Episode 227: Your Next “A” Team Member via AI

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 Profit podcast. I am pumped up. I am fired up, not only to have my podcast partner, Mr. Joel McKinley. Hey, Joel. Hey, Mike. So are you ready, Mike?

I was born ready.

Good. Ditto. Let's bring it and let's bring it like nobody else's business. Because the world is changing. And according to John Wooden, failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. And we don't want anybody that is either watching or listening to this podcast to ever not change. Because change is not a four letter word. If you want things to change, you've got to change, because everything is changing around you. And you've got to have that very special skill that very few entrepreneurs possess. And I know I throw stuff on you all the time, Joel. And it's like, what is he talking about now? Do you want to guess what that very special skill is? It starts with a. I'll give you a hint.

Artificial. Artificial something, Mike.

Well, that's a learned skill and I love the subject matter because we're going to dive to that in just a minute. But it's agility.

Oh, got it. Agile.

Yeah. Every high, highly achieving, highly successful business entrepreneur needs to be agile. You've got to be able to shift into change on a dime in today's environment. I get it's difficult. I get sometimes it's hard. I understand. I could go into all of the things that we've been through. I mean, Joel McKinley, jumping out of airplanes multiple times on missions as an Army Ranger. Thank you for your service. Putting his life on the line and watching people right beside, beside him experience something blowing up right then and there. We understand it's difficult, but you've got to shift and change. So let's get to helping some agents, shall we?

Mike, did you know it's. It doesn't have to be changed.

Do tell, Mike.

They get to evolve. I love where to evolve. Because, Mike, if we didn't evolve, we'd still be living in caves. And I mean, no one wants to see Mike in a loincloth. So let's be grateful for the evolution that we've had and we get to keep evolving and you know, keep, keep my gut not bathing regularly.

Exactly, exactly. I could go down a path, but I will refrain. Thank you. Thank you for that. Don't want unwanted visual. But yes, we get to evolve. Right? Right. And why not you and why not now?

Well, because if not you and if not now, you may not be here much longer.

Exactly. So there is no plan B for your A game, right?

Right.

There is no plan B. You only bring your A game. Your very very best. You want to be the best in the world. Now I'm harping on my current in love favorite read by Bo Eason. There is no plan B for your A game. If you don't have it yet, get it. It will change your life forever. Let's get on to changing lives, impacting people's lives personally and professionally. Ready? Roll.

Let's roll.

So we've been on a mission since our recent Mastermind sessions in beautiful Washington state with all of our current members and one of the absolute topics in those sessions and the things that were happening. I wish that I had a camera up on the wall because the conversations were off the stinking charts. But let's get specific about one of those conversations. And it was the aforementioned AI generational AI chat, GPT, etc, etc. People are using it in business and we want to bring that to everybody today. Because in working with our members and agents all over North America, Joel McKinley of the 3P's People, Processes and promotions, there seemed to be one that is always at the top of the charts 80% of the time. What are they talking about, Joel?

It's the people.

It's the people. And in the book by Dave Anderson out of Texas up your business, he said it's the people stupid. Somebody from Texas who doesn't mince word, he says it's the people stupid. And the bottom line is this, it is your people and you can only be satisfied with the best A players only. Right?

Right.

And yeah, you should be world class, but so should every one of your your team members. So how can you use AI to help in your attraction, recruiting and interviewing aspect in your business? Think about that for just a minute. And that's what we want to help with today. Right Joel?

Right.

And we've had a very deep conversation about this over the last two days based on things that are going on with our current members who are in pursuit of the top levels. Let me give you a quote just to seed the conversation from Stephen Hawking. Stephen said AI will Create a winner take all market. The companies that adopt AI will win, and those that don't will lose. Pretty simple, right? Right. I mean, what is it you want? Do you want to win or lose?

Well, you asked me that question before. Do you like to win or do you hate to lose? And I like both.

