Live Chat with Steven

Foreign.

Stephen, to be able to kind of talk about lessons learned, right?

Like.

Just be real. Like, this is. You don't have to get into the details of the wise, you know, that's, you know, for you. And it can be personal. You're gonna have to lean over here.

I'll.

I'll switch over for just a few minutes of just lessons learned. Because I think we all learn from each other, and I think, well, I'm getting ready to walk away, but there's a lot of value in learning from each other, right? A lot of value in.

My.

My grandpa. I know I've told you guys, I think everybody in here has been here long enough to have heard it, except for maybe Thomas. But one of my grandpa's favorite sayings was, a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others, you know, and so we're all pretty wise people, you know, and not that Steven's made mistakes, but Stephen. Stephen hasn't done anything that any of us haven't done, but he's, you know, we've noticed over the last few weeks. I've had great phone calls with you, you know, over the last couple of weeks, and he's put his on the accelerator, and I just wanted to have you maybe share with the crew, you know, a few minutes on what that's, like, lessons learned and how you've been able to kind of make that switch and change the trajectory of what you're doing. And then when Stephen's done, tiny, I'm just going to turn it over to you, and I'll be back in 30 minutes.

Yeah. So this was. This is completely unscripted. So I'm kind of firing from the hip here. I was not expecting this.

You're good.

I don't know how far back you want me to go, but, you know, like Thomas, I came from. I was almost 20 years in the grocery industry. I was a store manager with Kroger for any of you that don't know. And for a long time, I did like it, but absolutely got to the point where I just absolutely hated going to work every day. It was horrible. And then, like Thomas, I was working just crazy hours, sometimes 100 hours a week. And. And so I wanted to get out. Right. So that's.

That.

That was the. Why. My kids. My wife hardly spent any time with them, you know, so. So I committed. I'm gonna get out. I went through several different IMOs before I came to Equus. So I get. I guess that was. That was a Big thing for me, a lesson that I learned was, was that, I mean, for me, it was Michael and Tanya. It wasn't Equus. It was Michael and Tanya. There was connection there. I trust them. Who you associate yourself with is probably the most important decision that you're going to make in a lot of aspects of your life. But certainly your professional life, but even your, Your personal life, your, you know, your, Your network is your net worth.

I love that.

Who you, you know, show me your friends, I'll show you my. Your future, that type of thing. So I didn't come to work. Please. What is it?

I'll show you your future. I love that.

It' on same writing as you.

And I'll show you your future. You. Your.

Your future.

Future.

So that's. That's what got me here. I was trying to put future.

You're good. There you go.

Future. So that's ultimately how I landed at Equus. I had, um, you know, I got contract with different carriers, different IMOs and all that stuff. Gosh, some of the lessons I've learned, I. I knew I needed to enjoy what I was doing. So it is work. So of course, you know, there's a lot of days I don't feel like working. There's. And there's. There's been many days where I've chosen not to. There was when, when I felt like really desperate. I know that me and my wife, I'd gone a couple of months without making any money. So we were just living off of our savings. And so we had this conversation. She said, stephen, and. And she gave me a date. And it was. It was a good chunk of time, maybe six weeks. You know, you have to make at least some money, you know, before X day. And it was. And I remember it was like December 10th or December 12th, something like that. And then I came down to my first training here, and that was the first week of November. You're ready. Last year. Yeah, I was. Well, I don't. I. I don't show. It's the phone.

Like almost half out the door.

Well, yeah, I mean, I'll tell you. Ex. I was at. So I. When I. When I quit Kroger, my very last day at Kroger was the first day that I. That I slept at the place that I live now. So I moved from the Metroplex. DFW Metroplex. An hour and a half north east. Way out in the middle of nowhere. Like my neighbors are. Thomas knows. Yeah, Northwest. Sorry. Yeah, Northwest. Sorry.

Neighbors are horses.

My neighbors are horses. Cows. And that's it. Yeah.

Good network.

