Episode 266: Never Lose Again – Part 2 – with Joey Coleman

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.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to episode 266 of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. Episode 265 with Joey Coleman was off the charts and so jam packed with content. We're here to bring you part two with Mr. Joey Coleman. Jam packed with so much good stuff. Make sure you get something to write with and something to write on because here we grow.

So sometimes we need to change and shift when we're serving a our fellow teammates who are ultimately serving our prospects, our customers, our communities, our marketplace, et cetera, et cetera.

So, Mike, it's so true. And this is a challenge. I empathize with, the challenge that many leaders have. Many leaders did not come up in a world where their boss was sitting down with them every six months, asking them how they were feeling, asking them where their career was, where they were going. I get that this is different than what you experienced, but you know what else is different than what you experienced coming up? Oh, I don't know. There's this thing called the Internet. There are these things called, hey, I've heard about that. There are these things called work from home and zoom and all these tools that never existed. Now, if I told you you couldn't do Internet anymore, you couldn't use the Internet in your business, while some of the folks would be like, oh my God, Joey, that'd be so great to never have an email again. I get it. But if I took that tool away from you, you'd be very frustrated. We're just asking you to adapt to the environment we're in. We're asking you to read the writing on the wall and acknowledge it is a different world, both in terms of the employer expectation and experience and the employee expectation and experience.

Well, and Joey's made it really easy. I'm looking at it right now. It's phase seven in the book. It's approximately page 201. He talks about adopting and everything that you need to know. So he's laid it all out for you. Great, great stuff. And friends, we get it. We understand it's not easy and it's not something you were designed to do. What we're looking to do here is to help you, to make it easier for you. And it may not be super pleasant right out of the gate, but if you stay consistent, consistent with focus and discipline, you will get there.

Just follow what it says in the book and everything that we teach. We're here to help Joey. I want to get back to the reason that they should pay attention. Okay.

Yes. There's so many interesting reasons why it's useful to pay attention to this.

Yeah. Well, I'm on page five of the book, so. By the way, the book, again, is never lose an employee again. This fell out of the book, by the way. Employee referral program, which is 50% or more of how you get the best A players. We'll say that it's in the vault, by the way. Joeycolman.com vault. I've learned from you. I said it again.

Turnover costs. Okay.

Turnover costs are staggering.

The reason. Yeah, I don't know if you have memorized. If not, I'll just let it rip.

I have a number of them. I mean, here are the big ones. So one of the challenges of having been a former attorney is my books have a lot of footnotes and endnotes. Right. I like to bring a lot of research to the table because I grew up in a world of being in the courtroom where you had to present evidence if you wanted your person to be found not guilty or evidence if you wanted them to be found guilty. So I'm all about, let me bring you the evidence. And this isn't just my research, although a lot of it is. There's research from third parties, different countries, different industries. Here's what we know to be true across the board. Number one, average cost to businesses in the United States for annual turnover was $700 billion back in 2021. That's the most recent data we have. It's probably closer to a trillion dollars. Now.

That was a B in 2021. B.

Now it's B in 21. Yeah, exactly. I mean, this is unbelievable. And everybody's like, do you think more people are quitting today than in 2021? Yes, friends. They are like, it's just unbelievable. But here's the one that cuts right to the. To the heart of the matter. The cost of replacing an employee. If an employee leaves, the cost of getting a new person in that seat before you start paying them is somewhere between 100% and 300% of their annual salary. So if you have a $50,000 employee and they quit to get the next $50,000 employee is going to cost you somewhere between 50,000 and $150,000 in job description ads that you're running, you know, and placement ads in doing interviews and doing background checks, all the stuff to get them in the seat. That's before you get them up to speed and the loss of productivity that you're having in your business in the meantime. Last piece of data, and this is actually newer since the book came out, because the book came out about a year ago. And so there's brand new data that's less than six months old. That data shows that more than 50% of Americans today are actively looking for a new job. So my question to all the leaders out there is, which 50% of your team are you going to be okay with them leaving between now and the end of the year? Because statistically that's what we're up against and this isn't going to change. I talk to a lot of business leaders and they're like, well Joey, just wait till the pendulum swings back to it. Being an employer market folks, we have some fundamental things that are working against us as employers. Fundamental thing number one, demographics. There are few of age workers entering the workforce every year than in the past. We're not making enough workers. Our population is actually decreasing. The only way to change that, by the way, is immigration. And folks seem to have a lot of opinions on that topic, so we'll save that for another podcast. But the reality is to to make a new worker takes 18 years plus nine months minimum. Minimum. That's how long it's going to take. And I don't know how many about there are super excited about hiring someone fresh out of high school to join your team and be a tier one top A performer. With all due respect to our young folks, they haven't had enough time in the saddle to probably perform at an industry leading level fresh out of high school. So it's not, this is not a judgment on the young people because that's where our future is. This is saying this challenge isn't going to change anytime soon. And then the last piece at play on here is globalization. It used to be that you would not even dream of working for an employer that was based more than 30 miles from your home for centuries. Millennia. This is how we operated. You worked in an industry or for someone that was headquartered within a drivable commute to the office, or you, you were working right there on the farm that you were growing up on, whatever it may be. Now it is just as easy for you to spend the Morning working for an employer freelance based in London. The afternoon working for Los Angeles and the evening working for an employer based in Tokyo. And you've just followed the sun. This is the world we live in today. It's not changing back. And we get the opportunity. Do we want to adapt or become extinct? That's what every business leader is being asked today. Do you want to adapt or become extinct? I'm choosing adapt because I like that version of life a lot more than the extinct version of life.

