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From Homeless to 6 Figures in Three Years (Ep. 224)
Wyatt Stamatopoulos shares a raw, powerful story of transformation that will leave you breathless. From sleeping in storage units as a homeless heroin addict to becoming a six-figure insurance producer, his journey demonstrates the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. What makes someone keep believing in themselves when everyone else has given up?
This conversation goes far beyond insurance success, diving into powerful life lessons about maintaining discipline, keeping promises to yourself, and finding meaning after addiction. Whether you're fighting your own battles, building a business, or simply searching for motivation, Wyatt's story will remind you that your past doesn't determine your future.
Hello everybody, thanks for joining us. We have Wyatt Stamatopoulos. Did I say that? Right, you nailed it. Okay, that's the hardest one I've had. Yay, okay, thank you for coming in, though, dude. So just for everybody watching Wyatt has been crushing it with final expense. He's done over 100K year to date. And you said you just figured some stuff out, yeah, some stuff clicked like.
Speaker 2:I don't think we give enough credit to how long things take sometimes to click yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 1:We're gonna talk about that. But you also have a really interesting story which I just, if we can start off, if you can kind of tell us, because you said before we got here you there was a good chance, you wouldn't even be here, as in like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm blessed man and, like you, look back on life and I think for me, you realize God really was with you, with all of us, whether we know it or not. And like I'm the typical son of an alcoholic right, I come from an alcoholic household. My dad's a cop SWAT guy, my mom was a dynamic saleswoman and so, coming from that sort of household a lot of dysfunction, violence, restraining orders, moving every year. My parents worked really hard, though loved us but, like a typical son of an alcoholic, like I've always had something to prove, always had a chip on my shoulder, always went and looked for negative ways to heal stuff going on inside me. Um, athletics in high school kept me. I think athletics in high school saved my life.
Speaker 2:honestly wow yeah, it introduced me to a lot of families and a lot of like.
Speaker 2:I had a lot of good friends that came from great families, two-parent households, and so I was exposed to all that, like they took me in and wrapped their arms around me and so I saw what it could look like and coaches and the mentorship it kept me on the straight and narrow right, like I'd go to school, do that, do practice, and like the secret was I was coming home to a house with empty pizza boxes on the floor, empty Jack Daniels bottles laying around right Like God bless her bipolar mother, like all this craziness and dysfunction behind the scenes. Right, I put on this front I'm this star athlete, whatever. But at home it was a different story and the big turning point for me was when sports ended and I was friends with everybody and I got introduced to heroin and it was like a six, seven year journey of just stepping into heroin addiction deeper and deeper. I went through eight different treatment and rehab programs, homeless. After a certain point of time you were homeless, yeah, yeah, I slept out in front of a Safeway one night.
Speaker 1:But like how homeless, like every night homeless, yeah, for about four months I was sleeping.
Speaker 2:My mom got pancreatitis and almost died. All I remember is one day, dude, the hospital hauled her off right and my brother and I were just kind of home alone. And then we come home one day and there's a big, I'll never forget it. There's this big red sticker on the door from the Pima County Sheriff you have, I'll never forget it there's this big red sticker on the door from the Pima County Sheriff you have three days to evict. And how old were you? 18. Okay, yep.
Speaker 2:And so my grandmother came down, got a hundred square foot storage unit. We packed as much stuff in it as we could and left the rest and I moved in with an uncle, got kicked out of there. You know, just couch surfing, surfing trying to sustain my addiction, stealing, squatting in places, robbing people all these things that addicts do to fulfill their addiction. And it got to the point, dude, where nobody wanted me around rightfully so, like I didn't have any more couches to stay on. I didn't have any more people that were going to bail me out, and that's when I started sleeping in the storage unit.
Speaker 2:I would literally go to the storage Like I didn't have any more couches to stay on, I didn't have any more people that were going to bail me out, and that's when I started sleeping in the storage unit. I would literally go to the storage unit late at night because it was cool, finally. I'd sleep in there. I folded up this mattress topper and slept in like a three foot wide little section. I'd wake up in the morning, I'd walk down to either the Pima County Public Library or Starbucks. I had a broken iPad and I could get free Wi-Fi at the library or the Starbucks and dude, I even broke into homes of family friends and slept in their houses.
Speaker 1:I had. So when you were homeless, was it? Were you thinking like I got to figure this out. Here's the crazy. What was it? What were you thinking?
Speaker 2:like I got to figure this out. Here's the crazy. What was it? What were you thinking? Here's the craziest part, dude.
Speaker 2:Everybody stopped believing in me, right? I was the only person that didn't, like I was. I never lost belief, and you could say that at that time. It was a very irrational sense of self-belief. I just always had this feeling that I was going to figure it out. I was going to fucking figure it out.
Speaker 2:Like I was going to be the success story that I admired so much, right and other people, and I had no evidence to why that was going to happen. I just always had this level of belief that I was going to make it. But every day for a long time was well, I'll do it tomorrow, right. Like I'll go to a meeting tomorrow, I'll get right tomorrow. Like tomorrow never came for years and years and years.
Speaker 2:And so if you're asking me, like what does it take for an alcoholic or a drug addict to get clean, I think it's nothing more than like enough suffering, like that's the answer, dude, I can't tell you how many times I walked up to a detox center, finally had a bed available and I'd walk away and I'd go find more dope and just say I'm going to do it tomorrow. So, whatever, for whatever reason, I never lost that sense of self-belief that I was going to figure it out. But like being the kid of an alcoholic and then becoming one yourself, was alcohol the main thing? No, my family was. For me it was drugs, heroin, meth, any drug I could get my hand on. But what runs along with that is victimhood. I was the biggest victim you'd ever meet, dude. It was everybody else's fault, did you?
Speaker 1:ever feel like it was like a generational curse, like it was just like. This is what my family does and this is how I am.
Speaker 2:I had one uncle that made it out and became really successful one out of seven siblings of my mother. Right my dad was adopted. I didn't know his side of the family but it almost seemed like maybe it's just pride and ego. Right, like, for whatever reason, I believe my path was supposed to be different. No evidence for that, but I just always believed like that's not gonna be me and did you?
Speaker 1:did you go to alcohol anonymous or drugs anonymous?
Speaker 2:yeah, well, I bet are those the same thing they're different, the the core tenet of them is a 12-step program right to acknowledge our brokenness, get right with God, admit our faults and go out and set to make them right as best we can. But I would go into a detox center for four or five days, start feeling better and I'd leave. I did that like eight different times and I don't know what clicked man. I really don't know. But in July of 2016, I finally had enough and for some reason, I stayed that time and I ended up in. Finally, a bed became available and I ended up in a 31 day treatment center.
Speaker 2:I remember it, dude, like it was yesterday. There were like 33 men in there and this guy came in and spoke and he's like, statistically, maybe three of you will make it and how you know, I'm like well, that's going to be me, that's going to be me, that's going to be me. And something shifted. Like I just set myself apart, started doing things other people in there weren't willing to do and about a weekend, a man came in and told his story and he spoke like nobody else had ever spoken to me or us before. He said if you're not done, get get out of here and go get done Because, like you're wasting my time, you're wasting your time. If you're not done, go get done. It was like Sean, mike style Dude. Yeah, it was like Sean and that's the message I need, right? Like my first year of sobriety, I was not allowed to speak in meetings. They told me sit down and shut up, you don't have anything. That we are. These aa meetings.
Speaker 1:I was sponsored and surrounded with a bunch of old crusty bikers, dude, that weren't impressed by me at all.
Speaker 2:It was a blast dude, best time of my life, you know. And so I did that 31 days, um, and I truly, truly gave myself over to the process. Right, not much different than insurance, but I gave myself over to the process and I literally my only goal was to become the most cultured person in the program. I will do anything you tell me to do. And so I sat for a whole year, didn't say anything, moved into a halfway house, lived there for a year and a half, walked around, looked for a job, found a job at a pool company uh, cleaning pools, building koi ponds, right. I'd wake up at 5 am, go work eight to ten hours in the sun, come home, go to a meeting and then either go get a like 10 pm workout or run.
