Episode 18 : Acre of Diamonds

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give you all the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Millionaire agents and entrepreneurs think and act differently than others. This podcast will give you a simple, proven three step blueprint to grow your business. Over the past 31 years of research in your industry, Mike Stromso has created a unique philosophy called the three people process and promotion. This outside the box thinking and guidance provides agency entrepreneurs just like you the knowledge and tools you can quickly implement to explode your agency business. He has been there, done that, and he's still doing it. 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.

Hey, welcome Everybody to episode 18 of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is Mike Stromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we're going to be talking about. We're here for a commercial bike interruption. My interruption. Today I have this interruptive nature about me. I actually arrived at home last night to tell you another story and I'm going to Squirrel. Screw you sos. I walked in my house last night, it was my grandson's birthday and I quietly got, went in the back door and I jumped in and I jumped in in the room and I said because it's my grandson Elijah, who's famous for Hola, if you've ever seen the video. So I thought I would do an Hola, Happy birthday on him and everybody in the room. Our granddaughter was there and some other family members, they were, I mean, they were startled beyond. I mean, and my granddaughter jumped all over the place, knocked this table over, knocked my wife's stuff all over the floor, which didn't make her too happy. So I was in good graces with her. But, you know, it's an interruptive pattern and life is an interruptive pattern. And what I was going to interrupt you with with this commercial break was I am fired up today. So this podcast is, I hope they're all special for you, but this one's going to be special because I am flipping fired up about the things that I was just talking about that are going on that's going to be coming to your inbox, to your doorstep, to the stage in front of you very soon. And it's going to be an absolute game changer. So stay tuned to this podcast channel for things that will continue to change your life. I personally guarantee it. So back to the subject matter at hand. What we're going to talk about today in episode 18 is none other than your acre of diamonds, my friends. Your acre of diamonds. And I know that you've probably heard about this before, but stay with me today because it is uber important. You know, like our great, the late, great Zig Ziglar said, you know, bathing is like motivation bathing. And I'm going to twist off on that a little bit. Bathing is like your acre of diamonds. It's recommended daily. All right? Bathing and motivation. And your acre of diamonds is recommended daily. You've got to pay constant attention to it. You, you've got to be diligent as far as your nurturing, your caring of your ache of diamonds. If you've got kids, if you've got a spouse, if you've got other family members, how often do you give them attention? Are you only paying attention to them when you feel like it? Well, I don't know how that's working out for you at home. If that's how you're operating, I'll be willing to bet it ain't working out for you that great. Because if I only paid attention to my spouse when I felt like it, it wouldn't be working out great. It's got to be a priority. Same thing with your acre of diamonds. So why should you mind your acre of diamonds and more importantly, what's in it for you? Well, you have to know that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. And I've got something for you before we wrap it up today that will remind you of that. Let me also share with you the story of our great friend, great friend, I should say, Joe Gerard, the most famous car salesman in the entire history of the world. Joe sold more cars than anybody else. Among many, many other things that he did to achieve that level. He reminded us that everybody knows at least 250 people. So let's twist that a little bit, right? So I take that down to something more conservative, just more conservative. So it's a little bit more palatable for people nowadays. Let's say it's 125, we'll go 50%. So if you've got, we'll take a conservative number, a thousand clients. Alright? So if you got 1,000 clients and you take it times 125 people, and keep in mind that 125 people is normally the amount of people who are going to either come to your wedding or attend Your funeral. And if you're short on that, then you need to do more nurturing to your acre of diamonds. Okay? So 100 and if you've got a thousand clients times 125 people, friends, that is 1 million 200. And let me take that back, that's 125,000 people. If you've got a thousand clients times 123 people, that's 125,000 people friends, you don't need that many more prospects. That's 124,000 prospects or better said future clients. Alright? 124,000 future clients that people already know. You don't need to go look much further. What you do need to do is deepen the relationships of people that are already giving you money. Alright? If you've recently seen the amazing visual that my teammate Tapatillo has put up. Experience, E plus F feeling. Experience plus feeling equals connectedness, right? E plus F equals C. Then once you get the connectedness, then you've got to begin to build the relationship which is the R R +T relationship +trust. Once you build a relationship, it begins to build the trust. Once you have the trust, it equals the mft. Money follows trust. You've got to build those things to get to the money. If you've already got a thousand people giving you money, you've built the trust to some extent. They know 125 other people who will also give you the money. If you will build the relationship to get to those people. I hope what I just said made total sense to you. That's what our buddy Joe taught me. I haven't looked back since. Right. It also builds top of mind awareness. What do people say? And I challenge you to go to your top 10 clients.

