Episode 205: A Glimpse Inside

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.

Everybody. And welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. I'm back with my teammate, my recording partner, the unstoppable Joel McKinley, our director of AFY. Hey, Joel.

Hey, Mike.

What's going on? It is all good in the hood and people have been screaming for a glimpse inside. Shall we give them what they want?

Let's go behind the scenes.

Let's go behind the scenes in the trenches and give them a glimpse inside to what's happening. Everything UPP High performing, unstoppable agency operations. And we're going to share with you everything we can in this podcast to help you, to help you grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom. Shall we get started?

Let's go.

All right, where do we want to start? Should we start with the big V? Go there to start?

Just to start?

Yeah. Because it is the starting point of the evolution of a rock solid, unstoppable blueprint for a UPP agent in their UPP journey. Because everybody's clamoring for a game plan. Where are we going?

Not just in the next quarter, in the next year, three years and beyond. Right?

Absolutely.

So we both are experiencing that and helping agents during their private one on one coaching session with me. Then you help them with adding your AFY series accountability for you to make sure they stay on track with their goals. So what's going on when you're working with people in their vo?

Well, Mike, first of all, when they have one completed and they've they've invested the time to get clear on where they are and then where they're going, I mean, the results are definitely there. People are knocking out their quarterly goals early. And luckily on their vision organizer, you also have their parking lot, their current issues list that they can automatically move over so nothing gets lost. I love it.

Right. And that's the beauty of it. I mean, there's two things that come to my mind in working with agents, creating this incredible game plan for the future, and they're so excited. You know, I'm thinking back to a private one on one coaching session earlier this week with an agent out of the Northwest, who didn't have one, who didn't know where they want to go. And all of a sudden we got to the three year forecast and she starts knocking off things that she wanted to do into the future. And I didn't see that coming out of left field. I was going, yes, yes, yes, keep bringing it. And I'm so excited for her. And I told her at the end, I said, I am so excited for you. We have a game plan and we're going to go get it. So back to the quarterly goals. So they have the parking lot of initiatives and issues they want to implement. Right, right. And so when they knock off a quarterly goal, they just go over to the parking lot. Okay, what do I want to attack next? And insert it into the parking lot. Right. Or from the parking lot into the quarterly goals.

And the great part of that, Mike, is they don't get lost in the bright shiny object syndrome, because if it's not on their parking lot, they're not just, you know, out there scattered around. What am I going to work on next?

Right.

We got that list created 100%.

And the other key term that I love about the VO is reverse engineering. We get to. We don't have to do anything. We get to reverse engineer their unstoppable future out three years up to 10 years, if that's where they want to go. And so when we set the three year forecast as an example, we say, all right, we want to be at X amount of premium or X amount of revenue or both or X number of clients. And we say, okay, you know, our Future date is December 31st of, say, 2026. On that date, we want to be here. Then we reverse engineered over the number of months and boom.

We say we just need to do X per month to get there.

And it's super simple. If you're in a new town and you want to get somewhere, you pull out your smartphone, you type in your destination of where you want to get to, and it builds that map and it's the same thing. And that's, I mean, you. Or you could just drive around and lost all of the time.

No, we don't want anybody lost in our circles. And it's not allowed. We want them having a plan, having a vision for the future and a VO for those who missed it. It's a vision organizer. It's just an organized game plan blueprint for your business, and we just help you get there and beyond. So great, great stuff is happening. It includes things like core values, a Core purpose. A marketing plan. A multi step marketing plan. Phenomenal. Phenomenal things are happening concerning the vo. I was working with two agents yesterday on because they're so pumped and excited. Yep. They heard about the success that others are having. And of course they heard about it at Mastermind recently.

Well, they got their magnifies magnifying glass out and they're looking for those clues.

And they're there because there are some agents. You know, one of the things that we keep hearing about in our circles, Record months.

Record production months, record production months back to back. Do you keep hearing the same thing I do?

I mean, it was earlier this week. Doubled their previous best and set the new goal. You know what? I'm gonna triple it now.

Wow. Yes. You gotta, you gotta be careful what you wish for.

Yep.