Speaker 2:I became like a samurai dude, like that's how I lived for a year and a half straight. No women, nothing, dude. I just became so hyper fixated on my own growth and I had so much self-belief and like I could feel in those moments like I'm writing my story, like this is a story that's going to be told. What I'm doing right now. It's not glamorous, nobody sees it. I didn't even have social media like nobody saw it, dude, but I knew I was writing my story and one day it would be told and and I and by. The motives for that are to help people.
Speaker 1:It's not like yeah, you know what I mean, like you're saying, yeah, I get it, yeah, um, and so that's.
Speaker 2:That's a summary of where I come from. Dude, like a lot of brokenness and pain and fear. Like, dude, I'll last thing I'll say on this. Like I don't think people understand, like I really don't think you know fear and loneliness until you know homelessness, like we all take for granted. Like you don't know the feeling of like not having a home, like having nowhere to go. If you could just sit and picture that for a second, it's the scariest thing you could ever go through.
Speaker 2:I did it to myself, though you know how could ever go through. I did it to myself, though you know how, how do you fall asleep?
Speaker 1:drugs, yeah, stealing alcohol. Drugs, yeah, oh my gosh dude. So when I was like 20, I'm making money in insurance and the housing market's super low, so I started flipping houses that I could buy for like 80,000 and flip them for like 120 or 130. Well, what we used to have like parties every Friday night. I got my own place and there was this dude at it was like the taco bell down the street who was homeless, and he was like, hey, can I have some money? And I was like, no, but you could come over and work, okay. So the dude's name is Ron. He comes over and he's working like dude, like an animal, like he gets so much done. He's like a human tractor, okay. And then I'm like, okay, okay, this dude is the man well then, we're like oh, like now.
Speaker 1:This is back in the day. We're just young and having fun. Yeah, like next thing. You know, dude, like my friends are coming over, he's taking a beer bong yeah, dude ron was a little meth monster. I bet actually I don. I don't know if he did hardcore drugs. So then next thing, you know he's playing ping pong with everybody. Everybody loves Ron. He's like the life of the party, drew, did you ever meet Ron?
Speaker 2:He helped me move.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, anyways, I wake up the next morning, go throw a load of laundry in in the garage and he scares the crap out of me, dude, he's sleeping in there Like he never left. Okay, oh my God. But and then, dude, we legit became friends and he would help me flip these houses. He would stay in the houses, Like I gave. I gave him a job and he was awesome and I would talk to him all the time cause I was so intrigued. But he like somehow overcame everything and seemed to be happy where he was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But like we got dude, we got him like his driver's license back. We went to court. I brought he came over to my family parties. He came over to Thanksgiving, freaked everybody out.
Speaker 2:What are you doing, andrew?
Speaker 1:No, but dude he was the man, though Like he still calls me dude on my birthday, he's got my birthday, like he has everybody's birthday memorized.
Speaker 2:He always gets a new phone, though, and he still calls me, tells me happy birthday you know what's cool about that man, andrew, I'll never forget the way they looked at me, bro. What I mean by that is I'll never, ever forget the way when I was homeless and towards the end of my run. I'll never forget the way the circle k clerk looked at me the lady behind the counter here, the lady in front of walmart.
Speaker 2:I asked to use her cell phone just like your filth, the, the scorn, the disgust, the judgment. I'll never forget it, dude. I'll never forget the way they looked at me because that drives me today right. Some of that can get unhealthy getting jacked, making money like these things. You can channel that right if you take accountability for your actions and you're willing to set right those mistakes like that. That's a fuel that burns hotter than any fuel. Having enemies is jet fuel for any of us.
Speaker 1:so you used all that pain, you channeled it into what we're going to talk about right now.
Speaker 2:Still do, man, like I still do, like I still need enemies, bro. You know, it just burns hotter than anything else. I don't forget the way they looked at me. I don't forget where I ever came from. I see my kids like waking up, going and crawling on a $5,000 sofa like watching an 80 inch flat screen, like cuddled up, like knowing what I went through and what I had to survive through and then thrive through, and then seeing the next generation of my bloodline not know any of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's like a like will they even know it?
Speaker 2:They'll know my yeah, I'm real, real transparent with everything, but they'll never know that and I'm so like that makes me happier than they'll never know that life but I can't forget where I came from, like I can't forget those things that stung and hurt so badly because ultimately that's the stuff that led me where I am today and then where I want to go in the future. I can't get so good right, like I still have to suffer a little bit every day.
Speaker 1:How many kids?
Speaker 2:Two how old, three and five.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's the same as me Yep boy and a girl. My daughter's turning three in a few days and my son is turning five next month.
Speaker 2:Dude, ours, yeah, yeah, five in june, three in september, yeah, so she's two and a half, yeah, but like I've seen you with your kids, right, and like I respect that in a man more than anything else, dude, like the way I see him with this woman and last, night.
Speaker 1:Our kids are just so I mean, you know, kids are so precious right like they just say the craziest stuff. My son was like Dad, I remember this movie and I was like how do you remember it? And he's like because this guy in here tells me and he goes, you can't see him and he doesn't have a nose or a mouth, but he'll tell me about stuff and I'm like dude, he's talking about inner dialogue.
Speaker 2:So pure dude. They don't have an ego yet. Yeah, it's the best me about stuff and I'm like dude he's talking about like inner dialogue, you know.
Speaker 1:so pure dude yeah, they like don't have an ego yet you know yeah, it's the best, but last night my my wife was like isn't it crazy that some people grow up without their like, they live their life without their kids, and I'm like dude I don't get it yeah, um, and then your wife, who you've.
Speaker 2:You've spoken real highly of her yeah, like I was telling you I I'm maybe the face of it or get recognition here or there. Dude, she's like the backbone behind everything. Yeah, like I don't know what it feels like to come home after working 14 hours and have her give me shit for it. I don't know what it feels like to call her and be like babe, I have to stay or I have to do this, and her be rude about it. Like that woman is special, dude, and that's why I strive to give her everything. Like my wife doesn't work, right, she raises our children, takes care of our home and now is transitioning into helping me with the business a lot more because the kids are at school. But like, when I met her, that's what she wanted, right, that was her dream ideal. Like I don't want to work. Like I don't want to show up to some job for some guy I don't even like and some job I don't like, and so God truly put us together. How'd?
Speaker 2:you meet Coffee shop.
Speaker 1:At a coffee shop. Yeah, you just rolled up to her and said can I have your number? I said can I buy you coffee? Yeah, that's old school, old school dude how many people nowadays. Do you think meet like that?
Speaker 2:None, dude, none. Like I'll see a cute girl in public and be like hi, just like friendly. They're like I'm like oh, I'm sorry I didn't DM, you can't say hi, I don't know, man, but she's a, she's an old soul, right. When I met alexandra, like she wasn't into partying and I told her I'm like it's no judgment, but like I'm not gonna be with a woman that wants to go out and party, like that's not what I do, this is what I want and what I'm doing in life, and it's exactly what she wanted. So she's, she's everything, dude, like she should get all the credit. Without her, I don't, I don't think I'd be here with a level of belief I talk about self-belief that I've had. Well, dude, you know like when you're in the field your first 90 days in this business, you lose that pretty quick. Bro, you set 10 appointments, seven of them, no show. You know what I'm like. You feel about this big yeah, and so to come home and have somebody be like you're the man you gonna figure it out.
Speaker 1:Like, why are you doubting? You're like, why are you doubting? Like, okay, go get him. Like yeah, man, she's powerful, it's everything. It's funny.
