How This Medicare Agent Generated 1,200 Exclusive Leads Her First AEP Running Ads

In the past, when you've been spending over $30 per lead, you would've spent $36,000 on the same leads that you have generated.

To be quite honest, it was kind of overwhelming. Had to do a lot of reading, trying to figure out, can I learn this? And then I found you. I don't need an ad coach. I've got you. And now I can do my own ads. I think that a lot of agents are sold misconception that one, this is extremely complicated. It's not once you understand it. They make it like you'd have to be such a technology guru to do this. No, you don't. Don't buy into that. Generate your own leads because then you can control your own destiny. Anybody interested in investing in your course, first of all, I will say it's one of the best investments that we've ever made in our business, hands down.

If you have ever purchased a lead from a lead vendor, then this interview is for you because today I'm speaking to Carol, who is a licensed Medicare agent, and she has been in the insurance industry since the 1990s. Now, Carol used to spend about $5,000 per month on leads, and she would spend about $30 per Medicare lead. In the last 6 months, she has learned how to generate her own exclusive leads, and she has generated over 1,200 leads all on her own. Her best performing campaign has generated 420 Medicare leads for $3.36. Now, she has only spent about $1,400 to generate those 420 leads. Had she purchased them from a lead vendor, she would've been spending $12,600. In this interview, Carol's going to break down exactly how she did it, how much she spends on her ads, how much time it takes her to manage her ads. Plus she's going to break down some of the biggest lies that you hear from lead vendors. So if you've ever wondered if you can do this yourself, let's dive in. In case we haven't met yet, my name is Shauna. I am the founder of Social Waves Media. I've been specializing in lead generation through social media since 2016. And in 2022 is when I started working very closely with insurance agents. And now I specialize in teaching agents and other licensed professionals how to generate their own exclusive leads. Now, just a little bit of background before we dive into this interview. Carol is a Medicare agent that made the decision that she wanted to generate her own leads, and she decided to enroll in my course Insurance Click to Close. Now, if you wanna learn more about that, the link of course is in the description. But a few things that you're gonna hear her mention is that once you're enrolled in the course Insurance Click to Close, that you get lifetime access. And this is true. Once you're in the course, you don't pay anything extra and you get access to all of the different updates. So you'll hear her mention that. And then Carol is also an active member of my community, the Inner Circle, where we have 3 meetings every single month. Myself and my team, we answer questions inside of the Facebook group, so So you'll hear her refer to that a little bit. Now, I cannot wait for you to hear this interview, especially from an agent that did not consider herself tech savvy, has been in the industry since the 1990s, and is now completely— has her eyes open to how this industry lies to agents. And it's by design. It's to keep you stuck and dependent on the lead vendors that are just cashing in the money. So once you hear how easy it was for Carol to do this, you are going to see that this is something that you absolutely can do. can do yourself. So without further ado, let's jump into the interview. All right. I am joined with Carol Ivy, who has been in the insurance space since the late 1990s and primarily focuses on Medicare. And this year was a really exciting year for you because this was your very first year that you decided to break free from lead vendors and start generating your own exclusive leads. And we were just talking about how it has been going, and you shared that you have generated, since you launched your ads June 29th in 2025. You've generated over 1,200 leads. You have spent around $10,748 on ad spend, so that averages to about $9 per lead. Your best campaign is generating leads at $3.23. So you've only spent around $10,000 on ad spend that in the past, when you've been spending over $30 per lead, you would've spent $36,000 on the same leads that you have generated. So, Carol, I am so excited that you're here, and I cannot wait to dive into what you have done to take control of your lead generation. So tell, tell me a little bit, first of all, just how you got into the insurance space and how you landed on Medicare.

Okay, um, what happened was I have been in insurance, like you said, for quite some time. I've been in all kinds of fields, you know, different insurance types. But I also have been an advocate for my family as far as healthcare goes, and I've seen how they really can be misled and talked into things that aren't beneficial to them. And so, I kind of thought people need help. Medicare is very complicated. It's getting more complicated. And so, Mike and I decided— that's my husband who decided, he's also a licensed agent— that we would focus on the Medicare field. And so at that point, where do you get leads from, right? So we were buying leads. Um, we don't do a lot of these seminars and stuff that other agents do. We just don't. Uh, and so we were buying leads, and quite honestly, they were not of good quality. Um, they were very expensive. They had been resold so many times that by the time you call somebody, they don't even want to talk to you.

