Cody Askins & Tanya Hughes Interview

Welcome to the CA Power Players podcast. I'm your host, Cody Askins. Today's guest is one of the top producers in the entire country, writing a ton of insurance. I don't even know that I need to quantify a ton, but it is a ton, and I'm excited to bring her to the channel. From CGH in Houston, Texas, please welcome Tanya Hughes.

Hi, Cody, how are you?

I am phenomenal. How are you?

I'm great. I'm excited to be here.

Well, I know you're crazy busy. Like, you really ran from an appointment. You were outside in humidity, lost some of the curls in your hair just to get here and hang out. So I appreciate you being here.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And I know you're super busy. Like, you got a lot going on. You write a good amount of insurance. Obviously, you know, not everybody's capable of accomplishing what you've accomplished, but what have you been up to lately? I know you've been accomplishing quite a bit lately.

What am I up to lately? Yeah, families. We're building an agency. You know, we're really looking for people to be able to help. Help them. Yeah, people.

Totally. And what do you think's been one of the. Before I jump in, like your story and background some other pieces, what do you think has been one of the, like, secrets to your success, so to speak, that's allowed you to write hundreds of thousands a year in insurance and help a bunch of agents at the same time?

You know, I think there's a couple of things. I think having the right resources available to you and having people that can help you through the process is huge. That, that to me, is a big thing. And the other part of it is being disciplined to your schedule. You absolutely. The hardest part of this business really is being disciplined to your schedule. Right. So motivation will get you somewhere, but being disciplined to your schedule is going to get you through the tough times. So I really believe that being disciplined to your schedule and committed to your schedule and putting yourself just like you're working a job, right. But you work for yourself, but you got to answer to you. So I would say that's probably the. The hardest part of this business. And the other part of the business is you got to have resources. Right. And. And you got to have the right tools to be able to understand this business.

No doubt, 100%. Yeah. I love that you're talking about, like, being disciplined and help you.

Right. I mean, to me, it's all about your leaders and mentoring and helping so that, you know, you got to find someone who really loves and cares about people and wants you to succeed just as much as they want to succeed. That's the bottom line.

Yeah. And when you say discipline your schedule, like I think there's a lot of agents that specifically struggle with that. Like they say they're going to wake up in cold and call. They don't. They're going to go door, knock. They don't. They whatever, you know, they say they're going to work out. They don't. Right. When you say being disciplined, your schedule, there's certain personalities I feel like struggle with that more than others. Have you always been good at that? Did you struggle with that before?

You know, I mean, I've always, I felt like kind of been competitive against myself in competing against myself. I've always liked the challenge. I always want to be my best self. But being set on a schedule, I mean, I've always been a list maker, but I think to, to truly set a schedule with times, no, I haven't always been that way. But when I came into this business, I knew I had to collaps, collapse those time frames and I had to make the most of every, every moment. Every moment counts, right? Like if I get a no show, I'm not scrolling Facebook and checking my phone and calling on this and getting distracted from all everything else in the world. I'm making dials or I'm helping agents. Right? I mean, to me, if I'm dedicated to working from 9 to 5 or from 7 to 7 and I get no showed, no show, no showed, that is not an excuse to stop working. That's just an excuse to go work some more. Does that make sense?

It does. It makes perfect sense, actually. I would love, for you, I think this would be super valuable for agents that are watching. I think they'll replay this over and over again, take a bunch of notes, leave a bunch of comments below. When you talk about your schedule, what does your schedule look like throughout the day, hours, amount of appointments when you dial? Like, can you kind of break down your schedule, your weekly schedule for us a little bit? I think it'd be super valuable.

Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, I definitely would say that my schedule looks like one. It's not just about the business. It's also what you do, like what you put into your body, because you got to be on your A game in this business. It's very important. Like what you put in your body, what you eat. Like that kind of stuff even makes a difference in your ability to be able to Focus in those appointments, right. And have the mindset. Right? So the way my morning would look like is I would get up early in the morning. Typically I'll prepare what I'm going to eat the night before, but I'll get up in the morning time. I'll make like a green smoothie, something like that, right? To kind of get my day going. I'll come up to the office, I'm going to read for at least 15, 20 minutes. Self improvement book, right? And then, man, I'm telling you, at 8 o', clock, I'm starting to make dials. That's it, man. Eight o', clock, it's dial time. Start making dials and set my day up 100%. So I make my dials until I said at least eight to 10 or 10 to 12 appointments a day, depending on what I want. My minimum is 8 to 10. It's 8 to 10 appointments a day. Right. If you're full time, I'm 100% virtual. I don't go in person. I used to be in person, but it was about, I guess, been almost a little over a year ago. I went 100% virtual.