I'm going to repeat that one and I hope you write this down and do it and take action. Adapt or become extinct. Pretty simple.

Yeah.

And Mike, as you said earlier, let's begin by acknowledging that that's difficult. Let's begin by acknowledging that adapting is not just an easy thing to do. Okay, it's an easy word to say. It's not an easy thing to do. But the alternative is the end of business as you know it. The alternative is the slow, steady demise of something you've worked so hard to create.

I want everybody listening to succeed. I want them to be the best version of themselves, personally and professionally that they can. The way we're going to do that is continuing to grow and learn and adapt.

100% agree. Let me just throw out a wild idea. I want to see what your answer is. I already know what mine is. I'm looking in the book on page five, the cost of losing an employee and how to Avoid it. In the book Never Lose an Employee Again. And the Weinhardt's group projects the cost of hiring a new employee at 100 to 300% of the annual salary. So would it be a good idea for a business to hire a singular individual.

At whatever you know the regular salary is for that particular position, to make sure that all the deliverables consistently happen within the business, to make sure that your team members are not in that 50% that wants to leave.

100%. And what I love best about your hypothetical, Mike, is you said should they hire someone, I want to dive into that. Because most business leaders think because you started the business, because you're leading the business, because you're responsible for growing the business and getting new clients and serving the clients, that you also need to be responsible for all the employee experience side. No, you don't. You need to be dialed in on it. You need to empower the person to lead it. But if you know as a leader that that you are better with the external customers than the internal customers, then hire an executive level team member to be responsible for your internal customers, your people and give them all the resources, all the power, all the possibility they need. And then be to be frank, zip your lip and follow their advice. I see way too many leaders that are like, oh, we're being too generous with our employees. Like, let me get, let me get this right. You want your employees to bend over backwards for your clients. You want them to deliver world class remarkable experience, but you want them to do it 60 hours a week at minimum wage. You get PTO after you've been working here for a year, we'll start paying some of your, some of your health insurance after you've been here for a year. Folks, we can do better. I'm not saying you have to have foosball tables for everyone and everybody has to have unlimited vacation and everybody has to have, you know, seven figure salaries. What I am saying is, if you want top people, recognize that you need to treat them like they are your most valuable part of your team. You know, for, for all too often this idea of human resources has been over indexed on the concept of resource instead of human.

Bring a little more human to your human resources and your business will operate much more effectively, efficiently and successfully than it has been in the past.

100% agree. And I believe it was the late Jim Rohn who said, you attract exactly what you are and who you become.

Absolutely. And keep in mind that as a leader, your people are watching your example. I had an opportunity to speak to an audience not too long ago and the CEO raised her hand and she said, you know, my people have unlimited personal time off. Unlimited. They can take as much vacation as they want. She said, no one's taking vacation. And it's really annoying because I made unlimited pto. I said, oh my gosh, first of all, kudos to you. Big round of applause for this leader, for unlimited pto. And she's kind of looking at me weird and everybody's clapping and it's like. And I said, great. My second question, how much time have you taken off in the last year? She said, well, what does that have to do with anything? And I said, let me guess.