Speaker 1:So I have there's some agents that and I I'm like you, like I'm lucky to have nicole, who's always been like go take over the world. Yep, you could be gone for a week, I'll take care of everything at home. Yep, you know, and let me go build something. But it's funny because a lot of agents, uh, sometimes you almost feel like a therapist because they'll be like, hey, my wife is mad because I'm not making sales and she wants me to go get a job, right, and this is like the first weekend. But they just don't believe it's gonna work.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, dude, all right, this is my advice. I want to know what your advice would be, because you probably hear it too. But my advice is dude, go get paid. Like we can work. You could work hawaii leads at 9 pm at night. You could work michigan at 9 pm at night. You could work Michigan at 6 am. You could work Dallas. Glue the phone to your ear, go get paid, and then next thing you know they're going to be like oh, this works, yes, but what's your advice on that?
Speaker 2:Well, bro, she doesn't believe because you don't believe.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 2:Like how do you expect her to believe dude, you don't even believe this is going to work Right. And like in a biblical marriage in my opinion, right. Like a woman submits to her man and everybody gets offended with that word I don't give a shit. But like the real meaning of it, submission is earned right.
Speaker 2:So like I have given my wife so much evidence through the years that I'm going to show up Right, like evidence through the years that I'm going to show up Right, like if, if I say like I'm packing our family up, we're hitting the Oregon trail, and like you know, like back in the day, how families used to migrate out West, like there was a sick level of belief in that man or that head of the family. And it's the same thing today. But like there has been so much evidence that I've had to provide my wife of like I, if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. Like I will show up every day and over time her buy-in starts to increase and increase, and now it's to the point where, even on the days I don't believe, she still does, she believes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I would tell that new agent like, dude, you want her to be sold, you better get sold. Number one, and my judge of work is always this bro, I need to be able to go home every day and look my family in the eye and say I did the best I could. That sounds cliche, but a lot of these guys that would have that scenario. They're not working as hard as they could, dude, like they're not absolutely just dogging it out as hard as they could, because if they did, their wife would see it in their eyes, man, and then the results would come.
Speaker 1:Now on the flip side, you have people who they start to really get some traction and then everybody starts to go dude, you're working too much. You need to work life balance, slow down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:What's your advice there? I?
Speaker 2:don't believe in it, man, I don't. I don't think balance is a real thing. I guess it depends what kind of life you want and what kind of man you are, I guess. But like the really high achieving men I would admire, or women, they don't have balance in their life. Now, okay, my life is family, faith, fitness and life insurance. That's it, dude. Those are the only four things I do. Like, what's your hobby? Why, I don't know. Like I like to lift weights at work, like, and my kids? You know, yeah. If you asked what I did for fun, I'd be like play with my kids. Yeah, and so no. Like I think a woman respects a man that's obsessed too, yeah, like Alex has never told me to be balanced. Now she has had to pull me away from work. Sometimes I take it a little too far, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah and be like yo come home. Yeah, like it's seven present.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it's seven, 30, like come home, like they put the phone down, you know like little stuff like that. But if we're really on our mission and doing what we believe we're supposed to be doing, like people around us buy it yeah, that's that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. All right, I want to go back to, uh, addiction, yeah, and I think a lot of people have there's all kinds of different addictions or things that people, that people struggle with.
Speaker 1:And the reason I say that is because we did a conference call with steven yeah actually, and we said how many people on this call are dealing with something that you're not telling everybody, that nobody knows about, but you're dealing with some type of problem in your life. Put a emoji in the chat and there was like 29 people on the call. Small call, 29 emojis, absolutely. So I want to go back to this. And then I got to talk. Eric Thomas spoke at the conference. Well, I talked to him for a little bit and he was like he made a comment. He goes um, sounds like you've been pretty successful. You figured this thing out. And I was like, yeah, but now I'm trying to figure out how to not mess it up. Okay, wow, and he goes. Well, what's funny is getting getting there is easier than staying there and he goes.
Speaker 1:So what I do in in my work is I try to. I try to figure out what's things people are struggling with and if we can fix them. Then it's in business. It's kind of like if you had a athlete they're playing with a torn acl. We try to fix the acl, so they're operating at 100. And he was like he said uh, he said he had a customer who had more money than anybody. A beautiful family, had some addiction issue, lost his, his family lost his money, ended up on his parents' couch again and he was like so he was explaining all these things to me, which I thought was awesome, but the reason I want to go back to this is the addiction thing. Did you ever go to, or did you go to, aa? Do you to AA? And if you did, what was that like?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, did still do changed my life. Okay, because here's the thing, dude, it's just like insurance. I didn't want somebody to tell me how to get sober, I wanted somebody to show me how to get sober. Okay. What that means is, like I need a solution, like I don't want a bunch of opinion from a bunch of doctors who have never been addicts themselves. I need somebody who's been in it, has found a solution, made their way out and then can give me a clear a to z recipe on on how to do it. And so there's a lot of literature that's been written.
Speaker 2:That was monumental, and then a simple it doesn't matter the 12-step program. There is a simple framework that you need to follow to be successful in your sobriety or your clean time, and it's no different than insurance. The biggest thing for me, andrew, is honesty with other men in my life, and it's not 10 people, it's more like two or one. But for me, man, to stay right-sized and make sure I'm not the dude that ends up on some couch somewhere like I have to have another man in my life I can be completely honest with and constantly take an inventory of where I'm at. It's a must.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. So I go to the gym a lot, lot with. In the morning I usually meet ben smith at the gym. Do you know him? Yes, I do, so he always talks to me about aa and I'm like dude, this sounds like stuff that I want to know about, because he's telling me some of these principles in the big book that you live by and you reinforce and all these things you do, and I'm like dude. I might read that book, even though I don't have an alcohol problem, but I might actually read that book anyways.
Speaker 2:Dude, it's like and you can diagnose it simply, right the. The issue like okay, if you're sick, the sickness, the illness is not the cough, right, it's the flu, or strep throat might be it the. A symptom of strep throat is a sore throat. Okay, drugs and alcohol are a symptom of the greater illness. They're not the illness, they're just an outgrowth of that. So what that tells me is like, if you take drugs and alcohol, like you may know people where they are really bad and they stop drinking and using and they're more miserable than they were, than they were using the. The reason for that is is the. The root of our troubles as alcoholics or addicts is selfishness, straight up selfishness. Everything is about us, outgross of that. Our fear, self-seeking, all these things, all this wreckage we cause in our lives and the lives of the people we usually love most, is really just out of our pure selfishness. Dude, and I think alcoholic, non-alcoholic, would you agree that that's probably the root of most people's?
Speaker 1:issues. So you're saying fear is selfishness, yep Fear is an outgrowth of selfishness, right?
Speaker 2:right, because I'm small, like I'm really small in the ground, grand scheme of things, if it's all about me and I'm trying to control everything and I know that I'm inadequate and I can't possibly control every outcome, fear creeps into the picture. Right when I'm in congruence with God and a healthy, loving relationship with my creator, fear suddenly goes away. It's like the fear and faith scale A lot of fear, not a lot of God, and it goes like that. So, yeah, I think fear. The root of that is just self, just thinking about myself way too damn much and all these things I can and can't control myself way too damn much, and all these things I can and can't control.
Speaker 1:Does that make sense? Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, awesome dude. Well, I um um. Thank you for sharing that Cause. Of course, I think a lot of people would be hesitant on sharing that, but I think this could help. Who knows how many people this could help.
Speaker 2:It's funny, dude. It's like it's not who I am right, Like I'm a lot more than that story, but it's a massive part of who I am. I am the man I am today because of it. Why would I be ashamed to share that and anybody that would judge me for that, like anybody out there that's suffering with drugs and alcohol or they are sober and they're hesitant to share it? I could tell you right now, if you share that story from your heart and you get judgment thank God, because that just revealed to you the people you probably don't want in your life.
Speaker 1:Anyway. That's good. You know that's huge Yep. All right, so let's get into some insurance stuff. Yeah, talk to us. How long have you been selling insurance? How long did it take you to figure it out, yep, and what's it been like?
