Episode 206: WHY You Do It

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.

And welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I'm going to share something with you today from the core, from the absolute core. And it's something that I've become absolutely passionate about. I've been studying for more than five years. It's something that we implemented in the insurance agency business almost those five years ago. And I'm going to take you through a journey in this episode of what I Learned about the Core. And I want to give you a thought process right now and I hope you ink this. Don't just think this. And if you're driving and listening to this podcast, thank you. When you get to a place where you can please ink this because it's so vitally important.

If you don't know why you do what you do.

How can other people, including your team, possibly decide to follow you or join your team?

Let me repeat that one.

If you don't know why you do what you do, how can other people, including your team.

Possibly decide to follow you or join your team? The good news is there's an absolute way to create this, to document this, to put all of this in a place where people will want to follow you. Will people will accept less money to join your team because of why you do what you do, because of who you are. And it will be easy for you to share this story. That is what I want to share with you today in this episode of the Unstoppable Prophet podcast. It's become something that I'm absolutely passionate about and this work will never be done. I am studying right now more than I ever have in my journey and I am getting greater benefit from that study. I've got two books going on right now. I'm going to reference both of those in this podcast. One of them is the most recent book by John Maxwell, the 16 undeniable laws of Communication. And it's been part of my inspiration for these thoughts to share with you today. I was reminded in my early morning study just this morning.

The reason.

For helping people.

Must also be your desire to add value for them and to them. That's got to be why you do what you do.

And he reminded me that Simon Sinek said, and I absolutely believe this, people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. And so I challenge you today. Why do you do what you do? Why do you work so hard in the agency business to bring products and protection and service of unequaled excellence to the marketplace? Why do you work so hard as an independent, juggling different companies to provide options for people so they have choices that. Not just one choice, multiple choices. As an independent insurance agency, you know, one of the things that I memorized, because I said it so many times, we work for you, the customer first. We're not beholden to any one company. We work for a number of different companies to provide you options, to bring you the best value. Here comes value again for your insurance dollar.

Make sure your desire is to add value to them. And I'm also going through a book called Cause, the book Cause by Jackie and Kevin Friedberg, a business strategy for standing out in a sea of sameness. Look at what everybody else is doing out there and do the opposite. But bigger than that, add in why you do what you do. If you don't know why you do what you do, how can other people possibly follow you, follow you? And in this book by Jackie and Kevin, they talk about.

Who are we? Why do we exist? What's noble and heroic about what we do? How are you painting that picture so people can visually see why you're doing what you're doing? They outline a number of iconic global companies who work through this, who know this, including our friends at National Life, Alliance Group Life, one of the friends of Up, Vitess, Gap, Savage, Lee Duncan, and the team at Alliance Group Life, a national life, is profiled in this book.

So here's the good news for you. Today. It's your turn to give history a shove and to rise to the occasion of bringing why you do what you do to the table. And I encourage you to do so. So you might be thinking, all right, Mike, this sounds great, but where do I start? Thank you. Thank you for joining me today because I'm going to share with you where you start.

It's at the core, which is your core values. And we have worked to refine our core values in the agency business. We have worked to refine our core values in our UPP team operations. And we have gotten crystal clear. And I'm going to take you through just part of that process. And my great goal, my reason for existing is to help you get Clear.

On why you do what you do? Because people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. And you're not going to be everything to everybody. You don't need everybody. You just need a few thousand who also believe the same thing. Why you do what you do? Because the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.

Including your team. It's part of the recruiting and attraction process. So I'm going to walk you through some thoughts on core values, okay? Because you want to learn to think and communicate from the inside out. You know, I've told the story for years. If I was able to drive my fingertips into my chest and rip my chest open, and I was in kind of a police lineup with all my team members and they did the same thing, what would people see inside of you that's at the core? Think, act, and communicate from the inside out what's inside of you. People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. So core values, just a some thought processes for you. And if you want to stop, pause, and write this down. Stop, pause, and write this down. Many of you use otter AI. I get that. Or other dictation recording systems. I too do the same thing. Please, whatever it takes to help you so you can bring your why and your value to the marketplace. Your core values, they are internal and external. Internal and external. This is the beginning of you actually creating core values for your organization or refining your core values if you already have some. Make sure they match and meet what you want to bring to the marketplace. They are internal and external. You're out there in the marketplace, at networking events, whatever it is. They are internal and external. They are a small set of essential and timeless guiding principles. A small set of essential and guiding timeless principles. There is no time limit on your core values, okay? 3 to 7 is the general rule of thumb, but less is more. If you have just three. If you have just four, make sure they're the. The at the core of why you do what you do and who you are, okay? They are what define your culture. Peter Drucker said, culture eats strategy and everything else for breakfast. It's your culture, your invisible architecture inside your organization. You've got to make sure that that's right all of the time. And you cannot let anybody or anything infect your culture because it will push you and drag you in the wrong direction. Your core values are what define your culture. And no two companies have the same core values. Everybody's are different based on who you Are as an organization and why you do what you do. And by the way, this is not something that you will wake up tomorrow or after you watch or listen to this and you know within an hour or two it'll all be done. It doesn't. No, no. It takes time. But once you get there, it's a very special, wonderful place to be. They attract people to your organization. Again, it talks about that in this book cause absolutely awesome. It talks about stories of people who join organizations because of why they do what they do and who they are. Their invisible architecture and their core values. Even though they were offered more money somewhere else, people generally don't join a company for the money first. And if they do, my question for you is are they patriots or mercenaries? And that's a whole nother training that I do.

