This Insurance Sales Training Made Me $500,000 in 1 YEAR ft. Mel Tejada | Ep40

Long story short, I write $9,000 in that house.

Wow. So after 3 days of nothing, you had $9,000 pop. Happens, dude, all the time. And so many people give up before that. What up, y'all? John Wetmore back with another episode of Insurance Insiders Podcast. Got my dude Mel Tejada with us today, a sales machine traveling all over the country building an agency, and, uh, gonna share some share some good stuff. Got a cool journey and, uh, it's figured this thing out at a high level, dude. So I appreciate you getting on and being willing to share, man.

Hey man, thank you, John. Always great to talk to you and have some time with you.

I appreciate it, dude. I always enjoy, uh, hanging out for a little bit, virtually this time, but normally I— normally I see you at your lock-ins or events or whatever. So, um, Right now we're just, we're just chatting. He's live outside of Boston, right near where I grew up. I grew up in the next town over. I think you knew that though.

Yeah, I remember.

Yeah, yeah, he's up in Salem, Mass. I grew up in Lynn, Mass. And, uh, man, every time I go up, dude, I want, I want to get roast beef. That's my first stop every time I go.

Roast beef?

Hell yeah, dude, because they never— they don't have it down here. They have Arby's and it's trash. I like real roast beef. Wow. Um, well, cool. Give them a little, um, I know we were chatting, for those that, you know, are hanging around for some good information, this dude's over $700 grand paid life volume for the year already, and we still got a couple weeks left. Um, insane producer and, and building a cool team. But before we get into details on, on how you're doing that and helping some people, give them a little background, dude, how you got into the biz and all that. Because you got a category.

Yeah, so, uh, I was— when I was 17, I joined the U.S. Army, and they recruited me out of high school. So I became a combat engineer in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and I spent there for about, what, 6 months. Then they sent me to, uh, North Cackalacky, like they call it. That's how they call it, North Carolina. Then they switched me on the job to field artillery, so then I had to reclass in El Paso, Texas. And that was a shit show because I, you know, I didn't go to boot camp for field artillery. I was ready to do combat engineer. I'm like, what the fuck? Yeah. Yeah. And then they're like, don't worry. You're not going to go through all that boot camp stuff. You're just going to, he's going to teach you how to, um, drive the Paladin and then how to shoot. And then from there, we just support to the infantry. I'm like, cool. Okay. So I did that for about 4, uh, 4 more weeks. Learned that and then joined officer school to become a second lieutenant in the Army while in college in North Carolina, in High Point and North Carolina A&T. So I was in two universities simultaneously full-time, uh, and then going to formation every morning, 5 AM. Yeah, it was crazy. And in a fraternity and doing all kinds of shit. Well, long story short, uh, I do college and then I start my own practice management business, which I told you, I think, uh about a year ago. Uh, I started that 2 and a half years ago where we do the management services for, for dentists, and then in exchange, obviously, um, they, uh, they take the focus for the patients, which is what matters most, and we take over the management stuff. Well, long story short, I don't pay myself a salary. Yeah, I learned early in that arena that it's better you don't take all the money out from that business, especially if you're looking for an exit down the road. So I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna take any money out. I'm just gonna leave everything there and I gotta find another job. So guess what? I got into sales and not life insurance yet. I got into above-ground pool sales. No way. So in South Carolina. Yeah, so I went to South Carolina where my dad lives, no money, and I told him, hey, uh, let me just figure this thing out. I'm gonna stay at your house, uh, up until I figure it out, if that's okay. He said, that's fine. He cooked for me every night. He loves to cook. So it was, uh, you know, a win-win. Well, anyways, I will go to the client's house with everything ready to go, how they set it up. So they, they got me the leads, they, uh, they got the client's credit already, and then they got the client's address and they booked the appointment for me. Now my commission was, uh, half of par. You ever heard of that, par?

I mean, I heard the term, but I don't know what it— what par is in your industry, but I've certainly heard the term.

Yeah, well, in general, the pool was sold obviously for about $30 grand, right? So I had $7,000— well, no, I won't say all of it, but I had $7,000 to play with before my commission went dropped down to 4%. So I, I was gonna get paid half of $7,000 if I sold the pool at $30,000, which most of the time the clients were like, no, I got no money for $30,000. And I always had to come up with a marketing agreement, uh, scheme. Oh well, if you let me come to your house with another customer down the road this year, I'll give you a $2,000 marketing agreement and I'll give you the pool for $27,000, for $28,000. How about that? And they were like, well, that sounds good. Most of them fall into that trap and then they finance the pool at 30%. I was just shoving pools down people's throats. Yeah, for 20 years, 20-year loan, but no prepayment penalty. But anyways, that was a shit show.

And then what did you make on the 7?

Half of that.

So you made 30— you make a few grand selling a pool?

Yeah, but that was not most of the time though. That's for the ones who had some money. The ones who didn't have any money, I had to drop down another marketing agreement. Another $2,000. So that's what, half of $3,000? Yeah. And most of my deals— and I did, let me see, I did 41 deals. So if you do the math, I was— let's just say 70% were just that second marketing agreement. And then the marketing— when then they had no money, I had to drop down the price of the pool to $10,000, and then they gave me 4% of the purchase price.

Got it.

And that was like for gas money. But they take care of everything, lunch and— yeah, the problem with that is that they were very, very— I want to say bad, but like they, they were trash as far as like installments. So then you get chargebacks too. So they get away. Yeah, you get chargebacks.

So, uh, or there was another company financed it?

Uh, they can finance it with their bank or the, the pool company. It depends. But, um, if it wasn't the repo company—

can you?

No, you'll repo a pool?

Like, whatever, you can't pay, you put a lien on their house or something?

Yeah, put a lien. Yeah, so they signed like a— like, I came with this big, uh, booklet of contracts and obviously the, the binder with the pool, like the pool pictures. And they told me I cannot get out of the house if I didn't spend 90 minutes in the house because they said there's some psychological stuff that you didn't spend 90 minutes in there, they were not going to be— I don't feel so secure to make a decision on the spot. And you and I know that most people, they are bad with decision-making. That's where we come in as salespeople. Yeah, but yeah, their sales technique was just what I, what I know now, which is old school.

Yeah, makes sense.

