Episode 35 : Your Destination Is Your Responsibility

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give you all the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Millionaire agents and entrepreneurs think and act differently than others. This podcast will give you a simple, proven three step blueprint to grow your business. Over the past 31 years of research in your industry, Mike Stromso has created a unique philosophy called the three people Process and production Motion. This outside the box thinking and guidance provides agency entrepreneurs just like you the knowledge and tools you can quickly implement to explode your agency business. He has been there, done that, and he's still doing it. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are 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 Stromso.

Welcome to episode 35 of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is Mike Stromco coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we're going to be talking about your destination. Because your destination is your responsibility. Knowing your destination is all you need to get there. And if you don't know where you're going, how in the heck can you ever get there? So make sure that your destination that you're going to, whether it be in the next week, whether it be in the next month, whether it be in the next quarter, whether it be in the next year, three years, five years, 10 years, whatever that is, make sure you are crystal stinking clear on your destination. And how are you going to know you've got the plan? Benjamin Franklin said, if you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail. Don't be that one. Make sure you dedicate the time to create the destination that will fulfill the business of your dreams, that will support the life of your dreams. My friends, it's really that simple. But you've got to do the work. You can't sit in front of the stove and say give me heat without putting in the wood. You've got to put wood in the stove in order for it to return heat. So do the work right, the work involved in your goal setting and your planning. And we're around the first of a year. That's why I'm doing this for you today. I just got done with, with my own world class high level planning because we are going to kick some major fanny this year. There's absolutely no other option. And I've been doing this for years and I've learned investing the time to plan your destination is worth every stinking penny. So I'm going to share with you some techniques that I've used. If you do have your own thing that you're using, fantastic. And this enhances it a little bit. Even better. If you haven't done a thing, regardless of your past, you do have a spotless future. So don't worry about it, because worry brings fear and fear is crippling. Just take flipping action, be action packed and get a blank piece of paper and something to write with on that blank piece of paper and get started. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, once you complete this entire process, then you must be disciplined, you must be focused, and most importantly, you must be open to change. As we talked about in a recent podcast, there's three things that are certain in life nowadays, not just two. For years when I was growing up, I heard two things were certain. Death and taxes. Well, that's now changed. It's three things. Death, taxes and change. All three of those things are certain. So you must be open and ready for the change because it's going to be coming by the time we get done this podcast, lots of things are going to have changed. So be ready for the change. Let me give you another visual that I love, love, love nowadays. On that blank piece of paper, the first thing I want you to do vertically. That's from top to bottom, like a bridge. From the ground level up to the top of the bridge is vertical. Alright? So on the top of the vertical, write F F like. No, don't go there. F like focused. What I want you to do is write focused F O C U S E D from top to bottom F on the top D. On the bottom right, focused. Right. And to the right of F, I want you to write O L L O W follow. To the right of O I want you to write NE1. And to the right of C, I want you to write O u r S e course.

To the right of the U, I want you to write ntil until. To the right of the S, I want you to write U C C e s s success. To the right of the E, I want you to write V e r y every to the right of the D, I want you to write a Y day follow one course until success every day. You've got to stay focused, you've got to stay disciplined and you got to be open to change. I'm looking at John Wooden's pyramid of success in my office. I got to see John Wooden speak before he passed away. Omg, my friends, a life changing flipping day on John Wooden's I had, I got the pyramid of success that day. I blew it up. It's now about 4 or 5ft tall on my office wall. But one thing I wrote down on that after I got to study Wooden even more, he said, discipline yourself, so no one else needs to. Discipline yourself. So no one else needs to. Hey, my friends, you can only count on one person in this world. There's only one person that you can completely trust every flipping day in and every flipping day out. And that is you. The person in the mirror of truth is the only person you can count on. So discipline yourself so no one else will need to. Alright, so let's get going now we've got the mindset because remember, our mindset is our skill set. Let's get going on setting some goals and some destinations, right?

Excuse me. So what I do. Hang on a second.

Got so worked up there I lost my breath. What I do, I get that blank piece of paper and that's where I start. The one thing that I do before I get started on the coming year or the coming week or the coming quarter, by the way, I do document my destination every single night before I go to bed for the next day. But for the year as an example.

I go back and I review the year that just happened, okay? And I've got lots of different ways of doing that. I look at photographs, I look at my daily planner, I've got other tools that I use to plan my strategies. I go back and look at all of that and I document where we've come from over the last year and it's absolutely awesome way to do it. And then once I'm clear on what we've achieved over the last 12 months, then we can go forward. Okay, so I've got five different goal sheets that I use in my own world to set goals.