Yeah. So. So now I live. You know, I've committed to the whole virtual thing pretty much because there's. There's just not a lot of money out there in the middle of nowhere unless. Unless you're in oil and gas, that type of thing. So I pretty. Pretty well committed. But the first couple of IMOs that I'd gone through, they were just very. They were not nearly as invested. It didn't feel like. Like my. My first time coming down here. You came and you sat next to me on the entire day. You were very. I just felt very appreciated, and I felt like you wanted what was good for me, and I didn't get that from the other guys, so. But anyway, so my wife told me, basically, you got X number of weeks to start making money, or I'm going to have to either go back to Kroger and commute an hour and 20 minutes each way, or I'm gonna have to go get a job in town at tractor supply or something like that. Right. So that's what I was looking at. Came down here and just got fired up. Right. Doing exactly what we're doing today. Pretty much. Right. You gave me a lot of tools. I told you what I was doing. You told me I was crazy. Do you want to do it this way? And so I came back and wrote my first application that following Monday. Yeah. So. And then I'd like to say I never looked back, which I guess I haven't. But I got to the point where, I mean, I got the hang of it. I got to the point where I knew if I put in this effort, this is what I'm gonna get out of it pretty all the way up until, I don't know, a month ago, something like that. And I kind of left my foot. Foot off the gas. And this happened a couple of times. Because the hard part for me, the hard part for me is you build up the bank account a little bit, and you just want to be like.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know what?

I'll be honest about. The bike was like, it's just a matter of time. His bank account is going to keep getting lower, and he's going to call and say he's ready to get going.

Yeah, yeah, now we see it. Yeah.

Right?

Yeah. Yeah. And. And so that's, you know, so I've already told. I've already told Thomas. I've told him that that's my weakness. So, like. Like it or not, Thomas, and then, like, I'm trying to get Something going with, you know, with you guys to where we can just, you know, help, help hold me accountable because I'm terrible at it.

Accountability partners.

Accountability partners. Yeah, that's.

I think that's awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cause that's the hardest part for me. And you know, it's not compared. What drives me crazy is the job. The job that I used to do, being a store manager, grocery store. I can't imagine anything more stressful than what I was dealing with after Covid to being half staffed. Expectations never went down. Expectations only went up and up and up. Your store has to be perfect all the time. You got to do it with brand new department heads, people that just don't care at all about their job. If you have to work 120 hours, you got to work 120 hours. And each way was, was an hour drive, you know, to and from work. So it was just, it was terrible. So going from that, doing what, what we do, it's no, there's no stress.

No one makes you show up is the thing. Right, that's the thing.

Yeah, exactly. You know, but, but I was perfectly willing to drive an hour and then work a minimum of 10 hour shift and then drive an hour home. I mean, for somebody else. Right. So why would I not do that for myself? So I constantly have to. And then kind of, you know, Tanya and I were talking a few minutes ago. My favorite thing about this, about this business is that you, you get rewarded for working on yourself.

Yeah.

So. So after, after talking with Tanya and this is, you know, months ago, you know, I've been trying to do just incrementally little things to better myself. So I am not religious about it. I, I can't stand up here and say that I do it every day. But I can tell you that I make an honest effort to, you know, follow a schedule. Go morning. Then I do 15 minutes of reading the Bible, 15 minutes of, of reading whatever book it is. It might be the book of the month with Equus, but right now it's thinking, grow rich. There's been other books and when you just follow these things, as I'm running, I listen to the mindset, mentor. And on days that I do that, I have great days almost without fail. And so what I've realized. Right, exactly. Yeah. And I just do it basically because that's what I know successful people do. And then what do you know, when I go running, then after I'm done running, then I'm like, wait a minute now. Now my mind feels Way sharper. Maybe that's why, you know, maybe that's why successful people exercise in the morning, you know. So all that to say, the really cool thing for me is that doing this and trying to become successful at this, it's like a win, win, win. Because the way that you do that I found is by just improving yourself in general, become a better person in general. You're going to be a better father, a better husband or wife, you know, what have you. But that's my favorite thing is because I get rewarded by improving myself.

So it's a two person ask Stephen, what was your best week in terms of like the commission for the week?

I don't know what the commission was. Your apb, you know, about seven grand.

I had just sat back and then my dad, well, he called me and told me.

Yeah, it was right around seven, right, I know. Yeah, it was right, right at seven. I think I wrote seven applications and I had a couple of good ones in there and so that I think it was. Yeah, I have to go back and.

