Episode 230: Unified Patriots in Your Business

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. This is going to be super special and I've got my podcast partner, Mr. Joel McKinley. Hey Joel.

Hey Mike.

Welcome back and thank you for being here again because we talk a lot about the teams of our Unstoppable Nation members and everything going on with it in the teams because we know that it's the balance within a team and the excellence within a team and everything in that concept, if you will, that leads to them executing world class processes and systems and simply promoting the heck out of it. So, you know, we, we thought of in a recent conversation, the conversation that I had with the founder, longtime client of a $1.3 billion revenue company who told me the key to his Success creating a $1.3 billion revenue company from zero was this. When I evaluate all the decisions I've made and how I got there, there's one common theme and it's team. You can't win if everyone does not have the same vision. I'm only successful because the balance you need within a team. After all, you're only as good as your weakest link. And in talking about that balance within a team led us to a further definition, a deeper dive. What kind of balance do we have? And we ended up with a conversation about patriots versus mercenaries. Right? And here we are. And we want to share these thoughts with all of you about Patriots versus Mercenaries. And you want to. If you are building a world class organization of excellence, you've got to have a team of patriots. Do you agree, Joel McKinley?

A hundred percent.

Okay. So I thought it might be a good tone setter if we will. And I want to definitely volley to you for just a minute, you know, in the speaking opportunities that I have all across the nation to help independent insurance agency leaders and teams for that fact understand.

We've got two thoughts on Patriots versus Mercenaries. Patriots, they fight for the cause, they fight with their heart and they're loyal to the end. And if you look at the definition of a patriot, and I looked it up in preparing for this, a patriot is a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. So convert that slightly to business.

Vigorously supports their business and is prepared to defend it. Right. Versus a mercenary. A mercenary fights for money, fights for the paycheck and can be bought away at any time. Or mercenary defined in the dictionary primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics. So as we convert these thoughts to business, Joel McKinley, what thoughts do you have though?

I was reading that Mike, and that was part of a training that you gave to, you know, the platinum members. And I was looking at. And what is the cause? You have to define that it has to be an ideal or a purpose worthy of something they believe in their heart. The heart it comes the, the strongest emotion, which is love. And if they're going to fight with all of their heart and be loyal to the end, it must be a worthy cause. And it has to be something larger than themselves because mercenaries fight for themselves.

And we talk about that as we help independent insurance agency leaders and owners develop their core values and their core purpose. All of that is bigger than money, right? And we want to help them create a business that is legacy type that will, you know, live beyond them because that's a true business. Because if you're just working within a business, you simply have a job. So absolutely what kind of thoughts should be permeating through throughout a team to build a team of patriots? You have a depth of experience in this area. So let's, let's get into it and talk more about that.

Right? So I mean there's, I've seen this online, on social media and everywhere before is the soldier fights not because we hate what is in front of us, rather because we love what is behind us. And I would challenge that because in the fight, it's not what is behind us. That's the why, it's who is beside us, what you're truly fighting for. You join because you love what is behind you when you go forward, but ultimately becomes about the team members and building that relationship. And they join that organization because of the why.

It's. And it's not that we join because we hate the other options they make. There may be great other agencies in your area, but they join because they love your option.

And you know, like Steve Jobs says.

My job was simply getting them to fall in love with Apple because if I can get that to happen, the rest will take care of themselves, will take care of itself. Okay? And Simon Sinek said customers can never love a company until the employees or team members love it first. Right. So that's the cause. Right, right. So identifying this cause and making it become reality within a business really starts where, I mean, some of the things that you're referring to, you know, go back to your days as an Army Ranger and, and you know, all right, I'll just say it. Stripping down young men and building them up in your way, the army way at the time. But, you know, so how do we get them into it? I mean, identifying the COD cause at the heart, what's the key to that, in your opinion?

So, Mike, I mean, ultimately, you know, they join because of the ideals of the country. And when you think about, think about the country, I mean, that's the easiest way to think about patriotism. And we know what the ideals of the country are. And we're not perfect, we make mistakes. But the ideal of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and freedom that we all have, and when something happens to our country, we are always united in conflict. We are always united in a purpose. And it's only when that is absent that those unifying factors.

When that's absent is when we fight. You have to know what the core values are. And when you bring a new training in, they get a creed and a motto that they share. They get their core values, the Army's core values, their individual motto that unifies them and then they repeat it over and over again until it becomes part of them.

