Episode 23 : Snail Mail Your Team

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give you all the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Millionaire agents and entrepreneurs think and act differently than others. This podcast will give you a simple, proven three step blueprint to grow your business. Over the past 31 years of research in your industry, Mike Stromso has created a unique philosophy called the three people process and purpose. This outside the box thinking and guidance provides agency entrepreneurs just like you the knowledge and tools you can quickly implement to explode your agency business. He has been there, done that, and he's still doing it. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are 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 Stromco.

Greetings everybody. This is Mike Stromco. Welcome you to episode 23 of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I'm coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we're going to be talking about sending snail mail to your team. Yes, that's exactly what I said. You heard it right, sending snail mail to your team. Remember, the definition of team is together, everybody achieves more. And there's a certain crowd out there which may be hearing what I just said and they're going, this guy's off his freaking rocker again. I am off my rocker again. And you know why I'm off my rocker? Because being off my rocker works. And you know, if you're in the digital age and all you're doing is digital and you're saying I'm crazy, okay, I am crazy. But you know what? I'm growing my business. I'm creating financial wealth and security and I'm having more freedom to live life on my own terms and late. Friends, that's what I want for you. What this means for you is you will have this incredible peace of mind when you lay your head to rest at night, when you get up in the morning, you're going to be able to, if you will, live the dream. And that's all we want for you. These are things that actually work in today's world. So let me pose it to you like this. When is the last time that you did business with a business other than somebody you know in our realm? When's the last time that you did business with a business and you received a handwritten thank you note in the mail?

Friends, that's exactly what I get. When I asked this question all the time, silence. You know why? Because it doesn't happen anymore. Nobody cares. And remember, no one cares how much you know until they know you care. It's absolutely critical. And who's more important other than maybe your faith, Your spouse, your family, your friends, then your teammates? Yes, your clients are important. Without clients, you have no income. I get that. But you have no teammates, you have no peace of mind. You have no freedom. You have nobody to help you. I could work 24 hours a day too, but I got other things to do. Right. We only have one life to live. We only have the same 24, seven friends. Let me share with you a couple tips that we've used over the years that work really, really well, that make all the difference. If you've done your job in your recruiting and your hiring process with the first P. Alright, Our leadership, our strong encouragement and our motivation is that you should never stop.

At the office. What I mean by that is you should never stop reaching out and touching your teammates. Only at the office. Alright? So, you know, people have asked me in the past, why are you snail mailing anything to their house when you see them Monday through Friday? It's all about spontaneity. I want to hit them at a moment when they least expect it. And you need a visual. Liken it when you buy a special gift for somebody that you love, like your spouse, significant other. When you bought that special birthday present for your kids. I remember one of our kids, the most recent holidays around the side of the house, they wheeled out a motorcycle for one of their kids. The kid was almost doing backflips. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I got the thing on video. They were all over the place. That spontaneity, that moment of impact, I will guarantee you 20 years from now they'll be talking about that again and again and again. What is that spontaneous moment? And that's what it comes down to. Are you hitting your teammates at that spontaneous moment? Sure. You could hand them an envelope. Or even better that, more personal than that is send them an email. That's it. Send them. Send them an email.

But what if something shows up at their door unannounced?

Maybe on a Saturday when they're enjoying their weekend. Now what's this? Oh, it's an envelope that has no return address. Well, I'm really curious about that. Or if it's a box like I'm going to tell you about in just a couple of minutes that's got a real significant meaning to it. Hear what I said? A significant meaning and impact.

When's the last time you did it? It's so much more effective to have that surprise element with a significant meaning and impact. Let me throw you some ideas that you can implement right now. Alright, so everybody's got a work anniversary. We just got done awarding another Inspiring Happiness Award to, in the eyes of many of our teammates, one of the most important teammates we've got, which is our director of welcome. And we've had lots of directors of welcome over the years. If any of them are listening to this, we love you very much. But, you know, this gal is awesome. And it's the opinion of many that she's one of the most awesome we've had and we couldn't be more grateful to her and for her. All right, so when you have these work anniversaries, what are you doing for your team? So we last year created the Inspiring Happiness Award. Why that? Because it's a direct result of our branding efforts, which is another podcast which will be coming up in the near future. Okay. So as a result of our branding efforts, it was determined that we inspire happiness as an organization. So when a teammate survives another year, we give them another addition to their Inspiring Happiness Award, and it's a big plaque that sits on their wall. And this gal, already after just a year, has so many awards, she doesn't have place on her desk for them all because she has earned it.

Another thing that we've done in the past is I like to every year do something different and I like to every year do something more significant if I can, if it makes sense. Alright, so a few years ago, I was teaching judgment classes in our organization. Yes, we are a training facility. We are a training facility. Let's be clear on that. We can never train enough. So back as I was growing the business, I recognized that our team needed to be making more judgment calls on their own. All right? And so, because they were coming to me way too often and saying, hey, what do I do about this? And hey, what I do about that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you come in my office, I want you to come with an answer too. If you're not bringing an answer, go away and come back when you have an answer. All right? Back then, I didn't know that. Now I know it today. Alright? So I figured back then I needed to have a training on judgment calls. So this was a two or three.