Exactly. But, you know, I think the majority of the time I like to win. So. And then Peter Demonda said, will be two times two types of companies at the end of this decade, within the next 10 years or sooner, two types of companies. Those that are fully utilizing AI and those that will be out of business. And we don't want anybody within our influencer circles to be out of business. We want you to be fully utilizing what it offers and brings to the table. But the journey of a thousand miles, Joel, begins with single step. A single step. So at the end of the day, you've got to take the single steps. So we were masterminding in the beautiful state of Washington recently with all of our members, and we were having a very robust conversation concerning AI. And I will suggest that many of you out there may not have even gone into OpenAI.com.

Which is one of the main portals for artificial intelligence or chat GPT, which gives you the data to be able to begin to mine. Okay? So everybody is now aware of it, at least in our circles, and we want to make sure that robustly, it's available to all of you. Because, you know, the topic here is very simple. Your next A player.

Should include attracting, recruiting, and interviewing them via AI. You should absolutely be using it to attract, recruit, and interview. It's an absolute huge opportunity. And if you're not taking action, they're missing the opportunity. Right.

Well, they'll be going to another agency.

Exactly. Who is.

Using AI to their greatest advantage. So in that mastermind, we were brainstorming about how can we use AI in our attraction and recruiting phase to find our next A player for our agencies. And so the key to AI is prompts. Okay, so you log into the portal, you type in a prompt, and there's lots of other supplemental programs that you can add on to your AI portal. We're not going to go into that much detail here today, maybe in a future podcast. But the bottom line is this. Just grab an account, set yourself up. There's a free version. There's a paid version. I use the paid. Paid. Paid version. What? 20 bucks a month, Joel.

It'll break the bank if you're not prepared to use it.

Oh, no, bigger than that. It will Multiply exponentially the amount in your bank account when you make that $20 investment. Right, right. So you just log in and it's got a portal in which you type in the prompt. The key is the prompt to begin with. And the other item that we want everybody to keep in mind, and this is what we teach, right? The 8020 rule.

The Prieto principle.

The Pareto principle, absolutely. The 8020 rule is always in effect. Case in point, AI is not perfect. They say at the bottom of the page on the disclaimer that not everything that comes back from it is factual. So you've got to, if you will, outsmart it to an extent. But the prompts that you put in, the better the prompt, like a question, the better the.

The better the result. It's only as good as the questions you ask.

Exactly, exactly. So make sure you put in the prompt. So think about it like this in your recruiting, because if we go back to recruiting and hiring a world class team, and that's all you can be satisfied with. Because I've learned in multiple occasions over my journey in 36 years in the industry, twice has come up from extremely high performing and shall I say very wealthy people in business, one in the industry, one out that you're only as good as your weakest link.

And when we work with teams in our UPP circles, Joel, I mean, it's common, right? We ask them to rate their teams from top to bottom. And it's a rare, rare situation that we see the Destiny question to be. All yeses, correct, Right?

Yeah. And Mike, maybe, maybe people that are listening that are familiar about what the Destiny question is. What are you referring to there?

Well, you know, we ask our members one of the first things that we ask them to do when they join our programs. And by the way, if you're ever interested in talking more about that, possibly somewhere around this video or podcast is a link to our agency growth session. You can just schedule an agency growth session where we can talk more about it. But one of the first things that we do in setting them up in our program so we can best help them faster is to create a team matrix. And so we ask them to list all of our team members. All of their team members.

Okay.

And we find out some information on the team members. So we have a profile on every team member and then we ask them the question, okay, you've done a great job in building this agency. You've worked really, really hard to, to build this agency. Congratulations. But let's say that you decided to move on from the agency, sold the agency, had a bunch of money, a couple years later, decided to start all over again. Okay, if you decided to start all over again and money was not as much of an issue as it might have been in the past, would you rehire this person again? Yes or no?

That's the destiny question. And that's how you need to be thinking about this. Would you rehire them again, yes or no? And if you say no, you have a duty and responsibility to your agency entity and to every team member within your organization to do something about it.

Absolutely. Always be recruiting.

Always be recruiting. But let's, let's touch on that for just a minute. Joel, you know, based on your history as a leader in one of the top organizations in America that protects us all and gives us our freedom, you know, how important is it for a leader to take immediate action when somebody needs to be removed?

