Episode 141: Your Massive Year-End Celebration

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. I am pumped and excited to bring this to you, and I am going to be very direct today. Just so you know, out of the gate, I am going to let it rip. I am not going to hold anything back. In fact, as I move along in stages of life, I am learning, I am going to be even more direct and I am not going to hold anything back. I generally don't. But I am going to be letting it rip. So not looking to hurt anybody's feelings, I am looking to help people grow. Get the flip out of your comfort zone and, and grow. You've got to do something. If you keep doing the things that you've always been doing, you're going to keep getting the things you've always gotten. You've got to get out of your comfort zone. You've got to do things differently. Because if you want things to change, you've got to change. If you're willing to change, everything will change for you. It's really that simple. But you've got to be willing to do it through action. Not thinking about it, not talking about it, through action, only. Speaking of action, we're going to get going on what I have for you today. I have been speaking with agency entrepreneurs a lot the last couple of weeks, heading into a new year and questioning them, saying, hey, are you ready with your goals? Did you get your team trained on your goals, your destination, your business goals, for example, before you went home for the holidays last year. And darn it, that makes me mad because I heard that way too much silence and that's not good enough, friends. You've got to be ready. If you're failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail. Don't let it happen to you. Please get on the shtick. And if you did set some goals for your agency, which many top entrepreneurial people do, knowing your destination is all you need to get there. You cannot hit unidentified targets. Simple as that. So get your identified targets. You need to review them consistently. My weekly Rhythm Register, I review them four times a week. I. I am crystal clear on exactly where we are going on, exactly what needs to be done to get there. Now I want to Inject something for those of you who have set goals for the year, either personally and or professionally. Great job. And if you haven't build this in to your session this weekend, please build it into your session this weekend and you will find that you have a whole new outlook. And I've done this for years since I first learned it. So I wanted to bring this to you. I've never brought this to you before to make sure that you have absolutely the most incredible win of a year this year yet your best year yet, not your best year ever. I'm trying to move away from thinking that at all because it's only my best year yet. The one after this will trumpet. Right. So at the end of the day, I want you to start like with these three questions in mind. And you may want to pause and grab something to write with and something to write on. And write these down. Okay? Write these three questions down. What would make my life more joyful? What would make my life more joyful? What would make my life more fulfilling? What would make my life more fulfilling? And lastly, what would make my life more successful? Remember, you have a business to support your life. Your life is not designed to support your business. It is in that order. So think about that as you answer these two questions. And then fast forward to 1231 of this year. Fast forward to 1231 of this year and what does it look like? Right, Write down the variables under those three questions. And as to what your life would look like on 1231, where you are partying like a rock star, celebrating because you have overachieved everything that you wanted for this year in incredible ways. And that's all we want for you so that it's just more incredible than you had ever dreamt. Okay, so write down the variables and the answers to those three questions. Let me give you some fuel for to help you with that. Okay, Number one, what would make my life more joyful? Well, simply what makes your life more joyful is you buy is by you doing the things that you love to do. Everybody's got their top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions, superpowers, their area of genius. It all means the same thing. And generally everybody's got three. And when you're doing the things that you love to do consistently all of the time, your life is more joyful and you are more of an impact for other people. Side note, that is my one word this year. Impact. Impact. Back to the matter at hand. What would make your life more joyful? Ok, so you need to be Doing more of the things that you love, love, love to do. Ok? Do more of that. You need to do less of the things that you tolerate doing. Okay. And then you need to eliminate in every way possible the things that you hate to do. Okay. My top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions is I love, love, love marketing. I love everything about it. I've studied it for decades and I have failed a ton. I have won a ton. And I know a lot about marketing just because of the immersion in the marketing arenas, online, offline, and everything around it. Okay. Second is sales. I still love to sell anything and I love the environment. I love the challenge. I don't love to fail, but, you know, I love that winning aspect of that as well. Okay. In addition to that, coaching is my third one and it was positioned for me with one of my teammates because I used to say my top three personal gifts, talents, vital function, marketing, sales and leadership and training. And I was positioned to buy my teammate and says, hey, there's a word for leadership and training. It's just one word. I said, what is it? And we went back and forth. I said, I don't have time for this. What is it? And she said, it's coaching. And I love, love, love to do that. So that's the areas that I love. And my mission is to invest 80 to 90% of my time doing those things and nothing else. I empower other people to do the rest of it. Okay. I get to do things that I tolerate sometimes. I've got some things on my plate right now that I'm not super keen about doing, but they need to be to get done, to get the deals done that I need to get done to move to the next level of other things to bring more joy. And the things that I hate doing, I just employ other people to do that. Ok, so what would make your life more joyful? Get clear on that. 12:31, what does it look like? What are the variables? Next question. What would make my life more fulfilling? What would make your life more fulfilling? Well, many of you. The answer is if I had a more successful business to support my life that was growing, that was operating on its own, that I didn't have to give as much time to, that would make my life more fulfilling. It would make me proud. Right, exactly. Got a lot of that figured out as well. But ultimately the key to that, and I'm going to use one case study, the great Jim Collins. In his book Good to Great, he talks about the time for creative. You've got to empower other people to do all the things that they do. And you've got to. You get to. You get to invest time in the creative, in the business building to work on your business, not in it. Collins says about 1,000 hours a year. A thousand creative hours in a year is a sweet spot. I did the math that. That's 2.73 hours per day. Yeah. It's not available for everybody yet. It can be yours when you do the right things. Consistency plus focus plus discipline equals the higher achievement. But you've got to design things so you do that consistently all of the time.