Look annualize premium volume. So what that is is like your policy was a month ago your policy was going to be a hundred dollars. So that comes fully. Yeah. So he had seven apps and then those premiums times 12 were there.

But the thing is, is I haven't even, I, I, I, I don't think I've worked one week where I have, I've put a, put it where I put forth 100% effort. I cannot honestly say that about any week that I've had so far. So my goal is to get closer and closer to that a hundred percent. Now Michael knows now because Michael's been to my place. He knows what a crazy town it is. And Thomas knows too. But there's like I got chicken, 70 something chickens now all over the place. I got turkeys, now I got guineas which are, those are crazy birds. And I've got the four kids. So there's, there's things. Yes, that's exactly.

That's what I was getting ready to go with it. There's a lot of distractions, right? Yeah, we all like. There's so many distractions. Right. And so I know you say yo man, I just, I could, I've got so much to do. There's so many honey to do list. I don't know how to this and right. I'm like, I think she's trying to.

Say what makes you say oh, I can see back chill for a couple.

Of months when the wife is happy.

With the bank account that, like, how much they asking you how much money?

The best week I had.

20 grand. I was like, I could kick back a little bit. That 20 grand. Winning your account when I. Yeah, when I had $20,000.

Well, payout, big retirement.

I think that check was like, 10.

Nobody.

Yeah, it was a big check.

It was $7,000.

Okay. Well, still.

But I also had to pay my dad back, like, three grand for something. So we really only profit.

We're also. We're drowning for God. So we made our. Like, we've made several, you know, but we.

It was.

We worked hard, and we hit that comfortable number. And I remember I love him because he loved the number, the account, and he told me as long as it didn't go below, that, he didn't care. So then my mindset, I was like, you don't care? Well, and then that slowly slipped, and then I took off. So it's just like a slow. So now our mindset is. It just keeps building. Like, once we hit our floor or whatever, we just keep it up. We just keep.

You're building.

She's building.

Comfortable ever. Enjoy. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that's.

That's really well played.

Because I don't think back, and I step back, was when we hit $20,000 in our account, I was like, after.

I had a few good weeks, I wasn't Some pretty good weeks, and I wasn't ready for. I probably wasn't ready for that success because. Because of what she just said is you. You. You have a few good weeks. But the thing is, is it's. So. It costs so much more than just not writing the premium when you. When you lose your momentum.

Yes.

Which. Which happened a couple. It's. It's. It's like starting all the way over. So, like, right now, what I'm. What I'm dealing with right now, you know, I had. Week before last, I wrote six applications. Okay.

That's how you tell them how many appointments you set on this week and what your text messages were on. How many you closed.

Oh, for last week. Yeah. So I had. That's the crazy thing is I think I ran like, 18 appointments last. Don't know if it was luck or what, but I wrote six applications on that, which. That's okay. Right. And then last week, I ran. I almost got the 24, so. And when I say ran, I scheduled. I booked, like, 22, I think is what I did.

And then you did 11.

So one day, I did have 11. Yeah. I wrote three applications last week.

Not good. Those are not Good.

That's not good.

Yeah, that's not good.

But you're going to have weeks like that.

But you're going to have weeks like that.

But.

But for him, what. What he realized is. He was. He's like. He realized, right. That I'm not being direct. We're. Because we talked about it, right? When you get a number like that, I'm like, okay, you're doing something wrong. What are you doing? Let's. Let's talk about it, right? And so learning how to. You. You forget how you do things, right? Because you build that momentum and you just get into this rhythm with this rhythm. And he had learned how to be really, like, direct, compassionate, but direct, right? Versus letting them kind of take over that conversation, right? And so he React. He recognizes that, right? And so he's. It's like you have to almost. It's like swimming, right? When you learn how to swim like a baby learn how to swim, they kind of. And they miss a few weeks. You got to go back and learn how to do the strokes again.

Put it this way. If I'd never let my foot off the gas to begin with, then last week, you know, I have no doubt I could. I probably could have done it goes back at least five fives.

There's no doubt that the reason his week was like that is.

And what did I tell. And what did I tell you? I said, steve, you know, you can do it because you've done it before. So we know you can do it. Right?

Yeah.

It's just getting back into that groove, getting back into the rhythm. Like I told you, Kellen, Kellen, you know how to make dials. You've done it. It's just getting you back into the momentum.

