Episode 75: The Five Disciplines of Being a Social Media Authority

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit podcast. 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.

Greetings, everybody. This is Mike Tromso coming to you live from the Living Agency laboratory. And I am pumped and excited about the next episode in the Unstoppable Profit podcast. The gentleman that I've got on today is a high achieving agent, an outside the box thinking agent, and somebody who I admire greatly and I've been looking forward to this day for quite some time. Daniel Song. Welcome to the broadcast, sir.

Thank you, Mike. It is truly an honor, my friend. Thank you.

Oh, no, the honor is all mine. Thank you so much. And sport my great park gear. Thank you so much for that.

I love it.

Proud to do that and proud to know you and to work by your side and learning more as you continue to make great progress not only in our industry, but I know, just other people entrepreneurial in your local market. Watch what you do because you're doing such great stuff. Congratulations.

Thank you, thank you. Really appreciate that.

No problem. And you know, honestly, the one that I remember is it was Saturday morning in your kitchen and you go, you know, this is what you need to be doing. By the way, you can't see what I'm wearing down below. I don't even know why I said that.

But, you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, that's the goal. In the mindset of one of my greatest marketing mentors, he said, look at what everybody else is doing and do the exact opposite. It's getting the attention. Right, right, absolutely. Getting people's attention, that is the key. So let's dive in. Daniel, thank you so much for being here with us. Tell us a little bit about who you are. I mean, go back as far as you want about family, et cetera, where you're located, city and state.

Sure, absolutely. So I was born in South Korea in 1979. I came to the country in 1984. And we. I grew up in Burbank, California. Elementary school, junior high, high school there. And right. Probably right around my sophomore year, I kind of figured school wasn't exactly for me. So my brother and I, with a few other friends, we decided to go into the Marine Corps. We enlisted in the Marine Corps. So I did that for four years. Literally my first time away from home, my first duty station was Okinawa, Japan, and after a year there, I came back home to San Diego, Miramar. And that's kind of where I actually met my wife. She's not military, but her family's from San Diego. After I got discharged, I went to school, usc. We also got married, started a family. So now we've been married about 16 years. In the first five years of marriage, we had four girls. And a couple years later we had my son. So we have a total of five kids. My oldest daughter is a sophomore now and my son is in first grade.

Wow. Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. So while I. Well, we. I got married and I was still going to school, so I thought, you know what, I'm married now and I need to provide a living for my family. So I got a part time job at a mortgage company and found out that that was. It was fun, it was interesting. And eventually, you know, we kind of transitioned. We transitioned into the insurance industry. But I've been in the insurance industry for about 12 years now. And literally, Mike, I love every minute of it and I don't have a lot of regrets, but if I could just name a few, it'd be just to get into the insurance industry just that much quicker.

Yeah, absolutely. So roughly how many team members do you have?

So we have about 14 now, and about six to seven is in the office any given day.

Fantastic. And you do a great job. You have a great environment, you have a great culture. How did you come up with the culture that you've created? I mean, everything that I see out there, I love it.

Yeah. Well, thank you. Well, you know, I've always. Winning is a big deal to me. And it's not just I played basketball growing up and I'm a big sports guy, but I think sports is. There's such a great. It's such a great teacher and in life as well. But the culture that we have is. It's a winning culture. And that's what we try to portray with our customers. We want our customers to win. And when we help them with the policy, save them money or better, their coverage, we consider that winning. But we have a culture of caring. We have a serving attitude. And it's something that we. We live every day by. And I believe it starts from the top. Right. Every teammate matters, but it's a winning culture that we have here.

Yeah. People are silently waiting to be led without question. And they don't necessarily need to be on our team. They can go start their own, but they want to be immersed into something special, significant that makes a Difference out there.

Absolutely.

Great job. Great job. So you talked a little bit about team mindset and culture, and you just touched on that. Anything else you'd like to add as to how it is causing your agency to grow?

Well, you know, I think it goes back to the core value of always doing what's right. And even. Even if we're not. If it doesn't benefit us financially or even if it means, hey, we're gonna spend a little bit of time on this where we're not gonna. Maybe the profit margin isn't there, but it's doing the right thing for our customers all the time.

