How I Went From Broke Pizza Maker To $100 Million Business Owner in 1 Year

This business is funny, um, and we can certainly talk about whatever, and I want to open it up to people, um, that have questions. And it can be people that are new or people on build, I don't care at all. Um, for those that don't know me, I've been around a while and I've helped people sell a lot of insurance. We'll keep it short today, um, though most of y'all probably know me. I've been, been on these calls a bunch. Um, but my goal is always to help people win. I like helping people make a bunch of money. And I like giving a lot of insight into maybe what people don't see coming. But I think that's like, it's a funny stage and it's, it's, this business is, is, is very simple at its core. What we do, you know what I mean? I think people overcomplicate it for sure. I think once you've been here for a minute, you stop overcomplicating one thing and then you overcomplicate the next thing. You know? No different than me and you talking. It's like, hell, getting someone started for you, simple as shit. Getting to the next stage for you sounds complicated. I'm like, it's as easy. You just got to do things different, you know. So we can certainly go over different stages, or if someone specific has a question about where you're at, how to get to the next level— I kind of want to do it like that versus just sort of talk at people. So I'll leave it up to y'all who has, um, who has the desire to get better. And I don't care if you've been here a week or two, or you've been here for 4 years, um, if you're, if you, if you're looking to get better, let's just unmute and talk it out and see what the hell we can do to help you guys. And most of y'all will be nervous as shit because you're like, oh damn, he said ask questions and I don't have any written. But don't be stressed, like we can be super informal about it. Um, hey, there we go. Who went first? All right, Cameron, go brother. How are you, man?

I've been in the industry for about 6 months now. I kind of transferred over from door-to-door. I was doing pest control. Um, and this just seemed like a better opportunity. Um, but My question is, I mean, just like with the, with the door-to-door job, sure, and here recruiting is a big, is a big, um, you know, booster, and it can, it can boost your income, can boost your brokerage. Oh yeah, ultimately, at least for me, that's the goal, right?

Okay, I love it.

But like I said, I'm 6 months in, um, I just got rolling over here again to where I'm stringing together consistent AP. But I want to grow. I want to put my friends on, you know, get them going and grow myself as well. Do you think there's a right time at all to, you know, focus on that? Or is there a wrong time to bring anybody on? Or is there like a set amount that you think you should be selling or you should do before you—

Yeah.

Bring anybody in.

Sure. I certainly have my views on it. What are yours currently?

I think it has a lot to do with your self-belief and a lot to do with where you genuinely think you're leading the person that's coming on. Not necessarily about, you know, everything I can show you on paper.

Sure.

But, um, even in the switch from my old company to this one, I know I'm putting, um, my friend who I want to bring into this in a way better situation. Even if this is the industry, like, if this is what he wants to do, I know this is a better place. Um, but I think the self-belief and knowing deep down inside, even if I'm not putting up $20,000, $30,000 every month, knowing, hey, regardless if this guy works for me or not, if he's around this and here, I know it's going to level him up. That's, that's where I'm thinking, and I don't think the AP should hold you back, but I could be wrong, you know.

Yeah, I, I agree with you 100%. Um, I— the struggle with most is they don't have that belief. It's like weird. There's a lot of people— for instance, if anyone wants to admit it, like, who is like, I don't want to hire until I'm really good? Like, that's just what most people think. Does that make sense? And I know a lot of people are on the phone, but if you sit down and talk to people, most— the biggest objection I get when I'm talking to people about building is like, dude, I want to wait till I'm good. So I have two trains of thought on that. One, my mentor Mike used to say to people, what if you never get good? You know what I mean? Like, you don't necessarily have to be good for someone else to be good. Does it make sense? Like, Kate didn't need me to be good at insurance. Now, do you need someone? It certainly helps. Does it make sense? But it doesn't necessarily have to be you, um, you know. But for me, I was the same way, dude, when I was doing this part-time. Um, hey Amanda, if you're on, can you bring me down a little cough drop, please? Um, when I was doing this part-time, I started in like 2012. Is when I first started selling. I was selling part-time and I was commuting to my accounting job. I had a desk job wearing khakis in an office, like crunching numbers. And on the way to and from my recruit— or on the way to and from my job, I was doing recruiting calls. Like, I didn't even do this full-time when I was recruiting. Yeah, you know, you ever hear someone go like, yeah, let me— like, you get— try to get someone started, or you see someone getting started and they say something like, well, I— yeah, I just want to kind of see if it works. You know what I mean? I'm like, wait, you want to see if insurance works, or do you want to see if you work? Because I don't think anyone's confused that insurance works. Does it make sense? So you have that belief level, so I think you have an advantage. Now, can you teach someone how to build a team of 75 people? No, but you don't need to know that yet, right? You can always teach people to get to the point you're at. So even if, say, you are brand new and you didn't have the confidence you have, everyone in here presumably is already licensed, right? I, I would argue a large majority, if not everyone, has purchased leads. I'd argue a majority of people, if not everyone, has got on a training, whatever starting training, boot camp, whatever gets sent to you guys when you get started. Everyone's experienced that. So So it's very easy to point people towards that. And then you go, but what about all the stuff I don't know? Well, can't you teach what you're learning? Meaning, meaning, Cameron, if you're, if you're learning when you have problem A, you call Kate. Why can't you teach when your new recruit has problem A, they call Kate? Does that make sense? Or if when you have problem B, they call, you call the carrier. Cool. We'll teach your recruit when they have problem B, they call the carrier. You know what I mean? Thank you, bro. Um, you don't necessarily have to be able to teach everything. You know Grady? Are you familiar with Grady yet? Paulson? You know the name?

No, no.

He's been around a long time. He's a fucking G in our company and in the industry. Um, you should look him up. He's, he's, he taught me a long time ago. He's been around with us— I'll mess up if I say how many years— but it's been a long, long time. Not quite as long as me, but he's been any— but he's been in the insurance as long as I have. I mean, he's a fucking boss. I don't know what his team does, but it's a massive amount. This 10 million a month or some obnoxious number. And, uh, he always said like, the greatest promoters build the biggest teams, you know. So if you can promote what the company has to offer and promote what your team has to offer and promote the culture and promote this environment and all the Zoom calls y'all do, other people can win without you having to know every piece of it. You know, yeah. And I think it's an advantage.

For me, it's more of like a time thing. Because like, I'm decent at sales. No, I could teach somebody how to sell. Sure. This is a very specific industry, just like everyone, you know. So it's just like—

meaning, how did you learn how to sell the insurance side?

Um, I got into it with a friend from the door-to-door company.

And you studied, um, you study videos and trainings and boot camps and go to events and things like that, right? Can you, can you, can't you tell them to do that too?

I, I already have. And yeah, they've been on it. He failed his test the first time, but by like 10 points. So it's like, I'm gonna, at least with one guy, I'm gonna bring them on. But like, if I bring on one guy, I'm not gonna want to stop at one.

