Episode 257: Mike’s Top 10 from 2024 UPP Spring Mastermind

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 Profit podcast. I'm going to reveal to you something that I've never done before.

We get a lot of questions from people that see things online or they look at some of our coaching programs and they say, what's the mastermind all about? So I've decided to provide my top 10 from the most recent 2024 UPP masterminds in Nashville. Eight days straight. High achieving agents bringing it all for eight days straight. And we synthesize it and help them work on their business. Always working on the right stuff. And so I have created my list of the top 10 items from the most recent Up Mastermind sessions. We like to call it the magic of Mastermind. And I'm going to share with you my top 10 from those masterminds. Eight days straight with some of the highest achieving agents in America. Super privileged, super honored to be with all of them. And if you are watching this on YouTube, fantastic. If you're listening to this podcast, please after you get done with whatever you're doing, jump over to our YouTube channel search unstoppable Profit Producer. Go to the video portion. You will see all of our podcasts and our money making strategy series there. And you can watch this because I've got some visuals in this podcast for everybody. I'm going to jump to those right now. Super proud, super excited of all of these incredible agents. There's the first group that was in affectionately our PX3 group. Then LNR was in the house leaving no regrets. And then always moving Forward fast. Is AM FF a beautiful sky view there. We're up on the 30th floor working on our business and then we finally got into Martin's Barbecue after an incredible weekend in Nashville. Not only that, if you don't ask, you don't get. So we asked and we got in. The pit boss led us back and we got to inspect the barbecue and the pit and everything else. There's some of our members with the pit boss had a phenomenal, phenomenal barbecue meal there in Nashville. But one of the things that was also extremely special Got to spend time with three new authors in our UPP circles, the Unstoppable Nancy Mendel and David Brush out of Apple Valley Agency in Rhode Island. Allison Finney out of Belton, Texas, another new author. And Jessica Via, who along with her teammate and husband, Jose Via. Jose couldn't be with us. He was coaching his son in soccer in another state, which is fantastic. But Jessica came and brought a copy of their newest book, the unique thing about Jessica and Jose, not only they publish it in English, but it's also published in Spanish. So super proud that they're meeting the needs of their diverse marketplace. Great job, everybody, on publishing their books. They're also shown there with the Unstoppable Bill Butler, a recent author of his game changing book for veterinarians. So super, super proud of all of these agents who have taken all of the steps and done what it takes to get their books published and position themselves with immense credibility in their marketplace because there's no other agents out there who are publishing books about the subject. And in this particular subject, it's about insurance. So it positions them as a high credibility expert in their marketplaces and opens doors that normally don't get open. And Allison already had something happened immediately because she took action that positioned her in her particular marketplace that nobody else gets because of the book. So super, super grateful for the action they've taken. So let's get right to it. I'm going to share with you my top 10. So this is Mike's top 10 from our 2024 spring up masterminds in Nashville. These agents brought it and they brought it like nobody else's business. I'm going to share with you the top 10 things that they brought that agents took away from Mastermind with the goal that it helps you, that it helps you grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. So number 10 in my top 10 from the 2024 up mastermind spring sessions in Nashville is three new authors. Super proud of these three new authors. Going to suggest. We've got seven to eight authors in total so far in our Unstoppable Nation tribe that have published books to better position themselves in their marketplaces. And it moves the needle because nobody else is doing it. Because you always got to be answering the question, why should people do business with you over and above any and all other options available to them because of this. And we teach people because it's their way of doing business. It's the fact that they've created A they wrote the book on insurance and so many other things. So number 10, three new authors. Number nine from our 2024 UP Spring Masterminds. 70%. Over 70% of our members have a rock solid specific blueprint game plan that we affectionately call the vo. It's our vision organizer series. Something unique to upp. Can't get it anywhere else. We help agents create that blueprint for their business not only the next quarter, not only the next year, but the next three years up to 10 years. We help them forecast out where they want to take their business. In addition to that, we help them reverse engineer so they actually get it done. It's got a marketing strategy, core values, the whole game plan is theirs and we work with them on that to make sure they stay on track with it when something else comes into the picture that might distract them. Look, I know it's never happened to you. It's never happened to me. Well, at least not in the last five minutes. I'm being facetious. Yeah, we get distractions all day long. So they have a rock solid blueprint and a game plan. We've got accountability built in with our director of AFY, Mr. Joel McKinley. He keeps them on track towards their goals, towards everything they want to accomplish. But super, super proud that over 70% of our agencies have it in place and soon to be a hundred percent if they will be coachable and get to work on their game plan. Super super excited for them as we continue to make progress. Number eight on our top ten list for the 2024 up spring masterminds acquisitions. So many of our agencies participate in actively acquiring either books of business part or whole. There has been some significant acquisitions taking place that was shared at Mastermind. A couple of agencies doubled the size of their agency just like that. Super, super proud that they're willing to not only take all the risk but they put it all out there and we work with them on that particular strategy to grow their businesses. I have been privileged to do been involved in five acquisitions in my agency time, so I understand the atmosphere, how it works, etc. Etc. It's a strategy that is a good idea when done right. So super super excited for all of the agencies out there that are actively participating. We're watching them grow, watching them grow very, very quickly and excited to be walking alongside of them through their acquisitions as part of their growth strategy. Not their complete growth strategy, organic growth as well. So you got organic growth and acquisitions working side by side.

