This Sales Tactic Made Me $100,000 in Insurance Sales ft. Ty Cook | Ep46

money don't buy happiness. Bullshit.

Yeah, it buys a lot of it.

Like, it don't make the whole world perfect, but I'm a lot happier when I can fly in first class and I can get a driver to the airport versus have to figure it out myself. I'm a lot happier when I can bring my team with me than when I can't. I'm a lot happier in a Four Seasons than I am a Red Roof Inn.

Yeah.

What up, y'all? John Wetmore back with another episode of the Insurance Insiders Podcast. Got my dude Ty Cook here. Killing it in the life insurance sales game, team building game. I think you sold, I don't know, $600,000, $700,000 this past year, 2024, in your own pen. Team doing— I don't remember the number you told me— a few hundred grand a month. Where y'all at? Yeah, yeah, like $5 million last year.

We, we exploded. We went from like $10K, like $20K, to $400,000 by the end of the year. So we, we did like $2 million total.

But yeah, yeah, the end of the year. So you'll smash 5 million this year?

Yeah, 10's the goal.

Yeah, yeah, dope. Love it, dude. Well, welcome on, bro. We, uh, you know, Thai— we've known of each other a long time, certainly. Um, you know, down somewhere in the hierarchy working with Easton, who I had on recently, and Zach and those guys. And, uh, we connected this week. He had some questions, I answered them, and I'm like, dude, I'm intrigued. I want I wanna, I wanna hear more. And I love to, I love to see what people are doing, dude, in the space. And, um, you're killing it. And it's like, why— let's, let's share the tea, tell people the magic sauce, bro. Yeah, because that's what everyone wants, dude. They want the magic. Yeah, yeah, buddy.

Yeah.

Um, well, why don't you talk about how you got in first, man? I'm sure— yeah, selling $700 grand. So some people, that's a massive number. I do try to tell people in my world it's kind of like, it's not that there's a million people doing it, but it's more normal here than anywhere else, right? Um, you certainly weren't alone, but it's, it's dope what you're doing relative, right? Um, yeah, so start.

Yeah, dude. And yeah, when you're working with— I mean, Easton, you know, I'll tell the story real quick, but Easton, yeah, you're 940, like almost a million on his own pen. Yeah, 700 is nothing, you know? Correct.

It's like, Easton's like, yeah, get out of here, kid.

But, uh, super grateful. No, my, my story, uh So I, I've been in direct sales for, um, I guess 9, 9 years now. So I did— or 8 years. So I did, uh, solar sales door-to-door for 5 years. Yep. Um, love that. Uh, it's where I made my first 6 figures in sales. And, uh, it was good, you know. I, I enjoyed the, like, the sales process. I was going to people's houses, knocking doors.

I didn't mind cold knocking, right? Or leads.

Yeah, so it was cold knocking at first, and then once, you know, once I was good, I, I was fortunate enough to be a closer to where all the door knockers were out setting appointments. So I had a pretty—

yeah, got it. So you start there as setting appointments for someone to close them. They don't let you close them at the beginning, right?

Yeah. So, so solar was good, um, and then this post, you know, 2020 with, you know, supply chain issues, and in Colorado where I'm at Things started to— pay started to drag out because we're getting paid a majority of our commission on the install. So if an install takes, you know, 2 months—

Got it. So the equipment being delayed caused you to get— gotcha.

Right. And it got to the point where like some projects, I mean, I had a customer who wasn't installed for a year and a half. And yeah, just brutal, brutal. But 6 months to 12 months of waiting on pay It got—

that's normal. 6 months to 12 months is normal in the solar world right now?

Right now, depending on the market, yeah, yeah. At least I've been out of it for 3 years now, so maybe it's got—

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do people eat during the time? Like, what's the struggle? That's, that's got to be nuts, dude. Is that why you're— that's ultimately why you're here?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, you just hope that you stacked up your, your pipeline enough, put cash aside so that The beginning is hard.

Yeah, for people starting out, I can see it. Yeah, dude, crazy. What kind of money were you making setting deals, setting appointments in that space?

Um, I didn't really spend too much time setting. I mean, I was making like $80,000, $90,000, but I— they moved me pretty quick. I grasped the, the—

like, per deal, I meant. Sorry, like per deal.

Oh, per deal? Uh, they pay out like, you know, $100 to $200 per kilowatt, so $500 to $1,000. Yeah. I said a deal that closed.

Makes sense. Cool. Yeah, dig it. All right, so you see, you see, so next you see you're in that time, you see an ad, is that what happened?

Uh, no, I saw, I listened to a podcast. So, you know, Shawn Mike was on a podcast, talked about, oh, you can get paid, you can sell a deal to get today and get paid in 2 days. That was like music to my ears, like, you know, 6 months versus days, like, yeah.

Who was he on, do you know?

Uh, yeah, Brad Lee. Yep, drop him.

Oh, got it. Yeah, yeah, got it.

Um, so heard him, and then I, I actually reached out to, uh, Brad and his team, but they didn't have a channel. Yeah, right. And then I was like, well, I'm not gonna wait around, so I searched Colorado Family First Life, found Easton and Zach. And you see the numbers that they put up, you know, Easton was putting up 25, 30K weeks. Zach had just that past year, sold to Integrity. So, um, I was like, those are the dudes I want to work with, and they just so happen to live in the same city that I was in. That's, that's pretty crazy.