Right.

Even when we have cancellations, Mike, you know, we love on them even more. We double down on the love. Because we all know the insurance is a revolving door.

Right.

And it's not only for that reason, but in business, it just makes sense to treat everybody the right way. And we've. We've been blessed in so many different ways because of that.

Right.

That's one of the things that we talk about. We coach on it almost on a daily basis is always doing the right thing.

Right. The law of reciprocity is always in effect.

Absolutely.

And it will come back sooner or later. So great job on that. So one of the ways that you're growing your business consistently and you made this, I'll say, strategic choice at some point was to go online and to build your business via social media and to. You do a lot of work on Yelp as an example. Give us some insight into that and why did you make that decision and how's it working out for you?

It's been fantastic. I mean, we get calls from Yelp, the public, the community finds us on Yelp. And we even had a lady from Oregon reach out to us, and she said she found us on Yelp, and it's just one of those things. But we teach operate with the end in mind. So what I mean by that is when a new customer or new or a client, existing company calls in and they need something, they need help with a policy change or just anything, operate knowing that you're gonna ask for a review at the end. Now, the only way you're gonna ask for a review is if you truly in your heart feel like you deserve one.

Right.

A lot of people never ask because they know they don't deserve one.

Aha.

Right. So we operate with the end in mind, and it's been a true blessing for us. So I started. I started from scratch, literally by myself, working from home, probably about 10 to 12 years ago now. And back then, Yelp wasn't what it is today. But I thought, okay, well, I don't have any money to buy leads. I'll just kind of start with this. Right, right. It's been literally one review after one review, Mike. And now we're proud to say we're the highest rated agency in the country. Right. I haven't found another agency. I'm sure there's somebody out there, but we just haven't found them yet. So we're gonna, we're gonna hold that title until we do. But it's just being, it's being so diligent, persistent, disciplined. So one of the things, one of the sayings in our office is the most important bind of your life or the most important review of your life is the next one.

It doesn't matter if you bound a hundred thousand last month. It doesn't matter if you got 10 reviews today. The most important one is the next one.

Right.

So with that mindset, we don't get too excited when something good happens. We don't get too down. Right. This Friday we went into the weekend with 486 Yelp reviews. Monday we got, we got about two more Yelp reviews. So now we're down to 476. So with getting two more Yelp reviews, we dropped 10 reviews. Right. But that's okay. That's okay. Because what's the most important one? Just the next one. The next one going after it and after it and after it. And if, if you can get one review, you can get a thousand.

That's right.

It's just a matter of asking. Right. And I think we have over 270 filtered reviews. But that's okay. One of our. We. So we kind of think about this a different way. We want our filter reviews to get the 500, because then that probably be mean. That probably mean that we'll have 750 reviews that show. Right. So everything's positive. Nothing happens to us. It's how we react to it. And that's what we. That's, that's, that's kind of the mindset that we have with that. Yeah.

In the words of Earl Nightingale, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. So kudos to you for reacting the right way and kudos to you for being the great leader that you've become. And I continue to watch you evolve. Re rocking it. So you talk about engagement with people online, talk a little bit more about how you engage with people.

Well, you know, there's never been a time in history where you can capture so much attention for free. Right? So much attention. So I've. I feel like being in the industry, we have friends all over the country, right. I. You know, we can pick a state and we can probably name a few agencies or few friends in that. In that country or in that state. But engaging online engagement is a real thing. I see so many people who. Who post for a few days a week or two or three, and they feel it's as if it's too much work or it's too hard. Right. But just being consistent is so important. Right. But also, you know, once you start posting, people will recognize you for what you're doing. Right. So. And then people start commenting. We've actually, we write business every single month because people find us online. But not only do we do we engage on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, we have over 2600, I think just under 2600 photos on our Yelp account and also our Google account. So the reason why we do that is because we want the public to connect with us, even though they've never met us before. So on our Yelp account, they'll go on it and they'll just scroll. They'll just scroll through the pictures, and it's pictures of our team lunches, of our team meetings, of us outside in the community somewhere, just hanging out, and they feel so before they even walk in through that door, they have a true connection with us. So that's definitely a way that we engage with the public, but also on social.

