How I Reached $200 Million in Solo Annuity Production | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 132

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Seven Figure Annuity Sales Podcast. I am Chad Owen. I'm the guy that you actually hear about that writes a bunch of annuities. And I do it because I love it. Honestly, I do. It has been a long journey, but I get a. Literally live a freedom lifestyle while helping others live a freedom lifestyle. It's not just about what I do for myself. It's what I do for my clients, what I do for the people I love. I mean, we have relationship because we're able to enjoy life together. And actually, as a team, man, we get to do something coming up in May. Yeah, A couple weeks, we get to go to the Big island and part of its training, we're doing some not training, continuing education and becoming better at who we are and what we do and how we communicate. But you know what? I am so looking forward to just hanging out with my team. I mean, it's so great. But I know we are talking about it's not easy getting to that stage. And it is there. There's a lot. I mean, it's like Facebook and Instagram, right? Everything looks peachy, especially some of these. You know, since I've traveled a lot, one of the things I see that's quite humorous to me is when it's in a very challenging situation, a very crowded area, very hot confusion. And then you have that Instagram influencer that's trying to take this perfect picture. I even saw someone just ask. They were sitting down and they go, these couples just minding their own business go, excuse me, can you move? You're in our picture. And so.

Leave them alone. But they try and make this perfect little picture and make it look like it's something that's not. I'm here to tell you, this is not easy. Sure, it's not. There's a lot of hard work. There's a lot of energy and effort. I would say tears. I just don't know how to cry. There's so many times I want to. I just don't know how to do. It just doesn't happen. But the numbers, remember, may sound great, but there's a great price to pay to get to those numbers. So don't be impressed by the numbers. It's a lot of hard work. Anybody that busts their tail, anybody that focuses on the solution of the problem, anybody, anybody that has a system and a process, honestly, can do the same thing. I'm not anything special. Anybody could do this. I'm obedient and I do what needs to be done. To get to where I want to be. But you need to be willing to do what others aren't to do to get to where others are because of what they did. And so I think that came out right. I don't know for sure.

Well, I mean, it is.

Sounded wise, but not really. Okay. Anyway, the wisdom is now gone. So let's talk numbers.

Well, and the reality is you're exactly right. You know, there's, there's a lot of cost. And we could talk about the fact that at this point in the year, you've spent almost, or maybe over 35,000 in leads already.

Stop bringing that up.

And by the, by the end of the year on the journey to try and write about 30 million in annuity premium, which I know is your goal for this year, because last year you, you almost hit 27, and this year you're trying to hit 30. It's like on the journey to try and hit 30 million in production, you're going to start spend 300,000 or more on leads. And it's like there's that cost, but there's a time cost, there's a mental space cost. The reality is it can be a taxing thing, but if you do things right and you do things well, it's so rewarding. And the rewards pay off.

Well, it does. I think by the first week of June or the end of May, I'll. I would have already taken six weeks off, seven weeks off.

Exactly.

But once again, it's. I need to. Yeah, you know, I'm, I'm not going to do what I did. The funny thing is 2019, I did.

24.7 or something like that is over 24 million.

And then 2020, I did just under. Under 20.

Under 27.

Just under 27. But I worked a lot harder in 2020.

So you only wrote 2 million and change more.

And then I took, I think six weeks off in 2020, but I took 16 weeks off in 2019.

Right.

So that tells you 2020 was definitely a harder year. It was. And I should have taken more time off. Like this year, even we're doing, since there's not as much international travel, we're doing local and anywhere in the United States. But, you know, that's what we're doing right now to force myself. There's multiple things I do. I will have family time and I will have wife time. That's just what it comes down to. I need to get away with my wife every month to month and a half, and I need to get away with My whole family, at least twice a year. That's just how I'm built. I'm not one of those guys that can be away from my family from a long time. It's not good or bad. It's just me personally, that's the time I need.

Yeah.

Otherwise I lose my mind and I turn vicious. And you don't want to see that.

Well, then the reality broker.

No, no.

I love my brokers out here. As long as you sell annuities with a purpose. Anyway. Okay, go ahead.

I was just going to say, the reality is, if you're not enjoying the fruit of your labor, what's the point of laboring? Right. If you're not going to take the time to enjoy the fruit with the people you love, what's the point?

That's why I wanted to hit this part so much before we talk about numbers, because numbers can be impressive. But you know what? If you're a public success and a private failure, that means nothing.