The result, great stuff. And we've got agencies that are growing 30 to 40% and beyond as part of their as as a result of their activities and strategies. Super, super proud of these agents. Number seven on my top ten list from the UPP Spring Mastermind Numbers. Yep, numbers. Numbers don't lie. All of our agents are working on their numbers consistently. They've got their KPIs in order. They brought their numbers don't Lie to the Masterminds pretty much as a whole. And they know exactly where they stand. We now have a foundation that we can build off of and they share that. I mean along with their vision organizer and their Numbers Don't Lie sheet. They share that within our Mastermind sessions over two days. And that's just part of the magic of Mastermind is what we call it. It's the magical things that happen within our Mastermind sessions that we effectually call the magic of Mastermind. So we get together and we look at where their business is, where they want to take it. We put the numbers on the table. They're key KPIs. Now you might be thinking, Mike, everybody knows their numbers.

Do they? I'm going to suggest maybe yes, maybe no. I encounter a lot of agents out there who don't know their numbers, who don't know their key KPIs, who don't have a fairly recent reconciled profit loss statement and balance sheet. And how can you grow something that you don't know where it's at right now? How can you foundationalize? So it's just part of what we do. But I am super proud of our agents who know their numbers, who know their KPIs, who bring it to the table so that we can effectively help them grow and scale to whatever level they want. And it's absolutely a privilege and a treat to see them accomplishing so much. On my top 10 number six from the UP mastermind session spring session this year. VAs virtual assistants. Many, many of our agencies are strategically positioning themselves to grow to scale by using VAs. Many of them direct hire VAs because they have the processes in place, they have the systems in place to be able to build on that kind of a platform. Many, many of them are using them super, super proud. And we've got agents who have taken that thought process. We have one agent who has tripled their business in little over the last three years. And this is a multi seven figure revenue business. So made a decision that I'm going to hire a VA for every licensed agent in the office. Customer facing, strategically made the decision and did it super proud. But a lot of agents are using the platform because this is what we teach. Again, if you're listening to this podcast, when you get back in front of a computer and you have a moment, jump over to our YouTube channel so you can see the visual I'm going to share with you right now. Again, that's YouTube. Go to Unstoppable Profit Producer, go to the videos on our page, and you can see all the podcasts. So this is my quick visual of an agency operation, an organizational chart, right? Okay, so you got sales, you're selling new accounts, et cetera, et cetera. They get into the agency and somebody needs to provide excellent, world class service to them, right? It's normally a licensed csr, a licensed CSR who's providing excellent service. But that licensed CSR should not be doing certificates of insurance, should not be doing evidence of insurance, should not be doing ID cards, mortgage changes, LP changes, the whole kit and caboodle down on that level, it should be driven down to the lowest possible level all the time. These licensed CSRs right here, they should only be doing the things that only they can do, which is talking to people about their insurance program 95% of the time. Okay, so these licensed CSRs should be talking to people about their insurance program 95% of the time and driving down all of the activities of things that need to get done to a processor level. That's where these VAs come into play. They're trained, they're consistently trained over time to do things down on that level. And this visual also includes driving it further down to another level called RPAs. Robotic process automation or bots. Those are actively in play in the agencies we work with. And people are building RPAs or bots to do many things that happen within the insurance agency business so they can continually not only be more efficient, but more profitable and so many other attributes that go along with this particular environment. So it's what we teach. I am super proud to say that