How I Make $50,000 Per Month Selling Life Insurance While In College ft. Hakeem Shalash | Ep103

What's up, dude?

Hey, John, how are you, man?

We're doing a whole team podcast, bro. I like it.

Yeah, trying to.

Are you for real? I'm in. We ain't never done one like this, but I'm all about new shit. Who's the crew?

Yeah, these are just guys on my team. Was it just supposed to be us two? I figured they could watch.

Hey, they can. I'm all about it, dude. I ain't offended at all. It's just the first time anyone's ever showed up to a podcast with 27 people, but I fucking love it. I always suck and forget to do intros, so Welcome to the Insiders— Insurance Insiders podcast, bro. And, uh, for those watching, Akeem is—

I—

20— are you 21 still? Is that legit?

Yes, sir.

21 years old, still in school?

Yes, sir. Sheesh.

My Reese gave me a little note. I didn't know that part. I already got 36 riders doing $650K and brought his whole team to the podcast. I'm a fan already.

The whole team, but this is a good, good part of us. Some people are on other teams, but they're in our agency.

So yeah, I love it, I love it. So tell me more, bro. Who— where do you— where are you out of?

Lexington, Kentucky.

Lexington, Kentucky. Oh, that's, uh, you with Mahmoud and his group?

Yes, sir.

Okay, hell yeah, I love it. Do y'all know each other? Are you linked up randomly?

My office is right next to his, and then also Hussein. I know you had Hussein on.

Yeah, hell yeah. Yeah, y'all knew each other in the past?

Yes.

So how you got in? Makes sense. You saw a bunch of people making money and had to be part of it.

Yeah, I had to. I wasn't gonna let him— I mean, especially one of my cousins, he started 2 years ago with me. I wasn't gonna let him get further than I would.

Look at this, I'm gonna share the whole screen. Hold on, I like that all these people are on. I'm a fan. So who in here selling a bunch? Who's— let me see, let me see if I can figure it out.

We've got Eric on here, he sells a lot consistently. Okay, like he's had a couple hundred.

I see, all right. Oh no, where'd Eric go? He moved. They keep moving on my screen. Oh, he's not on video. I see Dylan looking fresh in a suit, I'm all about that.

Blake Embry. Blake Embry's really new. He's a veteran, he sells a lot. He's very new, he's consistent. He's gonna start buying leads.

Get it. How do you say the other one? I'm gonna mess up your name. Yeah, it just looks like yazen. How do you pronounce it? No, yes, way off. Yes, yes, and you was close. I was damn close. I did okay, I did okay. I love it. Well, welcome on, folks. I'll dig it. Well, I guess, dude, uh, tell me how the hell you get at 21 years old, get an army of people in. I got— so I'll tell you this, I was talking to, uh, I had someone on the podcast, um, can't remember who I was talking to recently. My son just turned 18 and he takes his, uh, one of— I have 5 kids, but, um, my second youngest, he just turned 18. He's taking his test on, uh, tomorrow actually. Well, this is live, it'll already be passed for those watching, but literally physically he's taking this test tomorrow as me and you were talking. Um, 18, going to school still, so would love to, uh, I don't know how to teach 18, 20, 19, 20, 21-year-old how to, how to do what you're doing because I was a dumbass at that age.

Yeah, well, it's mostly social media. I mean, that's how I got my first few recruits, was just social media. I mean, 2 years ago whenever we were, we weren't in an office as nice as the one that we're in now downtown Lexington, but I was just posting, you know, some sales and some results, and I mentioned that this was the best opportunity I'd ever done. And then I just caught a few eyes then. And then once I had my first recruit, I recorded him selling his first policy, posted that, and then I got a couple more off that one. So that's the main thing, because social media, as you already know, it's a free marketing. So I mean, you just have to utilize the hell out of it.

Yeah, I love it, I love it. So what was it like for you getting started? Were you selling— were you in college already when you started, or were you still in high—

you're already in school? Yeah, I was a sophomore at the University of Kentucky. All in person, just getting a marketing degree. And I still am going to graduate with my marketing degree, but now I am more online, which makes it a lot easier for me to, you know, have like those time blocks and prioritize my schedule so that I'm mostly in the office. Even whenever I'm doing my schoolwork, I can knock out, you know, online school in the office as opposed to having to go in person on campus.

Dope. Well, so what was it like first year selling? What was that?

My first year selling, I honestly didn't even sell that much. I probably sold, I think it was like $70,000 or $80,000 in 2024, I think it was, or yeah, 2024. And then 2025, I did, I think, just under $200,000, um, on my personal PIN. But, uh, that's whenever my team started growing even more. So like, we ended 2025, I think, at like $500,000 December, $400,000. As you saw, January we did $650,000 with just 34 riders. So I think that's like an average of $18,000, $17,000. Hell yeah.

Strong, dude.

That's above the industry average of just $10,000, which I like a lot. And then I also think it's good to point out that our average age for our group is, I think, like 20 years old, probably because we have a lot of 18-year-olds, a lot of 19-year-olds, people just out of high school that didn't even have the opportunity of college, you know, or they didn't get scholarships, or they just didn't apply to college because it wasn't really a thought to them. They were some kind of trade school or something else in the workforce, you know what I mean? But then once insurance was given to them as an opportunity through social media and through their other friend, which is another key part of our group, Amar, who's sick right now, so we all got to pray for him, but he'll get better. And then, yeah, so once he's good, you know what I mean, and then his team, they're a really big part of our team as well. Like Eric, he was recruited by Amar, and he's only 19 years old, selling at a very high level. So this industry, as you already know, it does change lives, but they just have to be shown it through social media or another form.

Hell yeah, I love it. Oh, a bunch of these— do you— did you know many of these people from school and stuff, or they just— no, I ended up finding you social? Cool. Exactly.

I only knew a few of them Um, but I just had them on social media. I wasn't really close to them. And then once I was posting more, they started to see that I was posting more, and then they, you know, we got a closer relationship through that. And now we're just like brothers because of the business.

I love it, love it. Okay, so how, how did you get bought in? You were buying leads right away, or were you on like some kind of free lead program? I know some of your guys do that.

Yeah, it was really popular program until I was able to save up enough to start buying leads. Um, uh, and that was fine for me usually for, I think, for like my first few months honestly just because I was in college and I was really treating it more of like a part-time job. And you already know as you treat it like a part-time job, it pays you like a part-time job, you know? So yeah, I wasn't really seeing many results, but I knew it was doable because my cousin, who's my upline, he's the one who brought me in, Mo, he taught me that just the fact that he dropped out of college and he took it a lot more seriously, you know, I saw that it was so serious even though I didn't have anybody on my team yet. And then once you bring people on, that's what makes you take it even more serious, you know, because You have to be making money and putting in the work in order for them to do what you're doing. You know, you can't tell somebody else to do something you yourself aren't actively doing.

Okay. What's your personal goal this year?

My personal goal? I think the team will end at least $10 million a month, um, just because I know for— we're going to do a million a month at least March, if not, um, then definitely April. And then, uh, I just feel like I've got leaders on my team that are— have bigger goals than I do, and I know they're going to try and end up each $5 or $10 million a month as well.

Are you still selling or you're already out of selling?

I don't sell as much right now because I'm about to graduate in, uh, in May, to be honest with you. But once— I know that everybody on my team is selling a lot too, and I have to get back to selling just because, like I said earlier, like, how am I going to sit here and tell people dial, dial, work, you know, if I'm not sitting there dialing, dialing and working? So once I graduate in May, I will be selling at least $50,000 a month consistently just because it's doable. You know, you just got to buy enough leads and work That's all you need is work ethic and leads.

