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Lead Flow Equals Cash Flow: Kash & Morad’s $80K Blueprint (Ep. 237)
Top insurance producers Kash Bashtawi and Morad Ahmed share their journey from humble beginnings to earning $50,000-$82,000 monthly in the life insurance industry, revealing how this career path has completely transformed their financial futures and family lives.
• Life insurance changed their career trajectory, with Kash coming to the US without speaking English and Morad transitioning from T-Mobile during the pandemic
• Successful agents follow a structured 8am-8pm schedule, protecting their dial time and making a minimum of 30 calls per hour
• Top producers invest $3,000-$12,000 monthly in leads because "lead flow equals cash flow"
• The biggest difference between struggling and successful agents is consistency and discipline in daily activities
• Financial success in insurance allows agents to take care of family, with Morad now covering all his parents' expenses after watching them struggle during the 2008 crash
• Being part of a supportive team provides more fulfillment than material possessions, with "loyalty outvaluing everything in life"
• Door-knocking experience makes phone sales seem easy by comparison—some agencies still send agents into the field to appreciate virtual sales
If you're interested in learning more or joining the industry, contact Kash at 813-417-0898 or Morad at 313-502-2974, or find them on Instagram.
Hello everybody, thanks for joining us. We got Kash with us, kash, I'm not going to try to pronounce your last name, but can you give it to us? Kash Bashtawi, kash Bashtawi, thanks for coming in. Man, and we have Morad with us. Yes, from Detroit, detroit, michigan. Yep, and you're from Central Florida, orlando, florida, orlando, florida. Alright, so you guys have been in the game a little while. We All right. So you guys have been in the game a little while. We want to learn from you. We want you to tell us what you guys are doing with sales and also what you're doing with building an agency. To start with, We'll start with Cash. Can you give us your background?
Speaker 2:Well, my background. Literally I came to the state about eight years ago. I went to school, never spoke English in my life and while studying Pull that a little closer to you While studying, I literally like stumbled on a real estate job, so I got my license and when COVID hit, literally like got laid off and soon after I found one of my friends joined the insurance industry. So he was like talking about it crazy non-stop. So I was open for the opportunity.
Speaker 1:Stopped doing insurance and never looked back and never looked back. So for somebody who's looking, what can they expect? Like what? What is this done for you? Have you made good money?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Insurance business has changed my life, even like the projection for my life. I never will be expected to retire as soon as I think I will.
Speaker 1:And do you have? Is it just you here? Did you come over with family To the state I came by?
Speaker 2:myself. You just came by yourself. But nowadays, like my family, visit me very often. What?
Speaker 1:about kids, wife Soon.
Speaker 2:Not yet.
Speaker 1:Okay, girlfriend Fiance F, fiance, fiance, let's go. She's on her way to vegas nice you guys got any plans?
Speaker 2:uh, not really. Just we want to like, enjoy the city, cool man what about you, dude?
Speaker 1:how'd you get into life insurance?
Speaker 3:so I've actually always, uh, been in sales. I started at t-mobile. I was at t-Mobile for quite a long time, right out of high school, dropped out of college while I was still going. I was at T-Mobile for a while. Then I went to Xfinity and this is when COVID hit while I was at Xfinity and instead of doing sales at the store, they sent us home and had us doing customer service. So that ruined it all for me. And how old are you At that time? This was 2020. So I was 22 years old. Okay, yeah, yeah, I was 22 years old at the time. They sent us all home, told us hey, you know, we're going to give you a little bit more hourly, but no more commissions. It's strictly customer service. And I couldn't do it. I, I just couldn't do it.
Speaker 3:And I remember there was a guy that when I was working at t-mobile, I was working with him and he reached out to me a couple times about insurance before and I was like let me reach out to him because I saw he was posting his numbers and whatnot he's doing great. And I reached out to him and I was like, hey, bro, let me, I want to see what you're doing. He's like perfect time. Because in Michigan they were giving out temporary licenses and I had 40 hours of paid time off at Comcast at the time. So I took the 40 hours and just went in the field with them. And after my first two days I was like I'm just going to put in my two weeks and call it a day, I'm just going to do insurance. And I started insurance. It wasn't a family first life at first, and then I eventually made my transition to family first life. Why'd you make the transition so well actually pause
Speaker 1:hold on what's the most you've written in a month. In a month I've done almost 50,000. What about you? 82, 83, 82 G's, yeah, my man, 82 G's of submitted business. So for everybody watching, it's not what you got paid, but you got to take your commission level. You got to calculate in chargebacks you also. But 82 g's maybe about 55, 82 g's is still no joke. You're an animal. Absolutely, yeah, yeah. And 50 g's is no joke too. That's legit, yeah, all right. So what do you guys think? Actually, let's get into sales, because people watching this they're going to want to get in this industry. They're going to call you, they're going to be like yo, can I work with you or can I join your team? First of all, why did you come to FFL and what was the difference from where you were at?
Speaker 3:So when I, when I first started a life insurance, it wasn't because I had any. No one wants to sell life insurance. Right, there's a colonial patent insurance commercial I don't know if you've seen it, you have you seen it? So it's two basketball players. They're about to jump for the ball and instead of jumping for the ball, one of the guy goes I'm about to go sell. And it ends with no one wants to sell life insurance until they do right.
