This Insurance Lead Strategy Makes Me $50k PER MONTH ft. Caroline Trecartin | Ep75

That's not free. It requires an investment, but you make so much more return on that investment. So I'm doing where I mail out 5,000 people in my area, mailing 5,000 people. If you know what postage costs is, it's not 50-some cents, right? Plus now I have to feed all these people that come to my seminar. It's expensive, but I know 90% of the people that come to my seminars, I know I'm going to sell that many. Okay. Plus I'm going to get referrals.

Welcome back to another episode of the Insurance Insiders Podcast. For those watching, okay, got a second-time guest with us. There's not been many. I think only one other.

Wow. Well, I feel honored then.

Two others have been on twice, so it's a good one. For those that didn't catch the first one, you should go watch it. I don't know what episode it was, but you were early. Um, you were on the first 10 or so that we did.

Yeah, yeah.

I think we've been about a year and a half now. Yeah, I think we're on like episode since then in my, in my world. I bet. Yeah, we chatted a little bit at 8%, um, but we're up to— I think you'll probably be 75-ish episode. Okay, this one. Um, so we're getting there, we're getting some traction.

One a week?

I do one a week.

Yeah. Okay, awesome.

We do one a week, and I record more than one a week, but we release one a week.

Gotcha.

And then sometimes I go a little while without doing one. Right. Um, but yeah, we record one once a week, so appreciate you coming back. And, uh, would love to have some updates. What do you got? What do you got cooking? I know for sure you have your own agency. You did life, got into the Medicare, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, started doing well there. I heard through Reese, he told me that you just opened an office.

Yes, I'm in my office right now.

I know, that's good. How's that feel?

It's nice. Nice to just not have to work from home because I was working all from home before and then I would be going out into the field to see my clients in person, like at their homes. So a lot of driving around and I'm like, and a lot of people were like, why don't you have your own office? And I'm like, I should really get one. That was just a sign for me because it was always my goal. Like, okay, next year I'll get an office. Next year I'll get one. And I'm like, why not just now?

That's good. I like that. That's my style.

Yeah. I think it's one of those things where like, it's just the step of doing it is scary. But why? Because it's an investment. It's expensive. Yeah. It just, the fina— the financial part of it is scary. And committing to that, like committing to a lease and, and, but now that I did it, it's, it's not scary at all. Like, it was so worth it.

There's so many people out there watching afraid to do it, right?

Get your own office. Like, if you're watching this and do it, don't have an office, do it because it's so worth it.

Let's tell them why. Why is it worth— what's that? Give a— give like a high level. What you said, so much has changed in the last year. Obviously there's detail, but if you had to give a broad, like, what's changed in a year? Because there's other people that were watching a year ago, saw you, and quite frankly, nothing's changed in their life.

Right.

And as you saw at 8%, there's a lot of people who came back and nothing new's happened. You mean they're the same people they were last year? So I'd love to hear a little bit high level what's changed.

Well, I think a lot of people don't grow because they are just like afraid of taking that next step. Like for me, well, I hired an assistant, I got a new office, I got into Medicare. Like I have 2 assistants working for me now.

Look at you ballin'.

And last year I didn't have any of that. I was just working from home. I was doing life insurance. And it's just the fact that like I knew what I needed to do to get to the next level. You know, like you can just kind of chill on the same level for years and years and years, but you're not going to get to the next level like income-wise or in your business. So for me, it's like, okay, I need to get to the next level. I know I need to get my own office. My clients keep telling me, why don't you have an office? I know I need an assistant because I'm spending so much of my time doing administrative work. So that frees up so much of my time. So if you want to get to the next level in your business, you have to take those steps that are scary. But once you do it, you're going to realize it's not scary at all. Like, it's just part of, part of growing your business.

Yeah, it's true. It's that, that stays true. Shit always is scary when you're changing. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Like, that never goes away, to be clear.

Oh yeah, but growth happens outside of your comfort zone. Like, none of this was comfortable for me. Hiring my first assistant was like a hot mess. I like don't, didn't know what I was doing. Finding my first office was scary. Like, where do I look? How much do I want to spend? Where do I want it to be, but it's— growth happens outside your comfort zone.

Sure.

Signing that lease, you have to be uncomfortable.

How was that signing the— was it— did you lease or did you buy something?

I'm renting.

You're renting?

Yeah, I'm renting my office.

You have to sign a certain—

yeah, yeah. Well, I'm only going to be here for— it was like minimum 6 months, so it wasn't that long-term commitment. But I already know, like, I have a vision that I want a bigger office with a full-time employee, front desk person. Like, I want a storefront. Right now I'm not in a storefront.

Um, like a shared space, or—

yeah, so like it's Regis. Yep. So yeah, we all have our own individual offices. There's shared—

cheap as shit too, relatively.

Yeah. And so I'm like, I know I'm probably only going to be here for a year.

That's dope.

And next year I'll have a storefront with—

so episode 3. Yes, episode 3, right after your grand opening.

Oh yeah.

Absolutely. And we'll do it live from your new company. Yeah, yeah, I love it, I love it. New income levels this year?

Yeah, new income levels. I'm growing in the retirement space too, Medicare space. But I think it's just like, you are so much more capable, yeah, of doing things that like you think are not going to happen for years, but you're actually capable of doing them right now. Like, I never thought, I didn't think I would get an office space in 2025. That was a 2026 goal for me.

Yeah.

But I did it in 2025. Well, for one, it was multiple clients saying, why don't you have an office? That in the back of my head, I'm like, why don't I have an office?

Yeah.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna get one. I'm gonna get one. I'm just not there yet. You know, it was kind of a mental roadblock for me. And then I was talking to Mike and Jalen about it. My mentors at TruWealth, and they're like, Caroline, you need to just do it. Like, just rip the Band-Aid off. You need an office. And I'm like, yeah, I like— it's a 2026 goal for me. And they're like, Caroline, you do it now. Like, start by our next call, because we have calls every 2 weeks. They're like, by our next call, I want you to have a list of offices that you're looking at.

That's dope.

So I'm grateful to have them in my life as mentors to push me outside my comfort zone, because I just needed someone else to tell me that you need to do this. And when someone tells me to do something, I do it. It's good. And it was the same with my assistant.

