How To Start Your Own Life Insurance Agency In 2025

All right ladies and gents, you clicked on this video because you want to know how to build a massive insurance agency that provides generational wealth for you and your family. And today I have a guest that has done just that. This video. We're going to be interviewing John Wetmore, the man who has a 250 million dollar insurance agency. John, welcome to the channel. It's good to have you.

What's up man? Appreciate you having me, dude. Happy to help.

Absolutely. Well, for the people that you know watching this, maybe they don't know you just kind of give like a brief background on yourself, man.

The, the older you get, the harder it is to give. Brief one.

Yeah.

So I got, I've been in the long. Long story short man background is very blue collar, government housing, welfare, kind of grew up in the projects kind of kid. So just try to find my way through life. In my 20s and 30s, broke basically my entire life, just different jobs, whatever and kind of fell into the insurance business man as a part time gig in 20, 2010, got my license, made a few dials, quit, didn't like it, got back into it in 2012 and you know, at least stayed in at this time. Kind of started out in the next couple years pretty slow, mediocre, did okay, but nothing lighting the world on fire. And you know, long story short with, with some, some willingness to change and some people like punching me in the face and telling me what I was doing wrong and me will willing to change some things, man. I started, started learning how to sell at a really high level and started recruiting and teaching people how to sell and you know, the, the, the, the simple way I understood the business after like five years of complicating it and just started teaching it what I, what I found to be a, an easy way to have success in the businessman and people started being attracted to it and I started helping people make a gang of money selling and things caught fire man. Eventually attracted some leaders and you know, a lot long, bumpy, messy, dirty road, you know, 10, 10 plus years, 10 years later since that change anyway. Yeah, I mean we got a ton of people that have grown. I get a lot of credit for things but without, without a ton of other leaders and help and other people recruiting and staffing, we're not, we're at. So I certainly put in a ton of work and got the ball rolling and you know, some other people stepped up man. And now fast forward today we have, I don't know, a couple thousand agents sell a policy a month, you know, five or six thousand, whatever the number is, a year. Sell some policy somewhere in my agency. And a lot of dudes have built really big agencies under the umbrella, man. And, you know, we knock down a couple hundred million dollars in premium a year. We do, I don't know, $40 million in annuity volume. Lot of IUL stuff, final expense, mortgage protection, and just helping a lot of people win, man. Helping a lot of families get covered and agents and agency managers win at high levels.

I love that you talked a little bit about how, you know, you kind of found some leaders that started building agencies. How important is that to, like, find other people that can kind of build under you?

I mean, you're never going to. You're like the most important thing for scaling, you know, I think at the end of the day, dude, we're all only one person. There's. There's always a ceiling as an individual, if you didn't have help, you know, And I certainly not only got to help, a lot of help, learning how to sell and learning how to do it, but once I started doing the reps and putting in the activity and messing up the recruiting and losing agents over and over and over again and not knowing how to deal with the struggles or the chargebacks or teaching it or the emotional part or. You mean how to get agents started quick or just losing control of things, man. You know, lots of reps, lots of mistakes, lots of trial and error, lots of help and coaching and guidance and frustrations, man. Slowly just doing it day in and day out. You know, you look at it now and it's like, holy crap, look how quick they grew. And I'm like, well, yeah, we get to cheat and look backwards now. It looks dope on paper, right? You know, but every day in the office, dude, I. I don't remember that many dope days, you know, I mean, I just don't go like, ah, that day was so killer. I'm like, dude, most days suck. Most days are hard. Most days have obstacles. But we just keep grinding, man, and solving problems, bro. And again, along the way, if I didn't. If I didn't identify other people who wanted to lead and wanted to do more for their family and just empower them to be able to do so and teach them the things I've learned to hopefully make their journey shorter than mine, you know, we wouldn't be. We're at. Dude, you know, so again, I did what I could. And as learning how to duplicate myself became the game, man.

And how do you go about finding those like, first initial leaders, because most people, you know, that are in the building game, they're. They're having to produce personally to pay their bills and maybe bring a couple people on. Maybe they're producers, but, you know, maybe they don't really know if they could lead a team. Like, the people that are under them. How do they go about, like, finding those leaders and then delegating and really like putting the pedal to the gas on there?

It's. I'm going to give the shortest answer I can, but it's. It's significantly more complicated than I can explain in a conversation, you know, because the reality is I always. I'll tell you how I picture how I. Again, I get to look backwards, man, and see what this ride has been like. Right. And where are you out of? I don't remember.

I was in North Carolina. I'm in Texas now.

Okay, cool. You've. You've probably been through the Atlanta airport a bunch. Yep. Yeah. Most people hate it, and it seems confusing and big, but when you're here, it's like, it's just all. We know. It's not that big a deal for those of us that are here.

Yeah.

Right. But everyone remembers either when you're going to the airport or cutting through for your layover, which is why a lot of people go through Atlanta. You. You get off you. And on the way to either baggage claim or your. Your next flight, there's that train. You familiar with the train in Atlanta airport? And it goes from International every, Every gate stop, and then at the other end is baggage claim. Right. So baggage claim. And it goes like T. Gate A, B, C, D, F, T, whatever it is. I forget the last couple, you know, so if you think about when, when, when, when the, when the train door is open, it stops at a gate and, and, and the train doors open. What happens?

Well, depends on the day, but a lot of times a bunch of people are trying to leave, and then there's people that are trying to come into the train at the same time. It's just a correct disaster. Yeah.

Yeah. Is always people getting on, and there's always people getting off. Some people, though, stay on the train. Fair. Not everyone gets off.

Yeah.

Does it make sense? Some get off, some stay on it, and then more come on. And then it goes to the next stop and then the doors open and the same thing happens again, and different people get on and off at that stop. Some people stayed on for both of those stops. Does it make sense? And that continues. And that happened. That runs all Day long. It never stops going back and forth. The doors never stop opening and closing. That's kind of how I look at my agency, dude. Like, my agency is the train and it's moving all the time and it's always going to stop at different spots to identify, to find, give people the opportunity to get on and get off. You know what I'm saying? And. And the journey was much like that train where it's chaotic and busy and it's like frantic and. But, dude, there's a bunch of people with time that just stay on the train with me and you could argue I'm driving it. You know what I mean? And hell, I got a maintenance crew that has to take care of it when shit breaks down and goes wrong. And you know, I'm saying, like, there's always stuff.