Yeah. Fantastic. So what kind of photos? I mean, you just mentioned a few of the photos that you post. Anything else? I mean, you know, team events, team meetings, et cetera, et cetera. What else is important with regard to photographs?

Well, photographs, I mean, we want branding. We want to be consistent. And you always talk about the brand guide, which is spot on. You want your colors to be always uniform. You want your logo to be uniform. If you can have your teammates wear agency T shirts or jerseys or clothing, it's hats. All that is part of branding. Right. Even our carpet has orange in it. Right. There's straight lines of orange. Right. There's orange almost in every office. It's just keeping everything uniform and as if you're walking into almost a different world. Because we're in an office building and our office, our landlord loves us because we have the best office. Right. And it's so inviting and it's so warm, and it's not the traditional insurance office, I guess, but we Just. We have fun with it. We have fun with it.

Yeah. It's better to have fun than to not have fun, right?

Exactly.

It's better to laugh than. It's better to laugh than to cry. So fantastic. So you're engaged out there. Your team is engaged. Your team is totally open to, you know, getting their photos out there and supporting what you're trying to accomplish. How do you keep them motivated and thinking about that all of the time?

Well, you know, I have them participate in that, too. So ultimately, I'm the one that actually finalizes the post. But we. I'll ask them, hey, look, go outside, do something. But I want you to send me a video clip and a picture today of just anything. Right. And we come up with ideas. In pre Covid, we were actually a lot more involved. But, you know, post Covid, it's kind of tapered down a little bit here. But, like, today we have a new gal, and her name is Alice, and it's her birthday today. She's been with us for about a week and a half. She never said it was her birthday, but I have her employment paperwork. Right. So I know when her birthday is.

Yeah.

And today we surprised her walking through the door, and she said, daniel, nobody has ever done this to me or nobody has ever done this for me before. She said, you're the best boss ever. Right. And that just warmed my heart so much. Right. But that's. But we took a video of her surprising her, and she. Afterwards, she said to me, daniel, can we not post that video? Right. She said, I seem really nervous. I said, but that's the best thing. It's sincere. It's real. Right. And so after she saw it, she said that it wasn't that bad. But those are the things. We try to capture what's really happening in our agency so the community can connect with us.

Authenticity, my friend. Great job. And the great thing is nobody else could duplicate that. It's uniquely you and who you are from within. Just great stuff. And absolutely, that's a wonderful thing. When your teammates say, oh, my gosh, nobody's ever done that for me before.

Because, you know, we continually talk about in the entrepreneurial circles that our number one client is actually our team.

Yes.

You know, we've got to take care of our team because ultimately, at the end of the day, they're taking care of clients. That's great stuff. And let's jump back to taking care of clients a little bit. You also talk about loving people at the time of cancellation. Anything else to Add on that, because that's just part of your strategy.

It is, it is. I mean, ultimately, we want them back and many times they do come back. Right? But what we find out is, and just in any business, when somebody is returning something or when somebody's canceling, usually their emails don't get responded or they don't get a respond right away, or their voicemails or, you know, their phone calls. Right. Get ignored. And we just never. That was just never our mindset. Right. We want to operate with the end in mind. So ultimately we want them back. So again, we double down. We love on them and we make it. We tell everybody, look, even though you are not a client, please use us as a community resource. You can always call us if you have any policy questions. Right. But then also what we do is.

We want to be the office or the go to person for those people. So even though, again, even though they're not with us or current policyholders, we want them to know that we're here for them. And oftentimes, 30 days later, they call us back and say, daniel, you know what, that other company, it's nothing like the way they said it was going to be. Even though you're a little bit more expensive. Right. It's not always about price. We want to come back to you. Take it all back. Take it all back. But also what we do strategically is upon their exit, we also ask them for a review. So when the public sees this review, oh, my gosh, even though we're canceling, they're still so helpful. They're still there for me. They're there even more than my new agency.