So even—

Even in that— wait, even in the Medicare space, you've experienced that leads have been Not just exclusively sold to you that—

Oh, right.

They will tell you they're exclusive. They are not exclusive because when the person that you talk to says, you're the 10th person that has called me today, where— how is that, right? How did they get that information? So, you know, that's— that was a real problem. Um, and so we just started looking around. I was very concerned that I wasn't going to be able to do this because I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't know anything about Meta, Facebook, nothing as far as ads. It looked very complicated, and the lead vendors want you to think that.

So—

Were the— let me ask you though, were the lead vendors that you decided to work with— how did you decide to work with them? What were you paying per lead? And then how were they generating them? Or at least what was the information that you knew about that?

Okay, uh, the The lead vendor that I got hooked up with came through my old upline. There's a reason why he's my old upline, uh, but it came through that. I was told what a great deal I was getting. I fell for it. I thought maybe I was getting a great deal. Um, I was paying about $30 a lead. Those leads have been so oversold. So like I said, you know, you pick up the phone and call somebody and they You know, they've already been talked to 10 different times, right? So once I started figuring this out, I started deciding, one, I had to change an upline. So I did that. And 2, to start looking and taking control of my own lead generation systems. And so that's kind of how I started the investigation of looking around to figure out, can I really do this? It was, to be quite honest, it was— I didn't know what I didn't know. So it was kind of overwhelming. Um, had to do a lot of reading, a lot of, you know, just looking out there trying to figure out, can I learn this? And then I found you.

So before— so we're going to dive into— I know you're enrolled in my course Insurance Click to Close, and you also work with me inside of the Inner Circle where we get to work closely together, which is great. But before you landed on making the decision to enroll in my course, were you Exploring other avenues? Did you think about other things? What made you land on the fact that maybe this would be the right course that would help you?

I think for me, all of it is you in your presentation. You're not afraid to stay to say, "Hey, with your courses, when you buy the course, you get updates forever." That's really important because a lot of these guys that are selling courses out there, they it's one and done, and you know. Data changes daily. So what they produced as a course and that they're selling, you know, for sometimes quite expensive, it's already outdated. So that was a big deciding factor is, and just knowing, listening to you, listening to the content that you put out there that you don't even charge for, that people can learn this if they'll just do this, or, you know, Follow the steps. That's kind of how I found you. And I thought, you know, you made the most sense to me. You weren't afraid to put your name on something and say, I will do updates every time there needs to be an update, and you do not pay for that. So I think that's a wonderful thing. I also decided that your Inner Circle would be great for this reason of the fact that you're updating all the time. And you're on top of it. And the fact that I can get honest answers from you— Meta wants me to spend more and more and more money. Let's face it, you know, they're gonna give me a, an ad coach or whatever. I don't need an ad coach. I've got you. And now I can do my own ads. So Meta will try to upsell you to the point of daily until you block 'em, right?

Mm-hmm.

This is true. And I, I always say Meta wants to serve your ads always in all ways. And A lot of the things that they recommend are— make a lot of sense for really large e-commerce businesses. But when you're trying to generate leads, it's a very different strategy.

And so also something to think of for those of your audience that might listen to this that are Medicare agents, just remember this: Meta is not compliant. They're not going to make sure that your ads are compliant. That's on you. So if you want to risk your license, by just letting, you know, them give you advice on how to change your ads, that might be something you want to take 3 steps back from, you know.

Yeah, I think— do you think that— what do you think holds agents back from making the decision to try to generate their own leads? I know there's concerns with if you can be compliant with CMS, which I let a lot of agents know, when you're writing lead ads, we're not focusing on like the thing so much as we're focusing on the pain point, and it's a completely different approach to messaging. But But with that, do you think that's a big thing that holds them back? And what else do you think makes agents afraid to even start exploring this avenue?

I think that a lot of agents are sold the misconception that, one, this is extremely complicated. It's not once you understand it. Two, I think that they're also sold on a, you know, this is what leads should cost.

