Episode 187: Brand Building Myth Busters with Selah Hirsch

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.

Foreign.

Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is a very special podcast in follow up to what happened at our Be Unstoppable Boot Camp this year. And if you didn't hear about it, we're going to share some of what happened because it was life changing, it was game changing and I am privileged and honored to welcome onto the podcast again one of the speakers at Be Unstoppable Boot Camp this year, the unstoppable, the one, the only Sailor Hirsch. Sarah, welcome back.

My thank you so much for having me to be back to the podcast. I gotta tell you, I think my hair is still on fire coming off of boot camp. I'm not kidding. I was just blown away just by being around you and the amazing speakers and the amazing agency owners and their teams. Like I already had high expectations because I know you're gonna bring it. Let me tell you, you blew it out of the water. And so being able just to sit together today, have follow up conversation continually just talk about how brand is helping agencies and business owners to grow is so exciting.

Yeah. And you brought it way over the expectation bar, way high over the bar. And so many people told me they were just blown away by what you presented. It just made logical sense that we get you back on the podcast. Share a little bit teaser if you will about everything you shared at boot camp to help agents. I know you're already working with multiple agencies who saw you, who experienced the Sailor Hirsch phenomenon that is sweeping the nation. So we're going to give them a little sneak peek about what you talked about at boot camp. I can't wait. But just in case somebody out there has never heard of Sayla Hirsch, who are you? Give them a little insight into who you are and what you do.

Absolutely. Well forewarning. Anyone who is listening and tuning into this podcast, be prepared because we are coming at you really passionate and I am way caffeinated already today. So we are ready to roll. But I'm so passionate about it because I love the conversation around brand. My company is express my brand and we work with companies, non profits, personal brands, literally all over the world and we focus specifically on brand development. Our specialty is brand messaging. And I have found that through Brand Brand we are able to equip leaders with the confidence to communicate their value. And we're going to talk today a little bit. I think we need to kind of go back over busting up some myths and really getting clear on what brand is and what brand isn't. Because whether you are new in your agency, whether you are a multi generational agency, this conversation applies to you and we are here to help you grow through your brands.

You know, we were talking before we started as well. I want to get to busting some myths for sure. But you and I were talking about things we're passionate about and you brought up the C word and it keeps coming up.

So let's start with that. Because you said something. I said let's not talk about that anymore. We need to talk about that after we get started. So we were talking about the C word meaning culture. How does that build into brand? Unless. So then let's bust some myths.

I love it. Oh my goodness. I love this conversation. Because I'm going to disclaimer you listening right now. This is an ownership conversation we're about to have right now. We are talking to you, the agency owner. We're not talking to the person does your marketing. We're not talking to your head of sales or who answers your customer service. We're talking to you. Because brands are built from the inside out. They are literally built from the culture of a company to an extension of the customer and client experience.

And what that requires is an authenticity of the leader. And I love that we were able to bring this point up in the conversation and brand at the UP boot camp. It was a lot of things. We talked about all kinds of things. But I tried to take a moment and say, listen, this is for you. And I find a lot of business owners may have just not realized that they need to lead their teams. They need to own the company. Company culture that is ultimately creating the ability for the brand to thrive or not. And I'll tell you where the disconnect comes really quickly is people can tell if something has been manufactured. They can tell if someone just puts the sizzle on it and all the fancy words and all the pizzazz. That's not what real brand is. Real brand is someone being able to experience multiple aspects of your company and multiple points of a prospect to a customer, client retention journey. And all of it compounding back to a point where it is tethered into culture. And they can tell pretty quickly if it's real or if it's not. Don't you see that, Mike?

100%. I mean, the advent of this thing called the Internet. Remember the days we didn't have cell phones and Internet? You don't, but I do.

I don't know if I do.

But with that being said, they're very smart. Everybody's out there is somewhat educated on everything before they get to us and begin a conversation. They know, so they do. Yeah. And. And making sure that we are bringing it in every way possible. Absolutely critical. So.

