Episode 160: The ONE THING You Must Bet On

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give independent insurance agents all of the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or 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 Stromsol.

Greetings. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. Today I want to share with you the answers to the best of my ability at this time, to the question that I get a lot. I just got done speaking, doing a keynote speech in the Midwest, and again I was asked this question multiple times after I got done sharing. People say.

I don't know where you get that energy, but I want some of that. Do you put that in a bottle and sell it? Because I want to buy multiple bottles. And people come to me consistently. They say, how do you stay so positive? Where do you get your energy? And it seems to be consistent all of the time when we interact with you. Your energy, your patitude. Yes, patitude, positive attitude and everything of the such. Where the heck did it come from? And how can we get some of that? Another comment that I get is if we're having a meal, etc. Etc. At the end of the meal, somebody that I've never met before, they'll say, I want whatever he's having because I want some more of that. Super grateful. Super thankful. Has it always been that way? No. Has it been a result of my upbringing or my parents? I will suggest partly. However, the bottom line is this. Your mindset is your skill set and it is what you feed your mind that makes all of the difference. And what I fed my mind over a number of years consecutively, has continued to compound effect, if you will, to create the attitude, the mindset, and everything that I am able to bring to the world and to the table every single day in every single way. And the more that I work on myself, the more that I become more every single day, the better it gets. I am going to share with you some basic thoughts that you can implement starting right now, starting today, right here, every day in your life. It's. There's no cost or investment, except maybe in a book or two, if that's what you want to do. But you don't even have to do that. You get to. It's an opportunity. You know, that's another thing. It's really. That's something that I learned in My mindset, you know, a lot of people say, well, I have to do this or I have to do that. You don't have to do Jack. You don't have to do anything. You get to do it. It's a privilege and an opportunity and an honor. It's that kind of outlook. Is the glass half full or is the glass half empty? Of course the glass is always half full. But it's perspective, right? What people perceive is what they believe and what you fill your mind with creates that perspective. Okay, there's a couple of things real quick I'm going to share with you. If you are enjoying the podcast on YouTube, you know, you can see the shirt that I have on today, especially for this podcast. And if you aren't improving every single day, you are falling behind. And if you don't know the podcast is on YouTube, just go to YouTube search Unstoppable Profit Producer and then go to Videos. You will see all of our podcasts right there for the visual as well, that we can get the best of the audio and the visual and the energy that I attempt to bring to the table every single time. So let's get back to the energy.

It's based on a perspective and an outlook that I have every single day. I'm going to take you through some of those details in just a couple of minutes that really are the result of where I get the energy that I have. And it's at the core of my self personal development. If you have anything to sell in the world, there's only one thing that you have to sell every single day. And. And you're in complete control of it. It has absolutely no limits and you can make it as good as you want. And that's absolutely you. It's in the mirror of truth. There's only one person that stands between you and success in our famous MOT or mirror of truth. And that is absolutely you. So the question is for you today, how good are you making it and are you willing to bet on yourself? I hope that you are. But let me at the core, and I'm going to slow down and say this so that you can enjoy every word of it because. And maybe you want to write it down or you can Google it, whatever you want to do. But the late, great Jim Rohn, who's been a huge influence on my life, said this. If you want to have more, you have to become more. Let me repeat that. If you want to have more, have more of what? If you want to have more fulfillment, if you want to have more career opportunity, if you want to have better health, if you want to be able to give back more to a charitable organization, if you want have more money, whatever that is, whatever more you want to have. If you want to have more of anything, you have to become more. It starts with you. It starts in the mirror of truth, nothing else. For things to change.

You have to change. Because if you're willing to change, everything will change for you. But it starts with you. You've got to be willing to change. The late, great John Wooden said, failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. You've got to be willing to change. So. So 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 get better. Not anybody else. You have to get better. You might be observing certain things going on around you, whether it be in a business or personally or both, in a local community, in a state. But for things to get better, you. You have to become better first. And it includes your mindset, your perspective, your outlook, and everything else before you can ever help anything else to get better. If you improve, everything will improve for you. Yes, again, it starts with you. You must improve first. And then I'm going to dig into that in just a couple of minutes, because today I want to talk about improving and making yourself better, because that's. That's where it all starts. If you grow, your money will grow. Quite simply, if you grow as an individual, if you grow as a business person, your money will grow. It's that simple. Your relationships, personal and professional, your health, your business, and every other external event will mirror that growth in equal correlation.