Better said. Let me step back on that for a minute. You know, if you've segmented your book like we were talking about in a recent podcast, you have AAA and single A clients, right? So let's not go to the AAA clients. Let's go to somebody in the AA client realm in the middle of the pack. So your AAA are your top 20% of your clients. Your double A. You're about 60% of your clients in most cases. Then you've got the bottom 20%, which is the single A. Right? So let's pick some people out of the double A realm. Go ask them what the first you can do a Jay Leno style and you can take a video out. And check this out. By the way, if you want to go to one of our niche pages beerloversinsurance.com and check out our top 10 street interview, Jay Leno style that we did. You can get some juice and idea from that. So why don't you go out and interview your top 10 AA clients and ask them this question, Mr. Or Mrs. Client. By the way, always lead with the attitude of gratitude. Mr. Mrs. Client, thank you so much for the opportunity to serve and protect you. I've got a question for you today. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word insurance?

If they don't mention your name somewhere around their early comments on that, you need to build more top of mind awareness.

It's really that simple, my friends. We can never be doing a good enough job. And what I really need to encourage you with and get you thinking about all the time right now is if you're not touching them, somebody else will.

Don't fool yourself. If you're not touching them, somebody else will. In today's electronic world, and in today's world of communication, instantaneous communication, somebody else will. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about existing future clients and existing clients and the nurture process. And I'm not going to go too deep into this today because we're going to get into it in another upcoming podcast in a much deeper way, just like building relationships. Okay. But I want to touch on all of the ways because you know how I feel about this. If you've heard me speak about anything. If you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use 100% of the ways 100% of the time, both offline and online. It's really that simple. It's the hardest thing you're ever going to do in marketing in a business, but it's the most important thing that you're ever going to do in marketing and business. Just so you know, one of my current studies that I'm on right now, audible, has continued to change my life and I couldn't be more grateful for my close alliances that pushed me to that platform I'm studying right now. Permission Marketing by the unstoppable Seth Godin. And it's all about permission. You got to get the permission to enter in to their world and to collect money from them. I'll leave it at that. Alright, so existing future clients and existing clients and the nurture process. Keep in mind this, if you're not nurturing your prospect list just as good as you're nurturing your client list, you're missing a ton of opportunity. Let Me repeat that, by the way, I didn't even mention this because I was so on fire going on this podcast. You should have something to write with and write on. And you should be writing some of these key points down, so you might want to write that one down. If you're not nurturing your future clients just as much as you're nurturing your existing clients, you're missing a ton of opportunity. You're leaving money on the table. Alright, so here's some bullet points for you real quick. And if you don't get all of this, please comment below this podcast link. There's room for you to comment or email us and we'll be happy to get it out to you. Alright, so all clients are touched in our world at least 29 times a year. Yes, 29 times a year, you might say. How's that? Well, let me share if I will. Okay. Well, nurture emails that never sell anything, that build relationships are the way that we communicate via email. We're bringing information which is social in nature. In a lot of ways. It's relational, definitely all of the time. And we do our very best to very little of the time talk about insurance. We talk about relationship nurture emails. That's what nurture emails are monthly newsletters which 60% of that content is nothing about insurance. It's the 60, 2020 rule. We use social media to show off our team, to show off their families, to have fun, to bring fun things to the table. You know, one of the favorite segments that I've seen recently that I did, well, two things happened recently that I wasn't even aware that were going on. And I noticed these things on my own little device that goes around in my pocket and I go, wow, my team's doing awesome stuff. I'm so honored and proud of them. One of the things was we did a feature for Mother's Day and they featured all the moms on our team and with their families. A little cute, cool sing or something. That was flipping awesome. I'm proud of them for that. And I also noticed that they got these Friday messages going out. I mean, what's your favorite day of the week? Maybe it's Saturday or Sunday, but right in front of that is Friday. Who doesn't like a Friday, Right? By the way, side note, that's the best way to deliver bad news to your teammates if you need to. Friday. Okay, back on course here. All right, so social media birthdays celebrate their special day with email. Social media snail mail, a phone call. Yes, you can do all of those? Yes, you can start those today. Yes, you can do it right now, wherever you're at. Thanksgiving cards, not holiday cards. Thanksgiving cards, not Christmas cards. I mean, how many Christmas cards do you get? 20, 30, 50? More. How many Thanksgiving cards do you get? Maybe one from us, maybe one from somebody else who's proactively out there has maybe heard this idea, not many others. So you stand out in the inbox with the Thanksgiving card, by the way. What a great opportunity to extend the message of gratitude. Alright, so that's where Thanksgiving cards come into play. Well, voice broadcast four times a year. We just got done doing another voice broadcast.

