Joe Hayes

Foreign.

Hey, welcome, team. We're so excited that you're here with us today. Man, speaking of technical difficulties, man, when we. When we have the technical difficulties on Monday, I'm like, man, we got to get y' all on the call. He was so prepared. He was so ready. Screens froze up. And he is such an amazing leader and agent. And I just wanted you guys to hear what he actually had prepared because he put a lot of time into it. And we're really excited to hear from you, Joe, and what you've been doing here to find success. Tell us a little bit about you and how you found Equis.

Well, thank you, Tanya and Noel. I am just honored to be on the call today to be able to talk to my Equus team. But really, I believe it was God that brought me to Equus. I listen a lot to Jamie Trent on his podcast on John Kai's team, and he always. The first thing out of his mouth is, praise God for all the success we're having at Equus. And I wholeheartedly agree that I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for him. I don't believe in coincidences, and I know that that's why I'm here today. But really, I. Looking back, you know, if you look at the difficulties in your life, in your past, if you look closely, you can see the hand of God in your life guiding you to where he wants you to be. Because sometimes we don't always choose the right path, right? We start heading down a different route. And so he puts up little detours or roadblocks or road signs to get us back on where he knows that we need to be. My dream was to become a graphic designer. And so, I mean, like John Kite would tell you, most of America, we're taught to go to school, get good grades so we can go to college and then get a good job. So my dream was to be a graphic designer. So I got a. I got a job to get me through school. So in 1994, I hired on with Costco, and my goal was just to graduate and then and get a real job. Well, you know, long story short, my job at Costco was paying more than then what I was going to make as a graphic designer. And by that time, I had been diagnosed with diabetes. I had a new little girl. I needed income, and I needed a job with medical benefits. And so I gave up my dream to be a graphic designer so that I could provide for my family. And so that's when I Decided I was going to start climbing that corporate ladder. And I found that every rung up the ladder I was making more money, but I was spending less time with my wife and my family. But I just thought that's what a husband and father are supposed to do. But I realized after being in management for about 10 years that I was coming home after long 15, 18 hour days at work, sometimes six days a week, and I was barking at the kids, I was short tempered with my wife. And when one day when she told me, you know, you're not the same man that I married, you're not the same father to our children that used to be. And so after doing some soul searching and praying for guidance, I, you know, I got the guidance, I got the direction that I needed. And again, looking back, it was a hardship. I got, I got demoted my job. And this was a week after we had closed on our new house and I was due for a raise here. Pretty soon that was all taken away from me. So I got knocked down the ladder a few rungs and it was very humbling and I couldn't afford my new mortgage. Now my wife was diagnosed with diabetes, so I really needed those medical benefits. I couldn't give up that job, but it just wasn't making, I wasn't making ends meet. And so I had to go and ask for help. I was talking to the bishop of our church and he was helping me out financially for a little bit. And so God bless him for that. But after a while, I felt like I wasn't being the provider that I needed to be. And I was sick and tired being sick and tired and sick and tired of being poor. And so I asked him, you know, for guidance and he said, you know what, you need to, you need to go talk to James Noel Hughes. They're doing something that maybe you might be interested in. So that's how I found Equis.

So, Joe, you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, right?

You bet, man.

