Episode 170: 1 Billion Dollar Revenue (Encore)

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. This is Mike Stromsen bringing the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I am excited to bring you this one because this just happened today. And when something new, relevant and game changing happens, I bring it to you as quickly as I can because as you know, money and success, love, speed and money and success, never sleep. I was in a room today with entrepreneurs who generate over $1 billion, yes, $1 billion in annual revenue in their businesses. And we were all together, growing together, becoming more together, learning together how to steer this entrepreneurial ship that we're all on. And one of the questions that came up that I'm going to share with you today, because in the Unstoppable Nation, we talk about wins and lessons, wins and lessons. We want to help you avoid as many lessons as possible to give you even more wins in your entrepreneurial journey. So the question was, what is the biggest mistake that you have made over the past year, year and a half? And that was today. That question was asked, and I'm going to give you the answers from these entrepreneurs who generate over a billion dollars in revenue in their businesses. That's my estimate. Based on the data I have, it could be a lot more than that. There is some very significant, incredible game changers that I'm privileged to hang around with through my investing to become more. So I'm just going to run down the list and I'm going to give you some idea of what they said and the story around it as I recall it, since it just happened today. So one of the entrepreneurs said, severance packages. Now, sometimes we get to move people back into the marketplace, right? This entrepreneur said, severance. Severance packages is the cost of poor leadership. At the end of the day, leadership is everything. If you're at the top of the ladder or in a top chair in an organization, leadership is everything. It is our responsibility. I'm not perfect. I'm still a work in progress. However, at the end of the day, I'm doing everything that I can do to become a better leader all of the time. So at the end of the day, a severance package is, frankly, the Cost of poor leadership. So if you get yourself in that position, really it starts with the hiring, but that's the end game as well. The next thing that was brought up, never take your foot off the pedal on a prospect. This very successful entrepreneur is in an industry that deals in a very high end product. And through hearsay, he heard it from somebody else, not from the prospect themselves, that they weren't in the market to make a purchase. Well, later found out that they weren't. The buyer, the decision maker was in the market to make a purchase. But this entrepreneur went on what somebody else said and crossed the prospect off his list. Lost on a very significant amount of money, as I recall, half million dollars, possibly in that realm because of listening to hearsay and not picking up the phone himself and making the call. My friends, at the end of the day, pick up the phone yourself and make the call. Especially if there's a significant amount of money or a key decision on the table. The next entrepreneur hired their sister to come into the business because they were shorthanded, they needed help. The lesson.

And what happened was by hiring the sister, the sister came in, started working there, and now the business is in a bit of a disarray because she's not working out. But bigger than that, the personal relationship with that family member is now not that good. And it used to be excellent. So at the end of the day, you know, be careful who you're hiring. Because at the end of the day, that's why we suggest that when you talk about your team, it's your team. That's what you hear me say. It's, it's a team, it's our team, it's our team. It's not our family. At the end of the day, our family is our family. And our family's forever good and bad, right? A team, sometimes you need to upgrade your team, sometimes you need to move on. That's why it's a team. Think about it in a sports analogy. At the end of the day, not a good move in that situation, by hiring a sister, the next one.

Had a situation where there was somebody in their organization was doing a great job for a period of time. But at the end of the day, the team member started copying an attitude, started having an attitude of entitlement and a lot of other things in that realm. And what it really did, as you've heard us talk about before, it only takes one bad apple to upset the entire apple cart. And this was a larger organization still, just that one person really affected the culture In a not good way. And it had the thick air around the culture and everything like that. So at the end of the day, the entrepreneur did what needed to be done, moved that person back to the marketplace and almost immediately the culture was right back within a couple of days to where it previously was. The team members were commenting, thank you for doing what needed to be done. We're not sure what happened to that person, but from a business perspective, we wish them the best. So the next entrepreneur was talking about the leadership team and that one of the people on the leadership team and this is a larger organization, so they have multiple levels of leadership and then they have a subculture under the leadership in a department and they had a very, you know, high achieving a player in one of those sub departments. And that person just up and left the company. And this entrepreneur couldn't figure out why, because they had been training this person, supporting them and everything else that it takes to grow up people within an organization and ended up meeting with a person and found out in that meeting that it wasn't the company and it wasn't even her. That was the reason the person left. It was because of the leader that was leading them. So sometimes we've got to make sure that if we're at the top seat that we're doing a great job in leading people at the end of the day, like I said, we're all a work in progress. So if you've got level leaders in your organization, keep an eye on that as well. And ultimately, at the end of the day, our job is to grow up leaders all around us. So, you know, be cognizant of who's leading your people all of the time. The next lot entrepreneur said.