So, Mike, I would say that's probably one of the most critical things to maintaining a team. Because when you tell your team what the standard is, if they see you enforce anything less than that, you have effectively changed the standard across the entire organization.

Wow. That brings to a lighter conversation that I was just having yesterday with a member who is a fairly new top of the ladder leader in an agency, a very well, nationally recognized agency. And we were talking about leadership and part of the conversation was as a leader in any organization, everybody on the team, and this was the situation because there was a weakest link. They're watching everything you do and everything you don't do and listening to everything you say and everything they don't say. Everything you don't say is a leader. Right? So they're watching everything you do and everything you don't do. I hope you caught that. And listening to everything you say and everything you don't say. So when you don't take action.

Know you may lose culture. Bottom line. Let's get back to the matter at hand and help some agents. Sound good?

Let's go.

Thank you so much. So we're talking about recruiting and hiring a world class team only excellence. Because culture eats strategy and everything else for breakfast. So the journey to find the best, the next best a player for your organization starts, who is the best player? So case in point, back to AI. If you put in a question into the prompt.

Describe a top performing producer in the independent insurance agency business.

And their characteristics, their needed skills and their daily work habits.

How's that for a start? If you didn't catch that, stop this. Rewind. Make sure you Ink it, don't think it and give it a run. That will begin to regenerate answers for you. It will begin to regenerate thought process. And so one things you want to add on there, you might add on in the style of.

Insurance agency based on the personality of Mike Stromso. The thing is it's reflecting off of everything that's out there on the Internet and otherwise that it can pull from and it will build that into the culture message. Okay, let's start with the mission, right? The best. The things you must know about the best. Right. Joel, Create a summary of the job's core purpose and why the role exists. So if you create get that right message out of AI, it's going to.

Meet people where they are where they.

Are and facts tell and stories sell. So anyway, why is that? Why message important?

Well, so Mike, I, I asked you before we started the podcast, I said, mike, how do you sell to people and it's stories, right? Well, if you have the characteristics and, and everything else about that a player, you can tell a story that speaks right to their soul and make them the hero of their own journey, which is where everyone wants to be. And if they can be that hero in your agency, where are they going to the top? Just craft that story. And it's amazing, Mike. I was playing with with chat GBT with my kids and you sent me a smiley ball. I said, I typed it in there. Tell me a story about a smiley ball walking down the street. And it, it crafted an entire story I could read with my kids.

Amazing.

I cannot do that for recruiting to tell them that story and you could turn it into a video or whatever you want.

That is amazing. And what you're doing is you're giving them that unlimited mindset to think bigger than they ever thought possible into the future.

That's fantastic. So let's keep going. Go ahead.

We, we talked about, you know, how does every job description read? It says you must do this and it's some bullet points behind it.

That's what everybody else does. Look what everybody else is doing. Do the exact opposite.

A hundred percent. Be different. Stand out from the crowd. Rise above the crowd. That rare air up at the top is a phenomenal place to be.

You know why not very many people up there.

There's not many people up there because they can't handle it. Don't let that be you. Let's get going. So the key point is to tie meaning and purpose to your candidates or your potential candidates self identity, a result they're looking for results. Wages paid for a specific result. What is the result they should deliver to point? High performance requires clarity. Higher for vital functions, not titles. So again, back to the prompts. Joel. Right. What is the prompt you're going to put into AI next?

Show.

What a high performing independent insurance agency producer looks like. What are their vital functions, what are their key responsibilities on a daily basis and what makes them the highest performing.

Based on the style of Stromso Insurance Agency and the personality of Mike Stromso which might be the leader and see what you get that's going to help you pull back information to craft your message. Back to the 8020 rule.

You can't take 100 of what it gives back to you and run with that. You've got to tweak it and flavor it to meet what you want to accomplish based on your goals and responsibilities. Anything to add on that so far, Joel?