Be a private success and a public failure. No, I tell you.

Be a private and a public success.

Sure. Okay, we'll run with that one. Okay. So what are the numbers?

Well, we want to talk about kind of your journey to crossing the $200 million in annuity production threshold. Right. It's been. I mean, you started in 2006, but really, we only start calculating that since 2008. Oh, really?

So, yeah, I started the mortgage protection business back then.

You start writing annuities into.

I was actually in my home office, and I opened up the drawer. I was trying to find something, and I looked at my old pay stubs from 2003. Okay. And I'm like, wow, times have changed. So, I mean, it's. You know. And I did really well in 2003. At that time, that was the biggest year I'd ever had. 2002. 2003, I was in the LASIK business. I was. I used to be the general manager of a LASIK eye surgery cent. Then before that, I was a slave in retail. So.

That was. That was.

Talk about missing family time.

Wow. Yeah. It's funny. Father's Day. Oh. You can't have that off because I'm married and I need to be there for my father. And then, oh, I can't have Mother's Day off because. Why? I'm a mother and I need to have that day off. I'm like, what about my wife? What about. You know, retail is a different creature.

That's a tough one.

Christmas, you're gone. Yeah, it's a different Creature.

Absolutely. So on the journey to 200 million, you've obviously passed it. Since 2008, you've written over 208 million in solo annuity premium, phenomenal numbers. And you talk about the fact that that is attainable, like agents can do that. Yes. There's going to be effort, there's going to be work. And I'll be honest, when I talk with agents, most of them would be satisfied with a fraction of that. Most of them would say, okay, you know what, if I can write 5 million or if I can write 10, or if I can write 15, I'll be fine with that. Most don't.

That's why you don't see people writing 20 and 30 million.

It's true.

Because they're fine with 5 million.

Right.

I heard this saying, and I know it's probably some ancient Chinese proverb somewhere, because I actually think that's where I saw it was those who think they can, can. Those who think they can't, can't. In other words, whatever you set your mind or. Those who find a solution will find a solution. Those who look for a solution will find a solution. Those who look for a problem will find a problem. Sure. And so it's what you set on. To me, honestly, my ultimate goal is 50 million in annuities as an individual with nobody else helping. Is that attainable? I don't know. I guess it would be. But the one thing I'm not willing to sacrifice, because I do have people ask me, well, what would happen in 2019 if you didn't take 16 weeks off?

Right.

Public success, private failure. Right. I mean, that's honestly my. I mean, what would my kids, what would my wife. I mean, I. My two oldest are married, obviously you're product one of those. But, you know, it's really. I want to enjoy life. Right. And so, yeah, it's been a long journey. But since 2004, I got started in the mortgage protection. 2006 is when I started to get into annuities. In 2008 is when I really went full board.

Absolutely. And so that's why we calculate from 2008. And like I said, you know, most agents would be pleased with a portion, a fraction of what you're writing. But for those that would want to push the envelope, or for those that even want to double, triple, even quadruple what they're currently writing, what would you say are a couple of things that you have to do this?

It's not a couple things. It's one thing.

Okay.

It's Realize you're not doing it for yourself or you're doing it for someone else. Okay. If you think about what you're willing to do generally to help someone else, you're usually wanting to go farther than you are if it was just for your own gain. And so, honestly, every day I think of the things we get to do as a family. I think of things my wife and I get to do. I think of the ministries we get to support. I think of the people we get to reach that we will never meet.

Absolutely.

And that's literally what keeps me driven every single, single day. And I'm not even talking to anything about annuity sales. I'm just talking about in general, never settling. I mean, I don't think anything that settles or becomes stagnant, doesn't have an inlet and an outlet, will become stagnant and it'll become infested. You know, really, you'll become a mosquito pond or something. And I just don't want to live that life. I want. I want to continue to be better and better in areas of just reaching more and more people. And I know that sounds corny and it sounds like that pageant type answer to a question, what do you want? I want world peace. I'm genuine when I mean that. I mean, I want to help people. So that's the first drive. I guess that's the number one. That's the core of everything now, practically, what do you do? Well, you have to be willing to spend money on leads. I mean, I learned that from the very beginning. You have to spend money on leads. You have to keep them coming in. You can't shut them off. And then you have to. So leads number one, then after you have the leads, you want to make sure you have product knowledge. Now you want a product knowledge, and you want to be an expert before you get the leads. Sure. But you can't. I mean, you can be the smartest man in the world, and if you don't have leads, you're not going to sell anything. If you don't get in front of people, you're not going to sell anything. You're not going to be able to find solutions to problems. So it would go into the passion, the why you do things, and then it goes into, now you have to have the ability to get in front of people. Now you're in front of people. Now you need to make sure you're the right one and you're the expert.