But there's a pool season, and that's why I was, you know, the phones, uh, can't hear what you say. And I was like What am I gonna do now? I got no job. Uh, July is coming up. There's nothing else I can think of. I've been selling, but I mean, I mean, it's not the most profitable business. And then 5 minutes later, there's a YouTube commercial of Dave Witcher and Todd Hasburger on how he helped 20 families in a week. I'm like, damn. And I click on it, reach out to both of them, and the rest is history. I'm here in life insurance. No, that's what it was because of the phone.

It's been a couple years. How long has it been?

Yeah, it's almost 3 years now.

Yeah, no kidding. How was it? So 3 years ago, connect with Dave. Were you in Roanoke then?

No, I, uh, was in South Carolina.

That's right, South Carolina. Yeah, yeah, you said that.

South Carolina.

Very poorly sometimes.

I got to Roanoke in, uh, 2023.

So you moved for insurance, or did you do insurance in South Carolina for a little while?

I did insurance for a little while, for one year, well, almost a year, up until the end of 2022. I went to Dominican for Christmas, then they told Dave I was going to move to Rona. Yeah, and I moved in his house.

So the first time talking to Dave, you were in right away? Yeah. What, what made you in? Would you like— would you—

um, the opportunity to have a number one, add value to the team. I always like to be in a team where I can add value. If I don't add value, it feels like I'm, uh on my other company. If I don't have value, don't put me on the board. Like, I don't want to be on no board if I'm not adding value. It just doesn't make sense. If I'm adding value, I'm in. Number 2, obviously the opportunity to build a profitable, uh, venture where I can also exit. That I like because I'm already doing that on the other business. And then, uh, thirdly is help other people do the same thing. And then number 4, obviously pay my bills because I was not paying myself a salary.

So where's that come from, dude? Is your family in business? Like, what's with the exit and not pay? Like, where do you get the financial side of this?

Yeah, um, mainly my mother. When she— well, she got married to my dad, and that's Dominican way back in the day. She got married at 16, she had me when she was 19, then she went to college, and then she didn't like what she, she did. She did business administration, then she started her own real estate firm. She saw Century 21. I'm probably— you probably heard of it. Yeah, she did that for a couple months. She's like, I can do that myself. She started her own real estate brokerage firm, and then from there she grew it. And I think she, uh, I was too young, but she sold that and then partnered with Keller Williams and then stayed with him. And then she became a real estate developer and broker. That's what she's doing now.

Okay.

And she's got friends and, and business partners who are are doing what you and I are doing. So I've just, since I was a child, was seeing that. That's what you know. So you don't do what your parents tells you to do, you do what your parents, or you've seen your parents do, basically.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I, I, that still happens with Maddox. Everything I try to tell, he's like, and then, then he does what I do and I can't get mad. I'm like, well, yeah, I do know where you got it from.

Yeah.

That's funny. How, um, obviously you're killing it now. Did you— what was the start like for you?

It was rough because I was building my team from my other business. I was not, uh, like, I didn't have the executive team fully in yet. I was still interviewing. I did over 300 interviews to find my, my 5 main guys at the dental thing.

Yeah, got it.

Over 300 interviews and Even, even during the— that's why I was selling in-home in suits, because I had to find investors. Yes, I had to find investors. So I was going to the house of people calling— Todd was calling me crazy going to, uh, the in-homes with a suit. And then other guys, like, like Freddie was like, man, you're crazy in a suit to a home. Yeah, but they don't know the story behind it, so I had to go with a suit.

So you were, you were multitasking on the job?

Yeah, I almost crashed 2 times, uh, doing like a, a interview on Zoom And then going to the customer's house, trying to, you know, make it happen.

Dang, dude, I didn't know that part. That's crazy. If you're in sales and you're trying to figure out how to get effing paid and stop getting so many objections, register now for my 2-day workshop here in Atlanta, Georgia, February 27th, 28th. We're gonna have some special guest speakers. There is an exclusive mastermind for VIP ticket holders. For those that just want to attend the event, you can. There's a very low entry. to get into it. We'll be going over everything you need for sales, objections, scripts, role playing, um, everything you need to build a business, scale a business, staffing, automations, everything I've learned in the last decade plus, um, building what I've built. Of course, we've had a lot of help, so we'll be going over how to scale it, how to structure it, everything you need to get to the next level. Click on the link, register below. We'll see you there. So say, did you struggle in the insurance sales in the suit?

Was it tough?

Did you start killing it right away or what?

I don't want to say I struggle, struggle, because I do listen. I'm very coachable. Like, if you tell me you do exactly what I'm telling you to do and it works, I believe it, because English is my second language and I take almost everything you say, John, literally.

Literal.

Yeah, I don't know the slang. I'm starting to learn that with Freddie and then other guys. I'm starting to learn that, but When, um, when the leadership tells me what I got to do, I do it because I've come from a military background. You tell me what to do, the instructions, I'm gonna do it. So I went just like a rhino, just go towards the gunfire and just dial, book appointments, show up, do it again. And that's what I did. And then get better overnight and before business hours. During business hours, it's just game time. There's no time to think. Yeah.

What was the hardest part for you in this?

Um, the rejection part, because I thought it because I thought they filled it out and I'm like, okay, I just gotta book this appointments and then just go and they bought. Dang. So I thought everybody was gonna say yes, you know. Yeah, well, that's a good information.

You were doing— oh yeah, did you— you did in-home for how long?

Up until May 2022. So from January, you've been doing telesales for a couple years. Cool. Yeah, so basically 6 months, almost 6 months.

Yeah, how, um, how do you tell people? It's obviously you're building a team. I, you know, when I— I mean, you obviously know me and my personality and the way I train well enough. You've been around a lot. I, I struggle a little bit, and I, I struggled mentally too. I think we all did, but sometimes it's hard to teach it, you know what I mean? Like, how do you, how do you advise people to get through that part? What do you, what do you see that works? And obviously a lot of people watch this and they're out there quite frankly, watching this instead of dialing a lot of times. Yeah, I mean, I'm like, how do you, how do you get help people get through that mental meltdown, mental block?

Yeah, so there's one thing I gotta say about, uh, mentality. If you are confident in your sales process, it doesn't matter if somebody died today, I know I'm gonna make a sale because it's the process. I just follow my process. But for people who are going through this mental block or whatever, I like to make this example. I'm gonna ask you a further question now. If you're driving a car and you're driving the car with the emergency brakes on, what happens to the car?