Speaker 2:I came from corporate America car dealerships. I was a parts manager, fixed operations, started as a car washer. When I got sober Wanted to leave corporate America, be self-employed right Like chase the American dream and I started in insurance. Two and a half years ago I recruited myself. I did Sean might love that dude because I was sitting in my office one day and I heard him on a podcast with bradley oh, swear to god, really, I'm sitting at my desk.
Speaker 1:That's how you found insurance.
Speaker 2:Yes, dude, I had prayed about it. I'm like this isn't the path through. Man, like, is it real estate? Okay, I know I have to sell something. Like for somebody like me, freedom in america comes through the art of persuasion and learning how to sell something and then leveraging that skill. So I know I need to sell. Is it real estate? What is it? And I'm like I prayed about it and I asked for answers. And I'm literally sitting there going over P&Ls in the dealership and Bradley and Sean Mike, this crazy bald dude, starts talking about insurance man and there was something about him that, like reminded me of my sponsors, my family, I don't know. There was something about sean that I really was drawn to and it was at that moment. I started investigating it and I found will war had an office literally three minutes from the dealership and like the next day I walked into his office.
Speaker 1:How did you find his office?
Speaker 2:the website. I just I like googled ffl and you know, on the main website there's a map of every office in america and I walked in and the rest is history. So I recruited myself two and a half years ago um became really close with will and steve and you and like surrounding myself with people that are so much better than I am, and it probably took dude I'll say this like I think I did 20,000 submit numbers like month two or month three. But I'll be honest, man, when I really started, like feeling good, like I had security in this business and I know I could create predictable outcomes Probably took a year, honestly, like I was making enough to pay my bills, buy leads, take care of my family, my wife hasn't worked, things were good. But like I'm talking about, I deposited this, I bought leads, I saved some, I put some money so we could go on vacation, like I had freedom. It took about a year to attain that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jack, u calls that getting the monkey off your back. He says like. He says there's a day where all of a sudden it all clicks and the monkey's off your back. But I remember, dude, it took me probably a year Cause I was just scared Like this isn't gonna work. Am remember, dude, it took me probably a year because I was just scared like this isn't gonna work. Am I gonna make it for like a year?
Speaker 2:I relate to that. Yeah, there was always that little seed of doubt. Now the crazy thing is dude. Like I didn't have a plan b though, either. Yeah, I like left this salaried career. I was like I'm gonna sell a lot of insurance were you pretty good at the car dealership?
Speaker 1:were you making good money?
Speaker 2:yeah, dude, they offered me 200 grand to stay started paying me 200 grand for a couple months now.
Speaker 1:Were you with your wife then?
Speaker 2:yes, dude, she was due with our second daughter, hazel, in six months and we were set to be married in like three. You know what I mean. I went to her and I'm like, babe, I found this insurance thing. Like I've told you since the day I met you I'm going to create a family business and we're not going to work for people. And this is it. She's like you're crazy. No, you know, I'm like as a typical feminine woman who's concerned with her family, she's like no, wait till the new year, wait till after. And I'm like it's really the only thing I've ever gone against her on and said this is what we're doing. Like, get with it and follow along.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, but it made you perform Now. Did you regret that in the beginning? Were you like shit, what'd I do?
Speaker 2:No, Well, okay, I had certain moments of it. Like, dude, I remember going out and getting no-showed and all this stuff, and coming home and putting my head against the wall, like the first month or so, you know. I'd go out and set appointments, I'd get no-showed. I'd have like four hours to my next appointment. So I'd say, okay, well, I'm going to go home and eat lunch and I'll dial and da-da-da, and worst mistake ever, don't do that. If you're still in the field by chance and you're new to this, don't go home, leave your house at whatever 8 o'clock and don't come home until 8 o'clock. And I would go home and put my head against the wall and like question everything. But, dude, I guess, like the one thing I can say about myself is like I can get my ass kicked and like I will come back tomorrow for more until I figure it out. I'm like stupid, like that Smart enough to make it work and too stupid to quit, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how I am. I'm like I'm just not going to quit. I might quit for a second. And then I'm like oh, I'm not quitting, not quitting as long as the next day you wake up and you go back at my first ever appointment was like a 260 something a month.
Speaker 2:America First ever appointment, first appointment. No, showed she was the second one of the day I sat with her. Amelia, I sat with her and her trailer for an hour and a half almost two hours, dude. She spent 260 something a month. I made $2,500 like that and was like I knew it, I knew I made the right decision. I didn't sell anything for like another week and a half. You know that's insane, that's so yeah, I think that was a total god thing man it'll be my first appointment for someone watching.
Speaker 1:What does the pay look like on that?
Speaker 2:there. There was a cap right at the time. I mean the total commission, I think is like 2700 bucks. They gave me $2,500.
Speaker 1:And tell everybody how it works if she cancels. That way everyone kind of knows the reality of the industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Chargebacks are real. They're part of business, man, In the first oh God, I should know this In the first nine months or a year with AmeriCo, if the client goes, I don't want this, I'm getting something else. Whatever the case, the insurance carrier says hey, like we paid you for money we have yet to receive right, yeah, Client cancels.
Speaker 1:We need that money back and they take it out of your next commission. Yep, and if you don't write commission, then you owe them the money you owe them If you don't write any policies.
Speaker 2:You know the crazy part when you're backs dude used to affect me so much, I'd be just mentally drained from them.
Speaker 2:I'd wake up defeated like, oh my god, I'm 1700 in the hole. I'm working for free today and it would dominate me. I don't even think about it anymore and I think when you really are working and writing business, they just get ate up right. It's like, oh, my commission should have been four. Grand statement today it was only three. Okay, um, that's part of the business, like you know the millions of dollars amazon does and returns annually, or any any big company. It's a part of business and that's that's how I've grown over time, and then it's like this whole business is a muscle.
Speaker 1:It's like you just got to grow your sales muscle, you got to grow your rejection muscle, you got to grow your chargeback muscle, and then it's so true, and then it's not a big deal. No, it's easy, yep, but you got to go through it. So my friend just started and I've been having him go through everything like a new agent, like dude, I'm not going to favor you because I don't want to steal you learning how to run a business. I don't want to steal that from you Because I so bad want to be like, of course, yeah, let me do it for you, yep, you know, let me hold your hand and show you. But you got, it's just part of. If you could just embrace all of these issues, as this is part of me growing, then that's the perfect way to do it.
Speaker 2:You make a great point and if you can just have a little bit of long-term vision, right, it's the same thing as getting sober like dude. Day one you don't have any results. Bro, day 90 you may not have much results. It's the same thing as going to the gym dude, I got sober 146 pounds. I was a beanstalk like dude.
Speaker 2:You may not see results for a while, but if you can carry the framework in your mind of like this is a part of what ultimately is going to make me the man I want to become, eating those chargebacks and the frustration and the mental part of that, if you could just have like an ounce of wisdom in that moment and say you know what, I know I'm not going to quit. So like I'm coming back tomorrow, okay. Like this is going to develop me and chisel me away and god's working on me and I have to grow in order to go where I want to go. And if just new agents could have a little bit of wisdom, man, and not be so absorbed in the moment, I think it would help them a lot yeah, crazy man.
Speaker 1:So you? You just moved to tucson yeah yep, and you got a bigger house, some new upgrades as far as lifestyle goes yep you know, that's one thing alexandra and I have done.
Speaker 2:Well, I have never really lived beyond my means, right? Because, like dude I was telling you earlier, I have been just as happy with 150 dollars and a 60-day sobriety chip, living in a halfway house, as I have been depositing 30 or 40 grand. So what does that tell me? That, like the material things are not going to fulfill me ultimately. They're important, but they're not everything. And so when I started insurance, I had this big, beautiful SUV. I sold it 15 grand cash, put it in my bank because I'm like, okay, I'm going to embark on this insurance journey to have 15 grand would be really helpful. And I went and bought a $2,000 car on Facebook. I still have it today, bro, my wife has a new car that's reliable, new forerunner.
