Why I Had to Let the Old Me Go | Andrew Taylor, FFL USA (Ep. 254)

Ever felt the tug between a steady paycheck and the louder call of your potential? We sit down with Orlando Castellon, who walked away from ten years of comfort to build a life insurance business on belief, better leads, and unapologetic activity. He breaks down exactly how he replaced his salary part-time, knew when to jump, and then “fired and rehired” himself to the standard his goals demanded.

We map the real mechanics of momentum: turning in-home reps into a telesales advantage, using high-intent Ethos leads to meet buyers where they already are, and running a direct script that asks why they stopped and moves toward what they actually want. Orlando shows how one-call closes work in the wild, including the speakerphone move that keeps serious buyers engaged and the FaceTime nudge that spikes answer rates through simple human curiosity. His close skips the awkward ask—he proceeds into the application until the client stops him—then isolates the concern with their own words.

Money and mindset tie it together. Orlando shares the early splurges, the sting of chargebacks, and the fix: earmark every deposit for leads, savings, taxes, and pay so next week isn’t built on yesterday’s names. He explains why upgrading from aged lists to higher-quality leads compresses time-to-sale, and why chasing the “perfect CRM” cost him thousands while others won with just a phone and a spreadsheet. We widen the lens with cross-selling—asking about 401(k)s, CDs, and brokerage accounts to spot safe-growth annuity fits—so clients stick and value grows. Plus, a practical tour of Integrity Connect: multi-carrier quotes across term, final expense, and IUL, a free CRM with call and text, AI call notes for smarter follow-ups, and a limited-time $1,000 bonus after 10 applications.

If you’re weighing the leap, this conversation gives you the checklist: replace your income first, hardwire daily accountability, invest in higher-intent leads, move buyers in one call when you can, and protect persistency with proactive care.

Andrew Taylor, founder of Family First Life USA (FFL USA), is known for helping insurance agents grow and scale successful businesses within the life insurance industry. Having achieved a 7-figure exit himself, Andrew now focuses on helping agents do the same. FFL USA provides agents with proven sales systems, lead generation strategies, training, and support designed to increase production, build agencies, and position agents for long-term scalability and eventual business exit opportunities.

*****DISCLAIMER****** 

Results mentioned in this content are not typical and are not a guarantee of future performance. Individual results will vary based on a number of factors, including but not limited to experience, market conditions, product availability, and individual effort. Any examples, case studies, testimonials, or income figures shown are for illustrative purposes only and may not be representative of the experience of other individuals. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability and financial strength of the issuing company. FFL USA does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, everybody. Andrew Taylor here. Today we have Orlando Castellone with us. Thanks for coming in, my man. Thank you for having me. I'm interested in hearing from you because you had a slow start. And one of your things you told me is you you didn't give up. Right. Um, but you had some debt early, a slow start in life insurance. Um, before we get into that, I just want to learn a little bit about you. What did you do before? How did you end up selling life insurance?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Yeah, for sure. Uh I I've always been a salesperson. I started uh selling cars uh right away, like at uh United Nissan, CarMax, just anywhere I can, you know, find a good brand to sell. And um just been doing that pretty much my whole career since I started working. And then um I got into T-Mobile and I was there for about almost 10 years. Damn. 10 years. And um it's funny because I I left a really good thing. Well, obviously, this is it's at that time I thought it was a good thing. Um, I had seniority, I had a good schedule, I had a good pay, everything was health insurance, health insurance. Um pretty much, you know, once you're there for that many years, you kind of could kind of dictate what the schedule is gonna be like and all that. And it was it was surprising to a lot of my coworkers that I just decided just to up and just leave and just quit and just say, I'm gonna just do this full time. Why though? Um, well, the the reason it got me to just quit all the way was because being at work was actually making me lose money. So I just kept getting texts and calls from clients like, hey, are you available today? or hey, can you do this or do that? So I I started noticing just being at work every day was actually making me lose money. So that's kind of when I made the transition a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

And then did you have a family relying on you?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Uh just my wife. My wife, at that time it was just my wife. I've been married for almost 12 years. And um we we have a two-year-old daughter now. So after I left T-Mobile, then the Love it. Yeah, then it also. How do you like being a dad? I I love being a dad. I I I always would not make fun of people, but I just didn't see it, you know. How everybody else, you know, put their kid like on a pedestal, like this is everything to me. I I was just like, it's just you know, I just I just couldn't see it. But now that I have my own kid, my own daughter, it's it's just crazy. You you have to you have to live it to be able to really see it.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