You know, no, no, no, you shouldn't. And so I'll tell you this, the mistake that a lot of people make is when they start recruiting, they slow down on selling. So you got to keep in mind that you have to eat first. So you ever heard people say like, protect your dial time, right? Yeah. What a lot of people do is a new agent calls you and you, you go and you tell— you're telling them to protect their dial time, yet you're not doing it because you're answering the phone when they call you. So you're actually teaching people to not protect their dial time when you kind of think you're training them, you know what I mean? It's like we try to help them, so we drop everything, we help them, and what are we really teaching? We're teaching people to drop everything and help whoever calls on a whim. That's, that's not, that's not the model. Does that make sense? So for you, make sure no matter what you hit your numbers. So set your minimum standards, whatever they are a day. And for me, what I've learned, dude, is most people say, let's say, do you have a number of dials you're attempting for a day or presentations, or do you have some kind of numbers you're trying to hit in a day?

Yeah, minimum 300 dials. It's kind of like a, like a funnel. Yeah, minimum 300 dials should get me to like 4, 3 to 4 presentations, right? That, that doesn't mean they're all going to fall. But if I can hit that funnel, I should try to get one sale. One.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

So, so now the question is for you, how efficient and how effective can you be getting those $300 done as soon as possible? Pretty— does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah.

So like, think of it like the gym. Like, what time are you gonna finish $300 today, do you think? Roughly?

Um, I mean, I'm probably there, but I've got appointments. I'm still running. Okay, perfect.

So you already hit it. What time are you? Are you, are you noon right now, or what time zone you on?

No, it's 3:14 over here.

Okay, so, okay, so you're on my time zone. All right, so now I go, what time do you start dialing?

I try to be dialing by 10, like, latest.

Is there any reason you have to start that late, or can you start earlier?

I, I can start earlier.

So this is what I'm saying, it's like, now if there's a reason you can't, fine. I'm not saying it's the wrong thing. What I'm saying is, all right, if you want to sell the same amount and you want time to recruit, well, now we got a window in the morning where you don't start dialing until 10. So you're 10 to 3 to get your 300 dials. I'm like, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, that's 5 hours. $60 an hour, that's— that makes sense. 5 hours to get 300 hours is in the ballpark. Of— that's a good pace. Some people on here to get 300 dials take 4 days, you know what I mean? So I like your pace of the 300 hours. Now the question is, what do you do with the time in the morning? Can you, can you shift your dial time earlier? Or maybe in the morning you recruit and then you start dialing at 10. Who gives a shit?

It does not—

does it make sense? As long as you're comfortable with the schedule, they all work, you know. Now if you were sitting around I don't know. I talked to a guy one time who wanted to do big things and he walked his dog for 2 hours every morning and he was broke. I'm like, I don't, I don't recommend that. That's probably not smart.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

I mean, so I'll say it like this. 10 PM is like, or 10 AM is the latest because of things like walking a dog and sometimes taking my brother to school. Yeah. But like, even if those things pop up, I'm like, you know, damn well you could get there by then, you know?

Correct. So what you got to be careful of, dude, as you do this— and this for everybody— is be careful of what you allow to pop up. Does it make sense? Like, you also have to have, um, like, boundaries in your life. Does it make sense? Like, there's nothing in my life that can— there— all right, I won't say nothing. There's, there's very little in my life that can pop up right now that I'll stop doing what I had planned today. Like, almost nothing. If one of my kids called me right now, I'd pick up. Anyone else, like my staff, would just walk downstairs and step— like, my house would have to be on fire for my wife to call me. Does it make sense? But I've set those standards in my life now. The flip side of that is, bro, 8 AM, dude, I, I bet you 90% of days I'm working out. 10 AM, I'm probably chilling either in the sauna, I'm getting my hair cut, I'm at the chiropractor. Like, I schedule those things too. Does it make sense? I don't allow— I don't allow life to pop up on me. Everything in my life is scheduled for the most part, you know. And I think that's where a lot of people go wrong, is they kind of try to wing this thing. You know, so it's like, do your best to time block and manage that time effectively. And if you want to take your brother to school every day and that's part of your life and that makes you happy, fucking amen. Just be careful of like your cousin and your sister and your aunt to be like, can you grocery shop for me? Hey, can you go to the store? Hey, can you— you just got to be careful of those things. Now I like taking— I like doing things like that. So if it allows you to do everything you want, great. You're just gonna have to time block. And the way I'll end it with this on this topic, the way I was taught this thing, bro, is like the insurance sales side is your job and the agency building side is your business. And right now you have to do both. Does that make sense? So you have to work your job and then you have to leave time for your business.

Yeah.

And you got to figure out how to fit that into your life, assuming that's what you, you say you want it. So now you got to make I will tell you, have the time, and I'll give you a, I'll give you a very specific example in my life. And this is gonna be a little bit, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make the story sound like it's gonna be even easier for you because I believe it is. And this is my version of like uphill in the snow both ways, like old man shit, right? When I started building, keep in mind today's technology, everything we did wasn't tech, technologically advanced like it is today. Right? So not only the applications we were writing were all paper and had to be submitted, and we had to wait for them to get approved like a week or two, all of the contracting was paperwork too. It wasn't electronic like today, okay? So, uh, when I, when I did this time blocking thing for myself, I was able to issue $40K a month plus on my own pen, and I was recruiting, and I built a team up to 40 agents selling 40 agents selling a policy every month. Not like bullshit, I had 40 agents and no one sells. Like, 40 were selling. We were doing about $500,000 a month before I hired my first staff. So I was selling $40K a month, recruiting. I did 30— my goal was 30 recruiting calls a week. So I was selling $40K a month, issuing $40K a month, doing 30 recruiting calls a week, hiring them all. And I was also the admin, and I have 5 kids. And I was married. I'm married, you know what I mean? So it's like, and was I busy as shit? Yes, bro. I was 20. I was— I slept and worked, you know what I mean? And play with my kids. But dude, it's what I wanted. So you have the time ability for sure. It's just you have to look at your life priorities and go, what's more important and what's not? And for me, I wanted— I wanted to get out of selling as fast as possible. I did not want to be an insurance salesperson for a career. That's not what I wanted to do for a living. It was nice. It got me out of a hole, got me out of being broke. It put a lot of money in my pocket and it funded the business so I could invest in leads, I could invest in recruiting, I could invest in staff, I could invest in office, I could invest in traveling, I could invest in trainings, I could invest in events, right? So the, the, the job funded all that. The job did not fund my lifestyle. The job funded the business, the business grew and created cash flow, and then the business started to fund my lifestyle. Does that make sense? So now in today's world, fast forward, I've been— again, I've been doing this, uh, shit however long, long-ass time, since 2012, so 13 years, whatever, you know. And now we have— hell, we had 6,000 agents sell a policy last year, you know. Um, and it, and it sounds big, but it's like, I can go back and give you the very little details. Like, I remember having no agent. When, when dude was like, yo, I'm almost gonna hit logo and VP and all— dude, I remember that like it was fucking yesterday. You know, I remember having no agents. So it— I, I love the idea of doing it. Find someone in your group, Kate, whoever else, whoever your manager is, and coordinate with them and go like, hey, I want to build, I need help here though. And they'll take on some of the burden and you take on some of the burden. And then with time, you slowly learn how to do more and more of it. You know, just don't make the mistake of just never forget, dude, you have to eat first. That makes sense. Yeah, your production is by far the most important piece. Now you sell $40K a month, it's a whole lot easier to recruit, bro. It's just a different game. One, you don't give a shit if people work with you or not because you're making money either way, right? So your view of it's different. You're not doing it necessarily for the override. You're doing it obviously for time and freedom and long-term business success. And then you deal with less shit. When you go out and sell $40K a month and you get some ding dong who bitches they can't get a lead to answer, and I'm like, dude, you just don't take that anymore. I'm like, stop, bro. I don't— leads don't— I don't believe you. I could, I could pick up my phone right now, make up phone numbers and get people to pick up. There's no way when you call enough leads and when you do it for a living, you don't allow people to give you like the BS excuses anymore, you know what I mean? And you're not afraid to lose them. Yeah, you know, so I, I love, I love, love, love recruiting early, but that's only for the people that want to. Not everybody's built for that.