Pretty simple. It starts with you. Because the more you are willing to grow, the more you are willing to invest in yourself. The more you are willing to become more, the more you will grow, the more will you have. It is really that simple. And the minute that I got that into my thick skull, many, many years ago, the turning point, when I was sitting in a business development and growth seminar, when I was sitting there watching these people who had already gotten this philosophy and they were growing and they were exploding their businesses and they were sharing exactly how they did it, I said, aha. I'm working so hard to figure it all out myself. These people already have it figured out. I'm going to simply learn, take what I learned from them, and become a massive implementer. And since that day, everything has changed for us, everything's changed for me professionally, everything has changed for my family. The things that have happened for our family, the growth, the prosperity, the incredible blessings and fortune that we've been able to create so far.

Absolutely without words. However, why did it happen? It happened because I was willing to become more. And to this day, regardless of what we've been able to.

Become so far, professionally and personally, I don't think about that. There's only one thing that I think about when I get out of bed every single morning. I think about becoming more. And the first step on the floor is the first step to becoming more every single day. Let me share with you a couple of thoughts because I believe these are so vitally important in your quest to become more. I consistently study and it is about knowledge. It is about self knowledge. This is not about me, but it is about what I fill my head with. Self knowledge is knowing who you are and what you want to do with your life. Knowing your destination is all you need to get there. It's knowing how you feel about yourself. Self knowledge has a lot to do with your philosophy and your philosophy has a lot to do with shaping your attitude. And that's where it starts, shaping your attitude. It's what you fill your mind with. All the possibilities of greatness, great wealth, great reputation, great satisfaction come only if you turn your attention from yourself to others. And that's where it gets very real and very good. Because the law of reciprocity is always in effect. Once you learn that if I want to have more, I have to become more. And once you start becoming more, once you shift your mindset and focus it upon others.

And they start growing because of it and they start becoming more right alongside of you, it gets absolutely fantastic. And that is the absolute power of the mastermind programs within our UP programs, the masterminds. It is just magical. I can't even describe how awesome it is. So let me go back and share with you. If I had to do it all over again based on what I do now to keep my energy at an extremely high level every single day, I mean every single day, what you see is what you get. This energy isn't. I don't take any special medication or anything like that to create this energy. It is raw. It is raw from my body and from my heart. But I believe in my heart of hearts it becomes because of it happens because of multiple things that I do in my daily habitual regimen that create this opportunity. So I am blessed, fortunate and grateful and I want to share it with you today. So it is really habits is the bottom line. The Other thing you need to remember is your why. When your why becomes big enough, your how becomes easy. When your why becomes big enough, your how becomes easy. I am looking at pictures of my why board and I have got them all over the place. And everywhere I go, multiple places that I see them throughout the day, it reminds me why. When those tough days come, when the obstacles come and they happen for all of us, including myself, I look at my why because. When my why becomes big enough, my how becomes easy. Obviously that starts with family, but it's much greater than that. I've had multiple things happen in my life that has caused my why to elevate to a level that.

You know, years ago, I just couldn't fathom where it would be today. But today it is, and I am super grateful for that. So it's really down to the routine. Okay. And if you don't know why something is so important, it's unlikely that you'll be compelled to do anything about it. Okay. It's about core actions and activities that you do every single day to keep you grounded. And you need to do it at a time when you are at your very best. So I have my hours of power every single morning. I'll get into that in just a minute. Because ultimately, by doing these consistently, consistency plus focus plus discipline equals your higher achievement and your results. That is when it gets really, really good. It kickstarts you every single day. It puts you into the momentum and it retrenches your discipline. And at the end of the day, discipline yourself so no one else needs to and kickstart yourself every single day by doing your disciplined habits. So let me talk a little bit about the disciplined habits. And, you know, recently I was in our mastermind meetings and I was with some very high achieving agents. And I took a quick poll early in the morning and impromptu, they weren't expecting. It was spontaneous. I said, let's just go around the horn. I want to hear how everybody starts their day. And to an extent, honestly, I learned a ton. And what I learned is something that I am on a mission to change because many of them said the first thing they do is they grab their phone and they are looking at things on their phone. That is probably something I don't do until I am at least.