Yeah, so that's dope.

And then, yeah, the rest is history. So I've been here for about 3 years.

Got it. What'd you sell first year?

First year was all in the field, um, travel trips and all that stuff. I did like $240,000, so not great.

Respectable though.

Yeah, yeah, not, not terrible, but not, but not great. And then I always say, like, I basically did my first year twice because, you know, I was gearing up for my Hall of Fame run the second year. And then we decided to go—

you went virtual sales.

Yeah. And I just went down. You know, it was, it was a tough transition. I mean, I was doing like 40K January, 40K February, all in the field. And then March we jumped out of the field and I did like 10. So, um, it was tough. I still finished the year around 230. And then that year primed me for this past year, which I did, you know, $690,000.

So, um, got it, right? Crazy. That's sick. Um, dig it. So what was the, what was the transition from field to telesales like for you?

Brutal.

I hear that often.

Yeah, yeah. So, um, And I was kind of reluctant to do it because I, I, I mean, if you, if you go from a, like, like, basically, like, infield sales, I was used to doing $30,000, $40,000 at that point. It's almost like I'm signing up for a new job.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have to relearn everything. So I was reluctant. I'd have a couple of my new guys that started at the office trying to do telesales while I was running appointments, closing 2, 3, 4 policies in a day. And I'm like, dude, I can't scale this way, so I need to figure it out. Um, and it was about March, April, May. It's about 3 months of just like, what scripts, what leads, like, how do we get the bank? Um, they're being weird about the social, like all those things, you know, I had to go through.

Yeah.

Then towards that, that, uh, that tail end of that summer, um, things finally clicked. We found, you know, some good leads, found a good process, you know, script and everything.

And then Yeah, looking back, what do you think you would tell someone to implement now in the process or script to skip as much as they can? That— I mean, I think everybody has to go through that getting punched in the face phase a little bit, right? But what do you think looking back, it's like, oh, when we tweaked this, here was— here was kind of like the little extra that made it go better?

I think just having a script in general, um, And then I guess, you know, having a script that's—

were you literally trying to do it without one at the beginning?

Yeah, because it's like trying to roll. Yeah, I'm like trying to do my in-home, which kind of worked but kind of didn't. Um, I guess the biggest thing, because, you know, there's plenty of scripts out there. Sure. Yeah, I think the biggest difference with, you know, going from in-home to telesales, like, if I show up to someone's house, you know, I'm smiling, I look presentable, like, I don't have to pre-frame all this trust and confidence in me because I'm there.

You have it.

Yeah, confidence, right? They feel that trust. So I think the biggest adjustment for telesales was making sure that you pre-frame all of the sense of information we're going to need— who I am, what I do, why I'm able to help them because I'm licensed— and all those things kind of flip the script a little bit for us to where, okay, now follow our same in-home process but pre-frame hard with the credentials piece. Yeah, that's definitely helped.

Love it, makes sense. Yeah, it's funny watching, like, have you seen people still like just not be able to figure it out? Like, you're coaching a lot of people, is there something just doesn't click, or is it like, dude, everyone's figuring it out now?

I like, like the telesales game, or just—

yeah, telesales in general right now.

I feel like, I mean, I've heard of other groups that still run in-home, and I'm like baffled. I'm like How?

I hear it all the time. Yeah, yeah, I hear it all the time because they can't figure it out, and I'm like, right, the whole industry is doing it. I'm not trying to be like weird, like how, why?

Yeah, yeah. So in our office, because we have it so dialed in now, it's like, like my, my, you know, top rep on our team last year, Jesse, um, did Hall of Fame his first year over, you know, 450. Yeah, but he sucked for 4 months. Like, bad, bad. Like, like, 0 for 80, you know, a stint of 0 for 80. Like, bad, bad. Like, like, probably comparable worse than Easton's story. Like, like, Easton, basically.

Like, I need to get him on here, bro.

Yeah, yeah, he was. And no sales experience. Like, he worked at Crumble Cookie, like, prior to this.

And then that definitely ain't sales. Yeah, like, 12 cookies. Thank you.

Yeah. And then he figured it out and and sold Hall of Fame.

And hell yeah, you need to connect me with him, bro. Yeah, yeah, I love stories like that. Hell yeah, that's dope.

So anybody can figure it out now.

What do you give someone? I know obviously y'all are recruiting, you're building the team. Give, do you give me a story of someone new that's kind of walked in and changed their situation pretty quick? New, new— I know y'all got a lot of newer, younger. Yeah, I mean, I saw some kids this weekend that were literally 21 knocking down 300, 400, 500 grand. I'm like Yo, I love this industry.

It's, it's crazy. Yeah, no, I mean, the, the biggest is, is the guy I was just talking about, Jesse. I mean, we have others that are like just right there, um, you know, they're, they're going— they just went through it, but now they're coming. But dude, Jesse is probably the worst. Like, he's probably the, you know, the, the guy that I've been able to work with that's been the worst that has come out of it. Because we have a lot of guys, I guess, the biggest gap Right, we had a lot of guys that quit, you know, during that time. But like, I guess for context, he sold— he, he issued like $34,000 for the first 4 months total combined.

Yep. Yeah, right.

And then on the 5th month, issued like $32,000 in the 5th month alone.

And you know what I love about our world, bro? My favorite thing, that $34,000 in 4 months is trash.

