What I Learned From 250,000 Sales Phone Calls ft. JY The Insurance Guy | Ep50

If you want to grow up and be like John Wetmore, you need to do everything John Wetmore tells you to do and don't try to change any of it. If John Wetmore was making chocolate chip cookies, he has proven that his chocolate chip cookie recipe is delicious. Jonathan Young also has a chocolate chip cookie recipe. But even if you take my sugar and your flour and my baking soda and your baking powder, you do it at my temperature but your time, those cookies are going to come out tasting like shit. What is up?

Welcome back, John Wetmore, my dude.

JY the Insurance Guy, back for your second time. I don't think we are, dude. I don't think I've had two on yet. I don't think so, dude. You might have been the first to crack that.

Glad to be here. Appreciate you having me.

I appreciate you, dude. What's been new, bro?

Uh, not a whole lot other than building, working, same old stuff, dude. Just, uh taking the advice that, uh, that you gave me last time, building out new systems, new processes, keeping it stupid, keeping it stupid simple. Um, but then just going out and, you know, now I've really just taken more active, uh, stance on recruiting and not requiring my upline to do it for me or anything like that. And just kind of like, okay, like, this is something that I'm gonna do. Like, the referral systems are, are pretty well built, and you're gonna write your business every year. Um, and so like, you need to start recruiting. And so that's what we've been doing. And, um, you, you kind of know how it goes. I don't know what y'all's turnaround time on recruits are, but you know, you got to introduce them to the opportunity, you got to get them licensed, you got to go kind of through onboarding a little bit, and, uh, get them in the race after that. And for me, that's about 2 or 3 week turnaround time total from like licensing and all that. Um, so I obviously definitely down for, um, if you want to get into that kind of stuff, we definitely can. Of course, of course, I don't mind being coached on these calls either, but I definitely want to add some value to your audience as well. Talk about, you know, I think we talked more about, you know, my first year and kind of how I got into the business and stuff like that last time, but Um, I've got more insights as far as what new agents should be doing. Um, you know, what your first few years looks like, how that evolves, and then maybe what it should look like thereon after as well.

You know what's crazy for someone who don't have— which is— hey, yeah, yeah, that's true.

I don't know if you know that, uh, that movie or not. I watch, I watch kids movies all the time. I don't watch real movies anymore. So anybody that like has Little kids, they'll know that that was a Frozen, right?

Get that one. Yeah, I should know that. I'm asking Amanda. Amanda probably will know that one. Yeah, I've seen it, but I'm so bad at remembering details of movies, and I, I have a bad reputation of falling asleep during them.

Whenever it's all you watch, like, it just gets ingrained, you know. I try to watch like an adult movie nowadays, and I will just turn it off and turn on, you know, Frozen or Lion King.

My dude, I'm a Toy Story kind of guy.

Yeah, Cars.

Yes, some of that stuff.

Yeah, we're in that. My youngest is 2, so we're in Cars and Toy Story and all that kind of stuff.

I'm a Cars fan. I like those ones, you know, some of the newer stuff.

Oh, you asked what was crazy. Is that—

hey, is that for someone who doesn't have much going on? Sounds like you got a lot going on.

I expect a lot of myself, John Wetmore. That's really it. So like, to me it feels normal, uh, to do that kind of stuff. Whenever I talk to, you know, other people, they seem that it's not normal, but I just expect a lot of me.

You know what's funny, dude, is I was, um, I just— why I told you we had to push this back, it auto books. And I have my last— I do this thing, I go to the stretch lab where they like stretch.

Oh yeah.

You know, and it ended at 11:20, and so it didn't pass. So I'm like, hey, I need a few more times. But we were talking there, um, I do a lot of like crazy workout type stuff.

You crossfit, but I do a lot of like crazy long hikes and yeah, I've been keeping up with you crossfit every day and all that kind of stuff too.

Yeah, so she's asking questions about— I have this event coming up that's like, uh, 8 hours long. And you run, you go in a 4-mile loop for 8 hours and get as far as you can. Yeah, that's, that's the goal. And, uh, she was talking about it and a lot of people, like, when they see the things I do, I like did this treadmill workout. I was on the incline for 15 with a 20-pound vest for 2 and a half hours Friday night. And Saturday I did an 18-mile hike around Kennesaw Mountain, pretty, a couple thousand feet terrain, whatever, 18 miles. And we're talking about it and she's like, talking to me like I'm crazy, right? Like, she sees that people who work out in there because they stretch people, but in general she's like, you're a little— like, you're a little nuts. And I'm like, I agree. But you know what's funny? When I get in those environments where I do these like the 8-hour, 4-mile thing— and I was talking about this other event I was watching on a documentary that it's like a 100-mile thing— so when I get around people that do these like Uh, harder, long endurance events that take a lot of time prep. You got to train your body, you got to train the way you eat. Like, it's a lot of work goes into it. When I get in those environments, dude, I'm one of the, like, least crazy, calm— like, some of the things that people pull off in life is absolutely bananas, what they do with their body and physically. And it feels very similar to business because like you and I, I don't feel like I'm doing that much, right? Because I get around people that think a lot bigger than I do. Yeah, bigger dreams and goals and are doing bigger things. So in the, in the ponds we play in, dude, like, there are people doing bananas stuff big time. And so it's a neat perspective to see, like, some of us don't feel like we're doing that much, but some of y'all look at us like we're absolutely crazy. How do you figure out that dynamic as you're growing now? Because not everybody wants what you want. You're trying to help them grow, you know what I mean? That weird, yeah, like dynamic where it's like you're trying to push people to what you think is normal and they're like, bro, you're absolutely crazy. I ain't— right? When I talk about doing an 18-mile hike, people are like, what? Like, oh no, that was just like a kind of warm-up, right? And you know what I mean? It was just a Sunday morning.