Not everybody.

It's a lot of work. There's a lot of work, boy. It's like fucking crazy, you know? And it's, and it's, it's bringing on— ask Kate, we talked— her and I talk very often. It's like Building a business, I don't care what business you go build, a pizza business, I don't give a shit, or you build this, you're asking for non-stop problems. Non-stop problems. So now you have to get in the mindset of I'm a person who likes problems because it allows me to solve things, which makes me more money. If you don't like problems and you don't like shit and you don't like personalities and being people's like, uh, psychologist and dealing with emotions and personalities and people hating each other and people hating you and then loving you and then not talking to you and then liking you again the next week— you don't like all that shit, don't recruit. Does it make sense? Because it's not easy. Is it— is it worth it? Oh my God, dude, I would do it a million times over, you know what I mean? But I think people get to a point where they're like, oh, I just recruit a few people and life is chill. I'm like, okay, I don't know who says that. Is life good? Yeah, fuck yes, it's really good. Chill is not the word I'd use to describe it, especially building early. It's more chill today for me, quite frankly, than it is for most of y'all, because I have— I have team, I have help, I got a lot of leaders, I got a lot of managers. I don't— I get way more credit than I deserve today, you know. Getting it started's the, the beast. And quite frankly, the sooner you learn, the sooner you start, the sooner you'll make mistakes. Hopefully the sooner you'll learn from those mistakes, and then you'll start to adjust. No different than sales. You mess up in sales, you get training, you learn how to present differently or ask questions differently or push differently, or, you know, I mean, your body language, your tone, all the stuff changes in the sales process. That's how you get better. And the same with the building side. It's the same concept. So I'm a big fan of like, the sooner we start the sooner we get to where we're trying to go. Makes sense. Just use everybody around you, dude. You got a whole squad, you got a whole company that's here to support you. Use it really well. Don't try to be the answer guy for everybody, you know. Um, I'll give you an example. I had a guy yesterday, he's new. I hired like 5 people direct to me recently, which I haven't done in a long time. I'm just— I'm like, I took in a handful of people and I'm like, fuck, I'm help them get rich too, and we're gonna have some fun. And I'm introducing them, working with them in a small little group setting. And this one dude is really analytical and keeps asking questions. And he, he'll not only ask me the question, he'll go and ask another guy that's direct to me the same question. So we found out he asked us both the same question. So now that I know that, I have to also teach this other dude how to answer him. As an example, he goes like, hey, um, AmeriCo, I don't, I don't know how to do their pricing without the e-app. What do I do? And then he was like, oh, and what are the renewals on this product? And then, hey, is there anyone that's going to train me on this product? He asked me 3 questions. Those were all within a 24-hour period. My answer was, call the carrier. Yes, they have all those. Call them. The other agent's answer was Yeah, here's how the renewals work. If you go here, I'm going to print it out for you. I'm going to send it to you. Here's the list of all the renewals. Oh, and by the way, here's all the objections you're ever going to get. Here's a big list. And he, he wanted to like answer all these questions. And I'm like, what did he just teach that guy? He taught him, when you need something, call me. He didn't teach him, when I need something, I have to fucking think. I'm here to help people, but I also want people to think. Like, AmeriCo does send an email that says, welcome to AmeriCo, here's your agent number, log in and check out our agent training portal. They do send that. Does it make sense? He just chose to delete the email, not read it, and then ask me. So in today's world, I can be a lot more direct and go, hey bro, they did send you the email. Can you— I'm here to help, but did you, did you go through their training?

Nah.

Why don't you start there and then call me? But I couldn't teach that way day one, you know what I mean? Like, early on, dude, I got no agents. I'm like, bro, I used to drive to their house and show them how to run the fucking pricing, you know what I mean? But with time, man, um, you, you just— at scale, you really got to learn. What's that saying? Like, teach people how to fish and they feed themselves forever, or whatever, instead of give them a fish, or whatever it is. The same concept long term, man. But you won't learn that stuff till you mess it up a bunch. 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, and 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. Couple of recent clients that we've had in the, in the coaching program. One dude as an individual went from selling like 8 grand a month, barely getting by, about to quit the industry, found the book. Hit me up direct, started a coaching program, went to $35K his first month, has issued like $150K in the last 90 days and has changed the trajectory of his career. Working with another agency builder, very first month went from doing like $800 grand a month to almost $1.1 million. We added like 10 or 15% production in 30 days and continue to work on things there. So if you're interested, click the link, apply, and if you're a fit, I'll reach out. You know, so if you have in mind, your goal should be to help people get paid. Just help people get paid. If you help people make money, life stays pretty good, you know. And I have a long track record of helping people make a lot of money, so now it gets easier. Now people come to me and they're like, yo, can I work with you? I'll do whatever. I'm like, yeah. You know, make sense?

Yeah.

Cool. Any follow-up questions or pretty clear?

You good? No, that was, that was, uh, it might have been life-changing. That's crazy. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Cool. Who else wants to get on? Anybody else got any questions?

Real quick, John, I, uh, what's up, dude? I tried to find you at convention because in my first month we did a training And it was like my— after my first 2 weeks, and I had just lost a sale, and I came in and you were like, who's struggling? And I just started— I just started like going crazy with it. And after—

oh, I remember you, your feedback. It was on one of these. It was on this.

Yeah, it was exactly—

yeah. So, oh yeah, yeah.

So, um, your feedback was like, amongst other things, it was I had to tell myself to stop being a bitch, right? So that hit real hard, and it was good. And I just wanted to say thank you because I tried to find you at convention so I could thank you personally.

My man. So did you stop being a bitch?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, you did. Okay, how's it going? Tell me, tell me what you changed.

Um, I would say that the biggest thing was I was having that, that real, like, over— just overthinking everything.

Yep.

And like, you just get caught up in this like hamster wheel of just overthinking everything. And like in this business, it's like you really have to learn to roll with the punches because you're going to just get punched all the fucking time. And, and that's what I've experienced. And, you know, I've had like little waves of it, but, you know, definitely been more consistent and writing more business and learning how to, you know, fine-tune my process and leaning on all my team members and stuff. So just wanted to say thank you.

You're very welcome, dude. I appreciate it, man. I love it. I love hearing it. I remember that call though. I don't remember what we talked about, but I remember having you on there and I remember leading you to something. Yeah, I guess I'm gonna mindfuck this dude here. I remember it.

Yeah, it definitely was. It was good stuff.