Yeah. And for anybody out there, I know this is running maybe a little bit deep, but hey, think about it like this. Before moving into recruiting patriots, you know, it's paramount that we define the core values and the, the, the purpose and cause of your insurance agency business. So that's the, you know, the pre work, if you will, before you get ready to recruit. Because, you know, you want people to see that and say, I can envision myself spending a career at this agency. So, you know, part of that purpose might be safeguarding families from financial despair or ensuring a business thrive immense, immense, amidst, you know, the good times and sometimes the not so good times. So that's just part of it. So that pre work is absolutely critical. Correct.

Which is, you know, your core values and your core purpose. Those. That's the DNA of your agency.

Right? Exactly.

And so go ahead and sharing your DNA of your agency, sharing what that looks like, projecting who you are is going to attract someone that aligns with what you believe in, with what they already believe in. And theirs is based on their influences, their experiences, and, you know, quite often their lessons or failures to that time and if those things align, you just found yourself a patriot.

Exactly. Exactly. And they will fight to the end for you if that is in alignment.

But it has to be clearly defined. And that's part of your interviewing and hire hiring and onboarding process, is finding out what theirs are and also sharing what yours are, which is what attracts them.

Yeah. And back to core values for just a minute. I mean, here, our up team, it was about 10 months ago. We had identified our core values sometime before that, and then we decided to take it a step deeper. And each of us remember this, right. Each went through and defined in our own words with our. From our own hot heart and our own thoughts what the core values meant to us. And it was. It was a great exercise because each team member had their different definition. Right, Right.

And what was really incredible about that experience, Mike, was that if nobody's name was attached to it, I would have been able to pick out who defined it in which way, because it matched their personality and their character, and it spoke to what was in their heart and their minds, and they all worked together at the same time.

Yeah. And remember this, everyone, it's okay to disagree. I mean, everybody doesn't have to be 100 in agreement all the time. That's a healthy culture and environment, and that's the other word that you know is contributory here. It's a healthy culture and environment positioned to be able to grow and to fight for a cause together. You just mentioned recruiting and interviewing and the such. So let's touch on that for just a minute. Once a. An agency's cause and core values and their purpose is etched in stone, so to speak, or clearly identified, and they're aware of it and they have created a good presence surrounding that online and offline. I hope everybody picked that up. Key point, you got to put it out there online and offline so you can share it with people when need be. You've got to be prepared.

The focus on identifying individuals who resonate with all of this. So talk more about that. What comes to your mind there?

Well, Mike, with the online and offline, first is authentically share it. It needs. It doesn't need to look like a commercial. It just share it because it's who you are, not because you're trying to make yourself look like something you're not. Be who you are and you will attract people that are just like you and everything that you've become.

I love that. That's a great point. Authentically.

Share all of this online and offline, and it's okay. Not to be perfect, right?

It's better not to be perfect because people need to see how flossome you truly are.

There we go. And when we're fighting for a cause, you know, things won't always go right.

Right.

I mean, even though the United States is back to back world War champs, Mike, we've lost some battles, right?

But it's, it's not about losing the battles, it's about not losing the war.

Right? No, it's about winning the war.

Winning the war, Right.

We're there to win, Mike, not to lose.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Correction. See Blossom. I like that. So, and so we identify Patriots and they say, I love the cause. I love everything you stand for. It's in direct alignment with who I am as a person and I can certainly see myself as part of this team. I want to join your team. They join the team. By the way, let me just add one other little add on for you here. The war for marketplace talent, speaking of wars, is one at the interviewing table. I can't say that enough. So you've got to design the best questions for these potential Patriots or Patriots, who you want to bring onto your team to get to the core. Are they a Patriot?

Right. So just doing this on the fly, you know, I'm going to name three things for you potential candidate. I want you to rate them as far as importance on a, you know, know from 1, 2 and 3. I'm going to give you three things I want you to name. Number one, the most important one, number two, the next most important, and number three, the next most important. All right, I'm going to name the three things. Okay? It's the cause that we fight for, it's supporting your teammates and money. So candidate, go ahead and name those. If they say money is number one, that might be an indicator. I mean those, that's just an on the fly idea for all of you in the interview.

And at the same time, Mike, don't be afraid to dig deeper, ask follow up questions. People may tell you what you want to hear the first time.

And as you dig deeper, you may truly hear what they actually believe in their heart. Right.

And you know, the next great question is why, Right?

Or tell me a time in your life where supporting a team member has had a great or a deep impact on you.