What's funny is, of all people, you think that the stretch lady would get it. Okay, because, because it's like, okay, my, my muscles and ligaments and stuff like that, like, they're constricted and I need to stretch them. Yeah, I need to stretch them to make myself more flexible and make myself be able to do things that I don't normally do and not hurt. And so, like, it's, it's literally the exact same thing. It's like you and I, we are stretching ourselves and pushing ourselves in certain areas so that whenever things get crazy in life, it feels normal and we're more flexible and we can maneuver better. It's the same thing.

Yeah. And she gets it. But of all the people that come to her, I'm one of the crazy ones. Yeah.

Does that make sense?

And I'm like, oh no, come— when I do these, I'm in last place, right? Like, I'm not, I'm not finishing first, right? The guy who's fit, he's home chilling, resting on his couch before I'm anywhere near the end. You know what I mean? I'm like, dude, I'm just trying to keep up. Yeah, I'm not— I don't feel like I'm doing anything that great. And sometimes people ask me about that on the— and I'm not unaware, right, either, that it's more than most. Same in the sales, in the insurance side. I'm not unaware we've done some cool stuff. Sure. But I don't ever forget, bro, I am a rounding error to someone, right? Still, right? You know, and it's like, I don't know, man. So I, I remember at that early stage where you're at, kind of trying to get people to see vision and do big things, it was a struggle for me. Going like, why doesn't everyone want to be quote-unquote crazy, right? You know, and I know your personality.

I know you woke me up a little bit, uh, at the road show in San Antonio whenever you were questioning old boy, uh, sitting on the opposite side of me, um, about, you know, like you're trying to coach people up to your level or like to what you want, you know, and like what you want and what they want are can two like two completely different things because I promise you and he pointed to the lady in front, sitting in front of him, because her goal was just to make $100,000 and his goal was to make something crazy like a million dollars a month or something like that. Yeah. And it's like, y'all's whys and y'all's goals are two completely different things. And so you woke me up a little bit whenever you're like, dang, I actually need to pay more attention to what it is that these people want and help them get that. But also challenge them to stretch a little bit further. Like, do they get the David Goggins thing where it's like, I'm gonna trick myself into just going 10% further, and then next time push to go 10% further, you know? Because most people are only operating at 40%, as to what, you know, Goggins says.

Yeah, I love it, dude. So give them, give them just a little bit of like— and you don't have to do a whole story and intro, you know what I mean? But some people, this will be the first time, so give them kind of a little perspective, dude, about kind of where we were at last time we spoke and where you're at now. Just brief, dude.

Yeah, briefly.

Just— we didn't even talk about what the hell you sell yet. Not that it matters because this is all relevant, but give them a little—

well, I'm JY the Insurance Guy. I help self-employed and small business owners get the best possible health coverage at the lowest possible dollar per month, as far as that goes. Uh, and you should be able to introduce yourself like that, by the way. You should be able to tell somebody what you do like that, okay? Um, there's two ways to do it. You can do it the direct way like I just did Or you can do it, uh, in a conversational way where I'm going to do the How to Win Friends and Influence People 101, where if I want John Wetmore to become interested in me, I first need to become interested in John Wetmore. I need to ask John Wetmore about him, about his family, about his kids, about his son playing golf, about what he likes to do. Because for the last 8 or so minutes, John, we've been talking about how You like to go on hikes, you like to work out, you like to go to the stretch lab, you like to do all this stuff. And eventually your internal dialogue is going to go, oh shit, I've been talking about myself a lot. I need to ask Jonathan a question about him, which is what you did, right? So psychologically, that's what everybody does. And then I give myself an opportunity to go, well, hey, this is what I do. You know, I think so many people miss that. I just talked to one of my agents this morning about that because he pitched somebody right in front of me whenever we were at like a producer's lunch the other day, and he was like, how was that? And I kind of marinated on it for a few days because, you know, at first I was just like, you know, okay, cool. Then I marinated on it for a few days, and I told him this morning like, hey, you should have asked more about him, not geared your questions to get the answer that he wanted from you. You know, I know I kind of went into coaching mode there for a second, but like, get effing paid. Get effing paid. Get effing paid. Get effing paid.