They told you to get one too? Yeah. And instead you got two? Instead I got to realize one's never enough.

One is not enough.

Two's not enough either.

Yeah, I know. And they're both part-time, so I probably need a full-time one eventually.

Yeah, you find out quick how much shit can be done. Yeah, you know, the more people we hire, the more I'm like, shit, I feel like every time I hire someone, they're just magically more stuff to do.

Right, exactly. Like, you, you're like, I was like, well, what am I gonna have them do? Yeah, like, I was hiring my first assistant, I'm like trying to come up with a list of everything that I'm gonna have them do, and I was like, eff it, I'm just gonna hire them. And I hired them and I'm like, I have a million things you could do, do this, do this. And then every single week I'm like teaching them how to do more things.

This. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. I have, uh, Amanda. I hired as my assistant, whatever, 8 years ago. Yeah. Hell, she has 2 assistants now.

Oh wow, that's awesome.

Yeah, it's like, and a team. Like, we got a whole squad of people here.

Yeah.

Um, that's cool. That's good. What do you, um, what do you think on the, on the sales side for you has I assume you're making more money just from as an individual sales agent. I assume you're doing better there than you were last year. What's, what's, what's changed? And like, what have you learned over the last year that's helped you increase your personal revenue that gives you the ability to then reinvest in the business? Because you're making personal money and you choose to take that personal money and go like, oh, I got to put it back.

Oh yeah, 100%. I like the personal side. I think just reinvesting in my business is the biggest thing. When I first got into insurance, on the life insurance side, um, I was scared to reinvest in my business.

Yeah.

And every time I got commission, I would take money out of my business account, put it in my personal account, like save it, um, invest it personally, but not back in my business. And I think that's why, I mean, I grew a lot in the life insurance space, but I could have grown to such a higher level. Like if I was to do it all over again and I started brand new as a life insurance agent, I would not I didn't take a dime out. Like every commission I got, I would put back into buying more leads. And I didn't do that in the life insurance space. Like I tried to take as much money out as I could. Yeah. Like I tried to, I tried to literally starve my business. Like put, keep as little money in the business as possible to keep making money. But now I'm literally the opposite. Like when I started in Medicare, well, that's probably the biggest thing that's changed since we talked last is now I'm full-time Medicare. And on the Medicare side, I'm doing everything in person. So I'm hosting educational Medicare seminars. I'm meeting everyone in person, not doing anything over the phone. But these seminars, they require a big investment. And I'm not scared of it anymore. Like, I have to spend $5,000, $6,000 every single month just to keep doing my seminars on top of my office rent, on top of other expenses and CRM and all of that. Like, it's expensive, but I'm not afraid of it anymore because I know the more I reinvest back in, the more my income is going to go up.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the first time we spoke you weren't making $5,000 to $7,000 a month.

Probably. I was probably making—

yeah, the first, first time. Yeah.

Oh no, not at all.

Not the first time on here. The first meet, whatever it was, a couple years ago.

I don't remember where it was, but yeah, definitely not. I was in college. I was broke. I was probably making $1,000 a month.

Yeah, I remember you sitting in an audience somewhere. I don't remember. Yeah, picture you. I just don't remember where where. Yeah. Um, but yeah, what— how can you explain to people how that's made you more money? Like, literally what you've— what you've found— you're investing in the seminars, which is cool. Um, how is the investment in your office and in your staff and the seminars— how does that literally generate more top-line revenue for you so you can spend it? You walk through it.

Yeah, well, so, okay, on the seminar side, I'm investing in T65 seminars in the Medicare space. There's 2 ways you can really go about it. You can go about it kind of doing grassroots marketing, which for those of you that don't know, that's literally going out in the community, sitting in pharmacies, sitting in Walmarts, putting flyers around, passing out business cards, like going to do bingos, anything that's literally free, like doesn't cost you anything and it gets you out in the community, but it's not going to get you as much of a return on that investment. You have a lot of time to spend, but not a lot of money. It's a good way to get in, get, you know, get your foot in the door, but it's not going to make you as much back.

I'm making on a Medicare sale in that part. Someone doing that grassroots early on, they sit in a bingo game and they sell a policy. What are they— what are they making?

Like $300. Okay.

3 or 4. So a shitload of those to make some money, right?

And you're not getting people when they are turning 65. The big thing about Medicare is you need to get in front of the people who are new to Medicare, people who are turning 65. They're fresh to Medicare. Your commission is double. Okay, and your retention is likely to be higher because you're their first impression of Medicare. Like, they've never heard of Medicare, they've never worked with an agent, they've never gotten on it. You're their first impression. You're going to be their Medicare agent for life as long as you treat them well. So I decided I wanted to go about it on the T65 side, turning 65, to get in front of those people. Now, that's not free. It requires an investment. But you make so much more return on that investment. So I'm doing T65 Medicare seminars every single month where I mail out 5,000 people in my area who are turning 65. Mailing 5,000 people, if you know what postage costs, is not 50-some cents, right? Right. Plus now I have to feed all these people that come to my seminar. So it's expensive, but I know my worth, and I know I'm very confident in myself when I'm talking to my clients about Medicare. I know I'm educated, like they, they can see my confidence. So I know I'm going to get 90% of the people that come to my seminars. I know I'm going to sell that many. Okay. Plus I'm going to get referrals from them. Like I've already gotten a crap ton of referrals on the Medicare, more referrals than I ever did in life insurance.

Yeah, because they're all talking about it.

They're all talking about— they all have friends who are turning 65. Oh, what plan are you on? So I'm getting referrals on the daily from Medicare. So from an investment standpoint, I'm not afraid to invest the $5,000 or $6,000 a month because I know it's going to come back to me. I know that every Medicare sale is going to make me between $600 to $1,000 at least.

Why is it more when they're turning 65?

Any clue? Because I— because they're fresh to Medicare, they just— Medicare regulates that. They give a better commission.

So first time sign up?

Yeah. If they've never been on Medicare, you just get a better commission.

It's crazy.

