Episode 8 : Embrace Team Meetings

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 promotion. 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.

Hey friends, it's Mike Stromco. And welcome to episode eight of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is Mike Strompso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory where it all happens for you. And today we're going to be talking about embracing team meetings. Remember, the definition of team is together, everybody achieves more. Together, everybody achieves more. There is no I in team. And it's never about you. It's always about them. It's never about you, and it's always about them. I just got done in another study of John Maxwell's book, Level 5 Leader. And you know, the thing about restudying the greats of leadership and everything about leading a team is every time that I go back through any study, I always hear it with a different mindset and different ears and in a different way because I'm in a different place every time I study than I was last time I studied it. And I got so many gold nuggets out of this most recent study. Some of those will be infused in today's podcast. But I want to give you the nuts and bolts of team meetings and, you know, thinking back to the evolution of our team way back when, when we finally had three people after we went through some bumps in the road through the first p in the hiring practices which help us build our hiring systems and, and learning what we needed to learn about hiring. Then we did an acquisition and we brought people from one office together into another office and we had different personalities. And once we got some things worked out, I identified that, you know, we need to start collaborating together in a quiet environment, working on our business together because it's our business. And I was Just on the phone today with a coaching client, we were talking about that exact subject and talking to your team, it's not your business, it's our business. It's not your business, it's our business. And that's the mindset that I try to empower my team with to give to my team. Yes, I own the business, but that doesn't matter. Without them we are nothing. And that's the messaging that you've got to go into every team meeting with. You got to understand how to effectively communicate how to that subject and more to your teams. So question is, and by the way, I hope you have something to write with and write on. You don't want to think it, you want to ink it, or what gets written down and crossed out gets done. All right, so the first question for you today is why should you have team meetings?

Great question. Because team meetings are the glue that binds consistency and, and synchronicity within your organization. It's the glue to everything. As you know, the philosophy of the three Ps is the simple three step blueprint that we've developed over 31, 30 plus years of research or so in our industry. And the three Ps in a business when properly implemented. The first P is the people. You've got to have excellent people on your team. The second P is processes. You can have world class processes and systems, your agency, business, and simply all you need to do after that is promote the heck out of it. So it's people, processes and promotion in that order. But in my humble opinion, you know, people have asked me for years, Mike, what's the most important thing that you do say, aside from hiring with regard to the first P, without question and hesitation. The other item in the top three is team meetings, hiring, team meeting, team meetings and probably the one on one PX3 meetings that we do. Those are ultra, ultra important in the leadership realm. And the little add on to that would probably be just the spontaneous little what we call emotional bank deposits that you make with team members all of the time. And I attempt to make emotional bank deposits as often as I can. It's just a little aha, little pat on the back, a little way to go, just a little I appreciate you in some way and that's all people want to hear. You know, it's a basic human need to be, want to be appreciated and want to be recognized for the hard work, the effort. I mean, think about this. And I don't have any hesitation to say this in team meetings and I'm Going to get back on track because of the squirrel on my desk. SOS is looking at me. But.

At the end of the day.

It'S uber, uber important to lead them in every way possible in everything that you're doing. Back to binding that consistency and synchronicity within your organization, Team meetings helps you do that. Secondly, it keeps your team cohesive and it allows for feelings and ideas to come out in the open. My encouragement is to always, always let people speak their mind, say whatever they want to say. Candidly, I will give you a bit of a warning here. There's going to be times when people come way out of left field and they say something that you're not expecting. You've got to be ready all the time to respond to that and you want to just be settled, you want to be in control and you just want to simply respond to it. Or maybe sometimes you will change the subject. Now my other golden rule. I never, ever, ever put somebody down in a group session. If somebody does something that's silly, that I don't agree with or says something that's way out of line, I just pass on it. I've, trust me, I will make a mental note and I will circle back to them in a one on one session. It's critically important. All right, you want to allow them to say these things. I'm good with that. And you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, if they say something like that and it may not be the right statement.

