How To Make $1,000,000 Selling Insurance in 2026 (FULL GUIDE)

That's the biggest thing I see that people mess up, dude, and don't even know they're doing it. You're so mad at what this person isn't doing from a sales standpoint. And I'm like, you're doing the same thing on the building side.

So for you guys that don't know who John Wetmore is, dude, is he was here like when I first started learning this, like 6 years ago. He was like the dude I used to listen to. Like, there's no in-person, there's no offices that I used to go to. I used to have his voice off YouTube podcasts and listening to his content. I was driving from house to house learning how to sell life insurance.

That's cool.

So the crazy part is the, uh, a lot of stuff you'll hear me say, okay, no bullshit, came directly from him. So it's pretty crazy to have him on here, man. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, no, it really is, because my approach on just figuring it out, working my way through it, I guarantee a lot of it came from you.

Yeah.

And just working through the numbers. He's the one that gave me the insight to Hall of Fame. The first time I saw him speak at a convention, John speak at a convention, he just broke down the numbers. He's like, dude, it's a numbers game. You guys hear me talk about that all the time.

Yeah.

And how to reverse engineer the numbers, hit our $400K, stuff like that. So yeah, I'm glad to have you on here with us, John. Appreciate it, man.

It's cool to see you building something. It's fun getting to work with you directly. And I thought I should jump on and help you help this team. Um, so it's fun. How many— how many— I know you had at least one Hall of Famer, right? How many you got total? How many? Yeah, anyone else?

So there's gonna— so Drew's gonna be one.

Who is one?

Dennis. Who did it? Dennis hit it. Yeah.

Okay. And then who's going to hit it this year?

Drew's gonna hit it. All these guys can.

I know they all can. The question is, who is going? Who's— who do you—

who you—

who you betting on today?

Connor, let's go. For sure.

Carlos, 10K a person. Who you betting on?

Yeah, Drew, Connor for sure, Carlos for sure. Okay, Carlos has got to get moving. Yeah, so it's crazy, we— I was just talking about our numbers. We, with— we have a small group of riders. We did like 250 last month.

Okay.

Which was just a small crew, man. These guys—

how many people? How many riders? 250?

13.

Good for you, that's dope.

13?

Yeah.

Oh yeah, that's good, that's good stuff. I was fired up as we built this thing, you know, building up the Zach Trodowskis of the world back in the day. Um, and this is before we really figured this thing out, you know. I really wanted to be on, uh, if you don't mind, mute whoever that is. Um, they got little ones, it's all good, but they probably don't know anybody that they're unmuted. Um, you know, I always wanted to be up, up at that $15K a writer average. Recording in progress. Because that Oh, good, smart. See, I would have thought to record it, though I'm recording it on my end already because Reese, Reese does it. Um, yeah, I mean, I think paying attention to the average AP per rider is important. That's one of the things that'll tell you how healthy your group is. You know, for me, I, I think as you guys individually learn how to, how to sell, that's cool. You know, for, for you, Clint, certainly starting to pay attention to as this thing gets bigger is paying attention to, um, the average is you paid per writer per month and then starting to watch it within each, each person's group. You know, there's a lot of groups I work with out there with a guy, especially if you remove the main guy's volume, you know? So as Drew starts building out a team, assuming he is gonna build one, you start looking at his group's team and if he's doing $100 grand a month, it sounds cool. But if he's $62,000 of it, it's like, uh-oh. And like, uh-oh, careful. So you guys certainly start paying attention to that stuff. Um, and we, we can take this wherever you want. I want it to be more interactive. So I'll, I'll probably open it up for questions versus this is just rambling, um, that way we can— I, I like actually want to help people solve some problems today, and I can talk about whatever. But I think, you know, watching this thing day in and day out, the, the thing, probably one of the things that people mess up the most is they, they take one individual day so personal, you know. Like, I mean, dude, I had a day this week where I made a few hundred phone calls and I couldn't get someone to pick up the phone. And then yesterday I was busy, I made 10 dials and wrote $3,000. You know what I mean? It's like, it's just the wildest dynamic ever. But I always tell people, man, the average is always average. You know, so I started looking at this thing in bigger picture from an expectation standpoint, you know? And I see people get frustrated by the results every day. How many people picked up? How many presentations did I make? How many sales did I make? Oh my God, my lead, my return on investment, blah, blah, blah. All the result-driven, driven things people get frustrated by. You know, how many no-shows I had, how many, how many agents sold or didn't sell, or who quit or didn't make it. Whatever it is, the result. Every day, everyone's so caught up on the result. And what I learned, man, was to, to find— reverse engineer things, and numbers always make sense. And you can go, here's what I need to do. I don't think anyone's confused about the, the amount of activity it takes to sell that much. And if anyone is, please ask, I'll clarify it in like 3 sentences. But where I see people mess up is they understand the activity, but they stay so focused on judging the result. I'm like, if you can flip it and start to judge your activity the way you currently judge your result, your world will change. Meaning if you get so mad that you only made 142 dials today like you do that you made no sales, that you only did one recruiting interview this week, like you do that the lead had a disconnected number. Like, as mad as you get at the lead that didn't work out, I want you getting that mad that you didn't hit your, your activity number. Like, if you can learn to switch that focus, dude, the numbers come. You think you're going to change the averages in the insurance industry at all.

No, that's what, that's what you gave me the belief is when, when I used to have like tough weeks. Yeah. And that shit, I'd be like, oh my God, what's going on? I forget how to sell life insurance.

Yeah.

But you, you sharing that, having the averages, I was like, oh, does it— I tell these guys all the time, it doesn't matter how bad my week was, how bad my day was, is my average is my average.

Yeah.

That shitty day, shitty week didn't change my average at all.

No, it doesn't. It only— it does only if you're inconsistent or if you're new. You know what I mean? Like, you're brand new and you're looking at, oh my God, Tuesday, I only did this. Dude, Tuesday don't matter. You think I remember Tuesday, you know, February 2nd, 2015? Like, what? The day had no impact on my career at all, you know? But it's like, we get caught in this trap where we let Tuesday run over to Wednesday, Wednesday run over to Thursday, Thursday run over to Friday, and week 1 run over to week 2, and then February runs over to March, and March, and suddenly it's summer and we haven't done anything. You know, because we're so caught up on some result thing we're frustrated by. And so for me, it's like, I, I, I still, I make sure that I hit number, I have metrics and I hit them and I let the, I let the results come, man. Again, I'm dude, the leads don't know John Wetmore's calling them or Clint's calling them. They don't know. We have no advantage. Now when they pick up, Some of us have an advantage. We're better. Why? We've done more reps. I have a better skill set, dude. I, I talk to 10 people, you talk to 10 people, I probably have an advantage, but I've been doing this a long time, you know what I mean? And so I try to get new people to understand, like, you gotta, you gotta earn that advantage. You gotta build that up. So as you're doing the reps, one of the other mistakes people make is They aren't fine-tuning their skill. They aren't working on their craft every day. They just keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again. They're getting no guidance, no coaching, no feedback. You mean they're not analyzing their own stuff? They're not listening to their calls. They're not listening to the recruiting calls. They're not listening. Even you listening to that video, hell, you overanalyze the shit out of that thing, but I know you listen to it, you mean, and you want it to get better. But dude, it can't get better today.

Why?

You're still the same person. It ain't gonna get better till next year, you know what I mean? Like, I hear the flaws you hear in that video. I'm not confused what you dislike, but it's a lot better than the video you would have made a year ago, and it's significantly better than the one you would have made 5 years ago.

Oh, for sure.

You know, I still look at my own talks, dude, and I go, God, I— man, I wish I'd— but I go, I impacted people. It's okay. I can tweak it next time. I can get better next time. I can improve on it next time. You know, so I think, I think a lot of, a lot of folks, man, take for granted that how much work you have to put in on yourself to get better on this thing. I bet there's very few people in here, because this is across the board in the industry, in life, that are literally listening to and tweaking their own presentations on the regular. Very few people do that. You know, it's like, well, how do you expect to get better? Do you think the little— the, the, the words you have in your mind, do you really think that's how they come out live? Oh dude, you're stuttering all over yourself sometimes when you don't think you are. You're doing a horrible job sometimes with objections, and you just don't know it in the moment because you're so in— you're focused on the thing. You know, it's like, it's like sports to me, man. You imagine, imagine a quarterback goes out there and, you know, like, uh, I got to take Maddox to the Super Bowl, which was cool as shit. And I grew up in Boston.

Awesome.