And that's where we're separating things out. So let's kind of connect those thoughts there. The idea is that too many times people put brand on a shelf and they focus just on marketing or they're focusing just on sales, or they're maybe just focusing on their culture. I mean, I know that a lot of people listening here are hungry and they are unstoppable and they're growing because they're dialed in to this podcast into what you're teach mic. But here's where I want to show you is It's. It's. Let's use the analogy of gumballs just for fun, okay? I've got small kids. We've got sticky gum flying in most random places, right? People love them. And if you think about it, you've got all these gumballs in a machine. And if you don't think about it in that way, it's easy just to scatter them all across the table, right. And think they're all separate. And I've got my blue here, my green here, my yellow here. And based on my mood, I might kind of choose the color that goes with me. You hear a little bit where I'm going, I do want to show you is that it really is all encompassing. It's so much more holistic. And if you think about it, I just got a few. A few gifts on our kids Christmas wish list, and we actually got them all gumball machines because they all, you know, want gum. And I got these all different colored ones because I didn't want them to argue over which one was which. And if I ate someone else's, and I thought, how fun. They. One has a blue one and one is an orange one, One has a red one, you know, and. And that's what brand is. Brand is the machine. It is wrapping your marketing efforts. It's wrapping your team development, your organizational culture. It's wrapping your sales process, it's wrapping your claims and your customer service, it's wrapping your retention, communication, your renewals, you know, information that's going out. It is running all throughout your company, from a first impression all the way to a lasting impression from the inside out. And if we can make that shift, if we can bust up that myth, that brand is over here. I said it and I forget it. Or it's just a feeling, you know, it's just a logo. If I, you know, if I don't compartmentalize it, but I bring it all together, I am creating a truly dynamic customer experience that will equate to absolute raving fans 100%.

So we're talking about the myths of what a brand is and a brand isn't. So it's not just about the marketing. There's so much more to it.

Mm.

So how is it actually? I mean, what are the. Give me some components. You talked about renewals, you talked about customer service, you talked about sales. Is it all encompassing?

It really is.

What does that look like from a business perspective?

Let's break it down a little bit here. So we just made a big. Made a big point. I'm going to reinforce it here for a second and make it more specific. We just talked about. It's not separate. It's not just your logo. It's actually infused with three things. It's infused with strategy. Brand is strategic. In fact, I love to say this, if we hang out for more than a few minutes, I tell people all the time, brands are built in war rooms, but they're mobilized through teams. So they're high, high, high strategic. You don't make accidental decisions. You're not looking for an organic, viral brand. That's very different from marketing. But brand is strategic. Number two is brand is psychology driven. It is all meant to speak to your target audience. It's all meant to influence their buying and their purchase patterns. It's meant to engage them. I can tell anyone in just a few minutes, I can do a grunt test on your website, on your social media. You give me some public perception of your brand, and I can grunt test really quick to say, is it just speaking out of you or is it speaking to someone? Is it speaking at them or to them? And that is a totally different. Yeah, it is conversation tone, because it's all about the psychology. And then lastly it does.

Yeah. But before you go to the third thing, let me just add one thing on so everybody can put it into their mind and be able to quote from a vision standpoint, visually see it. Maybe the fundamentals of your brand. It has to be documented because from a psychological standpoint, they need to be able to see what it looks like so they can communicate it and live it to other people.

Yeah, well, that's the work of. When we actually do work on the brand, we put the pieces exactly. People are sometimes used to saying, oh, I've got a visual guidebook for my logo. And you should, you know, brands are visual. They sure, but they're equally verbal. And I ask that to people all the time. You've got a visual guidebook, Great. Do you have a verbal guidebook? And people go, oh, I never thought about that before. Kind of get it. I think we all just kind of assume it. And inside I go, oh, you know, yeah, don't assume it. Don't, you know, assume that people on your team are picking up, you know, on the right responses. They are understanding of your differentiator or the true value you provide. I mean, there's so many layers to that verbal guide that's going to pair with that visual guide. And ultimately that documentation is going to bring the consistency across your team. That's what you're talking about there, Mike.

Absolutely. Great stuff. So what's the third item in brand development, the blend?

Well, we've got our strategy. I made that clear. It's all down in blueprints and war rooms, and I love it. Everything is constructed and intentional. It's all psychology driven. So remember, it's all speaking the language of your target audience. It's all empathizing and engaging with them, drawing them in. And it has to be wildly creative. It has to stand out, whether it's the visual look, whether it's the messaging, whether it's the tone of your voice, the way you convey something. I mean, let's be honest, in a lot of industries, there's a lot of competitors. So my question is, how are you going to stand out? And that creativity always comes, but people come to us and they ask us, hey, make this sound exciting. Put the sizzle on this. This. Just do it. N is what we're looking for. And I tell them, we can get you there. But it all starts in the strategic phase first. So you got to have fun with it at the end of the day, because it's all about standing out and winning people over in true, authentic ways.

