Sales Training, Scaling Your Business, & More! - Mastermind Event: May 15

Appreciate y'all getting on. Um, again, I'm going to run through, through some stuff today that, um, just some things I've been thinking about as usual. I've been thinking a lot about like the evolution of the business and how it's worked for me over the years. Um, and there's some things that's— it's kind of funny that as you grow in business and in life and in income levels, like it feels like there's always some type of new beginning. You know, the further I get in this business, you know, a lot of people look at me and go like, you've done some really cool things. And then yet I see other people in business and I'm like, damn, I ain't really done much of anything relative to how much business is out there and how much potential is out there and how much opportunity is out there. And relative to the things I'm trying to achieve and how many other people I'm trying to help get to certain levels, you know. And I always use the example like the dude that acquired my company Like this year and last— or in— sorry, in last year, in 2023, we, we issued, um, like $209 million in life insurance premium. I think we did something obnoxious, like I think when we looked, Amanda, I think it was like 135,000 applications or some obnoxious number. It was like 6,000 different agents. And I was like, the dude that acquired me they did $25 billion in premium. I have no idea how many applications, but I know $200 million relative to $25 billion, I'm a rounding error to some accountant, you know. And it's like, some of y'all are still at a stage where you're trying to figure out, can you make $100 grand, you know. And I remember being there, but I'm like, dude, one company's doing $25 billion UnitedHealthcare— Google their numbers, I don't know what they are. They're one of the top few companies on the planet in the S&P 500. They do some obnoxious number of applications. And again, we're going $100 grand, or I want to make $250 grand, or $500 grand, a million bucks. I'm like, you know how few applications that is relative to how many people buy insurance out there? I mean, it's just such a small number. But maybe people's vision gets stuck and they don't, you know, they don't know where to go next. And so I'm gonna get y'all to write something down, get a pen, type on your pad, whatever you want to do. I'm gonna give you all the words. I'm not gonna show them today. We're just gonna wing it today. We're gonna do a little different. So for me, I think this— I'm gonna give you 4 words, right? And this is going to be the topic of today. And as always, keep in mind, if you have questions or the things you want me to touch on specifically, type them in. I might open it up if someone's question's really good towards the end, but I don't mind reading, reading some things as we go. But I'm gonna get you guys 4 words. Number 1, desire. All right, so desire, really simple, right? And I believe that everything in every stage starts out with some type of a desire. Again, at its simplest level, assuming everyone is in here is licensed, we had a desire to get out of whatever the hell we were doing before insurance and get into insurance, and we knew we had to you know, go get our license. Like, that was the first step of desire, right? Like, step one, really simple. Yet the guy doing $25 billion, dude, he has a desire to do $50 billion. You know what I mean? It's like, it's all relative to where you're at, but it always starts there, right? We have, we have a desire. Second word, belief. I put believe, belief, however you want to write it, um, but belief, right? So again, if I go back to its simplest core, you had belief that this industry could get you from wherever you were at before to where you want to go, or you wouldn't. And you had belief you could pass your test to get your license, or you would have never started it, right? So it started again. Belief is the second piece of this kind of like circle of growth, if you will, in business. Third world— third word, just decide, right? Again, at its core, we had the desire to get out of our situation, get our license. We believed we could do it. And then we decided, you know what, eff it, I'm going to get my license. Like one day all of us did it. We were like, eff it, you know what, I'm signing up to the course. I'm going for it, right? And then from there, the last word, execute. Number 4, execute. So desire, belief, decide, execute, right? Now we decide we're going to go get our license. You know how many people I've had decide they were going to go get it And then they signed up to the pre-license course and they never even read one chapter. How many times that's happened? How many times do you think that's happened to Amanda in shit, the 7 years you've been here, much less the 12 I've been doing this. You know what I mean? Like, do they sign up and register and they're like, I'm going to knock it out. And they get to 0% and then week 1, 0%, week 2, 0%, week 3, 0%, or they get to 12% and they quit. You know what I mean? It's like they didn't really execute on the things they decided they were going to do. So now the next step is I got to execute that shit. I got to go out and get my license. I got to go out and pass the pre-license and then apply for the license. And there's— I got to finish what I, what I thought I could do and wanted to do and decided to do. It's like, now I got to take action on that. And I think so many of us get stuck at one of those stages wherever we're at, right? Like, think about whatever your desires are today. They're probably different than I assume they're not just, I want to get my license and get out of my shitty accounting job like I did, right? Maybe yours is I want to make $100 grand this year. Maybe yours is I want to put my kids in a private school like I did. Maybe yours is I want to buy a nice house for my family like I— that was one of mine. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a dollar amount, right? Whatever, whatever it is that you desire to achieve in life. Maybe you desire to be home and buy a house in the mountains and chill for 4 months a year. Whatever it is, it is. You know what I mean? Like, you— the beauty of this thing is you get to, you get to make your own path here, right? But what I've learned is the first year when I desired to make $70 grand, that was cool till I made it and realized that wasn't enough money to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish in my family's life. So I'm like, shit, now I want to make $250 and see what that's like, you know what I mean? But when I put $70 grand on paper, I didn't yet believe I could make $250. So it was never on the radar. So then I couldn't even make decisions that I had to achieve that. And I couldn't even go execute that. It wasn't even on the map for me. $70,000 seemed like a big number. This is in 2013. You know, 10 years ago in January, in this business, I made $800 for the month. January 2014, I made $800 freaking dollars. You know, I mean, and now like, do I've been making 7 figures for 8 years, 7, 8 years, you know, but only 10 years ago, I made $800 and almost quit.

Why?

