FFL USA

From Depression and Debt to a Life-Changing Comeback (Ep. 270)

• FFL USA • Episode 270

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0:00 | 55:18

Greg Wood went from a comfortable sales career to a season where credit cards were maxed out, sleep was scarce, and he was delivering groceries just to keep food on the table. That’s why his results hit harder now: he’s writing six-figure premium months and building a life insurance career that actually feels stable. We talk through the pivot from traditional sales to the insurance business model and why residual income changes the way you think about time, effort, and freedom.

We also get honest about the part nobody can automate. People don’t “shop” for life insurance the way they shop for a TV. It’s emotional, personal, and tied to family, grief, and responsibility. Greg explains why life insurance is sold not bought, why AI can’t replace real empathy, and how a human conversation becomes the difference between a quote and a protected household.

Then we break down the practical playbook for new or struggling agents: how to stay coachable, how to stop comparing yourself to leaderboards, and how to manage your highs and lows like an athlete. Greg shares how he financed lead generation while broke by doing a temporary 50-50 split with his upline, building a cash buffer, and treating the grind like a marathon. His “chip and a chair” mindset is the reminder that if you’re still here, you still have a move.

If you got value from this, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review so more agents can find the mindset and sales strategy that actually works.


*****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.

SPEAKER_00

What's up, everybody? Andrew Taylor here. Today we have an agent that did$102,000 of premium in March. I'd like to welcome Greg Wood. Thank you for coming in.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00

And then we also have the legend of the insurance industry. Should be a statue of Trey Honeycoat. Oh my gosh. Because he's the man. You always do that. What about the treasure of you? Trey is a genius. First of all, IQ through the freaking roof, but not as high as his kid. That's right. Who beat me in chess who when he was like eight years old. But that's not saying much because Stan Smith beat me in chess and he don't even know how to move the pieces. So I don't know. It started off as a compliment. It did. My game is questionable for sure.

SPEAKER_02

I think Stan's a genius because he made you think that he didn't know how to play chess.

SPEAKER_00

He's really good at it. And it was for a thousand bucks. And someone else bet on me. I didn't even bet the thousand bucks. Someone else bet they guaranteed they were I was gonna win. They were gonna bet 10,000. Oh wow. And I lost. But I guarantee you he won't beat me again. Guaranteed. Nice. So all right.

SPEAKER_03

Greg, where are you from? Palmdale, California. Originally from Dayton, Ohio. So uh moved out to California when I was uh about 12 or 13 years old and been out here ever since.

SPEAKER_00

And you're in Palmdale? Yep. And so Afro Man is from Palmdale. You know who that is?

SPEAKER_03

Uh he just won his case, if I'm not mistaken, and just had a concert with two shorts. So yeah, I've heard of him.

SPEAKER_00

And he's got that song, Palmdale. Yeah, yeah. It's a good song. Did you know that, Trey?

SPEAKER_03

No, I had no idea. Yeah. What was his case?

SPEAKER_00

What do you do?

SPEAKER_03

Uh I think it was a um they they invaded his home. He made a video about it and had the cops on the video uh the the the uh video footage and he made a a music video out of it and he got sued for defamation and and uh you know wrongful accusations and things of that nature. So literally just won that case about maybe two to four weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00

Did he get paid?

SPEAKER_03

I don't know if he got paid, but he got he got uh you know he got cleared of it. So, you know, I'm sure that that beats the money, but not sure. The the officers were suing him. Oh yeah, and I think it was I think it was ironically enough in Ohio. I it was not here in California, I think it was in a different state.

SPEAKER_00

So I used to sell insurance when we when we would go to houses in Palmdale. Yeah. Palmdale's got some scary neighborhoods. It still does. Yeah, yeah, it still does. But awesome area, and I'd go to Little Rock. Yeah, I loved Little Rock, yeah, and Lancaster. Yeah, and if you got a good lead, you pop over to Valencia where uh Magic Mountain is. Yeah, yep. Get into some of those real nice houses. Yeah, and usually they would have every nice car, the nice house, and they would buy less insurance or no insurance than the person that had like the middle income, lower middle income class people. It's like, did you ever notice that Trey?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, 100%. Those are my favorite neighborhoods.

Greg’s Path Into Insurance

SPEAKER_00

But then sometimes you get someone that'd be like, I'll pay$1,200,$1,500,$2,000 a month. Yeah, right. All right, Greg, what's your background? How'd you find life insurance?

SPEAKER_03

Uh, I've been in sales for for most of my life. Um, my last uh career, I was uh used to be a sales manager at a radio station out in the Antelope Valley, Palmdell, and uh did that for about 12 years. And uh my youngest son uh was playing, you know, played baseball. And uh, you know, he's getting a lot of different offers from all car all across the country. So we said, you know, wherever he goes as a family, we're gonna have to be there, at least my wife and I, to be a support system. And um, so I was looking for something that I could do remotely that wouldn't require me to quit a job, you know, have to look for a new job at a new location. And so uh that's that's ultimately how I got into it. We ended up staying out here. He ended up going to Riverside Community College, played there for a year, and then played at uh VVC, Victor Valley College. Bro, that's where I grew up. That's why I'm bringing it up. They got the new baseball field there, so he played there, and uh right now he's going to school uh to be a firefighter.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I went to VVC. Yeah, so did I.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I started going when I was like 16. Nice. And then I dropped out to sell life insurance when I was 18. And I was gonna go back, and I promised a few people I'd go back, but I didn't.

SPEAKER_03

I think you made a good choice.