Um, so it was not cool getting to watch the Patriots get smoked. And they should have lost 80 to nothing. I'm— I don't know how they kept it as close as they did early. The one dude on defense played really well. But every, every time, uh, dude went to the, to the sideline, May, dude, he sat down and watched film, like, right there. Can you imagine these players not watching film? Much less weekly, but through there, you know, I always use Tom Brady because I grew up watching him play. I was very fortunate growing up where I grew up. I've seen a legend from start to finish. It was really fun ride. And after having spent my first, I don't know, 15 years watching one of the worst football teams ever, which was the '80s and '90s Patriots. So they were all god-awful. But every time Tom Brady threw an interception, man, first thing he did was go to the sideline and get that little Microsoft Surface and try to figure out what he did wrong. You know, and I'm not saying every time you— every time you miss a sale, you need to jump on the computer and overanalyze it. But it sure as shit is worth a couple times a week kind of listening to yourself and comparing to what you think you're saying, you know, and improving on yourself. I mean, I do that. I do this podcast, bro. I take so many— the pod— one of the podcasts teaches me more than it teaches y'all because I'm getting to interview these people live, and I'm very selfishly looking for answers when I ask— when I ask questions. I don't prep for the— I don't prep for the podcast. I just get on and do it, and I'm just being me, curious, learning stuff. I had this chick Electra on yesterday. Oh, some of the stuff she says to sell, like, I stole it and implemented it yesterday. And I've been doing this 15 years and I stole stuff from someone that's new.

So I tell you guys all the time, I learn stuff from new people all day long.

Hell yeah.

And I put myself out there and I get coached and I'm like listening. I'm like, dude, I'm not perfect.

Yeah.

And we'll sit here and always, there's always somewhere to improve on. You know, you guys hear his aspect on, he just does it and just figures his way through it. He doesn't care if he's making mistakes or not, but he's gonna do it. And in the action of doing it, he learns stuff as he goes. Yeah, still to this day, you know what I mean?

Sure. Yeah, and I think, I think some people can start selling a lot and they stop improving on themselves, you know? And it's like, all right, you can sell a lot, cool. Can you teach someone else to do it? Different game. It's a different game.

Even when I started, like, even when I started coaching, I wasn't even that good. But that's when I started, when I started getting better myself. I know I tell you guys all the I'm like, I completely sucked at objection handling for a long time and it cost me a lot of money. I'm like, yeah, like, do you guys understand that if you guys would just do it consistently, you're going to level up so much faster? Which these guys are really good at doing. Most of these guys are really good.

Yeah. And the question is, can they teach it? Yeah, right. And what I see with a lot of people that sell at a high level is they get frustrated teaching it. And I'm like, you know how the new agent gets frustrated at the lead and then they get mad and they quit? I'm like, oh, that's exactly like you get frustrated at the new agent, you get mad and you quit recruiting. Oh, so you're just like them, you just happen to sell a bunch, you know what I mean? It's like, careful. So it's like, you got to continue to working on that skill set too. That skill set is significantly harder than selling. Teaching is significantly harder. And then the last level to it is, can you teach someone to teach? Meaning, can I teach it to Clint? Fine. Can I teach Clint to teach it to Drew? Because if I can't do that, I can't scale. I'm stuck forever. You'll never, you'll never, you'll never get big, you know? Because then if everyone relies on you to learn and you don't have the ability to teach someone else or know who to, who to pick out— because I, I love everybody on here, dude. Not everybody's going to be a killer forever. You know what I mean? So it's like, at some point you got to kind of look at this thing and go, all right, who's— who's— because after a minute, dude, no offense, after someone hits Hall of Fame, like, what can you really teach them about sales at that point? Like, what do y'all talk about? Yeah, you mean like, what do I say if— like, stop it. I got a guy that's selling $40K a month and he calls me about an objection, I hang up on him. I'm like, I'm not— just get out of— call me about something real. You know what I mean? So it's like, as you start doing this thing, some people get caught up in talking to the same people every day forever. And it's like, if, if that person isn't building— and I say this kindly as I can, no offense to anybody who's buddies with each other, more power to you— but dude, if we ain't talking about the future and building and new problems, I don't— like, why do we talk? I just don't understand why we talk. I don't need to talk about the weather. I certainly don't need to tell you the same thing I told you last week. You know what I mean? And if you aren't implementing new stuff and making changes and developing— I'll ask a lot of guys because, as you know, people ask the same question over and over again, dude. I'll be like, hey Clint, can I ask you a question, bro? You looking for a different answer than I gave you last week?

Yeah, dude.

I had one guy recently tell me yes. I'm like, all right, well you should quit then because the answer ain't different, you know. Nicely, you know. So for me, man, it's, it's, it's a matter of going out and performing at a high level so I can take care of my family, but then finding other people who I can teach this thing to so they can perform for their family. And if they aren't willing to implement changes and be coachable and, and work on themselves, I very nicely move on to the next person. No different than if I'm talking to a lead and they aren't interested in some insurance today, I very nicely move on to the next lead. You know, and it doesn't mean I cut people off for life. I can give people grace. I can understand life hits people. I can get all that. But you know, if, if someone isn't putting everything into this thing, one of the things that frustrates me the most, man, is when people reach out to me. Like, I had an agent text me the other day, dude, and call me, and I just— it infuriates me. And he goes, he sends me a message, and it's like, hey, I had this client who had a policy with Americo and it lapsed, but they had a heart attack before it lapsed. Do you think that Americo will pay out the living benefit if it— and I'm like, dude, it's 2 in the afternoon. Why don't you fucking call Americo? Like, they'd probably have a better answer than John Wetmore on a death claim. 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 or 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 full 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. You know what I'm saying? It's like he just— I just— when you take advantage You know, that, that frustrates me. I don't, I don't want to be the answer guy for it. I want to be the pathway for people. I want to teach people where to get information. I want to teach people how to do this thing. But one of the mistakes I made early, dude, is I, I, I, I forced everyone to rely on me too heavily, and that limited me. One, it slowed their growth because I wasn't teaching— what's that saying about teaching people how to fish? Y'all know that one? Teach a man how to fish, you know, whatever the hell it is. You know, it's that concept, and if you don't know it, Google it. I'm really bad at saying it, you know. But it, for me, it's like The easiest concept for me is like kind of a welfare program, you know what I mean? If you do everything for everybody, they don't know how to do anything for themselves. So I'm really big on challenging people, dude, you know? And I come from welfare, so I feel like I can say that. I'm one of the very few that made it out of that system, you know? Thank God my mom sort of led to the first path of us getting out of it, and then, you know, I continued it or whatever. But for the overwhelming majority, man, the people that the government takes care of they typically can't ever— they don't really ever do anything. And so, yeah, I have to have this fine balance of teaching people how to do the next thing. But if, if we're no longer growing together, I gotta find new people that I can teach it to. And one of the things, Clint, that you'll— you and others will fall into is you see other people's potential and you stay so caught up with them based on their potential, but they don't put in the work. And there's always an excuse, you know what I mean? So as you guys start to build this thing, you got to watch out for those people because those people are leeches, man, you know. And they'll drain you, they'll drain your energy, they'll drain your motivation, they'll drain your desire to help people. And so as you start to do this thing, it's like, just be really clear about who it is. That's why I wanted you to do the video— who it is you're looking for, and more specifically, who it is you're not looking for, you know. And really protect that as a group. So as you guys all work together You guys have to be really aware to protect the culture of the group and make sure the messaging is the same and the actions are the same and the deliverability is the same. And you don't want to stray too far from each other. You know, you see some groups where this guy's leading the thing and this guy wants to be in charge so bad he does counter to this guy and it creates like a cancer relationship in the group. And it's just, it's no good for anyone, you know. And, and the reason I, I was able to build so big, man, is because I had a lot of people that we all were rowing the boat in the same direction. And it doesn't mean there weren't negative Nellies along the way, but because so many of us were on the same page, we were able to weed those people out very easily, you know. And for the most part, dude, we all stayed on the same page, and we were looking— all looking at the bigger picture. I was always trying to help my upline do better. I was always looking to help Kilomet grow. I was doing whatever I could to add value to his world. I was doing whatever I could and still do to add value to Shawn Mike's world. How can I help FFL? How can I help Integrity? How can I help that— how can I help there and pass that same message? I don't have to be the guy, dude. I don't give a shit. You know, some people look at me a certain way, fine, but at the end of the day, this ain't my ship, dude. I'm just one dude on it, you know. And so I've always tried to— I've always tried to help the overall agency grow and the overall company grow, and that's just continued to have people pour into me, um, and, and it's helped us grow a ton, dude, you know. So that was a lot of, a lot of stuff. So I kind of want to open up for questions for the last 30 or so. Um, I don't know how long you plan, but I have you on till 11. So whatever works for you guys, but I want to open it up, man. Whatever I can help with. Let's go that route.

Thank you. I really appreciate that. Like these guys, these guys got a solid crew, man.

Yeah.

So I enjoy working with these guys.

Got to meet a few of them at convention, of course, and have some conversations. I think Drew, you coming to the thing? Did I see you? Am I crazy? You're coming, right? To the workshop? I thought I saw that this morning. Yeah. I saw it this morning and Amanda, I was like, hey, who that sign up? Cause I saw one name come through. I knew it right off out the rip. I saw another one, I was like, name sounds familiar, who is it? And she was like, at convention, the dude, and he was asking you all the questions. I was like, oh, that's Clint's guy.

Goddamn, she remembers and she didn't even talk to us. That's crazy. He was the guy I was telling you about that talked to you. He's like, dude, you sound just like John. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I remember now. It's just in the email, I didn't— I'm like, I don't know, I get a million emails a day. But as soon as it clicked, it clicked. I was like, dope, that would be fun. So yeah, that's, uh, when are we doing that? You're coming too, right, Clint?

