Ashlynn Miller DRT 8/29/2024

Hey. Well, good evening and welcome to the Daily Roundtable DRT Evening Edition. I am your host tonight, Jonathan Burns. Hey, thanks so much for joining us this evening. You know, I'm going to give you a little bit of history about myself, show you a little bit about what we do, how we do it. And then I'm going to introduce you to a young lady who's actually done very well in our industry and done very well for her family. So you may have seen a video of her. Her name's Ashlyn, but she's doing an incredible job for her family and she gets to take ownership of what she does every day. A little bit about myself, I've been in the insurance industry now for 19 years. You know, I used to drive heavy machinery around. I drove a dump truck. I was drove the lowboy. I was the guy who was going to deliver that big Tonka toy that you see people moving dirt, I put down asphalt. You know, I thought I was going to build the world with the shovel. Thought I was making really good money at 21 years of age. But what would happen is in the winter time, I wasn't able to make the same amount of hours because I got paid per hour. I wasn't able to make the same amount of money that I was making during the summertime. My brother had been in the entrance industry and he said, Jonathan, you can come start working with me part time. You can work three days a week and make fifteen hundred dollars a week. And I'm like, man, if I can make that working seven days a week, like, hey, sign me up for that. So wintertime would rolled around, I got my insurance license because you do have to have your license to work with us. We're pretty highly regulated. Got my insurance license, started working Monday through Wednesday. I would work construction Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And I found out real quick that it was costing me to go work construction. Little did I know I'd make a career and create a business out of it 19 years later. And we help people with life insurance. That's all we do is very simple what we do. You can use life insurance for a lot of different things. Our bread and butter. We help families with mortgage protection. That's just a fancy marketing term for life insurance. People that buy a house or they refinance house, they're looking to protect that mortgage to where if they pass away. That way the mortgage can be taken care of. We have partnered with top rated insurance carriers. A lot of them are household names that you're very familiar with. Feel like we have some of the best products out there. A lot of these products do have living benefits. So if somebody has a critical, chronic or terminally ill, they can access their funds while they're still living. So it's one of those life insurance they don't necessarily have to pass away in order to use. So again, it's some of the best ones out there. I'm very partial to them obviously. And. But if you got the best products in the world, if you've got nobody to go see, what good is having those products. So what we do, we have qualified prospects, people who buy the house or refinance house. We send them a letter talking about protecting that mortgage in case of a death and or disability. If interested, fill the card out, give us a call, go online. However they respond, that's where you come into play. You give them a phone call. You try to set up a time, maybe in the evening. A lot of these families are still working, so you're going to talk to them later in the evening time and you want to set an appointment when both the spouses are going to be together. And we do it virtually. So when I say virtually is we get them on camera. So someone says, hey, six o' clock works for me. I give them a call at 6, I send them an email, I get them on camera. We don't do telesales, we do virtual sales. So it's just like I'm in their home but I'm just on their computer, laptop, phone. Most of these people are using smartphones nowadays and you know, I get them on camera. Then what I do is I go through the process and you get trained on that process. We do a daily call, we have websites, but you get a daily call every day to learn how that process works. You go through the process and find out what the problem is. Most of the time the problem is when the breadwinner passes away, the family cannot maintain the lifestyle. So they want a life insurance in place so that pays the family so they can stay in the house. Simple online process. I know before I hang up the phone with most of our carriers, if I put them on the appropriate plan, you make anywhere between five to seven hundred dollars per sale. Very simple. They don't have to take a physical. It's simplified issue. So typical day, you want to set six to eight appointments. In a daytime, you're going to sit with four families. Two people are going to reschedule. Life happens. They forgot they have practice for their kids, ballet, whatever's going on. But you will Sit with four people out of four people, you'll have one to two families a day. Yes. You make five to seven hundred dollars on our average commission based on helping those families. So it's a very simple process. All right? You make a lot of money. A lot of people start part time. Some people work on Saturdays. Saturdays are a big thing for us because a lot of people are working Monday through Friday, and they're trying to just make some extra income right now on Saturdays. But that's just a big overview about what we do. But I wanted you guys to hear from somebody who's been in the insurance industry. She's very young, but I think she started, like, right out of high school, maybe part time during high school. But I wanted her to share her journey and what it's done for her and her young family so far. So, Ashlyn, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to, you know, from running your appointments and helping us out. So I have no clue what just happened here.

