Is your FMO bringing value to you? | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 318

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Seven Figure Annuity Sales. I am Chad Owen, your host, and we have a substandard person with us right now that's going to try and be support our tech support.

I think I'm the reason people show up to listen to this thing.

Hey, no, no, we've done this before. We have done Team Chad, Team Caleb, and you got humiliated. Okay?

We got emails from people saying, you know, Caleb, with every episode, your light is brightening and Chad's is.

No, no, no.

One email. And quite frankly, I'm not gonna say it. Never mind. You just question where some information comes from. Let's just put it that way. So, no, we've done Team Chat and Team Caleb. You. You've got. Yeah, you. You've got some ways to.

Oh, I don't think so. Yeah, I think that Team Caleb's. It's like a. It's like a. It's like an army.

How many annuities have you sold?

Hey, I'm working on one. I had a meeting.

No, no, no, I didn't. I. I hear that all the time. I' one in the pipeline. Okay. We're not that group that says, you know what? I got these things.

Yeah.

So we'll see. And, you know, and how many times have you stumped the Trump in.

In annuity stuff or in anything else?

Oh, well, let's open it up. Anything else too. But let's just do it. Since we're doing an annuity podcast, let's just talk about annuities. Zero.

Yeah, I haven't sold any annuities.

Yeah, but you. You know, I hope you do, honestly. Oh, I mean, you do have that one gray hair, so that might. Might do it.

See it glowing right there?

Not really.

See it glistening?

No, but.

Leilani. Leilani is colored a hair for years. And then finally we. We are pretty close with John and Lisa prevere. And Lisa just goes, you know what? I'm just letting it shine. I'm letting it grow. And Leilani now just lets her gray out. I'm telling you, I was looking at her hair the other day. I'm like, that is a gorgeous one. Like, her hair was just so.

I just.

I. I wish she. I wish she was here so I could be saying this right now, so she could at least hear it.

I just thought of a term. You can. You can take credit for this, Chad, if you feel like it's a flattering term, but someday Leilani will be a grandmother and you can tell her that she is a glam mad. A glam machine.

I don't know. That's. She's not really into Claire. Well, is she? I mean, that's Southern belle kind of thing. You know, Ally's into glam. That girl will have her hair up. She has a. I. I don't know. I think I've seen one picture of her without makeup. So, I mean, she's. She's definitely. She's taking a caviar. Caviar shot. You know? I mean, you know what she told.

Me the other day? She said that she goes, you know what my favorite snack is right now? And I'm like, what? And she goes, it's caviar. And I was like, that is psychopathic that caviar is a snack to you.

As. As John Chris says, can't hide money.

And Caleb's like, going, my favorite snack is Rocky Mountain oysters while they're still attached.

Oh, that's wild.

Okay.

Hey, if you haven't tried mountain oysters, though, you can't knock them until you've tried them, because actual Rocky Mountain oysters grilled with some Tony Sasseries are fried. Oh, my gosh. Incredible.

They get. They get. They get knocked around enough in their life.

Incredible.

So, anyway, okay, let's bring some value to our listeners besides comic relief.

You know, I. There is time, though, that. Especially from, like, I have a day where there's a lot of appointments, and I will purposely try and find something funny because I'm just going, this is. This was a crazy, heavy day. And I'm trying because, you know, I don't laugh a lot out loud and everything. I do a lot on these.

Laugh at me.

I really do not.

Wait, not even with me, just at me for things that you say about me.

You have a lot of. You say a lot of those that make me do this. Are you kidding me? You start. Oh, man. You. You want to have some fun? Just talk to Caleb about life in general. And then you get his brother involved, which does have more brain cells than him, but not much.

You hired the wrong north brother.

Then you get. Then you get Cody, his other Neanderthal friend that is just. You can't understand one word you're saying. Oh, man. But I. I do try and find some comic relief, though, after a tough day, because, you know, and hopefully this is doing this for some people. Hopefully, you know, we just. We're just being real and, you know, yeah, these are people in my industry, and I'm trying to learn it, but, man, we can have some fun. We really.

What's the point? Of being, you know, stuck in the mud all the time. If you can't have fun doing the thing you're doing, you might as well not.

I had a real interesting experience recently, and we've talked about this before. We want to be the FMO that is not the partier that is not, you know, we're out about getting drunk and, you know, womanizing and all that, and marriages getting torn apart because people are hooking up when they're married at these events. That is not us. And we will never be that. And I've been to plenty events like that. Like, I literally went to one event, this guy's a little, little tipsy and he looks. I said, what are you doing here? And he goes, I'm about to hook up with some married women. And he looked right at my wife. Oh, man. And I was, oh, my gosh, I wanted to kill him and bury him and, you know, but take a while, do it. And I mean, it was, it was just. But I'm not that person. I'm not, you know, and I knew it was alcohol speaking because if, if you. Yeah. Anyway, so this conference I just recently with awards event I went to, it was the first one I've really went to where I don't think I saw one drunk person.

Wow.