Leads cost $30. That's what they cost.

That's a good deal. You should be thankful for that. No, this is not a good deal. So I think a lot of the stuff that they— the reason that people are held back is because it's all misconceptions and it's done purposely. I think.

That's one of the— when I— because I worked across multiple other industries, I had a lot of like course creators, I had like some doctors, estate planning attorneys, and so forth until I kind of landed in this space in 2022. What shocked me most was how By design, it is created to take advantage of insurance agents and how it seems like lead vendors purposefully keep all of their approaches and tactics a secret. Because the reality is, once it's out there, it's more simple than probably what they, they front face with.

Oh, 100% agree. And they make it like it's really, um, just so you'd have to be such a technology guru to do this. No, you don't. You don't. Just don't, don't buy into that, you know. Generate your own leads because then you can control your own destiny, you know. You— or you can pay for leads for the rest of your life and get leads that somebody else already got, you know. I mean, there's a reason why there's big lead vendors out there. There's a reason why many insurance agents that used to be insurance agents, maybe they didn't do so good in the insurance field, but they started lead generation companies. So Think about that, right?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that is interesting. I've seen a lot of the, it's been, I don't know if I've come across another person that is in the lead aspect of insurance that primarily started off as a lead generation expert or that focused on marketing and that knows the platform like the back of their hand. It seems like that is that there's a lot of that. They're like, I was a life insurance agent or I was a Medicare agent and now I generate leads for agents and You're probably right that there's a reason that, that, that pivot was made.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Something to think about, right?

Yeah, completely. Um, so what were you most nervous about? So I know enrolling in a course is, uh, I've enrolled in my own slew of courses and I've had some that have been life-changing for me and really helped me in my business. And I've had a lot that have been a big disappointment. So what were you most nervous about whenever you made the decision to, to, enroll in the course and commit to moving forward?

I think, could I do it? You know, because there's a lot of material, but it's all good material. And, and I, to be quite honest, for me, I went through your entire course. First, I thought I would do a little bit, I'd take a couple of modules, and then I would be able to implement right away. For me, it didn't work that way. I needed to see the whole thing so that it would all make sense, you know, and And I will say anybody interested in investing in your course, first of all, I will say it's one of the best investments that we've ever made in our business, hands down. Secondly, I will say you really don't be afraid to go through the modules and whatever you do, follow the instructions that you're given. Don't get creative, don't get silly, and don't let it sit on the back burner and don't do it because you're making an investment here. This is not, you know, it's, we're not Talking a few dollars and so what? And I think that a lot of people will do it, and then they'll invest in your course, but then they don't go all the way through it, and or so it didn't work for them. Well, that's because you didn't try hard enough, because it's really not that hard. Follow the script. You're given a script. Do it. You know, that's something I see. I don't know if you experience that same thing with it's hard to get started. But I went through that course until I got it and it wasn't that hard.

You did.

It really wasn't.

You did and you implemented it and you were not afraid to actually apply what you were learning. And that is why you very quickly had a campaign that took off that was generating leads for $3.23, which is absolutely insane whenever you think about that. Maybe a lead vendor's getting them for anywhere from, I'm gonna say $5 to $8 and then charging that $30. On top of that, I think so. One of my experiences that I've had with agents moving through the course is a lot of them come in and they want tips and tactics because that's what this industry kind of preaches. Like, do this one thing. I you can click this one button. You can. It's so easy. It's like just plug it in and and go. And the reality is, I'm saying those little tips and tactics aren't going to get you anywhere in the long run. And it is important for you to understand foundationally how the campaign works.

Mm-hmm.

How lead generation works. And I think that that's something that a lot of agents are surprised by, but I try to be very honest about. And would you say that, was that more surprising to you when you got into the course that it was so like, we're gonna break down every single aspect with a visual and a chart and really get into it? Was that something that you enjoyed or like, were you wanting just to get to the ads or, or what was your impression of it once you dove in?