I assume y'all all talk very openly. I can do basic math. You're making some jack right now.

Yeah, we all do talk very openly. We try to have as many meetings as we do in our agency. We have like Monday, Wednesday, Friday meetings on Zoom and then in person as well in the office. So we've got very good open communication just because that's how you need to be in the industry.

Yeah. What kind of income— what are you going to make income-wise this year? You?

This year I want to make at least $1 million. I feel like I can make $1 million this year. And I feel like right now I'm probably on track to— if I was just to like not dial, I'd probably do like half a million. But I need to dial my ass off just so that I can make a million, you know?

Sure. $40,000, $50,000 a month right now, still in school, still killing it, dude. I love it. I love it. Um, are you— how y'all— all these folks here, are you getting— are they on free lead programs? Are they buying leads right now?

A little, probably a little less.

How do you get people started? You right now? Like, what's your plan to get someone started right now?

Yeah, so like my plans for them is to get them past the test. Like, I tell them the test isn't something super difficult. They should be done with it within 2 weeks, like the course and the test included within 2 weeks. If not, then I'm not going to give them as much attention as I would to somebody who finishes it, you know, and faster in a shorter time frame. And then it just makes sense, you know, you have to, you know, show 80% of your attention to the top 20%, um, uh, just because that's how it is in business, um, uh, And then, you know, the opposite way around, you know, the bottom 80% can get 20%. Um, but, uh, but yeah, like I was saying, to my point, um, to get somebody paid as fast as possible, I'll give them free leads for as long as they need, but usually until they can— I can tell that they're selling and depositing around $8,000 to $10,000 from the business, just because that should be at least a month worth of leads that they can in turn buy. And then they should be able to deposit, you know, another $15,000 to $20,000 off the month of lead that they bought, and then, uh, you know, recycling and just keep renting and repeating.

All final expense?

Yeah, mostly final expense. Some people are out there buying other kinds of leads and stuff like that. We're not the agency that's going to sit here and hackle you like, hey, you have to buy these leads, you have to do this, do that, do that, because insurance is, you know, it's very lucrative, and we have a license to sell anything. So some people want to, you know, do whatever they want to, and that's fine if they're having success with it.

Yeah, what advice would you give someone on how to approach leads from not only a, not only like a mindset standpoint— I want, I want you to talk about that— but I mean literally how to approach them to be able to sell the kind of insurance y'all are selling. But start with your thought process on it, please.

Yeah, I mean, like you said, uh, not just mindset, but obviously that is a very, very key part of it. Um, I would say that leads are just leads. You know, you've heard Shawn Mike say all he would need is just the name and that phone number and he'd be able to close them. He didn't need their age, their state, you know, any kind of relationship. So that's very true to his point. Like you only need the phone number and the name if you're as confident as anybody could be that you're going to close a client. So that's why as long as, you know, you have a strong work ethic and you're working as hard as you can, there's no reason why the guy next to you can close just a phone number and a client, just a phone number and a name, and you can't. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So you just have to have that confidence. I feel like confidence does breed success. So if you're not confident or you're sitting there thinking, oh, this lead's just as bad or this lead's cooked, you know, we have an expression like you're just as cooked as the lead is or you're just as bad as the lead is.

Oh, yeah.

You know what I mean? So you have to have that confidence that you can close any client that comes across your desk because otherwise, you know, you probably won't if you don't have that confidence that you can.

Yeah. Okay. What's your actual approach with with clients, with leads?

How do you mean? Like whenever I'm on the phone talking to somebody?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, are you call— meaning the approach in terms of, um, are you calling multiple times a day? You call them multiple times right away? You triple dialing? And then, then I do want you to get into next will be when you get them on the phone, then what? But literally, what's the approach? And y'all are, I assume, just cell phone?

Yeah, yeah.

Pick up cell phone.

Um, some people use CRMs, um, like Ringier or whatnot, but I usually just hand dial. Whenever I'm hand dialing my leads, I call them each one, uh, once a day but 3 times individually. Obviously if it's going like to voicemail, I can just tell I'm not going to call them 3 times, I'll just call them twice. But yeah, I'm just sitting there calling them 3 times a day back to back to back and then I'll usually just go on to the next one if they don't pick up. But if they do pick up, then you know, it's a simple process. We just have our introduction and then you know, we go over their needs basis, that's the financial situation, figuring out how much they're making a month and then Next is obviously, you know, figuring out their health. So we ask them like 16 health questions, and then we give them the benefits, you know, like all the, you know, the immediate coverage, some information about the policy and stuff like that. And then we'll just quote them, and then after the quote, we just close them. We try to master the one-call close just because we also have another expression: appointments lead to disappointments. Just because, as you've already known, John Wetmore, in the industry for 10+ years, somebody's going to tell you, oh, I'm busy now. Later. But I mean, they're just gonna tell you that same thing the next time you call them. They're always gonna be busy, you know what I mean? So it's just a matter of keeping them on the phone and then asking them the most questions you can, because whoever asks the most questions wins. So you gotta ask them more questions than they ask.

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Yeah, I tell them this is only going to take like 5 minutes, and then I just go right back into it. Like, I don't ask them a question. I usually I do ask them a question because you do have to end with a question. So I'll say like, this only takes 5 minutes. Are you currently working, retired, or disabled? If I'm in that part of the script, or this only takes 5 minutes, the next benefit is this. You know, it just depends where you are in the script.

So not, not, hey, this only takes 5 minutes, do you have time now? Like that type of— that's for the people watching. Like, they— because I see it a lot. People like, no, no, it won't take long, do you mind if we just— and they're like sort of asking permission and sound—

some people, some people say this will only take 20 minutes or this only take 15 minutes. Like, that's too long of a time frame, you know. It sounds like a lot to somebody. They might just hang up on you there, or they'll tell you that I don't have that kind of time, and then they'll hang up, you know what I mean?

So yeah, kind of lead flow do you typically recommend people get?

So, um, a lead flow, I would say you have to have at least like 200 to 300 coming in fresh every single week, and you want to get something where there's inbounds or call-ins coming off on them, and that's usually with like a fresh lead pack. So that's something like a, like a campaign where you had to have set up exclusively, exclusively for you so that people call in with the intent that it's calling you specifically or somebody specifically.

Yep, it's a little link they can click on to download or whatever. Yep, yep, I love it, I love it. Um, aged, new leads, do y'all care?

Uh, for, for new agents, I'm typically going to give them aged leads just because that's what I already have. Like, I have a fresh campaign going for myself every single week, so I'll just go through there and I'll give them like something from like, you know, a couple weeks ago or a couple months ago just to get them starting out for like the first week or two. That way they can make their mistakes on something that's a little bit older, and then I'll tell them whenever I'm about to give them newer leads, or I'll probably put the date on it where it tells them how fresh the lead is, that way they have that mindset like, oh, this guy just filled it out, or this guy, this girl just filled it out, this— they just put this in, so I have to call them right away, or I have to close them. You know, they just— you can tell whenever, um, an agent's calling like a newer lead versus an older lead just by like their attitude, or like whenever they come in for that day, like, or, you know, whenever they're asking you—

timid.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's funny that I, I always— I see a lot of people like write notes on leads and shit. This guy hung up on me, this guy said this, and this guy did that. And I'm like, dude, how do you think your approach is going to be next time you call him back when you see that note that said he got hung up on? Like, that— you ain't gonna go into it the right way. Yeah, yeah. So same, we try to just like, hey, like, they filled out 4 minutes ago, you don't know what was going on last time you called. I mean, shit happens.

