Episode 137: How to Get Everything You Want

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, everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is a very special podcast in the fact that it is about your future and it is really about how to help you get everything that you want in the future faster. At the end of the day, anything is possible. Our mindset is our skill set, as you know. And I want to talk about your goals for the coming year. Now is the time before you knock off for the holidays. You need to make sure that your goals are rock solid. And if you have got a team that you need to make sure that your organizational goals are rock solid, that you've shared them with the team, that you've trained them on exactly how you're going to accomplish the goals. It's not rocket science, my friends. You just have to do two things. You need to make a decision and take action. Make a decision and take action. It's really that simple. I've been setting goals for over two decades and I am here to tell you that what gets don't think it, ink it. Don't think it, ink it. What gets written down and crossed out gets done. I went back recently and looked at some of the things that I had set as my own personal goals over two decades ago, and it is just amazing to me that it started to happen and it actually did happen, including a lifelong career journey goal. And at the age I am now, and it happened. I didn't necessarily intend it to happen. It did, however, because I put that into my mind, I inked it and I kept my focus on it for a period of time. All of a sudden, it subconsciously became part of my being and my pursuit of everything that I am after in the achievement realm and the higher achievement realm. So let me set the tone. I want to give you some ideas today. It doesn't have to get overly complicated. You just have to do it. You have to make a decision and take action. Again, it is not that complicated. If you will set aside one hour right now to do it, shut off all those devices, shut your door, let everybody know you're not available, and just do it. I'm going to take you through some thought processes because when you realize what you really want, it stops you from chasing butterflies and put you to work digging gold. That's all I want, is for you to dig the gold and you will accomplish it. And gold doesn't necessarily mean monetary either. It could be other things that you want to accomplish in life. So let's think about it in two different ways. There might be two sets of goals that you're going to set, or more, depending on how many business organizations you get to lead. But let's pretend you have one business organization that you lead. You and you have of course, your personal life. And after that then you have team members. That's why we develop PX3. That could potentially be for another session. So your business goals, you should set three business goals. Three business goals to get you started. Okay? Then you need to set your personal goals. Set your personal goals. And in the process of doing that, I want you to think about.

Just a couple of things. Plan, do, review and improve. Plan, do, review and improve. And when I'm doing my goals, one of the things I do is I do a quick review of the prior year because I. Even if you didn't set goals the prior year, do a quick review. Okay, so when you're doing your year end review, you want to keep last year's goals. If you set goals last year, if you didn't, don't sweat it. Go to your calendars, your photo albums, your online storage facilities for your photos, and anything else that will help you jog your memory of any and all past prior events over the past 12 months. At the end, at the end of that, once you have something there, you want to go back and get clear on what happened in the last 12 months. You can write down up to the 10 greatest happenings from last year. The three things that you are most proud of in your accomplishments last year. The three greatest lessons that you learned last year. The three personal improvements that you made in the past 12 months. If I could go back and do it again, I would do these three things differently. The greatest influences in your journey in the last 12 months. Who are they? People, Products, Viewpoints? Other maybe new strategies, new things that you tried. The smartest decision I made last year. The most caring service I performed last year. The biggest risk I took last year. For me, that one is consistently one of my tougher ones because I have learned I don't take big enough risks. However, when I do take the bigger risks, the rewards become bigger. Especially as I go on in my journey, my wisdom continues to help me. My experiences, my lessons continue to help me in making smarter decisions on Those bigger risks. One most important relationship that I improved last year. The one word that best sums up and describes last year's experience. Three things I need to do less of in the next year. Three things I need to do more of in the next year. Three things I need to stop doing altogether in the next year okay, so once you get clear on where you've been in the last 12 months, you've identified some things that you want to do that you don't want to do, associations that you want to keep that you don't want to keep, etc. Etc. Now you're ready to set the tone for your future and to repeat, realize what you really want. It stops you from chasing butterflies and puts you to work on digging the gold. At the end of the day, all we want is your success and to help you accomplish whatever it is that you want. And remember, regardless of your past, you do have a spotless future. And you're your future starts right now, right here. Set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving it, you become someone worth becoming. In the words of the late great Jim Rohn, set a goal big enough that in the process of achieving it, you become someone worth becoming. There is nothing limiting you except your mindset. Ok, so in setting goals, remember agency, personal agency, personal agency. Three goals. If you don't know what to set your agency goals on, our great recommendation. Really simple because the super complicated business plan is get clients, keep clients, get clients, keep clients. So in the getting clients realm, set a new business production goal. If you're going to share it with your team, recommend that you do it on premium because that's what