Yeah, yeah. And.

And so for me, man, it. I've learned, dude, that at different stages, I found different leaders. Like the leaders that got me from when you first get on to the first gate, Those are very. Those are not the same leaders that help me go to the, to the next level necessarily. Sometimes they were. But if I look at who helped me build it massive, like who really scaled it, it. Not one of them is the person that I identified as my leader early on.

Why do you think that is?

Do people have capacity, man? Does it make sense? People hit a ceiling, people. Not everyone can handle the continuous struggle. I think the mistake people make is, dude, looking at this thing from the outside in, and it's a fabulous thing to. To do. I love building this. I love what it's done. Not only for the people I've helped, dude, this helped my family more than I could ever even begin to explain where I thought I'd be in 10 years, you know, but at the end of the day, dude, not everybody wants to deal with the ongoing problems. And I think some people look at it and they go, if I just start an agency, one day this thing will be cake.

And that's not real life. Does it make sense? Like, I have problems this morning and as soon as I get off this, I have to go to another meeting to deal with more problems. And, and not everybody's wants, I don't think. I think people just no different than agents, dude. They think if they make enough phone calls and learn the right script and buy the right lead, that the negatives are going to go away. You will never stop getting hung up on when you're working phones. You'll never stop getting chargebacks. You'll never stop getting Canceled policies. You'll never stop getting. I told. I want to think about it sometimes. At least the stuff never goes away, you know? And on the building side, dude, it's the same. And I. I think people get excited. They start recruiting. They get people started, and they make a few bucks in overrides, and they're like, this is cake. And then they start spending the overrides and they stop working on the problems and. Or they let the problems, like someone else deal with them.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? And they don't want to learn how to manage staff or they don't want to learn how to hell run a p. L or manage your finances at a high level, you know? I mean, how to invest in multiple staff, how to. I remember having to add benefits, dude, I'm like, benefits, bro. I sell insurance. I got to figure out how to add benefits for employees. Like, how does that work? Yeah, like, that was a. That was. Figuring that out was a pain in the butt, you know?

And so it's just a different game the higher up you go.

And some people, yeah, dude, if you want to keep pushing, I could post right now, but we wouldn't grow 100%. Does it make sense now the team would grow? Because I have other people who wouldn't stop at this stage. I have so many people working at growing their own thing. Our total wouldn't stop. But, dude, I'm also trying to contribute. Does that make sense? I'm not the guy that wants to build something and sit back and go, good luck, guys. Let me know how it's going. I'll just check out the leaderboard once a week and count my overrides. That's not. That's not my version of building. And some people it is, which is why they hit that ceiling. You know what I mean? They don't want to keep. Dude, it's a grind, you know? I mean, you're. You're in it. It's. There's no joke. So for me, man, I. I identify to answer the question. It's like, as people are getting on and off the train, man, I'm paying attention, and I'm trying to watch. I learned one of the best things I ever learned from a mentor was leadership is taken, not given.

So I look for people who are taking leadership kind of by the horns, if you will, and they don't have to be perfect at it. But if I always. I tell people this. If anyone that watching has any kind of group, I don't care if you got three people or 3,000 people. If I tell you to think about the number one person in your group that stands out the most from the rest.

Everyone has it in instant. Everyone knows the name Go. That's the first person I work with.

They.

They typically stand out from the crowd in some form or fashion. I don't care where. I just want them to stand out from the rest. Stand out from the noise. Maybe they're more positive. Maybe they show up early. Maybe they help other agents when they don't have to. Maybe they help organize the meeting room before and after the meeting. Maybe they're calling recruits on their own. Maybe they're bringing warm market on their own. Maybe they're helping run your team call. Maybe. You know, I mean, like, there's so many things that people do to stand out. So I look for that. When I see that, I'm like, hey, come here. Does that make sense? And I pull them closer, and then I find out, do they want to stay on the train? Do they want to go further? Do they want to build? Maybe they don't. Maybe they do. But that's what I do, is I identify that person. Then I get a little closer, and I'm like, is there anything I can do here to help you get further? Can I stretch them? Can I challenge them? Do they want to walk with me? Do they want to run with me? Like, where do they want to go? You know? So for me, that's always the trigger. And then I get in there and I try to work and I try to give people the next steps. Like, hey, if you want to get further, do abc. And some people, dude, have just stayed on the train with me for eight years doing that, and they just don't want to get off. They're like, dude, I'm staying on the train, bro. You know? And then, you know, that. That just adds up over time. And I think the mistake that I made early, that I see a lot of people make is they try to get everybody to be their next leader. There's no. They don't do anything to identify who to work with. They're like, just because I have them, they're my next guy. Or they have potential, or they're really good on the phone or, you know what I mean? Like, they have. They have this network. They know so many people. They used to kill it at ABC Company back. That means nothing necessarily. Can it be? Sure. But, dude, I just see so many people try to go, boop, you're my next leader.

Dupe.

You're my next. You're My next guy.

Yeah, they try to anoint them, basically.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, dude. And I used to do it too, bro, you know, and for me, when I started paying attention to who stands out and I don't, again, I didn't even say in what arena, in. Every time I've done it, everyone instantly has a name. So then if I got one, I'm like, all right, remove that person from this conversation. Now who stands out? Minus that person. Do you have another? Some people don't. Won't have a second one. Some people instantly have a second one. I go, dope, let's work. Can you. Do you have the capacity as a leader to work with both now? Some do, some don't. Does that make sense? Yeah, go.

Cool.

Remove two. Who's the next one? Three. Can you manage three people? Oh, buckle up. Sure is different than managing one, you know what I mean? And then for at a very easy concept, once I take a few people, I'm always looking for, like a starting five. So if I can. I'm like, give me five.

From the beginning, you want to have five leaders you can build under.

Yeah, but think what it takes to get five right. You know what I mean? I go like that. That are really doing it, you know, it's like, I don't know, dude, think of us starting a baseball. I know it's nine on a baseball team, but the analogy works really well. If I go, I want to create a team that's like the Atlanta Braves. Dude, think how many players are on the team to have the starting nine, right? And I know I just said five, but work with me. Does that make sense? I'd use basketball because there's five on the court, but I don't know basketball as well. So I'm going baseball. But it's like there's whatever it is, 20 something on a team to get the nine to start. But then you go, well, bro, where do they get the 20 something? The miners, the minors? They got a double a, triple A, three, four, five teams in their organization or whatever. And there's a hundred people, 150 people to choose from to get the nine right. And then where do they dig from the minors? They take from college. There's thousands of colleges that they can choose from to get the. The next level. And where do they get college? They fill it with high school. There's even more that play high school. And where they get high school? Little League. There's millions that play Little League, right? So to get their starting nine on the field, you Got to kind of weed through the people.

