How To Build An Insurance Agency FOR FREE (Full Guide)

Everybody think of your particular group, your whole agency, whatever it is. If it's 3 people or 100 people, I don't care. Right off the top of your head, who stands out the most? Everyone has a name instant. Go, that's the person. I go, hey, come here. And I bring them in closer to me and then I start teaching them finer details about the business.

What's up, John? Good morning, man.

Thank you, brother. Appreciate you having me on. That was a heck of an intro. Holy smokes.

You bring us on your road show, we'll do that every time.

I, I will do it. I will do it.

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Tony, you want to, uh, you want to play co-host to the podcast host himself?

Absolutely. Welcome, John. Welcome, John. Welcome, John.

Let's roll it, brother. Thanks for having me. I always enjoy combos with you, my friend.

Yeah, you've been a great friend, a great integrity partner, and a great leader in our industry. I appreciate all you do because we need more great leaders like you, John. You've been an inspiration and a blessing to all of us, so we thank you.

I appreciate it, man. Same to you, buddy. Doing big things. I'm just— yes, part of the bigger picture, my friend.

So the title we gave you is Recruit or Die. And, and my, my challenge is, is I've stressed to my team and I've stressed to you last night when we were talking, prepping for today, is about recruiting and the, the necessity of that, especially those on this call that are marketers. Recruiters and our agency partners, our GAs, MGAs, SGAs, our integrity partners that are on. We have, we have 5 in our downline that are partners and just helping them get to the next level and take this to the levels of success that they and their family deserve.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, for me, it's, it's I never— the one thing I knew the entire time that I've been in this business, um, was I didn't want to be a sales guy forever, you know. I knew for me that was part of the journey. Um, it was required because we were broke coming in. I mean, obviously a lot of us can relate to that, so it's nothing new or special. Um, you know, it's just unique. My story is only unique to me. It's not unique in any other way. But, you know, I, I, I remember early on when I was still in accounting, Tony, doing my accounting job, because I started in the industry selling part-time. I didn't, I didn't come into this full-time. I couldn't afford to. Uh, this is, you know, I have 5 kids. They were all very young at that age, at that time. A lot of y'all that watch my Social Maddox is 14 and 6-foot-tall, playing baseball and golf and all kinds of stuff. And when I first got started, he was 9 months old in the space, you know. We were at that time to go grocery shopping on Sunday, we had to get coupons and make sure we could extend our $80 shopping budget as much as we could, and which was hard with 5 kids, you know. But I remember at that time, man, when I was commuting to— I had an hour and a half commute to my accounting job. It was on the other side of Atlanta, and I was doing recruiting interviews on the commute to my accounting job. I was recruiting in the insurance space before I was even full-time because I saw the bigger picture. I believed in— I mean, I didn't have a lot of skill set at that point, but I knew there were more people like me out there, you know. And folks were giving me an opportunity to change my world, and they were giving me guidance and mentorship and coaching and all that stuff to take me from point A to what I thought was point B. And at that time, quite frankly, Tony, my goal was to make $70 grand a year. Because I was only making $40, and I thought $70 was a big number. And so they were helping me kind of navigate that, you know. And I was like, I want to do that one day. I always saw that— I always looked in the future, man. I remember when I was working in a warehouse when I was in my early 20s, um, and at that time it paid me good money. I went from making $7 an hour at a pizza joint to making $18 an hour at a warehouse. This was in like, you know, uh, 2000, something like that. To me, I was like, holy smokes, I just tripled my income by working in a warehouse. And I was excited for like the first year because it was the most money I had made at that young age. And, um, but I remember about a year in, I was looking around, dude, and it was like— and it was night shift, so I'd go in at 6 PM and we'd get off at like 4 in the morning, 5 in the morning, depending how many boxes, how many trucks we had to load. And, uh, everybody's goal there, Tony, was one thing. It was literally to get on day shift. It was to go from night shift to day shift. That was everybody's dream. And I remember kind of paying attention to that. I was like, oh, that'd be cool to work, you know, 7 to 3 instead of 6 to 4, whatever it was. And I, I started paying a little bit more attention, and I'm like, all right, well, how do you get to day shift? Like, how long, how long you been here? He'd be like, 15 years. How long you been here? 7 years. How long you been here? 22 years. And all these guys were in their 40s at the time. And they've been doing this one job making the same money the 20-year-old kids making. Haven't been in the same job for 10, 15, 20 years sometimes and still on night shift. And I was like, that's my future? Nah, I'm out. You know, so I always tried to pay attention. I did that same thing in accounting. And when I got to insurance, I tried to pay attention to the future. You know, and I know— here's what I know. When I was, when I was doing interviews, again, I was 35 years old, dude, and I was fresh to the space. I knew nothing. I didn't know how to sell. I certainly couldn't have written a book. I wasn't— I was, I was just figuring it out. But I remember when I would interview, I would get these people that applied and they would tell me these stories about back in the day when I used to be the number one producer at my agency selling X amount of life insurance or Medicare or whatever, you know, I mean, health insurance. I was killing it here and just you know, I was— had these renewals and just, you know, over time, man, these clients started dying. Things changed with the industry or my company or the leads or whatever, whatever their story was. There was always some reason why it went away, you know. And I remember very early in my career here, I was like, you know, if I don't do this thing right, I'm going to be the dude applying— at the time I was, I was, I was running ads on Craigslist. So I was like, I don't ever want to be the dude applying to an insurance job on Craigslist that one day made a bunch of money, and because I didn't do it right, it all fell apart. I saw that early, bro. Um, and so for me, I just made it a mission, dude, no matter what, I was going to