In other words, if you're setting a goal and that happens, you gotta set it higher. You gotta raise the bar. Right. You know, we were talking about this at Mastermind. I remember another member. Today's Northwest day. It was another Northwest agent, not the one I was referring to. A couple minutes ago we were talking about the Steve Jobs corningware glass conversation. When Steve Jobs of Apple during his heyday was speaking with the corningware executive, he wanted a certain glass for the Apple iPhone at the time. And they said, there's no way we can do this. He looked the corningware executive right in the eye and he goes, don't be afraid. You can do it. Yep. And that, that conversation started permeating throughout our circles. And this Northwest agent said, don't be afraid. I was just back and forth with him yesterday on it because he went into, he studies the Bible and he said, I went in, it's mentioned 365 times in the Bible. Funny how that works out. Don't be afraid every day, right? Don't be afraid. You can do this. So great, great stuff. And so our, our Up Nation agents, they're taking action. They're blowing away their previous records. And it's just, it's in multiple states. It's not in any one area. It's across the board because they have a blueprint and a game plan. But there's, I don't know, you keep hearing it. Listen back to all seriousness here. The hard market is a reality. Yep. I've been fortunate to be in the industry for more than 36 years. I've been through hard markets, I've been through soft markets, I've been through hard markets. I've been through soft markets multiple times. And my greatest Encouragement for anybody out there is. I know, and I've seen comments from people who've been in the industry just as long as I have that this one is probably the roughest one yet, and I get it. But my other encouragement is this too shall pass. Right, okay. So. But you recently identified something in working with one of our members.

Oh, yeah.

That is a game changer that you're going to encourage everybody to have the same thing. He has. Right. And he happens to be on the west coast in one of the harder markets. Yep. And working with him, what did you notice about him?

I will tell you, Mike, I had the biggest smile on my face. I was cheering for him because he was the first person that addressed it and there was no negativity in his mind whatsoever. He said, this is a phenomenal opportunity. Said because people are noticing their rate increases and they're actively shopping and looking around and they're on Google and they find me and they call. And he said, I have trained my team how to handle it. Which I mean that I was celebrating when he said, I trained my team because training is in the forefront of his mind all the time. And he said, these people are calling and having conversations with me, and that's all I need is that opportunity to have that conversation. His social proof is out there because when people are shopping around, they're going to go to the person that's going to take care of them. That's all they want is to be taken care of. The best value for their insurance dollar, as I've heard you say numerous times.

But when he's sharing that positive mindset of, listen, it's a hard market. It's an opportunity that filters down to his team. So they're not, oh, we're having to reshop. And it's, you know, it's so difficult in the underwriting criteria is harder.

Now.

His team inherited that. That mindset that he has. And every time that phone rings, it's an opportunity to write more business, to get better clients and to just keep upping their game. I was blown away that he was just. It's not a hard market. It's a hard opportunity.

I. Aha. A hard opportunity. That is absolutely phenomenal. And thank you for sharing that. I think everybody needs to digest that. Set a team meeting call, a special team session. You know, I also had on my notes that I've noticed a number of agents are closing their offices.

In the middle of the week for hours on end to better serve their clients through training.

And I think it's a fantastic idea because if your team's overloaded and they can't keep up, give them a chance to breathe. It's about the positioning statement that you tell the marketplace as to why you're doing it and let automation do the heavy lifting and make sure your automation notifies the consumer marketplace days in advance that this is going to be happening and this is why it's happening so we can better serve you with excellence. That's all people want to hear. Fantastic story. I love that positive mindset. He's got a patitude, not a baditude.

Absolutely.

The other thing that I heard is he has figured out that he gets to.

He doesn't have to. Right, right. That that's where we need to be. It's an opportunity. So let's see if I can pick that up from you again. It's a hard opportunity.

A hard opportunity.

A hard opportunity. That is fantastic. And it brings me back to another super high performing, longtime UP member. She recently told me, I can't wait to connect with you again because I get to tell you about that conversation that I had that I, she called me on an emergency situation and she was, she was pretty passionate on that, on that call about what she wanted to talk about. And I gave her the game plan. I said, you should do this, this and this. And so she made the call, but she was traveling and she goes, I can't wait to, until we talk, I get to tell you the results of that. So it's a mindset.

Absolutely.

And there's no, it's, it's absolutely intentional, it's absolutely planned that people put themselves in that position.

To achieve more. Fantastic stuff. You touched on testimonials with that hard market opportunity agent. We've got that on our list a lot this week. People are doing phenomenal stuff with social proof, right?

Oh yes, I know the one you're talking about. The documents that are created, those are fantastic.

Yeah, I mean I've, you know, I did a check in with our up leader in Google reviews as of this morning, 1166 Google reviews.

Wow.

Poor agency. Their biggest issue is they can't find enough quality people. And I'm super, super excited about my conversation later today to help more agents in that particular realm. So stay tuned on that. I mean, just phenomenal things are happening. This hard opportunity is great, isn't it, Abs?

