UPP 1 : Blueprint To Your Million Dollar Agency

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.

Welcome everybody. This is Mike Stromco and UPP is live from the Living Agency Laboratory. I would like to welcome you to podcast episode one. Today we're going to talk about your blueprint to your million dollar agency. And it's all surrounding the unique philosophy that we've developed over the last 31 years in our industry that we affectionately call the three Ps. Friends, it's really that simple. It's a simple three step blueprint that if you implement, execute and take action on the three P's, you're going to grow your business, you're going to create financial wealth for you and your family and you're going to have more freedom to live life on your own terms. Friends, I've been there, done that and I'm still doing it. I'm here to tell you that it can be reality for you. We've created it for you, we thought about it for you and we're going to help you do it. So let's talk about your blueprint to your million dollar agency. The first P is people and it's all about the people. The next P is processes and it's all about having world class processes and systems. And the third P is promotions in that order. So let's talk a little bit about the people today. It all starts with hiring a world class team. And whether you're in a position where you have a team, maybe have a smaller team, a medium sized team or a larger team, it all starts with hiring a world class team. So what do you do? You have to have a hiring system because you know, one of the things that I share with agencies all over North America is you've always got to Be recruiting because you never know when that day is going to come. When a team member makes the decision to leave. They might have a spouse that gets a transfer to somewhere else or they just make a decision to jump to a different industry. Things, things don't work out. You just don't know when that day is going to come. So you've always got to be recruiting. So if you're always recruiting and somebody raises their hand and they want to be part of your organization, what are you going to tell them? Do you have a rock solid hiring system in place today? And if you don't have a rock solid hiring system in place all of the time that's constantly changing, shifting and moving with a marketplace that you operate your businesses in, then that's something you need to do. You've got to have a world class hiring system in place to hire excellent people. It's all about hiring excellent people. Once you bring people into your organization, the next thing that you need to be thinking about all the time is team work and motivation. You have as the leader of the organization or whoever the leader in your organization is, you know, they have to practice the principles of leadership. You know, I'm studying leadership again even after 31 years. As much as I know about leadership, as much as I practice leadership every single day, in every single way, I'm constantly looking to get better. Because if I want to have more, I've got to become more. And friends, we've got to continue to get better at our practice and our trades. Okay, so teamwork makes the dream work. What are you doing every single day to motivate your team, to influence your team? You know, in my restudy of leadership that I just talked about.

Leadership is influence. And that's according to John Maxwell, who I study a lot. When you're talking about leadership, okay, so teamwork and motivation, how are you motivating your team? How are you meeting them where they are? You know, I've just had multiple situations in the last couple of days in our own living agency laboratory where situations have come up, I will get into the situation and give them guidance, but I won't do the work for them. It's about influencing them. It's about giving the guidance, giving them the knowledge that you've got going on in your own mind and letting them run with it. It's all about teamwork, motivation and leadership. That's just a little bit about the first P.

People, processes and promotion that order. And so when you've got all that working together, you're Always recruiting. You've got a hiring system that helps you hire only the type of people that you want to hire for your organization, that are the best fit for your culture, that are a great fit, that want to build a career in your organization and that do want to be part of a team, that do want to be motivated, that are willing to be ultimately, at the end of the day, grow to be leaders. What does that mean for you? It's going to free up your time, it's going to give you the time to work on your business, not necessarily in it. It's really that simple because you're going to be able to delegate everything that you do not do well, that you don't want to be doing to these world class people and team members within your organization. So what it means for you, it means freedom. We talked about growing your business, creating financial wealth and security for you and your family and having more freedom to live life on your own. What it means for you is you will begin to have that freedom so that you can do the things that will have the greatest impact to your organization going forward. The first P is people. The second P is processes.