And they're all strategic, they're all based on something that I want to achieve, whether it be personally or professionally. And on that blank piece of paper, I just brain sprint based on the topics of those goals that I want to achieve. And, and looking at those, I just, you know, brain sprint for the year based on where we come from and where we're going. Then I start writing down just rudimentary things. No right or wrong answer of where I want to go. So I'm looking at one of my annual goal sheets and the first one is family, relationship, lifestyle. So family, relationship, lifestyle and excuse me. And I just start brainstorming Things under that, the next topical is one of our companies, like the unstoppable Profit Producer program. And the next topical is our insurance agency business, which is Stromso Insurance Agency. So I've got a topical under that. The next one is mental, spiritual goals, things that I want to achieve through becoming more. Because you've heard me say, if you've been listening at all, all if you want to have more, you have to become more. Because you attract exactly who you are and what you become. So you've got to become more, right? So I've got my mental and spiritual goals, what I'm going to be studying and so forth and so on. And then the last one is financial and contributions, right? Investing and giving back to other people because the law of reciprocity is always in effect. So what I do is I take those five topics and I'll normally put them on one piece of paper and, and I'll just look at them and I'll say, all right, I want to contribute in these particular areas. These are things I want to get done in the agency business, these are things I want to get done in the UPP program, et cetera, et cetera. Giving back to others, giving back to my family, investing time with my wife, our kids, our grandkids, whatever it might be. And I'll just start brain sprinting, no right or wrong answer. And normally I'll have about two to three pages of line items that are things that I want to accomplish in the coming term, which is normally a year for me. Okay? So once I get that done, then I go back and review it again and I start circling the top items as it relates to the particular topic, like mental and spiritual as an example. Okay? So, and my goal, if you will, with my goal sheets, is to normally have anywhere from three to seven items on that goal sheet and that are really, really important, that are really, really impactful, that are really, really game changers and those are what I'm going to run with for the coming year. As an example, couple of years ago, one of the things for UPP was to start this podcast and here we are. It was a goal, it became reality. We set it up, we made sure we had a game plan. And here we are, we're doing episode 35 already. So we had to take steps in order to get there, but we got there alright. So to give you, I'll be happy to give you a couple of examples. My family, relationship, lifestyle, if you have heard me speak, maybe from time to time, you know that cousins, camp, is a huge, huge on my heart goal for me personally. Another thing is as part of a dream trip for my wife and I which became reality, I'm happy to say and just friendly reminder for myself, family first and those are things on family relationship lifestyle that I'm looking for. Okay. Like I said, for the unstoppable profit producer program, having a successful million dollar sales producer boot camp and some details on that. You know, trying to get a certain number of people@bunstoppablebootcamp.com and really just impacting people's lives personally and professionally. Some things surrounding that and how we're going to do that. Our agency, we've got a revenue goal, we've got an acquisition goal, we've got a referral goal and we've got ways that we can continue to grow the business and I've got those listed there under mental and spiritual goals. I've got investing 30 minutes per day, four times a week and some audio growth program. I've got a mistress out there, I think it's not a secret anymore. My mistress, her name is audible and she is a very close alliance of mine. I'm spending a lot of time with Audible. So anyway but because I'm an audio learner, right? So I'm investing that time in my audio learning and growth because I have to become more. Okay, I listed I want to be prepared for every coaching call of with my own coaches because I invest, I invest, I invest with people who know a lot more than I do about any subject and I learned from them. Okay. You know, don't listen to other people and their agendas is one of the things on my mental radar because you know if I start listening to people who are just spewing this and that that is not in alignment with my destination, my goals. I'm not going to get anywhere my friends. So it's really important to be that in that alignment. And then financial contribution we want to give X amount of money back to our communities that we serve. We have a referral program within our agency business that gives back to our communities. We want to hit certain numbers with that. So I've got that listed. I had to do some updates on some personal paperwork for the legacy of our family that I had to get done. I wanted to set up a savings fund for my grandkids for schooling purposes and by the way, I did these things. This is a prior year's goals. I did these things, they are accomplished. You know why? Because once I get the goals done, you know what I do with them, I scan them in my computer. And when I get back to my home in the morning after I'm out exercising, riding my bike, getting my mind right, doing some other personal things, I get my shake, I get my coffee, and I run upstairs to my home office. The first thing that I do, the first thing that I do every single day before I do anything else, is I open my goals and I read them. And my friends, what I'm here to tell you is every single day, when I look at them, I see things differently than I have a prior day because something has changed in the last 24 hours.