So yeah, I always tell people having kids was the best thing ever. I wish I would have had kids earlier. Oh, yeah, because it's so fun and fulfilling.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Uh my daughter last night, she I made the mistake of having Stan Smith podcast playing in the car, and he dropped the F-bomb. Oh. And my daughter dropped the F-bomb last night for the first time. Drew, I just sent you the video. Can you pull this thing up? Because it is so hilarious. Oh man, I probably shouldn't be laughing. Yeah. But let me know if you can pull it up, Drew. Thank you, Stan Smith. Yeah. Okay. All right. While Drew's pulling that up, um how many years ago was this that you quit? Uh, I left T-Mobile October 2021. Okay. So let's talk about the struggles of part-time versus go going part-time. Because I think there's a lot of value there for someone who's really hungry and they want to eliminate risk. And they're like, dude, I got a good thing going, but I don't want to just up and quit my job.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

So, how would you structure a part-time schedule for somebody?

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Uh anytime you can get in the hours. I mean, uh obviously it's hard to move your schedule around, especially if you're a full-time you know employee. So you have to find

Leaving A Safe Job For Commission

SPEAKER_02 3:55

the especially your days off. Your days off have to be working all day. If you're off Saturday, Sunday, those are the days that you have. If you're off at 5 p.m., there's there's Hawaii, there's other states that you can call right after. So there's you just have to find a way to uh my my thing is once you replace your income from your job, that's when you should really think about making the transition or at least a couple months.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yeah, I always tell people now the the transition though from part-time to full-time usually hurts people because they don't fill the hours with income-producing activities. Did you do that at all? Uh a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

It was a little hard to transition your mind from the employee mindset to the to the entrepreneur mindset. Um, you don't have somebody looking over you, looking over your shoulder, telling you, hey, you're late, or clock, you know, stuff like that. So it isn't it it was a little bit hard to And how'd you overcome that? Um I I I heard a quote from Sean Mike. He um he said he said uh uh fire yourself and rehire yourself again. And I really took that serious because he said, would you would you hire yourself right now? Think about it. What you've been doing, how you work, how you wake up, and how you do everything, would you hire yourself right now? And I and I and I talked to myself and I was like, you know what, I I wouldn't. I I wouldn't hire myself. I wasn't doing the things that I that are supposed to be done. And ever since then, he said, you know, fire yourself and rehire yourself again. And that's kind of what I did. Just, you know, rehired myself.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

And then how much would you pay yourself? That's what I would always do. I'd be like, okay, if if I worked for me, would I pay myself six figures? Would I pay myself 50k? Would I pay myself a million? Right. And when you start answering the question of I would pay myself a million, you're probably operating at a level where you're gonna make a million dollars a year. Right. Or would I not pay myself at all? So you did that, you fired yourself, you rehired yourself. What were some things you did to when when you rehired yourself?

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Uh just uh the belief level had to go way up. Uh, because um I I I see it as like you either have hard work and you have belief. You can't do either or like just one of them. You have to have belief and hard work. Because I had I I've I've known people that have all the belief in the world, but they're not putting in the work, and that just doesn't work. So um just the belief level and pushing through the the bad weeks. Averages always average out. That's that's something.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Yeah, all right, Drew, you got this video? Tell me, dude. I I couldn't help but laugh because it was so funny.

Part-Time Structure And The Jump

SPEAKER_00 6:40

But this is my daughter AC, and this was after I accidentally played. Say what? What?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

I bought a word on the foot.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Don't say that. Oh my god. All right, baby girl, don't say that word. That's a bad word. Dude, Stan Smith is in big trouble. But, anyways, um back to the kid thing. Yeah, it's amazing. It is, and I did that keep you going? Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

That's actually when my income changed. So the the first few years of the business, I've been kind of up and down, not really pushing 60-70K. It was enough to pay my bills, to live comfortable. It's just me and my wife. So she had her, she she's a business owner, so she she's a hairstylist herself. So um, it was it was enough for me and her to just be okay. Buy what we wanted. We traveled, we went to Greece, Jamaica, whatever we could. And then as soon as she came in, um I don't know, it's just it just like it lit something up in me that I had to do more. I had to do more. And and it wasn't like uh just from one day to another that it happened. It took me a little bit just watching the struggle of of everything that we went through with her, and she was in the NICU for a while, she was born early, all that, all that stuff. And um, and just to see how much she grew and how fast she did it, we were I was just so thankful, you know, for for everything that went that went on. So that's when I really decided, like, okay, I I have to do this. And then my wife ended up going down to like two days a week, maybe one day a week working just to be with our daughter. So that kind of just kind of you know lit a fire in me that I had to make this work no matter what.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

I love it. Now, one cool thing once you get established in this industry is you can control your schedule. Have you been able to spend more time with your family or less time? Are you working 24-7?