Right.

So those would be the three stages. I think I'd put it into kind.

Of had this thought and this vision, so to speak, of what it looks like. Like if you're an agent and you've got this whole realm of retirement and retirement income and safety and security and annuities and this kind of. This big realm of things, and all of these things are playing together in the industry, all of these things are kind of playing together. And when the way that I kind of envisioned it was in a closet, got all these different shelves and all of these different things. And it's like being an expert is being able to walk into the closet and flip the light on and actually see what's going on in that room. It's not to say that if I'm looking this way, I can still see what's behind me. It's that I've turned the light on. I understand it to the point that now I can find it. I can figure it out. I can see it all going on in this room. And a lot of times it seems like agents will walk into that closet with a flashlight and try to find it. It's like, no, you got to get to the point where you flipped that light switch on. And that's really the way that I think about being an expert. We talk about that all the time. But to kind of put a mental picture to it, that's kind of, kind of what it. What it seems like. And we've seen even in you, I don't know that it's necessarily directly related to it, but since you've started training agents, your numbers have steadily climbed. Your numbers have steadily increased. And again, I don't know if there's any correlation there or not, but it's interesting.

I don't know if I'd put a correlation to that because every year you get better and better. And actually every year you should be writing more. So, I mean, it's just a byproduct. What I do is I get to share with other people in that situation. So I don't know if I would attribute the two to each other. But it's interesting. You talk about the closet scenario. Generally, when you have a closet, what do you put on the middle shelves? What do you put at eye level?

The things that are most important. So I would say, you know, when you're organizing what you're going to do in the business, make sure the things that are the most important are right in front of you all the time. That's good. Every good husband, every good wife has their spouse's picture on their desk and their kids picture on their desk. Why? That's in front of you all the time. I mean, every time you see, every once while you see someone has a picture of their plane or a picture of their car, who cares? But picture of family, picture of friends, right? That's what matters. So keep it right in front of you at all times.

Keeping it in front. Yeah, there were a couple of numbers. Since we're talking about numbers that really jumped out to me that I think would be pretty, Pretty profound to the agents listening.

And you told me these numbers before, and even I'm having a hard time believing them just by the numbers. But the reality is it's math, and that's. Yeah, I know.

Calculate.

I know.

Based on your appointment ratio and your closing ratio and your average case, me.

Thinking I'm working too many hours. So go ahead.

So if you got five leads per week, okay, so you figure approximately 20 leads a month on average, five leads a week, you'd write over 8 million per year. You double that, you'd write over 16 million per year. If you got two leads a week, you'd write Over 3 million per year. So on two leads a week, you'd still stay with your ratio, your closing, all of that, you'd still stay in the top 1% of producers in the nation. And even at 1 lead per week, you'd write almost 2 million per year.

That's nuts, right?

And so when you talk about a process having a system and it's, It's. It's a machine, I mean, I think about sometimes agents that kind of do all of these different things and trying to fiddle around and here and over there and generate all these different revenue streams. It's like, man, when you've got a process in, you've got a system and you've got a machine, and you just keep that thing loaded.

It's got to be laser focused. It really does. I mean, it's. You've heard me say this before in podcasts. I don't take a vacation before a vacation. I don't take a vacation after a vacation. When I'm in that appointment, whatever's going on in the world, I'm in that appointment. I'm laser focused on what I'm there for. And so when you. It doesn't matter if you have one leader or you have 20 leads, if you go in there knowing that that lead that into some front of you is the most important person that's there right now, then that's how you get to help people. So, I mean, the statistics to me are crazy per lead. I still, I'm like, wow. But you know what, it is true. But if you treat every lead as a solution to a problem, as long as you can help them, I mean, I had a client today, I said you're not going to be able to retire through some processing and hard thinking. And I found out, found out a way they could potentially make it work. But you know, it's all about can I help you and if I can, what's the best for you?

Absolutely.

So like I said, don't be impressed by the numbers. As far as you, to me, it all revolves around your lifestyle. The why you do it is more important than numbers. But obviously the numbers are able to help fuel that why.

Absolutely.

So I hope this helps you. You have a great day and of course, happy selling.