What up, guys? If you guys are looking to get to a new level in your career, you may have seen that we've been running some workshops in my office in Atlanta. I have them every quarter now. The last one sold out fully. It was a massive success. A couple different levels you can attend. Just a general ticket, get you in the door, listen to 2 days of training, interactive workshop style. We really really dive into what you got going on and how to get to new levels. If you're looking to be in a new crowd, higher level up, um, I have a private mastermind. Last one was at my house. It was insane, um, all the value that everybody added to each other, and we had a good time.

And, uh, I heard it was way underpriced relative to what people got out of it. You can check out some of the testimonials here, I'm sure.

But if you'd like to attend, click the link below. I do them every quarter. The date will be around here somewhere.

Look forward to seeing you there. If you are in the insurance industry and you're looking looking to scale and grow your business, I highly encourage you to check John Wetmore out. Probably honestly made the cost of the event back in like the first 2 hours of being here. If you want to win and you want to grow, I'd get around John as much as you can.

John Wetmore is a beast.

So much value in everything that I've learned here.

Growing, about building, delegating. He's talking about systems and automating right now. It is worth the price of admission. Make sure you get to the next one. Anyways, I help self-employed people with their health insurance. That's what I do now. How I got here was, uh, a long story. You can go back and listen to the other podcast if you want the whole story, but I've never been to college, graduated from a little bitty small town, went into the pipeline industry for 6-8 months, uh, after that worked at Goodyear selling tires. Was terrible, had a terrible attitude. Uh, didn't have money to pay for anything. I ate $2 sides of fried rice for dinner every single night. Um, got into, got into life insurance for 2 years, but was more concerned with partying and getting drunk and working out every day for, you know, for other reasons, not just for general health or mental toughness or anything like that. And then, uh, you know what I'm talking about. And then, um, yeah, because it's like you work out so you look good while you're partying, which is stupid, you know what I mean? Stupid whenever you think about it. And then get into car sales, try to leave car sales, come back to car sales, and then ended up here. I'm a dad, I'm only 30 years old. I had my first My wife and I had our first kid at 21 or 22. It's 21. And then we had one every 2 years after that until we had 4 kids. So, uh, now our youngest is, uh, is 2 years old, and that's why I gave you some corny, uh, Frozen Disney reference earlier.

I'm sorry I missed it. I'm gonna go tell Amanda and she's gonna be like, you dummy.

Amanda will get it.

She will. 100%.

She's cool. She's got the young, the young twins, you know.

Yeah.

Um, I was talking to her at the road show, and, and that's how we're, we're back on here talking to you again.

So does not surprise me.

Yeah, so, um, but yeah, that's, that's kind of how we got up to this point where I got into the insurance business again. Total God thing, because I did not want to be in the insurance business again. I'd already flunked out of it. I'd already convinced myself that I was not worthy of the insurance business. I couldn't make any money. The day I woke up to go quit my job at the car dealership that I worked at after I felt called and pushed to join the insurance business again, uh, my bank account was negative $700 the day I went to go quit. I had to take out a loan to get back in the positive because I have a wife that did not work. She still doesn't work. Uh, well, she does, but she doesn't have to. She works 2 days a week at our First Baptist Church preschool because she wants to, you know. And, uh, you know, so, so there's that. Um, I had 2 cars, 2 kids at that time, and so like, that, that was scary. Um, 2 weeks later I made my first check, was $1,800. The following week after that I made $5,300 in a week, and I cried in front of everybody. Um, I went on that year, completely reinvented myself after having 2 back-to-back weeks where I didn't sell any policies at all. Reinvented myself after— well, first off, some dude came up to me and said, you're done, buddy, you're not going to sell any more policies, open enrollment's over. That lit a fire under my ass, and I've been crushing that dude for 6 and a half years.

I love it.

Um, and then on top of that, my wife came to me in that same— possibly that same day and said, you know, hey, you've made good money the last 2 months because it's now my 3rd month in the business. Yeah, but, but you made $2,800 this month, and that, that ain't cutting it, you know. That ain't cutting it. So like, maybe you need to go back to the car business where, you know, you can make it. And so I was like, babe, I'm not going back to the car business. I completely reinvented myself, completely redid my processes, completely redid how I Did my day-to-day activities, started making 300 dials before lunch, started making all sorts of different referral partner calls, building a brand on social media, doing all sorts of crazy things. I've added it up and I did about 250,000, uh, phone calls, outbound phone calls from a CRM, just in the first 3 years I was in the business.

Damn.

Okay, okay. And what that is, is, is 300 to 500 phone calls per day, 6 days a week, because I would do it Monday through Friday without fail, and then I would work half a day Saturday, half a day Sunday. While I was making those phone calls, I was sending out messages on Facebook introducing myself, not cold pitching everybody, but introducing myself as a, as an expert and a resource that if any of their friends knew of anybody I would love the opportunity to help. I would post informational videos. The problem with most agents, okay, and I have some notes here, but, uh, this is not a part of them, but problem with most agents is they get in this— they think that as soon as they get their license that people are going to start calling them. Okay, the way that it works, you know that, that that's not the way that it works too, right? But if you go to their social medias, the ones that are actually you know, smart enough, and I'll commend them for, for at least promoting themselves on social media, right? But what are they doing? They're just saying, gimme, gimme, gimme. That's all they're doing. They're not giving, giving, giving. They need to add value.