No, I liked the way that you did it in the modules and the different ways because people, certain people learn by visuals, certain people learn by reading. You did all those things. So it doesn't matter what type of learning that you like to do, you can use this course and, and you've done it that way. You've broken it out, right? I think also for me, When I was going through the course in the very beginning, I was like, sure, I'd like to get to the end that fast, right? But then I realized how if I understand the fundamentals, nobody can take that away from me. I can, in fact, with all the stuff that I've learned this year, we're going to be introducing more products into our agency because I now know I can do ads. I don't need to pay for ads. I can do this. So. I guess, did that answer your question? It's kind of like, you know.

Yeah, that's exactly— that's what I want is I want agents, when they enroll in this course and they work with me, I want them to, I want them to transform into their own lead generation expert because that's truly the only way that you're going to be able to take control of that aspect of your business. And even if you blew up and you were huge and you decided you wanted to outsource it, now you have the knowledge to actually be able to manage someone. Because of how many agents are taken advantage of by marketers. So tell me, so after you initially got your ads set up, how much are you spending? Like, how much time are you spending a day managing your campaigns right now?

Excellent question. This is one of the things that blew me away. I thought, God, how am I ever going to have time to do insurance if I'm doing all this, you know, marketing and ads and stuff? Once it's set up, I don't spend any time on it. And that's the honest truth. I do not spend any time other than to check in. I'll look at my dashboard, See if there's been any fluctuation, you know, up and down as far as costs go. But as you taught, once you get something right and it's generating, you know, the amount of traffic that you want, don't break it. You don't have to do anything to it. Leave it alone. And that's what we did. The ads that I put out, an ad at the end of June that's still running because it's still so successful. Then I did another one, I think in August, and that one's running too, just because it's a different type of ad. Um, but I did them once and let them go, and that really blew me away. I thought I was going to have to spend a lot of time, but once you understand the concepts, you don't, you know, and you know what works and what doesn't, right?

That's something that a lot of agents, I think, have the misconception of because marketers like to talk about, and then we have to constantly be optimizing the ads, and we have to go in and we have to A/B test, and we have to— and they want to use all of this different language when the reality is once you get an ad that's— you get a campaign that has multiple ads in it and it's performing well, it's not something that instantly tanks overnight. It's something that you can build on. And like you're saying, you have a campaign that you haven't touched for 7 months because we still like the results, right?

Exactly. Um, and that's the other thing is you will hear all this, you know, oh boy, this is a full-time job and everything. It is not. And, you know, Meta does some of the work for you as far as their testing goes, so you don't have get all creative and test, you know, does this one work or that one work better? You know, maybe you can eventually, but I, I haven't had that, that experience. I have had no— other than my— when I first set them up, um, I— that's part of being in the Inner Circle too, guys. If you're on the fence about this, the Inner Circle helps a lot because they will help you. You know, they'll— Shauna or her team will take a look at your ad and go, you know, I had one that I thought was going to be a real hit, and they looked at the ad and said What are you trying to generate here? Because it's not clear from the ad. That's important. That's important stuff because, you know, doesn't matter that I thought it was right. I need to know from an expert, will it generate traffic, right?

And it's a completely different skill set. I tell agents it's a different skill set dealing with objections once you get someone in your seat, but versus dealing with them on the front end and how you're going to actually bring them into your world. And then the more nurturing that you do from the front end with the right message, you're not using giveaway ads or something that doesn't talk about insurance to just get their information. The more that you do on the front end to have that quality messaging, the better the quality of the lead is going to be. So what has been your experience with the purchase leads for $30 a lead versus that you could have spent $36,000 on? I think you said you were spending $5,000 a month before.

Yes.

Because— and that's a very normal number that you hear them say, just commit to a lead vendor and spend this. What has been your experience speaking to the leads from that versus the ones you've generated on your own?

Well, what they do, the lead vendors are selling you on the T65 ads, which are turning 65. And the other big one is food card, the food card benefits. Well, first of all, guys, those are not good leads. They are not good leads. They've been sold so many times. The quality of the lead is not good. And so by the time you try to reach out to them, they've already heard it enough times. They know, you know, they feel like it's a scam. So that is a big deal. The quality of the leads that I get now are high-quality leads.

They are with intent.

