Copying Positive Change and Increasing Production with NEW Million Dollar Per Year Earner Glen Li

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weidell and let's get started. All right, let's get started with a fella from outside New York City, Edgewater, New Jersey, Glenn Lee. And what a story he's got. Welcome Glenn.

Thank you, Larry. It's a pleasure to be on here with you.

And folks, you're going to find out Glenn is the zero to hero personification life story starting at $10 an hour. Like we, you know, we, most of us start at the bottom of the totem pole. That's all right when you're in school and a part time summer job and not so great once you get out in the real world. But he started with a $10 an hour job. Now well over a million dollar a year business he's built for himself, he and his wife Zio, and they're climbing, you know, it's continuing to climb and living the dream life. If anybody is. The Lees are living that life. So Glenn, thanks for being with us. And why don't you let people know. What do you want people to know about you in your story?

Hey Larry, first of all, it's an honor to be on here with you and everybody else that's listening in. And you know, you Talked about making $10 an hour before and that was my story prior to Primerica. And I don't want to sound cliche but you know, I was just, it's all based on habits, you know. Know, prior to, prior to Primerica, you know, I didn't really have anybody in my life that, that, that, that helped me learn leadership skills, learn sales skills and learn people skills. You know, I think those three skills, like a mentor told me that super important to being in business, you know, if you want to build a big business. But, but habits, you know, I, prior to Primerica, you know, I've never finished anything, you know, in my life. You know, I remember, you know, taking, taking five and a half years in high school. You know, I just never really applied myself to anything. Taking summer schools, taking night schools and it was basically being around the wrong people, you know, not, not, not having the right, right mentorship in place. And a lot of it was my fault because that was what I was attracted to at that time. So, you know, coming into, before being in this business, you know, one of the things that I remember doing was, you know, thinking to myself, I was 23, thinking to myself, man, you know, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? You know, I started seeing a Lot of my friends that I grew up with, they were starting to graduate college, they were starting to graduate, you know, just with different degrees, and they were starting to get, quote, unquote, real jobs, you know, And I was still stuck at $10 an hour. I was still stuck in the past. And I realized I had to catch up fast. There was something, you know, my life started changing. I started having more responsibilities, and I realized you couldn't cut it based on what my skills and. And my income at that time. So at the time, I think opportunity finds you when you're looking for opportunity. And I remember, man, just applying for different schools. I had a late start, and then I had a friend that introduced me to a business, to this business where we had mentorship. I think a lot of times, in order to succeed, you've got to be in the right environment. You got to have the right people that you're around. You have to have the right mentorship. And thank God we became part of a business that we had the right mentorship. But once again, you have to be ready for it. You have to be ready for it. And I was open at that time. There's so many people in life that are not where they want to be yet. They're totally unaware or take responsibility that it's maybe part of their habits, maybe it's something that they're not doing. And what people tend to do is they start looking at outside things to kind of blame. You know, they blame shift, and they don't take responsibility. And I think at that time, when I was 23 years old, that was. That was the perfect time in my life where I started saying, you know what? I am looking for opportunity. You know, I am open right now. You know, I don't know if. If I found the same opportunity at age 18 or 19. I may or may not been ready for it, because I wasn't open at that time, you know, but at age 23 was the perfect age. I started picking up books about success. I remember one of the first books that I read about success was Made in America. And that was a biography on Sam Walton. And it started talking about, you know, it doesn't matter what your. What your past is like, as long as you got the desire, you know, and. And thank God, you know, I started reading books like that. And I realized, man, it's. It's not where I used to be. It's where. It's where I want to go. And. And if I find the right area where, especially when I came to this business where you got, you got, you got the systems in place, you got the mentorship in place. And slowly along the way, took us about, it took us two years to really get started here. And what I mean by that is I had to lay the groundwork, lay the foundation. I had to get rid of past habits or past ways of thinking, you know, my limited beliefs about who I was. And then it took me two years for that to really resonate and sink in. And then after that we learned the skills slowly, thank God we were part of a system like this where, where, where there was patience and there was nurture, you know, and, and, and we just said, you know what? I believe I can do this, I believe I can make it happen. And then along that way, you have to have goals, right? Goals are so important. You have to have desire because without desire, nothing else happens, right? Why would you even want to do things if you don't, if you don't even have the desire of the outcome of what, of the things you're doing. And so, and, and so you have to have the desire be around, be around the right place, right? Be around the right, right people, be around other goal setting people, you know, other people that are heading the right direction, the same direction. And then, and then along the way we became competitive. Not competitive in a bad way. I think a lot of times people look at the word competitive as something that's, that's bad as, as, as nasty competition. But I believe that competition, you know, is something that, that does breed excellence. You know, I think competition, you know, if you, if you're competitive, you always find the edge. You always look for the edge and you look for ways, you know, and I'm not just talking about being competitive in business, talking about being competitive in life. Want to get ahead, you know, and, and then you take a look around at people that are successful. You start being around the right people, you know, trading ideas, trading stories, and then your belief level just, it just hits a new high. And then, and then from there on all it is, is keeping those goals in front of you and just keep, keep, keep working, you know, work having a strong, consistent work ethic that no matter what, you know, you know, you take a look at people that are successful and business today, I mean, they all have a certain degree of mental toughness. Usually it's a very high degree that no matter what happens in the world around them, they still keep their same focus, right? Obviously they, they make adjustments, right? But they still keep the same focus. And then eventually, man, I mean, it's just off to the races. It's how be put yourself in a, in a position. Thank God we found a company where the more you do, the more, the more financially set you become. And, and, and sky's the limit. That's, that's why, that's why, that's why we came into this business and that's why we're excited about where we're heading, not where we are. I mean we're grateful for where we are, we're grateful for an opportunity, but it's, it's, it's where we're heading because there's so many people like yourself, Larry, that have, have become successful here. So I'm just excited about the direction where we're heading.

