Episode 47 : Your Authority Dominance

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 45 of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is Mike Stromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we are going to be talking about your authority dominance. Your authority dominance. My friends, you have an incredible opportunity before you to completely dominate the entire geographical state within 50 miles of any business that you get to operate and well beyond that. But before you begin to dominate, say, your entire state, say your entire geographical region and beyond that, you've got to really set the foundational precedent for your local geographical area. And it's a lot easier if you do it that way. So I recently had the opportunity to completely map this out and I can't wait to share it with people and live settings coming up in the real near future. Because a lot of people have asked me this question. In a one day coaching session with one of our platinum members, somebody said, hey, I want to spend some significant time on this exact subject. Let's do it today. I want to see exactly how you did it. And I got the incredible, incredible opportunity to share just from the heart exactly how I did it. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, I am so fortunate in our insurance agency operation. I would suggest if you talk to anybody within, say, 50 miles, if you drove a circle around our agency business and 50 miles around it, that most people would have heard of our particular business. And we work extremely hard on our reputation, on serving people, on serving our communities, continuing to get better so that we can continue to influence people within our geographical area and beyond. And with today's technology, with video, with everything else that goes along with that, you can actually dominate the globe if that's what you set out to do. And I would encourage you to do so. You know, we were recently talking about in one of our Mastermind events, you know, on exactly how you get there. You've got to learn big. You've got to think big and you've got to work big. Don't just learn. Don't just think. Don't just work. Learn big. Learn on the biggest forums that you can learn to invest in. Invest in the biggest platforms that you can get to. Think big. It'll teach you to think big. Think big and then work big. Work on the majors. Major in the majors. Don't ever major in the minors. Major in the majors. When you continue to major in the majors every single day, you will continue to create that influence in your world. So let's get down to what you can do starting right now, starting today in your area to become that authority dominator within your area. So the first thing that I need to share with you is every industry revolves around people, key people of influence. I learned this beginning, oh, I'm going to say three or four years ago when I had the amazing opportunity to get close to Kevin Harrington. Kevin was one of the original sharks on the hit TV show Shark Tank. And I now have a personal relationship with Kevin. He, he's a phone call away. I've spent significant time with Kevin. He spoke at our Be Unstoppable Bootcamp a couple of years ago. What an amazing dude. But the great thing about Kevin, he's very down to earth. And so as I learned more about how he wrote the book Key person of Influence, I learned that every industry revolves around key people. Their name comes up in conversations, people hear their name, they attract opportunity and because of that they earn more money. Many people think it takes decades of hard work. My friends, you can start right now, starting today. It's not about academic qualifications or anything like that. You just have to make sure that you position that you position yourself as that key person of influence within your local area. It does take a little bit of confidence if you will never ego. It takes a little bit of confidence to put yourself out there. I was recently helping another platinum member just this morning create a presentation. They are after another piece of their niche puzzle. They dominate a certain niche business. And the thing about this agency, it's a very significant seven figure plus agency revenue wise. And they only have like 100 clients. So they deal in the bigger realm. I was helping them with the presentation because they're going after another big fish, about a $300,000 plus account. And we were Positioning them as the authority. Now, in the presentation, I had to make sure that I helped this agent position themselves as the authority to go get that account. You know, as an example, on our photo collage sheet that we take out to prospects clients, we say, at the very top, the west coast number one independent insurance agency. I had a prospect ask me a couple of years ago. They said, who said, you're the west coast number one independent insurance agency? I said, pause. Pause is power. My friends and I have an upcoming podcast on that very, very soon. Pause looked them right in the eye, and I said, I feel that we are the west coast number one independent insurance agency. He goes, good. That's what I wanted to hear. It's that little bit of confidence, never ego. All right, so to be this, the key person of influence, to be the center of influence and to be able to track this amazing opportunity around you, you've got to have that positioning. You have to become a leader. You have to continue to study leadership. Because in the words of one of my greatest mentors ever, and you hear me say this a lot, but. But I believe it in my heart of hearts. I believe it in the depth of my hearts. If you want to have more, my friends, you have to become more. Because we attract exactly what we are and who we've become. You've got to learn big. You've got to think big. You got to work big. And the bigger the platform, the bigger the influence. You got to continue to build your influence. The next thing that you need to do, you need to make sure that your brand is rock solid. You. You've got to make sure your brand is absolutely rock solid. If you don't have a brand guide or you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, when you hear the words brand guide, I would suggest strongly that you begin to learn about that and you begin to find out how to position yourself and your brand in the markets that you wish to dominate. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, it's all about who you are. I think back to when we really started setting out to solidify our brand. Because, you know, 20 years ago, when I started from scratch, I just started, hey, if you were breathing and you had money, you were mine, baby. Because that's what I did for my first 11 years. I was the go to salesperson. I was the go to service person, I was the go to claims person, because I created that kind of influence and everything around me. And I just wrote business all day long. I was a machine. Still AM today, but in a different realm. Okay. Then when I started out on my own, that's how I had to build the business. If you had money and you needed insurance, you were mine. But then I started getting smart. I learned how to write good business, how to build a profitable business. And it involves accounts, not policies. As an example. Okay, so fast forward, I will suggest.