Call me if you need insurance, right? I'm the insurance guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hit me up if you need health insurance. Like that's ever sold a policy before. Instead, you need to put out informational content. How about you actually take the time to become an expert in it? Is in it what it is that you do, right? And then you can put out informational stuff because the stuff that you're— that our people are getting trained on, okay, what do you think? Like, they know at least 90% more, or like, they know way more than like 90% of the population about health insurance, or in your case, you know, life insurance or whatever else it is that you guys are selling.

Yep. Right. Yep.

And so it's like, you don't think that if you put out informational content that you're gonna teach somebody something? Maybe if you're not directly teaching them something, couldn't it at least make it to where if they have a question down the road, they see you as an authority figure because you have confirmed, or they have confirmed, that you know what they already know? It's not like just because they know the information they can sell it to themselves. Yeah, you know, they've got to hit you up. And so that's that personal brand thing. And it's like, you don't have to come up with some tagline or name like JY the Insurance Guy or anything like that, but like, your name is a brand. John Wetmore is a brand. But the difference between Joe Blow that just started last week and John Wetmore is nobody knows who Joe Blow is in the insurance business yet. And so what he's got to do is he's got to go out and call, in my opinion, 300 to 500 people a day and let them know who Joe Blow is, you know.

So it's true. Do you ever listen to, uh, that dude Ryan Serhant?

Is that just the real estate guy?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna send you something. Remind me, text me after. Um, he has a lot of— like, he thinks very similar. And I like the way he articulates it and the way he references his business and the way he's grown it and things like that. He's a, he's a big reps guy. I mean, most are, sure, but you see those guys that are heavily focused on, on the sales side or knowing everything before they get started and think, you know what I mean? It's interesting to listen to the way he teaches. Yeah, reps, um, and branding. And I, I can't even begin to articulate it the way he did, so I'm like, I just listened to it. Sure. Yeah, but I'm gonna send it to you. Yeah, it reminded me a lot of what he said, the way you just worded all that.

100%. You know, so I think about 3 biggest mistakes that new agents make, and you're gonna love number 1, is they spend way too much time learning instead of taking action. Yeah, learning is like, you're gonna learn from making mistakes.. And the quicker you make those mistakes, the quicker you get to learn. It's just like riding a bike. It's just like learning how to walk, just like learning how to swing a baseball bat or swing a golf club or anything it is that is worth doing.

Sure.

You're gonna fall down and bust your, your ass how many times before you actually know how to do it?

You know, you're, you ever see those guys that like, they, they think they're doing this piece right and they're messing it up? You mean like maybe, yeah, like maybe they're doing some reps but they don't— what you just said, learn from the mistake. They just keep making the same ones over and over again, right?

Little, uh, insanity action, doing the same thing over and over.

How do you, how do you identify that? How do you not fall into that? You know, because this can be a lonely deal, dude. It's like, I sit at home, make $300 to $500 a day, cool.

That does—

that's not working for some people.

I think we're really messing up too. Yeah, I think what it boils down to for me, and something that I've been really preaching hard on, um, lately is if, if you want to grow up and be like John Wetmore, you need to do everything John Wetmore tells you to do and don't try to change any of it. Because John Wetmore, if John Wetmore was making, uh, chocolate chip cookies, okay, he has proven that his chocolate chip cookie recipe is delicious. Jonathan Young also has a chocolate chip cookie recipe, okay? And you could go on and on and on with the names, right? But even if you take my recipe and your recipe for chocolate chip cookies and you take my sugar and your flour and my baking soda and your baking powder, and then you do it at my temperature but your time, those cookies are going to come out tasting like shit, bro.

Of all the people talking, I've never heard it explained like that.

That's it. Your cookies are going to come out tasting like shit. And that's why you find the person— it was, uh, was his name Jalen? Jalen Talley. Yeah, yeah. From San Antonio. Nice. From— not from San Antonio, but from San Antonio Road Show. He said, you know, find somebody, find it is the person that you want to be like and copy everything that they do. Don't you dare try to do it any different than the way that they do it, because if you want your cookies to taste like theirs, you need to copy their recipe line for line. Don't steal a little bit of mine and a little bit of yours. You don't do that. Just pick a recipe because they both taste good.

Especially early, dude. Like, holy moly. I see a lot of people do that, that like just perusing YouTube for the help. People watching this, they're like, who the hell are these two idiots?

Hey, you're gonna have to break that part up. That— you're gonna have to clip that part up.

That was the key part.

The cookie part. Yeah.

Have you ever used that before?

No, I've never done that part.

Yeah. Okay. Have you said it that way before though?

Oh yeah, all the time.

Okay. I didn't know if that was a new one that hit.

No, I've got, you know, the first time you did it, I've got an agent sitting right here that's like, you know, shaking his head like, yeah, he says that shit all the time.