What did you do to effect those changes over the course of those two years? Because you know, there's. The light bulb goes on in our lives before reality hits, you know, like the head knowledge comes before experiential knowledge. Because like the head knowledge, the light bulb goes on. You finally realize you come to grips with what you've got to do, the track you're on. Like I've got to make a change of some kind. I've got to find something to better then the light bulb. You know, you sort through, you do your due diligence, checking around and by sometimes quick, sometimes slowly, you finally settle on what it is that maybe not for the rest of your life, but your next step. This is going to be the next big phase of my life. And then a lot of times it takes a while, like you say, to develop the skills that allow you to be, you know, anything you do. You gotta have skills to function independently and produce something. You know, you're producing things, that's how you make money. And so what did you do to now start evolving into this much more efficient human being, much more effective, much more efficient, much more productive human being. Were you, did you write things down? Did you, you know, did you have set up little goals? Little. You talked about competition and goals and things like that. Did you keep notebooks? Did you keep a diary? Did you, you know, you were you. How did you add, what were the changes you added into your life and how did, how did you make that change?

You know, Larry, it's. I remember going to school in high school when I, when I really didn't care at that time. I remember going to school in high school and I would be the person that I would always show up late after the bell rang. I would always sit, find a place, you know, the darkest Corner of the classroom, and I would just hide there, sit down, put my head down on the table, you know, without a care in the world, you know, and, and, and that was when I really. There was nothing to fight for. And then I remember, you know, old habits die hard. When I. When I got started in business, I remember showing up to the classroom and I. And, And I kept the same habits. You know, I would. Initially. Initially, I would. I would. I would. I would find somewhere where I was away from people. I would sit down and. And I wouldn't take notes. You know, you mentioned taking notes. You know, I wouldn't take notes. I would just sit there kind of looking and situating myself in the room and looking at the speaker. And I was looking to be entertained versus looking to learn something new. And then. And then the longer I stood there, you know, thank God there was an environment that we were in where it kept us coming back week after week, because along the way, we were able to get rid of our bad habits. I started becoming aware of my surrounding. I said, who are the highest achievers in this room? Where are they sitting? How are they acting? And I realized the highest achievers, the biggest producers in the room, were always there early. They were always sitting in front of the room. They were always, always the most attentive, most focused. They were the ones that got up the least, you know, to use the restrooms or they didn't get distracted. No matter. No matter the temperature of the room. You know, they were not. If it was cold out, they were not cold. It was hot. Hot in the room. They weren't hot. They were just 100% focused, taking notes. And I started thinking to myself, I go, if I wanted to get the same results, you know, it took me. It's crazy how it took me almost two years to understand or become aware of my surroundings. But I started looking at them, I go, if I wanted to be a top producer here, if I wanted to become a leader, if I wanted to have the most teammates building the biggest distribution, then I gotta act like I am. That's what is gonna become of me. So I had to. I had to mimic the habits of the people that were most successful in the room. And then, and then it's funny because, you know, I. I read in so many books, you can't. You can't just. Just throw away bad habits. You've got to replace bad habits with good habits, right? And. And so, and so. So eventually, you know, I started realizing it. Like I was. I was originally. I would have Moved from the back of the room to the front of the room. And then all of a sudden I had to consciously think of that. And then eventually just became a habit to just get there early, sit in front of the room and take the most notes. And not just take notes, but you got to study your notes if you want to learn. All the information is already given. We just got to be strong learners. We just got to take the information and apply it, be the, be the best applier. You can't just copy, but you got to copy and paste, right? Like I hear so many leaders talk about. But, but I remember. And then, and then you