Plus, I've learned to cross-sell more. Just being in the business for a couple of years, I was afraid of asking for more when I first started, but now cross-selling is just a natural part of my presentation. So I'm really— I've gotten better at that. Yeah, I could still get better than where I'm at right now. There's always room for growth, but I've gotten better at cross-selling. So I know that every Medicare sale is going to make me X amount of money. So every seminar I only have to sell like 8, 9 people to break even.

If I—

so if you draw 8 or 9—

yeah, you're—

you mean if I can't sell 8 or 9 people from like 80 people coming to my seminar, I'm doing something wrong. All right, so I just have confidence. I have, I have confidence in the system, and I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. Yeah, like, I'm just following a system that works.

Yeah, simple. What up, y'all? So YouTube memberships, we have one now. Right next to the subscribe button, there's a neon white join button. You can't miss it. Subscribe, whatever it says, click the link, get in there. I do a ton of coaching, teaching people how to dial, corrections, on their presentations, working on their mindset. I will coach on theory, but I like coaching real world stuff. And if you join the membership section, you're going to see live coaching where I'm not only helping people, but every once in a while I get in there and dial myself. There's some cool videos coming out, tons of content. All the training videos will be directly on my YouTube channel that's available to members only, super easy to find. In order to access them, you have to join our exclusive training videos tier. Do More does not get access to the training videos. So join now if you're interested, click below. See you in there. Yeah. So you drop, you say, 5,000 pieces?

5,000 pieces a month. A month.

That'll get you 80 people a month in a room.

Yeah, between 80 to 100 people.

Okay.

In the room.

And you're writing how many apps out of that?

With Medicare, it's hard to like say this is exactly how much because people are coming to my seminar who are not turning 65.

So late. Yeah, yeah.

A year. Yep. So it's hard to do that kind of calculation, but I could tell you if 100 people come, 90 of them are going to agree to meet with me at some point. At some point.

And I don't— you get to meet with you right away, you think? Like relatively right away? Yeah, week or two, three.

My goal is to try and book a one-on-one in the next month with every single person that says yes, regardless of when they turn 65. Because I want to get that opportunity to cross-sell them. So even if they're not turning 65 for a year, I'm still pushing— I'm still pushing to book a one-on-one in the next couple of weeks so we could build out the Medicare roadmap and, and talk about other goals and retirement planning, annuities. So getting those—

How many people are you seeing a week then, right now, roughly?

I have like 3 meetings a day. Okay, so 15 days a week. Okay. Yeah, 15 a week.

30, 60 people a month anyway.

Yeah, it's a lot.

That's dope.

It's busy. That's why I need an assistant. Yeah, well, that's why I have an assistant. But with that being said, like, kind of going back to the investment piece, investing in an assistant, yeah, it's freeing my time up to meet with those clients, correct? Because otherwise I wouldn't have all that time. I'd be doing admin work, right?

So sick. How much are you selling that's not Medicare right now from these meetings? Like other stuff, annuities, life, whatever you're selling?

Yeah, well, I'm thankful that we have the Elevate program, uh, with Lastingmark. Yep, the Elevate program for the retirement side. I don't know anything about annuities. I don't care to learn anything about retirement right now. You're closing some long-term care. Yeah, but I'm grateful that we are partnered with a really good organization that offers us the opportunity to send those cases to them. They do all of the work. They meet with them, they present the products, they act as the professionals, and we still get half the commission from it.

We have the same, same shop. It works really good.

Yeah, it's amazing. So, um, and then I'll do some life insurance, some cancer, some hospital indemnity, um, things like that. And I'm still looking to grow more in that space with being able to cross-sell more than I am.

Brian Askins play. Yeah, yeah, all day.

Yeah, absolutely. So I use that sheet every time I meet with a client, and they have him on one day, which Should try it on. Oh, 100%. It's good. I'm surprised you haven't.

Because I'm not smart and don't think about it sometimes. And I take for granted all the people I know. And I'm like, I don't know. I'm just— it's a good one. Let me get Brian on. Yes. It's a good call.

Master of cross-selling.

He is. He's pretty fucking good at that. I mean, now, like, when I always talk about, like, every style works, I mean, that fool's made a lot of money and never bought a lead. Yeah, I'm like, shit, that's impressive.

Oh yeah, 100%.

Oh, and certainly they look at our world and go, oh, y'all do leads, that's impressive. You know, I mean, like, we both see positives about which— it's, it's neat.

There's so many ways to work the business, you just have to find what works for you.

Yeah, that's sick. What do you, um, what are you finding out, good, bad, or ugly, about cross-selling, trying to do it, the mistakes you're making, how to do it? Like, what— because so many agents suck at it. Um, so aside from just a sheet, which is cool, it's a powerful sheet, there's obviously more to it.

Yeah.

Um, so what's— what's— talk to— if you could give some advice on how to properly— and I know you're trying to get better at it.

Yeah, but yeah, no one else on here—

nobody else on here is talking about it. Okay, very rare. Yeah, so you're probably doing better than most agents even though you still think you suck at it. But give them, give them some advice there. Like, what have you learned so far that works, that doesn't work, that you're trying to improve, etc.?

Yeah, I think the first thing that comes to mind there is don't ever think you're going to get it in the future. Like, try to wrap it all up in one meeting. Like, don't not present the product at that first meeting and be like, yeah, I'll sell that to them next time. Like, yeah, I'll get the cancer plan next time, or I'll get their life insurance next time.

You're trying to actually sell multiple products right there.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, in the first meeting. Um, a lot of times when you think you're going to get it in their next meeting, you're just going to completely forget about it and not be able to sell them down the line. Most of my policy— most of the families that I've cross-sold multiple policies to have all been in the first meeting or in just one meeting in general.

What do you say then to the people that are like, take care of the piece of business you were there for first. And do the other shit another time.

You're not going to ever build the time out for it. That's what I have to say about that. Like, you're going to totally forget about it. You're going to have 20 more appointments that week and you're never going to think about that again. So do it right then and there. That's why I have the sheet and going through each product with the client. Like, what life insurance do you have? Do you work with a financial advisor right now? Like, are you afraid of running out of money in retirement? Do you have long-term care plans in place? And just kind of making it a part of the conversation, kind of in your like client needs analysis, if you have one of those, going through questions.

Some people watching are like, what's that?