Because I didn't have belief that I could make 6 figures yet. I didn't believe in myself. I didn't believe leads worked. I didn't believe the insurance business allowed everybody to make multiple 6 figures yet. I just didn't believe that the numbers— I didn't believe any of it inside. You know, I had a lack of belief in product or in hell, how educated I need to be in the business. You know, I think that, you know, maybe you believe you can accomplish big things. But maybe you still believe all the leads suck. That's a problem. Right? Versus maybe, maybe you should believe maybe you just suck on the phone. Maybe that's the issue. Maybe you suck at presenting. Maybe you suck at being really dynamic with different types of clients. Maybe you suck at doing a financial inventory to find people's problems. Maybe you suck at asking questions to identify those problems. Maybe you suck at listening. And when they're telling you no, you're still presenting and not telling you no directly. They're giving you clues and hints and body language. Maybe you suck at reading people. I mean, like, there's, there's pieces to this thing. Maybe you don't believe you're worth making $100 grand or $200 grand or a million bucks. Did I believe I'm worth making a fucking million dollars a day? But I didn't always have that, you know, I mean. So it's like, where are you in life? And again, if you have desires, cool. But you'll see your everyday thoughts and actions are really what reveals what your actual beliefs are. You know what I mean? Like, a lot of agents believe that they can get rich while still watching Netflix 4 hours a day and being on Facebook 6 hours a day and being on Instagram and not, not like creating content, but consuming content. You know what I mean? And it's, it's such a wild dynamic. Things like, man, I watch my Maddox Plays Baseball, which if you've been on this, I talk about it a lot. And when we go to his games, one of the things that's the most consistent, and it drives me motherfucking crazy every game, is the amount of parents that believe their child got out or lost the game was because of an umpire and making bad calls. And I'm like, they truly believe that that's the reason their kid lost. And I'm like, you, you realize your kid lost because they scored less runs than our kids. That's why they lost. Had they scored more runs, that call wouldn't have mattered. You know what I'm saying? It's just, and it's this crazy belief level that someone else should dictate and control the outcome of their kid's game. And I'm like, what on earth planet does that make any sense? So if Maddox ever starts to blame the ump, I'm like, yo, uh-uh, we don't, that, no. You watch the ball go by, dude. I got it was a little outside and he called it a strike. You know, if you hit it over the fence, he wouldn't have had a call to make it. You let it be on the ump. The ump didn't do anything. And be clear, the parent— I always want to tell the parents, I'm like, yo, y'all realize these umps are qualified to umpire 12-year-olds, right? That's how good they— they're so good at their career, they made it to umpiring 12-year-olds. Like, what is the expectation? Like, really? I mean, they sound major league umps. And then again, you go to majors, watch this. You go to get— some of y'all watch sports, but I go to a sports game and there's always the a-hole sitting behind me yelling at the players for not knowing the play or the route, or they dropped the ball, or they got sacked, or they didn't see the guy, the guy coming, the linebacker coming at him, and he got whacked and he fumbled, or or he tripped over his own feet, or he turned inside and should have turned outside. And you get these fans that are so mad at the athlete for not performing the right way. Or watch SportsCenter in the morning and see how much they rip apart the Knicks or the Nets or the Jets, whoever's playing, right? And just, it's like the expectation we have of other people. And yet, when you miss a sale or a client tells you no, Do you then treat yourself like you treat the athlete? Do you have the same expectation of yourself that you have of the umpire, that he's supposed to make a perfect call every time, that the quarterback's never supposed to throw an interception, that the receiver's never supposed to drop a ball? I'm like, do we drop balls every day in our business and then get mad at someone else for it? But when it's the athlete, you're mad at the person. You know, I mean, it's like, do you hold yourself as accountable there? But a lot of us don't believe that we're the problem, you know, and that in and of itself is the problem. And I remember having a change there and going like, you know, even if someone else is— maybe the client is wrong, maybe the agent is wrong, maybe the agent didn't do what they were supposed to do, whatever. What role did I play in this not going the way it was supposed to go? You know, and, and I look at that every day and I try to teach Maddox that, like, what role did you play here? You know what I mean? Like, yeah, you didn't hit well today. Like, we were playing golf this week. I had one of the most frustrating days ever on— what day was that, Amanda? Do you remember? I text you. I think it was Mother's Day. And I took Maddox to the golf course. We were there for like 3 hours. He got no sleep the night before. He was playing with his friends all night long. He was tired as all get-out. And we go to the course and we played like, I think like 15 holes or something total. Like we played for a little while, we had a tee time, and then we played some holes until it was time to play for real. And this kid got mad 100% of swings on Sunday. Every time he swung the club, he got mad. Because the ball didn't go far enough. It didn't— he didn't hit it. He'd hit it right down the middle, and he'd be mad that it didn't go far enough. I'm like, bro, it's in the middle of the fairway, dude. Why are you mad? He's like, well, last week I hit 210 yards. This was only 150. And I'm like— and he's getting so angry that when he's playing, he's playing with frustration. And I'm like, dude, do you understand how much worse right now your attitude is than your golf game. And the poor attitude is causing you to play worse because he's trying so hard to make sure that everything he does is perfect that he's losing focus on just like taking swings at the ball. Now, I mean, but if we, if we play on a good day and he's in a good space mentally, for 12, he can smoke the ball. You know what I mean? And I'm trying to teach him now, like, how much his mentality and his belief level— he just like, 'Yeah, I just, I suck today.' I'm like, 'Bro, we've been playing for 4 minutes. The day is young, dude. If you tell yourself you just suck today, why are we gonna even continue playing for the rest of the day? What's the point?' And I don't want you to stop, but I need you to fix the way you think about yourself and the way you believe. Like, remember the times you did well? Why can't you Why can't you feed that to yourself? You know, and a lot of us get caught up in the negative pieces of the business. And we, we do these very broad, like, everyone said no today, and everyone canceled, and everyone was mean today, and I'm— I suck at this, and I— the batch of leads was bad, and my week was bad, my day. And I'm like, careful what you say out loud or internally to yourself. You know what I mean? And, and, and, and you have to really understand that if you have a desire to get further in life, you sure as shit better understand what you believe. And do those beliefs align with your desires? Because a lot of times they don't, you know what I mean? And it's hard to watch. Like, again, you believe you should— you want to— like, you have desire to make a couple hundred grand, but again, it's like, do you believe the schedule you're running every day should get— should warrant you that? You know what I mean? Like, how many attempts have you made today to contact a potential client? How many follow-ups did you do today? How many past clients did you call and set up reviews with? How many birthday letters, Christmas cards, whatever you got going on? Like, how many things did you prepare to keep in touch with your clients? What have you done for marketing this week? What have you— you mean, like, are you just sitting around waiting for it to come to you? You know what I mean? Are you investing properly? Are you— or are we just always mad at some result, you know? And I had to, I had to learn to like get— I had to learn how to get as mad at my thoughts and as mad at my activity as I did the result I was getting mad at. Meaning if I said I was going to reach out to X amount of clients today, and I fell short, I should be as pissed at myself for falling short as I am when Mary cancels or Steve quits. But we're not, we're only mad at the result side. We, it's like we never, we never tend to hold ourselves accountable. We like, dude, I, I let myself down today based on what I said I wanted to achieve. You know what I mean? And again, I think for, for me, I always had the belief that I could accomplish what other people have accomplished. I just needed them to kind of show me the way. Some of y'all don't yet believe you can accomplish what you're watching other people in the industry do every day. Wherever you work, there's someone killing it at that company. There's millionaires at every company in this business, much less how many people are making $100 grand. Or $200 grand, you know what I mean? But do you actually believe you're worthy of it? And do you believe you can get there? Or do you believe they're superhuman? You know, I just believe they outwork you, and I just believe they're willing to go through the, the ups and downs of it. I was talking to my buddy Mark yesterday. I'd be on a— you know, if y'all don't follow, we— I do a podcast, the Insurance Insiders Podcast, and it's, it's me just kind of taking a journey around the insurance industry and cool people and cool stories and people making money and just me honestly exploring a lot of people I don't know. Um, and he said something, we're gonna get, we're gonna get a sign made of it. I wish I could, I could say it as articulated as well as he did, but when it comes out, um, it's a podcast with Mark Mead. I don't know, Amanda, if y'all know when that one's coming out. It'll be in the next, probably, I think we have like 3 in queue or something like that, so be in the next few weeks. At the end of it, he was like He goes like, the destination never should— he go— how do you word it? He said, uh, what's the word I want to use? Not negotiate, but like, ultimately the point of it was the destination never moves. Like, the mountaintop's the mountaintop. The top of the mountain ain't moving. It's always going to be there. If you want to climb a fucking mountain, the top of that mountain ain't going nowhere. But the path to get there I promise you, it ain't gonna be what you think. Does that make sense? So the process along the way, you got to be willing to allow shifts in that. Like, things aren't going to go perfectly ever. Never. We were laughing, dude. I had conversations. Hell, the way I wanted this fucking Zoom to go didn't go perfectly today. Y'all saw me trying to share screen and, you know, I mean, like, it didn't. It just didn't. Now we're gonna try to fix it. Yes. What What did I do wrong to get it that way? It is what it is, you know what I mean? But like, I just can't stop. I can't not do the Zoom, you know what I mean? It's like, it's part of it. And that's a really simple example. But he was like, dude, the mountaintop never changes. The destination doesn't change. Wherever you want to be, that shit ain't moving. It's there. You just gotta go get it. Maybe it's gonna rain today. Maybe there's gonna be a tornado. Maybe there's gonna be a thunderstorm. Maybe it's gonna snow 3 feet. Maybe there's going to be an emergency in life. Maybe you're going to run out of food. But whatever it is, like, shit's going to happen, you know? So it's like, are you deciding to get to the top of the mountain no matter what? Are you only going to get there if you get like a ski lift that's going to bring you up in a straight line on a sunny day that someone else operates? And if they don't show up to turn on the ski lift, you just don't go to the top of the mountain. You mean there's a difference? Like hoping like hell I get there and making a decision that I'm going out to get it. I'm glad like 10 of y'all just got on video. That was really wild. My whole screen just showed up with people where before was all names. I like when I see more people. You know, and then from there, it's like, again, the execution of it, you know, for me, the, and, and through the stages of this thing, it's changed so much, man. When I wanted to— when I wanted to make, you know, $70 grand in the business, I was working a job full-time in accounting. I was at an hour and a half commute in Atlanta to the job, and hell, a lot of times it was 2 hours plus coming back. Any of y'all from Atlanta? Anybody in Atlanta? There you go. All right, so I was out 20 the west side, like Villarica. I was in Dallas, but it was like Villarica, so way out 20. And my office was up in Alpharetta, up 400. So I had to come 20 east, 285 north, 400 north, 55 miles every day for 4 years. And then coming back, 400 south, which is a mother-effing nightmare, 285 guess it's west. Sometimes it says north and south, sometimes it's really weird. 285, I don't even understand it, but 285 that way and then go back 20 west every day for years. I'm in Mapleton, door knock. You know how many times I've door knocked in Mapleton? I love it, Lindsay. I've sold a lot of insurance in Mapleton. They like insurance out there. Um, but I had a desire to do that, and I— but I had to execute on working my job still You know what I mean? Getting up at 5, commuting the way I had to commute, as far as I had to commute, getting home and figuring out how to dial and work on Sundays to book appointments and run Mondays and Tuesdays after work. And I still had to go out and make that happen no matter what was going on in life. You know, and that was the stage I get to look back and that stage flew by looking backwards. But man, going through it, trying to add insurance to that schedule sucked ass. And at the time, 5 kids, you know, little. I still have 5 kids, but they're all grown-ass now. I don't do nothing. I was at baseball last night watching Maddox, and one of the moms was like, yeah, coach is late, he had to pick up this one, had to go to volleyball, and this one had to go to tennis, and I'm over here, and we're swapping, we're driving kids around here, there, and everywhere. And I'm like, man, I, uh— and they were talking about graduation coming up, and I'm like, damn, I got my third one graduating high school. 4 of them have cars now. All I have is Maddox. I don't have to do any of the commuting around, like carpooling kids here, there, and everywhere. I'm like, yo, you got baseball, drive your ass there, you know what I mean? Now the insurance business blessed me with being able to buy all my kids a car so they can do that, you know what I mean? But it was like, I— it was funny, we were laughing about how inconvenient their schedule was. And I'm like, I just bought my damn kids cars, they take themselves, you know what I mean? But I couldn't do that in 2013. But because I, because I had those desires and the belief that I could do it, and I made decisions to go do it, and I executed on that shit, the, the, like, there's a word, it's called like the butterfly effect. Y'all ever heard of that? I think there's a book out there. There's one, they say the same thing, it's something with waves. I forget the other word. If someone, if someone knows it, you can type it in here. I forget, there's another terminology for it. I've heard one with waves.