Well, Mike, here's the mindset of it is if everyone is experiencing it, why is it difficult? If everyone is going through it, then you don't have a challenge in front of you that everybody else isn't dealing with.

That's right.

With the positive mindset that's coming in and sees the opportunity is going to capitalize like no one else. Yeah.

And you know, that's funny. We asked that question yesterday in our circles and I'm going to leave my note right here and get back to the testimonials for just a minute because I saw that yesterday and it was all a result of again, their private one on one coaching session here at the house with me. The two leaders from the agency came in, they got their game plan, they had their game plan, they prepared in advance and the whole nine yards. Phenomenal day. Not only did she go home and knocked out the VO and sent it back to me, she keeps picking off things off of her list in the parking lot, in the quarterly goals to get done and she keeps sending me reports on what she's knocking off, which was phenomenal. Yesterday she sent the proof that she knocked off what she did. She took her Google reviews and, and other testimonials that she already had in her arsenal. And she has multiple producers and so she created testimonial sheets.

For her producers with their picture on it with their contact information, multiple positive five star reviews. And it, the, the headline was why people refer Blank Blank agency. I thought it was a phenomenal, phenomenal piece. She sent it out to her coaching group. Multiple people in the coaching group fired back. Holy cow. Where'd you come up with that? Yep, that is phenomenal. I've been meaning to do something like this. So it's now permeating throughout UPP Nation. So I mean everybody's got that arm for their social proof right at their fingertips. They just need to. What do they need to do?

Take action.

Oh, action thing. Yeah. I mean, you know, 80% of people aren't going to do it. Right.

So Mike, you know that a side thing that that also does, it's also great praise and recognition for the team member to see their picture and the, and the recognition of clients leaving the reviews, but also that agency owner to put it out there and say, I'm recognizing you. It's not about me, it's about you and how you take care of clients. Keep doing what you're doing. I mean, I thought that was awesome on more than one, in more than one way, 100%.

And the cool thing is I love the positioning of that whole sheet. It has a great high quality professional photo.

Let me repeat that one because I see a lot of that out there where it's not present. They had a high quality current professional photograph on the flyer. And it makes you, it draws you in, it wants you. You know, I want to do business with this purse.

Absolutely.

Because of the quality of the photo and meet somewhere. They are in the whole nine yards. Direct contact information in multiple ways. Of course, the five star reviews and then the headline was why people refer blank blank agency. The other twist to that is you simply change out the words why people trust.

Blank blank agency. Because money follows trust. Yeah. So the money follows the trust. Great, great stuff. I mean there's 22 ways to Sunday. And I quickly fired back, that is fantastic. Let's make sure we got her own written guarantee. One page or four page version. Because we provide all that for our members, we give it to them and so she's got her complete arsenal that we can get her live references in order and everything else that she needs to dominate the marketplace. Phenomenal.

Which she will.

Oh, without question. And. But you know, I stepped over something that you mentioned a couple of minutes ago. Let me circle back to that. To the agency. You were talking about training the get to agent and the hard opportunity. Yep. You know, he talked about training his team. Two things as a reminder for everybody. You've got to be doing this all of the time, working on your leadership and working on training your team all of the time. You know, remember what the late, great Zig Ziglar said? Right.

Which, I mean, I know that was a.

That was a loaded question for you. Anyway, he said, among many other things, the only thing worse than training a team member and losing them is keeping a team member and not training them. Yep. Right. So we've got to train our teams, we've got to role play. We've got the con. How of what should we do? What's that C word?

Consistently.

Consistently, yes. Consistency plus focus plus discipline. Let's dive in and help him some more, shall we?

Let's go.

Yeah. So we, we threw this out in our up circles just yesterday because I was preparing a presentation and I've got this in the presentation. I thought it would be good for them. And I don't know about you, were you a little surprised on the responses? I was looking for a different word.

Yeah, I was. The number of people that replied with the exact same thing was, was what shocked me.

I think they. We need to have them talk to the hard opportunity agent is what we need to do. Absolutely right. Because here, here, let me set this up for everybody. Here was the question. And we strongly recommend that you Ink this, don't think this, or just listen to it and I'll slow down so you can ink it. All right. And I, I was positioned to spend an hour with a leadership team of a very high performing national agency just to help them, et cetera, et cetera. And one of the things that I have learned, by the way, remind me to tell you about my current book.

O M G.