Speaker 2:But like we lived in a small, smaller house than what we needed it for probably a year longer than we should have, I have fought the urge to buy like some sick beautiful car, because I ultimately know like what I'm gonna become 20 years from now. And that dude, that new car, right. Like that hundred thousand dollar car. Like dude, two weeks time I'm gonna be throwing empty water bottles at the floorboards, like treating it the same way I do in 98. You get what does that?
Speaker 2:make sense yeah and so we've always just done a good job of staying humble, and so I bring up to people. When we moved to tucson, we moved into this 33, 3400 square foot house that is at the top of the catalina foot hills of tucson, overlooks the entire city you walk in and it's cathedral ceilings, 30-foot floor-to-ceiling glass, stunning, like breathtaking. And it overlooks the apartments that I at one time was squatting in and breaking into.
Speaker 1:That's insane.
Speaker 2:I mean, but we would only be in that situation and living in a home like that. Part of the story is if we were patient and humble as we grew through this. If I went and moved in some big apartment the second I deposited 10 grand I don't think we'd be where we're at now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so check this out. So 11 years ago, okay, trey Honeycutt said this business is better now than it's ever been. And let me explain to you why. Okay, 11 years ago, this is how I remember Tucson. We would have to pick spots on a map to get leads and to go run and we'd have to travel there because you couldn't do Zoom sales and you had to go face-to-face and there was no leads. So I'd be like like, okay, like 50 leads built up in tucson, let's get some leads and go. Now, right before I was getting to getting ready to go, my stepdad dies. He's like 50. I think he was 54. It was my mom's uh second husband that died. So my dad died. She gets remarried, she has this awesome relationship. He has a heart attack. Everything was fine, they're drinking coffee. He has a heart attack and dies. So I'm like I don't want to leave my mom home by herself, so I'm going to bring her with me to Tucson. So I'm like, mom, we got an eight-hour drive Okay.
Speaker 1:So me and my mom eight-hour drive get to Tucson. I have 24 appointments booked to go run the next few days. I still remember we got vodka martinis to kind of ease the pain a little bit. Hung out, talked she spent the weekend there hanging out and um, I went and ran business, okay, and then I come back spend time with my mom, go back love it run, run appointments.
Speaker 1:But this is this is like the crazy memory that I have. Okay, so I'm running all over tucson and there's like a city that's right next to mexico yeah what.
Speaker 1:There's no gals, I think. So I think so, well, dude. So I get there and, like, I'm going down a dirt road, it's my 9 pm appointment and I'm going down a dirt road, okay, and I lose cell service. So I'm like this is kind of freaking out. I don't even know. I'm close to mexico. Yeah, dude, you're on the border bro. Well, dude, I I finally get to the uh, the house. It's like a mobile home dude has a shotgun next to the door. Okay, and I'm like, and I had this rule, I'll never back out from an appointment like I gotta go if it's like, yeah, I'm just gonna go, no matter what, I can't back out.
Speaker 1:Now, the last appointment I ever ran, I did back out, and that was the last appointment I ran. We were already doing so good, I was like dude, I'm not risking my life right now. Yeah, maybe a good call. Yeah, and it was in vegas at a motel yeah, the appointment was in a motel dude like a scary one, like for 30 bucks a month, yeah yeah, yeah, I was like you know what, life's pretty good, right now like go home, all right.
Speaker 1:So I get to the mobile home. Dude has a shotgun. I'm like what do you got a shotgun right here for? He's like dude, mexico is 40 feet that way. Oh, okay, so super cool, dude, like right up the app and I'm leaving. I'm trying to figure out how to get out of this place. Okay, it's like a beautiful night, stars everywhere. I'm in the middle of the desert on a dirt road, windows down, and I'm like looking at my uh phone and I also have a gps, like a garmin gps, trying to find out how to get out. Dude, and somebody whistles at me from the bushes like like going, like hey, over here, kind of thing. Like what, the Dude I just slammed on, I just hit the gas dude took off and like made my way out of there.
Speaker 2:I was like I'm never.
Speaker 1:Hop in the back of the car. Dude, I'm like dude, I'm never forgetting getting that. That is so funny.
Speaker 2:Dude, like I'm all virtual now, right, but I miss the field so much. I'm sure everybody that worked in the field will say that yeah, a lot of these new guys like just funny stuff. You would encounter that you can't make up you can't make up, dude, and I think the gratitude it gives you for life and it's helped me a lot in my virtual sales because I have a much better understanding of people. Dude, I have sat in so many homes. Oh my gosh, dude People on like I do a predominantly final expense.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sitting in those homes, dude, with those people that actually make $1,500, seeing the way they live, talk, think it's a trip man.
Speaker 1:Yep. Now, what kind of leads do you run?
Speaker 2:Right now I'm doing Facebook final expense.
Speaker 1:I run my own leads. Are they the vet ones or no? Just facebook.
Speaker 2:Final expense old school facebook old school and it's always worked. My lead, my ad has worked. I've had to change it, I've had to adjust, you know, and you just run it yourself?
Speaker 1:yeah, do you ever have people that have issues like running it themselves and then they spend more time trying to figure that out and not enough time being active?
Speaker 2:it's a great question dude, and I think it's not that deep. It's not that deep like, if I have a new agent, I'm always recommending like we got to build you a facebook and I show them how to do it. And if you're doing it right and you're being honest, like it doesn't take that much adjusting. The thing with facebook ads, in my opinion, is patience. Like you, you cannot have an ad that's producing. The thing with facebook ads, in my opinion, is patience. Like you, you cannot have an ad that's producing the volume you ultimately need within a day or a month. It's going to take time. So like build the ad, fund it a little bit and like let it work and in the meantime, you have to buy other leads. So, no dude, like the dudes that want to sit and pretend like they're perfecting this facebook ad they just don't want to work.
Speaker 1:Creative avoidance 100. It's like me going oh, I need to uh wash my car and do the dishes and do all this stuff stop building a website, dude like you haven't sold anything. Oh, that's. It's so funny. The first thing people do is build a website. It's like dude, you don't even need a website no, you don't need any of that.
Speaker 2:Like here, here's the lead. Like you old school guys that have been doing it forever, like really spoke to me. Like Sean, like here's the lead, call it. Like okay, I can do that. Yeah, all this other stuff, well, some of the automation stuff is hurting people and they're getting worse results no dude, I think automation is there to pick up everything that you missed. Yes, yes, not the other way around.
Speaker 1:yeah, uh, monsoorah is a 22 year old girl who hit hall of fame last year and she started in march. Okay, wow, what a beast. She's so impressive. She manually dials from her cell phone. Oh, like whoa.
Speaker 2:I do too.
Speaker 1:You do, mm-hmm? Yeah, I have the dialers.
Speaker 2:My agents use them. I use them occasionally, right, if I'm filtering old, aged leads, but if we're talking three to five day old Facebook leads, then I'll just punch the number in, like the key is a lot of people get distracted. Dude. They dial three leads and they get on Facebook or Instagram.
Speaker 1:Dude, my Facebook and Instagram is deleted right now. Good, because I'm like I caught myself scrolling and like my kids were around yeah, and I'm like what is this good for you? This is just like some other drug, it kind of is dude yeah, and it's like stupid stuff.
Speaker 2:No, I, I have that very old school approach and like I've actually had to take a look at myself and like embrace automation and making things easier, because one of the skills I have is like I can really pick one thing and then just go headlong at it for years. Powerful dude, it is powerful and not enough people have it. Now I could take it too far right and be like okay, dude, like you need to incorporate new stuff, right, um, but that's always easier to do than the opposite. But like I don't think enough people take pride in that or recognize how valuable that is to say I am going to pick this thing and I am just going to plow ahead.
Speaker 2:You know I'm good at it. I think I learned it through getting sober and all those principles. But a lot of people get distracted, dude. They want the new thing, the new weed, all this.
Speaker 1:Dude, that I think that I mean. Your story is insanely powerful, but as a business tip, it's just focus on one thing.