It's a movie with Ashton Kutcher too. It's good.

What's it called?

The Butterfly Effect.

That's the name of it? That's where it's from? I didn't know that. I might have seen— I'm so dumb with movies, like I might have seen it and not remembered. I know the concept though, and it's like, yeah, I'm gonna do it really poorly, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. I have to watch it. I don't know if I've actually seen it or if I just read the concept in a book or something. But there's, there's, there's one with waves, it kind of same, same thing. And it's like actions, meaning the butterfly's over here doing whatever, and in 3 years it's in Ireland sniffing a flower. Like, you just don't know where it's gonna go, right? And the movie does a way better job. But it's like, man, door knocking in Mableton today, Lindsay, do you have any idea— which you don't, this is a theoretical question, or what's that word, Amanda, what you asked me the other day? Is that one of those— what's that question called where I really don't want you to answer it? A rhetorical question, right? It's like, do you have any idea where that's going to lead you in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 years? I know that me door knocking in, in Cherokee County and Paulding County after work for a year for 3 hours a night I know that led us to being right here on this call today. I know that led to us being able to build our crazy dream house today. You know what I mean? Like, because I was out banging on doors in 2012, 2013 when I really wanted to just go home and watch Survivor. But I had bigger desires in life, you know what I mean? And I believed it was going to work. And I made a decision that I had to change my effing life because I am the dipshit that got me in the life I was in. You know what I'm saying? And I just went out and executed on it because I believed with the time, energy, and effort it would work. Because the industry's been around for— someone can Google it. I did it once, and like, there's some thoughts that the industry's been around for like, hell, back to like Jesus days, they had some kind of insurance on stuff. You know, I'm not that really good with scripture stuff, but I've read some things on it. I'm like, there's some arguments that they had some types of insurance back then, like they had different currencies, you know. But the, the iteration of insurance we know today, I mean, some of these companies been in business 150, 200 years, you know what I mean? Like, the business works. So if there's any confusion, if there's success in the business, there's an obnoxious number of people having success in this industry, you know. It's just, are you willing to go out and get it, or do you think like, you know, I can't get to that mountain ever? It's like, how do you get there? What's the answer? How do I get to the top of the mountain? Someone gonna say it. How do we get there at its simplest level? One step at a time. Sick. One step at a time. Sick. Keep climbing. Don't fucking stop. I'm doing this, uh, y'all, y'all follow, and some of the— if y'all see me, I sometimes I share some of the same stuff, so if you don't like it Well, I don't care at all. But y'all know Jesse Itzler. Some of y'all know him. I love the dude. And I follow— he has this like all-day running company. And he does crazy shit if you follow him on social. And he's like, he's like mid, early to mid-50s. I don't know his exact age, but he's pushing 55, I think. And he lives here in Atlanta. And funny enough, he's married to the chick who started Spanx, if y'all don't know. And so two billionaires separate of each other and got together both when they were loaded. And, uh, one of the things he likes to do is like ultra-adventure type things. So he did this, like, he'll do like 100-mile marathons, or he did this, uh, he did like— it's called Rim to Rim, and he did like the whole, uh, what's that thing, the damn big hole in the ground, Nevada, Arizona, wherever the hell it is, the Grand Canyon. He did the whole rim to rim on the Grand Canyon. It's like 50 miles, some obnoxious number of miles around it. And one of the things he does too that I'm signing up— that I signed up for, I'm going in August, it's called 29029. And 29,029 feet is the height in— in— of Mount Everest, apparently, in feet. And, uh, so he has this challenge called 29029 and he rents out a mountain. They have it in like 6 or 7 different spots, uh, in North America. And, uh, he rents out a mountain for a weekend and people pay like an obnoxious amount of money to show up to this mountain and climb it. But not just climb the mountain once, you got to climb the mountain enough times to equal the height of Mount Everest. So I'm going to the one in Whistler, Canada in August, and I have to hike this mountain, uh, 8 times. It's a 4-mile hike, it's like 3,000 feet in elevation or whatever. And I have to hike it 8 times and I have 36 hours to do it. And you know what you get out of it? A red hat that says 29029 on it. That's it. But he does— he did a video yesterday and he's like, man, the process of climbing this mountain 8 times and succeeding at something— he's like, he quoted, I think there's— I missed the number, but it's some— I think he said like 8 billion people on the planet or whatever the number was. Um, and he's like, there's 200 people on this mountain out of 8 billion or 6 billion or whatever the number is. And he's like, the process of you going through this, unlike 99.9% of the planet, this 36 hours and the success you have if and when you finish will last with you your entire lifetime. You'll have that feeling of finishing forever. In 36 hours from now, all you gotta do, take one step at a time, don't fucking quit when you want to, and that feeling of success will be there forever. You know what I mean? And some of the stuff y'all are doing today that you feel frustrated by are the things that you'll look back on if you don't quit, and you'll love the feeling that it gives you knowing where it led. But do you actually believe that it's going to lead somewhere dope? And are we— are you willing to go out and do it no matter what and execute on the stuff every day no matter how it feels? And most people in this industry don't. They give up on themselves and they quit on their families and they quit on their desires and their beliefs, you know. And so you got to be careful every day and look at these. For me, these 4 words are really important. And no matter what level you're at, you all have those 4 things every day to deal with. No matter where you are, I have it too. I have desires and I have beliefs, some good, some really bad. Ask Amanda. I'm a fucking shit show in a lot of ways. Overthink things. I'm negative. I get frustrated. I have a hard time hiding it. Like, I'm messed up. You know what I mean? But I'm like, all right, I believe I can get better. I just gotta work on it. And I gotta work on patience and I gotta work on my— I like, you know what I mean? But I believe I'm worth big things in life. And, um, you all have those same decisions to make every day, you know. And so it's like, are you willing to go through that process and kind of that circle that never ends? You know what I mean? Like, if, if you can understand those 4 simple steps, you can, you can get anywhere you want in life. Because those steps haven't changed for me in 12 years in this business, but I keep going to new levels. But I keep starting back at the desire part. No matter where I am, I always end up there again. You know, I mean, and in some cases, you can be in multiple stages at once. You know, I'm saying, like, you might, you might have desire in some things, and you're executing on others, but you really don't have belief. He— you know, I mean, like, you could be in multiple stages. So it's just kind of look at where you're at in your, in your own journey, in your own process, and understand that's just the cycle of it. And are you willing to go through that cycle over and over and over and over and over and over and over again every single day when it's boring as shit. I was, um, man, I said out loud, I was— I'm working with this like trainer and, uh, I'm trying to get like to a new level of health for me and I'm afraid to lose the health I have. As you get older, it gets harder. And, uh, so I'm talking to him and he sends me this little workout in this app and I'm like, bro, I need you to mix this shit up. It's the same fucking workout all the time. I get so bored. I don't want to do it. And as the words are coming out of my mouth, I realize how much of a mistake that is because in insurance or anything, say it like it's same shit every day. It's really boring in the moment. It's frustrating. You don't really want to do it. But there was riches in the boring and the mundane for me. Yeah, I mean, and I'm like, I can't believe I let those words out of my mouth. But for me, it's like somehow I have this belief that I'm gonna get ripped without doing the same boring-ass shit every day and eating the same relatively boring-ass types of meals and doing the same boring-ass— like, I had— I was— I misunderstood, you know what I mean? So like, I'm at a different spot with it. But I still struggle with the same concepts, you know. Now fortunately, I've got— I've gone through that cycle enough times that I understand it, so I don't— it doesn't linger as long for me, you know what I mean? I can catch myself when I say things that show lack of belief or they're counter to the things I say I want, you know what I mean? I say I want to climb a damn mountain for an obnoxious amount of hours for some unknown reason, for a red hat, because I like accomplishing things and I'm a big fan of like doing things most people won't do. I've invited a bunch of buddies who are in really good shape to do it. Literally 100% of people told me no. There's not one person has told me yes, they'll come with me. And I'm like, I like that. I like being the crazy dude who's gonna climb a mountain in Canada 8 times for a red hat because only like 200 people will be able to say they did it that year. Granted, they do it every year, but it's a very— and it's a lot of repeat people, funny enough. And, uh, you know, but I like do— I like doing things that most people won't do. I like being different. I like outlasting people. I like outworking people. I like not giving up at things because over the course of time the gap becomes so big, you know what I mean? Like, there's people been in the business— I know people that I'm close with, been in the business as long verbally saying they're trying to do the same things I'm trying to do, build an agency, build team, do whatever. But the frequency at which I do it relative to the frequency at which they do it, not really that big a deal on a Wednesday. Maybe I make a few more calls than they do. Yeah. But then you add Thursday, and then you add Friday, and then you add June, and then you add July, and then you add 2025. And then you add 2026. And over the course of the next 10 years, I'm gonna smoke them. I just know that with everything I got. Because I'm not going to quit. Even though I want to. How many times, Amanda, do I tell you a week I want to quit? Tell them for real. Like, how many times did I tell you last week, you think?