Yeah, only makes sense.

Like, yeah, and I try to explain this to people, dude. It's like, if, if what you— if you make something normal, yeah, if you work enough at it, the craziest things can just become the norm, right? Because dude, when I ask the example, some people hear like, oh, they only have one dude winning. I'm like, I think you're misunderstanding the line. That some people, right? So I go, imagine if we go to like the normal everyday threshold. Like, you know, my daughter's 18. My— she's, she's away at college, she's not getting into it now. But my son, the next one, he's 17, dude. He has it like— it's weird to say it's on his calendar because it's his birthday, but he's like, dude, I have it written down that on my birthday I start my licensing. That's at 18. So every time we go somewhere, like someone did it this week, I think actually Zach said it from stage. Do you remember when he was like, how many of you growing up wanted to be an insurance agent when you, when you got— no one, bro. My kids do.

That's crazy.

My kids are dying to get in, you know.

Makes sense.

So, you know, if you compare to like all his buddies— my son Braden's 17, right? I sent him $100 yesterday and he was like, it was like he hit the lottery, right? Right. So You got guys coming in at 19, 20, 21, 22, crumble. They're making, you know, $317 a week, right?

Yeah.

They can walk into your office and make a couple grand, a few grand, like walking in the door. I'm assuming they're making that kind of jack, right?

Yeah, yeah. There— and there's a lot of guys like, we're primed for growth. I mean, we have, we have guys in the office, you know, we didn't start growing like crazy till last summer. So a lot of our team has only been here 6 months, uh, except for, you know, Jesse, the guy I was telling about. So there's several of those guys that did you know, $100,000 to $200,000 in those 6 months. And so we have a lot of—

that's what— that's where I'm getting at. It's like, yeah, so a lot of people watching, dude, it's like, as you— as you start to do this— this is me and you talking— as you start to do this, dude, remember what's out there in the space.

True.

Yeah, you know what I mean? And what the norm is. And go like— we can sometimes kind of go like, yeah, he made a million bucks.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's—

which I love.

But sometimes we need to go like, hey, hey, come over here, we're going to help you get filthy rich. And that version, dude, someone make— most people make a couple hundred grand, they're, they're over the moon. Yeah, I love our space where we're like, dude, I want to make that this week, right? Yeah, you know what I mean? And that's— I love being around a lot of people like you and like that. But it's like, as you, you know, I remember my first goal, dude. And again, you've been in sales, you're young, you're a lot younger than me, and you've been in sales Yeah, for your age, a lot more than I was at your age. All right, because mine was zero at your age. Um, you know, dude, to see the kind of money in sales, I wish I went back in time and learned sales early.

Yeah, yeah, even— I mean, I just turned 30. I know I look like I'm like 18. I turned 30. Um, we have guys in our office that are like 19, 20, 21, and I'm like, dude, I wish— like, you know, what you guys are sitting on right now. I wish I had 10 years back because 100% I'd be, you know, oh, it'd be stupid. Yeah, just the kick in the ass, you know. I love John Wetmore for that. So yeah, great, great event.

If you're a struggling insurance agent, or quite frankly an agency manager struggling to grow, and you're looking for some help, let me help you. My name is John Wetmore. I've built an agency of over 6,000 agents across the country. We'll issue over $200 million in paid premium this year. And I have an event coming up in my office, Metro Atlanta, February 27th and 28th. I'll be spending 2 days teaching you everything I've learned in the last decade and helped thousands of agents build their agency and their business. Click on the link below, register. We'll see you there. Hey, good news is you have 17 on me. Yeah, so You'll be all right, bro.

Be good.

Yeah, you will be okay. What are you looking for, dude, in people now? I know we talked recruiting and scaling yesterday, so I'm intrigued to know who— like, when you're looking to identify someone to work with you, what are you looking for?

Yeah, so, yeah, number one, um, is, is no complaining.

Like, that's my favorite rule.

First and foremost is like, don't complain. And then second Whenever I hire, you know, aside from, you know, commission only and, you know, um, you know, it's, it's, you know, eat what you kill, that, that type of thing. Yeah, yeah, it's, hey, are you— Will, are you the type of person that— let's say you, you show up to the office on a Thursday and you make 800 dials and talk to like 2 people. Are you the type of guy or girl that's going to show up the next day ready to rip another 800? Or are you gonna start blaming the system, the leads? Yeah. Maybe blame yourself, which is even worse, like lose confidence. Like we have this, it won't work if you're that type of person. So I'm looking for the people that are willing to, like basically they're signing up to like know, like I'm about to get, you know, my teeth kicked in.

Yeah.

I want that person. Yeah. Rather than the, wow, this sounds great, this sounds easy. 'Cause those people always fail, right? Like, this sounds easy, I'm gonna crush it. Every person that tells me, oh, I'm gonna be your top salesperson, I know in like 2 months you're gonna, you're out, right?

So I don't even like talking to that. After they say that, I'm like, I quit. Can I quit now? Can I be out? I don't wanna work with you.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. How do you go about, 'cause the reality is, and I tell people all this, which I like the way you do the questioning, like, I do something similar in the sense that I go like, hey, if the first week, if you, you know, spend $1,000 and 57 people tell you to fuck off this week, how are you going to handle it? So super similar, right? I like asking the way they— how they're going to handle that, right? Now I've learned you're smart in sales, you ask the right questions, people appease you. They're like, yeah, I'm in, I'm that guy. So now how do you, how do you, how do you dissect like Are they doing what it takes? Who do you pour into more? How do you back— like, how do you handle it now? Like, what are you looking for?