You can count the number of days you've taken off as the leader on one hand. And she proudly said, yes, other than major federal holidays, I've had three days off in the last two years. And I said, what is fascinating is to me is two things as a human, the amount of pride with which you just said that. But as a prospective employee, do I get to take time off if the boss doesn't get to take time off. She's like, well, I told them they could. And I said, yeah, I understand. But we also tell our kids, stop looking at the screen, turn off the tv while we are glued to our phones telling them this, right? People are taught. They, they more is caught than taught. So your people are going to observe how you're leading and how you're behaving and how you're approaching to time off and recovery and rest and recharge and see that as this is the acceptable standard in our organization. You want your people to take more time off, you should take more time off.

Don't tell them. Show them.

100%. 100%.

Absolute gold nugget after gold nugget. Joey Coleman, thank you. Great stuff. So let's focus on this to begin to wrap things up, because I know we could go on for hours about this subject, which is so vitally important. Let me just throw a curveball at you. I ask this of a lot of entrepreneurs out there who have business teams. Joey, who's our number one customer?

Oh, well, Spencer, I believe. I believe actually our number. And this may be a different answer than you often get. And I've only come to this realization in the last year. I'm 51. I've only come to this realization in the last year. Actually. Our number one customer is ourself as the leader.

If you are not taking care of yourself, you have no ability to take care of your employees, your team members, your clients, your prospects, your family. And a lot of people, especially in the society here in the United States, see that as being selfish.

I liken this to you got to put your own oxygen mask on first. If you're going down and you're in pain, you're not sleeping, you're not eating right, you're not exercising, you're not taking care of your own health, you're not optimal, you're not going to be able to serve all these things, people who matter. So number one customer, yourself, Number two, your team. And the reason I put somebody asked me not too long ago. They said, joey, if I was only going to read one of the books, never lose a customer again or never lose an employee again. Which one should I read? And I'd love them to read both. But I said, read the employee book because here's the thing. It is so much easier to find a new customer than to find a new team member. It is so much easier. It is so much easier to find someone that can play on your team versus finding somebody who wants to be associated with that, be a customer. So much easier. So we got to take care of our people 100%.

Our number one job is our people. Our number one job is our people. I was in a session a couple of months ago that was consistently repeated. One other thing I heard in that same session, interestingly enough, I don't know if you ever heard this. Did you know that every team member that we bring on, and I 100% agree with you, we need to compensate our people at the level to which they deserve. Because I've also learned that a. An A player or the best team member will pay for themselves generally within six months, if not sooner.

Easily. Easily. And what I would say is we. One of the biggest mistakes that business leaders make is there makes money, spends money, and loses money when you have. Years ago, I had an employee who was a new hire. They'd been on the job less than three months. They came in, they were like, joey, I'd love to set up a meeting with you. And I was like, okay. I tried to make myself unbelievably available to new hires, right? Because I was like, these are the foundational times. We have our scheduled meetings. But I'm like, anytime you want a meeting, you come. We'll say we schedule a meeting. We come into the meeting, and this new hire, fresh out of college, says to me, I'd like to talk about a pay raise Now, Mike, I about fell over. I know we're already paying at the above the top of the market for the type of the work she's doing, but I was like, this. This is a quality person. I'm making an investment in their future. Did you do. I'm making an investment in our business future. And the person said, I said, okay. And I tried. I tried best to first get curious before I get critical. It's one of my own life philosophies. Try to be curious before you're critical. And I got to remind myself of that all the time, Mike, which is why I say it on this podcast, is to hear my own voice saying, joey, be curious before you're critical. And I said, so happy to talk about a pay raise even though you've only been here three months. Even though I'm still. You're not profitable for the business anywhere close. Okay, okay. Why are you thinking this would be a good idea? And she said, well, my student loans are coming due. And there also I realized, you know, when you gave me my job offer letter, you said you were going to be paying me this Was several years ago, $50,000 a year. But my checks don't add up to $50,000 a year. And she was like, fica, like this is this taxes? What? I didn't real. And I'm like, okay, okay. So we talked to it and then what I did is I spent about an hour explaining how the business makes money and how I can only pay her with money. The business, that money that the business makes. And that for me to be able to pay her at the rate I was paying her of $50,000 a year, the business had to make over $100,000 a year, almost $140,000 a year at the time. When we factored in taxes, benefits, her desk, her computer, all the pieces of the puzzle. And what I realized in that moment, Mike, is that was my fault.

That was my fault because I hadn't explained that I had expected someone fresh out of college to know those things. And why would they? Who had explained it to them? So there's a huge opportunity. If you're concerned about what you're paying your people, if you're concerned about all the perks I'm giving them, explain to them the actual cost and then get them aligned with how can we make more money in the business. Oh, you all want to be able to have, you know, five weeks of paid vacation? Great. Let's increase profits to allow for everyone on the team to have five weeks of paid vacation. This is what we need to do. And suddenly you get Everybody's interest aligned 100%.