It, like, if it moves at all, it's grinding the shit out of the brakes, right?

So those are you guys who are procrastinating on buying the leads. On dialing how you're supposed to dial, or waiting to make the next dial when you're supposed to make it right now. That's like those people right there. Yeah. What happens to the car when you release the brake and it's— you're still pressing on the pedal, like the accelerator? Everything is still on them.

Yeah, you'll go.

Exactly. So release your freaking brakes.

That's a good one. I never heard that.

Release your brakes. There's a book, there's a book called Release Your Brakes by Gene Newman.

No way.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite books. But, um, yeah, release your— if you're struggling with mentality.

Yeah, okay.

And the other part is, I saw a video a couple years ago. There's this freaking lion just laying in there watching all the food, or like, you know, the sheep pass by. Oh, you know, and I'm like, damn, this is just waiting for the next one. And just, they like, hundreds of them just passed. Maybe the next one, maybe the next one, maybe the next one. And then just a big lion comes in and just out of nowhere, bam, just each one of them, it just goes out of, out of his way and just, you know, he ate the thing. So most people are like that first female lion, just sitting there just watching the opportunities go by.

Yeah.

And like you and me, just come in, just take care of it.

Yeah, that's, you know, I wish I started this quick. Once I, once I got it that it was me, it was a wrap. Yeah, it just took me a minute to realize it was me. I was a little slow there, um, but I had confidence. I mean, I, I was never like I always made money in the business. I never killed— I didn't kill it at the beginning, but I always was paying my bills and profitable. And I, I don't, I don't understand the 'I'm not profitable insurance agent.' I still— I can't wrap my head around it.

Yeah, I did struggle with this though, with, um, the post dates. So I used to post date everything because I'm young and, you know, I'm going to older people's houses and I'm like so, so like a little bit embarrassed. Yeah, they can pay today. Like, oh, oh, Mrs. Mary, uh, what did you get paid? Oh, on the 3rd next month. Poor Melvin hasn't got any commission. He said, well, I'll put it for the 3rd, and I'm waiting for my commission for the next month. You know, all these commissions for next month. I'm like, nothing. Gotta ask my stepmother for $300 so she can deposit me up until I get my commission for next month. So that happened the first, the first, uh, couple months. And I started getting quite a bit of chargebacks, huh?

Yeah, you used to probably ask them when they could pay instead of—

yeah, I used to ask them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I asked them, and then obviously I get some chargeback because some people just forget about it, um, they take their money out and there's no money in there for the next month. I believe they should be immediate draft if possible, 99% of the time. I learned that the hard way.

Yeah, I assume people were telling you this along the way, that this was going to turn into a shit show for you if you didn't fix that. Uh, meaning, meaning, was Dave and stuff telling you, dude, don't put drafts out 30 days, they're gonna cancel, they're not gonna go through, you should do it immediate? I assume people were telling you this, or, or they didn't know you were doing it.

I think we didn't focus enough on those little things back then. Now we focus a lot, but during the trainings It was just the script and then just get— do the app. Uh, we didn't focus on that specific thing. If we did focus on that, you know, I listen.

So yeah, I want to bang someone's head against the wall for you even saying that, because you say back then, I'm like, shit, you know they've been dealing with that for 200 years, right? Yeah, like the training's been out on that for a long time, and I know it's common sense, but I guess, you know, I guess it's really not, because agents think they're doing what's best for the client by like allowing them to pick a date and be, you know what I mean, them and be— and I'm like, you're actually hurting them quite a bit by leaving them like they almost have coverage but not quite yet, you know.

They could die and then you don't get paid either.

So I've seen it. Oh bro, I've had new agents post-date one and they die in the middle and then they can't figure out why they didn't get covered. I'm like, this— I've seen that happen a handful of times since I've been doing this. Um, it's wild, dude.

And yeah, but I struggled the first few— 2 months To answer that first question, I remember now, I was— I had only $100 to my name because I had all these postdates. My stepmother couldn't send me any money at that time. She was waiting to get paid. And I bought, like, with those $100, I bought, like, I took $80 and bought the old age final expense lease from the CRM. I'm not recommending you do that, but that was—

it works—

3 years ago. And I door knocked. I didn't even call them. I door knocked, uh, what county I went to, uh, there's a county near Charlotte, North Carolina, so I went to that county, Monroe, Monroe County. I knocked for 3 days in a row, like, I don't know, probably like 30 houses. And then the 3rd day I was just playing, uh, for my mentality, I was playing the James Bond soundtrack from the last movie, No Time to Die, um, some soundtrack in there. It was just I'm just going there, you know, I got enough money for gasoline and enough gas to go to all these houses in this county. So then I meet this guy, Thunderbird, Norman Thunderbird. I door knock and he's there putting his Christmas lights on and he's like, hey sir, are you the guy from Medicare? I'm like, shit, I need to make a sale, man. Yeah, I'm the guy from Medicare. Oh, come on in, you know, get yourself a drink in there, there should be some lemonade. My wife and my son's gonna be there. Okay, I go in with my suit. I go in, take my suit off, and then I'm waiting for the lemonade. The wife comes in, uh, Wanda, she gives me the lemonade. Long story short, I write $9,000 in that house. They had a life insurance premium, to be clear. Yeah, life premium. Yeah, yeah. And they were all diabetic, so I had to write Foresters, and they all got approved. So, wow, that was the most—

so after 3 days of nothing, of nothing, you had $9,000 pop. Yep, man. Happens, dude, all the time. And so many people give up before that. That's like that, uh, what's that other book? It's about the diamonds, digging for diamonds, whatever it's called. Um, it's very similar. Acres of Diamonds, I think it's called. That concept is so many people just give up on themselves And it's sad, dude. I watch it every day. I had an agent text me today just quitting on himself. I'm like, really?

Yeah.

Oh man, you know, um, that's cool though.

It's like in the cosmos of time, all these people planning and stuff, that's like a fart in the wind. Like, our business plan is a fart in the wind. Uh, you projecting all this stuff, it's a fart in the wind. All you could do is just what you could do right now. You know, I can't—

I don't know how to say it any better, bro. I mean, I love it.