The opportunity cost due to lack of action. This entrepreneur identified a specific situation that they did not get the opportunity. And the opportunity cost is a lot more than might be just the revenue for that particular deal. Think about that deeply. How many people are involved in that particular deal? And bigger than that, who do the people within that deal know that are well beyond that, that you haven't even gotten to? That's the opportunity cost. And sometimes that opportunity cost is significant, especially if you're an niche player, especially if there's other cois, meaning centers of influences that might be connected to that particular person or leadership of that particular organization. That's opportunity cost, my friends. And the opportunity cost sometimes can be very, very significant. The next entrepreneur that learned a significant lesson that I want to share with you. So you think about these things and don't let it happen to you.

Sometimes you have somebody in a certain chair in your organization and it's felt that you need to promote them because they're doing a great job. And she did this with the person which included an increased compensation package and other benefits and more hours and more responsibility. It turns out this person was very unhappy when they made that move up. So the lesson was make sure you have a deep conversation with these people before you take that action and make sure that the next seat up is still the right seat for them because the action that was taken was not moving them to the right seat. They were comfortable and happy in their right seat. Even though it was a lower compensation position, they were happy there. So at the end of the day, I was also talking to another very successful entrepreneur, similar story. And this entrepreneur said, I had a similar situation and I moved them. And by the time I identified that I could not move them back to the chair they were in because I had already filled it and I had a very capable replacement there. So it became a very uncomfortable situation. And that person was actually the number two person in the organization after they got moved up. So two different situations. I, you know, very similar circumstances. So you got to think these things through and you have to understand the behavioral characteristics, the skill sets and whatever their vital functions are and what they're trying to accomplish within the organization to help the entire effort. You've got to be aware of all these things. It's a lot to think about. That's why you have the responsibility in the chair that you're in in your organization. Ok, the next lesson.

Is our team, as we know, is our biggest asset. Our team is our biggest asset. Without question. They were growing like crazy. This organization, very significant.

Organization. This one alone, excess of $100 million in revenue. What was happening was they were growing so fast, they weren't recruiting people early enough in their forecasted growth. So they had all of these growth opportunities come to the table and they had to say no because they did not have enough qualifying people in the pipeline, the recruiting and hiring pipeline, to bring on board to work within the growth. And it wasn't the type of situation where they could just fix, fill it with temporary or anything like that. They needed team members. So the lesson that you've heard me say this so many times, always be recruiting. Always be recruiting. Your pipe is your life in sales and new business sales and in recruiting. Your pipe is your life. Always be recruiting. Huge lesson, a very expensive lesson for this entrepreneur. Okay, the next entrepreneur's lesson was letting the wrong people go too slow. So people in a key position in the organization, they needed to grow at a certain clip. Now, ultimately, at the end of the day, my view from the outside of that, that's a training issue and it's a.

Interviewing issue before the hiring process starts, okay? And he said the same thing. That's very common that. I've said it a lot myself and I learned it myself many, many years ago from a billionaire in his own right. You don't know what you don't know, okay? At the end of the day.

People just aren't capable of an accelerated speed of operation. But you got to know that. And if you don't have the right person on the bus, then unfortunately, sometimes you need to fire fast. Right? The other thing this entrepreneur said, it's easy to launch, but it's really hard to have a successful launch of a product. So if you're going to launch a new campaign idea product within your industry that a company comes out with or a niche product or something like that, and you're going to launch it, make sure that you framework it and think it through to the end, online and offline before you do the launch. And you got to make sure you do your marketplace research to make sure that your messaging matches that. Marketplace is back to the three M's that I taught many, many years ago. Marketplace, message and media, they've all got to line up, okay? That is part of the key to a successful launch. Okay? The next lesson from this entrepreneur was got into a business deal, seven figures on the table, and he lost it. He lost it because he didn't do enough due diligence on the people that he was going to do business with. So at the end of the day, my friends, if you've got that much of an investment on the line, you got to make sure you do your due diligence. And more importantly, you've got to go with your gut.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, he said, you've also got to build your human ecosystem before you need it. Similar to the other entrepreneur who had to decline growth offers because he didn't have enough good people. The next entrepreneurial lesson over the last 12 to 18 months was in the real estate industry. Sold the properties too soon, so didn't have his eye on the marketplace. Maybe it wasn't talking to the right people. And ultimately, at the end of the day, this particular entrepreneur, and I need to continue to learn this lesson myself, even though I learned this lesson many times, said he should have listened to his spouse more because he talked to his spouse about the situation, and she said, maybe you don't want to do this. He did it anyway, and that was the situation. So the next lesson from this very successful entrepreneur is more along the lines of a personal situation. But I want you to learn from this because it's so vitally important. There's two kinds of relationships, right? Personal relationships and business relationships. But it's the personal ones that really make us who we are. Okay? So a brother of this entrepreneur. This is a very successful entrepreneur who deals in the tech industry on a national basis, so travels a fair amount. His brother passed away suddenly, and it broke his heart because he didn't spend as much time with his brother as he wanted to. And then he got a phone call from his dad and his dad.