SPEAKER_00

I think I might I think I might go back to keep my promise. Yeah, yeah. You gotta keep your word. Yeah. What should I what should I do, Trey? What kind of degree should I get? Psychology. I wanted to do that. I don't want to anymore. Yeah, that was my thing early on, and I have no interest now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Well, you've learned enough about human psychology to be easy to pass. Yeah. That's what I was doing. You've already got a PhD, so you might as well challenge yourself.

SPEAKER_00

Someone was like, dude, how do you uh like know what you're doing at this level? And I was like, I don't. I'm just figuring it out every day. Yeah, yep, yeah. Yeah. All right. So how long have you been selling life insurance? For about three years now. Okay. And and how much money were you making before that?

SPEAKER_03

You know, before I got in life insurance, I was making decent money, you know, all things considered. Uh about a couple hundred grand a year.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

You know, so that that was pretty good. But in what I was doing, you know, I'm constantly chasing, you know, always chasing. You're only as good as your last deal. So what really um interests me about life insurance is the residual, you know, uh, overrides, all the things that you can get paid on without having to make another sale. You're still getting paid off of that initial sale. Um, so you know, but making pretty decent money, making better money now, obviously. Uh, and glad I love the industry. So definitely glad I made the choice.

SPEAKER_00

Um, how hard was it to make that move later in life?

SPEAKER_03

You know, it was uh it was easy because I was a business owner before. So I've you know, I I owned my own business for about 12 years before I started doing life insurance. So I had already bet on myself. Um, you know, I've been very blessed. My wife's been a stay-at-home mom for a little over 30 years, and so uh the whole family's always depended on me. And so, you know, I figured either you're gonna work somebody for somebody that took a risk or you're gonna take a risk. And, you know, so it wasn't that difficult. Uh obviously the ramp up time financially was, you know, it it'll break you unless you have enough stored away to pay your bills and things of that nature for you know a good six months or so, it it's extremely challenging because you're still learning a business. You're learning, you know, what to do, what not to do, you know, how did I screw this sale up? Uh, what could I have done better? So it wasn't that difficult, but um definitely a learning curve for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Awesome. What attracted you to this business opposed to the other one? Was it like too much overhead? What was it?

SPEAKER_03

No, I I think uh, like I said, being able to get the residual income off of it, uh, knowing that, you know, as Sean Mike often says, this is a need business. It's not a want business. We're gonna die. Death and taxes, the only two things in life that are guaranteed. So, you know, if I can sell something that people need, it's just me being able to convey that, you know, hey, this is something that you know you need, whether you need whether you think you need it or not, your family's depending on you. Um, so it's good to have something in place.

Sold Not Bought And AI

SPEAKER_00

So Okay, so uh Michael Merriman, the owner of Americo Financial, one time he said uh the few minutes I got to talk to him, he said life insurance is sold, not bought. And someone was telling me they think AI is gonna take over selling life insurance, and I'm like, I don't think so, dude, because it's sold, not bought. But with that being said, does that make sense to you?

SPEAKER_03

As far as being sold, not bought? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I believe firmly that people love to buy, they hate to be sold. So, you know, I think that a lot of mistakes that people make when they get into the industry is they look at it as a transaction.

SPEAKER_00

But they need someone to push uh to correct.

SPEAKER_03

Correct. Right. You gotta have that personal connection, you've gotta, you've gotta connect with the individual. You they know a lot of my sales come from people knowing that they need it, they just almost need a co-signer to say, you're doing the right thing. You know, I don't care at what age, you're doing the right thing. This is you're you're looking to protect your family. So AI is not gonna replace that human connection, it's not gonna be able to relate to a person over the phone that says, you know what, my mom or dad passed away. We know what it feels like. AI can't tell you that. Only a human being can do that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So the first time I met Greg, Andrew, he lives in Palmdale, which I live in Victoria's 45 minutes away. His kid goes to BBC, but we went to a lock-in in Louisville and it was uh four degrees outside. And it's me, that's where I met Greg. He came to the lock in and he lives 45 minutes away. Um but man, you killed it. How you remember how much you wrote at that one? About I think 14 to 16,000 over the two days. And uh the thing that stuck out to me about him was we have all these trainings about the script and mechanical and transactional, and literally like Greg just he's just himself with these people, he's very comfortable. And um we'll we'll get into more of that. But I just think it's funny that we had to go all the way across the country to meet each other. Exactly. You know, when we're in each other's backyard.

Marriage Tips And Personal Balance

SPEAKER_00

That's awesome. And then, Greg, how many kids do you have?

SPEAKER_03

Four kids, three boys and a girl.

SPEAKER_00

Are you married?

SPEAKER_03

Yep. Same mom? Same mom. How many how long have you been married? We've been married for a little over 36 years. Congrats, dude. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Any grandkids?

SPEAKER_03

Not yet. Not yet. Um, the fortunately, my kids know well enough to where they know if they want to be a parent or not. And you know, they're not just gonna bring them into the world just for the heck of it. So uh, you know, my daughter is the oldest, you know, if she wants to have kids, she's like, I'll I'll determine when that's gonna be. Uh two of my boys are, they said, I don't know if we want to have kids. And and my my oldest son, he said, I, you know, we'll probably have, you know, we'll see what life deals them, but we're not, you know, we're we're still enjoying them. We are I've been very, very blessed. You know, my kids, uh, you know, I always tell my wife, the one way we can determine whether we've done our job is that our kids love each other. So no matter what, no matter what else life gives us, they love hanging out with each other. Uh, they enjoy each other's company. Um, they get excited when one of one of their siblings is coming over. And so we know we did a hell of a job just by the way that our kids love to be around each other and around us. We still do things together. So um, you know, if they want want to have kids, we'll we'll welcome them.

