AUGUST LIVE WEBINAR | THE ANNUITY SALES COACH

All right. Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for another training webinar with Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach. Chad, you just passed, what is it, 21 million in written production for the year.

Yep, 21 million. I'm still pinching myself, honestly, because it's been a crazy year with everything going on, and to be able to write that amount of business, running appointments Tuesday through Thursday, I'm just in awe. Honestly, it's been incredible.

That's amazing. Well, congratulations to you. I'm excited for today because we're actually going to get to talk with Chad about some of his best practices are in the lead area. Now, obviously, Chad, when we're doing a webinar like this, there's going to be people that kind of across the board when it comes to leads. There's going to be people watching that they have no leads coming in. And there's going to be people right now watching that maybe they've got a good, steady flow. So, really, the first thing I want to talk about today, jumping right into it, is what do you do to find leads when you have nothing?

Man, that's a good question, because I remember when I first got started in this business, we did not have the capability to get leads the way we do right now. There are so many sources that are available. I mean, just Google alone, just Google annuity leads of sorts. But the problem is sifting through which ones are good. I mean, I probably spent last year, I think it was about a hundred thousand dollars trying to test out lead systems because I never recommend a lead system that I don't use or I know someone who's very successful on that particular lead system. So I'll spend the extra money to test it out. And I'm telling you, it is hard. You got everybody out there from, from marketing organizations to lead companies, they say, man, our leads are the best. They're literally just going to show up and they're going to sign the application. It's never like that. There is no lead source out there that you're going to consistently have people saying, hey, I want to just sign on the dotted line. Now, there are people out there that have done a lot of research about our products, and they say, this is exactly what I want. Great. That is an easier deal. But you still need to make sure you're the one that has the best product. Because a lot of times people focus so much on the leads that they forget what it means to be an actual representative of safety and security. What it is about protecting People's money, finding solutions to the problem. So they get all these leads but they can't close anything because they're not focusing on the number one thing. I just did a podcast. It's not about the sale, it's about the solution. So finding leads, you get known. If you don't have a lead source, but you're an expert in what you're doing. Just the circles you walk around, you're going to see people that are going, man, you know what? You sound like, you know what you're talking about. I don't advertise. Hardly anybody I know I will ever talk to about what I do. But people consistently reach out to me saying, hey, I heard you're an expert in this area. Absolutely. I don't want to ever get into that multi level marketing mindset where everybody I run into is a particular prospect. But when a conversation comes up about retirement or protection or safe money or they just lost money, I can easily go into a conversation saying, here, this is what I recommend. So leads can be organic, where you just kind of get them in from people. You know, it can be googling or trying to find out a good lead source. Finding, talking to your marketing organization, finding out what kind of leads they have, that's important. And if you don't have a marketing organization that knows the good leads, then use that marketing organization. The whole job of the marketing organization is to have good products, good case design, and help you find lead sources. It's not to actually get the sale done. That's where someone like me comes in. But leads can be very difficult because it's not just about the lead. It's like, what can you do with the lead once you actually have it?

That's good, that's good. So what I'm hearing you say is in essence to kind of sum it up. A lead is only as strong as the agent that has it.

100%. Okay. Many have heard me talk about this story. Like I said, I can't remember the exact age. Eight or nine years old. I was actually. We used to fish a lot in the Rocky Mountains. And we drove up to this stream and there's hundreds, if not thousands of fish swimming. And I'm going, man, I'm gonna catch, I'm gonna limit out in no time. And back then they didn't really have limits, but I knew I would catch a bunch of. And so I threw out my bobber, I put a worm on it. Then I tried salmon eggs. That didn't work. So I'm like, oh, Maybe they're bottom feeders. I threw out another weight that didn't work. I threw out a lure that didn't work in this old timer just is kind of laughing. It's like, son, they'll never bite on any of that. And I'm like, why? And he says, well, these fish are spawning, so they're salmon spawning. So the only way to get them was a treble hook with a little weight on it. You throw it and you snag it. I could fight. I had all those fish in front of me leads. But if I don't have the right method, I'm not getting anything. So this is where the sales training, the right product, the right information, the right presentation, doing your due diligence with fact finders, that's what helps with, with the client, not just the lead. It's what have you done in front of the client that they reached out to you. If you're not the expert, you're not going to help them at all.

That's good. That's good. I remember one time we were talking and I asked you, Chad, obviously you've got. You've built up to the point where you have good lead flow and a lot of agents don't. They haven't been able to build to that point. But I remember asking you one time, what would you do if you didn't have anything come in? And you said, whatever it took.

Yeah.

And so it kind of. In that same vein of discussion, can we. Let's talk about referrals. How would you go about getting referrals? Would you go about getting referrals? Would you ask. How would you ask things like that if you didn't have things coming in? Because that's pretty common for agents.