Points of differentiation. Why are you different than everybody else out there? And it's, yes, the core, if you will, of how you stand out.

You know, I talked to a lot of agency entrepreneurs all over the nation about branding and Making sure they have that point of differentiation, the strategy, the document and psychology of it all and all that. But they say, well, if I'm going to invest money in building my brand and having documented brand guide and everything else, how can I measure the roi?

Oh, man, Mike, I get asked that question all the time. And I think that that's a good question to ask because with any move you make in your business, you need to be thinking, how does this work towards my goals? And in fact, I was just telling Mike, I talked to a few agency owners just in the last two weeks who evaluating different decisions they're making. And for a few of them, I was really, you know, able to give them some relief and say, you know what? This is. You're in a great place. You know, your brand is really solid here and you can feel confident about that and you can then invest in other areas, you know, of your brand or of your business. And so if you're asking yourself the question, how do I know if mine is effective? How do I know if I can measure the ROI to gauge the investment of my time and my resources into building my brand? I can show you where it's attached to the number. Numbers and the numbers for your brand are going to come through in the ways that you're looking for them. You're just attaching it to sales and marketing too closely. And you need to understand there's multiple layers to the conversation, but you can actually see return on investment through the revenue of your business. So ask yourself, what did I make this year? Where did we hit and where are we looking to grow? And the question on what is it going to take to get there? Might be in your verbal brand, in your visual brand, in your customer experience. It's going to come through. More leads coming in. In fact, I tell everyone there's silver bullet, as we know, in anywhere in business, but where so many people are, you know, just putting more money into marketing and more money into sales, they might be realizing there's a disconnect and the brand piece is missing again, probably because I've separated out the gumballs too far.

It's part of the vehicle that takes you where you want to go, is it is. So if your vehicle's not healthy and up to date, yeah, it might break down.

Absolutely. And you will find that your retention renewal rates will go up, your referrals will sell skyrocket when people understand your brand, because your customers will literally come to you that close rate. That conversion rates, another measure metric you can follow. It's going to close faster and they're going to turn around and help bring in more business to you. So you're gonna see revenue go up, you're going to see more prospects, faster conversion and a higher point of retention. And those are all numbers as you should be tracking in your business going, where have we been? Where do we want to go? And what is it going to take to get us there? Brand is a component to every single one of those.

Wow, that was gold. And if you're documenting what sale is saying, and you should be documenting every word, by the way, don't think it, ink it. Because when you ink it, you sink it right up to your brain. More revenue, more leads, higher customer retention and higher conversion ratios. Anybody interested? Build the vehicle, which is your brand. Great stuff. Thank you so much for sharing. And I remember now I'm reliving everything that I heard at boot camp, and it's just off the stinking charts. So let's make it simple. For people that might be watching or listening to this podcast, how can an agency build their brand?

That's great. Let's get into it. This is where I love to make it practical because live here. I love to live here and make it practical because so many people feel overwhelmed by it or they feel like they can't wrap their arms around it. And Mike, you've gotten to know me, a pretty practical kind of gal. I'm like, bottom line it, what do I need to do now? In order.

That's why you. That's my. That's why you and my wife got along so well.

We love it. We're like, what do we need to know about each other and how can we help each other today? Right?

Exactly. Bottom line kind of gals.

So flag, look at your notes right now when you're watching this and timestamp this part of this podcast, I want you to say, this is the part I'm going to come back to if I'm driving in the car, if I'm on the treadmill at the gym. I'm going to grab these notes. We'll kind of workshop this here for a second. We could build your brand in three ways. So powerful, so simple, so specific. Number one, brand messaging. It's all in how you communicate your value. I'll go over that here in a second. Number two is the visual brand. It's all in how we convey and express the value. Because we eat with, you know, we. With our eyes. First, we're going to brand here with our eyes. And then lastly, is in our customer experience. And Mike just made a great reference. This is a reference we made at the UP boot camp. We talked about how brand is a vehicle to get you from where you are to where you want to go. So I want you to think my messaging is the engine in my car. Everyone on my team needs to speak the same language. We've got to be super clear in how we communicate, what we do, how we do it, why it matters. If you have a question, you guys can reach out to me. I'll give you a punch list of all the items you should have in your verbal brand book. And some of you may have a few of those, Some of you may realize, hey, we've got a of room to grow in this area. But your brand is speaking everywhere. Every time your team answers the phone, social media, your website, your email marketing, your text campaigns, your ads, I mean your brand is talking everywhere. So how are you infusing it with the right messaging? Okay, that's number one. Is your engine in the car.