Speaker 2:Can we just get good at one thing? Yeah, dude Like dude please.
Speaker 1:Well, I learned that, like. So I started making money and I tried to become like this serial entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did, and I started to dip into other stuff and I tried to become like this serial entrepreneur, yeah, and I started to dip into other stuff and I'm like dude, why did I neglect the one thing that's always worked, which was insurance, that always took care of me, that always paid the bills, just to like think I was like going to go crush real estate and do all these other things at the same time and like, dude, if you, if you have other passions, stick to one thing and once you, once you master it, then go do the other passions.
Speaker 2:Like yeah, or maybe my rule would be like when I can step away a little bit and it can sustain itself and truly become more passive, then maybe I don't know, you know better than me.
Speaker 2:I just do know that the men and women that I've studied in business that I'd really admire, like we all see the final product right, like we all see alex hormosi today and like write that story like dude, that dude, like focused on one thing for years and years and got really good at it Anybody I would name right now that I really admire did the same thing. Yeah, they plowed ahead at one thing. The difference is it just wasn't documented.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a book called the One Thing. Have you heard of that book?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't.
Speaker 1:So I read it in maybe 2016. And this is what I took from it. So basically, what it's saying is like if you actually focus on the one important thing, you don't need as much time as you think. Like you could literally get like in four hours done. If you just focus on the important thing, what you normally would get done in a full day. And one of the chapters is build yourself a bunker so you don't have any distractions. So when I would, when I would call customers, I would literally my bunker was my car because, like, no one in the office could get to me, your spot, no one at home could get to me and I can just go through these dials as fast as I could. But like, do you even have a? How do you deal with that? How do you? How do you separate like, hey, I'm working, since we're self-employed and we could always be working, versus hey, I'm with my family and since we're self-employed, we could always be with our family? How do you, how do you separate that?
Speaker 2:dude dials and switches, bro. What I mean by that is I had to learn I was. It was. Everything was always a switch for me. I'm either either doing this, I'm doing that Dials, when I get home I need to turn up the father dial, the husband dial. Does that make sense? I love that.
Speaker 2:For me, an office is of the utmost importance. I cannot work from home. I can, but if I have a say in the matter, I am not working from home. I need an office man. I need like my spot, I need to kiss my babies in the morning and like go out into the world and like make my mark and do my thing. So an office is crucial for me and I get it.
Speaker 2:The attraction of what we do is you can work at home. But I really think people are selling themselves short. Like if you're an agent ingas and you're not in this office, I don't get it. I don't understand it. I know it's like to me. That's just a very, very easy way to artificially create structure and separation. Right like I'm at the office, I'm working and then there's deeper levels within that. Right like when I'm at the office, I could be doing other stuff aside from working. But if we're talking simple, that's a very, very quick way to do it, man, when I'm at the office, I'm working, and when I get home, bro, I really, really do my best to like leave my briefcase and my computer and my work phones over there.
Speaker 1:That's good. So Zack Turdowski I Didn't really know him really well, but he started coming into the office like every single day and like I'd come out of, I'd come out of my office, he's there. I come in the morning, he's there. I come in the afternoon, he's there. And then he started going like hey, can I help with anything, which I thought was really unique. Yes, and then he's like can I help? He started to become helpful and then I'm like, oh, this guy's legit. And he was just a sponge dude, he was just taking information from what everybody was doing. And then it's cool to see how successful he's been.
Speaker 1:Like it's not an accident, yeah, it's not. But like, yeah, get around people, force yourself into an environment. And then somebody said to me early on they're like okay, you can learn from other people, but you have to become somebody that these top performers want to be around. Wow. So like what? How do you change? How do you get better to become somebody that they would want to be around, that they would want to help? How do you get better to become somebody that they would want to be around, that they would want to?
Speaker 2:help. You know, damn, that's deep. You know, that kind of makes me think like I'm a big. I don't know. I think about identity a lot. I asked you about it earlier. Yeah, I don't think you ever outlive your identity, okay, or there's a couple books that talk about it. Right, like your thermostat setting on your life. Right, like your thermostat setting on your life, right, typically, once you make a hundred grand, it's really hard to make less than a hundred grand yeah and it's also hard to make more than a hundred grand unless you're like superheating your thermostat.
Speaker 2:Coming into an office, for example, and spending time around a person like you or steven year the people that I have access to superheats my thermostat right like I get to see the way you guys operate, the way you talk, like just by rule of like osmosis, almost like it is going to Contagious. It is man and before you know it, I start acting differently, thinking, speaking, my level goes up just by being around your sphere of influence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, facts Huge, all right. So I want to talk about this because you just kind of reminded me of this. So, like you said that you flip switches on, I used to say that I would change my hat. So I'd be like I'm changing my hat to my dad hat, I'm changing my hat to my producer hat, I'm changing my hat to my manager hat.
Speaker 1:But one thing that I um learned is, like, when you, when you recruit friends or family, it's sometimes it's harder to have conversations with them than you normally would when it comes to business. And then I had asked somebody that is has been doing this a long time, real successful. I'm like how do you do that? And he said, well, let's say it's my friend, then I'll be like hey, I know we're really good friends. I gotta put on, I gotta take off my friend hat, though, and I gotta put on my my business hat and I have to have this tough conversation with you. I'm like just such an easy way to like open up that conversation, and it just made me think about that when you're talking about turn on, turning on and off switches, all right. So I've asked pretty much every top producer that's come in here about their morning, if they have a morning routine. Yep, do you? Yes, what is it?
Speaker 2:And well, it's changed, but lately I wake up at four 52. I don't know. I, like you, it's changed, but lately I wake up at four 52. I don't know why. Like you know, I'm like the dude that sets eight alarms, but four 52 is the time I wake up. Um, look man for me, whether I was doing insurance or not, I need time in the morning. Right, it's like it's not the with. Whatever it is, whether you have kids or you don't, I truly believe you need time in the morning to get centered. The thing that I do is I go to the gym and what I've learned over the years of that practice is it's not what I get from the gym, it's what I get rid of. Truly, a lot of negativity, doubt, anger, frustration Every day.
Speaker 2:Yes, no, I don't know, I train five days a week, okay, but like you, yes, no, I don't know, I train five days a week, okay, right, but like you're getting rid of this every day, you're saying, yeah, like it's not what I take from the gym, it's what I have the opportunity to get rid of. And so I need two to three hours in the morning, especially with with a wife and kids, to like get free of all that stuff. Dude, I don't know, maybe I'm just more selfish by nature, right, but like I like to get quiet, I don't do anything fancy. I've gone through so many different phases of reading specific books and writing specific stuff to be honest, man, it's been 452 and then I make sure to go on the balcony and just get quiet for a few minutes. I drink coffee, I rip my vape, like I get quiet for a few minutes, that's it, dude. And then I get to the gym, right, and like to me the gym take pre-workout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, probably too much, you know what I mean, but I have not more than easton padden dude, he came in here I did his morning routine ice bath at 3 30 in the morning I know he gets up early. I've been so tempted to get an ice bath man dude, so Dude, so ice bath at three, 30,.
Speaker 1:We're like, done with the gym breakfast, ice bath, sauna by like six. And I'm like bro. Then, like later on in the day, he's like it's like three. He's like, dude, you want some more pre-workout. He's got a huge scoop. I'm like, bro, I'm going to have a heart attack. That morning routine is going to kill you. Yeah. He's like oh, I take like 1,500 milligrams a day minimum. And I'm like, dude, you're an animal.
Speaker 2:I know he gets up early like that. I've watched him from afar. But if you really think about it, man, like you can have four separate days, like you can get a lot done, like you said, in four hours, yeah. So if I'm up by 4, by 8 o'clock by the time I'm going to the office, I've had a full day, dude, yeah. Like I've accomplished a lot.