Yeah, but going through like those questions just as a part of your process, even if they're there, I mean, with Medicare, Medicare has a lot of kind of rules and compliance with.

Sure.

They're there for Medicare. You can only really talk to them about Medicare. But you still want to have those conversations about each one of those products and just build them in as a part of the process.

What can't you sell on the same? Isn't there some— there's some weird rule on—

on a Medicare presentation. You're technically only supposed to talk to them about Medicare during that appointment.

Okay.

And you have to start a new appointment to start to talk about other products.

So how do you do them at the same one?

Whether that's walking out of the room and then coming back in.

And the next appointment can be right 2 minutes later.

Yes, but it's officially ending that appointment, not talking about Medicare anymore, and then starting a new appointment talking about the new products. It's kind of ways around.

Cool. That's that, uh, what do they call that thing you gotta fill out? Scope of appointment. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, the scope of appointment is just there. They're allowing you to talk to you about their Medicare, which is so 48 hours in advance.

It's so crazy to me. Yeah, you have to physically sign something.

They do.

Yeah, they have electronic now.

Yeah, there's electronic. Yeah, they could do a text message, email, paper, whatever. Crazy.

Mm-hmm. As well as care. Is it sent from the carrier or it's like a—

no, no, Medicare, it's just a form. Yeah, you can send it out from anywhere. Craziness. I know, it's kind of wild. It does make things challenging. That's part of the reason that I decided to do Medicare in person, because over the phone you have to record your phone calls. It's very strict compliance with that. If you mess up one word or don't say something and it's recorded— in person you don't have to record.

Got it.

So it's a little bit more convenient. Exactly. Yeah. It's a little bit easier. But then also, like, I've learned that I love meeting with clients in person. Yeah. When I— yeah, I thought, I thought I would just stick with telesales and I love telesales, but I love— ever since I meet it, started meeting with clients in person, I feel like I've developed a true connection with 90% of my clients. Like a true relationship. Like, I hug almost everyone.

That's right up your alley too.

Yeah, like after an appointment, I— like, my clients will be like, can I hug you? And I'm like, absolutely. Like, we're like family. And I never got that with life insurance.

Yeah, yeah, very rare.

It's different for sure.

Crazy. What are you cross-selling the most of?

Well, with Medicare hospital indemnity and cancer plans That's going to be— that's the easiest thing to cross-sell with Medicare because you're literally filling in a gap. Yeah.

So it's kind of like— hospital, there's expenses, they cover it.

Correct. Correct. So on Medicare, the hospital copays could be really, really high if you get hospitalized or if you got cancer. So it's a very natural cross-sell. But still, a lot of agents aren't doing that.

Doing that.

Like if you're a Medicare agent and you're not selling hospital indemnity plans or cancer plans, you're missing out on so much money. Like, that could literally half your commissions for the year.

Those pay— what's a hospital indemnity or a cancer, roughly?

Yeah, it's not much, 50, 60% of the annual premium, but it's still something. Yeah, it's an average cost, uh, $60. So average commission, I mean, you could make— yeah, $300, $400.

Oh dude, so you're increasing your commission 50%.

Oh yeah, 100%.

Yeah, yeah, double cancer because you get the cancer.

Yeah.

So instead of having a $1,000 premium, you got $2,000 or $1,500 or whatever.

Correct. Yeah. There, I mean, and it's such— it's so easy to just pair it up as like there's— it's not even an option. You do Medicare and we do the hospital indemnity and cancer plan with it. Like you're not really even giving your clients an option to not do it.

Now, what about the people that say Medicare is complicated?

It is complicated. It is. It's really complicated. But like, if you're just going to use that as an excuse to not sell it, then that's a you problem. Yeah, you got to just kind of figure it out. I like to say like, fake it till you make it because I'm still learning stuff every single day. Like, people ask me questions and I'm like, I have no idea. And I have like ChatGPT up and Google up, like trying to find out the answer. Because Medicare is so complex. Like, there's so many— well, if I'm on this and my spouse is on this, or I delayed Medicare this many months and I just lost my group coverage, and when can I enroll? And, oh, there's so many different nuances with what you can, what you can't do. It's not like life insurance. It's so much more complex. Medicare is so much harder to understand, but it's so much easier to sell. When you are sitting in front of the client. Yeah. Um, but there's so much opportunity in it. I mean, there's, what is it, like 15,000 people turning 65 every single day, and that's continuing to increase. The market is ginormous. We are in the best market right now. It's a recession-proof industry. Um, And there's so much opportunity out there. And the 65-year-olds or people turning 65 hold the largest amount of wealth in the country. So there's so much opportunity for retirement planning too. Yeah. So it's huge.

So big market.

Take your AHIP, learn this, learn it. Like, it takes a couple months.

I think it was a bitch.

I did it.

You did it? Oh, hell yeah, I did it. I was like, shit. One time, one day we pretended we were gonna do Medicare for a little while. So I had to do it, obviously, as being— yeah, the position I was in. And I was like, dude, not a lot of people are gonna pass this shit. No, it's like, you gotta— you gotta study, dude. I had to take the test. I— you know, they give you 3 times to do it. I, I took all 3. I did not— I needed all 3 because I tried to— I'm a good test taker, so to be honest, I just kind of studied and I went to take the test and I'm like, right, oh shit, I actually have to pay attention.

It's, it's really difficult. Yeah, it is.

It was, it was different.

But it's so worth it.

Yeah, I know nothing about it. I just got it so the agency could sell it, you know what I mean?

But I don't—

right, it's not my— not my—

well, I love Medicare because you get the residual income. Yeah, so you get the income coming in every single year. Yeah, with life insurance you don't get that. And there's like very little chargebacks, right? Different game.

They both work, they're just different games.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's crazy. You've definitely fallen into the Medicare side and loved it. It's been one interesting one, especially when you work with mainly life guys. I mean, obviously Brian and them do a lot of Medicare, but I know, I know, Mike, I don't think they mess with it at all, do they?

No, they don't.

I didn't think so.

So Michael Bond and I kind of run the whole Medicare side. Oh, help out, we help out.

Okay, he's a good dude.

