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How to Survive the Emotional Roller Coaster of Insurance Sales (Ep. 276)
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You can tell a lot about a sales leader by what they do when the path gets messy. Nick Novo left when his upline left, took on two years of adversity, then came back and started stacking his biggest months ever, with his team pacing $450,000. We talk honestly about what that kind of growth actually requires: mental toughness, a clean culture, and the willingness to keep working when the results are not flattering.
We also go deep on the day-to-day reality of life insurance sales. Why does it feel like an emotional roller coaster? How do you handle rejection, cancellations, and chargebacks without losing your confidence? Nick shares a pivotal low point where he had $1,500 left, spent it on leads, and then produced a $25,000 week, plus the mindset shift that made him believe he would not fail if he kept doing the work. If you are a new insurance agent or rebuilding your momentum, this is the kind of conversation that resets your standards.
Finally, we break down lead generation and follow-up with zero hype. “There’s no such thing as a special lead” if someone opted in, your job is to call with purpose and keep following up because timing changes when life events hit. We also hit leadership and team building, including why the “second follower” matters, how to coach different personalities, and how to grow without the toxic flex you see on social media.
Subscribe for more real conversations about selling life insurance, building teams, and staying resilient, and if this helps you, share it with one agent who needs it and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
*****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.
What's up everybody? Andrew Taylor here. Today we have Nick Novo with us. Nick, thank you for coming in. Pleasure being here, man. All right. Tell us real quick, what's your biggest month? 50,000. 50,000. What's your biggest team month?
SPEAKER_04Last month we did 311,000. This month we're on pace to do 450,000.
SPEAKER_05You excited? Hell yeah. All right. Okay. So this is an interesting thing, and I think this is a good lesson for people building teams and insurance. Okay. So you worked here, what, two and a half years ago? Yeah, two and a half years ago. And then you left. Right. Because your upline had left. Yep. And then you decided to come back. Right. Okay. So I want to I want to bring this up. So I believe FFL from two around two and a half years ago, I believe the company has probably 30X as far as how big it's gotten. And sometimes when you're building companies, if the right people leave, the company can grow again. And so it's interesting as you're building a team, even a small team, and you get uh you get mad because one of your guys quits on you. Sometimes you need that to grow. It's like pruning the roses. And as the company was growing, a lot of people are making a lot of money, and then all of a sudden you get these little pockets of people complaining and going, Don't do that, do this. This is better. This is that, this is that, follow me, do this. And it's ri it really hurts the company and stops it from growing. So you were a part of this team that decided to leave, which actually helped us, but you decided later to come back. What happened in those two years?
SPEAKER_04Well, so when I first joined the industry, we were producing at our highest, me and the guys. Uh just a quick background. I had had built a team before to practice company. Then I came over to Family First Life and we had our biggest months there, and they decided to have like a transition where they wanted to leave the company. And to be honest, the that was all we knew. And we decided to follow them because that was all we knew. And when we made the transition, we went through a lot of adversity. We went through things that I feel like if we had the right resources and the right tools in order for us to continue to succeed, we wouldn't have ran into those issues. I'm grateful for them because they built the character and now I have the toughness, mental toughness, and so of our guys to be able to do that. But at the same time as well, I felt like if we would have stayed and had the right resources, you know, we probably would have been shoot at a million already, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, but you guys are you guys are killing it. Yeah. Yeah. And one thing I like about you, I told Adrian this too. Whenever I talk to you guys, you guys are you never ever complain.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05You always find some positive in it. Like, dude, we signed a lot of people up to get inbound leads, and a lot of people complained. And when I called you guys, you were like, yo, we're on the phones crushing it, everybody's closing deals. You just don't complain. Right. And maybe that is the blessing of getting bounced around. It's like the blessing of me starting in 2008 when the mortgage crisis happened and nobody buying life insurance. But I had to get so good that when the economy turned around, it was easy for me. I was swinging a weighted bat the entire time. Yeah. So it got easy. No, 100%. Absolutely. But how's it been back? How's your experience been?
