Episode 52 : Mastermind Aha's

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 Stromco.

This is Mike Stromco coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we are going to be talking about the Power of Mastermind Part one. Yes, I'm going to do something in this episode and coming episodes that I've never done before because it's so critically important to personal growth. One of the things that I say in front of our team is in front of other coaching members, in front of other business people that I get to interact with. And beyond that, in fact, I'm sure I say it in front of our kids and grandkids as well. Let me share something with you that I recently learned in my own personal development and training that my friends. Let me say that again, by the way, if you don't have something to write with and something to write on, pause this right now, go get something and come back and write this one down. Because it has been a key book mind shift for me in helping other people. So what I just said is I'd like to share something with you that I recently learned in my own personal training and development. That and whatever you put insert after the word that you can draw a line and then you go on from there. And what I want to share with you today, I just got done with our own Mastermind trainings because our team consistently, consistently, consistently trains, develops, works every single day to get better. Because if we want things to change, we have to change. And the day we stop learning is the day we stop growing. So my greatest encouragement is that you've got to continue to grow every single day in every single way. And you are the result of the five people you hang around with the most. So you got to put yourself next to other high performers who are just as driven or close to being as driven or who want the same kinds of results and grow together. It's always better together. I was actually out on a bike ride with my group this morning and we were talking as we were going up some steeper hills, we were talking about the lack of love for hills in the minds of some. Me personally, I don't mind hills because it makes me better. But one of my riding buddies said.

Hey.

I don't particularly like hills, but it's always better suffering together. Okay, so he was right. It's always better suffering together. That's why I like to ride with my riding buddies instead of by myself like I do the majority of the time. It's better to suffer together, it's better to grow together. It's just flat out better together. So be thinking like that all the time. Let's dive in. I've pulled 12 points. I just got done with about two and a half days of collaboration with my mastermind buddies and one of my coaches and I've got approximately 15 pages of notes. I've got approximately 77 bullet points. I'm not going to unload all of them on you today. I'm going to give it to you in little chunks. But what I'm going to do and what I did for this episode, I pulled out 13 of the top things that I just learned. So it's current, it's relevant, and it's going to be evolutionary for our businesses as we continue to move forward and what you need to think about or better than that, remember, the mind works. Let me try that again. The mind works in images. So imagine this or picture this and what this means for you is if you will imagine this or picture this and figure out how you can image insert it into your business strategy or operations and customize it. Make it your own for yourself, for your teammates, for your customers and communities. You will begin to win more. You will continue to grow at an even higher level. My friends, you can do this. So let's get started. What I want to encourage you with today is a quote from Muhammad Ali. It's the first thing that I wrote down. Champions are made in the gym, not in the ring. Champions are made in the gym, not in the ring. That's what Ali believed. He believed that the training, the training, the training and the training made him who he was in the ring. Once he got in the ring, it was simply showtime. Alright, so we've got to do the work, we've got to do the preparation. And Ben Franklin said, if you are failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail. So we've got to do the preparation. That's tip for you, number one. Tip number two. I was hanging out with a Hall of Fame football player who's going to be speaking at our upcoming boot camp. His name is Nick Lowry. By the way, speaking of our boot camp. Beunstoppablebootcamp.com Beunstoppablebootcamp.Com if you like what you hear on our podcast, if you like what you see in anything else that we do, if you would like three days live, working on your business, getting ready, getting your game plan ready for the coming year, go to our boot. Come to our boot camp, join Approximately up to 300 other high achieving agency leaders and you will continue to grow in that environment. It is an absolute can't miss. In fact, we believe in it so much that it will continue to impact people's lives personally and professionally. It has 100% risk removal, aka a guarantee. So you have nothing to risk. I'll see you there. Anyway, so Nick Lowery was talking about how he became a Hall of Fame football player. And then he started talking about his mentors. Okay, it seems like everybody that I've ever encountered who is an extremely high achiever had a mentor. Everybody should have a mentor that they can learn from, that they can call on, that they can bounce things off of. And Nick's mentor was not even a sports figure. It was somebody who was actually a retired stockbroker who coached him in his younger years that began to develop him for his hall of Fame career. So come meet. And here Nick Lowry at boot camp. It will be a game changer. Beunstoppablebootcamp.com so number three.