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Uh the plan is to work 24-7. Uh, but I am I'm not missing any appointments, like a doctor appointments or just anything to do with her. I'm able to, you know, squeeze it in. I'm able to squeeze it in and then just get back to it right away. But with a job, obviously it's not the same. You can't just get up and leave and do what you got to do and come back without permission or this and that, without messing with your hours. And so it's a big difference for sure.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

We love it.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

100%.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

All right. So once you got started, tell tell us about your first year. Was it profitable, not profitable? What what happened?

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Definitely profitable enough, you know, to to to live off of and and and and make it, I guess, in other words. Um it just it was a struggle, obviously, going from part-time to full-time, but I started in March 2021 and I left in October. So I had a I had a several months that I've been able to to to do this and to really get the belief level up there to make a decision to leave. So it's not like I just just quit and just started doing it. I I I I I was doing both for a little bit until I I said, you know what, that's that's it. Enough, enough is enough. I'm out. And how much were you buying in leads and what type of leads? Um, I back then it was all in-home. We weren't doing telesales yet. So I was dialing just like back then they were called like the bronze and the silvers leads. So I was able to get a you know, a good grip of those and just hammer those for appointments. So I would just on Mondays I would just dial all day for appointments, and then Tuesday and Wednesdays I would go in person and you know and and do my thing. So I I feel like it really helped to have that because nowadays everyone's starting just telesales and inbound calls and all that stuff. But I feel like having to go into people's homes in the beginning helped you, helped me get transition to telesales and all that stuff later.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Yeah, it's funny. Some of the hardest things

Firing Yourself To Rehire Yourself

SPEAKER_00 10:45

that happen prepare you for when things get better. And we we only went in the home when I started 2008. You're only going in the home, 30 appointments a week. And I started when the mortgage crisis happened. So it wasn't the greatest time to go ask people for money, right? So we would have to increase our activity, go see more people, and then when everything got better, I was prepared to capitalize on it from like going through that time. And then once and then when you go to you could sell over the phone, it makes it even easier. But what people don't know is how awesome it is now, and that's why door-to-door guys come in and they love this industry because they go, bro, I was knock, I was cold knocking doors. Yeah, now I get to call people who asked for information. Yeah, and I don't have to knock a hundred doors a day, right? Right, it's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

I I did a little bit of uh of door knocking myself just when you couldn't get it a hold of somebody and you know, just show up at the door and I still think that's good.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

If they don't answer their phone and you get leads in your area, dude. I still don't know why in Integrity Lead Center everybody doesn't put their own zip code because you can order leads by zip code, their own zip code to receive whatever leads come in, because if if they don't answer the phone, you can go knock on their door.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Like literally, you could come home, you could pick up food for your wife on your way home, knock on a door, knock on the door, tell them, Hey, we couldn't get a hold of you. We want to make sure you get the information and book the appointment to close them.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Right. Yeah, it's harder for them to say no in person. I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah. And it's good for you. Like I it it's pretty, I don't know, it's hard, which which always feels really rewarding. Like going that extra mile. Now, I was not getting good results early on, so my success was basically determined on my activity. Like when I went to bed at night, I'd go, I hit all these activity goals. I wouldn't go, I wrote this much premium. Did you do anything like that? Um, similar.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

I'll go off of the premium. Just uh that that was that was kind of what I was focusing on, I would say, the most. Just like the premium that I was writing.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Love it. All right, so this year you're at 140k so far, so you're tracking Hall of Fame. Uh this year? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