Yeah, Mike and Jaylen were like, we don't want anything to do with Medicare. So they found someone who's really, really good at Medicare, Michael Bond, and he has developed an amazing Medicare side and, and brought on a lot of agents. Because if you're in life insurance, and you want to start selling Medicare, but you don't really want to sell it, like we have the— he like built out opportunities to where you can even elevate the case. And then we write it up and pay you out a bonus for that. So he did a really good job with that. Yeah.

That's how we ended up doing it too. It's like I started playing with it. I'm like, nah, this dude does it. Call him.

Same thing.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's a lot like you at all. Yeah. Same as you can't do it all. So you hire staff. We can't do it all. So we bring on good people to partner and build pieces to our businesses.

All of us.

Yeah. It's collaborating. Yeah. A lot of people collaborate. I wish more people did that shit in our space instead of everybody hating each other.

I know.

We're trying. We're trying out there.

Dig it. Yeah, that's how you build a strong team.

Yeah. Are you getting into the team side yet at all?

No, not really. I want to just focus on my personal growth. There's a lot that I want to accomplish.

Like what? I want to hear it.

Well, I want to be a top producer of Lasting Mark. Like, I want to hit $500,000 in annual production.

Where you at this year so far?

Um, probably hitting that $200,000 mark right now through August or through July with some annuities coming in here. Yeah, annuities are, are really helping me out.

It'll be 3+ on the current, probably, probably close.

I imagine. Yeah, so every year, and I'm like very competitive, so I always want to beat my last year's production.

Are you competitive against just yourself or all the other people on the league?

Against myself and, and something—

I want to know who you're chasing. I chase people.

Yeah, I'm more competitive against myself.

Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, I like that too.

I chase, but I always want to just be a better version of myself. No, I don't want to be like stagnant.

Yeah, it's a good thing. What's family think now? I remember at first it was like Oh, what are you doing? Right. What's family think about your journey now?

Yeah, they are very proud of me. Well, my dad's been very supportive. My dad comes to like every single one of my seminars.

Are you serious?

Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, he loves it. He loves the free food.

Yeah, I'm like, oh my God, those clients that want it too.

Yeah, I know.

What do you do it at one place or different places?

So different restaurants. We kind of go back and forth between a couple different locations, but, um, you find the restaurant that works and you kind of stick there.

Yeah. Was it your sister or something involved at one point? Am I making that up, or wasn't—

wasn't she at first? She was. She was in insurance for like a year or something else. She was doing it for like 9 months, and then she started her own water bottle accessory company.

That's right.

Yeah, yeah. And now she's starting like a whole nother company. Yeah, she's crushed it too in the last year. I like— both of us have grown a lot in the last year. She's been on like Forbes 30 Under 30. She was on Shark Tank.

Oh no way.

Yeah, yeah, that's cool. She's done a lot for the bottle thing. Mm-hmm.

That's Shark— I saw that.

I saw some—

I don't know if I saw the whole thing. I've seen it for sure. Yeah, I don't watch a lot of TV, but I like—

he's starting on a whole nother brand right now, like wall hooks.

Yeah, yeah. You see that chick from— what is it, Poppy or whatever? Yeah, yeah, she was on there too and just made a quick $2 billion.

I know, my sister and her like did a little collab. For real?

Mm-hmm. That's cool. I follow her on that chick on Instagram.

She's part of my inspiration, um, someone who kind of like pushes me to the next level. She is— she's crazy. She is so driven, very Type A. What's her name?

Charlotte. Same last name, I assume?

Yeah, yeah, same last name.

I'm gonna follow her, I'm gonna check her out. Yeah, I love, I love—

he's always just like so driven to get to the next level. Um, she's 2 years older.

Yeah, cool, that's dope. Yeah, I love it. Hey guys, just created something really cool, and if you want to be part of it, join the Discord group I just created. The link is going to be in here. It's a dope environment. You can chat with others that are kind of in the community. You can see beyond the curtain of our agency, have access to all kinds of stuff that we got going on, events. And my staff is in there. We have agents in there selling, me helping agents and sharing information. We're going to, as we build this thing out, share everything out there with all of you guys. So again, follow the Discord if you want to be part of everything we got going on. Join it now. We'll see you in there. Hope to help you more. So what's, what's next? What do we, what do we, what are we chasing next besides the $500K? And you know, I mean, like, you have visions for 2026. What else, what else are you getting after?

Yeah, I mean, well, I've only been in Medicare for— this will be my second annual enrollment period. Okay, so this year I want to get 150 new clients on my book of business during annual enrollment period. And now that I found like my niche that I love, Like, I just want to keep scaling in Medicare and seeing how much I can do. There's a lot of opportunity. I'm just trying to do a lot of different things. Like, I am doing my seminars. I'm doing a little grassroots marketing. I'm putting some yard signs up, doing some different senior center events. I am going to be sitting at CVSs. So like, I'm kind of doing a little mix of everything. Seeing what works, seeing what doesn't, like learning a lot from things that I fail at too. But I don't know, like I'm just gonna kind of keep doing what I'm doing right now because I found what I love doing. Yeah. And trying to keep scaling. Next year, definitely gonna hire a full-time assistant, someone in person. Like my next biggest step will probably be getting out of this office and getting a storefront or something like that, like with an assistant in the office. That'll be huge for me. Oh yeah, continuing to grow in the retirement space. My goal for this year was $4 million in annuities, so we will see. Big number, no joke. I know, it's a lot. So we'll see.

A lot to shoot for, it's just a good number, like it means you're doing some shit.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

I mean, there's certainly people out there, obviously, and not to say this in a negative way, but there's definitely individual agents out there selling $20, $30, $40 million a year of annuities.

Oh yeah, 4.

So 4 is high compared to the average agent, but super attainable.

Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, my goal— well, what's funny is my goal for this year was to write one annuity. It was just one, and now I've done multiple. And it just showed me that my goal was too small. Yep. Like the fact that I, I was just like, just one. And now I've done multiple and it's only August.

Do one a month. Right. Then one a week.

One. Exactly. So you gotta think big.

Yeah.