I love it, bro. It's good shit. How much you selling? Where you at?

Uh, I would say consistently right now I'm doing 5 to 7 a week, but I want to be doing 10 to 12, you know what I mean? So I'm trying to get there right now. I'm just trying to figure out lead flow and getting the deposits in and everything like that.

Okay.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Do you have one of the DBAB shirts yet?

The what?

Do you have one of the DBAB— you, you've— you know, there's a don't be a bitch thing. You don't have shirts that say that, right?

Oh, okay.

I'm gonna need one of those for sure.

Yeah, what shirt size are you?

XL.

XL. Reese, will you get him one? You figure that out? Just message him offline, please. Thank you, bro. Hell yeah, I got you. Just tag me when you get it. All right, on me. No doubt, no doubt.

Thank you.

All right, you got it. Who else wants some help?

John, I got a question for you. How are you doing?

What's up, Jacob? How are you, bro?

I'm good.

It's good to see you again.

You too. Chargers? Is that the Chargers? Is that what that is?

Yeah.

Okay, let's go. Chargers fans are either diehard or not at all. I think that's what I've learned.

I've liked them since they're in San Diego.

So love it, love it.

My question for you is, it's in regards to like relationships. How do you work on building your relationships with people that are already in the business? You know, new, new people, right? Building that relationship right off the rip. What's your take on, on that? And, um, you know, the way that ties into the business.

New, like people direct to you that you've hired, or new people like for you to create a relationship with, like you're trying to learn better and partner with?

Just, uh, like, let's say it's new agents, building relationships with your team and, and, uh, things along those lines. Uh, and then, yeah, same goes for like guys that have been working with you for, you know, uh, what could be well over a year, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Have you ever, you ever studied any of that shit, like in books?

Uh, you know, I dabble.

Uh, like How to Win Friends and Influence People, shit like that?

That's it.

That's, that's a book I've picked up, uh, a long time ago.

Probably 5 years ago or something.

Might read it again, probably a good time for a refresher. Sure. Um, here's the thing, dude, I don't think any of us are perfect at this, so let me start with that. Um, so I'll give you some things I've learned over the years, and it's a lot, bro. I could talk about this for a long time. I have learned— there's a— I've heard this saying out there, like you don't tend to be in— I don't know how it's worded exactly, but I know how I hear it, so I'm gonna probably mess the quote up. I don't know who the hell said it, it wasn't me, but I like, I like the concept of it. And it's something along the lines of like, you don't really do business with friends, but people you do business with become friends. I, I've, I've learned like it's gone like that a lot more. I think when I try to become too friendly with people early, like just trying to become friendly because it seems like the right thing to do, I've learned it hinders the relationship a little bit more. Um, because I think for me it's like, it's unnatural. I'm not naturally— and I don't know your personality, I'm just speaking for me— I'm not naturally the kind of guy that's going out there trying to find a bunch of friends. Yeah, does it make sense? Like I don't need to hang out. I don't need to hang out with dudes on the weekend. I don't need to watch football games with buddies or golf with buddies or go to the bar with buddies. I don't, I don't give a shit. I have friends, but I'm not like a— it's rare, dude, that I need to be like in that environment, right? So one, it's a little bit uncomfortable for me just naturally. Um, I don't really fucking like people off the rip, like naturally. I'm not that guy. I'm not naturally outgoing and gonna talk to strangers in a restaurant or grocery store. I'm a game high-five dudes at a game is one of the weirdest fucking things I see guys do. I'm like, I don't know you. Yeah, that makes sense. But I'm not saying it's wrong, I just find it awkward. So you're dealing with an awkward person, first of all.

Sure.

You know, I've learned, dude, when I try too hard to be friendly with people, especially agents, I've learned they'll take advantage of it. More than it's beneficial. Does it make sense? They, they, they'll like lean on me to like be a whiny— like they want to just whine to me about stuff. Or, um, you know, maybe they take for granted I'm helping them with leads or helping them with staffing, or they, they, they, they go at my staff the wrong way because we're buddies, you know what I mean? I just— or they come in and they just want to shoot the shit with me versus do— I just I don't like that. Um, so I'll be honest, dude, I don't try that hard to create crazy close relationships. I like it to happen more naturally because it happens naturally, because I don't have to have a good relationship with people to help them get rich or even just get out of a hole. Not— I should be cordial to them and be respectful and be nice, you know what I mean? But I don't have to be buddy-buddy necessarily. I Um, I do try to create an environment though that people can come into to feel good.

Yes.

You know what I mean? I like, I like an office culture a lot. Like a lot. I know a lot of y'all do lock-ins to kind of make up for not having an office. I, I like that y'all have Zoom, but that certainly doesn't replace an office setting by any means. You can't, you can't get to know each other. Um, I like a culture of working hard. I like a culture of like being in early and staying late and having no fear and chasing your goals and, you know, I mean, working on your health. And like, I like, I like that vibe. So in my office, I, I tried to create that. So if you came into the office and you wanted to shoot the shit in the corner and goof off, you kind of stood out in a bad way, you know what I mean? Because like, we created an environment where people there to do Like, no offense, everyone's here to do this to get paid for their family, right? Like, I'm not the only one who doesn't come here to have friends. Fair? Like, I might be one of the only ones that's willing to say it out loud on a recorded call, but I don't think anyone's in it for that. Like, I know some people are like, it's not all about the money, it's about other stuff. I agree, you know, but for me, I, I just found, dude, If I help people make money, we tend to become friendly. Does that make sense? So I put that first, and I feel like— you ever get too friendly with a client?

Yes.

What happens? What happens?

And, uh, yeah, they can take control of the conversation real quick and, uh, that it.

So does it make sense? It's like Do we know it fucks us up? And then what happens if you allow everyone— and I'm not saying you have to have a situation where you go like, Danielle, you can't talk to Eric, y'all can't be friends in the office. I'm not saying be psycho. But what happens if I said Danielle, because her text, her message popped up and Eric just happens to be in the middle of my screen, right? Well, what happens if those two both become super— it's an environment where we, we, we, we, we go like, we focus on friendship first. And they become friendly and they're both struggling, what now tends to happen?

Uh, I don't think it ends up working out as well as if everyone was kind of keeping things cordial, you know.

They're gonna probably bitch together in the corner.

Yeah.

And then when the third guy comes in, you know, Isaac comes in and he hears two bitching, he's like, yeah, me too, those leads do suck.

Yeah.

Does that make sense? So I want to be careful to not allow that environment.

Yeah, because that can snowball real quick.