It's a great marketing testimonial. It really is.

Absolutely. And it's not what we say we've done for other people. It's what other people say that we've already done for them. Social proof, everything. Fantastic job. So talk more about your review responses. What else are you doing? Because I know that you're getting a lot of feedback from people out there in the world about the things that they see online. Anything else come to mind?

Well, so one of the things is on, On Yelp especially it. Yelp will post your response time. So anytime somebody sends us a message. Right. We are on it. Probably within seconds. Within seconds, we respond. Ten minutes is the shortest response time that you can have, and we have that. But it's, it's, it's another strategic way letting the public know that we're real, we're here, and we want to help. Because some agencies will have a three hour response time or even a two day response time. So if I'm, if I'm a consumer out there, do I want to reach out to that office where it's going to take three days, or do I want to reach out to Great Park Insurance, who has a 10 minute response time, who has 400 some plus reviews for whatever reason, if they don't call us, they feel like they're missing out.

Right.

So we've gone to a, we've gotten our Yelp presence or our social presence to a point where we're almost in control. And Mike, we actually have.

There'S a, we have an application where they, to receive a quote from us, they actually have to fill this long form out. We get no pushback. We get sometimes, sometimes from the first engagement that we have from them, they're already, they've already emailed in their deck pages without ever talking to us.

That's fantastic. Congratulations. Because it's what other people say you've already done for them. Absolutely huge. And so what you've done, you have as you say, double down, triple down, quadrupled down on what you've built to bring up that level of engagement.

Fantastic.

So who's watching the clock and providing that immediate response if you're on vacation, as an example, you know, we talked about in upp, people processes promotion, in that order. Tell us about how that works within your agency.

So what happens is when, when somebody goes on Yelp and sends in a request, we get an email. As a business. So what I would do is if I'm on vacation, I will have that, I will have that email forwarded to the staff, to the team members. And they're on it right away. And they're on it right away. And one also other thing is I used to be responding to reviews is very important. So me as the agency principal used to respond to every single review. However, now what we do is we have the actual person that they, that they're reviewing respond. So it's a little bit more personal, it's a little bit more engaging and then we'll put it. So if, let's say if Julius received that review, he'll write his response. And then Julius from Great Park Insurance.

Fantastic. And so what do you do for the team member when that happens?

Well, so every Friday afternoon we have a team meeting. And so for a Yelp review, they get $15, and for a Google review, it's $10. And so what we do is we actually have a raffle. And they also get an egg. And then at the end of the week, the more eggs that you have in there, you know, you obviously have higher percentage of winning the prize at the end of the week.

Fantastic. And so what kind of prizes might they win? Just for fun?

Usually it's a gift card. It's a $50 gift card, or it's a restaurant gift card, or sometimes maybe you leave three hours earlier, next Friday type of thing.

Yeah. Fantastic. So, you know, it's crazy what they want. Sometimes it's gift cards. Sometimes it's time to. But the best answers come from who? From them.

Right, Exactly.

Fantastic. So great stuff. Great stuff. Congratulations on continuing to build your business. What else makes Great Park Insurance unique?

Well, I think it's the coaching environment. The coaching environment.

I really do believe that everything that happens in the agency, good or bad, starts at the top. And I heard a quote before reading a book. It says, it's lonely at the top. Right. And as a leader, you know, one of the requirements is you always have to be excited. They hear me coming to the office every morning because I kick that building door open. I go to their. I go to their individual day. I give them high five. I ask them, are you excited? Are you motivated? Are you dedicated? I pump them up. Right. I don't ever want you to drag your butt in here and feel like, you know, because I don't want you putting anybody else down. Right. It's about being excited. Even if you have nothing to be excited about, be excited. Right. So as a leader, you also have to be able to sell the dream. I really believe that as a leader, you have to be able to sell the dream, paint the picture. You know, it's funny, right? Just like you said, there's opportunity everywhere, and you're recruiting 100% of time everywhere. Last week, we actually had somebody reach out to us via Yelp, and they wanted an auto insurance and home insurance quote. I saw in the question that their employment information that they were a they load. They worked at a finance company. So we started talking, and they're coming in next week because I want to talk to them about being part of our agency. So this person calls in for a quote. But yet now they're going to be a new team member, and I think they're going to be a great fit. And when we got off the zoom call, he said, daniel, if you lead, I will follow.