Unfortunately, he had a great conversation with his dad, and his dad.

Was older, etcetera, down in a different state and, you know, said, can't wait to see you, dad, et cetera, et cetera. But because the business commitments didn't make it enough of a priority, and the dad passed away. So his brother and his dad lost in pretty close succession because he was consumed by his business and he missed the opportunity to make the time with both brother and dad. At the end of the day, my friends just know. Make sure our entire balance priorities are constantly in order. Make sure our entire balance priorities are constantly in order. The next lesson from the next entrepreneur is pacing. Pacing is a key.

For not only an endurance athlete, which this guy is, but it's the key to growth in business as well. Depending on your business situation, depending on your cash flow, depending on your reserves, depending on your human ecosystem reserves and all of that kind of stuff. So sometimes you need to pace yourself and it really goes back to planning, right? And because Ben Franklin said, if you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail, at the end of the day, you've got to plan. You've got. You got to plan your business as far out as possible. Okay, at the end. After that.

We went on to a lot of other lessons.

Had another entrepreneur.

Be specific, to be terrific. Be specific to be terrific. Now, this is, in all phases of any operation had a specific situation, which was the story sample. Can't go into those details, but specificity was the thing that did not happen in particular situations. And it turned out that there was a significant amount of money on the table in a particular deal, and it didn't become reality because of the inability to be very specific in some situations. So at the end of the day, that was the situation. And then the next entrepreneurial lesson was about a cyber incident. And cyber incidents are rampant out there. They're going on all over the place. You can't protect yourself enough with great it. And it involved a banking situation, not in his particular business, but in one of his vendors. And it really put a huge halt to a lot of things that were going on in business and really handcuffed some levels of the business growth because of this cyber incident incident, which involved ransom and ransom demands and all this kind of stuff. My friends, at the end of the day, one, make sure you take care of your own house and make sure that your IT platform is in excellent condition. One, to make sure you have a rock solid, excellent cyber plan, cyber insurance program plan in place that meets or exceeds your needs with a solid carrier who specializes in that particular arena.

And he also said whenever you need to take action on anything, because this drug on for a while, which made the pain even worse. He said, you have got to act quickly, you have got to act readily, and you have to act without hesitation. As you know, we talk. I said it at the beginning of this podcast. Money and success loves speed. Money and success never sleeps. The next story of entrepreneurial learning is ultimately, at the end of the day.

Hire great people and give them authority and get out of their way. This particular entrepreneur did not have enough leadership skills training to understand how to do that. I had that situation in my past as well. It is a skill, it is an important leadership attribute to have to have a great recruiting, interviewing.

Hiring, onboarding, training, motivation and leadership platform within your business to bring these people up and then at that point, get the heck out of the way. So lots of lessons from these incredible leaders.

And learn from them, please. Because at the end of the day, I want you to be the very best leader, the very best entrepreneur that you can be. I mean, these people run significant businesses and they're leaving these clues and I'm simply sharing the principles of these clues with you and I hope you learned something. If you just picked up one or two ideas, fantastic. Please make sure you put a tie on that in your own business and implement, execute and take action. And of course, if you have any questions about all of this or you need assistance, please let us know. We're here to support you in your journey. Again, 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 at unstoppable profit producer.com that's unstoppable profit producer.com if you're interested in attending a virtual or a live event to learn how to grow your business, create wealth, and have more freedom to live life on your terms, please visit us. Our virtual event site is upfaststart.com that's upfaststart.com or visit our live event portal at beunstoppablebootcamp.com that 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 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 and we hope these strategies have been helpful for you today. If you haven't subscribed to our podcast at Unstoppable Profit Podcast, we strongly recommend that you do that. Go there. Subscribe. You won't miss one episode of the podcast. And of course we're out there on all the channels. Google, Stitcher and beyond. You'll find us. Just look for unstoppable profit podcast.com can't wait to see on the next episode. Until then, get out there, implement, execute and take action. And while you're making a difference being unstoppable and above all, leave no regrets. We'll see you next time. Have a great day.

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