That's awesome. What was that transition like?

Man, it was hard. It was very difficult. I'm not going to lie to you. It was difficult. I felt like I was a new agent just starting off. But leaders lead by the front. We have a team. I had agents counting on me and I knew I needed to set the example because I can't be hypocritical. So how do, as a leader, how do I teach something that I don't know? And so for me, it was putting my head down and getting to work and figuring it out. And I wanted to become not just I'm going to learn virtual, but I'm a master it. Right. And I am the number one virtual agent in all of Equis.

Wow. Let's go. How does that feel? Was there a time where you were ever, ever struggling in this business?

Oh, absolutely. When I came into this business, I was physically, mentally and spiritually completely broken. Cody. And you know a little bit about my story. You know, I've had six kids. I've had two special needs kids. I've always had a heart to help people, love people, care about people and want to want to serve other people. But I had never worked a day in my life. Never. Right. I was a stay at home mom of two special needs kids. My daughter got sick at age 12. She started passing out like 50 times a day. 30 non epileptic seizures. Basically became a quadriplegic at 17 years old. I knew hard. And when they told me this business is hard, I'm like, I already know hard, right? So I got introduced into this business just two weeks before our son passed away. And he was only three years old. So I was a. You know, when I came into this business, I had already known hard. And they said, man, this is, you know, this is hard. And I'm like, nothing's harder than losing the child. I can do hard, right?

True.

I can do hard. And so. And so really, for me, it was just putting my head down, right? When I came into this, I was spiritually, mentally, physically broken. Negative $400 in all four checking accounts. We didn't have any money. We had lost our home, we lost our car. And to top it all off, at the very last, you know, when you feel like the world's falling apart, well, to top it off, that's when we lost our son. I woke up one morning, he had had a silent seizure in the middle of the night. And my life has never been the same since then. And that's actually really our passion for why we do what we do is to protect people from the very thing that we've been through ourselves, right? We've lost our child. My daughter got sick. And we've actually are called the CGH Group. And it was done in honor of our son, which stands for compassion, grit and honor, because our son had compassion, grit, and honor. So everything we do, whether it's helping agents or whether it is helping a family protect the family, everything is done in honor of our son. So it stands for something for us.

Yeah, it does. Well, I appreciate sharing your story like that, because I know that there's others that can relate to that and have been through similar things in their life, you know, and. And they maybe haven't been able to bounce back, so to speak. You know, like, I would love to kind of talk through that, you know, just to recap, like, what you've been through and where you're at now. Man, it's a testament to continuing to get up and. And. And. And regain confidence and help people from a consumer standpoint, help people from an agent standpoint. And I can't imagine what that was like to go through that, because you talk about, like, losing home, car, child, and having to. Oh, by the way, then now we're gonna go do this new career, you know, and sell life insurance for us.

That was it, guys. It was sink or swim for us. I mean, to Be honest with you. Like, we put, we went and put a title on our, on our truck just to kind of get going. And it was the last car that we had. Like, it was sink or swim, you know, where there's no risk, there's no reward, right? And what I knew in this business is, you know what, we are gonna make it or we're gonna, we're, we're gonna fail trying, but I'm gonna give it everything I have, right? And I just put my head down. I followed a system. We have an incredible system with resources and tools to be able to, to help, assist, learn this, to learn this business. Right? But here's what I knew. The most important thing was 98% of this business is between your two ears. And who I am today is not who I was seven years ago. Yeah, right. I had to work on me. I had to self improve me. I had to be able to retrain my brain because I knew when, you know, Barry Clarkson says that over and over all the time, 98% of this is between your two ears. And I had a real problem because between my two ears was no good. Like, it was no bueno. It was horrible. After losing our son, I struggled really, really hard. But I'm also a testament, right, that, you know, with commitment and dedication and determination, you can take something, a trial, one of the hardest times of your life, and let it be a stepping stone to help you be the best you can be, right. And help you overcome and help other people overcome. So not only now can we I be there better for my clients, but I'm also there for our agents who struggle through it. Because I understand what it's like to struggle because I've been there. I know what it's like. I know the mental. The hardest part of this business is between your two errors, right? So we constantly get beat up in the field, we're constantly getting hit in the face, we're constantly getting smacked right. And we gotta do something to put in positive or we will get beat up and be out of the business.