I got that, I got that after that experience. I'm like, okay, it was just 3 days in the course of time. I'm not being on this earth for a long time. I'm only 25. Yeah, like a breeze, no big deal.

I love it.

So did— what did it—

did it all change from there, or what happened? Like, how do you— how do you get to a point from struggling to now issuing hell, $60 grand a month?

Just like you say, get more lead flow, baby. More lead flow. More lead flow. And obviously improve yourself after Business Hours, before, on your sales skills. But like, dude, I mean, you do the work, do the activity.

What's leaving the middle of the day for someone, someone getting paid, you know what I mean? Everybody's like, I would do it if I could, I can't, I don't have the money, you know what I mean? Like, how do you— what are you spending? How do you get there? I assume you didn't.

Yeah.

Did you roll into it one day and you made 9 grand and put it all in, or, you know, I mean, like, go through your lead plan, how to get there.

So, so, uh, 2022, for after that, after that situation happened, after that victory, uh, after that, obviously I took most of that money, put it back in the business, and started, uh, diversifying my lead flow and started spending about $1,000 a week because I had to pay contracts from my other business. That's the thing that people don't understand. That I gotta— the regular agent has got to spend their money weekly on life insurance leads. I need leads for both businesses, so I gotta pay. If you pay $1,000, I'll make a better— keep it $2,000, you know. So I know I gotta manage my money even more than the regular agent. Yeah, so that's why you're gonna hear me say, oh, $2,000 a week. I started incrementing that in 20, um, this year, 2024. Uh, when I started doing veteran leads and IULs, so I do a combination of both, $200 a day each.

$200 a day?

Yeah, so $400 each one.

So $400 a day.

Boom.

Yeah, that'll get you some clients.

Yep, I'll get you some people who pick up the phone. And obviously, I like this example, I got it from a book called Get In Get Out, and the only thing I got for this good book is this big list diagram that they got. Everything else is just— I don't recommend it, but there's a picture that got fences. They got the positive fence, they got the middle picket fences, there's no nothing in there, then the negative ones. So you know this, um, you talk to a certain percentage of people, they got whatever you say, they're gonna say no, so they go to the negative side. And some people, whatever you say, they're gonna say yes. So the guys in the middle, or the fences in the middle depending obviously on your expertise or your sales skills at that moment, you can turn in maybe 3 or 5 of those to the positive side. It's not a whole lot, but you can make more money, uh, than the average person. But if you just don't have any sales skills and you're just using the numbers game, it works.

Yeah, yeah, that's how I was trained. Similar, that 25% will say no no matter what I do, there's nothing I'm going to do about it. 25% will say yes to literally whoever walks in the door. And then the other half is where skill set comes in. Yeah, you know what I mean? And you can convert some percentage of them, whatever that is, it is, you know. And that's— I was trained, yeah, those who struggle with decision making, those people, correct?

Yeah, yeah, you can convince some of them or persuade them.

Yeah. How do we, um, how do you— how did you learn how to get people from the procrastinators that just don't want to say no and they want to say, I want to think about it, I want to talk to my mom, my cousin, my daughter, my uncle, my attorney, whatever are, you know what I mean, like the ones that are just doing everything they can to not make a decision. What's your best advice? Yeah, what's your best advice there, um, that you've learned to help push those?

First is have a uniform, uh, sales process. So I go through these phases, and I'll tell you real quick. I'll go through the introduction. You have to be neutral. You cannot ask emotional questions at the beginning that quick, because if you and I go to the supermarket, John, and we go to the elevator, we're trying to go to the second floor to, uh, let's see, let's say we're looking for some rice, and there's this lady in there, let's say called Martha, and I ask Martha, hey, how's your mom? How weird is that going to be? That's weird, right? That's a very deep emotional question. How's your mom? And I don't even know you. Yeah, so eliminate asking emotional questions at the beginning of the call, like right at the beginning. Like, wait, wait a moment, be neutral. Uh, say neutral words like possibly. Hey, this is Melvin, uh, I'm calling you back because you, uh, were possibly interested in the life insurance, uh, for veterans. Is that what you were possibly looking for or something different? Leave it up to them. If they say yes, continue the conversation. They say no, I'll be looking for mortgage protection or maybe like, uh, retirement income planning. No? Okay, bye. Yeah, that's it. Don't waste your time. And then if they say yes, um, you verify some information And then this is the paragraph that I say that diffuses everybody, uh, most everybody. Uh, so let's say you were born on March 27th, '55, right? Yep. Right. Okay. And, uh, before we go over what you might be looking for, John, it might be appropriate if I just ask you a few questions just to make sure I can help you in the first place. For instance, do you have any life insurance right now? Yes or no? Most of them say no. After that, I use this to prevent the Partner objection, or most objections, I say this when they, uh, answer my questions. I'll say, um, John, and, um, who's gonna, who's gonna benefit from you getting a life insurance at your age? Who's gonna benefit? Oh, my, my wife. Okay, what's her name? So I'm not rude. Martha. Okay, and how Martha is gonna— I mean, and I do some interruptions so they can process what I'm saying. If you say too fast They're old people, they're not going to process what you're saying. So you gotta make sure your pacing is correct. Slow down, take a breather, say, well, I mean, how smart they're gonna feel about you getting a life insurance at your age? And I say age to bring mortality because most of them are like 60, 70. At your age, at your age, at your age. Yes, who at your age, you're about to die.

Yeah.

Um, yeah. So how smart they're gonna feel about you getting a life insurance at your age? Well, she's going to be all for it. Well, that's up for her. Like, they start saying stuff that the agent, the average sales agent says, but we're most persuasive based on behavioral science. We're most persuasive when the prospect says why they need the thing versus me saying why they need it. Agreed, man. So why don't you make them say it?

So it's a high-quality question.