SPEAKER_00

For anybody thinking about having kids, I wasn't sure if I wanted kids, and it was the best thing ever that ever happened. So I would encourage them, they should do it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. It I we we encourage them as well, but obviously they it has to be in their time when they want it, you know, they want it to be right for them.

SPEAKER_00

So our kids were kind of like one night of drinking red wine. Alice was born, it wasn't planned, right? Yeah, and then AC was like at the river drinking uh white claws all day, which explains their personalities. But that's hilarious, neither one were planned, but dude, I tell I just got off the phone with my friend. He gets all these girls, he's got girl after girl, pretty girl on dates every night, every multiple girls a day. I'm like, dude, I'm telling you, bro, if you have some kids, you will be more fulfilled. Yeah, and he's like, You're out of your mind.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

On the phone right now. We were debating this, yeah, like right before this podcast.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you don't know until you know.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you don't know until you know.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but I could be wrong. Other people could be different.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know? Yeah. Well, congratulations on being married so long and having an awesome family. Thank you. Uh, that's not easy to do because a lot of people cannot accomplish that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Do you have any tips on staying married? You gotta have balance.

SPEAKER_03

You know, uh everything is sort of like a trinity, right? So you gotta have your own personal time to where if you like to go out and do things like I like to play poker, so I'm a you know, poker guy. So I'll go out and play poker, you know. My wife lets me do that, you know, play all night long, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Um what kind of stakes?

SPEAKER_03

Uh no limit.

SPEAKER_00

How much do you play?

SPEAKER_03

As far as the the limit, I usually play um usually 300, 300 uh buy-in to no no limit, you know, however many chips you have on the table. So uh I enjoy it for the camaraderie. You know, it's it's it's being around the people. You know, I don't, I don't before I used to, you know, kind of manage, okay, was I a winner tonight? Was was I not a winner tonight? I'm not trying to pay my bills. I'm there to have a good time. I'm there to, you know, BS. I smoke cigars. I don't smoke cigars, I don't drink, I don't smoke, but I do uh I've been told I can talk a lot. So uh and I'm very competitive. So let's just say I if somebody gets beat, they're gonna know about it, and so will the rest of the customers.

SPEAKER_00

Have you ever drank?

SPEAKER_03

No.

SPEAKER_00

You've never drank?

SPEAKER_03

No. Have I have I had a drink before?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I've sipped on something, it just doesn't appeal to me. You know, now if you put some cookies in front of me, you know, we might have a we might have an issue. I got you. We all have our own vices, right?

SPEAKER_00

Everybody has a vice. Yeah. Uh mine is. Part of life is is uh controlling those, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I like that MM song. Uh, not every you you should listen to the lyrics, but since Atlas heard it at our event, he loves it, dude. And if you listen to the words, bro, it's pretty good about vices and all this stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I don't judge people. Oh, I've been smoking, especially with a lot of the folks that I talk to. You know, they've been smoking 30, 40, 50 years. I don't judge. Hey, we we've you know, we all have our own vices. Mine just happens to be sweets, you know. Um, you know, so but yeah, balance, uh, my own personal stuff, what m my wife and I do, and then as a family. So that that is probably the key. And and picking the right person, that helps. Yeah, it is. That helps. That helps. I I I scored big time with my wife. We get along great. We we we love each other, but more importantly, we like each other. You know, love is is unconditional, but to like somebody and still get along and still make each other laugh, you know, for that long a period of time, I'm I'm a blessed man.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm I'm trying to follow in your footsteps. Me too. My my grandparents were married, I think 69 years. Wow.

SPEAKER_02

Jeez.

SPEAKER_00

But listen to this 50 grandkids and great grandkids. Tell me that ain't just wow.

SPEAKER_02

That's a legacy.

SPEAKER_00

That is a legacy, that is awesome, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_00

So I need to have some more kids. Yeah, but Nicole's not down, and I was like, it's not your choice.

SPEAKER_03

And she was like, she she does play somewhat of a part.

Advice For Brand New Agents

SPEAKER_00

And she's like, I'm pretty sure it's my choice. Um all right, so let's get back to insurance. Uh what can someone expect coming in brand new? What advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_03

Um, you know, a lot of people say trust the process. Um, you know, I would say obviously that is the key as well, but you just gotta put the work in. You know, I try to keep things simple, stupid. You know, if you plant apple seeds and you you fertilize it and you water it and you cultivate it, um, bananas are not gonna grow. You're probably gonna get apples. So if you put the work in and if you show up, that's probably 90% of it is just showing up. Um, and you're just there to put the work in and be coachable, um, you're gonna be successful. This business is is uh a very rewarding and uh forgiving business. So for those that think I can't do this or I'm not good enough or I'm not a talkative person, I'm an introvert, you you can find a way to make it work because every personality, you know, my personality personality is not gonna fit for every individual that's on the other end of that line. So everybody is different. Um my wife is a very, very straight shooter. So opposites attract. Um, she's very short, straight to the point. I try to pick up a little bit on that, and she tries to pick up a little bit of how I, you know, how I talk to people. So I would say obviously trust the process, put into work, show up, trust your uh your uplines that are that they have your best interests in mind to see you succeed and be successful. Um, and the rest will follow.

Debt Season And One More Day

SPEAKER_00

All right. So you said you climbed out of a mountain of debt. Yes. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_03

Uh I own my own business. You know, it kind of ran its course. The shelf life had run out. I knew I was gonna transition into life insurance. What was it? Uh I did marketing and advertising. Um, but you know, I was doing traditional advertising, billboard, radio, television, Pandora, things of that nature. And um, you know, it was turning into more of a digital, digital age for marketing. And I dabbled in that, but it wasn't my wheelhouse. So I said, you know, I gotta, I gotta cut bait, I gotta know my strengths. And um, you know, so I started to phase that out and got into life insurance. And obviously, as I'm moving from one to the other, the income is dwindling away from the one because I'm not paying attention to it, because I'm moving out of that business, and then to get into life insurance to where it's difficult, you know, in the first, if you're not with the right team, it's difficult.

