iconic John Maxwell, in fact, a good friend of mine, just sent me Maxwell's leadership Bible, which I'm grateful for and it's becoming a Good. Go to source. But good leaders ask great questions. This has been a really good one for me because as a leader, our skill is two or threefold only five to one. Be a great listener. Two eyes, two ears, one mind, one mouth, five to one. So your goal is to ask the best questions possible and to shut up. And we've rephrased this. Good leaders ask great questions and they shut up. So great read for any leader. I've got a whole stack right here. I am on my ninth year. I pulled this out just for all of you. This is my first eight years of this book called Living youg Best Year Ever. And it is my weekly rhythm register and everything else that keeps my habits in orders. I have all of these and I keep all of these. I go back through these from time to time and I pick up those nuggets that I documented in the past that I needed to be reminded of. Remember, seven times or more, we need to hear it. Right? So let me grab another stack. I've got big stacks of books here. So I'm grabbing another stack here for you. And here we grow. So iconic from a vision standpoint. Jim Collins. I know a few people who Jim is their go to. It starts with Good to great. Great by choices. Another book in the series. Just great, Great visionary mindset for leading entrepreneurial people in today's world. So definitely go with that. My friend, Jack Canfield. I have been interviewed by Jack Canfield, know Jack Canfield fairly well, the success principles. And this is where I learned, you may have heard me say from time to time, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, rate this. So at the end of the day, I learned this from Jack Canfield in this book. Okay? So, I mean, if you are bold enough, I will give you something because our goal here at UPP is to impact people's lives personally and professionally. So back to the personal side. If you have a spouse, try this. Hey, honey. How was our week this week together? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, rate me as your spouse. Now that's a bold statement, right? And let's say she says or he says a seven or an eight. Thank you. What could I have done to make it a 10? There's your improvement plan. All right. This was given to me by a local entrepreneurial friend, Dave Anderson, up your business. Absolutely. Absolutely. Probably a top 10 definite worth read up your business. Dave Anderson. Great, great book. I have them all here, so let me grab them. I'm going to go to Another stack real quick. And if you're watching this on YouTube. YouTube. Unstoppable. Unstoppable profit producer and just click videos. This is my learning library from the iconic, incredible Dan Kennedy, my original marketing mentor many, many, many years ago. These are all of his no BS books, including the ultimate marketing plan and so much more. I think David Ogilvie's book is laced in here. I studied David Ogilvy quite a bit as far as copywriting and probably the one out of all these business books. Here's one for you if you're in a smaller community. No BS grassroots marketing. It is green. It's not showing up that great because of the green screen. But this ultimal success secret for me was a game changer that helped me with mindset like nothing else. It's not available anymore. I happen to have a copy. Let me see what I can do for all of you. So great, great stuff. Let's keep going. The Nordstrom company. Iconic in the business world, in customer service and being so far above everybody else. The Nordstrom way. The Nordstrom Way. That's where I was sitting on a plane reading it and audio learning it simultaneously. I still have. Okay fine. I have it right here. I keep it where I can get my hands on it all the time because I need reminders like the rest of them. This is the airplane ticket where I was studying that. The boarding pass I should say. And on the back of it I wrote down people want two things more than sex and money. Praise and recognition. So at the end of the day, where do I learn all this stuff to share with all of you? From my knowledge learning. My friends and I study it. I study it and study it again. Continually getting better. The growth in equal correlation. The late Tony Hsieh, Delivering happiness. This helped us create our brand, our promise, core values and everything within our organization. The tipping point. I started studying Malcolm Gladwell years ago. Malcolm Gladwell is a great iconic business thinker, if you will. Tipping point. The 17% of anything is is tipping point. You get to the tipping point, they're going to all start flowing downhill for you. Outliers is another Malcolm Gladwell book is where I learned the 10,000 hour rule. Back when I was studying vision, I read this book and listened to this book by Howard Schultz. Onward Incredible from a vision perspective. Great book for people who are visionaries if you will. Okay. The five dysfunctions of a Team. Probably the number one book by Pat Lencioni. The number one book that I've read more times than any Other book in my library six times. I think I'm on with this. Why? Because I need it.

So I was looking for a game changing presenter at our Be Unstoppable boot camps a few years ago and I came across Jeb Blunt because I was introduced to this book. Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blunt. Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blunt. I mentioned that twice because if you have people who are salespeople in your organization and they have not read this and or listened to it, recommend both. They need to have this book in their library and they need to keep revisiting it. Game Changer. It's how Jeb appeared at Be Unstoppable Boot camp and wowed everybody in attendance. He has a series. I've lost count how many books he's got. I have virtual selling. I started revisiting that last year in that adversity that we faced where we were all sent home. So it helped me as well. He's got a whole series. Okay. One of my old favorites is up the Loyalty Ladder by Murray Raphael and Neil Raphael. Turning sometimes customers into full time advocates for your business. That's at the core of a referral program. You want a bunch of people out there who are quote raving fans running around out there talking to everybody they know about your business and referring it to their friends and everybody else. So that was the original, I believe, learning training for me on that. Let me grab another stack.

By the way, I have hundreds of books behind me downstairs in my garage and on other bookshelves around the landscape where.