Yeah, dude, it gets out of control, bro. So for me, it's like the environment is like, all right, we're here to make a living for our family. Can we just get it out of the way? We're here to educate and train, and again, we want to have a good time and have a cool environment. But the environment's a lot cooler, bro, when everybody's knocking down 10 G's a week. I promise it's a lot friendlier when everybody's got money in their pocket. You know, I like to go to— I like to go to lunch and dinner with guys and girls in the industry and we fight over who gets the credit card to the waitress first to pay for the whole table. I like that. I like those friends. Yeah, does it make sense? And so for me, it's, it's second. Culture is first for sure. Making money's first. It's close with culture because I'm not going to sacrifice culture to make money. Does it make sense? So if I have to pick culture, I'm picking that first. I want a good environment, a good culture, but I want, I want money-making activity to be high on the, high on the list, dude. You know, and then I've just learned, bro, when we all make money together, we tend to become friends, you know. Um, now I do think you— just like clients, I think you need to get to know people. I think you need to understand them. I think you need to ask a lot of questions to understand their situation and their demographic and their dynamic and their— you know what I mean? Like their background. And like, even when I was talking to Cameron, I'm like, all right, is there any reason you can't start before 10? He's like, take my brother to school and the dog. I mean, dude, I don't— I didn't get— I don't get to dive in here because it's too short, but maybe there's something going on where he has to take his brother to school. I don't fucking know, you know what I mean? Maybe mom's got issues, maybe there's mom— who knows? I, I don't, I don't know, but I would want to know that if you were direct to me. Why? It's a health— it's helpful to understand him, you know? But it doesn't mean I'm gonna be like, yo, Steph's cooking hot dogs tonight, come over. I, I just, I don't— you don't have to have that to build a big business.

Sure.

No, I totally get it. I was more so even just like balancing, like, you know, like the relationship you have with like, uh, your leaders is definitely a lot different than your agents.

100%.

I mean, yeah, I don't know, there's, there's so many—

there is. This is, this layer is crazy, dude. That if you go the next level, like leaders versus not there's this funny balance of like, as a leader, if you're an A-type personality, right, which I'll assume maybe you are, you tend to want to control things. You want to run the leaderboard, you want to run Issue Paid, you want to have the team call, you want to have the da da da, you want to have all the stuff, right? You want to have the CRM, you want to have the process, you want to have onboarding, you want to have contracting, you want to have all these layers that you control and you manage and you get a hold of because you're a control freak and you want to, right? I'm speaking about me. I'm lumping you into it, right? Well, dude, our leaders want that too. So sometimes what I see is like this weird balance. Like, Kate deals with it, like she's trying to help do everything for the whole level, but then each one of y'all wants to do your own thing too. And it's this weird balance of like, fuck, how do you let them be? Or do you be like, yo, team, you know? And it's a, it's a, it's a funny balance, dude. It's hard. You know, again, you get a guy like Zach Torowski in your group, bro, eventually I don't have to fucking babysit him. And I had to eventually go like, do you, bro? Do we— do him and I agree with everything each other does? Nah, dude. Are we on the same page with most of it? Yes. Are we gonna ever hurt each other?

No.

You know what I mean? And so you have to learn to have trust in other people too, which is really fucking hard. When you're that type of A-type personality, to trust others, you know. And sometimes, dude, sometimes what I've told Kate, I'm like, let them fall on their face. She wants to call one of y'all and deal with something, I'm like, nah, fuck them, let them fall on their face. They're gonna have to learn this lesson, you know. And so Mike Kilimett taught me a lot, dude. One of the most valuable lessons I learned from him, especially when dealing with other leaders, is I don't always have to handle the shit now. When you got stuff, sometimes it's better to let it play out, dude. Not always, you know what I mean? But like sometimes it's like, like, dude, let that one go away. I know Bob's mad at Susan, like, they'll both fucking survive. Let it be today. Yeah, this one wants to move teams with this one, like, dude, I gotta go, bro. You want me to deal with this shit right now? You know, so sometimes just letting things play out You ever think about something in your life that you are frustrated by? Anything? Annoyed as shit that you were in that situation, right? And then it plays out 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, however long later, and you look back on it and you're like, thank God that thing happened because it led me here. Does that make sense? I assume you've had something like that in your life.

Makes a lot of sense.

So sometimes when you're going through stuff and you're frustrated You now have to go like, am I clear-minded and I really need to attack this, or is this one of those things that's going to like play out and be okay, right?

You got to be control everything.

Yeah, dude. Now, who has it the hardest? Us, because we don't know, because it's our first time with those hard situations, you know what I mean? So you got to be willing to trust your judgment and pay attention to it. And I've learned from me My personality, I want to handle shit now. Sometimes, dude, I'll go at something too aggressive because I don't, I don't give myself time to cool off and think about it. Or how about think about a strategy when you're approaching said manager? No different than we go, I'm sitting with a 72-year-old widow later, dude, I sure as shit know the strategy in that sale. Does it make sense? Yeah. But when Steve's mad at Mary Am I just going at it just off the cuff, or am I going to sit down and go like, all right, what's the strategy in this conversation? Who do I approach first? If I approach this one, he's going to be mad. How do I control him from being mad? What do I say? How do I deliver it? Like, that shit's important, bro. And that's why— that's where most people get stuck, is they keep the same style of management as it grows instead of understanding your people and understanding what makes people tick and what frustrates people and learning how to defuse situations and learning how to like Uh, what's the— what's that word when you go to like, like if you go to court, before you go to court they do like mediation, kind of like be a mediator sometimes. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like especially as the size you start getting, dude, you're starting to deal with some shit, you know? So for me, what I always did, I like to communicate with someone who's been through that stuff, you know, until I understand the thinking. So I would call and be like, whether I'd call Sean or I'd call Mike, or I'd have a bunch call Mark Me. I got a bunch of people I can call. You know what I mean? And that's why I asked about clarifying, because I think in relationships outside of your group are more important many times than the ones inside your group. So if I have an issue, I can call Mark and be like, yo, I'm dealing with this, bro. You ever deal with this? He's like, hell yeah, I deal with that, and let me tell you how all the ways I fucked it up. I'm like, got it, thank you. Let me do it this way. And so him and I bounce a lot of shit off each other. Yeah, you know, and so I think relationships with someone who thinks differently than you is mega important. We tend to align ourselves with people who think just like us. When you can align yourself with someone who thinks completely different and can challenge you a little bit, and you have a safe space to where you can be like, yo, I got this going on, that's super powerful, dude. And my biggest mentors in this business were nothing like me. Maybe A-type personalities want to build something, but as far as like demeanor and communication and all that, dude, I had to learn that stuff from others. You know, a lot of the patience and the things I've taught today were not my natural abilities. I had to adopt that from other people, um, and those tend to happen from, you know, an Andrew Taylor or Zach. I mean, I've learned a lot from Zach, and I can name a ton of them, you know. So yeah, that helped.

No, absolutely.

Thank you, thank you.

You got it, dude. Who else wants a little something? Anybody got anything?

Maybe anything. I got a quick question.

What's up, dude?

What's up?

How are you doing, bro? I'm doing good, man.

You still sore?

You good?

That was gonna be one of my, one of my two questions. How, how, uh, how sore were you after the race?

I wasn't sore at all, dude. That was a baby race. Oh, okay. I'm ready to rip. I was a little sore, at least today. I mean, I knew I did some work, but I didn't, uh, yeah, that was— I mean, it was what, 6 miles or whatever we did? I was tired.

7.

But yeah, yeah, I didn't— it was good. So, so him and I did the— he came to Georgia, he flew down, drove down from Baltimore, right? Baltimore.

Yeah, yeah.