Yeah, Mike. I mean it's it. Everyone can go to the movie theater and watch a movie and critique it and say this wasn't great, they should have changed this. But how many people can actually write or directed produce a movie? Very few people. So let, let AI create the movie that you go through and critique and then just tweak it and make it an Emmy winner or whatever they call the cat. The award ceremony.

Right, Right, exactly. Yeah. The Emmys make it easy for you. Yeah. And so the number three thing that the A players, the very best must possess her skills. You've got to fit for the position higher evidence, not hope. Proven skills and only proven skills and a track record. So again back to AI Use AI what are the, what are the position skills for the highest performing independent insurance agency CSRS in America and what is the track record of these agents based on the style of Stromso Insurance Agency under the leadership style of Mike Stromso as an example to start and be creative on this, I mean, you know, make it your own, add your own words and prompts. Mess with it, you're not going to break it. Right. Fantastic. So the attributes fit for the position, the culture and the leader. Not just the best player, but the right best player. That's where you looking to use this information to reach the right best player. Because a best person in the wrong culture is still the wrong best person. And of course the big one, which AI may not be able to eek out. This comes more in the interview process. Right, right. Is heart. They've got to have the heart because you're looking to hire patriots, not mercenaries. Thank you for being a patriot, Joel McKinley. Okay, so with that being said, use this to craft what you're looking for. Your ideal client, or excuse me, ideal candidate, ideal employee candidate, as an example, to craft your ideal team member candidate avatar, your ideal candidate avatar, use this to craft it because this will identify exactly what you're looking for. And then you got to stick to your ideal candidate avatar through the interviewing process and make sure you share it with your team as well. Because the late Steve Jobs said, will they fall in love with Apple? Meaning the candidates, will they fall in love with Apple? If they do, everything else will take care of itself. That's why this is such a refined skill and craft. But it's not as difficult as some people perceive it. Right, Joel? Right. So, and Simon Sinek said in his book starts with why when your why becomes big enough, your how it becomes easy. Right, Easy.

Yep.

Create that why story with the fact customers will never love a company.

Until the employees love it first. That's why you should only be satisfied with the best, not the best available. Okay, so recruiting and hiring a world class team and then it, it's up to us once we craft that message and the ideal candidate avatar to sell them once we get them to the interviewing table. Right, Right. So you know there's five things that the best players are looking for. The people. So again, AI. And you've done some research about AI this morning in your own study and you found a lot of things based on your study this morning. Okay, we'll get to that at the end. Let's hang on for that for a minute. So number one is the people. Okay, this is what you're selling them. We've got a phenomenal culture that we protect. A team, a sense of belonging, a special community, a culture with great people. So back to describe the highest performing top independent insurance agencies in America and what their people look like and describe their communities which are high performing and what the highest performing cultures attributes are. Now I know that was a big mouthful, but pause this, go back and write down your own thoughts and notes and test that it will help you get clear on telling the story during your interviewing to the candidates. And the best people are looking for a challenge, right, Joel?

Absolutely.

Yeah. So the best people are inspired by big ideas, big goals and big challenges. They want a chance to do something great. Don't we all want to achieve at the highest level? Well, they want to.

They want to join a team that's going somewhere.

Exactly right. They want to be part of something special.

So make that you. There is no plan B for your A game and your A team. They want to be part of something significant that makes a difference, that makes an impact. Case in point, our core purpose.

What is it here at UPP, Joel?

Impacting people's lives personally and professionally?

100% we want to make that impact. And they crave a yardstick by which to be measured again, feed it into AI and use it. How do you do that? Well, show the performance characteristics and statistics of the highest performing account managers or customer service representatives in the highest performing agencies, in the highest performing independent insurance agency agencies and in America. You get the gist. Is this becoming starting to come clear for everybody here? This is what we want you to do, not think about. We want you to do it because it only starts with a decision. A decision and action. Exactly. Exactly. So they're looking for an opportunity. The best people want to see a pathway to a better future. The best people, they want to grow, they want to feel better about themselves. Why do people involve invest in self. Self improvement and high performance self development?

Because they want to. They want to, they have a vision in their mind of where they want to go.