2024. You mean 2026? Yeah. I'm not no, and I'm not close to that right now.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Oh, you're not close to that. Okay, I'm misreading this. 30k a month submit around that? Yes. Okay. 30k a month submit. How much are you spending in leads? Uh I minimum a thousand minimum.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Per week. Per week. Yeah. What type of leads? Ethos. Ethos, uh, it's my, I would say ethos is the base and then um IUL and final expense. But you like ethos leads. I do, yes. Why? I truly believe that ethos is the highest intent lead out there. Even though they're not physically requesting a call um themselves, but it I see it as the highest intent because they went themselves online and filled out an application and just didn't go through with it because of price or whatever it was. A lot of the people that I've been getting would say, I wanted an IUL, but they only offered a term. Just, you know, as simple as that. So um I it's just uh it's a real buyer, you know. The to go online on your own, put in your social date of birth and answer all these medical questions, it's really high intense.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

And they're advertising everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Every they're the best information.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Where do you see them at?

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Facebook, Instagram, uh, Google, Sirius Radio, Sirius, uh XM, Pandora, anywhere, really. They're they're they're they're really good at marketing, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Uh Monday night football commercials. So it does kind of help when people just heard heard it or saw it somewhere. Yeah. And then you call them, right? Yeah, I would say it does help. Uh, what's your script on that?

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Uh I like to just go straight into it. I just um I just tell them like, hey, Mr. I'll be like, hey, Andrew, um, I I got an application here that you didn't get to complete online. Um, and I I kind of just I I go straight into it like, like, what was it? Was it the price? Like, what what got you to do? What if they say I don't know who ethos is? Oh, I I tell I just kind of tell them like, hey, ethos is that little green confusing website that you were on for life insurance quotes. Do you remember that? No, I don't remember that. Yeah,

Fatherhood, Motivation, And Schedule Control

SPEAKER_02 15:30

it's just ethos. You were just looking at uh just a life insurance quote. Did you get that taken care of? Like I just I just pushed through, even if they're like, Oh, I don't remember that that's okay. I don't I don't remember what I had this morning for breakfast, but it's that that website that you that you that little green confusing one. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that one. Yeah, that one uh um was it like too expensive? What was the reason that you kind of just decided not to go through with it? And then that should start a conversation with with why they stopped it, what they're really looking at. And then I just tell them straight up, like, hey, um, were you still looking for the same thing? Were you open to suggestions? If they tell me exactly what they're looking for already, I just go with that. I don't like to confuse them and say, well, this could work out better. If they don't ask for my suggestion or my or that, I don't, I don't push it through. I just go with what they want. Because at the end of the day, they're gonna go and get what they want from someone. So instead of putting all this extra stuff in their head, I just go with, are you looking for term? Okay, let's focus on term. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

All right, one call close versus booking appointments. One call close. How do you do it?

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Um just like uh uh same thing, just push through the push through any negatives, push through any smoke screens. I've actually sold a lot of people that will tell me, hey, I'm I'm cooking right now, I just got home from work. It's okay here, Miss Susan. Just go ahead and put me on speakerphone. If we need to do anything else, we can reschedule an appointment later. Um, but just put me on speaker speakerphone real quick. I'm just gonna go over the options with you. And then they just the thing that I've that I've really noticed is when someone is serious about coverage, it doesn't matter what they're doing, they're gonna stop. They're gonna either st pull over to the side, they're going to stop what they're doing, they're they're gonna listen to you. They are the ones that don't are either just not really serious, you can book an appointment and see how it goes there. But um, if you say it the right way and you just kind of take control, like, hey, I get it, you're you're you're you're eating right now, you're in the dinner table, just put me on speaker real quick. I just need your ears. Um just gonna go over this information with you real quick. Uh if we need to do anything else, we'll schedule an appointment later.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

How do you stay positive when there's so much rejection every day?

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Just the the reps, repetition, and believing the the belief level has to be high. Um, Sean Mike says um averages always average out, and that's a hundred percent true because you can be having a bad week, but if you just keep pushing, that next week will make up for the first week and you know, etc. etc. It goes from there. So you can have a bad week or two, but you're not gonna have a bad month. If somebody that doesn't have any talent at all can just sit and just dial and just fall right into a real buyer, just like that, just by just doing the reps and going over and over and over again. Eventually you kind of desensitize yourself from thinking like, oh, this guy's gonna hang up on me, this guy doesn't want to listen to me or whatever it is. It's just reps, just pushing through.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Love it. All right. How because you put on here bond beyond work, you're fo you're focusing on health and fitness. How has that helped you?

