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Why 18–22 Year-Olds Are Passing Traditional Careers for Life Insurance (Ep. 244)
The spark isn’t luck—it’s urgency. Rosston and a crew of twenty‑somethings walk us through how a small Naperville start became a Dallas breakthrough, a hard detour to the wrong IMO, and then a disciplined rebuild to a $1.5M‑per‑month life insurance organization. Their edge isn’t a hack; it’s a culture that outworks everyone, a system that protects dialing blocks, and leaders who tell the truth about leads, chargebacks, and the cost of learning to win the long game.
We dig into the real playbook: recruiting that moves from flashy car posts to proof‑of‑change testimonials, daily structure that separates expectations from actual work, and a leadership mindset that “works for the agents.” You’ll hear how a new agent cracked 100K by being human on the phone—asking better questions, keeping clients talking, and turning old leads into warm conversations with new energy. The team opens up about their hardest moments too: a broken jaw that paused momentum, family pressure to stay in school, and money mistakes that forced tighter rules. Their fixes are practical—journaling nightly priorities, building deep‑work “bunkers,” running a two‑phone system to starve social media, and tracking every policy to protect profit and persistency.
This is modern insurance entrepreneurship: resilient, organized, and unapologetically focused. The crew is scaling into an 80‑plus‑thousand‑square‑foot office near O’Hare to train in person, recruit smarter, and raise standards without burning out. If you’re young, hungry, and ready to treat sales like a business, this conversation gives you the blueprint: protected time, human connection, and relentless follow‑through. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a push, and drop a review with the one tactic you’ll try this week.
Hello everybody, Andrew Taylor here. Today we have Rostin Bickos with us. Thank you for coming in. Of course. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Yes. We got Drew Podia. Yeah. That's a dope name. It's Drew with a V, so Drew. And then we got Drew Stacy with us. So we got, and then we have Factory Fresh back here whose name is Drew. My name's Andrew. So basically everybody's name is Andrew, and we got Ross with us today. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome. Sounds good.
SPEAKER_04:Um, all right, man. So you I'm I'm excited to hear from you because you are um a big part of the organization in that started in Naperville, right? Yeah, Naperville. And you and Stan Smith built something pretty big with a lot of people. How old are you guys? Um 22. I just turned 22 November 3rd. I'm 21. 21. 22. Crazy, bro. I'll tell you what, like, I used to be the youngest dude, and everybody in insurance was old then. Like there wasn't a lot of young people, but I started when I was 18. Now everybody's starting at like 18 to 21. Why do you guys think that is?
SPEAKER_03:Um, honestly, it's just social media number one. Um, number two is obviously I think the hustle, like the very fine line between people who want it and don't want it, is just getting more apparent like throughout the years. Like there's people who just like, hey, like I want to make money, and then people who just don't make money. And like next thing you know, like you see a lot of younger people and generations just like you know, it's very much out there. Like just so much more exposure. I feel like there's a lot of young people doing it back then, but the exposure is just not there. You know, it's not something that's like, you know, oh like yeah, I'm starting insurance nowadays. It's like, it's like, yeah, like I'm in there. You know, I think that's like very like the exposure of it's just a lot more, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and I think the the drive and hunger. Um, I think uh the fear of being unsuccessful is especially for guys in a younger age, just because of social media, is literally outweighing the fear of dying. You know, I feel like being successful is like a non-negotiable at a young age. You have so much exposure on social media, whether it's good or bad, I think that's one of the biggest factors.
SPEAKER_04:You're saying there's a fear of not being successful.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think it outweighs, you know, dying, you know, like for a lot of guys, you know, it's it's crazy. But um, I think that's just what what it kind of kind of came down to as far as people just something. And this as far as insurance goes, it's something so achievable. Like it's not like, oh, I'm going to industry, I can't see the numbers, I don't know where anything's going on. Like, you know, doing different things on social media as far as making money. Like, I feel like it's very black and white. And if you have a good leader, like they can put a very, very fine line about like, hey, if you want this, you have to do this. And hey, if you don't want this, like we're gonna see the results this way. So I feel like being achievable is one of the biggest things, and as far as getting young people in the door.
SPEAKER_04:Legit. Now tell us about what you guys built in Naperville.
SPEAKER_03:Well, Naperville, well, we started me and Stanley. This is actually the first office I've ever went to. This you know, yeah. So two and a half years ago, Stanley invited me to a podcast, or not a podcast. He was doing he was doing a podcast. I don't even know if he was doing a podcast, but it was with Rob Richman and Stan. I knew Stan from high school, and he was like, hey, like just come out here, just come out here, just come out here. You guys rented an Airbnb right here at that time, right? Exactly. Yeah, and you were actually one of the first people I ever met in the industry, which is crazy. It's like a four full circle moment. So two and a half years ago, um, you know, came here uh and I was just like, I was really scared. I was shaking before my first phone call. Stanley had me a stack of leads, and I was just like, I was shaking.
SPEAKER_04:Did you call the first time here or no? Yeah, uh-huh. The first time was in this office.
SPEAKER_03:In this office, yep. What? And so I made$2,000 in two days. And I came home, I was like, mom, I made$2,000. It's great. He was like, Oh, were you gambling? I'm like, no, I was selling insurance, you know. So, like, just like to be able to have that factor in, like to my parents, like they didn't even believe it at first. It was ridiculous.
SPEAKER_04:They tell you not to do it, absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I basically, when I started this, it happened in we blew up in Naperville, but really happened in Dallas. So after this, like I took like a month, I was pretending I was working, I was already on Zoom calls with Rob Richmond and all these guys in the Dallas office, like, and I was putting a corner of my head in the in the camera, and I was just playing video games. Like, I was not locked in at all. And one day I was just like, I'm tired of this. You know, Stanley was in town and I was like, listen, like, I'm going down. I told my parents, they said, Okay, if you don't, if you leave, like, don't come back. And most importantly, you're not taking our car. So me and Stanley woke up like 5, 6 a.m. I stole my parents' car and we drove from Illinois to Dallas to start this in Rob Richman's office in Dallas.
SPEAKER_04:Did they call it cops?
SPEAKER_03:No. So, like halfway down, it's like 12 p.m. They're like, you're like, hey, like, bring the car back. I'm like, no, like I'm starting this, like, I'm starting this. I have negative two grand in credit cards, and I have six hundred dollars in my name in my debit card, like in my bank account. And like, I'm like, no, like I'm starting this. Like, I will, like, I'm gonna be successful. And they're like, okay, perfect. Like, don't come back. You know, like don't come back. So I'm like, shit, you know, I'm I'm like, I'm stressed out. So I'm like, I have I literally put something on the line. So if it doesn't work out, it's gonna hurt really, really bad. So like when we started in Dallas, I was like, I was very, very locked in, you know. Like I couldn't, there's nothing like Stanley took my credit card, swiped it on some leads. So my last six hundred dollars, I have two thousand dollars on my credit card I gotta pay, and I made like three, four grand off that. And so, like, just the pure will of that. Like, I think when I moved back to Naperville, like that's what kind of like blew it up for me, you know, just like knowing that like I had to put something on the line.
SPEAKER_04:That's legit. All right, let's talk about what you've done. So your team is now issuing 1.5 million in life insurance premium a month. Yeah, your biggest team under you is only 18% of your group, yeah. Which means you didn't just find one good person, you know how to develop teams. Yeah. Um let's see. Now you you put on here, because we do a little intake form to learn about learn more about people. You put on here that your biggest strength is is going to zero and starting over.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Why'd you do that? Why'd you put that?
SPEAKER_03:So I started with Stan for six months, right? Moved on to Dallas. I moved back to uh Illinois, where there was a lot of that was basically just my war market. That was a lot of people where I where I started with. I ended up leaving FFL and I had to restart 100% a year and three months ago.
SPEAKER_04:You left to another IMO?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So I completely left, and that was one of the biggest mistakes. But if I were to go back, I would have never, I would have, I would have done the exact same thing because the lessons I learned was the downlines that I did have, like, they ended up being successful, and they weren't the greatest. And I was like, listen, like if I just stuck with this stuff and I let Stanley lead my my group to success, I would have been successful either way. And I had literally, so I spent four months with this company and I came back and I lost all my agents. And uh, you know, I had to start from literally ground zero, you know, building up my team. But I had all this knowledge and stuff like that that I just knew this was gonna work out if I just gave it 100%. So, like that, like starting from ground zero was one of the most biggest things I did. Like, I took the biggest ego hit ever. I came back into the office, then like, oh, like that's that, that's that guy that left. And like, I'm like, listen, like I literally sat down in the corner, submitted around four or five thousand a day. And then I why'd you leave?
