This Insurance Agent Made $350,000 His First Year Selling ft. Luke Venzlaff | Ep114

Why don't you just give it a shot and go all in? I was like, you know what, sure thing. And by going all in, that meant studying the script for a month straight, not making a single call. That was like all of October. I was just like, I just want to get my script right. I just want to get everything lined up. I was one of those guys who like, I wanted to make sure everything was perfect before I jumped in. But then I kind of realized—

Let me ask you this. You did all that. You did a month of studying your script. The first time you picked up the phone, were you like, you had it perfect?

No.

You still stutter all over yourself?

I still stuttered.

You people watching, like, I wish you would listen. I love it. Welcome to the podcast, bro. So yeah, appreciate having you on. I've heard you doing some cool things and thought let's get someone, someone new on again to, to chat with.

Is it—

you just pronounce it Wenzler just like it's spelled?

Yeah, it's a German last name. So yeah, some people pronounce it Wenzler. It's just Wenzler. You got it right the first time. So good job.

I love it. I try, man. You talk to enough clients, you learn how to say some shit.

Yeah, that's true. But you're talking about Hawaiian clients. Yeah. Oh wow, they got some crazy names and some crazy addresses sometimes.

Yeah, the addresses are brutal.

Live on Napahulapi Street.

Yeah, I called Hawaii one night. We had a little Hawaii night at my office a couple months ago, and, um, we stayed super late at night to just call, obviously. Play the time zone game, and I was not expecting that. I'm like, every city, every street, every city name, I was like, bro, you gotta go one letter at a time, please. It's good. Well, I dig it. Well, I'd love to learn a little bit more about you, dude. I don't, um, I always tell people I don't really do these scripted. I don't really prep much. I just get cool people on and we start talking. So I know literally nothing about you. I have a note my team put, a little note that you do— are you in Eleanor's group somewhere? Is that correct?

No, that's— I mean, Kyle's— I went to Kyle's team.

Is she in, in that?

Yeah, she's with that group.

Yeah, so you're just separate, like, than her? Got it. Okay, so you're both in the same agency, you're not in hers. Makes sense.

Yeah, I love it.

Okay, I've heard some good things about Kyle.

Yeah, yeah, Kyle's great. I mean, he's—

I should get him on one day.

I've never—

I don't think I've ever— I don't know if I've ever talked to him anywhere. Definitely not on the podcast.

Shoot him a Shoot him a text, shoot him a DM. He's always open for like media and content stuff like that. I'm the same way. But, um, yeah, so I, I'm on Kyle's team. Um, yes, with Eleanor. There's— he's growing his team massive. I think last month, I think March, we did like 700-something.

Kyle's team?

Yeah, I think as a group y'all did.

That's cool.

Pretty nuts.

I love it. Um, I'll connect with him. Tell him I'll reach out to him.

He's growing fast. Like, we're probably— we're projected to hit a million a month very, very soon, which is gonna be a big goal of his. And then, you know, hopefully next on to the 2, and then 3, then 5, you know. Yeah, I love it. It's not as big as the— as big as the big hitters like yourself and all that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If we can figure it out, y'all can definitely figure it out.

It's the most easy cut, uh, copy and paste business ever. You just do it. You do the same structure as everybody else and you add your own little twist onto it, and that's how you become successful.

I love it. How long, how long you been selling?

I've been selling— I got my license August— wait, end of July 2024. Okay, almost 2 years. Yeah, that's, that's when I passed my test, is when I got my license. That's because, um, the reason I remember the time Um, I was telling myself, uh, I was very big into going to like festivals, like music festivals and stuff. Yeah. And there was a music festival like the week after my exam. So I was like, okay, if I pass my exam, I'll go. I never ended up going to the festival anyways. I just, but I did pass my exam. Um, sat on my license for a little bit. I was still working a part-time job. I was serving and bartending out of college. I went, did 4 years at UCI, studied business, uh, finance and accounting. Was gonna go the accounting route, was gonna get my master's in accounting, even signed up for my master's in accounting, got my, got everything lined up for that. Um, I think a very pivotal moment in my life was that summer beforehand going into my master's program of 2023 was sitting down with one of my, one of my best friends, his name's Riley, uh, sitting down with actually his mom who used to be the, she used to be the VP of Merrill Lynch, I think, or something like that. So, Yeah, so she, she knows her stuff.

Bigwig.

Yeah, big, big. Yeah, exactly. But her, but her son was big into the entrepreneurship scene. I mean, he did collectibles, trading, e-commerce, you know, all the digital nomad type stuff where he was an entrepreneur living, you know, his own life without, you know, a college education or anything like that. I had a college education, so I was immediately thinking, okay, I'm just going to go and do my master's, become an accountant. That summer I sat down with his mom and she just was like, man, I just, she was like, Luke, you are built for, like, she's like my second mom basically. She's like, Luke, there's so much more for you out there than just sitting at a desk job crunching numbers. Do something with entrepreneurship. And I was like, okay, I'll try to figure something out. And then I didn't go to my master's. I just continued to stay in the same spot I was. I took that with a grain of salt and yeah, I'll do something and just didn't go to my master's. Just kept serving and bartending. Made decent money.

So you didn't finish school, is that what you're saying?

You didn't get— I finished school. I finished my grad. I finished graduate, but I just didn't go into—

you didn't go to master's?

I didn't go to master's.

Okay, makes sense. Yep, I follow.

Exactly. And then summer, uh, then for the rest of the year basically just worked, um, had just partied, you know, had fun, like all that fun stuff that you do outside of college, you know. Went to a bunch of music festivals, met a bunch of friends, did a bunch of dumb stuff. Um, I'm gonna keep the swearing low, uh, you know. You're good.

You can't outswear me, so.

Oh, really?

I'm pretty bad. I try my hardest to not, and I let loose when I get excited, and I try to, try to be better, but I'm not that good at it.