I am horrible at referrals. I'm probably one of the worst people you'll ever meet in your life at referrals. But why do I get referrals? It's because when I talk to someone about the retirement, they know I'm the expert. And it's because I can flow from product to product, situation to situation. Age, married, single. I can. I know right off the top of my head. So I don't sit there and go, hey, here, here's a card. Give me the name of five people you think could use me. Like, wait a second, I don't even know these people. Referrals are not the best leads. That being said, when they have a relationship. When you have a relationship with people and they trust you, that's a referral source. So just Pushing a card across, saying, hey, these are the top five people. I think you could use my. If you don't have a relationship with that person. So get to know people around you. I mean, I have people that I'm in contact with all the time, and if I didn't have lead sources, my. What they know about me would actually get people just being referred to me. I think last year alone, I probably had about a million and a half in sales just from people I know saying, hey, I need some help. This year alone has already been over a million and a half in sales because of people I've just known and some life insurance deals as well. And I'm not great at life insurance either. I know a lot about it, but I'm just not great at that. So I actually have a source that I refer out to because they're way better than I am. I only refer experts. So I'd say that would be the best way, is just be known as the person who's an expert in whatever they're doing. You're never gonna refer your friend, a car mechanic that blew up your car, Right? It's just not gonna happen. People refer people that do a good job at what they do.

That's good. That's good. So, in essence, you're creating organic referrals. By the way, you do business with the people you're doing business with now.

Reputation and relationship.

People naturally talk about things that they're excited about that they like. So you come up with their friends.

Well, I would say actually more people talk about negative things. They're like, man, I lost money. I'm stressed out. And then they go, hey, I know someone who actually is very good at that. Most referrals happen from a point of stress and frustration because something happened, something got triggered, the market fell, something happened to their income, and that was a pain point. Well, if you care about someone and you get a pain point, they're gonna go, well, hey, I know someone that can help you feel better about that.

That's good.

I mean, do you ever go to, hey, what dentist do you use? You go, I got a tooth that's like killing me. What dentist do you use? It's usually a pain point that brings that up.

That's good. That's really interesting. And you mentioned something in there about testing leads. You said last year you spent something like $100,000 just testing leads. Walk me through the testing leads process, because I've heard you talk about the importance of it. But let's break that down a Little bit. What does that look like for you to test the lead source?

A lot of pain, misery and suffering. I'll tell you, that's what it is. Do not test. Try that unless you are professional. It is a very, very tough process. I'm telling you. When you're trying to lead system, obviously, remember, a lot of these people, actually, I can't say a lot. Half these people that present leads are horrible salespeople themselves. So they start making these claims about leads and you're going, no, this isn't even remotely close to what you're saying. Especially when they tell you, I've heard this one company say, we're the nine out of ten guys. What? What? You close nine out of ten leads. No, you don't. That's a lie. Because I would say even half the people to three quarters of the people I work with, the products even suitable for them. So don't tell me you close nine out of ten. And if you close nine out of ten, then that means you're pushing a product on people that it doesn't qualify. It's not good for them. And so it's, it's important to understand that people that sell leads sell leads.

Okay.

And this is why it's a little bit off the subject here. But you have someone that says, well, I have an appointment setter that makes my calls for me. I personally won't do that. Why? Because I'm the expert and they reached out to me and I want to help them. There's so many times that if I had an appointment setter, I, I never would have got the appointment. But when they find out that I knew what I was talking about and I answered questions and I addressed their concerns, of course they want to meet with me. Yeah. So I, yeah, testing leads can be very challenging. Do it in small increments. Now, testing leads, I will never use a lead source. Can't say never. I can think of one lead source that I only had run for three months because, I mean, I literally didn't get one good lead. But most lead sources, if I'm going to test them, I require at least six months of testing.

Okay.

Because you can't get 10 leads and say, well, there's a lead source that now is one of my top lead sources out there. It took me 32 leads to get one deal. Wow, 32 leads. Now these leads were $300 a piece.

Right.

So we're spending a ton of money right there. But that one deal was 450,000. And now it's My top lead source in the Internet section. So don't give up. We get frustrated. Why that happened, I don't know. I still can't figure it out. I have people that we help train, marketing organizations, their agents, and they'll ask me, well, what happened on that? Why did you take that long? I don't know. I can't figure it out. I mean, it's just what it is. Why is it now that I close it all the time? I don't know. But testing lead sources, it's best to partner with someone who has already went through that pain and misery. You know, if I'm going to try and lose weight, I'm not going to go to a guy that's 400 pounds overweight and say, how do you lose weight? I'm going to go to the guy that was 400 pounds and now lost a lot of weight. I'm going to go, how did you do that? What was the process? I love learning from people who have been through something that I'm trying to accomplish. It's something I'm trying to overcome. I want to have a mentor. And this is in all aspects of life. Life.

Okay. And I heard you say you Recommend Testing for 6 months approximately. Okay.

At least.

What does that look like as far as an investment, how much do you, do you try and put into a lead source?