Speaker 1:As long as you're busy, you're just not scrolling Instagram.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, That'll sap you so quick. No but if I'm busy and I've went out and I've accomplished something, you know what it does, andrew. It removes a lot of fear because I'm like dude, I already went crushed this workout, like got right with myself and my creator, got to spend time with the people I love, like I'm good, like the world can't hurt me, you know what I mean, like I'm going out like ready to fight man, because I just I feel so centered and so I've gone through different phases.
Speaker 2:But to me, if you're a grown man and you're like not waking up early, I'm sorry, but like no, you have to wake up early now. Maybe it's an ice bath, maybe it's not right like I'm not, yeah, whatever you're just saying get up early, get up early, yeah, like waking up at seven, eight o'clock, I just I don't know, I don't see. Well, if you have, kids.
Speaker 1:You, you don't really get any time at all unless you wake up early, yes, you have no time.
Speaker 2:Nope, nope. And so it's an opportunity to get settled, have a couple of wins for the day by the time I get home and 7 o'clock, family's waking up. I've already won several times. I have a couple of Ws in my pocket, or whatever, and it just improves the chances of success for the rest of my day. So, early wins, early wins, man, I don't care what they are Ice bath, gym, reading, whatever.
Speaker 1:Whatever Yep, Just you got to get early wins. I said I was going to do it and I did it.
Speaker 2:Dude. Ed Milet says this, and it's maybe my favorite quote of all time Self-confidence comes from keeping the promises you make to yourself, to yourself, dude, that is everything I really believe that, like when we make promises to ourselves and we don't keep them, that ships away at us and who we are and what we think about ourselves, and then, in turn, what we go out and do more than we give it credit, slowly, over time. Yes, and I don't care how small the promise is like if you say you're gonna wake up before five and you don't do it, you can justify it in your head why you didn't do it, but it will chip away at you.
Speaker 1:And so I'm just really after keeping promises I make to myself and having a couple of wins early in the morning yeah, but if you work out this is what I learned if you work out early, you have a full day of work. You go home, you take care of your kids, whatever it is you like you're tired, yes, like you want to go to sleep early, which means you get up early. Yeah, you're not scrolling facebook at like two in the morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, now you're like dude, I need to sleep yeah, you're, you're worn out, and it's a good type of worn out. Yeah, you lay in bed, you're like man. I, I accomplished something today. Yeah, I feel worth it, you know, and good enough. And I don't think we talk enough about that, dude. Self-talk is important, but it's not something that can be manufactured, bro. Our self-talk comes from the things that we do or don't do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we know the truth 100, yeah, so that's it for me well, I I love your story because, like you were, I guess you would say at rock bottom, absolutely, and you have a crazy comeback story. Yep, and you're just getting started, because you're only 30 years old yeah, that's crazy dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I waste a lot of time, but I'm so grateful for it. I don't know if I'd change a thing. The only thing I would change is the people that I hurt. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean all the other stuff. It's like it's just changed my outlook on life so much, and so I do feel like I'm just getting started and I'm just grateful because I I feel like I have I understand finally, with some maturity and some age, what's truly important and I'm not dominated by fear of what other people are doing, what I'm not doing, and does that make sense? Like I, I truly feel like things are in right proportion and what is important truly and what's going to fulfill me in the long term and it's taken me a while to get there yeah, I read that book the Courage to be Disliked.
Speaker 1:Have you heard of that book? I have Never read it. Basically, what I took from it is like everything most people do is for what other people will think or say about them, and when you stop doing that and you actually are doing things for you, it like frees you. But also it's like if you're just doing things to compete with other people, you'll never win, because you're constantly going to be competing with some somebody. And it's like, instead of just doing really competing with some somebody, and it's like, instead of just doing really competing with yourself, like doing what you want to do, like literally stop caring about what other people are going to say or think, no matter what. That's what I took from it that's so powerful dude.
Speaker 2:Comparison is a thief of joy.
Speaker 1:We all know this and I.
Speaker 2:I struggle with it very rarely, still, honestly, dude. It used to dominate me. I was so dependent on approval and validation from the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think, going through what I've gone through and then staying accountable and I've outgrown so much of that and I'm really just concerned of, like number one, what does my wife think about me? Like, is she proud of who I am? Are my kids proud of who I am and are you proud of? Who you are and can I look myself in the mirror and say, yeah, yeah, beyond that dude.
Speaker 1:Awesome man. So if somebody wanted to work with you, how could they reach you? We're building a really, really special team out of Tucson, arizona.
Speaker 2:We're hiring agents all around right. We're picking all over the country. All over the country. We're picky, like. We have a very tight knit group. Every. I just started in end of January seriously building. It's a whole other story. If you're new, don't wait as long as I did to do that, please. Like, every agent I've worked with that's come on board has been a 20K producer by month two and it's like it's not because of me, it's. We have a very tight-knit group. So if people want to work with me, text me and then maybe I could throw my website in the link or something. But area code 480-521-5278.
Speaker 1:Now, when you say you're picky, like if someone's in a bad situation, that's okay. You're looking for more of like attitude and intangibles yeah, but like you you're, you'll work with someone who's got nothing yeah, I'd maybe prefer it.
Speaker 2:Right, because it's like are you willing to just work? Like the people I love are the ones that are just down to do the dogged work and then, like, you tell them to do something and they just do it, because that's who I am. Yeah, right, if you're like, why go and dial this these pages for 12 hours, I'll do it. I just want somebody like that good attitude, coachable, um, they don't need to have anything really a computer, what we're not, what would get?
Speaker 1:what would someone do to make you not want to work with them? Entitled number one. That's pretty much it, right? Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to think. Entitled lack of gratitude, yep, yep excuses.
Speaker 2:I hate excuses, dude. Like I'm working with a single mother right, she's single mom, baby girls, two and a half. But she told me from the jump hey, these are the days I could work. I'm down Like if you work three days a week, cool. Like I don't care, let's do it. And these three days we're going to do this, okay, but like if, as long as you know it from the jump. But if we get into it and you say you're going to do something and then you're making excuses for it, it drives me nuts Because I don't expect a single amount of the worked hours. I will, I don't care. Yeah, just be real, don't make excuses.
Speaker 1:You could do part-time. You just can't do any time.
Speaker 2:You just can't do spare time.
Speaker 1:That's so true, yeah, because that's so true, yeah, because then we know it won't work.
Speaker 2:No, no, dude, you got to the time that you have to be all in. You got to be all in. I don't care if it's a couple days a week.
Speaker 1:So there's been a change in the industry. So you said your grandfather sold insurance, yeah, and you said you thought it was for like older white dudes Crusty old white dudes Crusty old white dudes yeah, in. Like crappy suits In crappy suits yeah. We used to say this joke like hey, we're not a gold, watch hairy chest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude that's exactly what it was Wearing white dude because we were like younger. When we would call people would say, oh, don't worry, we're not going to show up in a suit with a gold watch and our chest hair hanging out, just to kind of like make people laugh, you know, but this industry is turning into the best sales career for young people I've ever seen. Um, we're telling me and drew, we're talking. We're like dude, we're old now. Like we got a room full of 120 kids in their 20s that are just crushing this industry better than we ever did Like dude. So the reason I'm bringing that up is because we also talked about like we want to share how we built this company and what we did for our families with people who want to learn. So if you're watching this, give give him a call.
Speaker 2:Dude, I have never, ever been gate kept from from any information. Yeah, did anybody like you I, somebody I really respect who has done big things, has shared everything I've asked with reckless abandon and there's no gatekeeping going on. None of that, right. The cool thing about insurance and I think why it's going to overtake real estate is the cool sales and loans and all of it solar because the barrier to entry is so low.
Speaker 2:Dude, I made 2500 my first day. Then it's been hard and I'll be totally transparent about the suck of it all and the good like all of it, but the barrier to entry is so low.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it truly is well and you could work from your computer now, yeah, that just changed everything it's yes, it did right yep, and I finally got on board in october yeah.