SPEAKER_04:Because someone said it was better somewhere else, or what happened?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, it's just it's a common thing, you know. Like every three or four months, like me being in the industry for two and a half years, is always there's always something, you know. And that was my first thing that was like, Oh, there's something. Oh my god, like the entire world's gonna go crashing down. And uh, you know, at the time, like Stanley was um, you know, he was looking too, and I'm like, I don't even know. Like, like, I don't even know what we're doing. We have no idea where we're going. Stanley's in Dallas, I'm in Naperville. Stanley has like four or five agents there. I have like 10 agents there. I'm running around with my head cut off. Like, I don't even know.
SPEAKER_04:What advice do you have to people to avoid that? Like, is it don't lit like drown out the noise?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, absolutely. Just just be a little bit more selfish with yourself and who you surround yourself by. I think that was something I that I lacked. I think I didn't necessarily respect a lot of things. One of the biggest things that I that made me leave was like I was getting irritated with agents, but like I should have been grateful that I had agents in the first place, you know. So I think that's like one of the biggest things, just literally being grateful.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Now, why'd you come back? Because it wasn't greener, or what happened?
SPEAKER_03:You I mean, I I knew for a fact that the scalability of where I was was never gonna be is the same, the same ever. You know, like Stanley is such a strong force, and the people that he brings on, like it doesn't matter what they come from, like he looks at it as and like this is something that I learned as well is like if I recruit someone, what would that look like for me working for them? Like, what would I be comfortable with? Like for this agent, if I work for them, like how would I want them to be brought up? That's funny.
SPEAKER_04:That's what Stan said. He was like, he he said he works for the agents, not the other way around.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 100%. And like after like with that mindset, it's just like you can't beat that environment. There's no way.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, now you also said your goal is to pass Jay Maska. Oh. And the other day, I was like, you think you could pass him? And do you remember what you told me? Absolutely. No, you said I have the same car as him, but mine's supercharged. That is true. That is true. Listen, listen, that is true. Yes, the STO is supercharged, that is for sure. All right. So what what is it what has it been like the last few years? Like, how has your life changed?
SPEAKER_03:Wow. I mean, it's changed dramatically. Um, one of the biggest things that made me take a step, like quit college, you know, leave uh everything at home and and and stuff like that. One of the biggest things that made me leave was I actually totaled my car. And at that point, like my dad told me, Oh, I'm never gonna help you out again. You gotta start paying rent, you gotta start doing this, you gotta start doing that. And like that was like, it was so small, but it really just made me like realize like I'm in this alone. Like as a man, like I I will never be successful if I always look for a helping hand. I think that was the biggest thing that changed my life. And I was already like I've dabbled with sales my entire life. I worked at Bell Tire, I was always, always, always trying to work up front. Let me work up front, let me work up front. I interviewed with different pest control companies, solar companies, roofing companies, just all door-to-door sales. And then I went to, so I found out about Stan was doing this. I'm like, what are the chances that Stan finds the best place to sell insurance? So I was interviewing with three different companies before I was like, all right, screw it. Stan, let's go to Vegas. Like, let me just see what what this is about. So I was always one foot in, one foot out. And I think the biggest thing that changed for me is just the ability to put both feet in and saying, like, listen, like, I'm here no matter what, and I'm gonna make the best out of it. So, like that mentality was the biggest thing that changed for me. Okay, so a lot of people fail. Why do you think they fail? I just don't, I don't think they there's there's so many different reasons, like as far as like life insurance. Yeah, I mean, there's so many different factors that go into failing. Like a lot of people can fail purely just off them telling themselves they fail. You know, I went over the four what's with my agents, and I think this is one of the most untalked about things in insurance is like number one, like what are you actually working on? A lot of people, the reason they fail is they can't differentiate their actual expectations when you join the industry and apart side of like what you're actually working on, right? So for my agents, right, I preach eight to twelve your dialing, right? You're not training, you're not doing anything, you're not doing podcasts, you're not doing anything but dialing. Okay, that is your time, that is your protected time where you have to make your money from 12 to 3. You're gonna recruit, develop. You know, if you're a new agent, you're gonna practice your sales skills like no other. And then from three to whenever the job is finished, you're gonna continue dialing, right? That's the expectation, but that has nothing to do with what you're actually working on. So, like every single day, it should be a motivating factor of what, like, okay, I want to be an agency owner. So it has to be a subconscious, like, okay, all I'm like these expectations, I'm gonna remind myself every four hours, like I will be an agency owner, right? And then you have to visualize it, right? Like, what does that process look like? And throughout the day, if that process doesn't look correctly, okay, this agency's not doing the same thing that I visualized, you have to correct that. And it's like you solve a lot more problems before they come, like before you visualize, like if you visualize it and nothing's going is if it's not going your way, then you have to correct it on the spot, you know, have a sense of urgency, you know. So I feel like that is the reason a lot of people fail. They they can't differentiate what they're working on, their expectations, right? You're expected to work very, very hard, right? Listen, like I tell my agents, this is gonna be most likely one of the hardest things you ever do in your life, but don't differentiate, don't combine the two and differentiate your goal when you come in here. I don't work with salesmen, okay? That's a part of the job, but listen, that's your expectation is to know how to sell. I work with business owners, right? I want you to create a business with me instead of you know being able to sell insurance.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you guys have this culture of working till they get the results, right? So, like, well, Stan said you guys are a little softer now, but he said back in the day people would be there till 9, 10 p.m. making sure they hit their their even later, yeah. Even later, just calling different time zones as late as we could, yeah. Always to make sure you hit your numbers. What's that like?
SPEAKER_03:And how how'd you guys create that? Um, what it's like, it's euphoric. Once you find a group of people that are able to do that with you, um, and have the same like visualization and mindset to do that, it's it's like a euphoric feeling. You don't feel like you're working, you feel like you're all like 10 people are combined on one goal to get to get it ten times faster than ten people on one goal, you know? Or ten people on ten different goals. So like what that so what was your second question?
SPEAKER_04:Um, just what what is it like what is it like and how'd you build that environment?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, you gotta like as like as an upline, right? Once you sign, once they sign those contracts and you have a downline in your system, you basically signed yourself away from being the best at your job in your hierarchy, right? You have to be the best recruiter, best developer, best salesman, right? So once you establish that, like every single person knows that you are the best at what you do, so it's very, very like sticks and like black and white. You know, like this is exactly what you have to do.
SPEAKER_04:You give up the right to be average and ordinary the day you bring somebody off there.
SPEAKER_03:You can't like you can't work less than your agents, you know what I mean? Yeah, and it's like if you do work, like Stanley was he wasn't in the office 24-7, right? He was always doing something, but he made it know he was working, right? If he was gone for two days in the office, he'll come back with a new group, you know. Like you genuinely like you have to put in genuine thought and effort in this stuff, so like you just always have to be working.
SPEAKER_04:Now, what what's your guys' what's your recruiting strategy? Oh, just social media, just it's all social media and what it what do you like? What are people attracted to?
SPEAKER_03:Um, I think uh there's like two different types of people, and I've only been hitting on one market this entire time. I actually reached out to Bruno Fuentes, shout out Bruno, um, and I'm looking to start recruiting at a completely different market. So I was always posting deposits, just money, you know, cars, flashy things, stuff like that. And I realized like over time, like you're gonna attract the right people, but over time that market gets saturated and you just start getting people in the door for like a little bonus and stuff like that. So what I'm doing right now is I'm posting more testimonials instead of like saying, like, oh, look at my Lamborghini, right? What did it feel like to get that?
SPEAKER_04:Now, do you what quote what type of person do you get a good quality agent? Do you think from like that if they respond to that marketing?
SPEAKER_03:It's 50-50. You know, it's just like running like you just never know any type of very, very specific lead source, it's really good until it's not now.
SPEAKER_04:Do you tell people the like up front this is hard? Like you gotta buy leads, yeah, you can lose money.