How are you going about finding those agents where you can then weed down and find your, your leaders?

Oh, dude, that's the easy part. That's the easy part, bro. Oh my God. You can get unlimited people. Like how many people want to make more money than they make today?

I mean, I would say pretty much everyone, but everyone says it. But do they actually want to do it is a different story. But Correct.

Correct. So now that's where skill set and leadership and things like that come into play. But finding people who want an opportunity. Dude, I can get you unlimited recruits starting today. That's. That's literally the easiest part of the game to find people interested in making more money. Like just open your door and open your mouth. Like open the front door. There's 300 million people out there. They all want to make more money for the most part. You know what I'm saying? Now the question is how many are looking for another opportunity that, that waters it down a little bit more. Then how many are willing to invest? For instance, if you're a lead based company or how many are willing to go door to door, friends and family or whatever your model is? Does that make sense? Yeah, that waters it down even more. All right. And then all the, all the ones that say yep, I want to. Well now how many are actually going to walk the walk, you know what I mean? And how many are going to be.

Coachable still millions of people even after you water it down.

Correct. Dude, you can get unlimited people to talk to. You know you can. There's free ways to do it and there's by God definitely paid ways. You know, you can def. So for me it was like I just always wanted to. I had a, I had a deal, dude, where especially this is. Once I started figuring out how to do again, I'm very open at the beginning I sucked. You know, I hell on the book. I have, I wrote all about the entire journey. I'm so transparent about the journey and I get a ton of good feedback from people that buy the book and. But it's like.

At its core man.

When I was, when I was doing this at a high level and I come from in home field sales days. Like when I was in, when I was selling, I was in the field kitchen tables. Right. So some of the verbiage is different today. But I'm just going to tell you what I did.

I had minimum I would do 30 appointments a week, client sales like attempts. Certainly I'd get no show deal with the stuff, but 30 a week. And then I had, on the recruiting side, I was going to speak to 30 people a week about the opportunity. So I created like this 30, 30 club. So people that really want to build at a high level, I'm like, yo, come join me in this 30, 30 club. I'm doing 30 appointments, 30 recruiting calls a week.

Smart.

And that just became a mantra for us. If you want to. If you want to sell at a high level, build at a high level. 30, 30. And again, it's relatively the same today. If you're doing telesales, especially if you're in the life space, you know, you're going to need probably more than 30 attempts to, you know, I mean, it's just the numbers game is slightly different, but the concept holds true, right? You know, and again, if you're selling something else or in a health space or your medicare space, again, some of the numbers, it's like, take the concept, you know, for me, that's what made sense to do at a high level. And so I created like a very easy, like, yo, this is how you do it big. We gave it a cool name. It was a club. People could be in or be out. Again, you can get on or off the train. But for me, if you want to build at a high level, that was a way for me to go. Here's how you stand out. 30, 30. You do that, you're gonna stand out from the rest. And I'm excited out of my mind to work with that guy. And that narrowed it down even less. That was like, very few percentage of people wanted to do that, you know, But I. I would hyper focus on the ones that did because they were duplicating me. Not that I wouldn't work with the others in some capacity, but who do I work with? Like, yo, they mean it. Like, they re. They're walking the walk, dude. Like, everyone wants to get in shape by January 24th. Dude, the gym's empty again. Does that make sense? So I'm looking for the dude that's in the gym sweating his nuts off in mid July when it's 112 degrees out and he's already worked out six times that week. I want that guy if I'm going to be competitive in that world, you know? And again, there's. There's a place for everyone else. But I'm trying to identify that guy. But, dude, you hire three people, you ain't finding that guy. It's. It's so rare, right?

Yeah, it's. It's Almost like people, people think too small and they're, they're only recruiting out of their warm network. It's like, oh, you know, my brother in law would be really good at this. And they bring on one person who fails and they say recruiting doesn't work.

And that, that's the equivalent of going, let's start a professional baseball team.

Yeah.

Hey, let's, let's talk to eight people. Hey, hey, get your brother in law, get my sister, get my uncle, get the dude from church. Dude, that's like Sunday soft adult softball league, peanut gallery. Yeah, I mean that's what you're going to get. Not that your cousin can't be a rock star in this, but statistically, man. Yeah, you're just not putting this the, the odds on your side at all.

Yeah. How, how should somebody go about. Because obviously there's 300 million people in the U.S. right?

Let's say, let's say half of them would be open or at least not like completely off put by our opportunity. What's the best way to go about reaching those people? Because we know they're out there, we know they're interested, we know, we know they, they want to talk. How, how do you go about reaching them?

When I do this, live with people, like, and we can do it together. Like, but you know, the, like when people, when there are people that are watching that like actually tell me they don't know, I challenge people first. And I'm like, dude, how do you think we should find people first? Like just, I know you don't do this, but just, just common sense. What are some possible ways that you could implement right now?

Well, you could, you know, go post on YouTube, make a, you know, social media is super easy.

Sure, why not? Yeah, you could, right? I go, there's this. And people give different ideas. Other people that are watching are thinking of ideas. Now I'm like, do you do any of those? No, I, well, you didn't need me for you to know step one of the process. So let's just make sure. Like do you actually want to do this or do you think I'm going to give you some amazing answer that like some secret I'm withholding? Right. Because at its core we're just talking to people, dude. Now I will give some examples, but I think from, from my core, that's all that was on my mind all the time. So dude, I'm sitting in the airport waiting for a flight and I'm sitting in the Delta Club or whatever restaurant, sitting down, chilling, getting A drink, having a meal, whatever it is. You don't think I'm paying attention to the way the waiter's behaving or not. Of course I'm watching it. Why would I not.

Now am I, am I, am I throwing up on every waiter ever? Nah, dude, nah. The one that gets the order wrong and doesn't show up for 27 minutes and doesn't remember my, like, I ain't talking to that guy. But dude, the one that's engaging.

