FFL USA
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FFL USA
How to Start your Career in Sales (Ep. 217)
If you’re in sales—or thinking about getting started—this is the training you can’t afford to miss. FFL President Shawn Meaike sits down with top producers Justin Harris and Gabriel Soler to break down what it really takes to win in sales. They cover the key skills, mindset shifts, and strategies that separate high performers from the rest. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a new agent, or a seasoned pro, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you close more deals and grow your business.
This isn’t just theory—this is real-world sales training from some of the best in the industry. Learn how to overcome objections, build trust with clients, and master the sales process in this fast-paced, information-packed session. If you’re serious about taking your sales career to the next level, hit play now and start applying these game-changing strategies today!
All right, guys, this will be a damn treat, that's for sure. So welcome to this podcast. I got Justin and Gabriel with me. Why don't you all introduce yourselves? Start with you, justin.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, I'm Justin Harris.
Speaker 1:What's up? Where are you from, Justin?
Speaker 2:Miami Florida.
Speaker 1:Miami Florida. All right, go ahead, Gabriel. Gabriel Soler from Miami Florida as well. Yes, damn, those look really good, bro, you look sharp. Thank you, alright. So let's get right to it. How old are you, justin? 23. 23. What was your first?
Speaker 2:job at 18?. I was working at Home Depot.
Speaker 1:Home Depot doing what?
Speaker 2:I was a stalker.
Speaker 1:Got it. How long did you work there?
Speaker 2:Maybe a year, a year and a half.
Speaker 1:Alright, what were you getting paid there?
Speaker 2:About $18 an hour. About $18 an hour.
Speaker 1:So what would you make a year there, $30, $40 grand yeah around that From that ballpark. Okay, and then how long have you been in life insurance?
Speaker 2:I've been 18 months.
Speaker 1:Okay, what did you make your first year in life insurance?
Speaker 2:It was around $80 grand.
Speaker 1:Okay, so double your income, All right. How about you, gabriel? How long have you been in life insurance?
Speaker 3:So I've been licensed since December of 2022, but I didn't really take the business serious until August of this year of 2024. Okay, so been like actively producing since August of 2024. Prior to this, I was working in like fine dining restaurants, hospitality, making like $1,000 to $1,500 a week. Got it Doing, all right. Who'd you work for? It's this restaurant in Miami. They're actually a chain. It's called Novakov.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah. All right cool, all right. So here's the struggle, right, and how old are you?
Speaker 3:23.
Speaker 1:23,. Okay. So the struggle is were you always, justin, when you were working at Home Depot stocking the shelves, were you thinking about, like, being an independent entrepreneur, or were you just trying to figure out a way to make money?
Speaker 2:I knew I wanted to do something. I didn't know it was going to be insurance.
Speaker 1:But did you know? You wanted to do something as a like. You wanted to run a business, be an entrepreneur. You didn't want to have a job. And where did you get that from? Like, I didn't think that at 18.
Speaker 2:It was from my dad. He's an entrepreneur as well.
Speaker 1:What's your dad?
Speaker 2:do? He has a business in Costa Rica. He has a hotel, a house. He rents out the hotels.
Speaker 1:Costa Rica is beautiful. Yeah, Now is that where you're all from.
Speaker 2:No, I'm from Florida.
Speaker 1:You're from Florida, so how did?
Speaker 2:he end up in Costa Rica. I ended up wanting to go over there, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how long has he been there for?
Speaker 2:It's been about two years now.
Speaker 1:Got it. Do you go by him, by himself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by himself.
Speaker 1:Got it Okay. How about you, Gabriel? Why did you decide you?
Speaker 3:wanted to be an entrepreneur. Since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to get into entrepreneurship and know one way or another. I was going to figure it out. I just needed the right opportunity, um, and it's crazy how, over time and as you grow, especially being a young guy, um, you realize like to be successful. It's not necessarily looking for the next thing or doing more, it's doing less. And um can't question the life insurance industry, man. It's been around for a while and it's not going anywhere. So I feel very confident you know doing this for the rest of my life. If that's the case, okay.