So trying to keep it PG in case my mom or dad watch, you know, just in case. They always like to watch things that I'm on. But, um, yeah, I just did the whole, uh, partying school thing, and then, um, I got a DM, uh, about this. And I was kind of curious, you know, I was just open. I was like, you know what, honestly, I'm open to anything. Like, you know, I tried stock trading, that didn't work. Tried e-commerce. It just, I never had that, like, I think the thing of why nothing ever worked out for me was because I just didn't have that underlying drive to become successful. Like I wanted to become successful, but I didn't want to put in the work to be, you know, I didn't, I didn't have like the drive to do so. When I first started. But then when it came down to this, I got my license. I kind of just sat on it for a little bit, didn't really do much with it, just kind of got my contracting done, just didn't really sell a lot. Still work my part-time job, still doing and living my life. And then just with a lot of things just aligned kind of around the end of September where I just realized, hey man, I'm not in the position I want to be in if I want to have the future wife I want to have, if I want to have the life I want to have, if I don't have my spirit right with God, I'm not financially stable. Like, there was a lot of things that just— I was like, I'm not in the position I want to be in. And I was like, well, you have this insurance license and you see what it— you've seen what it made for Kyle. You've seen what it made for Jacob and Caitlin. You've seen what it made for Nina and Hayden and everybody else in this business, you know, all throughout the hierarchy. You've seen what it was done for Jay Maska. You've seen what it does for everybody. Why don't you just give it a shot and go all in? I was like, you know what, sure thing. And by going all in, that meant studying the script for a month straight, not making a single call. Uh, that was like all of October. I was just like, I just want to get my script right. I just want to get everything lined up. I was one of those guys who like, I wanted to make sure everything was perfect before I jumped in. Uh, but then I kind of realized that's the—

let me ask you this. You did all that, you did a month of studying your script. The first time you picked up the phone, were you like, You had it perfect and you still stutter all over yourself.

I still stuttered.

You people watching, like, I wish you would listen.

I love it. You just got to— you just got to honestly just take the script, learn it while you're waiting for your contracts, set appointments for your upline, and just go straight into it. You know, just, just go, just get, just get right to it. There's no point of like just being like, oh, I need to make sure I have XYZ straight. It's like, dude, like, honestly, most of these people who are the most successful, they get handed the script. Or people who, you know, like Jacob and Kate, they got handed a script or they had to make a script and they got leads. They just got to kind of figure it out. And I mean, Jacob writes, Jacob wrote a lot. Caitlin wrote a lot. So I was like, all right, you know, I learned from that mistake, but then kind of went throughout November. I got my first sale. It was like a $200, it was like a $220 a month Americo. And I was like, that's a great, like, first deal to get. And from there I went, you know what? I think my time— I know I probably just need to put more time to this. I'm going to put more of my time into this. So I was like, okay, I'm going to have a set. I told myself this year, like in 2024, I was like, I'm going to quit working at Eureka. That was the restaurant I was working at. I'm going to quit working at Eureka. My last day was Christmas Eve of 2024. I went home, celebrated with my family. Celebrate Christmas. And then when the 26th rolled around, I was like, all right, you are unemployed, but you have a 1099 contract with the top, you know, some of the top carriers in the nation that have been around for hundreds of years. And people trust this and you have leads and you have a proven script and great mentors. This is your plan A, there's no such thing as a plan B. And that's what I told myself from there on out. I was like, I didn't give myself a second option. I think that's what some people do is they, they say like, oh, you know, let's, you know, let me make sure my, hold on, let me make sure my do not disturb is on. Cause I just got a text from Kyle. That's not, so make sure all my do not disturbs are on. Good. So I'm not getting any like random text messages. But I just went all in. I just gave myself, I just gave myself only a plan A. I was like, I am not going back to the restaurant. I'm going to make this work. No matter what, I don't care if this puts me in debt. I don't care if this is going to be hard. I don't care if I don't make a sale for a month. I'm going to figure this out. And, you know, I just basically was living off of whatever little money left I had from serving, which is like maybe like a few thousand dollars. I had a lot of credit card debt and a lot of like, you know, loan debt basically, essentially I still had to pay off. I was basically just living with the cash I had. When that ran out, I was like, cool, I have a massive— I, for some reason, I had a very large credit line. I don't know how that happened, but I had a credit line. I was just living off of credit. I was like, all right, uh, ticket to convention, let's go. Honestly, convention was probably one of the greatest moments of, um, I think one of the greatest moments that just changed my absolute vision of the business was going to convention. I mean, seeing a bunch of people who are top producers in person, you know, seeing them face to face rather than over Zoom, that's one thing, but then just being able to look and sit in this, you know, sit in the chair and look on stage and see the people who made it. You know, I think one of the biggest stories was like Jay Mask. I was like, that guy makes how much every year? That guy has how big of a team? This guy is how young and he's doing this? This guy's like, you know, this guy's 22 and he's doing this. Like, I'm 24 sitting down in that chair. Like, I could 100% do this. I think one of the most pivotal moments— I'm gonna come back to this later— when it comes down to my story, when it came down to that, I remember sitting in that chair and going, I 100% want to be on that stage next year talking to these people. Now, I'm going to cut back to that a little bit later, but, you know, got off the convention, rode the high, came into it, you know, just took everything that I, everything possible I learned there, just implemented immediately. And, you know, I was mostly running just aged leads when I started off, you know, either leads given by my upline or just running aged leads. And then once I got some capital, I realized, okay, I just need to, I guess I really got to put my money where my mouth is. I was moving out as well. So I was like, okay, cool. I have a $1,200 rent bill that I now have to pay and I need cash. So I remember buying some high-intent vets off of my first batch. I wrote like $11,000.. And one of those policies was like effective immediately. So I had cash immediately in hand to pay my friend and make sure I could like secure our spot for where I was living. And then from then, like just, I think putting your back up against the wall, like I think one of the biggest things people can do is just put your back against the wall, move out. Like if you're, if you're living with your family and it's, it's an obvious, like family is, in my opinion, when you're starting this business, it's something you want to, of course, put first. But like, if you're living in your family and you are one of those key pillars that runs the household or that like does things in the household, you know, if they're asking you to go do this, do this, do this, it's like it was such a distraction at the time to where I couldn't really progress my business. I mean, my cats are there, my family's there, my mom's cooking is there. It's kind of like a little bit of distraction. I was like, if I want to be big, I do have to move out of my hometown. So I moved 30 minutes to Huntington Beach, you know, great, great time to be. And then just from there, It was all uphill. I mean, that was like once I moved out, March was my first big month. I did like $25,000 in sales. The next month I did like $35,000-ish. And it was kind of like a roller coaster up and down, just like it was a learning curve. It's like, okay, like it's like some months I would IP $40,000, some months I would IP $14,000. Like that's literally— you can check my IP reports. There was one month where like the month before I did $42,000 and then the next month it was $14,000. I was like, okay, what's going on? And then it started becoming more consistent, like $30K months. 40, 50, um, almost doing— and then the 57 in January. So, but since then, just been working hard. I've ran basically almost every single type of lead, um, that you can imagine besides maybe like IUL and annuity. I think those are the only leads I haven't like stepped into. But since then, just been, uh, posting about it, recruiting, um, building the team, really figuring out that side. It's like, you know, last year was definitely the year that you know, Luke Venzloff made very good money. Now this year I'm like, okay, I want my team to make really good money. I want, I want to change the lives of like the guys who are coming on, put more into them and build that because like a more of a team building thing. But the one piece of advice I'm going to give everybody is I don't like— who cares if you have no experience? Who cares if you haven't had a deposit yet? Go out and recruit like no matter what. Leverage, leverage the business and how it works, you know, because So many— some people are— there are going to be those people who are going to be like, okay, I'll join when you do good, which that's— and then you go, yeah, sure thing. Of course. Just check in on me in like 2 months. Give them a time period. But those people who are like, dude, this is legit. Like, this is sick. Like, yeah, sure thing. Like, those are the people you're going to want because they, they, they don't need anything to want to pursue the opportunity. They just see what's possible. With everybody else compared to you, and then they go forward with it.