They can say your stuff now.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

We'll get it. I'll get Reese to chop it up and send it to you.

Appreciate that.

We'll tag you.

But yeah, new agents, they spend way too much time learning instead of taking action. I mean, really, that's, that's a big deal, you know. Go copy the person, go find the person, and then copy everything they do, and then do it at a high level so that you can mess up and mess up and mess up. And it's like, uh, something that I think about is like, okay, amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they can't get it wrong. Type thing, you know. So it's not just, uh, make 300 to 500 calls. It's a whenever you go home, say it to your wife and ask her how she would react to what you're saying. Roleplay with her, you know, a phone call. Okay, okay.

I'm gonna clip that one too, Wes.

Um, like roleplay with your, your colleagues. Like, you should be recording yourself 100%. See if you would buy from you, you know. But like, you need to take action on that kind of stuff, because if you're sitting down and writing the perfect script and like do all this stuff, and then you're not going like, okay, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna take massive action and try to make a sale today, and then every time I make a mistake or I make a wrong step, I'm gonna mark that down, and then whenever I go home, I'm gonna practice on that and practice on that and practice on that. So that whenever I come back tomorrow, I've fixed that mistake. And now whenever I make my $300 to $500, I've fixed that. But now maybe I can identify a different area.

Yeah.

You know what I hate about whenever I say to make $300 to $500 a day? People go, well, where do you buy your leads? It doesn't matter where you buy your leads. Just buy some leads and call them. Like, it doesn't matter. There's so many lead sources out there. Like, just go buy some. Like you're overthinking it.

Correct. That's the easy part. Getting people to call is the easy part. Yeah, right. Getting the magic lead for 8 cents that you're gonna close everyone, that's, that ain't how— that's not what we're saying.

It's fairy tale.

That's very cool. Something out is easy to find, right?

That's fairy tale land. Yeah, but, and everybody sells leads. So many places sell leads, it doesn't matter, you know. It really doesn't.

Um, yeah, don't figure that out. Copy, like you said, copy someone. Someone has a recipe on that too.

100%.

Get someone that it's working for and copy that. Don't go on Google and try to guess.

No, but I would— exactly. Yeah, buy leads from the— where the, the guy that you're trying to be like buys leads from, you know. Where does he say buy leads, or she say buy leads? Buy from there, you know. Like, don't overthink it.

You learn that, that as people do this, man, they go, that all sounds good. But then they, they, I see a lot of people get stuck at not wanting the feeling of like they're doing something wrong. So they try to find all the other things to tweak. Yeah, I'm like, you doing something wrong is the actual key to doing good at this thing.

Correct.

You just have to be willing to go, I think I'm doing something wrong. Here's what I'm doing. Can you help? Right. I mean, it's like, figure it out.

You'll never be able to figure out how to do it right until you know how like how to do it wrong. Correct. You know, that's the truth. And the only way to figure out how to do— like, only way to figure out how to know what doesn't work is trial and error. Try stuff. I mean, that's like, that's like science, you know? That's like scientific. It's trial and error.

Yeah.

So that's kind of crazy.

But, um, what's your next one?

My next one that a bunch of new agents do is they, they get in like these little groups, okay, and they'll gravitate to the underperformers and the average people instead of focusing on the people that are doing it exceptionally well. Because they think that the person that does it exceptionally, exceptionally well, they think that maybe somehow, some way, they got different leads, or somehow, some way, they you know, have somebody that's referring them business, or they, they will come up with excuses as to why they're not them. But in reality, 99% of the time— I'm not saying that there's not the 1% unicorns out there that come in and just kill it because they do have a good network, or they do have, you know, mom and dad's Rolodex or whatever it is, and, you know, get access to all their contacts. I'm not saying that that doesn't exist, but 99 times out of 100 It's just that they're actually doing the stuff that you and I are talking about. And the person that is underperforming and then, then gravitating to all the other underperformers, and then they just start wallowing in their sorrows, start trash talking that person, start trash talking the leads, start trash talking the process, the product, the everything else. Then they get in this negative feedback loop and then wonder why they're losing. Well, if you're speaking nothing but negativity over your life, negativity over the leads, negativity over the product, you're gonna get more negativity. It's the yellow car theory. You focus on a yellow car long enough, eventually you drive around, you see some yellow cars.

So I think it's that, like, I'm— I don't believe that people don't know this from like a very objective common sense level, you know. I think people's emotions get in the way. And sometimes I wonder, dude, is it like, do people just want to be around others like that so they feel validated in their thoughts and not be challenged? Like, sometimes I think it's on purpose, like a choice, right? And what it is, I just want to be here to feel good about the way I feel currently. Yeah, because I know if I go to JY or John, they're going to stretch me, they're going to tell me the truth, they're going to push, you know what I mean? And right, so I challenge sometimes, like, how bad do people really— they say they want it Sure. But like, dude, I don't see it in a lot of people that they really want it, like, and they go get it. Sure.