Yeah, and, and we, we've learned the hard way that—

amen—

you don't— if you don't set expectations up front, like, this thing could go a thousand different directions for a guy. So we're super adamant at the beginning, like day one onboarding, we're kind of like traditional. They come to the office, 2 hours of like me just, here's how it works, here's the expectations. Um, so, so the biggest thing is I tell them, I'm like, we will match your energy. So, um, if you're the person that's coming in and, you know, 300 dials a day is our minimum, if you're the person that hits 300 dials every single day, we see you as like just the— you're just, you're just collecting a check, like you're just, you know, clocking in, clocking out, like it's the same concept. So we won't spend extra time and effort with you, as opposed to, you know, a guy like Blaze. He's been with me for like 7 months. Coolest name ever, Blaze. Dude, he did like— he's willing to do like within his first couple weeks, he was doing like $800 to $1,200 every single day while he was going through it. And so I immediately— and I'll tell the whole group, I'm like, hey, shout out to Blaze, he did this amount, he set the record in our office for the most dials in a day. And then they just see that, they just see— I don't have to tell them, they just see that I'm now spending more time. Yeah, I'll answer his calls first. I'll, uh, you know, if he recruits a guy, I'll take them and make sure that they're good versus the guy that's like kind of half-ass in and out. Yeah.

So yeah, yeah, well, most people recruit and they're like, I'll be here no matter what. I got you. Anything you want to do, I'm your guy, right? I made that mistake too, dude. And it's like, they walk all over you, bro.

The cool part now, I think though, because it was me at first and I had Jesse. Jesse was like my— I was selling a lot, but then like, here's Jesse, Crumble Cookie to Hall of Fame. Like, I just sell his story. Um, but now there's about— because there's, there's, I think, uh, in our Slack this morning there was like 71 agents, and probably about 45 of them are in the office today.

That's badass.

And so now it's not just me preaching that message. I have about 8 other leaders in the office that are all speaking the same message. And so there's really no way— like, as soon as there's negativity, that person like feels super uncomfortable being there because there's the majority that are all preaching activity, attitude, all those things. Like, don't complain. It's not— it's never the leads, it's you. Like, we're all preaching the same message, so like everyone's aligned and everybody can move forward. And there's really no room for that, like, you know, those time wasters that I struggled with at the beginning, you know.

Yeah, I was watching a video the other day, a clip of like, uh, the Patriots when they were in the Super Bowl against the Falcons and losing 28-3.

Crazy.

And, uh, it was like they were mic'd up and they were, they were playing the audio of the Patriots in that moment. And dude, they all thought they could win still.

That's crazy.

Yeah, you know what I mean? It was like they're— the way they were speaking, the way they were getting each other excited and motivating each other. And that's how I picture your office. Yeah, everyone feels like they can win.

Yep.

Even when maybe in the moment they might be getting, as people say, my teeth kicked in, or whatever, whatever verbiage we use to be dramatic, you know. But as an overall dude, the level of confidence when you have that many people in an area, in a room doing it, this— that's hard to replicate, bro.

Right?

You know, um, have you— how long have you had the physical office?

Uh, this whole year. So we were fortunate Zach had an office that we kind of you know, Zach took over that one.

That's right.

Yeah, yeah, we took that over after Wiley and his team moved. And then in December, we opened up our— you know, me and Easton opened up a 10,000 square foot office. So we can, we can fit about 2— it'd be tight, but about 200 agents in here.

Um, is that in the warehouse thing? Oh, he called me like— did you not get that one? Is that different?

Warehouse is version 2. We got it. Next step is—

you know what I'm talking about? I think he called me. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, hell yeah.

He— I forgot, it just clicked right now. I'm like, oh, I remember him calling about this thing.

Yep, yep. That's what we've been scheming up. Like, our, our vision is to have like a warehouse compound where like, I, you know, I want to get to 1,000 agents locally, which is a big task, but like I have the vision. Have you ever seen the First Form? You know, you know the brand First Form with Anne Frisella?

Yeah, hell yeah, dude. That's 75 Hard.

Yeah, you ever seen their— of course, yeah, you're big on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, that's like—

that's what you want.

That's the vision. That's the dream.

You get that one room with all the cars loaded up. When you do a podcast, they're all behind you.

Like, yeah, everything. The basketball court, like, the, the dial room, the, you know, little cat. Like, we want the— a compound where people can come in, sell insurance, and it's like a lifestyle. People will want to stay. Like, that's one thing we have here. Like, people want to stay at the office just because now they're friends with their, their colleagues. There's a gym here, there's a, you know, restaurant downstairs. Like, so we're, we're close, but like, next time, you know, a couple years.

I love it. I love the vision. How big is the warehouse space y'all want?

You know, I mean, at least, at least 30,000 square feet.

Yeah, yeah, it's possible, dude. I know people that do it. It's definitely possible. Yeah, um, it's exciting.

I love it.

It's funny watching some people like still try to run their whole agency with everyone at home.

Yeah.

And I don't really understand it fully. And I know you had some limit— limited thoughts on it when we talked, kind of.

Yeah, remotely.