And my view on how I'm going to accomplish that sometimes has changed in the last 24 hours. And I've come across another person who will contribute to to one or more of these goals in the last 24 hours. So my actionable items will change from day to day to day, from week to week to week, from year to year to year. My friends, that's why it's so important to stay focused, follow one course, and tell success every day. You've got to stay focused on where you're going and your destination and everything that you want to accomplish. Because if you don't keep your eye on that ball, it's going to move out of your sight and then you're going to be screwed. Sorry to be the professor of harsh reality, but that is the truth. By the way, I borrowed that from one of my greatest marketing mentors who is the professor of harsh reality. But at the end of the day, that's the truth, my friends. And I don't want that to happen for you, and I don't want that to happen to anybody who might be listening to this or that. I know we've got to stay focused on our goals, right? So like I said earlier, I wanted to cover a couple things as we begin to wrap it up today. All right, first, remember I mentioned earlier that I plan every single day the night before, right? So I've got my list. I'm looking at my list from yesterday. I had eight things on my list yesterday, and I am happy to report that seven of those eight things got crossed out. That means they got done, that got accomplished. Because I have myself to be disciplined to, to be accountable to. I've got my leadership team to be accountable to. I've got my family and my spouse to be accountable to. So I'm accountable to people. So I plan my day the night before. So before I go to bed. And there's something about that when I Plan the night before it goes to sleep with me. And I'm thinking about it, you know, consciously or subconsciously throughout the night. Just a little side note as well, when I get up in the morning. I learned from one of my other great mentors over my journey in life so far, that when you get up in the morning, before you jump out of bed and go follow your day, try this once in a while. Just lay there and think about the things you're grateful for. If you looking for a place to start, say, you know, I'm grateful that I've got a warm bed to sleep in every night. How freaking awesome is that? Okay, I'm grateful that, you know, in my case, I've got my spouse laying right next to me. I'm going to get up, I've got a bicycle to ride, I've got my health, I've got food, I've got opportunity every single day. Except, I mean, just think about that. It's a great way to start your day. Instead of, oh, I got this to do, oh, I got that to do. I got too many things to do. Naysay, no, don't go there. Just think about how grateful you are. So plan your day the night before, you'll get up in the morning, you'll be ready to go. You know exactly what you need to attack. And the other benefit of planning your day the day before and having it in front of you all the time is you're going to get interrupted. Somebody is going to interrupt you, whether it be a phone call and text or an email or a walk in or whatever, whatever, whatever. Once you get done with that interruption, you're focused right back to the list. You're focused right back to the list. You're focused right back to the list and you're done. You're moving on with the things that are important because you planned your day the day before, right? So plan your day every single day, okay? And when you're starting your day, like I mentioned, read your goals. And most importantly, this is an encouragement not only as far as your daily plan, but your overall goal plan if you need this. If you got like seven things on your goals circle, and I like to circle it in red because my mind works with red. Circle the top three highest priorities and work on those first. And work on your highest priorities before you do anything else. If it's a priority, you'll work on it first. You won't let somebody else run the agenda for your day. Or you can go ahead and do that. See that where it gets you. Okay? Your inbox is not an agenda for somebody else. Got it? Got it. All right. And most importantly, please write this down as we wrap it up today. Three times five times 50 equals 750. That's 3x5x50 equals 750. Three small new priorities every single day. Times five days a week, give yourself a couple days off to rest and rejuvenate. Times 50 weeks a year, take a couple of weeks off to rest and rejuvenate. Equals 750 new top priorities accomplished in just the first 12 months. Small choices plus consistency plus time equals massive results. I personally guarantee you, if you will follow this destination advice, your destination, which is your responsibility, will become reality.

You.

You will be even more unstoppable and you will begin to realize the business and the life that is in front of you, my friends. I hope that helps you again. This is Mike Tromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. Go out there, be action packed. Take action, make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets. And if you want to further change your life, if you want to be immersed in a culture of absolute achievement every single day, be unstoppablebootcamp.com I will see you there. Until next time, this is Mike Strompso. Be unstoppable, my friends. Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast.com. now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.