High-quality question. After you gain data on their— they got life insurance or not, and then their health. After you gain data on that, then you say, and how— who's going to benefit from this? Um, how is she going to feel about it? And if you want to probe them a little bit, if you feel like they can't make a decision or something, when doing decisions like this that, that affect the budget, how's your decision-making process? Do you need somebody on the line right now, or can you have this conversation with me? I barely ask that question, but I can identify with experience now, uh, on the phone through their tone of voice if they hesitate, uh, when I, when I have to ask that question. It's like a tool, yeah, you know, you bring it up if necessary. Then after that, you come with the main emotional question, which is, John, uh, I mean, all veterans have a purpose for this. What would be kind of like your main purpose for getting a life insurance at your age? Again, he starts explaining why. Then after that, I bring them from very emotional to projecting how it will look like if he can resolve that problem. So the gap, the gap in their mind that they, if they don't do anything about it, they will be screwed. So John, I know how important this is for you now, but I mean, how will that make you feel if you're able to find something that's affordable and protect your family. How will that make you feel that if you die tomorrow, everything that you wanted, it played out pretty well with the life insurance company? How would that make you feel? Almost make you feel great. You know, they'll start explaining a little bit more, and then I go, well, we gotta, we gotta also explore human failure. Like, you know, people procrastinate. You might procrastinate too. We gotta be upfront. I mean, what happens if you don't do anything about this like most people and you die sooner than you thought. What happens, uh, what happens at that point, John? Well, and we start having a conversation around what happens, and we compare both scenarios. I'm not trying to like, oh, there's a salesy technique. No, it's to build the urgency in their mind to make sure that they stop procrastinating, because that's what they do. They procrastinate. Most people do that.

So you just bring it up, you just put it on the table, you just lay it out there. Most people procrastinate. Well, yeah, dude, I love it.

And then before the he says it, you also say, well, what happens if Martha gets crazy? She says, I don't want no life insurance. What if she says that? Oh no, no, no, no, I'm gonna go ahead with it, man. This is important. So your goal as a sales professional, especially in life insurance, is to gain data, have a larger conversation first minute or two. They ain't get emotionally, because when you get them emotionally high, what goes after that? After the consequence question of what happens if you don't do anything about it, the numbers, the price, it's a logic conversation. So you got to get them emotional high so when they go through the logic, the emotional overrides the logic. Yeah, and they pick an option, but the sale is made before the numbers. The sale is made when you project the, the pain or the future pain if they don't do anything about it. That's when the seller's made, in my opinion.

Yeah, I agree, dude. It's, it's so many people don't know they're making a sale until they pick a price, and I'm like, you missed majorly if you're showing pricing and you're not like really confident that they're picking something. And a lot of people try, as you know, but for those watching, a lot of the mistake a lot of y'all are making, or your agents if you're, if you have a team, a lot of mistakes they're making or they try to ask questions like this after they're told no, or after they're told they want to think about it, it becomes like a— you sound like a schmuck salesperson, like begging after you're told no. It just doesn't come across the same. And all you're doing is you're having the client sell you on why you should even show pricing.

Exactly.

It's not that deep.

And sometimes they sound— they sound scripted. Like, another thing I'll say to new agents and seasoned agents, I recorded myself. English is my second language. I wanted to make sure at least they understand what I'm saying. But then I was able to listen that I was kind of fast in the beginning, and that's why they hung up on me because I sounded like a telemarketer. What if you bring it down and you slow it down? You see? So record yourself if you're trying to get better, but don't do that during game time. Do not make that mistake. Do that in the night or before business hours.

Yeah, it's wild to me, dude, how many times I ask people to record themselves and they just won't. It blows my mind. I'm like, right?

And I'll, I'll—

dude, I'll go through it with you and it's wild. But I did the same, dude. I, back in the day, man, I went to— I'll never forget, I'm, I'm significantly older than you, bro. And, uh, when I first started, I went to Radio Shack and bought like a like a, like a recorder, like with a cassette thing in it.

Yeah, I know where you're at.

Yeah, I'd hook it up to my phone back in the day, hook it up. It'd be like the wired plug-in, and I would record calls, man. I'd go back and play the little cassette over and over again. But yep, I learned a ton, dude. I didn't need to know what I was doing, but I would hear myself and I'm like, oh my God, no wonder they hung up on— that was trash.

Exactly. That's the best way to, uh, to identify what's going on. And it's usually at the beginning of the call, your first 7 to 12 seconds. Yeah, you know, it's not like the end.

Yeah. What do you think people mess up at the beginning, in your opinion?

Facing, tonality. Yeah, facing and tonality. And for those using the Benefit Center, that shit don't work anymore. Why? Why not? Explain it. Because like, like, there's so much— I don't know, prospects that are aware of that nowadays, like, Benefit Center, I heard that before, man. And I've had like 11 people tell me that already, like different agents from different divisions. Yeah, they're like, nah, they don't work. It don't work in this area anymore, bro. Yeah, it might work.

That was money when it first came out.

Yeah, it was, it was. But now, I mean, you're saying that your name— this is just 'John,' uh, don't even say, 'What are you calling for?' You say, 'Hey, just calling you back, uh, because of the possible life insurance you were interested in. Is that what you're still looking for or not?' And then if it's an old lead, it's what I do for older leads. Um, let's say it's like 3 months or 8 months old, don't matter. If it's more than like 90 days, it's an old lead for me. Uh, then I'll call them just a little bit different. I'll say, 'Hey John, this is just Melvin, and, uh, I just have some time, uh, to look in between files here.' I see that, uh, you were possibly interested in the life insurance, um, for veterans. Is that what you're still looking for? I mean, did you give up on that, or, or what happened? Did you give up on that, or what happened? It's been a long time since you and I have talked. Did you give up on that, or what happened? No, no, I didn't give up on that. Or yes, I don't, I don't care, just let me know if it's a yes or no. At that point, that's how I go about it for, uh, older leads. But most people screw up with tonality and pacing and use some body language. Like, be human. Most of the time sales agencies in general sell over the phone, so, you know, use your phone, use your body language, use your tonality and pacing. You'll do better.

I had someone ask last week, I want to hear your answer on it, how you know, like, do I one-call close and try to go through it now? Do I schedule something for later? Like, how do you, how do you figure out if you're going forward or if you deal with it later? What's the, what's the key for you there?

So depending on the lead type, if it's an IUL, most of the time they are working, so they can't talk to you at the moment. You ask them a qualifying question. You're qualifying them on the spot. I qualify them 2 times, uh, in the beginning and before, uh, I go to over the numbers. So number 1 qualifying question is, uh, is this call usually taking about 15 to 20 minutes to go over? Do you have that time for me right now, or should we— it'll be more appropriate to schedule a call later today? Not tomorrow, later today, in a couple hours. Um, I have a 5 PM available. Will that work for you? I'm not doing the option close, like, I got a 5 or 6. No, no, 5 PM. If not, I'll give you my number. You call me around 6. I'm still gonna call you ass later, but I'm not gonna make it seem like it's an option close. Like, it's so salesy nowadays. They know what you're trying to do.