I totally remember when I was there, you know, and you just knew there had to be something better, right? Now, Joe, you are an exception to the rule. You have stuck through the hard times, you fought through it. And your learning curve was very different than most people's, right? I remember the first convention that you went to. And I remember, I remember very clearly looking at Noel and going, he's going to be awesome. But he's got a learning curve. He's got a hit. And that learning curve is believing in himself, right? Believing in you. And so Joe, you're not the same person you are today as I was. I'm not the same person I was four years ago, Right? You look yourself in the mirror, you're like, man, I'm a little bit different. Right? You stand a little taller, hold yourself a little higher. We call the cash flow glow. I don't know what you want to call it, right? No coincidences. You're here with us for a reason. The Lord. The Lord knew that we needed you. And we're all, each and every one of you on this team, Call and on our team and Russ's team and Gills and Scott, the whole hierarchy, we're all here for a reason. With Bill Lampe and all of you guys, right? We're all here for a reason, and that's to make a difference. And I think sometimes opportunity presents itself in a hard way, and it looks like work, right? It looks like. It looks like work. It looks like every door is closing. And I love there's a quote that says, when all the doors close, if you look closely, you'll find a window, right? Equus was that window for us, just like it was for you. So, Joe, tell us a little bit about your learning curve. So many of you guys I know are plugging in, but I mean, did you just come out running like a bull out of a china closet, man, closing everything left and right, or did you have a struggle? Or was it easy for you? Before you tell us about your learning curve, one thing I want to say about Joe, no matter what, he was on every single call, although he was only part time, he was full time plugged in. And that is the key here, Joe, because why? Because when you had an opportunity, you didn't have to learn. You were learning all along. So tell us a little bit about your learning curve.

Well, I'll tell you, it's funny that you mentioned that, because I'm looking at my screen here, and one of the people on this screen had said something a long time ago that if you don't believe plugging in is important, try and plug in your refrigerator for a few days, right? Bill Lampe, and I don't know if he's some sort of prophet or not, but a couple weeks ago, we lost power here in Texas. And so, yeah, my fridge was unplugged for a few days and things started to stink. And I knew that if I didn't plug in, my opportunities and my success with Equus were going to stink. It also had a lot to do with my schedule. The leaders, the people that find success here at Equus. They protect their schedule. And I wasn't in complete control of my schedule working for Costco 40 hours a week. And I don't know if anybody's familiar with retail, but the busiest times are evenings and weekends. That's when they needed me there. Well, those of you who are running business, you find that most of your people are available evenings and weekends, right? And so I had a difficult time, you know, trying to serve two masters there. And so I didn't find consistent success. I couldn't find a consistent schedule to run. And so because of, of the plugging in and hearing, sometimes you gotta take a leap of faith. And so I took that leap of faith and I stepped down to part time with Costco so that I could have a little more time to run appointments. And I was able to kind of see what I could really do with Equus. And so yeah, my learning curve, it wasn't a 90 day learning curve like Noel says everybody will have. Mine was more like 390 days. But I was able to see that, you know, I can do this and I want to do it more successfully. And so, you know, we talk about plugging in. Tanya, you were talking the other day about a seed and how we plant a seed here at Equus. But if you just plant a seed in the ground and don't do anything with it, it's not going to grow, right? The. In order to, in order to make that seed grow, you gotta, you gotta do some things. And not to be outdone by Nick Theodore or Matthew Weiner, you gotta water those seeds.

Joe, before you go through this, I want you, I want to say something that to me is even more rewarding, okay, than anything because I want you to see that Joe is not the same person. When we come here, we come like a seed, like you said, right? And you grow. I went over to Noel, right, His upline house. And I had no idea there's this girl there sitting on the couch. And I just started talking to her, having a conversation. And she said, and I said, oh my, by the way, my name is Tanya Hughes. And she goes, wait, are you the Tanya Hughes? I'm like, I'm just Tanya Hughes. And she goes, wait, the Tanya Hughes with Equus? And I'm like, yeah, I'm just Tanya Hughes. And she was the tiny that like my dad is with. And, and, and at that point I'm like, wait, who's your dad? And she goes, joe. And I said, joe Hayes. And she Goes. She goes, yes. And she looked in the eyes and she goes, my dad is not the same person that he was. My dad is not who he is. And I want you to know, she goes, you need to know that Equus has changed him. He has not only given me the data I always wanted, but the husband that my mom always wanted. Guys, do you know that it meant more to me than any dollar amount you could ever imagine to hear like out of the babes of the mouth, out of the little kids. She saw the change in her dad and what a difference that Equis is making, not just for our financial books, but in who we are and helping us be the best we can be, right? Joe, you are absolutely incredible and amazing and that seed is growing just like you are and you are sharing the opportunity and so I am going to hand it over to you to tell us a little bit about what you have done to help that seed grow.