You know, that's cool shit.

I love it.

If you're in the insurance space and trying to build an agency, or you're trying to like break records in sales, just hit new levels, new heights, click the link below to apply to my consulting and coaching program that I have out there. I'm helping tons of people get to new levels, get to new income heights, help them build their teams, put systems in place, staffing stuff, recruiting processes, automations, 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 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.

So I've been doing this for about a year. We'll call it full-time, about a year and 4 months now. Okay. Yeah. 16 months full-time. What'd you finish last year with? I finished, oh my goodness.

You can ballpark it.

3, okay.

Fuck.

I think 350, 351. I think so. Or no, wait, what did I finish with? I have my gateway pulled up. I can just pull it up. I think it was like 350. I think it was like 3. It was either 351 or 3—

it was over 300.

It was over 300.

I remember by a good bit.

Yeah. And then the one thing, as I ended, I checked my IP report and I ended with, um, uh, this was actually kind of a scary thing for me. It ended— my, uh, my thing ended with, uh, or my total amount ended with like, uh, 666. And I was like, okay, we can't, we can't have— no, that's— nah, we got it. We gotta do something better next year just because it's ending with the devil's number. So Yeah, I think, I think it was 36— I think it was 361.6 or, uh, 361,666, I think, is the exact crazy amount. Okay, for a first year, that's pretty freaking good.

I think solid as shit, dude.

Thanks, man.

That is good. And you put a little bookmark on convention. Why did you do that? You said you were gonna get—

Oh yes, um, I forgot. So when I I remember like, you know, speaking on stage was, you know, seeing someone speak on stage was like very impactful for me. I remember sitting in that chair and being like, man, next year I want to be up there. I want to do whatever I can to do so. And I remember I forgot when it was when like speaker letters started coming out, but I remember I got an email and it said like, you've been invited to be a speaker at convention. Oh yeah. And I will say, getting on stage in front of all those people in front of 7,000 people was pretty— it was a very surreal moment. Yeah, it just reminded me of like when I was, you know, especially all the people who are so new to my business, like my, a lot of my team who are new to the business, it was their first convention. It was their first time doing anything big in the business. Then they got to sit down and then like see me go on stage. It's like you see someone familiar, but it just put me back in their shoes when I was, I remember I was there a year ago being like, man, I remember sitting in that chair out there. Yeah, exact same position. And I just told myself, I was like, just remember, if you can dream it, like, if you can believe— and you can believe it, you can make it happen. And that's literally what happened when I stepped on convention. But convention's great. I mean, I know we have Ignite coming up in like a month. Exactly. Do more, believe more, achieve more, become more. Exactly.

The other side.

Don't be—

yeah, so the D-Bab, I made it.

Oh, D-Bab. Yeah, I gotcha. I mean, yeah, that's good stuff. Yeah, I'm going to get myself one of those shirts for sure.

Yeah, I'll send you one. My team probably got your address. Send me your shirt, send reply to whatever stuff we said.

I think I said— I think I said a large.

I think you put your shirt size in there.

Okay, I think it said large with a shirt, extra large if it's a hoodie.

Okay, yeah, cool. My team already asked. That's dope, they're ahead of me. I love it. Yeah, I don't know half the shit they do sometimes, so it's good. I like— we just like take care of people, so that's a good thing. We're in the business of taking care of people, so hopefully we have more of those. That's my— this is my— I bought it, I made it for me, and then I keep it right here because when people ask like how I get through hard times, I'm like, I just keep saying this to myself. But then I thought I did a talk one time and I made it stand for something more. I don't know, but I can relate, dude. I remember my year where the same thing happened. My first year full-time was 2014. Saw someone on stage, wanted to accomplish the same thing. 2015, and every year since I've spoken on stage. And I still to this day, dude, I remember being the dude in the crowd trying to get up on the stage. And I think a lot of people think I was always on the stage, and I'm like, nah, at the beginning I was just some dipshit. And I— my, my seat in the crowd was If I was in a seat, it was the very last row, but normally I'd be standing up in the back against the wall so I could escape as quick as I wanted to and I didn't have to talk to anyone. So I was like as far back in the room as possible back then. And yeah, I wanted— I wanted shit too. I love it. That's good stuff, dude. Well, congrats on that. I assume you're gonna smash Hall of Fame this year if you even remotely try.

