Episode 264: Why You Should Launch YOUR Podcast

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.

So pumped, so excited, so much opportunity before us today, because I want to share something with you which is part of the arsenal that when consistently executed with focus and discipline, will cause you to grow your business, will create wealth for your financial agency book so you two can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. That's exactly what we want for you. That's exactly what we strive for, beyond our possible number of hours in a day for all of our members, for our unstoppable UPP community, our relentless, never ending pursuit for them so they can have that and more. And everybody out there in the independent insurance agency industry, thank you, thank you to all of you who are proud independent insurance agents, striving every single day in every single way, with all of your being, always going beyond the call of duty to protect people and everything they work so hard for and doing whatever it takes. And I realize that today.

Right now, things are difficult, beyond difficult, and that rarely is anybody calling right now because they're happy. But there's a way. And what I'm going to share with you today is one way that you can possibly better communicate with people and if you will meet them.

Where they are. Remember, it's all about them and not about you. So meet them where they are. And this takes me back to the last century when the turning point happened in my career. I was sitting in an event, listening to agents who had a lot of things figured out at that time. And I said, wow, my head was bloodied, it was beaten up and it was bruised, my forehead and my head, because I'd been beating my wall up against that brick wall trying to figure it out. And while I was figuring some stuff out, there was blood, there was bruises and more. And as I watched these agents who had figured out a lot of things.

I thought to myself, they've already gone through the blood and the sweat and the tears and the bruises and figured it out. I'm just going to invest in learning from them. And I did. And I did. And I became a massive implementer. What I'M going to share with you today is a result of part of that journey, but it's more revolutionary than what I learned back then. I've got a brand new document that I just recently created for our humble UP community tribe so that they can continue to grow more and to have more and to attract more. And the thought process is if you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use 100% of the ways. But how are you expanding on that? I'm going to dig into that a little bit in this podcast. About your podcast, yes, I did say your podcast, so stay tuned.