Well, I was going to talk about watering the seeds, but now I am watering it with my tears. So thanks, Tanya. No, that is my sweet girl, Avery. She is my angel, my little, my baby 15 year old girl. And yeah, it meant a lot. She never mentioned that to me. I didn't know that. For those of you listening in until Tanya had shared that with me a week ago, I didn't know that story of their conversation. But yeah, it's definitely changed who I am as a husband, as a father, as a child of God, just as a human being, Equus has changed who I am. And a lot of it comes from the association of amazing people, but it also comes from the plugging in. And that's how I talking about, you know, watering a seed. This is what I do to plug in, okay? Every, every Monday I'm on the Equus live, right? And then this is my cup of Joe here that I fill up to get me through the week. And then of course we got Bill Martin's Jumpstart Live, right? And that fills up my cup of Joe a little bit. We have our live dial sessions here as a CGH group and as a rumbo master agency, this team call that we had this morning. Never miss it. And then of course what we're doing right now, fight to ignite. I'm glad that you're all on here. I've already been through the six week course, but you can guarantee I'm signed up for another six because I maybe don't remember everything from the last six weeks. So I gotta come back again. What do we have Here, this is Bill and Rob's adventure hour. That's kind of old school, but when I'm in the car in between appointments, you know, maybe I had a bad appointment, I plug into that and that fills my cup a little bit. Etc's, you know, we used to have those back in the day when we could have when there were no Covid restrictions occasionally. Etc has helped fill my cup. I mentioned Andrew Pappas and Jamie Trent. The Point Blank podcast. If you all haven't plugged into that, that's amazing. For in between the appointments, then John Kite, he's got one with the Cornerstorm group that's called the Good Life podcast. These are all ways that I fill up my cup, but as you can see, it's not quite full, is it? And so that's why I would never ever miss a national training convention. Because what happens there, Your cup's going to be overflowing, baby, and that's going to get you through a long stretch. So do not miss the opportunity to plug in.

Man, Joe, is there any question to why he is finding the success that he is? Man, he is the ultimate example to me of, of plugging in. I know when a call is on where he is going to be. I know every single, every single time. And you know what? He didn't see the results immediately. We don't always see the results immediately, but plugging in every single time, he was gaining little nuggets of information that absolutely are helping him. And now he is building his own team and he is able to share the knowledge that he is learning as he is growing and becoming that leader. We are so proud of you, Joe. I know your numbers really took a huge spike in, in October. Can you kind of tell us like what happened and what like real quickly like how did that spike happen and what do you feel like was the helped you in that huge spike in October to see those numbers grow?

Well, it was definitely, it was a blessing in disguise and a lot of us call it COVID 19. You know, some people talk about how what a terrible year 2020 was. It was one of the best years of my life, of my career. But sometimes you have to look for that silver lining. But I was given the opportunity. Well, I was cashier at Costco and so we were wearing masks, we were wearing gloves, we had plexiglass up. Everybody was standing six feet apart and had a customer want to come through my line that wasn't wearing a mask. And I've got diabetes, my wife has diabetes and asthma. I have a 19 year old son with diabetes. The last thing I wanted to do was bring Covid home to my family. And so I stepped away and had a supervisor take care of this member that didn't want to wear a mask. Well, later that day I got called into the manager's office and he said to me, joe, do you have a problem taking care of our members that aren't wearing a mask? And I said, well, I'm just concerned about my family's health and well being. And he said, well, you know, we've got plexiglass, we got gloves, you're wearing a mask. If you're still concerned about it, maybe you need to take a leave of absence. And I said, well, what does that mean? And he said, well, you won't get paid, but you'll still have your medical benefits. And I said, where do I sign? Because as Barry Clarkson quotes Zig Ziglar all the time, that. What does he say? Gotta refer to my notes here. If you are opportunity, I lost it. No, here we go. Zig Ziglar. I'm sorry, guys, here it is. Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation. I was prepared for that opportunity. When my boss told me, you need to take a leave of absence. I knew that was my opportunity to run full time with Equus. And so it was a blessing in disguise. And so since October, I've been able to run full time with Equus. As you notice, my numbers, you know, shot up, my confidence has shot up. I'm able to set a schedule in place, and I'm just looking forward to what, what's in store for me ahead, man.