Yeah.

So, uh, qualifying question, and then before the numbers, you can ask, uh, John, and I mean, sounds like time to make a change, right? Most of them say yes. Another qualifying question you could ask: how important is it for you to change your situation from where you are now with no life insurance, no financial security, nothing at all, from where you should be? How important is that for you? Yeah, I love it.

Is it any different with seniors? You mentioned IUL there. Is it any different for you with seniors? You know, I mean, final expense, vet leads, whatever, seniors call to close?

Um, really not. They usually got a TV on. You just gotta tell them to shut the TV off. That pisses me off. Let me talk to me like, hey sir, with all due respect, can you shut that TV off? I can't hear you, and I got 30% disability from the military. I was field artillery. Come on. They start laughing, they turn the TV up. But if you're looking to call to close, you should call to close in between appointments. After, like, if you get a no-show, don't wait until your next appointment. Call to close. Yeah. And then how do you determine if it's a call to close or not? Well, you ask them a qualifying question. Like I said, do you have 15, 20 minutes for me right now? If it's an IUL, if it's a vet lead or final expense or mortgage protection, I'll just go for it and get them emotionally involved. And as soon as you get them emotionally involved and you ask the qualifying question, listen to how they answer that question. How important is it for you to change situation from where you are, where you are now, to where it should be? If the answer is kind of like hesitating or they don't answer it fully, schedule the call for later today. If they're not 100% focused on what you're trying to say, they might, they might be working, they might be doing something, but they'll tell you. As long as you're focused on having a high-quality dialogue between you and the client, you will determine if it should be a call to close now or should be a call later today. You gotta listen.

This is not deep, dude. This is so good. I love that it's like so simple. There's nothing like— not, not to sound mean, it's— there's nothing complicated about what you're saying. It's just insanely intentional.

Yeah, you know, and it's on, you know, you know when, when, when somebody's kind of busy, when you talk to, let's say you call your, your, your, uh, your family member or your wife, you, you can tell when somebody is not paying attention to you 100%. So you get better over time.

Yeah, amen, bro. So reps and, uh, paying attention, you know, so many people put out there and then they don't pay attention, they go say the same thing wrong on the next one. It's like it ain't working. Yeah, tweak something. And granted, to be clear, you still get hung up on and told no, you can't. Like, no, that shit goes away, you know what I mean? You said it earlier. I, I think some people get confused because they're like, what leads does he— that's the most messages I'll get. What leads does he get, dude? It, it's really not that important.

It don't matter if the lead is, is super cheap, then guess what, you're going to be on the phones the whole day. If the leads is, is high quality Or you might get more pickups than the cheaper leads, but you still got to do the same work, you know.

I love it, I love it.

Yeah, then another thing that I will—

no, no, go please.

One thing to answer that question you were saying earlier, but that's that part of that sales process on what most agents need to pay attention to after they agree on the, on the product, uh, whatever option you chose, they chose. Don't go straight for the app. Make sure you— this is how I do it. I tell them, I don't send them like, here's my credentials so you can trust. That's too gullible, too like, uh, yeah, I just sell you right there. I say like this, I say, John, I'm gonna send you a quick text, um, and that's gonna have my information as your agent because in case you move out of your house I don't know what's going to happen on the road, but in case you move out or you want to add a beneficiary or add more coverage down the road, you can call me directly. We'll take care of it. I have you here on my portal, you're on my, on my customer portal, and I'll take care of it. That's way better in my opinion than saying, here's my credentials for you so you can trust me and I'm— you can verify.

Yeah, I agree.

I do that and then I go for the app. And then how I get the immediate draft technique I have 3 trials before I post anything. So let's say we get to the backing, I got the information, and the way I do that is, um, John, I'm gonna explain you how this process works. Basically, I'm gonna ask you a few yes or no questions about your health one more time, but these are the knockout ones, okay? These are knockout ones. Depending on how you answer, you could be eligible, you could get declined. If you are eligible, we'll proceed with your beneficiary's full legal name, phone number, and date of birth in case something does happen to you. Make sense? Right after that, we're going to put in your bank or credit union account and routing number. That way it stays on autopay, nobody misses a payment, everything is streamlined, nobody had to have to worry about anything else. Makes sense? Makes sense, right? So once I get to the beneficiary, um, situation, I go ahead and say, and what was the bank that you, uh, wanted to use again? Wells Fargo, whatever. Okay, and they get the bank information, routing account number, And then this one, this is the immediate draft technique, trial number 1. And, uh, after they give me the information, John, um, the carrier, it usually takes about 1 to 3 business days for them to process everything we did today and do that first draft so you can get covered. Is that going to be a problem, John? Is that going to be a problem? Most of them say no.

I love it.

It's easier to say no. So, oh yeah, it's not like a sales tactic that everybody— the way you word it is— the way you word it, it's not going to be a problem. Is it okay if I draft today? Right.

Yeah, right.

Is it going to be a problem? No. And I learned that after that situation, the first 3 months in the business, they are expecting to pay today.

Correct.

They are sold before the pricing. They're sold that they need it before the pricing. So once you go through pricing, they gotta pick something that they can— they got money for today. So that's my mentality there. And 99% of the clients I get, they, they have no problem with getting drafted. In, uh, 1-3 business days. Now you might have a, a female or male client saying, well, I got the money today. I immediately interrupt them before they say something. I say, well, no problem. I mean, we can do a promise to pay, just like in phone bills. I had to do a promise to pay for Verizon one time because I didn't have the money, so I had to do a promise to pay. So I used that, uh, thing right there and use it for life insurance. Well, we can do a promise to pay for next Friday. If it— today's Monday, do it for next Friday. Or if you could do it earlier, we can put it for Wednesday next week. No, no, put it for Friday next week, I'll have the money. Bam, it's postdated, but it's not a month postdated, it's not 30 days. And that's just like a small percentage. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

And then I don't know where, like, the less than 1%, uh, retired people, mortgage protection, IUL, doesn't matter. I get people who are on Social Security disability pay to date because they're expecting to make a payment. But those, uh, uh, unique individuals, they come out and say, hey, I, I honestly cannot make a payment until the 3rd or whatever. That's like 1 out of like 30 people. Yeah, that's the 3 trials. Then that's when you post it for 30 days, you know.