Oh yeah, I'm— I mean, it's kind of funny on the slow— the quote-unquote slow months, I'm like Oh man, I feel like this was a really bad month for you. It's still like $33,000 to $35,000, and I'm like, okay, perfect, I'm still on pace. Like, I'm still— I mean, if anybody doesn't know, the pace for Hall of Fame, you should be IPing around $33,000. I think it's like $33,000, $34,000 a month IP consistently. If you do that consistently, you're Hall of Fame. If you're thinking about submitting business, like if you're like a business— I don't know if you guys do like AP or submit, like call it the same thing. But you should be submitting around, probably around 2K a day. So around 12K a week, they'll get you a 48K in a month, which will, you know, with fall-offs and stuff, you know, stuff pushed out, you know, as long as you're writing, as long as you're hitting a goal of like 10 to 15K a week, you'll be on pace for it.

Some people in this industry still can't wrap their head around 10 or 15K in a month.

Yeah, I know. Like, that's, that's one of the things, like, here, it's like, especially in diligence, um, like diligence agencies, like, that's like the umbrella that has with Kyle. It's like, if you can't, man, if you're in your first 90 days, you can't figure out how to make 10, like, do $10K in a month, it's like, we will probably have to look into getting you a W-2 contract or something. It's like, well, it's because it's true. It's like, this is a very, this is a very copy and paste, very easy business model to follow. You, as long as you like, you, you put the, you, you treat the hours like a 9 to 5. Like, this is the one thing, just because you're independent, you doesn't mean you want to be like, oh, I'm independent. I can work whenever I want to. It's no, it's like, you want to have a set schedule to be like, hey, I come in at 8 and I leave at 8, or I come in at 9 and I leave at 9. You know, I work, I, and I have that brutal schedule. It's not like, oh, today I'm going to come in at 12 and I'm going to work till 6 and tomorrow I'm going to come in at 8 and then work till 4. You know, you got to have a consistent schedule. You got to treat the hours like it's a 9 to 5. And then you got to treat everything like a customer service. Well, you got to treat every interaction like a customer service contract or customer service interaction because it's kind of what it is, you know, hey, I'm coming in because I want to buy something, I don't know what, or I want information about it or whatever, help me. And then we provide them with the information. Of course, there's some sales in there, and then, you know, you follow through. It's basically customer service. That's why I feel like I succeeded in it, is because I did customer service for half a decade, uh, basically. And then you just follow script, you get leads, you stay consistent. Like, I think writing Writing, you know, writing over $10K is very easy. And I mean, Sean always says that if you're writing less than $20K, you're broke in a debt obligation. 100%. Like, you know, you're not making enough money to where it's viable for you. But like, you should be writing like $30K. I mean, like, I remember Sean was saying like his standard was like $30K for his guys, like minimum, you know. That's true. You got to stay above 30. I mean, that's why he made Hall of Fame, $400K in a year, $30,000 a month basically, or a little bit over $30,000 a month.

Stuff, dude. You, um, trying to think, I want— I got two directions I want to go. I'm going to decide which one I want to pick first. Um, you mentioned sacrificing to make shit happen, and obviously you, some level, you've already explained having to move out and kind of be on your own, and I think that's some level of sacrifice. But obviously there's something more there, and I don't know if it relates to or is the same at all, but you said too, like, something shifted in September of whatever year it was. I think '24, I think you said, or whatever it was, you know. So I'm assuming something in life, like I had a life moment too. Um, so talk about whatever you want there, dude. Sacrifice and whatever the moment was. I'm curious if it was something specific or if it was just like—

yeah. Um, so it was a very interesting moment. Um, It's, I mean, I'll kind of just based on like what sacrifice means in this business. It means like basically, I mean, I forgot who it was. I think it was, I think it's Trey Honeycutt. I think it was Trey Honeycutt who said that, that is, this is like, I think it was Trey that this is the business of quitting, you know, and people are like, what the heck does that mean? And then he talks about you got to quit thinking negatively of yourself.

You have to—

yeah, you have to. He basically goes on to where like the business is a thing of quitting, which basically it's a business of saying no to a lot of things.

So I've not heard that from him before, but I like that.

Yeah, but he's— I think that was— I think that's something that he said. I think it was Trey or what might have been, um, quit doing dumb shit. Yeah, just quit doing— yeah, exactly. That's basically what it is. It's like Yeah, like you got to give up on the—

or you will quit this business or you will quit this business.

Exactly.

I'm stealing that.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'll give some examples of like stuff like that, but I'll kind of touch base on 2024. So I mean, for since like I would say since like 2022, you know, I was in college like 2021, I think like 2021, 2022, I was in college. I was like, okay, I'm going to do this. You know, I was in a fraternity. I was partying. I was just kind of taking life like, oh, I'm living the college experience, you know, not— but, you know, of course not doing the whole internships and stuff like that. Like, I was just telling my life, um, you start getting to— started getting into the festival scene of like electric dance music. Um, I mean, I'll be open and transparent, there were, you know, substances involved in that too that I fell into. Um, nothing to where it was like crippling, you know, it was just like, oh, so often, but You know, it's still not good for you, of course. I'm not going to convince it at all. Um, but I just kept doing that for like, you know, kind of like 2 years straight, like 2022, um, 2020, all of 2023 basically, and then essentially almost all of 2024. I was just mostly like partying, going to festivals, stuff like that.

Did you ever do that one in the desert?

Um, Burning Man? I never did Burning Man.

No, I always see that on TikTok. I don't know anything about it.

It's kind of crazy, like you would think it's kind of crazy. The people who go to Burning Man are like multimillionaires and billionaires. Like, yeah, like Elon Musk goes to it. Like, like the people who go to Burning Man are like very well off. It's not like, it's not like something where it's like a rave or a fest. Like, it's not like Coachella. I mean, Coachella, like, you go to that one, Coachella, you go the first week, that's when all the rich people go. The second week is when all the people who put their tickets on a payment plan went. You know, that's usually what they— it's usually the second week.

So did you go week 2? Is that what you're saying?