Definitely love it.

I love it. Where do you see that most people— because I'm sure even they— I, dude, I've been doing this a long time, and as much as we want everyone to win And we go, everyone could probably do it if they worked as hard as we did and thought the way we did. But the reality is not everybody does fucking win. People quit, people leave, whatever. What do you see in your eyes causes people to not win in this deal?

Honestly, I would say they just don't have that confidence. Like I said earlier, they don't think that they can do it. And then also like comparison, because as you already know, comparison is the thief of joy. So some people, especially our age group, they see other people doing, you know, certain amounts of insurance, but but they don't really know it all. They don't know how much leads they're buying or how much work they're putting in or all the other factors that are going into it. So that's why they sit there, they compare themselves to them. They're like, oh man, they're selling this much, this much, this much. I'll never get to that level. I don't think I can ever do that. You know what I mean? Or they're doing something completely different. So it's just that comparison there within, you know, people our age group. Like I said earlier, just because we're younger, we're not as mature as people your age and, you know, older and stuff like that. So it is a little bit different, I would say. But at that same tone, you know, we have to just have the mindset that we can do it just because we're younger. You know, there's no difference. You know, uh, um, age is just a number, you know what I mean? So that's why we have to work as hard as we can and just prove ourselves. So I would say some people, I would say they just don't have that confidence that they can do it, and they compare themselves too much to other people and what they're doing.

What's crazy, dude, is people my age have less confidence than folks your age, dude. This is not even close. Oh bro, I see guys my age crumble and die on the phone, dude. It's insane. It's actually kind of sad, um, how much they overthink and won't move and won't pick up the phone and they're scared. And I'm like, what is that? Like, you're a grown-ass adult. Um, so yeah, I think give yourself a little more credit because at this stage, again, I've been with FFL since the day they opened the doors. Um, without the army of 20-something-year-olds like y'all, we ain't the company we are. At this point, you know what I mean? It's like, it's— we got the thing started, but y'all took over, you know? So we're very grateful for, for everything you guys are doing. Um, what do you, what do you think, or what do you set for like standards daily? Like, I'm a big activity guy, right? I'm sure if you've seen any of my shit, I'm like typically just— I mean, I'm just gonna shut up and dial, you know what I mean? Like, it's all about the work and hours. But what do you, what do you guys— do you have daily standards, hourly standards?

What are you trying to hit Yeah, I mean, honestly, we don't have anything that like directly that other than our Discord that tracks like the daily sales, the weekly sales, the monthly leaderboard, stuff like that. And then obviously the IP report. We don't have much that like we're— I mean, we do have a daily tracker that we give new agents for them to go through and like track the amount of dials that they're taking. And then we also have like a side of it where it says the different kinds of objections they could possibly get. And then there's like a tracker for the presentations and their closes. And that way we can go through at the end of the day with the new agents and see just like what kind of mistakes they're making, or if they're getting a certain kind of objection more than they're getting another one, and just how many presentations and how many closes are getting out of those presentations. Um, that way, you know, we can assess those and help them in the early on correct those mistakes. But, um, other than that, we don't have much that we're doing like to track the metrics of how many, how many dials each agent is making like all together as a team. But individually, we do track them individually to make sure that there's not the same mistake that's being done over and over again, just that we can't correct that early on.

So your dial sheet has objections on it they can check off what they're getting? Is that what you mean? Exactly, exactly. Really?

That's kind of cool. Side of it for a bunch of boxes where they track the amount of dials that they make.

Which objections?

Visual objections. Yeah, really?

Oh, that's— I would love to see that. That's kind of neat. I like that idea. I'm gonna steal that, bro.

That's good. It's definitely good. It definitely does help the agents, just because if they have some agents and they can just, you know, fix that mistake that they keep making.

Yeah. You send that to me? Do you mind? I would love to see it. Yeah, we use a tracker every day. I do one online now. Um, we— I made— I've always had a paper one, but we made it to where now people can go in do their daily numbers and it keeps track of it every week, every day, every week, every month. So you can kind of see it. Yeah. Um, which is cool. If you ever— if you want access to it, I can certainly get it to you as well. Um, if you— what— so what do you— so I get you don't necessarily look at metrics. You do look at some, but I get you don't track a ton of stuff for the whole team. But what do you— what are your expectations of them? So, meaning, if I walk in, do I— you expect to make 100 phone calls a day, 200, 4,000? Like, what What do you expect of me to do activity-wise to win?

There's no reason no new agent shouldn't be calling at least 100 new leads to them every single day. So like even a lead that they called yesterday, that's a new lead the next day, you know what I mean? If they didn't pick up, that's the mindset that I tell them they should have. Just because if you didn't get somebody on the phone and you don't know where they are, you know, where they're standing, whether or not they want the insurance, not if they have insurance or not, you know, you don't know anything about that client. So that's why they're just as fresh to you the next day they are as they were the day before, the week before you got there. You know, I mean, you've never had 100 leads a day.

Okay, how many phone calls— if you look at someone's phone calls, what will you— what's a number that you'll look at and be like, someone might think it's a lot, and you'll look at it and be like, bro, that's sad?

Like 50 to 80. Some people will be like, oh yeah, I've been calling for like an hour or two, and that'll probably be like, you know, 50 to 80 people, just depending on how many pickups you're getting. Because sometimes we struggle with getting pickups, obviously, nowadays with that new, uh the new like phone call blocking thing by Apple. Yeah, so sometimes it's a little tough, but, um, uh, you know, just as long as you're getting, uh, at least like you want to aim for like 50 pickups out of the day, and then out of that you should get like 5 to 8 presentations, and then out of those 5 to 8 presentations you should close 2 to 3 of them every single day, and then that will get you Hall of Fame, um, obviously.

So 50 pickups a day is a good metric? I ain't mad at that. That's a good number.

Okay, pickups. If you can get 50 pickups, that's really good because you're talking to probably like, yeah, 500, 600 phone calls probably. Yeah, probably like 10 of them will click really early on out of that 40. You probably get through the, the conversation with like 20 of them, you know, and then, uh, you know, obviously you'll get your presentations out of a few of them.

I love it. Um, give me some like important pieces of phone script for you guys. Word tracks, things you say, like things that are really important aside from the concept? You gave me the kind of breakdown of how you do it, but give me some, give me some goods, like things that are important or like verbatim. Yeah.

I mean, I would try and say whenever we're asking for like, or not when we're asking, but whenever we're telling them about the benefits, like we tell them that there's a bunch of benefits that come with something like this and then we'd go over immediate coverage. And we'll explain that to them, how that works. And then we'll go over like the tax-free, because not a lot of people know how insurance gets paid out tax-free. So you tell them that, and then we also joke with them a little bit, say that's like something that, you know, not a lot of people get nowadays. And, you know, just joke about the taxes, just because like obviously nobody likes paying taxes, you know what I mean? So I joke about that with them a little maybe, and then go over like the living benefits and the terminal illness rider, the double accidental, and, uh, you know how it's permanent coverage, all that stuff. So we go over those benefits, we tell them those as if they're like extra benefits just because they are included within the life insurance, but not many people know it. And so that's one thing that you have to get out to them. And then I would say also, like, whenever we're asking about, you know, their health, obviously you just go through all the health, um, but before that we tell them about, you know, the— you try and ask them about you know, which kind of bank they use, just to figure out if they even have a bank that they use, or if they use a Direct Express, just because that'll help you early on to know which carrier you have to go with. So that's not true. You have to try and figure out, and if they're even willing to get—

you just ask straight up. How do y'all do it?