recruit always. Um, because the ones that I saw having massive success in the space, that's what they did. You know, watching guys at the time, you know, watching guys like Andy Albright and Barry and all these guys that are legends in the industry. I was watching those guys just from the back of the, back of the rooms that I was, that I was in, just trying to figure the space out. And I'm like, the commonality between the people that are sitting in the chairs watching and the people that are on the stages teaching is they never stop building, and the ones in the chairs do. They just stop for whatever reason. Make your excuse, there's a million of them, you know. But the guys up front, man, and they were living different. They were— they were able to take care of their children differently. They were able to take care of their families and their spouses differently, their communities differently, their churches differently. I mean, they were just able to live different. And I don't— I don't— I was— I lived normal my whole life. I lived in— I grew up in the projects, you know, getting— I remember going to buy my mom cigarettes with food stamps back in the day. And I just, I didn't want to live like everyone else. I wanted to live different. And I just, I saw enough people in our space living different. I'm like, I want to be one of the unique ones. And all it takes is doing a little bit more than the average person, you know. And I think in our space, man, so many people get caught up on lifetime renewals. And I can sell for a little while and make, you know, no offense to anybody, but my version was like, then I could sit on my butt and not and not have to work and make the lifetime renewals. And then one day somebody says to me, Tony, they're like, hey bro, you know whose lifetime those renewals are for, right? I was like, what do you mean? He goes, it's just the client's lifetime. They're all old. So when they all die, you get no more renewals, dude. And I was like, huh, never thought of it that way. You mean like it's a diminishing return? It's always, no matter what line, life, health, it doesn't matter. If there's, if there's renewals, it's a diminishing return unless you keep filling the pipeline. And again, you can fill the pipeline with more clients, fine, but then that takes just being a sales guy forever. And so for me, I decided I could only— there's a, there was a ceiling to sales. I got good at selling, I got really good at selling life insurance, but it was a ceiling. There's only so much I could do by myself, you know, and I could only take my family so far. And I've seen a lot of people in the space, Tony, get to a point where they live really good lives. They, they have the nice house, they have the nice cars, they put their kids in private school. But dude, after a few— 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 years of that, having to get up and sell every day to maintain the lifestyle, I've seen that cause so much burnout. And I, I can't imagine the stress of that, you know. I'm out there selling again for fun, but I don't— I, I certainly don't have to. I'm doing it to prove a point to the new direct— I'm building a new direct base shop, dude. Not only am I selling insurance, I'm building direct-to-me base shop right now. And it's fun. I'm getting to give other people— and at this stage of my life, it's— I'm now one of the old dudes, you know, relative, especially what you see at FFL. Um, and, you know, getting to help a bunch of these young 20-something-year-old kids change the trajectory of their lives, um, is just so fun, dude. That was My absolute favorite time in this space was from like 2015 till about 20— 2019. This is like 4-year stretch where we really built FFL, we really built our base shops, we really built the people that we developed everything y'all see today from. That was just a, an exciting and empowering time, man. And, um, for me to just be able to give that journey to other people and be like a little piece of their story along the way and just continue whatever legacy I may or may not have, just to be able to continue that, not only through my family but all these other people, is super, um, exciting for me, you know. And it, it just means the renewals, the lifetime renewals on that don't stop. Because if I keep recruiting and I teach my people to keep recruiting, our agency doesn't stop, dude. Our— I could quit today, Tony, and our agency will continue to grow at an obnoxious pace because there's so many other people that I've taught this concept to, and they've taken taken it and run with it. And you know, some of them— hell, some of them are better at this than I am, you know what I mean? We just got some young studs in our group now that have just taken this thing and run with it. And getting to watch some of the, some of the, um, other partners that are in depth get to raise their kids differently than I did when my, when my oldest ones were little. My oldest is 31, you know, all she knows is broke dad growing up, you know. So to get to watch some of these young kids raise their families just differently and, and be multi, multi-millionaires with, with little kids and get live different and, and their agencies continue to grow, and their job is really just to help other people build stuff at this stage. I don't know, man, it's just I wouldn't want it any other way. And, you know, again, it's— for me, it was always looking at the future and the vision, and I just continue to do that, man. And I, I just see the people that slow down, it, it just eventually it stops, man. And I just, I'm afraid for this thing to stop. And I just, I think from a selfish standpoint, I like the way I get to live, And just from an overall standpoint, man, I like to be just a little bit of a catalyst to help other people get to live like I've lived, because it's, it's, it's not bad, man, as you know. Yeah, so just some thoughts on it, buddy. All right, guys, if you'd like to attend my office 2-day workshop event that we put on 2 or 3 times a year, spend 2 full days, deep dive into everything you need to know to be successful in the space, whether you're selling whether you want to build an agency, whether you want to learn how to run a staff, recruit, sell at a high level, whatever it is, we dive into it again, workshop style. So super interactive. I run them every 2 or 3 times a year. There is a waitlist. If you go to JohnWetmore.com/workshop, you can put in your information and we will let you know when the next one is. There are 2 levels only. There's a basic ticket, you sit in the back of the room and you can attend. But the executive ticket is access to a private mastermind at my house where we have a dinner. We spend 3 or 4 hours there as well, engaging with each other and learning at a deeper level, a little bit closer-knit. So if you want to be at the next one, register at the link. Later.

