Skyrocket your insurance sales!

Thank you. Um, appreciate you having me. Um, Enjoy. I really enjoy doing this. I've been with FFL since the very beginning and I love giving back. I was, I was out in the hallway during lunch and Mark's team tracked me down and they were like, hey, can you do a quick little interview? I'm like, sure, let's go real quick. And they said, do you remember your first day in insurance? And I was like, yes, because my first day was also almost my last day because I quit that day too. I went and I made 30 or 40 dials. I got yelled at and hung up on and I quit. And I didn't come back into insurance for 2 years after that. So I almost wasn't here. And I know some of y'all probably want to quit on a regular basis, so I can relate. Thank God for the very first convention when we had it was in Atlanta, 2015. I'll never forget it because it changed my life. I was not here from the beginning because Sean was like, that dude's so good, we should recruit him. I was like hired by a guy who was hired by a guy, by a guy, by a guy. And I was way down here and I was sitting— I would say way back out there, but there was like 100 people at the first event. So it was really small, but I was definitely in the back row and pretty new and struggling. But at that event, Mark opened as usual, and I related to a lot of what he was saying. And today I'm talking about how to track your activity. I'm going to make that part really easy and I'm going to talk a little bit more about why to track. Because when I understood from Mark that time what he was saying to me, because he was definitely only talking to me that day in my head, it changed my world and I got a chance to talk to him that day. And I want to give y'all the perspective I got that day. And I changed my world in this business, changed almost overnight. I had been in the business. I actually tried to get in the business in '08. I didn't get my license till 2010. I didn't book my first appointment till 2012. So if some of y'all are slow, I feel your pain. And after that convention, I remember sitting and talking to him and I was struggling. I was doing okay. I was, I was, you know, mediocre at best, but I was paying my bills. And I talked to Mark, and at the end of it, he started asking me some questions. About how he was talking about leads and appointments as the key to the business. That was his speech that year. And I'm like, I get all that, but what about like, you know, what time do you dial and what's the appropriate way to say this and how do you overcome this and what color paper should I print my leads on? And I was that guy. And he asked me how many appointments I was running. And when I told him, my answer was like 40 a month. And I love Mark and I see Robin. I don't see Mark. But if you all know Mark, his laugh is very distinct. And when I told him I was running 40 appointments a month, he did that laugh to my face. So, and I love him for it. And I went home and I really started thinking, and I'm an Excel nerd. I'm a former accountant. I track numbers. I look at things and numbers can tell me a story. So I'm going to, I'm going to go through. I want you all to do this exercise with me. I'm going to tell you some really basic things that I track that helped me see this business very different. And don't overcomplicate this, but just write 3 lines. Phone calls, presentations, meaning whether you do in-home or telesales, whatever you all do today. Phone calls, presentations, recruiting. And without thinking, without overthinking this at all, like, don't get that deep about this. Just the gut instinct, what you think you do per week. Okay. Just for each one, just fill them in. And mine at the time, when I looked at the spreadsheet after talking to Mark, because I went home and I was like, dang, he was really nice. Until he laughed. But then I thought like, he must— there's something there. I love you, bro. I see him now. So I started looking at him and for me, I was making about 150 phone calls a week. Okay. I was doing about 8 presentations because I was scheduling 10, 12 appointments a week, which was the 40 a month. I'm seeing 8 people and I was doing about 6 recruiting interviews a week. Those were my numbers, right? And some of y'all are like, oh dude, he did this with me last night at the bar and messed me up. So a few of y'all got a preview. So this is where I was at, you know, and I really started looking at it. And when I was in corporate America, I've been in a couple of jobs where things were timed. I had to load so many boxes in a truck per hour. I had to be on the phone for so many minutes per hour in a call center. And so I started looking at this in the same way. And I'm like, how many of each of these things could I do per hour if it were timed? Like if I was a law firm and timing it, the second you started dialing, that timer went off and when you hung up, it went off. When you walked in a house or turn on a Zoom and timer went on and when you're done, it turned off. What would that look like? So I started thinking, how many of these things can I do per hour? And I thought a