Yeah, I try to ask them if they're partnered in the— I ask them, what kind of bank do you use in this state? Do you use like a bank like Chase, PNC, or do you use an online bank like Chime or Cash App? 'Cause some people even use Cash App.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. A lot of them do, especially in the final expense world, bro.

Exactly, exactly. So I'll just tell them, and exactly, you know, AmeriCoMutual, some of them don't take online banks, so you have to figure out if it's an online bank early on. Um, and then sometimes they'll tell you, I don't even have a bank, I use a card, this, that, the other. So I'll be like, okay, so is that just a Direct Express card with the state? And then you figure out, you know, if they have a Direct Express card, that way you can know if you run them core bridge, trans, whatever.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Okay, what about some objection stuff? What are your—

what are you— yeah, yeah, I would say early on if they're giving me an objection, like, uh, like, um, uh, give me an example.

Um, if you want to go early on, the standard crap: I don't— who is this? I didn't do it. I already got it. Those types of things.

Yeah, I'm just a medical underwriter assigned to your file. It says your birthday's here. Is this— um, did you ever get something like this put in place? And then I'll just figure out if they already have coverage because usually if they already have coverage that makes it easier because then they've already been through something like this before. So then right away you have to figure out if they even know how much coverage they have and I'll try and give them a ballpark. I'll say, is that just like $5,000 or $10,000 in coverage? And then once they tell you how much it is, hopefully they say $5,000 or $10,000, I'll just go with, okay, so you're planning on just being cremated or you just got that just to cover your cremation? And then, you know, sometimes they'll be like, no, I'm planning on being buried. And I'll be like, okay, well, do you know how much a burial costs nowadays in Georgia? And then you still got them on the phone, you're still talking to them and you're still asking them questions. Questions. So that's how you engage with them. You just got to keep asking them questions because, like I said earlier, whoever asks the most questions wins.

Yeah, I love it. How do you— what are you guys doing to either prevent, preferably, or overcome the normal, you know, think about it or banking BS people give you or whatever?

Yeah, I mean, we try and, uh, if like they're absolutely not giving you their banking or if they're just telling you they got to think about it right around the banking, I'll ask them, would you have to think about it just because, uh, just because you know, you don't want to have to pay for something like this, or just because you don't— you're not sure about which coverage amount, you know, you have to ask them one or the other. That way, hopefully they pick one. And then if they're like, oh, I don't want to have to pay for this, then I'll be like, okay, that's fine, sir. It's not my job to take any money from you. The, uh, you know, Mutual of Omaha, or whichever carrier we're going through the application with, I'll say, you know, Mutual of Omaha allows you to set it out for 30 days. So if you needed to, we could set it out for your Social Security billing, like the first or the third or the second, third, and fourth Wednesday of each month. Or as far out as 30 days if that's what you needed to do. But I wouldn't recommend that. And then I'll just tell them, you know, if they need to, they can do it for the 30 days and then obviously I'll try and get the bank in then.

Yeah, I love it. You don't— none of this seems to faze you at all. That's what I notice. You just— it's not stressing you out at all. You just say what you got to say, keep it moving. If they buy, they buy. If they don't, you move on to the next one. Seems like.

Yeah. Yeah, honestly, because that's how I want my guys to be as well. Like, if I'm sitting here stressing about every single sale or screaming, oh damn, I just got a bank objection and slamming the table and stuff, everybody else on my team is going to do that as well. That's one thing I learned from Mahmoud, especially watching him on the phone. Like, because I watched him on the phone for like 2 years, he was dialing for a long time. So, you know, anytime I watched him on the phone and he ever got an objection, which was often, but he always overcame it. Like, I would see him sometimes get bank objections and not close them, but he wouldn't freak out or nothing, you know what I mean? He would look childish if he did, and we knew that. He knew that as well. So it's like, that's why we can't do that, especially as leaders. You just, you have to carry yourself as a leader every single day. Um, and your people are only as good as you are, you know what I mean? So if you're sitting there freaking out over every sale, they're gonna freak out.

Yeah, that's funny. I, I, I, I— what's today? Today's Thursday. Yesterday I only sold one app. I've been selling again recently just for fun, building a new direct team. And just, I never did telesales. Mine was all in-home back in the day. Um, so learning telesales has been fun, and, uh, it's, it's not that hard. Obviously, it's— once you figure it out, it's pretty simple. But like Tuesday, I sold 6, 6 apps, and then yesterday I only sold 1. And I had a bunch of people watching one day, and they're like, he closes everything. And then the next day it was like, oh, you get the stuff too? And I was like, what do you mean I get the stuff too? I'm calling the same people y'all are calling. Yes, I get the same stuff y'all get. And I was just moving through them like no big deal. And one guy goes, you just stay really calm when they say no. I'm like, yeah, because I know if I call enough people, enough are gonna buy, you know. And it's, and it's, it's neat to be able to show that for people. I had, I had another guy on the group yesterday, day before, I had to kind of yell at a little bit because he, every time someone gave him an objection on the phone, he would like make this loud noise out of his mouth and literally bang his desk like you just explained. I'm like— and to be clear, he's older than me— and I'm like, bro, you gotta calm down, bro. That certainly ain't gonna help you any. And then you sound like an ass on the next call, you know, sounding all frustrated and stuff. So I love it, dude. Um, cool. If you're in the insurance space and trying to build an agency, or you're trying to like break records in sales, just hit new levels, new heights, click the link below to apply to my consulting and coaching program that I have out there. I'm helping tons of people get to new levels, get to new income heights, help them build their teams, put systems in place, staffing stuff, recruiting processes, automations, um, just teaching people how to get to a point where they're selling on their own pen 30, 40, 50 grand a month. And if they're building a team, teaching how to have an effective structure to your insurance agency for the most profitability you can. There is an application process. I'm only looking to work with like high-end people who really want to make big things happen. If you're interested, click the link, apply, and if you're a fit, I'll reach out. Let's talk a little bit, I guess, about— I'm intrigued on what you're doing from, from the building standpoint. Um, give us, I don't know, what's your thoughts on, on what would— what, like, on the building side in terms of like I don't know, just your thought process in building, how you go about it.

Yeah, honestly, um, I don't, I don't do much like outbound recruiting. I've got one admin that does like send a bunch of direct emails from my, from my Instagram just to like people that she can tell are in solar and stuff like that. But I don't see much success with that, honestly. Like a lot of people in solar right now are getting spammed with DMs and like they're making videos and stuff about it, honestly joking about it. So I mean, you can get some people, don't get me wrong, from, uh Blake Doyle, can you recruit? Uh, not recruit.

Yeah, hey Blake, can you recruit, bro? That is a good question for Blake.

I know he can recruit, but, uh, I meant you and Ron.

I knew what you meant. It's all good.

It's all right.

Damn, I love cold DMs. Cold DMs. Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, so the cold DMs, so I haven't seen much, much success with that yet, but, um, uh, but I know it does work because I've seen Mahmoud do it before and I've seen it. Yeah. I've seen success with it. There's people in our agency from solar, but I haven't had much success with it on my personal side. Now what does work is, like I said earlier, just posting your success and your agent's success and then having them post theirs and then you on it so that you can repost it because people get tired of seeing you just posting a bunch of your own content, but they'd like seeing you posting other people's content sometimes. Exactly. So that's one really good thing I would say that helped me a lot is just posting a lot on social media and posting other people's success on social media, making sure they're tagging me on everything that they post, and, uh, that way we can just get it out as much as possible, make sure as much people are seeing our content.