True. And there's a lot that that ends up happening too. How do you go from, okay, for losing those things, five, four hundred dollars in your account, title, getting a title loan on your truck, the last remaining vehicle, just to survive and have enough money to actually give this business a shot. How do you build up that confidence and actually start to make this work and like, start to believe in yourself again and start to like, become, you know what I mean? Like, there's a lot of people that are going through a lot, that are going to watch and they're going to be like, I can relate to the story. But I also meant maybe there's people right now that are actually going through these things recently or they're in a mental state where they're mentally, physically, spiritually and or etc broken as well. And they don't know how to get.

Absolutely. Cody, Honestly, you know, I started with what I tell myself, right? I'm Christian. One of the things I remember the very first, like, very first petrified. Going to my first appointment, right? Just knowing and feeling just so much anxiety. And I would say things like, I can believe, you know, you know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm good at what I do. I protect people. I love what I do, right? And it's the. It's the things that we. It's not necessarily what we say out loud to everyone else, but it's the words that we tell ourselves that can make it or break it for us, right? And so I had a tendency to feed myself a log and a lot of negative self talk and beat myself up, especially after going through such a hard time. And what I realized is that that was not going to help me in this business, right? What I realized is when I could take something hard and help me be better through it, that's where. That's where I win, right? That's where I can feel like I'm fulfilling my mission that the Lord's given me. I'm obviously, I am Christian, so on my knees and on my feet. But you got to put in the activity, right? But here's what I know. If you're a brand new agent and man, you're just getting started and I'm just petrified. Go out there and try to do anything. You know more than they do. You pass the test. You do know more than they do. And I would tell myself, ooh, I know more than they do. I passed the test. I at least got that. I may not have anything else, but I got that right. The other part of it is you've got to have a mentorship. You've got to have someone, right? And that's what we do in our agency. It's very, very important that we're just not there to help our clients, but that we're always here to be able to help our agents, right? So they never feel alone. This can be a very lonely business, but you don't have to be alone, right? And that's so important to us. When we decided to build an agency. We decided we didn't want people to feel like a number. We wanted them to be treated like family. And that was important to us, right? So people could be treated like family. They can feel important and valued and loved. Right? And to me, it comes down to when you have someone, a mentor, right, that's guiding you, that's helping you, is they're going to be. They got to be that for you, right? And I had an incredible mentor and I knew that. I may not know everything, but I knew that I had the support that I needed. I had the tools, I had the resources that I needed to get the best thing for my clients. Even though I didn't know what I was doing, I must sit in front of lawyers. And I had no clue. I mean, that's petrifying. Sitting in front of a lawyer in person, at his office, you know? And the other thing too, Cody, is you've got to. You got to see it. You got to see yourself to be successful. You got to see the kind of person you want to be before and believe it before you can achieve it. You've got to see it to believe it, to achieve it. And so I would picture the kind of person I wanted to look like. What did I want my future to look like as a new agent? I pictured myself walking professionally. What would that, what would that successful person look like? Right? And then try to, like, in my mind, become that. Does that make sense?

Perfect sense. That's so good. Yeah. That's such good feedback. You also mentioned a mentor. So before we get to that piece, if they're like, you know what? I think Tanya Hughes can become a mentor for me. Maybe help me in some way. You know, if they want to reach out for help, where should we send them? What should they do?

I mean, absolutely, Cody. If they want to be mentored or they want to look at, I mean, they can also. Shoot. You caught me off guard because I don't know if they should text my husband or not. Shoot.

They can. Yeah, that's okay.

It's me. 713-701-9353. If you're interested in, you know, you know, being mentored more and learning this business, right? Here's what I can tell you, that this is what I can tell you about my husband and I. We throw our heart into everything we do. If that means I'm up at 11:30 or 12:00 clock at night helping an agent. When we chose to build this and we chose to do something in honor of Our son, We're going to give everything we have to you to help you. That's what I can promise you. I can't promise you it's going to be easy. I can promise you it's going to be hard. Right. If it was easy, everyone would do it. But I can also tell you that I know the steps that it takes. Right. I know what it takes to be able to find success here. And it's important for us that we're always there for our agents, to be able to help them, walk them through that.