Thank you, Joe. I mean, you're, you're absolutely incredible, an incredible example to everyone here, right, of what plugging in really does. You know, had you not have been plugging in, you would not have been ready to run the way that you ran when you had to sign the paper. Not providing for your family. Can you imagine what that would be like if tomorrow you're sitting there at work, if you're working, let's say you work part time, you have a full time job right now and you're on the team, you're just doing this part time and tomorrow your boss tells you, I need you to sign this line, you're no longer working for us, Right? That's exactly what happened to Joe. But you know what? Joe wasn't worried because he knew he had been plugging in and had a way to go. He was just looking. He was just looking for the right time to Take off. And you know what? Although, yes, he has been there for. Because of the benefits and that kind of thing, we've got a plan in place for Joe to be able to completely leave Costco. He's going to be leaving Costco soon and have his own benefits in place and is a perfect example of not only an agent, but a leader and a rock star. So, Joe, you what? There's people on here that may be struggling, having a hard time. You went through a hard time yourself. Can you tell us, like, what advice would you give maybe a struggling agent out there who. Who is struggling just, you know, just to make it here today?

Well, if I could say one thing, what we say here at the CGH Group is you need to go ape. Okay? The acronym ape APE A stands for attitude. Okay? You got to have the right attitude, and a lot of that comes from self development, reading books. We do the book of the month here every month. We're reading a book every morning, sometimes every night. So you got to get your attitude ready. The P stands for preparation, and that's plugging in. That's having leads so that you're ready to dial. That's getting up early, that's sometimes going to bed late, but being prepared. And then E is the effort, okay? You got to put forth the effort. And, you know, I'm big on plugging in. I really am, but plugging in is not everything, right? It can only get you so far. So I've got this. I got this drill right here, but it's not plugged in, okay? So I'm gonna plug this baby in. Nothing happens unless I pull the trigger, right? So plugging in is great, but it is not everything. You still have to put forth the effort. You got to have the activity and pull that trigger. Okay? So that's my two cents. Back to you, Tanya.

Awesome. Hey, Joe, I think everyone can see exactly why you are successful. And we're so excited to see where Equis takes you as you continue to grow and build your team. Guys, Joe is. Joe is just out there making it happen, just like you. If you're a struggling agent and you need someone to talk to you, Joe is the absolute perfect person. And I know Joe's heart. Call him, message him.

He.

He will help anyone. He has such a servant heart and. And honestly loves people. And we are so blessed to have you on our team. So thank you so much on your team.

Love you.

We love you too. Thank you so much for sharing everything you know. To me, Equis doesn't just change our bank accounts, but truly changes our lives and helps us become the absolute best we can be so that we can help others become the best that they can be, too. So, Noel, back to you. Thank you, Joe, for everything. We absolutely love you. And thank you, everyone, for being here.

Thank you so much, Joe and Tonya, if that is not a testament to build your team, I don't know what is. Because what I found is my agents bless me way more than I bless them. I work with the best people in Equus Financial. We have the best team, and we are just one big, huge family that just keeps growing. And, Joe, you bless us. Our team culture is what it is today because you are on our team and we just love you. And that was incredible. I know you touched so many people and inspired a lot of agents to keep going. Joe pushed through like a year and a half learning curve. Like when he said 390 days, he was not joking. It was like 390 days of riding that struggle bus, Joe. But he built that confidence. That's what he lacked, right? He lacked that confidence to believe in himself enough to do it. And he built that. And now he's ready to pull the trigger. And now he never has to go back and ring up another item at Costco. Next time he steps foot in Costco, he's going to be shopping and someone else is going to ring up his items. And so we just love you, Joe. We're so proud of you. And I am so excited to see your team grow and see you grow here at Equus. And I know you're going to grow fast and you're going to go far.

212, baby.

212.