Awesome.

I didn't know you had a 31-year-old, my friend.

Yeah, I was 16 when I had my first. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, 16. She was 16. Like that show 16 and Pregnant? That was me before. Some of you may not know that. Some of the people probably know it's a little, I don't know, some kind of weird show on TV, but Like, that was me before the show existed. I was— she was born when I was 17. I was paying, um, I was paying daycare my senior year in high school. Wow. Yeah. Wow.

Powerful stuff.

Yeah.

Incredible, incredible, John. So what would you say to the audience? We have people that I've been trying to coach up for a long time. That's why I wanted to have you here, because I really, really want it for them and their families. I said it yesterday in my meeting in Chicago. My wife and I, Kathy, cashed out pretty well and we also cashed in pretty well with Integrity. I'm one of the largest shareholders of the company. Of course, you know, we don't get any overrides or commissions or anything like that anymore. But the— that payout up front changed my life, as you know, you know, my story and You know, being able now to invest and build other companies outside of the insurance industry, namely, you know, being a partner with the Baltimore Orioles and, you know, being an owner and, you know, of that historic franchise. I called Bryan Adams up when it was announced, and I thank Bryan Adams for that because if it wasn't for him and Integrity, I would have never been in a position to be a minority owner of professional It's crazy. Sports franchise. That's what integrity offers. And I was telling the team yesterday, I want that for you. You know, you might be doing good. We got people on this call making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. Now, I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm not, you know, shunning that in any way. But why not be making $2-3 million a year?

Yeah.

$10 million a year. I mean, if it's in you and other people are doing it and John, we got people killing it in Medicare, wealth planning, life insurance like you do. It's an incredible world, especially in the Medicare world. I mean, when I looked at the life, because I was a big life guy with final expense, as you know, I was one of the founders of Senior Life. We left there and, you know, back in 2008, 2009, and, you know, and I did real well with that, did over $30 million with them, and not quite close to yours, but back then I was a lot of, a lot of business back then. And to be an owner owner and founder, but getting into Medicare, I was able to 20x my renewals. It was an amazing ride. And, you know, to have that opportunity and get so much out of it, I feel it's my duty and honor to pay it forward to those in, in our organization. And I've helped people within my team and outside my team. I have teams that I've helped that are part of the Integrity family because it is a unique family. We're here pulling together. I just want to see more people pulling in that right direction. What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I agree, man. I think that, you know, for me, it's the people that helped me didn't have to help me, you know. And I, I feel the same way, is a, a bit of obligation to continue that on. No different than I want to continue on in my world. They want me to be a catalyst to what they started too, you know. And this, this thing, this thing can get crazy. And again, it's a couple hundred grand is nice. And again, I remember wanting to make 70, so I'm not confused that a couple hundred grand is nice income for the average person. But the reality is, dude, you buy a couple nice cars and a nice house and put your kids in private school, you probably have credit card debt making a couple hundred grand a year, you know what I mean? It's like, it's not— and you probably have a mortgage still, you probably have big car payments still. And you know what I mean? It's different to be able to live life without debt and, you know, not have, not have worries and just be able to do what you want every day. And I don't know, man, I, I take a lot of pride in working hard. I'm, I mean, I'm, I'm belish the do more concept and everything I do. I just— and I have plenty of time with my family in downtime, and we get to do cool things. You know, we took, um, Maddox. Maddox likes— Maddox is big into sports, and I probably spoil him probably more than I should because the other kids grew up differently. And, you know, it's my last one, and I'm like, well, we're gonna live different, kid. So, you know, we, uh, we're, we're watching the, uh Seahawks, they played, uh, the Rams game a couple, whatever, a few weeks ago. And we're literally just downstairs playing at— we have a pool table downstairs, we're playing pool, watching the game. And the Patriots had already made it. I grew up in Boston, you know, so he's a, he's a Patriots fan, Tom Brady fan. He became a Bucs fan when he went to, to the Bucs. And, uh, we're just watching the game and he's like, he goes, man, it'd be cool to go to the Super Bowl, bro. 10 minutes later, we booked it. You know what I mean? Just to be able to just go like, let's go, just because he asked. He's 14 and wanted to go to the Super Bowl. I couldn't, I couldn't have done that making a couple hundred grand a year. I just, I know I couldn't have, you know, to not worry about it and to just be able to take him and do that experience alone for him. He'll never forget that, you know, especially on a whim and just be able to go. We got to take him last year to New York and watch his favorite team's the Dodgers. He's a big base, he's a lefty. Tall lefty baseball player, pitch— he's a pitcher and outfielder. He loves the Dodgers. Freddie Freeman's here and was here in Atlanta, so he's, he's kind of watched him and followed him to the Dodgers. And same thing, man, he wanted to go to the World Series when he was in New York a couple years ago. Got to take him to 2 games. He got to see— I could— he got to watch the— his Dodgers win the World Series. I, I know I, I could not have done that without having built. So I can say selfishly, that's part of the reason I build. I like the money, dude. I like, I like the lifestyle. I'm not gonna hide that. It's it's, it's, it's nice, um, you know, but I, I think I get it. I get more joy out of helping other people build. I help you. I'm like you, man. I help people build this thing that aren't in my agency, they aren't in our company. They have— I just continue to help people. And what I know, man, is that just continues to, to bring good things to my world too. I just continue to be blessed the more I bless other people. And I don't know, man, I wouldn't want any other career. I just, I can't imagine it a different way and just having to rely on sales only to do this and not— and miss out on the joy of helping other people build this thing. I just— it's, it's crazy, man.