Yeah, that's tough because it's, it's not the amount of money I'll put into it, it's the leads I get. Now when you look at this, if you're trying a seminar system, that can be very expensive. If you're trying Internet leads at 300, $350 a pop, that can be expensive. When I'm trying on a new radio station, $1,000 per week, that can be very expensive.

Sure.

So I don't, I try and look at it as a long term scenario. This is why I tell you when you start to get income coming in, you always want to set 20% at least away of your revenue. You're bringing in gross revenue. You want to pull 20% and put it away for more leads. Well, what if I don't need 20%? That's great. Then you have more reserves. Then I also talk about when you have that reserve. I carry minimums on each of my companies. As far as I will not go under this dollar amount, this company. Why I never want my client when I have a lead to feel like they're my bread and butter. Sure. You know, I can truly say this affects your retirement way More than it affects mine. Your decision to do this affects you more than it affects me. But if you have very few leads, you have one lead coming in a week, it's gonna be like trying to pick every little piece of meat off that chicken bone. Man. I saw this thing recently where it's how people eat chicken wings. Well, one, you just bite in the middle, and it's done. The other one's picked perfectly clean. They even chew the cartilage off when. Sometimes when you do that with a lead, the client feels you chewing on that cartilage, and they're going, this guy's desperate. You don't ever want to be desperate when testing a lead system.

That's good. That's really good. Now, what do you look for specifically? Now you've got a process.

You reference yourself. You say you've gotten robotic. So you've got a way that you call. You've got a way that you work the leads. You're looking for something that will fit into that process. And obviously, walk me through that a little bit. What does that look like?

Well, so the process all revolves around what happens once you get the lead. So when I'm interacting with someone, I don't look at the dollar amount. It doesn't matter to me, because, quite frankly, a lot of the leads we get, the dollar amount they say they have is not what they really have. They just don't want to disclose what they really have. I remember I had this lead that said they had $25,000. Only call on this particular time. I called them as soon as I got the lead in. This was back about four or five years ago. I just happened to be available to make that call. I called, they said they had $25,000. Long story short, I go to the appointment, found out they had about $200,000, but through a complete fact finder, found out they had $1.9 million that we were able to use for the annuity, and they had money on top of that for reserves. So I had a $1.9 million deal. Literally, the day I met them was on Thursday. I met with them for two hours. I came back the next day for six hours as an appointment, trying to get. Because he had money scattered everywhere. And so I found out they had. We ended up doing an annuity for 1.8 mil. 1.8, 1.9 million. And then a year and a half later, I just talked them because these are super neat couple.

And.

And he goes, hey, Chad, you know, I just found out I have another $1.6 million out there. I'm like, how did I miss that? It's because the company he used to work for, he didn't have paperwork and they just sent it to him in the mail. Guess who they called? Me. I got another 1.6 million off of a lead that they said they had nothing. So it's important, never, ever judge by the what's on the lead, what the house looks like, what, it doesn't matter. Your job isn't to sit there and try and dissect what someone does or doesn't have. Your job is to sit there. Can I find a solution to their problem? That's all it comes down to. So when you're looking at leads, yeah, there's a system and a process, but it's not about looking at the lead and dissecting it. It's talking to them, having a good, clear communication with them about what do you need? What is the problem? Why did you reach out to me? And then addressing that.

That's really good. That's really good. Now let's say that somebody has gone through this. They've, you know, they figure out a plan. Maybe they don't have any leads coming in right now, but they've got a plan. They're going to start testing. They've tested a lead source and now they're ready to go with this. What do they invest into that lead source? As far as money wise to keep leads coming?

It's the 20%. Okay, you know, 20% of gross revenue you pull out for your leads. Do I always need that? No. Do I max that out? Yes. Always trying to have a 20% surplus in my lead. So if I say I want 10 a week, I want 12. Why? Because I know there's going to be weeks and I. Can I figure this out? No. I mean, once again, almost 200 million in written personal production since 2008. And I can't tell you how this works. Why? I sit there one week and I get 10 leads and I call through all hundred and I maybe get in touch with two and maybe schedule an appointment or don't schedule an appointment at all. It's crazy. I can call through a hundred leads personally and not get one appointment. Then the next week I'll get 10 leads and I end up with eight appointments. I don't know how that works. I use the same script, the same process. And if we could figure this out, I'd be way more efficient on my leads because I do have a lot of lead rot too, because I only make calls on Mondays from 4 to 7:30. Now I happen to be in the office yesterday, so I got a lead that came in and I called on it right away and guess what? I got an appointment right away. I don't know, you know, the whole, it's, it's not about how do you become the expert. Making a call, I mean, yeah, that's important. I hear people talk about that all the time, but it's. Do you do the same thing every time? What's the same thing every time? Find a problem, find the solution, be thorough. In your fact finder. That's even in the beginning on our website, we actually, our academy, we actually have training that talks about the mini fact finder. And the main fact finder, the mini fact finder is when you're making the call.