And for anybody who might want a free bonus, I'm going to throw that out right now because you just perked my mind. We have an investment sheet. Yes, we call it an investment sheet for team members. Send an email to VIP@upplife.com that's VIP life.com in the subject line. Put team member investment. We'll kick it back to you. It's a one page Excel which outlines all of that for a team member so they can see what the true value of our investment in that in them is as a position on the team. Great stuff, Joey. Thank you very much. The other thing that I heard in that session a couple of weeks ago was every team member comes with a 12 month financing plan. I'd never heard that before.

Oh, my gosh. I love it. I love it. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I might say they come with 100 day financing plan. Others say a 12 month. Absolutely. What you're. If this is the kind of person that you want to be on your team, you should be willing to go first. What I mean by that is if you really want them to join you, you should be willing to show them why joining you is, is the best decision they've ever made. You know, all too often employers act as if we've picked you from the masses. So you should be honored to join our team. Those days are gone. The days were really actually never here, but we fooled ourselves into thinking that that was the reality. We should be letting our folks know the investments we're making in them and we should be ready to commit to a long term investment. Don't hire someone that you think is going to be good for maybe a year or so. Don't do that. I liken this stuff to being a Division 1 college coach. What I love about Division 1 college coaches, regardless of your sport, is they are looking at a small subset of high school athletes that play their sport and an even smaller subset who excel at that sport that they want to bring to their college or university to try to put together a team. And if they bring the best, they know statistically at best, those people are going to be there six years if we count some red shirting and injuries and stuff like that. But most likely they're going to be there for two or three years if they're really good, before they go somewhere else, before they go pro, whatever it may be. If you think of yourself as a team leader saying, I'm bringing on people onto this team who for three or four years will help me build a championship team and then some of those people will leave and it's going to be okay when they leave and I'm going to have to bring new people into the system and build kind of a dynastic effort where we've got processes and we've got, you know, operations that allow us to plug and play new team members. That's how you build a sustainable business over time. Gone are the days where, oh, if we get the right person, they'll stay here for 20 years. Respectfully, you don't want them to stay there for 20 years. You want them to contribute and then go out in the world and be an evangelist for how amazing you are as a boss or as an employer.

It's the system, the processes. And that's exactly what these books. And I'm going to go ahead and take an extra second here. Thank you for everything you've poured in for Unstoppable Nation. Again, the two books, if you're on the video, I'll go ahead and repeat it anyway. You can see them. If not, Never Lose a Customer Again by Joey Coleman. Never Lose an Employee Again by Joey Coleman. That and the third book, the Unstoppable Profit Producer. Those three should be forefront in your library and you will continue to win. But Joey, based on everything that you've learned in your research and you're writing these books, if there's one thing, if you haven't already mentioned it, if you have, let's repeat it. What's the one thing that you would recommend to every business leader out there that is listening or watching this podcast that they must know as we wrap up today?

Oh, so since you were kind enough to create the space to talk about something I haven't talked about yet, let me throw out something that if, if you've liked what we've been talking about, if you've liked this idea of having better relationships with your clients, better relationships with your team members, creating remarkable experiences that keep them coming back for more, you might be thinking, how do I get better at doing this? Why haven't I done it in the past? What systems do I need? What processes do I need? How am I going to build it? That's all in the book. But let's talk a little bit about the mindset of someone who lives life this way. I posit that the most valuable skill humans have, that is going to be the skill that separates us from AI, that allows us to, quote, not lose our jobs to AI. The skill that allows us to connect with our fellow humans in ways that are unrepeatable or copyable by our competition, that are distinct and unique to us and us alone, is our ability to have empathy.

How do we have empathy for the other person we're trying to interact with, whether they are a prospect, a client, a candidate, an employee, a team member, whoever may it be. And one of the fastest ways you can build empathy, short of lying on a therapist couch and talking about your broken parts and how to make them less broken, which is also valuable exercise, is to read fiction. Now, Mike, you may never have had a guest that suggested here my final thing. I suggest you quit reading my books and go read fiction. Because there is nothing like reading a fiction book to transport you into the shoes of a narrow another character, another human, and see the world from their blueprint, from their lens. I think every business leader I I did this years ago and my gosh has it made a huge difference in my life. I was over indexing on nonfiction business books. I was taking great pride in. How many books did I read this year and how many were nonfiction business books? And how am I going to go there? I switch to 1 to 1. I read a non fiction business book and then I read a quality fiction book and then I go back and I read a non business or a non fiction business book and then back to a fiction book. You will learn so much. Your perspective will increase, your empathy will increase and you will, your brain will start to make connections to your business world that it's never going to make if you're only reading and learning from business leaders.