Last week?

Yeah. How many times?

Probably 4 or 5 times.

It don't go away. You know, now I can confide in her more than most. Now Reese is on here listening, so he probably learned some shit about me that he didn't know. You know what I mean? Like, he was like, ah shit, now two employees know. But Amanda really knows. Like, I'm like, fuck, dude, why? Because I just— dude, we're all broken, that's why. You know what I mean? And it's hard, that's why. And we're human, that's why. You know, so it's like, but at its core Master of the Mundane. I like that. Patrice Pagano. I feel like I know you. I see your name on social. How do I know you? Let's see if you're hiding or if you're on here. There's a lot of people on here now. I don't see everybody. Let's see. So I got like squirrel moment. I'm seeing who's on here. I know that name. You can tell me how I know you. I feel bad. I wish I— if I had a superpower, that I could give myself, it would be to remember everybody's name. Like, right off the rip, I got a, I got a couple buddies, man. Hunter and freaking dude, I've been hanging out with Kyle. So Kyle is a buddy I play golf with now. Our kids are in school together and they play football and golf and baseball together. And this dude, I go to the club with him, he knows everybody's name and their story and their background and how they got— and I'm like, I want that. I just got to work on it. Um, but yeah, I like some of the— I like some of the comments. Um, let me see if there's any more. Anything y'all want to know about specifically? Psychology at end of time. I don't know what you mean there, Brian. I'm going to ignore that one. I'm sorry. Uh, I have no face filter. You have no mouth filter either, Brian. I love you though. You're like me. That was like, we're equal on that. And sorry, I'm looking down. I have two screens here, so I can't read that one because I'm old. Uh, small disciplines every day will create— it will create, it will create a lot of cool stuff. Keep it simple. Change comes from the inside. We were talking about when I was talking to Mark yesterday. Let me see if I get it right today on the podcast. I had to go out and step out and look at it. I have the sign out in my office. I might have talked about this last time. And it was like, what's it say? What's the change one, Amanda? Hold on. Do you hate change? Oh, do you hate change so much you're willing to fail? Or do you hate to fail so much you're willing to change? That hangs in my office. Yeah, there's another one out there too that hung in front of my office, like where I was dialing every day. That's a Michael Jordan quote. You Google it, I'll mess it up a little bit. But it was like, I've missed, fuck, 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost however many games. Like, there's this whole— all the quote-unquote negatives and losses and failures. And at the end, it's like, and that's why I win, you know what I mean? Because how often he was willing to fail throughout, throughout the time, you know? And it's like, man, are y'all, are y'all overcomplicating this? I know I did, you know what I mean? And it's like, it's a very lonely business. We'll all be done with this, and I doubt anyone's going to be together right after this. I mean, Reese are in the same building, everybody else is not, I doubt, you know what I mean? Like, maybe not, maybe some of y'all together, maybe you're not. But it's like, this business can be very lonely, and your own thoughts will mess you up if you let them. But man, they give you such strength and superpowers if you, if you let them too. I mean, so you gotta, you gotta, you gotta control that shit. And for me, these, these 4 simple words— I just think about the business a lot and I'm like, this is really easy if I just keep it as simple at its core as it is, you know, versus overcomplicating it, you know. Do you believe you have to know everything about every lick of insurance to be successful? I don't. I don't know shit about shit, really. You know, someone was talking to me the other day about IMO, FMO, NMO. I'm like, I've been doing this 12 years and I work for an IMO. I could not, if you had a gun to my head, tell you the difference between IMO, FMO, NMO. I have no earthly idea. But some agents want to know all that shit before they get started, you know what I mean? I don't know the rating of any carrier— A-, plus, B+. I don't even know what they mean. I think they're made up. I honestly, like, I don't think— I don't know. I just— what's that, Better Business Bureau? I think it's like that. Like, that shit's a scam. They just— you can be in it if you pay. I just— I don't know. I just think people overcomplicate stuff like that, you know what I mean? I never needed— I never believed I needed brochures to sell clients. Not mad if you have them, but I never gave them out. I didn't— I didn't, you know what I mean? Like, I just believed that I could build trust with people by being a human and talking to them. I didn't believe I had to understand how they came up with pricing, why they're different. I didn't believe I had to understand all the underwriting. I had to more understand where to get the info, you know what I mean? I just— I don't know, dude. I don't— you know, sometimes Brian, now he's learned, he's on here, works with me a little bit, and I'm like— he'll be like, I know this isn't a question for you, so I was going to ask you, but never mind, I know you don't know that shit. I'm like, I actually don't know. I don't know a lot of things. You know, thank God Amanda's here. And I got some other people. And I'm like, I don't, I don't know. I don't want to know. I don't care. I don't believe I need to know all that stuff to have success. I just need to know the certain things I need to know. You know, I know early on, I overcomplicated all of that. And not saying you shouldn't educate yourself, because it's kind of counter to what I said about the football analogies earlier. But you don't need to be a pro at every aspect of this to go do a bunch of it. You know, wherever you're at today, I promise if you did a bunch more of it, you'd make more money with your current size.

So what do you do to like, what do you do to like motivate yourself when it's like, when you're not in the mood? Because I feel like when I am not in the mood and I just do it anyway, my, like you said about your sons, it, it just goes bad. So what do you do to keep yourself good in a mental space while on the phone?

Um, I don't expect it's always going to go good, and I'm just okay with that, you know what I mean? Um, yeah, I think if specifically on the phone, I feel like we all have enough control that I believe if you lack— if you're negative, like, I believe Maddox was making a conscious decision to be mad on the golf course Sunday. Meaning, who was that? I didn't see who— I couldn't tell who asked the question. What's your name?