I'll tell you what will work on cold DMs. It'll, it'll help your thought process with a little bit. We have teams that are still here under Zach's team from when I was cold DMing back in 2015, and they're still here and doing millions of dollars a month from a cold DM. And not a lot necessarily work, but what does happen is when you do that, one of the first things that they do is go look at your profile, you know? And then even though they may not answer or respond or even tell you to fuck off, you keep posting, bro. I promise you they're watching, you know what I mean? It's like, so for me it was like, can I get more, more eyeballs on my stuff? Because I'm just going to show them content all the time. Yeah, I mean, and over the course of 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, a year, 2 years, 3 years, however many years, as you you keep growing, I promise you, dude, you keep sending them DMs, next year some people you didn't expect are going to hit you up and be like, hey, so I've been watching you, bro. You know what I mean? It works. It's a way down the road thing where it works best. Um, as you start, you know, people— I don't know, people, people are funny, dude, when they— especially when they don't know you. Um, but when you, when you do it consistently and grow, you will have an obnoxious amount of people reach out over the course of the years if you keep doing a little bit at a time. And then just again, having really good content on your pages, it'll, it'll pay off for you for sure. So don't, don't slow down because it's not, it's not near as instant as what you're getting, warm market and people who know you and stuff like that. But a wave comes behind. It's like, it's like your back end money, bro. Yeah, I mean, people are like, I ain't got— I didn't get paid much. I'm like, dude, you got X amount of money coming to you next 'Here, slow down, bro. It's coming.' You know, so same concept.

Yeah, that's a good point. I feel like a lot of this business is based around delayed gratification, that whole idea where you have to wait for what's coming on in the future and not just, you know, sit here waiting for what's coming on now. Just because, like you said, we get paid 75% up front, but then you got the 25% coming later on. And then also, I mean, like I said earlier, if you have to postdate some— a client's policy, you can't pay for— they're not doing it immediately or within the next week or so, then you got to wait for that client to make the payment before you get that check.

So yeah, those weeks are good though. I got paid $20,000 this week from all the first and third dates. Oh yeah, you know, I mean, just my personal production, forget, you know what I mean? It's like just straight up stuff I wrote that I had dated. I think we got like, like 16 policies pay on the first and the third this week. I was like, that didn't suck.

Oh yeah. What carriers you running mostly?

I do, um, I do a lot of AmeriCo for sure, um, AmeriCo Trans and Ethos.

Corbridge a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, I like money, bro. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, if I can write them a miracle, I'm going to, because it's fucking— they quick, you know. Trans is cool, they just— they're slow to pay, even if you are dated now, which, no offense if they're watching, but y'all, they are slow.

Uh, they're not watching, but I know a lot of guys in here love trans.

I do too, dude. I write the snot out of them, but it's gonna take a minute to get paid. I write a lot of trans.

I think they just released a new bonus program, didn't they?

Go? Um, I know they just increased their thing to $100K, which was cool. Yeah, that was right. Hell yeah.

Had somebody close one yesterday, $500 a month, $100,000.

Hell yeah. Yeah, I closed one a couple weeks ago, same, it was $550 a month or something. Yeah, hell yeah. I was like, that's sick. Yeah, I mean, again, they're all— they all— each of them have their little what they're good at and what, you know what I mean? Like, you know who— if you know the carriers, you know who Trans takes that others won't.

Yeah, definitely.

They like them them, you know, they ain't getting approved elsewhere typically, so why not, why not send them the business they want?

Oh yeah, yeah.

So we— I write the snot out of them too.

Yeah, look, there's Eric. That's the one.

Yeah, my favorite thing about them— one of them— AmeriCo is this way too, but I like, I like getting the— I like getting the real underwriting answer.

Who would— Trade America?

Yeah, when you get the— for—

you do the first PIN, they give you a fucking approval right Yeah, yeah, that's the best.

Yeah, yeah, that's my favorite thing, you know, because I, I don't know how y'all do it. I do underwriting before I give pricing. Really?

Like, you're on the phone with them filling out the application before you let them know how much it costs?

Yes. I won't give you— yeah, I won't give you pricing until I get approval. I'm crazy.

I mean, that's smart, but I mean, it's— yeah, to each their own.

Yeah, yeah, that's why I like it. Yeah, yeah, I do it all the time. I will not give you price because I go just like All right, so the next step is I got to put your information into the system. It's going to pull your medical stuff, and that'll let me know who will approve you. And then once I know who approved you, I can look at the different companies and let you know all the different pricing, and we'll pick the best one for you. So if one declines it, I can go to the other one, and I never gave pricing.

Oh yeah, yeah.

So you can do that— I can do that with, uh, with— you can do it with, uh, Transamerico and Ethos. And you can get an approval before— and, and, uh, uh, CoreBridge— before you get banking info.

Yeah.

So I can get a legit approval.

Favorable.

Yeah, yeah, they give you the— they kind of fake it. And which— AmeriCo gives you kind of a pre-answer too. It's not always 100% approval. Um, but Trans is my favorite because it's a legit— like, you're getting approved.

If you get—

if you say yes on Trans, it's yes. There's no secondary like, oops, we lied.

You know?

Yeah. So yeah, just little quirks. I don't know, I ran into it. I was like, I always gave pricing first my whole career, but then I gave it once where I messed up. I quoted someone AmeriCo Eagle level, like Eagle 1, and then it came back 2, and I had to backtrack. And I'm like, shit, that was stupid. Now a lot of my guys will show 2 and then give them better insurance if they get 1. Yeah, you know, but when I learned because again, I ain't done an e-app. I didn't— I hadn't sold in 10 years until a few months ago. And so when I learned you could do it, I'm like, I'm gonna switch it up. And that's the only— I only do underwriting before pricing. This is how I work.

I think I saw you were at $60K for week 3 February, or how much?

I sold $67K in February.

Yeah, wow, that's really good.

Yeah, yep. Oh yeah, and I, I'm kind of part-time. I don't even do this full-time, you know. Oh yeah, I can do 9,000 things at the same time.

What are your metrics looking like? How much, how much are you spending on leads a week, and how many dials would you say you make daily?

Yeah, I, um, I've spent— I sent it to someone yesterday because people hit me up and want to know everything, what leads and how much money you spend, and they're always looking for the angle why it won't work. I've spent $10,000 this year on leads, and, um, I've ish— I've written— I'm trying to— issued obviously is behind, right? But most of my shit issues. I mean, I don't— because again, I'm getting the approval first, so it's not like I'm throwing shit and hoping like hell. I'm not submitting— I'm not doing submit numbers that that weren't approved and paid. When I put a number out, they gave me banking. Yeah, you know, um, and got an approval like 99% of the time. And I— so I'm at, um, I wrote 67 in February, I think I wrote 40 in January, and then obviously there's overlap from December. I haven't paid over $100 grand already this year just on my personal production, you know. I've only spent $10, so— and I got like, hey, I got like $30 grand. I was looking at yesterday, I got $30 grand approved approved that's just waiting to be deposited. So I keep track of that too. It's a little tracker thing I got, keeps track of all that stuff for me. It's a little online tracker I use.

Yeah, yeah.