Right.

It's so important you do that. And if you do it right, you go to that appointment, you're already prepared.

Cool. So I heard you say 20% of gross revenue. So essentially you write, you write a policy, you get paid by the insurance company. You're taking 20% of what you make to reinvest back into leads.

Yeah, and this is generally for people who are, well, they're getting started and then they become somewhat well established. Now once you become a real expert in this and you're selling really Well, I take 1% of the goal, okay? So if I want to do $10,000,000, I'm going to spend $100,000 on leads. If I want to do 20 million, I'm going to spend $200,000 in lead. Don't ask me how I came up with that formula, but it just happens to work that way. It really does. My goal is 35 million this year, so I'm probably going to end up spending about 35 or $350,000 in leads. And I am on track to spend $350,000 a lead. So that's just what it comes down to. Once I'm not a mathematician, but the numbers work. And numbers have no emotions. They are what they are. Numbers only have the emotions you put to them. So if you're getting 30 leads or 20 leads or whatever, how you react to that is going to determine often how successful you are in handling those leads.

That's great.

I only got one lead this week. Panic. Well, that person that you're talking to is going to know that you're panicked about only getting one lead that week.

That's good.

I have shows that I've done before where I spent $1,000 and I didn't get one call. Does that panic? Yeah, radio, does that panic me? No, it really doesn't. Do I sit there and go, did they really run my show? I make sure they ran my show and then I find out they ran my show and I'm going, what happened? Then I'll have a show an hour long and then I get 15 leads. I don't know. Yeah, we can't figure that, but once you have lead, you need to be prepared.

Cool. That's great. I remember one time. I'm gonna tell these people a story real quick. One time.

Oh, it is. It's a good one.

It's all. It's about leads.

Yeah. I gotta tell you, this guy's also my son in law, so just so happens I allowed it.

Chad and I were sitting in a deer stand just, you know, enjoying nature. And I remember Chad saying, he goes, caleb, agents a lot of times will, will shut off their leads. And what that's like, that would be as if I went down to that deer feeder and I just turned it off and would not let it throw corn anymore. And what happens over time? At that point, no more deer. Shark start coming up to that area. So walk me through what is the importance of making sure that these agents, when they start getting leads coming in, they keep them going. They don't tell the lead company to stop.

But I think there's something more important that. Did I not get a nice size buck?

He did. He did end up making a harvest.

That's all that matters because the lead system was running. I got a buck right there.

So good non GMO meat for the freezer.

I did miss a hog though, didn't I?

I think you did.

I think I hit the hog. You just couldn't track it. I think that's really what it came down to. Maybe that we don't know. We'll never know because we didn't find any blood. We didn't find the hog. But anyway, see, when the deer feeder goes all the time, the deer get used to coming into it. That's the same thing with the lead system. If you go off and then on and then off, then on and then off, then on, then your clients are never going to know. You're consistent. I had a guy one time, I was literally on the same radio station for three years and he'd been listening to my radio show for three years and he finally called in and I said, why'd you finally call? And he goes, I just want to make sure you're still going to be around. How can you do that when you turn them off and turn them on? I don't care if I'm going on a three week vacation. I, I don't shut my leads off. Now I come back to a stack of leads. Great. Maybe 20, 30, 40% of them are lead rot. Which means. Hey, I'm not interested. Hey, I forgot what we were talking about. Hey, I already chose something. Okay, that's fine. I mean, but the fact is, what happens if I turn them on? Turn them off. Then we also look at the fact of the actual lead companies. If you're doing an Internet lead source and they put this big marketing plan together for you and you turn them off and turn them on, are they going to be interested in investing in you when you're not consistent? So it's not just the client being comfortable with who you are. It's the lead company knowing that they can trust that if they do a full blown marketing campaign for you, you're going to be consistent. I can tell you where I am right now. Every lead company I use, every Internet lead company I use, I am the primary person in this area. Why? They know I'm never going to shut my leads off. It doesn't matter. Vacation, doesn't matter. What? I'm never going to shut my leads off. So it's important to understand. My wife just had knee replacement and for about three to four weeks I was very inconsistent in being able to make my calls. Did I shut the leads off? No, I kept them going. I've had two weeks that I haven't had any deals come in. Like I didn't close anything. But you know what, the process works. Who knows what next week's going to provide? Don't get stressed about it.

Okay, so keep the leads open, don't shut them off because you can end up actually losing the ability to get those leads back again when you try to turn them on.

Right, That's a good point. Keep the lead feeder on.

The lead feeder will keep going.

Keeper on.

Now, we hit on this a little bit at the beginning, but we're talking about how in essence, a lead is only as good as the agent that has it.

100%.

So walk me through. I mean, leads are only as strong as the agent's call process. Right? What can agents do to improve their call process?