They also will often refer other members of their family to me because I'm honest. You know, and I will flat out tell them if there's something that I can't do to help you, I'll tell you that. Or if you're in the right plan, I'll tell you that also. And I realize that's not just a factor of my ads, but I will tell you that many people that have seen my ads will go to my website to make sure that I'm real, to read my Google reviews, stuff like that. And like I said, when you get a high— higher quality lead with intent, Not just somebody looking for a food card, which aren't going to be around for that much longer anyway, uh, you will find that they help do the work for you. They bring in more business. So what is that worth, right?

Yep.

I think a lot of agents get caught up on— they feel like they need to like share all of the different details when I think at the end of the day, when they feel like they're going to be taken care of and that you're someone that they trust and that you're going to be an advocate for them, And you start that from your messaging on the ad. Like, that's what's bringing them in. Do you want someone that's going to take care of you and actually review your options and that's going to remove the overwhelm and make sure you enroll at the right deadline and you don't have penalties? That's me. That's what your ad is about. And once you bring them in on that messaging, it's— it sounds like it's been an easy transition for you to get them to become loyal and even advocates of you.

And this, this business is tough. I mean, there's so many call centers out there that are telling these people things that aren't true. And, you know, I've got the point now where most of our clients will either not take the call or hang up on them because they just know. They know that what I told them I would deliver in the ad, I did deliver. And they know that they can trust us. And that's a really big thing. You can't put a price on that.

You know, I completely agree. And that is why the bait and switch messaging, it just does nothing for anyone. It does nothing for the user. It does nothing. All it does is it benefits if someone's selling it. And there's 2 things. One, I want to ask you, how much was your ad spend when you first launched ads? How much were you spending a day?

Oh, I think I was— I did it really low, which was advice from you to figure it out. I think it was maybe $10 or something like that. Not very much. And then I just, you know, based on our discussions, I ramped it up a little bit. But to To, to be quite honest, right now, that ad that's doing so well, it's $50 a day. That's it. That's all it does.

Yeah. You know, I love that. So a lot of agents think you have to have a lot of money because that is another thing that is a misconception that lead vendors say is you have to have a large budget to get results with Meta. And the reality is you can start at $10 a day, $5 a day, and then you can scale up. Um, we have one agent that we've seen in the Inner Circle group and he was generating leads for $6 and then he actually had to turn it down to $1 a day. He was spending $20. He turned it down to $1 a day because he said he had too many leads to deal with at that moment and he just didn't want to kill the campaign. So small budgets work, right?

Oh yeah, they do work. And it's just a matter of, like I said, follow the recipe, do exactly what the course teaches you, and you don't need these ridiculous budgets. You know, I mean, I think you and I have talked about it. I haven't increased my budget just because I don't have the time to work them and you don't want to stale lead.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, what do you think, what do you think is the biggest misconception that agents have that hold them back from feeling like they can do this? Like if I enroll in this course, or if maybe I'm not the right mentor, maybe there's another option, but if I enroll in something and I commit to moving through it step by step, what do you think is the biggest thing that holds them back? Do you think it's money? Do you think it's time? Do you think it's afraid? Do you think it's they've been burned by other gurus out there? What do you think it is?

That's a combination of all of the above, really, because what happens is a lot of these places that are selling you these courses, and I've been through several of the other courses, you know, you and I have already talked about some courses you get a great benefit of, others they just sold you the bill of goods. Um, I think also when they see the, the whole course, they might feel like, oh, that's a lot. Can I get to the end of that? You can. It's how do you eat the elephant, right? One bite at a time. That's all you have to do is follow it. And I think, and I've heard in the Inner Circle, some of the folks that haven't gotten it going, they just, they haven't committed, you know, they're second-guessing themselves. Don't do that. You don't have to do that. Just follow the course. How many times have I said it to people? They're like, how did you do it? Follow the course. Follow the course. That's all I did. I, I'm not that smart. So if I, if you can gimme a recipe for something, I can do it. And that's what I—

I like that analogy cuz that's what I say is I say, this is like you deciding that you wanna learn how to bake a wedding cake. I can give you all the ingredients, but I can't guarantee your oven's gonna perform the same. The exact ingredients are the ones I used and that it's gonna be perfect the first time. But I can guarantee that you're gonna know why it's not perfect, why your cost per lead is what it is. You're gonna get it. Like the data actually means something. All of those numbers on the back end, they actually mean something. And the cost per lead that you're paying is just one of the metrics, right, that you're looking at whenever you're looking at the back end. So you can dissect where the hole is in the funnel that we're trying to create and fix that in order to reduce that cost per lead.