Speaker 3:And that's how it started for me. I didn't want to sell life insurance, I just saw the money and I was at a captive company and it got to a point where there were situations where elderly couples I couldn't get them approved and they actually started bawling their eyes out like you're not the first person that came to our house and told us we're declined. And that was like the first, you know, realizing point for me, like I need to do something right. And then eventually, down the road, I was like I kind of started putting pieces together and I'm like man, I could be making more money. I'm getting so many declines, I can't help people. Uh, you know people are crying. You know I I don't have carriers, I only have this one carrier, and that's when I made that transition.
Speaker 1:That's legit, but people don't want to get into life insurance until they do because they think it sucks. But then they realize I remember going on appointments and people being like dang, we feel so bad for you that you have to do this job. And I was thinking in my head I was like dude, I make like five times more than you, yeah, and I'm 20 years old, so it doesn't look sexy until you look at the numbers.
Speaker 3:Yeah right, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:But it actually really is the best thing. Like you could work virtually, you got leads, you can call all over the place, you can work different hours, you can work on the East coast, west coast, you could work Hawaii, you can do all these different things, so it is legit but you know it's crazy dude, people are finding out about it now.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely Like fast, like the whole damn country is finding out that if you're in sales, this is the, this is the deal. But what was FFL? Why'd you make the move to FFL?
Speaker 3:So FFL was one of the first things that was presented to me and at the time there were, you know, a lot of. There was a lot of social media presence around FFL, which there's a lot now too, uh, and at that time FFL was just showing up on my social media a lot. I was hurting hearing people talk about it good things and bad things and a lot of bad things, and I was like you know what a lot of times people tell you bad things because they don't want to see you go there, right, and if they, if you go there, more than likely they're losing out on some money too, right. So I was like, let me go see for myself, rather than just taking the word from someone that doesn't have any experience in that field, not necessarily in the industry, but in a field of being a broker rather than a captive agent so I was like let me go see it for myself.
Speaker 3:And I didn't do too much research at the time on like other imls or anything like that, I just first thing I saw.
Speaker 1:I went for it, you know you know bull that sees red I love that dude I think now a lot of people get hung up when they hear negative things and then they end up not taking any action. It's like paralysis of analysis type of thing. Yeah, so I like that you did that. But that is true, dude. A lot of people hate when you're winning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, it's very common. And it's funny because I have these conversations with some of my agents all the time and they're like man, you know, when you first started insurance, we thought it was just like another MLM, this and that. And I'm like, yeah, look at you, now You're slinging insurance. Other people probably think the same about you. You know, it's the same thing, it's like it's. And then eventually those people that are thinking the same thing about them they're going to see them making money and then eventually they're going to come on and work for them. You know, it's just. The cycle just continues to repeat itself no, yep.
Speaker 1:And then, well, I always say this when someone tells you you're you're too obsessed with what you're doing like when your friends are going, bro, you need to chill like you're way too obsessed with this stuff, I always say you're on the right track, absolutely. At first, though, they're waiting for you to fail. Or then they'll call you and go hey, how's insurance going? Because they want you to tell them that you're not in it anymore because you failed, right. But then there's another phase where it's like everyone you know will be inspired by what you're doing and they'll all want to do it too yeah, that's, very true actually it's happening to me right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just hey, are you hiring same? And I would like to say you know what? I'm coming back to the same question. You asked Murad about it why FFL Like to understand the game and the business in general, like the whole map of the business, all the IMOs. I found out that the philosophy like the FFL you use, which is, you know, agent is doing the most of the job, let them get paid, and that's exactly what you know from day one until now, and I think I will retire here. What's gonna make more sense?
Speaker 1:people who do the most of the work have and will be paid the most yeah, but dude, the other thing is like if you hate on companies, people don't want to work with you. Yeah, it's kind of like a bad look, absolutely. That's why and this is true, dude I respect all these other companies in in the insurance world. Yeah, like, I respect them, like they're still doing something, and when people call me, I go dude, that's a good company. I've heard good things. I've never worked there, I don't know how it works. That's my answer.
Speaker 1:But then it kind of reverse psychology like messes with them, and they're like why isn't this dude trying to recruit me? And then why isn't he talking crap about it? Yeah, dude, and it messes them up. Yeah, because that's all they're used to. Last night this dude called me hey, I think I want to leave my company. And I was like no, you should stay. They're a great company. Yeah, he's. And he, dude, he's. So he's texting me all day right now, not a stop. That's hilarious, it's, it's funny. Uh, all right, so let's get into. If someone's gonna do this, what's the day-to-day look like if they're working with you two?
Speaker 2:well to me. I think they need to show up at eight o'clock. They leave at eight uh eight to eight eight to be strategic about your day.
Speaker 2:Come in, know exactly what you need to do. You have a to-do list. You need to go like either follow up with the carriers, follow up with your clients. You protect your dial time, especially like if you're in the morning time 9 to 12, you need to dial. Then like afternoon, which is you're doing, either like you're doing your lunch, then you're doing your training, from three to four, which is, and four to five you're prospecting and you're dialing, is it so five o'clock to eight you're back on the phone, you're dialing and you're closing and rinse and repeat. Very easy about your day. Even Saturday should be like a dark day. You work Saturdays, of course.
Speaker 1:Well, this is independent, so you could work whenever you want.
Speaker 2:But you're saying like, even when I'm back and behind on my schedule Sunday. I'll be at the office Sunday, absolutely. What about you?
Speaker 3:For me. I come from a background where it's not as easy to sell right In the company that I was at before, so it takes a lot more effort and hard work. So, with that being said, I have my guys come in, typically around 8, 9 o'clock. First dial should be at 9. It's $30 an hour minimum, unless they get a self-reliant or whatever the case is. But the biggest thing that I see a lot of agents struggle with is they're sold on the dream. Obviously You're going to come in. There's people making $50,000, $60,000, $100,000 a month.