Yeah. You can tell that you really do care a lot that you are doing this in honor of your son. Like, you can feel it today through the. Through the camera, through the microphone. Like, you can feel that. Like, you're.

I'll be honest. I don't look at the money. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Guys. Guys, the money just comes when you do what's right for the Lord's people. The Lord's gonna do what's right for you. And that's just how we live our life. We live our life the same way.

Yeah.

Sunday through Sunday, we don't change the office to be someone else. And that, like, we are who we are no matter where we are. Like, be. We're very honest and transparent with you. We give our. We give our heart. And really, we. We do everything we can to try to be there for our agents because it's important. It's. We've got a passion for it. It's made it. We've seen a difference in our life. I mean, you miss 100 of the shots you don't take. It was two weeks before our son passed away. I got introduced to this business, guys. Okay, did I jump right back out, Cody, and go do this? Absolutely not.

Okay.

I wrote about $5,000 when our son first passed away. And I literally. I know it helped go to bury him, but, guys, we were that gofundme. My friends actually put a gofundme together because my husband, we had gone through the. Oh, wait, the crash, all that stuff.

We.

We've had two special needs kids. We were that gofundme. I'm not gonna lie to you. And I'm so grateful that, you know, I had a friend that did it. But I never want someone to feel the way I felt. And that was when I woke up the morning he passed away. I remember clearly going, oh, my gosh, my son passed away. And the very next thing I remember was this. We don't even have the money to bear our own son. And I never want to feel that again because I know what it feels like. That's horrible. That. That second thought as a mom that I was the most worried about, right? That. That was the most worrisome. So did I just jump back in, Cody? Oh, no. It took me six months. I. It took me six months before I really go. Okay, but here's the thing. When I decided I'm going for it, I'm going for it, right? I wasn't 50% in. I wasn't 30%. I'm all in, 100% in. So when I decided I'm in for 90 days, I put my head down and I went to work. I did everything my mentors told me to do. I was number two in the company my very first year out. And since then, I've been number two or number three in the company since then. Now, obviously, we're building an agency now, and I am slowly pulling back. Right. So that the more. The more I pull back, the more I'm able to be available to our agents, to be able to help them and to help them to win for their families.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Also, to recap real quick, you said 713-70-1-9353.

Yes, that's. That's my direct number.

Got it.

And then my husband's number is 713-820-1956. And if I'm honest with you, my husband typically talks to the agents and kind of get them on board when we're looking for the right people. And then I do the training. So it's a checks and balance system. And it works, right? Because I. I help train agents.

It's cool.

That's what I do.

I love it. I do want to go back to one.

We do a call every morning, too. Every Single morning. It's 9am we're on a call. I mean, does not matter at all. It is nine o' clock in the morning. I'm on that call, and I'm helping agents, and we're working with them. And what can we do to help you? And how can we help you overcome your obstacles? And what were your obstacles yesterday that you need help today? Or what was the objection that you had? Right. I mean, it is when we say that we're there for you, we're not just. We don't just talk the talk. We walk the walk. Right. Leaders lead by the front. And I never want to be a leader that didn't lead by the front.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you're doing that because you're also. While helping agents selling a lot of insurance. How much insurance do you have to sell to be the number one virtual agent for Equus?

A lot? Yeah, I don't think. Like a lot.

Yeah, like a lot a lot. Yeah, like a lot a lot. You said eight, ten appointments a day. How many days a week?

Typically four days a week. Monday through Thursday is typically what I. What I work. You know, I do work when you don't work. So I, you know, my last appointment may be nine o' clock at night. Sometimes it's earlier. Here's what I love about Cody. If I want to take off, I can take off.

Yeah.

If I want to go somewhere, like, half my team doesn't even know I'm gone when I go, because I come back and I bust it and I write a ton of business in two days if I was never gone. So the, the great part about this business is you can work your own hours, you can take off when you want to take off. The bad part about this business is you can also take off when you want to take off. And there's not that accountability. Right? And so, but. But I love the fact that I'm not chained and I can't. If I want to take off, I can take off. If I want to go on a vacation and come back and then work hard, great. I can do that. Right. I know what I need to do to be able to hit the numbers that I need to hit. And so if that means I want to, you know, take a long weekend, great. We took a long weekend and we just go, right. People constantly are asking, oh, my gosh, you're leaving again. I'm like, yeah, like, we couldn't travel the way when, when my. When I was a caretaker and I had two special needs kids. Because, remember, I had six kids. I didn't just have like one or two.