Whatever it might be that's on them, it's coming out of their mouth and the rest of the team members see that. All right, so you know, my response is my responsibility and what comes out of my mouth is my responsibility. So. But allow people, you know, the ability to say whatever they need to say. The next thing about why you should have team meetings. Team meetings allow communication of critical topics with emotion in a meaningful way. So what does that mean? It means there's no substitute for face to face interaction in any way in today's world. I don't care how far electronics go, I don't care how far social media goes. I understand video conferencing, I do it a lot and it's very helpful. But that synchronicity, that emotion and the meaningfulness of everything coming out of your mouth, there's no substitute for being face to face in that arena. So sometimes it's just better to have conversations about certain topics in a face to face forum, such as a team meeting. Now the other thing that's critically important so we just went over why you should have team meetings. The next thing is you've got to be prepared. All right? Benjamin Franklin said that if you're planning to fail, you're failing. You're. Excuse me. If you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail. If you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail. So you've got to be prepared all of the time. This is how I've learned to do my team meetings. So imagine this. You're going through your busy day and something happens within your organization and you go, aha, I need to bring that to the next team meeting. I quickly log into my Outlook account and I go to my calendar on the day the next team meeting is. Alright, I go into the area which I can make notes at the bottom of the appointment within the calendar and I just put number one period and I wrote that. Write the idea right there, right? It's my little reminder to talk about this at the team meeting. Alright? So I gone about my day and maybe a couple days later something else happens and I go, aha, I need to talk about that and my time in the next team meeting. So I write a note about what I want to talk about and maybe three days later something else happens, aha. I go back to my calendar and I put it in there and I save it. So by the time the night before the team meeting happens, as I'm getting ready for the next day. Because another tip for you, if you're not planning your day the night before, you're not going to be ready for the next day. If you're not planning your day the night before, you're not going to be ready for the next day. So the night before the team meeting, when I look what I have going on the next day, I say, aha, team meeting. I'll go into the body of the appointment, I'll say, I'm going to talk about this, I'm going to talk about this. I'm going to talk about this. Sometimes I'll lean back in my chair and close my eyes in a quiet moment and I will visualize how I want that to come off. It's really that simple. And it'll be in my mind. I'll sleep on it a little bit. So that's how I organize my portion of the agenda for the team meeting, right? So in the early days of our team meetings and it's always kind of a changing, moving target, but you can use this as a basis for your team meetings. So normally there's four weeks in a month, two months in a year, there's five weeks. So that'll allow you to freelance a little bit if you want to. But week number one, we review the client service report cards and other feedback might be from reviews, it might be from feedback forms, it might be from any other way that you're getting feedback out there from the community. We bring it in and we sit down as a team and we talk about what people are saying about us, good, bad or indifferent out there in the marketplace. So we kind of go around the horn. I look for opportunities. If somebody's been mentioned in a particular review, I will, you know, look them right in the eye and I will say, you know, Susie, you know, we just got a review a couple days ago. They said you were awesome. They said you went the extra mile. You picked up the phone and called the claims department and make sure the claim got settled right away. Great job. And so, you know, what are the other people around the table thinking when you're giving Suzy kudos in the public forum? They're thinking, wow, I want to be like that. So it automatically elevates the emotion around the table. That's another reason it's critical to have that face to face environment. Alright, so, and then we also do the first week of the month, we do our team member of the month award. That is a huge opportunity by the way. Our team members vote on the team member of the month award. I don't have anything to do with it other than collecting information. Myself or one of my leadership team collects the information and we determine who the team member of the month is. We have a cool little certificate that we put together in a frame. We award it in the team meeting. If time allows, I put together the feedback and normally when I'm collecting information for the team member of the month via the votes, 80% of the people give me at least one or two sentences as to why they think that person should be the teammate of the month. I will put all that information again, if time allows, on a single piece of paper. Sometimes I'll change the wording so it doesn't point to a certain person. Just so everybody gets the gist of the emotion of why people said it. And I'll read it in the team meeting. I had a team member that said a couple months ago, she goes, she told me in her PX three times, she goes, I can't believe that people really feel that way about me. And she meant in a good way. I mean, these people were saying amazing things. They recognized the fact that she was working so hard, pulling her weight on her team. So I mean, there is such a win win in that particular environment. So that's week one. Week number two is the numbers powwow. We have a bind hit ratio sheet that we've used for years. And basically that single page buying hit ratio shows all of our numbers. It shows all the quotes we did, it shows all the apps we wrote. It's got a percentage buy and hit ratio. It talks about our goals for the month as far as the business. We want to write, where we're at on an ongoing basis. And what we also do is we also print the canceled policy report right there in the team meeting, we distribute a copy to all the team members and we go around the horn by person and we ask them to comment on why we lost that policy. That's difficult, but it's so vitally important we talk about as a team, what could we have done better to save that client? Is there anything that we could have done to go the extra mile? Friends, in that environment, it's awesome. It's critically important. It's game changing. So that's week number two. That's the pow wow. Week number three, talk specifically about goals. Okay, goal, goal achievement. Where are you at? What can we do as a team to help you? Does anybody have any suggestions to help Johnny about his goals and things we might be able to do collectively? You always keep it positive, you always keep it progressive. What can we do? What can we do to help you? Is there anything more? What's working, what's not working, etc. Etc. And sometimes if there's enough time that allows, in that particular meeting, I allow everybody to quote what I call around the horn. Go around the horn. And we ask everybody to just give a 10 to 30 second comment, no more on what Johnny's facing, see how we can help him. Week four is training oriented. And it's always a topical training. Could be procedures, could be marketing, could be product or policy changes. From time to time we'll bring in an underwriter via phone. Sometimes we'll have a company marketing rep, they have a new product, we'll bring them in to run the team meeting. It's just something that everybody needs to know and everybody hearing it at the same time. Being on the same page. It's critically, critically important. And week five, you get two of them a year. My encouragement, just make it count. Come up with something that's unique that you haven't taught on before.