Speaker 1:But they don't see that, Well, they can't say that because people don't know what people net right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You don't know. You don't know for sure I know a lot of people that sell a lot, that are broke 100%.
Speaker 3:But, the problem is people see that and they're like oh yeah, I'm just going to come in and I'm going to make this much money Even I'll probably make $10,000. But they don't see the hard work that's behind it and a lot of times especially if you're in an office environment and you're around people that you know or you have some kind of relationship with you don't realize. But you might be there for 12 hours, but how many of those hours are you actually sitting there and dialing? That's like probably four hours if you look at it realistically speaking, or what's your screen time?
Speaker 1:yeah, dude, I was telling the dudes earlier I might. I might get off social media, like no one will know I'm off because our office will post for work stuff. But I'll be off, right, and I want to see how effective I am if I'm off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the best way to do it, no.
Speaker 2:FFLUSA is a huge organization.
Speaker 1:It'll still roll.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying on my personal phone We'll sing on your personal phone Screen time.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying I won't be, oh, we'll see that. Yeah, yeah, screen time. Yeah, I'm not saying I won't be anywhere, like, we'll still recruit online.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is Andrew Taylor?
Speaker 3:No, because sometimes, like, I'll even check some of my agents' dials and I'll notice, like bro, how do you have five to ten minutes time between each dial? And they'll tell me, like I'm true, people searching this lead. No, true, people search it when you're at home. Don't look at this as a as a w-2 job where you're just scheduled nine and nine and you're just gonna work nine, nine when you're at home and you can't dial during this time. True, people search all your leads, have all the phone numbers on the xp, so that way you're not wasting your dial time. You know and that's that's one of the biggest things that, like, I notice a lot of these agents, they start two people searching, then they get distracted on their phone doing something else, whereas if they just look at an Excel and they're just dialing back to back to back to back, they stay a little bit more efficient with their time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, heck, yeah, yeah, I love that I could tell you're smart as heck, right yeah?
Speaker 2:he is.
Speaker 1:Calculated, looks at everything, looks at all the numbers. Yeah, I try to be so. A lot of people do so. One time this dude came to me and he said, hey, I'm not making any sales. And I said let's go through your dials. And he made 26 dials for the day. And I was like, dude, if you worked at McDonald's, that would have took 30 minutes and you would have made eight bucks half of an hour on minimum wage, which I don't even know if it's 16 bucks, but I'm just like you wouldn't have made any money. So you did $8 worth of work today. Now, how many people, when they do this, do they get confused? Because they're self-employed but instead of working either part-time or full-time, they're working spare time or any time, or sometimes, or when they want to, or they think they're working or they're filling their day in with stuff that doesn't make money. How common do you think that is?
Speaker 3:very common I. It might not be the same for cash and his agency, but I see it all the time probably like only the top 30 of my agents don't fall into that trap. The rest they're falling into that trap all the time. They're like because I have a setup where you know you have a weekly commitment. If you don't hit that weekly commitment you come in nine to nine. If you do come in on your own schedule, that's fine because I don't want to make it a chore. When you make it a chore it becomes harder for them. But that's when you see, like these guys they wake up at like 12 o'clock.
Speaker 3:Some of these guys that wake up at like 12 o'clock, but that's because they got spoiled. They know they can make a sale and they're content with that because they had a little bit of success. They made a little bit of money, they spent a little bit of money and they're okay with that. And I get it, not everyone's meant to make a whole lot of money. Some of these guys they just want to make their 15K, have a little bit of freedom. But I see a lot of people struggle with that, whereas if they were to be on W2, sometimes I even think about this. I'm like why don't I just put some of these guys on W-2, put them on a salary and just force them to work a specific amount of hours, and they'll probably be more productive that way, because they know they have no choice but to dial at that point because they have a set schedule and they're W-2.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:People get compliance sometimes, but the fact that they make money, they need to be back at the office, no matter what. It's a culture because once a new agent comes through and they see even two performers they showed up early, they have disciplines it will reflect on the team greatly in a good way. I think he knows that Great agents will never come late. Great agents will always show up, no matter what.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing is, is they want it? I remember my first week, dude, they gave me old leads in Compton. Okay, it's like two hour drive. I have to go to people's houses. I was scared because I just saw Compton on the movies. Like Compton California, yeah, which is on the movies seems like a scary area.
Speaker 1:I go at night to my first appointment. I make a sale. I show up to the meeting the next week and I'm like I made a sale. Here's my application in Compton California. And they're like who'd you go with? Like what do you mean? I went by myself. They're like you called those leads and you drove two hours to Compton and you sold on. I'm like, yeah, and they're like it was, like they were shocked. Yeah, now that what I noticed is is people didn't have the burning desire to win where, like you, couldn't keep them away from the information to win, like you guys have that. But I noticed a lot of people don't have that like they're. They're starving for the information like you. That's why they always say you can't stop the right person and you can't help the wrong person that's right absolutely and you just got to identify those yeah you know along the side.
Speaker 2:Like you know, once the business starts, you can't find out within like three to four weeks if they can't really go far or not. Again, you can't judge it. I heard Sean once said like keep them in the office, don't cut them, but at least, like you know, they will see it. They will see it when it's exactly the right time for them to see it.