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I was just listening to a podcast this morning because like I'll go and, uh, my crazy thing that, uh, that I do or have been doing, you know, for the past month straight is wake up at 4:15, get to the gym by 4:45, workout, sauna for 20 minutes, cold plunge for 5, go home, get to the office by 8:00 AM, uh, after, you know, either watching my youngest two kids while my wife takes the, the others to school, or taking the big ones to school and my wife stays home, then get into the office, and then I go to a noon jiu-jitsu class, you know. Um, but what— I lost my train of thought. But, um, sometimes you just get going, dude. Sometimes you just keep going and you just lose it.

I had a workshop here the other day and I started giving this setup about my contacts and not being able to see, and can anyone relate before you get to your next annual checkup you can't see? Everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, and they're on the edge of their seat. And I'm like I don't remember where I was going with that. I lost that one and I never got it back, dude. It just vanished into thin air.

And bug me, and then whenever I go back and watch this, I'll be like, oh, I knew I was gonna—

what I was say.

And honestly, I should ask this dude right here, and he probably knows what I'm about to try to say. What was I trying to say? Do you know? He doesn't know either. He, he's messaging people on Facebook like he's supposed to be doing right now, you know what I mean? So he's just like partially listening. But anyways, oh So the, the— nope, I thought I was back. Anyways, I was talking about getting up and working out and stuff like that, but yeah, and yeah, just kind of— yeah, but anyways, they— the, the people, they gravitate to, to the underperformers. And what it ends up happening is you're doing all this negative, negative stuff and you're going to end up getting negative results, whereas the top performers, they're doing all the stuff right? Like, everybody that you've ever trained that has gone on and like just blown up and been like one of your top producers, what do they do? They separate themselves. I— hey, I remember, it just came back to me, bro.

Let's go!

I just— it just came back to me. I was watching a podcast with Chad Wright.

Okay, yeah, I'm doing one of his runs in a couple weeks. Love it. The 8-hour thing is with him.

Okay, so I like— as you figured out last time, like, yes, I cuss, all this stuff. I'm gonna reference the Bible. It's just what I'm gonna do because it's good for life, but everybody needs some Jesus too. Okay, but what, what Chad was talking about fits into what we're talking about right now as far as like, if everybody's doing it Okay, because you were talking about how, you know, the underperformers, they just want validation, they just want all this stuff. He's like, I don't watch the shows that everybody else watches because if everybody else is watching it, that's, that's the pattern of the world, right? He's like, so I'm gonna do the opposite. I'm not like— if I'm gonna watch something, it's not going to be what's popular. If I'm going to listen to something, it's not going to be what's popular, right? And it's popular to sit around and everybody bang their victim drum and who's the biggest victim, uh, not the biggest victor, but who's the biggest victim. And what it boils down to is my man Eddie G can over here can help me, but it's like, do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Okay, I don't know where that's at in the Bible. I know it's in the New Testament, and I know Paul wrote it. That's all I know. Okay, but more than I do, but that's straight from the good book, okay? Straight from the infallible word of God, okay? And so it's like, that's what the majority's doing. That's the pattern of the world. Is to speak negatively about yourself. But the Bible also says the power of life and death's in the power of the tongue, right? And so, uh, it says that your, your, your tongue is like, uh, is like whatever they call the steering mechanism on a boat that, that shapes your life, okay? Life and death's in the power of the tongue. And so like all these people are speaking all this negative stuff Top performers don't speak that way. They don't trash talk themselves. They might in here. Yeah, buddy, they might in here, but it's then, well, I'm gonna, as a, um, you know, I'm gonna start talking to myself instead of listening to myself, and I'm gonna get going. I'm gonna whip myself into shape. I might talk negatively in here, but what comes out of here is going to whip me back into shape so I can get going. And doing what I need to do. And that's what top performers do, is that you're not going to catch them sitting around trash talking the leads. They're just going to be calling the leads. They're, they're not going to be sitting around talking about trash talking the upline. They're going to be in the, in the upline's hip pocket trying to figure out how to get where the upline's at, trying out their cookie recipe. You know, like, you're not gonna see that kind of stuff, and that burns me up, bro. Yeah. And then my last one here is going to be controversial, okay?

Oh, let's go!

It's gonna be controversial.

Let's get it.

They follow up too much. Okay, okay, let's break it down. Good, because I want your take on this, okay? Because here's the deal. Agents and new agents specifically in general, what do they do whenever they normally come in? Whenever they're, uh, they're brand new, they talk to 5, 10 people that are remotely interested in their product, or maybe somebody that's just like giving them the time of day, and then they spend the next 2, 3 months doing what?

Oh yes, chasing them down. Yeah, I agree with you 100% on that situation.

Yeah, for sure, they're chasing them down.

No, right, you get— I, I was like, dude, I don't come back. I don't know, there's no second meeting. Now again, are there rare exceptions? Yes, of course, guys, like, settle down. But yes, no, I agree 100%, dude.

But like, I don't believe the whole the fortunes and the follow-up thing because—

so I believe it more in the prospecting part.

Sure.

I'll follow up. I ain't a follow-up guy.