On, uh, was it a Friday night, Saturday morning, overnight? Friday night for the most part. Came to, came to my part of town, Metro Atlanta, and we did like, uh, if y'all know like those Spartan races and mud mud runs and shit like that. We got one local to me, uh, so how many of us were there? Maybe 6 of us, something like that. Yeah, including Ronnie, Freddie, uh, you, my son, who else? Madison, um, some of the other guys. So we did this mud run and I invited a bunch— I do like crazy stuff health-wise because I'm a psycho and get bored. And at convention, he— I invited him and his crazy ass drove down. I was like, I like this. So we did 7 miles in the mud and woods and ice and obstacles together. It was a good day.

It was fun. It was a blast. I appreciate the invite as well.

Yeah, you got it, dude.

Yeah, but my other question was, so I'm producing and I'm starting to build some momentum, but my mindset isn't necessarily on building. What kind of mindset shift did you have to make to go from being a producer to being like a real agency builder, mindset-wise?

I didn't have to make a shift in that. I had to make changes to do it effectively and do it well, but there was no— I came into the business knowing I did not want to sell for a living. I need to sell to get myself out of a fucking hole, and I'm going to build a team. I— so my background, I was in, um, I was an accountant for a long time. I was, I was, I worked in a warehouse for 4 years, restaurant for 4 years, I did warehouse for 4 years, and I was an accountant for like 10 years. And, uh, in the middle of accounting, I got into the mortgage business. You've been in the mortgage business by chance?

Not at all.

All right, so mortgage works super similar. You can sell mortgages, loans, make a decent-sized commission, very similar to what we make. Um, and if you get a big one, it can be a big one, just like here. You can also hire other loan officers and get a spread. So at— in 2007 I had like 10 loan officers. I was— I sold loans, and then I saw what someone was doing, and I copied them. I opened my own mortgage company. I use it in air quotes because it was in my basement. And, um, if a loan officer sold a mortgage, they would get 75% of the deal. I would get 25%, right? So I had 10 of them. I'd sell what I had to sell for a month, and I'd get 25% of 8, 9 other people. I was like, cool. And I made you know, $100 grand in a year. And then I lost it all and went bankrupt and bought shit I shouldn't have bought. And I, I literally lost my ass. But I understood the concept of team building then in leveraging others and, and spread and margins in business. I started to understand it in the mortgage space. Um, and when I got in insurance, the first time I was introduced to insurance, I was introduced to it as be a producer, sell insurance, get out of your mortgage job, make a good living selling insurance. And I quit. Because I didn't— I, I said the leads sucked and they didn't work, and I quit after the first day. When I got back into the mortgage— into the insurance business, a buddy from the mortgage industry reached out to me and was like, yo, I have this thing, I think you'll be good at it. It was just like when we were in mortgages. And I hired him in the mortgage industry, so he brought me back around to insurance. I told him no, and he's like, I'm telling you, this can be your thing. And then he explained the business to me as a whole. You can sell direct to you, override spread, the whole thing. I was like, oh shit, I want to do that. Does that make sense? So from the— from that very day, it was the— it was the summer, late spring, early— probably late spring of 2012. I was like, I'm gonna do that. So I started recruiting immediately. Immediately I called the people from the mortgage industry and I was like, yo, I got this thing. Now, I didn't build shit. It didn't get me any agents. Does that make sense? But I started right away, so I don't, I don't relate to the— I, and we can talk about however you want, but I don't really relate to the, I want to be an insurance sales guy forever. I don't, I don't understand that, quite frankly, you know what I mean? Because it's not what I wanted to do. Um, does it pay well? Sure. Is it capped? Yes, like a lot, you know what I mean? And a lot of y'all might not see that yet, so we can certainly talk about it more, but I don't— I didn't have to transition like you're trying to transition, you know what I mean? For me, what I would say is like, have you ever thought about that question? Like, do you, do you want to be a sales guy forever? And there's no wrong answer. You don't—

definitely not.

Hey, some people do, and it's okay.

Yeah.

Um, So then it's like, well, why do you— if you, if you don't want to be in sales, what are you waiting for? Like, what's the fear?

Living proof, maybe. I feel like I got to make enough at some point.

Were you, were you listening when I was talking to Cameron?

Yeah, definitely.

Okay, so you heard me say that that's the main objection from everyone who doesn't do it. Yeah. So my question is, why do you think you need to have proof to hire other people into the insurance industry? Think about all— how many people do you think have succeeded in the insurance business ever? Get effing paid.

Get effing paid.

Get effing paid. Get effing paid. What up, guys? If you guys are looking to get to a new level in your career, you may have seen that we've been running some workshops in my office in Atlanta. I have them every quarter now. The last one sold out fully. It was a massive success. A couple different levels you can attend. Just a general ticket um, get you in the door, listen to 2 days of training, interactive workshop style. We really dive into what you got going on and how to get to new levels. If you're looking to be in a new crowd, higher level up, um, I have a private mastermind. Last one was at my house. It was insane, um, all the value that everybody added to each other, and we had a good time. And, uh, I heard it was way underpriced relative to what people got out of it. You can check out some of the testimonials here, I'm sure. But if you'd like to attend, click the link below. I do them every quarter. They're Date will be around here somewhere. Look forward to seeing you there. If you are in the insurance industry and you're looking to scale and grow your business, I highly encourage you to check John Wetmore out. Probably honestly made the cost of the event back in like the first 2 hours of being here. If you want to win and you want to grow, I'd get around John as much as you can. John Wetmore is a beast. So much value in everything that I've learned here. Growing, about building, delegating. He's talking about systems and automating right now. It is worth the price of admission. Make sure you get to the next one. What do you think?

Oh, probably more than I can think of. More than I can count.

Okay.

Yeah. So can't, can't we work off that? Like, why do you have to be the proof? We've had, I'd argue, millions of people be successful in the insurance space in the last couple hundred years insurance has been sold. Fair? An obnoxious amount of millionaires. And bro, plenty of billionaires. Forget how many can make six figures, that number's astronomical. There's, there's like, the sky's the fucking limit, you know what I mean? So it's like, I need you to get in your head, why do you, why do you have to be the one to succeed before others can? Because all the other people haven't needed you. Facts. I didn't, I didn't need you to win. Kate don't need you to win. Jacob don't need you to win. Cameron don't need you to win.

Hey John, I was gonna say something real quick because like, if I can say, if I may.

Yeah, please.

So Berhani's, that's, uh, that's my guy right there.

Yeah.

And I appreciate everything you did with hanging out with him and all that stuff. He was fired up. But I think it, some of it has to do with like, we came from the door-to-door business before and it was— I think it's like beat into our head in a way of like, you can't build a team unless you're like the example. That was like always what was said. And like, and I think that's just like psychologically something that we're like trying to like—

that's why I'm asking him out loud. I want to understand like, why do you believe that all these other people can win without you, but the ones you want to attract can't?

There is no reason.

Agreed 100%. Yeah, you just have to get to that level of belief where you're okay pulling the trigger prior to you being the end-all be-all. Bro, I've been doing this a long time. I still think I suck ass at a lot of stuff, you know what I mean? I still don't do it perfect, dude. I still lose agents. I still have people quit on me. I still have managers who don't like me. I still sometimes fuck this up. You know what I mean? So it's like, that's part of the process, dude. And now, if you're a killer, does it help? Oh my God, yes. Does it make it significantly easier? Yes. Uh, yes. Should you kill at it? Yes, you should. It will make the entire process easier. But do you have to wait?

