Episode 80: Team Motivation is like Bathing… It’s Recommended Daily

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. Hey friends, this is Mike Stromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And I'm excited and pumped to bring you the next episode and the Unstoppable Profit podcast. Today we're going to be talking about something that we talk about an awful lot in the UPP circles after, after you onboard your next excellent team person. People, processes and promotion, in that order. You've got to have excellent people on your team. But we're going to talk about another facet of the team play on the podcast today because it's so vitally important and, and I've observed in working with agencies all over North America that this particular facet is sometimes missing. And if you're investing in your people, I will suggest that the greatest expense on your P and L, if you pay any attention to it at all, is likely payroll. And if you're not motivating that payroll number consistently, you're missing a huge opportunity in so many ways. So don't let that happen to you. I don't want that happen to you. So I'm going to share on today's podcast some of the things that we do within our organization to motivate our gifted team. So if you don't have something to write with and something to write on, please grab that right now. If you're driving, please don't do that right now. Please just listen to this and when you get to a place where you can do that, re listen or re watch this podcast because know that our podcasts are also on YouTube. Just search Unstoppable Profit Producer on YouTube and it will pop up. You can visually watch these podcasts. It is a great way to enjoy the podcast and get even a higher level. So let's get started this morning on team motivation. Building the gifted team through goal setting, through coaching, through training. You know, Zig Ziglar said, and I am probably going to quote him a couple times because I paid a lot of attention to him in the team building realm. He said the only thing worse than training a team member and losing them is keeping a team member and not training them. So it goes from goal setting, from coaching to training to support, to collaboration, to motivation. It is all in play and you have got to Have a great strategy and bigger than that, a plan. Benjamin Franklin said, if you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail. Don't let that happen to you. Create a plan and simply implement it. And we also have learned in our own particular agency business and other agency businesses through observation and implementation there, it's really, really smart to have somebody that is the owner of the implementation of that particular plan. We have that in our organization and it's the trickle down effect. Somebody owns it, is responsible for making sure it happens all the time. And guess what? It actually happens. And that's what we want. Ok? So first of all, it's that little extra. And you're silently, people are silently waiting to be led and they're following your lead. So whoever the leader or leaders are in an organization, they are following that lead. So you have to begin by giving that little extra all of the time, every way. The word is spontaneity. The word is spontaneity. The word is spontaneity. And yes, I repeated it because it's so vitally important. We want to be spontaneous and going the extra mile every day in every way. And then you want your team to give that little extra. You want them to give that little extra every day in every way. And it's the key to the beginning of the motivational strategy with your gifted team is to give that little extra. Yes, they earn a paycheck. Yes, they might earn incentives. Yes, they earn extra. But we give a little extra anyway because we find it keeps the energy in our culture high. Remember, culture is culture eats strategy and everything else for breakfast. So you got to make sure you have that just right culture. And you got to have that culture thriving and churning and burning within your total protection organization, within your agency operation. Because that's what will be the coup d' la that will cause more growth and more sales and ultimately at the end of the day, that's what we want for your agency business. So do that little extra. Give that little extra. Find ways to give that little extra and implement plans to give that little extra. So one of the strategies that we have done that super, super simple, you can start this right now, right here today is go on and order some glass jars or even plastic jars for that fact, if you want from there's this company out there that makes it really simple. Amazon. Just kidding, right? Just order some jars and they're clear, either plastic or glass. Give them to your team. Put a little maybe core value label on the outside or the theme for your growth strategies for this year, label it on the outside. And we put dollar bills inside. Sometimes we put $5 bills inside. And then we have a theme for the month. We have a question for the month. We have a contest for the month. Could be getting more reviews, could be more getting testimonials. It could be telling the clients about our shred events. It could be sending for the month of February. It could be send valentine to any client, just telling them that we love serving and protecting them. Tell the clients about our flag day celebration. Send somebody a thank you card. That could be the activity of the month. And each. And this is on the honor system. I get that. But each time they do it, they just take the money out and hopefully at the end of the month, the jar is empty. What do you do next month you fill it up again. So dollar bills, I mean, if the activity is big enough, it could be $5 bills. I will pay $5 for every single either testimonial review all day long. Those are gold, my friends. So motivate your team and you