Episode 246: Your Core Values Define Your Agency

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 and welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Prophet podcast. I want to share with you something today, but before I go there, I'm going to give you a quote to think about. And better than that, I don't want you to think about it. I want you to do something about it. And the quote is this. You can't be great if you're content being good. And I hope that you are in pursuit of greatness. Because I like I learned from the great Les Brown when he said, you all have greatness within you. So my encouragement every single day, the reason I get out of bed is to pull that greatness from within you, to launch it upon the world. Why not you? Why not now? And what I want to share with you today, what I want to speak with you about is what's at your core. Not only the core of you internally, in your heart, in your soul, in your head, but bigger than that, what's at the core of your agency business?

And the first question for you is, do you have core values? And if you do, when did you create them? And if you created them, let's say within the last 12 to 24 months, how often do you actually revisit those core values? How do you actually use the core values in your insurance agency business? I want to share with you today some of my greatest thoughts on on core values. Because when we originally learned how vitally important having core values are, and then we determined our own core values for our agency, and then we were taught how to use them, it changed everything. And to give you a simple takeaway for you today.

Along the lines of what's in it for me?

It will make your life easier. It will make your position as a leader in your business organization easier. And I'm going to share with you some examples from my own agency journey. But before we go there, let's talk about the core of the core values. Okay, so the thought process of core values has been around for many, many years, but the majority of business owners may not be aware of them. They are aware of them, but they don't know how to go about It. So I'm going to give you some tools that you can take away today. So please, if you don't have it, get something to write with and write on. You don't want to just think it, you want to ink it. Always, always, always. But this one, it's vitally, vitally important. If you have a team, if you have a leadership team, depending on the size of your organization, let's take, let's say your organization is five people or less. You may want to consider including your entire team in this exercise. And if your organization is, say 10 to 30 employees or team members, better said cancel. Don't say employees, say team members. If it's 10 to 30 team members.

Then you may want to include only, I don't know, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4 key leaders in this exercise. But you want to begin to develop your core values. So let me share with you what I've learned about what your core values are literally at their core. Okay? First, they're, they're internal and they're external. They're inside the walls of your organization, but they're outside the walls of your organization. So when your team members are out there at networking events, community events, whatever, whatever, your core values always apply all of the time. They're internal and external. They're a small set of essential and timeless guiding principles for how your organization operates.

How many core values? 3 to 7 is a good rule of thumb, but less is more. And your core values, they are what define your culture. They are what define your culture. That's just part of the reason why it's so vitally important that you have defined core values to create.

The basis and the emphasis for your culture. Because culture eats strategy and everything else for breakfast. And if you've got a toxic culture.

You'Ve got things that need to be updated and repaired because you will not grow with the toxic culture. But more importantly, you won't be happy. Nobody will be happy. Right? Your core values, they attract people to your organization.

You hire. You want to get to the point where once you set your core values and you're comfortable with what they are, you hire, you terminate, you praise and recognize, you discipline and you reward all based on your core values. And we learn to do that in our insurance agency business in a great, great way. The other thing with your core values, like, it's not an exercise that's going to happen in a one hour session or even a one day session. It takes time because your core values, they're discovered.

And your team should be trained in part based on your core values. So you want to use your core values to do everything, all of these things, and you want to look for opportunities to share your core values. So step number one in developing your core values, get ready to write this down, please. And if you're driving, please don't write it down. When you get to wherever you're going, stop, go to our YouTube channel, or listen to this again and write this down. Step number one, you know, form that group of team members from your organization that you would like to have participate in in the exercise. Have each participating team member list three people who, if they were to clone them, would lead you to market domination as an insurance agency, these three names should preferably come from within, inside the organization. So hopefully you've already got that. Once the person has his or three, post all of them on a whiteboard for everybody to see. That's the beginning. Step number two, and if you don't have the people within the organization, no worries. Come up with three people in your communities that they relate to within business. Just have a main three people, okay? But ultimately it's three people who you would want to be example models for your organization. Step number two, go over the names and list the characteristics of those people, of what those people embody, the characteristics that those people embody, what are the qualities that they exemplify? What do they do that puts them on that list? Start with a longer list so you can see all of the possibilities. Because ultimately, once you create your core values, I'm not going to say they're going to be set it and forget it core values, but they will be there and they will be at the, the core and the base of your organization.

Into the forever future as long as you continue to exist to help your thought processes. I give a whole list of real world core core values when I help agencies create their core values.