Correct? 100% great stuff. So we've got the Patriots on the team. Patriots, because you know, you've had so much experience with Patriots as well, need.

To be trained constantly.

Training is like bathing is recommended Daily. So share more your more on your thoughts on training Patriots.

So, Mike, I. I mean, just from experience, when you're in the middle of something.

You'Re always going to revert back to what you've been trained. Because when it happens in the. In the. In a moment, in an instant, you revert back to the way you train. If you train lazy, you're going to perform lazy. If you train to the most difficult, rigorous standards, everything else will be easy.

Agency standards.

But let's de. Let's dig a little bit deeper. You just talked about digging deeper. Okay. So it's not only about training standards and excellence and skills and everything else, but sometimes it's more about, if you will, inducing and continually pulling out of them a sense of belonging and purpose. It's about fostering that environment, the cause that we're fighting for. Right, Right. So what might be an idea? And I know I kind of catch you on the fly here.

Of being able to do that. Thoughts?

So, Mike, like I was talking about earlier about, you know, the United States being united in conflict, you know, that's the reason that we were able to win the Second World War. Is everybody banded together under a unifying cause? So in your agency, are you giving your team a unifying purpose? Are you directing your team? Unifying focus?

And what is the mission and why is it important? A patriot wants to know why and why it's important. What am I doing and how is this making us move forward? What war is this helping us win?

Because ultimately, at the end of the day today, in today's business environment, in many, many ways, it's a bit of a war. I mean, with all love and respect to our carrier partners as an example, it. It's. Sometimes we're at war, right? They've got their own way of thinking and doing things. And. And we on the front lines.

Know that it's not the best way. They miss it because they're thinking about one thing and it's not what's going on in the front line sometimes. So we have to band together and we have to be unified in our front to take it up the ladder.

And speaking of that battlefield reference and the front lines leaders move to friction.

Wherever your team or your Patriots are experiencing friction, if you want to be the leader of your team, move to that friction to help push your team forward.

Fantastic. That's what leaders do. Right? And so let's jump into an example of leadership, because I've got some notes on that. You can only have what you're willing to become. Okay, a true patriot, living, breathing, the values of your agency. So it really starts with the leader.

Absolutely.

And leading by example. Okay. You've got to, in a way, exemplify your devotion and your commitment. Okay. And you've got to share that unwavering belief in the cause that you're leading people to that will inspire them.

Right.

Beautiful stuff. Other thoughts on that.

Mike, I actually have a question for you and I'm going to catch you a little off guard. So about, you know, patriotism is about serving, Serving a cause or serving a purpose. So when did you know that you wanted to pursue a path of serving others? In addition to that, what was it inside you that ignited your own patriotism?

Wow, that's a tough question.

Doesn't happen very often. I'm kind of speechless for a second. So in digesting that, you know, I'm thinking back to my early days. And I'm so privileged to have had a patriot father who took me into his businesses early on in my life. And they were both restaurant businesses. One was a Jack in the box and then the other one after that was a restaurant business that he kind of built from the ground up. And in both those instances, I guess we'll take Jack in the box for a second. I mean, he positioned me to hand food out through the drive through window. And he taught me to say smile and say thank you because, you know, you have to say thank you because we're grateful that they do business with us. Right. And I remember that when I did that, the people smiled back and said, you're welcome. And it was that, it was that reaction from those customers that really made me feel, this is awesome because I'm kind of, in a way, making their day.

Right.

And I better said connecting.

With those people. And then I learned it later on in the insurance agency business, I had to connect with people to be able to do business with them, to build those relationships, to protect everything they work so hard for. And, you know, I've had multiple situations. I had a bird, a building burned to the ground while the application was still on my desk. I mean, in my career, I mean, I've had multiple situations like that where I had to be there at possibly the worst moment of their life as far as insurance claims. So, you know, and that's when you need to be at your very best. So those early days of that and serving people at that higher level, no matter what, if it's one o' clock in the morning, you need to get up and drive out to the Scene you're. Because that building just burned. It's what you do. It's what you do. So than tough question, but thank you.

That might be a future interviewing and hiring question for, for some of our members.

That's a great idea. I don't know if everybody out there is just thinking it, but you may want to stop thinking it and ink that gold nugget.

So I mean if you're, if you're looking to hire a csr, when do they want to pursue a path of serving? What is it about service servicing someone who's in a time of need potentially.

Or you know, we've learned in our teaching of people out there in the business world and our own personal development growth. You want to hire evidence, not hope.