And I think that's huge too, is they— I can't say this enough times— they don't want you to know this. And they being the lead vendors, they— Facebook would love for you to Believe me, if they can figure out how to get insurance agents to do more ads, they want that. But the lead vendors, no way, you know? Yeah. And I mean, how many of you have— I know for me, because I didn't have access to it, I didn't know backend numbers. They weren't going to tell me the backend numbers. There's no way. So, you know, like I said, $30 is good for a lead. No, it's not. Maybe for a different type of lead, maybe an annuity lead, it might be a good price. I don't know. I haven't done that yet, but I'll be able to tell you because I'll follow the course and do those So you're absolutely, yeah, you know, you're absolutely right.

And the, it's all about just having the right messaging in order to attract the right lead. Um, once you understand kind of the, the basics, there's one last thing that I wanna touch on that I see agents taken advantage of, and I wonder if you've seen this or experienced this. Now that you understand, one of the big things I teach in the course is you need to own your own assets. So you own your Facebook page.

Mm-hmm.

You and your husband have yours, and then you own your business manager, which is essentially the house, the meta, the house where we've got our ad account, we've got our page, we've got our Instagram account, we've got our pixel. Everything belongs in this house. A lot of lead vendors will say, I will run it from your Facebook page if you want, or a dummy page that they've created, but it's from their ad account. So that way, if you dissolve the relationship, so if you're working one-on-one with someone, I could run your ads in my Facebook ad account, and now I collect all the data. And if we break up, I take that and I can just plug in another agent. Have you seen that happening where agents think that they're getting something that is directed towards their page or their branding, but that's really what's happening?

Absolutely. And that's, that's the other thing is you're not controlling, you don't own anything. You know, it's just like, use the analogy of a website. You know, if you don't own your own website and you let somebody else own it, they own you. There's, they can do whatever they want to do. And there's nothing you can do about it. So it doesn't matter how much you invested, you know, you think you paid this particular vendor and, you know, you've got this great thing. Realize they have you, you're handcuffed to them. You can never, never break away. So using this course is a way to break away. You need to own your business, you know. I mean, you wouldn't, you wouldn't give, I don't know, you wouldn't give your car to somebody else that, you know, treat your business with the same respect. You know what I mean? And that's, that's how this is not that hard. It's just once you get the fundamental concepts, you got it. You know, you do. It's just something— what do they say about, you know, education? That's something they can't take away from you. So.

Yep. And that is, that's one of my, my biggest messages is that you can become your own lead generation expert. It is so interesting how these agents are told you can learn how to write this complicated business. You can keep up with everything in the industry. You can learn how to close people and so on, but lead generation, it's just too hard. You can't do it.

Yeah.

Focus on selling.

100%. Yep. 100%. That's what you hear is, you can't do this. No, we're experts at this. You go do Medicare. I, I'll do your leads. Yeah. No, you don't have to do that. That's—

And then the gaslighting that happens after, like I heard someone that is an agency owner and he sells leads and he was talking about how when he these people, you know, it's very bro. When I see people and they say that my leads don't like want to talk about insurance, I say they were interested in insurance until they talked to you. And I'm like, that, that is, that is, that is so— it takes so much from a person that just invested all of this money, and then they're going to you saying, I, I need help, these leads aren't interested, and then that's the answer that they get. It just, it's by design. It makes me sad.

Oh, it is 100% by design. And just know this, that lead that they sold you, you aren't the only one who bought it. Believe me. That's so true. And you're not the first. So there's— yeah, that's so— and they will say, you will look at some of the— we will remain unnamed, but larger vendors out there who swear in writing that they didn't resell it. I know they did. So at least I know my ads. are my ads. I'm the only one. Now, does that stop somebody from clicking on my ad and then clicking on Sally's ad and Sue's ad and everything else? No. But at least I know when they came to me, I gave them value, right? So kind of, yeah, I don't know. That's something to consider.