Right.

You know, Shauna, Right. It's hard to get back into that groove, but you know you can do it because you were doing it, right? It's just getting back into that group. Getting back into that consistent group. But the number one thing you can do is what you just said is create a schedule, right? He's exercising in the morning. He's exercising in the morning, and he's doing his. His 15 minutes of reading, right? And he's. The better a person you become, the better your checking account looks. That's from Jim Ro. It is the truth. And one of the things that when. Just so you. Like when we decided that when I'm like, you know what, in order for me to be able to take and be there for our agents the way I need to and to take this to oh, sorry. To a different level. I got to work on me. And that was when I committed to 4:50 in the morning. Going up and getting up and going to the gym. And do you know what? Forever I've been saying, there's just not enough time. There's no way I can do it. There's no way I can do it. I cannot. There's just no way I cannot add one more thing to what I'm doing. But little did I understand the difference it made. The difference it made by just going and going and doing it. It gets my mind clear, right? It gets my mind clear. It sets my day, right? And then I'm doing the 20 minutes and then I'm getting on that, getting on that call. But by taking the time for you, which is right, for your health, you then can also give more. How do you give to someone else if your tank has happened? It is already on empty, right? And that's the part that I kept fighting so hard. Like, I'm already on empty. I can't go negative anymore, right? But by putting my health and putting me first, really, I'm able to be there more and have more energy and have more, have better results, right. Than what I was doing, right? I'm able to think more clearly. Business, you know, like just overall, like, you just gotta realize that you, if you're on, if you're on a negative and you're on empty, you gotta give, you gotta do something for yourself first and then so you can get back into the gift it gets in this business, right? Because it will beat you up. And if you're, you've got to do something at least 20 minutes, 20 minutes a day, right? And so I love that what Steve said is, you know, he's got this schedule, right? You're. You're creating the schedule that's going to work. Hey, it may just be the Monday through Thursday. That's the schedule, right? Or maybe his schedule is, I'm gonna work late these two days and I'm just going to work what I can these days. And it's going to be an early day, right? Or calendar might be like yours. I can only work these days, this day, this day and this day. So then put the rocks in your schedule, right? And then work your appointments around the rocks, right? So you just make it work. But the key is having a schedule and sticking to it and being disciplined to your schedule. Would you agree with that?

100%. Yeah.

And so, so what I love what you said was. What did you say? Just a Little bit ago when you said the more I worked on me.

Yeah.

What did you say exactly?

The more. The. My favorite part about being about doing this is that you're rewarded for working on yourself. So the more you work on yourself by default, the better your business is going to be because you can't. You know, you hear on the, on the daily calls all the time. You hear a lot of, A lot of top producers on that call. They constantly talk about, you know, the, the guys get on there and they're, and they're. They're talking. They. You can't fake it. You can't fake the passion. You can't fake. You can't go through. When I was a store manager, a lot of times I was going through the motions. I didn't want to be there. I was there physically, but, you know, I wasn't passionate about it or anything like that. But in, in this kind of business, you know, if you, if, if you, if you got on appointment or if you're running appointments and you're not, you're not, you're not all there mentally, if you're not sharp, if you're not sincere, then you'll still close some, some, some deals and everything, right? But, but you're. That's going to come through, you know.

So a hot dog and Mountain Dew may not get you through everything as.

Good as, like a salad. Okay. Anyway, this is just, you know, I've got a lot of work to do on myself, so I'm not trying, you know, I, I don't, I don't. I'm not, I'm not at 100% yet. I'm probably not even at 80% yet. But, but what I'm trying to say is that I like the fact that, that I feel like to be successful in the business, all I got to do is really, really, really work on myself, you know, and that's. And that's following a schedule that's taking time for myself. That's me getting up before everybody else gets up and going out and taking my run, getting uninterrupted, time reading the Bible, time reading whatever book it is and then go on from there. And, And I know just by doing those simple things that I'm going, if I can just somehow try and stay disciplined and that. That the business is going to take care of itself. That makes sense.

Yeah. No, that's awesome. There's always something on that one phone call. There's always that something on that one dial session. There's always something on that you miss literally can be the difference of you, like here, hitting the leak producer or making a sale.