It's Kendrycia. I can't turn my camera on right now. That was broke.

It's okay. Kendrycia. I like that.

Thank you.

So do you have kids?

Yes. How old? Newborn right now.

How old is that one?

Yeah.

How old?

He's 6 weeks.

6 weeks. Hell yeah. Is it your only one or you got more?

I have more.

How many you got?

I got 4, uh, 2 girls, 14 and 11, and then, uh, my other boy, he's 5. The youngest two little boys.

In 6 weeks. Ooh-wee. That's a fun stage and a tough one all at the same time.

Yeah, it is.

It's like the insurance business.

Right.

It's fun and tough all at the same time at all times. It's like kids, man. This business is funny. But like, all right, can I tell you how I do it for me? Yeah, because I'm messed up and I don't want you to take offense or be, you know, I mean, like, take it the wrong way because I'm like dramatic with myself. To simplify things, okay, so if it were me and I were in your situation and I had a 6-week-old and I was mad on the phones, right, frustrated, irritated, and I let it show, I would ask myself like crazy stuff. Like if someone— if I showed emotion on the next phone call, my baby's health would be affected. Could you change your next phone call? Yeah. All right. So to me, I believe you're making a choice to be frustrated on your next phone call if that simply you can change it.

Okay. Like, just basically say something outrageous to—

That's how I did it. Because you're compli— you're overcomplicating it. If your baby's health was at risk, you wouldn't be mad on the next phone call.

That's true.

So why the fuck are you mad on the next phone call when they're not at risk? Because you're choosing to. You're allowing your emotions to beat yourself. There's a choice. Because you can make the choice to stop it in 3 seconds if I just change the situation. You know what I mean?

That's what's interesting. Like, yeah, yeah.

So I would do things like that. Like, I was watching Andy Elliott. I don't know if y'all know him. Many people probably do. And, uh, I've been fortunate to meet him a few times and hang out at his office and kind of see his culture. And I watch his stuff on social He was talking to a guy that's in the car business, and he sells— I think the number was like 20 cars a month, all right, which I think is, from what I understand, it's a fair amount of cars in the car business. But I don't think it's like— you're not, you're not breaking any records. And, uh, he said something like, you know, if I had a— if I was— if, if I was going to kidnap one of your kids if you didn't sell 40 cars a month, how many cars would you sell next month? Like 40, easy. All right, that's it. That's all it took. You know what I mean? So can you mentally have yourself in a space where you can put your back against the wall and force yourself to make a decision that you could easily make if the circumstances were something else? You know, and my, my, one of my, a buddy and mentor of mine, Mike, He would answer like the motivation question and frustration like, if you can't, if you can't motivate yourself to, to do things like that every day, your dreams aren't big enough. Yeah, I mean, like that little things like this are going to knock you out, your dreams must be so low that you aren't willing to go through no adversity to get them, you know. And then I think about things like athletes who show up right after a family member gets murdered. Michael Jordan playing after his dad got killed, playing with the flu the way he did. You know what I mean? Like, not saying you have to do crazies, but it's normal. I mean, there's people who are in the military right now overseas who miss the birth of their children, who miss deaths in their family, who can't be sick our country's at risk, who can't be negative. You know what I mean? Like, I just— man, it's funny. It's like hard, but it's like a 6-week-old is hard, but they ain't really that hard. Let me just make sure their diapers change and have a bottle in their mouth or a nipple in their mouth every so often, and you're probably pretty good most of the time. You know what I mean? Like, it's hard, but it's not. And those, the, what your question is hard, but it's not at all either. You know, and I just have to keep that stuff in mind all the time. And I'm not perfect at it. Again, Amanda did say I tried to quit 4 or 5 times last, whatever the number was. I didn't really try, said it out loud though. But like what I'm really good at that you probably suck at is I recognize it. And I fix it quick. I don't ever think it's going to stop though. Maybe that's not the best belief to have in the world, but I just, I don't know, I don't think chargebacks are ever going to go away, and I don't think clients canceling is ever going to go away, and I don't think agents quitting is ever going to go away, and I don't think doing these Zooms and 90% of y'all not doing shit about it afterwards is ever going to go away. I don't believe it. I don't believe for one second that piece is going to chant. There's going to be a few, you know what I mean? And I do it for that. And so it's like, you just— when you're in those moments, man, I just learned if I don't fix it, I'm fucking losing to myself, you know what I mean? Like, again, you watch someone on Broadway— I went to a Broadway show, I don't know, a few years ago. I don't really like that stuff at all. It's not my jam. Like, when I was a kid, they would take us on field trips to What's that Christmas one? The Christmas play they make everyone watch? Um, damn, it's popular as shit. I think it's dumb as shit, but everyone loves it. Someone will know.

It's not like A Christmas Carol.

Um, I feel like it's something else. Uh, hell, anyway, someone will know it. The Nutcracker. That's the one. Fucking Nutcracker. That makes me want to poke my eyeballs out with a spoon. I don't like that stuff. But I liked, um, what's the one I like, Amanda? The one where they rap.

Uh, Hamilton.

Hamilton. Yeah, I like that one. Have y'all ever seen Hamilton? It's like the history of the country, but they rap it.

Yeah, actually, she, uh, she was on—

oh, I don't think they were talking to me. I was— I'm always like, man, I wish they taught me in elementary school in rap. I'd have paid way more attention. I'm watching this thing and I learned the whole history of like how the Declaration of Independence was made and the cunt, like how it all went. I'm like, I told my wife and I'm like, that's a cool ass story. She's like, yeah, you dipshit, you learned it in third grade too. But I didn't, you know what I mean? I just didn't. But I— and the reason I say that is like Hamilton, those, those, I don't know what you call them, actors, whatever they are. Broadway people, they, uh, they perform that show twice a day, every day, live. Can you imagine if they let their frustration show live on stage? You know what I mean? Like, one, imagine you went and you watched them live and they had a bad day and they performed whatever you like watching— Nutcracker, There's also one about gangs that I like too. I don't know what it's called, but it's like two gangs against each other. That one was pretty cool too. And, uh, but imagine you're watching that and they, they performed the way you perform when you're frustrated. How bad that show would suck, you know what I mean? And how much you expect that they control it. They all got life going on. There's all kinds of shit going on in their lives. Hell, half of them probably sleeping together and got all kinds of drama going on, you know what I mean? But they don't show it when they're on. So the question is, when you're in this business, how much are you on versus how much you off and you just let your shit show, you know what I mean? So it's like Kilimatt taught me, you want to get paid like a professional, you better act like a professional. And when I think of that, I think of people like in sports or on Broadway or You know what I mean? Like performing in a live setting, actors doing a movie. Every time Arnold Schwarzenegger's on a movie, imagine he let his shit in life show. Tiger Woods golfing, imagine he let his shit in life show. It's easy, but it's hard, you know what I mean? So it's like you just got to be aware and make a choice, you know. And there's a game. Do you have a desire to change that? Do you believe you can change it? Are you gonna make a decision to change it? And are you gonna execute on that damn decision? And yet give yourself grace when it doesn't work perfect every single time and just continue to get better on it. Yeah, I mean, so, John, can I throw a question to you? Yeah, who was that?

Hold on, Adam Ellis.

Let me see if I see you on here. Adam, there's a lot of— oh, I see you. Yep, cool. What you got?

Started about, uh, started in January and wrote like $100,000 January, February, March. Just qualified for the cruise. Awesome.

What's up? Or each month combined?

Uh, fine. I did like $101K in my first 90 days. IULs mostly. Um, and I went crazy and like put all my focus in and now I'm looking at balance and I'm really getting curious about balance versus zero line focus and trying to make it make sense in my head where like if I focus fully on this, then where am I losing in other parts of my life? And how do I regain that, etc.? So I wonder your perspective on balance, man.

Um, are you in the field or telesales? What are you doing?

Telesales on Frank's team.

Cool. Euphemia?

Yeah.

Dope. Um, how many, like, appointments does it take you to do that kind of business, roughly? Just give me some averages. Uh, Ballpark?

Still between 15 to 20 appointments a day with like 30% showing up.

Yeah.