And this list is extensive, so I'm not going to go through the entire list on this particular podcast. But just to knock off a few. Does the right thing. Unequivocal excellence. Continually strives for perfection. Helps. First, compassion, honesty and integrity. And so many, many more. And so ultimately, the values you deem to be core, that must be more than words on a plaque on a wall. Let me share with you a little bit about. In my intense study of core values to be able to help agencies not only find the right core values, but to hit an absolute home run, okay? They must be more than words on a plaque up on a wall. You see, if you and your people do not know. Cancel. If you and your team members and your leadership team and to the ultimate visionary leader do not know and live those values, then they're just good intentions, nothing more. Values are the foundation of your invisible architecture. And in my mind, the invisible architectural is that cloud, that invisible cloud that hangs around inside your agency walls and outside your agency walls. Remember, your core values are internal and external, okay? So that invisible architecture, what do people see? They should see reflections of your core values. They the core values, more than anything else, define who your organization is. Your core values, and I'll emphasize they are the values that you decide to be core. Okay? These are the values that you, as an organization decide to be core, ultimately define who you are and what you will stand for. They define who you are, what you'll stand for, what you won't stand for, what you'll tolerate and what you won't tolerate.

Because when people don't share a common set of values, of core values, you need to have lots of rules. And in the world of innovation and evolution and growth, you know what rules do you, they hold you back. They hold your organization back. And we don't want that for anybody. Let me give you a little bit of input on accountability as it relates to core values. You see, you can hold people accountable for showing up on time and fulfilling the terms of their job descriptions, like parents checking a report card. But you can't hold them accountable for being committed to and engaged. You can't hold people accountable for caring. It takes a spirit of ownership, operating with COR within the right core values for those things to happen. So it's vitally, vitally important that you invest the time, the right amount of time, the necessary time to build a great set of core values. Let me share with you some additional thoughts on core values before we get to step three on building your core values. At a personal level, meaning individually, a core value is a deeply held philosophical commitment to a pattern of attitudes and behaviors that define and shape how people think, how they set goals and make decisions, how you develop relationships, and how you deal with conflict.

And in this particular context, at an organizational level or other words, in a business, a core value should define your non negotiable expectations regarding how your teammates behave, the goals toward which you direct your collective efforts, and how you work together. Remember, our attitudes, our beliefs and our behaviors are not shaped by the buildings.

As much as they are the values. The core values, the culture and the emotional climate of your organization. These are the absolute key elements of your invisible architecture. The core Cultural characteristics that you define, and this is why this is so important, inevitably becomes central to the brand image of your agency as it's perceived by the community. Your core values. Who are you at the core? And I'm going to give you a couple of examples as we wrap it up today at the end of the podcast. So please stay tuned. Okay, so these values, more than just a plaque on the wall.

Your people need to know the values. They need to live the values. And how do you make that happen? What we did, once we got our core values to be rock solid, we read them at the beginning of every team function and not the leader, but we asked a team member to share our core values. We had them on a laminated card. This is a laminated card which had our core values on it. But it didn't just sit there. We gave every team member a set of core values and we gave them two laminated cards. By the way, do you want to know what's on the back of the card as a little fun add on our agency goals for the year? Agency goals for the year on the back, core values on the other side, they always had the core values in front of them. And we reminded consistently not only by reading the core values at the beginning of every team function, having one of our team members, but we would praise and recognize. We would discipline based on our core values. Our core values were a servant's heart dedicated to serving our team, our clients and our communities. That was number one. Number two, this is how we play. Fun, enthusiastic, energetic, and competitive. Number three, we believe in growth. To have more, you have to become more. And team Sia, number four, Team Sia. It's more than business. So what's an example of praising and recognizing based on our core values?

Let's take number two, Suie. And. And we had a. A bimonthly communication and we got. We called it Taco about it Tuesday. It was an internal communication that went out every other week on Tuesday Taco. Tuesday was big in our region. So Taco about It Tuesday was the name of it. And we would praise and recognize based on the core values in that communication. So we engaged the team through that by putting the core value shout out is what we called it, a core value shout out. And they would always want to read it to see if they were being praised and recognized and the Taco about it Tuesday. So, Susie, hey, we just wanted to give you a shout out because you lived. Core value number two, this is how we play. Fun, enthusiastic, energetic and competitive. You are participating in that community event. And you were living core value to the hilt. You did a great job. Susie and I, we also noticed that over the last couple of weeks, you have been fun, loving, enthusiastic, you've been a cog, a bright energy for the team. So we just want to give a shout out, you're living core value number two, how do you. How can you discipline based on core values? Great question. Well, let's take core value number one, a servant's heart dedicated to serving our team, our clients, and our community. Joe, we just wanted to bring you in today and we just want to have a quick one on one session with you. And this is going to be a verbal warning at this point. However, our core value number one, a servant's heart dedicated to serving our team, our clients and our community.