How many, how many of your, of your like top producers have you found just in person, just striking up conversations?

Oh, dude, we've a ton over the years for sure. Most of. Most of. I'll tell you the way I found most of the agency was ads through ads for me. And then from the ad, I would take the cold market person and find their warm market. So my angle was, let me get in front of people. I don't know, I didn't really take the approach of building a lot of like warm market. I did a little bit at the beginning, but I didn't have a ton of. I don't, I don't have a big warm market one. I don't have a big circle. I don't have a big family. So I went through the people I knew and again, a few people got started and, but it wasn't like a honey hole for me, you know?

Right, right.

So for me, again, certainly I can talk to people. Waiters, Ubers, I've hired all of them. You know what I'm saying? And again, for me there's, there's a couple different ways to approach it. You can throw up on people because I could go, hey, dude, do you have any interest in doing something extra to make a few extra bucks? I could go that route or I could go, hey, Tim, I'm in the insurance space.

I have a question. I'm growing. Do you happen to know anybody that would be looking for an opportunity to make some extra money? I could take that angle and give you the opportunity to go, I am. Or nah, my brother is. I can take different angles depending on the situation in the field. Right. So that's kind of cold market. I'll get to the ad thing last because that's, that's what I did the most. And it's probably the most comprehensive part. But like, everyone sees clients, typically, hopefully y' all are seeing clients. You know what I mean? It's like, why would you not ask them? And I'm not saying give a 30 minute presentation on the ups of your Company and the glamour. I'm not saying that. But again, if I'm, if I close a deal with you and I get insurance on, on your family. Tim. I'm like, hey Tim, hey, quick question man. Do we have so many people like you that are requesting help and my company's hiring. Do you happen to know anybody that could do what I just did for you that's looking to make some extra money?

Remember 30, 30 club, dude, I, I throw that out there 30 times a week. Maybe 20 times a week after my no shows and reschedules, you know I'm saying. But 10, 15, 20 times a week, I'm bound to get someone go like me, my cousin, my sister, my bro. Like I'm bound to get it right then that's pretty. You, you, you can get it really often. Yeah, you get it really often. Again, I learned to not pitch this thing. It just. And even when I was new, I was doing it. I'm like, hey, my buddy Mike is teaching me how to make a bunch of money selling insurance. Are you looking to make some extra money? I'm trying. He's, he's hiring. And I would just point back, I'd be like, he's doing it. And I was just the middleman. Even though they go direct to me, I just didn't know enough to know enough. And I'm like, I utilized, I leveraged him and his skill set, you know. So I was doing this early, dude, I was re, I was doing interviews when I was doing insurance part time on my commute back and forth to my accounting job. I was working a 40 hour week accounting job and I had like an hour and a half commute. I was doing interviews on the commute, dude. I did not care at all that I didn't know how to do this. I had no fear whatsoever.

That's why.

So again, clients, I can give you crazy stories about just DMing people. We've hired some big groups from DMS, dude. And back in the day, bro, before Instagram was cool, I would do it on LinkedIn. You know, again, you can do it on any platform today. But where I got a lot of people was LinkedIn, man. You can narrow down company names and, or titles. Life insurance specialist, mortgage protection specialist, final expense expert, abc, the XYZ company. You can, it's super easy to find that on, on LinkedIn and other platforms have ability too. But dude, I would, I would connect with people on LinkedIn, right? And then I would send a hundred DMS a day. Hey Tim, see you're in the business. Are you happy with where you're at financially? I help people do 400k a year. Are you open to a conversation? That was it.

It seems like it's just so simple. Do you think it's. It's literally just a matter of people just have paralysis by analysis or they just don't. They don't want to reach out to people and get the rejection.

Dude, people won't do the work, bro. Yeah, they won't do the work. All of it. All of it. They don't. They overthink everything. They don't. They. What if. What if comes out of their mouth? What if? And then something negative follows. It drives me nuts. What if? Negative, what if negative, what if? Worst case scenario, I'm like, fair to say everything that comes out of your mouth after the what if, just by pure definition and the way language works, the next thing out of your mouth is made up. Fair. When you go, what if? Anything you say after is completely made up.

So my thing is, dude, if you're gonna make it up, why not make up some good stuff? What if it works, man? Amen, bro. Does that make sense? Like, I DM this guy, and again, I'd send 100 a day, bro, and 80 easy would ignore me. Easy, 80 plus would. They literally wouldn't even respond.

5 or 10 would tell me some equivalent of F off.

But, dude, one to five a day would be like, yeah, I'm open. Hell, I had someone respond last week. I was showing someone on a podcast yesterday. I had someone respond last week from a DM I sent in 2021. They just responded last week.

Within like.

A coma or something.

For the last four years, I guess, dude. But that would happen frequently where? Maybe they don't answer right now, but in a month or three. Like, you DM me on LinkedIn, Brian answering for a minute. I don't check LinkedIn every few months. Every month, every once in a blue moon. When I'm like, oh, I should probably check that thing, but whatever. Again, I'd get one to five people a day. Be like, yeah, I'm open. I'm open on combo. It wasn't weird. I didn't pay. I'm like, yo, you. I help people do this. Are you happy with where you're at? Are you open to a conversation? What's the result? I don't care. It was the input. It was like the 30. 30 things. 100 a day, 100 a day. I challenge people all the time. Send 100 dms a day by Yourself. I bet you won't do it. I bet you you watching. I bet you won't do it. But you want a big agency and it's free. Asking 30 clients a week is free.

Talking to anyone, waiters, wait, it's free and people won't do it, bro, because they don't really want to build. So next layer of looking for people who have it that stand out, naturally. I challenge people in a way because they say they want to build. I get, here's the free ways to do it. Will you do the work? 95 plus percent of people I tell to do it won't do it at all. The other 5% will do it for a minute and quit. You mean I'll get a guy every once in a blue moon who will go like, oh, that makes sense, you know? And so it's like, all right, if we're not going to do the free stuff, I'm sure probably not going to talk to you about the paid stuff. I'm probably not going to get there. Does that make sense? Why? Because they're going to put 500 bucks a month in. I can get you some recruiting leads, and in four weeks they're going to go, I didn't hire a rock star. I quit. It's too expensive. So for me, I have filters. Before I get you to the what. What you pay for you. I mean, I'm not like, let's not start there. Where again, you can get unlimited leads there, but it doesn't mean they're going to be all rock stars, bro. Right. So I'm doing social behind the scenes. I'm also creating content for social. Right? So now my social becomes a platform for commercials, if you will, about who I am or what I do.