Um, well, I know you've, you've made 7-figure income and help other people do it. You've made 8-figure income. You're trying to help other people get there. What are some tips do you have, John, that help people on this call that are making $300,000, $400,000, $500,000, making good money. Yeah, good renewals to get to that 7-figure. You told us your why already. Now how do they get to that 7- and 8-figure level in your perspective?

You know what's funny is like, I, I would imagine most people on here have tried to build to some extent, right? Probably tried and stopped, and they get someone started and they don't get started, and they get frustrated and they quit recruiting, or they blame the agent for this, that, or the other thing, or they didn't do it, or they didn't train, or they didn't study, or they didn't buy enough leads, or they didn't make enough calls, or they didn't do their, you know, seminars, or whatever it is y'all want them to do where the agent doesn't do it. There's this weird frustration we have with agents, you know. And then I, I know that we look at that agent and we're like, man, I just wish you made more calls and then you'd make more money, and I wish you'd follow up with more clients and then you'd make more money, and if you focused on the client and not yourself, then it'd be easier to sell. And we say all these things that agent should do to better their sales career. And then I find, Tony, that the managers that are building, they then turn into that agent that they're frustrated by, and they stop recruiting, and they stop helping agents, and they stop running ads, and they stop running opportunity meetings, and they stop— you know, I mean, they stop doing all the things just like the agent they're frustrated with, right? And I'm like, it's one of the weirdest dynamics I see in our space, is like You are literally doing the equivalent of the thing that frustrates you with the agent. You're just doing it on the agency side. You're the weak agency, just like they're the weak agent, and that's why they fail at selling. Well, you're failing at building for the same general concept, you know. And so I challenge people all the time, Tony, to look themselves in the mirror and maybe sometimes take their own advice. That they're giving others and where they wish other people would continue to grind when it got hard. I'm like, I wish you would continue to grind when it gets hard. You think building's easy? Huh? It's laughable. This is one of the hardest things ever. It's difficult. Like, it's fun, sure, all the good things Tony and I have talked about, but it is— it comes with its difficulties. Business comes with his difficulties, you know. And for me, I've learned Instead of to get frustrated by the problems, I've learned to appreciate them and know that the more problems I tackle, the better we all do. Me, my team, whether it's the agent's team, my staff team, you know what I mean? Like, I like being able to— my assistant Amanda, who you've met, she's been with me 9 years now. My assistant makes $200 grand a year, dude. So to say a salesperson's making that, I'm like, I'm not trying to be mean, my assistant makes that, you know what I mean? And so I just, I like to give her to— she gets— she has twin 3-year-olds. So to get to watch her raise her 3-year-old, she's, you know, she's 28 years old making $200 grand a year, you know what I'm saying? It's like to get to watch her raise her kids like that at that age At 28, I was, I was making like $22,000 a year or so. Who knows? I was making so little money, it was crazy, you know? And so I, I just think people should look at themselves in the mirror more often and stop talking so much about the why it's not working and go make something happen and do something about it, you know what I mean? And don't give up when it gets hard, just like you're preaching to your agents. You know, and go out there and do more of it every day and show, like, prove to the world. Stop being a talker and start being a doer, you know, and go out there and prove to your, to your family that you can do something big in life. Again, no offense, man. Agent making a couple hundred grand, those are dime a dozen. It's not unique in our space, you know. So if you want to be different in the world, you, you gotta, you gotta be different every day. And I just, I have found that, man, the one of the biggest cancers in the space is is, is the builders turn into the agents they're frustrated by. Yeah, you know, it's, it's the wildest dynamic.

You know, something you said earlier about, um, that agent that, um, that's struggling and we get frustrated trying to help them. All you can do is all you can do for people. I learned that from Art Williams. All you can do is all you can do, and all you could do is enough. But you got to keep recruiting. It's just like when you're selling and working leads and that lead frustrates you, that client you're trying to help, they need the product and they don't want to go anywhere with it. You got to move on. You know, you got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them. But something that resonated with me that you said earlier is regarding that agent that becomes a salesman for life. Last yesterday at Fred Vegas meeting in Chicago, I'm still here. And, um, so an 87-year-old guy in the audience—

I saw him.

87-year-old guy. Do you know how often I see 70 and 80-year-old guy insurance guys starting over again? I've seen it in my travels to my home base, which, which is the Mid-Atlantic— Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, South Jersey, Delaware. I do meetings opportunity meetings, career events for our leaders there. And I run across those agents that started when I started.

