Catching Momentum for 2022 | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 178

Foreign.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode. I am Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach. As you know, owner of Retirement Realized Financial and Retirement Realized Agents can Academy. We are your full service brokerage. A real person, real agent doing real business just like you, helping you. Boy, that sounded like a pretty good commercial, didn't it? Yeah, kind of put on my radio voice for that. But no, seriously, I mean, we are one of those agencies that. I am a principal. I own the company. Obviously. Caleb's my son in love and we partnered together on this. But I'm in the field just like you, running appointments just like you. Literally. I had, someone just asked me, so they heard me making calls on pending business and go, you make calls on your pending business too? Yes, I. Let's put it this way. It's not that I don't trust insurance companies and marketers to follow up on my business, but it's not their responsibilities, you know. Yes, they're supposed to, but I still don't make that. That's your job. That's my job. Now if the insurance company and your marketer or marketing organization are helping follow up on business, obviously they have two more times other than me, people following up on that. But you know, I had a situation where an insurance company, they, they didn't send in the transfer paperwork. I found that out 30 days later. And so, you know, unfortunately it was through suits, through a very really busy season for me. Boy, I was messing up on my S's right there. It was a busy season for me and I just didn't follow up for three weeks. And the fourth week I called and found out the transfer form hadn't been sent out. Now the crazy thing is, fortunately it was a previous client that I've already written business with. They're very understanding. But I just look at it, that's a month that, number one, the policy would have already been issued. And number two, there's no opportunity for the client to sit there and go, man, I wish I wouldn't have done that.

Right.

You know, it's, it's a matter of making sure we're being efficient and we owe that to our clients to. So if I have to spend once a week going through pending business, I'll do it. Yeah. Now, right now it's easy. I only have four pending cases. Sure. I mean, that's not a good thing, but.

Right.

You know, I'll do 27. My record was 27 pending cases.

Was that last year or I think.

There'S a year before last Year I got, I think I got up to 24 at one time. So I'm really hoping it takes off like that. I mean, I have some really big deals I'm working on right now. And of course I'd love to knock out January with a really big deals. But you know what? Sometimes this business, you have a month where you do a million and a half and you have a month where you do 9 million a month where you'll do. I haven't been goose egged in quite a while, which I'm really happy about. There's usually, I don't know when's the last time I was ever goose eggnon a month. It's been years.

It's. It's been several years. And typically the goose egg comes in months where you take several weeks off already and you didn't have appointments for the week when you get back. So you're booking appointments and then you run the appointments. So there's usually a pretty logical explanation for the goose egg. Yeah. But I'm glad you mentioned, you know, trying to knock January out of the park because that's what we're talking about here today is gaining momentum in 2022. And I was thinking about this year and thinking about what are the things that I really want to characterize 2022. And the one you want to characterize 22 to. Yes, 22 to.

The one word that just kept coming up is intentionality. Like I, I want, I want this year to be marked by intentionality. And the more that I got to thinking about it, the more I really thought that's a great way to build some momentum is to treat things with intentionality when you're on the clock. Be on the clock. Right. Don't be on the clock.

What do you mean? There's a.

Well, I know for you guys, I'm thinking from my, from my perspective as a, as a, you know, marketer.

Oh, yeah, you guys, you're, you got clocks. It's, it's 9am and you're in and it's 5 and you're out most of the time. That is not true. You're always here.

I know I do tend to come early and stay late. But the point is, if you're making calls, be fully there. Making calls. If you're in an appointment, be fully there. If you're out of the office and you're hanging with your family, be fully there. Be intentional with your time. And in doing so, you'll inevitably be devoting a higher level of full focus to that thing. And when you devote more focus to that thing, it's going to bear more results. So, I mean, just logically agree, man.

These microphones are hard to get used to. It feels like back in the days when I was a movie star and people would be sticking mics in my mouth going, hey, tell us your story.

You were a movie star.

Yeah, absolutely.

You played Ursula in the Little Mermaid.

That's rude. My daughter's Ariel. I was clearly Triton. Let's get this together.

Okay? But no intentionality. I mean, getting going and focused is so important. And I'm like, I mean, I just came off of two weeks of not running appointments and I'm already right back in the game, ready to go. I mean, it's, it's just how it is. The switch is on. I'm making my calls. I mean, crazy busy already today. But, you know, it's a matter of just. You can't get appointments if you don't make calls.

Yeah, it's true. And who are you going to make calls if you don't have leads? I mean, that was one of the things that I noted down here is you have approximately four to six weeks from the time a lead comes in to the time you get paid on that. If you have that much time and you're thinking about, okay, it's 2022, granted, hopefully there's some carryover from last year into this year, some pending stuff from last year moving into this year. But if you're starting fresh or you don't have anything in the pipeline right now, and you're talking about four to six weeks from lead in to being.