But in the beginning, and I've got a list of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 11 ways. And it's just this first 11 ways. And I'm sure you're gonna want to take your own list and expand on these 11 and make it more and make it your own and make it so it reaches your local communities with whatever it is you have to offer and help and protection and support of your communities and your marketplaces that you continue to serve. And again, thank you. And the good news is this is possible for everybody because a lot of our members, our HERO UPP members, they've already done a lot of these things and they've implemented and they've started to win and they are winning and they are growing regardless of what's going on around them. Super proud of those who implement. So really the first item on the list, it's a long lost tool that is rarely used nowadays in comparison to what it was before. And it's called the phone. Yes, the phone. Direct dialing to a list. Your gold is your marketing list, your list, your list, your list, whatever that is. The list that I recommend 100 that you start with is your own list, your own acre of diamonds. Those who already trust you with at least one, two or three policies. But do they write a check to nobody else but your agency for every possible insurance need that you can provide to them? I will suggest nine out of ten times. No, they do not. They've got one or two or three somewhere else. And why not you? Because you are the best in the world. So bring them home. The phone. Pick up the phone. Remember, email or text is for information. The phone is for communication. Communicate to people. Why you over and above and in all other options available to them. Number two, email. Yes, I know people's inboxes are inundated and it's not a complete tool. But it is not long lost when Used properly. And that's a whole nother conversation. And it starts with your subject line. Your subject line is your headline. A headline or a subject line is 67% of all conversion and communication. Yes, the subject line. Better make it a good one. I just happen to have a list of over 400 subject lines that I gathered over time from some of the best of the best marketers on the planet because I invested in learning from them. And I thought, wow, these people got some killer headlines and subject lines. I thought, wait a minute, why don't I just put those on a list? And I still have that list today, by the way, if you would like a copy of that list, my 400 top subject lines for email communication. Shoot us an email. Vippplife.com that's vippplife.com put in the subject line. Hey. H E y. Hey. That's all you have to put hey in the subject line. And we will send you the list. And you might be wondering, hey, what's that all about? That is the number one proven subject line. Try it. What do you got to lose? Nothing. What do you have to gain? Everything. Number three. Snail mail. Yes, snail mail. People's mailboxes are lighter than ever. I am personally privileged to go through the mail in our house. My wife takes what she wants when she grabs it out of the mailbox and puts all the rest in the bin, which is the majority of it. And I was looking at the mail the other day and guess what? Nothing but white envelopes. It is so easy to stand out. And I talked to our members about their mailboxes. Guess what? Same thing. It is so easy for you to stand out in today's world. The key is getting the package open. And simply get the package open is to stand out. Number four, video. 82% of all Internet traffic in 2025, based on my research, will be via video. So you better get used to it. You. And if you're not comfortable doing video, and I have people tell me all the time, agents and otherwise, I'm not comfortable on video. All right, fine. Hire somebody else to do the videos or engage another team member. But get it into action in your agency. Quick hits for you on video. Two minutes or less. Best case scenario, your topic and marketing must be compelling enough to get people to watch it. Don't put out uneventful or worthless video. Make it good. Darn it. Make it your own. Make it your own personality and answer the question, why you? Over and above any and all other options available to them. And don't worry about being perfect. Worry brings fear and fear is crippling. Just be knowledgeable, transparent and engaging. Next website. Yes, your agency website. Have you looked at it lately? Have you looked have you run it through some of the tools out there, free tools that will analyze its effectiveness and its ability to reach people and the ranking of your keywords and and, and so much more critically, critically important it is your online presence. You may and it must be mobile friendly as well. Heads up. If you haven't checked your own website lately and you're not paying attention to what's going on on your online presence you need to and make sure that you inspect what you expect all of the time. And some of our highest performing super techie great members who do a good job with their website have also mastered imagine picture you're on your website at the very top. There's a place where you can put a banner some of our members in you know, weather laden states or where funky things are going on with the insurance marketplace. You know what I'm talking about? Yes, this might be. You put banners at the top of their website alerting the consumer public and community public as to what's going on in their particular marketplace. And yellow seems to be a good color because it gets people's attention. Learn how to do it and if that's not you find somebody who does know how to do it and engage them and get it done. Next texting. And I know there's the FCC and everybody else that says this and says that, listen, I fully respect and understand compliance but I fully respect and understand relationships built on trust. So I will leave it there on the table for you for your contemplation. I know this. Every time that I walk out of my house with the keys in my hand to get in my car and I drive out onto a public street or highway that I take a risk, I will leave that on the table with that particular topic. Meaning text. Next wow packages, for example federal express packages. Wow. Meaning leaving people without words. When is the last time you sent somebody something or did something for somebody spontaneously without them knowing it's coming that left them with out words. The late great Maya Angelou said they'll forget what you said, they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. When was this somebody? When's the last time you left by the way? I just thought of this. When's the last time you let left your number one customer? When's the last time you left your number one customer by the way you know who that is, right?

I did intentionally pause just to let you digest that so you can be thinking about it. No, it's not ABC Company, XYZ company or John or Jane Doe. It's one of your teammates, any of your teammates. Your number one customer. When is the last time you left your number one customer without words or anybody in your marketplace? So what do you do? I mean, to give you a wild outside the box, true historical fact from my own history. Yes, you can mail a watermelon. You can mail a watermelon. You just have to put enough postage on it. You can send anything. But let's say you're working in a marketplace where the average first year commission across the board in that particular marketplace is $688. The thing that once I learned this, that always went through my head. If the average commission across the board in my particular marketplace that I'm pursuing is $688, how much am I going to invest to get the $688? And remember, that's first year only. And if you're doing a good job on the lifetime value, what is that? Five grand or so? How much you can invest to get that every time? As much as I can.

4,000 or more. Why not you and why not now?

So a FedEx package with a good marketing piece inside, what does that cost versus that kind of ROI digest that. Think about that. Lumpy mail, wow packages, anything of that sort. Next, social media. If you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use 100% of the ways social media is real out there. Is it going to turn a huge ROI with your ideal client avatar? Yet to be foreseen. I do see it as a branding exercise, as a top of mind awareness, as a top of heart awareness exercise. So build it into everything you're doing. Is there going to be the end all, be all and do that only? Absolutely not in my opinion.