I'm gonna stop the screen share. I don't know if you screen shared, but I'm gonna stop it.

Perfect. Perfect. So I may have hit the wrong button. Look, normally I don't run these zoom calls. I just get to talk on them. But I'm here trying to manipulate everything. But, Ashlyn, good evening. Man, a girl. Thank you so much again for taking the time.

Good evening.

So share a little bit, Ashlyn, about, you know, how you got introduced to the business. Number one, when you started, and what made you decide that you wanted to get into this insurance business?

So I got in this business by my parents. My parents started their insurance journey when I was about 14, give or take a couple of years. I was 14 or 15. And to make a long story very short, I just saw how their whole life changed. Like, my parents, we used to be on, like, food stamps and all these other things. And my parents are always stressed. And I just saw how the relationship changed. Our family dynamic changed. Our life changed is after my little brother passed away where our life changed entirely. And that's when my parents actually went full time in insurance, because my dad would always be gone for months on end or weeks on end sometimes. I remember one time he was literally gone for three months, and he showed up and surprised us and scared the actual crap out of us because we were not expecting him to be home. And I just. I watched their life change. And then when I got older, they were still in the insurance industry. I did not start in high school. I did get licensed Right after I graduated and I had this big idea that I was going to change the world and I was going to go to a different state and I was going to run insurance and do all these things. And I just was immature. Like if I'm being 100 honest, I was immature and young and I wanted to be young and dumb. And I didn't start running insurance until I was 19. That's when I took it seriously, is when I, when I turned 19. But I decided that I wanted a different lifestyle than, than most. Like I was always like, my generation is taught to go to school, get a job and all these other things. My dad was always self employed. He really never had a boss. I, I don't do good with people telling me what to do. I can honestly say I've had two jobs my entire life. I worked at Texas Roadhouse and I worked at a call center when I decided that I was going to be young and dumb. And that's how I got started. I just wanted a different life for myself. I wanted to be able to make my own choices, make my own decisions. Never saw myself as a business owner, if I'm being honest with you, but I wanted the lifestyle as one. And then I fell in love with my husband who wanted to go to orthopedic. He wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon and that's expensive. And he wouldn't. We weren't going to do the student loan route. Sounds like, listen, if you trust me, I'll put you through medical school. And that's when I really shot up in this business. But spoiler alert, he's not in school anymore. But that's really what I wanted. Like both of us weren't going to be able to. If we wanted a family, we're both gonna not be able to be in the medical field. I wanted to be a nurse. That's what I thought I wanted to do. I've always wanted to help people. I've always been that way. But I'm not good at school so that just wasn't an option.

Well, you know, I love your journey because I know a little bit about it is, you know, how you guys started off in college, you were going to put him through college. You know, you, you st step back for your career and you're like, hey, I'm going to support you and let you go live your dream. And you found out real quickly in this business that you can make more money than your husband was going to make being a surgeon, you know, you could absolutely come out here and say, I don't have to pay for all this schooling. I don't have to pay for all this malpractice, all this stuff. I can go out and make just as much money working for myself. Because that's the beauty about what we do, Ashlyn, is your income is not capped. Like, nobody can say, ashlyn, you're only going to make X amount of dollars. The only person that dictates is you. Talk about being self employed, 1099, how freeing that is. Because, you know, people say, well, she's only had two jobs, jb. Yes, I get that. But she gets to live a different lifestyle. So talk about how freeing that is, knowing that nobody can control your income and being able to make your own decisions and living life on your terms.