Yep. And they want to feel better about themselves.

Right.

When you start doing that, when you start investing in yourself and personal development, you begin to become better. Okay. And so. And then the last thing that you know they're looking for is money. But bigger than that, how does your recruiting ad read?

Yep.

Right. And we were talking about that. So make sure, back to the ideal candidate avatar that you're going to be using AI to help you craft and refine and to make world class. And then you're going to learn how to sell the best people based on your research. I mean, if you're thinking, wow, this is a lot of time, et cetera, et cetera, I will suggest that if you focus and shut your stinking phone off and close your email, just those two things and give this 30 minutes, you're going to be blown away. But it's got to be that focus time, right, Joel?

Absolutely.

Yeah. So how does your recruiting ad read? Does it start with money or something else? Go ahead.

Right. Well, I mean Mike, you can teach people skills, but you can't make someone into a person they're not.

So when you're crafting this, find the person you want in your agency to help you drive forward and you can teach them skills, you can teach them how to do it. The insert your agency way of doing business.

Right. And I will suggest in all transparency, there is A lot of agencies out there that are changing ownership or transitioning or being sold or being sold in another way. There's a buyout, an earn out provision, normally over three years with the existing owner, they go on to another ownership team and they stay put and they're in a buyout period, whatever that is. At the end of the day, there's still a responsibility and people when that happens.

Aren'T necessarily satisfied anymore with the way things are going. Okay. Because others bring in their own agenda and their way of doing things and et cetera, et cetera. And in the words of some that I've talked to all over North America in the last couple of years, many of them feel like just a number. So that is a huge opportunity. And I'll also share some feedback from the trenches. And within the last week, there's a lot of carriers that are downsizing and there's going to be a lot of talent that is out there. So how are you going to use the power of AI to attract, recruit and interview as possibly your next A player? Sky's the limit. I mean, you're the opportunity before you. I, I just can't be more excited for everybody out there that's willing to take action. Joel, let's begin to wrap this up and, and you recently had an adventure out there with some ducks. And I'll let you finish up with that, but I want you to share just a couple of pieces based on your research this morning, how people are also using AI. And it may not be for recruiting, but how are they using in business?

Well, some of the things were getting over writer's block. I mean, how many times have you sat down with a white piece of paper and started to write out, oh, no. And if you could just throw a few of those keywords in as a prompt, just something to get you started. It's very easy to go through with a red pen and fix it than it is to go through with a black or blue pen and start writing it from scratch, also refining what you've already written to add some key words or a key tone or speaking to a specific audience, utilizing it as your assistant, not to take your job. Make AI your assistant, not the new you. And remember, it's only as good as the questions you ask.

Great points. Thank you so much. The power of three. Three phenomenal points. And we were also discussing a conversation with a member just this week who is looking at a, a portal, which is an AI portal, okay. That you invest in to actually answer the phone and take messages that are incoming to the agency while all the other team members are helping either prospects or current customers. AI is going to do that. I mean, there are bots out there. There's custom built AI bots, there's hired bots out there from companies like Quandary IO. I mean, the sky is absolutely the limit. And ultimately at the end of the day, who owns that responsibility?

They do.

They do. You do.

And Mike, we also had one of our, one of our platinum coaching members that invested in a training on AI specifically. And the trainer set up a video camera, recorded herself giving the training and ran AI software through it. And the AI pulled out those 60 second clips of great little gold nuggets that she's going to use as all of her marketing material over the next few months. Already done. Does not need to be created just based off of one lesson. She trained. Incredible. Aha. Saver.

Aha. I hope everybody caught that.