Get those creative hours where you can work on your business. I was also studying Dan Sullivan, I think yesterday morning. The great Dan Sullivan said. And you have to know this as you work towards this to fight through the suck, if you will. Okay. The great Dan Sullivan said, entrepreneurship is a life sentence. You just have to know it's the way it is. We've got to do the work before we can get the reward. Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his book the outliers, the 10,000 hour rule. It takes time to get all of this done. Super, super important that you're crystal clear and aware of that. So the other thing you want to design, according to Collins and many other great entrepreneurs, you've got to build in simplicity. You've got to keep it simple, don't make it too complex. And you got to go back to the foundational blocking and tackling, blocking and tackling, blocking and tackling. I've studied Vince Lombardi a ton. What advance Lombardi do that got him to multiple championships consecutively and winning seasons all of the time. They ran the power sweep. And he taught his team, in the words of Jack Welch, Jack Welch of GE, who built a company from, I believe it was 9 billion to over 410 billion. He said, you've got to teach people and share people with things so, so many times that they want to barf. That's how often people need to hear it. That's what Lombardi did. He ran the power sweep. Ran the power sweep. He taught the power sweep. He taught the power sweep consistently. He said, we're going to run this sucker right up the gut. This is the way we're going to block it every single time. It is this way and this is the only way. So take the name of your agency, okay? So we will take the name of an agency, the Fenney Agency, as an example. Okay? So it's the Feni way. Okay. The Donoho way. Your agency, it's your way of doing things, and you got to get clear on that consistently. But keep it simple. Blocking and tackling. Blocking, tackling. You need to build in that simplicity to get the creative out of you as well. So don't make it overly complex and just keep going back to the foundation. Back to the foundation, yes. I'm not suggesting you don't try new things because you always should be testing. As marketers, we test. Ultimately, at the end of the day, you know what makes people happy in business? Evidence of progress. Evidence of progress that will start to bring the fulfillment for you. But you got to do the work. Okay. Les Brown, the iconic Les Brown, the motivational speaker, said, if you do what's easy, your life's going to be hard. If you do it hard, your life's going to be easy. So what's your answers and what's your attributes to the question, what would make my life more fulfilling? It'll get you out of the minutia, get you on to working creatively on your business so you can fuel that particular growth. Okay. Because many of you are visionaries, some of you are builders. There's a difference. Okay. But if you're a visionary, you want to create the vision for the organization, set it in motion and let it go, and then inspect what you expect. Okay, third question for you. What would make my life more successful? What would make my life more successful? And success is elusive, so I've got a lot of thoughts about that, but I'm going to stick with what would make your life more successful? Okay. We're going to break it down into two areas on this podcast. Personal life and business life. Because they are separate things. There's two kinds of relationships, right? Personal relationships and business relationships. And they are two different things. That's a teaching that we teach within UPP about having excellent people on your team, having only the best people on your team members, not the best available. So super, super important. Okay? So let's just start with business life as an example. Okay. What would make my life more successful on 1231 of this year? And I look back and say, oh, my gosh, this was the most incredible year of my existence yet, yet. Okay. What would make my life more successful in business with relation to your team? Okay. What do you need to do? What do you need to do with your team to make their life more successful? Because ultimately, at the end of the day, people are silently waiting, wanting to be led. People are wanting to be led. Lead them, please. It's a leadership position. It is Your goal to lead them. Please lead them. Okay, so in order for your life to be more successful, what do you need to do with your team? What do you need to do with your team? Okay, next. What do you need to do with your vendors to make your life more successful? What do you need to do with your vendors? In the case of the insurance agency industry, as an example, that includes your carrier partners, are you going the extra mile even when they're acting like they're not supposed to? Are you the visionary? Are you the one they turn to? Are the one. Are you the one that they bring in to help them in every way possible? What do you need to be doing? All of your vendors could be your agency management system could be a separate marketing system. Those are all vendors. What do you need to do to make your life more successful? And what do you need to do to contribute to their success even more? What do you need to do in order as far as making your life more successful in business? What do you need to do with your clients? What do you need to do to make your life more successful with relation to your clients? Do you need to touch them more? Do you need to go the extra mile more? Do you need to make sure that everybody, as an example, because this drives me nuts. It drives me nuts when I call a business and they don't pick up the phone within. I'll just say a reasonable amount of time or God forbid I get an answering machine. Okay. At the end of the day, two rings is it? And no machines. Live person all the time. That's just my view on things. Okay. What