But it's like, you, you understand the power of the office, right? You know, in creating culture. Um, I assume that's helped you see a big uptick in sales.

Yeah. Oh, tremendously. And, and I, I took a bunch of risk like early last year because I had hired people over the first 2 years and they just wouldn't stick, whether it was, you know, the buying leads part or they've never done commission only, uh, the consistency with hours, which like I took directly from you. Like, you know, are you, are you at the office all day dialing or are you dialing all day at the office? Like most people are just at the office all day. Dialing, right?

True, 100%. Or at the office all day not dialing, or not, for most of you watching. Yeah.

Um, and, and, you know, to fix that, I was like, I can sell. More importantly, I can train. And then I have so many old leads, like, let me, let me just help all our new agents. I'll give them the lead so that they can get their feet under them. And so I took a big, you know, risk early last year where, you know, we basically like, like 8 AM script training every day at our office. So it's like clocking in at 8 every single day, and then the standard is 6 PM. And a lot of guys will stay till 7 or 8, but like the standard is 8 to 6. So like your message, like that's like implanted in my brain because your message early on is what, you know, helped me. Like, just pretend Like, we always say like we want to get away from the 9 to 5 insurance, but it's like, dude, we've incorporated the, you know, 96, and it's, it's, you know, whatever that number is, 300% our business last year.

Yeah, that's fire, dude.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah, one of my least favorite, um, things people say is I wish that guy had more of an entrepreneurial mindset, right? And I'm like, nah, dude, I wish he had an employee mindset and would just work all day.

Totally.

Yeah, I mean, I've always— I've always wanted people to think like, you know, a few of us are going to think that way naturally, but I certainly don't wish the everyday agent thought that way.

That's—

I think that's the problem, right? They have that and they're like, yeah, I'm, I'm an entrepreneur, I can stay home, I cannot do anything, I can just wait for it to come to me, right?

You know how like I don't know if you felt the same, but like over the last 10 years, the word entrepreneur has been like kind of like a buzzword. Like 100%, I think Gary V talks about it, like he does, like cool. But now it's— my wife always jokes, like she, uh, she used to watch the— or she still does— The Bachelor, right? And so you know how like, you know, Tom Johnson from you know, Texas, uh, job entrepreneur.

Yeah.

She used to say, oh, he must, he must not have a job.

It's true, it's so true.

I think, I think that, that entrepreneur buzzword, when people say I want to be an entrepreneur, they like what maybe entrepreneurship could give them with like the flexible schedule, but they, they don't really realize like, no, true entrepreneurship— I think, uh, I think Ronnie Salem always says this, Um, he's, he's in our group, you know, under Zach. I think he's always like, I traded a 9-to-5 for a 24/7. So like, entrepreneurs, just so spot on, dude. Like, other than sleeping, I am like, you know, eat, sleep, drink insurance for, you know, it's been that way for the last like 3 years.

So yeah, someone asked me recently like how that— how I make that go away. I'm like, huh? I don't want that to go away, to be clear. I like always— yeah, um, if I shut off, dude, I'd be like, I don't know, I would feel broken.

Yeah, two days of like, like if I take a Saturday and Sunday off, I get super stressed and antsy of like, what the hell am I doing, you know?

I think make people misunderstand it too because I spend time with my family.

Totally.

I don't know how to spend time with my family and never think about my business.

I—

that, to me, it's like, it's like spending time at business and not thinking about my family ever. I think about them while I'm doing this, and I think about this while I'm doing with them. It's weird to me that people can turn one or the other off totally, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't fully follow that, but I watch people do it every day.

Yeah, it's, it's quality over quantity, I think. Um, you know, and making little, little adjustments. Like, like, for example, one takeaway— we just had our annual convention. Um, one takeaway, a couple of the guys that were accepting awards had their kids up there, and I'd never seen that before in past conventions. It was like my fourth one, and I thought that was super cool. And one thing that was said was, you know, I— this business has given me the opportunity to, um, you know, spend, spend time with my family on my terms.

Sure.

And that, that resonated with me. And, you know, I thought of, you know, I have a daughter, you know, she's 6. Um, you know, she is getting to the age where she recognizes that, you know, Daddy's at work, he works a lot, you know, he's gone. She's starting to catch on to that. And so, dude, something as simple as like, I— this morning I took my daughter to school, and I plan to take her to school every day. I miss 30 minutes of my typical work day, but that extra 15, 20, 30 minutes.

Great time.

Well, like, she's gonna remember that stuff, and it gives me 100% time and quality time to focus on her. And she doesn't need 8 hours a day of my time, but she needs a really good, like, 30 minutes to an hour of, like, one-on-one full attention, you know, spending time with that. And that, I think, you know, that'll pay dividends.

It does, but it's on my turn.

I can I don't have to clock in. That's on my terms, which I love.

And they noticed, dude, that with time, you know, when my kids were younger, like, my kids don't even remember me selling. They're like, what? They remember being on the phone a lot. That they remember.

Yeah.

Um, but they don't really remember. They were too young. They didn't really get it. I mean, my older kids certainly do because they were grown, but the 3 little ones don't have really any memory of it. Um, but when I was at Maddox's baseball yesterday Braden, my oldest— Maddox is 13 and plays, he's right now in a travel ball team and his middle school team at the same time, so that he some days he plays both in one day.

Yeah, yeah.