No, me neither, dude.

I don't— I never hard pressure sold people. I didn't push them. I still don't. Stuff we've moved now, I'm like, do you even want my help or you don't? And if you don't, cool, I'm moving on. There's enough people. So I'm not— though, that the guy I mentioned earlier, that Ryan Serhant, he's like follow up till they die.

Yeah.

Which I can, I can respect from the sense that If someone has no money and they're sitting at home sulking about their situation, I'd rather them call someone again who didn't answer than do nothing.

Correct. But why are they so focused on that person whenever they've already reached out to this person? It's like, it's like, uh, if, if somebody has any wherewithal at all, okay, and if you've ever gone and asked a girl on a date, you might be living in—

you went down this road. Yeah.

I just asked a girl on a date every single day. The chances of her saying yes to going on a date with you after she's already told you no, no chance, 21 times in a row? Yeah, yeah, slim to none. You may as well go ahead and move on and try to find a different one to go on a date with you. And if she says no, move on and go find another one until you tell one of them says yes.

Here's my nuance to it. If I want to go on a date with this girl and after every class I just can't find her, but that's— but I know I want to go, and that's like, I know there's other girls, cool. But if I want to find her, yeah, I'm not going to stop looking because I didn't cross paths with her today.

Of course.

Does it make sense? So it's like, there is a nuance for me.

I'm like, uh-huh.

Yeah, if, if you're okay with what you got, take what you got, right?

You know?

So yeah, dude, I don't— I don't— I, I think people I don't— like, call me on Tuesday. I'd rather take the shot at like, y'all, we both know you're not going to be here on Tuesday.

Sure.

I, I found more success doing that. I closed way more of those. Yeah. Than I ever did going, yeah, take my card, call me on Tuesday, I'll call you.

For sure. Well, in the life insurance business, you know, Ed Mylett talks about how he, he'd let somebody do that one time And then between their meetings, they died.

I've had that.

And he felt terrible.

100%. Yeah, dude, it's awful. Yeah, I've had that. I've had that.

It's like your job as a, as an actual salesperson starts whenever the customer says no. Yeah, that's when it starts, whenever they say no, you know? Like, that's whenever being a closer comes into play, is whenever they say no. Now, for, for me personally, if you are— if you've done that, if you put in the time to be an expert, okay, like I'm an expert in the health insurance business, bro. Like, can I get stumped? Sure, okay. But like, to the average Joe, you're not gonna— nobody knows more about self-employed small business owner under 65 health insurance than JY the Insurance Guy. Hands down, bar none. I promise you, okay? I've done my research, okay? I know how all the plans work— ACA, short-term, long-term, indemnity, health share, all of them, okay? And it's like, you need to get to that level. Whatever it is that you're selling, you need to get to that level of expertise, okay? So that you can do such a good job with the customer that's in front of you. After I get done with the presentation, dude, Dude, I'll be real with you, John. I don't even really go for hard closes that, that often anymore. Okay. Even if they say no, or even if they're like— now I may throw out like one or two things to like try to, but I don't just like put my foot down and be like, hey, this is what we're doing. I hit them with my calendar link. And whether that's, uh, because I'll do like, uh, I break my stuff up kind of different. Like it's always two calls with me. Okay, um, now this being said, okay, I want to preface this because we didn't get to talk about this last time. I texted you about it, but I haven't— outside of training purposes, okay, outside of training purposes, I have not made an outbound lead phone call. I've not developed a new referral partner. I have only posted on social media outside of training purposes, okay? I will still train my agents on calling leads. I'll still train them on calling referral partners and establishing referral relationships. But outside of that, I have not made a phone call since the end of 2021, an outbound phone call. And I've averaged selling $800,000 a year every single year since then. In 2022, I didn't make any phone calls and I sold $1,026,000. Of—

repeat the number of phone calls you said at the beginning in case they forgot.

250,000 in the first 3 years.

Yeah, thank you.

I was growing Chinese bamboo trees, okay, and I planted 250,000 seeds. But also, I put— how many times did I post on social media? Every day for the first 3 years, you know. So it's like, what is that, over 1,000 times? You know, so that's— so there's another 1,000 Chinese bamboo tree seeds. How many referral partner relationships did I, did I reach out to and plant as far as that goes? So yeah, 6 and a half years into the business, yeah, I'm focused on building. I'm not making phone calls now. Again, I'm still training. I'm doing it for training, and by proxy, who, who would have thought, I made phone calls and I'm good at it and I make sales. And develop referral partners by training people, but that's not selling me $800,000 to $1 million worth of insurance every year, you know. Um, yeah, exactly.

Build the machine.

You have to build the machine first though. But you gotta like get in the mud and hands and knees and elbow grease, bro. It's hard.

I picture redoing like an old classic car. Yeah, like that. Exactly.