Yeah.

And they still there. I've grown to a whole nother level. And I praise God. I thank the good Lord for that. He blessed me tremendously. I always got to keep it humble and keep it real. God blessed me. But I look in that audience, I see a face. I'm like, I remember you. At American Income Life. I remember this guy. You started when I started and you still on the right, right? We're 50 years old, 55 years old now, and you're still an agent.

Yeah.

Still getting by, still in the rat race. And that, to me, scares me.

Yeah.

That there's people on this call right now are going to be that 87-year-old guy I saw yesterday in the audience. That are going to be in that same boat at 87 years old. Ain't that shocking?

Yeah. His— hey, his lifetime renewals ran out, bro. Yeah, you know what I mean? I saw him trying to get out of the chair with the cane. Was it that guy?

Yeah, great guy, great person. Now he drove from Indiana to that meeting in Chicago, a couple hours away, to be there. Isn't that amazing? I don't want that for that— our people in this call. Hey, I want them to have what you and I have, and many other hundreds of other integrity partners to be at a whole nother level people only dream about. I'm gonna tell you, I told you this, uh, John, yesterday. We got some of the most talented and gifted Medicare professionals in the industry. We truly have an all-star team. Yeah, I'll stack our guys up against anybody, against Ritter, against Agent Pipeline. They're, they're more talented. Our biggest challenge is their recruiting efforts, and you really help on the why. I need you to now talk about about how. Yeah, if you, if you're, if you're one of my guys on this call, what would you do to get the, the how done? How do you do it?

Sure.