they think about all day long. Then in the keeping clients realm retention, what percentage are you at now? What do you want to obtain? Said now the activities supporting that take a little bit more effort to design, create, share with the team and actually execute. Don't worry about that yet. Set the goals first and and in the retention realm, is it client retention policy retention, premium retention or something else? Get clear on what one thing, don't complicate it. Keep it the one thing, keep it simple. And lastly, if you don't have anything else to set the third goal on, set it on number of referrals. One of the greatest opportunities within your existing acre of diamonds is earning more referrals. Or it could be cross sells, okay. Which will ultimately at the end of the day improve your retention. It's been time and time and time again and working with agents across the country. It is a Rare day that I come across somebody that has three policies per client and if you're not there yet, go get it for yourself. I remember working with an agent years ago who said, I'm not going to do anything this year except work on my existing book of business. I'm going to cross sell that like there's no tomorrow. I'm going to, I'll take the referrals that come, but I'm not investing in any new outside marketing. And what happened that first year, he grew 11% and he said, wow, that works so well. I'm going to do that again. Did it again the following year, grew 9%. But the value of his book and his retention over a 10 year period, value of his book off the charts. So think about that for just a minute. Right, so let me give you some other things to think about. And in your personal goals, what is it that you want to accomplish? That can be a whole different set of characteristics. I have multiple topics that I set my personal goals on. It really starts with my living your best year ever plan. That's what I use to give you, something transparent. And then I have an accountability partner that helps keep me on track and all of that. So that is the multiple topics have to do with my health, my family, my personal life, things I want to accomplish. I have some business goals as well, business production goals, which are monetary and ultimately at the end of the day, here is the other key. With your goals, you have got to review the goals often. You have got to review the goals often. At least four times a week is my greatest recommendation. That's it. What's in my weekly rhythm register is to review my goals four times a week. The higher achievers review them every single day. It is completely up to you. But set something somewhat realistic so you don't miss four days a week works for me about every other day in the middle of the week, twice, you know, two days in a row. Okay? So business goals, personal goals have two sets and pursue them. The other thing about personal goals as being a high achieving business owner is the fact that it gives you that BHAG target, the big hairy, audacious goal that you want to pursue. Because us high achievers in our team, two different sets of personalities, okay? They want to operate in the smart goal realm. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and on a timeline. I get that. But they don't have the wherewithal to go after the BHAG. Me personally, I'm a BHAG guy. If I set a goal of $2 million in production as an example and I get to 1.1. I am tickled pink. It doesn't bother me one bit that I fell short of the 2 million because it's who I became in pursuing the 1.1. And the fact that I got 1.1 at all, that was the huge win. Okay, so let me give you some other thoughts in your goal setting endeavors. Okay. To lead a successful life, career and or business, you need four things. 1. A crystal clear understanding of what you want to achieve. 2. A passionate desire and a burning why that inspires massive action. When your why becomes big enough, your how becomes easy. 3. A plan of action which points to how your success and your achievement will be achieved. 4. Specific deadlines. The purpose of a deadline is to dictate when you want to reach your goal. Goals linked to a timeframe create a practical, practical sense of urgency. Okay, so let me give you some other thought processes for your goal setting brainstorming. Okay, so what's your new business revenue goals for the next 12 months? If you're an owner or if you're in the production realm? What's your new business premium goals in the next 12 months? And then break it down. Okay, what's the fastest way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Break it down to monthly, break it down to weekly. Break it down to daily if that's what you need to do. What's your minimum revenue size account if you're going to go there. Okay, what's your minimum premium size account if you're going to go there? I was working with an agent this week who set all new agency standards of excellence and that was one of the things on their own, great job on them. How many new clients are you looking to onboard in the next 12 months? What's your strategy to retain clients? We talked about retention. New business production retention. How many prospects are in your database? How many prospects fit the profile of your ideal client? Do you have your ideal client documented for personal and commercial lines and or life and health? Individual life and health or group life and health? How do you plan on generating new leads? How many new leads will you add to your sales funnel each month? How much uninterrupted time? Time. The great equalizer. There is no such thing as time management. It's the choices that you make as to what you do with your time. How much uninterrupted time do you plan to set aside each week or each day for outbound follow up? Whether it be phone calls, email, letters, snail mail, et Cetera, et cetera? What's your plan to improve your networking activities both online and offline? Your social media presence, your entire marketing program, your personal brand, if you're working on your individual situation, your LinkedIn profiles as an example, do you have a list of referral sources for the next 12 months? How complete is it? Your list is your gold. Always, always, always. How much potential revenue or premium is in your pipeline already for the next 12 months? Segment your prospects and your clients in your database and or pipeline based on their likelihood of doing business