Didn't hear any negative feedback. Got some positive feedback. Good stuff. All right. AAA calendar mailing. There's lots of different things you can do there. Welcome kit process. Does yours run out as long as two years like ours has evolved to go out to. Okay, a referral rewards program. I just got done writing out a referral slip this afternoon myself. I got introduced to a very high level niche player in our local market just by hanging around last week. You know my buddy, hey, do you know the owner of this brewery? I said, no, I've never had the introduction. He goes, let me introduce you walked over, started breaking bread with the guy. We started talking about things that had nothing to do with insurance. All of a sudden he's pulling out his business card. He goes, why don't you email me next week and I'll get you all my paperwork. I said, thank you very much. It's a longer story than that and I'd be happy to tell you on the side, but friends, I mean, and I just made sure that I followed up with that referral to send the nurturing paperwork to get them in the funnel for that. Alright. Support charity and nonprofit events throughout your community. Because remember, no one cares how much you know and and tell they know you care. Here's another one. Teach other business owners in your local community what you know. Okay? You don't know, people don't know what you know. People don't know what you know. Share what you know, what you've learned over the years with other people. You'd be amazed what they don't know. Get out there and share to large groups of people free of charge. Just give, give, give, give. If you want to know how to grow your business. Give, give, give. It's really that simple. And most importantly, be spontaneous. Be spontaneous. Arrive like nobody else when they least expect it. Don't forget to always be paying attention for those special, maybe emotional Moments to wow your clients, A new baby, a wedding, a graduation, an anniversary, whatever, whatever, whatever. It's absolutely the opportunity and hit them when they least expect it. And if you could build something in that's personal through the relationship, even better. Case in point. One of the things that I always do is I always bring avocados everywhere I go. Why? Because I live in the avocado capital of the world. Sometimes I can't always bring them, depending on the situation, depending on travel, etc. But I do my best to always bring avocados, so. And I can tell a personal story with that. Alright, so we've talked about why you should mind your acre of diamonds and what's in it for you. We've talked about how to nurture your future clients and your existing clients with a nurture process. Let's talk about what a good client is worth.