The engine in the car is your brand messaging.

Now your body of the car. Okay, so we're driving the car here. The body of the car is the visual brand. It's how we wrap, map the messaging. You know, we, we connect with visuals in less than 0.4 of a second. That's like.

That'S how fast someone can make a quick judgment call on something. So your visual brand needs to hook them in. It needs to be relevant, it needs to be eye catching. It doesn't need to be dated and.

It needs to be.

You make sense. Oh, absolutely.

You and the internal workings of your business like we're talking about, it's all tethered in story.

It's the authenticity of the company being visually expressed. And what works for one company doesn't work for another. Okay. In fact, if you want to compare two fun companies that are outside of this, you know, industry interest, industry, just go look at ATT Blue and T mobile's Magenta. I mean they are so wildly different. But you know what? They're lined up with their messaging. They're lined up with their target audience. They're lined up, you know, with everything that they are doing to show how they're better and how they're different to win over more market share. And that's the body of the car. It's what we wrap the messaging in. And then the last piece we like to call is the interior. It's the experience. Right? And you're going to have a different experience if you're Driving, you know, a Corolla and if you're driving a Tesla, they're two different experiences and to each their own. But the point is that they were constructed to fit the style of that brand. And so what you need to look at is going, what's the interior? What's the feel of my customer experience? Again, it's one thing to have a great fancy tagline, it's nothing to have a good looking logo. It's another thing to realize, hold on, that's literally opening the door for what someone is going to experience from the moment they interact with my brand. And it might just be checking out your website and reading your social media and looking at an ad. It could be then engaging in your sales process. What's the congruency that's coming down the pipe? What's it like to onboard as a new client to your agency? Is that going to feel delightful and personalized? Does again customer service and renewals look like that is where we think brand stops. Woo at the front door. But remember, people are walking all the way through the life cycle to have legacy clients, to have raving fan clients, it's then in the experience and that's how we drive from where we are to where we want to go. And I'm telling you, people will spend more money and they will stay longer with your agency when that brand is in full operation. Taking them, as they know, into a place of trust because they're working with a company that's right for them. What do you think, Mike? What are your thoughts?

Money follows trust. Absolutely without question. And I'm here to tell you after building a brand over 35 years plus that they are loyal to it, they will follow it and they will allow shortcomings because they believe in the brand.

Brand.

I mean, I was talking to somebody just in the last couple days who was having some shortcomings but continued to pursue even with the shortcomings. Because they believed in the brand. Because they believed in the brand. And absolutely they understand. Look, none of us per are perfect. According to my friend Fred Kramer, my good friend, things are good, never perfect.

That's right.

So absolutely. So I love the fact that you're talking about customer experience is the interior. And I was thinking about my ongoing study of culture which we got into connecting the dots, which remind me again, the culture is, I have so many notes.

Well, culture is the expression of the company on the outside. I mean it's really where the brand has to be embedded in. If it's not embedded in the place of Culture, it's disconnected and manufactured. People will see right through that. Yeah.

Brands are built from the inside out. Out.

That's right.

Which is the culture. And I started thinking about my recent study of culture. And there's a company out there, they're in the hotel business. It's called Ritz Carlton.

They seem to be fairly well known for their customer experience.

But I found out the key to.

All of it I want to hear.

It's the basics. They have a list of 20 basics that are at the core of their culture. And they repeat the basics.

Yep.

Company wide, worldwide, every single day.