I love it.

But 99% is the first trial. It's not going to be a problem if y'all ain't got—

like, I had someone, I saw someone message on online the other day, and they were like, is it possible to make $115 grand in life insurance? And so many people were negative about it, like, it can't be done, it's hard to do, and oh my God. And I'm like— and then they're like, the people that do it, it's— there's so many chargebacks, they're not keeping any money. And I'm like, yeah, you probably ain't doing what Mel's doing over here because you're just like a half million dollars worth of stuff.

Yeah.

So many of you have asked if there's an option for more access more direct coaching. And so we've created a coaching platform called the Winner's Circle where you have a couple different options. There is a one-on-one option to where we can work directly with you on a regular basis. And then there's a small group setting, 4 to 6 people, really high achievers looking to get to just a new level in their career. We've had a ton of success in this already. First month, actually, the first guy that joined deposited $7,500, worked with them back and forth one-on-one. The very next month, he deposited over 30 grand. So basically a 5x return on his income in 30 days. So if you're looking for something like that, you can click on the link below, get access to an application because I'm not taking everybody. I do wanna make sure it's a good fit for both of us. And if we feel like you'd be a good fit, we'll set up a one-on-one call directly with me, um, and kind of go through your struggles, what you need help with, and what I expect of people that are joining the coaching program. Um, so if you feel like it'd be a good fit for you and something you want more of, click the link below and we'll see you on the other side. Welcome to the winner's circle.

And the persistency has gotten better over time. Even some people say, well, if you start selling $70,000, $80,000 a month, oh, you're gonna deal with some chargebacks, bro. Yes, you are going to deal with some bigger chargebacks, of course, but if you sell it properly, most of the time you're gonna have a 90% persistency like me.

So you're at 90% stays on the books.

Yep, easy. And then the main question you should ask after you get all the banking and stuff, before you say goodbye to the client, obviously bring it back up to them and ask them, hey John, uh, in, in your mind, how, how do you feel that I've been able to help you the most today? They say— again, it's more persuasive if they say it, not me. Yeah. And then obviously you ask for the referral. Hey John, before I get off the phone, um, Who do you know that you could introduce me to that, uh, I could help out just like I helped you today? Simple question. And they'll tell you on the spot. If not, they'll tell you later. And obviously we got a CRM that follows up and it's got the referral system too. But yeah, that's how I end the calls. Love it, dude.

Profitable as all get out. Love it, dude. What, um, what are you doing around the country right now? I want you to share the, uh, what most people would consider crazy, but I love it, dude. It's my style.

Yeah, so since January 2024, I started traveling with Freddie, and then when Jeffrey came into the business, my newest agent, we started traveling together. So we went— our plan is— our plan was, because we did what we said we're going to do, so we went to different cities throughout the nation and basically did like a mini lock-in every city we went to. And I mean, tell y'all, we went to Florida, Miami, we went to Tampa, Orlando, Texas, Dallas, Austin, Boston, New York. Where else we go? Uh, I think that was it, but we went to different Airbnbs throughout those cities, so we spent the whole year doing that. Oh, went to Nashville too.

How long did you stay?

We stayed for like a, uh, in, in each city we stayed like about a week or or 10 days. Yeah, a week or 10 days. We'll get an Airbnb, agents in, everybody making calls, closing, training, building your agency. And people think like, oh, you got no space. What you mean? I'll go to like whoever, whoever booked the, the Airbnb is the one who's getting the main room, you know, the master bedroom. So if I book it, I'm getting the master bedroom, boy. So I'll dial from the master bedroom, but he will dial from the kitchen, and then Jeffrey will dial from from the living room somewhere, and we just move furniture around. And because we like to stand when we dab, so we just like move furniture around, put something on the table, and then put the computer on top, and then just dab. Everybody got noise cancellation headphones. We have music all day long too. Reggaetón, bachata, merengue, everything, pop. It was just fun. It is fun. So that's how you should do it. Yeah.

Freddie's a cool dude. I like his stuff too. He's, uh, every time I get to see him, he's a good dude.

He's funny without being funny. Have you seen him somehow? He's a trip.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Building the team now. How's that going, man? Where you at with that?

So I'm, uh, I want to say I'm a newbie. I'm doing exactly what you told me to do, just going through, through the numbers. And just like private equity, 1 out of 100 is gonna pop out. So I got, I got, uh, 2 that are writing, and I got others in class. So just gonna do the same thing. Yeah, for everybody.

So 2025, where, what's, what's the plan? What's, what's this year coming look like for you?

So 2025, I want to be in the leaderboard on the agency side. That's my main goal. I'll be top 10, uh, agency side of, uh, upcoming agency builders. Okay, yeah, as fast as growing top 10, that's, that's my, that's my goal, that's it. Because, um, yesterday I was playing basketball. Here's the thing, I was playing basketball yesterday morning with Freddie and then all the guys in, uh, Denver's, you know, Denver's. Yeah, my mom, that's where my first indoor sporting goods. Yeah, we played there and, uh, Freddie's brother stepped on my toe, my big toe. And that was after the last game, I think. But anyways, I didn't feel the pain there. 2 hours later, oh my God, that's the worst pain I've ever had in my life. In my life. And I had to go to the mall to buy the Christmas gifts for the family because I'm going to Dominican in a week. And I'm like, man, uh, no, we went to Prudential. Prudential Center, I think. Anyways, downtown Boston. Well, long story short, I was walking like a zombie throughout the mall hurting, and I still got the job done.

So, my dude, yeah, I have no doubt you're gonna kill it this year. So it's been fun to watch.

Um, but yeah, sometimes I get off track. I say that to say this: if you're not building an agency and you are a personal producer by yourself, you have no agents, and you get hurt What happens? There's no cash flow coming in. So that's the same thing I have for my other business. If there's no dentist in the practice, how the hell we're going to produce revenue, you know? So financial motive must prevail. Obviously clients come first and all that stuff. I know YouTube is going to come in my ass because I say financial motive must prevail, but it is true. Financial motive must prevail, right, in order for us to help people, to, uh, advance the community and all that stuff.