SPEAKER_00

Why is it difficult if you're not with the right team?

SPEAKER_03

Well, because you know, they just it's like throwing spaghetti up against the wall. If you make it, you make it.

SPEAKER_00

What is the right team?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I with FFL, I've been with the right team. Ali Khalid has been a godsend. Trey Honeycutt's been awesome. Uh, because they they want to be a part of my success. They're helping me grow, they're helping me um, you know, be there, lead systems, you know, having the the structure in place to be able to have the the elements to become successful. I already knew how to do sales, so it wasn't a whole lot that I needed to be trained on in that regard. But if you if you take Tom Brady and put him in as a wide receiver, he's still a great athlete, but he's in the wrong position. So, you know, I had to be with the right team to help me get to where I needed to be.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's awesome. Now, if someone comes in and they feel like they have the wrong upline, uh and I do believe with as many people that we've hired, you can have a crappy upline. Yeah. Trey, what's the solution for that? Because we do have rules. You can't just move teams, you can't transfer around. Uh, but what would what would your solution be, Trey?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think 80% of the time um in my experience, people need to look at what they can control and what they can change. But if it really came down to a personality conflict or an issue with somebody you work with, just work with the person above that person.

SPEAKER_00

That's what I'm saying. Like, dude, there's so many uh I text Sean, I put, bro, we've never had this many amazing people at one time working together. And I don't think any company in the history of insurance like IMOs has. I don't. It's uh the reason we do this podcast is because there's people out there that say this this doesn't work, this is a scam, hate on us, make up rumors about us because we're doing so well. So obviously, we're gonna say X, Y, Z, NY, it doesn't do well. And early on, this dude taught me, Andy Albright, who runs another company, but he was like, anytime you want to prove a point, this was the word he used, and I remember it. I don't really know, I might butcher it, but he's like, you have to provide a preponderous amount of evidence to prove a point, to where there's so much evidence it cannot be questioned. And basically, what I took from that is like there's you're overdoing it with proof, right? Right. So what we're doing here, and I had to tell these guys to slow down in booking people here because they could book a Hall of Fame producer every two of them a day for the entire year to interview, no doubt, and or like these amazing people. So the reason we're doing this is we're putting out so much evidence that you can watch this and you don't have to question it.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Like Greg is a perfect example, and people different walks of life, different backgrounds, different stories, different habits, they look different, sound different, different problems. Yep, but they and and the and the thing is with Greg, and I think you know, we do a bunch of these, Andrew, but a lot. Of times we'll do the back and forth objection handling and stuff. But when I hear Greg on the phone, um, you know, it's almost like a lot of the things we would call rules, like Greg doesn't really do that. Like he makes jokes, he calls people back. Yeah, he's just being smooth, but he works all day long, and that's the thing. We did a ton of lock-ins last year. I think we did 33 lock-ins in 16 months. And at every single lock-in, the person that sold the most was the person that worked the hardest the entire time. Yeah. And Greg was the first example of that. And then we did three or four together.

SPEAKER_00

So all right, back to debt. Because I think a lot of people are in debt.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I think, first of all, was there a financial was there a stress, emotional stress tied to this? What was it like?

SPEAKER_03

It was uh I know Trey gets emotional, so I'm not gonna try to follow your suit, Trey, but it it was um yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It was bad. How much is that?

SPEAKER_03

Probably sixty, eighty thousand.

SPEAKER_00

Now when you're is your wife stressed about it?

SPEAKER_03

Um I I carry all of that on my shoulders. Good for you. And uh she would never know. She would never know.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. You just held it all in. Yeah. I'm glad you're letting a little bit of it out right now. Because well, congratulations on getting out of it. Thank you. Um I always have that thought. I'm like, dude, I would rather protect the people I love and and hold it all in, which I don't know if it's the healthiest uh way to live. Zach Trodowski always says, dude, hold it all in. Just be a man and have a heart attack or stroke at 50.

SPEAKER_03

I'm glad that didn't happen.

SPEAKER_00

And then dude, and then he was like, Yeah, dude, I could have cancer right now and I wouldn't tell you. I hold the all in. Yeah. And then I'm like later, I was like, bro, does he have cancer? Dude, I hope not. But we were joking because we both needed to get better at uh being vulnerable. Yeah, yeah. And like, it's okay if you're not okay. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But dude, good for you. I'm thank you. Now, so you're in debt, yeah, you're holding all of this on your shoulders, you're not really telling your wife. Correct. Uh she knows, obviously, because we can't pay the bills. Now, are you acting different in your daily life?

SPEAKER_03

Um it it, you know, I would say without question, yes. You know, I I went through a spell of, I mean, quite frankly, you get depressed.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

You know, so I went through, I didn't go through massive depression where I needed help. But when you're the man of the house and you've been providing for your family for so many years and you've been successful, and then you can't put food on the table, uh, it hits different. You know, so yeah, I would I I went into a time to where, you know, uh there it was a season. It was a season, and I had to get my mind straight. I had to uh, you know, you got to pump yourself up, you know, and I had to, I had to get right, you know, I had to get right with God. You know, I'm I'm I'm a believer, so I had to get right with the Lord, and you know, uh I had some choice words for him, and you know, there were times to where I was absent. I left him, he never left me. Um, but yeah, there was it, it it definitely changed me. You know, I was not the same person. Uh fortunately, I wasn't like that. We're not talking about a five-year stint. It was a very short period of time. How long? Uh probably three to six months.