Alright. On how to make the right judgment calls. But it was well worth the investment. Why? Because of the fact that they learned to make their own calls and they don't come to me hardly anymore with anything because they've been trained and taught. Alright, back to that. During that judgment training of two or three months, I had an aha moment. And so I told a story about a time that I had heard the thought process, an 11 day. Alright, so think about it. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, right? You've all heard that. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, what is it? It's a 10, right? Well, I had learned years ago that there's something even better than a 10. It's called an 11 day. Alright, so I positioned them in that training that day and I said, let's think about it like this. I'm going to go around the room real quick and I'm going to name, you know, by name. I want you to tell me, no right or wrong answer, just brain sprint. What does your 11 day look like? I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, let's say you get to have a day that's an 11 off the flipping charts. What would you be doing that day? Alright, so I'm going to say go Susie. And I'm writing down all the things that they said, you know, oh, I'm sitting by the pool, I'm enjoying a cold beverage with my boyfriend and we're just, you know, getting something nice to eat. Would you have a nice relaxing day? All right, fantastic. Right Joni? Oh, I like to go out to the wineries and I like to do this and I like to go shopping and blah blah, blah. All right, you know Joe, and he goes on with his 11 day. So all of a sudden for everybody on the team, I had a list of the things that they would want to be doing in their quote 11 day. So the next year I had this list and what did I do? I created a very special gift in a nice FedEx box that was total. I think my budget was like 100 to 150 bucks a person. And I created a gift package that had contents surrounding their 11 day. And I wrote them a quick note and I shipped it to their house spontaneously, it magically arrived. Friends, you would not believe the comments and the stories that I got when that happened. Yes, it's possible. Other things that I've done in the past as they got to that anniversary, if it was a two year worker anniversary, if it was a three year work anniversary, if it was an eight year work anniversary, if it was a ten year work anniversary. I gave them $100 bill for every year. Why? Because we could. Why? Because they've earned it. I mean, the sky is the limit. All right. And what are you doing for their birthday? And what do you know about their spouse? And what do you know about their kids? I just got done studying the five.

I'm going to look it up for you real quick. I'll get back to in a second. But.

The five languages of appreciation in the workplace. The five languages of appreciation in the workplace. I thought I had a pretty good grip on things. Friends, the day we stop learning is the day we stop growing. The day we stop learning is the day we stop growing. So I'm studying this because one of my bicycling buddies told me about it and I'm studying. I'm going, oh my gosh, I missed the boat.

What I missed was, you know, just giving gifts doesn't always mean that's how they like to be appreciated. So while it's good to do this kind of stuff, understand how your team likes to be appreciated as well. And so what are you doing for their work anniversary? What are you doing for their birthday?

What are you doing when you're leaving on town? Leaving town on vacation. This podcast could not come at a better time because I'm going on a very extended trip here in the upcoming future. So I need to get on my game.

Direct mail a campaign to move you towards your goal as an example. That's another way that you can direct mail your team at their home. Alright. One year we had set a goal of getting 90 new applications per month. We had nine team members at the time. So we divided 90 by nine to reach a value of $10. We included a written example of the goal with the $10 bill attached and every single month to the team's home. It arrived every single month. The goal sheet with the $10 bill as an example. It was a monthly reminder. This is our goal and we need to get there.

Consistency. Repeating the message consistently. The $10 represented that number and when multiplied equal their monthly goal for attracting new business. Then we sent out another follow up, another motivational note. Two weeks later they received a motivational note and a reminder every two weeks all year long to keep the goal in the crosshairs. Think about it like this. We too use automation. Don't get me wrong, we use automation to send out multiple programmed reminders to our team strategically and systematically on certain days of the week. However, I'm not naive enough to think that they're reading every one of our messages, how quickly they get deleted. Trust me. Why? Because our back end tells us how many people read it. And I am bummed out to say that not everybody reads every message that we send out to them systematically. Yeah, that's a great idea. Thank you for working through this with me. So let me go off. I know. Sos. Just SOS is my squirrel that sits on my desk. He's going, don't go there. But I'm going to go there anyway. Be quiet for a minute. All right, so here's the deal. So if we identify it in the back end, we identify that they don't, you know, look at the messaging and follow the protocol. Could we make that part of their bonus? Maybe yes, maybe no. Anything's possible. By the way, do me one favor, and I did this today. Some other coaching clients that I was on the phone with earlier today. So write down the word. You should always have something to write with and write on. By the way, you should be writing, hopefully, notes based on what you're learning to implement here. Okay. Write down the word impossible. I'll give you a second.

All right, between the M and the P, I want you to draw a line. What do you see? You're right. I'm possible. Anything's possible if you believe it and have faith. All right.

What about a surprise gift when they've accomplished an agency goal for the year?

The sky is the limit, my friends. You know, I've got a number of.