Why?

You know what I mean? Like, FFL has 20-something thousand agents, dude, and didn't one of them need you? They need someone. They need someone. Does it make sense? They can't do it by themselves. So what can you do, do you think, to help someone succeed if you aren't killing it yet?

I can definitely edify my upline and then connect them with the right people.

Yes, sir. Can you teach someone to get licensed?

Of course, definitely.

Okay. Can you teach someone to study whatever they need to know product-wise, uh, clientele-wise, lead-type-wise? Can you point them to training to educate themselves?

Yeah, 100%.

Okay. Can you teach someone how to buy leads?

Yes.

Okay. Can you teach someone a basic level phone script?

Yes.

Okay.

Can you teach them how to do an application?

Yes.

Can you teach them how to overcome 'I want to think about it sometimes'?

Yeah, definitely.

What else do you need? Like, what else is there?

Nothing else.

There's no— I don't— is there? I don't know. Does anyone have anything else we would need to teach someone to get them started? No, does it make sense? It's like, don't overcomplicate it. It's really simple what we do. Again, are you gonna mess it up? Oh yeah, dude, I promise you, you're gonna jack it up, you know what I mean? But at its core, dude, you already do know how to get started, you know what I mean? It's like, think about how many people overcomplicate doing that run. And hell, you might have overcomplicated it till the day before because you didn't sign up till the day before. So maybe you're overthinking it, maybe you aren't, I don't know. Does it make sense? But I know, I know I've done it. I look at some and I'm like, uh, I don't know that. Oh, that one's gonna be hard, that one gonna— you know what I mean?

Yeah.

But you kind of essentially rolled out of bed, drove 12 hours, and ran 7 miles through some really hard shit.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Because you had faith that you're like, I've been an athlete, I can probably figure it out, you know? And it's like, dude, you are in insurance, you did get started, you are on the phones. What do you make in a month? Right now? I know it's not where you want to be. What are you making?

Uh, I paid $16,000 in March.

Would you, would you deposit, uh, maybe $10,000? Okay, so what percentage of humans that don't work with us now would be excited about making $10,000 in a month? What do you think?

Very small percentage.

Every, every— no, every day you walk by 10 people just 10 random people today. Yeah, that aren't— they are not in insurance. They're just 10 random fucking strangers on the street. How many of those 10 do you think would be excited to make 10 grand in a month?

9 out of 10, maybe even 10 out of 10, my man.

You know what I mean? Like, you already have the ability to help 90% of people, so why, why overthink it and slow down just so you can help that last one? I, like, I can help that one. Michael can help that one. Kate can help that one. Jake can help that one. Who gives a shit? It's the same concept. You ever, you ever heard new agents, like, struggle to get started because they only have one carrier contract approved and they want to wait for 17 of them before they pick up the phone and call leads?

Yeah.

I don't know what y'all's answer is to that. I'm like, why are we waiting? Well, I, I need all the products. But let's say AmeriCo. Like, what percentage of clients could you write with AmeriCo? If we sit with 10 clients, what percentage can we cover?

70. 70.

Okay, so most new agents want to sacrifice covering 70% of people until they have the ammo to cover the other 30. I'm like, what? Wait, what? Why don't you just take the 70% now and deal with the 30% later? That makes sense. The same kid I was talking to you about yesterday was losing his mind over not having all the contracts. I'm like, Bri wrote $200 grand with one carrier. FFL did $10 million with one carrier the first year. There are publicly traded companies that have one product and they sell billions of insurance a year. Like, we don't— we don't need everything. Does it help? Yeah, I ain't saying it don't help, but you don't need it. And no different than you, dude. Will it help if you're fucking selling $40K a month and already know how to build a team and do other things, and you're 2 years down the road? Will that help? Yes. But you know what'll help even more? You not being afraid to help that other percentage right now, and you getting that education right now, and you going out there and doing something you're uncomfortable doing before you're ready to do it. Just like we tell new agents, Get on the phone before you're ready. You don't have to know phone script to get on the phone. Just get on the phone. You'll learn it as you go. Fair?

That's fair.

So it's like, you gotta tell— what I've learned, dude, is a lot of times as managers, we have to tell ourselves the same shit we're telling new agents. You know what I'm saying? It's like, it's the same message. We can overthink, and we can come up with all these reasons where it won't work. It's like, what if this? What if that? What if, uh— it's like What if it does work? You know what I mean? Again, my mentor, dude, never sold more than $20K ever, ever, ever. Never. Maybe by if he tripped over it from— but he didn't average that. $200 grand a year, dude. It's all he ever sold. And he built a fucking 9-figure company. You know what I mean? I'm like, shit. I was talking to a guy who works for FedEx the other day. He flies for FedEx, and I was asking him all kinds of questions. He's an agent with us now, and, uh, our kids go to school together, so he always sees me at the track. And that's— we started talking because we see each other at school. And, uh, anybody know the owner of FedEx? Anybody know who I'm talking about in the story? He's got— he's got dope story, I understand. I don't— I don't know him. I haven't followed him yet, but I was talking to this dude a couple weeks ago. And, uh, I was giving him some examples like this, and he goes— because he was overthinking some stuff— and he goes— I go, dude, there's people who run companies that never did what the company does. And he goes, oh, funny enough, I work for FedEx, and so-and-so— anyone can Google it now— he says the guy's name, whoever runs FedEx. And he goes, have you heard his story? And I'm like, nah, I don't know it at all. And he starts telling me a little bit about it, and I'm like, did he ever fly planes? No. Did he ever drive the trucks? No. He didn't do— he didn't do none of that shit. And he started and runs FedEx. It's one of the biggest companies on the planet, and he never did what the FedEx employees do, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And he's on my list of— I've heard there's a dope book about him and like some documentaries and stuff that I'm intrigued about to learn more about. Um, but it's pretty common, man. And I, and it is common though for people to, like Michael said, for people to beat into you because that's, that's kind of the norm in the industry. And when I answer this question in settings with different, because I, I, I'll speak at different industry events that are outside of FFL, and almost everyone, Michael, says the same thing your guy says. They beat it into them to not do it until they're fucking perfect at it. And I'm like Isn't that the opposite message of what we're telling agents? Imagine if we— agents waited till they were good at insurance till they started selling insurance. But like, this kind of counterintuitive, you know? And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's normal though, dude. Barney, it's a normal thought, you know what I mean? And that's just one of those things you gotta fight. Um, we all have that to some extent. You ever heard like imposter syndrome? People talk about that a lot.

Definitely.

You know how many— do you know how many things I say to myself now that I question myself on. And sometimes people are like, wait, you question yourself on shit? I'm like, I mean, only like 9 times a day, you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's normal.

But we have to learn to fight that. And that's why I'm a big fan of like studying and reading and getting around other people who think different, because I've had to adopt this mindset. I haven't always had this. I did always have the like, I'm gonna build You know, but I, I've certainly overthought things and, and, and slowed myself down from things. But now I'm much more of the like, fuck it, what's worst case? Worst case, you start hiring them, what happens?

I might lose a few people, but there'll be more.