Mentorship is the number one thing. And I'm not just pitching our platform. I'm not. But I've been doing this for 16 years and I can tell you the number of people that Said, hey, come over to us, we're going to help you with leads. Hey, come over, rest. We're going to teach you how to do these lead systems. And it doesn't work out that way. That's why literally four years ago, we decided to start an academy where, where I can actually train and teach. Because by doing that, I'm the guy in the field just like you. I mean, I own seven companies. Could I not run appointments for annuities anymore? Could I have a team where I'm just teaching and training? Yes. Why do I still, Tuesday through Thursday, run appointments, sometimes starting at seven o', clock, leaving home, getting back at 11 o' clock a night, sometimes running 36 hours in three days, sometimes only running two hours and three days. It just once again depends on the number of appointments. But why do I do that? I do that because I want to make sure that while I'm actually running appointments, I'm learning, I'm training, I'm teaching, I'm making sure that my clients, which are people that are signed up for the academy, I want to make sure that they're going forward and they're actually understanding what, what current market conditions are doing right now. I mean, when we look at this and we're talking about current market conditions, we, a marketer generally will not be able to do that if they're not in the field just like you. If they're not running appointments just like you. Like I said, this has nothing to do with their heart, this has nothing to do with their intent. This has to do with are they in the trenches. I remember one time my dad said, you know, he was in the army and he made this comment that the lieutenant that just came out of school does not have more pole than the sergeant that's in the battlefield. Yes, that lieutenant actually outranks that sergeant. But when it comes time for the battle, who are they actually going to pay attention to? The person who has experience in the trenches. And that's why I keep doing that. I want to make sure that I'm helping you consistently on how to handle these leads. What objections I come up? I mean, right now we have a complete chaotic situation in the market because of the pandemic, because of political issues.

You got people that are fearful of even meeting with you. So we developed this virtual sales training process and I've already written about 1.4 million this year just off of the virtual sales training process. I mean, 1.4 million. That puts you in the top 5% of all annuity agents in the Entire United States. And that's been just virtually. Now, I still meet with a lot of people face to face, but there's some cities you just can't do that in. They've locked you down. So you have to have a smooth, good virtual process. That's the only way you're going to be able to help with those leads. So that's really comes down to mentorship.

That's good. That's good. And I personally cannot speak highly enough of Chad's heart in what he's doing. I mean, literally, when he says, I'm doing this to help agents. Yes, that is it. That is the why behind the what? That's why he does it. That's why we do it as a team.

Team.

So just know that I cannot speak highly enough of his heart. But Chad, I will add to that.

If you don't have it in your heart to do what's best for your client, your client will know that now you don't be the nice guy just because you want to be the nice guy. So you get the deal. You genuinely need to know in your heart this is the best thing you can do for someone. And you. You're really looking out for that client. I am tired. I mean, I remember years ago when I wrote that book called Stress in Rocking Chairs. It's the reason why I came up with that title is because stress, because you worry about everything. Rocking chairs because you have nothing to live for, no purpose. If I can alleviate that with my clients, that's a win win. Even if it's a small annuity deal, who cares? It helped them. It fixed the solution. It was a solution to their problem win. That's how I look at things. Absolutely.

That's great.

I also love with agents, an agent that hasn't started or hasn't written annuities, or Maybe they did 1.9 million and then they end up tripling, quadrupling. You know, even one guy writing, what, 10.9 million was the one guy. He went from 1.9 million to 10.

He went from 1.2 million per year to 9.8 million in just nine months.

Yeah, that's. That's. See, I mean, come on, we're changing lives. We're changing. We. Where I remember people going out of agent. You know what? My dream has always been able to take my kid to Disney World, my family to Disney World, and pay for everything and stay in the resort. And guess what? They call me from Disney World saying, guess what? We're in one of the resorts. I got to take my entire family, taking their family to Hawaii or whatever that is. What this is about is being able to help people and really live a freedom lifestyle while living a freedom life. So they live this freedom lifestyle, but all they're doing is they're helping their clients live a freedom lifestyle.

Right.

That's what it's about, People living it.

Helping other people living.

Absolutely.

That's so good. Real quick to jump back into kind of the call thing there. Can a Canon agent get a hot lead and end up making it a cold lead based on their phone process?

Yes. Okay, so you proposed to my daughter, right? I did. Was she interested in you? She was. Okay. Was the way you approached that could have that determined whether she would have said yes or no?

We can ask her, but I'm very.

You want to go? You know what? I really love you. I really am excited that you get to serve me the rest of your life. That you get to do everything in my beck and call.

Yeah, that would have been.

What do you think she would have said?

Come on.

Yeah. Instead of saying, you know what? I love you. I want to serve you. I want to be that person that meets and fulfills your dreams. She loved you. But the way you ask could have had a different outcome. And knowing my daughter, you probably would have been buried on the ranch somewhere. You would never been a life shooter.

Like him in that way.

Well, great. Hey, you. And you are robotic in your calls. I mean, how can an agent get to that point? What can they do? How do they practice? I guess their scripts and what they're.