Wow, I didn't see that one coming. You're right.

Well, it's one that I believe wholeheartedly. I know it has served me incredibly well. It served my clients, my clients incredibly well. And as I start to do more research and writing and exploration around the topic of empathy, the more I'm realizing just what a game changer it is and how vital it is, especially in this age where we're so quick as humans to say, well, those people over there, they just don't get it. Or those people over there don't know what they're talking about. They don't believe what I believe. They don't see the world the way I see.

We've done a good job. We've got that skill set developed world. We don't need to practice that one anymore. What we need to get better at practicing is nuance and understanding and curiosity. The things that make us go, huh? I've read the three headlines, I've seen the two 30 second sound bites, but I'm actually going to read the full speech. I'm going to read the report, I'm going to read the bill that people are voting on in Congress. I'm going to actually read the bill instead of just saying, well, did they vote for it or against it? I'm going to actually go and read some history of the Middle east before I have an opinion on who's right or wrong and explore things. I'm going to get curious before I get critical about the actions that others are taking so that I can try to, as the best I'm able, have empathy for all the different perspectives and positions in this discussion and then make the best informed decision I can. We're never going. We started this conversation by saying we're never going to be perfect. We're never going to get it all right? But I think being more empathetic is the equivalent of making deposits in the carmic bank account. It's letting the other person know, hey, I haven't walked in your Shoes. I don't know what it's like to be you, but I'm going to come to the table imagining that you have good days, that you have bad days. And I'm going to try to meet you every day in the best way I can.

I can use that with the person that we were talking about at the beginning as well.

I'm just saying this stuff works for customers, this stuff works for employees. It also works in your home life.

It does, Absolutely. And EQ is for real, without question.

Absolutely.

Emotional intelligence, empathy is absolutely part of that. So, Joey, I know we could go on, but with due respect for your valuable time, thank you. This has been absolutely phenomenal. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. If anybody wants to learn more, just go to joeycolman.com. right?

That's perfect. Yep. J O E Y like a baby kangaroo or a five year old, you know, Coleman C O L E M A N like the camping equipment, but no relation. And unstoppable nation. Keep being unstoppable. Keep. Keep listening to the good wisdom and guidance that Mike gives you. Keep reading, keep growing, keep learning, keep being empathetic. And I wish you all the very best and great success in the first hundred days and beyond.

Absolutely. And just incredible. Just amazing. Thank you so much. Most importantly, just take action on everything before you have learned in the podcast. I do have a quick wrap up. That's where I got caught just a second ago. Joey and I forgot to mention this to you before we started. So let me wrap this up. Thank you everybody for joining us today. I strongly recommend. I know what I was going to also say. Build into your library habits. One fiction for every nonfiction. One fiction, One nonfiction. One fiction, one nonfiction. That'll increase your perspective and your outlook and your empathy as you're dealing with this incredible, forever changing human race, shall we say?

Absolutely fantastic.

Let me go and wrap this thing up. And by the way, if this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. We are so excited that you're here. My name is Mike Stromso. I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. And you can learn more about what we do@unstoppableprofitproducer.com everything that we bring you in, every episode is all designed to to simply help you grow your business, create wealth, so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And what you got today was massive karmic bank account deposits. So please take action on those. Everything we do is designed around that. And if you haven't yet, please go to Unstoppable Profit podcast dot com. Go up to the top, click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode. In everything that we bring, agent success stories, business leaders from the globe like Joy Coleman and so many more, I will guarantee that you will learn and you will grow. So go up and click subscribe. And if you got great value out of this podcast, please share the link or Unstoppable Profit podcast with anybody that you know, anybody that you care about, that you want to help grow as well. And of course, we're out there on all the channels, the Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon and more. So thank you for joining us today. Joey Coleman, man, you rocked it. You are unstoppable. And thank you for being with us today.

Oh, thanks Mike. And thanks to everybody for listening in as well. I hope you all enjoyed the conversation as much as I did.

Absolutely. It was awesome. Until next time. Get out there, make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. Remember, one fiction, one nonfiction. You got this. We believe in you. We'll see you in the next episode.

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