An hour to an hour and a half into my day. And when I go to bed at night, I turn it off. Now, case in point, we have a landline in our house that was my wife's choice, so for that we're privileged. But Even if, if we didn't have a landline and if the cell phone was the only means of communication via phone, it would be across the room and I certainly wouldn't look at it right when I get out of bed. Okay? So the first thing I do when I put my foot on the floor is, is I beeline straight for the kitchen and I make my coffee and I put everything out. I have got some nutrients that I take, pure fruits and vegetables and they are concentrated. I get all of that out, I put it next to the coffee and I put everything else out that I need for a shake that I take. And it is a pure, healthy shake that I drink every single morning that I am in town. And I even take it on the road with me. So I also enjoy it when I'm traveling. But I get everything ready, I get the coffee maker and everything out. From that moment I leave to go take care of my health. My health is the one thing that I cannot buy back. I can't get more of, I can't replace it. Regardless of the amount of money, I can't get it back. So I've got to take care of it. Okay? So bottom line, I get out there in the world and I either walk, I run and or ride my bike. Case in point, today I did all three of the above. Ok? I have a course around.

The area that we live. It has got hills, so I get to breathe. It works on my cardio and everything else. But the reason that I do that also I have these incredible Sony headsets and I have found that I've got to feed my mind something. So I feed my mind something right out of bed and it's always something beneficial, instructive that I need to be studying right now. So I get an immediate 30 to 45 minute pop of that right out of the gate every single possible morning. I will suggest that I get that six out of seven days a week. Regardless of where I'm at, regardless of what I'm doing, it's an absolute high priority. So the first 30, 40 minutes of my day, instructive learning into my mind. It becomes at the core of who I am when I get home. Like this morning I got right on my bike and I rode more creative thought time. I don't have the headsets on when I ride. I just won't do that anymore. But it is just time. I am out there in the air learning and growing. The creative juices are flowing. I get home and I get my stuff together. I hit the button on the coffee maker. Coffee's brewing. I write a note to my wife every, every single day that I'm home. If I'm traveling, I can text it as well. And it's a note of gratitude. It's just I pick out one thing that I'm thankful for based on our relationship from the prior day or prior couple days. And I have a specific way that I write that. I write that if I'm at home, I put it on her dashboard of her car. She's a night owl. She doesn't get up as early as I do. And by the way, I get up every morning. I will suggest somewhere between 4:30 and quarter after 5, no alarm, because that is the way that I have trained my mind and my body. And I wear my body out every single day. So I sleep extremely well for that I am very, very grateful. Back to what I do. So I get home, I push the coffee maker, I write my wife a note, put it on her dashboard expressing gratitude. The attitude of gratitude creates happiness. And ultimately, at the end of the day, I believe in my heart of hearts. That fills my heart, my mind with happiness, which continues on during the day. So I go back in the house, I make the shake. So I've got my coffee and my shake. I head up to my home office. When I'm at home, if I'm on the road, same habit, same regimen, same everything, to the best of my ability. Then I start my day, I read something spiritual. I have things that I follow. It travels with me as well. So I get to fill my mind with that aspect as well every single day. Case in point, I haven't touched my phone yet. Okay. Then as I'm doing, that becomes the point where I will turn my phone on. Because that strategy of reading what I read spiritually, I've got a group that I affectionately call F6, and it's my faithful six. It's six of us buddies, guys who we consistently trade inspirational and spiritual stuff together. So we have a text string. If I find something that greatly influences my heart and my mind and my soul, I will share it with them and quickly to give back to them. And the law of reciprocity is always in effect, and it comes back to me at that point. I am normally somewhere between an hour and 15 minutes and an hour and a half in.