Saying, just like everything else. I mean, when you think about, why does the guy who's an expert, expert golfer, which I am not, and not even remotely, but why does he swing over and over and over and over and over again? Why does someone who's trained in martial arts practice over and over and over again? It's muscle memory. It's the same thing. You learn, you study, you go over things. I have people go through the academy. I'm like, go through it again. Why? Just go through it again. Go through it again. Go through it again. Why? I want you to have that muscle memory to where, you know, if a circumstance comes up, you want to have that question answered out of an automatic response, not we have to sit there. Well, let me go back to the office. Why? I need to figure that they're not going to let you help them if you have that type of response. It's like they want to know that you have the answer. One of the Worst things I can see is, well, now I met with you, now I need to go back to office and figure out what product, if I come behind you and I'm going to have a solution to their problem right there, I'm telling you, I. I'm going to get the deal because I don't need to go back and try and figure out what's best. Why? Because I know off the top of my head what the best product is.

And that happened recently.

It happens all the time. All the time.

Yeah. Really good. Well, do you have anything else specifically that you'd like to add or, you know, it.

Just be consistent. I'm telling you. Leads is the thing I probably get the biggest questions about. And it's not just about the lead. It's about being the right people person to help them. You can get all the leads in the world, but if you don't know what you're doing, it means nothing in your heart. You need to know what's best for the client, have the solution to the problem, present it to them in a way that they understand it. That's why I wrote stress and rocking chairs in English, not financial lease. I want them to understand it. I don't want them, what good is it there? I sit there and I protect them with the right product, but they're stressed because they don't know how the product works and they don't feel comfortable with that. I want them fully being comfortable in all areas there. So that's what I'd highly recommend.

That's great. That's great. All right, well, I want to take just a minute and go through what we do at retirement Realized Agents Academy. Now, this is an online training platform that was developed by Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach who has written almost 200 million in annuity production since 2008.

I'm almost there.

Almost. I mean, it could be any day now. Right past that.

That's what it's frustrating. Two weeks without a deal, but I'm this close and I'm going, what's going on? Yeah. Anyway, sorry.

That's all right. But basically what we are doing in the platform, and I say basically, but it's not basic at all. This is literally what we do is we take Chad's process and we break it down from mindset before you're even calling leads to calling leads to going through the appointment, second appointment, closing the deal, policy delivery. I mean, literally every step in the annuity sales process we are covering and you're training on the exact way that you do it right.

Are you sure you want to get to my mindset?

It's a scary place, but there's some really, really great things that honestly, even in that, agents need to have set in the right place. Otherwise they won't honestly be able to work leads well or go into the appointment with confidence. So it is important to be doing that now in the platform. Like I said, we go through all of that and it's broken down in what we call the roadmap. And it's basically broken into eight different tracks. Each track is a part of the annuity sales process. And again, Chad is the one that's breaking down his process A to Z in a way that you can literally take it and implement it into what you're doing now. Another.

I'll tell you what, though, if we could have had this type of roadmap when I got started, I wouldn't be scratching at 200 million, I'd be 300 million.

This is a very easy laid out process. Now, actual study and of course that takes energy and effort. But the way they laid it out, this is what I do. But our team has put it together in a way that you can easily understand it. And it's just from this step to this step to this step, it's incredible. It's something that I didn't even. There's no way I could have done this. But when they take this system, the process, and they lay it out in that roadmap, we have so many agents time and time again, just saying this is the best. What was that guy? He just said, he's been doing this for so many years.

25 years.

25 years. And he learned. Go ahead. I can't remember the exact.

Yeah, it was a couple of weeks ago. Guys been doing this for 25 years. He's been in the industry. He called me up within 24 hours of being in the platform and he goes, caleb, this is. Y' all have done more for me in the last 24 hours than any FMO I've ever been a part of. And that's. That'll stick with me for as long as I'm doing this, because I'm telling.

You, let me do it. He said, y', all, that means you all, you all just to let you Texas talk.

But you hit something really, really great there. You talk about how the process is very easy to just implement, right? You just. You watching it, you're studying it, you're taking notes, and then you just run with it. Now, remember, at the end of 2019, you had just gotten done writing, I think it was 24 million or 25 million for the year in 2019. And you said, caleb, honestly, I could do this type of production in, what was it, 30, 35 hours a week. And so it's literally taking that process that allows for that type of production and running with it.

1 the reality is I just finally took my first straw ever from retirement, realized Agents Academy. So four years I've been doing this with literally no pay. But why? Because I have a desire to change the industry. I want our agents to not be known as the criminals, the crooks, the steelers, when vast majority are not. But I want our industry be known as the experts. And that's what it comes down to. And yeah, when I first got started this, it was very challenging because there wasn't a system in a process. And when you lay it out real easy to where people understand, I mean, it's funny how much of an expert I become in people's eyes when I'm doing something. I know nothing about what I'm doing, but I'm able to do it because I watched a YouTube video on how to do it and they're like, wow, how'd you know to install that? You must be like really good at plumbing. No, I watched a YouTube video on how to do happens time and time. I have this new scope I just bought for my gun and I'm sitting there with an allen wrench trying to put this together. So this was just last night confused. And so what I do, I went to YouTube and I tried to figure out how to do it by watching someone else. That's what the platform does.