SPEAKER_00

Three so you were the broke where you couldn't buy food.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Yes. I was living off of credit cards. The credit cards were maxed out. Uh there was a, I mean, to be, because I'm just gonna be totally transparent. I mean, there was a time to where, you know, I was doing Uber, you know, uh, and delivering groceries, and it was during the holidays, and I was delivering groceries to to uh households to put food on the table because I'll do whatever it whatever it takes legally to put food on the table. And I'm thinking to myself, and I, you know, I constantly, you're you you've you've got one side that's telling you this and another side that's telling you that. But what I was thinking was I'm delivering these groceries to families, and I can't put them on my own table. So I mean, talk about a struggle, and I said, you know, everything is going on around me. I've still got my health, I've still got my family. The only thing that I can do to change my situation is work my way out of it. Don't worry about the stress, don't worry about the bills that aren't being paid. Um, work my way out of it one step at a time, and that's what I did.

SPEAKER_00

So I do this thing sometimes called the doom loop, where if something's going bad, I will create a scenario in my head of all the ways it can get worse. Did you ever do that? Oh, yeah. I don't know. I try to just visit it.

SPEAKER_03

I don't want to stay there, you know, permanent residence.

SPEAKER_00

It's a good way to torture yourself. Yeah. Do you have you ever done that, Trey? Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Yeah, now that's why I have these bracelets that say one more day on here. And the whole point is just focus on today. Yeah, that's right. Like just worry about one more day, not tomorrow, not the next day. We're not what if in six months this, that. And early on when I was selling insurance, I would do that with leads. I'd go, what if I don't make a sale? Yeah. And then what if I spend my money? And then what if I have to move back home with my mom? And then what if my girlfriend breaks up with me because of it? And then boom, this whole universe of shit that never happened. Right. But how do how do how can we get better at that? And how did you fight that?

SPEAKER_03

You know, I I had to uh, like I said, uh, number one, had to pick myself up by the the bootstraps, and quite frankly, nobody cares. That's the reality. You know, we've all seen that. Nobody cares work harder. We we I went through my hell. Everyone here, everyone that's gonna see this has a cross to bear. So we're all carrying something. Mine happened to be financial, someone else's could be a sick kid, someone else's could be uh a marriage that's falling apart. It's we all have a cross to bear. So um I realize nobody cares. Quit having, and and I don't mean that to where I didn't have loving family that doesn't care about me, but you know, we we all we're all fighting something. So get with it, work your way out of it. You know you're capable of doing it, you're still here for a reason, and as long as you have breath, you know, you have an opportunity. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a poker player, and we've all, for those of you that that that know poker, there's a saying, a chip and a chair. You know, you see guys with massive amounts of chips in front of them. In the poker world, we say a chip and a chair. If you've got if you're still in the seat and you've got one chip, you're still in the game. So as long as you have breath and you have life, you can still change, change things and make it work for you.

SPEAKER_00

Love that. Yeah. So you just slowly said, I'm going to slowly get out of this.

SPEAKER_03

That's the only thing I could control. I couldn't control the debt, I couldn't control the calls, I couldn't control anything else other than what I could control, which was I'm gonna work my way out of this little by little. And and that's what I did. Being in being with the right people helps. Um, but at the same time, if I didn't end up with with Trey and with Ali, um, could I have worked my way out of it? Yes. Would it have taken longer? I don't know, but God bless me with these gentlemen. And so I'm very, very happy that he did. So, how much did your wife know? Well, she knew we could, she was going on these trips with me when we were delivering groceries. I've literally got video of my wife delivering groceries with me.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. Yeah, like I love that so much. Like you guys just went and did that together.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we were in it together. So she knew uh as a man, it it hits different, you know. Um, our kids never really knew, and they'll see this, they'll know, but they never really knew to the extent because we still, you know, we sacrifice everything for our kids, you know, and um, you know, we still made it work. We were able to uh, you know, squeeze a dry sponge and make Kool-Aid out of it, you know. So we we made it work. But she went on, she delivered with me. She was right there, she was my ride or die, and um, you know, uh glad that we're not in that position anymore. And uh that's what continues to push me. You know, I remember when I first started, you know, Ali would say, Don't burn yourself out, don't work too hard. And I would tell him, You don't know what I'm running from. I've had that feeling. I never want to my worst enemy, I never want them to be where I was. Even my worst enemy, never let God sort them out. I but I would never wish that on anybody. And so I said, I'm running from that feeling of being inadequate, not being able to provide. Um, there were nights literally, and I told my wife, I said, I wouldn't come to bed because I didn't feel worthy, because I wasn't able to, I've been the provider of my family for all these years. And that was taken away from sort of part of my idea.

SPEAKER_00

So you slept on the couch?

SPEAKER_03

I was sleeping in my office. You know, I'd I'd sleep in my office. I have a little lazy, lazy recline, you know, lazy. Lazy boys, bro. Lazy boys, shout out lazy boy. That's right, bro.

SPEAKER_00

They're so comfortable. All right. Uh remind me to tell you about lazy boys when you're done.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Yeah. So um, yeah, so um, but yeah, she knew um she was there with me. Uh the family knew things were tough. And um, just one day at a time, I just worked my way out of it and just kept the faith. And, you know, when if something was, I you know, you would stress, oh, I've got to pay this because I've always been responsible. You know, I got to pay this, I got to pay that. And I said, you know what? It's just not gonna get paid until I can pay it. And whatever I can pay, that's what you're gonna get. But I will honor my commitments. You know, I wasn't trying to run from everything, but it was tough. And and I would tell folks that, you know, that I owed money to, like bill collectors or whatnot, when I get it, you'll get it.