No, you haven't been there either. I've never been. I told myself for 3 years, I think 3 or 4 years in a row, this year I'm gonna go, this year I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go. I never end up going because there's like, yeah, there's something— I think something just happens in my life to where it's just like, that's no longer like a thing I want to do. Sure. Family's wedding, um, you know, the business, like eventually, like eventually just became like all about the business. But, um, 2024, it was kind of a pinnacle of a lot of things. For one, there was a girl who I was seeing. There was a girl who I was seeing, really liked, but at the same time, like, didn't do anything crazy bad, but just did some things that were not, like, right. Nothing, like, crazy, but, like, didn't do anything, like, you know, I wasn't being, like, the man who I wanted to be, essentially. There were some things I did where I was like, okay, this is, like, kind of stupid that you said that, did that, whatever. Um, but there was that, um, kind of looked down on myself. I kind of looked down on myself as a man in 2024 just because I did a lot of, a lot of dumb stuff with, um, relationships, friendships, especially friendships, relationships, everything. Um, to where there was something where, you know, something snapped between me and the girl who I was seeing. Um, it just completely devastated me. I don't want to get too much into it, but it just completely devastated me. Um, there was one night I was late. It was kind of funny. I just got back. It was funny. I just got back from a festival. I was still coming down from everything that was taking there. I was in the middle of a 3-day fast, just a water fast. So just like a gallon of water every day, probably more than that, just a full-on water fast. I was coming down from a water fast, and then I heard this, and then she told me something I just did not want to hear. Um, and I remember calling one of my best friends, the entrepreneur friend Riley, in the middle of the night, and he's like in— I think he's in like Thailand at some kind of like, uh, Nomad Capitalist event, basically surrounded by millionaires and billionaires, basically, you know. Like, I think this— I think that at the time, the CEO or the president of Apple was there, I think, at the time. So this is a crazy event, and he's like, yeah, it's raining over here in Thailand, man, what's up? And I'm like, I'm just I'm done. Like, I want to— I need to figure this out. Like, I need some words of wisdom from you. And then since then, like, that was like— I think that was like September 28th— I decided to make a lot of changes. I remember I deleted Instagram for about a month or two, almost 3 months. I think I was— I think I like stayed off of it for like 3 months, but I deleted it hard for like a month straight. And then I just kind of like told myself it's time to lock in. Like, you know, I cut my hair, got a new haircut. I mean, I've always— I've been rocking the buzz for about since 2024. I've been rocking the buzz since 2024, but I just went like full buzz, like just all the way down the skin basically for about a month. Just to represent like, hey, I'm restarting, I'm making some sacrifices, I'm making some changes in my life, and I wanted people to recognize that. One, it was just, you know, through my absence on social media and then through my physical appearance. I was working out more, I was working out harder, training a lot. And then I just kind of went all into this business and realized I had to make sacrifices.

If you've been looking for a tool to help manage your day-to-day activity, your clients, you can text your clients post-sale. My phone script— as you all know, I hate scripts, but the structure and phone script I use is in here. There's leaderboards, you can track deposits, leads, all your analytics. Um, you can get my tracker at tracker.johnwetmore.com that I personally I use to manage my entire business and my entire agency. For you agency folks out there, feel free to check it out. The Dial Tracker is free. It keeps up with your daily activity, lets you know how you're doing day in and day out. There's cool badges you can earn. It keeps track of your hours worked, talk time, the whole deal. For you agency folks, this is something my team uses internally to manage all of our issue paid, all of our leaderboards, all of our debt. You can see everything on each individual agent in your group and see how much activity they have and how many leads they're buying and what their monthly production looks like. And that way you can help manage them, help push them, help them hit their goals, and more importantly, help them be more profitable. So this is literally a tool I use internally day in and day out to have scaled our agency to over $200 million a year. So check it out again, tracker.johnwetmore.com, and hope it helps you.

I remember going into 2025, I was like, okay, you know, festivals, you know, more, no more of these like 3-day festivals, nothing like that. Focus on this, focus on the business, sacrifice a lot of things, sacrifice going to some birthdays that you have to go to, you know, move away. You know, I moved in with some friends of mine at the time who weren't in the business. When I moved out with those friends or out of the place and moved into my own place in LA with my buddy Josh, who was in the business, that's when things were kind of like more aligned. It's like, okay, we're both in the business. Like, this is a little bit different. They wanted to party and go out and whatever. But this time it's like we're all about the business, you know, it's a little bit different. But, um, just making those sacrifices is very important. Learning that you have to, um, let go of the, um, the instant gratification of things, you know, the, the, you know, the festivals, the music, the time with family. Like, like, there's a great quote, it's like that I heard one time, it's like, if you want to become successful, like, this is the things that's going to happen. You're going to have— you're going to lose a lot of friends. You are going to— you're going to lose a lot of friends. You're you're going to feel lonely. You may create a distant relationship with your family. I have tried to keep that as close as possible. I mean, I still see them. Family is very important to me, so I still will take the time. But I do tell them, hey, I have to work. I can see— I mean, I have to work. I have to really focus on this. But I will make sure I put time towards you guys, as always. I'm not going to be like, goodbye. You know, they're not that big of a distraction to me where I'm like, goodbye forever. I know some people do that. But making those sacrifices is super important. You know, saying no, it's saying no to a lot of things. It's saying no to like, you know, drinking, sleeping in, you know, not taking care of your health, eating junk food, like saying no to the instant gratifications. Because I'll tell you right now, one thing that I learned in this business is the importance of staying in it and staying consistent. After my first year of producing, I did very well. I will tell you this, I'm very easy to succumb to peer pressure, and I've learned I have to stop that. If someone's like, come on, let's go do this, let's go rent, let's go rent this car and drive it around and whatever, it's like, no. Or, hey, let's go, let's go to the— let's go out tonight. I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? I succumb to peer pressure so easily. But I really just came to peer pressure because one of my friends, one of my best friends, Riley, was— he's an international entrepreneur, millionaire in the crypto market, in, you know, in e-commerce and stuff like that. He's got a lot of friends who do like sales and like quant trading and all this crazy like digital nomad type of stuff. And for years he was inviting me to— I remember in 2025 he invited me to a trip to Marbella. Spain. And I was like, honestly, man, this was a part— this was at a point in my business where my business was like struggling. And I was like, I can't go. I can't justify a 7-day trip to Spain where I'm 9 hours ahead of all of my clients. I'm going to be in a new country where I'm going to want to explore. I'm not going to want to work. I'm going to want to explore. I'm going to want to communicate with all these entrepreneurs. Like, yeah, I can see like maybe the value I get from it is, you know, I meet some contacts, but like it really wasn't in the process of the business. So I said no. But then 2026 came around where he's like, hey, we're doing a trip to Japan, we're going to Hokkaido, we're going to Tokyo. I told him like, man, honestly, I can't. Like, we're like— especially after convention, I was like, I need to focus on this. Like, I need to focus on this, whatever. Um, and then I made the very stupid thing of succumbing to peer pressure and be like, you know what, I have the money, I might as well go. I'm just gonna content— I'm just gonna content the heck out of it. Like, I'm just gonna get a bunch of content. I still haven't posted about yet. I still haven't posted. I mean, I really deposited over like $10,000 while I was on that trip. It was like the end of the month too. So I was like, that was kind of surprising. But I kind of went away from the business, stepped away, and I'll be honest, my business took a massive tank there.