SPEAKER_03:Do you tell them that? Absolutely. In the beginning, like, you know, I've kind of avoided that fact and stuff like that, and it was a cancer to my business. You know, it caused a lot of agencies to be stagnant, and in stagnant water, you know, bacteria grows, you know, diseases grow. So, like, I the avoiding problems in my business was one of the biggest threats to my entire business. You know, so like I avoided that things right away just to get people in the door. Um, I mean, if they had a chargeback, I'm like, yes, it's a chargeback. Like, listen, if they don't pay it, then it is what it is. You know, like listen, if you're not working like 10, 12 hours a day, like listen, you're gonna develop a lot slower. You know, you're not gonna be as successful as you thought you you could. You know, now we're looking at the back end of things of that damage that it caused, you know. So, like, as of right now, I am very, very brutal up front. Hey, I've been in your position. This is exactly what you have to do. Here's the tools, do it. Right. And I'm gonna see it. Do you need anything from me? You know, I'm not just handing them a batch of leads and be like, okay, dial, like this is what I do. Obviously, I've there's a training process, the expectation, like I was saying before. But what I'm actually working on with that person is making them understand that running as a business is a lot easier than running as a salesman. Okay, so then you actually start to look at the numbers and the reason why you're doing it, you know. So being like now, you have to be. There's no other way, you know. So back then, you know, even two years ago and stuff like that, like, you know, I was never necessarily really like that. You know, people, there's not really an opportunity. Like, there's like quite frankly, like Stanley was the first opportunity in that, you know, Midwest, like Naperville area. So as far as like getting it.
SPEAKER_04:What do you say? Do you you do you ever worry about people um judging you, what they're saying about you? Did you ever worry about that? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:You did, yeah. So when we had the Airbnb here, you know, it was my first time I played.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, this is two years ago. We just played all Stan's clips from his first podcast. He just started, it's hilarious.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so yeah, two and a two and a half years ago, like like Stan was like, Oh, you gotta post this. It's like no one's doing this. I'm like, screw it. I posted, had 30 people slide up. I'm interested. Give me in. I didn't recruit one of those agents because I didn't have proof of concept, but the other three 30 people were just hating, you know. So were they saying? They were just saying, saying, like, oh, like you're in a scheme, you're in this, you're doing that, like, oh, like you, you're like, what happened at college, you know. Um, a lot of people who I met, because I went to a different high school for my freshman and or freshman and sophomore year. It was a military Catholic school. A lot of those people, like, they knew me as like, oh, I always wanted to go D1 in soccer and uh, you know, track. So like they're like, oh, what happened to this? What happened to that? And like, you know, just like more so not a lot of people hit me up necessarily just to talk about it, but people just talking about me, you know, what I'm doing, you know, who am I who I am associating myself with? Because Stanley was doing it for like four, five, six months before me, and they were making fun of him. So now that I'm doing it, it's like, oh, he's with that guy, you know. But did Stanley care? Nah, he never cared once. Never. It's great. You know, even I would I was talking crap about him. You know, we were in this group chat, we're in the friend group chat, and I was like, I was like, bro, what are you doing? You know, like I'm the college kid, like I'm doing my thing. Oh, what do you think? And like, yeah, I was talking crap, yeah. I was. I was like, I was like, bro, what are you doing out there? And when he just pops up in Dallas, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, what are you wearing? Like a like an all-state shirt or something like that, insurance. So like I was talking crap, you know? And like I was like, screw it, like my like when I came out here, I was like, let me just try it out. So and I posted, and like that was the biggest thing for me to realize like, okay, like now I have to prove him wrong. I can't I can't go back to Beltire. I can't just go back to college, they can't see me in that classroom no more.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, dude. So I told someone this the other day, and I want to get to you guys in a minute, but once I got insurance deposits I couldn't go get a job.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's pretty exactly even if it was a hard road, I couldn't go back and get a job. It ruined my it ruined me accepting an hourly wage. Yeah. You know? And then that's when I made the decision to really crush it because I was like, there's nowhere else to go. This is it. Figure it out. Don't think of plan B. Don't think the grass is greener. Just figure it out. Stick here. This is it for you. Because I couldn't I couldn't do it. Alright. This is this is interesting. Beyond work, uh, you put on here and I like that you guys are so transparent. That's something that's pretty powerful about your team. You tell it the good, the bad, what you're struggling with, what you're doing well with, um what you put in here with the amount of hours you dedicated to the business, you want to take better care of yourself. Yeah. Let's talk about that. Because I think this is pretty important to talk about actually.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. I think uh like there was a point like a week ago like where I was like listen I don't have time like to do all this gym stuff to take care of my skin like to you know take care of my girlfriend to take care of my parents stuff like that. And I realized like I was like there's people working twice as hard as me. I'm in a blessed position. Yeah I have 10 different teams underneath me that you know don't necessarily need my 110% attention and like I'm truly blessed to be in this position. Like I need to take advantage I need to be a role model for these young men when they're when they're joining an industry when they're trying to run a business that you can take care of yourself. You know go to the gym you know look good smell good you know eat good and and still do this business. So like literally in Monday shout out Alex Messias I hit him up and I said like how do you do it? Because he's been going to the gym at like 4 a.m I'm like oh my God and you know staying late at the office I was like how do you do it? And he says journal I started journaling every single night I lit listed like my my problems how my day went how I was feeling and three things I'm gonna focus on what I was working on apart side of my expectations that I'm gonna work on the next day.
SPEAKER_04:You know it's funny like no matter how tough somebody says they are that would help everybody like those little things. Yeah you know what I'm saying uh Zach Terdowski had me laugh and he's like dude I don't tell anybody my problems I just hold them all in and then I'm just gonna be a man and have a heart attack or stroke and I was like bro you could tell me but the thing is is like these little things are super helpful. So you don't want to be successful in business and then be unhealthy or unhappy or and and I love that you're bringing that up because you guys are young.
SPEAKER_03:You can make money and go go spend it and party and live a crazy life so do you guys do that sometimes we've been locked in ever since a few months I think I mean there's there's uh it's a love hate relationship with that certain mindset because like I'm like oh I take care of my health when I'm 30 you know like when I made it like when I'm doing that too late and then like I'm listening to these things I'm I'm seeing my own like my own age group have health problems right and I'm like it's in getting to that age you know like the the overall age in my specific office is like getting around 20. It used to be 18. You know like I'm seeing these people like oh like you know they're having like just different problems and stuff like that. Things happen you know too many energy drinks too many this you know people smoking anxiety mental problems stuff like that. And it's like those people would have had it either way you know and that it's not it's not because of the business you know it's just because they're not taking care of their health. And I need to be a role model. I need to be working and operating at 110%.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. All right so you also want to have a big family because you had a big family growing up how many brothers and sisters do you have did not have a big family growing up oh you did not have one okay is that what I said I th I must I could be misreading it.
SPEAKER_03:I probably spelled it wrong but uh I um it was literally so I never celebrated any Thanksgiving no Christmas or anything like that without my immediate family. Like it was really just my my sister and my two parents and like I never got to you know meet a lot of my grandparents before they passed a lot of my cousins stuff like that. And you know apart aside from like you know just having girlfriends and like meeting their family and meeting you know Stan's family and you know me and a bunch of my agents' families I'm like damn like I'm missing out on so much. I'm missing out on so many connections and that was actually one of my biggest struggles that I still work with today is being a personability person with my agents you know like I'm so black and white like the other day Logan he's gonna come on the podcast later like he literally told me like this is like two weeks ago he's like man like you're actually like starting to be a little human. I'm like man like I don't know what to think robot. It was rough it was rough to hear that but at the same time I'm like what does that mean I'm locked in all the time?
SPEAKER_04:Does that mean I'm just not a personability person but you know like I think having a family like when I'm older is like that's like something I always want I want a huge estate concrete all around the well I gotta tell you this because when I was your guys' age I didn't think having kids or having a family was that cool and then once I did have it have kids and have a family and get married and all that I was like bro why didn't anyone tell me this is way better like you know it's the best thing ever. Do you want kids? Oh yeah you want kids obviously what about you guys do you guys want kids? Yeah definitely a lot yeah dope he said he said he wants a kid in all 50 states that's what he said all right that's crazy okay all right so let's get to Droove Drove how long you guys have been working together um I think like five months six months yeah and how much have you okay this is good so for everybody watching this is a new agent right so you've gone through starting and you're probably gonna have a lot more problems because you're still you're you're still new yeah um but what have you done so far? You did 100k a month personally yeah how'd you do that?