Generally the best people who with the right heart at the core, they're not money driven first. Yeah, money's important. But why you do what you do and who you are at the core. You hire, terminate, phrase and recognize, discipline and reward all based on your core values. And they are discovered. It takes time. So some quick steps for you on creating your core values. Number one, form a group. Form a group of team members that you would like to have participate in the exercise. It's your your choice. Have each participating team member list three people if they could clone them, who lead your organization to market domination. As an insurance agency, these three people should preferably come from within side the organization. But if you don't have that many people, that's fine, it doesn't matter. They don't have to be inside your walls. Once each person has his or three person post the names of all of these people on a whiteboard or a flip chart page, whatever it is for everybody to see. Step two, go over the names and list the characteristics that those people embody. What are the qualities that they exemplify? Who are they? Why? Why are they admired? So what do they do that puts them on that list? Start with a long list so you can see all of the possibilities to help with your thought process. We've got a list of real world core values and it's long. From doing the right thing, to continually striving for perfection, to helping first to being energetic, competitive, hungry for achievement, honest and integrity, never satisfied, exhibits professionalism, growth oriented and so much more. So that's step two, step three. Your organization's core values are somewhere in that long list. But now it's time to do the harder work to narrow it down in your first Edit, circle the ones that are truly important and draw a line through the ones that are not. And in many situations, one or two might be combinable into one. Remember, less is more. Three to seven is the goal. Remember, after the first round, you should have the list down somewhere between five and 15. And step four. Now the tough decisions come through group discussion, debate and conversation. Decide which ones really belong and are truly core. Remember, your goal is to get the list down to between three and seven. I'm going to share with you just from an example standpoint. We did this exercise in the insurance agency business and it took, I'm going to suggest, really all of three or four months of conversation, debating within our leadership team, etc. Etc. To really get these fully defined to what I'm going to read to you now. Okay. There were four core values, and they were servant's heart, dedicated to serving our team, our clients and our community. Number two, this is how we play. Fun, enthusiastic, energetic, energetic and competitive. Fun, enthusiastic, energetic and competitive. Number three, we believe in growth. To have more, you have to become more. And number four, Team sia. It's more than business.

So when you get to the point where you have created your initial list of core values, don't do this. Don't run out and tell everybody on your team immediately after you've established the core values. Instead, let them simmer for about 30 days and then meet one last time with your group of people or your leadership team to sign off once and for all in the final list. The next step is to communicate the core values to the rest of the organization. This will involve planning, practicing, and a clarity of message. And I know what we did. We kind of had a kickoff event. It was a really fun time. Back when we did this a number of years ago, we had a baseball theme. We had baseballs on the walls because of that time of year. And that's just what we chose to do because it was who our team was at the core and it was phenomenal. So let me take you fast forward to current time to our UPP team. And we have core values and we have a core purpose. Currently, we have six core values for our UPP team. These were developed through the exact type of exercise that I just described to you and our core values. And I'm going to give you something. If you've already got core values, I might challenge you to do this with your own team because it's really bought great clarity to our organization to be able to deliver.

Why we do what we do for Independent insurance agents everywhere, why we do what we do. Okay, so our six core values at UPP are growth.

Integrity.

Impact.

Passion.

Commitment.

And gratitude. And our core purpose is impacting people's lives personally and professionally. So when we have a decision that comes to the table, it might be, you know, even a vendor that we're working with or potentially a new agency that we're going to work with or anything of the such or a team member coming onto our team. We look at our core values and we look at our core purpose and we ask ourselves, is this the right fit? And it doesn't meet all this criteria. Do they meet our six core values? Does it impact people's lives personally and professionally? And if it doesn't, then it's a pass. It's just a business is a business decision, but ultimately it will lead to being a personal decision as well. Because we all know that when something isn't going right in business, it carries over to our personal lives and what we want to do. We want to impact people's lives personally and professionally. We want your personal lives to be as good as they possibly can be. And it going to be perfect. No, like my great friend Craig Fred Kramer said, things are good, never perfect, but we want it to be as good as it possibly can be. So let me share with you the tweak that we did and I'm going to share with you all of the details of that tweak. You're going to, I'm going to pull back the curtain of our UP team and who we are and why we do what we do. Okay. Growth.