Comped on that, why the momentum has to stay consistent. Because right now I think have one point, I think 1.6 million in pending business.

Okay.

I have a million dollar case, a $400,000 case, and I'm pretty sure I got $200,000 case. Yeah. So I have that momentum already there from the standpoint of pending business. And I just had a 300,000. No, so actually have $300,000 case as well. So what would I just say? 1.4, 1.6. 1 point. So 1.9 million. But that $300,000 check should come in any day. That's one that wasn't sent in a month. Yeah, for a month. And then once it was sent in, it's amazing how fast. Yeah, they overnighted the check and everything. But I cannot imagine. Well, I can because I, No, I never went through a long phase. I think the longest I've ever went out With a sale was six weeks and that was crazy. I mean I, and I think I'd taken three weeks off. This doesn't matter. Three weeks without a deal. That's a mind boggling. Right. I actually went through a summer one time where I think I went six or seven weeks and I hardly took any time off. That was before you joined. And man, it was. I remember telling my wife, I'm like, I suck. And she goes, don't ever say that again. You're awesome. And I was like, okay, okay. So she just spoke into me. But I felt that way. I mean I, I felt like just, do I even know what I'm doing anymore? You know, it's, it's when you're, when you train people and you start to question if you even know what you're doing anymore. That's, that's pretty low point. That is a low point. That's a low point. But it's just consistently consistency in those leads and those calls. Like I already know tonight I'm probably going to be making calls till 7:30, 8:00'. Clock. I've already got that in my head. Right. Oh, by the way, because I was so busy, now I'm also going to have to plan or prepare for this week once I'm done making calls.

It's true.

So it's going to be a late night tonight. Yeah. Leilani, she goes, my wife, she goes right when she left, she goes, don't stay too. Oh. And she's like, yeah, you're going to be here late, aren't you? And I'm like, Monday.

So the momentum's so important. It's, it's why, honestly, so many people fail in this business. Yeah. And when I say this business, I mean anybody's starting their own business, it doesn't matter what field you're in.

And that's the mentality you should have about it. If you're a producer.

Yeah. It's your own business and you have to get it stuck in your head that you know what, you don't have hours. Your hours are, you're there till it needs to get, till it gets finished. That's your hours. It's not a 9 to 5. I mean I started, my mind started working at 6am this morning and you know, once again you could go, well, you know what, you were off for two weeks, so don't you have like a little rest to get back? No, when I step back into this, I fight as soon as we land. Actually I had to fight this time because we were we usually get it on Saturday, but this time we're getting on Sunday. So on Friday I was thinking it was Saturday. And then Saturday I think is Sunday. So on Saturday I'm thinking, oh, I got to go to work the next day. So I was fighting Saturday for my brain to not go, okay, get in the game, get in the game, get. And then I'm like, wait a second, I don't get until tomorrow, which means I don't work till the next day. Right. So. But my mind works that way. And I'm telling you, when you're in your own business, you have to be your own motivator. You really do. You have to be your own self starter. There's nobody there holding your hand on Fridays, Mondays, Tuesdays, whenever you decide to make your call saying, hey, it's time to make calls. Yeah. There's nobody holding your hand when you're showing up to the appointment and you're not doing a full fact finder. Yeah. What do you mean? What's the fact finder? If you don't know what a fact finder is, then first of all, you need to be a part of our academy. And we're very deliberate and people even brand new, I don't knock people that are brand new not knowing what to do. But you shouldn't be in front of helping clients if you don't know what you're doing. You do not use your clients as your testing ground.

True.

Because you make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes when they're learning. So you're testing on your clients. It's like these multi level marketer financial institutions. Oh, just get out there and use your friends and your family. What? So let's, I mean, don't mess over anybody, but let's go out and practice on your friends and your family and see if we're doing the right thing for them. And then I can't tell you how many annuities I've written from friends and family of people that were victims of friends and family. Yeah.

Wow.

So momentum, you have to, you have to be a self starter.

Yeah.

And it always helps. You have a big sale right away. I mean, if I could get a big sale this week, that would really help. Especially since I'm gone. I have this week, the next week, then I'm gone the following week, all week. So I already, and I'm already planning my trip in February. I don't know where we're gonna go, but I want to pick some place with snow.

Yeah.

And so I told Leimani, I said, why don't we pick someplace maybe Salt Lake City. I don't know, someplace like that where we can just go Lake Tahoe or whatever, where we can just get away. We can enjoy some snow. Yeah. As you guys know, if you haven't followed us for a while, my momentum is something I have to constantly do because I'll take a week or two weeks off about every month to month and a half. And it's. As soon as I get back, it's time to get right in. It's time to build that momentum.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny, I real quick had to look up what's the formula of momentum. And because you think about it, equals.

MC squared.

Momentum equals the max mass of something times the velocity. Another way to put it is force. You know, momentum.

My favorite word for momentum is juggernaut.