I don't. And people were literally gathering around. It was an insurance company. I'm going to shout him out. It was AC Trust. I, I could not believe it. I mean, like, people were just sitting around and talking and they weren't getting.

Actual value out of the time.

It was. And, and it was really kind of cool to see that. And I didn't get to know anybody really well. It's kind of hard because, you know, it's a lot of the time it's, I, hey, I just want to go hang out with my wife. You know, I just want to just really get a. A time to decompress. But I was so impressed by the professionalism of the group. And I have seen now I am not knocking any other insurance company. I mean, I've been to plenty of insurance companies events and there are high, high caliber people. Yeah. You know, I mean, I'll shout out a guy named Wade Eldridge. He's a good friend of mine. He works with American awesome guy. You know, I have another friend that's a marketer. Tom Bradley, works for another fmo. Just phenomenal guy, you know, Josh. A guy named Josh. Oh my gosh.

Johnny Black. He also works with another FMO he works with, same one that Tommy Works with just down with great people. And, you know, there's so many. I could go on and on. It's just high caliber people. But to beat an entire event and not see anybody. Now, granted, it was only their top 40 people, so that could have been a difference, too, because a lot of events I've been to, there's been hundreds and hundreds.

Yeah. And that makes it tough.

And you're.

That's definitely.

It is. And. Yeah. And so you're gonna have that. But, you know, when. When I think about the caliber of people we get to surround ourselves in, it just makes me appreciate an event like that even more where I'm going. God, man. You know, it was. It was just really good. It was really good. And that's. And if. If people haven't heard our podcast before, that we strive for live life above 100, you know, never live in the gray. Things are black or white. Rules are rules. You follow them. Ethics and integrity are never compromised, ever. And, you know, morals and values are incredibly important because you know what? In the financial world, unfortunately, it is littered full of people that will run you over in a second. I mean, there. I have lost count of the number of FMOs that tell me they have the greatest lead system out there. And you move contracts over there and they do nothing. Which actually, you know what? Here's our topic. Here's our topic. I don't understand why people stay with FMOs that don't bring value to them. They don't provide a lead system, they don't provide case design, they don't provide mentorship, they don't provide training. Yet they still feel this weird loyalty that I need to say with this person because they're nice people. You know, I mean, I like nice people, obviously, but I am boggled at why someone will stay with an FMO if they don't bring value to the. To their. Their actual career, their actual sales, their actual value to their organization. I. I don't. Yeah. Because I get to go to this one little event every single year, and I feel like a rock star because I'm around a whole bunch of other rock stars or I get this trip. But what. Did they actually bring value to your organization? Oh, yeah. What trip? So you run across this all the time?

Yeah, I think so. I think part of it is a lot of times, if an FMO hasn't spent their dime to build programs, because it costs money for an FMO to develop programs, to develop training programs, to develop lead systems, all those things, it costs money to build A team that can actually support you, that costs money. So if they don't spend their dollar on that, then they don't have anything to bring an agent in for, except for paying the agent more. So I think what happens a lot of times is you'll have FMOs that buy agents business. They'll give the agent and, you know, some contract level or something like that that's better than what the agent, which.

They'Re not supposed to, but they do.

Which, which is better than what the agent had before. And they come in thinking, oh, they're going to have the same things and just get paid more. And then they realize, oh, I don't actually get all the things I had before, I get paid more. And from the FMO's perspective, that's what they're getting. They're getting better comp. And so they just buy the business.

So you're, you're prostituting yourself to a degree.

Yeah. I mean, and what's actually valuable, okay, if you go make 7% on 5 million or you go make 8%, 8 and a half percent on 2 million, like if there are programs that can help you write more business, you will always end up with more at the end by writing more business than by getting an extra point or point and a half or two on your production every single time.

And see, that's the thing, I don't. And it's funny because when you do two, it's often they say, well, I'm getting 2% above street. You're getting 2% off the FMOs idea of what street is, not what the actual insurance company street is. Because I had. Somebody told me this, I was just talking to agent a couple weeks ago, so, oh, I get street. And I said, what was your primary product? And they told me they were 30% below insurance company street. But they thought they were at street and some. And I'm like going, no, that's the FMO telling you that's what street is. That's not what the insurance company says street it. That's why we always start our people at street.

Like the actual carrier street.

The actual carrier street, not the FMOs what their definition of street is. And so it's funny, they'll stay with them thinking, why that street? You know, here's the thing. I've always said I went 15, 16, 16 years. Actually, I can't say that because I didn't really become really well known in the annuity business for probably six, seven years in. So let's just say I went 10 years collecting way less than what I could from a lot of FMOs because I valued the relationship and the value, what they were bringing, that lead system, the case design, the availability to talk with them. I mean I, there were so many things I put way more value than jumping up an extra, you know, basis, couple basis points because I knew the value they bring in. I would much rather be paid a lower amount and have a high valued organization that helps me grow in my business then literally get paid more. And I'm having to sit there and fight this out on my own trying to figure it out. 100 but yeah, I was, I was actually thinking at that the other day. I was just because I talked to someone and I said they do about a million, 2 million a year. And I said, you know, who are you with? And they told me and I said, so how are they helping your organization grow?