will get the results. You see, my friends, the law of reciprocity is always in effect. The law of reciprocity is always in effect. So when you give, sooner or later you will receive. It might not be instantaneous, but create a culture of giving within your organization and. And it will come back to you. And it will come back to you tenfold. If you just keep giving, giving, giving without the expectation of something in return, it will come back to you. And there is no way that it can't. The other thing that we do in our organization, when we onboard somebody, one of our excellent team leaders created this cool sheet. It is called getting to know you. We get to know our team members and one of the questions on that questionnaire is, how do you like to be recognized and praised for work well done? How do you like to be recognized and praised for work well done? We want to know. I was flying back from speaking at an insurance event a couple of years ago and I was studying the Nordstrom way. The Nordstrom way? Yeah, the Nordstrom company. They are very, very smart in many, many ways within the organization. But I about fell off my airplane chair when I read this. And. And I've got it written on the back of the boarding pass and it sits right over here next to my phone because I reflect on it all the time. People want two things more than sex and money. Yes, I said it. People want two things more than sex and money. Praise and recognition. Learn to praise and recognize them and find out how they like to be praised and recognized. I remember we're having an anniversary celebration for one of our team members and. And I was observing and being included. I was included in the celebration, just observing and participating, etc. And I watched her open the gift and it was old western movies. And I'm kind of going, old western movies. Why do we get that gift? And so I'd asked one of the leadership people after this all happened, I said, why the gift of western movies? Because. And they said, because that person put on the getting to know you sheet that they loved western movies and it would be a way that they want to be praised and recognized is to receive some of those movies. So give them what they want. It's like giving a gift card. Why do you give a gift card? So people can buy what they want. Praise and recognize, connect with them emotionally, create the experience and then connect with them emotionally. Experience plus feeling equals connectedness. Relationship plus trust equals money follows trust. They're bringing in money for you. Figure out how your team wants to be recognized and then create the attitude of gratitude within your organization. Look for opportunities to praise people doing right, not doing wrong. Find a way to praise people doing something right. So one of the things that I've done in past strategies is I will be either be sitting there when they walk in on Monday morning, I've done it. Then I've also just walked in in the middle of the week with these in an envelope or in my hand. Yes, hundred dollar bills. I have $100 bills as my hand. And I will walk around and I will have a specific message. I will look them right in the eye and I will say, job well done. We are growing right now because of your efforts. And I just wanted to give you this as a token of our appreciation for your massive efforts within our business. I wrote it out on a piece of paper one time. I noticed that the culture and everybody's attitude within the organization was really, really high for a long consistent period of time. So I did it then as well. I mean, why not you and why not now? And you can just feel the air. I mean, it's just thriving and growing within the organization when you do something like that. So think outside the box, my friends. I mean, it's an investment if you think about it. How many policies is it going to take to cover that? Probably just one, maybe two. It's not that much step outside the box. One of the other things that I have done is consistently over time, I've seen handwritten thank you notes to people's homes. I sent handwritten thank you notes to people's homes. Just thanking them for their massive efforts is something that I like to do before I go on vacation. So I'm actually going to be doing that here in the next couple days and doing that. I've got specific things that I've planned and done for that effort. And it's going to arrive in their home mailbox. Why do I send it to the home versus, say, their work put it on their desk? Because their desk is a busy place. They're probably going to see it and go, oh, I'll check this out later and then they'll forget about it. Will never happen. However, when I send it to their home, it actually gets read. That is what you want. You want it to be read. So I have sent handwritten thank you notes. I have sent all kinds of stuff to their home in recognition of them, to motivate them, to inspire them, to give them an example of how we want them to be, of how we want them to take care of our clients and everything else within our organization. See, my friend, teamwork makes the dream work. Teamwork makes the dream work. And if you aren't inspiring and motivating your total gift, your total protection team all of the time, you may be missing opportunity. Let me read to you the definition of inspire, because I keep that definition at all of my business desks because I look at it from time to time. Inspire to encourage somebody to greater effort, enthusiasm or creativity, to awaken a particular feeling in somebody. See, that's what you're looking to do. By motivating them, you're looking to awaken that particular feeling within them, to cause them to take greater action for your clients, for your prospects, for your communities. We've got that motivation going on right now. Unfortunately. We've got wildfires going on in our state. I recently found out this week, because of a team.