And you'd be in the same spot you're in today.

Yep.

So it can't get worse, you know what I mean? Now, do you got to manage some stuff? Yes. Do you got to pay attention to some stuff? Please, like, pay attention to your book of business, pay attention to your agents, watch the carriers, make sure they aren't leaving debt, make sure they're buying leads. Make like— don't go— don't hire like this, you know what I mean? Because you can't mess that up too. So make sure as you're doing it, communicate with people who know and learn as you go. Don't hire and stay blind. Hire and ask a lot of questions, situational stuff. And when you see— if you got to point someone to Cade or Mike or wherever and you see how they handle stuff, be curious. Hey, why'd you do it that way? Hey, why'd you teach it that way? Hey, why'd you say that? And start learning why. So with Mike, when I started getting situations, I'd call him and I'd be like, yo, I got this guy, this guy Burhani, he's asking this question like this. What— how do you think? Like, here's what I think. Am I thinking right or am I thinking wrong? And I would explain what I think, and he'd be like, nah, dude, here's why. Here, think this way, and here's why. Does it make sense? And that's how I learned the game, is I would call different people that were way higher up than me, and I go, I got this situation, here's what I think, How would you handle it? You know, and I started to learn, like, there was a stage where I was like, how would Shawn Mike handle this? You know what I mean? Like, huh. And then try to make the move and see how many times I was right. And I learned that early on I was kind of wrong a lot. So I— you have to be a little bit vulnerable if you're building early and kind of blind. You have to be super vulnerable and be okay, like, kind of let the ego go and be okay that you kind of suck at a lot of it. You know what I mean? And I didn't care. I'm like, dude, I'm just trying to build and win. And for me, I learned if I'm helping the higher up build, meaning I'm helping my upline, I'm helping the team, I'm helping the company, bro, they're going to help me a ton. You know what I mean? I know that leaders and winners look for that type of personality. So you'll stand out more than the rest, and I bet you'll get a lot more help than you think.

That makes sense. Appreciate you, John.

All right, my dude. Makes sense, Mike? That help?

Yeah, totally. Um, it's like that, you know, just kind of speaks to a bunch of the guys that might be on here that might be thinking the same thing.

Yeah, it's cool. Yeah, it's very common, you know.

It's true.

It's—

and, and to be real, you know what else is common is everybody thinks they have to build a team of hundreds of agents. You mean, like, think about this, like I don't know, whose mortgage is under $2,000? Mortgage or rent, right? Probably most people. Maybe in Cali, maybe it's— we go under $3,000, whatever it is, right? Let's say $2,000 pays a mortgage. Imagine you hire one guy, you hire Burhani, he issues $16K in a month and you got 20 points on it. It's 3 G's deposited from one dude. Pays your mortgage and maybe your car payment too, you know what I mean? Then you hire Cameron and he issues— I don't remember what he said his number was, 20-some, I think he said 20-some. Maybe I got 10 points on him. He does 20 grand, 2 G's, bro. That pays my kids' private school tuition. You know what I mean? Yeah, like two guys, mortgage, car payment, tuition taken care of. You don't have to have hundreds and hundreds or dozens and dozens. You don't, you don't, to make good money in the space. You know, most people can pay their bills with a few people, few helping a few people make money, you know. So it's like, I always saw it like that too. And then quite frankly, I'm gonna give a— I'm gonna give away a little, and some of y'all managers aren't gonna like this, so I'm gonna apologize in advance. Because I like to keep it real. But like, you know, when you're at the— let's do the opposite of what I just said. Someone's got 20 points, right? I got 20 points on a guy and I'm making 2 G's. When I was that guy and someone had 20 points on me, I was like, yo, that shit has my mortgage payment. I need to sell more to get my comp higher because he's getting the money, not me. I need to build more because that fool has my mortgage payment and my car payment, my kid's tuition. He gets it. The upline's getting it right now. They deserve it because they're helping you. But you can go get it. Any one of y'all can go get it. Any one of you can squeeze the comp of the person between— from you and the person above you. Any one of you can do that. Yeah, I mean, so when I, when I was doing this thing, bro, I was chasing my money that someone else had. Again, did they deserve it? Yeah, but I deserve it too, so I'm gonna go get it. And I decided to build wide and often and deep. And eventually, man, I passed a lot of people. You know what I mean? I caught up to comp. My income started passing people that hired me. I was like, yo, they got my money. I ain't sitting around on a Saturday. I need to go get my raise. You know what I mean? I need to hit that next level. And I don't think a lot of people chase levels quite like we once did. You know, I'd go on a 60-day run. I'm like, yo, I'm going to go get my 5 points. 5 points on $40 grand, that's good money. And I do that every 2 months. So I went, I went and chased it. And I think as managers, y'all should encourage that a lot. And those of you that are hiring and building consistently won't worry about the ones that are trying to catch you. You know what I mean? I just, I loved it because they were more like me. And that's kind of the reality of how the business works. So I'm like, yeah, you want to get paid more? Not only can you sell more, But you can get more comp if you go out and sell a bunch more, and you can— you get it from the guy who's above you, or girl. Yeah, so makes sense.

Definitely appreciate you again, John.

I'm gonna have one more if y'all got anything. I like, I like the numbers in his name, Justin. 13, 13, 5,000. He's hit 1,300 out of 5,000. Yep. Is that what that means? He's on his way to 5 Gs? What's that mean? Oh, you kind of—

you—

oh, my goal today is to hit 5,000. Okay, you got 1,300 so far. Yeah, yeah, I like that. Y'all should all do that shit. A live leaderboard, I love it. I'm a fan of that one. Cool. Well, thanks, John, for getting on here. Do you guys have any other last questions? He's already spent an hour and 10 minutes with us. So thank you very much. What I would say too, as someone thinks about it, because someone has one, and I'll, I'll talk for half a second, um, you know, I got a lot of stuff going on to help people win. Um, if you're interested in any of this stuff, where should we send them, Reese? Probably if you go to johnwetmore.com/resources. Yeah, johnwetmore.com/resources. That's probably the most common thing people go to online, where you can download some free stuff, teach you how to set your goals, teach you how to set your schedule. I have an activity tracker that's in there, um, that you can download. It's all free. And then once you get in that, you'll be on our email list and get everything we send out— newsletter. I have events going on. I do training. I do all kinds of shit. Um, so if you're interested in just following along the journey of what I put out there to help people win in the business, I do it. I do a noxious amount of free stuff I put out there. Um, so if any of you are not already on the newsletter, get my emails, texts, everything we send out for events. Go to that link Reese just sent out and, uh, download it, send it to your agents, whatever. Um, and I'm here to help if I can. And I appreciate you having me on, girl. And let me know, let me know for sure if there's anything I can, I can do to help. And I, uh, it's cool watching you guys grow, and it's, it's fucking working. There, a few months ago when you were feeling down Yeah, we're growing. We have lots of agencies growing too. I'm super excited for everyone. And thank you, John, for being here. I know that they all appreciate it greatly. Let's keep on growing. Let's do it. If I can help, hit me up. Appreciate it. I'm going to open up breakout rooms for you guys. See you guys.

Thanks, John.

Thanks, John.

You got it, guys. Later.