Speaker 1:So a couple of things we're going to talk about. Number one is how do we get more people? Okay, how many agents do you have on your term right now, justin?
Speaker 2:37.
Speaker 1:37. How much volume do you all do a month?
Speaker 2:It is exactly 140.
Speaker 1:Okay, 140. So how many of them write business every month?
Speaker 2:Oh wow, About 12 to 15.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it was 12 to 15, the average agent. How much do you do a month?
Speaker 2:I do around 20 to 25.
Speaker 1:Okay, and how much do you do a month? In December I did 46. Okay, why do you think you do more than him?
Speaker 3:He focuses more on recruiting and I focus more on producing. I only have two agents. Yeah, he has like 30. Okay, I think you know you only have 24 hours in the day and you have to focus on things Not that you can't do both, but I've just focused a little bit more on individually producing and he's focused more on recruiting.
Speaker 1:All right, who do you think, if you recruit somebody between the two of you, who do you think they'd be more attracted to?
Speaker 3:Me why? Because they're trying to follow.
Speaker 1:You sell more no you sell more, no less, words.
Speaker 1:You need less words, confucius. I love you, but you need less words. I sell more, right. I sell more, there'll be more. I sell more, right. So let me help you all up a little bit. I got my license in 08 and I sold a ton.
Speaker 1:And then a guy said to me are you going to be recruiting or selling? I said both, both. And he said what you just said funny goes, there's only so many hours in the day. And I said I know that, dude, but I'm gonna sell more than everybody else. And then I'm gonna scream about how much I'm selling.
Speaker 1:And then I'm gonna, because at the end of day, it's also what are you netting? What are you making? Because if you go and do 40 grand a month and you net 20 grand on that, make 240. And if you go and do $40,000 a month and you net $20,000 on that, make $240,000, and if you've got five agents and those five agents do $10,000 a month, that's $50,000. And if you're like man, I'm making 20 points, that's $10,000. Like, you can make pretty decent money with a very small team. It's understanding that and it's a lot of work. And it is a lot of work and you guys are in a place in your lives where you can work a lot because you have nothing holding you back. Make sense Now. The good news is you've been able to attract a lot of people in the business, which is good. Why do you think you've been able to recruit a lot of people?
Speaker 2:I just know a lot of people Word of mouth.
Speaker 1:Well, a lot of people know a lot of people know a lot of people. Why have you recruited them?
Speaker 2:A lot of people know a I try to get one person successful and then help them make money, and then they're going to tell three of their friends they make money and then it's a snowball effect from there.
Speaker 1:How come you're not afraid to recruit them?
Speaker 2:Because I love doing it.
Speaker 1:But why aren't you afraid? You have no concern, no apprehension, no fear. How come?
Speaker 2:Because FFL is the best place.
Speaker 1:I'd agree with that. But you don't have any fear in your ability to talk to them and you don't feel bad about if they succeed or not. You're going to do the best you can.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think that's where a lot of people fall short, and I think also for you guys and you're both different, right, and that's good there's so many different ways to arrive at the exact same place. So that's what freaks me out about people. I'm like dude, there's a lot of ways, like when you working a lot, you know if you want to build something massive, but you'll be doing things you enjoy doing and you won't be running around to just pay your bills, and that's where life changes. That's why it was hard for people to compete with me, because I, the money, was going to be the money. I just wanted to see other people win. But you have to like, from a social media standpoint, what has been the best thing you've done to recruit people?
Speaker 2:Literally, it's just been word of mouth. My social media isn't nothing crazy. I have 1,000 followers maybe. I just love talking to people.
Speaker 3:Our whole team has built off strictly word of mouth. We made the choice this trip that we're going to get serious about social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and here's the thing is that if people just knew about this opportunity, I think that's what gets me. If they knew and they don't, and that's the struggle, they don't know. And because we all of us don't do a good enough job collectively recruiting or everybody would know about it, right. And I think when we launched company, I said within 10 years I wanted to be a household name. Now, I didn't think I was going to be Home Depot, it wasn't going to be Coca-Cola, you know what I mean. But I wanted to be how.