How many days are you on the phone or Zoom or what? Your phone or Zoom?

Uh, when I was like fully immersed of kind of— what's up?

Phone or Zoom? Telesales?

Both.

Got it. Cool. Okay. How many days?

Um, when I was fully immersed and I haven't been fully immersed recently as I've been dealing with the process and getting things issued, et cetera. When I was fully immersed, I was on the phone 7 days a week.

Okay, cool. And what, what kind of balance do you think you're missing?

Uh, relationship, spiritual life, um, travel, except just like the other— looking at the Wheel of Life, I'm like, am I focusing on any of these other brackets besides just the work?

Yeah.

And am I gonna get lost there and addicted to that and not come back? Type— I don't know, it's Yeah, kind of a mental conundrum.

What'd you do before this?

Uh, I was in mortgage for quite a while.

Okay.

Um, doing different types of virtual sales.

Got it.

Self-employed for like 15 years in some kind of way.

Self-employed. Okay. Always different sales though.

Yeah.

What's got you bouncing around? Like why insurance now versus mortgage?

Uh, one company was doing really well for a while and then crashed and the mortgage industry shifted.

Yeah.

Um, got into recruitment for a while. That kind of fell apart after like 2 years.

Okay.

So it's kind of been—

yeah. What do you want out of this thing long term?

Um, want to have financial abundance to be able to do whatever I want whenever I want. And I'm like 43 now, so I feel like I'm beginning to get a little bit older, and I want to be able to set my future up for long term. No, no kids, not married.

Okay.

Are you gonna— is you going down that road eventually, or you don't care, or no, or I don't know, I don't care.

I was a digital nomad for like 10 years, living in Sedona, Arizona now.

Got it, cool. So what's financial freedom mean to you? What's the number? What do you need to live that lifestyle roughly? What's the first thing that comes to mind?

$333,000 net a year.

$333,000, it's an interesting number. Why'd you pick 333?

I've made in the past in other businesses, and it's like where I always felt good. But never really built savings at the same time.

No shit, that's your lifestyle currently? You have a $300,000 lifestyle?

Was the one for several— for many years, yeah.

Got it.

It's mortgage and stuff. Not now. Um, I mean, I wrote $100,000 in the past 90— the past 90 days, but that's a lot going into marketing and getting—

Do you, do you want to be a sales guy forever?

No, I have about 10 agents getting licensed right now.

Okay, so for me, balance is funny, dude. I think it's an interesting way that people look at balance, right? Most people want balance on Wednesday, May 15th. So they want to work hard in the morning and have balance in the evening. And then for the week of the— whatever this is, the 12— the week of the 12 through the 19, whatever the hell the dates are, they want balance this week. So they want to have work 2, 3, 4, 5 days and then have Saturday, Sunday off, you know, I mean, and do whatever. And then in May, they want balance. Does that make sense? How was my balance this month? Or how was my balance in 2024? I just think it's a funny perspective, dude. Because like, if you picture like a scale, right, balance, right, we got all the work and the freedom, and it's like this, right? So for me, the question is, what's the timeframe of the balance is the bigger question. You know, I mean, like, relative to what you think I had crazy imbalance. Fuck, I could look back before insurance and working two jobs. And or, you know, working 75 hours a week at Little Caesars when I was fucking 17, 18, 19, 20. Or, you know, I mean, go working a full-time job, going to school full-time and having multiple kids. And I mean, like, that was, that was even some level of imbalance. But I had no money still. But there was no, like, pressure for me to do a lot of things. We had no whatever. But in insurance specifically, like, I had a high level of imbalance in most people's eyes. 20— probably started in 2015 when I really turned my shit around. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. So 15, 16, 17, 18. Now 5 full years of what most people would perceive as imbalance. But bro, I walked in the office today at, I don't know, Reese, 11:30, after getting my little I went to the gym at fuck 9. I got a— I went, I was like, I want one of those little— what are those bowls? Acai bowls. I don't know how to say the word, but I went and got one of those. And I rolled in and Reese had everything ready for me to like record some shit. And they had this whole thing set up. I just came in and sat down, started talking. I've been talking to a camera for 3 and a half hours. And then as soon as I'm done here, we have a quick call at and then I'll go play golf, and then I'll go to my son's friend's baseball game, and then by 7 o'clock I'll be texting Amanda how fucking bored I am, and I'll probably go to the gym again. You know what I mean? Like, I have an obnoxious amount of balance today relative to 2015. You know what I mean? And for me, the scale didn't have to be I didn't give a shit what my balance was in May of 2015. I didn't care. I couldn't afford balance, dude, because I wanted to achieve— I wanted multiple 7 figures a year. I wanted to be able to like send— the things I get to live today, I want them like Maddox, dude. It's crazy, bro. We're planning a summer, and I use the term planning lightly because this year, because he's 12, I can drop him off at the country club. He can spend the whole fucking day there, eat what he wants, swim all day, play pickleball with his buddies, play golf. And then at some point we'll pick him up or sleep over his buddy's house. You know what I mean? Like, and he has baseball in between, and I go to all this shit and I help coach all this stuff. And I take— we were traveling to like Cooperstown to play in the World Series of baseball this summer. Like, it's stupid. But it's because I was doing things that felt like imbalance to other people for so many years, you know what I mean? And for me, I didn't want to be a sales guy forever. I wanted to build a team, dude. But I, I knew I didn't want to drag it out, you know what I'm saying? So if you have balance now, it's going to take you significantly longer to hit your level of freedom you want in, in time in years, in days. So it's going to take the same amount of hours, probably. I could argue it'd take a little less because I'm doing it more frequently. I get better at it. I'm more efficient. I'm more effective. You know what I'm saying? Like, if I condense shit, I get better at it. Whereas if I drag it out— meaning if we run 20 appointments a day versus 20 appointments a month, like some people on here— you're going to get better faster. On top of making more because you're seeing more people in a shorter period of time. The reason you did $100 grand in 3 months and some people can't figure out how to do $100 grand in 12 months is because you're running as many appointments as a week as some of these fuckers run in 6 months. And I use that word very lightly, like, don't take offense. I just— I sometimes I get on a rant. You know, I mean, like, it's just that, but that was me. There were people doing what you were doing while I was dicking around making $3 grand a month. But they were seeing as many people in a week as I was in 3 months. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, what's the timeframe you need the balance in? If you need it this week, dude, I'm not your guy. I don't fucking know how to do that. You just can't have the balance and the financial freedom. If you want the balance this week, or this month, or this year, I think— can you have flashes of it? Sure. Go write $100 grand, have a dope Friday, Saturday. Careful, don't drag that shit out to Tuesday. Why? Chargebacks are coming, lead bills are coming, your mortgage is coming, you know what I mean? Like, be careful, you know what I'm saying? It's like, so for me, dude, the time frame in which I needed the balance was a decade. I didn't give a shit, you know what I mean? So now the scale was like this for a while. Today, bro, oh my God, I have, I have balance in the wrong— I have so much time freedom today. Now I stay busy because I'm— I like— I have big goals still, but I can schedule my day and I can be so efficient and so effective. Again, I knocked out more in 4 hours in terms of content that I bet everyone on here combined will do this week. You know what I'm saying? Because I'm just so effective with it. I have a team, I have things in place, I have systems, you know what I mean? So it's like that part's changed too, you know? But that's what my family wanted, dude. I wanted to be— I wanted to be able to give them a different kind of lifestyle, you know what I mean? And for me, man, I was 30, 37 when I made that choice. I'm 47 today and my life is I mean, shit, I've made more money in the last 4 years than my entire family's made combined ever. Like, immediate family, you know what I mean? Like, it's— and it's not just about the money, but the money does a lot of dope things, you know what I mean? Like, we can do some cool shit with it. It allows me to have a different weight offer on my shoulders, being, you know what I mean? And for me, dude, it's all I do is look back to when I was in the position y'all are in, and I just didn't stop. So I don't, I don't know another path. I'm not the like work smarter than harder guy. That's— I don't, I'm not, I'm not that. I don't believe in that. I believe if you can work smarter, I think you should work harder too. If you're so fucking smart, you should work a lot more and print money the next few years. I believe I'm just a dipshit who, like, my competition is the— our fellow insurance agent. Not trying to be an asshole, but it's really easy to outwork the average agent. It's really easy. You know what I mean? Like, that's my competition? The average insurance agent? What? You mean like in sports, dude? My competition was the average varsity player. Bro, I can't hang with them. I, I didn't know how to hit a ball that far, you know what I mean? I'm not— that's not me. But just work? Shit, I'm your guy for that, you know what I mean? So I, I just think the perspective on balance is wrong. Not what you want in the way you want it, you just have to decide the time frame in which you're willing to have it. And the sooner you want that balance I believe the more impossible it's going to be and the longer you're going to drag out the shit you really don't want, you know what I mean? And I just— oh, I want to be fucking done, dude. I want to be done picking up the phone. I want to be done recruiting direct agents to survive. I want to be done. Like, I don't— I don't give a shit where you work if you're on here. You— you're with us, great. Be up with me. I don't— I don't care at all because I don't have to anymore. The freedom of that I don't care if everyone gets off the Zoom now. It doesn't affect me at all. The beauty in that, dude, is so freeing. Where 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago, I was begging people to get on shit like this so I could teach them to sell some insurance because I needed to build the business and pay for the staff and pay for the building and pay for leads. And you know what I mean? Like, the anxiety for me, it was— but dude, I was trying to get the hell out of that stage as fast as possible. So I learned to just condense time, dude, and let me do what takes you 10 years, let me do it in 2, you know, and just get it over with. And I like that, dude, you know what I mean? I get to, I get to do some cool stuff, bro. And I'm around some people with some money, and my kids go to a nice private school, we're at a nice club. But dude, if I text my group of buddies at noon like, yo, who wants to go on noon on a Tuesday? Yo, who wants to golf? You know how many of them get to say yes? You know what I mean? It ain't, it ain't many, dude. It's rare. Um, someone's be like, oh, I'm off today, I can. Yeah. And I just, man, I wanted that. So you gotta decide what you want too, and, and how quick do you want to get to it, you know what I mean? And I think for me that answered the balance question a lot easier. And my head. That makes sense.