Yeah, I'm with you.

Yeah, what's it, the 16th, 17th, I think, or 17th, 17th, April? Yeah, it's that Thursday, Friday. Yeah, so work, 2-day workshop in my office. Um, if anybody else wants to come, there's— I'm sure there's links somewhere. I don't even know where to get them, but you know, 30 people. That's it, 30 people.

I just saw it last night and I was like, oh shit, I better jump on this shit. You better.

That's it. Hey. Hey, coaching clients, don't get a seat if you don't register fast enough. I've had to turn people away. My office is only so big and I ain't leaving my office to do it. I'm not going to rent a place. I'm not getting a hotel. I like my office. So I'm kind of lazy at the same time as I'm like, do more. I'm like, I want to stay in my office. So yeah, we only got so many seats out there. But it'll be fun, man. It'll be a cool 2 days and then we'll spend an evening at the house, do dinner with the wife. Get some. I don't know if she'll cook some, she'll order some, and we'll do a little, little get-together with whoever's there. Usually some— we've sold out every time I've done one, so it's always a good crew.

Nice.

Yeah, we'll be there. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, what do y'all need help with specifically? Let's get down. Drew, I'm gonna give you the first question, bro, because I have a feeling you got one ready.

Well, so, uh, Right now, just because you always talk about your numbers. I remember I was at the convention. I said, "Yeah, I'm at like a dollar right now." And you were like at 20-something.

Yeah.

Right.

So right now I was looking at everything, like since my first sale with Clint and the rest of the team, I'm sitting at $46,044 within the last 35 days.

Good for you.

But the biggest thing that I wanted to see is because complete obsession. And now, you know, you talk about that in your book too. Yeah, um, I have the obsession. Like, I knew about you before I even met Clint. Like, it was all in the same thing. But I guess my question is, as I'm starting to build— because Clint told me, well, when it comes to social media and stuff, even though I don't want to do it, right? Yeah, but I'm starting to do that. What I'm trying to do is, because I'm in the beginning of trying to create the story and, and build—

you can see, like, production. I can't see that, can you? Is it glare?

No, I'm sorry.

This year, 31— $31.79 a dial is what I'm at this year. Hey, that smokes what I did.

You need to be dialing right now.

$376 a contact.

That's crazy.

Yeah, $575 an appointment and $926 a presentation.

That's wild.

I'm a little better than I was when I, when I, when I tell the story about the book, you know what I mean? Yeah, sorry to cut you off, but you, you get, you get numbers and nerd analysis. I get nerdy.

And then I guess for me is because when I talk about complete obsession, so I'm thinking I want to go all in, obviously selling and stuff, but yeah, I'm starting to attract some people. The thing, the question is, what if people come in and they don't have that, because I want to come recruit people who are straight killers that have the obsession. Should I focus on just those people or just be open-minded to everybody who comes in? Because my time is short, all right? I'm still active in the Navy and I, I'm kind of splitting between— yeah, so yeah.

Do you have kids?

I have one kid, but he's in Japan with his mom right now, so that's why I'm just going all in with what I can do right now.

Is 12.

Okay, cool. So I always say— I, I make weird analogies, dude— and I go, imagine y'all were looking for someone to watch your kid, be a nanny, be a babysitter, whatever. Would you take anyone? Oh, what, what would you do to figure out who to take? How would you determine who gets to watch your kid?

Getting to know who they are, making sure that they're, they're reliable.

How do you do that? How do you do that up front?

Ask them about their past. What, what have they done? Get to understand them.

Yeah. All right, so you get— you got to make some kind of decision on who you'll allow to take time out of your life. You— everybody has a different— there's no one answer. You get to be who, who you want to be. You know what I'm saying? I, hey, if I, I know people, bro, that pay some online service and let a stranger come babysit their kids. There ain't no chance in hell I would do that, but some people do, bro. Right? And so in our space, man, some people hire everybody that can breathe. I ain't your guy. But it exists, and you can make a bunch of money doing it. But it's like, who do you want to be? So it's like, you got to define that first. Who do you want to be? And then who is it you're looking for? And just define it. Now, basic average law— there's some law, I don't know what it is, someone out here might know it— that whole 80/20 rule. You ain't gonna have all killers, bro, you know what I mean? So if you expect everyone to be equally as obsessed as you I'm just going to tell you, it's going to be a very tough ride. I ain't hired me yet. Now, I'm not saying I haven't hired great people, but I haven't hired me. So if you're just looking for you, you probably should broaden your horizons a little bit, right? And go, maybe I take a few attributes from me instead of all of me, you know what I mean? So what's important for you? And I can, I can just tell you mine. This is just how mine developed over time because I did it wrong so many times. For me, I need people to be coachable, number one. If you aren't coachable, I will quit you. If you don't do all these things, I'll quit you. I need you, number one, be coachable. Number two, do what you say you're gonna do. And I'll steal from Bryan Adams, he adds to that, when you say you're gonna do it. That's— that second part's not my line. Bryan Adams says it, and it's really cool. We both say the same thing, but his is way better, you know? Um, and then for me, so mine was always do what you say you're gonna do. And then the number 3 thing for me, and this is only as I grew, because I used to only have 2— it was only be coachable and do what you say you're gonna do. That's all I had was 2. And then I realized life happens, and I should probably give people grace sometimes. And, you know, I mean, life is what it is. So for me, number 3 was if you can't do number 2 Meaning if you can't do what you say you're gonna do, communicate with me. So if you tell me you're gonna dial on Monday and you know, you get a flat tire, dude, at least let me know. Now there's a big giant red asterisk next to number 3. And it says, if you pull this card too often, I'm out. If like, grandma can't die 4 times this month, your dog can't have an emergency 6 times this week. You're— I just can't. I can't handle it. I will implode. I'll be an asshole to you. I'll be mean. I'll get frustrated. I know me. This is to protect me as much as it's to protect you. Those rules, those rules are mine because they're who I am. I get very frustrated very easy, dude, and I have a hard time showing it— hiding it. Sorry, I have a, I have a very easy time showing it. I can show my frustration easy. I have a hard time hiding it. I don't have a good fake-it face. So when I'm annoyed at you, you know it. And so I have to warn people about that, you know. But now you do your shit, you get after it, I'm your guy, bro. I'll answer your call at midnight, I'll answer at 6 AM, I will talk to you whenever. I'm your— I am your guy if you go after it, you know. But again, I had to learn, I had to have a little bit of grace. So it's like, again, be coachable and do what you say you're going to do. So if you're a single mom and you're like, I can only work on weekends, I mean, who am I to say you have to work 14-hour days, 7 days a week, right? So you have to decide, do you want to hire that person or not? Do you want to hire the guy that's part-time like I was, that can only do it 2 nights a week and a Saturday every weekend, or has kids every other weekend and can only do this weird schedule? Like, do you want to work with— I don't, I don't mind that guy. Because he does what he says he's going to do when he's coachable. And part of being coachable is, bro, I can't be your emergency phone number every time you need something new. If you're only here part-time, you better study your face off. You better watch the trainings in your downtime if you can't make them live, because if you ask me about some shit I trained on yesterday, I am— I'm just— I don't know what the right answer is. I just know I'm going to be frustrated. That I know for sure. If you don't get on the training and you ask me a question about what I train on, I will be annoyed. If you're a new agent and you don't get on the new agent call, I'm going to be annoyed. I don't know if it's right or wrong. I just know that's what's going to happen. You know what I mean? And so I've very well defined what it's like to work with me. And that's helped me a lot, dude. You know, and that took time. That's taken years to figure out. That developed over years and years and years and thousands and thousands of conversations. So yours is going to have to develop. You can certainly steal mine for now, you know, you're— but you will have to define it. And that, that, that, that concept embodies everything I believe. And that by default— going back to the babysitter question— that by default changes the way I interview because I know what I'm looking for, I know who I'm not looking for. So all my questions are very intentional to weed out the things I know that I see coming that they don't, and the things I know I'll be frustrated by. So now when someone comes in and they don't perform and they quit after 2 weeks, I don't give a shit because they don't take a lot of my energy because I define the rules so well. I had a girl that knows my wife's family, like they're— so she's somehow connected to my assistant and my wife. And I brought them in, the husband, wife, both part-time, and I defined all this stuff. And I'm like, dude, the average person that does what you do comes in and they You know, I go, hey, what's going to happen if you spend $1,000 on leads and you don't make money the first week? It's one of my favorite questions to ask people. Oh, I'll shit myself, basically. They— some version of that. I go, you should quit. Don't, don't start. Just don't even do this. Why, dude? The chances of someone brand new spending money on leads and making money that week is almost zero. You know what I mean? So if you're not in it for more than a week, if you don't make money ROI the first week, Bro, I know what I'm doing and I track, dude. I track how long it takes to get deposits. Even the companies that pay fast, the average is like 8 days to get paid from when you sell a policy till it's in your bank account. Dude, Transamerica, the average is 18 days to get paid. They're slow as shit. You know what I mean? It's like, so new, I, I understand. So I, so I define those things early. Why? You know how many people I've interviewed And I'm like, you get paid in 48 hours, dude. The average person ain't getting paid in 48 hours. Why? Because they're postdating everything till the third Wednesday of next month. You know what I mean? Like, so we have to factor that stuff in when we're talking to people. And so those, those just kind of those conversations come with time, dude. So it's like you're just going to have to define who you want. Now, my definition today, if you want to work direct with me, I'm like, yo, you got $1,500 a week to spend on leads minimum? Nope, I ain't hiring you. I didn't do that always, but today I ain't fucking with nobody if they got $400 to their name. I don't have the energy. I definitely don't have the time. And I'm making whatever the hell I said I'm making per dial, dude. I'd rather do that, you know what I mean? So I'm very— that, that, that version of who I'm looking for has changed over time. Do I think you should have some flexibility in it? Yep, yep. Just, just put some guardrails in place, man, and have some systems in place so they can access what they need to access to learn the business. In, in the time that— because you can only be there, you're only there this percentage of their time. If you take 24/7, 365, how much are you and your downline together? Are you and Clint together? The overwhelming majority of this is on you or on them, you know. Even full support, Clint gives you full support, but y'all barely speak in the overall total time you both have in life, you know what I mean? So it's like this much, you know. So it's like, I, I don't let— I don't let it pass people that 99% of this is going to be on them. Now I have to guide them the right way, I have to point them in the right direction, I have to create platforms and systems and process and trainings. I have to do all that piece so they can access stuff, you know. And y'all as a group are going to have to start figuring that out and develop that. Certainly FFL has some stuff You can steal some stuff, you can do the Success Zone stuff, you can, you know what I mean? Like you can steal other people's shit. You just have to have that in place. It doesn't have to be your own thing necessarily. You just have to be able to point people to where they can educate themselves in the space and get knowledge. You know, 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. Um, I'm helping tons of people get to new levels, get to new income heights, help them build their teams, put systems in place, staffing stuff, recruiting processes, automations. Um, just teaching people how to get to a point where they're selling on their own pen 30, 40, 50 grand a month. And if they're building a team, teaching how to have an effective structure to your insurance agency for the most profitability you can. There is an application process. I'm I'm only looking to work with like high-end people who really want to make big things happen. If you're interested, click the link, apply, and if you're a fit, I'll reach out.