Speaker 1:What I wanted is the majority of people in the life insurance space to know who we are, and I do think the majority of people in the life insurance space know who we are. So now we got to go. How do we get a larger percentage of people in America that don't they're not in insurance, to know about us? Because if you, if every 20, 21, 22, 23 year old knew, hey, you know what, if I'm willing to call people up, I get myself some leads, I go make myself 80, 90, 100, 150, 200 grand a year, part-time, full-time. There's no obligation. Get my insurance license Because you guys don't know. This is the first thing. It's good that you've done it, but the barrier of entry is very low here because you don't need to spend any money.
Speaker 2:You have to get your insurance license.
Speaker 1:We pay for the course. We pay for the course. You have to pay a state whatever, whatever the fee is, and you have your insurance license. But you guys and again, word of mouth will take you so far, but think about the word of mouth through social media and the posts you have to make and the things you say, and they have to be aggressive. Like, what percentage of people? Like when you sold 40-something thousand last month, if you look at the insurance industry as a whole and you took all the insurance producers that sold the policy in December, where would you be percentage-wise? Like, would you be top 10%, 20%, 40%? Where would you be issuing almost 50 grand a month? Do you know?
Speaker 3:I believe the 5% You'd be top 1%, 1%.
Speaker 1:You're better than 99% of people out there. Really, if you look at the stats through Limerick, what people do, yes, and actually at FFL we tend to have all the really good. So if you sell a lot of items, you should work here.
Speaker 3:That makes a lot of sense. It's so regular here.
Speaker 1:So it seems weird to you because you're like dude here, but I'm like no. In the industry you're top 1%. So you say that when you're recruiting You've recruited a boatload of people and you sell. So you talk about my ability to put 30 people in a business, get this many paid and know your numbers like the back of your hand so you can spit them out whenever somebody asks you I've done this much, I've sold this much, I recruited this much.
Speaker 1:People have to know who you are and then you've got to be bold about it. You've got to be bold. For me, you have to make the decision to be really. You know you're on to something. When people start talking shit about it, that's when you know you're on to something. You guys start engaging on social media on a daily basis and putting your stuff out there and you can get aggressive with anything you want.
Speaker 1:My deal early on was I did this campaign that said when you should quit and I'd get on like Monday and be like hey, man, if you're selling and you ain't got leads, you should quit and I'd get on like Monday and be like, hey man, if you're selling and you ain't got leads, you should quit and I'd get on Tuesday and be like if you work for a guy and he don't sell nothing, you should quit. And I'd get on Wednesday and be like if you don't have a bonus, like in everything which you should quit, you should quit. And I started going Wednesday's a you quit, yet you should join us. You're going to quit the company. You're at right now to the point where everybody was freaking out and then it was like I knew I was on to something because I'm like people wouldn't be so concerned. And then what happens? When you do that? People market you. So if you start doing it, then people you shit. And I'm like, okay, well, I'll go look at what Justin posted, I'll look at what Gabriel posted, because they're talking shit about it and that's our best.
Speaker 1:Marketing is our alleged competitors, because they spend so much time telling people why they shouldn't come work with us. And a lot of people are like I've been in the business two days, I don't even know who they are. They look us up. They're like I'm gonna go over, work over there, I make more money over there, but you've got because that's what pays your bills, that's what's going to pay their bills as well, because you guys want to be able to hire every 21, 22-year-old, but every 35-year-old too, every 40-year-old, anybody that's willing to go work hard and make money. Yep, all right. So if I were to ask you one thing you've done in sales that's changed your business, if I were to say, hey, gabriel, give everybody one thing that, had you not done it, 40, 50 grand a month.
Speaker 3:Stop trying to sell your clients, and let them sell you. Ask the right questions, and the quality of your life and your sales process will completely change If you can just ask the right questions. Give us give us a couple of right questions, sean. So when you were looking at this ad and you looked at this video online and you filled out this form, what made you click on the ad? What made you so interested in filling out this request for insurance?