Or you can just do if you don't know what to do, just make that an around the horn meeting. I love the around the horn meeting. And here's the question you ask them. You ready? In the around the horn meeting, you say, what's the number one challenge or obstacle you have on your desk right now?

And I just ask everybody and I go around the horn and I ask them to talk about it, they talk about it and then we go around the horn. Hey.

You know, Erica, what can you say to help Andrea with her obstacle or challenge? Right? And we just do that in a collaborative around the horn basis. Game changing. And it's amazing what they say. You're like, wow, I didn't know you had that going on. So it's extremely helpful to your team. It's a great training environment and they love it. Alright, now if you have a larger team. Our team has grown to the point where we have departmental leaders. During our meetings, we set aside a certain amount of time to go to each departmental leader and each department leader has five minutes to talk about things that are going on in their department. And on our intranet are our goals. So everybody sees them every day. We ask them to talk about their goals, things they're trying to accomplish. And you know, we have personal lines, we have commercial lines, we have sales, we have marketing. Those are the way our departments are currently set up. And it's always a changing dynamic. Okay, next, you've got to stay on time. So that's why you have to be organized. Okay? If you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail, alright? So make sure that you've planned, you come with your agenda, you start the meeting on time. By the way, one other thing that I do in our team meetings is I always start some progressive, fast paced music about 10 minutes before the meeting starts. Alright? So I just get one of those wireless speakers that's connected via Bluetooth and I turn on some music that I know is going to be fast and progressive. We actually have a what everybody likes music sheet in the, in what we affectionately call the war room where we have our meetings. And I just look at that sometimes and I say, oh, so and so likes this music. So I'll play that type of music that particular day. So ask your team what they like, who doesn't like music, who doesn't love to get revved up by that favorite song that brings back all those positive emotions for their life. So stay on time. Nowadays our team meetings are running about 45 minutes because they're a little bit longer than they used to be. Just because we have so many things going on in our living agency laboratory. My next encouragement is. So we talked about why you should have team meetings, talking about coming prepared and the nuts and bolts of running your meeting. The next thing that's critically uber important. My friends, lead your team. It's this simple. People are silently waiting to be led. They don't have to be on your team. If they wanted to go run their own agency, they would walk out the door today. But they don't want to. They're looking to be led. They want to be part of your team. They want to be a contributing member to your team and that's who they are. And you should be grateful for that. And you should tell them how grateful that you are for them. And I hope they deserve it. That's a little joking side note. We'll talk about that some other time. Okay? In leading your team, you've got to motivate your team. You sometimes at the beginning of a meeting, we'll show an inspirational video every once in a while. Like, I had an incredible UPP member send me one of the best videos I've seen in a while this morning and I'm going to show that at a future team meeting. What am I going to do? I'm going to take that link, I'm going to open my Outlook calendar, I'm going to copy and paste it in my next team meeting. It's that simple. I won't forget about what it is. Right, okay, but. And I don't show an inspirational video at the beginning of every meeting or sometimes at the end of a meeting. It's all strategic, it's all situational. Okay, but sometimes I do. Alright, teach them to collaborate as a team. Ask great pointed questions and have each teammate give their answer their input. So ask great pointing questions and shut up. I know you've heard that before. And if you have an uncomfortable or unpleasant subject to bring up, get it out in the open and work through it as a team. I will guarantee you if there's something that's uncomfortable, they're already thinking about it. They're just waiting for you, their team leader, to deal with it. So be the leader that you are. Deal with it, get it out on the table. You're going to feel better when it's dealt with. They're going to be glad that it's finally behind them so they can get focused on blowing away their goals and doing what they need to do. And the other thing that I've got that I had to figure out where I was going to put this, so I put it under lead your team. Also just do some icebreakers if you go to gts. Yeah, that's Google