Exactly.

So now maybe, maybe you don't respond today, but now you're on my list. I also do the work to post social media every day. I post every day on every platform. That's my model. Every day, every platform. That's what we do. I don't watch anything else. Every day, every platform. What do you post? I don't care. This will be on there eventually. Every day, every platform. And everything I do, I record. So I always have content, right? So not only do maybe I get one to five people a day, say yes, dude. Over the course of time, I'm building an audience. I'm building a following. I'm built, you know, I mean, and today, dude, we. It's crazy. The following I have today from the work I was doing 10, 12 years ago to start this stuff right to snowball 100%, dude. I mean, the amount of people that come to me today is. Is insane.

All right, so real quick, I need to interrupt the video because if you're a life insurance agent, chances are you're doing one of three things. You're either buying age leads, you're buying leads from your imo, or you're buying leads from a lead vendor. And chances are you are way overpaying for those leads. And not to mention, the leads never even pick up the phone. Well, if that sounds familiar, then give me the next 15 seconds, and I'm going to show you something that's going to completely change everything. We just launched Insurance Agent for Freedom School, which is an entire training platform and program that will show you how to fire your lead vendor and cut your lead cost to one tenth of the prices that you're paying right now. This is a program that I used to sell for over $2,000, but right now you can get access for just 99 bucks a month and try for free for seven days. Inside, you'll learn everything that you need to know to fire your lead vendor and cut your lead costs. You can start generating way more profits in your business. Not only that, but whenever you join, I'm also going to give you access to a dialing software that has allowed us to see answer rates as high as 20%. So if you make 100 dials, that means 20 people are answering. So I'm going to include a link down below this video to get access to a free trial. All you need to do is click the link down below and start your free trial to fire your lead vendor, generate more profits, boost your answer rates, and start making more money in your insurance business. Now back to the video.

You know, but that people want that. After 86 DMS, I'm like, I've been at this game for. This is 13 years.

Since 2012, dude. Now, do I have to send 100 dms a day today? God, no. Why? Dude, I taught it so many times over the ev. Hundreds of people in the agency were doing it out of the thousands we have. So a very small percentage, but it adds up.

How much, how much of a factor do you think comes into play where people, like, they see what you're doing now or they see what a. A big agency owner or somebody's doing now, and then they just try to model what you're doing now instead of what you did to get there.

Always it drive. It's always, dude, like, I have a whole complete Recruiting, onboarding system. Dude, we're nerded out. I have automations, I have techs, I have drip campaigns, we have remind, I have. Dude, our thing is the bomb, dude. I built it over the course of years and people can have it today. Like it is something we make available today. But some people, like, I had a guy recently, he's like, I want your system.

They'll try to build that before they go recruit.

Yeah, they know they would just. They don't want to try to build it, they just want mine.

Mm.

Which I'm fine with if people want it. But I'll give you an example, live example. Last month this dude calls me up, works at another company. Hey, man, I see what you're doing, you're killing it. Blah, blah. I need a system. Cool. Here's a system.

Now, in order to build automation, right.

Typically an automation is to replace something you do manually.

Fair. So if you don't do it manually, it's really hard to automate. But if I give it to you and you've never done it manually, you're not going to understand what the automation is doing or why it's doing it. Right. And so one of the mistakes we used to make is I'd go, here's my system. And then their brain would explode or something wouldn't go the way they thought. And I'm like, why do you not know it? Oh, dude. Because back in the day when I used to myself take paper contracting apps by fax and organize them and send them in and I know what's wrong with all the paperwork. So when you're at that stage of automation and you get this message or that message or this happens, instead of that happens, I actually know what's happening behind the scenes in the process because I built the automate. Like I built it with the help of Amanda, with time. You know, I have staff that certainly helped me. But at its core, dude, back in the day, I was trying to figure out how to get more done with less time because I'm doing all these things very manually. And I'm like, how do I send 10 emails to 10 people that I just hired? I really want to be able to click a button. Oh, let me create that. After thousands of examples like that, Fast forward. Today we have a system, right? So this guy comes in and we're like, hey, what do you send people when you hire them? What do you send people for? Like, which trainings you want them to be on when it's time to get contracted, what do you send Them when they pass their exam, do you send them anything or not? Like, do you have a code? You send like all the details. And he's like, I don't, I mean, I don't have any of that. That's what I want your system for. And he uses this analogy and he goes, I mean, you're like the Lamborghini and I'm the little whatever, Ford Focus and I just want the Lamborghini, man. And so I said, all right, bro, let me explain something since you're using car references. Like the dude, what's his name? Henry is a Henry Ford who started Ford. Henry Ford, Right? I think that's his first name. Henry Ford. Right. So do you remember what he was like actually famous? Like, certainly he built Ford. But do you know what else he like, revolutionized in cars?

Assembly line.

Correct. Right. So people today want my assembly line. But what did Ford know how to do before he built the assembly line?

Build the car.

He knew how to build a car, bro. So if the assembly line robot breaks down and doesn't put the tire on right, bro Knows how to put on a tire.

Right? A lot of y' all want a system to build the car for you, but when a tire don't go on, right, you look around and go, what do we do now? I don't what that, what's that thing? It looks like it needs that.

And I'm like, bro, that's a tire, dude.

Get the little drill. Get the thing. Put drill it on, bro. What's a drill? You know what I mean? And people are doing the equip. They have no idea what to do, you know? And that's so I love automation, dude, but at the same time, I hate it because so many people think it's a cheat. And I'm like, dude, it's really effective when you know what it's doing, you know? So I'm a big fan of like, dude, just get out there and talk to people first and we'll learn how to do this. So now we, now the way we do it, it's like, all right, we have a system, yes. But we're going to deliver it to you over a 90 day period. And we're going to slowly help you take your task that's manual. And we're going to automate it for you one task at a time so you understand what's happening behind the scenes, you know?