Speaker 1:Well, I, like Kyle Yee, was in here and he was, like most people, stay at our office from eight to eight, but I stay from seven to ten and he's like and that's why they stay from eight to eight.
Speaker 1:He's like no one's getting there earlier than me ever and no one's staying later than me. Now that's when you're getting your business off the ground. Obviously you don't do that. I mean, you don't have to do that forever. But to get something off the ground and profitable, of course there's a significant amount of energy that has to be put into it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's where the question comes in who are your direct managers and if you have those proper managers in place and you're able to rely on them to, because I've had situations where I had a manager and I'm running his team more than he's running his team, which is okay, but it's like you got to put in some kind of effort, you know, like you can't show up at five o'clock wearing a beater and some shorts.
Speaker 3:you know it doesn't work like that Like, but that's like a huge thing. It's like who's your team? Right? That's, that's big for me. Who's your team? If your team's not on the same wavelength as you and they don't know, like, the right process and procedures, then the agents they're just gonna be all over the place.
Speaker 1:They're not gonna know what to do. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Um, all right. So what kind of leads do you guys like to work? Is it facebook? Is it? What is it?
Speaker 2:uh, we do like slowly now, now like just meta meta mentally.
Speaker 1:That's running ads on facebook. Do you do it yourself or do you pay someone to do it?
Speaker 2:We do it at home. I'm doing it myself.
Speaker 1:So for everybody watching, some people make their own ads on Facebook, some people pay someone to do it. I'm one of the people that likes to pay somebody to do it because I don't want to think about any of it ever Me too and I just want to focus on recruiting and scaling and selling, and not cost per leads.
Speaker 2:On meta, cost per leads on meta.
Speaker 1:But enough, every good point but I have a couple of the guys work with me like literally, like that, yeah, no, but to each its own dude. There's a lot of ways to make something work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know absolutely yeah, one of the biggest things for me is I, from the beginning, I try to train my guys to be able to sell anybody, as long as it's a name and a phone number. And the best way to do that for me has been I'll buy like aged health insurance leads and aged life insurance leads and I'll mix them up so they will know which is what and they'll just use the same script on every person and a lot of times they'll sell a health insurance lead life insurance without even realizing it was a health insurance lead, and that's how I start them off. I have a guy that's running google ads so I even have, like I have a brick and mortar location with a phone number and then the google ads if you like, look up life insurance near me or anything like that it'll pop up and then it'll prompt you to call and it goes to my phone and then I'll schedule either one like how do you scale that with a thousand people?
Speaker 3:that's, that's like.
Speaker 1:I like what you're saying but like I, I just go, hey, go buy leads at places that work and let's recruit, sell train.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, absolutely no, that's. That's definitely a great point. I mean, you had a conversation about this earlier.
Speaker 1:Obviously, because I haven't had that conversation with anyone yet to have that insight, you know well, I think the issue is people now want to, that people run agencies and they want to make money off of their agents not through life insurance I'm not saying you do, no, I don't. I lose money, yeah, but a lot of people want to make money off of other things, not life insurance. Well, the that's the short-term play. The long-term play is you make money off of selling life insurance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, that's the long-term play and as far as leads go, like I was helping one of the young ladies today, she had the vouchers. I told her just use your vouchers, get some leads so I can see what you're doing too, right? She got some Ethos leads and those are fire. I have some of my agents running them too. And she got some Ethos leads and those are fire. I have some of my agents running them too. And I told her I'm like those are really good and she's getting contact and now it's just reps. She got to get the reps in and get better.
Speaker 1:They pick up the Ethos leads. Pick up the freaking phone.
Speaker 3:That's all you need, as long as you have the ability to sell if you have the contacts, you're good.
Speaker 1:And this elite is exclusive as well. A lead yeah, great, we can run those leads too. Yeah, yeah. So I like to teach people like leads will always change, but you can. If you can teach somebody like relentless work ethic, yeah, they'll always be able to figure it out. Because, dude, when I started, you want to know our, our career path, mortgage protection was the only thing you can sell Direct mail leads. Everybody said you can't. So then we were like we need to get into final expense Direct mail and everyone said they suck, you're going to be in trailers, all these different things. So we start running final expense direct mail and we realize they're cheaper, but we just need more of them and we can get the same result. And then this is crazy, dude we introduce internet leads because we're trying to get more leads for people yeah one of our managers.
Speaker 1:We do a team call and he goes I will never let one of my guys run internet leads. They don't work, they're not profitable, they don't pick up. And then we were like, okay, let's just, since they're so much cheaper, let's see if we get more of them, if we could get the same result now. I always did everything myself to prove concept, so I would get them myself, I would go to them, I would close them myself right first time now that dude went out of business because they ran out of leads people because they would only work one type.
Speaker 1:And then we figured out okay, you got internet leads. Then facebook comes up and we're like dude, what the heck is this? This is insane. Yeah, facebook's so good. And then in 2021, somebody introduced live transfers. Everybody canceled all their leads, everything. They're like we're only going to do live transfers. They'll call us. They ran the price up for live transfers to hundreds of dollars per lead. Nobody wanted them anymore. Everybody went back to the internet leads all over the place. And then Facebook went up from you know, five bucks a lead, super high because they changed some rules. We were getting leads. And now, at 50 bucks a lead, we're like this isn't going to work. This doesn't make sense. Let's switch to something else. And so we do it. All I'm saying is it's constantly moving all the time. But it if we can teach people, the numbers usually work with volume and we got to do what we got to do, yeah, and we got to be willing to change to whatever is working. And then the most important thing is consistency. If you don't consistently get leads, dude, you're done.