I mean, you step away.

Yeah. If you step away, it's like when you're not working, it's like, that's what this business is. You do have to stay consistent in it. And some people can't. Understand that. Like, you have to stay consistent in this. You have to keep writing. You have to keep building. Um, you have to keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again or get better. If you stop doing the same thing, you will collapse. And that's what happens. Like, chargebacks started to wrap up. Um, I lost an agent while I was, uh, there, like a brand new agent who just came in. Like, I lost him to another team. Um, I was, uh, the morale kind of went down. Chargebacks started, like I said, chargebacks started hitting like crazy. I was like, holy smokes, this is a horrible idea. And then literally, like, right after that, I already had— it's like right after that, like, right after getting back from Japan, it's like I already had planned a trip to go to, like, Vegas with my friends to go see an artist at the Sphere. So we went to the Sphere. We were gone for a whole other week. So I was away from the business basically from Saturday, February 22nd all the way to like March, Sunday of March 8th. So it's gone for probably about 18 days. Is that the— wait, is that the math?

Yeah, 7th to 8th is like 9 days.

Well, the 22nd. The 22nd. 22nd.

Got it.

Yes.

You're 2 weeks basically.

Yep.

Yeah.

So 6 days. Yeah, about 2 weeks. I was 2 weeks away from the business. And there's a saying in sales, it's like you take a day off of sales, you're behind 3 days. You take a week, you're behind 3 weeks. You take a month, you're behind 3 months. You take a year, you're 3 years behind. So that really— it's really taken me— it's like, in all honesty, like, you know, save the trips for later. You know, like, once I told— I literally told myself, I actually have a goal. I said, I will not go back to a single festival until I can make an Instagram post where I show one of my bank accounts with $1 million in it, and then I show show myself at the festival. I don't want to— it's like, I will only go back to one if I have like a million dollars liquid cash in the bank, you know? Like, that's a goal of mine. Like, maybe I'll go— maybe I'll go on a trip if I have like 100 grand. If I want to go back to a festival, like, I need to have like a mil just sitting in my bank account, just like— I love it, I love it. Um, but yeah, it's like taking that— but then, you know, that trip really taught me something. It's like everybody else would tell me, oh, this is a stupid idea to go, it's a stupid idea to go. Kyle was telling me it's a dumb idea to go. Jacob was like, why are you going? Like, even Hayden was like, why are you going? Like, I— and I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna content it. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna do this, do that. I'm gonna work every— and I told them I was gonna work every single day. I did not work every single day. I mean, when you're 17 hours ahead in another country with things you've never seen before and you want to explore everything and you're with guys who want to explore everything, it's hard to stay focused on the business. And it really made my business slip. Um, while I was there. And I basically kind of like just now— I mean, it's now end of April— I'm just now like fully recovering from that, getting back in a groove, getting back in the groove. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it just, it just happens, you know. And I was like, dang, man, what the heck.

I've watched it happen a lot in the last 15 years, dude. It's really good producers too, killers, that just Dude, flake, man.

Yeah. And I realized like someone told me a quote. It's like, when you, if you want freedom in this business, then just stay a producer. Just stay a producer. Like just stay a producer. Just write a lot of business. Don't recruit anybody. Just build business. Just build money for yourself. But once you start having the obligation to somebody else, you lose. All of that freedom. Yeah, you do. But the thing is, the freedom that you sacrifice long term in a 3 to 5 year plan is going to be better than the freedom you gain from just being a personal producer. Sure.

I mean, I will say if you become a long term freedom, a long term freedom.

Exactly. I will say like a, it's like that. I always give people the two triangle analogy where you have two triangles. You have a really small one that represents 5 years and then you have a very long one that represents 40 years. And you can color the triangles one of two colors. You can either color one red or one green. Red means pain and suffering and hard work and not a lot of freedom. Green means freedom, fun, free living. And you can choose which, which triangle you want to have that color. It's like you can have the small one be red and then have the big one be green. So have a small life of pain, suffering, and hard work to have a full 40 years of freedom, or you do 5 years. It's something I saw, I've seen it on Instagram. It's like, not my thing. I say the two triangle analogy, or one's green where you take 5 years of freedom and then 40 years of suffering, you know, of hard work. That's where you work for the rest of your life, you know. That's good, I love it. Moral of the story is don't take trips if you're— if you want to build something great here. Like you have to sacrifice.

Time, it'll come.

It comes with time to be able to do it. Exactly. Like Crystal Bulger. Crystal Bulger went to Thailand for a week, like, I think after 4 years of being in the business. Yeah. He said it was great because he was passively making money while he was gone. Sure. You know, right now it's like mostly me is like my source of income is myself. You know, my team's not at that level yet. It will be to where it's just like I can take some time away and do this, but I think nobody really should stop producing until you're over a million a month. I mean, that's what Kyle's saying. Kyle's like, nope, no taking breaks off, no taking breaks. True. Exactly.

It helps you grow quicker. That's good stuff, dude. What— to change gears a little bit, what you mentioned earlier, you've worked all types of leads basically, minus a couple exceptions. Which— what's your favorite? Like, what do you— what's your preference in terms of like day-to-day, week in, week out? What do you do for go-to, if you will?