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Uh, I mean, I could do better, but uh just eating the right things, what you put in your body is is really important. It's easy to go buy some fast food, it's easy to buy something quick and do this and that. But what what makes it hard is is picking the right things. And that can translate well into business. You you know, you in other words, it's funny, but you are what you eat. So if you're eating like junk and eating bad, you kind of are chunk and you're bad. Not necessarily, you know, not necessarily 100%, but um I I I do believe that, you know, it's what you put in your body, it's what's gonna come up.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Do you feel more sharp if you get your exercise in in the morning?

SPEAKER_02 19:19

You yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Dude, I do. I have a much better day if I get up early, exercise, read. Uh if I start my day like that, it's a much more efficient day. Is it but is it easier on the phones? 100%. You notice that?

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Yeah, the the rebuttals, you're just quicker on your feet. You can answer things and and and rebuttals you know instantly versus when you when you're not when you're groggy or when you're not ready to go. Like you'll somebody will say, Oh, I'm not, I'm not interested, or let me think about it. And you're just uh you know, you just it's like it the words don't come out as fast as if you're sharp and you're ready to go. You know, that's that's the number one for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

All right, what is after you show people options, what is your clothes?

SPEAKER_02 20:07

My clothes, uh I mean, at that point, with all the rapport building and finding the right fit, um, I never ever ask for the sale. I've never done it before. I don't say, okay, let's do you want to do this? I just go right into it um until they stop me. So once I find the right price and everything, I'll just okay, well, let's fill out an application real quick and see if you can even get this. Um, and then just go in it. What's your what's your first and last name? Is there a middle name? And just go right into it. So I never asked for the sale until they I just let them stop me. Oh, what oh no, never mind, I don't want to do this. Like, oh, I thought we thought that's what we were doing. You know, we we found the right price and we found the right coverage for you. You said in the beginning of the call that you needed A, B, and C. So you know, what what is is it what is it now? Like, is it the price? Just kind of confront them a little bit, but in a respectful way. Yeah. Just so it doesn't cause any uh any negatives for sure. Just go

First Year Lessons And In‑Home Roots

SPEAKER_02 21:05

just go with it.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

What do you do to keep persistency?

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Uh I well, I I always every time after a sale, I always text them every single time, and I say, Hey, thank you for your trust, thank you for your business, this is your policy number, the effective date, this is the amount that you went with, this is the product that you went with, and then save their number on there. And then tell them, like, just please save my number and make sure that anything that you need, just please reach out to me. So I make them save my number, and then um I I try to get them as much uh to to take a selfie and send it to me. Uh just so I can save it as their contact, and then I'll send them to the case. Oh, you ask them that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Do they ever be like, no way?

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Maybe once or twice. But most of the time, if if you already have a good relationship with them, that's they'll do it. They'll do a selfie with you. Um, they'll send it to you, or if you're on a call, video call, then you just screenshot that real quick. And then I and then I think. Tell them just save my business card with my face on it under my contact name so you always know exactly who I am. And then I tell them if anybody calls you with a better price, just know that they're giving you the best price up front. They're never gonna give you a price based on your health and your age or based on your health right away. They're gonna try to reel you in with the best. So everything's gonna sound or remove benefits. Or remove benefits. Um I always tell them it's never gonna sound uh it's always gonna sound great, always, because they want to reel you in. But once you apply and you answer all the questions, it's always gonna change. So if you have any doubts, just please call me. I can go over it with you and and always be straight up and and honest. Do you use crankwheel? Not not as much. I I know how and I've used it before, but I don't use it. FaceTime? I do FaceTime, yeah. So that way they feel more comfortable because you're on FaceTime with them. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they don't answer um like a couple times. I'll sometimes I'll FaceTime if they have an iPhone. And do they answer? They do. They answer a lot more than a regular call, which is weird.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Are they like, what the heck?

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Yeah, yeah, they're they're just so curious. I feel like people just get so curious about who's FaceTiming. Who's FaceTiming me? Who's calling me?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Do they ever get mad?