It'S the inner conversation that matters. It's what is going on inside of us, in our minds and our hearts and our souls that actually produces the results of everything that happens to us from us. I'm here in the living agency laboratory and I'm looking at my late great friend Rick Robbins, who taught me something. I knew Rick for about three years before his early death, tragic death, and he taught me this. He said, mike, what's coming from you is coming from within you. It's the inner game, the inner conversations that we're having in our own mind. What kind of the self talk that we're feeding our mind that produces a lot of results. So if you're feeding your mind things that are not beneficial to the results that you want to your goals, you Gotta stop it. Alright, one of these days I will send out an email to all of you, one of the classic YouTube videos. If you want to go to it now, just go to YouTube and Google or search. Excuse me. Go to YouTube and search stop it by Bob Newhart and just watch it. It's five or six minutes. If there's something that's negatively influencing your life, stop it and watch that video. It's classic comedy by Bob newhart. Anyway, number four, daily, 1/10 of 1% is the edge that one needs to succeed. Daily, 1/10 of 1% Is the edge one needs to succeed. Big door swing on little hinges. So daily we've got to be improving just as little as 1/10 of 1%. But when you do it every single day, the compound effect goes into effect and that's how things begin to change. So we have to be committed. Remember, commitment is the thing that you said you were going to do long after the mood that you set it in has passed. So you've got to be committed. You got to be disciplined. In the words of John Wooden, he said, discipline yourself so no one else needs to. Yeah, it is hard talking to my biking buddies about that today on the ride as well. It is really hard to discipline. But. But those who do win more, grow more, achieve more in every way. So daily, just 1/10 of 1%. It's not a lot, but just keep making those small choices that lead to your success. The next thing I wanna share with you today is giving yourself permission to fail.

Giving yourself permission to succeed, and giving yourself permission to be human. It is the mind strategy of the greatest achievers out there. So we need to give ourselves permission. I just got done with the book. It was a classic by Mark Samuels. Hang on.

The book is making yourself indispensable. Making yourself indispensable. And I also learned in that book that same strategy. We have to forgive ourselves for the things that haven't gone right so we can move on. At the end of the day, like the richest, wealthiest man that I ever learned under, and roughly, let me think about this. About 15 years ago, a billionaire, he said, think about it like this. When something goes wrong, nobody died. We can recover, we can move on. So we've got to give ourselves permission to fail. It's okay. All right. We have to give ourselves permission to succeed. It is okay to have success. And more importantly, give yourself permission to be human. We are all human. And people. I just got done recording another episode of the Unstoppable Mindset for our coaching Members. And in that unstoppable mindset coaching session, we were talking about authenticity. That's part of being human. Authenticity is part of being human. That's who people will connect to. Think about YouTube videos that have gone viral, all right? At the end of the day, that's why people connect with those. That's why it goes viral, because people want authenticity. The next thing I want to share with you today, start rehearsing and acting back to the preparation. Like Muhammad Ali talked about, champions are made in the gym, not in the ring, right? So start rehearsing and acting that you are succeeding well before you get there. Start rehearsing and acting that you are succeeding well before you get there. You have to go in not with ego, but with humility. But you want to have that quiet confidence because you practiced succeeding long before you get there.

So.

So that's the strategy of champions succeeding before you get there. Next thing I want to share with you today from my own recent personal training and development that is going to be game changing. Making excuses doesn't get it done. We have to own it, face the harsh reality. So I personally believe that. I personally do my very, very best to practice that all the time. And when I get to a point where something screws up and I have to own it, and it's my responsibility and it's my fault, I frankly stated, I said, hey, friends, I don't like to make excuses. I do my very best to never make excuses. I screwed up. I own it. I'm responsible. How can we fix this? Or let's just move on. So at the end of the day, we can't be making excuses.