I think FEX and VETS are one of my favorites for sure. I remember, I mean, everybody starts on like aged, you know, bronze, silver, gold lead aged FEX from whatever CRM center or whatever source. Um, that's what I started on. I mean, I feel like FEX people are a little bit easier to talk to. You don't have to be as sharp, so you can be kind of like yourself. I mean, when I think about effects client, I think about, you know, serving like a table of regulars. Like when I was like serving, serving a table of regulars, it's like, oh, it's very easy to converse with them. Yeah, they might give you some pushback on their social or their banking because they had their identity stolen, but you just reassure them like, hey, you're a professional. Here's my licensing information. This is how you look it up. Um, I know some people will actually like show someone how to look it up. Like they'll use like a screen sharing software, a screen sharing software like Crankwheel or whatever, and then show it for them. I'm like, no, just make them do it. Cause I've done this so many times. Sometimes if you make them do it, they're just like, ain't even gonna do it. Yeah. Well, sometimes you make it, sometimes if you make them do it, they, you walk them through the process. Got it. But sometimes they can't figure it out. And then they're just like, man, it's like, if it's this hard of a process, it must be legit. Here's my social 1, 2, 3, 4. $8,900, $9,000, you know, whatever it may be. Um, and then just building the value on that. The FEX is great. Vets are awesome. Uh, I mean, primarily for persistency. I think vets have some of the best persistency out there, um, next to like, next to IUL and mortgage protection. I think mortgage protection, IUL definitely have the highest, of course, but veteran, I feel like I've rarely ever had any fall-off. Their check comes in and it's usually very fat on the 1st, the 3rd, or the 5th, and they always pay. And you get them a good enough deal, they will keep it for life. You put them in the best possible situation, they will keep it for life. I have vets on the books for, you know, years, you know, for, for, for, I think I've had vets, vets are like some of my highest persistency products. Um, those are probably my favorites. Um, I ran, I ran mortgage protection, like I've tried it. Um, just from like different vendors. It's definitely a harder sale. I tried it early on in my career, so it was definitely, um, I realized like, oh, this is a little bit more of a, a high, high-level sale. It's like, it's a little bit more, um, salesy than, um, just, you know, providing someone to file.

Do you need some insurance? Yeah, yeah, it's funny, I, I grew up on mortgage protection, so that's all I knew. I, I did both at the beginning, but we were heavy Heavy mortgage protection for sure, especially in the early days of FFL. So it's funny hearing the other way because for the early part of my career everyone said final expense, which for those that don't know, that's what he means at FEX, it's final expense clients. Um, everyone was like, they're so hard. And I, you know, I think, I think what you do with reps becomes easy. You know, mortgage protection is just slightly different, but again, I grew up on it, so it's all I know.

Like, yeah, I know I've thought about going like more into it, or IUL. I think like once you get to that good level, I think most people make the transition— VEX, final expense, like aged or fresh— into vets, from vets into IUL or mortgage protection. I mean, now there's like truckers. I think truckers are definitely the new— they were like the new vets. I mean, there was a— I mean, I think right now they're kind of a lead you want to stay away from. Just because of the high gas prices. I mean, diesel prices have doubled, so that really takes an impact on them. So it's probably either going to lower your premium cost, or if you've ran truckers in the past, you know, it could be kind of hard for them now because they're paying more for gas, so they don't have as much money to go towards insurance. So, um, I learned with— I learned kind of the hard way, uh, with Truck Driver Leads. They're great. I mean, if you can plan it right, but they get paid at random times. They're on the road all the time. They forget that if you don't have like an automated system to remind them of payments or, you know, something like that, like if you're just kind of running them, like if you're a vet where it's like, oh, you know, you pay on the first. Yeah, you'll, you'll remember that, right? Your check always— oh, their check never comes on on the first unless it's like a Friday, the first. So, um, I think they're a great lead. I mean, I sold my biggest months off of truckers. Like I've sold, you know, 57— I sold like $57,000 off of Truck Driver Leads alone. You know, I could actually— that month I could have IP'd like over $60,000, but I think I had like $10,000 worth of business like fall off due to like underwriting or, yeah, so— or just not getting the right bank account or not solidifying or whatever it may be on some, um, some clients there. But I've ran, I've ran basically every lead I think except for like retirement IULs or like full-on mortgage protection. But that's probably what I'm going to transition to more, is that— but right now I'm sticking mostly like to vets and facts. I think vets are still king. Um, you just kind of have to weed through the guy— you kind of have to weed the guys who are looking to try to replace their— trying to get their $100,000 whole life that they have for 15 years, you know, cheaper. Yeah. Yep. Oh, sure.

Get off my phone. It's like, next lead.

Yeah, next, next.

I love it, dude. This has been fun, bro. I, uh, it's neat learning a little bit about you. I will, um, anything you want to end with. I always say, is there anything I didn't ask that I should have? And, and/or anything you want to share, um, wrap it up. I'll let you literally however you want, bro. 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.

I think, um, the things I'll wrap up with is What I've seen work, I think if you want to become, I'll just say this, if you want to become someone who writes over $30K a month in producing, these are the steps you have to take. One, you got to work 12-hour days. So 8 to 8, that's the one thing. 8 to 8. Have a very strict schedule on that. Maximize your systems. So make sure you have a dialer or appointment setter. Sorry, because then now the dialer is now like an auto dialer. I think that's what they're called now.

Yeah.