So what we, what we teach a lot, and I'm, I'm, I'm building this base shop again. I got this 24-year-old kid that's, um, that's just following the blueprint, man. He's gonna make 7 figures this year at 24. You know, he couldn't, hey, he couldn't pay his rent a year and a half ago. He was getting evicted from his apartment a year and a half ago. And, um, you know, for, for me, I think that it's— if you have some of the best salespeople in the world, that helps a lot because that's what catapulted my sales, my building career, was me selling at a high level. And I think what I probably did really well is, is like, I, I think a lot of people don't tell the world what they're doing. They keep it in their pocket. They go out and make a living. They don't tell anybody. And so it— and, and I know some people are weird about it and don't want to put their stuff out there, but I— all of us did something else at one point. So those of you that are making really good money in your career, I know you can look back and think of how you got in this space, in the weird dynamic that triggered you getting into this, whatever your story is. This guy hit me up and who knew I was going to be in insurance, and we had this conversation and all of a sudden I'm selling. And here's, you know, the path, how we all know our path here, right? And it's always some crazy story like some happenstance thing, how we just— I didn't plan to be in insurance, just kind of happened because of a couple conversations. And there's other people out there dying for an opportunity, dying for one, just like you were, begging, praying, wishing every day that they could do something. Talented people, man, more talented than y'all. There's some really talented people out there. That just don't have an opportunity. They don't know where to go. They don't have the widget to sell. You mean they just don't have the, the system, the company, the resources, whatever it is. They're just missing one piece. And you walk by those people every day. Those people are on your social media every day, and you don't put it out there, you know. So in today's world, if you're not promoting on social media, it's free advertising. It's literally like getting free Super Bowl commercials. You know, at this stage in, in what the industry is with technology and stuff. So what we do is we— I have our, our guys, um, not only sell and teach them how to sell at a high level, but I have them share it. So we put small stories on social media. Again, if you watch my social, I'm always sharing stories about what I'm doing, literally showing— I show people every day. I have a Discord. I sell every day live in front of people. I do opportunity meetings. I do workshops. I do boot camps. So I'm, I'm giving the other— I'm showing other people the potential, right? And so we, we put a lot of things on social. I think that's number one. And you can either educate or entertain people or both, right? So it's educate, entertain, preferably both. And so if a lot of people, I don't know what to say, I'm like, dude, clients ask you questions every day. Agents ask you questions every day. That was my original content 10 years ago. Just if a client or an agent would ask me something, I'd be like, oh, good question, let me record a video on it. And explain it. And that started— could be— that created my YouTube, you know, that created the following I have today. So I, I think when you're, when you're doing what we do, sharing it on social is very easy. It's free, you know, it just takes a little bit of time to put some stuff together and put it out there. What up, y'all? So YouTube memberships, we have one now. Right next to the subscribe button, there's a neon white join button. You can't miss it. Subscribe, whatever it says, click the link, get in there. I do a ton of coaching, teaching people how to dial, corrections, working on their presentations, working on their mindset. I will coach on theory, but I like coaching real world stuff. And if you join the membership section, you're going to see live coaching where I'm not only helping people, but every once in a while I get in there and dial myself. There's some cool videos coming out, tons of content. All the training videos will be directly on my YouTube channel that's available to members only, super easy to find. So join now if you're interested, click below. See you in And then if you have any people that are selling, promoting them will do even more than you putting your own stuff out there. Like I can put John Wetmore selling, cool. People follow it, they like it, fine. Dude, I put this young kid Giovanni out there and show him what he's doing. I get so many DMs. Yo, can you help me like that? Hey, can you do what you did from, for him for me? You know what I mean? That like that, it just adds another layer to it. And then for me, I just get him sharing it. Again, this kid's 24 years old. He hired— I'll tell you this, he hired a girl in his group. She does fine. That girl hired this one kid. He's even younger. The one kid started doing this stuff. His name is Craig. He started sharing his stuff, brand new to the space. 2 weeks in, first couple apps, he started putting his stuff on social. Dude, he's got like 8 direct agents now. He's been in the business like 2 months and he does not know what he's doing. Why? Because we have, like you, we have a system. So we take on the burden of training them and teaching them and the process and all the things. I'm like, all you have to do is say what you're doing, who you're getting the help from, and go, hey, come join me. Even if you're afraid to train, even if you're new and don't know what you're doing, or your guys don't. I teach my people when they're new to recruit, I'm like, I'll train them. You don't have to do nothing but be the catalyst, because just like they wanted the opportunity, your friends want the opportunity. So all I'm asking you to do is shit. I'm helping you. I'll guilt them a little bit and nicely. Like, dude, I'm helping you. Hey, can you help me by a little bit by sharing it, please? And I ask, you know, I'm like, I take time out of my day to help you. I hope you make some money. Can you take time out of your day to help some other people make some money? And so we share our stuff on social, number one. That's by far the biggest way we recruit, by far. It's not even close. You can certainly get into paid stuff. You can pay for unlimited recruiting leads. They're going to be watered down, they're going to be harder to work, they're a little bit more pain in the butt. But dude, you can get unlimited people looking for opportunity, you know. So we have everybody record like a, um, we do like a— ours is typically— I don't know why it just came up with this number, but it tends to be like a 7-minute overview. Here's who I am, here's what I do, here's who I'm looking for, here's who I'm not looking for. Short little video. I can get you a copy of mine. I didn't plan this, so I didn't think of it, but if you want one, I can send it to you, Tony. Um, I've just literally here's how we, here's how we work. Here's who we're looking for. And more specifically, here's who we're not looking for. And so we put that out there. So then anytime someone applies, especially in the cold market space, a job board, a job ad, whatever, we send them that video to help filter out people that we don't want. You know, hey, you wanna, you wanna talk to me about the business? Cool. Here's a link. Get on my calendar. But first, watch this video. If this ain't for you, just cancel the appointment. And so we do that piece as well. That's how we attract cold market. And then when we get to that cold market, Tony, we immediately tap into their warm market. So that new person that comes in, I'm like, hey, you're looking for opportunity? Yep, I'm dying for an opportunity. They tell me their story, what they're looking for, their background, the whole thing. I go, hey, my guess is you probably know other people looking for opportunity too, don't you? You don't think others, their buddies, are saying the same thing? Everyone's looking for to better their situation. So the minute I get a hold of Joe, dude, I'm asking who Joe knows, and we tap into his world. I have a story there. I, I, I inter— I used to fly out to Utah to sell insurance, um, back in the direct mail days when we were selling in-home. And so I'd fly out there because I could get a lot of leads, and I would run up the, the last piece. I'm gonna tie two things together is the opportunity meetings. So I'd fly out to Utah, and I would, I would run cold ads, but I would do opportunity meetings. So I would fill opportunity meeting rooms with people from those cold markets that watched that video. And I'd say, hey, I'm going to be in town. I would target certain areas, I'd run a bunch of them, and then I would, I would send them all that video and get people into a hotel room. Simple. But I fly out there and I'd sell Tony. I remember I went, I had one of these opportunity meetings and this guy talked a big game. He wanted to do all these things. So I took him to dinner, you know, a little bit of an outlier in the group. And I'm like, hey, let's go to dinner. I want to sit down and talk. So I talked to this guy and I quote unquote hire him. And I'm like, hey dude, I'll keep it short and go, hey, hey dude, who do you know? I go that thing. He gives me the name of a dude in Texas. Okay, I talked to the guy in Texas, do the same thing. I go out there because I— that's the next area I targeted because he knew someone there. I'm like, hey, let me go do it in Texas now. So I run some ads, I go see Texas, I meet with this guy. Hey bro, who do you know? He gives me the name of a girl in Missouri. Okay, so I start talking to this girl in Missouri. I start doing opportunity meetings out there. I hire all three of them. The guy in, uh, Utah never got his license. The guy in Texas probably sold two applications ever. The girl in Missouri led to a guy that has probably sold $6 million in life insurance. Plus a team. The first two never did anything, never sold again. One didn't even get his license, dude. But I'm like, who do you know? Who do you know? Who do you know? And I tap into that world and then I just pay attention to everybody I'm working with. And I have this, this, this, this concept where if I have— anybody can do this. Think of whatever your group is right now. Everybody think of your particular group, your whole agency, whatever it is. If it's 3 people or 100 people, I don't care. Tony, if I go right off the top of your head— and don't say names, nobody has to say names, I just want you to think— who stands out the most? Everyone has a name instant, always. Go, that's the person. I go, hey, come here, and I bring them in closer to me, and then I start teaching them finer details about the business. I find out a little bit more about their why. A little bit more about where they want to go in life. And I start pushing them, and I start working a little deeper with that person. And then I, and then I remove that person from that concept, and I go, all right, besides that person, now who's left? Hey, who stands out the most now without him? If I had 10 and he's the one, I got out of the 9. Now who stands out? Got it. Hey, you, come over here. I dive in a little deeper, and I shake it around a little bit, see if there's anything there. Sometimes there's not. Sometimes it's like a client, man. They say they want things and they don't. And so I just continue that concept of who stands out, and whoever stands out, I bring closer to me into my world, and I start teaching them things I can't teach the average person, man. And I start pushing them and challenging them and, and, and empowering them to do bigger things, you know. And so that's kind of the general concept of the how. And then naturally, I mean, you gotta, you gotta train people, you know what I mean. So it's like you have to spend time with people, teach them the nuts and bolts and A's to Z's and all those things. But The finding people, those are kind of the pathways and how I take it from here and sort of build the funnel down to narrow down who, who I'm working with directly.