So I love it. I mean, there. I'd be lining if I said there weren't hard days. I'm 110, transparent and honest. There are hard days, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love being a business owner. I love being in control of my income. When my husband and I, like, he's a numbers guy. I'm not a numbers girl, but he is a numbers guy. And he made like a pros and cons list. Like when we would break even from med school, what we would lose, what we would spend, the numbers were actually ridiculous. And that's when he decided. He's like, look. And then I. We found out I was pregnant a couple of weeks later when, after he made that list. And he's like, look, I'm going to take a semester off. Let's see what we can do here. And I am forever grateful for the opportunity because the flexibility I had was I. I had a baby. I have one son. He's a psychopath. I love him to death. He's crazy. And I wanted to be present. I've always been super independent. I've always been that way since I was little. Very independent, very take charge. That's just my personality. But when I had my son, I went into labor super early. Like, I had complications when I was pregnant. And had I not have had this opportunity, we probably would have been homeless. Like, I'd be lying to you if I said we wouldn't be. My husband would have had to quit school. School. He would have had to go get a full time job. And we would have probably been barely making ends meet because my, my pregnancy was so complicated that I would go take naps. Like, there is a beanbag and a recliner in the side of my office over here that I would have to go take naps and put my feet up and do all these things in between appointments because I had so many complications and I was actually dialing when I went into labor, I had no idea I was in labor. And I was able to. I had my son early, but I was able to. And this is just the dedication that I had. And, and this is what we had to do because we didn't have people underneath us. Because you can also build a business here. Which is when I realized this is what we need to do. We need to build a business. Like, you can run your own pen, you can do all these things and protect as many families as you want. But the truth of the matter is that I realized the day I went into labor on October 14th of 2022 was, it doesn't matter what's in our checking account. We wake up broke every single day. Because if I go down, our income goes down. And bills don't stop. Bills do not stop. And so I was able to. My son was in the nicu, which was not planned. Our nursery was in shambles. I will never forget it. It is a day that is forever burned in my memory. Driving home from the hospital, I. Which is extremely hard to leave your baby at a NICU if you've ever had to do it. I feel for you, but it's extremely hard. We lived an hour away. My husband was still in school and he was like. Because we were going to finish out that semester, then he was going to take off. And that was the plan. Not planned on having a baby early. And I would drive, I'd pack up my bags. I have all my stuff together. I couldn't drive because I had emergency surgery. So my dad or my husband would drive me. We'd go to the hospital. I'd sit at the hospital all day long. I'd get there at 8am because like I said, I'm take charge. So I was there for his first feeding and I didn't leave until his last feeding. I wasn't there throughout the entire night, but I was there most of the time while he was napping. And in between his like feeding schedules and different things, I had a down pat while he was laying there. I would hold him in my arm and I would text or I would dial. Why I'm in the nicu. Um, that's how I would set appointments. And then while he was napping or he was doing his different things, when doctors came around and did their rotations, I would go downstairs and I'd run appointments in the cafeteria. And I was very honest with the people I was running appointments with because, like I said, I'm 110% transparent. Honest. I told them what my situation was. I was like, look, I'm in a nicu. I'm in the hospital right now. My son's upstairs sleeping. But you fill this card out, and I want to make sure you get the protection that you're looking for. So if you're okay with it, I will talk to you. If you're not, I completely understand, and that's okay. But this is what mortgage protection is. And nobody wants got mad at me, but I was able to. And it's not what we wanted to do, Right? That's not what we wanted to do. And that's when we looked at each other, we're like, why aren't we building a business? And that's when we made that decision. But it was what gave us that opportunity to be able to stay in our home and keep everything going when I had to stop. But I was able to write the apps I needed. I wasn't running 20 appointments a day or anything crazy like that, but I was writing what I needed to keep things going smoothly until my husband finished his very last semester, and then he hasn't gone back.

Well, I. Look, I took a semester off from college as well. And, you know, next semester, I'm probably going to take one more semester off, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to take another semester off, too. So there's nothing wrong with that. But, Ashlin, I. I want you to talk about, you know, when you guys were in college and, you know, things were tough. Like, the Ashland that everybody sees right now is not the Ashland back. A while back, you had a. You had eviction notices that you were hiding from. You had people knocking on your doors, getting ready to boot you out. Because there might be somebody on this call right now, Ashlin, that feels that might have that pressure right now that, you know, hey, the piling up, there's more bills than there are income coming in right now. But now you've transitioned and transformed into this Ashland businesswoman at such a young age. Talk about where you come from having those eviction notices to. To now. You know, if you want to share a little bit about, you know, how much money you made last year or maybe in the last six months, your biggest month, just to kind of give some people some hope that there is a system that can help you get out of the situation you might be in.