It just doesn't get it done. We've got to own it. We. We have to face the harsh reality. And my friends, again, be thinking about how we can weave this into our agency operations and more importantly, share this podcast with your team if it makes sense. I am 100% open to that. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, all we want is to impact people's lives personally and professionally and to help people succeed at a greater level. And these are tips to help people succeed at a higher level. The next strategy I've got for you today is list your top 10 values. List your top 10 values. But most importantly, circle your top two values, because that's where the game changes. There is an 8020 rule out there, the Pareto principle. I have found in my own journey over about 45 years in business that it is in effect, it seemingly in so many situations, okay, but by circling your top two values and focusing on them and implementing them and living them, albeit we should live all 10 values, obviously all day. But it's the top two that are the game changers. So know what your top 10 values are and do your best to live the top two as often as possible, because that's where the game changes. Next thing I want to share with you today, it's all about living with a healthy level of discomfort. And again, this is a strategy from a Hall of Fame athlete. It's all about living with a healthy level of discomfort. We've got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It's really that simple. I have found in my study of my learning, of my training under the highest achievers out there. All of them seem to be just operating with discomfort all of the time. And because they have been challenged so much.

It just becomes part of our DNA. We're okay if something goes wrong, we deal with it and move on. We deal with it and move on. And if we're responsible, we own it and we move on. It's a strategy for really high achievement out there in the business world and in the personal world as well. Next thing I wanted to share with you today. Training must include healthy pressure to continue to get better. You know, some people, they don't do well with pressure. I get it. I personally like pressure. And the more the pressure, the better. The question is, you know, how much time do we have to get things done that put us under pressure? Because I have found that things that are really high pressure seem to take a little bit more time. So we have to make choices. It's back to the values. You know, if you've got goals, you got to know what your top three goals are, focus on those and get, you know, accomplish those, and then move on to the next three. So it's really, really important that the training and our. The late, great, iconic Zig Ziglar said, motivation is like bathing, it's recommended daily. He said, motivation is like bathing, it's recommended daily. I've learned to insert instead of the word motivation, lots of different words in that sentence. So think about it like this. Training is like bathing. It's recommended daily. And training must include healthy pressure to continue to push you to get better. I'm not saying unreasonable pressure, I'm saying healthy pressure. So if you're not willing to live in a world of discomfort, if you're not willing to become uncomfortable, if you're not willing to train with a little bit of healthy pressure. I was out training my Body. Today on my bicycle, we were going up a lot of hills. I'm training my body with a healthy amount of pressure, going up hills, making myself breathe hard intentionally so I can continue to get better. Training must include a healthy amount of pressure to continue to push to get better every single day. The next thing I wanted to share with you today, there is fear of failure and fear of success. Yes, my friends, I've observed in working with coaching members and other agents all all over North America that at the end of the day, there are people who I believe and they won't always admit it, and I get that. I respect that and I'm good with that. But I believe at the end of the day that they have a fear of being successful. So what do they do? They jump right back in their comfort zone and sit there and they do what they do and they play on social media all day. My friends, no disrespect to social media. I get it, I get it, I get it. But what is it that you want? All right. And there is a fear of failure. They're so afraid of something going wrong that they won't take any chances. They won't live in that arena with healthy pressure and training, and they're not willing to go into the discomfort zone very often because it's too uncomfortable for them. So they just exist how they exist. And I get it, I get it. No disrespect to anybody out there. I will tell you, though, the top 20% and more importantly, the top 3% of achievement out there in any industry, including our insurance industry, people are okay with failure because failure is a teacher. Like I said, nobody died. We're good, we can move on. And you can't have a fear of success. You have to pursue whatever it is that you want. Have your goals, your top three goals, they should include a new business growth goal. You should have a retention goal. Those are the two most important supporting.