But have an appointment setter. If you're writing over $20K a month, you should definitely have an appointment setter. If you're buying enough leads and volume, you should 100% have an appointment setter, like a VA or something like that, or even have your new agents do it. But have that to be, I think, if anything, to write $30K a month, you should be spending probably, I mean, if you want to write $30K, I think most people, a lot of people can write $30K off of like $1,000 to maybe at most $1,500 on lead spend a week. If you want to write more than that, like more in like the 40s, 50s, and 60s, $1,500 to $2,000 is the easiest thing. Stay consistent. Alternate lead sources too. Like stick to one that works. Like if you really like Vets, stick to that. But then if Vets go to crap, no, like, hey, you got to have— make sure in your back pocket, you know, you have like a good vendor. Do FEX or mortgage protection or IUL. Um, and then just stay very consistent. Um, always turn to everybody else for advice. You know, you don't just have to turn to your direct upline for advice. Like, you probably are on a Zoom call every day with 50 to 100 people, maybe even more, 200 people, 200 people who are all trying to get better, who all turn to top producers. There are plenty of people who probably write in your agency, like whoever's listening to this, your agency who write $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a month or more, $100,000 a month. If you want to learn to do that, like follow them. Like I think the greatest quote, uh, a quote that, uh, Kyle always says to me is, um, only listen to people who you want to trade places with. So, you know, if you want to be a $100K— if you want to be a $100K a month producer, then you listen to $100K a month producers. If you want to be someone who's an agency owner who's depositing over $100 grand a month into their account, then listen to the agency owner who's depositing $100 grand. Don't listen to the guy who, you know, has 2 people on his team telling you, oh yeah, you should do this. Like, no, listen to the guy who's built it. You know, you always trade place, trade, or listen to people who you want to trade places with. If you don't, You know, and then just elevate your circle. I mean, honestly, like, in all honesty, like, you have to make those sacrifices. There are some people who you'll have to cut off, who you'll have to, you know, kind of say, um, we're still friends, I'll still hang out with you, but it's not like we're not like that anymore. You know, you have to, you know, you're going to make a lot of— you make a lot of new friends in this business. I feel like, you know, my circle is definitely elevated ever since I've joined the business. I mean, just being around Kyle, Jacob, Nina, like Like, you know, the fact that I can say, oh yeah, I've like, I have Hayden Hill's phone number who is like direct to Shawn Mike and, you know, been in the same room as Shawn Mike. I've sat at his dinner table. I've gotten personal lessons from him, you know, talked to him about everything, walked across stage, shook his hand and got an award from him. Like, it's crazy like how the sphere of like influence and Relation is now. So elevate your circle, stay consistent, um, buy leads, don't give up, and only, you know, only have a plan A. I think if you're like, if you're on the fence about this, just go all in for 90 days. Give it 90 days all in, give it everything you got, don't half-ass it. If you give it everything you got, there's no reason why you shouldn't write $30 grand a month like easily in the first 90 days. If you don't, if you get anything shy of that, that either means one, you didn't put in the effort, or maybe you're just not good at sales, or you just don't understand this. But I think anybody who puts it in, like, will understand, like, in the first 90 days, it's so easy to write $30 grand in a month, or at least $15,000, or at least $15,000, you know, at least $15,000. If you, you know, like, $15,000 is like the— I think $20,000 is definitely the first benchmark for sure for anybody. That's $5,000 a week. Of IP. So that's kind of what I'll end on. Just don't, um, you know, don't stop trying, you know, don't, uh, don't let your past determine what you're, you're gonna do in the future. And then, you know, be in the present, but always have, you know, the future in, you know, like in your, in your front view mirror or in your, in your front view mirror. Yeah.

We're in—

chasing it. Chasing it. Always be chasing it. Yeah. Always be chasing it. Always be thinking about—

I guess it doesn't make sense in the mirror, but Good point.

Yeah, the windshield. Yeah, yeah, the windshield.

That was keeping your point— the point was made for sure.

Leave the past, but you know, leave the past behind you. Learn from the past, don't dwell on it. Look towards the future, focus on that. And I think it's about it, man. I mean, just have a vision, have your dreams written down, and then make your goals tangible. You don't just be like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have a $100 million a month team in one year. Yeah, it's like I always tell, I always tell people this, um, when someone says that, like, this actually, I'll end with this, when someone tells me like, no, there's no way I can do that, there's no way I can Hall of Fame my rookie year, I go, Omar Al-Sayed did $1.1 million his first year. Amir, uh, Amir, I think his name is Amir. Amir, I forgot what was the name, but there's another guy who on the Playbook, he did like a million his first year. There's a bunch of like— there's a 19-year-old out of high school who did $1 million first year. And I'm like, if it's something that I've seen done, don't think it's impossible. It's true. Like, if you say you want to write 2— if you wanted to write $5 million in business your first year, then I'd be like, okay, no, I don't think anybody's done that before. So maybe $5 million in annuity business, like, easy, like, easily. But like, if you— if, if it's been done before there should be no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it. Yeah. You know, if it's been done before, like, there's no reason why not. People Hall of Fame their first year so many times. People make million-dollar agencies. I mean, John Wrenth made a million-dollar agency in 6 months. Do you know, do you know Edmund? Kumquat Life? No. Okay. He's like, yeah, Kumquat Life.

Edmund.

Uh, last name, I think, is on Instagram is Edwin, uh, Cunet. Yeah, but come on, it's recorded. Okay. Yeah, yeah, but come on, live. Uh, I've got to— I mean, I got messages from him, I got to spend time with him personally. He's a big guy from solar who came over here, and he's just all about it.

I know, I think I've heard of this dude. Yeah, yeah, someone mentioned the solar guy killing it to me recently.

Yeah, he's— there's a lot of solar guys who are moving over who are just absolutely And I think Ed definitely has brought in that wave for sure. But I mean, yeah, I mean, if it's been done before, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it. I mean, literally every— I think everything, every story and every possible starting position has been done before. Jay was an orphan and, you know, living out of his car. Now he's a multimillionaire living in an $8.2 million— I don't know the exact price. I think it's $8.2 million mansion in in Arizona. Beautiful, beautiful photos. He has a dream life that a lot of people are living at the age of 24 and want to live. Stan Smith, um, you know, just started off out of high school, like, wasn't really doing much of his life, moved out, came to Texas, ripped, back to Illinois. Now he's a massive business. Everything has been done. If you think about where you're starting at, like, if someone has been in that position and someone has become success— successful from it. So, you know, like I said, if it's been done before, if you think your dream is too big and it's been done before, you just don't believe it enough. You just don't believe in yourself enough. So believe in yourself and make it happen.

Good shit, bro. Well, I appreciate you taking time out of your day and sharing, and, uh, keep crushing it, dude. Enjoy the journey, and if I can help along the way, don't be afraid to ask.

Of course. I think I, I think I have access or I get texts from your, for your meetings all the time. I think my mom sent me one too. It was like, oh, make sure you join. I was like, oh yeah, I got to join John Wetmore.

Well, we got a couple coming on this week and I'm always doing something to help the industry, bro.

So of course, if I can do anything for you, let me know. Yeah. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for this opportunity. It's been great.

All right, my man. Have a great day.

You as well.

See you, buddy.

Thank you.

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