By feedback from not only some of our teammates, but some of our clients and a community member, you are not dedicated to serving them with a servant's heart. And we've got multiple situations that we've documented that we need to talk to you about. But that's a lead in opportunity for you. Okay, so we hire based on our core values. We actually show our core values to candidates and say, these are our core values. Do you feel that it's a good fit for you here based on our core values? Do you believe in our core values, etc. Etc. Etc. And we terminate based on our core values. Same kind of thought process as the discipline. So what are your core values and who are you at the core? Let's move on to step three. So after you've gone through the exercises of step one and step two, step three, your organization's core values are somewhere within the list that you have created. Okay, so that long list. And when you, when you're creating the list, just think about it like a brainstorming exercise. Don't fret on it being, you know, the right one or the wrong one. The right value, not the right value. Just get the list going. Let's brain sprint or brainstorm. Get it on the list right? Then you begin in step three to narrow it down in your first edit. Circle the ones that are truly important. And I was actually working with an agency leader in a private one on one session within the last couple of weeks. And I was super, super encouraged when that person showed up, because I asked them to show up with their core values work done. And they had it done. And they had specific comments from their three team leaders. And we were able to come together and finalize their core values. Draft one while they were here. So as awesome, awesome stuff. Okay, so in your first edit, circle the ones that are truly important, draw a line through the ones that aren't, and combine those that are similar. Remember, the rule of thumb is between three and seven, and after the first round, you should have that list down to somewhere between 5 and 15. So. And you'll find it a lot of times, especially if you've got one or two or three team members working on this, you'll find a lot of commonalities. So you can combine words or thoughts. And number four, step four. This is where you're going to have to make some tough decisions. Okay? Through group discussion and and debate, decide which values really belong and are truly core. Remember, your goal is to get the list down to between three and seven. So we have lots of core value examples. And I am constantly on the hunt for great companies, for great companies, because remember, you can't be great if you're content being good. So I'm constantly on the hunt for great companies that exemplify great core values. And I keep a sample file and I encourage you to do the same thing. So if you're out there in the world and you're thinking about creating core values or you want to update your core values, you don't feel they're strong enough for your particular situation yet. Create a folder, a storage folder, and every time you see a good example of core values, and I have that folder, I've got lots of samples in there. And so that will be your kind of goto discussion file with your team. Okay, so start collecting them now. And I see lots of examples inside and outside the industry. In fact, one of the best examples, I, I remember the URL because it was so prominent for me. It was they do life and disability products. It was triple w.co VR t-e c-com culture so covertech without the c o v r t e c-.com culture I believe it is. And go to that page and check out their core values are right there on the page. But that's their career or recruiting page. Great, great stuff. So anyway, get to work on your core values and believe me, your core values and core purpose, once you get them set, it will make your life and not only will make your life easier as a leader, but it will make your business so much better. Your culture, we become so much better. And you will learn to praise and recognize, discipline, hire and terminate, all based on your core values. And everybody within your organization will know who we are at the core. I Mean, one of the things that I used to teach years ago, if we were to rip your chest open, if we had every team member on a police lineup and they ripped their chest open, what would people see inside? That's who they are at the core. So you're looking to define who your team is at the core, what you'll tolerate, what you won't tolerate, what you stand for and what you don't stand for. But you, I can't encourage you enough to invest the time to create your core values. So I'm going to do something super, super fun right now as we wrap up today. Core values. We have high performing UPP members. And I shared this at the most recent BE Unstoppable boot camp. And so I'm going to take a moment right now. The unstoppable Shane Eastman was kind enough to allow us to share this at the boot camp, most recent BE Unsal boot camp. So I'm going to go through his core values. Did a great, great job. These are the core values for his organization, Eastman Insurance Solutions. Number one is honor. And they did a great job expanding their core values. Core value number one is honor. But then they put a sub description as to what the core value is and means to the team, to the clients, to the prospects, to the communities. Honor. To live up to or fulfill the terms of a commitment. We do what we say we are going to do. That's core value number one. Okay. Core value number two. Integrity. Adherence to a code of moral values. We always do what is right, even if it comes at a cost.