SPEAKER_02:Um the thing with me and and personal production like early on in the business I kind of realized the people that make the most money they have a lot of fun on the phones. So like when I'm on the phone with a client I'm like I'm just myself you know I don't try to sound too salesy you know I make jokes I build like really good connections actually with with the majority of my clients you know they're still calling me weeks weeks after FaceTiming me you know just checking up on me and whatnot you know so I like to be really personable with with my ridiculous on the phone.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah he's actually crazy like he's not showing it right now but this guy is hollering on the phone I'm talking about talking about like crazy stuff like what what kind of fun do you have how do you how do you do that?
SPEAKER_04:Because I notice when people laugh they're more comfortable if you can if you don't take life so seriously more people want to buy but what specifically can someone do to do that?
SPEAKER_02:It really depends obviously the longer you're in the business you learn how to differentiate the client but usually what I do is I just ask them questions about themselves over and over because one thing I learned I forgot who who mentioned it at first is like everybody's kind of selfish. You just got to keep asking them questions about themselves. The second you start talking about yourself to the client I feel like that's kind of when they lose interest. So I just keep it going for like you know I've been on the phone with clients for like two hours three hours just them talking and just building a genuine connection with them. It really depends because sometimes certain clients like you could you could be a little I don't know like not ethical just just swearing you know talking about random stuff like music um women you know random stuff you know so it really depends customers yeah yeah obviously I don't initiate it I kind of pick up on it some of these veterans I used to go to their houses I I went to 10 I I booked 10 000 appointments in person like when I was in the field and I'd go to their houses and I had this rule if they offered me anything I would take it because if I would say yes well I didn't it like no sex stuff or nothing like that.
SPEAKER_04:But if they were like yo do you want uh like would you like a drink? Like you want some alcohol I'd be like sure or they're like you want a cigarette even if I didn't smoke cigarettes I'd be like sure but they would love it and then some people like I got some moonshine in my in my closet you want some shots of it I'm like yeah of course and then anyways that was the rule but so basically you're doing the same thing over the phone.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah they're talking you're talking yeah he's I don't know what he he literally like like gets out of the client like what he just can't say normally like whatever like the client like would love to talk about and and bullshit about like he gets it out of the client I'm talking about like literally just the craziest conversations I've ever heard in the industry.
SPEAKER_02:Like I'll be I'll I'll ask him I'm like what are you wearing like you in your pajamas you got socks on just random like I just be I'm just myself to the client and I feel like the majority of them pick up on it and they kind of let their guard down in a sense you know because most of the time when you're trying to sell somebody something over the phone um they know that you're trying to be a salesman. They put that wall up but when you're a lot more like you act like a normal person you kind of ask them questions that a normal salesman wouldn't ask they appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04:You know how much did you spend to write 100K? Because that's crazy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah um when I first started I was only running age leads two dollar veteran leads um off of I think it was like a thousand bucks that I spent this was like a couple months ago I deposited 4000 from that but you probably can stretch leads a lot further than most people if you're that person on the phone. Because also when I started I wasn't the best so what I what I would do is I'd go back to leads from like a month two months ago and sometimes I'd call them with like a like a different accent they wouldn't even realize it was me. Yeah um I remember I had a client one time when I first started he cussed me out and I I got slammed on on certain pieces of information I called him back two months later with like a southern accent I had a lot more energy obviously I knew how to sell a lot better at that point.
SPEAKER_04:He was just having a better day.
SPEAKER_02:I guess so yeah and he didn't he didn't remember me but we had a we built a really good connection the second time I called him and then I ended up closing him and his entire family. So it was just like a lot of people when they get slammed on you know social account you know other information or the client's just mad when you call them back you know after a month a couple weeks most of the time you can actually get the deal a lot of people just mark it as red or whatever and they just leave it alone. But I like to you know call those clients back as well.
SPEAKER_04:That's amazing bro what advice do you have to someone that wants to do this how to get started fast?
SPEAKER_02:You can ask him too when when I started um he was like man you you're too monotone you sound like a robot he was like you sound like a scammer now are you generally a really fun person?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah I am okay yeah it's funny I I went to this meeting and they did this test of like where do you prioritize all your stuff and it's like do you prioritize work? Do you prioritize um it's like a personality test and my number one thing was work and my number five thing was fun.
SPEAKER_02:Really and I was like bro I need to I need to mix those up a little bit you know I feel like my issue at first was fun was probably number one on my list for quite some time but but it's changing now I gotta Okay so you literally are just a fun person on the phone you're having fun. Yeah what if what if you're getting beat up and people are telling you to pound sand so I've I've been through a lot of days where the whole day and and this translates this goes back to what you were mentioning before um the culture we have with staying in the office late um the way I was initially was if I wasn't getting a deal or if I was just getting slammed back to back to back to back, I would stay in the office until two, three in the morning sometimes just calling Hawaii's Alaska's um and I'd say like there was weeks where I would just be the last person in the office or me and my guys. And that was if I never got a deal. So I kind of I would just I just wouldn't give up like I would be so frustrated um like in my head like man I need to at least get a deal two deals and I would just stay hours in the office and that also translated into my business and my agents as well it kind it kind of created a culture of where like you know we just always stay pretty late. You know whether or not we close whether or not we have five deals on the board we always want to squeeze out a couple more deals you know and it wasn't even like what time do you start if you stay that late? I would be starting at eight and I'm not gonna lie it did kind of mess up my schedule a little bit like the days after the mornings it'd be kind of a struggle to get up and you know keep that consistent schedule. So recently I kind of fixed it I'm not there that late anymore. But what really like when I was building everything bringing people in and you know putting numbers up I would be in the office until like one in the morning earliest every day.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah that's funny.
SPEAKER_03:I think I think his biggest struggle was he was like this is like I'm talking about like he crazy like I'm talking about like 1 a.m Sunday night like and we have 7 30 a.m meeting Monday like it was the craziest like two months that his entire I'm not talking about like his three four people I'm talking about 10 15 people staying until 1 a.m on a Sunday like it was absolutely nuts but the thing that he fixed like he wasn't saying he's he doesn't say he's late anymore. I don't let him because the intentionality behind it was it's 5 p.m you know let's do that some food let's have a little meeting let's do our thing because we know we're gonna stay late you know so I started compartmentalizing his day a little bit better a little bit better a little bit better he didn't have to be there till 2 a.m yeah so it's like the intentionality behind it and it was like the the thing with that is is like he knew his ability to sell and his his team his team's ability to sell was so good that it's like it doesn't matter if we you know screw off for one hour you know because we're gonna stay until one no matter what so as soon as I started doing that you know they you know started bigger months bigger months so that's a good point bro like if you're not care if you're not intentional you never get to stop working.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah right right did you experience that at all?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah definitely I felt like um like like he just mentioned as well because we were so used to staying in the office so late we kind of we were screwing off here and there feet kicked up not working with intention um so that was probably one of the biggest fixes we had to make was just working with intention being mindful and selfish of our time as well because so check this out early on I read this book called the one thing and I I just pulled my notes up on it um but basically there was this dude who would get uh an entire day of work done in four hours but he would lock himself in like a bunker so like he can focus and he's not distracted at all.
SPEAKER_04:But he would outperform everybody in these four hours and the whole thing was setting up multiple bunkers like uh mental bunkers which is like keeping negative people away from you so you so you don't go down the doom loop of what if this doesn't work or all the bad things that can happen. Right. And then financial bunkers um physical bunkers though this was the thing that helped me because I would get distracted and then all of a sudden I wouldn't even be working so I would go in a corner or I would go somewhere by myself and just mind my own business or in my car where no one can do it and I would work so I can get those hours in intentional hours. But anyways it's a really good book you guys should check it out. But one question for you how big of a distraction is scrolling on social media I'm just curious because you're this is your age this what you get this is like your thing.