Meetings and other happenings that we have going on, that one of our teammates actually went out to two different fire sites, all on her own, all on her own volition. She took it upon herself to go out and put her arm around the client and to let that client know, I'm here for you. I'm here to help you and protect you. And she was actually telling me as well that she actually identified there was restoration companies lined up down the street to go in and pounce on the poor victim. And she went down to the restoration companies that were lined up down the street and said, get out of here. I am their Insurance agent. We have already got this handled. Get out of here. You are not going to pounce on my client. My friends. That just warmed my heart. What an incredible, motivated, inspired act by one of our teamworks. My friends, teamwork makes the dream work. So you want to motivate and inspire your total protection team in that you want to celebrate your team. We talked a little bit about anniversaries that we celebrated in our office. We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries. We have team celebrations. We celebrate team Sia. We celebrate our culture, which is very defined, very dialed in. We celebrate them. My friends, it is not about you. It is all about them. It is not about you. It is all about them. And you want to celebrate them in every way possible, every day, in every way. Something that we have uniquely done. I believe we are coming on year 14. This year is our gratitude breakfast for the holidays. It happened out of circumstance many, many years ago. We had this place called Ernie B's. They were classic cinnamon rolls. I mean, oh my gosh, you know, I did eat more than one on multiple occasions. I shouldn't have. That's why I had to start riding my bike so much because I eat those cinnamon rolls. They were so flipping good. You would stop by there in the morning and they would still be warm and the icing would be goozy, oozy and oh my God. So anyway, I stopped by Ernie Bees one time during the holidays back in the early years. And I thought I loved to cook. I grew up in the restaurant business. I had dreamt of going to the Cordon Bleu and Paris and it never happened through my own bad choices. But anyway, we are now living vicariously through our son who is a chef who did graduate from the Southern California Culinary Academy. So proud of him for that. But anyway, so I still love to cook. And so I prepared an egg dish and a classic egg dish and I had these Ernie B Cinnamon rolls and did some fruit and stuff and. And we created it and the team loved it. They loved to huddle during the holidays. We had a little gift exchange, etcetera, etcetera. So that was the very first time that happened. And I am sitting back observing what was going on and creating the culture and I am going, this is something special. This is something we should be doing. Every year now it has become this grandiose production. I get to get up like at 3 o' clock in the morning after having planned for an entire week, the menu, etc. Etc. And they all look forward to it. They all love It. But the messaging is this. We call it our Gratitude Breakfast. And the message is this. We tell them, look, we do this for you out of gratitude for your efforts in serving your team, your clients and your communities. We are grateful for your service, so we want to go ahead and serve you during the holiday season. We call it our Gratitude Breakfast. It is so awesome. It is so much fun, and, and it is so worth the extra incredible effort that it takes to do it. We just absolutely love it. See, my friends, what we are doing by doing all of this, we are creating the kind of habits that we want our agents and our team members to display out there in the world. So create those habits through example, through giving back to them first. And then they are going to turn into massive givers themselves. Another way that we have done this over the years and it is still present today. And even during these times of this adversity that we're all going through, we've never stopped. And I observed it with myself.

I observed it myself live last month. They do it virtually now. Nothing has stopped them. I am so proud of our leadership team. But for years we have done the Wheel of Fortune. We have the Wheel of Fortune in our organization. It happens on the third Wednesday morning of every month, and people step up to the Wheel with their sheets. We have sheets that we've created for specific departments, whether it be sales, for service for receptionists, for admin, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And simply all they do is they perform the activities that we expect within our organization and then we simply have them fill it out during the month, the prior month, come to the table for the Wheel of Fortune and they get to spin the Wheel for prizes and cash and gift cards, and we have a bonus every month, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's absolutely the culture shot in the arm bigger than anything else. I mean, we now have a budget and we now have. We're very formalized as far as a large business now because we've grown up to that point. We talk about the budget and the Wheel of Fortune. They go, no, no, no, no, no. We can't alter the budget for the Wheel of Fortune. It's too important to the culture and motivation of our team. So know that we have, again, we have the different forms for every department. We do it virtually now, even though we can't possibly all be in the same place at the same time, but we don't let anything stop us. Hence, unstoppable. Absolutely true, my friends. In addition to that we have other UPP members who have actually taken that and implemented it in their own organizations. Many of their teammates, when they win, they take pictures and then they put it out to their own social networks, etc, etc. Whether it be Facebook, whether it be LinkedIn, whether it be Instagram or all of the above, or Twitter or their YouTube channel or yes, every team member should have their own YouTube channel, Twitter account, Facebook account, LinkedIn account, and they should be promoting to it. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And if you have 15, 16 people like we do, and they're all doing that. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It's just that multiplies the effect out there in the world and it helps your SEO and everything else when you help them with strategic keywords to be promoting out there, my friends, the opportunities are endless. The opportunities are endless on what you can do, what you can implement, what you within your agency and you know, to motivate, to inspire your total protection team, to help them become bigger givers and to inspire them to go that extra mile. Just like the teammate that I described who went out to the fire site of a client and shooed off all the restoration companies who were lined up to pounce on our client. That story, I will be telling that one for a long time. This is the first time I've told it publicly. I'm so proud of my teammates who did that. So, my friends, what do you do? You might be thinking, well, what can I do? In my agency, you could get bonuses or incentives for referrals. You could get bonuses or incentives for premium increases. You could get bonuses or incentives for number of applications. You could get bonuses or incentives for rounding accounts. You could get bonuses or incentives for Bors or ars. But you know the best place to start? Just ask your teammates. Say, hey, I'm thinking of ways that we can continually provide more incentive for you to take certain actions for our clients, our prospects in our communities. And I would love to hear some ideas that you might have. And my friends, the most important thing you can do there is shut up, don't say anything. Let them act, let them answer. And if they give you some ideas, you know, jot them down and say, that is fantastic. Does anything else come to mind? Keep digging, keep digging, keep digging. I love that. I love that. Can you think of anything else? Keep digging, keep digging, keep digging. That is fantastic. Yeah, I love that. Is there anything else that comes to mind? All right, I get it, I get it. You give me some great ideas. Thank you. I can't guarantee that we are going to use every one of them, but we are going to take this back to our leadership team. We are going to. We're going to, you know, look these all over. And if we can build some of this into our incentive profile, we want to do it. And by the way, after we part today, if you come up with anything, please let us know. Will you please shoot me an email? Or if, you know, you think about it at night, send me a text, whatever, whatever works for you, and we'll build that into our incentive profile. My friends, it comes back to you tenfold. I've had some incredible, phenomenal. I am extremely fortunate and blessed. I am the first one to tell you things that have happened to me. I have got a visual where, you know, I walked into the office one morning. I have got the visual on my wall, which is my Y wall. I walked into the Office on the 30th anniversary in the industry, and my Y wall had been put up there by my team. My friends, I can't tell. I had to. They were videoing the whole thing. I had to walk into the corner to, you know, to gather myself because I was about to break down. I knew they were videoing it, so.

It'S just incredible. My friends, just give, give, give, learn to give, learn to inspire, and it will come back to you. Not only come back to you, but they will be inspired to do greater just through your example, through your giving, through ideas. And, you know, if you reach some bhags. Bhags? Yes. Big, hairy, audacious goals. If your team is willing to set a bhag or two and you reach some of those big, hairy, audacious goals, go big. We have done it. Some of our UPP Platinum coaching members have done it. You know, a Vegas trip or a cruise or other things. Seth, put the carrot out there. Put the carrot out there and dangle it in front of them and remind them. I have a UPP Platinum member who found out that I was speaking in Vegas one time and said, hey, I know you're going to Vegas. Can you buy me a bunch of hundred dollar chips from one of the tables and ship them to me? I'll send you the cash, but I want to use it as an incentive to fuel my team. They're getting really close to the big trip at the end of the year and I want to give them an extra nudge. I said, yeah, no problem. How many do you want? So I stopped at one of the casinos, walked in and bought some $100 chips and FedExed them to the to the client and it helped their team get to their goal and they took the trip. We've done the same thing. We rented a bus, a catered bus, took the whole team to Vegas. We created some very cool, very special happenings within that particular trip. It was off the flipping charts. We created memories. My friends, at the end of the day, motivation is like bathing. It is recommended daily. Training is like bathing. It is recommended daily. Daily coaching is like bathing. It is recommended daily. Reading your goals is like bathing. It is recommended daily. Inspiring your team is like bathing. It is recommended daily. My friends, I hope this has helped you. I hope you've got lots of notes of things that you're going to implement from this episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. And my greatest ask is if this has helped you in some way, please share the Unstoppable Profit podcast with your friends, colleagues and anybody you know. We're all over the networks out there where you find podcasts. In addition to that, just go to unstoppable profit podcast.com unstoppable profit podcast.com you can subscribe there. Please do. That way we'll conveniently drop into whatever space you're in and you won't have to think about. We'll just conveniently appear there for you so you can continue learning. My friends, if you're not learning and growing every single day, you're getting left behind. We. We don't want anybody left behind that we're connected to. Get out there and make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. This is Mike Sharpsaw coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory on this episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I will see you on the next episode. But until then, be unstoppable. See you soon. Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about out, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast. com. Now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.