these agents are doing it. They're embracing it. When we were talking about that in Nashville, I did see a couple of agents whose eyes got a little bit big and said, wow, but if we want things to change, we've got to change. Because if we're willing to change, everything will change for us. So get the change on so we can continue to grow and prosperity. Number five on my top ten list from the spring masterminds. Simplicity. Simplicity. You might be thinking, what are you talking about, Mike? Yes. We've got to keep it simple to get clarity. I saw so many agents who have really embraced the simplicity pieces of the business, the highest priority to get things done. And they the result of that, they have clarity even in their agency branding. We had an agency who got super, super clear on changing the name of their business. They didn't completely change it. They just altered a word or eliminated a word and got even greater clarity for their business. They were able to do that and now they are positioned to grow to scale in an even faster way. Simplicity. Look, the insurance industry, the insurance agency industry is already complex enough, right? We don't need to make it more complex. We need to simplify. Especially for our teams. Especially for our teams. We need to keep it simple or the KISS method, keep it stupid simple. So keep it simple, keep it clear for your team so they can embrace it and follow your vision for the future of the agency. Number five, number four on my top 10 list from the 2024 UPB Spring Masterminds. People. Yes, people, processes and promotions, but the people, and I'm going to dig into a lower level of the people, which is specifically why this ranked number four from the masterminds. When we teach people, we teach agencies to attract, recruit, interview, hire, onboard train, motivate, move them to lead. And ultimately we teach every person within the agency to own their particular desk and everything that needs to be accomplished in their particular role in the agency. With that being said, there's a portion of the people aspect specifically in the interviewing arena that we identified at Mastermind that is not getting done consistently. And people are having challenges with their people because they miss this step. Okay, Somebody finds you to get into the interview, right? Phone screen, first interview. The next step is the assessments. Okay? So with that being said, people miss the assessments. And I learned this years ago, more than 20, 25 years ago. I used to think I could change people. So and so comes onto the team, they've got these habits I'll help them change. We can't change people. For the most part, whatever their DNA dealt them and, and the habits and experiences they had in their first 18 years, that pretty much makes them who they are. And if they bring bad habits, those habits aren't going to leave just because they started on your team. The culture can't change them. Okay? So you've got to identify what kind of habits they've got going on internally and externally and what they're going to bring to your team and your culture. So these assessments very, very important. Whatever assessment program you, you decide to use, great, please go ahead and do it, but make sure that you, the assessments you use measure. Everything you need to know. We have used for, I don't know, 12 to 15 years. Disc motivators, we include sales IQ if they're going to be in a selling position, you should also be testing for math, for English, for written communication, for oral communication, and more. So make sure you're testing and assessing for all of these things. Whatever you use, make sure you use something. We found there was a newer agency who has a large team and the entire organization is not on the same P page because they haven't identified the strengths or weaknesses of all of their teammates. And, and really they haven't identified how to work together. And one of the things that comes to my mind when I think about that is rprs right person, right seat. You got to make sure you have the right people in the right seats, because if you have the right person in the wrong seat, that's still a wrong situation. So make sure that you use all the tools available to you to get to the core, to get to the core competencies of a person so that you can be the most efficient so you can flourish at the highest levels within your organization. So number three on my top ten from the up spring. Mastermind. Focus.