That's a writer downer.

So anyway, so hire. Speaking of hiring accidents to your, to your qu. To your comment. Thank you very much. How about this question during the interviewing phase, share with me a time when you went the extra mile for a client.

To over deliver in service or something to that effect.

And they should have that, that story that should be top of mind.

And if they can't think of one, it's like you know, an agency management system and notes. Right. If it's not in the agency management system, it didn't happen.

Right.

So if they can't say it, it didn't happen. So and as an encouragement for everybody out there, we share all of this with you because we know how difficult it is right now to find patriots out there who will step up and fight for a cause. But the good news is they are out there and they're probably looking for you. They just don't know they're looking for you yet. That is why it's so vitally important to be aware of what a patriot looks like, what they think, what they feel, what's in their heart, what's in their head. And once you get to that point and you get clarity on it, you identify it, you get it onto paper, you get it onto your online platforms and then you really program your subconscious with that information. It's just amazing to me. They will find you thoughts.

One more thing for you, Mike. And it's and this is something I think that is often not talked about in this regard. It's that when you bring a patriot into your organization.

They have to be allowed to lose a battle.

All too often leaders only talk about the positive results, the excellence they achieve. The next level they get to.

But every wartime general has lost a battle. It happens. It happens. They may Be fantastic.

Get in there and dig into that lesson with them and say, listen, we lost this battle, we learned a lesson, we're going to move on and here's how we get better.

I mean, if you look at some of the greatest of the greats, you know, both in philanthropy, if you will, and personal life and in business endeavors over historical time, I mean, their journey's laden with failure.

But it's the balance within a team. It's a support within a team. And, and when you've got a patriot internal operational culture, that's when you step up for each other. You talked about it earlier.

You want to play.

Don'T lose the same battle twice.

Don't lose the same battle twice. I love that.

Learn your lessons.

This has been fantastic. Domin K thank you. Thank you for seeding this conversations about having a team full of patriots, not mercenaries.

Last Thoughts that's Mike. I just, you know, it's all about your example and, and because of what you show us within the program and me as a team and the rest of our team, as well as what you teach, I can compare and combine those with my military experience to, to get a bigger picture and to grow to the next level.

We are so stinking excited about the future and being able to impact lives personally and professionally through this environment that we've been privileged to put together. And for all of you out there, if you're not part of our UPP environment and our culture, just connect with us for an agency growth session. There's probably a link right around this podcast, video or recording audio. We'd be happy to talk to you about that and I'll finish it up with this. I sent a quick text to one of our newer members who is just here for their private one on one coaching session and I, I will just.

Read it very quickly this morning. His response just made my heart so happy. After leaving. It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Quotation all positive Google review activities are well on their way. The monitoring process begins with but what's happened is one of my teammates who's a patriot came to me two days after my return to the office asking if I'd be willing to mentor her in taking on more duties and helping grow the business.

So congratulations to that leader who has taken the steps, the words like that, of impacting people's lives personally and professionally. It doesn't get any better than that. That was a real text from this morning from a new member who has invested in themsel to become a greater.

Patriot leader and Setting the example for their team to follow.

And setting the example, came back with a vision and a plan and shared it with his team. Hey, this is where we're going. Let's fight this together. And obviously that teammate jumped on board two days later. That was fantastic. That was like, definitely be on my gains report tonight. So, Joel McKinley again, thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

All right, hey, if this is your first time joining us for the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Strom, so I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency business. You can learn more about us @unstoppable profit producer.com if you got great value out of today's podcast, please share it with somebody else you care about. Just simply send them the link unstoppable profit podcast.com and make sure that they and you go up to the top and click subscribe. We want to share with you all of our best money making strategies developed over 36 years of research as a proud independent insurance agent to help you grow your business, create wealth and have more freedom so you can and your entire team can live life on your own terms with more freedom. And you can find our podcast out there on all of the channels at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, and more. Again, go to Unstoppable ProfitPodcast.com go up to the top. Make sure you click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode. Again, my podcast partner, Mr. Joel McKinley. Thank you for joining us today to talk about patriots and mercenaries and business teams.

Absolutely. Anytime, Mike.

All right, everybody, listen. Remember this. You are the best in the world at what you do. You're the best.

You got this. We believe in you. I'll see you in the next episode.

You love the podcast but don't know where or how to get started. Come join our next virtual training. While seats are still available, Register now@uppfaststart.com that's uppfaststart.com.