Speaker 2:That's very true yeah right, absolutely, unless you're one, that's. Very true.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, absolutely, unless you're one of those freaks that can sell anybody, but I can't sell strangers like I'm not good at it. Full pipeline yeah, ready to go yeah, all right, let's talk about that consistent lead flow, how, what's a good way to like, what's a good spend for an agent?
Speaker 2:Literally between, like, if you're buying fresh leads, $1,000 a week.
Speaker 1:How did you write?
Speaker 2:$82,000 in a month, Spending about like $12,000 on leads For the month $3,000 a week.
Speaker 1:So for everybody watching $12,000, it's not a little bit of money. You invested in leads to get all these people to call to try to sell.
Speaker 2:You have. You have to invest like about $3,000. I always say lead the flow is equal cash flow. You want to be profitable, you want to have more money. Always invest back in the leads, you will always net plus.
Speaker 1:What do you say to people that go selling leads like insurance with lead sales sucks. The persistency is bad. You should only do warm market.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not.
Speaker 1:You need to do the other way around. Don't say that to me today. That's why I'm asking you need to always do the other way around.
Speaker 2:You need to find a business that is going to lead-based business and then, when you are so good, you know everything's good about the product. Then you go back to the warm market and provide the help they need.
Speaker 3:You can do both. I have some guys they do both, but they mostly run the leads. I. Persistency is good if you solidify the deal at the end. You know. It's just all about the relationship you make with the client. Like I taught all my guys, if when you close a client, the first 15 minutes is you write the app, you do the sell, spend the extra 30 at the end to solidify the deal, that's where the real sell happens.
Speaker 3:And I tell them I'm like you know, be so transparent with the client, even tell them hey, if someone calls you back in a year or two years, whatever the case is, and they say they have something better for you, I want you to listen to them, I want you to hear them out. Write everything down, call me back. We'll go over it together and if it's something that I can't do for you or I can't do better for you, then I'll tell you go back to them and do exactly what they told you. That builds that relationship with the client, because now they know what you want to do. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is there any events or trainings or anything specifically?
Speaker 2:that helped you guys get started, like get off the ground kind of changed you in a way. Me personally, like I don't want to cut moran, no, you're good. I start really watching paul mclean from the get-go, matt smith and uh, and a lot of your podcast, a lot literally like every like the my previous upline like will put like just you and I'll watch you. I know every movie you make on and you like I need like literally like what I learned from that day watching Andrew Taylor it just how soft he's on the call. He want to get his just to the point. The simplicity behind everything you do on the call or in the meeting or like even the interviews, is by just asking the simple question and having the simple answer with it. And I think this is the way I'm going till now about the business.
Speaker 1:Keeping it simple.
Speaker 3:What about you? For me it's been a little bit different. I didn't get much training or support, guidance or anything like that. A lot of it came from trial and error and the majority of it was just recording my conversations in-house and just listening to it over and over again and seeing where I can improve. And that's what I'm training my agents on right now, because I tell them, like you can get your reps in as many times as possible, but do you know where you're messing up if you don't listen to your recordings? You're not recording yourself, you're just probably just making the same mistakes over and over again.
Speaker 3:And that's how I basically was able to overcome a lot of objections that I struggled with or a lot of. You know RDs at the door, because I didn't actually go virtual until last year. I was door knocking the whole time. Until last year, even during COVID, I would set appointments, pre-book appointments, and then go door knock. So you know it was a little bit of a transition for me for going into virtual, because now it's all over the phone.
Speaker 3:You know they can't see my smile, they can hear it at least. So that's like one of the biggest things and I tell my agents all the time they're probably staring at a ceiling or a wall and they don't know what you look like. They don't know if they should trust you. So have good energy, smile on the phone, make some jokes. That's one of the biggest things, right? So for me, literally, like I said, it just came from trial and error, honestly, and not just my own trial and errors. I actually, you know, had recordings of a lot of other people that were in the business for a very long time in-house. You know presentations that they did and whatnot, and I would just dissect that all day. I'm just listening to all the different things they would say and see what can I take, what can I make better. If it's working, don't change it. All that good stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, legit, that's huge. Now, dude, you haven't even been to a big event yet, so I can't wait to see what you do after you go and see what other people are doing. Yeah, and then I like what you said, like you're watching why we were doing certain things. That's what I do at meetings. I try to be like why is the top person doing what he's doing and why is he saying what he's doing? That's very true, you know.
Speaker 1:And uh, I went to php's event with integrity to kind of see how they do things, because they do really good events, and I paid attention. But the thing that I noticed the most was there was like six dudes you could tell that had each other's back, no matter what, and it was like something similar to FFL, like there's a group of people at FFL that have each other's back, no matter what, and that's how you build a big company. Is through that loyal, we're going to blow this thing up or go down together, type of mentality. And then the other thing I realized dude, that's what people are looking for anyways. They're not looking for money, dude, they're looking for something to be a part of, absolutely To contribute to a team.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, we have a say like loyalty, outvalue everything in life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, dude, at the end of the day, k like I've been thinking about this, if something, happened to me.
Speaker 2:Do I want my kids to have that?
Speaker 1:much money? Yeah, maybe, I don't know. I would say no.
Speaker 2:Probably not dude. The answer is no.