That is very true. And the fact that your messaging attracted them and it's actually about Whatever the service it is that you're trying to offer makes all of the difference. Um, so let me ask you before the last question, is there anything that I didn't ask you that you think agents need to know whenever it comes to lead vendors, buying leads, generating leads, being tech savvy, all of those things? Is there anything that I didn't ask?

Um, what I will say is don't be afraid if you're not tech savvy. Don't be afraid to take this course. It's Walk you through step by step. You— if I had never had a computer before, you know, I don't know, that's kind of— but if I didn't know anything, I could take this course and I would understand it by the time it was all said and done. So if that's what's holding you back, just if nothing else, talk to one of us that have done it. I mean, come on, guys, 7 months, 1,200 leads. And, and Shauna, you are very welcome to take a snap of my— or a snip of my dashboard and campaigns and stuff and put it out there and let people see, you know, what— that it's real. It's not made up. You know, it's not something that she got me to say or anything else. I did it. So—

And you did do it. No, you did do it. And you, when you came into that, so you enrolled in the course, which is lifetime access, and then you decided to also also joined my Inner Circle, which is where you're in a Facebook group. You can cancel anytime. It's a month-to-month, uh, fee, and you get access to myself and my team in the Facebook group. You came in and you asked so many questions, and at one point you were like, I'm sorry, it's me again. Everyone loved your questions. Like even in the Inner Circle meetings, they're like, we love Carol cuz she asks everything that we're thinking. And the fact that you came in and you were dedicated growing and learning this skill set and pushing through some of the roadblocks that you get when you're just learning a new concept. You have done absolutely amazing. I— agents like you make me— it literally makes me so extremely happy because this is kind of what I dreamed of whenever I decided I was going to launch this course. So thank you for sharing. Thank you for your questions. Thank you for being such a leader.

Oh, you are excellent. Uh, you're an excellent teacher, uh, and I love the fact that when If something's going to happen to an account, it's going to be mine. No, without fail. And you are a great mentor and a leader and everything else, because when something happens that neither one of us, you especially, have ever seen before, you will take the time to go out there and figure it out. And that's huge, guys, because there are some things that Meta just does, and you're like, why did they do that? I don't know. They just did. So you figured out ways to get around that. And there's things that, like I said, Meta is going to change all the time. You need to be somebody who is tied up with somebody like Shauna who's going to stay on top of it and say, hey, this is what I see coming down the pike. I've got my finger on the pulse of the changes. This is something you need to look out for. We had some issues, didn't we, recently that I can't remember what it was now, but something that you are already aware of. This is going to happen. Don't worry about it. Also, I will say something else too that you've been in our corner on is when Meta tells me something, I immediately just call Shauna or text Shauna or send an email to the group and say, "Is this true?" No, actually, it's just a way for them to have you spend more money. So yeah, they'll get truth when they talk to you. You know?

Yeah, yeah. It is a different approach. running ads that are for lead generation. And that's something that Meta doesn't really discriminate against when they're trying to get you to spend more money. They want you to put it in different placements. They want you to have different approaches. And there's just certain things that work better with lead generation or that work better for an e-commerce product. Um, so that's why I'm— it's important for you to know these things because I truly, I want every agent that moves through my course to become more and more empowered that this is a skill set that you can apply not only to Meta, but you can start applying elsewhere in order to just have an entire marketing plan that is going to continuously be generating leads for you.

Yes, 100% agree. Um, this is an investment that you need to make in your business and yourself. It really is, you know.

Well, Carol, the last question, and you kind of covered it, was just if you're on the fence of learning to run your own ads, what would you say to them?

Is there any extra I think that if you don't do it, you're doing yourself a disservice because yes, you might say, oh, that's a pretty big investment. Look how many leads I could buy for that. Yeah, look how many crappy leads you're gonna buy for that. So why not generate your own leads? So I mean, if you're on the fence, take 3 steps back and look at your budget and figure out where you can maybe tighten the budget here to make an investment in yourself and your business. with this course, because you will. It will. It is life-changing. I will tell you that. It is not something I thought I'd be able to do, but I was going, well, I've invested in it. I'm going to get to the end. And all of a sudden, I mean, it wasn't— it didn't take months for us to get leads either. So if you're thinking, oh yeah, she probably got all those 1,200 in the last 7, you know, the 7th month, not true. It started within Leads started coming in, I believe, within the first 5 days. I think it was 5 days. Uh, that's impressive. So that's amazing.