So.

I don't ask for a lot of things from my team members, but coachability is the number one thing that I ask.

Absolutely. And culture Eats strategy and everything else for breakfast. And you have created this culture of coaching by being who you are. That is great. And I hope everybody has taken notes. And if you have not been taking notes, go back and watch this again because Daniel's dropping gold nugget after gold nugget. And I just wrote down. I love that. Excited, dedicated and motivated. Excited, dedicated, motivated. That's the internal secrets of Great Park Insurance, right?

And I believe. I believe. And you can't fake it. You got to be sincere about your excitement and you have to want your teammates to win, Right? We have some agency goals that we have for our team members, right? Which is very personal. But I really do believe time will either expose you or promote you. I really do believe that. And as a leader, right, you can't have any bad days. And if you do, you go home in the closet, you cry by yourself. But when you come here, right, you're excited and you're pumped up every day.

Say that again. Time will either.

Expose you or promote you.

Wow.

Kaimo either expose you or promote you. Another nugget. Thank you. That is awesome. So take us deeper into Great Park Insurance. What else do you contribute to your current success?

Consistency. Consistency. I tell everybody who comes on board, I say, look, I'm a little embarrassed because the more you get to know me, you'll kind of figure out I'm not the smartest guy in the room, right? But I'm one of the most consistent people that you will ever meet. And 50% of winning is just showing up. Mike, this year has been somewhat of a growth year for us because we've gone through a lot of team members, we've hired, we've let go. And so it's been something that we've been working on. But if we schedule 10 interviews, maybe three will show up. So just by showing up, you beat 70% of the competition out there just by showing up. We don't have anybody who is late. We start at 8:30.

We had a situation where one person was five minutes late, seven minutes late, and maybe in another company that's not being late, but here it is. So I had to talk with them, right? And they fixed it, right? Because they, when you coach, right, as long as they know it's coming from the right place, right? There's. There's a different way of coaching, right? So. And that person was never late ever again, right? And I tell them, look, at five o', clock, let's go. Right? Because you have a family to get to, right? So 8:30, 5 o'. Clock. And the mindset is just different. It's just different. But consistency is so important and it's so overlooked. It's so overlooked showing up every day, making that extra phone call, sending out that extra email. And what we teach is we want to be the last response. So if a client emails us and says, oh, awesome, thank you, have a great weekend, we do not finish it there. We reply back and say, awesome, Mr. Client, have a wonderful weekend as well. If you need anything, we are here for you. Exclamation, Right? So it's always positivity, it's always thank you. Let us know if you need anything. That's one thing that I admire about you because you know your emails, right? It's always, what else can I do for you? Right? And the whole team does that. So it's just consistency, consistency, consistency. And it doesn't seem like a big deal, but over time it compounds. It really does.

Absolutely. Consistency and coaching and making sure that they're where they need to be mentally as well as emotionally because that translates to your marketplaces. So fantastic stuff. So Daniel, what would you say to somebody who might just be starting out? I mean, go back what, 12, 14 years to where you were starting from scratch, you didn't know how you're gonna do it, you had no money. But if somebody's watching this or listening to this now who's just starting out, what would you say to them?

Be consistent. Be disciplined.