Additional notes and things that we send out or we leave on desks and so forth from a place called successories.com. i'll go and drop that. Successories.com. they're thank you notes, and it says to from. It says, thank you for stepping up. Thank you for getting the job done. Thank you for being awesome. Thank you. Thank you for your commitment to excellence. Thank you for being there. Thank you for rising to the challenge. Thank you for doing your best. Thank you for thinking outside the box. Thank you for saving the day. Thank you for doing what's right. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for doing what others couldn't do. Here's a high five note. While you deserve it, you were right. You nailed it. You won. You took one for the team. You thought outside the box. You stood your ground and you sealed the deal for us. You did what's right. You're awesome. Oh.

There'S a pep talk. They might need a pep talk sometimes, right? Why you need this? Because you got this. To err is human. CEST la vie. It could be worse. You're awesome. It's not you, it's.

Haters be hating. It's an opportunity. One day at a time. But if this didn't work, hit a pillow, eat blank. You can fill in the blank there. Keep smiling, stay busy. Live and let live and learn and move on. Friends, the sky's the limit, you know, but now my brain is churning. You could create a USB drive with all kinds of special messaging. It could be a video from the team. It could be, you know, a historical timeline video about their time. I mean, the sky is the limit. And by the way, one of the greatest messaging effects of my life. Pay close attention to this. It was back when I first started learning about marketing, back last century, in 1999. All right, I got an envelope in the mail. It was an oversized envelope. And inside that oversized envelope was another 9 by 12 envelope. On the outside of that envelope was a post it note. And on that post it note, it said, read this while you're alone. Well, being the obedient person that I am, and I'll get to that messaging in just a minute, I put it aside on my desk. I waited till after 5 o'. Clock. When it got to be 5 o', clock, I ran out and it was me, me alone. I started from scratch. I was all by myself. I ran out and I locked the door. After the door was closed, after 5 o', clock, I ran back in my office and I opened that. I grabbed that envelope and I was going to read it while I was alone. I was being obedient. And I did what it said. I opened it up. It was a marketing letter that I read while I was alone. Now, here's the key. Because I read it at that moment while I was alone, I did exactly what it asked me to do. I took action, followed the direction of that person who soon became my mentor at the time. And my life, personally and professionally have never been the same. You see, friends, there is something about being offline in this particular realm that magically makes the difference. And that's all we want for you, right? If all it takes to help your team feel important and needed is to spend a little time, a little money, a little paper, and invest in some postage, I'm going to say it's one very wise investment. I was on the phone with some other coaching clients today.

And the conversation was some of the people were having troubles with their first piece. And let me go through that just in case this is your first time on the podcast. The First P is people. The second P is processes. The third P is promotion. People, processes and promotion in that order. Some people are having with the first P. Some people are having fear about leaving town on a vacation. God forbid. There was some other people on the call that just learned how to do that. They were just on a nine day vacation and it turned out that they couldn't get connected by Internet. Oh darn. They had to take the whole time with their family and enjoy themselves. Guess what? It worked out. It all worked out. They'd sent me note after that time. They said, we had such an incredible time of getting rejuvenated with our family. We can now see why things are so important.

Another person on the call said, hey, I'm good. You know, I can completely walk away anytime that I want because my team has my back. Friends.

That'S what this means for you.

Your team will have your back. There is no better feeling. Case in point, we're far from perfect here. But the bottom line is the majority of the team has our back and I could not be more grateful. What a comfort it is to be able to say whatever I need to say to the majority of the team members. And I don't have to worry about what we affectionately say going south. They've got our back. What a blessing that is what this means for you. My friends. If you will take the effort to take care of your team, they will take care of you, they'll take care of your clients, they'll take care of your communities.

And more importantly than that, you're going to have peace of mind. You're going to have peace of mind for multiple reasons. Number one, knowing that you're giving back to them for them taking such good care of you. Because I know, you know what I'm going to talk about in a second here. We carried on our shoulders 24, 7, 365, don't we? I mean, yeah, we might go away. I'm going to be gone for extended period of time. I'm not going to be looking at anything but it's going to be on my shoulder. I'm going to be going to mountains in the middle of Europe on my bicycle. But it's going to be on my shoulder anyway. I'm going to be thinking about that stuff, you know what I'm talking about. So pay it back, pay it forward, give back. So vitally important. And you know what I've learned from my really, really good friend, Alex Sheen. Not really good friend. I've learned a lot from Alex Sheen.

About the fact that the giver receives as much back as the recipient sometimes. All right. And we're excited about that. Remember this. To wrap it up today, people are silently waiting to be led.

Lead them. They're counting on you.

Nobody else can do it like you can. I hope this helps you today. I hope this gave you some massive takeaways. And most importantly, let your creative juices flow. If you got a better idea, fantastic. Like I was talking about with some other coaching clients recently, it's the action that makes all the difference. Don't think about it. Don't talk about it. Just take action.

That will continue to make the difference. Yes, there's going to be wins. And yes, there's going to be lessons. This is Mike Somso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. I will see you on the next podcast. Until then, make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets because you said you would and go take action. Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast. com. Now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.