Speaker 1:I was worried about my kids and make sure they're okay if something happened to me.
Speaker 3:Okay, you're worried about your kids. I mean, do you have anything currently in place to help take care of those kids?
Speaker 1:Is that the reason. You filled out the form A little bit through work, but nothing crazy.
Speaker 3:Okay, a little bit through work, but nothing crazy. Okay, you have some insurance through work. Are you confident that if something happened to you tomorrow, tonight, let's not even get too dramatic, let's not say you were to pass away, you just couldn't work. You're in the hospital an extended period of time. You think your kids are going to be able to stay in the house? No, what. You think that work insurance is going to be able to take care of you? No, care of you.
Speaker 1:No, I don't really trust my employer and what they're doing anyway, they change stuff all the time.
Speaker 3:That makes sense. Is that the reason you filled out the form? That's exactly why I filled it out. Okay, awesome.
Speaker 1:So it's just having the right presumptiveness, the right posture to ask good questions, right, and knowing that you can't be uncomfortable. A lot of times we don't ask the question, we don't want the answer, yep, so it's like when you finally become I don't give a damn right, it does not matter to me how about you sales?
Speaker 2:What's something that you've done that helped your sales? So I would say finding out their why, what triggered them to fill out the application on life insurance, mortgage protection, really, whatever it is, just find out why they want to get it.
Speaker 1:So how do you? What do you say? So you're trying to figure out the why. What do you say? So you're?
Speaker 2:trying to figure out the why, heidi. What do you say? Just like Gabriel said. He said if you're going to ask them a question, dig deep into their questions. Ask them why you want to fill this out. What really triggered you to fill it out?
Speaker 3:Some people. They like to get on the Internet late at night and fill out forms, but the majority don't.
Speaker 1:And I think, even if you do that, that was what people say to me too. I Well, and I think even I mean, even if you do that, that was what people say to me too Like I don't, I'm sorry, but I'm an old school it leads, it leads, it leads, it don't matter to me. You can write somebody's name and date of birth in the back. I'm going to deliver it. I'm going to deliver it to their house. I'm like this is you right here? Right? Good, let me in. I didn't know what the hell it was. You did not click on it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I have never, let's see, let's use a sport. I don't, I never. I skied a couple times in my life. My mom had no money. We didn't go skiing. People are like you grew up skiing. No, skiing's fucking expensive. I'm like, oh shit, I would never want to ski ever again in my life and I'm probably never going to. But shit, let me click on that. I would never do that. That would make absolutely no sense. Nobody's that bored. So it's.
Speaker 1:They had some kind of concern, and I think that's the attitude when you go in, with that right attitude of you. Know what, dude, you're the one that did this, and I used to always say that to people, like I'd draw it out in the sales. I'd be like here's the lead, here's a little stick figure, this is you. They wanted the insurance, we introduced you and they said no. So it's you and it's okay. But like we just got to figure out, because it's your posture, because what you don't understand about life, what're like I'm buying this and I will not be here to see the benefit of it Exactly, I won't be and giving people credit for that. Like you're buying something that's going to benefit other people and you'll be gone, but being able to have those conversations with people and if you have a straight, because if now let's go back to our role playing deal, if I'm worried about my kids, I don't want somebody weak, because if I think you're afraid to ask me questions, you seem ambivalent or you seem scared, shit, what happens if something happens to me? Are my kids going to even get the money? That's subconsciously what I'm thinking. You give me strength that puts me at ease. That consciously what I'm thinking. You give me strength that puts me at ease, that makes me want to do business with you. Because what are our clients. What is every client afraid of? Being lied to, being manipulated, being taken advantage of.