phone call takes all of a minute, right? Because I'm making 150 and I'm only seeing 8 people. So most don't pick up. Like, so the question is, it rings, goes to voicemail, right? So it's like, how long does it really take? So I said a minute for me. So I can do 60 per hour from being timed. Right? And then I went, well, I'm making 150 of them. And now I'm going to preface this. Some of y'all, I love you, are not good at math. It's okay. Don't try. Don't look at— just look at your neighbor and get the cheat code. I'll give you something to make it really easy later. Like, don't overcomplicate this part. I want you to stay with me for the concept. Don't worry about the math because we're going to do some math. It's like third grade, but I know some people panic. So I'm like 150 phone calls, right? I can do 60 an hour. So in my head, I'm like, I spend 2.5 hours a week on the phone. Pretty simple. If I do a presentation, in my head it took an hour. I'm like, I do 8 of those. And over the course of the week, that gives me 8 hours presenting to people. And then recruiting calls, I can do 3 an hour if I'm doing a full recruiting interview. So for me, 6, 6, 6 calls divided by 3 is 2 hours doing that. So after going back and listening to what Mark told me, I went back and I added my stuff up and I'm like, with 150 calls, 8 presentations and 6 recruiting calls, I'm working 12+ hours a week. Funny, but y'all look down at your numbers and they're probably similar. I have found, you know, and I was like, what if I change this and I work 40 hours doing these things? And what's nuts is I was making a couple grand a week depositing. Obviously there's leads and bills after I was done. There wasn't a ton left, but I was like, I'm making a couple grand, right? If we're estimating that 12 hours, I was making good money per hour when I was working, but I was putting the time in the wrong spot. So I was like, what if this year, instead of worrying about what color paper I print the leads on, what if I just go do more of what's working even though it's only working a little bit? I just do a ton more of it and I worry about getting better at stuff later. That was my approach the next year. And I was like, all right, how do I get to 40 hours? 600 phone calls gives me 10 hours on the phone. Right. And you can adjust this however you want. But the concept is that's 10 hours making phone calls. If I present to 20 people, it's another 20 hours talking to people. And if I did 30 recruiting interviews a week, that gives me 10 more hours. That's how John Wetmore was going to get to to 40 hours a week in 2015 after your talk. I went from very mediocre to very Hall of Fame. It was a lot of money and it was really good. And that basic concept changed my entire world. I don't train on much else, right? Like there's sales stuff I can teach you, but for me it's irrelevant if you're not doing the hours. I don't know how to get someone really good doing 12 hours Like some people in here, I assume, are trying to get like real, like make real money, like get rich. I was, right? Some of y'all maybe. All right. I don't know how to do it if you only work 12 hours like me. The dude last night, I love him. Great dude trying to move up and upgrade his house. His number came to 7 hours a week and he took it like a champ. And his wife was like, you better get to work. So that's literally all I changed. I was the same person with the same leads, with the same products, with the same carriers, with the same— everything was the same. I changed nothing but worked more. And I wouldn't be here if I didn't make this simple change. Not saying the other things aren't important, but for me, this was everything, right? So I'm going to end. I'm going to give you the ability to— and here I'll do simple. If I did 40 hours a week, basically, that's what the math would have come out to in my head. I was like, oh, here's a new target for me. You know, I'm gonna give you guys the ability to download this nerdy sheet that I have that you can plug numbers into. Again, don't overcomplicate it. If you don't know how to use Excel, just don't do it. I can't provide customer service on this. I can't help you. It's just, you literally, if you can't plug in 3 numbers, you can't use it. That's the rule. But you can download the sheet. It'll bring you to a link. You'll get it, it'll come to you in email. Don't mess with it during the next speaker, please. Like, just worry about it later. You'll get it in your email, mess with it later. I want to leave, leave you with this to end. I think about a lot if— imagine if the insurance industry, like Dave Anderson mentioned, a draft. Imagine if we had a draft to get into an IMO. Would you, as a professional insurance salesperson, make it In a draft, would anyone pick you? Right? I don't know. But you got this year to figure it out. And if you go at this year, your life will be different. And I'll end with the question that Mark asked me. I'll never forget, dude. Why do you expect the people up here's results with your current work ethic? Go out and make this year a killer one, and I hope it helps.