SPEAKER_02 23:10

No, no, no, not at all. I haven't I haven't had one person yeah, they they're just so curious, they're more interested in who's calling them and they listen. And once they see your face, it's harder for them to be rude or kind of just throw you to the side. They'll they'll listen, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

All right, rapport building. How do you make sure that you don't have somebody um where you become best friends with them and they don't want to buy from you? Because I think rapport building can go bad. It it can.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

I've had some situations where it got way too comfortable and it's easy for them to say no. Um I would say just focus on the rapport building for a certain amount of minutes versus most of the call. Uh I do have a timer that I that I try to use. Um I'll press like you know, timer start and then I'll and then I'll move on from there as long as like two, three minutes of report building and then and then get straight into the call. Because it can easily turn into a 30-40 minute call of just talking about each other's lives, which is not you know it's not beneficial, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. All right. Do you do annuities at all? No. Okay. I want to bring this up because we run into a lot of people that could be a uh prospect for an annuity. And FFL is partnering with Quantum, which is a company that integrity acquired. And the powerful thing about it is there's overrides from every level. So that previously annuities would use usually only have five levels of overrides. Okay. So everybody in the downline couldn't get paid. This transition is allowing everybody to get paid on annuities. And also, it's a really good product. One, it can help the agent be profitable. And two, there's a lot of people who don't want to risk losing a percentage of their money in the market, and they're looking for a safer alternative. Um, but I one thing that helped me, and I just want to bring this up, is I would always ask, um, do you have any, do you have any stocks, bonds, CDs, 401ks, anything like that? And anything that can act like life insurance? And they'll say, Yeah, I have these three things. And then I would say, Okay, I'm gonna run some illustrations on a program where you can participate in the upside of the market with no downside. That way you don't lose it. How much of this money can you afford to lose? Or are you willing to lose? And if they say, you know, not much, I don't want to lose a lot, they could be a potential prospect, which then I would book another appointment with them and show them an illustration. But very easy, and also the more business that we help somebody with, the the stickier the business is. Yeah. So if you can do children's policies, referrals, uh, annuities, anything additional, then you become that person's agent for life, usually. Um, but I like that. All right. Managing

Telesales Advantages And Door Knocking

SPEAKER_00 26:30

money early on. When you started getting in big commission checks, did you blow your money? Did you do anything crazy, which is usually common for new agents?

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Yeah. I I did. Um, we like I said, we started taking trips. Um, it was just me and my wife at the moment, so it was easy for me to just kind of do whatever I want. You know, she had her income, I had my income. It was just easy to just, oh, I got paid. Let's let's go do this, let's go do that. Well, we need this, we need that. It's easier to find it.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

And did you get stuck with chargebacks and no money doing that? Yes. You did? So, what advice would you give to a new agent?

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Uh, take a certain percentage of every deposit that goes in and put it back in. 100%. So if you get a thousand dollar deposit, put you know, a few hundred back in, I would say maybe thirty percent or something, something like that. Back into it, just so you can always have leads. Because it's easy to to have a really good week and then come in the next week and try to dial the same leads again, you know, for the ones that they didn't pick up, supposedly. But um, that never really works.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Probably the most common issue, right? Yeah. What about saving some? That way you're not freaking out if you get a charge back.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Uh yeah. It's uh like a percentage. So just it's just taking every deposit and then putting a small percentage of of it in different in different areas. Number one for me though is always leads, 100%. Because if the leads are there, you're always going to be able to make more and more.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Was it hard to spend that much money on leads? Yeah, 100%. How'd you do it?

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Uh well, I started with like some um my upline at the time, uh, was giving me just some some aged leads at that time, and I just started noticing how how kind of not that they're bad, but aged leads, you have to do a lot more work to get them. So as soon as I started getting a little bit of money come in, I started investing a little bit more into more quality leads. Just so it because we you start noticing, especially after doing a few sales, you're gonna want better leads. You're gonna wanna get more for less time. Um if you get stuck just doing the the aged or the free leads all the time, it it it's never it's just never gonna get to the next level. And that's kind of where I was stuck because I just I was okay with just making a certain amount of income and and I was, you know, I thought I was okay. And eventually over time, I started noticing like, wait, I I need to the only way to scale it up is to get you know more leads, more quality leads, or just to invest a lot more into the business for sure.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Love it. All right, what type of person are you looking to work with?