Now, do you prefer licensed already agents or greenies?

Um, I've had success with both, man.

Good.

From, for me, if they're licensed, they're really gonna have to, they're really gonna have to explain to me why I should work with them. And why they're not having success where they're at now. You know, the more negative it is, the more boohoo, and it's because of someone else's fault, the less I wanna work with them.

Right.

You know, the more it's like just the opportunity wasn't right, timing wasn't right, the more they take ownership for their lack of success in the industry so far, the more likely I am to work with them. You know, but I, I, I've had success with both sides. I mean, I could, I could argue both sides of the coin. I, I see why some people like newbies versus not. I, I like both, man, you know.

So, so I'm gonna make a statement before— and I'm gonna ask you the next question, but something Art Williams taught me back in the good old days: the best recruits will always come from a friend of a friend that didn't make it.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's amazing. Yeah, I mean, I, I— that's kind of same thing with me.

Yeah, buddy.

Ray Mazzone brought me into the business. He was my bartender. I was his bar back. Yeah, he couldn't pass the insurance exam. I did. 32 years later, look what happened. But, but my question next to you is this: what character traits— give me 5 character traits you look for in that it— I call them the it agent, that one that has the it factor.

Yeah.

What are your 5, like, go-to points?

I'm gonna wing these because I didn't prep 5 off my head, but I will, I will confirm for you all of my biggest groups ever, none of them were hired directly by me. It was depth every time. It was someone in my downline that stood out that I went, hey, come here. Now the person on top gets credit, but they weren't the catalyst for that leg to grow. It was always someone in depth.

Um, well, I'm talking about someone new to the business.

Like, I know—

I get it. I look for guys that are competitive Correct. Played sports in high school and college. Uh, so what do you look for?

Yeah, so I think, man, the people that have done well have all different backgrounds. If I take the main legs that became Integrity Partners, their backgrounds are all different. I'd say what they have in common for sure— coachable as all get out. Okay, like just crazy coachable, man. They, they're inquisitive, but not inquisitive like that— what's that thing that, uh, What's that thing? Analysis paralysis. It's not that kind of guy, right? Right. It's though they want to understand how or why so they can go implement, right? That guy, the guy that will implement now though, oh man, that guy I love. Just with the willingness to make mistakes. Those perfectionists drive me crazy, hence The name of the book, it's like, Do More Now, Get Better Later. Like, make a mess of it. Make a complete mess of it. That— the guy that's willing to mess up, oh, I like that guy. I'm a big fan of that person because then we can, then we can fix things. You give me something to work with now, you know. Um, I think naturally people that have some kind of competitive spirit, whether it's sports or it could be— I mean, it doesn't even have to be that. I mean, there are people that are competitive that have nothing to do with sports. Sports, you know, but people like to win, you know. Um, I like people who take ownership for stuff, man, you know. They own their flaws, they own their mistakes, they own their insecurities, their, their downfalls, you know. Like, I'm a train wreck in plenty of ways. I'm good at a couple things, but as you know, I got a lot of flaws, man.

I had to warn you last time.

I know. And I'm doing— I, I, I'm doing good so far.

And you did great, man. Did great.

You kept it clean for me.

Yeah, but you keep it real. But I know we're down about 3 minutes. I know I've asked you a lot of questions. You've done a great job. I mean, I'll show you right here. I don't know if you guys can see my book. I'm always—

it's one of my favorite things about you.

I take notes. Yeah, I got already 2 pages of notes because you never get too big to not learn. I always want to be a learner of this business and learn from a legend like yourself. And I, as, as Bryan Adams always says, um, we're just getting started. And lately I've been working with a lot of high net worth, um, family office type people, my new social network I've started recently. And it's like, damn, I thought I was playing big, you know. And you get around people that own 2 and 3 yachts and 5 and 6 airplanes, and, you know, they got 8 homes around around the world. I'm like, what? I gotta play bigger. You know, there's a bigger world out there that I thought I'd achieve. There's more to do. So a couple quick questions, Michael, from the team. I'd like to do that because I want to, you know, um, you know, make sure we maximize the time here for the next few minutes with John. And, and, uh, uh, then we'll, um, you know, let him, uh, go on and do his— what he does best is keep inspiring, recruiting people in his organization. So questions, Mike, from audience.