SPEAKER_00

But you know Did you ever think of filing bankruptcy?

SPEAKER_03

You know, I did. Um, but I I didn't have enough assets at the time to really make it worthwhile. So I said, you know, I want to own up, try to negotiate. If it's a credit card company, try to negotiate on my own to get the debt reduced. But I I wanted to really um I wanted to satisfy my debt because I was irresponsible. And I wanted to, I wanted to make right with that, you know. So um that that was just my you know, my own personal thing. Everybody's a little bit different. Um, you know, we we when 2008 hit, we we lost our home, you know, and we ended up becoming renters, you know, for a long time. And that that was a tough go-around because I was commission based only or commissioned with a salary with the company that I was at, but had no control over what was going on there like I do now. If I put in extra work now, I can get paid immediately. It's a totally different it's a game changer. Game changer.

SPEAKER_00

That's cool. My first conference call ever with FFL. Okay. Um I just joined Mark Meade. And he's like, I owe eighty thousand dollars in credit cards, and I will not everybody was walking away from their houses like after 2008. You remember that? Yeah, like dude, it was just like, oh, I'm upside down. Let's just let it go, right? And I remember this call specifically because he was like, I am going to pay back every single dollar using life insurance. And it was a powerful call, dude. Like it fired me up because he's like, I'm just not backing down. Yeah. And like what happened next was crazy. Like he could have paid that off in a in a month. You know? But I love that, dude. Now were you losing sleep? Were you uh you were yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, how can you sleep knowing that you know, I mean, when you because when you go into that that that mindset, everything's worst case scenario. Yeah, everything's worst case scenario, you know. Um, so you know, can't do this, can't it and it and it is a loop. It just keeps playing. You know, it's not gonna make things any better, um, but it just keeps playing over and over again.

SPEAKER_00

I wonder if that's like a protective uh something your brain does to protect you, to like take action uh against the worst case scenario. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03

It it definitely after I got out of that that you know that season, I'm like, you know, being down and out and thinking about what you know the mountain I've got to climb isn't gonna get me over the mountain.

SPEAKER_00

How do you get fired up just to slowly start hiking this mountain?

SPEAKER_03

You know, for me it was prayer, number one. Uh, and then number two, I I've been there before, so I know what success looks like. Is this prayer in the morning, evening? Prayer in the morning. Every day I wake up, I'm grateful to have another breath. So it's another opportunity. Um, and so I'm grateful for that.

SPEAKER_00

But you were grateful during this time.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, because I still have a purpose. If I didn't, I'd be snuffed out and gone.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I I knew that there was a purpose there. You know, what doesn't break you makes you stronger. And uh, you know, people that have scars are only evidence that you survive something. And so um, you know, I just had to again just put the work in. Put the work in, have faith. It's gonna work out. Just put the work in, put the work in. And I'm seeing my colleagues do it. So it's not like it's something that I haven't seen firsthand. It's it's tangible. So put the work in, be dedicated, show up. Um, and people, you know, new agents would come on board and they'd say, Greg, I'm your man, you're you've got a great work ethic. I'm but I'm gonna give you a run for your money. I said, That's what everybody says. And you can probably do it for a week, you might be able to do it for a month, but can you do this marathon for the 26.2 or are you a one-hit wonder?

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Exactly. Remember that guy that was on the leaderboard for a week? No, I don't, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

Right, yeah.

Funding Leads With A 50-50 Split

SPEAKER_00

Which one? Yeah, we do see that people go hard and burn out. Yep. But all right, this is the big question. Yeah. How the heck did you get money for leads being that broke?

SPEAKER_03

Um, for an entire year, um, I split uh the leads with my upline, um, which was again another blessing. Oh, because he took a step back to let me utilize his resources. So Ali Khalid, I owe a lot to that man. And um for an entire year now, granted, he knew my skill set, so it wasn't like he said, Oh, Greg, go ahead and But you were splitting commission with him. I was splitting commission with him. What was the split? 50-50.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but I was so he wasn't losing money.

SPEAKER_03

He wasn't losing money, but to me, 50% of something's better than 100% of nothing.

SPEAKER_00

Crazy.

SPEAKER_03

And I had his resources, I had his dialer, his admin manager, who is absolutely phenomenal. Her name is Lynn, and uh, she is just uh an absolute beast. Um, Ali was there for me all along the way. Um, so I had I was set up for success. Now, some people could say, man, 50-50, you could have made this, you could have made that. I'm coming from a place to where I needed help, and he extended an olive branch.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you're driving Uber.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So I mean, it was it was an absolute blessing. So I did that for an entire year because when I I wanted to get to a point, and Ali was totally on board with it, um, to where if I needed to buy leads, I didn't want to have enough saved up to where I could buy leads for four weeks and have commission breath after week five if I didn't get paid, if it was post-dated or if it was a chargeback. So I wanted to have enough in in the account to where if I don't have any sales, you know, or any commissions coming through for the next week or two, I'm just gonna keep selling because I've got enough in the bank to where it's not gonna, it's not gonna bother me. So I could have gone on my own campaign a while ago, but it would not have been smart. And again, because what I was running from, I had to be smart and strategic and not just say, Oh, I'm ready to do my own campaign. Let me let me get 100%. Yeah, no, let me be wise about this. And um, so that's how I was able to do it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's just like uh, you know, there's something empowering about the way you explain that because I think the the the knee-jerk reaction is like I'm just gonna give this person some leads, and that never really works. Yeah. But that situation you described, like that was painful enough for you to not want to.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, there's an exception to everything.