Once you have excellent people on your team, you want to have them working within world class processes and systems. It's really that simple. So you've got to create the world class processes and systems for them to work within. So what does that look like? Well, we have a long list of processes and systems that a world class agency would have operating and constantly being updated all of the time. Let's talk about a few of them today. If you're in the insurance agency business, why are you in business? We are in business because we are here to properly protect people and everything they work so hard for. And when they need that protection is claims time. That's when we need to be at our best. My question for you is, tell me about your processes and systems that you currently have operating within your organization that supports your clients and other people at the time that they need you the most. And when is the last time that you talked to all of your clients about the protection that they have? Alright, it's all about the claims. So you've got to be set up to properly deliver what they need when they need you the most. And are you available 247 and how can they reach you when they need you? And do you proactively, not reactively, go out to them and make sure that they know emotionally that you're there for them? And do they know that they always have that third Party liaison there for them all of the time? Is that trusted confidant there for them all the time? Have you let them know that? Have you let them know that in 100% of the ways? This is the lesson for the third P which we're going to get to in just a minute. But we say affectionately, if you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use 100% of the ways. Are you touching them in 100% of the way in the proactive claims process within your organization? Something that we do as an example, we make a phone call out, we send a postcard, we have a scheduled follow up and many, many other things. All proactively and intentionally set up so that people know that their trusted local independent insurance agent is there for them when they need them the most? Processes and systems Claim service Where is the rest of the information within your organization that these excellent people might be looking for so that they practice and do everything they need to do to support you while working as part of your independent insurance agency? Well, years ago I had this when I was just starting out, when I was growing, I started from scratch. But I got a couple of excellent team members on board. We had done an acquisition, we had a couple other people coming on and there was a little bit of friction going on. Alright, not everybody was on the same page. Everybody wasn't doing things in the same way. And this friction, I noticed it and it's never a comfortable situation, is it? So I figured I had to do something. I had to do something to eliminate the friction. As a leader, that's my job, is to eliminate the friction. So long story short, I came up with something that we affectionately today called Task Organizer. Documented processes and systems within our organization. Normally 15 steps or less that let people know these excellent people that are on our team how to do every function within our organization. Last check, we had over 541 documented tasks within our organization. A couple years later I had this big aha moment. You know those aha moments. I love those aha moments. And that aha moment. I woke up one morning after a training and I said here's my vision. All I need to do is have the world class processes and systems in place so that my excellent team can work within that. What I had learned was about an intranet and I said all I'm going to do is I'm going to invest 30 to 60 minutes a day in the intranet to give them everything they need so that they can operate their day because they Already excellent people who I'm motivating, who I'm leading and they are on board. All they need is, they need to know where to get the information so that they can take excellent care of our customers, the claim service, the intranet, the task organizers, and ultimately, at the end of the day, you have to have other processes and systems involved in your organization to create and to elevate them to become a high performance team. Now, exactly what needs to be done to create a high performance team. That's going to be an upcoming podcast in our series, but in its simplest sense it's called the PX3 program. It's a major part of the development of a high performance team member. They know where they're going. You see, knowing your destination is all you need to get there. But they are looking for assistance from you to get where they're going. People are silently waiting to be led. They don't need to be part of our team, but they want to be part of your team. So help them get there, Lead them, Lead them to where they want to go. We've talked a little bit about our people, we've talked a little bit about our processes. You've got excellent people working on your team. You've got world class processes and systems for these excellent people to work within. Now comes the fun, sexy part. You just get to promote the heck out of it, right? By the way, that's one of my top three talents and personal gifts. I know that hands down. By the way, if you don't know your top three personal talents and gifts, things that you love to do, things that give you that juice, things that if you're working in that area 80 to 90% of your day, you are feeling it. You know what I'm talking about feeling it. You go home and you're on top of the world. That's where I want all of you to be. Okay? So marketing is one of my top three talents and gifts. Training and leadership is one of my other top three talents and gifts. And my third one is sales. I still love to sell, okay? And when I get to do that all the time, I am on top of the world. And my bride is really happy when I come home. So anyway, back to that. So let's talk about the third p today which is promotions. Alright? Excellent people, world class processes and systems and then promoting the heck out of it. In talking to agents all over the globe, I ask them about their agency and I ask them about their marketing programs and how they're promoting everything that they Do. A lot of times I get silence, which means they don't have a lot going on. After we talk for a little bit, and I give them some tips on how they can begin a marketing program, how they can begin attracting more people and reaching more people with their messaging, I say, where do you think we should start? And again, they don't know where to start. Friends, we affectionately call it your acre of diamonds. Everything that you want, everything you could probably ever need from a list standpoint for your promotional and marketing efforts is right beneath your feet right this minute. So I say, how many clients do you have in your agency? And I was talking to an agent the other day, I believe she said, about $1,400. I said, that is fantastic. You've got nothing to worry about. You've got everything you would ever want right beneath your feet. Because, friends, Everybody knows about 250 people.