do you need to do with regard to your clients to serve them better, to be of greater service? Earl Nightingale said in his book the Strangest Secret, serve the customer. Serve the customer better than anybody else has ever served the customer. You will win more, you'll get more referrals, your business will grow. What do you need to do to make your life more successful in the realm of your clients so that they're more successful to help your business grow? Next, as far as making your life more successful, what do you need to do in your brand positioning? What do you need to do in your brand positioning? A few episodes back, I've had multiple people on the podcast who have expertise in branding, and one of the most recent ones that's come to mind is Sayla Hirsch. Incredible. Incredible branding. Mind and heart, among other things. Right? Six to one, Sayla, you got it. So at the end of the day, what do you need to do with your brand? Positioning. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, depending what your end goal is, whenever that is five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years beyond that, you better make sure that your brand positioning is in place. Because ultimately, what people are going to pay for, they're going to pay for a brand. Trust me on that. Even for you S's out there, if you know anything about personality profiling and stuff, then you know what I just said, believe me on that. People will pay for a brand before they're going to pay for the rest of the logistics. What do you need to do to to make your life more successful with relation to your brand positioning in order to make your life more successful in business? What do you need to do with your associations? Who do you need to add? Who do you need to eliminate? Who do you need to invest more time with? Who do you need to invest less time with? You are the result of the five people you hang around with the most. So make sure that your associations, the people that you're willing to give any time to, are the right people. There's people in our lives we get to give time to no matter what. All right, I'll throw an example out there. Family members, we need to give them their family. There's nothing we could do. We need to associate. But you know, if one of them's got a bad attitude, as we say in the cousin's camp world, by the way, cousins camp, there's a patitude, which is a positive attitude, and a bad attitude, which is a bad attitude. So somebody has a bad attitude, we either need to try to help them or maybe limit the association. Okay, next, in order to make your life more successful in business, what do you need to do concerning your learning and growth? What do you need to do? I just dropped a substantial investment yesterday in another learning and growth program so I can continue to get better. I can never invest enough in my learning and growth and potential because if I want things to change, I've got to change. And I have to be willing to change if I want everything to change for me. That's the way it is. It is on me, nobody else. You've all seen it. The affectionate, famous mirror of truth. There's only one person that stands between you and success. Yes, it is you in the mirror. Got to look at that first, right? So you're learning and growth. What are you doing? If you are involved in a program, are you participating enough? Are you making it a priority? You know, I am privileged and honored to lead a UPP365 journey, which is a Facebook group on helping people be more grateful. Not that you aren't grateful already, but it is just a daily reminder of being more thankful and grateful for everything that we do have. Ok, so at the end of the day, what are you thankful and grateful for? Number one, if you want to find that group, go look for it. I'll be happy to let you in. But it's an opportunity for learning and growth. Ok. And it's about associations as well. So what do you need to do to learn and grow and become more I know what I was going to say a second ago. Also, the law of reciprocity is always in effect. That was the one thing, the one thing that I was thankful and grateful for today is reciprocity. And that is what we share in that forum. By the way, everybody shares one thing they are thankful and grateful for. Just one. Ok. It is a mindset because I also learned in my personal training and development recently, when we get out of bed in the morning, what we put into our mind within two minutes will set the tone for our entire day. Yes, what we put into our mind in the first two minutes out of bed sets our tone for the entire day. My friends. Don't let it happen for you. I've completely shifted the way I've designed my out of the gate time and what I'm doing every single morning for about the first hour and 15 hour and 30 minutes and it absolutely sets the rest of its own tone for the rest of the day. It makes me more productive. It makes me a better contributor. It makes me a better coach and a better leader and a better family man. Don't let it happen. What are you doing for your learning and personal development growth? Next, regarding what's going to make your life more successful in business? Your finances. What do you need to do with your finances to make sure that your life is more successful? When you look back at this at the end of the year, it's so incredible because it was happening with your finances. Get clear on it. Give it some time. Numbers don't lie. That is page six of the application for our UPP Platinum and Elite coaching programs is the numbers don't lie to you. You've got to be clear on your numbers. Okay, so that's some thoughts for you concerning how to make your life more successful in business. Let's jump to the personal, which ultimately at the end of the day is the main contributor to everything that happens in business. Because if your personal life isn't right, the business is Going to be, you know, trudging along, it's going to kind