And, uh, so I go and take him to practice and I pull up a little lawn chair thing and put my feet up on the fence. I put it on my story, I'm like, one of my favorite places to be. And Braden, I tell Braden to come down, watch the watch with me. I'm like, hey, come hang out, we'll get some food and we'll watch Maddox practice, whatever. So he comes down and he walks right up to me, he goes— he looks around, he goes, you're the only parent here.

That's sick.

It's like, yep, yep, feet up, chilling, you know what I mean? His, his school games are at 4 o'clock. There's a couple parents there, more— way more moms, of course, and a couple of us insurance guys that have businesses, you know what I mean? It's like, it's funny watching who can show up to everything. Anything and who can't.

Yeah.

And I'm like, dude, I just put his— his schedule just came out, um, yes, day before yesterday for, um, or this, this past weekend for, uh, his school season. First thing, went in, put that on the calendar, and I told my staff, I'm like, you know, no travel around this.

That's—

yeah, I ain't missing. I ain't missing. I mean, I'll travel a lot, but I'm like, you know, Madison's game, I get annoyed if I'm away when he has a game. So it's got to be something like really good.

Yeah.

For me to travel during that. So it'll be mostly not at all. But then it's, you know, that's the beauty of this thing is getting to make choices like that. It's like, yeah, I can, I can, I'll just go 3 o'clock, I'll go to his game, who cares. And some of them away games, you know, I mean, but like, hell, 2 o'clock, I gotta go.

Yeah, going to his game.

So that's, that's when I got into this, I wanted the time and the money, right? You know, and something you can build, dude. 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 get it in your hands now.

And how, uh, because you sacrificed— I mean, you still sacrifice a ton, but like, what was the real— was it 10 years? Like, the real—

no, dude, I've only 10 years been at it. Oh, um, 2015 is when my change happened. So I've been, I've been licensed for 14 years, I've been active for 12, but I've gone after it for for 10.

Okay.

Um, and what you're— the question you're asking for, yeah, from 2015 to 2020, it was pure chaos.

5 years.

5 years. It was pure chaos every day, all day.

Yep.

And then it started weaning, weaning. And I, again, I still had some level of flexibility relative to most people.

True.

Yeah, I could have been like, let me go over here. Do you know what I mean? Like, we had some things going on. Steph had some issues, like she had some health stuff, and it was like, all right, I can kind of put a pause a little bit and, and divert, you know what I mean? But it was go.

Yeah.

Um, so 5 years, dude, head down on the phone every day, calls everywhere, anytime, you know what I mean? Just going at it. And now I still go at it when I go at it, but I have more built-in cushion time than ever before, you know. So I now pack everything in, in the middle of my day. I kind of leave the, the open— the early is like me. I just, I get to do me. Go to the gym, go for a run, chill, get breakfast, you know. I mean, like, do— I got a routine I take care of.

Yeah.

And then like mid, mid-morning till, I don't know, it depends on what I'm doing, 4, 5, 6 o'clock. I get after it. Like today, you were my first call today. We start at 11:30. Yeah, I won't— I'm back to back non-stop on the phone, which is not that crazy if you're building this early, right? Till 5 today, right? So then if I don't take a breath, I'll like take a swig of water in between this, I'll throw some food in my mouth in 3 minutes, but then after that, then I have nothing again. Yeah, you know what I mean? And it doesn't all— but then I travel tomorrow for 2 days, so I'll be gone, you know what I mean? And so it's like, but then I don't have as many booked appointments because I'm traveling, so I get to map it quite differently than I used to, bro.

Right.

You know, and I love that piece.

Yeah. And it's like, when you put in that perspective, because I think like we lose sight in that you know, in the trenches. Like, like, dude, my first year, there were times— this was old travel trips, and you talked a little bit about yesterday on our call, but like, um, you know, Easton gave me the Omaha, Nebraska territory, was like, here's something you're taking within my first month. So I spent— dude, there were times my first year that I was— and I would drive to Omaha because I wanted to have my car, 7 hours there were times that I would drive out there for a travel trip and leads would hit my card and make my bank account go negative. Like, I think the worst it ever got, I was like— because all my credit cards were maxed out and I had my, you know, debit card, and I went negative like $1,000.

There were several times when that happened driving to the area, driving to the area.

Now I have more leads, so I'm like, okay, this is stressful. Hopefully I can get gas on the way there. But, um, you know, we'll just sell, you know, $10-15K and then come back and be good. And then I'd do that, you know, 2 weeks from that. And then the next— like, like, dude, there were, there were so many times where, like, you're in that, you're like, dude, this is the worst thing I've ever done, this is horrible. Versus, like, what you just said was, dude, it's gonna suck for— and don't get me wrong, you're gonna have wins along the way, but generally speaking, it's going to be a grind and probably suck for 5 years, but at the end of that 5 years, your life can completely change. That's the, like, that's like the frame, like, we try to preach to our guy. Like, it's not like 5—

I'd even— yeah, I'd even say it didn't suck for 5 years. It probably only sucked for, like, under a year. Yeah, because after that, dude, I was living good. That makes sense. So I was still as busy It was still as chaotic, right? But bro, I was knocking out 50 G's a month, 40, 50, 60 G's a month, right? I'm like, all right, did you know money don't buy happiness? Yeah, there's a lot of it. Like, it don't make the whole world perfect, right? It doesn't eliminate, but I'm a lot happier when I can fly in first class and I can get a driver to the airport versus have to figure it out myself. I'm a lot happier when I can bring my team with me than when I can't. I'm a lot happier in a Four Seasons than I am a Red Roof Inn.