with you. AAA Single A have you written down, have you written it down what your daily behavior is going to look like? It's critical, my friends, that you ink it, don't think it. You've got to have something to follow. That's where the rubber hits the road. That's where you, when you review it, you review it, you review it. It becomes part of your DNA. So at the end of the day we talked about smart goals and bhag. You have to identify the person that's going to be in pursuit of achieving the goals. Big hairy audacious goal is bhag. That's for high achieving people who don't care if they hit it or not. They're willing to put something out there which seems unrealistic. Okay. And then the smart goal people, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and on a timeline. Okay, so get clear on where you've been in the last 12 months and then set your numbers for the coming year. And we talked about some things to think about. Premium vs Revenue Number of enforced clients, how many do you have now and what do you want to obtain and achieve? How many enforced policies do you have now these are the key KPIs in an agency business. Revenue and premium. Number of enforced clients, number of in force policies, your retention percent percentage and is it client retention, policy retention or premium retention or something different based on what your agency management system spits out at you and you can gather from your database. Number of annual referrals in the past 12 months and what do you want to achieve? How many full time employees do you have? How many partner part time employees do you have? If you have multiple part time employees, two part time employee equal one full time equivalent and number of full time employees includes number of active owners also those should always be included. And then break down your business by commercial lines versus personal lines versus life and health percentages again for your agency. Three top goals for you. Individually you can set as many goals as you're comfortable with. But you know, don't set too many, you've got to know what your comfort level is on how hard you're willing to work in the achievement realm. My great recommendation for people individually is to set, you know, personal goals like health goals and you know, things that you want to achieve personally. You know, one of the things that I've done in the past years, you know, number of dates that I want to go on my wife, you know, how many times I want to go on a date with my wife as an example, how my, how many interactions I want to have with kids, whether it be on a weekly basis or a monthly basis, you know, how many times I want to visit the grandkids, you know, things like that. In addition to income goals, in addition to other personal business achievements that I want to accomplish, I also blend in things I want to do personally, how much do I want to give back to charitable organizations, how much do I want to contribute time wise to civic and charitable organizations in my communities or beyond that, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So think about that individually and then of course the agency, I recommend no more than three. Train your team, share it with your team, set the vision, and then after you set the vision, let the team know. This is where we want to take the organization. The third party thing, which is your business, Bob, we call it your business. Your book of business, Bob, is what we call your business and we pursue it. It's not that simple. See, remember this as well. To achieve what you have not, you must also become what you have not. So you know, if you want to achieve at a much higher level, you're going to have to bust it to become more. You're going to have to invest in other endeavors, other trainings, whether it be live online or whatever it looks like to continue to improve yourself. Because if you want to achieve something you've never achieved before, you're going to have to do things that you've never done before. You get to, you don't have to do anything, you get to grow into your goals, okay? And then also I believe it's super, super important that you build in accountability. Accountability breeds responsibility, okay? That's why in our UPP Platinum and elite coaching programs we have built in accountability. We have a built in Accountability Director and AFY Director Accountability for you, Mr. Dole McKinley, who helps people stay on track with their goals. And then I get to interact with them as well, keeping them, keeping them on track with their goals. For me personally, I get to show up every Single Friday morning, 6am Pacific for my accountability session the last 12 months, I missed one. 51 out of 52 achieved. The one was because of a family vacation. Just decided to do it. Okay? Normally, regardless of where I am in the world, don't miss. Ok? No excuses. Remember? Also build in something that motivates you. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. Motivation is what gets you started. But it is the habit, the daily habits, 21 days or more, you must continue to do it. I launched the three the UPP365 journey this year. And every single day putting out one thing that I am thankful and grateful for. I believe I AM on day 21, I am almost to the habit day, right? I am every day, 365 days straight. I am going to do it. Why? Because I set a goal. Why? Because in the past when I reviewed what I tried to accomplish, I fell short. And frankly, between you and me and the wall, I was pissed off at myself and I said that is not going to fricking happen again and I'm going to achieve that. I am dedicated, motivated. I was motivated by multiple reasons as to why I'm doing it and I'm going to achieve it. Okay? But at the end of the day, it's the habit, the daily habits that we build into. And once you get to about 21 days, or just beyond that of doing it, doing it, doing every single day, you will get there. You got to have the vision. Vision is the art of seeing things that other people can't see. Vision is also the art of what is invisible to others. Okay? So have that vision for yourself and for your future. Okay? Remember the six key components of any business from a leadership chair. Also, as you get into your goal setting for your future, 1. Vision strengthening. This component means getting everyone in the organization 100% on the same page with where you're going and how you're going