Because if you have small goals, then you're not gonna, it's not gonna push you to grow as fast. If you have big goals, then you're gonna have a reason to keep working day in and day out. Into the evenings every single night and grind. And it's a challenge because, like, part of me wanting to work for myself— like, you always say, oh, you don't want to do the 9 to 5, you don't want to have, yeah, a boss or someone telling you what to do. Like, I, I love when I hear people being like, oh, I want to be self-employed so I can choose my own hours. And I'm like, girl, I work 24/7 around the clock. Like I don't choose my own hours. I'm working more than any other 9-to-5 person out there, but it's gonna get me to the point where I am free and I, I don't have to work at all. Yeah.

So people struggle there.

People don't understand that like building your own business, um, takes a lot of work day in, day out, a lot of sacrifice. Like I'm coming home 8 o'clock at night, still haven't eaten dinner, like waking up really early so I can get my workout in. It's so much sacrifice, sacrificing like hanging out with my friends or even spending time with my boyfriend. Um, but it's, it's going to be worth it because in a couple of years I'm going to be able to pull back.

Sure.

So I'm just trying to build something big right now.

You should. You live different for a long time. I wish I started earlier. Yeah, you're super young. You got plenty of time to do all that other shit.

Yeah, well, I'm 23, so the goal is by the time I'm 30, I can kind of pull back, be a little bit more stay-at-home mom, start building a family. Like, I don't want to be doing this forever. That's what I know for sure.

I wish I took that route. I was 35 when I started. Wow. I've been able to work with some people that early 20s start working with them by 30. Dude, the way they get to raise their kids today.

Yeah.

I mean, which I get to watch, which is cool. Just being part of their journey and see, we have so many people now in their late 20s, early 30s, mid-30s that started with us 8, 10, 12 years ago. Yeah, and dude, the way their kids grow up is so different. Yeah, it's fucking awesome to see. Um, so I wish more, more were like y'all, you know, like you are. Be— it'd be good. What's been— you mentioned some hard stuff. What's been the hardest thing this year? Thing that fucked up the most, was the ugly, just the biggest mess you had?

Oh, that's a tough question. I feel like this year I haven't encountered too— like, I've been actually very blessed to have been able to work through any challenges I've had. I haven't had like one massive thing that's been horrible. Like, I've had a couple hiccups here and there, but something I've gotten really good at this year is not getting too emotional about anything that I'm struggling with. I'm a very emotionally— inherently emotional person. Like, I, I used to cry about the little things and get so upset and frustrated anytime I encountered a challenge. And now I'm like, I'll figure it out, I'll get through it. Like, it's gonna get done, or it's— I'm gonna get through this, it's gonna get taken care of, whatever it is, it's fine. Like, I'll figure it out. Like, um, my first assistant that I hired, she quit on me, and it was at a time when I couldn't, like, I couldn't afford for her to quit. Like, I had so much work for her to do that I'm like, now that you've quit, what am I going to do? So that was frustrating, but I'm like, I didn't cry about it. I knew I would figure it out, and I did. I had to pick up a lot of the work she was supposed to do for a little bit, but I'm like, now I have to put up another job posting. Now I have to train someone else. That she knew everything. She knew how to do everything. She knew the ins and outs and she just quit. And I'm like, now I'm gonna have to go through all of that again. So that was frustrating, but I figured it out. I hired someone else. Like, you just get through it.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, hey, what other choice do you have?

It's just part of the game. Exactly. You don't have another choice, so why complain about it? And cry over it. Um, well, for one, I have a very, very supportive boyfriend where anytime I was having a challenge, I would go to him and cry and he would be so supportive. And because I feel like a lot of relationships are like, well, you shouldn't have done this, or you should have done this, and just make you feel bad about your decisions. But he was— he never ever like that. He's just like, you will figure it out. I believe in you. Like, what can I do to help you right now? And that's what I needed in my corner, just someone that believes in me. And, and so I'm like, okay, I will get through this, this challenge. So Kevin, shout out Kevin, shout out to Kevin. He's one of the only reasons I'm still in the business, honestly. Like, let's be real, he's been so supportive for me, like in all of the challenges that I've had in this business. So I'm really appreciative of that. Like, I just am appreciative that I have someone that believes in me when I didn't believe in myself or when I didn't believe I could get through something. So yeah, I haven't had like one massive thing that's been a hurdle, but just a bunch of kind of like tiny things that I'm like, like I have to get flyers out for annual enrollment period right now. And my mailing company that I normally would use, like, couldn't do it the way I wanted to. And I wanted to get them out like last week. And now I was like scrambling trying to find a different company to do it. And it's like such a small thing, like flyers, but like I got like frustrated over it because I thought I was gonna go with Company A and I thought I had it all figured out and then they couldn't do it. So now I was trying to find some and I'm like, I'll figure it out. It's okay. Like just calm down. It's good.

You eventually realize like solving problems is what keeps the business growing.

Oh yeah, you mean like without the problems everyone would do this shit every day? Like every day I'm trying to think of ideas on how to make my business better. Every challenge that I have, I'm like I kind of analyze that. I'm like, okay, next time I'm going to do it this way. Or I get feedback from a client, or, or maybe I lose a client because of something and I'm like, okay, now moving forward, I'm going to implement this process and this— like, I'm a big systems person, so I'm trying to build out my system the best it can be.

What do you have it doing now to help you retain clients? Some broad—

I have a lot of retention tools. Lots of cards that go out to my clients. Well, with Medicare, it's all about retention because you get paid every year that they stay on your book of business.

Sure.

So when I sell a client, they get a thank you card immediately. And this is all automated. Like, for those agents that are still physically writing out your thank you cards and your birthday cards, I don't know how you're doing it.

Yeah.

Maybe you have an assistant who does it, but you could free up half of your assistant's time by automating all of this. So shout out to Mailbox Power. Um, that's a website that I use for all of my mailing automation. They do, like, I have a workflow to where I put a client in it right after I sell them. Immediately it triggers a thank you card to go out. 30 days later, it triggers a card to go out asking for referrals. 30 days later, it, it sends out a client check-in card just saying, hey, it's Caroline, I'm checking in with you, like Hey, everything okay? And like 60 days later, it'll send out a card with everything I do on it. Like, hey, by the way, I also do life insurance and I also do retirement planning. And I have a workflow that even clients I don't sell get put in. And they get a card saying, thank you for working with me and here's everything else I can do and, and so forth. So I'm, I do pride myself in like, that's cool. Making sure I can touch everyone multiple times so I'm always top of mind. Like, if a client is like, oh yeah, we actually do need life insurance, like, oh yeah, Caroline does life insurance. And, um, I also use Reminder Media, the magazine company. Um, has my face on it, has my information on it, and they're really good quality magazines. And so that gets sent out that gets sent out to all my clients every quarter. So, and then in my CRM, I have like text message automations that go out on clients' birthdays, on every single holiday.