I got a question here. Hey, um, so I'm, um, I work a lot, uh, on this. Um, I do probably 6 days a week. I work Sundays too. Um, I don't get out much often. I have like one day to myself.

Um, just stare at that white wall all the time.

Uh, it's there, my screen all day long. Um, and then so, uh, and, uh, so what's like, I mean, I don't get the chance to talk to many people. I'm, I'm like in person. Uh, and then I'm, I'm doing the social media. I'm trying to do as much as I can, but, um, what are other avenues that like I can use to recruit? Cause I want to build. But, I'm, I'm having a difficult, yeah.

Are you selling a bunch?

Like some difficulty doing it. I sell.

Yeah. How much you selling? I don't know if I should, I apologize. So don't, don't take offense to it, please. I just, I'm just, I'm genuinely curious. Yeah.

Well, I'm the one that hit the Hall of Fame last year.

Okay. Dope. Okay.

Yeah. Cool.

You on track this year? You're going to smash it this year, I assume.

I'm at 95 right now.

Fuck yeah.

You like 80K last month?

Hell yeah. I love it, I love it. That's good. Um, all right, what are you doing to recruit right now?

Um, I am doing the social media thing. I post, I do as much, I try to post as much as I can.

Um, on where, Instagram?

Or that's about it, just Instagram. Yeah.

What's your, how do I find you?

Uh, it's my full name, Dennis, D-E-N-N-I-S, yeah, L-E-U-N-G, and then underscore S and then F. I see it.

Yeah, cool.

I mean, I could do more, but I'm not on the social media. I could do more.

Let's see, posted February 8th, February 10th, February 10th.

February 5th, February 3rd. Okay, January 31st.

So you— I mean, somewhat consistent. Some days you post 2 or 3 times a day. Some convention you were posting a bunch. I see that.

Yeah, we had a guy with us, so, um, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I have a guy with me too. Yeah, it is easier. Um, yeah, dude, do you have staff? In terms of, do you, do you have an employee just for like social, for anything? Do you have an employee? Like, do you have— oh yeah, actually, do you have an employee with you? Yeah, yeah.

Like, or just all virtual?

Yeah, everyone's virtual. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, yeah, dude, I think that I can just tell you how I did it, right? And there's, there's no right or wrong. This is one of those things, there's no right or wrong answer. You know, it's like selling that much is cool, but it takes all your time. So it's like, where's the balance? And if you, if we go long-term income, like, all right, cool, I sell $400 grand this year, last year I sold $600,000, $700,000, $800,000 this year, whatever, great. What could you make next year if you, instead of selling 80, sold 60 and recruited 25 people? To sell. Yeah. You know what I mean? So you have to, like, I, for me, I never had to be the $100K a month guy. Now, to be, to be clear, that wasn't in our radar 10 years ago. I was the number 4, I was the number 4 producer in the company when I did it. You know what I mean? There was, and the other 2 were like this much ahead of me. I, I think the top guy did 5-something. You know what I mean? It was Andrew, Andrew Taylor was like one behind me. Couple other guys were just ahead. There was literally 4, 5 of $100,000 total that hit Hall of Fame that year. I was number 4 in the company. So we didn't have a vision of what y'all do today. Y'all took this thing to another level. I don't, I don't, I don't know what it's like to sell $80,000, $100,000. I did it. I think you do it once by mistake because I sold an annuity too. You know what I'm saying? But selling $80,000, $90,000, $100,000 in life, I don't, my brain doesn't, I don't, I would have to sell with, I'd be, I'd need dialers. I'd need to be all day and someone would have to do all my fucking paperwork and follow up. It would be to me very stressful. I, I wouldn't enjoy that, you know what I mean? That, that wouldn't fulfill me. I don't need to hit that number. I don't need that kind of income to live. I don't— and I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just— to my perspective, if it was like, all right dude, $40K a month, bro, I could do a lot with that, you know what I mean? I said I— now I kept the same lifestyle, which again, I don't know, there's variables here, I don't know. I, when I was selling $40K a month, I had the same lifestyle as when I was making $40K a year. And it was all going back into my business. And so for me, my vision, this is one of those things you get to find who you are and who you want to be. Right? I had no interest in selling it at that high level for that long. That wasn't my journey. It wasn't my path. I had, I don't want to be a 6-time Hall of Fame producer, Clint. I don't, I don't, I don't want that. I don't need that. I don't give a shit about that. You know, I want to, I want to have 50 Hall of Fame producers. I like having you somewhere in depth. I like having someone somewhere in depth. I don't even know whose group he's in, where he came from, who hired him. I don't like having an ex-6-time Hall of Fame producer in my group. That's fucking dope. I love that. You know what I mean? That's, that's what fills me. So you, you got to figure out who you want to be, Dennis, and how you want to do it. But I think what I've seen, dude, is the people that sell that, that level there, not many of them build anything, you know what I mean? Because it's just time-wise, there's only so much time in a day. Um, I'm also—

excuse me.

Um, yeah, please.

I hit, I hit Hall of Fame by default, right? Because, uh, I always mention it because I, I have 5 kids, we live in California, and so, you know, my— it's just— yeah, cost of living just equates to Hall of Fame, you know.

Your average deal is big.

Is that what you need to make a lot of money? You got to make a lot of money.

Oh, you have to survive. You have to live.

Yeah, because I have 5 kids in California, so, so that—

yeah, I had 5 kids in Georgia, you know. Yeah, my mortgage— Steph's mortgage when I met her— I say my mortgage, it was her mortgage. I moved in with her, it was $800 a month, you know what I mean? Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it's like our water bill.

This is— hey, my water bill— I got a nice house. My water bill was $33 last month.

To me. Oh my God, dude, ours is like $300.

Nah, dude, for real. Yeah, I have a 10,000 square foot house. My water bill was $33. My, my gas bill was like $400, about it. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, so, so that's where I'm at.

Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, and for me, again, I can only, I can only give you my journey. I'm not telling you what you should or shouldn't do. I just give you options, you mean, because again, there's no wrong path. Um, I'm also, I don't like virtual employees for me. Now, dialers, cool, they work, but I need some John Wetmore. I need people with me. I, I just do. I don't function well with people remote. I need to go like, like quite frankly, right before the, I've had a call right before this for an hour straight and then I'm on this back to back and I, I, I've had one drink all like water, not I don't drink alcohol, drink all day. And I was like, hey, can you bring me some water? So like Amanda ran downstairs, got me 2 waters. Like I can't do that with a VA. I needed someone to call a client right now. I was like, hey, hey Amanda, hey, can you call? I have to live that way, right? So John Wetmore needs an employee with him. I'm psychotic, dude. I have a lot of plot problems. I can't function if Amanda weren't next to me. I don't do work at home. Everyone, Reese is here in the building with me. Amanda's in the ba— and it's not to be mean. We get shit done. And this business has a lot of ebbs and flows. When you're selling that much, dude, someone always needs something. You, if you're like me, dude, the kit, I fuck up stuff all the time. I mess up a beneficiary's name. I put the wrong middle name. I put the wrong fucking address. I forgot to put the draft date right. I forget, you mean all this dumb shit. Someone's gotta fix that. and I need to be going, hey, hey, that's how I function better that way, you know. So why I asked about an employee is, do you have a— do you have someone with you to help you? Because to build, you're gonna have to. You ain't building this shit with a VA, you know what I mean? Hey, I just hired Steve, can you get him the pre-license course real quick? Hey, can you— hey, Mary called, can you help her get on the training call? Hey, this one, you know what I mean? Like I had to have someone with me to build this. I couldn't have built this thing without her by my side. You know, man, just Amanda helped me build this bitch. So that was very helpful for me. And then again, for me, I found a balance of how much time I spend selling. And my goal, just straightforward, was to get the hell out of the field. That was, I was on a mission to get out. I sold enough to make a living. I sold enough to invest back into my business. And I sold enough to prove how easy it is. So I don't have to take shit from nobody who says they can't do it because I was a bozo and learned how to sell at a Hall of Fame level. And I wasn't a quick start. I was— y'all heard the story. I was slow as shit to start, you know? So for me, it just was all about right activity numbers, right mindset, changing myself a lot. And to prove that I could do it, I just— it gives me freedom to be able to speak to people the way I do and as directly as I do, because I wish someone did that for me. And the minute people started doing that for— I wish someone did that for me early. It didn't happen until later. And that's my shitty excuse for why I didn't do this sooner. It's a really bad one, but it's the one I use. And so for me, I just try to be really direct. So again, my world was, let me show how it's done. But instead of being balls to the wall all day selling, I was balls to the wall. I— y'all read the book. I was only in field sales, I was 11 days a month in the field. You know what I mean? Dial Monday, run Tuesday, Wednesday, dial every other Thursday for every other Friday, and then one Saturday a month. So I was Tuesday, Wednesday every other week— every week, Tuesday, Wednesday. So 8 of those a month. I did every other Friday, so 2 of those a month. And I did one Saturday a month. Every once in a while I'd go on a run, you know, man. I'd go to Utah to run 6 days straight and print money, you know what I mean? I'd do— there was variables. I'd chase a raise and I'd go and kill it for a month. But my general normal schedule was 11 days a month in the field. You know, I'm doing it now, dude. I have a dial tracker. Mine holds 500 pages. I think I've— since October, I think I filled that thing twice. Like, this week I'll hit 600-some dials this week. I think I've done that once. The most I've made in a week is probably 650. I just— I don't need to sell. And again, I got a lot going on. I don't need to sell, obviously, to make a living anymore. I don't turn away the money, but I don't, you know what I mean? I'm still trying to balance everything with building the new Direct Base Shop. It's helping build my team. It's helping build my brand more, but I can only do it so much, you know? So for me, I had to find a balance, dude, of I'm boss. John Wetmore's balls to the wall, but it's only so much of it with selling versus building, you know what I mean? And you're gonna have to find that balance in your life somewhere, wherever that is. You know what I mean? Again, we can certainly talk deeper to figure it out and fine-tune it. I have a— if you go to johnwetmore.com/resources, I have a— I had Clint do this early when he started working with me on the coaching side. There's like a schedule and a goals exercise I do that was very helpful for me, and it's what I've used for my team for 10 years. That's how I've taught this thing, to figure out that balance. So maybe, maybe that'll help you direction-wise and You know, again, not everybody wants to build. My assumption is you do based on the question. So you're going to have to sort of, in my opinion, probably throttle back, especially with kids. If you want family time and a life also, you're probably going to have to throttle back some of the time you spend selling. Or see, I don't know if there's a way— I don't know if there's a way to sell $80 grand a month and not be 12 hours a day. I don't, I don't have the answer for that because I never did it personally, you know what I mean? Um, so I struggle there a little bit, but I do know you're going to need time to build, and it takes a lot of time, dude. It takes a lot of time, you know. I got good enough to sell that I could do it quick and efficient, just like today. I mean, I can sell a lot of insurance in very few dials today in today's world, and then I spend all the other time doing the recruiting and stuff like this and the branding and all the other training and coaching and things I do, you know. But without my team, I would drown. I would, I would die without my team here. And now Amanda has a VA. I don't mind that she has one. I don't give a shit. I just can't function with one. You know what I mean? I can't imagine having to sit down on a computer and type to someone what they have to do or to— I don't, I don't even know. I wouldn't even know how to— I wouldn't know how to function.

They're in our Zooms with us. We can just ping 'em in our Zooms.

Yeah. Which again, if y'all gotta figure, I'm not saying it's wrong.

Yeah.

It just, for me, it, it just, I know they can't make phone calls the same. They can't call carriers the same. There's fucking IP issues, VPN issues. Use. You know, I mean, I know there's weird restrictions, like there's accents to deal with, there's all kinds of variables, dude. And I just, I ain't dealing with that. That, Amanda can deal with that shit. She does it. You know, I mean, I'm just, John Wetmore ain't got the patience for that. Yeah, that's one of my flaws. If y'all got that figured out, I'm not saying it's wrong, but you are going to have to figure out a balance of the two. Just don't make the mistake that many people make, is they, their sales go down to $8K a month when they're trying to build. That's the mistake where I see people mess up, or they sell so much and they recruit zero. So that it can't be like this. Just don't let that happen. It's got to be here, and then it can slowly shift. And this is the recruiting side. This is the selling side. It has to be somewhere here now. And this side, selling, still should be Hall of Fame production. Right, so recruiting, building— we got recruiting, selling. So we got selling here, building here. This is Hall of Fame level. As you start building more, this can go down more and more and more, and the recruiting can go up.

Thanks.

For those of you follow— that have followed me for a while, you know I've, I've helped build this agency up to over $200 million in paid annual premium per year. We have over over 5,000 agents a year that sell, and I am rebuilding. We're building a new base shop, helping people build big agencies, get to multi-seven figures in income, or producers that want to, that want to just sell and get to a multi-six-figure sales career. Hit me up. I'm hiring direct. I'm looking to train and mentor winners that want to work their ass off and build something dope. Click on the link below, or you can go to johnwetmore.com/join and put in your application. We'll see if I'd be interested in working with you. DM me, hit me Whatever you like. Who else got anything?

I got a question.

All right, so, um, who was that? Hold on, I can't find you. Who is that?

Can you see Connor?

Okay, cool. Yep, yep, yep, cool.

All right, so like, um, you have a lot of volume, right? Um, you, um, you know, Clint and Dennis can do it. I'm starting to get the point where I can do it. We can sift through leads, yeah, um, a lot more than, you know, trying to be desperate with every single lead. So if they're not, you know, You're not going anywhere. Hang up, go to the next person, right?

Yeah.

Um, from the videos I see, you work mainly— is it on like a schedule basis? You call, say, we're gonna set up a 10-minute call, make sure you have your prescriptions ready when I call you then. Do you mainly work on a—

I'm almost all one-call close.

Okay, almost all one-call close.

I tried it when I first started doing it because I've never done one-call closing in my whole career. All I've done is appointment. My whole career I did appointments. Um, so I tried it. On the phone just to see what it was like, and I sold some insurance, but I can't handle the no-show rate, dude. I'm— my brain, I'm like, that's what I was gonna— and then you realize, dude, you have them on the phone, the chances of them pick— here's what I've learned in doing this for 4 months: the chances of them picking up the second time, you may as well call it zero.

Yeah.

And if it's any better, you're blessed. It sure as shit ain't gonna be 50%. It ain't gonna be nowhere near that. You know what I mean? So it's like one call close is what we go with. Appointments are either because, and I know I've put up, people keep asking about, keep in mind I have a lot of content, dude. So he's now, you're seeing some of the stuff that's posting now that's from content from 4 months ago. So that's why some of the videos out today are like me booking appointments. Well, that shit was in October, bro. Today, what I record today, Reese got so much content, this shit won't be out till May. You know? So right now in, in, it's very clear what works best. It's one call close for sure. And then the only way I book appointments is if I just, I, I, and this is hard for new agents to really determine the right way, but if you're skilled, you can really figure out if someone can't meet now because they can't meet now versus just full of shit. You know, I'll push those off to appointments. Or if I can't do it now, sometimes I'll get on the phone and I just know I got something coming up and I can't, but I'd rather just not sit there for 30 minutes with my twiddling my fingers. I'll sometimes jump on the phone and book a couple appointments just because, you know. And again, I close 1 or 2 every week off appointments. I do, I do close them every week, but I, I couldn't, I couldn't write $15K on appointments, that's for sure. I mean, I would need, I would need 30 a day. I would need 2 dialers plus me dialing, and I would book 30 appointments a day if I want. But that's so inefficient. It's— and it's excruciating to deal with, you know.

So I think, I think as a whole, uh, we, we push very good because most people we talk to are between ages 60 and 70. They're all retired, they're at home. You can hear them, you're talking to them, they said they got something going on, but you get— you hear, you know, Steve Harvey in the background.

Yeah.

So we're pretty good at pushing.