to get there. So set the vision for the organization. We've called it in the past when we've done it, a state of the agency address. I set the vision. I let them know how we're going to get there. What next? People. Simply put, you can't do it without excellent people. Not the best available, only the best. You can only be satisfied with the best, not the best available. This means surrounding yourself with excellent people top to bottom. Because you can't achieve anything great. You can't achieve a great vision without a great team and excellent people data. It means cutting through all the feelings, personalities, opinions and egos and boiling your organization down to a handful of objectives. That's why three goals for a business organization at the top and then you build in activities below that give you an absolute pulse on where things are going. Knowing your destination is all you need to get there. If you have not set the destination for the organization, you're going to be flapping out there in the wind. And we don't want that for any of you. Okay? Issues. Strengthening this component means becoming great at solving problems. Identifying, discussing and solving. Idsing is what we call it. We work through those solving problems throughout the organization in a hierarchy realm, setting them up, knocking them down, and making them go away forever by solving them. Process. This is the secret ingredient to your organization. This means systematizing your business and identifying, discussing and solving core processes that define the way you run the business, what you inspect, what you expect. You'll need to get everyone on the same page to what the essential procedural steps are and then get everyone to follow them to create consistency. Consistency, focus and discipline equals higher achievement and scalability in your organization. Okay? And you got to be focused. You got to have a purpose, a cause, a passion. If you have niches, get clear in your niches. Here's my greatest encouragement for you, friends, as you head into getting clear on three agency goals and your list of your own personal achievement goals for the coming year after you've gone back and done the year end review for the last 12 months. 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 must become better. If you improve, everything will improve for you. If you are willing to grow like you never have before, your money will grow like it never has before. Your relationships, your health, your business and every other external effect will mirror that growth in equal correlation. The late, great Jim Loan Roan the late, great Jim Rohn that is my favorite quote of all time. I believe that with my entire heart. It has been my experience in my 47 years in business that it is the absolute key and the absolute key to knowing your destination and knowing where you are going is setting clear.

Specific goals on where you are going. If you're the leader of an organization, they're counting on you. They're watching everything you do and everything you don't do. They're listening to everything you say and they're watching everything you don't say. They're listening to everything you say and everything you don't say and they're watching everything you do and they're watching everything you don't do, it is on you. If you've accepted that role as the leader of an organization, congratulations. Go lead your organization and then set your individual goals. Make them unrealistic.

And you'll be amazed. If you review them consistently up to four times or more a week, it will begin to happen for you. May not happen right away. I'm going to share one last thing for you with you.

A number of years ago I finished reading the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I set my statement of desire. I have a copy of it in my hand right now. I recently found it and I wrote out the statement of desire and I put it on my nightstand like he recommended and I put in a couple of other places in my car. That's one of the reasons one of the places I recently found it and I'm going to read it to you. I'm not going to mention dollar amounts, but I'll read it to you. The exact amount of money I desire is I intend to give my energy, commitment, all the knowledge learned to date, and access to connections for wisdom and experience I do not possess. In return for what I hope to achieve, I intend to possess this by a specific date or sooner. My plan of action is to fully implement every facet of UPP immediately to its greatest opportunity. 2. To wisely leverage the assets that I've earned so far. 3. Build agency wealth through using my knowledge, my contacts, my reputation earned so far. Friends, I'm here to tell you and I'm happy to talk to anybody you know personally one on one. It happened because I intentionally created a specific statement of things that I was going to accomplish. Napoleon Hill called a statement of a desire a defined purpose. It can happen for you too. We want to help you get there. If there's anything more that we can do for you, please let us know. And if this is your first time listening to the podcast or watching the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Strompso. I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can find me at Unstoppable Profit Producer if you're interested in attending a virtual or live event to learn to grow your business, create wealth, and have more freedom so you too can live life on your own terms. Our virtual event portal is upfaststart.com and our live event URL is be unstoppable boot camp dot com. Both events are designed to share with you our best money making strategies developed over 36 years of research and 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. That's all we want for you. That is our number one goal here at upp and that's why we do this to help impact people's lives personally and professionally. Make sure you go to unstoppableprofitpodcast.com subscribe so you don't miss one episode. We publish these every week to help you grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms and we look forward to helping you. By the way, our podcast is out there on all the channels. Stitcher, Google Play, Apple. You can go find US Unstoppable Profit podcast.com Go get yourself some next year and we can't wait to help and support you. Until then, be well and be unstoppable. 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.