I got a couple notes on my takeaways, but I don't want to— they hear me talk enough, right? Um, Alicia, I know, I know you're looking to, to do exactly what we're talking about. Carlos, you're already doing big things. Anybody on this call that have questions or at least comments for John? Because I see a lot in the chat, really just praise and positivity. Go ahead, Fred.

Hey, good morning, John. I like the message you get— you gave about just go out there and mess up. Yeah, because I think that's truly— I'm never 100%, and I own my flaws 100%. And, um, and I have a great team of people, and I think you said it best, um, it's that next person. Yeah, it could— it, you know, you could bring that one, they do one or two things, sure, and then just go behind. But that was just a comment. I mess up every day. I mess up every day, but I just keep pushing forward.

That's all.

Just don't keep making the same mistake. That's, that's, that's the part a lot of people do. They keep making the same one over and over again. So make new mistakes every day.

But I thank you for this time.

Yes, sir.

I've learned a lot.

You're phenomenal. I, I think this conversation— I love candid conversations, and that's fantastic.

I appreciate it, man. Thank you for killing it, buddy.

John, you mentioned briefly— oh, go ahead. Again, I have notes, but you guys go ahead.

Hey, John, this is Eddie, and it's been a pleasure also working with you on the side there. Those people you referred to me.

Oh yeah.

How you doing?

All righty.

I just got to say, I love the session. I took a lot of notes. You got some really great points there that are going to definitely enhance my plan. And just, you know, thank you for sharing. I mean, that was a powerful story. Um, you are an inspiration. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it.

Uh, good morning, John. When you were describing the type of person you were looking for— hey, you come work with me— that describes some of the things that, uh, Aiden and I was trying to put together called our Elite Agent Program. You know, looking for people who want to rise to the top. And Tony, when they talk about looking for agents, don't leave out military. These military, uh, people who are teamwork These people are in the trenches. Look for people who served the military, what their backgrounds are, because those are people you can count on because they know what it has to do to look at each other's back.

Yeah, they can deal with hard stuff, that's for sure. Yes, sir. It's a good one. Good angle. We've seen a lot of success with that too.

Yeah, John Wetmore, no truer words spoken, and you've hit a couple of my nerves, so I know I got to get busy because I do, uh, get paralyzed in the perfection thing, and that's really held me back, and I need to focus on that. So thanks for bringing that back to the surface.

Hey, when you do that yourself, you're teaching new agents the same thing, buddy.

Great stuff. Any other questions, Michael, or comments?

Um, yeah, I have a few. Um, I know we're past the top of the hour here, and I want to be respectful of everybody's time. I do want to point out, John, you mentioned something earlier in your presentation that you're almost scared to stop building. Right? You, you have that kind of pressure. People who have anxiety have that sort of frantic behavior, and that's the activity level usually that we see from top achievers in any discipline. You have those people who are almost scared that the fork on the dinner table is slightly askew. But if you're looking to make that first impression, that is exactly what you're going to pay attention to. Like, ah, Look at this fork. Like, it's not a big deal, but it stands out. That's the thing. That's the level of activity, or the neurosis, if you want to call it that, that we're looking for to grow something truly magnificent. I would say every Integrity Partner has managed to do something of magnificence, whether we want to call it that or not. That's, that's what it is. I mean, you look up the definition of it. So that urgency, I think, is really the, the main theme from everybody who's at the top.

Yeah.

And then also you mentioned your advertising online. You're, you're always throwing up a video. I see your posts. You post like 20 times a day, bro. You, you know, they're not all going to hit, but one of them will. And it's, it's, it's a volume game at that point.

And it is.

Zig Ziglar said it a million times ago, a million years ago. If you believe what you have or your product, your service is going to change the lives of other people, then it's your obligation to advertise that, to get it in front of people. If it's changed your life, it's going to change someone else's life. There's just, there's just no two ways about it. And then also the third thing I wanted to share, again to be expeditious in my statements here, you said a video summary of who you're looking for, what you do, your, your value proposition in so many words. I have been telling y'all to do that for so long. And John, I appreciate you sent me your, your summary I don't know how many months ago at this point, but, um, it's just such an automatic thing. Like, when you— when I look at a modern agency, you know, going down the checklist of stuff, a video summary, yeah, you film it once, you're done.

That's it. Mine is years old. I still use the same one today, and it still works.

Yeah, your current campaigns or promotions or your, your hot new agent or this or your that, that changes, sure, but you can do that on a one-on-one. Yeah, that doesn't need to be in a video. So anyway, those are my takeaways, gang.

Thank you.

I, I hope you guys are really feeling the love here. This, this is a really impactful session. Yes, I do love that sign behind you, John, the Do More sign. That's great.

All right, well, John Wetmore, we're gonna let you go, my friend. Guys, we have about 5 or 10 more minutes for a session. John, I love you, brother. You've been a great friend and partner, and I always— I'm here for you too. If you, uh, we've done some collaboration before. If you need me to speak to your team I'm all— I'm, I'm always there for you, my friend. So I appreciate you. Yeah, can you give John Wetmore a hand, guys? Give him a hand, a round of applause. Can you unmute and go woo-hoo? Some high fives. Great job. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If I can help with anything, y'all let me know.

Later, Tony. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. God bless, my friend. Have a great day.