16 years later when I really started learning. Because I, you know, the greatest turning point for me was about a year after I started out on my own. And I started learning from people who knew more than I did. I started investing in myself. I started learning from people who knew more than I did. And I started attending seminars, I started investing in conferences. I started investing in learning material, and I started to learn bigger. And that's when it really got very, very special. So we were ready. And so what I did for a long time, I would just do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. Like I learned from Michael Gerber, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. And it would all stick. But if you looked at the wall after all of those years, none of it looked the same. It was like psychedelic paint, all right? And somebody will look at it and say, what do you got going on there? It was not synonymous. That's where I identified. I started studying Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Tony Hsieh of Zappos and his book called Delivering Happiness. That was my first investment in myself, where I started getting aha, aha, aha. And understanding the importance of a brand. Understanding the importance of having.

If you will, a mission statement. We have it in our business. We don't call it a mission statement, though. We call it a promise. And that promise we developed through off site team meetings on off site team work together, off site, growing it together and building it together. And we developed it, our promise. And nowadays it's on the wall of our lobbies, it's on.

Our website and all around us. And we read it at the beginning of every team meeting. Somebody within our team reads it at the beginning of every team function because we're consistently reinforcing who we are, what we believe, and, and the promise and our brand.

About three times a year. My position on our team as the visionary leader is I deliver a state of the agency address. What do I use in putting that state of the agency address together? Well, it starts with a brand guide, and it's just amazing to me. I'll pull out some stuff from our brand guide. I'll say, team, this is what our Brand is, this is who we say we are. This is, this is what we promised to do, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it's just amazing to me as I present it in a way. And I'm gonna give you the next step in just a moment. As I present it in a certain way, I watch people and they start getting their pencils out and stuff and they start writing notes about who we are as an organization. They love the fact that they have a brand that they can rely upon, that they can talk about, that we can all support simultaneously as we go out there to achieve our goals. So influence, you got to build your own influence and continue to learn and grow that influence. Secondly, you got to have a brand guide. The third thing is you have to make sure that you identify who key centers of influence are. Or in our world, COIs not certificates of insurance, but COIs are centers of influence. You have to make sure that you get next to them. You have to make sure you connect with them. You, you got to make sure you understand them. And recent podcast that I just did, I think it was episode actually the last one I did, episode 44. Go back and listen to that again. If you don't completely understand how to get closer and build depth of relationship, okay, with these key centers of influence. It was on client profile mapping and client avatar and that type of thing back in episode 44. If you, if you're not clear, go listen to that again and make good notes because at the end of the day, that's how you get close to centers of influence. The next item is, and I'll recap all these for you. So build your influence, build your leadership. Invest in yourself to learn big, to think big, to work big. Secondly, your brand guide. Third, get close and build relationships with COIs or Center for Zen Floats. Number four. Be vulnerable. Be vulnerable. And as I was teaching this for the very first time in that one day session with a platinum member, I remember coming to this point in the evolution of my story and I said, it gets even better as you're getting close to all these people when you are more vulnerable. Because at the end of the day, that's what people want. They want to be huddling, getting next to hanging out with people who are real people, who are authentic people, who are real people, not some facade or anything like that. They want people who are not perfect, who experience wins, who experience lessons and everything else. Be vulnerable, my friends. Don't be afraid to say I made a mistake or, or this is how I Made an error. Open up to them. Because the more vulnerable you are, the deeper the relationship gets and the better it gets. So it's okay to be vulnerable, especially out in this realm, as you continue to build your authority out there. You know, one of the things that I've learned in the speaking realm, as an example, the bigger the mess, the bigger the success.