You want to know what it is right now I do. I've got some of the one other thing. So let me go ahead and pull it up for you. I spent an hour with it this morning, brand new, out of the gate from Mr. John C. Maxwell. John John C. Maxwell, the unstuck, the incredible leadership guru, John C. Maxwell's newest book, the 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication.

The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication. I've already ordered the hard copy because it keeps dropping nugget after nugget after nugget. So anyway, with that being said.

The nugget that he was talking about this morning was preparation, right? So I prepared to help this leadership team for days. And my goal in helping anybody in any situation is to come up with the better questions because the better the question, the better the results. Exactly right. So you let you, your goal is to come up with the best questions, right. So I came up with this question and this is what I want everybody to ink, please.

What daily habits do you do every day.

Or most every day? Joel McKinley, you perfect. Far from it, as you know, Mike Strom so far from it as well. So nobody's perfect, right? What daily habits do you do every day or most every day to keep your blank skills sharp? What daily habits do you do every day or most every day to keep your blank skills sharp? And so I've got that in a presentation that I'm going to do today. In addition to that, I asked it during that session with that leadership team and I posted to all of UPP Nation yesterday and we're going to tell you what they said in just a minute. However, let me share this. In that leadership forum, I said, what daily habits do you do every day or most every day to keep your leadership skills sharp? Because these were all leaders and there were multiple people in the forum break our heart that said I don't do anything.

Wow. Right? So great encouragement for everybody out there. You've got to do something every single day to keep your blank skill sharp or you will fall behind. Hence the shirt that I get to wear every time that I meet with people here in their coaching Session. So what did they say yesterday? The majority of EPP Nation, at least right now, Mindset. Mindset. So what daily habits do you do every day or most every day to keep your mindset skills sharp? And that's fantastic. I love the fact that they're thinking about their mindset because our mindset is our skill set and our hard opportunity agent has the right mindset. He gets to. And so that's fantastic. But the thing that I was looking to see more of was leadership skills.

Because everybody that is a member within UPP Nation is a leader of a business, albeit an independent insurance agency business, and they are leading people. And we had a session going on this week with another member, again, a Northwest agent, a little bit lower, who wanted a document or a game cancel, pause. A document that supports a game plan, a weekly game plan for her sales team to hold them accountable and force. Of course, we just went into our sales growth accelerator.

And there it is, right?

Yeah, it's right there. They can customize it for their agency.

Exactly, exactly. That's why we designed the sales growth accelerator for them in that manner. So they can customize just like the bo. Yep. That's the phenomenal thing that keeps happening inside of our UPB circles with the agents that we're the member agents that we're working with. We get to help them create a custom plan for their business to help them grow their business, create wealth so they can have more freedom to live life on their own terms. So there is so much more. You have one more, so I want.

To throw it out to you, is you and I were studying a couple weeks ago. The Simon Sinek start with why TED Talk.

Yeah.

And you shared it with me and said, I want you to go through this, pull your notes out of it. I'm studying it right now as well. And when he started discussing, I mean, I've got highlighted and it leads into that. What do you do daily or almost daily to keep your blank skills sharp? When he was talking about Apple and they started with their why.

And he says, the goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.

And you could apply that exact same statement to hiring, to selling, to creating your ideal client, et cetera. The goal is not to hire every person who needs a job. The goal is to hire people who believe what you believe. And realistically, that front page of the Void gets real clear on who you are, what it is you believe, and then who you want to do business.

With a hundred percent. I mean I, I had as a potential talking point and this will fold in very nicely. Great point. Thank you, Joel. Another emergency session that I had, it was this week with a super high performing agent out of the Midwest who had a team member, a high level team member. And there. Have you ever heard of any business out there? Even our member agents who have a cancerous team member or a bad apple on the team.

No, that never happens.

Yes, it does. Just like the fact that we're not perfect all of the time. Right. So this was, this was a situation and it reared his ugly head this week. And in the coaching calls we've been talking about it, we knew it was going to happen. So we've been game planning. So we skate to where the puck's going to be. And so we did and it reared its ugly head and we were ready for it. Because back to the preparation, the planning. Right, right. So this team member, high level said.

You know what, I've been looking elsewhere because I don't want to operate in this environment anymore with this team member. You know as well as I do that they're not good for the organization, they're a cancer, et cetera, et cetera. It just happens this other team member is a valued team member as well. But what's the price you're willing to pay for that? Kind of a mindset and impact on your culture. Right. It's too high a price, in my opinion. So with that being said, this person, the leader, said, I'm going to give you X amount of hours to make a decision. And did. And the purse, the team member, the high level team member came back and said in tears, I'm staying.