Yeah, So I got very short because, I mean, the call is not five hours long. I could talk forever. But so I got. I got married when I was 19, very young. I. I was not good. Like I said, I've always been independent. And I was the breadwinner, right? My husband was going to school. I was in charge of it. And I was young and dumb again. I mean, I was young. I'm like, I'm married. Let's have fun. Let's take off four months, whatever. And things got tough. Like, it gets tough for everybody. A lot of people are in very similar situations. I mean, bankruptcies are through the roof right now. The percentage of bankruptcies, which is crazy to me, but I understand it. So things got tough. We did have an eviction notice on our door. And I've always lived by, like, look, knock me down 100 times. I'm going to get up 101. I. I live. I learn through what I go through. That's trials has always been something I've just used as, like, a learning opportunity. So this specific one, the eviction notice was shortly after we got married, and we had to have that conversation. We're like, look, what do we want in life? Like, what do we want our dreams to be? What do you want our goals to be? What do we want our family, like, dynamic to look? Like? What do we want out of life? And we were very young. I think he was 22. I was 19. We were. Were babies. We were babies trying to make this big, grown decision. And we both looked at each other like, okay, this we got to do. And we made a very tough decision. That was not a decision that both of us would have wanted to do, but we look back at it, and it was the best financial decision we ever made. And we went full, like, all in. We bet on ourselves. We moved down to an area where I felt more comfortable. We were up, like, secluded. It was really not a good thing for me. Like, mentally, I was just drained, and it was just not a good thing for us. And so we made that decision. That was the first year that I made $100,000 here. Now we moved. I made $0.00 up to February. We moved in February, March. March was like, when we moved. We got our eviction notice in February. The owner, CEO of Equis saw something in me that I did not see myself. And that's what gave me belief in myself. It was. I needed it at the right time. I had no idea I needed it. And I. That year, I made a hundred Thousand. And then we. We just reevaluate our goals all the time. But one thing I'll say is the opportunity that we're given. I don't think people understand what the opportunity is. Is there are people that I talk to every single day who are like, look, I can't afford $10. And I feel for them. Like, I. I feel bad for them. But I am so grateful that if it came down to it and I couldn't afford $10, I can go write an application and afford $10. That's the flexibility I have. We've even started. Like, we just got a new car a couple months ago, and we're like, oh, it's just two applications. Like, that's how we. Like, that's how we base their stuff off of. But that's, like, the flexibility opportunity that we have on top of building a business where as people. Like, I. Like I said, I've always wanted to help people in any way I can. So I help people with mortgage protection, but I also help train agents. Like, today, I was training an agent most of the day. And that was the. The give I was willing to give, because I just want to see them succeed. And it doesn't mean, like, yeah, yeah, I make money off of it. It's great. But if I'm being honest with you, I care more about people than I do about the money. The money's great. Don't get me wrong. I'd be lying to you if I said it wasn't. But I care more about the people, and the money follows. And one of the mottos I live by is, if you do, it's right for the Lord's people. The world will do what's right for you. And that's how I've always lived. That's how I will live for forever. But we, like you said, Ashlyn, four years ago, is nowhere near who I am now. I've grown so much. Personally, my. Like, my mindset is completely different. The way my husband and I think about things is completely different. We had a lot of. We call them naysayers. And that was some of our own very close family that when my husband decided to take a semester off the school, you would have thought that we had killed someone's dog or actually killed a human. Like, it was. It was bad. Like, we had family, friends, people we don't even know calling us, telling us that we're crazy. And so we shut off the noise, and we both look at each other. We're like, all that matters is you, me, and that little baby right there, that was our son. That's it. And we were willing to do and give whatever it took. And we have that. We've had those conversations, which, if anyone on here is in a similar situation, we've had those hard conversations, and they're not fun conversations, but we have. What are we willing to give up to get what we want? Because where there is no risk, there is no reward. And we decided that we were willing to risk whatever it took. Like, we didn't. We knew that we would turn. Turn it around and come up the other side. But I've grown. I. I don't even know how to explain how much I've grown, because I've grown. I've. Our bank account's grown. Personally wise, I've grown. Mentally wise, I've grown. I handle things better. Storms aren't near as bad. We talk about storms all the time. Like, you're going through a storm, the storm will pass. But those aren't as bad. They get easier. But, like, this is just. I don't. I don't know how to explain it other than it's an opportunity with the compensation package and a personal development package attached to it.

