Episode 226: The Latest on Always Be Recruiting!!!

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give independent insurance agents all of the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromsol.

Greetings, everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Prophet podcast. You know, when I decide on subjects for the podcast, I'm always thinking back through the last week or two of coaching sessions that I've had with some of the highest performing agencies. And is there a common topic that seems to be coming to the table again and again and again in the industry right now? And there is one that came to my heart and my mind. And it's something that if, when my day comes, if my bride decides to put me in a casket, I'm going to ask that there be an audio unit attached to the casket. And I'm going to ask that this repeating audio message be playing again and again and again. Why? Because I want to make sure that everybody understands that it's vitally important to your success in business.

And the simple message is always be recruiting. Yes, always be recruiting. It is vitally, vitally important to your success in business. Always. I've Learned this from two entrepreneurs over time, over 20 to 25 years. And it's the simple fact that you are only as good as your weakest link. And the only way to improve your weakest link is to recruit somebody to replace them to improve your business. There is nothing that will improve your culture more or faster then when you make the business decision, and it is a business decision to improve your culture and eliminate your weakest link. So the common thought that I get when we talk about this in our circles is simply, well, where do I find the next people? My immediate thought is there are millions of people out there in the world.

And if you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use a hundred percent of the waves. And the overriding thought on this that I learned many, many years ago from the late great Earl Nightingale, is that simply, if there's something that's important enough to you, and that's the key question, is it important enough to you?

If it's important enough to you, then you'll find a way.

Or you'll find an excuse. And if it's important enough to you, you will allow it to consume you until you get it done. You'll allow it to consume you until you get it done. So what you need to do, you need to block specific time on your calendar to make sure that you are consistently taking action on this every single day. If you are in need right now, if you're in need right now, you've got to take action every single day if it's that important to you. I remember a situation with one of our high performing agencies who really need to hire two people, not just one. And the agency leader, to her credit, allowed it to consume her. She put an index card on her bathroom mirror, on the dashboard of her car, on her computer monitor, in other places that she frequently could see on her nightstand. So she saw it when she went to bed, she saw it when she woke up. But it was the subtle reminder, I need to be recruiting all of the time to find this person. Next, you need to write out who this person is. Simply start with a blank piece of paper. What is the ideal candidate avatar look like? You need to be clear on who they are. And once you get clear on who they are, they're coachable, they're a team player. If you need to be licensed, they've had, they have an insurance license, they've been licensed for a minimum of one year, three years, whatever it is you want, they are somewhere between, you know, if you want to put age in there again, they have a good attitude, they're tech savvy. If they need to be in office or remote, I mean all of it, all of it, just brain sprint who they are. And once you get that solid description of who the person that you're looking for is, simply read this in the morning and read this at night and allow it to consume you. And when you do that, it will be top of heart, top of mind. And sooner or later you might encounter that person because you have that awareness, because you've allowed it to allow to consume you. And that's just the beginning. Okay, so you've made it a top priority in your life. You've gotten clear on who you're looking for next. We have a deep, deep philosophy in our circles that you only can be satisfied with the best, not the best available. So we have a whole process that we take our members through. And by the way, if you're ever interested in learning more about becoming a member of upping, just contact us vippplife.com vippplife.com we'll get you set up with an agency grow session and learn more to see if we're even a good fit for you. Back to the matter at hand. You've identified who the person is and we take you very deep to understand that you can only hire the best, not the best available. So I'm going to give you some takeaways right now. And you may want to pause this and get something to write with and write on so you can ink it, not think it. I'm going to rip off some strategies that I've compiled this list over the years that you can use right now, starting today, right here. And we've got all of these. So again.

This is in no specific order and it's a random list that I built over the years. But I do know this, if I was in a position in a business and I needed to hire somebody, I would be using every single one of these strategies that I possibly could that made sense all at the same time because it would be that important to me. The future success of a business, if you are the leader, must be your high highest priority. You have a duty and a responsibility to every member of the team and to yourself to make it the best it can be. Okay, so we'll start with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an opportunity. Is it right for every situation? No, but it's an opportunity you could get bold. Let me just throw this out. All right? If acquisitions are going on in your local community.