I've learned that through my extensive study and experience in the insurance agency business. So if she's got 1400 clients and they each know 250 people, friends, that's 350,000 people. I mean, what more could you want? With social media and everything nowadays, it's so simple. So, number one, start with your acre of diamonds. It's right there beneath your feet. I mean, I was working with an agent a number of years ago who said, I know what I'm going to do, Mike. I'm going to stop spending. I'm not going to spend any money outside of my own agency client base, and I'm going to market to them for the next 12 months and see what happens. Well, you know what happened? He grew 11%. I said, that's fantastic. I said, what are you going to do next year? I'm going to do the same thing. He didn't market to anybody outside of his own acre of diamonds, and he continued to grow at a clip of 11 or more percent every single year. Congratulations for taking action. Most importantly, your own acre of diamonds, everything you'd ever want is right there beneath your feet. The next thing that you want to do is create a referral program. No one cares what you say you've done for other people. It's what other people say you've already done for them. And that's the people that refer you business. You've already done something for other people. If you're in a position to write this down, by the way, I should have said that in the very beginning. Don't think it. Ink it, please. Write notes and write things down. Okay, what you're going to want to write down about referral programs. First thing you need to do, you got to earn them. You have to earn referrals. And only after you earn the referrals can you ever begin to ask for referrals. I'm sure you've all been doing great things to earn referrals. You're just not prompting people at the time that they are emotionally ready to give you the referral for them to send you a referral. And how are you attracting and motivating them to do so? That's all part of our referral system that we've been building for years. And it's absolutely fantastic. It's absolutely magical. And it continues to provide the ROI results year after year after year from a promotional standpoint. So you're working within your own acre of diamonds. You're creating a referral program, the ultimate roi, without question. Add on that you can quickly and easily do is your welcome kit series.

You get people in the door, you get new customers.

How do you reward them? How do you thank them? A lot of times when you bring an account in the door.

You know, they might be thinking, I just committed to leaving my agent the last 21 years to go with this new agency on the promise that I was going to save money, receive great service and so forth from a local independent insurance agency or what have you. What now? Did I make the right decision? How are you eliminating that buyer's remorse? Friends, it's so important to immediately contact them, to thank them for the opportunity to do business with you, to let them know that they absolutely made the right decision without question and that they are in the right place, that they're in the right hands, that you're going to take excellent care of them. And how are you doing that? Do you have a game plan? We have a written game plan that encompasses well over 460 days of contacts with these people who have put their trust in you. Remember, money follows trust, and they put their trust in you. Make sure that they know that they made the right decision. What does that mean for you? It means that ultimately, at the end of the day, you're going to have nothing but opportunity with every customer within your own acre of diamonds, not only to do more business with them, but to get more referrals from them, to continue to upsell the account and round out the account. Friends, look at your hands right now. And if you're blessed enough to have 10 fingers, how many people on both of your hands can you say within your own agency.

That they write A check to nobody else but you. I mean for any type of insurance, period, personal, commercial, health, life, whatever that might be. How many clients do you have in your agency? And what I find in the majority of the situations, it's less than the fingers on your hands, it's less than 10, regardless of the hundreds or thousands of number of clients. Friends, there's nothing but opportunity within your own acre of diamonds, which is your ultimate roi. So you need to be nurturing, contacting, touching your own acre of diamonds in every way possible. Implement your referral program, implement your welcome kit to start with. And again, what it means for you every day that you wake up, my friends, you're going to have nothing but opportunity to grow your business, to continue to create the financial wealth and security that you need for you and your family so that you can have the freedom to live life on your own terms. We could not be more uber excited about this podcast series that we're going to continue to bring to you. We're going to continue to bring it because I said I would.

Just can't wait. We're going to share everything that we've Learned in our 31 year plus journey about growing your business, creating financial wealth so that you can have more freedom on your own terms. So if you want to write something down as we wrap it up today, please write this down. Unstoppable profitpodcast.com that's unstoppable profitpodcast.com Again, this is Mike Strompso, the Unstoppable profit producer, bringing you today, episode number one. We are uber pumped. We are uber excited and we are going to continue to help you change your life and change your business for the better because we want to help you create a business that supports the life of your dreams. And I promise you that we are going to bring it because I said I would. Alright, this is Mike Somso signing off. Have an incredible magical day and a magical week and month ahead and I look forward to connecting with you soon. Take care. 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.