Next, I have specific things. There are normally two or three of them that I study consistently at least five days a week, sometimes six, depending on where I'm at, what I'm doing. I will go into that instructional period as well to fill my mind further with important things that I need to be learning about. Case in point, I have three different coaches that I invest in as of this recording that I consistently gather information from to fill my mind. So I might study some of that as well. So once I get done with that study, once I get done with all of my other things that I'm doing that I've just described, then I will begin to work on the highest impact things that I have on my planned agenda every single day. That planned agenda came from my accountability plan. It came from my personal agenda. It came from my vision organizer which I have right here in front of me. I've got all of those, I've got all three items. My vision organizer, which is up to a 10 year plan. It's got issues that I need to be tackling right now. It's got quarterly goals, it let me go ahead and grab it here so I can describe it. It's got a one year plan, it's got a three year picture of where we want to go and then it's got a 10 year target. So bottom line, I know exactly where we're going all of the time. And it talks about marketing and everything else. It talks about the core focus of who we are as a business and it talks about our ideal client. It's absolutely fantastic. And then I have my Planning youg Plan sheet that I've created the night before. So I am on target with the top things that I need to do today that are going to impact our business, other people, my teammates and anybody that I need to connect with. Because ultimately the latest thing that has really influenced my life is I want to leave a mark on the world that cannot be erased. And that came from something that I was recently awarded. Super grateful and thankful for that. The other thing is my accountability book. I have an accountability partner that I report to every Friday morning at 6am Pacific. That is the commitment that I made to my accountability partner. I've had an accountability partner for eight years. I'm going to suggest over that eight year period I've had four of them total. My current accountability partner is by far no disrespect to any of the other ones. If you're listening to this is by far the one that I've connected with the best. We'll just put it that way. Absolutely off the charts. Absolutely a don't miss session. And if either of us are traveling or we're on an airplane or something else is going on in our lives at that point we quickly shift, whether it be Saturday or Sunday or whatever it is, but we don't miss. I know, for in the prior year we missed once. 51 out of 52 weeks. We connected. It's a quick 30 minute session. Quick 30 minute session. Let me say that again. Quick 30 minute session, 15 minutes each way. We talk about our prior week, our wins, our lessons, our fixes and our AHAs. And we are both completely transparent. We put it all on the table. We both have the confidentiality thing going on, so we have nothing to hold back. And it's absolutely game changing. I know it's coming every week. Therefore I am self accountable and self disciplined on my game. And if I fall short on something because. Because we get to rate each other every single week and we trade the ratings. And last week, I mean, last night I realized that one of my core disciplines that I've got on my weekly rhythm register, I fell short on. I mean, I'm as human as the rest of us, right? But I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I fell short on it. And I'm going to answer to the accountability partner this Friday about the fact that I fell short. However, like I learned from the billionaire that I studied under in 2006.

Who dropped so many gold nuggets on me that particular day, including, you don't know what you don't know. And when something goes wrong, think about it like this. Nobody died. You can recover and move on. And I also learned that from Earl Nightingale. Back to what you fill your mind with and the strangest secret. People have lost everything multiple times and they have recovered. Why? It is because of who they have become. That is another reason why it is so vitally important that you continue to become more every single day. Let me share the one other thing that I believe has absolutely changed my life forever. And that is the fact that I'm going to suggest it was about nine years ago now. I intentionally stopped watching the news and I intentionally stopped looking at newspapers. And life has never been better since I made that intentional decision. I don't allow the media or anything concerning the news to come into my world. I get enough information based on the circles that I travel in. My wife lets me know things that I need to know that she knows are important for me. But I don't pay attention to the news. I don't sit down and give one minute on any given day. I don't look at it on my phone. It finds me as it is based on AI and everything else. Going on in the world. So I get enough of a sniff of anything I need to know, but I don't let it consume me. Let me talk about the other thing. This may or may not be a popular comment, but it gaff or ID gar Excuse me. I don't give a rip social media. I don't let social media consume me. I don't spend a lot of time on it. I have certain things that I want to do to be helpful to other people in the social media realm, but that's it. I have a set amount of time to invest because I have a large family. I want to stay connected to them, I want to share things with them. However it's set time. That's it. I don't have any alerts on my email. I don't have any alerts that thing called all the messenger things and all the notifications on my phone, all of those are turned off. I don't get pinged every time something happens. I keep my phone on silent the majority of the day period. People that I'm connected with know how to get ahold of me and I know when I should be expecting communication. So I will either put my phone on buzz or what have you. I certainly don't put it on audio at any time because I am 100% focused on getting the things done that will impact people's lives personally and professionally. And I am dialed into that all of the time. Now back to energy. Why does the energy come from all this? I personally believe in my heart of hearts because of the fact that I am 100% focused on certain things that I am putting out there into the world that things naturally come back. The law of reciprocity is always in effect. It has been that way for my 35 years. As a proud independent insurance agent. I always moved to put the customer first. I never gave a rip about what any company was paying commission wise. I would also always, always, always evaluate what was best for the customer. And that's how I made that decision. I will suggest about 34 and a half years ago through some lessons that I experienced in the industry, I said I'm just going to do what's best for the customer. And I, I followed that discipline for my entire career regardless of what else was going on. Do what's best for the customer. Serve the customer first better than anybody else is serving the customer. And the things that happen because of that. Over 250 million in premiums generated. Over 21 million in revenue generated and opportunity. Unbelievable. Because I'm going to repeat this. I consciously and intentionally made a decision to become more at the turning point when I said, wow, look at what these people have become. I'm going to move to get to work on myself because the only competition that I have is that that I make for myself. I am going to get to work on myself. And the minute I started doing that, the minute I started intentionally becoming more every single day, habitually, in every single way, is when everything started to change for me. And then with the intention of making sure that I gave to every person that I came in contact with in every single way, back to when I met John O' Leary in 2015. He changed my life forever because he said, make sure you ask everybody when you disconnect with them, what more can I do for you?