They do. I was actually on a call, Mike, before we got on this podcast earlier today with a company that just finished their whole rebrand. And we took their brand messaging and we put it into a leader culture guide. And that CEO now has a drip by drip every staff meeting on his calendar over the next year. And that's hopefully just the habit that's going to extend beyond to touch just the Ritz Carlton does on a little piece of culture and a little piece of messaging, because that's what it's going to take for his team to truly embody it. And just like the Ritz Carlton, it doesn't matter if I go in the US or if I go all the way around the globe, I'm going to have the same incredible experience, the same attention to detail, the same fanatical, fanatical excellence. And that's because they drip the culture and it extends to the customer experience. And that's the power every single agency has. Again, whether you're in a new emerging agency or you've had yours for decades or you just bought one, it doesn't matter. This applies to everyone. It's how you lead your brand.

Wow. So you make it so easy. You give them the, the content of what they need to say and communicate based on their brand.

We do done for you branding. We sit and we have learned that if we can ask, we ask the right questions and we listen to the leader, we pull it out of them and their team. You know you're, you know your best raving fans, those ones that you want more and more and more of you don't want to just throw your net out and catch all of them. You know who resonates the best with you. You know who you're able to do your best and highest price work with. And we're able to marry those together and say, here's brand messaging that works for you. Here's a visual brand. If you need to update Yours or create a new one. Here's ways to have these incredible touch points in your brand experience and you can literally sit back and your team can do this for you, you or you can work with an agency. The point is, is that it doesn't matter how big you are, it doesn't matter the size of your budget. It's all the ownership of the intentionality is at the root of this conversation. And I'm cheering you on. That's why we're here today to help you say you can do this, you can build your agency brand 100%.

I mean, the Ritz Carlson basics as an example. There's only, there's 20 of them. And what do they, what happens when they get to the end of the list? They rinse and repeat. And that's what you will do. You will tee it up for these, these leaders and owners with regard to their brand and all they get to do is execute, execute, execute, get to the end, rinse and repeat. We were Talking about our 365 gratitude series before we started and you gave me a phenomenal idea. I'm just going to do a recap of everything that we've learned about gratitude in the last 365 and actually what's happened in life. Life. But let's get back to branding. So what is the multi million dollar secret to branding, sailor? Is there such a thing? And if there is such a thing.

There'S secrets to branding, Mike. I know someone asked me today, they wanted to know the bazillion dollar secret.

I said, isn't that just like a business?

We'll start with the multi millions.

Yeah, we'll start with the multi million. We move up to the bazillion one later. Right, well, I want to share a big secret that came up at the UPP event. And this was again in a room of hungry to grow agency owners. In fact, the energy in the room was absolutely electric because, you know, when you enter a space like that, it's going to cause you to rise up to a higher level. It's going to shatter those paradigms that maybe you've been kind of locked in for a few years, maybe you're having a few of those today just going, wow, I didn't know I had the power to do this. I didn't know I needed to work on my brand now. I didn't know my team needed to be in this involved. I mean, it's amazing how the thinking changes in the room and we were able to get kind of honest for a moment and say, what is it going to take to win in the marketplace? What is it going to take to disrupt in our marketplace? Because let me tell you, if you want to sleep on this job for a few minutes, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to snooze, you're going to lose because someone else is out there, another agency, owners out there going, how do I win their market share? You know, and, and I want to be really careful for a minute to communic one key concept. And this is a concept that can apply to you right where you are today. And the idea is that the best brands that win cater to the unmet needs of their target audience.

Let's, let's pause for just a minute. Let's repeat that. The brands that win cater to the.

Unmet needs of their target audience. That's because if you remember a few minutes ago, we talked about strategic and psychology driven. The creativity comes on the back end of that.

Right.

But strategy is going, who am I best aligned to work with? Who do we want as a client in our agency? Sometimes I work with businesses that are. They're playing, what is it, kind of two defense a little bit. You know, they're just like, I'm just trying to catch clients. I'm just trying to take clients.

Reactive. We call it proactive versus reactive. They're playing the reactivity game.