So I spent a couple grand a week. And dials, um, it varies, dude. I don't— I'll be honest, I don't— probably, probably the most dials I've made in a week is probably 750 in a week. Um, yeah, a lot of times I can get— I mean, that— I always tell people, dude, I don't have any advantage dialing. They don't know it's John Wetmore calling. They don't care. I have zero advantages making phone calls. So I get about— I get like 8% of people pick up my calls. So I make 100 phone calls, I'll talk to 8. That's my— that's my average. Um, and if I talk to 8, I'm probably going to present to 6, and I'm probably going to close 3 or 4. Yeah, I mean, that's just kind of my numbers. Um, you know, but when they do pick up I'm, I'm, I've been doing this a long time. I'm pretty good when they pick up, you know what I mean? So I don't have to make a ton of phone, and I'm buying— I'm only getting new leads, dude. I'm not playing the old lead game anymore, you know? That's cool, that was cool once, but now I'm like, just give me more. I know I can talk to enough people, and I sell high premium too, dude. I saw a lot of big premiums. I show big, big numbers, so I get a lot of big ones. Yeah.

Um, let's do some objection training. What do you do if somebody tells you they're not, uh, they're not going to give you their bank unless they get some paperwork? You know, we got a lot of old people out here, they don't want to do nothing nothing until they see some paperwork first.

Yeah, I told the guy— I did this with a lady last night, close the lady at like 8:30 last night because she asked the same— that she literally asked the same thing. I said, I said, hey, it's just like when you buy a car, you don't get the car title till after you buy the car. So paperwork will be out to you in a couple weeks after I get your policy set up. She was like, oh, that makes sense. Oh, that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, perfect.

Again, same as— again, homeowners insurance, car insurance, you don't get no paperwork do you have a policy? So I'm gonna send you your policy. Well, I just want something else in writing. I'm like, what do you want writing? You don't— you don't own anything yet. There's nothing for me to send you yet, you know what I mean? And she was super— you're super chill. She was like, again, I usually don't have to dive deeper in it. I just kind of like— you brush it off and, um, just said that, and they were like, okay, makes sense.

Yeah, perfect.

Yeah, what else? We can talk about anything y'all want. I like the whole group. Yeah, let's, let's, let's talk about whatever y'all want. I'm in. I'm gonna ask some of these young guys questions.

Yeah, a lot of them are smart. They're very— Dylan, I know Dylan Augustin's probably got a question.

I got a question for both you guys. I didn't know we were opening up to questions.

Now, fuck, let's, let's roll.

Hakeem, what was the first non-negotiable that you noticed in your business that completely changed the game?

If you don't, um, I have to be in the office whenever my agents are in here. I mean, like I said earlier, you can't tell somebody to do something you yourself aren't actively doing or have done before. So whenever I have a bunch of people in the office at 9, 10 AM and I'm not here, you know, like I'll literally get calls from like, yo, where are you at? Why are you not here? What are you doing? And that's perfectly right on them because I do that to them whenever they're not here, you know what I mean? So I want you all to hold me accountable because I hold you all accountable, you know what I'm saying? So I want the best for you all, so I want you all to want the best for me, you know what I mean? So that's why I'm always haggling you, where you at and stuff. Appreciate that.

And then Mr. Wetmore, you said you don't give pricing until you run the application and know you have the approval. So can you dive a little bit deeper into that about how you set that up and like where in the— I don't know if you use a script or if like you said you've been doing this long enough, like you could probably just roll it off the, off the mind.

So I don't know how you set that up, but yeah, I mean, so I think for me it's, um, I, I, it's, it's probably the same way y'all do it now. I just do it earlier in the process, you know what I mean? Because at some point I assume you got to tell them what the process is, right? Here's the thing, they don't know the process. You mean they don't know how it's supposed to work? So you can about tell them whatever the hell you want, you know. So for me, what I do is I let people know at the beginning, first, my job is really simple. I'm gonna ask you a few questions, find out a little bit about what you're trying to accomplish. And then two, I'm gonna go through and ask you some medical questions, uh, which are important because that's going to let me know what, if anything, that you might be eligible for? That way we can kind of get into some pricing and stuff a little bit. They go, good. And I do again, I do their why, then I do medical. We can skip all the details because you don't know how to do that. And then once I get medical and I kind of know where to go, I go, all right, all right, is your— is it Nash? Is that what that says? Cool. I go, all right, Nash, here's, here's how this thing works, bud. So as you know, um, all of, all of your prescription history and all of your medical stuff, you know, all that's kept track of on the computer these days. So what I can do is I can actually plug your personal information in. It's all tracked by your address, your date of birth, and your social, right? And dude, everyone agreed. They go, oh yeah, yeah, makes sense. Because they all— I mean, everybody knows you— if when your doctor, when your doctor calls in a prescription, they push a button and it magically shows up at the pharmacy. It all goes through the comp— so I just word it that it all goes through the computer now because they're old. So guys, you know, all the stuff now, uh, your medical and your prescription stuff, um, is all kept track of on the computer now. So what I do is I'm going to plug your information into the computer, and what that's going to do is verify and make sure I didn't miss anything when I asked you these medical questions. And that's going to let me know what I can actually get you approved for, so we can talk real numbers. Then once I know what I can get you approved for, I got a list of all the different insurance companies, and it's going to show me all the pricing options. So then once I know what you're approved for, I'm then going to shop it around for you, and I'm going to find you the one that's going to give you the the most insurance for your money. Is that cool? And they say yes. And then I go, all right. And I just— I already got a decent amount of their info. All I really don't have is their address and fucking social, basically, at that point, you know. So I verify the last couple things, and y'all, y'all seen the app. I just go through the app. I literally have the app open right now, you know. So I put in the date of birth, all the stuff, and I'm like, all right, your address is this. Yep. Hey, you were born in— were you born in Kentucky or a different state?

State?

Nah, different state. Cool. All right, hey, can you verify your social for me? Fucking 95% of them don't blink, you know. I get 5% of them give me some horseshit, you know. Well, then I literally run it, and then depending on my confidence level, as soon as I— then I send them the PIN, right? So if it's whatever one it is, AmeriCoTrans, or— they're all a PIN— or CoreBridge is the click thing, um, and Ethos is the click sick. So I just send them that. I go, hey, computer's going to send you over a quick little text. Do you mind giving me the 6-digit code? They give it to me, I hit go, it starts running. If my confidence level is high, I just let it be, you know. If it's really high, they're healthy, I'm doing AmeriCo. If I think they're sick or they got some heart issues or COPD or some of the things that trans takes, I'm going trans right away. Once it's running, if I— if I'm unsure health-wise, dude, I might have a second app open and I'm doing— I might be doing that one right away. I've sent some people fucking 4 pins, dude, before I give them pricing, you know. Um, and then it comes back, and if they get approved right there, I'm like, all right, hey, great, it's approved. Good news is I got you approved. They actually came back, they approved you up to $100 grand. Hey, why don't you go grab a pen and paper? We're going to go through some pricing so you can pick up— pick a plan now, okay? And I go through the most eligible for is $100K. I tell them the price. I say it's going to probably be a small mortgage payment, it's fucking $852, $30K, $20K, $10K, or whatever pricing I'm showing depending on how the convo went.