What more can I do for you? And one of the quotes that I had in my monitor for many, many years, a heart that is focused on others will not be consumed with self.

I am going to repeat what I started with in this podcast from the late, great Jim Rohn. My core quote for my entire life. It's my greatest encouragement to people that come up to me from within the industry and say, Mike, if I'm just starting out, what should I do first? I will give them this quote and I will say, you need to get to work on yourself first. You've got to become more. Because 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 get better. If you 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.

The more wood you put on in your growth fire, the more brightly and intensely your inner flame is going to shine. I hope this has helped you. It is at the core of everything. So energy. Yes, lots of it. Why? Because simply, I eat well. By the way, I didn't add anything in about that. I am very conscious of everything that excuse the term that I put into my pie hole. But you know, yeah, I have my days, like if I let myself go a little bit, like I have dessert normally on the weekends, but it is in my weekly rhythm register. I am conscious about eating well. I have disciplined myself to write down that my goal is to eat well six days a week, I allow myself the one day, but that's it. I exercise, I get. Oh, let me add on one other thing for you. I get a good night's sleep. I get a Good night's sleep. Because it's the 8x8x8 philosophy, we are granted 24 hours every single day. But it's what we do with it that is the key to either our growth in our existence and our prosperity or getting the same old same old. Right? So of those 24 hours, the eight by eight by eight philosophy, we should sleep approximately eight hours. Some people can get by in six hours. I get it. Some on seven, that is fine. But you should sleep as much as you need to. Ok, next you should work. Work about eight hours. We need to earn income. But for those eight hours, go at it like nobody else's business. Get rid of those distractions. Get rid of everything else around you that is going to distract you and pull you away from what you really need to be doing. So sleep eight hours. Work eight hours like nobody else's business. And the key to your growth, prosperity and becoming more is, is that third eight hours. What are you doing with it? That is the key. Of course we need to invest in family time, friends, giving back to local organizations, charitable organizations, all of that I understand. But you also need to take a slice of that eight hour pie, that extra eight hours and invest it in yourself every single day. Combine all of this. That is where the energy comes from. Sleep, eating well, exercise and filling my mind with the right stuff and blocking out the rest. Discipline yourself so no one else needs to. Am I perfect? Heck no. Far from it. But I have made sure that I do what I need to do to make sure that I am the very best version of myself that I can be to help other people. And at the core, that gives me energy in itself. When somebody comes to me and tells me how awesome their business is doing, that they're getting ready to grow again, that they're getting ready to do another acquisition, that they've got the best team that they can have, they have never had a better life, that they bought the long dreamed of vacation home, that they've had the biggest month in the history of their agency. All of that, when I get that kind of feedback that gives me so much energy and fuel, I can't begin to tell you.

That is where it is at. I hope this has helped you. I hope this has inspired you to make a plan. Every single day, in every single way, create those meaningful, significant daily habits that will change everything for you and and your family. If you've got young kids in your house, I understand that it takes a lot of consumes a lot of time. It may be hard for you to get this done on a daily basis. When you have kids, I get that. Go to bed earlier so you can get up earlier. That's if I had to do it all over again, that's what would have been my solution. I didn't make that right decision. So I'm telling you this so hopefully you will. Thank you for sharing allowing me to share today because I get this question a lot so I thought it was important to share these details and if this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Stromceau. 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 or live training. Or you can find information about our virtual training events@uppfaststart.com that's upfaststart.com or if you're interested in attending one of our live events, please go to be unstoppablebootcamp.com that's beunstoppableboothcamp.com both events are designed to share with you my best money making strategies developed over 35 years of research and in our and your industry to help you grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And please make sure you go to our podcast website which is unstoppableprofitpodcast.com go up to the top, subscribe so you don't miss one episode, one game changing, life changing episode of the podcast. And you can also find us at out there on all the channels, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, I noticed recently and more. And of course go to our YouTube channel where you get the visuals of this as well. Again just go to YouTube search Unstoppable Profit Producer, go to the video link and voila. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, get out there, make a difference, be unstoppable and leave no regrets. You, you have a duty and a responsibility to your family, to your business and to others around you to become more every single day.

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