Focus. Follow one course until success or be focused. Follow one course until success. Every day a focus.

When agents come to Mastermind. Part of the magic of Mastermind is they're held accountable by the other agents in the room and they identify the fact that they might be off course a little bit or they're look, they're going to go off course if they do certain things. That's part of the magic of Mastermind. So with that being said, we had multiple agents who were starting to invest time on things that were not in alignment for their goals and the future vision of their organization. They identified that shiny objects had to come into play and they needed to eliminate those shiny objects from their operations. So the accountability of the group, the magic of Mastermind, we help them identify these shiny objects. And we said, stay away from these shiny objects. You might want to put them in the parking lot, but not now. We need to stay focused on these things to drive you to your goals. One of the agencies that I'm thinking about that had this aha moment in the magic of Mastermind is an agency then in less than three years has double their agency in our program. And we want them to double again as fast as they can. But if they keep chasing these shiny objects, not going to happen. So we redirected them. We made sure that they Were on, on task, on track for where they wanted to go. And there's many other agents, same thing. They had this new, new plan, new idea that they wanted to implement. And these agents are relentless, which I love that and I love that about our unstoppable nation tribe. The fact that they get people on track. They said, don't be foolish, don't do that. Get back on track and do this. This is what's going to get you to your goals and beyond. And they go, wow, awesome. But that's part of the magic of Mastermind. So they got to stay focused, forget about the shiny objects. Number two on my top ten from the up Spring Mastermind processes, excellent people, world class processes and systems. We've got agents that are so dialed in on their processes and they're following exactly what we teach. Having excellent people, but world class processes and systems. And they are envisioning the journey, the process is journey within their agency. I'm thinking of one agent at Mastermind who took this to such a high, another level, a much higher level. And so they mind mapped their journeys mean the processes of those journeys, okay, the sales journey as well as the service journey, it's all mapped out on a mind map. They've got all the, the puzzle pieces of both those journeys on a visual they can share with their team, they can train their team on. And it really lends to the greater levels of training within their agency business. There's so many of our agents who are doing such great things with processes such as custom intranets training, client segmentation, ongoing training programs, identifying right people, right seats, and so much more. The process operations that I witnessed and heard about and got to participate in and counseling them into the right direction at Mastermind was just absolutely incredible. So proud of these agents.

Number one, however, on the top 10 from the 2024 UPP Spring Mastermind was culture.

Culture. So many of these agents have already experienced lessons, we'll say because you never lose, you either win or you learn. And because of these lessons, they've played, taken close view and paid close attention to how vitally important culture is. And they have taken massive action when they need to take massive action with regard to their culture. Many of them have identified, I got a bad apple in my culture, I need to do something about it. And that is leadership. Because it is ultimately the responsibility of the leader to monitor and protect the culture. You've got to monitor and protect your culture every day, in every single way. It is your responsibility. You have a duty and a responsibility to protect Your culture. And so multiples of them, bad apple, somebody turned sour. Whatever it is, they took action. It's nothing personal. There's two kinds of decisions in business or two kinds of relationships, I should say in the human existence. Personal relationships and business relationships. These are simply business decisions, business relationships. And we have a duty and responsibility to levy the accountability. If they want to change and upgrade themselves, that's great. If they don't, then they've got to go. So they've taken responsibility and they've done what they had to do as far as protecting their culture, eliminating people that shouldn't be there. Super, super proud of them. What we ultimately teach keep the agency healthy. Keep the agency healthy. It is our duty and responsibility to keep the agency healthy. If the agency is not healthy, it can't give. What does it give? It gives lots of things. It gives the opportunities that are present every single day. It gives personal fulfillment every single day. It gives the opportunity to be part of a great team of people. It gives the opportunity to grow. It gives a yardstick by which people can be measured so they can see progress in their journey, so they can experience that fulfillment of growth. It gives them an opportunity to serve people, protect people. It gives them a career opportunity. It's gives them income, yes, income as well and so much more. But if you as a leader don't keep the agency healthy, none of that will become reality. So we've got to make sure that we protect our culture. Our members, our agents are protecting their culture. Super, super proud of them and they're attracting the best team members because they're protecting their culture. People want to be part of something special.