And once one comes in, you know, there's others that are going to be behind. And then after you learn how the algorithm works, you're like, okay, I got it. It's gonna slowly figure out more and more. As long as these numbers look good in the right demographic, then my numbers are going to keep getting better and better, which I, I know I said it was the last one, but let me ask you this. Did you ever consider learning how to run ads in your CRM? Because I believe you use a CRM that is GoHighLevel-based, and there's a lot of agents that are like, oh, I'm just gonna run ads from the GoHighLevel CRM and I'm gonna use templates that I can import or that I can buy from whatever solution I'm using. Did you ever delve into that or consider using that?

I did not, uh, because quite honestly, I didn't know much about that. And I thought, again, another way for somebody else to own my assets, and that's not what I wanted. And I will say, if those of you who are thinking about joining this course, you better get a CRM because the amount of leads that you're going to get, they need to go somewhere.

And they—

you—

it can't be on a spreadsheet.

Yeah.

So, you know, look for— try to build this. This is a whole package with your business because I will tell you, I get leads All day, every day, all night long. You would not believe how many— well, I'll just say older people are out there at 3:00 AM filling out one of my forms. Uh, and it's like painless, you know, it has a— I have a whole, uh, machine, if you will, that, that just drives itself. And that's huge because what's happening with these leads that you're sold, then you have to go out there.

Mm-hmm.

And work those leads, right? Whereas if you build the right machine, these leads will come in and the machine will work for you, and it just keeps getting better and better and better.

So, great.

So a lot of agents don't realize that when you do use a third-party ads manager such as a GoHighLevel, while they make awesome CRMs, it is great for follow-up and easily integrates with Facebook Forms. You don't get access to a lot of the features that Meta has that most agents would want, like SMS verification. conditional logic forms, some custom questions. And more importantly, you don't get access to being able to set up your campaigns in different structures or the data breakdown whenever it comes to the age. Because we want to see that your insurance ads, if we're running T65, we wanna see that it's landing with the 60+ demographics and that you've got a terrible link click-through rate with the people that are in their 20s and 30s. And a lot of people don't realize you can use a third-party ads manager, but it's like riding a bike with training wheels and there's no plan to ever remove those training wheels.

100% agree too, that, you know, building the ad isn't that hard. And, well, I mean, use AI if you need help, use AI, but building the ad isn't that hard. And using, letting the templates and everything else, you know, it's just, how do you know what's not working in that ad? And you don't have any, probably, I don't know, is there any access to the backend? And, um, metrics. I don't know.

It's limited.

Because, yeah, that's what I would say. And, and with what you've taught me, I can narrow it down to, you know, was it male, female, who, what, you know, all the way down. I can split the hairs all the way so that if I want to target, you know, a different product, say, um, I know who to target, how to target them, because I learned what the backend tells Me, right?

Mm-hmm. Yes. Carol, thank you so much for sharing your story. I have absolutely loved working with you. I love seeing agents succeed. I, I, it makes me very excited, uh, to see what's happening in your ad account and all of the other agents that are in the course in the Inner Circle. So thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate you sharing your story.

You're very welcome. And thank you because like I said, you You have been really a game changer for us. You have really been such an asset to our business. So like I said, anybody who's on the fence, do it. You're making a mistake not doing it.

A huge thank you to Carol for participating in this interview and being so open and so vulnerable and so honest with her experience with not just lead vendors, but her now generating her own leads. And to you, thank you so much for watching this video. If you found it helpful, please consider hitting that subscribe button. It costs you nothing. It means the world to me. And if you are ready to learn how to generate your own exclusive leads, I have the link in the description below. And if you go check out that information page, you're going to hear from other agents. You're going to hear from industry leaders. You're going to see real results and actually see what's inside of the course. There's also a demo video that walks you through what is actually inside. But of course, if you have any questions about the course or you just want to ask me about digital marketing, generating your own leads, drop them below. I try to reply to everyone. Again, thank you so much for watching, and I will see you in the next video.