So the worst thing people do is ask. The worst thing people do is go, are you available now? Don't ask, don't— that's a really bad question.

Yeah, so we're really good at pushing, but what do you— what does John Wetmore do to separate? I know you sift through a lot, so if they're not really going, you go to the next person.

I know, I just assume they can talk. So I'm like, hey, it's John calling about this thing you sent in. Here's your hobby, here's your date of birth. Is that you? They go, yep. I go, all right, hey man, I'm the guy they put in charge of getting you all the info and seeing what you're eligible for. Um, hey, if you don't mind, I just got to run through a couple couple questions so I can help you figure it out. Is that cool? That's my intro every time. 90% of them say yes. When they hesitate, that, that, that, that, I might go, they might go, I'm busy. I go, yeah, no, I was just calling to schedule a time, and I just flip it. But 90% of them, dude, I, if I get, if I get 10 contacts on, I'm probably having a decent conversation with 7 or 8 of them.

How do you build, how do you build, um, how do you build their, um, How do you build a report so quick? I know your calls are so quick. You're in the app in 10 minutes. How do you, how do you build it so quick?

I, I don't, I don't build rapport first. I'm just not a, I'm not a dick first, but I don't have to like be their best friend or know their kids' names or anything, you know what I mean? I, I mean, I think I'm, I, again, this is a little bit of a skill set. I know how to, I know how to loosen people up. I know how to shoot the, but I'm not, I don't, I don't do people's version of build rapport first. I do that throughout. I have, I have some one-liners I use. We all have them, you know what I mean? If you've done this for a minute, you have some ways to do it. I think I disarm them by just saying I'm just, I'm basically just the dipshit who they put in charge of getting you the information. So I think I disarm people very quickly, probably faster than most. I'm not the, I'm the state licensed broker, I don't, I'm not that guy. I'm just the guy they put in charge of getting you the information, you know what I mean? So I think that my tonality disarms them really quick. I'm very chill about it, which I imagine y'all are hearing Clint. He's— I mean, he doesn't, he doesn't move his tone very much, so my guess is y'all learning that. Um, but I don't really have to build rapport like best friend, you know. They don't, they don't give a shit about me, and I— and they know that. Like, I always say that. Here's a— here's my really crude example. It's all dudes in here. There's a girl in here, so— but it happens to them too, you know. It's just I get weird when there's females in, and I just don't want to offend anybody, but like, you don't offend her.

You won't offend her.

Yeah, like, how much rapport does the doctor build before his hands are down your pants to check your nuts? Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, hey man, Steve, all right, pull your— hell, your pants are probably already down by the time he gets in there, and you get that little robe thing over you, you know what I mean? He just goes in there and grabs your nuts and checks them, and he moves on with his day. There's no— he doesn't have to do all this stuff.

Why?

Because I respect him as a professional and I know I need something done and he's there to do the job, you know? So I, I think my thought process— yeah, I mean, it's just, it is that, it is that simple to me. They need something and I have it. Yeah, it doesn't mean I'm an a-hole to them, but I— dude, I'm not the rapport builder guy. I, I know I will do it throughout. If you watch some of my stuff and if you— especially if you watch me dial live, dude, I cut up with people. I will fuck with them beyond belief. I'm sarcastic as all get out with people. I joke with people, I give them shit. I was on with a lady yesterday, I'm like, damn, you sound like a mean lady, you probably carry a shotgun around, don't you? That made her like me in 2 seconds, you know what I mean? It's just, I'm very off-script kind of guy. And I know, like, I always say this, and I do a lot of speaking and talks and stuff, I don't think I'm very funny, but I know how to make people laugh, you know. I, I just— I know how to do that. I know how to move emotion. I know how to control a conversation really well. I know how to read people really well. If they're uptight, I can feel it, dude. If they're uptight, I say something, you know. I'm like, oh man, you, you having a rough day, bro? You— I hope I— I hope it wasn't me that pissed you off. Ah, just bad day, man. Like, all right, bro, I'm gonna try my best not to make it worse. I said that line 100 times, dude. People that don't pick up, they're hard to get a hold of, I finally get them on the phone, I'm like, yeah, hey, Connor, what's up, man? It's John. Dude, you're harder than the president to get a hold of. 100% of them laugh. Yeah, I just don't answer numbers. I don't know. Yeah, I hear you, man. Well, I'm the guy they put in charge with that form you filled out where you put your hobby as fucking basket weaving and your birthday's 10/2/42. That's you? Yep. All right, man. Well, hell, I definitely ain't letting you go now because I know I'll never get a hold of you again. So anyway, and dude, that's my version of rapport.

Go into it. Yeah, I think for us, um, it gives like a basis to go off of, like to prevent objections. And then when we get objections, we go back to them, say, listen, this is what I told you, this is what we're going over. So, but I mean, even then, so even then with our process, we still get objections.

What, um, we all—

does just you opening up kind of be kind of free and all over the place? Does that—

I wouldn't say it's all over the place. My structure is on point.

Not a lot is what I mean.

My structure is in line, dude. I don't come off structure ever, but I go off script all the time. Yeah, you know, I will not go off structure. We ain't talking about pricing before I get your why. We ain't talk— you know what I mean? Like, I ain't going out of order, got it? But I'm okay going off script a little. I'm okay. Like, think, think standup comedian. That the— you got the old school style where they have a, they have a script, they run through their script. Old school, like Eddie Murphy, dude, he has line by line by line by line by line. Now you see a guy like— what's that young kid, the white kid that's killing it? He's famous everywhere now, and they're doing the off-the-cuff.

Giuliano.

No, no, no, in comedy. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, comedy.

Yeah, yeah. But right, Matt Rife, dude, he has, he has a show, but bro, he plays off the audience. Imagine comedians be like, you have to have a, you have to have a bit. Yeah. Matt Rice, like, yeah, I don't need a bit. But he doesn't lose control. He has structure to his thing, but he doesn't know what his next line's gonna be when he's messing with the audience. You know what I mean? So I feel more like that to me.

What objection you get more than, more than any other objection? Cuz everybody gets a little more than, uh, it's, it's different. What objection does, does John Wetmore get more than?

At what part? Early or late?

Late.

We'll say late.

I want to think about it, and I don't know, I don't overcome it really well. I just get off the fucking phone. I'm really bad at it. Really? Okay. I mean, I'll push. I know how to push. Hey, Connor. Hey, dude. I mean, dude, you did say that Mary doesn't have any insurance if you drop dead. Like, I, I'm not confused on what to do, but to me, that person doesn't give a shit. And I've done everything I can. I did it right up front. I got the why up front. I got him to say all the things up front. Was it perfect? I'm sure not. I have flaws. I probably move too quick sometimes, but like, I just refuse to be the guy that's going to beg a guy to buy insurance. I just— it fucks with me, dude. I get more— I get more joy out of just move. And, and, and I'm showing to agents that I don't have to beg that guy to buy, and I can just move the fuck on. It saves me peace. I don't get a lot of chargebacks. and I feel empowered being able to just get off the phone and move on to the next lead and show that it can be done that way. Right now I have to be careful because I want, especially new agents, I teach them to push.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? And I will do it sometimes just to show it. I'll push more than I normally would. And again, I will give a nice push, but dude, I'm not, I gotta think about it. They're either going to, they're, I'm gonna push once and they're either gonna change their mind and be like, yes, you're right. Cause for me, my, my, my biggest one is The way I do it the most, and the one that works the most for me when they want to think about it, I go, hey, makes sense, Connor. I assume you're not thinking about whether or not you need coverage. My guess is if you're like everybody else, you're stuck between two options. Which two are you really bouncing between that you're trying to decide between? The 15 and the 10. Okay, here's what we're going to do, Connor. We're going to go with the 10. We're going to put that one in place now, and then if you want to add the 15 later, you just call me back and add the 15. Does that work? If they still keep, well, I just don't know my budget. I just, I'm out, dude. That's my one push. Yeah. After that, I'm out. I just, I just don't give a fuck. And cause I can, I can write 10 grand a week without John.

I ain't mad at it, John.

I'm not saying that's wrong.

Yeah.

I'm not saying my way's right. This is the same as the recruiting. It's not wrong versus right. It's just my preference. You know what I mean? Do I miss sales from it? Yes. But you know what else I do? I make more sales from it because I'm on to the next lead that you don't get to answer.

Yeah.

You probably minimize some chargebacks as well.

Yeah, dude. Again, I can, I could argue both sides of the coin. Mm-hmm. You know, I know I don't sell $80K, but I'm doing this thing part-time and I'm selling $10K a week. You know what I mean?

So it's like, you say post-call, post. Is there something you say post-call that kind of separates yourself from them calling other people, or not really?

Or just kind of—

if they lose, they lose.