They probably are. And a large organization grabs an agency, those eight persons in that agency, if they're rehired, may not be super happy with the new leadership. Could you call them as you know, just to check out the opportunity? Of course you can. Could you send them a note? Of course you can. But huge opportunity. Your blog is an opportunity. Written blog, video blog, always be recruiting. By the way, you should always have a career page with a unique UR off the back end of your website. Why not creating a new website? It's just an additional page on your website. Why? As an example, join team SIA.com jointeam SIA.com still live out there. Check it out if you want. When I'm out there in the community or if I run into somebody or I run into their business owner, etc. Etc. Etc. I simply say, hey, I'm looking. We're always looking for our next great team member. If you identify somebody who might be looking for a position in a an award winning independent insurance agency business, just have them go to join Team Sia.com. that's all you need to say. You can email it, you can text it. It's at the top of your mind, verbally join team si dot com. Just have them go there. They can apply 24 7, 365. They can learn more about who we are, they can learn more about our culture, etcetera, etcetera. Your personal email list. Everybody's got a network. You have a network. Your personal email list is a huge network that you have a personal relationship with. We've created an email for that personal email list that you can send out letting everybody know that you know that you are looking for your next candidate. And it's got a little twist down there in the PS that's also serving them at the same time. Text key people that you know as often as possible, just reminding them that you're always looking. What do you text them? Your career page. What do you text them? Any other results? What do you text them? Anything that comes to top of mind. And don't forget to serve them. By the way, if you're looking, don't forget to let me know so I can be looking for you. If you're a member of any networking groups, we'll take a popular one out there called BNI that has a worldwide global reach, the worldwide global reach at your fingertips. There's no limit, friends, only the limits that you make for yourselves in your mind. Okay? If you're a member of Rotary or any other philanthropic organizations, that is an opportunity. Stand up and say, hey, I'm looking for my next great team member. I'm going to donate $100 or $200 or $500 to the foundation. If the referral you send me, I end up hiring. Why not? What is the cost or value? What is the value of your next great team member? A lot more than that contribution, believe me. Okay? Just think outside the box. Give yourself permission. Chamber offices, online forums for chamber. Just go down there and say, hey, I've got these. Know create a specific hiring card. Okay? I've got multiple hiring cards that I've created over the years. Of course it's got Join Team SIA on the backside, but you know, share it and just put it out there, put it out there, put it out there. Keep handing those out. Okay? You can create a separate pool as a motivation with your existing team members. By the way, 50% of the results and you finding your next best team member, not the best available will possibly come from your existing team members. If you've got a great team and if you don't, you need to be doing these things to upgrade your team. Okay? So create a monetary pool or maybe a donation to their favorite charity or time off or whatever motivates them and is important to them. And create a fun contest to find your next team member. Create custom videos from your organization showing why people should join your team over and above and in all other options available to them. Do you have videos from some of your best team members to put on your career page? Do you have videos that you can put out strategically in other areas from existing team members shouting out to the world how awesome your organization is? If not, why not you? Starting right now, starting today.

Testimonials galore. For credibility purposes, we had over 2400 testimonials in our agency business and I used those strategically. We had them on a singular list. I remember a time I had a candidate that I was working with and I said, we're going to close the door on this candidate because I want to bring them on. So I went back to the marketing department, I said, hey, I print out the list of all of our testimonials, clean it up, get it organized, printed on goldenrod paper. Bring it in to me when you're done. I got it. I wrote a quick handwritten note and I said, hey, I just thought you might like to see the results from some of our customers over the last number of years and why they trust our agency. If you have any questions, let me know. P.S. here's my contact information. P.S. we'll be happy to use these resources and so many others to help you grow when you're a part of our agency team. Let me know what you want to do. FedEx it. Door closer. Okay. Talking about it to everybody every time. I mean, in the grocery store, in a restaurant, I mean, you've got to allow it to consume you. Okay, next. Every single conversation you have, every phone call is an opportunity for sale. Every communication you have is an opportunity for sale. Every email, every text, every video, every conversation is an opportunity. You've got to talk to people about it in every single community. Every single conversation you have, have your hiring cards, have that ready, have your URL ready every time. And to be realistic, headhunters or recruiters are possibly part of the process. So that's on the list as well. We talked about hiring business cards.

Snail mail to state licensing lists. We have a member who has had great success, pulls a state licensing list and their state is not available in every state. In this state, it was 20 mile radius around their office, created a handwritten letter worded in a strategic way that we ended up working on together to get it right. So sent it out to that list. Actually ended up hiring two superstars from that mailing. Why not you and why not now? Okay, Check the local junior colleges or local universities for job fairs. Go down there and put a table. Talk to people. Talk to people about what they want in their future. We need youth in this industry to grow it up into the future. So that's a huge opportunity for an entry level or maybe an intern level on your bus. We all started somewhere, right? So give someone a chance. Next. Again, if you belong to any networking groups, visit other chapters of the networking groups as well. Live and in person and share with the world. Give them back something but also share with them that you're looking. So possible headline concerning remote workers. If you are a remote organization as well or a hybrid organization, a headline for your job ads online. And I haven't talked about that yet. I'm going to get to that in just a minute. Okay, headline. How would you like to walk less than 100 steps to your daily office while totally digging your insurance career possible headline. It's attention grabbing, right? And then you go into your ad. There are a lot of online portals out there. I will say this. I mean online portals are a part of the process. I would not hang my hat 100% on online portals. I just wouldn't. It's a tool that we use in combination with everything else. But don't hang your hat on it. Now. There's ideal traits out there. There's insurancejobs.com of course, there's Career Plug. There's indeed one of the ones that we have and our members bigger than that our members have had a lot of success with as of late is wisehire.com it's w I z e h I r e.com and there's a discount available. We don't get anything out of it. It's just a discount for all of you. Slash upplife. So if you go to wisehire.com up upp life, you can get a up discount.