So.

So the people, because you hear about people all the time who come from nothing. They were destitute. There's a football player that I saw within the last 12 months who, growing up, was living in a car. His family didn't have a house, they lived in a car. Now he's playing professional football, doing cool stuff. But that's where he came from. That was a pretty big mess. Now he's gained success. The bigger the mess, the bigger the success. It's a mindset. So it's okay to be vulnerable. The next item is share your story. Share your story and get really good at sharing your story so that it's helpful to other people. So that it's helpful to other people. Not about ego, not about me, me, me, me, me. But share your story because people want to be inspired. Zig Ziglar said inspiration is like bathing. It's recommended daily. People want it. People want inspiration. They want motivation. They want to learn inspiration. Motivation. Learning is like bathing. It's recommended daily, and people want it. So if you will share with them authentically your story and learn how to tell it in a way that's helpful to people, it will inspire them and they will remember it. Okay, now, when you learned all through all of this, I have to encourage you with one thing, and you might want to write this down at the very top of the sheet.

And.

And I hope you're taking notes because what gets written down and crossed out actually gets done. So the place to start through all of this, the place to start through all of this is to always give first. Always give first. That's the place to start. Anything, give first. So with that in mind, ask people about their story first. How did you get started in the ice cream industry? As an example? What were some of the key things that you did to build this amazing business that you've created? You see how I'm commending them and giving them props for who they've become, and that helps you gain into the opportunity for them to say, well, tell me about you. That's how you get into sharing your stories, by asking them first about them. I learned a lot of these key opportunities and key questions first. Of all from John Maxwell in the book Good Leaders Ask Great Questions and my take on that and twist to that, nowadays good leaders ask great pointed questions and they shut up because we have two ears and one mouth. And then in a book called Endless Referrals by Bob Berg, Endless Referrals by Bob Berg. I learned to in situations where I'm face to face with people or even when I'm on the phone, that's where I learned a lot of the questions to ask. And in the early days I had a singular index card with 10 questions to dialogue with people. I had it with me all, all the time. And when I run into somebody, I would ask them a couple of these questions and just shut up and it build depth of the relationship. My friends. Share your story after you get them to tell you their story. Become the authority. Become the authority. How do you become the authority? By becoming the authority that you are. You are an authority. If you have a professional insurance license as an example, you, you are an authority. So build that authority. State that authority. Licensed author, speaker, consultant for the insurance industry. Licensed. You're licensed. Are you an author? Well, if you haven't written a book, I can help you with things like other things that you can quickly author. That's part of our unstoppable profit producer programs. We provide things to people that they have license to take. They become an author. So they're a license, agent, author. Do you speak? I'm sure you do. Have you spoken to groups? I'm sure you have. So you're a speaker. Okay, lend that authority. Okay, the next thing that I have on the list for you is E +F equals C and R plus T equals MFT. Let me repeat that. E plus F equals C. R plus T equals MFT. My friends, it's really, really simple. When you're huddling with people, when you're speaking, when you're one on one, when you're on the phone with people, when you're communicating via video, even when you're communicating via email or text. Yes, all of it. Because if you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use 100% of the ways. You've got to create an experience that people will never forget. I was just huddling in a situation this last week. I can't remember the details, but somebody said to me, they said, mike, I called your direct line and I got your voicemail. I know what it was. It was one of my bankers and he said, mike, every time that I communicate somehow with you, Whether it be I get your voicemail or I get your cell phone or I get a communication from you, Mike, it continues to blow me away. The way you deliver messages is just like nothing that I've ever heard before. Now, let's think about positioning on this. This is my banker. This guy holds my biggest lines. And I want to continue to influence him, right? Because actually, what I did the other day after he was going on for like 10 or 15 minutes about all these influence points and all these things that he continues to learn about us and so forth and so on, and he's just. And I just sit there listening, taking it all in. Guess what? I asked him because something that I learned probably 15 years ago. Go to the bank when you don't need