Yeah, it just reverses balance, really, what you just said, from a daily, weekly, monthly balance to a life balance. Take advantage now of diving in headfirst to get the rest of it later on a lot higher level. That helps a lot. Thank you.

It's a lot of delayed gratification. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, that's hard for people, dude. I just I don't know. I hated the other lifestyle. You know, and there's no wrong answer. Some people want it different. They want to work on Monday and be off on Tuesday, Wednesday, and work on Thursday and be off Friday. Hey, I'm mad at you. Just don't bitch to me when you ain't got the money you want, or you can't take the time off, or you can't go visit your family you want to, or you can't— like Maddox last night for dinner, he's— after dinner, he's like, I want to go to France. I'm like, what the fuck's in France, dude? He's like, I just want to go. I'm like, all right. He's like, can we go next week? Like, that's his life. He wanted to go on a golf trip. He was looking at fucking Pebble Beach. And I'm like, um, bro, you're like, you know who golfs there, right? But that's his, that's all he like we could go. He looked it up, it's like $800 to golf for the day. Granted, you gotta pay a bunch of money to fly there and stay there, but it ain't that crazy, you know what I mean? And I want him thinking like that. Now I have to tell him, like, buckle the fuck up, bro, you're gonna be 18 soon, you're gonna have to— you like this lifestyle, daddy's money runs out eventually for you, you know what I mean? So I don't know, man, it's, uh, it's an interesting dynamic. But if you want, if you want the immediate balance, there's nothing wrong with those of y'all that want that, you know what I mean? I just, I chose differently, you know. And where I, where I get mad is when people verbally say they want time and money, but then their actions are like, but I also want to go to the barbecue Saturday. I'm like, all right, you know, barbecues I skipped and kids' things I skipped, you know what I mean, to be able to go to everything today. So you just gotta make those choices. So I can only tell you the choices I made and where it's led, you know what I mean? You gotta, you gotta figure that out for yourself and decide what you're willing to sacrifice now for the greater purpose later, you know what I mean? So that's awesome.

Thank you.

Y'all got anything else? I got time for one more.

Um, I have a question.

Go for it. Who is it?

Uh, Christy.

Christy, the one that typed this door knocking date in Mableton? Christy?

No, I live up in North Georgia. Are you on camera?

Yeah, hold on, I'm trying to find you. I don't damn see your name on here.

Uh, but I live up here in Chatsworth, Georgia. Okay, you've probably never heard of it, but I'm next to it.

Okay, I've sold insurance up there.

And we'll stay, stay down in, in your area.

I don't sell insurance.

I'm just not doing virtual.

I'm staying down here. I promise you that.

I'm in my gym shirt. I'm not doing home anymore anyways.

I see you now. Oh yeah.

I've seen you the whole time. So, so, um, and I'm, I'm with, uh, Aria.

Okay.

With Vivian.

I don't know. Oh yeah. Yeah. Vivian.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dope. Yeah. So, uh, I just had a question. I am getting to the point to where, um, wanting to start my agency, I've been here forever and I'm just—

Forever, huh? What's forever?

Well, for 3 years, that's forever.

That's definitely not forever. But I understand. Yeah, I follow you.

But I always had this mentality that, you know, I had to produce a certain amount first, or I had to be this good first, or I had to get this award first. And I've come to the realization that that is completely idiotic for me to feel that way because how many other people are not experiencing this opportunity and having, and having this life-changing experience as I've had. So I'm getting into that realm. So what advice do you have for someone who is, you know, I'm not new to this. I've been here. I'm a good producer. But what advice would you have for someone that's kind of getting into, man, that sector of business.

Um, how much are you selling? Yeah, would you sell a year?

Uh, so last year I did 257. Um, but that was 257.

Okay.

Um, which, that was really the first year that I actually produced decently because I didn't believe in myself for the first Yeah. Year and a half.

Were you at some other—

And then last January I was just like, are we gonna do this or what?

Hell yeah.

And so I just kind of, you know, worked on my mindset because that was what was holding me back. And I just—

Yeah. Where are you at so far this year?

I'm at 100 so far this year. Okay, cool. So, you know, it was just one of those things that I had to do it for myself and I had to believe in myself. It didn't matter. Who else did?

Yeah. Um, which I had— a lot of people struggle with that. That's one thing I was— I was recruiting when I did this part-time. I didn't give a shit, you know?

Yeah.

Now, did I mess it up a lot? Yep. Do I regret it? Taught me a lot. Taught me a lot, you know what I mean? Like, I did 700 interviews my first 2 years.

Wow.

And I had one agent at the end of those two years, and his name was John Wetmore.

Wow.

Yeah, but I learned a lot, you know what I mean? And I don't regret it because I learned in a shorter period of time than the other people in the two years that weren't willing to do it. I learned people, I learned my mistakes, I learned to have patience with people even if I wasn't a patient person. I learned how to have empathy even if I don't really have it. I mean, like, there's things to learn, but probably the biggest piece of advice I, I'd say— or several I'll probably give you. Um, someone like Grady— I don't know if Grady said it, but I'm gonna give him credit. I know I didn't say it. Someone is making that. Is that noise in your background or is it someone else?

No, it's not mine.