So yeah, dude, it's yes. So the answer is yes. People want what I have today without. And I'm like, I wish I could take everybody back in time, dude. That's why I'm so transparent about the journey. And I'm not the guy that sells, like, all the. Like, dude, it's a dope lifestyle, don't get me wrong. But if you think it's glorious every day, that you're sorely mistaken. And I. I think too many people want the glorious side only in the Instagram flash. You know what I mean? They want the highlight reel. They don't. They don't. They don't want to. They don't want to put in the work and watch their diet and lift weights all summer. They just want to score touchdowns with nobody blocking, nobody guarding them.

Honestly, I mean, like, I. I think that's definitely true in the insurance business, but I think that's true for everything.

100.

I don't know if there's. I don't think there's any business. Right. Maybe if you, you know, start posting pictures online and selling feet pics or whatever, that maybe. Maybe that's a free lunch, but in the 23 years that I've been alive, I haven't seen a single business that is as sexy as it sells on Instagram.

Correct. It's the diet pill thing. Like, is anyone confused, really, about how to get healthier? Like, everyone watching and statistically, how many people watching are actually in really good shape? Like, what percentage? It's really small. No, it's. It's like the diet pill fad. Right? Like, if I don't believe that anyone doesn't know how to get in really good shape, I don't believe it. Fair.

I mean, it's literally just two things.

What percentage of people watching this are in good shape, though?

Depends what you call good shape. Right. But if you just mean, like, not obese. I think it's what, Like.

Like, when people walk up to you and they're like, damn, you're. No, I mean, like, holy moly, you're in killer shape, bro.

2% of the population, maybe we're talking.

About killer size agency. Who's, like, in really good shape. Like, bro. Like, you can tell they work out. Yeah, Very few. Okay. Of the. You said 2%. Let's roll with it. I don't know the number.

Yeah. Like, shredded. Like, looks like a Greek God on Instagram. 2% or less.

So let's take the other 98. And I'm not. And I'm not talking about, like. I'm not talking about, like, dude, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Olympia Shape. I'm talking about, like, dude, I Walk around. I'm almost 48 years old, dude. Everywhere I go, my kids, friends are like, dude, you're jacked. Oh, my God, you're shit. Oh, my God, you're. And I'm not Mr. Olympia by any means, but relative to what's out there, I hear it a lot. I can only imagine what guys like that here, you know, I mean, I'm by no means a man of steel, but I'm in significantly better shape than 99% of people watching.

Right? And my question is, do you really not know what it takes to get in my level? Maybe you don't know how. I don't know how to get to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm not saying that, but, like, my level of shape. You're telling me you don't know how to do it?

I don't believe it at all. People just want the blue pill or the white pill instead of, stop stuffing your mouth with bad stuff.

Lift something heavy and sweat every day. You do that for a year, you'll be in better shape than you are today. Fair?

Sure.

Everyone knows that. It doesn't matter what kind of dumbbells. It doesn't matter what gym you go to. Hell, you don't even have to go to the gym. It doesn't matter what kind of shorts you wear. It doesn't matter what sneakers. It doesn't matter if you wear grips or don't wear grips. None of that matters. If you stop shoving bad stuff in your mouth and you lift something heavy and sweat way more days than you don't, and you do that over the period of 5 years, 10 years, you will be in phenomenal shape.

But everybody's like, if I sign up to this new gym, will that one help? They have better equipment.

It's got to be keto, John.

Correct. Like, dude, it doesn't matter at all.

Am I confused that if you're on keto, you'll lose weight? Yeah, I got it. But is that the key? Like, dude, stop. Drink water instead of soda and coffee and alcohol. You know what I'm saying? Eat some chicken, some fish, some steak, veggies, stop eating ice cream. You know, I mean, and move your body. If you lift something heavy, it's going to help, dude, you do that consistently over the court. No one is confused by that. Y' all won't do it.

And it's. I don't think people are that. I just don't think people are that confused on what it takes. Can I give better detail than most? Yes, but does the detail matter? When you ain't doing the reps every day, I don't believe they do.

Is a consistent theme I've had on, like, a lot of these interviews I've done is like, I think a. A good agent can succeed with a bad system, but a good agent will do even better with a good system. But, like, regardless of what you have, like, there's people, there's. There's massive imos that have built their. Their entire agency off of the back of going to the grocery store, striking up conversations with random people, selling their entire family, and then recruiting everybody that they know they can make that work. You have a leads? Social media ads.

Yeah. I mean, there's publicly traded, multi billion dollar companies.

That don't use leads.

Yeah, that's insane.

They just go find people.

So it's not the leads. I promise you. It's not the leads.

You know what I mean? Like, again, is a better lead better than no lead? I mean, obviously, yeah, but you're gonna pay for that luxury.

You know what I mean? And then most people aren't willing to pay for the luxury. They want it on the cheap side. You mean they want the Bentley, but they don't want the payment.

They want the mansion.

Yeah, exactly.

Pay for it. You can buy a mansion today. You can literally go buy it right now. Stop watching this. Go buy it. I don't have the money. Ooh, you mean there's a catch? How do you get the money? Sell some more stuff. Teach some people to sell some more stuff. You know, I mean, it's at its core, it's not. It's not crazy complicated. But is it hard? Is getting in phenomenal shape hard? Oh, my God, yes.

Dude.

It's excruciating. The workout I had this morning, I wouldn't recommend anyone really want to do it, but, dude, add a little bit today. I was in work. I worked out yesterday. Hell, right Now I'm doing 75 hard. I'm working out twice a day, bro. And I'm training for some summer stuff. Some marathons, some long runs, some hikes. Like, I'm putting in work, you know, and it's excruciating. I'm sweating my correct. Dude, it's like a lot of work. I'm sore every day. Something's always sore. Why? Dude, I'm almost 48 and I work out every day of the week. R. You should rest. I hear you. I got you. But maybe I'll rest every once in a blue moon, you know? I mean, but I'm not like the overwhelming Majority of my days, I've got to do something, even if it's walk 10. Dude, I, in addition to two workouts a day, I do at least 10,000 steps a day. I have a little tracker thing, like a little daily thing I do. That's one of the little things I add to my life, you know? It's like, man, I'm getting ready for runs this year. Since January 1st, I use this little Nike app and the Nike Run club. Heck yeah, dude. Watch this. Let's see. If I look at. I don't know if you can see that this is February. You see it 84 miles in February. And then for the year.

So far, year to date, I've done 194 miles on my feet, bro. Some combination of walk, run, hike. Since January 1st, 194 miles.