Exactly. And that's, that's the deal, bro. And sometimes whenever you're brand new, you just need to get in there and hold the flashlight for a little bit so you can see what's going on, so you can learn too, you know. So, but yes, going back to that, they follow, they follow up way too much. Because if I'm an expert, like I know I am, and I do my absolute best and I give my customer everything that they need to make a decision right then, right there, and they don't make that decision, I'm gonna go, hey, that's not a problem. I'm gonna send you over my calendar link, um, you know, sign up for a time whenever it's good for you guys and y'all ready to get rocking, see if we can even get you approved in the first place. I do go for the one-call close every single time, every single time. But if for some reason that doesn't happen, I am going to completely shut myself off from thinking about that person. I'm going to give them what they need to sign up on my calendar again, and I'm going to move the F on and go find somebody else that will buy right now.

Yep, yep.

It's like, I, I can't fathom following up with the same person. Now again, Back to your deal, do I think that, like, do I think the statistics are wrong of like you got to call a lead 21 times before they even notice that you called or will answer the phone or text you back or anything like that? Like, no, I don't deny those. I think those are, yeah, correct. And that goes to your point of like, if you can't find her, if you see her and you can't find her, well then yeah, you need to hit her. Like, go look for as many times as possible. Search everywhere. Search the library, search class, search the lunchroom. Like, look everywhere. You know what I mean? Yeah, go find her on Facebook, send her a message, call her up on the phone, text her, email her, do whatever it is that you got to do to get in front of her, right? But then once she's like, no, no, no, no, you know where that goes.

100%, dude, you know, 100%. So I love it.

It works the same way. It works the same way.

This is so good. This is fun. I love it. What else you got written down there, dude?

I need to get around to this, bro.

I know, you know, because like, we need to do something together, do some kind of event together or something.

John Wetmore, I'm down like a fat kid on a seesaw, bro.

Let's go big time.

So definitely down for that. We absolutely—

I mean, sit them down like a fat kid. That's just the visual just went through my head after I knew what it meant. It just went— it came back around the corner. I pictured the whole thing.

Yeah, fat kid on a seesaw, dude.

So, but yeah, dude, what else you want to end with? What else you want to add? Anything I didn't ask you want to cover?

Or—

no, I mean, really, that's it. I just wanted to get on here again. I felt like, uh, you know, you, you say, hey, let's cover 6 and a half years worth of knowledge and, you know, 250,000 phone calls and thousands of messages and stuff like that. Let's condense it down to an hour. And, oh, let's get a little bit of your backstory in there too. Like, that's almost impossible for me. That's like, for anybody that— or anybody else that's been through some shit, you know, that's going to be— it's going to be tough. So I want to get on here for your people and just drop straight knowledge, straight fire, add value, and hopefully they can take that and implement it and see that, you know, hey, if maybe if you want to grow up and be like me one day You know, I mean, I've only sold $5.3 million worth of insurance myself, you know what I mean? No biggie. But like, you know, maybe if you want to grow up and be like me, then cool. My cookie recipe tastes great. If you want to be like John Wetmore, his cookie recipe tastes great. But don't try to mix the two because your cookies are going to taste like shit.

They are. They are. So, yeah, I love it, dude. I appreciate you getting on, bro. We need to, we need to see if they want you back for 3. This was fun.

Yeah, I mean, if we're going for the three-peat, uh, we'll have to do some sort of like live me calling leads or calling referral partners or, uh, yeah, or social media training, some, some sort of something like that.

Let's do it. If y'all want it, put some comments in here that you want it, we'll set some up. I like the idea of something live. Yeah, that'd be fire.

Yes, sir.

It's a good call, dude.

Am I—

we had any events together? Wait, we got anything coming up?

Not until we set ours up, I guess.

Yeah, let's go, dude. You should be doing something, bro. You got all that knowledge in there, 250,000 phone calls, dude. Start putting some stuff on.

100%. 100%.

Put it out there, bro. People show up.

I mean, you need to write it down. I'm like, I need to write it down on my goal sheet for 2025. It's like get something like that rocking. Um, I really just been focused on building and recruiting and stuff like that. And I know that over time, you know, part of it, man, I just cut from, from 24 agents down to 6, you know, um, to rebuild, you know, hierarchy changes and all sorts of weird stuff that, you know, I'll spare you the BS details, but trust me, long enough, hang the victim drum and be like poor pitiful freaking me, like, but I'm not going to because you know what, nobody cares and I've got to go out and build it anyways. And so we're getting a good foundation, we're establishing things in a way to where it can never be taken from me again, and that's how we're going to do it.

Learning from mistakes, dude. Exactly.

Oh, you're living— I'm taking my own advice, you know, learning from mistakes, setting things in stone, developing new systems, processes, and stuff like that.

So I love it, bro. I appreciate it, brother. Where do they find you? We'll put links, but give out— where do you want them to go? Instagram or whatever?

I'm JY the Insurance Guy everywhere. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. JY the Insurance Guy everywhere. Um, yeah, come say hello.

Peace, dude. Love it, bro. Appreciate y'all.

Appreciate you.

You can help, let us know. Otherwise, subscribe, like, share it, do your thing. Appreciate you, homie.

Hey, thanks for watching the latest episode. I appreciate you. If you will do me a favor sure, 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.