Loving The Work And Future Goals

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. But but that was empowering, though. It wasn't like, you know, 50-50 split, that puts something in your side, puts something on his side. You don't want to stay there forever.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. How much do you love this industry now?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

I'm in love. I'm almost shook up. You know, this is this is it for me. This is my career. I know you could look at, you know, what regardless of what your age is, you've got to find something that you're passionate about. Um, I love number one, being able to provide for my family, but I also love being able to help protect other families because I know how important this is. Not every lead is gonna get that, but I absolutely love what I do and I love educating people. You know, I get clients on the line that that say, well, yeah, I've already got something in place, you're probably not gonna be able to help me. And I say, I'm always gonna be able to help you. Making a sale doesn't mean I can't help you. I might be able to let you know you're in the best position that you're in. And I'm gonna tell you, don't let any other agent tell you otherwise. So uh to me, being able to help a client doesn't always mean you've got to make a sale. You've got to make sure that their family is protected. You know, when you think about there's another human being, we talked earlier about AI, when you realize there's another human being on the other side of that line and a family's depending on them, like my family depended on me, it hits different. It hits different. So yeah, I absolutely love this industry. And everything that it can do for me, and everything that it can do for you know, new agents that are coming on board, whether it's retiring their parents, whether it's taking trips with the family, uh, whatever it is, um, you know, this industry can provide. Uh right now, you know, we're renting, so buying a house, um, you know, getting back to home ownership, you know, we uh and that's gonna take place this year. So that is uh that's a goal. Um taking family trips to where, you know, uh as my colleague Connor took his family to, you know, the Cowboys game. Um, I I want to say, hey, we're going, you know, our goal is next year to go to Japan, and I want to take the entire family, and it's all on me. You know, I don't want finances to prevent us from, like you said before, uh, money helps buy memories, and I want to create more memories with my family, and I don't want finances to be an issue.

SPEAKER_00

All right, I got a question, okay? So my kids are three and four and turning six this weekend. And like they're like medicine, dude. Like, if I if they just snuggle up on me, it's the best thing in the world. Yeah. My boy still sleeps right next to me every night since he was born, and I don't care what people say if that if you're supposed to do it or not. I'm just like, it seems fine to me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but you love them so much. But my question is, when they're grown adults, do you love them the same?

SPEAKER_03

My I'll I'll use this as an example, um, because he's the biggest, but of my three boys, my youngest is six four, two twenty. Um my my middle son, he's you know, six foot two sixty, power lifter, wildland firefighter, uh, full on beard. You know, my other son, uh, full on beard. I still kiss my boys.

SPEAKER_00

I love that.

SPEAKER_03

I still kiss them. So you never it never get, you know, when we left to come here, you know, I said, give give me a hug, you know. You because you never know, I and it has nothing to do with this business, but life is precious. You know, how many times do we hear and deal help clients with death claims? And one minute here you're here, and the next minute you're not. What's the last thing you said to that person? So if the last thing they hear is I love you, or I got a kiss, even though that person's gone, you'll never you'll always want more. One more. It's never enough. But yeah, I still kiss on them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I posted a video kissing Atlas, my boy, and people were putting in the comments like, you're not allowed to kiss your boy on the lips. And I'm like, is that a thing?

SPEAKER_03

I kiss mine on the lips. That's what I'm saying. I kiss them on the cheek now, you know, because they're grown men. Right, right. But I mean, it it there is nothing more pure than uh a child and a love that a parent can have for a child. So I mean it's it's for those of us that have kids or you know, I I thought it was strange. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03

People are weird, yeah. They turn stuff into stuff that that's not there. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You gotta have that, you gotta be in that mind frame to even think like that. Like if I saw it, obviously I would never think anything of it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, for sure. All right. So you work something out 50-50 that helped you climb out of this situation. Yep. How long did it take you to get good? Uh all of last year. So you get a full year. Full year. So you're saying it's okay to start slow.

SPEAKER_03

Without question. And you've got to know there's gotta be a strategy behind it. You know, I pay, I keep, you know, my computer set up. I've got my credit cards that I was in debt with. I within hand I could reach this far, and they're right there. I kept every single one of them. Now they're canceled, they're closed out. Um, you know, people say, oh, just cut them up. No, I want a reminder. You know, so I've got them within arm's reach. I also have within arm's reach about 10 to 12 pins that are all out of ink from thank you cards that I've written to my clients. So every time I make a sale, I send a client a thank you card.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, bro. Handwritten thank you card.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

There, they you can get them automated, but nothing beats you know the fact not only do I write them out and sign them, and you know, I'll put my business card in there, but and there are automated systems now to where it can look handwritten. But the one thing that the automated system can't do, and again, everybody's different, but I every time I send out a thank you card, I don't just have if I've got 10 cards, I don't just put 10 cards in the mailbox, I put them in one by one because I pray over each card.

unknown

That's it.

SPEAKER_03

And I pray that it blesses that family that receives it. So AI and automation can't do that. So I keep my credit cards there, I keep my pins there. I want everything to be a constant reminder. Obviously, you've got to have a vision board and things like that that you're working towards. But I look at where I came from and I look at where I'm at and where I'm going. And that's what keeps me going forward. Yeah. So home ownership this year, uh, possibly a new vehicle. Our vehicles are great. You know, my wife says, they're charging for everything now. You want to get a subscription, you got to pay. I said, babe, if I want to get a new car, I'm gonna get a new car. But it's gonna be within time. Our cars work fine, but but a new house, um, that's that's what I'm working on.

SPEAKER_00

And did you pay all your debt off?