Speaker 1:Now, hopefully, I'm probably going to roll the dice and be like I hope they can do more good than I ever did, yeah, and be better than I ever did with the money. So that's what I'm hoping. But I'm like you know what's made me more happier than money? A good team and people, friends that you have for a long time that you're in business with that you trust that will be there for you if you need them or if you go through. That's more valuable Absolutely. Now I don't want to have that and be broke Like I'm not going to make the trade of, I don't get to make any money because the system's rigged where I can't make any money. So I'm broke but I have some good. I don't want that but, like I think this model's pretty freaking fair of a lot of good people that want to help you and there's people making good money, people that want to help you and there's people making good money, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2:I agree. It's a good argument always to give back to them, to the people you grew up with or you stand next to. Bro, it is man. Having a team, having a group of people that you trust they have your back, is always, like you know, is a must.
Speaker 1:Now we have that. But what happens when we do that and we're winning at a high level?
Speaker 2:It will increase your productivity for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but what also?
Speaker 2:happens, it attracts others too.
Speaker 1:It attracts others. That's what people want to be a part of. And then you also have people on the sidelines that Just watching and Hating, hating. Gotta have the haters, and then it just motivates you. Dude, we used to say have you seen Straight Outta Compton, the movie?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You haven't, I have, okay. Well, they end up getting a bunch of negative press in the newspaper and then, right after that happened, they had record sales for their music album and they said all publicity is good publicity. And I've been saying that, dude, like people actually think if they hate on us, that they're hurting us Just more exposure. And it's just more exposure.
Speaker 1:It's pretty crazy bro I heard you say that. Yeah, all right. What other tips do you have for agents as far as what Like success man? Other tips do you have for agents as well as what like success man? There's people watching this that are praying for some way to make more money, or they're looking for something to be a part of, or they're going to their job and they're it's not fulfilling, or they got kids and they want to be able to send them to summer camp like. What advice do you have them to do well in this industry?
Speaker 3:so I can say one thing uh, there's uh npcs and then there's players right, and first things first they have to decide whether they're npc or a player. A player, you're playing a video game yeah, this is where you get out of the w-2. And you find a sales commission job where you can make a shitload of money and or not make any money or not make any money because that comes with it too, yeah, obviously. Uh, you know, I've gone months without making any money in this business in the beginning, but I've gone months not only not making money but going into debt too in the beginning. So that comes with it, and it's a question of whether you see the vision or not. And when you see the vision, you also have to understand whether you have a goal or aspirations in life that are big enough or not. And that's one of the biggest things that I noticed that a lot of agents that are just stuck at $5,000, $6,000 a month, which is okay, it's better than the average person.
Speaker 1:I mean I would argue oh, like in profit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in profit. Okay, because if it's just in premium they're not going to make any money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they'll spend money on leads. They'll write 5-6. Yeah, I'm talking about strictly profit. They'll be broke.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm talking about strictly profit. I mean, the reason why these people they're stuck at that number is because they don't have any goals that are big enough, that's bigger than themselves, and a lot of it. You know it's for people they feel like if they make this much money, you know, consistently a month, they're able to pay their bills and they have a little bit of freedom, they can work on their own hours, which people are okay with that. That's fine. But some people, if they have big enough goals and aspirations, they'll be able to do better.
Speaker 3:But it comes down to whether they're willing to do the work or not, because it's a lot of work. It's not easy, it's a lot of work and, uh, you know, one of the biggest things that it comes down to is how obsessed are you with it and that it's it's tough. It's it's a tough situation, uh, where you know you're obsessed with it, but you're waking up in the morning and you're scrolling on tiktok, the first thing you do right, dude, when I do, I don't have, I don't do tiktok, but if I get on instagram in the morning, first thing I'm so mad at myself, yeah yeah, no, it ruins people's day because the first thing, uh, you know you do in the morning that you know affects your whole day, it's.
Speaker 3:It's basically you're setting the tone for your day, and energy is everything. If you start off your day with negative energy, you're gonna have a negative day which might turn into a negative week, which might turn into a negative year, and I tell people this all the time. A lot of time they wake up in the morning, they go on instagram and their algorithm is showing them rich, successful young people that are 18, 19, 20 years old driving a lamborghini, and what their brain is doing is it's linking success with pain because of the jealousy that they have, right. So now, when their brain is linking success with pain because of the jealousy they have, their brain's automatically gonna block that success out for themselves, because now, every time they try to think about success, they they're sad. And that's where especially this newer generation is really getting screwed up, because they're saying, damn, this kid's 18 years old, he's driving a Lamborghini and what am I doing with my life?
Speaker 1:I mean, my thing, though, dude, is the Lamborghini. Don't make them happy anyways, they just don't know it. Yeah, but having a good team that you're making a difference with will Absolutely Okay. So one question I ask a lot of people, because I've been around a lot of people that make a ton of money and I'm like what did you do when you got your big payday? A lot of them got a huge payday, and then I'll be like how did you feel?
Speaker 1:And they're like well, dude, a lot of them got a huge payday and then I'll be like, how'd you feel? And they're like well, dude, a lot of them are like, for a few months it was exciting and then I stopped doing all the things that got me there and I got depressed. And then one dude said to me he was like I didn't have a P my whole life in life insurance. I've. I've been in the people business, which means I'm around people, I'm helping people. He's like. When I stopped I was sad and so I went back and started doing it again. Not for the money, yeah, but I'm not convinced that these Lamborghinis are fulfilling anybody. I'm not, maybe for a little bit. Are you guys? Am I crazy or what?