Next, networking associations, local groups, niche group presentations and so much more. There is so much opportunity out there in that particular environment. Use it if it makes sense for your local marketplace. And you can let, you can network online. But remember, always give without the expectation of something in return. The last item that I want to come to today is really the core of today's podcast and it is using your podcast to reach a greater marketplace.

Why not you and why not now? And I generally only try to share information about something that I have already done and I've already done this. In fact, you are watching approximately episode 263. So we have done 263 podcasts. We are proud to bring you every week the UPP podcast, the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. So tip number one for you if you're going to create a podcast, think long and hard about your marketplace. Think long and hard about who you're trying to connect with and make sure that it's got a keyword in it that matches your marketplace. I'll speak from transparency here. If I had to do all over again, I probably would name it something different. Why? Because the people that listen to thank you very much. That watch our podcast thank you very much and otherwise consume the information thank you very much. Are mostly independent insurance agents and leaders.

So if you think about our name, it does not have the word insurance in it. But like so many things that we've done in our history, we were very, very early to the game and my personality is fire, ready, aim. That's what I've been my entire life. And it's what we did. I'm not looking back, but I'm just suggesting for you based on what we've learned. Remember, you either win or you learn. You never lose. So take the lessons that we share here and win more. So your podcast by the URL so we own Unstoppable Profit Podcast. It's got various redirect features to it. We started in the early days with audio only. Today we have audio, audio, video. It's on our YouTube channel. We have a podcast production company that we partner with. All of the follow ups that you may see out there in the world throughout the week are executed as a com combined effort of my incredible teammate Andrea Wyatt and our podcast partners in the production realm and the other people working on our team. So how do I know you can do this? I know you can do it because I've got a couple of members who have also done it. They watched what we did, they asked lots of questions about a podcast, namely thinking about publishing their own podcast. And they did it. One of our longtime UPP members, the unstoppable Bill Butler from Minnesota, who has risen to dominate the veterinary niche, publishes a podcast, Veterinary Blueprints. Veterinary Blueprints. Just go out and search it. Just Google it. Veterinary Blueprints and you will find it. Or just search Butler B U T L E R Vet v e t butlervet insurance.com and the podcast link is right there. Next, the unstoppable Toby Yuri from the great state of Texas started a podcast called Toolbox Talk with Toby Urie. So he's already got that out there in the marketplace. Those are just two quick hits of members that have started their own podcast. I happen to know there are many others that are currently working on that and I am proud of the fact that they are going to be launching sometime in the near future because they have something to offer. They have something to offer that's uniquely theirs that people cannot get anywhere else. And they're going to start bringing it to agents everywhere, to name another one. Ryan Handley, good friend of mine, Ryan Hanley also publishes a podcast called Finding Peak. So as an example of other industry podcasts and you could check any of these out for your consumption of great information to help you grow your business. And by the way, 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@unstoppableprofitpodcast.com and if you're ever interested in learning how you too can grow your business, create wealth and and have more freedom to live life on your own terms, we'll be happy to chat with you. Just check us out and email us@vippplife.com vippplife.com or give us a call. 800-770-9984. Everything that we do is designed to share with you some of our best, best money making strategies developed over 36 years as a proud independent insurance agent 100% of the time. Again, all designed to help you grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And our podcast nowadays is out there on all of the channels, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, Amazon, our YouTube channel, and more. So check us out. And I bring that up to you because that's where your podcast will end up at.

Why not you and why not now? So let me share with you something that recently happened.

Because we endeavor to give first without the expectation of something in return. We reached out to some of our friends in the industry at Rough Notes magazine. Super proud of Rough Notes magazine and all that they've done for the industry. Grateful to them, thankful for our partnership and our relationship over many, many years and all that they do for the industry. And you may or may not be aware of this Rough Notes magazine, the majority of their business revenue is not from the magazine, it's from how they help the industry. Otherwise you see the content from many of the vendors out there that you know who they are. They actually buy their content from Rough Notes. Yes, they actually buy their content from Rough Notes. So I strongly encourage you, just go to Google, Google Rough Notes Advantage plus. Rough Notes Advantage plus. If you want to learn more, just jump on a demo on that page, Rough Notes Advantage plus and they'll be happy to walk you through it. No obligation, no cost, and learn more about what they have. It is an absolute no brainer for any agency business. I mean, so much content. And you might be investing in that content from one of these other vendors that buys it from RoughNotes wholesale and then they turn around and retail it to you. You can get it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. So strongly encourage you to check that out. Rough Notes Advantage plus, with that being said.