SPEAKER_03:A huge distraction probably probably one of the worst distractions nowadays for the bushes it's definitely the biggest I bought a completely different phone it's out there right now I I leave this phone at work I take that phone to work so you're not on social media or what uh the only social media I have on that uh phone is literally one Instagram login to my Viper financial page that's it that's so funny why'd you do that um honestly uh I just wanted to test it out um more than I was like 50-50 I wanted to test it out number one and number two like I didn't like my phone carrier it was like working in certain places I'm just like let me just get a new phone and I'd literally just like well okay perfect what would I what would I need on this phone? I'm looking at what I need and none nothing no scrolling no TikTok no Instagram reels was a part of what I actually needed. So I'm here sitting I'm getting I'm organizing my home screen and I'm only downloading what I need and I realized all I need is Discord and IPR you know I log into my Viper financial page my business page and you know like a phone number. So I'm like I'm like dude like I've been like this is like a cancer like I'm leaving this at home. So and like I was just like I need to differentiate the needs and wants like that that was literally it.
SPEAKER_04:So it's helped a lot you know because I find myself like oh like doom scrolling what could I be doing right now dude I uh so this is 2010 I think okay and I'm dialing and I'm scrolling Facebook right 2010 2011 somewhere around that time I'm scrolling Facebook and this lady picks up the phone and instead of saying her name I said the person's profile that like popped up its name. She's like wrong number hung up on me and then I'm like yo I'm not even here like I'm gone and then the dude that was training me he was like bro go put the phone in the go put your phone because we would we we would use a computer phone or a cell phone go put your cell phone in the safe where the guns are because you're shooting yourself in the foot by just being distracted all the time but I'm just curious so I recently put all social media on my on my iPad that I keep in my office at my house and I don't have it on my phone but I'm I'm a lot more productive.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah I think and this is something I've preached about these guys heard a million times I think in your position you've established a business in my position I'm not anywhere near I want to be but I've established some sort of business I think to the general people who haven't necessarily established a business that's gonna you know cash flow the money having social media and distractions on your phone is a must right and the reason I say this is because obviously I don't I don't have that anymore right I bring one phone to work has no social media you cannot be a business owner if you cannot perform with the distractions right if you can't sell insurance with the distractions present like I'm not talking about okay go ahead scroll do your thing like have the having the option to as a business owner and not doing it and not doing it is the biggest lesson you can have right because I can I This week I can come in my office, they can show, I can show up, I can block everything on the Wi-Fi besides the insurance carriers, say, Hey, put your phone in the bucket, you know, go go dial on the phone I gave you, right? If I do that and as a dictatorship and I give that back the next week, they're gonna be twice as distracted the next week as as they were um like just with the specific things on their phone. Yeah, you know, so it's like I think it's literally impossible for you to actually be a business owner if you haven't learned to not be distracted by the distractions.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, all right. So, Drew, building a healthier relationship, some of your goals, building a healthier relationship with your family and siblings. That's that's dope.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um, tying into that, I feel like the first three months like in the business, I was working like 14, 15 hours a day. Um, and also one of the the main issues as well when I started was my my parents didn't really believe in it whatsoever. Like the industry itself, they didn't really understand it. Um they're from India. Um, they're immigrants, so like in our culture, education is like the number one thing, right? Um, as far as school goes, I've never really been the best in school. I didn't really have a passion towards it. Um and when I started doing this, a lot of my time and energy went into this, of course, you know. Um, but I was also enrolled in college, community college. I was taking a couple classes. Um, and when when my mom kind of realized that I wasn't uh focused on school as much, she was uh she was frustrated. Um she was like, either you're gonna finish school or we're gonna kick you out. Um, and then I think two days after that, I ended up moving out, moved in with Ross, and just went 100% into this.
SPEAKER_04:I love it, man. Cool. All right. Um, if someone wants to work with you, how can they reach you?
SPEAKER_02:Um Instagram, my number, all my information's on there as well. What's your Instagram? Um, it's Drew underscore stack or starf. That's the name of it.
SPEAKER_04:All right. One other question I want to ask both of you, then we're gonna get to the other Drew. Um, what's the lowest point you've been at in this business?
SPEAKER_02:Um first month and a half, I started first week, I'd say first two weeks, I wasn't the best. I was like really frustrated. Um because I wasn't learning as much, but I I just worked like 15 hours a day until I made sure it clicked. Um, then it finally clicked. I was putting up numbers consistently, I came in good energy. Um, everything was starting to finally pick up.
SPEAKER_03:After yeah, after two weeks, he didn't for the next 30 days, he didn't not sell one day, including Sundays. He had to sell every single day for the next 30 days. If it wasn't one, it was two or three. So that was the craziest thing. And then tell them what happened after.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I really fell in love with it. The momentum was picking up, it was amazing. And then um a weekend, it was like I think it was like a month and a half in. Um, I was out on the weekend with some friends. Uh, I ended up breaking my jaw. In a fight? No, it wasn't a fight. No, it's not that cool of a story. I was um I was on uh those electric scooters in Chicago.
SPEAKER_04:You got hit by a car.
SPEAKER_02:No, I didn't get hit by a car. Um well, I had a friend in front of me, he was on a scooter as well. He hit the brakes a little bit too hard. I didn't have time to react, and then I went flying off the scooter. It wasn't me falling off the scooter that actually broke my jaw. I was on the floor, I was fine, and then somebody fell on top of my head while I was on the floor, so it was just it was a mess. But um after that, they they ended up wiring my jaw shut. So I had my jaw was closed for like a month.
SPEAKER_04:Um you had to eat out of a straw?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you know, like those insurers, the the shakes, it was horrible. Bro, yeah. But look at you though, you look great. Yeah, thank you. I still got scars, and it's just but it was it was a low point for sure because I just came from you know finally everything clicking.
SPEAKER_04:Going good, and then you just gone just like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So it was how many months was that to heal? So I had the the wires in my jaw for I think it was like a month exactly. I was supposed to have it in for I think it was 60 days. Um, but man, I was just depressed. I was at home watching everybody sell, have a good time. I didn't even want to go to the office because like I had a good car right here. Yeah, that that of course, and it was like my face was swollen. Like this side of my face was just huge. It just I just felt like man, I don't even want to show my face anywhere. It was just not to mention you're talking we were talking about this. Um so like mentally it was it was it was pretty hard, you know, especially watching other people, you know, continue to close deals, have fun, be in that environment. Um, so I was kind of beating myself up mentally.
SPEAKER_04:And what advice do you have to somebody going through something like that?
SPEAKER_02:Um just think good thoughts. Obviously, it's a bad situation to be in.
SPEAKER_04:That that goes for you know because you put on here no matter what you're dealing with, always have a smile on your face for the people for the people you help inspire.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Yeah. Um as far as like being in a situation like that, what you think mentally is the most important thing ever, you know, by far. Because if you're just beating yourself up, which I was, um it just sucks, you know. Like that's the that's the only thing you can do in that situation, you know, just at least think about what's going to come, you know.
SPEAKER_04:But you healed, bro.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, it was it was bad. You can ask him. I was just sitting there just just uh sulking like you closed deals though, which is a case of the case.
SPEAKER_03:No, I did.
SPEAKER_02:I had clients call me back. Um they had closed before, they wanted their sister to get a policy. Um, and I was like talking like this, yeah. They're telling them like, yeah, I broke my jaw. They're like, oh my god. Um, but I did close like three deals with my jaw wired, and then I remember I had like two weeks left um to where I was supposed to have the wires in. And I went to go see the doctor, and they're like, Yeah, just keep it in two more weeks, and you can start eating soft foods. You can go back to work, this and that. Um, I think I waited like two days. I ended up just taking the rubber bands off, went back to work. The same day I went back to work. I think I closed like four deals, or like it was like three or four deals. I was so happy to be back and be able to actually, you know, just talk to clients, be around everybody. It was like the best feeling.
SPEAKER_04:You took what you took for granted you were grateful for.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that's one thing too. Like a lot of people, they're so used to complaining about you know, just minutes. Stuff that don't matter. But when you're really in a position where it's like, man, I wish I could even talk normally or you know, not have a swollen face, like it's like you would you would give anything. You give any amount of money, anything. Yeah. That's why people really need to be mindful, they need to be grateful for what they have because there's somebody out there who who wishes they could even walk or you know, do the smaller.