Speaker 3:No, you're not crazy. You're right, and that's what I meant by like some of these peoples. They don't have goals that are bigger than themselves, because some of these guys, their goals are just they want to buy a Lamborghini, right? Whereas if your goal is to change people's lives, you know, change your family's lives first. Obviously, you know some of these guys. I see they are driving a Lamborghini, their mom's still living in an apartment, you know, paying her own rent. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:So, like, if your goals are different sorry, if your goals are different, like to take care of your family then change people's lives around you. You grew up in a community where you see people who are struggling to put food on the table and you're changing these people's lives and you see how grateful they are to you. That's a different type of why and that is something that won't die, because the Lamborghini, the partying, all the other stuff that's going to die out eventually. What are you going to be left with? Just a bunch of money and a sadness right. But if you change people's life, you've got a legacy a bunch of money and a sadness right. But if you have, if you change people's life, you got a legacy. You're gonna die, people gonna. You didn't die with the legacy. People gonna remember you because you changed so many lives. That's deep, bro, yeah that's right, that's legit.
Speaker 1:Do you have like a a why? Like what's your? Do you have? Or do you want to help your mom? What's your deal?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean, um, you know, my backstory is pretty crazy. Everyone, everyone got a crazy backstory.
Speaker 3:I want to hear it now I can go into a little bit. I won't go too deep. I was born in 98.
Speaker 3:My dad came to the United States a little before I was born but he came back and then brought us all here in 99. We were in New York for a year. Then we came to Michigan and he always worked in the parking all here in 99. We were in New York for a year, then we came to Michigan and he always worked in the parking lot business in Michigan and it's a huge business there in downtown especially. He worked for a guy named Nick which owned almost all the parking lots in downtown for, you know, the Comerica Stadium for the Tigers games and whatnot.
Speaker 3:So my dad was always in that business and he was starting to do pretty good. He made decent money and, you know, 2007-ish he bought some houses 2008,. He lost all his houses. My oldest brother he wasn't the best at, you know, helping the family out either, but God bless his soul, he's a great person and he ended up going back to Bangladesh where we were born my oldest brother and my dad actually and ended up in uh, in the hospital because he lost everything he ended up in the hospital because he lost everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah my dad, uh he and ended up in the a mental ward oh man yeah so, uh know, that happened 2008, 2009.
Speaker 3:My mom she barely spoke English. You know my middle brother. He's a very soft-hearted guy so, like you know, emotionally he would get affected very easily. And you know seeing them struggle and I was a kid and I have core memories of this, seeing them struggle. My mom she didn't know how to pay a mortgage and this is where she got screwed over really bad. The house we lived in was the only house my dad had left and my mom decided she's gonna give the storefront because it was the downstairs was a storefront. She decided she's gonna give the storefront out to a group of a group of guys that wanted to do a pharmacy business and all the letters would go to the storefront, all the mail. And my mom was getting mail You're missing your mortgage payment. You're missing your mortgage payment. And the guys they would not give us the mail, they just acted like it, never showed up, the house foreclosed. The guys that had the storefront on rent, they bought the house while we lived in there and they kicked us out.
Speaker 3:No, way yeah, they kicked us out. So then you know, we moved from rent house to rent house. We moved around you and your mom, me and my mom, my little sister, my middle sister, my oldest sister she's sharp, she's a doctor now. She just finished, uh, residency. Uh, she's. She was always out doing her own thing because she had scholarships. She went to one of the worst schools in Michigan but she ended up getting valedictorian and all that good stuff and got full-ride scholarships. She's a doctor now, so she wasn't really too involved in all of that, but it was me, my three sisters and my brother and my mom and we were moving around a lot and I was a pretty bad kid myself.
Speaker 3:Honestly, you seem like a good kid right now. Yeah, to me, right. Yeah, I mean, I was a pretty bad kid myself. Uh and uh, you know, I I caused a lot of heartache for my mom and my dad when they came, when my dad came back from the hospital. So your dad came back and he's everything's gone, let's go, everything's gone yeah, so he's doing well.
Speaker 3:He's doing a lot better now.
Speaker 2:Yes, um he recently had a couple heart surgeries, uh, but he's doing well.
Speaker 3:He's doing a lot better now. Yes, I love that man. He recently had a couple of heart surgeries but he's doing a lot better now, and you know over time— and how's your? Mom doing my mom's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's how I do my mom's the best, my mom's happy.
Speaker 3:She's like that's the biggest thing for me. My mom's like happy, you know. She goes and visits her brothers. She visits my sister in Jersey. My sister's moving back to Michigan. She's traveling all the time. She don't got to worry about no bills, no nothing. She has my cards, she could swipe it or whatever she wants. That's what really meant a lot to me and that's where it started for me was me being able to make that huge impact on my family's life. And now, like the other people that I grew up with in the community, I'm starting to see them making money and they're impacting their own family's lives and it's changing them as a person. They're becoming more humble, they're becoming more understanding, they're becoming more wholehearted and it's it's like I love seeing that change, you know, and that like drives me to do more of it, because it's like that's, that's, that's. I love it, you know it's it's amazing.
Speaker 1:So have you been able to do anything nice for your parents?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean, um, they have no bills. Uh, my dad I buy them stuff all the time. My mom I take care of her all the time. Hopefully this year I'll have the house paid off.
Speaker 1:Is your mom proud of you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's very proud. At first she was a bit skeptical just because of the fact that I used to have to travel to stay and go door knocking. I used to door knock in Missouri.
Speaker 1:Dude that's why you're good, because you were door knocking. People think it's hard calling and it's like dude, go door knock, Go door knock. Yeah, I actually send some of my agents door knocking sometimes.