Items within the insurance agency business. And then a lot of other things can go down below that. But at the end of the day, you've got to be clear on your numbers, because your numbers don't lie. You've got to have those healthy goals as well, and they should always be a stretch goal. Back to my friend Rick Robbins, I remember we were talking about, I'm not a 100% advocate of smart goals. It is a mental philosophy, if you will, and strategy for creating goals. But specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and on a timeline is the definition of smart goals. I remember Rick said, hey, Mike, I was hanging out with him one day when he's alive. He said, hey, Mike, I've got a new definition. You know those smart goals? I said, yeah, I get it. He goes, I've got a new definition for the river. He said, so specific, measurable, attainable, risky, and on a timeline. I said, rick, I love that, because at the end of the day, that's healthy pressure and it's healthy discomfort in getting better every single day. Okay? So there is a fear of failure and there's a fear of success. Do not let that be present in your life. Next thing I want to share with you today, the key to getting people to buy includes three things. Let me be clear on this. This could be a new prospect, or it could be an existing customer who you're trying to get to buy new coverage. Either way, let's be clear on this. The key to getting people to buy includes three micro commitments.

You have to get them to say yes in their head. You have to get them to say yes in their movement, and. And you have to get them to say yes in their voice. So it's really a succession of constant yeses in all three of those things that gets them to the point where they will buy. And you might be thinking, well, if I'm on the phone with somebody or even if I'm texting with somebody, I can't make that happen. Well, on the contrary, you just got to think outside the box a little bit. First of all, if you're having a conversation with somebody about a buying situation, jump on a zoom call with them. That way you're face to face. You can get them to raise their hand. You might be thinking, how can I do that? Well, think outside the box. You should have scripted bullet points that ask great, pointed questions and get them to raise their hand. Okay, can you just show me by raising your hand that you. You're committed to this or this seems like a good situation and you're ready to go. Just show me by raising your hand. That's a yes movement. All right? You get them to recap this. The three micro commitments. That's the key to getting people to buy are them saying yes in their head, yes in their movement, and yes in their voice. Okay? And it starts with scripting bullet points and by asking great pointed questions and then shutting up. In sales, the first one to talk loses. In sales, the first person to talk loses. Don't let that happen to you. The thing I'm going to wrap it up with today, and I will be circling back because I will suggest that we will have about somewhere between five and seven parts to this recap in these episodes of our Unstoppable Profit podcast. Lastly, if you're in sales or even if you're in service, are you transcribing your phone conversations or any other verbal conversations that you're having with people? If you are not transcribing those conversations and going back and rereading them and figuring out how you can tweak the trigger points that will cause more sales, that will cause more renewals, that will cause more of anything else that you want to happen, you are leaving money on the table. Let me repeat that for you, my friends. If you aren't going back and pulling calls and transcribing them and and reviewing them and figuring out how to get better, how to insert more trigger words. Remember the five most action oriented trigger words in the marketing and human psychology. Languaging is you guarantee free new sex, proven, tried, tested over years. So you got to interject those into your conversations. Transcribe your phone conversations. Don't get it. Let it get into your mindset. I'm not going to do that. Back to what I was talking about a minute ago. People have a fear of failure or a fear of success. If you're thinking, well, I don't want to go back and do that, I might find something I'm not doing, well, then you got a fear of success. It's how we get better every single day. Go back and transcribe it. Highlight every time you say I. Highlight every time you say we. Highlight every time you say me. Everybody eliminate those. Insert the words you, your and it's all about them. It's never about you. You will close more sales. You will get better results. You will be getting better every day. And that's all we want for you. My friends. This is Mike Stromstone coming to you live in the Living Agency Laboratory. And my friends, what this means for you is if you will take the strategies that we just talked about, go back through your notes and figure out how to implement them in your business. Take your notes, go back and figure out the strategies, figure out how to implement them in your daily business operations. Most importantly, if you've got a team, share it with your team. My friends, what it means for you is you will grow your business, create wealth, and you will have more freedom to live life on your own terms. That's all we want for you. This is Mike Somso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. Until next time, get out there. Make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets. 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.