I'm gonna be better than moving it than you. I can probably run longer and further at this stage than most. You know what I mean?

It's like exact same thing for selling insurance, recruiting people, anything, dude.

This, the concept is like, do more now, get better later. I live by it, dude. How do I. I just did a half marathon this weekend. How did I get ready for it? I did 194 miles this year to get ready for it. That's how to run 13. I did 194.

Do I know what shoes to wear on a half marathon? Dude? I. I know running shoes. I don't, I don't know the difference between any of them, bro. I have no idea. It was raining. I don't have rain run gear. I don't care. I got wet. Do I wish I had rain gear? Yeah. I'll probably go buy something for the next one, you know what I mean? Like, I didn't have enough water during it. I'm like, how do you hold water and run? I could probably get one of those little things, I guess, but I don't. I wasn't worried about that yet. I just move, dude, and I will become a better runner. But right now, I just know if I put in 195 miles in six, seven weeks.

I'm probably going to get further a race than I could six weeks ago, six months ago, you know what I mean? And so I just, I, I just live by that, dude. I teach my kids this stuff. It's just, it, it works really well, you know? I just don't think you can buy, like, I have a course. You can buy it, dude. If you don't work, it sucks. The course ain't going to work. Don't buy it if you don't want.

To do the work.

You know what I mean? I'm not one of those guys that's like, my course is going to change that. You're. No, it's not. For most people, it won't, dude. You know, So. I don't know, man. I think being really blunt about it has helped me build.

Yeah, I think. I think that probably attracts the right people, because the more you try to sell the dream, the more you're attracting the people that have already tried something, didn't work, and then blamed it on the opportunity or looking for something shinier. Yeah, so.

And what I find an advantage, dude, is, like, not starting out really well at this and sharing the struggle and the grind and the hard things. And, dude, I have had. I've had bankruptcy. I've had two houses foreclosed on. I've had car repoed. I've been divorced. I got stuff in life, dude. And so for me, like, not only do I have stuff in life, like, y', all, we're just equal there. So I'm like, let's not talk about it. I'm not really good at this. I'm broke. So was I. Read my story. Me too. So I also have a little bit of, like. I don't have any empathy for the story that people try to give as the excuse as to why they can't. And I kind of exclude, like, single moms. I think they have, like. It's different. Like, I don't. Like, I'm not talking to y'. All. Does that make sense? But everybody else, especially the dudes, like, I just. I just have no sympathy, dude, if you're not willing to put in the work, because I did it and I know it. I know you can come out of it. I'm not special, dude, by any means. I just outwork people, bro. Did I get really good at this? Yes. Do I know how to onboard someone to get them started fast? Yes. Do I know how to close this sale or that sale with certain technique? Yes. I. Yes. The reps got me good.

You know, and so many people, in my opinion, want to get good first.

And I. I'm like, you got it backwards, man. I love it. You got it backwards, you know, so that's huge, man.

It's. I feel like the. The biggest theme throughout this entire interview has just been, like, do the basics and actually do them instead of talking about doing them. And if you stick with that for a long enough period of time, you're gonna see massive Success.

Yeah, man. You know, and they're so duplicatable.

Tell me someone that runs 30 appointments a week, for instance. Because most people, every time I do one of these, if it were live, I would say put in the chat how many. How many presentations you made last week? Dude, I see 1, 2, 4, 6 far too often. I almost never see 30.

Now, if I took the top 10 of any leaderboard at any company and I did it with them, I'd never see lower than 15. Ever. Never. The rare unicorn, maybe. You know, I mean, but it's going to be 15, 27, 32, 29, 51. It's going to be crazy numbers.

Yeah.

You know, And I'm like.

Dude, if you guys will start there.

It gives you the opportunity to learn this thing at hyperspeed, because you're getting the reps in. It's like you see the same thing over and over and over again. Dude, you're going to get really good at it. Like my assistant upstairs right now, she's building shelves. She bought four.

Which one do you think took longer to build, the first one or the fourth one?

Obviously the first one.

By the time she's on the fourth one, dude, she knows where every screw goes. She knows how to slide the thing. She knows where it goes in wrong, where the wedge fits you. I mean, like, now she took three years to build four.

Would the fourth one have been any faster?

Nah, because you're gonna start over again and you're gonna forget every. You know, I mean, it's like you don't have. You don't. It's the. It's the speed of the reps and so many people. If y' all would condense it, I. I heard this dude, Hank Stewart, at. I think it's fls. This is company. He. I watched him speak one day, and he asked people how long they're in the business, how long they've been in the business. And people put out all kinds of things. Six months, one year, two. Two months, whatever it is. And he goes, dude, if they were like a threshold of how many clients you have to present to a week, let's just for argument's sake, say that threshold is 20. And you take a month to do 20. You say you've been in the business a month. Hank says you've only been in the business a week. You just took a month to do the week.

I like that a lot.

Yeah. So you really only have a week experience.

Some of y' all been in this quote unquote, two, three years but you really only have a couple months of experience, truly. You're just dragging it out, you know?

Yeah. It's like, what is that? Alex Hormozi has a quote where he talks about, took him three years to build a website, but 30 minutes to actually do it. It's like the exact same thing. You know, there's people that have been in the business for three months that have more experience than someone who's been in the business for 20 years. It's crazy.

Imagine. Imagine you flip the circumstance, right? And you're like, I don't know, you hire someone at your house to come, I don't know, take a pile of dirt and spread it in your backyard.

Right?

Right. And it's like a truckload of dirt. And they bill you by the. By the. By the day or by the hour.

Dude.

And they use, like, a teaspoon to do it.

Are you fired up to pay that bill because it takes them six months to move the dirt?

No, but AMEX is. Amex is definitely fired up.

It's like.

What are we doing? Why don't you get a shovel or get a. Like a backhoe or whatever the. You know, I mean, like, use a piece of equipment, like. Or move, like, do it faster or. If they only took one. Even if we go, let's just say they use a shovel and they only take one scoop a day. They scoop one piece of dirt, throw it in your backyard, and they go home, and they come back tomorrow, and they take the same shovel and they scoop the second piece of dirt and they go home. Would you keep that landscape or would you fire them? Especially if you had to pay by day, you know, I mean, it's like, why are you taking six months to move a pile of dirt, bro? You could have had that done in two hours.