money. Go to the bank when you don't need money. That's the time to go to the bank. I don't need the money right now. I'm going to ask him to double our line of credit. I don't need it. We don't have much out on it. We use it situationally for operating cash flow because we have 15, 16 team members now. And it's just cash flow, cash flow, cash flow, right? And situational, because our marketing bucket budget is also very big. And cash flow, cash flow, cash flow. So. But I'm going to ask him now, okay? So back to the influence. He said, mike, every experience that I have with you is absolutely off the charts. So the E is experience. When you create an experience for somebody, it brings a feeling to them, all right? That's the fault. Experience. When you bring an experience, you create a feeling. Once you create that feeling, you create the connectedness, Then you're connected. Experience plus feeling equals connectedness. Once you get to the connection point with somebody, that's fantastic. But that's where the rubber meets the road. And that's where the fun begins. Because the R is relationship. Once you're connected with somebody, begin to build the relationship, okay? Once you continue to build that relationship and then. And that relationship building sometimes take a month, two months, three months, sometimes longer than that, depending on how big the influencer is. Okay? But build that relationship, because sooner or later you're going to build that relationship to the point where you build the trust. Relationship plus trust equals mft. Money follows trust. My last encouragement today is less is more. Less is more. Okay? Whatever you bring, bring it in a big way. Sometimes not too much of it. Bring it in a big way. Make sure it's that, wow, pop. Wow, pop. Leave them speechless, you know, I had a. Back in the early days of our marketing endeavors, a lot of our companies, insurance carrier partners, I should say, noticed that we were just doing a lot of stuff and the word was getting out. And one of the very high uppers at our largest company said, I want to come down and see this guy. I want to see his operation. And so we came in, three hours later, we're sitting at the conference table, and I said to the guy, I looked the guy in the eye and I said, is there anything more that we'd like to see? He goes, I can't handle anymore. I'm just blown away. And he goes, I've just got one word for you. I said, what is it? He goes, wow. And he goes, my definition of wow is without words, my friends, less is more. And what you want to do is you want to leave people without words, without words at every opportunity. Our amazing, incredible program director, Andrea Wyatt has created within our own organization, because we've been trying to wow our team members, create those experiences for them. The E plus F equals C or R T equals MFT within our own team. And over the years, it's gotten a little bit harder to wow them. So she created this amazing sheet called getting to know you better. And so that's how we get to know people better. And so we want to wow them at every single opportunity. So as we wrap it up today, I hope this helps you, because if you will do these things, if you will not think about it, not talk about it, but just take action on it, you will begin to become the dominant authority within your marketplaces and beyond. Okay, so here's the quick recap. 1. Be the influence. Continue to build yourself as a leader, as a person, as an influencer everywhere around you. One. Be the influencer. Two, make sure you have a solid brand guide telling your business's story and who you are. Three, Identify the key centers of influence that you want to get next to and go after them. Four, Be vulnerable. Open up. The more you open up, the deeper and the more authentic and clear the connection. I mean, think about it. In your personal relationships, the more you open up, the more depth of.

Everything about you, the better the relationship, right? People want to do business with real, authentic, genuine people. Be vulnerable. Number five. Share your story. After you ask them to share theirs. But share your story. Get really good at sharing your story so that it's of influence, so that it's something that people want to hear about. Number six. Be the authority. Become the authority. And don't be afraid to share your authority. Number seven. E plus F equals C R T equals mft. Experience plus feeling equals connection. Relationship plus trust equals money follows trust. And last Less is more. Less is more. Make that wow pop. Significant, Wondrous and just amazing. Leave them without words, my friend. I hope this has helped you. I hope this helps you begin to visualize and implement immediately your authority dominance around you in every way, every single day. You can do that right now. You can do that right here. You can do it starting today. This is Mike Stromsell coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. I can't wait to meet you. I can't wait to see you at one of our upcoming live events so that we can help you. All we want is your success. But until then, go out there, make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. You got this. You rock. We'll talk to you soon. 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.