That's it. That's it. And I've had agents ask me before, Caleb, how long does it take to go through it? You know, I'm done with it. What do I do now? Things like that and the way that I approach that is it's really like a movie, right? If you watch a movie once, you're going to get some things out of it, you watch that same movie a second time, what's going to happen? Inevitably you're going to catch things in it, you're going to notice things in it. So it's really, it's. I mean, it's almost like a living thing that's constantly providing new, different things for you. That's, that's amazing what happens when you.

Watch like 55 or 60 times, then you start going, I'm your huckleberry. I got two guns, one for each of you. It Just becomes part of your everyday dialogue. So that's what we want. Watch it over and over and it'll become a part of your everyday dialogue.

I'll tell you one of the things about the platform that consistently blows me away because I've never seen this before, is you actually give agents in the platform all of the documents that you're using 100%. And walk me through that. I mean, you've obviously spent the last, however many years, what, decade and a half, 15 something, 16 years doing this, accumulating these documents, and now you're literally giving them out. There was nobody doing this back when you were doing it. Walk me through the importance of the documents.

Well, they're actually. There's. My mentor actually used to give a lot of documents for free. And that's actually where I came down to this. Because there's so many insurance companies that have all these videos, documentation, which ones are actually effective on the field. Because I've sorted through the library of insurance companies and they have these great documents and some of them go, why'd you even make this one? This didn't make sense. There's no way the client's gonna understand that. And then there's documents. I'm like, you know what? I need to make this on my own. I need to help it where I can relate. The client can relate to what I'm doing or saying by the document that's created. So it has a nice flow. But why would I sit there, teach you training, but hold back? Actually, one of the most important parts, which is all the documents I use, the documents I use during the presentation, the documents I use during fact finding, the documents I use while explaining the product. Why would I hold that back? That doesn't make sense.

That's really great. And again, goes to just show the heart behind what we're doing. One of the beauties of the documents to me is Chad, you've referenced even the leave behind kit, right? And you say this is what does the selling for me while I'm gone, right? So he can't be in the home. Obviously, you can't be in the home until they decide to make a deal, right? So you got to leave a little.

Creepy, but you could like, hey, we're just sitting here waiting. You want to make me a steak while we're waiting for this?

All right. So you leave them to. You leave them to leave behind kit and it does the selling form while they're gone. You talk about the fact finder being able. I mean, this is just the Fact Finder alone, agents could literally double, triple, quadruple their production with that one document. Because it helps get the maximum that you. You see their full picture. Yes. Right. You know exactly where everything is at so that you can actually address their full situation, which commonly means an increased case size.

Correct? Well, it does, but it also. That Fact Finder is the number one most changed document I have. It's constantly evolving with what's going on, current market conditions. For example, I'll give you a freebie I used to have on my document on a scale 1 to 10, 0. Being you're not willing to risk anything. 10, you're willing to risk everything. They'd be like, I don't know, three. They wouldn't have a number for that. They couldn't quite understand that. So I simply, on my Fact finder said, are you willing to lose all of your money, some of your money, or none of your money? They can answer that. That's easy. And the laugh I get is like, well, of course I don't want to lose any of my money. Well, just out of curiosity, why do you have all your money in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds if you don't want to lose any of your money? Huh? That's a good point. So, yeah, it's.

That's amazing. I love, I love that document personally. And I know every agent in the platform I've ever talked to that's used. It has.

Well, you actually have your own meaning finder for agents. I do.

And when I'm talking with agents on the phone, I go through my little fact finder with them. Because again, it's one of those deals. If we're doing this to help agents, and agents are in their industry helping clients, and it's all about helping and making sure that you're offering the best thing for their situation, we have to make sure that we're doing that within the account. So we go through our own fact finders. The truth. Now, one of the beauties of the training as well is the monthly live trainings and the monthly live Q and A. Walk me through that. I mean, that's, that's a time where you're on a webinar, in essence, with these agents. Your. You're just training on whatever I guess is relevant at the time.

It is. It's whatever is relevant at the time. This is actually where the inner circle is. So effective. Inner circle is where I have direct one on one interaction with the agents. Now, that's a very, very limited group of people. I'll work with because of space. I'm not going to tell you. You can have my cell phone number, but I don't answer it. I don't get back to you. So I'm very particular on that. I want to make sure that I can handle the workflow on that. But it's where I'm directly interacting with things that have currently happened with me. Current market conditions. You could go back to the 151A rule, the DOL rule. We're constantly having changes now we got to do a lot of virtual appointments. That's where these monthly calls really kick in. And then you get the agents that are brand new that ask questions. I'm going, man, you know what? I haven't thought of that in a while. Being a veteran, I haven't thought that in a while. And, and then they come up with these great questions and as they're asking this question to me, I'm, I'm learning. So it's incredible. I mean new people think outside of the box. Usually they don't go into this normal routine. So I love it.