Number three, Selflessness. Concerned more with the needs of others than one's own. We always put the client's best interest ahead of our own. Their core value number three. Core value number four. Service. And without the supporting definition, it would be a little vague. But I like the way they handle this. The action of helping others. We are to be servants of our clients and our community. And something very unique that I have never seen before until Shane showed it to me. They created a core statement.

Protecting what matters most. It's not just a tagline, it's the foundation of everything we do. A commitment to serve our clients with honor and integrity. Shout out core value. Shout out to the Eastman team and Shane for putting this together. They did a fantastic job. And I am proud to say that our UP team also has core values. But rather than read them to you, we did something super, super fun as a team. And I'm going to show you live. I'm going to show you a Video. Okay. And before I go back to that, I'm going to set this up. I'm going to show you a video that our proud UPP team recorded for all of you. Remember, I said every interaction with your team, you should open that interaction with sharing your core values. And so we have. We believe that we've got. Not only got the core values right, our team is fired up. So we started reciting our core values in this way. And I said we need to record this and share it with everybody just to let people know, to show the example of how much fun we're having in sharing our core values. So I'm gonna share this video with you right now. Check this out. Give me one second to get this up so the sound comes through perfectly. Share the sound. Fantastic. Here we go. Please enjoy this.

Good morning and welcome to our meeting. Let's go ahead and start off by reading our core values. Who would like to start?

I'll take it away.

Number one, growth. What does that mean to you, jfm? Well, it means we value continuous improvement and personal development, fostering a culture of growth and learning. Mike, can you take it away and give me impact? Impact. Number two. We strive to make a positive difference and meaning. Wait. We strive to make a positive and meaningful difference in the lives of people, empowering them to create lasting and transformative change in their personal and professional endeavors. Andrea.

Number three. Passion. We approach our work with enthusiasm, dedication, and a genuine love for what we do, inspiring others to always achieve their best. J.F. um, hit us with number four.

Oh, thank you, Andre. Speaking of thank you, it's gratitude. I love gratitude because it's cultivating a culture of appreciation and thankfulness, acknowledging the value of relationships, opportunities and achievements with humility and grace. Mike, speaking of integrity. Integrity. Number five, Upholding unwavering honesty, ethics and authenticity in. In all interactions and decision makings, building trust and ensuring the utmost respect for people's confidentiality and best interest. And thank you, Joel McKinley, for holding us accountable. Yes, we should be reading these three to four times a week as our time allows to constantly meld it into our mindset. Great job, team.

What about our core purpose?

Core purpose. Go ahead. Danrea.

Impacting people's lives personally and professionally.

And you're right. We are committed to impacting the lives of independent insurance agency entrepreneurs and their teams through delivering an extraordinary coaching experience and providing innovative solutions to grow their business, create wealth and give them more freedom so they can live life on their own terms. Virtual high five teams. Boom.

I hope you enjoyed that because that is what we do. That is what we do as a team to hold ourselves accountable, to inspire each other, and to remind ourselves through the constant consistent rinse and repeat who we are as an organization. So thank you. Thank you for allowing us to serve you. And if there's ever anything more that we can be doing to serve you at the very highest level based on our core values, please let us know. And thank you for joining joining us on this podcast. If this is the 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 us and what we do and myself @unstoppable profit producer.com if you're interested in attending one of our virtual events, please go to upfastart.com upfastart.com and periodically we put out information concerning our live events, not only on this podcast, but out there on all of the channel. Everything we do. These events, both live and virtual, are all designed to share with you some of our best money making strategies to developed over 36 years of research as a proud 100% of the time independent insurance agent, helping you grow your business, creating wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And I said this to somebody the other day. Our goal is to give you that peace of mind when you put your head on the pillow at night. We want you to have that peace of mind just knowing with with confidence that we're going to continue to grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom. And please make sure you subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss one valuable episode. We're out there on all the channels including Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon, and so much more. And if you got great value out of today's podcast, please share it with anybody else that you know. Your team members, your friends, other agency owners, anybody within the industry and beyond. Just simply send them to unstoppable profit podcast.com our hundreds of episodes are there and if you haven't done so yet, please go to unstoppable prophet podcast.com go up to the top. Make sure you click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode just like this one. I hope this has helped you. Thank you so much for tuning in. And remember, like I said at the beginning, and I'll say this to wrap it up today, you can't be great. If you're content being good, you've all got greatness within you. I'll see you on the next episode.

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