Yeah, it's. It's not necessarily what you get is who you become. And I think you prove to yourself that you've got a little bit of fight in you. Right? Like, when you were down with the bills, you know, a lot of people are like, well, she was young. She. She had like, yes, there are some grown people, Ashlin, that get older, and they have. They're going through that same similar situation. And, you know, maybe they just are not in the right environment, number one, for growth. But also, they're not in the right environment that they can make enough money. They can't put enough hours in to make them out of money. The beauty about what you said is, at the end of the day, I can go out and make as much as I want. Like, the way you look at it, and I love it. You said, hey, the money, like, that's from somebody who's got financial independence. You can say that when you have financial independence, where you're like, hey, I'm not worried about the money. Because, number one, you're not worried about the money because you know you're gonna make the money. Right? But also that's from somebody who's not stressed out from bills. So you can say that from strength, because you know it is on you. So, Ashlyn, I'll ask you this. So results aren't typical And I really hate talking about money. I do sometimes. But I think some people want to know, is this really real? All right. Biggest deposit month you've had in the last five years. And I'll say this, the 4 0. If you don't work, you can make $0. So these results are not typical. What's been the biggest deposit month you've had?

Okay, I think it was within the last couple months. My husband's a numbers guy. I'm not. I'm not the girl. He tracks everything. It was somewhere around 36, 37. 36. 37,000, maybe. Yeah.

All right.

Somewhere around that number. It was. It was either 36 or 37. But we are going to break, break over 200, 000 this year, so.

And I say that because Ashlin works, okay? She puts in a lot of time working. So I say that is. I'm not promising you that's what you can make, right? Maybe if you develop the way Ashlyn has developed the skill set there, you have a shot here. That's the biggest thing that I think a lot of people are looking at, Ashlyn, is do I really have a shot here? So encouragement for the brand new person that don't know anything about our industry. What encouragement would you give them? Because right now you're putting on a clinic. I could go for two more hours, but I know you got an appointment coming up, but what would you advice would you give to the newcomer on here right now?

I mean, the advice I would give, if this is your very first I'll give two piece of advice if this is your very first introduction to the business. This is like you're just looking at the opportunity to see if it's something worth it for you. I mean, I would tell you I've never met anyone that it hasn't given them a better life or changed anybody's life. I talk to people every day. Everyone's looking for extra income. But you have to be willing to bet on yourself. You know what you're capable of. I do not. I know what I'm capable of, but I don't know what you're capable of. So that's a conversation you have to have with yourself. What are you willing to give up to get what you want? And if you're comfortable, if you're in a situation where you're comfortable living paycheck to paycheck and that's comfortable for you, that's fine. But if you're not, then this is a good opportunity for you where you can write your Own paycheck. And you don't have to worry about someone's thumb on you, telling you what you can and can't do. You don't have to worry that it have improved bed, something happened. You have a health issue or you have a baby or you have something come up. And you don't have to worry whether or not your job still there when you come back. Because I talk to people every day where they're like, yeah, my job only gave me a week of maternity leave. I'm like, you just had a baby. That happens. But they have to go because that's the only option. So you have to have that real conversation with yourself. If this is something that you've been kicking around for a little bit. Make a pros and cons list. What are you willing to risk to get what you want? And what do you want out of life? What are your goals? What are your dreams? And if it is something that you think would be good for you, trust the system. Trust your manager. Believe in the system, and believe in yourself. Like my motto. I have a lot of mottos, as you can tell, but one of my mottos is adopt Nike. Just do it. Just go all in and just do it. You can do it part time. You can do it full time. Please don't do it sometimes. It is an expensive don't do it sometimes part time, full time. But you can make whatever you want here. You're not capped. You can make 500 extra dollars a month, or you can make $36,000 a month. That's up to you. That's your work ethic and what you're capable of.