So they don't use them like, like a GoHighLevel type system at all. Yeah, yeah, I love it. We use it every— for— I do. We have so many workflows, it's stupid.

Oh yeah, I have a million workflows ever since I started. I use I think last time I talked to you, well, last time I was on this podcast, I was not using a CRM.

You were not?

I was not. Like, I didn't even know how to use a CRM. I like was so confused why and how. And now my CRM is my best friend. I have built out so many workflows in my CRM. I literally have like a million for every possible situation. Um, has my picture on it, has the stuff I do on it. Like every text message that goes out is in intentional, and it keeps me top of mind for every single client, whether or not about yourself.

Yeah, I fucking love it. I do, I do go, I'm gonna go high-level nerd.

Yeah, I know, I like, I nerd out about it. So, um, I love it so much. But like, whether I sell a client, whether I don't sell a client, whether they're staying on their group health insurance coverage, whether they're not 65 yet, like, they are put into a workflow so they could get text messages sent out. It's badass. So, so important.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, I think, I think far too many people try to set all that up before they work, right?

Right. Yeah, that's probably big advice there. Like, don't get too caught up if you're a new agent. Like, don't get too caught up in the CRM and in your thank you cards and perfecting all the systems. Like, just get to work. Like, I I still am building out different automations, but I'm still— I'm still selling. Yeah, I'm selling. But as I continue day in and day out, I'm like, oh, I could use this or I could use this, but I'm not doing that stuff during my income-producing activity hours like that, though. That's after-work stuff. Yeah.

Or weekend stuff. Late at night, sitting in bed with Oreos or something. I've done that a bunch.

Not Oreos. No, that's not a part of my diet.

It's not. That's what— that's what got me fat. And then I started going to the gym and I'm like, I should probably cut out the Oreos too, because the gym didn't help much when I was eating Oreos.

How was your 3 marathons in 3 days?

I finished.

Yeah.

Oh, that's, that's one. Um, it was a beast. Yeah, not even remotely close. Is there anything else to— this was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, for sure. I mean, it was fucking ridiculous. Um, yeah, it was, it was in Utah, Salt Lake, uh, Park City. So we're in mountain ranges and we started, I think the base, the bottom was 6,000 feet elevation. Okay. And throughout, the shortest day was 27.5 miles, so it was actually more than marathon official.

Yeah.

And we would go up to like 10,000 feet. Uh-huh. And then down, and then up, and then down, and all throughout it— so throughout it you're going up and down like 4 or 5 times on a mountain range, multiple mountain ranges, actually like running the whole thing?

No, no, no, no. Okay.

I'm like, no, no, very little of it to be honest. Really? Yeah, percentage-wise if I put a percentage on it, it's 20 maybe.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, dude, the terrain is not the flat, right? Was this much, right? You're either uphill or downhill or windy, or there were trails there. Yeah, it wasn't like nice terrain. It was the worst, like whatever you can picture, like really shitty terrain. Yeah, with rocks and sticks and woods and dirt and all of it. Yeah, um, and you had 12 hours a day to finish.

Okay.

Right? So you start at 6 AM, you have until 6 PM. Um, I think a select group of psychopaths run the whole thing, you know what I mean? Like the 25-year-old Olympian type. But for the most part, the over— and I, I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. I wasn't near the front, but I wasn't near the end. I always finished somewhere in the middle.

Yeah.

Um, the first day I probably ran probably not quite half walk, you know, hike, run, hike, walk, hike. Because again, downhill, downhill is the hardest part. Going downhill is a bitch. So first day I ran a little bit more. Second day I don't think I ran at all. Um, it was once I figured out the timing and the pace, I was like, all right, I can finish this. And you know, first day I finished in like 9 hours. Second day I was like 10 and a half.

Yeah.

Um, and third day was 29 miles. And when I, I, I did it with that Sam Tiger. Who spoke at 8% too. He was there also. Oh, I, I had him on the podcast yesterday and he was explaining his feelings. Like, you know, after the first day you're sore as shit and you get up the second day and your feet hurt and your knees hurt. The second day when you're done and you're getting ready for the third day, you wake up on the third day, he's like, and I couldn't get my pants on. I could literally— like, you can't move.

Oh my God.

So the third day was just straight willpower. We were sore, tired, everything was swollen, inflamed, taped.

Yeah.

And third day, 20— it was 29.5 miles the third day. Oh my gosh, just put mental—

sounds like awesome mental— that sounds so awesome.

But it was—

I would love to walk a marathon.

Let's go!

I'm like, I'm never gonna run up— run a marathon, but I would love to walk a marathon, but in a trail. That sounds awesome.

Yeah, most don't run. Um, I did a half marathon this year where I ran the whole thing. Okay, I say run, I jogged. Yeah, you know, um, and so I did that one. I have a climb one coming up in 2 weeks, so I'm climbing the height of Mount Everest. So you got to climb this mountain 8 times.

Oh my God.

And I just signed up— I decided next year I'm gonna do some marathons, like actual marathons, like on a normal road that's relatively flat, right? So I signed up the one in Disney, and I just signed up to the Boston Marathon like last—

oh my gosh, congratulations!

Yeah, so I'm Fuck. And I'm trying to get people to come along. So I do little events like just to practice and prep and do shit. So throughout the year I'll do a few more just for fun. And I've been inviting people. So last one I had like 6, just 8 random agents.

Okay.

Some work with me, some don't. They're just like, I want to do crazy shit. I'm like, well, come with me. Yeah. So if you want to do a marathon, sign up to one. Actually, Amanda's coming with me in the one in Disney, but we're going to start bringing a crew out. To do crazy shit together.

So that is awesome. You should start like a movement.

I'm trying.

So I'm like, this could literally be like, could be a thing. Yeah, let's make it crazy shit with John Wetmore.