It will help you in every possible way. And they have a brand new AI portal coming up that takes all that information and synthesizes it with the latest in AI and everything that technology brings to the table. Super excited for that. So when we featured CEO and owner Wal Godowski on the podcast, he was kind enough to share the history of rough notes, the 146 year old rough Notes magazine. And if you remember that story, this is the cool thing you just get to not only learn, but you get to learn the backstory. And so I was privileged to learn the backstory about how the name Rough Notes happened. There was a guy in the life insurance industry last century because remember, rough notes is 146 years old. He was out selling life insurance and he would make notes on his appointments about, you know, what happened on the appointment and the people he met with. He's making notes.

And he had all of these notes and somebody said to him, what are you going to do with those notes? Well, I'm not sure yet and I may be missing some exact details, but just stay with the story here, okay?

Later on, those notes became known as Rough Notes from his journey as a real insurance agent who was out there helping people with insurance. That's how the magazine name Rough Notes was born. Great backstory, super privileged. And I bring this podcast to you today proudly hoping that one you start your own. It's not difficult. I am privileged, honored to be talking to some of the best agents in North America, some of the best industry partners in North America, some of the best entrepreneurs and other leadership people in industry worldwide, and wait for something that we have coming up here in the next few weeks. Ladies and gentlemen, by the way, get ready. I'm recording here in the next week or two, the incredible Joey Coleman. Never lose a customer again. Never lose an employee again. Super proud to have him on the podcast. But back to the matter at hand. Thank you to Rough Notes team and I encourage all of you because there's content and Rough Notes Advantage plus that you could use on your own podcast. Okay? So Rough Note said, well, we want to share more about your podcast with everybody. So in the June issue of Rough Notes, which is next month, be looking out for the June issue of Rough Notes. You will see a little bit more information about our humble yet proud unstoppable profit podcast in the magazine. Super, Super Grateful. Some of the podcast topics that we cover and they they talk about that in the piece. Leadership Hiring Systems, Agency Growth Strategies, Agency processes and Retention, Industry Technology Marketing, New lead generation strategies, Entrepreneurial mindset, Agency success stories and more. Super super Grateful. What do you have to share with the world? What are you dreaming about today? What do you dream about that people need to hear more about? Because here's the thing. When you start your own podcast and you start sharing it with everybody, you have the content and then you take that content and you reproduce it in other ways. If you've got the video, transcribe it. If you got the audio, transcribe it, put it into bite sized snips, put it into your newsletter, put it into your email content help to other people. I mean the sky is the limit. I just gave you all of the ways that you could use that particular information that you get from just doing your podcast. It could become your central blog or your quote vlog for your activities. Phone, email, snail mail, video, website text, wow packages, lumpy mail, social media networking all surrounding your podcast. Listen, if I can do it, you can do it.

If I can ever help you, please let me know. Connect with me for an agency growth strategy session. I will be happy to share with you. We'll get to know each other and I can't wait to help you. You got this. VIP life.com VIP@upplife.com just put in the subject line hey. Which as a reminder if you were paying attention throughout this podcast is the number one email subject line in the history of marketing. Vippplife.com just put hey in the subject line. Send us an email. Say I want to connect with Mike for whatever or send me the list. Whatever you would like. Let us know or 800-770-9984 thank you for joining us today. Thank you for being a loyal follow follower. Thank you for being a proud independent insurance agent or a business entrepreneur. Wherever you are out there in the world, I am thankful and grateful for you and thank you for connecting with us every week. Until next time. You got this. I believe in you. I will see you in the next episode and get out there and take action.

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