Yeah, right.

I had two special needs kids. My life was in and out of hospitals. That's all I knew. All I knew is in and out of hospitals. I've seen the other side, right? And we couldn't travel a lot, and now we can, right? And so it's nice that you can just go, you know what? I want to work hard and then reward myself. Right? And I would say, if you're a new agent, you still got to reward yourself. You know, I have a daughter. I said, listen, you'll get burned out if you don't reward yourself. So if that means, hey, when I hit this Number then I get this. For me, when I first got going, I had one insurance outfit, I kid you not. And I would wash it every day and re wear it because that's all I had. Right. And so the first thing was, I'm gonna go give me another outfit. Right. And you just make it work. All I have is stay at home mom clothes. I mean, you know, sweatpants and, well, you can't wear that to an appointment. Right. So I just gradually, you know, got more things. Right. But you got to reward yourself. It is a hard business, but you don't have to be alone. If it was easy, everyone would do it. But I would definitely say that where there's no risk, there's no reward, and everything is on the other side of fear. And so if you have a lot of fear and you have a lot of anxiety, like you don't know what's on the other side until you fight through that fear. Right. Opportunity is sitting on the other side of fear. And I was fearful. So you gotta face your fears. You gotta face your fears and just remember that you're not alone.

True, true. Well, I am super am very encouraged by everything you're sharing. Another ton of agents will be as well. I appreciate you sharing this today. Super impactful story. Where you all came from to where you are now is incredible. And it's a testament to what is possible for other agents around the world. Really is.

Absolutely, Cody. With, you know, with the right tools, the right resources and the right mentorship that, I mean, I really feel like even with no education, guys, I never had a job before. All I knew is how to take care of kids. But if you love and care about people, and you people like to do business with people they like and trust. Right? So if you love and care about people. I tell our agents all the time, I, I can't teach you everything. But if you love and care about people and you use the tools and the resources and the mentorship, then you have a great shot at winning. Right. Can we promise it? Can't promise it, right? You can't promise everything. I don't know. Do you have it in your or not?

I don't know.

Right. But sometimes you don't know until your back's up against the wall. And I'll be honest, Cody, if my back was never up against the wall, I don't think I ever would have. I really don't. If I had not laid everything on the line. Like, are you willing to put everything on the line if you had to sell your Furniture and have nothing in your home. Would you bet on you? Because you gotta bet on you before you can ever make it in this business. You gotta bet on you. Because if you're not gonna bet on you. Do you think anyone else is? No.

That's so good, man. I'm excited. I'm ready. I'm ready to go back selling some insurance virtually. This is great. Tanya, you are. You are awesome. Thank you for being on the Power Player podcast. Share yalls numbers one more time for any agent that wants to reach out.

Yeah, absolutely. So my direct number is 713-701-9353 and Michael's is 713-820-1956. And we can also give you our email if you want. Or I can give you Michael's email.

Sure.

Or the Facebook, whatever you want. Or our Facebook's out there. We have CGH group, is our Facebook. And we also have an Instagram that's CGH group as well.

Cool. I love it. And when she says her husband, she's referring to Michael. So Michael.

He typically will talk to people about the business, explain the opportunity. You know, I'll be honest. We're looking for the right people, but I don't want everyone. I'm just being honest with you. I want the right people. Like, I'm looking for the right people with a heart that want to help, love and serve people and. And are willing to put their head down and work right. And that's it. That's who we're looking for. We're looking for the right people. We don't want everyone, but we want the right people.

Yes. Phenomenal. Well, thank you for being on the podcast. I appreciate you being a part of this today.

Absolutely. It was nice seeing you.

Yeah, you too. Thank you, Tony Hughes. Thank you all for listening to the Power Player podcast. We appreciate you today.

Activity wins talent every time of the week.

It does. So start being active. Okay. And then you know what? Talent's gonna come. Maybe one day you wake up, you'll be telling you freaking Hughes. Okay. Thank you guys for listening to Power Player podcast. We will see you on the next episode. Adios.