Super, super proud. Super, super grateful for all of our unstoppable nation members and all that they are doing. And by the way, if this is something, if you've heard about Mastermind or anything surrounding UPP and you want to learn more, let's set up an agency grow session. All you need to do is is email us at VIP. That's very important person. VIP, which is you. VIP.

Life.Com VIP life.com just put agency growth session in the subject line. We'll get you set up, we'll have a conversation and see how we can help you. We'll, we'll let you know a little bit about what we do and see if it's a good decision to possibly take the next steps or we'll just help you flat out. But let me recap for you the top 10 because our goal is that you take this away and take action and do something with it. It will lead to the next win or the next lesson. Number 10, we've got three new authors, massive credibility in our circles. Number nine, 70% of our members or more are operating within their vision organizer blueprint platform. Number eight, acquisitions galore. We've got agencies that are acquiring other agencies, books of business agents that are doubling their business, multiples of them doubling their business with one deal. Number seven, numbers their KPIs in order. Numbers don't lie. They identify that and understand that. Number six, our agencies are driving it down to the lowest level using VAs, RPAs and everything else they've identified the fact that people should only be doing the things that only they can do. Every one of your team members should only be doing the things that only they can do. Number five, simplicity equals clarity. Get clear on your brand, your agency operations, the vision of your organization so that your team members can grasp it and get their minds and hearts around it and serve people. Serve people. It's not complex. Number four, people. Make sure you include assessments of all types, oral skills, written skills, math skills, people and personality skills. What motivates them and so much more. Number three in the top 10 is focused on stay away from the shiny objects. Follow one course until success. Every day you've got to stay focused. Number two in the top 10 processes, people are more dialed in than they've ever been on their processes. They know they don't own people, but they know they own processes and they're taking hold of it and doing something about it. Super, super proud. And number one on the top ten from our up 2024 spring masterminds culture. No bad apples on the teams. We've got to make sure that we protect our culture to keep the agency healthy. Super, super proud of all of these agents. They are growing, they're flourishing, they're thriving. They're not letting anything get in their way. And I'm privileged to be at the chair leading the unstoppable nation into the future. And thank you, thank you for investing time today to be on this podcast. And if you missed any of the visuals of this podcast because you're listening to it, whatever you're doing again, please jump over to our YouTube channel. Go to Unstoppable Profit Producer. Go to the videos, click on videos. You'll see all of our podcasts and all of our money making strategy series, including the visuals from this particular podcast. And 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 atunstoppable profit producer.com and if you want to get going fast, faster than anybody else, we actually have a Up Fast Start session coming up very soon. So just go to UPP Fast start dot com. Make sure you grab your seat before they disappear. They disappear very quickly. We have a session coming up in just a couple of weeks. Everything that we just talked about and so much more we share in that virtual training up fast start.com everything that we do is all based on my 35 plus years of experience as a proud independent insurance agent building multi million dollar revenue agencies. Now we just share it all with you so you too can have that same result. And if this is your first time on the podcast again, go to unstoppable profit podcast.com go up to the top, click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode. And you can find our podcast out there on all the channels, including Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon and more. We are privileged that you're here with us. We don't want you to miss one opportunity because it is always knocking. Thank you for joining us on this episode and if you're thinking, I heard all that and that's fantastic, but it may not be me, I may not be able to do it. I don't know if I can do it. Here's my encouragement. You got this. We believe in you. That's why we exist. To teach you everything you need to do, everything you need to know so you can do it. Also, get out there, make a difference. Be unstoppable so you too can leave no regrets. You got this. I believe in you. I'm here for you. I will see you in the next episode. Until then, take care everybody.

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