Exactly. They're playing the reactivity game. And they're over there feeling like they're literally behind the eight ball. You know, I mean, they're just missing. We're mixing metaphors now, but, you know, the idea is that they're just, they're just trying to get everybody and anybody. And they're looking at their numbers and they're telling their sales team like, we just need more leads, and their marketing team go get more leads. And I feel like they're just shooting from the hip. And I feel the stress of that. I mean, I see that in so many different places. And I think there's, there's stress and there's a lot of hustle wrapped up in that as well, you know, and again, we're not trying to, we're not trying to, you know, put, put down on that. But here's where I want to kind of flip it and ask yourself, who are you best aligned to serve? Who do you want to work with? What is the differentiator that you want to serve up? And what audience is begging for it, looking for it? Because they are out there that is catering to the unmet needs of your audience. They're the ones who are frustrated somewhere and they need something and they are dealing with these compounding points of going, where is someone that has something else or treat me in a different way or can show me that they really have what it takes to serve my needs. And I'll tell you, when you compare your brand to an ideal target audience and if you don't know who that is, there's a whole exercise to run on this. I'm telling you, it is electric because you are lining yourself up then to say you are who we do our best work with, you are who needs our products, our services, whether it's personal, commercial, or a blend of both, you name it, or a niche industry that you serve. And then let me tell you, you, you do business different, you cater to the unmet needs, you know what makes them tick and what's going to just literally bring them running to you in droves. And that is how you align your brand to attract and to convert. Because it is right there positioned. Not willy nilly taking everyone in, so to say, but dialing in strategically. Exactly. To who you want. And let me tell you, you will create a tribe of people, people who will become your raving fans when you're that strategically positioned.

Aha. I just got it. That's the million dollar secret. Aligning your brand to your ideal client market.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And then just do business different, do it better, do it with more excellence, do it with us and authenticity. Empower your team to do Bingo, bingo, bingo. Yeah, there's that culture component. And I'm telling you, they will lock in step with you. Like Mike said, that loyalty will go off the charts, your referrals will skyrocket. Those marketing and costs that you're just throwing more money at, you'll be actually able to reduce those costs and align them even more strategically in your plan and how you're using your marketing spend. And you'll start to see that uptick and that growth that you're looking for in this next year. Well.

Or as we've kind of inner branded it in our organization, we're rowing in the same direction.

I love that.

And I wish I thought about that in San Diego. We could have got out there on the water in a rowboat and done a quick visual row.

You gotta do that. You've got to do that. I think you should film your podcast in a row. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

So, Salah, somebody out there either watching or listening to this podcast and I wasn't planning on doing this, but I can't resist. Now somebody that's out there watching or listening to this podcast wants to know how to align their brand with their ideal client market. What should they do?

Well, I can give you a playbook if you'd like the playbook for it. There's a whole exercise we do in any brand process project, whether it's a small rebrand, a big brand, new brand, a rebrand, an elevated brand, you name it on any brand messaging, visual brand or customer experience level. We start with a target audience point and it's truly getting deep into the understanding again of who we do our best work with and who wants what we have to offer. And there's a few questions if you want to jot down. These questions, they're, it's amazing, they're not wrong rocket science. But if they're asked in the right way and they gather the right incense insights, they will literally blow up your business here. And a lot of questions we like to ask is what do they truly need? What do they need? What is it emotionally or what is it physically? What is it you know from, from trust and peace of mind all the way down to savings or, or a niche authority and thought leadership. And there's so many ways to pull that back. Don't take it at face value. Dig that question back and remember, don't look at it from your perspective. Get into their shoes. And better yet, I'll give you a best tip here. Get a few of your team around the table. Multi generational really helps in this conversation because what you think they need, someone else is going to have another perspective or multi department. What someone thinks in sales is going to be different from someone in claims. I mean, you see, I'm saying so really get deep, get multifaceted. Then ask yourself the question, what are they frustrated with or what are their challenges?

Right?

And that takes us another layer deeper here and we start to really realize that's what's really stirring in them. That's where that, that, that purchase power really can stem from and it can motivate and move someone faster. And that's where you want to know that and then use that. It's not manipulative, it's smart. It's speaking the language of your audience. It's caring, it's absolutely caring. And then I love to, I love to throw another question. We have a bunch of them in there, but this is one that pushes, pushes some people's buttons, but I love it, it's self awareness. And the question is simply why Would they? Now that you've identified this target, why would they be hesitant to work with you? And this is where we need to realize, oh, we need to make sure you know what might be hidden in plain sight. Our authority. The metrics that we're able to show. You know, I'm not talking price metrics. You know, we can save you this much money. I'm talking, you know, how many people were able to help or how well versed we are in our. In our region or in our niche. Or maybe people would be hesitant because they think we might be dated or we're not able, you know, to. To provide, you know, what they need, and sometimes you can't. But my point is, is that when you're aware of this, we typically find we just are forgetting that we have the ability to overcome those hesitations. We just need to get in front of the conversation. And when you put all those together together, it's just a perfect match. In heaven, you're tiled up and able to draw that person in really a lot easier and faster. You're not this big sales conversation. You're just talking their language. You're saying, we're right here. We can do this together. And that is where they. That client, that client prospect see themselves as part of your tribe. And that's how we all win together.