So that's when you're figuring out— I was going to be kind of my follow-up question. So the way that our closing works is it's kind of like a 3-option close, like bronze, silver, gold. You give them 3 different options, they choose between one. So you're, you're then you're finding out how much they really want insurance. So you really just want to see if they—

I know how much they want earlier during the why. I'm figuring that out spend. And again, some of the leads tell you— they put them out on the lead, you know what I mean, with how much, how much they're requesting. So I kind of know, but I'm, I'm figuring out rough idea, you know, when I'm going through the— I think, remember when I said at the beginning I got to figure out a little bit about what you're trying to accomplish and then a little bit about your health? So during the accomplish, that's kind of like the reason they filled it out. What are you looking for? You looking for just burial? You trying to leave some extra money behind? You trying to get things taken care of payment-wise? You know what I mean? Like, what do you think? That also lets me figure out if they're broke or not. I can usually figure that out pretty early. I've been doing this a long time, dude. I can about tell by someone's voice if they're broke, you know. Um, so I tend to figure that out. I find out if they get their money the way I word it. I go, um, hey, so different insurance companies take different forms of payment. And Ash, do you get your Social Security on that little green government card, or does it go into like an actual bank account. That's the way I word it. And so I know that early too, so I know what I'm dealing with down the road too for carriers, you know. And yeah, and then I just show pricing, dude. And I don't know, I always start— I'm— I've learned how to top-down sell. So I always say, hey, they make me show you the most you're eligible for. I'm not saying you should pick this, and this isn't necessarily a recommendation, but they do require I show you the most you're eligible for just in case one day you want to call back and add more. More. So the most you can get is $100 grand or $50 grand or whatever the number is depending on the carrier.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's amazing.

And then I know Blake Doyle's got a question. I'm sorry, but you said something real— that was like, it was, it was great as well earlier. I get it all the time that I want to see paperwork first. Can you just reiterate what you said earlier with the, you know, how you buy a car? Like, can you—

yeah, I go, yeah, I'm gonna get you the paperwork. It's kind of like a car. You get the title in the mail after you buy the car. So as soon as we get your policy in, you'll have the policy out to you in about 2 weeks after your first payment.

Perfect. I appreciate that a lot.

Yeah, you got it, bro. This is fun. This turned into an interview over a podcast. This is great. For those of you that have followed me for a while, you know, I've, I've helped build this agency up to over $200 million in paid annual premium per year. We have over 5,000 agents a year that sell, and I am rebuilding. We're building a new base shop, helping people build agencies, get to multi-seven figures in income, or producers that want to, that want to just sell and get to a multi-six-figure sales career. Hit me up. I'm hiring direct. I'm looking to train and mentor winners that want to work their ass off and build something dope. Click on the link below, or you can go to JohnWetmore.com/join and put in your application. We'll see if I'd be interested in working with you. DM me, hit me up, whatever you like. I got a question for you, John. Yeah, so what's up, Blake? What's up, man? So you have a, you have a pretty big team, correct? We do. Okay, bro. Okay, so I was just wondering, like, on like the recruiting, like, side of it, what would you say that like you did and changed in like your way of like recruiting or social media to really like just boost your recruits and just really get more people into the business and license? Hit Hall of Fame. That changed everything for me. So this hitting Hall of Fame, just really leading from the front, bro, you start selling $40K a month, dude, everybody wants to know what you're doing because you live different, you talk different, you walk different, you ask different questions, you don't give a shit if people want to work with you or not anymore, you know what I mean? So I could tell you all the little things I did, but what really drove it was that I was making money and I didn't need you to make the money. I was making the money. Now you come to me, you need to make the money, and I can tell you how to make the money because I'm already making it without you. You mean where most of the industry is trying to— not that you can't recruit when you don't have a big team, because you can, you can recruit when you're not selling a bunch. There's, there's ways to do it. But to answer the question, the thing that helped the most— I was around for— I was in the business for 2+ years. Hell, I quit. I don't know how much of the story you know, you know, it's out there, but I, I quit the first dial day. To be honest. My first dial day, I quit. Came back 2 years later, and then my first 2 years in the business, I didn't really do much of anything. I was mediocre at best, selling $8,000, $10,000, $12,000 a month. It was pathetic. Um, and then some things happened in life. Damn, I wrote a whole— I wrote a whole book about it. If you want it, I'll send it to you. Just DM me your, your info. Um, but things changed in life. Shit happened, and I just— I decided like the first dude's question, what, what, what changed most for me? My non-negotiable became 40 hours a week of prospecting and presenting. 40 hours of prospecting and presenting. You only get credit 1 minute per phone call, right? So 40 hours of phone calls and presenting, timed. So for me, if I do 20 presentations and I give myself an hour credit for presentation, that's 20 hours presenting. Which is 5 a day, 4 or 5 a day, 5 days a week, all right? And then 600 phone calls is 10 hours. So if I got to do 20 presentations, I gotta do 20 hours of phone calls. That's 1,200 phone calls, 20 presentations to get 40 hours of— if you do prospecting and presenting only, 40 hours of those, you'll make so much effing money you won't know what to do with yourself, you know? And so I track it all. Y'all can use my— if you go to tracker.johnwetmore.com, there's a little online one you can, you can use if you want. This— I use paper, but then at the end of the day, I plug the info from the paper into the computer and it saves it all. Um, but yeah, that helped. Yeah, that did. I appreciate your answer. You got it, buddy.

Hey John, I got a question.

Hey, what you got, bro?

Yeah, um, I wanted to say I actually got your, uh, Dow Tracker. I have your book. It's really good. And, um, my question is, what are some things or what are some phrases that new agents use, uh, that they can, um, sound more assumptive? I want to sound more assumptive while I'm talking to people. I've been having some trouble with, I want to say, 40 to 60% of my presentations I'm able to get a social, but when baking comes around, that's when I get a little bit more pushback. So I don't know, it's whether it's me being assumptive with my tone or just not going back to the LimeWire.

Why do you think you have trouble getting— meaning, how do you ask for banking?

Um, more or less like free flow.

Like, I want you to ask me, like, yeah, okay, yeah. You struggle more with banking though, you said?

Yeah, uh, with the social, like, it's more or less people give it to me, but when I come— when it comes to the banking, I'll usually like, okay, uh, we're just gonna go ahead and verify the banking and the accounting numbers or in our script it says we're partnered with so-and-so bank and I'll have that routing number. And then when I say, okay, go ahead and get that checkbook for me, they're like, oh, well, why do you need that? I said, well, this is to verify, uh, what payment, or this is the payment source of your policy.

Sure. So I'll tell you how I ask for it and then I'll probably tell you more of the setup. The assumptiveness comes throughout. I tell people they're buying insurance like 600 times along. Wrong just naturally, you know what I mean? Like, again, even when I explain the process, I'm like, hey, so we're going to go through, I'll show you some options, you know what I mean? I'm going to figure out who's going to get you the most, most insurance for your money. That's telling them they're going to buy. I go, I'm going to look at all the different companies and then figure out who's going to get you the most for your money. You're going to pick a plan, you know what I mean? I'm saying things like that along the way. So you got to be really cognizant of what you're saying along the way because you might be saying things like, you know, Bob, if, you know, if you find a plan today that works for you, dude, that ain't, that ain't assumptive, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, all right, Bob, you're gonna pick a plan today. Not that they all do, but my wording— so pay attention to your wording along the way. More importantly, once I get to banking, dude, for me, I just go— again, keep in mind, they picked a plan, right? Like, you're not asking for banking if they haven't picked a plan. Yeah, right. So for me, I think the less words the better at that stage. Now, I think there are times where you have to explain some it. Sure. But dude, people aren't confused that they have to pay, you know. And I think it's same with social. I think when people use all these words on why they need their social, I think it scares people a little bit. When you, when you, when you reason why you need something before you ask for the thing, it sounds a little fishy to me. So I just ask. But for me, I go, all right, you, you got, you know, you're picking $30K at $152 a month, whatever it is. I go, okay, cool. Hey Dylan, do you want this thing coming out of a checking or savings?