I could pretend I do, but I had a lead get on with one of my agents the next day. Yesterday I closed her on Tuesday. She was on the phone with him Wednesday, and just coincidentally, he found out— he pulled the policy and had my name on it, and he was like, holy shit, what are the chances of that? You know, um, so I could pretend I do. You know, I say all the same shit everybody else says— put my name in the phone, I'm gonna be your agent, blah blah. I have nothing fancy, dude. You know, I, I don't— I, I just don't, honestly. I, I do my best, you know what I mean? I think I do a really good job building rapport during the application phase because there's a lot of downtimes as you're doing the app. They have to sit kind of in silence a lot, so I try to fill that silence during those stages, you know. And, um, if I find something relatable to someone, dude, sometimes I'll sit down and cut it up with someone for a little while if it's natural. I can't do it awkward, like unnatural. If it hits, it hits, you know. But there's plenty of sales I make, dude, that we just get to the point. I see why they need insurance, I explain what I do, they go okay, I get them insurance, and I got— here's how it all works, here's how the program works, here's when you're going to get your policy, make sure you save my phone number, this is the same number I call my mom on, all the things, blah blah blah, you need anything, all that shit, dude. I get off the phone and we keep moving. It's 26 minutes minutes in. You know what I mean? That happens, that happens quite a few times a week. It's not all of them, but it's, it's, it's more of them than an hour and 7 minutes. I don't have many of those. I definitely don't have many of those, you know.

Yeah.

Well, you know, you mentioned you stole a few things from Elektra. What are some stuff you've stolen from her that we could steal it too? Well, it's gonna all be on the podcast for sure. She'll, she'll, she'll be out. I have, I have like 4 notes. Let me think of some of the big things. Um, she said, it's a, it's a weird little line, but like I ask, um, you know, what prescriptions do you take daily? She words it like, um, hey, what does the doctor have you medicated with? I just like the way she worded it. Um, when, when she, uh, when she asked the why, like, hey, you know, who would you— we all have different ways we go, hey, who would be in trouble? What would happen if— who does— needs to do this? She words it, and I'm working on it. I'm working on making it my own. But she says, um, you know, hey, let me, let me ask you this, Wayne. If you would have passed away tomorrow, um, who would be the one that's like picking up all the pieces and making all the phone calls and paying all the bills when you're gone? I like that, making all the phone calls and paying the bills. Like, I just like the way it's worded, so I stole that immediately and put that in. Um, And then another thing I like that she does is when she's trying to figure out like how much coverage that we're going to talk about, um, she— especially when it's someone that she feels like is lower budget, right? You get some people that apply and they're like, I want $40 grand, and then you find out they're basically homeless during the call. When she's talking about examples of like how the program or whole— how whole life works, you know, instead of going, it's, it's, it's the, the price and the coverage lasts forever and it won't change, and whole life and immediate coverage. She'll do something like, all right, Wayne, so the way this thing works is, is really simple. Um, there's immediate coverage with this thing, and all that means is if, if you drop dead, um, say next month, then what'll happen is Susan will get a check for 10 grand next month. There's no waiting periods or anything. And she'll drop the face amount in her story that she wants them to like subconsciously be working with. You know what I mean? So she's trying to bring them from a high number to a low number. She kind of uses different examples. She's always using stories in when she presents what the product is, the— whether it's the death benefit or the waiting period or the immediate coverage or the— you mean all the things, the, the living benefits. She ties a story to it. She uses somebody's name, and then she uses the dollar amount specifically, or a dollar amount. She might throw things out there, you know, hey, Let's say, you know, the way this living benefit things works, Wayne, is if you go have a heart attack, um, what'll happen is, you know, if again, it not only covers you if you die, but if you have a heart attack, Wayne, you can actually call the insurance company. And if you pick the $20 grand, you know, you, you can get a check for X amount. And she'll give the amount. You mean she's throwing very specific examples so they can picture receiving a check and calling in the company for the benefit? Like, I like that a lot. That was a couple of my favorite things. Yeah, she fucking slayed it, dude. I won't do her stuff justice. She's a savage. Um, so yeah, I, I like the way— one other thing she does at the beginning is when she's asking, she goes, there's, there's a why, but there's also a reason. So there's a reason they filled it out, and then there's a why, you know. And the reason is more logical, like I was just— I just saw an ad. I have no life insurance. I have— you know what I mean? Like, what's the reason you did it? The why is what we all know as a why. Someone's fucked. Yeah, you know what I mean? So she goes, I figure out the reason. If I can't— if I can't find the reason, I get off the phone. And so she asked it some way. Again, I just— I literally just talked to her yesterday, so I'm working on how I like the pieces I like, but it's something along the lines of like Hey Wayne, when you, when you were filling this thing out, can you kind of give me a little insight into where your mind was at? You know, what is it you were trying to accomplish when you figured this thing out? And she wants to get their reasoning. To her, that's important. And I was like, oh, that's kind of fucking neat. I like the way she worded it. And again, it's, it just came yesterday, so like anything, I'm working on putting it into my thing without changing my stuff too much.

Okay.

Yep. What up, insurance agents? If you're looking for a roadmap on how to win in this industry, check out the book I wrote about a year ago, Do More Now, Get Better Later. Check out the reviews here somewhere. My team's putting them on. I'm getting tons of great feedback about all the people it's helped. Appreciate those of y'all that have bought it. Appreciate all the reviews that are going out. If you're new to following me or the industry, check out the book and get it in your hands now.

John, have you noticed, like, uh, with recruiting, have you noticed, um, social media is the, the best way to do it? Or do you use like LinkedIn? You use like— and do you use all like the hiring stuff to find recruits?

I don't have to anymore because I've spent 10 years building a brand that's all over social, right? But people do. You know what I mean? If you don't have any brand, what the hell else you gonna do? Because only your mom and your sister are watching your Instagram, you probably ain't gonna get much from it. So you probably gotta pay for it, you know. Um, so I think it's— I think they all work, you know. Warm market and building a brand certainly works a whole lot better. That just takes time to build. No different than like, do leads work or do getting referrals work? Well, hell, they both work, but you ain't getting no referrals till you work leads for years, you know what I mean? You ain't getting no annual reviews till you work leads for years. So it's like if you do one right, you can stop doing the other over time. And that's that shift. It shifts. Social media and warm market is definitely better. It's not even close. But most people probably can't do that and they rely on only that because that's what we hear works most. But the reality is no one's watching your shit, so there's only so much you're gonna get, you know. So you got to be willing to build one while you do the other. Paid ones work too. You just got to go through way more people. Because they don't care who you are. So for me, I get all the cold market stuff. Like back in the day when I was doing LinkedIn stuff very heavily, I knew that they would all immediately click on my profile. So I made sure that I built on my profile and I started building out my social media, because the reality is if you get someone cold market, they're going to look you up right away, no different than you're going to look them up. Especially if it's a— if it's like a hire. If you're looking— like if you're looking, Dennis, to hire an employee, one of the first things you're going to do is look them up on social. You mean? So when people are coming to work with you, they're going to look you up, and you say you're killing it and the only post you have was from last Christmas with your family, they're like, who's this fool that says he's killing it in insurance? What are we talking about? You know, so one complements the other very well. Um, and then, you know, for me, doing a lot of things like opportunity meetings and hotel meetings, those types of things, those worked really well over the years. We've done— I've done so many of those, it's stupid. Did, that we just— we literally rent out a space and we, we do a mass recruiting blitz, all cold market, all job ads, things like that, and we push people towards a meeting. That's how we built this whole company, you know. We were all doing meetings all over simultaneously. We'd have like 30 of them all in one night, and Frankie would run this one and I'd run that one, Andrew run this one and this guy would run that, and we'd all run them and we'd have a mass of them and we'd all push people to the same events. Now people are doing lock-ins, inviting people to lock-ins. Those are good too.

Not wrong with those.

Um, you know, I think combining the two, having a bit of an opportunity meeting combined with lock-in, is pretty powerful. I don't think any— I don't think any of you do nearly enough of those. Most of y'all in this generation of agents are kind of sitting at home selling most of the time. There's very few events that I see people putting on. So as you watch me help Giovanni build, I think he's on his third lock-in already, and he's been with me like 9 months. You know, really only fully like 3 months because he only had a couple contracts with me at first. He's finally just moved them all over from where he was before, but he's starting to run lock-ins on the regular, you know, and that's, that's helping them pop.

And then as far as you're like, you're a very obsessed guy, like as far as your posting goes, um, you post all over, and then like what's your— do you have like a posting schedule? I know you probably have employees for all that, but now I do.