100%. 100%.

That's—

that, that part's fun too, man, is once you start teaching people how to sell and helping others change their situation. And you know what I mean? It's like, I enjoy helping people build teams because so many people get affected by it. And again, the clients get taken care of, which is cool. I ain't mad at that. And you know, we help a lot of clients now as an agency. Um, yeah, but I just love watching you young cats live different, dude. Oh my God, like, I can't even wrap my head around— hell, you sell more than I sold in my prime, and I was old. Doing, you know what I mean? But, you know, I, I was, I was put on a throne for selling 460. Y'all do that in your sleep now, you know.

Well, um, and in your 20s, yeah, bro, you're 20, you said 25?

Yeah, I think I was probably, I was making like $7 an hour or something. Nah, 25 was a little past that. I was probably making like $15 an hour at that point. Um, 7 was like when I was like 20.

But what, but what advice you give to like people my age, for example? They think they got a lot like this, all this time to— like, I'm 25, like people tell me, oh, don't worry about it, man, you're gonna make it, and you, you got until your 30s, 40s, 50s. Hell no. Why do I— why don't I just, you know, do it now? Why do you tell those young folks who are, uh, procrastinating or like have this vision like I got all this time.

Yeah, I mean, hell, you don't know if you have tomorrow, bro. Yeah, it's the reality, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, get it while you can and build a life that's insane, bro. I— dude, I wish someone smacked me in the face and, and had me do that stuff like this when I was younger, you know? And you do have time in a sense, statistically to build something massive, you know what I mean? You're not going to build it tomorrow, but dude, why not do it when you're the age you are? I like— I wish I could have raised my 5 kids the way you'll be able to raise a family, you know what I mean? Versus having a struggle. And it's a lot, bro. It's hard to make changes when you're 40, you know what I mean? You got family, you got life going on, you got this, you got spouse. You get like— to be able to just travel around the country and enjoy life and sell insurance and hang out with your buddies and all get rich together, like Dude, don't take that shit for granted.

A lot of baggage too for the older folks.

Yeah, it is. It's hard, you know. So get after it while you can, dude, and build something obnoxious. And have a lot of like delayed gratification in the sense that don't change your lifestyle, dude. You're 25, live like you're 25, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I see you rolling up in Bentleys and Lambos and I'm— dude, I might punch you. Yeah, I mean like build something. That way you got recurring revenue coming in, and you know what I mean? And, and just, yeah, go spread the word to other people at your age at how easy it is to make what most people consider a lot of money. Most people are struggling to make $100 grand in this business, dude, and you're knocking down $700,000+ selling, you know what I mean? This ain't like he's got some— he's got 2 agents. He's only got a massive team, you know what I mean? $700,000 selling. So if anyone's confused on whether or not they can change their situation, you know, this dude's traveling all around the country using really simple techniques. Again, intentional but simple. And, uh, you know, my advice is, dude, don't slow down, bro. Get after it while you can, you know, and, and teach people to do it.

Amen. Yeah, tell me when you're going to join us in the Spartan Race, John.

And I told you I'll go. I'm going to be a lot slower than you, but I'll go, dude.

I got—

I'm signed up to 3 big races in the summer already. You tell me when, I will join one.

We just came back from Orlando last, last week.

You did?

Um, I got number 1 for my age group.

Will you come to Atlanta? There's one in Atlanta.

There's one— we do one in March. That's another thing about us, we do Airbnbs and stuff, but we do Spartan races every month.

Look in, um, all right, so check out right after we're done, look up, uh, Savage Race. It's like Spartan, but Savage Race is right near me in March or April. Savage. It says Atlanta, but it's really in Dallas, Georgia.

Oh, okay. I think it's more Dallas, Georgia.

Yeah, Savage Race, check that one out. Um, and then you've seen the— you've seen the 2900, you see this one? It's hard to tell them on camera.

Oh yeah, I've seen that.

Yeah, hey, you should do that. I think it's sold. I think they're all sold out this year, but that's, um Jesse Itzler's thing, uh, 29029. So you climb— there's, there's mountains, so that you climb these mountains to that height in elevation.

Yep.

And then I signed up to another one because a buddy of mine did it. It's 3— it's 3 consecutive days of a marathon each day. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you do marathon every day. That I'm doing in July.

That sounds interesting. Yeah, yeah.

So I like doing some crazy stuff. Now my disclaimer is I'm not trying to get first place. Yeah, I'm just gonna—

we're gonna do a team one.

Yeah, but yeah, dude, if you come again, I don't mind going to one, but the one here, if you come to the Atlanta one, I'll sign up with you too. I'll sign up today if you sign up.

Okay.

Yeah, we— you can create a team and all that stuff in that one. Yeah, so Yeah, let me know. Hey man, you just have to go— you might have to slow down my speed, or I'll see you at the end. One or the other.

One or the other. Yeah, we'll make it happen.

But I'm in, dude. 100%.

Cool.

What do you want to end with, dude? I'll let you— final words, anything you, uh, wanted to get out that I didn't ask, or just some encouraging words to people if you don't have anything extra?

Yeah, if you're going through struggling times, just go back to the recording. And if you need some emotional support or whatever, go watch this movie called Darkest Hour. Um, it's, uh, they, they won the Oscar in 2017. Gary Oldman was the protagonist. Great movie if you're going through hard times. I watched that movie tons of times when I'm going through, uh, struggles in both businesses. Darkest Hour. Uh, one of the things that they say in that movie is, um, to every man upon this earth, uh, death cometh soon or late, and how can men die better? Than facing fearful odds. If you're facing fearful odds, keep going. Just like Winston Churchill says, if you're going through hell, keep going.

Hell yeah. I got it up on my screen now. I'm gonna check it. I've never seen it.

Yeah, I told that to Andrew Taylor. He loved that movie.

Yeah, he's— he'd like— yeah, he likes a lot of good stuff. Uh, that's dope. I love it, man. Well, I appreciate you taking your time.

Thanks for sharing.

And, uh, text me. You got my cell, right?

I don't think so, no.

You know, hit me on, hit me on IG. Yeah, and then let me know. Let's sign up to a race and we'll see you soon, bro. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks for joining.

Later, guys. Later.