Speaker 1:So that's why people would say to me man, how'd you sell that kind of policy? He was, you know, 480 bucks a month. I'm like, dude, that was easy. You're like I can't believe it'd be that much. I'm like with all your medical conditions. I said, sir, with all due respect, if I only an insurance company, I would never issue a policy. I'd find the healthy people. I'm not being rude, sir, I'm not mad at you at all and I love you and I hope you live as long as you want to live. But, good lord, I'm answering yes to about everything. Yeah, that's why it's four or eight, but but you're still going to get whatever 50 grand. I wouldn't give you 50 grand for four, and I just don't think the numbers. But being honest with people, because you're not misleading them, when you're that brutally honest, they're like don't do that. Guy's not, he's not lying to me, he's not full of it, right, you know? So, all right, from a, when you're looking to recruit somebody, you say it's word of mouth. What are you looking for in people?
Speaker 2:Athletes. Okay, if you've played a sport before you played a sport, before you know what hard work is. That's what you need for this business.
Speaker 1:Got it. So it's funny, we used to run. The very first ad we ran at FFL ever and ran it forever was now hiring athletic military experience required and that was it. And people call up. They're like, hey, how you doing what's up? Me like, hey, good responding, you're out of my cool. They're like I played ball in the military. I'm like cool, you'll be a perfect fit. And they're like I played ball, I'm in the military. I'm like cool, you'll be a perfect fit. And they're like well, what is it? I'm like perfect fit for you, bro, here's what we do. Boom, we protect people. Here's what we do, here's how we do it.
Speaker 1:But I'm a big on team as well, because you need, I think, but for you, and also it's what you understand, so you can communicate with people. Like I wasn't in the military, I just knew there was structure. So I'm like, okay, but I played ball my whole life. So I was like, okay, cool, I understand that, but I don't know that. I understand the military, but I understood the structure of the team. Um, when you're talking to somebody, what is something they'll say that'll make you not want to work with them?
Speaker 1:they're lazy well, well, if they're talking, how can they tell? You can just tell by the way they're talking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like if they. Oh, maybe I'll see if I want to do it, maybe if I have time. If they don't want to do it instantly, I don't want to work with you because you're going to take too long, You're going to get 10 no-shows a day and then you're going to quit, not like hardworking, dedicated. That's why we want athletes.
Speaker 1:People that keep moving.
Speaker 2:Exactly how about you?
Speaker 1:What are you looking for? And some of you hired a few, but what are you looking for in people?
Speaker 3:you hire. Well, honestly, at this point, I think, moving forward, I want to focus on people that are either already in sales or have some form of entrepreneurial background. They tried, started a business, failed, whatever it may be. But if you're working at McDonald's, at least for this year, I don't think I want to give you too much of my time, just because there's like business development and in this business it's a mirror. It's crazy how you can compare it so much to sports. Right, there's business development and then there's personal development and you know, either one can limit you. So I think, for my goals this year, to be able to produce at the level I want and build the team that I want without recruiting, you know, a hundred people spending a bunch of time getting them, you know, I think, uh, I want to focus on people that that are serious about their, about changing their lives, because this does not require talent. Anybody can do it. Correct and it's about your demeanor.
Speaker 1:What if you? Okay, so, and again me. I hired anybody, and what I mean by that was I didn't get in your way of getting an insurance license, but I was really focused on who I spent time with. Now me. You could have worked at home Depot. You could have worked at McDonald's smoothie King. You could have been CEO of a company. You could have worked at McDonald's smoothie King. You could have been CEO of a company. If you're putting in work and you're having results, I'll work with you. Don't care what your background was, doesn't matter to me at all in that, but I also didn't waste my time. What I mean by that was I wasn't.
Speaker 1:Where recruiting becomes uncomfortable for a lot of people is they keep talking to the same people about the same things and nothing changes. Yep, and for me, like with your agents, one of the things you need to say when you go back is hey guys, I'm not mad at anybody, but if you're full-time and you're not issuing at least $15,000 a month, you have to get a job. And you don't have to get a job because somebody's mean You're not making any money, yeah, so so I take 15 grand advancement. I can show you that you're so in its fear of loss and people would say to me you really think I can get a job? I'm like, I'm just telling you, that's my advice. I don't want you to be in a bad position. You're choosing not to issue a certain number. You're not making any money and I don't want to lie to you either, like I can pretend it's going great if you want and we can have trainings, but you're not making any money and I think that got a lot of people going.