But my— I was— I'm really simple, dude, and this has been my method before I had employees it. It was post every day on every platform. Every day on every platform. Every day on every platform. That was my model. Every day, every platform. I've now have Reese. He's been with me almost 2— next month is 2 years for him. Thank God. Now we do have a posting schedule. I don't know what the hell it is. I see it. He gives it to me. He hands it to me every week and I look at it and I go, dope, keep killing it. You know what I mean? I don't know what comes out, when it comes out, where it goes out, what it is, what clip it is. I don't touch it at all anymore. More. He has full control over it today. Um, that took a while. I, I didn't have that. I mean, again, he's been with me 2 years. He's probably had full control for a little over a year. Um, at the beginning, I certainly influenced it more. Amanda influenced it after that, and I don't even think she touches it at this point. Um, you know, but from 2017, '18, it was literally me and Amanda. '19-ish, 19 or 20, I started trying to hire people. So like, call it 20, 21, 22, I hired people and people came and went. So I was creating it all the time. I was, I was telling them what to do. And I learned this concept from someone, uh, what's his name, um, Buy Back Your Time, Dan Martell. He was like, one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they're hiring people is they hire some— this is employees This is an employee example I'm going to give. The biggest mistake that people— employers make when they're hiring someone is they hire someone and they tell them what to do. You should be hiring someone and they should be telling you what to do. I was like, okay then, I've been fucking that up for 10 years. You know, if you haven't read that book, um, It's a really good one. I don't know if I have it here. Uh, I just said the name of it. Dan Martell, uh, Buy Back Your Time. It's one of my favorite books literally ever, ever. But it's top 3 books I've ever read. But if it— but I'm very like, I'm very bad at hiring and managing employees, so it's very focused on that. If you're not in that world, it probably won't help you a lot, to be honest, because it's very much on how to build and manage an internal team. Um, and I have done such a— I've gone through— Amanda's with me 9 years, Reese is on 2. In order to have those two, I have— Amanda keeps a list. We're up to like, I've hired and let go of, or they've quit, like 45 employees since Amanda's been with me. Yeah, like it's, it's been bad. Like I have war stories, dude. We are like PTSD. We have— I have messed the hiring up so bad, it's But I keep doing it, I mean, because I know I need it. So thank God we have Reese, who's stable. I'm like, Jesus, thank God. Now, so now finally I have the Amanda who's in everything, Reese on social. Now she's trying to find an assistant. I think she's been through like 6, and we just haven't found one that's a good fit for us yet, you know what I mean? But we keep trying, we keep going through them. So she's interviewing now to get some more help because she's swamped. Yep. So anything else? I got time for one more if you got anything, or if you want to end it, Clint, with the question.

What's the biggest thing, the hurdle that you see with a lot of agents that are coming on that are scared to recruit? What's gonna— like, I guess those guys, they're hesitant to kind of—

yeah, they just like, I'm gonna wait till I'm good kind of crap.

Yeah.

And I'm like, if I waited till I was good, I wouldn't be recruiting still. I mean, I don't know. I mean, again, you get good at pieces of it, but I think it's like, it's funny, dude. I always say this, like, the people that say they want to build— I might have said this at the beginning because I just talked about this on, on the call I did previously with Tony Holland, who's like a gajillionaire Integrity Partner. Um, age— people that are building get so frustrated with agents because they don't put in the time, energy, and effort. They don't invest in themselves. They don't buy enough leads, they don't spend enough time making phone calls, they don't do the follow-up, they don't educate themselves, they don't get on the trainings, they don't do— you know what I mean? All the things where like, you suck at all this stuff, I wish you would do better, it's just so easy, I just— if you would only put in the time, energy, and effort, you could make money as much as you want, blah. And then you all go to recruit and you quit because the agents don't follow through and they don't work out and it's hard to take care of them. And then, you know, man, it's like running ads is hard and following up with agents is hard and running opportunity meetings is hard and running lock-ins is hard. So you quit doing it all. And I'm like, aren't you doing the same shit that you just bitched about the agent doing that quit? You're just doing it on the agency side. That's the biggest thing I see, dude. We say we want to build and we bitch about all the things the agent doesn't do. And then we do the same thing on the recruiting side. We don't run ads. We don't invest in, in recruiting at all. We don't invest in staff. We don't invest in office space. We don't talk to enough people. We don't follow up with them. We don't take the time out of our day to train them. And when they quit, we get frustrated and say it doesn't work. Just like the agent that you get frustrated with us with the leads. So the recruit is the lead for you. You know what I mean? No different than the lead is what it is to the agent. And it's— that's the biggest thing I see that people mess up, dude, is they are literally there. It's like they're duplicating and don't even know they're doing it. You're so mad at what this person isn't doing from a sales standpoint. And I'm like, you're doing the same thing on the building side. And you make all these excuses why it doesn't work. I'm like, oh, you mean just like they do, except you buy yours. And you get frustrated at theirs. It's by far the biggest problem.

Good volume. Keep doing it.

I mean, hey, I had a 30-30 club, dude. You want to build, it's like run 30 appointments a week, 30 recruiting calls a week. If you don't do both, you ain't going to ever build anything big. I can't grow. Bet you didn't talk to 30 people last week. I bet. I bet money. I bet you didn't. Hey, I bet you didn't talk to 10. Much less. Maybe.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? I'm getting there though. I just, I'm, I'm, it's not that many. It's a couple of day, 3 a day, dude. You mean 3 or 4 a day, whatever it is, you do it every day. This is 4 or 5 a day, 28/7, 4, you know what I mean? It's like, and again, they don't have to be 4, 4-hour conversations. Some of them are 3 minutes, just like sales, just like leads. Leads.

I mean, you got 20 appointments, 20 appointments so far. But that's all I'm doing now is I'm wrapping up, yeah, my, my marketing. Now I'm dropping more on, um, ad spend, seeing how that goes. But I just need— it's now it's just a volume game.

It is, it's, it's, it's staff, it's investing, dude. Invest in leads, well, now you gotta invest in infrastructure, you gotta invest in office staff. Obviously you're investing in recruiting. That's like some people— I'm investing My, my social media is blown up because I invest in Reese. And hell, now Giovanni doesn't have the ability or time to hire someone, so he pays Reese to do his marketing. That's, I mean, some of it he's doing some of it on his own, but he's paying him. That's what we talked to you, you know what I mean? So some people are doing that also. It's like, I can be a resource. I told Reese, dude, you want to build out a marketing team, do it. Charge agents to do their shit. I don't care. Yeah, I put him in charge of it. I'm like, I don't want to know the pricing. I don't want to know the packages. I don't want to do nothing. It's gonna run under our umbrella, but he, I let him manage that shit. I'm like, hire more people if you need to. If you can get some guys that need help with social, run it. Just leave me the fuck out of it. You know what I mean? So, uh, so that he's doing a little bit of that in internal. Certainly it helps our overall mine. I get a little piece of it too, but it helps him grow. It gives him opportunity. It helps our agents or whoever's wanting the stuff grow. And he's helping build that track. Y'all seen that tracker thing I'm putting out. Oh my God, that thing's going to be deadly. If you see me put— I've been teasing that. That thing is going to be nasty, dude. We're having fun with building that, and he's helping me build it. Now man is getting into it.

Yeah, I saw you post last night. You said you were cooking up something.

Oh bro, it's sick, dude. I'm, I'm always been a numbers nerd and a tracker, and this is just, you know, I've always given out the dial tracker and the client worksheet and all the things, and I tell people use my, my, my Excel sheet to track everything. And you know, it's like you got this sheet and and that sheet and this Google and then this Excel thing, and you got to put it all together. And then people want their issue paid and their debt and they're submitting out, you know, I mean, there's so many pieces to the puzzle. So I just built a hub to it. Like I said, fuck, I've been trying to get my team to do it for a couple years and we've just never had someone great at tech that stayed. That's, that's some of the turnover I've had. So I just said fuck it and I started building it myself. Showed Amanda and Reese, and Reese is a very— he's, he's, I mean, he's a, he's a media guy, he's a marketing, he's very visual, and he, he went to school for like finance, so he's numbers guy, he understands and he's, he pays attention to what we do. He, he gets the business. So he took what I put together and now he's making it look really good. So he's fucking with it now too. Now Amanda's in it. So it's, it tracks everything. It tracks activity, it tracks sales, it tracks client databases, tracking debt, it's tracking leaderboards. It track the dude. It's, it's my brain in one app. Um, and it's now I've had so many people hit me up about it. I'm like, well, shit. They're like, can I buy it? Can I buy it for my team? I want my leaderboard. You know what I mean? So I'm like, well, shit, I guess, I guess we'll build that next. So now we're trying to build it out to let other teams do it. I don't know how we're going to do it or pull it off or what we're— I don't, I don't know, but we're going to build it because I'm getting— I get like 5 DMs a day from it now because Reese shared it a couple of times. But people, you just use it free right now. I mean, I will eventually charge for it, you know, but the people using it now, you just get it. It's just tracker.johnwetmore.com. You can go in there and you can track your own clients. And we put a guest leaderboard because so many people aren't in my agency that want it. So I built like a guest leaderboard, aren't in my base shop. It's, it's built for my base shop. So anybody that's not in the base shop, it's like, all right, here, here's your leaderboard over there. We're keeping our base shop leaderboard over there. And yeah, I mean, but it does, it's a, it's a, it's a full, it's my brain in my app, which I've always wanted. Um, so we're having fun building it real time. And so. Expect there to be problems if you get on it because it's new. And I'm gonna do more now, get better later. So it's— there's mistakes in it, there's glitches, it's quirky sometimes. But I literally use it all day, every day. So we're tweaking it every day and making changes to make it flow really good. Um, it's, it's, it's my new project that I'm obsessed with. Anyway, yeah, yeah. So anyway, but yeah, any feedback on it or whatever, just let me know. Otherwise, if I can do anything for you guys, just holler Will do, man.

Appreciate your time. Bye, guys.

We'll see y'all around.

Thanks, camera. Take care. Thanks a lot, John.

Bye.