Fantastic stuff. I will also say this based on my use of AI, sometimes AI will come back and say I can't read videos as an example. Well, it's simple. I mean, we use Rev.com R E V Victor Robert edwardvictor.com for transcription. And actually I don't need to go there. I mean many cases I just open up my Outlook or a Word document, I click dictate and I record it and just let it transcribe. You put that transcription into the prompt portal and let it rip. Then it will begin to bounce off of everything else and will craft or begin to craft your message or your story that you're going to use in any aspect. The focus of this is though, we want you to think about just. And we'll wrap this with Shane Eastman, our high performing platinum member who did this, sitting in Mastermind. He saw it from a vision standpoint. He's going and he typed in exactly what I told him about finding his next great team member, okay, for the future, about what they look like. And it popped back an ad for that person. And he's reading the ad out loud and he goes, oh my goodness, this is incredible.

Boom.

Like less than, less than a minute right there. It was now our, our encouragement and I want to encourage everybody with this as we wrap this up today. The 8020 rule is always in effect. So that ad comes back. Don't just take it for gospel. You've got to go in and do some work and tweak it and add your own flavor and your own beliefs and your other messaging and the why story that you want to add into that and then hit the marketplace. And we've also learned have it create multiple ads with different titles, possibly for almost the same position. Right, right. And use that with some of our partners that we use in the industry. The sky's the limit, friends. But let me reiterate. Like Peter Damanda said, there will be two kinds of companies at the end of this decade. Those that are fully utilizing AI and those that are out of business. We want you to be fully utilizing it to its highest and best use. And like Stephen Hawking said, I will create a winner take all the market. Those companies that adopt AI will win, and those that don't will lose. Friends, we don't want any of you to lose. We want you to win. We want you to be on the top of the stand with your arms in the air with that winning pose because you won. And that's all we want for you, Joel. Anything as we wrap it up. Anything else, we wrap it up today.

If you want to reach 100 of the marketplace, if you want to reach 100 of the prospects, you have to use 100 of the ways. And this is the new way. And you may be missing out on a big portion of the marketplace or the prospects.

100%. It only takes that one statement or sentence to convert the situation in somebody's mind and to push them your way. Remember, there's only one person standing between you and success and everything that you would ever want in this world. It's right there in the mirror of truth. Make sure that you make that decision to take action. OpenAI.com Just to start, there's so much out there. But.

When'S the best time to plant a tree?

Yesterday.

Yesterday, right? Or today if you want the shade into the future. So plant that tree today. Take that action. And thank you. Thank you for being here. Joel McKinley. Thank you. Thanks for your contributions to so many as our director of AFY Accountability for you in our unstoppable profit producer program. We personally believe that there is no other coaching program in America that has accountability built into it. And it is a key component of your progress and your reach towards the top. And we want to help you with that. So thank you for all you do.

Thanks.

Fantastic. So, hey, 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 what we do@unstoppableprofitproducer.com and I want to. I'm super pumped and excited. We're within 47, 48 days of our Be Unstoppable Boot Camp. You can learn more about our live event Be Unstoppable Boot Camp at be unstoppable boot camp.com it's going to be off the charts. It will change your life if you choose to invest and be there. So go to be unstoppable boot camp.com and check it out. Lock down your ticket, lock down your travel and your hotel room so we can help you. We're so excited for this year, aren't we, Joel?

42 days and 22 hours, Mike.

42 days I was off. So anyway, keep check it out at be unstoppable boot camp.com if you're interested in attending that or anything else we do to grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. Do it. Because everything we do is designed to share our best money making strategies developed over 36 years of research in our industry. 100% of the time I've been a proud independent insurance agent and we just share it all with you, okay? So you can live life on your own terms. That's our goal for you. To have that peace of mind, that sweet freedom that sometimes is very elusive. And please make sure you subscribe to our podcast. Just go to unstoppableprofitpodcast.com go up to the top, click, subscribe and if you've gotten great value out of this podcast, please forward it to somebody else that you care about, that you know, another agent or somebody in business, period, so they can continue to grow and learn to thank you for joining us. And we're out there on all the podcast portals, Spotify, Apple podcasts, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Apple or excuse me, Amazon Podcast and so much more. So we can't wait to help you. We can't wait to walk by your side as we head into this amazing future before us. So I'm excited.

Usual, you know, Mike.

That's right. Now here's the bottom line. You got this. We believe in you. We will see you on the next podcast. Take care everybody.

See ya.

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