that stuff. Or for the other people, Google that. You know what I'm talking about. Just go gts. It just GTS Icebreakers. And you'll find lots of ideas of little icebreaker games that you know can be quick and fun and take about three minutes. All right, so that's part of leading your team. Setting the mood, setting the expectation, putting them in a mindset to receive what you have for them this particular day. In the words of the amazing John Maxwell, he said, leaders become great not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Let me say that again. That's a game changer. Leaders become great not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. You see, once you've implemented team meetings within your organization, you will start to experience changes within your team. I personally guarantee it. You've got to give it your all. You've got to be uniquely you. Your attitudes, the attitudes of your entire team will be better. Team members will take more ownership in their duties. Team collaboration will be strengthened. Culture will become better within your entire team. I'm going to share with you something, and one of the things that we give to every new team member is a copy of the book and it's called the Energy Bus by John Gordon. We hand this to every new team member and we encourage them to either listen to it or read it. Whatever they like to do, ask them how they like to learn. By the way, we have a new team member that's going to be starting here in the near future. And one of the questions that I asked them after we made the decision to bring them on and they agreed, I said, how do you like to learn? And I got an amazing long email back that told me all these ways that this person likes to learn. Why is that important and what does that mean for you? Now I know how to train. Fantastic. Yeah. So anyway, the Energy Boost talks about the 10 rules for the ride of your life, and I'm going to share those with you real quick. First of all, you're the driver of your bus. Second, desire, vision and focus. Move your bus in the right direction. Fuel your ride with positive energy. Invite people on your bus and share your vision for the road ahead. Don't waste energy on those who don't get on your bus. Post a sign that says, no energy vampires allowed on your Bus. I got a story about that for another podcast. Enthusiasm attracts more passengers and energizes them during the ride. Love your passengers. Drive with purpose and most importantly, have fun and enjoy the ride. Don't be afraid to let it rip. Don't be afraid to let go. How great would it feel if you were able to walk into your agency every single day? Your team is smiling, team is high fiving, the team is working together and producing results. Isn't that all we've ever wanted? You know, as a little side note, one of the first things I do every single day when I walk into the office, as long as it makes sense, within that first two minutes, I walk into every work area, every one of my team members and I just give them a knuckles. I say, hey, how's it going? And they already all know it's coming. They hold up their hand and we just quickly greet, we quickly smile, we quickly connect. And I'm on with my day and so are they.

I'm leading them. I'm leading them and I'm appreciating them, interacting with them right off the get go. I'm appreciating the fact that they showed up today.

Yes, we all have good days and bad days, especially when it comes to the first p, but at the end of the day, it, it is your responsibility to lead your team, own it, take control of it, take responsibility for it and do something about it. I'm going to ask you the greatest leadership phrase that I've ever heard so far in my journey and you want to write this down, and you might want to write this down and put it on your wall so you can see it. Would I follow me?

Would I follow me. It's a hard position to be in. That's why you're compensated the way you are. Because you've got to shoulder the load 24, 7, 365. You've got to deal with the crap. You've got to wake up sometimes in the middle of the night thinking about it. You've got to wake up sometimes in the morning dealing with it mentally. That's why you chose the position. I chose the position in the majority of the time. I love what I do. I mean, I'll be transparent with you. There's days and there's days too. But at the end of the day, would I follow me? Yes, I would. Because I'm doing what's right and I'm doing unto others and that's what really counts. Friends, I hope this podcast has helped you. We ran a little bit over today. My director is waving at me, saying, that's enough. But friends, we want to bring it all to you, right? I hope this has helped you. Go lead your team. Set that meeting. Make a difference. Make it the best whatever minutes of their day that it was. Be yourself. Be you. Let it rip. Make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. I will see you on the next Unstoppable Profit podcast. 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.