Awesome. Well, Ashlyn, hey, thank you so much again for taking the time this evening. Again. I know you got an appointment, so we try to run this real quick. So I look forward to having you back because you're getting ready to go to your next promotion. So I look forward to having you back so we can celebrate that.

Thank you.

You know, I love Ashlyn's story because, you know, I think it can relate to a lot of people, to where people feel like that, you know, they're just in. In a fight right now they cannot win. You know, having that eviction notice, having just the pressure of putting, you know, your husband through college and then having the naysayers now. Right? Like, I'm pretty sure now she pays for all their dinners. I'm pretty sure she sends them on vacation. Right? The people that told her not to do it. Right? And see, so maybe that's you out There, that's like, you know what, Jamie? There. I just want more. I feel like I could be doing more. If that is, you get with the person who invited you. You do have to have an insurance license to work with us. We're highly regulated in our space right now. So you do have to have an insurance license. It's an online course. You can go through it real quick. And once you have your license, you're going to work with several companies. The biggest thing that you're going to get with our company here is you're going to get a lot of support. We do this call every day. We call it the DRT Daily Roundtable. We do it six days a week. We. We all gather up. Ashlyn is one of the coaches that comes on and says, hey, what did you need? What do you need help with? Right? Like your front line. You heard somebody who made the amount of money she's made. I'm going to listen to her. So you're going to have the support. You're going to be able to make the money you want. You also are going to be able to build a business. So the goal, when you come in and I say goal for you, maybe it's just, hey, I just need to pay some bills. We've got a system for that. What we try to help you get to is a build a business. And when she talks about hiring agents, like, you have the opportunity to tap in to bring somebody in the business with you, and every time they go make a sale, you make money. So the goal is to get you to sales manager. That's you and three people on your team helping, right? At about 25 families a month. When you do that, not only do you make money on commissions, but, oh, by the way, you get a bonus of $1,000 a month bonus for just getting the sales manager. So that's where we want to help you get to. We want to help you get a sales manager. We want to help you to develop a skill set so you can go out and make the amount of money you want to make. And we want to help you get to sales manager. That's the first big promotion we try to get you to. So every Thursday night, we do this call. We come up and we. We give a brief overview, and we have a success story. So next Thursday night, I encourage you, if you're like, jb, this is something that I'm going to do. I'm going to get with a person who invited me, invited me to this call, get with them and invite you A running mate. Find you somebody. See, Ashlyn was fortunate. She had her mother as a running mate. She had her father as a mentor and a running mate. Right, so find somebody that you would want to do life with, that you want to do business with. Invite them to the call. It's not limited to 1. You can invite 3, 5, 10. I don't care how many you invite. But the goal is to get you to sales manager. You need three people on your team. We're gonna help you get there. So if you are somewhere right now, this. This is what I tell people. And I'll let. I'll let you go. I just got a few seconds. If you're where you're at right now and you feel frustrated and you feel like that, you know where you're at right now, you never can get to the next level. Look at the person who's been doing it five to 10 years where you're at right now. If you like that lifestyle, you might need to stay where you're at. Right? But if you look at it and say, jb, that's not that lifestyle. I want to live, maybe you need to change the scenery. This may could be the change of scenery. You can start part time, go out and help some families. And I think you'll find out real quick if you're willing to invest in yourself. Right? You heard Ashlyn. It basically, if you don't risk anything at all, you risk everything. So go bet on yourself. Find you a running mate. Invite you people to next Thursday night, 8 o' clock Eastern Time. I look forward to seeing you guys in. Get with the person who invited you. They're going to show you how to sign up for the course because again, you got to have your license. So we'll see you guys. Tom, excuse me. We'll see you next Thursday, 8 o' clock Eastern Time. You guys have a fantastic evening.