Yep.

You know what I mean? And so yes, it was busy and it was chaotic, but dude, I didn't have to eat like warmed up hot dogs anymore for dinner.

Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah.

So it was amazing, right? Trips around the world, bro, with all my buddies that were doing it like me. Yeah, that was dope to be a part of.

Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying?

So it was like it only sucked when I was a bum.

Yeah.

And then there was a little stage of suck when I realized I could do it, but I can only do it so fast, so much every day. Like, I see it, it's there, I see it coming, but I can't quite have it yet, right? That phase was a little— and you're kind of at that stage on the building side. Yeah, you know what I mean? Where it's like, ah, but you're so close, you see it. Coming. You just can't have— it ain't quite there yet, correct?

Yeah, yeah, no, I— but, but if people know that it's not gonna be— like, I guess where I'm getting at is, yeah, I get it, it has to be done, it has to be fixed in like 5 months. I'm like, dude, let's just say it took 5 years. Like, my dad is in his— he's still like— my dad's gonna work till he's probably dead. He's, he's, you know, superintendent, construction. Like he doesn't, you know, hammer stuff, put things up, but like, dude, he's, he's working like a laborious job and he'll probably be there for the rest of his life.

Oh, and a mentally exhausting one.

Yeah, exactly, bro.

Yeah.

So, so even if it took— like I've always said, even if I—

even if it did take— and yeah, yeah, for a lot of people it does, right? So I know people, and you probably know them at this point, that have been in for 5 years and it still does suck.

Correct. Yep.

Now why is that? Why do you think?

Purely because, well, they suck. Maybe their skill is good, but their work ethic sucks. Like, it always goes back to the, you know, are you at the office all day not dialing, you know, thinking you're dialing, being productive? You know, I, I, I see them at convention all the time. I'm like, I can point them out. I'm like, that guy pretends he works. That girl probably sells 2 policies a year, like, but they're pretend— like, they're, they're entrepreneurs, but they're not 12 hours a day, 6 days a week grinding for their build phase. And then eventually they'll get out of that. So you see all this?

Yeah. And that's the consistency in everyone we have on, dude, is no one's— no one's told me how to get out of the work, right? Not one person ever. Has been like, here's how you do it. Even the people that are like, work smarter, not harder, they ain't told me how to get it started. Yeah, without working hard.

That's right.

Yeah, I mean, I'm all about working a little smarter down the road, but I like both. I work smart and hard now, you know. Um, and I think far too many people try to skip the build-up and skip the learning phase and skip where you, you know, build that— like, what do you call it? What is it on your hand? When I'm at the gym, I get the, like, calluses on my hands. Yeah, right. Mark used to always talk about like getting the calluses on your insides to like be able to deal with all the stuff. Yeah, that's right. Um, I dig it, dude. What, um, what, what advice can you give on like building a, building a culture? What have you learned?

How, I guess, um, like to, to encompass it all, it's like set the standard and then don't deviate from it. So, um, I like that. That would be part 1, is set the standard. Meaning, like, like, people used to ask me when I do interviews, like, hey, so I know it's $10.99, like, what are the hours? And I used to be like, well, we got some people that, you know, get in around whatever you want, as long as you're working the 40 hours, you know, throughout the week. Like, that's all that matters. And they would take that literally and, you know, show up at 10, at 4, and then they have to go take their dog to the dentist or something crazy. And then the next day, show up at 11, leave at 2 because they're like, oh, Grandma just flew in, I wasn't expecting her to fly in today, I gotta go pick her up. Like, craziest excuses. So now my response when they ask, you know, what are the hours, I say 8 to 6, Saturdays are recommended. 8 to 6, Monday through Friday, Saturdays are definitely recommended.

Yeah.

And now they just— that's the standard, that's what they do. And then they come to the office, they see everybody else is doing the same thing they don't want to be the weird one that's like, hey, it's, uh, 4:30, I better, I better go. And like, there's, there's guys in our office that will give that person— like, they will announce it to every— like, yeah, attention, so-and-so is about to leave the office. And everybody's just like, dude, what are you doing? Like, even today, I'll, um, let me pull up— there was a— right before this call, our Slack was blowing up, and it's because one of my guys, he came from the car business, his name is Nick, He, um, animal. He's— he put up like— he did like 20 his first month, and then he's on track. I think in January he'll do like over 40, and he's been here for 3, 3 months. Um, and just a workhorse. He just said, um— I'll leave their name— well, we all just use our first names. He said in Slack, all right everybody, Chris and Ian have given up their car keys until 7 PM today. The only way they get their car keys is if they have $700 or 2 deals. Anyone else want to join? And then like 12 other people are like, you know, Lane, we're down. Wesley, why not? Julie, I'm in. Mike, I'm in. You know, like, you know, 10 or so people are like, yep, sign me up. Like, here's my key. Badass. Yeah, so, so that— I don't know what your original question was, but like, that's like the— I guess, yeah, that's the culture.

Yeah, right.

So when you set the standard when you build, and everybody— like, now you have people that buy in that standard, which it's only the standard because, like, of what you talk about. Like, that is the key to success. Like, it's not— like, it's literally just work from 8 to 6, 9 to 7. Like, that is the secret, right? Yeah. And so now, like, that's the standard. Like, this is all credit to you, to be honest, because that's what changed the game for me. Like, my first summer, like, I was I was dialing, I was half-assing it.