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Uh somebody s somebody like me that when when the opportunity was provided to me, I jumped on it quick. I got my test done in less than a week. I studied for like four or five days, I took my test on the sixth day. I that's the kind of person that I'm looking for. That's doesn't ask too many questions, they just do it. You know, uh I when I got presented the opportunity, I I jumped on it so fast that um I was kind of surprised on myself because I just saw it, I saw the vision. So I'm just looking for people that have that belief in them that they can make it they can make it happen no matter what. That they're okay with quitting their job and going all in if they have to, or if they see the vision, they see it. And that's kind of it's kind of everyone has that nine to five mindset right now. And they're expecting to check every week, every two weeks. So transitioning to this is not easy. But when you have that belief or when you're already that person, you know, it's it's you just need a few little things to go right, and then you should be able to go all in.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Um I would say now you're in Las Vegas, so you're in the office every day. Yeah. Working, yes, sir, training people. If someone is here and they wanted to come in, uh could they reach out to you? Of course. And how could they reach you?

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Uh they could either reach me through Instagram. So just my first name underscore last name um or just my phone number. They can just send me a quick text, seven you know, seven zero two-279-8640. Yeah, go over here.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

And we'll put your Instagram in the description.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

So hit them up if you're especially if you're in Vegas, because you'll you're here every day and you'll actually help them um like all day long. They need help. Help them close, help them get leads, train them.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Um there's a blueprint now that all you gotta do is just copy and paste what we're already doing, what I'm already doing, and you should be successful. You don't gotta find different lead vendors and see what works, what doesn't work, what CRM

Scripts, One‑Call Close, And Objections

SPEAKER_02 31:20

works. You don't gotta do none of that extra stuff.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Did you try to recreate everything like most people do?

SPEAKER_02 31:26

I I try, I feel like I tried every CRM, almost every lead vendor from back then. Uh I I try, I I feel like I tried it all.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

And what'd you find?

SPEAKER_02 31:35

That it doesn't matter how many CRMs you tried, how many lead vendors you do, you have to put in the work at the end of the day. I feel like a lot of people want to make it easy for themselves, especially in the beginning. And it just doesn't work like that. You have to put in the grind of just picking up your phone and just dial. I feel like a lot of people spent time trying to find the perfect CRM and the perfect lead vendor and the perfect script.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Dude, so Montserrat Vargas came in, she did 80,000, she's like 22.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

80,000 in a month, and she had her cell phone and an Excel spreadsheet she was calling on. And everyone was like, You don't have this magical CRM. Um, but a lot of people, this is just a fair warning. They come in, they try to reinvent everything, and they waste a lot of money. How much money do you think you wasted testing all these things out?

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Uh, I would say in in the thousands. I tried like the expensive CRMs, I tried the cheap CRMs, uh different campaigns, you know. I I I tried a good uh a good amount of those things.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Awesome. All right, so we're gonna wrap this up. Thank you for coming in. Um, I do want to just make this quick announcement. Uh, integrity's quoting tool. It's called Integrity Connect. Everybody has access to it that is contracted with any integrity company. And what it does is it quotes every carrier for you and it takes the uh prescriptions, the um age, weight, everything, and it shows it, it'll run quotes for you for final expense, simplified issue IUL, fully underwritten IUL, and term, and you can choose and it'll run every carrier for you to help your your customer get the right product. Yeah. This also helps with persistency, especially when you can show people. Like if you if you want to show them your screen and go, look, I checked everybody. That way, if they get another call, then they don't think, oh, there's something better. Someone has something better. Because the truth is, dude, we have most of the carriers and the the competitive ones, Trans America, Mutual of Omaha, big, big uh names.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

So we can truly place the person in the right product, right? But right now, integrity. Now, this is completely free, along with their um CRM is completely free. You can text, you can call completely free. It does uh AI note-taking on the calls that you let the customer know you're recording. So it'll take notes for you. So it'll remind you when you talk to them again, um, their dog's name, the product you gave them, the prescriptions they were on, their doctor's information, and it stores it all there. It's really cool. But right now, if you do 10 applications through there, you get a thousand dollar bonus. And I just want people to know because they did this before and people didn't know about it, and they're like, hey, I I didn't get, I didn't know. I didn't get my thousand dollars. So go check it out. Um, Orlando, thanks for doing what you're doing. I'm excited to see you grow, build a team. You're in here every day working hard. Um I'm excited. What I like the most is that you didn't just have success right away. Like you did a little bit, but then you messed it up because you went to you went on a Euro trip, spent all the money, got a bunch of chargebacks, came back, struggled, worked your way out of it, and then learned the things you had to continue to do.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Um, so I'm excited to see you grow, my man. Thanks for sharing.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Thank you for joining us and hit Orlando up if you have any questions.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Yep. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Appreciate it. You got it, man.