Sounds like someone's digging it through their fridge. Whoever you are, can you mute? Would be dope. Or Amanda, can you mute them? Because I don't know how to tell who it is. So this guy—

I can't—

no, I got someone. Alfred, that was unmuted, probably by mistake. It just happened to show up. Um, anyway, it's like the best promoters of this business do the best. Like, you don't have to be everything to everybody, right? I mean, even if you're brand new to this, you can, you can recruit. Like, meaning no one on this call, myself or Christy, didn't need you to get good, right? Like, if Leah's like, I want to recruit but I'm new and I don't know what I'm doing, well, fuck, I didn't need you. Christy didn't need you. Why the hell does Joe need you? Now, do they need someone? Yep. But who are you learning from, right? I know who you're learning from. Vivian's bomb. Dude, I'd be sending— I'd be like, yo, this chick Vivian is teaching me to make $250,000 a year. You interested in talking to her? Are you interested in getting on a call with— how are they doing it? You mean you got to coordinate with people? You know, I mean, like, now you got to be pulling weight to send people to them. Like, for me, I was just like, yo, this guy Kilomet's teaching me to print money in insurance. You interested in an opportunity? He's hiring more people. I leverage them. You know, I mean, I leverage Shawn Mike, I leverage the company, I leverage the training that they had. I still do. You know what I mean? People are like, what training do you have? I'm like, yo, we have Monday Builders Call, Thursday SRS Call, Friday T&L. You don't need to fucking call me. I don't even matter to you call me for certain things. But why are you calling me for, you know, in-home training when there's 742 videos you haven't watched? I'm not mad at being a piece, but I can't be everything to everybody. You know what I'm saying? So I have to learn how to promote what's available. I need to push people to where I'm getting information and tell them that's where they get the information. You know, I mean, like, how'd you learn underwriting? Here's the carrier's phone number, you can call them, they'll tell you. Here's the website, here's the video, here's the— you know what I mean? Like, here's how you get the underwriting guide. Here's how you go to the whatever that thing y'all use today where you punch it in, it fucking gives you the answers. You know what I'm saying? Like, you, you, you provide, you give people direction towards information. It's their job to consume it and execute on it. Now you're there as a support, sure. And day one, you're gonna have to talk to people a lot more than month one, sir. Shit, year one. You're here 4 months and you're calling me with a, you know, how do I get my agent number from the carrier, bro? You ain't making that call to me, you know what I'm saying? I'm here for 9 months. What do I do with— I don't know, someone's on diabetes meds. Really? 9 months? That's your question? Like, you don't know that? That's like— that was on page 1 of the Getting Started Guide. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, you, you gotta like learn your role and just don't be afraid to mess it up because you're gonna, you're gonna make a fucking mess.

Yeah, I think that's probably because I feel like it is in my hands now.

And I want to make sure that, you know, if you think you have to provide them information 24/7, that's on you.

Yeah.

Again, think of how much work you did to learn this. Sure, you had support, because I know who you work with. But what percentage of time, if we take 24/7 over the course of the last 3 years, however many hours that is, I don't know the math, someone can probably do it and tell me. However many hours 3 years is. What percentage of those hours was Vivian sitting there holding your fucking hand?

Yeah.

So why is it going to be any different for the person you bring on? You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I think I just felt like—

I get it.

Yeah.

And you— again, there's a balance because you do have to be there for people.

Yeah.

Okay. Like, so I've learned this. You said you're not a leader. One of the best things I ever learned was leadership is taken, not given. You want to be a leader, be a fucking leader. No one's gonna bop you on the head with a magic wand and make you one. You're either gonna be one or you're not. You know I'm saying? And you can start taking leadership roles. You can start helping Vivian with whatever she needs help with. There's things in her agency, helping new agents, doing things on calls, or I mean, there's tons of stuff they do.

Well, I mean, I am one of the leaders in our agency. It's just, I just felt like, do I have enough experience to do this?

Or this is like this, or, you know, you know, the new agents that go, do I have enough experience to make phone calls yet? And you want to bash them over the head?

Right? What are you gonna do?

Are you doing the same thing right now? You're doing the equivalent.

I know, I know.

That's that circle again, right? Does it make sense? You're back at the beginning of it. You have a desire to be a leader and have an agency, but somehow you don't believe you can be one. That's the fucking problem.

Self-sabotage.

So why can't you be? She is. I am. Yeah, people on here are, you know what I mean? So it's like, just stop. You should have belief in yourself. You know how many agents issue $250 grand a year percentage-wise? You know what the number is? It's really fucking pathetic. That's the number. It's really bad. I don't know the answer. It's really low though.

Well, last year in 2023, there was 219 gold producers and I was one of those.

Yeah, 219. I think there's 2 million licensed agents. You know what I mean? And granted, there's more people in other companies doing what, but you get my point. You know what I'm saying? So you're way further ahead than you think you are. Almost every agent walking in the door— you know how many people on this call would shit to issue 275 or 257, whatever your number was? Does that make sense? Most.

It does. It makes a lot of sense.

Hey, raise your hand. Can you see their cameras? Can you see everybody? Raise your hand if you would love to issue 257. There's like one dude not raising his hand. You mean he might— maybe he's past it? Because I would be— I would hang myself if that's all I did too.

I feel like maybe that's my advantage, is my story, my, um, you know, the opportunity that I've been given in my journey through this.

Yeah, because I do feel like it's relatable because I'm gonna like hang myself, Amanda. Who is How do people keep getting on fucking muted? Alfred Alexander. I muted him 3 times.

I'll be picking up on—

oh yeah, yeah, I'm about to— mother father. So the impatience showing. I'm sorry. Ooh wee.

But I just, I relate to those people who are coming into this business with $400 in their pocket, right? Like, that was me.

So here's our model.

Those are the people that I want to help. Those are the people who, you know, those are my people.

Hey, Amanda, what's our job with agents? See how well you listen to me.

Say that again.

What's our job with agents?

Help agents get paid.

Sit. Just help them get paid. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, don't overwork. It's that simple. Just help them get fucking paid.

Yeah, that's true.

Whatever it takes, help them get paid.

Yep. Well, thank you so much, John. I appreciate it. I do have an appointment, uh, to go into right now, so, um, but thank you guys for letting me join you today. I've enjoyed it.

All right, um, hey, what do I need to tell— what are we doing next? I mean, we got other— you sending out, like, if we have new one— I know we have an in-person. When are we doing that? June 2nd.

Dropped in the chat.

Did I get it right? Is it June 2nd?

June 6th.

Damn, see, I don't do shit around here. They do it. June 6th in my office, Kennesaw, for those that are local. For those that aren't, Atlanta. If you want to come register and come to the office, we have a cool day. Do basically what we're doing now in person, go through some specifics. We had a bunch show up last time and it's a very different experience in person for sure because it's more interactive. We can go through things specifically. If you want to come out again, register that. And then is the Zoom in there too? I think I'm sure it is. I don't know why I'm asking because I know the answer. I just know what it is.

It is. I just did it the 29th. So it's 2 weeks from today.

Wait, we have a virtual one in 2 weeks, not in a month. That don't make sense. I thought we were doing these once a week.

We were doing it every 2 weeks. We were doing like every other week.

No, that's not right. It's supposed to be a month from now.

We can make it a month.

I'll do it if y'all want me to do another one. It depends how many register. I've been doing once a month. So it's once a month in person, once a month. So it's every other week. There's something but not every other week virtual. Once a month virtual, once a month in person. But I'll do it if I'm here and you put it on my calendar. I'm in. How about that?

May just messed up because it's a 5-week month.

Is that what it is?

Yeah, because the 31st is a Friday.

I should just shut up and go with it, huh? That's what you prefer? Cool.

Whatever you want.

May 29th, we're doing another virtual, and then June 6th in my office. If you want to register, do it. Again, if I can help with anything, let me know. If this helps you, share it with your friends on social. Speaking of overcomplicating planets aligning, I've been wanting to get started. I was going to dedicate a little time reading someone's chat in case you're all wondering why I'm half whispering. Looking for a recommendation on the minimum number of hours to dial every day. Hey, how do I get them the 40-hour video? You know what I mean? Do we have that like a link that you can send them? That question, I don't want to— it's too long to answer the whole damn thing. The short version is dial until you book completely how many appointments you want to book to make the money you want to make. Like, if you want to see 10 people tomorrow, dial till you book 10 people. If it takes you 10 minutes, you're done in 10 minutes. If it takes you 10 hours to make it, take 10 hours. You mean like have a, have a result goal and then go through the process to hit that goal? So if I wanted to run Dude wants to book 15 appointments in a day. I don't know your skill set at all. You could suck fucking ass still. It might take you 1,000 dials today to book 15 appointments for tomorrow. You could be really damn good and do it in 50 dials, you know what I mean? So it's like, are you willing to commit to the process until you hit the appointment goal you have? That would be my answer, Josh. There's not a minimum number. The minimum is as many as it fucking takes to hit your goal. You know, so hopefully that helps. Anything else you want me to tell Amanda? Am I good?

Nope, I think you're good.

Cool. All right, if y'all need anything, let me know. If you're not on our email list, which I assume you are, you can get it on the website and all the tracker and all that stuff I have. You just go on the website, you get all that crap for free. If I can help at all, let me know. Later. Thank you, John. See ya.

Thank you, everyone.