I'd—

I would drive to— some of my bad months were self-inflicted because I'd go on these travel trips and like not book 30 appointments. I would book like 8 and be like, no, I'll figure it out.

Yeah, terrible.

But it was all self-inflicted. So now the standard is like, this is the standard, we're good to go. And then the, the two-part— the second part to that is you bring people in, which is why I love having an office, give them a system and a structure within those hours. So for us, it's 8 AM script training every day, 1 o'clock sales training every day. And people are like, 2 hours a day? I'm like, dude, we have some of the, the best trained reps, the fastest trained reps. In fact, we even— Easton brought it up— we were, uh, top 3 in the company last year for highest conversion rate, meaning All of our agents who start with us, we're number 3 in the company of getting the most agents who are licensed paid.

Paid. Yeah, I saw that.

And so that's, that's purely because of the standard. And then it's also because, you know, we're— you're, you're trained for 2 hours every single day. Like, I didn't have that when I started.

Yeah.

So it's really, really hard with that system for people to fail. And so I think those two things, the standards and then the system I love it, dude.

It's badass. It's good shit. Um, so I guess give them anything that you think we should have covered that I didn't, that you want to share.

I pretty much covered every— like, someone could listen to this and like, this gives away everything, but I think— oh, I guess, I guess it can't go you know, unnoticed. Like, the third part to success is you have to have a mentor. Um, and I'm not talking about like— I kind of hate the word mentor because it's like used so—

it is, it's like entrepreneur. Yeah, entrepreneur gets a mentor.

It's a— exactly.

But like, I get—

yeah, when I like coming from sales, I was like, I saw how guys at the solar company that worked for who were close to like the VPs regionals just seem to do better. Like, like, business is, is really about who you know. And like, when I, when I started here, I was very intentional about who I wanted to work with. And seeing that Easton did $940,000 on his personal pen and had a million-dollar agency— Zach in the field, what was his best year, like $800,000-something?

Yeah, yeah.

So $800,000-something, youngest at the time Integrity partner. Like, I basically found, you know, And then I, I learned that you were Zach's upline, so I was like, man, we are in— I'm in like, I'm on like the perfect team. So that would be the third piece is like, go find a person that's actually done what you've done and like just ask them how much have you sold. If it's— I'd say if it's less than, I don't know if you'd agree, less than $300 grand in a year, like their best year, they're probably still learning or they just suck, probably can't teach you much at all. Right. So $300 grand or above, um, and then literally just drop the ego, which I had a little ego coming from sales. Drop the ego and just do everything. Like, even if you think it's stupid, like triple dialing. For me, I was so reluctant for like 6 months to triple dial. Um, as soon as I started listening to your training, and then Easton was like— I actually never told Easton that I didn't triple dial. He always thought I did. Um, but as soon as, as soon as you explained to me that like your goal on the phones is not to set an appointment. Your goal is to get them on the phones. That just like, yeah, I'm like, okay, so that's why we tripled out, is just to get them on the phone. So all those little things, like, you know, first find a mentor, find a, find a leader that has done what you want to do at the highest level. And if you're with someone, you know, who sucks, like, dude, take care of your family and go find someone else that doesn't suck. Right? We're, we're open. Um, the second thing is when you do start to build, set the structure and then put the systems in place. Those, I would say those are the three, the three keys for—

I love it, dude.

I love it.

I couldn't agree more, bro. I appreciate your time, dude. Thanks for sharing. And, uh, uh, we look forward to— get me, get me your guy. I'd love to see him on. And, uh, do you want to share any of your stuff with them, like social or any? I don't think you're on a ton, but You can if you want to. We can put it in links and stuff like that too.

Yeah, that's, that's one of my, uh, yeah, so Instagram is probably the best place. @tyjeffreycok. That's T-Y, Jeffrey like Michael Jeffrey Jordan, J-E-F-F-R-E-Y, Cook, C-O-O-K. Um, I'm pushing it. I'm trying to do what you've done and go harder on social media and YouTube. So, but yeah, they can find me there.

That was a little poke for you, just a little.

There we go.

You want to hear something useless? You want to hear some useless information, something that's fun? Yeah, so I have the same middle name.

Oh, do you?

But yeah, but we— I don't know why my family is like broken and we spell it J-E-F-F-E-R-Y.

Jeffrey. Yeah, yeah.

So someone's always like, I think your grandma messed up, and we just stuck with it. I think she literally— the rumor is she wrote it, she spelled it wrong, and they just— well, oh my God, because my dad's same middle name. Yeah, so she named him And then I just got the, the redo of the wrong spelling, so I'm Jafuri.

It's good, man.

Yeah, so anyway, dude, appreciate your time. Uh, thanks for sharing. If you need anything from us, reach out. All his contact info will be below. And, uh, for you, dude, if you need anything, just hit me up, bro.

Sounds good. Appreciate you.

All right, my dude, later. Hey, thanks for watching the latest episode. I appreciate you. If you will do me a favor, certainly like this video channel, subscribe to it. And if you wouldn't mind, whatever podcast network you listen to these on, if you wouldn't mind going and leaving a review, that will help me, uh, greatly get the word out to more and more people. Appreciate you.