Because I believe in why we're doing what we do here. Yeah, I haven't told you that yet.

No, that's, that.

I, I was, I was about ready to cry myself when I heard the response. I mean, I'm like, that is awesome. So now we have a game plan and we know what we're going to do. So it is what it is. Good, good stuff. So excited about that. And on we go. With that being said, 100% agree.

Why we do what we do. And it folds in perfectly where we started today, which was at the beginning with our vo, which includes our core values and our core purpose. Right, right. Which is the beginning of the meaning of why we exist.

Right. And that's why people do business with you. And my, one of my. I'm actually cheating on Maxwell because I'm reading another book right now by the name of cause. So I don't have the author memorized yet, but it's a great book and it talks a lot about that, about why people do what they do and what their cause is that they're fighting so hard for.

Yep.

So why people, why you exist.

Why you do what you do. And then after that it's how you do it. Right. And then after that it's what. But you start with the why. Right. Great stuff, great stuff. So. Thank you.

Yeah, I. That one. Yeah, it jumped out. You talk about when your why becomes big enough, your how becomes easy.

Right. A hundred percent. 100%.

That also has to translate down to your teams. And if you have your why, that's definitely great fuel for your mindset.

Wait. They should have consistent team meetings as well.

I mean, success leaves clues and possible.

Weekly huddles and departments and teams below that. And even daily hubbles huddles.

Yep, absolutely.

I, I know multiples are members who have daily huddles. You know, it's just a quick five, ten minute boom, boom and mindset for all of your meetings. For everybody out there.

It's a business meeting.

It's not a social club. We're not a social club. It's a business meeting. Social clubs are for other functions away from the office. Might be a team health session or a team health event or whatever, Whatever. But this is. These are business meetings. They come with an agenda. Come ready to go format. Boom, boom, boom, done. Boom, boom, boom, done. So great point.

And that, yeah, the agenda is at the core of that.

A hundred percent. 100.

You don't have an agenda. It's very easy to get sidetracked.

100%. So did I say 100%? 100%. So we gave everybody out there, either watching or listening, a glimpse inside. And people consistently clamor for this information. So our goal is not only to bring it, but to over deliver in every opportunity as we wrap up this session of glimpse inside, Joel McKinley. Anything else to add?

Nope, that's all I got.

Thank you for supporting our members in the manner that you do through your AFY activities. Accountability for you. Like the late, great Stephen Covey said, accountability breeds responsibility. I have an accountability partner. We recommend accountability for everybody. It's not that we're looking to, you know, look for, look for them doing something wrong. We're helping them to stay on track and doing the things right that they need to be doing to get to where they're going.

Yep, absolutely.

And I, in my study of Maxwell, this Morning I heard a very cool phrase about vision, but I don't have it memorized yet. That's why I ordered the book. So I have it permanent all the time. So I will drop that on everybody once I get that memorized because it's that vision. That vision. So let me just drop one other nugget from the book, if I may real quick because it was absolutely game changing. You ready?

I got my pen.

We perform at the level of our preparation.

We perform at the level of our preparation. And if you're not preparing for the highest bar, to reach the highest bar, you may not get there.

I was out in the dark this morning on my morning sessions and I heard that and I said, oh, gotta stop. Unfortunately, there was a stoplight right there to shine some light on me so I could see what I was typing without my glasses. And I sent it to myself. That's how I get stuff done, by the way, everybody. And now it's being shared with you. I'm gonna say that one again. That one is such a key. We perform at the level of our preparation. I hope he inked that one too. Joel McKinley, thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mike.

All right, we will see you on the next round of A Glimpse Inside. Until then, thank you. Thank you for being here, thank you for listening, thank you for watching and 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 find out more about myself and what we do at Unstoppable Profit Producer.

If you're interested in attending one of our live or virtual events, there's information out there. You can check it out. 247365 our virtual events are at uppfaststart.com and of course our live events are at beunstoppableboothcamp.com beunstoppable boot camp.com I get so excited. All of our events are designed with some of our best money making strategies developed over 35 plus years and in the independent insurance agency business. All designed to help you grow your business great wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And if you got great value out of this podcast, please share it with somebody else that you care about. Just go to unstoppable profit podcast.com send them the link and make sure that you're subscribed up at the top as well so that we can continue to bring value to. Everybody out there wants to grow, create wealth and have more freedom. Thanks for joining us today, Joel McKinley. Thank you.

Thanks, Mike.

Until our next episode. Get out there. Remember, don't be afraid. You got this. We'll see you on the next episode.

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