Yes. So in my Discord, you can like start a whole YouTube about it, everything. We're working on it. We're doing a little bit more content on it.

Okay.

My team puts out a little bit on it. We're trying to do more. And I have a Discord group You ever been in Discord?

You familiar? No.

It's like what, honestly, what all the kids your age use. It's like to like chat and communicate.

No, I know what you're talking about.

Yeah. So I have a Discord community that not only my agency, but just whoever follows me, just people that like my shit. You can get in just JohnWetmore.com/discord.

Okay.

And there's a fitness channel in there.

Okay.

I have people from all kinds of companies that every day we just post what we're doing, whatever your fitness level is, wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Because, shit, 2 years ago I couldn't walk a mile, much less run one.

That's insane.

It took a lot of training, but I'm trying, you know what I mean, to like challenge people in different ways. So if you want to be part of it, jump on the Discord.

And I love it. I will.

Oh, your shit.

Yeah, bye.

It's fun. We're trying. Um, 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. The 2026 marathon for you.

I'll walk it, but I'll do it.

It's the same distance if you walk it or run it. Who gives a shit? Yeah, you get the same medal and you get to say you did it.

You still get to say you did a marathon.

I've learned that most people don't run them. I know I kind of said earlier, but that's, that's not— overwhelming majority don't run the entire thing.

Interesting.

Yeah, no, I'm fucking— walking 26 miles isn't easy, to be clear.

Oh no, not at all. I've walked a half marathon. And that my feet were like sore at the end.

Yeah, no, so it's always a challenge and you can always get better at it later. Yeah, absolutely. Who cares?

Do more now, get better later.

Yeah, I didn't do that on purpose, but yes, 100%.

You did subconsciously.

Yeah, it's just who I am. Yeah, I mean, I'm like, whatever. I— hey, there were only 300 people went to this event, the 3-marathon one, so the only 300 were crazy enough to sign up, and I think 250 finished. Okay, good percentage of people finished it. And honestly, when you get there and you see the people who finish, you would naturally want to judge people, how they really— their age, how that— you know what I mean, bro? I was getting skunked by old people.

Wow.

That physically, like, don't look like they're in as good a shape.

That's wild.

Hiking and train, that's— it's a different thing. Like, maybe I can bench press more, maybe I'm a little thinner, but these fuckers, dude, they were strong at that. Wow. Yeah, so it was, it was all kinds of ages and all kinds of shapes, sizes, everything. I finished the third day with this older couple, dude, they had to be 65 easy.

Okay.

And they were tiny. You ever seen those like tiny little grandmas, like 112 pounds? Yes, it was this couple. Guy was 127 pounds, she's 112. And dude, they at the end— again, we're 28 and a half miles in.

Yeah.

And they, they ran past me. Oh my God, 65+ years old.

Wow.

Yeah. And I'm like, if they can do it, certainly I should be able to do it, right?

Yeah, 100%. So, well, that's awesome. Good for you.

Yeah. So we'll get you out there. One day.

Do it. I'll do it.

What do you want to leave them with? I'll let you wrap it up however you want.

Oh gosh, you're putting the pressure on me.

I am. You can handle it though, and you can take your time.

I mean, I'll just say that there's a lot of challenges in this business, and the number one attribute that every agent has to have is resilience, resilience and discipline. And 92% of agents fail because they think it's a get-rich-quick scheme where they think that, yeah, it's easier than it is. And they see all these top agents making $30,000, $40,000, whatever it is a month. And they think, yeah, well, I could do that too. But it's, it is a, it is very challenging. But once you get it down, it's not challenging at all. Like, I love that about this business is that the only first, the really only the first year is very challenging. And if you can get through that, then it's super easy.

Yeah, it's true. Especially being around good people that, yeah, think right.

It's all about community, being around.

Look, hold on, there's two words. What'd you just say?

It requires discipline.

And what's the other one you said? Look at that.

I love it. Yeah. Yeah. So you got to learn how to fail, get back up. Like, I was always scared of failure because I never got a B in school. I always got A's.

So I did not.

So being someone who's never failed was more challenging than I bet someone into this business who has gotten Fs.

That's true.

I never thought about it. I wasn't used to it.

Yeah, used to just— did it come easy? I'm sure you're working hard, but it did it.

I was working very hard, but like, it didn't come easy, so failing at it was more challenging.

I'm at the school side.

Oh, school? Yeah, yeah, easy. Yeah, but in the business, no, it had to be more frustrating. It was because you just— yeah, because I thought everything came easy. So I would say to all those people out there that are just like me who are young in the business, stay confident, be disciplined, put in the work, surround yourself with good, a good community, good mentors who care about you, who push you, push you outside of your comfort zone and reinvest in your business. Let's go.

That's all.

I love it.

Yeah. Since you like people pushing you, I'm going to push you for this marathon thing. I'm going to text Jalen and Mike and be like, hey, we can do it all together. Fucking sign them up, bro. Right now.

They are not going to sign up until the day before.

Jalen. I know he's— I love Jalen, but sometimes I'll text him, it'll take 17 weeks to answer.

Yeah, literally.

Like, love you, bro, answer us. No, I'm okay. He's not that bad. He's a good dude. Um, but I am— I'm gonna text him now, be like, yo, Caroline said we're doing a marathon this year. Y'all can pick it.

Done.

I'm in.

It's done. That's the next one that is on my 30 to before 30 list. Is do a marathon. So let's do it.

And you said you're 23? 23. When you turn 24?

7 years to do it.

October 15th. No, October, so you'll be 24. Let's do it before you're 25.

Okay. All right, I'm in. Let's go. I am in.

All right, I love it. I'll get you in. I appreciate you getting on. Um, for those watching, You can follow all her shit. We'll put it all here for you if you— and, you know, I know you put some stuff on social, at least a little bit anyway. Um, and if you guys certainly comment on it, what you liked, and anything we can do better, or I can do anything to help, certainly let me know. Share it, like it, subscribe, all that jazz. Um, and appreciate you getting on and sharing and taking time out of your day.

As always, thanks for having me on, John. Until next time.

Please let me know.

Thank you.

All right, girl, thanks for your time. We'll see you soon.