look back and you say, man, you know, I am getting results. I am, I am starting, I am starting to become one of the top performers in this room, you know, and so, and so habits. See, everything is copyable, if that's a word, you know, but everything, everything you can copy. There's so many successful people, not just in our company, but so many successful people in the United States that you can learn from, from books, from everything. And so, and so, and so the more, the more I aware I became now you got to want to, you got to want, want to become aware. You got to want to look for, for reasons to succeed. You gotta, you gotta get out of your comfort zone. You know, we talk about comfort zones all the time. Because I know that if I kept on doing the same things I used to, I would have kept getting the same results that I got, which kept me broke, you know, and so, and so if I wanted great relationships, Larry, I had to, I had to, I had to act like one of the people in the room who had the best relationships. And so I started, I started realizing that and that that's when like really, you know, there wasn't one time that to switch flipped. It was multiple times on multiple subjects and multiple things. And then obviously when you start, when you start acting successful, when you start, when you start doing the right things, you start attracting other people that want to do the right things. And then you become peers. You know, I heard, I heard that there's a fraternity in success. And then all of a sudden we would be around the, our peers that were going on the same journey. And then, and then you play off each other, you become good friends, you start competing each other in a good way. And then it's funny because you watch each other succeed. And then you look back and you go, you know what? Look at all the guys that didn't do the changes that are necessary. You know, a Good friend of mine, a mentor in the business, talked about, you know, all goals demand change. All goals demand change. And even the smallest habits that we have that can keep us from doing the right things, like habits like, should I make one more phone call? You know, where. Obviously we're in the sales business, right? And we're in the recruiting business. So if we talk about, you know, should I, should I, if things don't go right, should I go home and call it a day or should I go out there and make one more call and if that call doesn't work, you know, make another call, you know, make another call. And all success people, they keep doing things that people that don't become successful do. And like, you hear, you know, then they start having the things that people that, that are not successful have, right? And so, and so we started over time, man, we started being around the right people, you know, doing, doing, you know, changing our habits along the way. And then obviously your skill levels start, start, start, start rising and competence, right. Confidence creates confidence. And not only does it create confidence in yourself, but it creates confidence in others. And then you start, you start having the chance to build a team of confident people, you know?

Absolutely. And how, when you look back on, you know, everybody's got to pay a price, tell people why they should. From your, what you've learned, let's just say what you've learned about the importance of making those changes. Once you realized, you know, I think most people know what they need to do, but they're looking to convince themselves to stop screwing around and go ahead and do it. And, you know, it's got to. If you're not going to make the first step, what good does it tell you? What good does it do to tell you all the other steps? You know, you know, you know, if you're not going to get out of your chair and stand up, why should we teach you how to walk? You know, if you're not going to walk, why should we teach you how to run? And then if you're not going to run, why should we enter you in a race where you can win something great? Because it's a waste of time to talk to you because you're never going to stand up, you know, and if people are people, most people know what to do. But you, it was like, once you decide I got to get on a different track, you found a place to put your energy in. Eventually you started shedding your, your old skin, your natural thing. Maybe speak to, you know, we'll get that, we'll get into that later, but maybe on another episode. But what would you tell people? Why is it worth putting yourself through this? What have you found out about not just money, but how you feel about yourself now after going through this process? How many years have you been in your own business?

Well, Larry, we've been, we've been in the business almost 21 years now. I started when I was 20, 23. You know, we're 44 now, but, but I feel.

I had no idea how old you were, man.