Checking.

Checking. Okay, cool. Who do you bank with?

Bank of America.

Bank of America. Got it. All right, can you grab your routing and account number? Yeah. That's all I do. That's literally it. And if someone goes, what do you need that for? I'm like— which is rare, but I— every once in a blue moon, I'm like So you can pay, you know what I mean? Like, I just try not to make a big deal out of it, you know? Um, now if people don't find their stuff, that, that's harder for me than anything. Sometimes they can't find it, they don't have it, they don't— you know what I mean? Like, I put work in there, dude. I'll be calling banks. I, um, I walk them through how to find it on their app. Like, if you don't know how to do that, you should figure that out. Obviously they can get it on a, on an old check, they can get it on a paper statement, spent. There's, there's quite a few different ways to, to find people, to find their, their routing and account number. And to be honest, most old people have a checkbook. Most. Some don't, especially the ones with green card. But, you know, yeah, I just asked, dude, hey, do you want that coming out of checking or savings? 100% of people say checking. No one ever says savings. It's just the way I word it, you know. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. I love it. This has been fun, dude.

Yes, sir, it has. And I appreciate you helping all of them.

Yeah, absolutely, brother.

Hey, John, I got a question.

Let's roll.

Um, would— so I personally use insurance toolkits, like where I plug in my own, like, health question— like, I plug in the health concerns and the medications. Just from your perspective specifically, because I've been in insurance for almost 3 years Um, what would you say that is— would you say that would be considered helpful? And, and like, in your perspective, in your aspect of it, what helpful— plugging it in, like plugging it in so it can help me navigate which carrier would be the most approving?

Can I be really honest?

Go for it.

If somehow after 3 years you still don't know underwriting, yes, it will be helpful. But I think after 3 years you should probably know your shit pretty well by No, of course.

I mean, I just, I just use it just to—

yeah, but yeah, dude, I think why not, you know? I, I use, I use it some. I don't, I don't need it a ton because I kind of know the basics, but dude, I, I plug it in either, either there or, uh, Integrity's thing. But I, you know, Toolkits give you a quick and easy one, you know, and it'll give you a comparison. What I like about it too, even more importantly for new agents, is when you plug it in and all the ones that don't apply, it tells you why they don't qualify. So it can kind of teach you the underwriting if you read. So if you go down and read, like, I don't know, Transamerica doesn't show up anymore, you can go down and read. It'd be like, Trans doesn't take it because of this. I think that's pretty cool.

Well, I spent, I spent over 2 years in the captive space. I've been in the broker space for about 6, 7 months.

Ah, so different. Yeah. So yeah, that's my bad, me being an a-hole sometimes.

You know, it's all good.

I can't help myself some days. Yeah, you know, that's why I asked if I could say it the way I want to say it. But yeah, I think I think, again, I think, dude, if you, if you take— you'd say this, like, how many, how many products do you really sell?

Literally just one or two.

Okay.

Like, if—

how long will it take you to learn one product inside out, upside down, every way you could possibly need to know everything about a single product with each carrier? You said you only sell one or two, or two or three, or—

no, I— when you said product, I thought you were referring to like, like specific, like whole life, term.

No, no, no, I mean how many different, like, I sell. No, no, I have FE Express, I sell, you know, Eagle.

I would probably say like I have like 5 to 8 main ones I really use.

So then take one at a time, one, and learn everything you could possibly want to know about that product inside and out. How long would it take you to memorize everything you could need to know about Eagle, for instance? Everything?

It wouldn't take me too long.

Okay, how long do you think?

I would probably say like a good— a few days, okay, at a week at most.

Okay, so if you got 7 of them that you sell, that means in 7 weeks you should know every single thing possible about all of your products.

Yeah, correct.

Yep.

Which is significantly shorter than the 6 months you've been in the broker space. So if you take a different angle, 6 months from now you could be a wizard.

That's a great point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say you have a fair— you have a great point. I appreciate the feedback.

You got it, brother. All right, my man, I have a question. It's fine. Yeah, go ahead. I'll give you one more. Go ahead. Um, I got a podcast, another podcast right after this, so I'll give you the last one. And then, hey, if you want to keep— if you want to set up something where I jump on a team call legit hit, just let me know. We'll set something up offline and then get on a team call or something. You do? Yeah.

So I know you're basically like showing us how you walk it through to people who kind of don't have insurance policies, but yeah, what about like somebody that tells you straight up, I'm all taken care of, everything's good, but like they're not really referring to tell you what's taken care of?

Or— yeah, so I guess there's two angles. If they, if they, if they aren't hesitant and they have insurance already, I just ask if they just got it recently or if they've had it you know, so that helps me navigate. If they got it recent, they must be looking for a better price. If they've had it a while, to me, I just assume— this goes to the assumptive thing, Dylan. All right, so I assume you figured out you don't have enough and you're looking for more. So I go that route. If they say, I already got it taken care of, the way I do it, I go, does that mean you just got a policy in place? Half lie and say yes and stutter all over themselves. Some just hang up on me. I get whatever. Um, some will tell me though? And they go, yeah. I go, okay, do you— hey, do you mind if I— in order for me to— for the office to stop calling you, do you mind if I put some notes in the system so we can stop calling you? Almost all of them will say yes if they don't hang up on you. You know, they say yes. Now if they think I'm putting notes in the system, I can ask anything they want and they'll answer it pretty calm. I can— I don't have to speed through it, you know what I mean, like frantically. I'm like, okay, cool, they don't say— here, who'd you get covered with. Oh, oh, why'd you get them? You sick or something, man? What you got going on? Why you got that policy? If I can create a little bit of doubt, that's what I go for. Name the policy, I go, oh, why you got them? You sick or something, dude? That shit works money. Then they'll start healthy. They are not sick. I'll be like, the ones that hang up, I go, I like that company. But I usually don't sell them unless someone's sick. Okay, that's my angle. It works. I've been using that for 15 years.

You call them back when they hang up as well?

I mean, I will to show off to you, to prove I will call people back, but dude, I'm much more of a like, let me move on and find leads I'm looking for. Yeah, I'm, I'm not bugging the shit out of people, dude. Again, I do it just to show that like I'm not scared to do it, but quite frankly, bro, they're just not my client. I just move on. I'm looking, I'm looking for my client more than I'm looking to convert everybody. I ain't trying to convert every lead. Lead.

Okay, thank you so much.

I just, I just know in a batch of 100 leads, dude, there ain't no way in hell I can't write 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 of them, if not 15 of them, you know what I mean? I'm not looking for— I know 85% of them are gonna do some form of tell me to F off or not answer, quite frankly. Hell, half the leads don't even pick up, as you know. You know, so yeah, hope that helps, dude.

No, that was good. Thank you.

All right, Akeem, I love it, dude. Appreciate you. Love seeing your team. If I can help with anything at all, dude, let me know.

Thank you. Reach out for a meeting probably sometime whenever you're free. Appreciate it.

Yeah, just hit me up on Instagram. Just shoot me a DM on Instagram. We'll set it up.

Yes, sir. Thank you again, bro. Appreciate you.

All right, my man. Later. Hey guys, if you've enjoyed the podcast or any of the previous episodes, if you're on Spotify or any of the other Apple podcast platforms, would love if you'd go in and leave a review for us. If you're, if you're watching on YouTube, comment, like, subscribe, share, do all the things. We'd greatly appreciate it. Helps get the word out to everybody. Appreciate you, and we'll see you on the next one.