SPEAKER_04:Have you ever seen that picture of the dude in the um there's a dude in like a has a private jet, and there's a dude next to him with the Ferrari, and he's like, yo, I wish I had a private jet. And then doing the Ferrari has a regular car, and he's like, dude, I wish I had a Ferrari, and then doing the regular car, there's a dude on a bike next to him, and he's like, Yo, I wish I had a bike, and then I mean, I I wish I had a car, and then there's a dude walking, and he's like, Yo, I wish I had a bike. And then there's a dude next to that dude in a wheelchair, and he's like, Yo, I wish I could walk. Yeah. It's like, yo, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. I think uh I just want to add this in. So that was how his first three months looked like right? He's coming up on his six in like a few days, and the next month after he got that, he was banging the phones, right? The month after that, 67,000 issue pay. Uh, I think in October, or no, yeah, in October, jumped from 67,000 to a quarter million. I think that's what like that was like the most shocking thing that I've seen.
SPEAKER_02:Um I feel like the growth in terms of uh the agency was purely because when I went back into the office after I broke my jaw, I was just hungry. Like starving. Like I didn't I didn't care if I closed two, three deals, I was in the office.
SPEAKER_04:Maybe that's what made you go nuts like as far as like ramping up that much production.
SPEAKER_02:Um But I was just I was just starving, man. Like I I I always wanted to be the last person leaving the office, no matter what. I would just sit there two, three in the morning. Um obviously it wasn't healthy because like you was saying, we I would stay there on Sundays and then we'd have a 7 30 meeting the day after, and I would sleep for like three hours and still be there, and I would just like force myself to continue to work, to still have good energy. Obviously, it caught up to me. I can't, it's not sustainable. Yeah, but as far as like the team and me bringing guys in, I feel like it really inspired them because no matter what, we were just outworking everybody, like there was no competition, and people saw that and they you know they got inspired. And like he mentioned, we had like 10-15 guys in the office till 1 30, 2 in the morning, you know. It's not even like it was a burden, everybody was enjoying it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, what's the deal with the cars? People say everyone's got cars racing, pissing everyone off. Is that true? Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Um, it was really bad when we were all in one office. So this new, you know, 85,000 square foot office that Stanley's getting, you know, I'm scratching my head. I'm like, damn. You know, because I pretty much controlled my guys. I'm like, listen, you know, like you can't be doing that anymore.
SPEAKER_04:Were you doing racing in the parking lot or doing donuts or what? Reving. Reving the reviving.
SPEAKER_03:Because everyone's got nice cars. Yeah. The thing about, so when I got my office, it's like you can't really do that. Like they'll know exactly what like the the manager's office is like right on the first floor, looking at all the parking lots. So that was like that was really bad, like in March and February, because like that was when like we're all in one whole Wolfpack was in one off.
SPEAKER_04:The funny thing is, you guys are right next to like another financial firm or something, right? Isn't there another one in there?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think there's a couple, uh and they're all professional, like with suits, and then you got parks rather non-stop, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, it's uh Johnny Ganny. No, no, no, I know that, but there's like a there's like some other financial firm in there when I was there. I don't remember what it was. It's kind of hilarious. You got a bunch of 18, 20 year olds revving their cars. Yeah, well, it's kind of crazy. Wow. All right, uh, Drew Stacy. Yes, sir. How how old are you, Drew? 22. 22. Dude, I can't I can't believe how many young people you guys have. But it kind of makes sense because a lot of people don't want to go to college, yeah, right? I knew I wasn't going, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Did you know you wanted to do sales? No, I mean I before sales, I did straight construction work, so purely hands work. The amount of school I finished on paper is the 10th grade. Wow. That's as far as I got on you know on paper. So I was all construction, all manual warehouses before sales.
SPEAKER_05:Okay for me.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Um, tell us a little bit about how much you've done and how you got started. So got started was it was a random post. It was funny enough, off Snapchat, is I had saw Rustin. There's a little section after you go through all your friends' stories to add new friends for people that you may have mutuals with. And I was clicking through and I had saw Rostin's story, and I didn't even know him. It had a little plus sign, but it was straight just a sheet this long with bank deposits from the first week of June in uh 2024, that would have been last year. First week of June, I saw 20 something thousand worth of bank deposits. Clicked there, added that guy on Snapchat, said, you know, I gotta don't know what he's doing, don't know what it is, don't know how old he is, who he is. But I saw that money, and that was that's what kind of brought me into the actual door. First agent.
SPEAKER_03:First agent when I came back. Let's go. Okay. And then how much have you done in a month?
SPEAKER_01:Like what's uh my biggest personal month ever, I would say, was 65,000, 70,000.
SPEAKER_04:Now, a lot of people, and this is okay, like they're new, they can issue pay a lot of money, but they don't have a lot of money. They're spending a lot of money on leads. Do you guys see that happen ever? Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:Or they mismanage their money and they spend it on stupid things. That's literally the main thing. Like the reason I was able to keep so much money is because I was I was scared. It's a loan. Like, it's not your money, it's your business's money. You know, like wait, like I literally waited until I started, like, and then a month and a half, I literally stacked 20,000 or$30,000 in Dallas with Stan and Rob. And the first thing I bought, I was eating like ground beef, ramen. Like Stanley's hating me. So we would make a big bowl, and then all the butter would sit at the bottom, and it looked like it was just rotting away, but it was it was good for me, you know. He'd be going to steak dinners and stuff like that, and like the first time I spent money was cologne. It was a$400 bottle of Paul De Marley vanilla cologne.
SPEAKER_04:So, and you you said you have a girlfriend. Yeah, is it like a serious girlfriend? I'd say so, yeah. Don't do you have a girlfriend? Yeah, I do. Okay, you no, okay. So how do they support you or are they involved, not involved? What's that dynamic? Because that's an interesting dynamic at a young age.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. I think this is my personal opinion. Girlfriends should not exist unless you're working or not working with them, unless you are living with them. It is a hundred percent distraction. Like, I she does all the things she lives with you. Yes, she does all the things that I don't want to do. Laundry, dinner, you know, clothes, stuff like that. Like, she keeps me performing at a hundred percent. So you're complimenting each other. Absolutely, yeah. Like it did like if you're not living with someone, like there has to be both ways. You can't just be benefiting the other.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you don't just want to move in just if you don't know them, though. Yeah, I don't like I didn't really know her too much.
SPEAKER_03:It was like a month in, and then we're like, oh shoot, like I like this is Oh, so you fell in love, I guess, you know, but like the whole point was I wanted to get him out of the house as well because of his family situation. And I was like, okay, well, I have this girlfriend, you know, and you know, like I have other agents that would love to like be surrounded by me and see what I do on a daily basis. So I'm like, screw it. And she just started saying over. Next you know, like more clothes from her house is coming over to my house.
SPEAKER_04:And I'm like, you didn't move in together, she just slowly moved in. Oh, that's a street, that's a very strategic play for girls. Yeah, very good at it.
SPEAKER_03:It just kind of happened. I'm like, next thing you know, I gotta see some furniture.
SPEAKER_04:I'm like, what the hell's going on? My uh funny, because my wife, my wife now, when we were dating, it would just be like she left like some clothes over, and then it'd be like some shoes, and then there's a pink razor in the bathroom. I'm like, oh, she moved in, which was awesome.
SPEAKER_03:I'm like, yeah, I'm like, what do you need? My credit card for groceries, like I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_04:So that's great. And what about you? Are are they supportive in you what you're doing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I feel like uh for me the dynamics a lot different because I don't live with her. Um, and also it was kind of an issue at first because I went from seeing her, you know, at least every other day for like uh years, because I've been with my girlfriend for almost five years.
SPEAKER_04:Um you guys got together at like 17?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, 17.
SPEAKER_04:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um, but we were just used to seeing each other on a much more consistent basis, and then the past couple of months, obviously I can't do that. Um there's a certain amount of time I have to put towards work and towards you know my business. Um, so that kind of got in the way of it it was definitely an obstacle that we had to overcome. And we just kind of talked like, hey, like, yeah, there's gonna be a couple months, maybe a year, where I'm gonna have to put the majority of my energy and focus into this business. Um and then after that I'd be able to spend a lot more time with you. And she understood that. Um, but she's super supportive, and I'm I'm blessed for that.