Yeah, absolutely. And so obviously the one on one calls there being inner circle level, the monthly live training being that kind of that relative, you know, relevant rather market conditions, what's going on relative relevant?

Yeah, all of it.

It's all that 100%. And now the live Q and A, that's where agents, they submit questions to you. And we actually have a place in the platform where agency type it in and they just submit it and we make sure that gets on the next monthly live Q and A. I can't.

Tell you how many millions of deals have been written off of the Q and A.

Really?

Yeah, I hear that. They'll say, man, you know, I always wanted that question to be asked. I was afraid to ask it actually verbally so but typing it, there's not as much of a, let's just say commitment because we don't even know who's. We know who's typing those questions, but other agents don't know. And so they ask that question and just able to ask it, they say, well that's a dumb question. No, probably nine or 10 other agents, 100 other agents had that exact same question.

Right.

So I love that part.

That's great. That's great. And we also the E courses as well, right? I mean things like in 2019, we did a live training event where literally agents from all over the United States flew to Austin to come to Chad training live. It was two days. We recorded the whole thing. We've got it all in the platforming. That's just one of the many E courses available there. They're basically things that don't necessarily fit into one of the tracks, but they're really, really good content wise, that can help them. I mean, one sentence could. Could make somebody a deal.

I mean, a lot of times when I'm helping people that are very well versed in this industry, they may have been doing it for a long time. They can write 4 to 5 million. It's actually pretty neat, though, because I'll just do tiny little changes, tiny little tweaks and what they're doing, and all of a sudden 2, 3, 4 million come out of that interaction and conversation.

Wow. Wow. That's amazing. One of the things that I get to do, that's actually one of my favorite things that I get to do, is walk with agents through finding leads, creating a marketing plan and a budget set aside for those. Because I get asked all the time, caleb, or do y' all provide leads? Y' all provide leads. Y' all provide leads. And the answer is always, no, we don't provide leads. What we do is actually, in my opinion, a step further than that. We help find leads and create a marketing plan and a budget that works for you. Because the reality is agents can go and they can ask any organization, hey, do you have leads? Yeah, we have leads. Well, how do you know if those leads are actually going to be any worth your time or your money at all?

We have leads. Here's a phone book. Yeah, those are leads.

Those were the days.

I'm not that old, man. I'm saying what some people do, not me.

Oh, you're going to begin with drawing on your annuities here coming up shortly.

You know what? Here's something that I learned. You do not say. So My wife is five years older than me, and when she turned 50, I said, hey, hon, you're in my target demographic. That did not go over pretty well.

Yeah.

Oh, don't say that.

Oh, my goodness.

Don't do as I say. Do as I do. No, don't do as I do. Do as I say.

Yeah.

Actually, you know what? Don't even do as I say sometimes too.

Well.

Great. So that is kind of a brief overview of the platform. I mean, over 45 hours of training content, all of the documents that Chad is using in his appointments, literally a breakdown process of his process from calling leads to closing the deal. The mindset that you need to have to be able to do any of that. Well, e courses that honestly transcend the training and that, that process, they go deeper than that. Live webinars, trainings, Q and A's. I mean, guys, it is literally the total package when it comes to annuity sales training. And I'm a little bit biased, but I would say we have the greatest annuity. Annuity sales.

Boy, that. You choked on that one, didn't you? Couldn't even get the nice thing.

No, let's go ahead. We're not gonna cut this part out. I want this one in permanently. So go ahead. One of the joke on saying something nice about me.

The greatest annuity sales trainer in the nation and also one of the nation's highest producers. So definitely a process that you as an agent would want to glean from and implement in what you're doing as well.

So could you say the greatest father in law too, I could say ever existed?

Again, biased, but yeah, definitely not much.

To choose from, right?

Not a lot of options.

But I got the best.

Yeah. Oh, okay.

I appreciate it. It doesn't matter how many options you have if you get the best, right? Well, real quick, for those of you listening, if you want to get a copy of the book that Chad actually he leaves behind with all of his clients, it's called Stress and Rocking Chairs. Again, I think you might have mentioned it. You wrote it in layman's terms. You know, real basic English, not financial ease, so clients can actually understand it. If you as an agent would like to receive that, just send us your name, your email, your phone number, and we'll get that PDF version over to you. And again, if you have questions about the platform, we want to be able to answer those for you. Have an agent relations specialist reach out to you. Go ahead and submit your name and your email and your phone number as well. And we'd be happy to do that for you as well. This is great.

Awesome.

Looking forward to talking with you.

Have a great day. And as you know, happy selling.

Sat.