And so many other opportunities out there online. Lots of other online opportunities. But the key to anybody that you get online.

The war for Marketplace talent is one at the interviewing table. The war for Marketplace talent is one at the interviewing table. That is why we created a specific interviewing process inside of upp. We give you all the interview forms, all the job descriptions, everything you need to hire your next great team member. By the way, if you want to learn more about that opportunity, just email VIP life.com and let them know you want to Set up an agency growth session. We can talk more about that. Next, a pop up example. If you have the ability to put pop ups on your website, if you have the ability to put pop ups on your zoom portal or anything else that you're doing, create a pop up. You know, own. I pick this up in my own journey. Every time I see something, I get an idea about something that helps people, right? So I saw this. Own your career, take control of your future. Boom. Right? Headline, you know, join us today. As you know, so and so demonstrates this. You can just put a sub headline in there and say, hey, own your career, take control of your future. We're looking for our next great team member. Is that you? If so, click this link to learn more and let the career page take care of itself. By the way, if you create a career page, please put photos, please put something relational, please put something on there that reflects your culture. So vitally important. Okay, next, send an email, text, snail mail to all of your clients. If you have a client base, they are all connected to their own networks. Digest that and think about it. Send an email, text, snail mail to all of your clients and let them know you're looking for your next great team member. Promise to interview every person they refer and make a fairly substantial donation to referrers, the referrer's favorite charity, if you hire them. Okay, this is an inexpensive strategy. Plus it benefits everyone. We have a platinum member that's done a great job with this. I found they found the sweet spot for that contribution was about $1,500. But if you're going, Wow, $1500. That's a lot of money. Think about the cost of a recruiter. Think about the value of a great team member. It's pennies. Okay, next. Search.

Other agencies for sale. They might have some good candidates. It's a little bit in combination with what we talked about earlier. I was again next, riding my bicycle up into the small town that I live in. I saw a huge hiring banner in front of a business that they're hiring. I know that's extreme and it's not for everybody, but how bad do you want it? You'll either find a way or you'll find an excuse. Don't want the excuses. Be you. The bottom line is that's just the beginning. And of course social media, Facebook, we talked a little bit about LinkedIn. Put your best foot forward and if you've been serving people at the highest level, they will want to work for you, they will want to support you. But let them know why it's important and if you've been serving people at the highest level, they will want to get back give back to you because the law of reciprocity is always in effect. So I was joking in the beginning about the casket, but I wasn't joking because I am as serious as I can be about. You must always be recruiting. You must always be recruiting. I can tell you story after story, year after year of independent insurance agent that I'm privileged to work with that has come and said Mike, so and so just put in their notice so and so just let me knew know they're moving out of state. So and so just got picked off by a headhunter and so on and so on and so on. Don't let it be your friends. I don't want that for any of you. All I want is for you to have a thriving, growing, bulging insurance agency business. So one of the things you'll need to do to do that is to always be recruiting. Have a system. You should be able to implement your system right now, starting today, starting right here. And if you don't have the system, you need to begin building it right now as an encouragement. I say that because I care about you. And if this is your first time joining us on the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Stromsel. I'm widely recognized as a leading speaker, author and coach for the independent insurance agency business. You can learn more about us@unstoppableprofitproducer.com if you'd like to learn more about our live events or our virtual training events. Our live events are at Be Unstoppable Boot Camp.com or our virtual events are at Upfast Start.com. everything that we do is all designed Based on our 35 years of experience.

Creating money making opportunities in the independent insurance agency business. And they're all designed to help you grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. You're going to get our best money making strategies always. Okay, so I hope this has helped you and if today's podcast has helped you in some way, please share it with somebody else that you know. Help them too. To always be recruiting and again go to unstoppable profit podcast.com that's our unique podcast portal. Make sure you click subscribe up at the top so you don't miss one valuable episode because we keep bringing it every single week with the top money making strategies for you for your independent insurance agency business. The top people who know how to move the needle in the agency business we bring on as guests. So you're not going to want to miss one valuable episode. Right? And we're also out there on all the channels like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, and our YouTube channel. So thank you. Thank you for joining us on the podcast. I will see you on the next episode, but until then, remember, always be recruiting. I will see you in the next episode.

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