SPEAKER_04:My man, good for you. All right, so I wanna s I want to tell you guys this because I just think it's interesting. Early on in insurance, um a lot of the old school recruiters, they always said to only recruit people that were in relationships because they would stay around longer. And Sean Mike was like, dude, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Like, anybody could do this, single, married, not married, only has a dog, has a goldfish. Anybody could do this. That's the dumbest thing ever. And when the company opened up, that was a big change we made where we were like, Yeah, why can't anyone do this? Like, it doesn't matter. You could be from we had a dude who took a three years ago. I run into him, he's like, dude, I I lost everything. I have a family, he's like in his 40s, and he goes, Take a picture with me because in next year I'm gonna you're gonna see me again, and I want you to remember me. And then I was like, Okay, I just forgot about this dude. And then I go to the conference and he's getting a Hall of Fame jacket and he's like, Yo, you remember me? And he pulls up the picture. Like, bro, it don't matter where you come from, what what's going on if you have the desire to do it, right? You know? All right, so Drew, um what tips do you have for someone who's just getting started?
SPEAKER_01:So I think the main thing would be kind of along the lines of what Drew said, would be uh being the hardest worker in the room. Because that's as far as translation-wise, I mean, it's not like I had a bunch of school knowledge coming into thing, all these little sales skills, everything along those lines. From what I knew, from what I did before was how to work the hardest, be the hardest worker. Because I'm 16, 17 years old working 80 hours a week on construction sites with 40, 50, 60 year old men who've been doing this 30 years. And I got to find out a way, okay, they've been doing this 20, 30 years. How can I do the quickest way to get kind of on their level? We'll put in more hours than them. I'm always gonna pick up that extra shift. And I think it kind of translates into the office and the aspect of the way I treated it when I first started last year was I had to be the first person to turn on that light switch every day, and then I'd be the one to turn that light switch off every single day. So no one was gonna be there before me earlier. I was gonna be sitting there. Damn. I may not be dialing at 7:30. I'm I'm not dialing yet, but I'm sitting there eating a donut from Dunkin' Donuts with the Red Bull, bumping some music, getting my head right, you know, sitting there bumping, bumping, bumping. What kind of music? I like rap.
SPEAKER_04:I like rap music. What's your favorite rap music?
SPEAKER_01:My favorite rap music. Is this like like the older rap? I'll listen to anything. Okay. I mean, there's a guy out there now, he'll be on in a minute. Ryan Egger, he put me on the country music, though. I like I can I can throw some country on now too. But the main thing about being the first one to turn that light switch on every day and to turn that light switch off was my I never told him this, but my goal every single time was you know, when you get a back-to-back deal in the Discord, it feels good. But no one's doing back-to-back deals where the deal was at 11 p.m., then you have that first deal in Discord at 8 15 a.m. So there's eight hours in between, but I got back to back deals, you know.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, that was the thing. So far. All right. So this is what's kind of crazy. So a lot of people don't share what we do because they're scared people would judge them. Okay. But imagine. Imagine if he didn't share his Snapchat post and you never saw it. And imagine if he wasn't his Snapchat post that recruited you was him actually making a bunch of sales himself. So imagine if he didn't do that and you never saw it. It's kind of crazy to think about, right? Yeah. You you might still be banging nails and hammering nails in it.
SPEAKER_01:I can, I mean, that's in my mind, that's exactly right, but most likely.
SPEAKER_04:Now, why why is this a better fit for you?
SPEAKER_01:Like what what did it what did this fix? So it opens up the complete avenue of what sold me on it when he brought me in the first day was that no one else can control what I did. So if this guy shows up at 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or if this guy shows up from 6 to midnight and he works more hours or sells more, puts in more work, what another person determines or what they do in their day doesn't determine how much money I can make or what I can do in my day. So if that's what I never liked about school, working other jobs, yeah, especially in construction. I got this guy, you know, working the shovel right here. He's throwing way slower shovels than me. So I'm gonna run over there, take the shovel out of his hand, throw the shovels, and I'm gonna go pick the rake back up and start raking. But about this, you don't have to worry about another individual, obviously, in the beginning, when you're just selling. But I mean, I think that would be the main thing is just no one can control my outcome.
SPEAKER_04:So you're saying I'm reading this, your main edge is your work ethic, period. Uh you had no sales experience, you never thought you'd have a suit and tie job. You came in, put your head down. The only thing you knew how to do was work harder than everyone else.
SPEAKER_01:And it benefited me a lot because when he brought me in, I mean, I could tell it was probably 20, 25, 30 people in the office. They all knew each other. They all, like he was saying, he knew Stanley from way back when they went to school together.
SPEAKER_04:You knew him from high school, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. You didn't know no one. I knew him off a Snapchat post.
SPEAKER_04:That's all I Now did you not trust him at all? Were you skeptical or completely?
SPEAKER_01:I so I hit his hit him up. That was like a Friday, and I'm waiting for him to he texted back. He's like, we're gonna hop on a call in a minute. He's not answering this call. He's he's with his with his girlfriend somewhere going up to the Chicago. So I'm, you know, scouring everyone, trying to find whoever I could hit up from the thing. He finally calls me back. We met up the next uh Monday morning at 6, uh 6 45, 7 o'clock in the parking lot. And I remember the most specific thing. It was my first uh interaction with him and with Stanley. You know, I shake his hand in the parking lot, we went upstairs, and I remember right when we got upstairs, Stanley was absolutely ripping everybody apart. It's 7, 7, 15 in the morning. He's like what saying what? It's m fresh Monday morning. I mean, we we did this amount of production last week. Y'all gotta turn it, you know, you some choice words in there, but y'all gotta turn it up, gotta work a little harder. I mean, what are we doing? And then it was his uh what I always knew him for was he knew how to from we had a 7 a.m. meeting back in the day. From 7 to 7.30, all hell's breaking loose. You're gonna know your biggest flaws in the world, everything like that. That 7.30 to 7.45, it was the biggest pump-up time in the world. So he knew exactly what he was gonna say to tell you all the problems that you did last week, how to bring you up, bring you up, bring you up. And then that last 15 minutes was a little dial time. So I mean, I remember when I came in, Stanley went from screaming at somebody and threw that hand to the left, shook my hand, said Stanley Smith with a smile on his face. I said, I can respect that. You know, someone who can about business, but not gonna come over here and you know, give me a little attitude like that. And it was the same thing with him.
SPEAKER_04:I mean well, Stan said everyone at the restaurant likes him because he treats them just like he is that he doesn't treat them like he's above them in any way.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. That's one thing I that my grandpa told me from uh a little kid too, is you treat the janitor with the same respect as the CEO. Yeah. Because he said the uh feet you step on today could be attached to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow. You have no idea.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. You don't know. That's good. All right, so what are like you guys are doing something pretty special, actually. Like, might be the craziest thing we've seen, which is that office that you guys got that can have, I don't know, 500 people in it. What is it?
SPEAKER_03:I think you have more because it has like what 180 cubicles. Each cubicle is like the size of this entire corner, so it's like you can fit three people in there. Yeah, three people. Then that's not even including the 50 private offices there is. We could like wolfbag. I mean, we were squeezing, you know, we s we know how to squeeze. We work every stair, every stairwell, every cloud.
SPEAKER_04:Like they just kept coming, and I was like, bro, how many people are in that office? Just a little phone and laptop and some Wi-Fi. We can fit a thousand people, I think so.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we could definitely do that.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Um if someone wants to work with you and join this, this is an interesting time to join your guys' team. Yeah. Um, because you just got the biggest office we've seen, which is how many square feet is it? 83,000, 84,000. 84,000. You got what? You're gonna have a thousand people in there doing this, teaching each other how to do this in person. And where is this office at? Schoenberg, Illinois.
SPEAKER_03:Right next to O'Hare Airport. So we're taking away. Oh, you guys are the airport. We're taking mobile agents.
SPEAKER_04:Do people move move there like to work with you guys? I already do, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The guy who's gonna come on next, Logan Williams, was my second agent, and I we relocated him from Florida. He's my biggest team right now. Damn.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, legit. All right, so uh Drew, I like a lot of this stuff you're putting in here. You want to be a million dollar a month in three years? Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah. Okay, and wait, no, that's I think I'm talking what's the question there? What I might have typed wrong. Um three years. Oh, my bad. I'm not talking about hard.
