Chad Owen talks to an agent stuck after two years and asks whether they're running an annuity practice as a hobby or a business. He spent $150,000 on credit-card debt building his own, reinvests 18-20% of commissions into lead generation and tools, and uses Annuity Innovation Systems to cut through product noise.
Questions this video answers
$150,000
Approximately 18–20% of commissions.
A document titled '25 reasons why 90% of insurance agents fail' (claim: 90% fail in the first two years).
Annuity Innovation Systems (paid subscription; speaker estimated its cost around $30–$40/month).
www.annuityagentsacademy.com
Chapters
Hello, Chad Owen with Annuity Agents Academy. Just want to share a little conversation I had with an agent just recently. They were having a real hard time. They're having a hard time getting the business going. They've been doing this for actually about two years. But they're trying to decide, should I continue to do this? Should I continue to try and make this work? And I talked about some situations I've dealt with as far as when I built a business. When we first got started trying to figure out these systems, I was actually $150,000 in credit card debt and I was spending more than I should. But we're really trying to develop how to make this system work because I didn't have anybody to mentor me. I didn't have anybody that could tell me how to make this business work. So he was asking me, well, how do you find the right insurance companies? How do you know what product is best? And I have this. Subscribers pay for every single month. And I think it's 30, $40 a month. I can't remember. But it's called Annuity Innovation Systems. And I basically subscribe to that. And it tells me I'm allowed to punch in my clients age, when they want to draw money, how much they have qualified, non qualified. And it narrows down from all the companies and narrows it down to about the top 10. And what that does is allows me know at any given time what the best product with the best company is. And he goes, well, you know, I don't subscribe to anything like that. And I'm like, wow, ok. And I said, well, what types of leads do you have? And he goes, well, I get free leads from my fmo, you know, they subscribed or they give me free leads. And I say, okay. I said, how does that work for you? And he goes, why? I don't know. I don't close that many. I don't have that many success stories with that. And I said, so you don't pay for any lead system? And he goes, no, I don't. It just costs a lot of money. And it made me think, this guy is treating this business as a hobby, not as a business. And if you treat your business as a hobby, you will end up working for someone else. There's no way you can make it succeed. I take 20%, approximately 18 to 20% of my commissions, and I put that back into my lead system. Why? I'm treating it like a business. If I need upgraded technology, I always buy the latest, greatest because I want to make sure that My software systems are running the quickest they can. I want to make sure that whatever type of illustration softwares are available that it works effectively. When I have a printer, I have a really nice printer because I want my illustrations to look crisp and clean. I run it like a business. And I finally told this guy said if you don't change how you are operating your hobby and if you don't turn it into a business you will no longer be doing this. And I just finished this project. It took me quite a while. It actually a day and a half almost of pure writing but it was 25 reasons why 90% of insurance agents fail and that's a fact. So 90%.
Of insurance agents fail in the first two years and I have 25 reasons. So if you want to go to that go to our website www.annuityagentsacademy.com youm do have to subscribe and we'll send that to you But I've spent a lot of time and I would bet, I'd bet a large amount of money because even with myself as a sixteen plus million dollar a year producer I saw some things I man you know what, I haven't done that in a while or I'm not doing as good as I should in that particular area. And it made me, even while I was writing this take a look at my own business and see what I could do to improve and become better. So I'd like to share this with you but once again number one don't treat this as a hobby, treat as a business. So don't be afraid to fund what you need to. Don't be a cheapskate. Number two, go to our website, subscribe get that 25 reasons why 90% of insurance agents Fail. It's my free gift to you But I'm really hoping that it does help you that you can take a look at some of these things and evaluate your own business so you don't end up being one of those statistics. I thank you so much for your time. You have a great day till next time.