Speaker 1:Andrew said earlier we're doing a podcast and when we started the company, I said if you didn't write 10 grand in a week, you had to quit and he would get like mad at me. I'm like, dude, I'm not mad, I'm just saying like we're just trying to survive and I was trying to make 10K like a normal deal. Now, should I have said it that way? I don't know. Yes, no, we all evolved.
Speaker 1:It was 11 years ago, probably not the greatest choice of words, but at the end of the day, you have to understand that you never know. The thing about this business is you never know. I don't give a damn what anybody says. You don't know who's going to do it. You don't know who's not going to do it. That I'm telling you. You can say whatever you want, I promise you you're not going to know.
Speaker 1:So it's really just, and once you jump on social media and really push and start doing content on a daily basis and showing, they will start to come to you, which is pretty refreshing, because now you get to kind of go damn, I got 15 people in my DMs about what we're doing. I can kind of go through this now and send them back and see, hey, to your point, did they respond? Did they get right? What are they doing? Do they want to do it? And then you kind of figure out what kind of synergy, what have you thought about? Because, guess what, there might be a guy at McDonald's who's like dude, I want to build something, I don't know how, come out, or she might just come out and kill it, because, also, you can't put a price tag on people that have been through shit either. Yeah, you can't.
Speaker 1:You know, I was reading this. I was talking to a guy the other day actually, and he's played in the nfl and he's like dude. I knew I was in trouble because they had never had mayonnaise sandwiches. I'm like, and I heard on a podcast another guy said and then I ate mayonnaise sandwiches and I was kidding because my mom would have.
Speaker 1:Mayonnaise is cheap. We had Miracle Whip, which is mayonnaise. Right, I didn't like Hellman's, I liked Miracle Whip. And then like bread and if we didn't have no money, like you were hungry, you just took the bread, put the mayonnaise on it and ate it. Like we didn't have tons of food. There was no pantry, we had a one-bedroom apartment. So, and I and the guy was talking, he's like, yeah, man, like they never had no damn manny sandwich, like they go home. They got a pantry full of food, they got another room full of food, they got a media room. They're hanging out. I can't. They're going to do just enough, and a lot of times the people have starved before Once they start to eat and they eat because of what they've done. Man, it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:So I'm looking forward to what you're both going to do. You're both going to kill it. You're both super sharp. You're great people to be around. I'm excited to have you working with us. We're going to play some ball next week, so we're going to see how this You're on my team fool. Why would I not want to do that. You're already on my team. You said you were good, right? Yeah, okay, good, I'm a really good coach, bro. I'm a really good coach, so you'll be great. I have no doubt you'll get what you want to get this year out of the company and you'll get it out of yourself and for other people, and I really. The thing that I can tell you is the first time you start having people that you recruited that are selling $300,000, $400,000, four 500 grand a year the way it makes you feel and the things they do in their lives. Because you didn't do it, you just recruited them into it and gave them an opportunity.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And when you do that, dude, it's game changing, so all right. So if there are people watching and they're already watching your social media and they're seeing it and they want to work with you, how do they get ahold of you, Justin?
Speaker 2:You can hit me up directly through Instagram. It is JustinHarris2Js.
Speaker 1:Got it. How about you, Gabriel?
Speaker 3:You can follow me on Instagram at GLOOKS underscore 27. Good looks Like good looks. Of course, we got that 27. You can also text me directly at 305-753-1994.
Speaker 1:I love that. Do you want to give him your cell number or no? Yeah, I'll do it, you sure. Yeah, okay, what is it?
Speaker 2:It is 786-627-7934.
Speaker 1:He's going to get hit on. Dude, whatever man, you got the good looks title and you want him to get hit on. So life is really good. Well, hey, I'm telling you I'm excited for both of you. I appreciate being in business with both of you. Thank, you. And thanks for doing this. This is huge. You're going to help a lot of people and you're going to change a lot of lives, man.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having this opportunity available for us. Man, we're grateful, for sure.
Speaker 1:Extremely grateful. You got it, man, I'm.