SPEAKER_03

Everything, every penny. Every penny. My wife got a a uh uh a bill in the mail from a credit card, and uh she said, Oh, I got your credit card. I said, Open it up. I said, What does it say? She said, You you you owe$9.19. So every single credit card has been paid off. Um, obviously I kept some, you know, uh that were higher, you know, higher limits, but every single one paid off. Um debts that I owed from my previous business paid off.

SPEAKER_00

So this is why I love this company, because like people like him come in, pick, take some stuff from them, learn from them. Good energy's contagious, make you a better person. Aside from money, I mean, I think it's more valuable than money. Yeah, but the money is nice too.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it doesn't hurt.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna send it back.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, cool. So can someone work with you if they related to you? Uh could they reach out to you? Absolutely. Absolutely. Is does he have an Instagram on here, Drew? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So your Instagram has been popping up on the video. If you're watching this uh and you want to get into insurance, make a change, go part-time, full time, go slow, fast, whatever. Uh hit him up. Yeah. And maybe this can change your life like it did for you. Yeah. And the thing my favorite thing you said is you the poker thing. You still had one chip in a chair. Chip and a chair. So, like if you're going through something, if you still have you're you're still here.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You got one chip in a chair.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

Grace For New Agents And Mindset

SPEAKER_00

Let's try, let's try to do some damage. Yeah. Um, before before we wrap up, I think new people are very hard on themselves and they're comparing themselves to other people. Uh, maybe people that have been doing this for five, 10 years, they're comparing themselves to. How do you tell people to be a little nicer to themselves while they're learning?

SPEAKER_03

They they have to extend themselves some grace, you know, and I use that with uh the agents that I talk to and the agents that I have under me. Is you gotta understand I've been where you're at. I've gone without making sales, I've made three to five hundred dials a day and gone Monday through Thursday with, you know, I I got to a point to where with my, you know, where I was at previously before I joined FFL. Um I just wanted somebody, if they picked up the phone and told me to go to hell, I had a conversation today. No one was picking up the phone. I'm when when we talk about age leads, you you know, you had mentioned the Z leads before. I was in a different alphabet. You know, I I was, you know, I was in Hebrew or Greek. It wasn't even on the, you know, it wasn't on our alphabet. It was, you know, but I said to myself, and it's all a mindset thing for me, if these were the only leads I had to be able to provide for my family, how would I treat them? If I wasn't gonna get another, and I think that's a lot of uh that's a problem with a lot of agents, is they think that I'll just get more leads. Well, did you thoroughly work these? And if you did, fantastic, time to move on. But you know, when you're just getting leads to and getting leads and getting leads, and having an abundance of leads is a good problem to have. But when I was, you know, didn't have the finances and I was getting the leads that that were given to me, you know, I wasn't always, hey, can I get some more leads? No, I was gonna, I was, I went to market as if these were the last leads I was ever gonna get. And guess what? I actually I got more leads because I wasn't there being that clinging symbol. Um, so I would say, you know, for any new agent that, you know, they definitely have to give themselves a little bit more favor and grace. Understand that it is a process. Don't don't compare yourself, you know, if you're just learning how to walk, you know, you can't look at yourself and say, well, I want to be like that Olympic athlete. Well, they had to put a lot of work in. You're seeing the end result, you know, you're not seeing the the hard work that went into that. But they too had to learn how to walk. So if if you're lucky enough and blessed enough to have an upline that will remind you of that and say, hey, you're doing a great job, keep going. We're here for you. You know, sometimes you just need that little pep talk, that attaboy, because everybody's, you know, they they function, they're wired differently. Um, but I think when you look at leaderboards and you see what people are posting, and posting is great, issue paid is better. So when you see that and you're comparing yourself to that, it's not a fair comparison.

SPEAKER_00

It's never as good as you think it is. Yeah, and it's never as bad as you think it is.

SPEAKER_03

And what you see online is what they want you to see.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. It's the glamorous life. No one's gonna show you the struggle, which is scary to me.

SPEAKER_00

But I do it too. I don't post the bad stuff. I probably should.

SPEAKER_03

It you know, when when my son was uh when I was, you know, I was handling all the marketing to get him out to different colleges and to try to get him, you know, as many offers as possible. Um, he's a big kid, so he passes the eye test. He's he's plays multiple positions, he's he was a hell of a baseball player. Um, but I sent coaches videos of him striking out. I sent videos of him when he was pitching, getting home runs hit off of him. Because the coaches want to see we know how you're gonna respond when you hit a homer. And my son, you know, 6'4, 220, has hit a lot of them. Uh we know how you're gonna respond. He had, you know, faced 15 batters and struck out eleven. We know what that response looks like. But what about when you're on the receiving end of that butt whooping? And so I would send them videos of him striking out. I'd send them videos of him having home runs hit off of him, and he was even kill. Whether he struck you out, he'd walk off the mound. If he got a home run hit, he'd walk off the mound. If he hit a home run, he wasn't celebrating like Emmett Smith would say, act like you've been there before. He wasn't going crazy. He wa I told him you've got ice in your veins. And that's what people want to see is how do you respond when it's not going your way? So I always tell you know, agents, you know, you gotta manage your highs and you gotta manage your lows. You know, don't get too high, don't get too low. You know, because if you get you want to celebrate the wins, but if if you if it becomes so euphoric and such a high, then your lows are gonna be that much lower. And you've got to be able to say, you know what, man, today was a tough day. I've had those days. They I'm not throwing in the towel, but I'm waiting for the bell to ring.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I can appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00

Love it. All right, Greg. Thank you for being transparent. Thank you for sharing. I believe this is gonna help a lot of people. I'm glad you're working with us. Trey, thanks for getting him here. Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for coming. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

If you liked this, please share it, comment, like to get that way. We can reach more people and share what this has done. Amen. You, the man. Thank you. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. Thank you both. Absolutely.