Watch your expenses. Right. I really do think you could be a one man shop for a long time. I really do. I see a lot of people who want to increase expenses by hiring and doing and getting office space and doing a lot of this. I really. And just to share a little bit of. I was. My income was. I was a one man shop. My income was around 400,000 when I opened an office. And that's not a big income, right? Because we know a lot of people, you know, that make a lot more than that. But to me that was everything, right? But I just, I never wanted to go back to, you know, the place that I was when I started the agency. So I was very slow in growing my expenses. But be consistent and if you think you're working hard, work harder. And then once you think you're working harder, work harder. Because we can always do more. We can always be a better coach, we can always be a better boss, we can always be a better son, we can always be a better friend. I really do believe that. And as much as I do, I always want to do more because there are so many more families that we can help. And I don't have really a client base number goal that I have, but I want to grow the team to a certain point where we have maybe, you know, multiple locations. Right. And then maybe my kids will want to come into the business one day. Right. But it just. It's growing the team and just being consistent as much as possible. And I have a mindset, no limit. No limit. You do not have work hours. I've never heard of work hours. Right. When you're building an agency, it's your lifestyle. It's not a job, it's a lifestyle.

Absolutely. And it's a mindset. And like you said, discipline and consistency and everything else. Discipline, in the words of the late, great John Wooden from rival ucla. Right.

Oh, my gosh, yes.

I've got his pyramid of success right here on my wall. He said, discipline yourself, so no one else needs to.

One of the most important, one of the hardest things to do.

So in that support. Is that your current Reed, the book by Coach Wood?

It is, yes. Yeah. And I read this many years ago, but again, going through the changes this year with the agency and the team members, I thought, you know what? I got to get back to basics. And I just need those simple reminders, Right. What am I missing? What I could. Look, what could I do more, you know, how can I grow? So I started reading this again, which is awesome.

Yeah. I don't have the book with me, but I just got done with Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith, which was. It's an older read, if you will. I mean, the book was written years ago, but it's. That's what we're doing in the insurance industry to an extent. We're selling the invisible. So how are you going to emotionally engage with people and get them to understand why us over and above any and all other options available to them? So I could go on for hours, but I know that you've got a very heavy calendar, as do I. And so I can't wait to continue this conversation sometime in the future as I continue to witness the amazing things you're doing. So, you know, Cindy, my wife, constantly is. Like, when she needs my attention, she puts her hands right on my shoulders and says, mike, just listen to me for a minute. And I'm sure Christina, your bride, probably has the same issue because you're bing, bing, bing, bing, bang and going all the time, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, the spouse is such a. Such a secret sauce, right. To have a Support spouse to have a sauce that understands, has the same vision and goals as you.

There's nothing better.

Yeah. The most important relationship, one of the most challenging relationship sometimes that we'll ever have is our spouse and partner in life, not just in business. Because business is just, we want to create a business that supports our life.

We don't want to have a life that supports our business. And that's why it's such a treat to see you and your family out there and to watch your family grow and everything else. Daniel. Daniel Song, thank you so much. Irvine, California, doing amazing things online and offline, right inside his own agency. Daniel, thank you so much. Any last words of wisdom to add?

No. You know, I just want to thank you, Mike, again. I've been following you for so many years and I was bummed I'm not gonna see you in October this year. Right. But I know we have the online course that you're putting on. So really looking forward to that. So thank you for everything that you've done, not only for me, but just the industry and your fellow agency friends. Again, cannot say thank you enough.

I could not say you're welcome enough. And when I get to collaborate with somebody and then they get some ideas and most importantly, they implement, cool stuff happens, like it's happening for you. That's why I get out of bed. I mean, I can't wait. And I love to give back and just love to fuel ideas. I mean, you know, because I have some very close friends and they say, mike, why do you keep going like this? I said, because there's nothing better than teaching and inspiring people who want to be taught and inspired. And when they do something with it, it just doesn't get any better. So congratulations.

Yeah, thank you.

All right, Daniel Song, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Remember, everybody, unstoppableprofitpodcast.com and share the episodes with anybody and everybody that you think needs to hear the amazing wisdom and gold nuggets that Daniel just dropped on us over about the last 30 minutes. Congratulations on your success, Daniel. Can't wait to stand by your side and witness the future. And if there's ever anything more that we can do for you, please let us know.

Awesome. Thank you, Mike.

Alright, cheer everybody. Remember, make a difference, be unstoppable, leave no regrets, and we will see you on the next episode. Take care, everybody.

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 up unstoppable and leave no regrets.