And everyone, if they were on the other end of it, would be so frustrated. And I'm like, you're doing the equivalent in your space almost. Almost exclusively, dude. You know? And then I would say the la. The last thing I see, people get wrong, man. And I compare this to sports. Like if. If. If you were on a professional sports team. And I said, here's the playbook.

Study it. If you know it inside out, you can start Sunday.

Most agents want to start on Sunday, but they don't want to know the playbook, dude. You know? I mean, and they don't study it like they're trying to be on the field yet, especially dudes. I'm sure there's a female analogy, too, but the dude like, you watching football on Sunday, and you know the players playbook better than they know their playbook. And you're mad when they don't run the run right play. You're yelling at the TV when they don't run the right play, when they drop the ball, when they fumble, whatever it is, they missed the shot, you know, I mean. And I'm like, what about in your profession? Do you. Do you take your profession as seriously as you expect the dude on TV to take his? I bet not.

Definitely not. I think I've probably met five agents lifetime that have legitimately studied the script like they would study for a test at school.

Maybe I'm listening. I was listening to someone's call last week, and she'd been doing this a year and a half, and I'm like, I'm not trying to be like. I don't know how to say this and not risk you being offended, but a year and a half in.

That. That's how you sound on the phone. You don't know your script at all.

Again, if this were. If this were a football field and they called Z21, right, 3F, whatever, and that meant, I don't know, run a post.

I'm like, dude, you ran to the sideline, bro. It's really obvious you didn't know the play.

And a lot of y' all are going at this every day, and I get day one, you're not gonna know the play. Get out there, make a mess of it. I got it. But after, like, a few months, like, you don't know. Still. You don't know what product to write without the little app st. Like, still.

You don't know the health I went through. I was on a coaching call yesterday. Guys knew. So I give him a little bit of grace. But I'm like, when you get ABC health issues, what do you. What are you thinking to write? Like, what's your process? How do you determine whether or not you can get a product? He's like, I just. I mean, I put it in this toolkit thing, which I ain't mad at. I. I like the product. I know the product. Or I put it in the E app and I just see what it says. And I'm like, of all the. How many health issues are there total?

I mean, hundreds.

Okay. I asked this dude, dude, he. He's brand new. I go, what are the most common ones?

Right? What are the most common. Heart stuff. He's like, heart attack, right? It's cancer, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, copd. I, I don't know there any more that are that common really.

Maybe depression nowadays.

Perfect. Depression, anxiety. That's a good one. You know the, the, the mental stuff. Every once in a while you get the, the Alzheimer's med, whatever. Everyone's in blue moon but the heart attack, cancer, stroke, diabetes, copd. Like fine depression. Like if you don't know every medical thing after a few weeks, you don't know 5.

You don't know every carrier, how every carrier handles just five.

That was the first thing I learned.

You need an app. You need an app for. Okay, let's pretend you don't know it by heart. You don't know how to go get it.

Dude, this kid didn't know there was an underwriting guideline. I'm like, you know, they put it in like if we didn't know the meaning to a word.

Am I offended? Am I not offended? Who cares? How do I find the meaning to.

The word if I don't have Google dictionary, obviously dur.

I can look up anything. I don't need to know the word at all to understand the definition of it. I also don't need to know anything about underwriting to be able to look up anything I want about underwriting. And I just find it insanely weird, dude, that after months, sometimes years.

You can't tell me the difference between your five or 10 carriers and how they handle cancer verbatim off the top of your head. What do you mean, dude? Some ask if it's that metastatic, some don't. Some ask if it's recurring, some don't. Some ask two years, some ask five years, some ask ever. You don't know, like you don't know those basics, dude.

To me that's like, dude, run left. Which way's left?

Like I just, I think it's bad, dude. And that's most agents, bro. It's most. There's people watching this right now that have been doing this for a God awful amount of time and they can't. And they can't tell me that that detail. I don't need you to know it. Day one, you shouldn't know it Day one. I don't even want you to think about it. Day one, we got cheat sheets and all kinds of tools for that. But dude, after six months, like what?

I'm dumbfounded, dude, that people don't know the basics.

You know? Listen to another call last week, dude. The very first thing they said is I'm, I have, I have this heart thing. I was in the hospital for A few weeks last month, and I have surgery coming up next week. The next question was, are you on blood pressure or cholesterol meds? Dude, what does that have to do with anything?

Like day one of underwriting, bro, tells you what product to write there. And some people watching this still don't know. They're like, what is the answer?

You know, I mean, I'm like, dude, no question. After that one matters. It's this product, you know what I mean? And the person been here 18 months.

Oh, my God. Maybe in time, but in experience, it's like maybe 30 minutes of actual phone time.

Correct. And so I challenge a lot of people, dude, to stop saying you want it big. But then you don't put in the equivalent work that says you want it big. You're being. Most people are being very mediocre every day. They treat their career super mediocre, dude. And I just. Dude, I did too. When you can you read the book, dude, I'm very clear about it. I start 2008 when I applied. I didn't sell my first policy till 2012, dude. And I was mediocre as all get out till 2015. I did the same thing, which is why I feel great saying it. Because I was. Everything I just explained in one day on a dime. I changed, bro. And I was like, no more. I. Dude, I ain't. I ain't winging this thing no more. Someone challenged me, had a couple good mentors challenge me, and I'm like, bro, you're right, dude. I am. I am not taking this thing seriously. And that mentality, that switch, you could change that right now.

You know, I mean, and I just went on a different crusade, man, to really, with time, with mistakes, fine tune and learn the details of this business and details of people and details of communication and details of underwriting, details of process. I just. I just work on it every day, dude. Little bit every day. And over the course of, you know, 12 years, man, heads up, bro. I got really good. I know some stuff now. I love it, you know.

Well, John, appreciate you jumping on here, man. We've had an hour of game being spit. Where can people. Where can people find you to hear more? Right?

Yeah, I mean, John, Whitmore.com has most everything about me. Everything we got going on from events to working here to workshops, we got going on to literally anything. I got free downloads galore out there on the website, all kinds of free trackers and resources stuff. I just. If you get in, if you get on the website, you can get somewhere in my ecosystem to get stuff. If you're looking for social, Instagram is just at John Webmore. We have a podcast out there too. A lot of people are following now the books on the website. So website, Instagram, those are the best places. Find everything I got going on.

Well, ladies and gents, we'll see you in the next one. Take care.

Later.