Brands are built from the inside out. So that's the inside that you're building, building to the outside, which is the consumer market.

Absolutely, Mike.

And if somebody really wanted to have a deeper conversation about all of this and everything that we've learned so far today, how can they reach you?

Let's connect. I would love that. My thanks for making that available to your, you know, to the agencies that you're able to serve. I'd love to talk to you about brand. I was able to talk to a few people last week and just give them some fresh perspective.

Yeah, we've got all these people from the boot camp who's screaming to you.

So they're amazing to talk to. I love it. Let's talk about brands. So go and go online. You can find expressmybrand.com you can learn more about the agency. There's a contact form you can reach right out there. Get on my calendar, talk with me about it. That's the best way you can follow on social express by brand. DM us on there. Either way, the whole point is let's just get together, let's jump on a quick call. We love to do zoom. Take a moment, ask ourselves, ultimately, what do you need to get where you want to go. And then we'll dissect the different areas. We can see them easily and be able to see to speak into you. Hey, now go take this and work on your team. Or if you need more support, that's what we do. And we'd love to talk to you about that further.

Absolutely. And I know you have other people that need your support, namely your two rescue puppies now who are part of your life and part of your world. So we don't want to withhold you from that. But Sailor Hirsch, so generous, so thoughtful, so caring with everything you lend to the business world, period. So grateful and thankful for our relationship. Relationship.

It goes both ways, Mike. I appreciate you. I appreciate everything that you stand for and what you're doing. And I'm honored to be able to bring the brand conversation into the business conversation of what you're doing through upp, through UPP Nation, helping so many insurance agencies become more successful for their families, their teams and their communities. I feel like we do it together. Thank you so much for having me on today.

You're absolutely right and we are definitely in alignment on that. We, we want to serve everybody out there in this incredible industry. Not only those within the Unstoppable Nation, but agents everywhere and business people everywhere. It's just an honor and a privilege to be able to serve all of them. Thanks for coming back on the podcast. Thanks for blowing the attendees at the Be Unstoppable camp away you out. You know, the bar was set pretty high. You jumped way over the bar and beyond beyond. Thank you so much for who you are and what you do for so many people, Mike.

Appreciate it.

Good luck with your new family members, the puppies.

We will. Thanks, Mike. Have a great day.

Talk to you soon. No problem. Hey everybody. Thanks so much for being with us today. If this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Stromso. I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can learn more about me and everything we do do@unstoppableprofitproducer.com if you're interested in attending one of our virtual or live events. You can find out more about our virtual events@upfast start.com or our live event, portable Be Unstoppable Boot Camp.com all of our events are designed to share with you some of our best money making strategies developed over 35 years of research in our industry. 100% of the time as a proud independent insurance agent in the trend benches, serving people. And that's what we want to share with you. And please make sure you go to unstoppable profit podcast.com go to the top and click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode that continues to drop gold nuggets just like Sailor Hearst dropped today for you. And all you need to do is document your path and take action. Or just reach out and learn how you too can make it happen. Happen for yourself. That's all we want for you. Our podcast is also out there in all the networks like Spotify, Stitcher, Apple podcast, on our YouTube channel and so much more. So we want it to be there for you when you need it. Make sure you also what we call rinse and repeat, go back and watch it again and again. Document your path to take action. Also, if you know somebody who would benefit from everything you learned on this podcast today, please send them the link unstoppable profit podcast.com so that you can continue to pay it forward to somebody else who can learn and grow along our side. Sa hurts again. Thank you so much my friend. Have a phenomenal one of a kind day.

Mike. Let's do it. Have a great one.

All right everybody, until next time, get out there, make a difference, Be unstoppable, leave no regrets and remember, you got this.

This.

We believe in you. We'll see you on the next episode.

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