Yep.

Well, what lead system are they providing for? How about case design? They had none of that. And I'm like, why do you stay with them?

It's a contract.

And the same response was, it was, it was a contract, House. I mean you, you and I to know there are people we will reject you come to work with us. And we're saying I've had to do it. We'll tell you no. Oh yeah, many I, I, I, I. There are so many people that I have said, I just don't think we're a good fit. And it's because, number one, if you're a commission chaser, I'm not interested. If you're trying to find the best products to help your client and the best solutions, that is the type of agent I'm after. You know, I want someone that really wants to put the best interest of the client up front. And I remember this guy, he does 15, 20 million a year. And I said, so why, why should we bring you on board? And it's an interesting thought because, you know, a lot of agents think, well, why should you allow me to be part of your organization? You know, because I'm that good. And or I phrase it, why should we? I know I'd get 12, 15. And we could probably help you do 20 million. We could do that. We can help you be better. But why should I? What you already goes, man, I'm a hustler, I'll do anything to get the deal. I'll do this. And he started saying things, I'm going, you're a criminal, man. Anything, you are a slime ball. I would, I don't care if you said you can have 90% of my commission. You are not working for our organization. And I'm after ethics and integrity and character. I'm after people that want to grow and become better. That's who I want. Part of our fmo.

Well, and that's the whole model of the FMO is I mean, we literally so. So, you know, you hear the term your, your IMO marketer, we call them agent development specialists at retirement Realized. Why? Because we emphasize development. We want the agents that we work with to get better and better and better and better. Right. More and more and more business. And so for every agent we bring on, there's a level of commitment involved in that to provide support, provide training, provide great case design, provide these things that help them scale and grow. Well, if we bring on all these agents, then that takes time. So then all of a sudden you're affecting the people you've already committed that to.

You know, another thing I was thinking about there is how many other training platforms and agencies exist because of our training.

Oh, there's. I mean, basically. Basically any other. And I mean, I'll say it. Basically any.

They don't name.

I'm not going to name names. There's a lot of the idea is I don't know of any other annuity sales training that hasn't in some way, shape or form spun out of retirement.

Realized that's a fair statement.

I don't know.

That's a really good way to. That's a good way to put that. And so, I mean, do you want to be trained by the people who were trained to create a training platform or do you want to be trained by the people who originally started the training platforms? You know, I mean, I could go back to old school annuity Agents Academy way back, back in the day, way back there when the logo came out. And I thought, this is so cool. And we advertised it as the toughest annuity sales training. And now I'm like going, dang, that was stupid. You know, but it started out is what I thought was like, this baby is beautiful. And yeah, this baby tripped and fell so many times and cracked his head wide open. So birth. What's going on? Right? It is part of. Yeah, yeah. You do think of it though. I mean, you think about the number of times a little kid falls when they're learning how to walk. And boy, I, I put that one to the test. But yeah, but we got a great.

We do got a great. We do. And I'll say this bottom line for today, hey, assess your situation. Okay, are you maximized at your. Like, is your production maximized? And here's, here's the reality. If you could write whatever you wrote last year, you can write twice as much like Chad. Honestly, I believe that there is a system where you could write 60 million a year. Now, here's the thing. To do it, there's probably going to be other things you would have to give up and sacrifices you would have to make that you don't want to make. But the point is you could. And so then my brain go, okay, well, if somebody was writing 5 million last year, they can write 10. So it's like, if you can write whatever you wrote last year, you can write twice as much. The question is, I might have the desire to do it. And do you have the systems, the tools, the resources, the support in place to execute it and assess the. I am.

So I'm convinced, yeah, I'm convinced that my cap is 35 to 40 million a year to maintain the lifestyle I want to. And I'm not talking financially. I'm talking about being able to take 12 to 14 weeks off a year to travel and see my family or, excuse me, to travel and see the world, but bring my family with me and take my wife on dream trips and, you know, be able to not have to worry about working on weekends and calls and running appointments two to two to three days a week. You know, that's. I think that's kind of my cap, and I am totally fine with that. But through that, I'm able to mentor people and I'm able to have other income streams that are passive. And then I still don't have to try and be that 50. Why? I heard someone just recently, they wrote 100 million as an individual. Oh, wait, it wasn't an individual. They had 12 agents under them, but they had all their names on the contract and it made them sound like going. They are the one person I'm going, man. You know, and so I'm just saying as an individual, you know, I don't have agents under me that are writing with my number. We have lots of agents that write through retirement, realized financial, but that doesn't go through my business. And, you know, you're right. Don't pick an FMO just because you like the cool trip or you like the extra compensation. It would be which one values growth and becoming better and better. So I think we leave it at that. I'm not going to let Caleb close because he, you know, we'll be here.

For another five minutes.

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

Sam.