So what I did, I took all of our six core values and I challenged our team in one of our quarterly sessions a few months ago to.

Share. Well, first of all to reflect and to go back and reflect on each of our core values and what each core value meant to each team member individually. And I asked them to share that with me a few days prior to the start of our quarterly planning session. Yes, we meet every quarter for five to six hours to make sure that we are up to date and working as a team to serve all of you. Yes. It's part of our practices so that we can bring the greatest value to everybody we work with. So I asked my team to go back and reflect and write down just in their own words, what each core value means to them. I'm going to share that with you as as an example of an exercise that you can do as well. So I've got four team members in up, including myself and this is what we wrote down concerning core value number one. Growth.

The continuous and daily development of our whole selves and investment in building others around us. That was one team member. Second team member.

Growth.

Good, better, Best. We never let it rest.

Third, 1% better every day. We strive to always improve every single day through personal and professional development.

Growth number four, Improving every day. Causing others to improve every day. Being comfortable, being uncomfortable. I love that. And notice the difference with all of our team members. They all think differently. But now we're going to synthesize that and make it part of our updated core values. Integrity number two. First team member, do the right thing and always speak the truth. Second, we mean what we say and say what we do. 3. Third, we build trust through responsible actions and honest relationships. 4. Integrity. Having character in every action and decision made, being accountable and owning every action and decision. I love that. That's we're all different, but we're all coming together to define why we do what we do. Because people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The third core value, Impact one. First team member. Create a positive and lasting effect on those that we encounter. Work with Impact team member number two. Power is gained by sharing knowledge, not hoarding it. Impact number three, Make a difference every day. We constantly push ourselves to be our best. We focus on solutions and we arrive every day inspired to make an impact through our talents, our passion and our hard work. Impact team member number four. Causing improvement, change, betterment or disruption with the result of being greater every day. I love that. Okay. Core value number four. All of our team members. Passion. Bringing your intensity in everything that we do, you do, we do. Passion team member number two, the energy that keeps us going. Passion team member number three. We're passionate and excited for what we do and how we do it. We with passion at the heart of everything we do, we nurture ideas, inspire excellence and find creative ways to help our clients become unstoppable. I love that one. And passion team member number four is the state of joy and fulfillment. Operating and leading and interacting in the state of the majority of time creates an impactful life. Love it. Our fifth core value is commitment. Team member number one, do what you said you would do. Show up every day. Commitment number two, we walk the talk. Commitment number three, we're dedicated to our mission to impact lives personally and professionally and to delivering a world class experience for our members. And commitment team member number four, Complete dedication and stick to itiveness to a goal or desired outcome regardless of the obstacles or challenges that surface. That was the definition of commitment and our last Core value All of our team Members Number one no one owes you or us anything. Every moment is a gift is the first team member's definition of gratitude. Our sixth Core value second Team Member Gratitude Our attitude.

Third Team Member Gratitude. We are thankful to have the opportunity every day to work alongside amazing teammates and for the opportunity to help forward thinking, high achieving independent insurance agents across North America. And fourth team member on Gratitude Core Value Number six A state of mind or heart where one knows that each minute, hour or day are a gift and a privilege that many do not have. That each event does not go as a planned as planned, but is an opportunity to learn and improve. These are just out of the mind and the heart of every one of our team members about how they see our core values. Now we're better positioned to fully understand why we do what we do. Because people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And as a friendly reminder as we wrap up this episode, I'm going to say it again. If you don't know why you do what you do, how can other people, including your team, possibly decide to follow you or to join your team? I hope this episode has been helpful to you. It's been a joy for me to bring it to you. All we want is to impact people's lives personally and professionally. And all I want My reason for getting out of bed is to help you get better every single day and I hope this has accomplished that goal. 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 learn learn more about myself and everything we do at Unstoppable Profit Producer. If you're interested in attending one of our live or virtual events, our virtual event platform URL is uppfaststart.com and our live events are at Be Unstoppable Bootcamp.com everything we do in UPP is designed to share with you our best money making strategies developed over 35 years of research as a proud independent insurance agent 100 of the time to help you grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms and you can find us out there everywhere, including unstoppable profit podcast.com so if this has been of great value or value to you today, please share unstoppable profit podcast.com with any other agent or any other business person, you know, so they too can grow, create wealth and have more freedom. And our podcast is also out there everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel where you can watch these podcasts live. Just go to YouTube Search Unstoppable Profit Producer. Go to the videos. All of our podcasts are there. I hope this has helped you in some way and nothing is going to happen until you execute just one thing. Action. You got this. I believe in you. I will see you on the next episode.

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