Yeah, 44. Wow. I still, yeah, it's, but I, I guess, I guess it's all in perspective, you know, but, but it's, it's funny because, because I still feel brand new, you know, every day we go to go into the office, every day when we approach either a client or, or a teammate, you know, we still got to be energized. And, and I don't, I don't look at it as, man, I have to be. I look at, is I get to be. You know, we get to, you know, and so I think the, the toughest battle, and you hear this all the time, the toughest battle that happens is the, is the, is the one between your ears. You know, it's in your head. And I think, I think, you know, I heard, I heard someone say, how long does it take to get to the ultimate level in this business, the vice president level? And really it's a six month process, but it could take you forever to make that decision. It could take you 5 years, 10 years, 15 years to make that decision. I think making a decision to do the things that, you know, you need to do, just like you talked about, Larry, you know, is, is the ultimate, is the ultimate switch. You know, there's, I mean, we all, like, think about right now, we're all exposed to social media. I mean, we're all exposed to books and there's books. You, if you want, if you want to find an answer, you could just Google it right now. I mean, I'm talking about looking, looking for the right sources too. Right? But if we want to find an answer, you know, there's books already written. You could download a book, you could read a book, right? But, but the challenge is it's the first step that it takes. It takes most people. And I know that because it took us a while to get this going, you know, and really because for a while it wasn't that I was sitting in the business for two years not knowing that, that, not knowing what I needed to do. It was I was sitting there for two years, you know, trying to convince myself to do what we needed to do, you know, and so, and so it's that decision. But, but once you make that decision, right, which is an irrevocable promise, right, Once you make that decision, then, then, then all you got to do is just move. See, our business, there's not a lot of physical that you have to do. You know, I drive down the street sometimes in the summer in our neighborhood where, where, where, where people start fixing their homes. You know, I see people working on rooftops, you know, sweating, and it's, and it's 90 degrees out. And on the rooftops, you know, where the sun, where the sun is beaming on you, it could be 100 something to feel like 100 some degrees. That is hard work. You know what, what I think what we do in our field is not, not that hard. But I think the decision to stick to a decision and be consistent is something that we gotta, we gotta do. You know, I, I heard someone say if all we did was do what we say we're gonna do, we're gonna be successful. See, a lot, a lot of times we, and we create a lot of false starts. And I had plenty of those in our career in prime America where we say, oh, I'm going for it now. And then something, a hiccup happens, you know, you stop, right? Rejection, you know, people fear that. Just anything that doesn't go our way, sometimes it causes us to freeze, to stop if we're not mentally prepared. So that is why it's so important to have the right people to talk to. You talk about masterminds. It's so important to be able to conversate or have dialogue with people that are already successful. And if they're willing to teach you, I mean, you just got to run with it. And so it's crazy because I remember one time we did what we call an opportunity meeting, where it's just really a seminar where we attract people into our business. And I remember driving one time, it was snowing out in, up in our area. It occasionally snows in the winter and sometimes you could have pretty bad winters. And I remember one time I'm driving, I'm driving this car and I'm not saying, oh my God, look what we went through, you know, but, but I remember driving and I was in a real wheel drive Mustang and you know, they don't, they don't really drive well in the snow. And I remember going across town right with, in all this traffic, nobody's Nobody's driving. And I remember we had. We had a lot of guests, a lot of people that were scheduled. Scheduled to come down, even teammates. But along the way, we would get calls. And this was in the beginning of our career where people were canceled because of the snow. People were canceled because they feared driving. And I understand you don't want to be reckless, but I remember that. And then I started. I remember I kept on driving to the orientation, and I kept on saying to myself, you know what? No one's gonna do this. You know, no one's going to do this. And I just listened to an audio by one of the leaders in our company that said, you know what? Nobody's crazy enough to do what we do. That's why I know I'm going to become successful. And I remember just listening to that audio, and I said, oh, my God, this is it. This is. This is what he's talking about. This is. This is the point in your career where you can't turn back, where you got to continue going. And it's funny, because when we got to our destination, right, it took us like, three hours to get there when it normally would take you half an hour. And when we got there, the only people that showed up were people in the business that 15 years later are now making millions of dollars a year. And it's funny, everybody else that didn't. Didn't show up. You don't. You don't even know remember who they are. And so it's moments like that and you know, you know this, Larry, because you've done so much of that where you start saying to yourself, man, you know what? I think I deserve success in a humble way. You know, like, I believe I'm supposed to be successful. And then your belief level gets. Goes to a new high because, you know, you're willing to do things that other people are not willing to do.

All right, thanks, Glenn. That's fantastic. Appreciate you sharing with us today. Lot of great content about how to look into your future and find a better road, a better opportunity, and then when you find it, how to grab hold to it and have the maximum success. Thanks so much, Glenn, for being with us today.

Hey, thank you. It was a pleasure, Larry, and thank you for everything you've done for us. And you are truly one of our mentors in the business, and I know you have mentored so many other people in our business, inside and outside of our business, so we truly appreciate being part of this.

You're very kind. I appreciate you saying that. Thanks again, thanks for listening to this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind with me, Larry Wydell. If I've helped you in any way, leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. For more information like this, listen to our other Million Dollar Mastermind episodes and check out my Widel Academy YouTube channel and visit us on widelawnwinning.com I'm the million Dollar Mastermind. And until next time, Go go go.