of be sucky and you're not going to necessarily get what you want because you haven't gotten things right in your personal life. So we get to give a lot of time to that. Don't just brush it under the carpet. It's not going to work for you. So what do you need to do to make your life more successful personally? Okay, so what are three things? What are one to three things that you have done in each of these categories that made this year incredible? Okay, what are they? All right, so let's talk about personal. Ok, we will start with body and health. So vitally important. I know a fair amount of people who are going through some health situations, some very difficult health situations. There is nothing more important than your body and your health. You have got to take care of it. An acronym that I recently picked up in my own personal training and development is meds. Meds. It means mindset, exercise, diet and sleep. You have got to take your meds. It is so vitally extreme important. And that is a direct contributor to your body and health. Number two in making your life more successful personally is your family. What do you need to do to be a great contributor? To be a great family contributor? To make your family all that you ever wanted it to be? Do you need to segment time to make sure that you spend one on one time with some kids or other family members or your spouse? All of that in order to make your life more successful? What do you need to do to be a better contributing family member? Number three, as far as what would make your life more successful personally? Friends. What do you need to do to be a better friend to anybody out there? Is it a priority only when you feel like it or is it a priority all the time? I know you're getting all this. It's a lot. I know. But it's super, super important to be aware and to be clear as you continue to go forward. You've got to be aware and clear and have clarity. That's why it's so important to ink it. Don't think it. You've got to ink it or write it down. Don't just think it. Right. Next on the list concerning what would make my life more successful personally is lifestyle. What kind of lifestyle do you want to design? How much time of your own time, by the way? We've all got the same 24, 7, 365. Okay, so how do you want to control your time? Do you want to control your time and how much of it and when have you time blocked it? I've been through my own calendar for the current year three times before the year even started to make sure my highest priorities were blocked all the time because they get the top priority and everything else that comes after that. It's important to me. Don't get me wrong. I mean, coaching calls, one to one, private sessions, all of that is a top priority for me as well. But I've also gotten clear on my highest priorities. So vitally important. Ok, what type of experiences do you want to design this year? What do you want to have happened on 1231 personally? What would make your life more successful personally if you did it this year? Ink it, don't think it. Right. And lastly, what would make my life more successful personally? What's going to make your life more successful spiritually and emotionally? Okay, the spiritual and emotional area of your life. What is it going to make your life more successful? Okay, get clear on all these things and the three and as far as you know, question number three. What would make my life more successful? Start with the personal and then build your life to support the business. It's super, super simple if you take the time to write out your destination and where you want to go. It's 1231 of this year, December 31st. It's been an incredible year. It's been the best year yet. What does that look like for you, my friends? Get clear on it. And I've talked to a lot of you who are not super clear yet on where you're going. Time's a waste. Don't let it happen to you. I don't want it to happen to you. That's why I'm dropping consistent reminders and maybe other ways to think about it and hope that it helps you. Because all we want is your success every single day in every single way. I hope this has helped you. If you enjoyed what you learned on the podcast, please share it with other people. If this is your first time here, welcome. My name is Mike Stromsel. I am widely recognized as the leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can find me @unstoppable profit producer.com if you're interested in attending a live or virtual event to grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. Our virtual Events are at uppfaststart.com and you can attend our live event portal at beunstoppable bootcamp.com Both events are designed to share with you some of our best money making strategies proven over 36 years of research in your industry to help you grow your business, create wealth so you two can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. That's all we want. And please make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss one episode and that's at Unstoppable Profit Podcast. Just go there up at the top. Subscribe and we will make sure that you have the podcast delivered directly to you so that you can enjoy the learning and growth adventure that we provide. Because again, all we want is your success. But you have got to want it just as bad. And if you don't, that's a whole other conversation that you need to go have with a Mirror of Truth. Also, the podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, stitcher and our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and search Unstoppable Profit Producer. Click on videos. All of our about the Last 60 podcast episode are there visually and on audio basis as well. Thank you for joining us on the podcast and until next time, get out there, make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets. You've got this and I believe in you. Go get it. 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.