I've stored them. They're there for my ongoing use and learning and everything else. So one of my original beginning thinking books. And I've got stories on this. Too much for today, maybe another podcast in the future. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And my encouragement for everybody on this book is rich is not monetary. Rich is not monetary. At the end of the day, my friends, you know, think of Mother Teresa. She wasn't rich because of money, right? So at the end of the day, just be aware. Think and Grow Rich. Great, great thinking book. Crush it by Gary Vee. If you studied Gary Vee, he can go on quite a bit. But this is a short one. That's why it was really good for me. A good dose of Gary Vee. Jeffrey Gittamer, the sales bible. He's got the Little Red Book of selling, the Little Yellow Book of. I can't remember how to finish it, but I love Jeffrey Gittermer. Studied a ton of his Stuff. Another good book for anybody in the sales realm. Michael Gerber, the E Myth. I was originally introduced. I met Michael Gerber a lot of years ago, and Michael Gerber learned a ton from him. He actually lives 30 miles from where I live, so he's in my neighborhood. Success leaves clues. So anyway, I've studied under him on multiple occasions separately over the years. The E Myth. The E Myth. And it's iconic as far as processes and mindset for the entrepreneur in today's world. I've gone through his e Myth mastery program, so I'm very well aware of Michael Gerber and everything that he's taught and. And how to implement it in a business. My friend Kevin Harrington wrote a book, key person of influence. Every day, in every way, you are influencing somebody. Be the key person of influence, the go to person in any marketplace. A key person of influence by my friend Kevin Harrington. So the more modern version or the newer version. Better said, the newer version of up the loyalty ladder that I mentioned a couple minutes ago by Joey Coleman. And it's never lose a customer again. A lot of the same things and I have it right here. A lot of the same things and up the loyalty ladder are also in never lose a customer. Joey's just a different personality. And I haven't found up the loyalty ladder in audiobook, but Joey's got the book and the audio simultaneously. So that's very helpful. Okay. The book that has really taken our organization to what it is today.

Better said, let me cancel. Pause. Let me rephrase that. The book that has been a catalyst to the reinvention of our business into what it is right now is traction, and it's Traction by Geno Wickman. We just picked up everything we needed to know from a vision standpoint to reinvent our business again, to align it to where it needs to be currently. Okay. My current read. This is going to be a game changer. I can already feel it. I'm not even done with it, but it's already way up on my list. It's called relentless. And I got this from platinum, another platinum coaching member. Thank you, Tom. Relentless. From good to great to unstoppable. @ Tim S. Grover. Game changer. Let me give you a little hint. You got to get cleaner every day. Get it. You will not be disappointed. Okay. I've had this for a couple of weeks and my accountability partner mentioned it to me and said, you got to get to that one. So I'm grateful for that. Okay. Rocket fuel. It's part of the gino Wickman series. It kind of outlines everything that needs to be known as far as implementing a systematic leadership team and business. Below the leadership team. As far as everything that I've read up to date, if you said, what are the top 10 books that you've completed recently? This is the number one. So this is an absolute must, especially for, well, it's anybody, period, personal or professional. Stories that Stick by Kendra Hall. Stories that Stick by Kendra Hall. Great, great read. Okay, back to my friend Jeb Blunt. I really enjoyed this. I needed it recently. It was there. Isn't it funny how that appears people follow you? Great leadership read that's current, relevant and applicable to today's leadership society. This one came out of left field because of my investment in myself. Okay, now a lot of you have never heard of this book, but it's called they Can't Eat yout, they can't eat you. And it's the unorthodox path. Look what everybody else is doing and do the exact Opposite by Mark Sparks. It's a great study as far as that. It's only available in book, so just know that it's only available in book. So you got to be more of a book reader and that's it. I'm sure there's others that I might have missed, but I wanted to give you a really solid list of the top of the top. I hope this helps you because remember this. The day you stop learning is the day you stop growing. The day you stop learning is the day you stop earning more. If you need to get your income up, that's where it all starts because it really permeates your mindset because your mindset's your skillset. One other thing real quick. One of the best decisions that I made in my life, period, period, end of report. I stopped watching the news. I finally convinced my wife to stop taking the newspaper. I am going to say I am almost a decade in on that. So grateful, grateful, grateful for that day. So what do I do with free time? I study and become more. It is how we become more. Ok, so again, I hope this has helped you. Everybody please share any books that I didn't mention. I would love to know about them. If I haven't heard about them yet, I want to get them and dive into them as soon as possible. If you picked up a book here, share it with anybody and everybody that you know to help them learn and become more. Again, thank you for joining us. If this is your first time, my name is Mike Stromso. I'm 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 live event to learn to grow your business, create wealth, and have more freedom to live life on your own terms, please visit upfaststart.com that's upfaststart.com or if you'd like to attend one of our live events, go to beunstoppable boot camp.com that's beunstoppablebootcamp.com Both events are designed to share with you some of my best money making strategies proven over 35 years of research in our industry and to help you grow your business, create wealth and have more freedom to live life on your own terms. That's all we want for all of you. All we want is your success. In addition to that, thank you for joining the podcast. If this is your first time, please go to unstoppable profitpodcast.com subscribe so you won't miss one of the future episodes to help you continue to learn, grow and everything surrounding that. In addition to that, we're out there on all the channels. Google Play, Stitcher, Apple, everything else, Spotify. You'll be able to find our podcast there on your favorite channel. So lock us in. We again, our only goal is to help you and to impact people's lives personally and professionally. Until the next podcast, my friends have a phenomenal one of a kind. Next five to seven days. Remember, starts with two things, a decision and action. And until then, make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets. We'll see you next time. 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.