Speaker 1:one thing I want to say, though, to like anyone who's newer, like, don't chase the leaderboard where you're not profitable. Like somebody could spend way too much on leads and their numbers look good and they don't have any money. That's such and like, so, like, if you get. There's two things to that. If you get good at closing, learn how to keep business on the books, so like, like, if you think you can close, okay, how do you keep business on the book so you're more profitable? And then how do you become more profitable with your lead spin? Because would you rather be lower on the leaderboard but make more money?
Speaker 2:look, I'm competitive, right, but like, dude, at the end of the day, like I am concerned with my bank. Like, yeah, when I talk to people I'm like what did you deposit? Don't tell, I don't care about submit numbers Again, I'm competitive and that stuff matters. But what did you deposit, dude? Because ultimately, who I am accountable to is my family. I am concerned with what I deposited, what I spent on leads, what I actually brought in and was put into my bank. That's what I care about and I have always been profitable in this business.
Speaker 1:But you'll outlast everyone else. If you're chasing leaderboards and like you're not actually becoming a real student in the business, you're not going to make it very long.
Speaker 2:I'll take your advice. I believe you. I've seen it from afar and I just don't care. Dude, I stopped chasing leaderboards a long time ago. Like again, I want to make myself proud, my family proud. I want to be profitable and it's crazy because I have been below a lot of people on the leaderboards, but I've heard what they deposit exactly that's what I'm saying I deposited 25 grand.
Speaker 2:Last month he deposited 10, but he did 50 000. You get what I'm saying. Like last year, a year into the business, I started hearing that and I'm like I'm depositing like a lot more than them. So that's such a good piece and that's something you teach people. Oh yeah, we don't really talk AP, we don't really talk, you talk deposits, yes. Yes, I don't know if I'm doing that wrong or what I like it.
Speaker 2:But I like to talk deposits, man, because I know that's what makes a difference in their life. Right, because you're actually going to form a resentment, like if you have an agent that does $30,000 and they're on the leaderboards, they get all this recognition, but they only deposited eight. That's going to like seed resentment in them, like what?
Speaker 1:the hell.
Speaker 2:I'm all getting all this, I'm getting all all this praise, but I'm not depositing that, and so I just. That's always been my focus. What did you deposit? What did you spend on leads?
Speaker 1:yeah, um. Lastly, before we wrap up what do you tell people if they're like I've heard negative things about family first life like have you had that happen before? Yeah what do you say?
Speaker 2:who's your favorite car, like, do you have a favorite car?
Speaker 1:my favorite car. Like brand? Are you like a ford guy?
Speaker 2:I mean, let's just say I'm a ford guy dude, I'll go on the internet right now and pull up a hundred thousand bad reviews about ford. You know what I Like. I'll say the same thing to people who I'm selling insurance to. I heard AmeriCo sucks. Well, yeah, we hear a lot of things right, they've been in business for this long, and so I have heard that from people, and I always point back to my story and I point to Sean Mike Like the proof is in is in the pudding, dude, if you really study the history of how this thing started, like I think what he did was significant for sure he changed the business forever for sure. Like that was the reason I really got into insurance. I saw that like something was put in place that was different than it ever had been done now everybody does it that way, right.
Speaker 2:but well, they try or they, yeah, they try true, but the fact remains, man, that the way Family First Life started was revolutionary and, like that same thing still exists. And I point to my story, and I point to my relationships and, at the end of the day, I think people know intuitively, dude, it's like, as long as the comp is right and the leads are right, it really comes down to you and then, most importantly, the people you're rubbing elbows with.
Speaker 1:Let me see if I can find this email dude. This dude sent me this.
Speaker 2:This was insane Dude everybody has opinions, Hold on check this out.
Speaker 1:John DeVries, I think he's like 60. He can crush insurance, bro, and he still goes face to face. Okay, love it. Dude's a freaking animal. Okay, let me read this real quick.
Speaker 1:I sold a guy an AmeriCo policy it was 3,000 commission for me and the next morning he told me he had gone to the internet and looked up AmeriCo and it had horrible reviews. I told him I'd get some information to look over, not to sit, not to say he could cancel at all, but so at least he was informed on the subject. I told him it would take five to 10 minutes to go over this review and he agreed that I could come back over. I got on the computer. I looked up the following insurance companies and even a couple other organizations on the Better Business Bureau to see what I could find. State Farm 1.15 out of five stars. There you go. Prudential 1.03 out of five stars, nationwide. 1.16 out of five stars. John Hancock 1.2 out of five stars nationwide 1.16 out of five stars, john hancock. 1.2 out of five stars. New york yankees one out of five stars. Salvation army one out of five stars. Safeway grocery store shout out, that's where I used to work. 1.12 out of five stars I picked. I picked safeway, as he had mentioned in the initial interview that he liked that store. So he was shocked to see them 1.12 out of five stars.
Speaker 1:I showed him all this directly on my laptop on the Better Business Bureau website so he could see for himself. Then I told him there were two things to know about this. One people don't write in the Better Business Bureau to give five stars. They write to complain. Two, the Better Business Bureau is not an stars. They write to complain. Two, the Better Business Bureau is not an organization that rates life insurance companies. Ambest, moody's and Fitch are the ones that do that, and I told him that AMBEST was the big guy on the block. I went to AMBEST's website and I showed him Amerigo had an A for excellent across all boards. Finally, I told him that if we could not do business with AmeriCo then we should not do business with any other insurance company listed above. He said he finally got it and was going to keep his life insurance. There you go. I'm like dude.
Speaker 2:That is savage overcoming objections right there, and so I'll do the same thing, right, like, whether it's family first life or it's AmeriCo. It's like you know, the stupid example is what kind of car do you drive? Do you like it? Yeah, I love it. Okay, well, I will show you 50. It's to illustrate that point that everybody has an opinion and, at the end of the day, family first life has been in business for this long. America has been in business for this long. The proof is there, it speaks for itself. And you know what, dude, if somebody is ill-informed and wants to trash it, whatever, like if they don't see it, they're probably not the right person anyway, yeah, yeah, you know 100.
Speaker 1:Well, dude, you are the man bro. I'm excited to see what you do. Um, let's talk about the upcoming events. So we have april, so we just got done with our lock-in in Vegas. We had 150 people here, we issued three or we wrote collectively right about 300K in two days. There was like 14 new agents wrote a policy for the first time. Someone wrote 18 apps right in front of everybody Matt Spalding, just crushing. And this is where legends and new people come, and they all work in the same room. Okay, Yep.
Speaker 1:So we're like this is so successful we got to do it again. Steven Yee made a live leaderboard so you can just see what carrier is being written, what everybody's writing. We got prizes, we got everything you can think of, and it's so powerful. So we want to invite everybody to the next one, which is April 21st and April 22nd. We have Americo is going to be there. The big bosses at Americo are going to be there, sean Mike's going to be there, a bunch of other carriers are going to be there and a bunch of top producers are going to be there, information about leads, everything. So we want to invite you. If you want to go. It is fflusacom forward slash lock-in. We'll put the link in the description as well so you guys can click it. And then we also have an event that we call Ignite. That we do every year, and this is going to be in Phoenix, arizona, in June. Just be prepared. We'll drop the official dates here soon, but just be prepared. That's a meeting you don't want to miss.
Speaker 2:Can't wait.
Speaker 1:Before we wrap up how have these meetings and trainings helped you?
Speaker 2:Look, when we're new, new we're always hesitant, like don't lie to me. Like nobody wants to go and spend money on them in the beginning, even a couple of years in. I have never, ever once, regretted it and it's never been a negative on my pnls, like it has always paid me exponentially. Sometimes it's hard to kind of quantify, so like, come to these events, what the value that you get from them is ridiculous in comparison to what you put in. So fight that urge to stay comfortable and stay home and lose a day of selling, like whatever. Like fight that urge come, be around people better than you. That's always the advice I've been given and I'm so grateful I've taken it.
Speaker 1:That's huge. Well, thank you for coming in. See you later, guys. Thank you.