What this means for you. I'm going to talk to you about money. Alright, so what's a good client worth and what's in it for your bank account? Alright, The Bain and McKinsey studies over the years have revealed that out of 100 clients over a 10 year period, if you have just one policy, you're going to lose 90% of them. Yes, friends, the hard truth is if over a 10 year period, if you have just one policy, you are going to lose 90% of them. If you have two policies, you're only going to lose 38% of them. So the reality is you're going to lose 38% of your clients if you've only got two policies. How does that make you feel? Back to the experience plus the feeling equals the connectedness. Why should you be nurturing your entire list? Got it? Good. Right. But if you have three or more policies, you're only going to lose 10% of them.

Let me repeat that. If you have three or more policies, YOU'RE only going to lose 10% OF them. How does that make you feel? You've automatically got a 90% retention rate just simply by connecting, creating the experience. Let me back up. By creating the experience plus creating the feeling to create the connectedness, to build the relationship, to build the trust, just by doing all of these things. And at a minimum, you're going to be at about a 90% retention rate. How awesome is that?

So what this means for you is what's the average lifetime value of a client? Let's say it's six years. In our world it's at least seven to eight years, if not longer than that.

But let's say it's six years. Be conservative about it. Let's say the annual commission for that client is $500. So if you take the $500 in annual commission for that account, multiply it times six years, that equals $3,000, $3,000 in revenue. What are you willing to Invest to earn $3,000 time and time and time again? How bad do you want it? Alright, what this means for you. Once you have a systematic process in place to touch your clients all of the time, your retention is going to increase dramatically. Your clients will become raving fans and you will become the go to person for insurance within your community or niche. You will be the top of mind awareness that everybody thinks about when they hear the word insurance. They are going to think about your agency. Does it happen overnight? No. If you want that tree to start growing, you have to plant the tree today.

Because if you do not plant that tree, which is the nurturing your future clients and your existing clients business segment, it's never going to grow to anything a year from now, two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now. What will it do to the ultimate value of your agency? I don't have a number for you. It's going to be quite a bit of money depending on your revenue number and your EBITDA number.

Think about that with me for a minute. I've got a visual in front of me that shows all of the ways that you know, we nurture people by month. From a newsletter to an email, to a phone call, to a post, to a reminder. It just goes on and on. All the months of the year, all the special holidays.

It's so easy. And we'll be happy to help you with that every step of the way. You know, I'm looking at the words from the end of the original Acre of Diamonds story which I was introduced to a number of years ago. A couple things jump out out at me a lot and I wanted to share those with you in closing today. 100% dedication and a complete commitment. My friend Alex Sheen is all about a promise and a commitment. I can't wait to continue to build that relationship because I said I would. Alright. It takes 100% dedication and a complete commitment to whatever your goal is. And part of your goal should be having a complete nurturing system in place for within your agency. That happens whether you're there or not. All of the time, friends. Because before we go running off into what we think are greener pastures, we better make darn sure that our own is not Just as green, but perhaps even greener than anybody else's. Because it's been said that if the other guy's pasture appears to be greener than ours, it's possible that it's getting better care. Besides, while you're out there looking at other people's pastures, I'll guarantee other people are looking in at your pasture. Don't let it happen, my friends. It doesn't take.

A lot of money to install these things. It does take 100% dedication, a complete commitment, processes, excellent people, processes and systems and a plan and bigger than that, at the end of the day, what I learned from my great friend Andy Andrews and many, many others, the amazing book, the Traveler's Gift. It all starts with a decision. Make that decision today to change your life forever and to be the nurturing type of business that people will admire. That will create the experience, that will create the feeling like no other. That will equal the connectedness to build that relationship, which will build the trust that will have the money following trust and you will reach the tipping point and money will be falling into your bank account. More than you would ever know or dream of, my friends. It's happened to me. It can happen for you. We can't wait to teach you how. This is Mike Stromso, live from the Living Agents Laboratory. I'm still on fire and pumped up. I can't wait to see you on episode 19. Until then, go out there and implement, execute and take action. And stay tuned because I've got some interviews coming up that are gonna knock your socks off. So make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. I'll talk to you soon. 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.