Speaker 3:And then give them leads knocking sometimes just and then give them leads. Yeah, give them leads. Yeah, one of the guys he came back, he's like and if you see this he's gonna die crying but he was like I went door knocking in cleveland. I sat in my car and I cried because of how ungrateful I was to you at the office. You know we're just dialing you, you, the virtual. You made it so easy for us because, like, going door knocking these people, they don't like open the door, they're cussing you out, they'll pull out a gun on you. Like it's crazy, you know. And um, the big thing for me was, uh, I didn't go virtual until I realized I can't grow unless I go virtual. I can't take 10 people in a house with me, right. That's when I decided to go virtual, because I'm like I could just be on the phone with this client, have 10 people on zoom and train them, versus I'm going out to missouri.
Speaker 3:Let's get on the school bus and take turns going into people's houses, right so uh, and you know a lot of these guys, uh, they never been in the insurance sales uh field, you know? And um, just being in virtual sales really changed their lives. And sometimes, just to like understand how easy they have it, I send them in the field Go knock for a little bit, see how it is, you know come back and tell me how you liked it.
Speaker 1:That's legit, so you're married. Yes, I'm married. How long have you been married?
Speaker 3:I've been married, so I've been actually married for a year and we had our reception this year Earlier this year, in July we had a reception, so you got married and had the reception later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was supposed to do that. So we got married in Costa Rica. We only invited four people. Oh, wow, nice. And then I was like we're going to have a big reception and we didn't have it. So everyone's pissed at us, like all our friends and family. I love the behind, so we might have to have one, I mean I don't know what are we? Six years in married, oh my God. I mean, I guess we could do it at some point, it don't matter, right?
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:We'll just throw a massive wedding reception, like 10 years later. That'd be awesome, that'd be sick, right? At least the kids will be there too, and the kids will be there, dude, that'd be awesome. Yeah, upgrade her ring because her ring's like a tiny little ring that we got back in the day.
Speaker 3:That'd be sick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so so are you gonna have kids?
Speaker 3:yeah, that's the plan, hopefully, yeah do you drink?
Speaker 1:no you don't drink coffee either. No coffee, no other drink. Dude, this is dangerous. Right here I see young doesn't drink. Don't drink coffee. Wants to take care of his family yeah dude that's what, like.
Speaker 2:I think this is the basic, what everyone should do Take care of their family, make sure that.
Speaker 1:That was my driving, that was my whole. That's what drove me to keep going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's my favorite type of agent, though. You know, like people that have responsibilities, you know they have a family they want to take care of.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:The guy that just wants to make ten thousand dollars and go blow it on virtual gambling right this virtual gambling got agents screwed up.
Speaker 2:Man, I'm telling you like usually what I do actually like when a new agent come, like I see exactly where they're at as far as financially, I will like come to the point and tell them hey, would you be able to write like your goals in the next like, at least like two years, if this business do good for you, what do you want to do, what you want out of this? And the guy literally wrote down he want to do his mom a LASIK surgery so she can remove the glasses eye glasses. He has done that already. Four months into the business he said to his mom $4,000, do your LASIK surgery. And literally this week she was like a new woman.
Speaker 2:That's awesome Without the glasses. You know what that means at all. I could imagine.
Speaker 1:I did LASIK and I have the video of my eyeball getting cut open. Have you guys seen it?
Speaker 3:Your eyeball gets cut open. I mean, they just cut the top layer off and then they peel it back and then they shoot a laser in.
Speaker 1:It's only 10 seconds per eye, bro. I could see from so far. People are always like dude. How can you read that? It'll be way down the street? They did a good job on mine.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's legit, though, dude. So you helped him find something he wanted to do for his mom.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm literally focusing nowadays on getting people like, really like, who really like, in bad positions. I want to take them to a better financial position, coachable, willing to do the job, willing to do the work. It's not an easy job. It's very rewardable, like it's very lucrative business, but, at the same time, the hard work behind it, behind the scene, showing up when you don do want to, when you do have to, it's what's going to make sense for it, what pays off. It's literally doing the things you want when you want. That's legit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's huge. All right, so you guys, we're getting ready to build a massive team together with you guys. We want you guys watching to join us. If you're not with us now, or just get in the it's a great industry. If you don't join us, we have no problem, absolutely like we have no problem giving free information for you to get in the industry and hopefully get what you want. Um, we do want to do something a little different, though we've never done this. But if you're watching this, can you tell us what topics you want to hear from the future guests, because we have the best people in the industry coming in every single week that are doing amazing things. But we want to hear from you watching in the comment section. What do you want to see? Do you want to see more phone script in-home? What do you guys like the most about this podcast? And then also for you two, how can someone reach you if they?
Speaker 2:want to work with you. I'm very reachable at my instagram. What is it?
Speaker 3:that's cash all the way or like my phone number 813 you see his instagram handle. No, it's like k and then like 10 000 a's and then sh like how do you tell someone how?
Speaker 2:many A's to put in. No but just my phone number.
Speaker 1:What's your phone number?
Speaker 2:813-417-0898.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if you're in Florida, you need to hit them up 100%. If you're anywhere in the country, you can still hit them up, because we work virtually everywhere, but if you're in Michigan, you definitely need to hit up Mo Rad.
Speaker 3:Yep, my phone number is 313-502-2974, and Instagram is AhmedReserve A-H-M-E-D.
Speaker 1:Cool, all right guys. Thanks for coming in. Thank you guys for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Andrew.
Speaker 3:Appreciate it.