Juggernaut. There you go.

Do you know what a juggernaut is?

A juggernaut is a very, like, indestructible, a massive.

In unstoppable. Non. How was the word? Darn it. I had this down. It was you. Me to look it up. Yeah. Juggernaut. It's a. It's an. It's me. I mean, I want to be a juggernaut. So go ahead.

Do the definition.

Definition?

Yeah. Okay.

Juggernaut is a huge, powerful and overwhelming force. Is that what you're talking about? Institution or institution there?

Yeah, no, that's exactly it. You know, Suit, I would like to be known as that in life, you know, for the good. You know, if I'm doing something wrong or I need correction. Well, I don't want to be unstoppable there. I want to come to stop right there and go, okay, I don't want to do this anymore. I just talked to our accountant just right before this, and they said, you know what I mean? I don't even like being in the gray with taxes. It's true. I want it. You're white. And so I said, is this in the gray? And he goes, actually, I don't think it's in the gray because one tax advisor saying that it. It's in the gray. The other saying, my normal guy is saying, no, this is. I would not. He said, I would not represent you in court over this. My done. Let's not do it. Let's not deduct it if it's that. And because he knows, he goes, you're above the line guy. I know that you don't want anything that could be constru. Viewed as.

Yeah, it's above reproach. There's nothing that could be.

And so if you're doing something bad and absolutely, you don't want to be a juggernaut, but when you're doing something good, you don't want any dol rule, political situation, market situation, lead situation. You want nothing stopping you because you're doing what's right for your clients. Yeah.

And I think too, the, the big piece to that is the, the velocity, the movement that, you know, I think it's really easy to get stuck in this mode of always planning to do something and you have all these ready.

To get ready, to get ready, to get ready. Get ready, to get ready, to get ready.

Exactly. And then it's like, when do you actually start? Like, you've got to start moving. And one of the things I would highly encourage you as a listener to do is to set aside time slots for the things that are going to create the results. So like Chad, for example, he has a set time for his calls. You have set times for your call.

Have you ever seen me make appointments during that time?

Never once. It doesn't matter how big the.

I don't care if they say I got $10 million. I'm not, I'm not making an appointment for that time.

That, that time slot is devoted to calls. And then same with your appointment slots. Your appointment slots are devoted to appointment slots. It doesn't matter if you get a brand new lead in that. On the lead, it says, oh, they have $5 million. You're not going to take that time to call the lead because you have a time slot for calling and you have your appointment slots. You have your pending business.

Now, that only works. So if you've got an excessive lead.

True, that's a very good point.

Because if I'm, it's like when somebody doesn't have a job, what's your job? To get a job. You know, you spend your 40, 50 hours a week finding a job. Well, if I don't have appointments and I'm not running seven other eight other companies, you know, then my job is to get appointments. Yep. So I tell people if, if annuities or life insurance or whatever, if that is your gig and that's the only thing you have going, don't sit there. Well, it's Tuesday. I'm not making calls now. If you don't have appointments and run your appointment, your job is to get appointments. Right. But for me, I just, I already, every day of the week I have something going. So.

Well, I, Yeah, I want to say to make One of those time slots set aside devoted time. I do this for, for me as a, as a marketer, I have time slots that I. This time is set aside for talking to agents. Specifically this time is set aside to be running illustrations and doing case design. I mean it's, there's very categorized time periods. Make one of your categorized time periods for improving your process, studying, growing in that. And then I want to encourage you too. Like Chad, I know you're not naturally a super goal oriented person because you, you have this thing where you feel like a goal is almost like a limitation because it's like, why not go beyond that?

Right? Here's my goal. Do what I'm supposed to do today. If I continually get better every day and do my job and be intentional and be deliberate and everything I'm supposed to be doing, called to do in life, then if I accomplish that goal and then the next day I'm better, I accomplish more, the next day I'm better, I accomplish more, then I'll hit any goal beyond what I could even imagine. That's so true. You know, it's constantly to get better, always improving yourself, always mentoring others, always pouring into others, always thinking about what other people need as well. Because once again, if you continually do that, the benefit or the side effect is you will always become a better person. Yeah.

And that's intentionality. I mean literally what you just described there is being intentional with the time you're given and the things you're given to steward treating it with intentionality and then two, not dragging your feet to get started.

Agreed.

Build some momentum.

Well, I think that's pretty much it for this.

A wrap for today.

Okay, well join us next week and we're going to be talking about Caleb's new facial hair.

Or the lack of. Yeah, exactly. No, you. If like you said, if you don't watch the YouTubes in this, you're missing out something. Yeah. Because it's, it's watching a guy that looks like he's three years old just have wisdom like a 90 year old. It's pretty impressive. Like a whole. We actually have sitting up on phone books.

Yeah, I'm on a booster seat.

We'll talk to you guys. You have a great day. And of course, happy selling.