SPEAKER_04:I misread it. 12-month goal, a million a month, three-year goal. Using your income and growth that you've made in life insurance to build new investments and endeavors. So you are you kind of crazy like Stan, where you just spin money like crazy or no?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I would say I'm pretty, I got the the Stanley Smith spending habit, I would say, is a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03:Do all of you have that? Um, I'd say I guess it gets to me sometimes, you know. I'd say I can't.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, it's cool, but like you guys have so there's a lot of money coming through, coming in and out. If you you guys know how set you'd be if you throw some of that in the right places, right?
SPEAKER_01:That's some things I gotta learn about. I would say that was my biggest struggle throughout the course of a year in the business was having these nice real high income months of making you know forty, fifty thousand dollars in a month, something that I would made it, you know, the whole year prior to that. Spending it, yeah, spending it. You know, going out. I was never a big dinner guy. I'd say my advice was casino. Oh, casino big casino.
SPEAKER_03:You guys all like to gamble? I hate gambling. I can't gamble. I literally just I I can't even like to I tried to get to enjoy it, but I can't. I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_04:Dude, Stan needs to keep posting his UFC bets because they make the fights much more interesting for me. When he when he put 50k on uh I forgot who it was. It was uh my man got punched into another universe right away.
SPEAKER_01:In the beginning, we were sitting there, we all all the faces we were and it's got Murphy. Murphy Murphy Murphy line. Murphy. Oh bro, I remember that.
SPEAKER_03:But it was what was a kick that he won the bet? I don't even remember. I just remember the big white elbow. I think it was a spinning elbow. Spinning elbow, yeah. No, that, but the one he lost.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, talking about the one he lost. Oh, yeah. Oh, Edwards. Leon Leon Edwards, he put 50k on Leon Edwards, he got punched into another universe right away, and I was like, oh damn. But, anyways, all right, so let's get back to this organization and profitability. So it's one thing to make sales, it's another thing to be profitable. Can you talk about that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so main thing definitely when I first started, I was I had a this brown little notebook I remembered, and I would write down every single the name of the client, first name, last name, dash, put the carrier, dash product, and then I'd put dash monthly premium. So I then have their little phone number right below it. So that was all my whole sales tracker was just this notebook. Well, after about a month, two months of you know making a lot of deals, closing deals, I'm starting to go through my notebook. I'm not being able to keep track of each individual person, and that was kind of a you know issue for me. So in my mind, he was always preaching just being organized is gonna be the most profitable thing for you. So I kind of sat there and you know took a step back from myself and looked at how I was really running my business and handling all my personal sales along those lines. And I just feel like I needed to organize every little thing to track where every last dollar was going. So whether that's you know, the sales tracker, showing where I'm spending my money at, where I'm losing, where I'm losing out on money. So in regards to you know, chargebacks, first premiums never draft, and if it's spin sitting in AM home office for a couple months, couple weeks, not a couple months. But just knowing where every piece last piece of my business is, so I can in turn get paid on that business.
SPEAKER_04:Love it. Cool. Yeah, because uh dude, it's so easy to not be profitable if you're not aware of what can happen. Right? Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_03:A lot of that stuff gets lost. Like like I said in the beginning, it was like one of the biggest struggles was obviously like not being extremely upfront with my agents about how to properly conduct business, looking at persistency, being legit, not just like getting a little bit of dopamine if you're putting a home office, you know, in the Discord and stuff like that. And so once we fixed that on the face level, like we were looking at act the actual damage that it caused, and it the biggest thing, like I said, it caused was the stagnancy in the the business. Because like you get paid and then it's like you just baseline that you're gonna do it. Yeah, but it starts you start to stack debt and different carriers.
SPEAKER_04:If you sell a deal and you don't do it properly and they cancel, you get the dopamine hit from posting it in the Discord, but you don't get the money. Right. Exactly. And then who wins the long game?
SPEAKER_03:The guy who's not looking for that dopamine hit. Exactly. I've been having a lot more conversations with my agents. I'm like, you guys understand this entire industry is based off one very simple thing right at the start is clients paying their premiums. There'd be no buyouts, yeah. No one would be able to sell their agency, no one would be ever to be profitable, no one would be ever to be scaling an agency or anything like that. The carriers wouldn't pay us any money unless clients paid their premiums. That's the number one thing in the industry.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Um how to leave your baggage and everything from outside the office walls at the door. So I do that because it's dude, everyone needs that advice. I need that advice, but how do you actually do it?
SPEAKER_01:Well, for me, it's I don't know. I've always felt like that's that's a little different aspect for me, is something I've I've never mixed my entire life. I've never brought personal things, whether I was in elementary school, I was never bringing the personal things to school. Kind of going along the lines, what you said, the forget whose name it was, Zach. Zach, you said he bottles everything up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say that's definitely an issue that I have. I have that too. I put every, I'm not, you know, that I could be, you're gonna get the same answer out of me, whether it's the my the best day of my life or the worst day of the week. I'm just I'm doing good. I'm doing good. You know, never, I would say it's definitely an issue. Probably so you have to open up on some things like that. But that's one thing I've always preached is I mean, how are you gonna supposed to come in here and have a good day when the first thing you're thinking about at 8.05 a.m. is you're in a text message argument with your girlfriend or your significant other, or you're talking about how your parents are telling you that you're making the wrong choice for what you're doing. I mean, how can you come in and have a successful day? You can't. There's no possible way. So if you leave that at the front door when you come in and pick it, also you can set that bag down, you can pick it up when you go out on lunch, you can go cry in your car for two hours, whatever you got to do, but set that bag back down when you walk back in for lunch, put your money up on the board, make some money, and then when you go home for that night, you know, you can pick your bag back up if you want and deal with things that you need to outside the workplace. But that's always been a big thing for me, is just I don't mix the two things.
SPEAKER_03:Just to give you perspective, when he was upset for it was like a week and a half, two weeks. The thing that made him upset is he lost fifty thousand dollars in the casino, not by gambling, by someone stealing his bag and running out of the casino. That was the first time I've actually genuinely seen this guy upset and brought like he had no choice but to bring a little bit of outside emotions inside of the business.$50,000. Someone stole your bag at 50 G's, 10 in chips, 40 in cash. And at the time he only had he only had 60 grand. You know what I mean? So, like I kept that I kept bro.
SPEAKER_01:You you yeah, that's it was it was uh it was a very good learning lesson for a lot of reasons, I would say.
SPEAKER_04:Now, do you love gambling that much? I feel like it never ends good. Like, no matter what anybody tells me how much money they make, I feel like it never ends good.
SPEAKER_01:My stance on gambling is kind of this. So I'm not like I like having fun, like he was saying, like having fun. I'm not a big drinker, I'm not a big, you know, really anything. I kind of just like hanging out, you know, go going somewhere. So I'd rather go somewhere where I can say compare the casino and like a nightclub or something. Nightclub, you're going, you're spending all this money on a little section for have some bottles come out like this, shaking above your head, and you're gonna get all drunk and go home that night with minus however much money. Well, all right, say I'm uh spent$2,000 at the club that night. I'd rather bring that$2,000 to the casino where my drinks are free. I'm not paying for the drink, and I have a chance to leave with something that night.
SPEAKER_04:That's the best explanation I've gotten for that.
SPEAKER_01:But as long as you're not like is you leave the debit card at home so you don't go over the 2,000 if you lose. That's that's a big rule. That's legit. Yeah, I like that.
SPEAKER_04:That's good. All right. Um, trying to better myself in all aspects of life, but focused on business right now, currently. So, all right, you guys are crushing. How can they reach you if they wanted to work with you? Uh, my Instagram.
SPEAKER_01:What is it? Uh Drew Stacy, replace the E and Drew with the three.
SPEAKER_04:D R Drew, are we gonna put these all in the comments or something? Just like I do with everyone. Okay, we'll put everything in the description. And then uh other than that, you guys are crushing. Um, you guys have the opportunity to make a big impact on on 18 to 21 year olds by doing what you're doing, as long as you don't get in your own way and egos don't get in the way, and then sh everything goes all crazy. But you guys, you guys can do something big. I'm excited to work with you. I want to get you guys back in in like a year and see how this office is progressing. So you guys are crushing. Thank you guys for coming in.
SPEAKER_05:Appreciate you for having us, man. Of course.