SPEAKER_04Oh man, it's been amazing. How? Like, in the sense that we're having our biggest months back to back. Like every month since we've been back, I think it was when do we come back? March, April. Um, we've had our two biggest months, and like I said, we're on pace to do our biggest month, which by over 150,000. And that itself just shows the the right people, teaming up with the right people, with the right leadership, and you know, just great systems, what it could allow us to do.
SPEAKER_05And you guys just work hard. Yeah. Yeah. You guys bust our ass every single day. Yeah. And tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into life insurance, what did you do before, and also what was your upbringing like? Were your parents married, divorced? Do you have siblings?
SPEAKER_04Well, so I have one sibling, I have an older brother. My parents they're together, so they've stuck it together. They were never divorced or anything like that, which is great, and I applaud them for that because I know how hard that is. But um, for me, what I was actually doing before this is I was actually training to play professional basketball. No way. Yeah, that's what I was trying to do. For real? Yeah, exactly. So that's what all I was that was my whole obsession. So then I got injured my senior year high school. I had a hip injury, which prevented me from preparing playing my senior year high school. Was it a hip labral tear? Exactly what it was. Did you fix it? Non-surgically,
Basketball Dreams And Hip Labrum Lessons
SPEAKER_04I just went to physical therapy. I pretty much did my own physical therapy where I'd researched like crazy how the hell can I heal my hip and I don't get the pain anymore. So I was able to cause I was too broke to afford an MRI.
SPEAKER_05Bro, you want to hear a not funny story about me? What? Alright. We used to play co ed basketball every day before the office. This is like 2018. And this girl set a pick on one of my friends and knocked him over. Okay. It was like he hit a brick wall. And I was ragging on him the entire day. And then we did a meeting after, and I was like, hey everybody, check listen to what ha listen to what happened in basketball. And it was just the funniest thing ever, right? The next day this girl sets a pick on me, dude, and I I like try to go one way to avoid her, and I go another way, and my body's all messed up, and I tear my hip labrum, and I end up but this has been like a really annoying thing for me. So two years ago I decided to get surgery on it. Okay. And they do the surgery, I feel great. Right. I'm freaking the PT place is like, dude, you're healing so fast, good job, all this stuff. Well, I I told him I was like, Can I do the stair stepper? Because if I work out, I feel better, I feel like I can think clearer. Right. Right?
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_05So I go get on the stair stepper and I I tear the freaking repair out. Like it was four weeks after surgery, so I tear it out. Okay. So then I go to the doctors and they're like, Do you want to do it again? And I was like, Yes, I'll do it again. So last July, like July 24th or something, I go get it done again. So they redo the whole thing, dude. I gotta be on crutches for six weeks, the whole thing, everything. At six weeks, I decide to take my daughter on a bike ride with her, like I have this little seat that she can sit on. And I'm going up a hill, and because I feel amazing again, bro. I retore it again. Oh man. So I have to go do it for the third time. And if it's not real torn really bad, you're fine, but mine's torn really bad. Right. But yeah, that injury sucks.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no. I had a nagging pain for so long and I didn't know what it was for. And then I ended up just, you know, doing my own physical therapy. I don't feel the pain as much anymore because they strengthened the hell out of my legs, and I feel great now.
SPEAKER_05I was trying to think about the lesson and how stupid I am for doing this, and this is what I came up with. What? Even when you feel better, it doesn't mean you should stop doing the things that are good for you, and it can be applied to money. Like, just because you're out of the danger zone of not being broke and you got five, six, seven, ten grand saved, it doesn't mean you can chill and go to Disneyland or you're gonna get hurt again. Right. Or spiritually, it could be it for people, it could be like, yo, just because I feel good now, you can't stop praying or whatever you do, meditating or doing all these different things, because you can go right back. Right. And for me, I just for whatever reason, every time I felt better, dude, I was way too aggressive on that whole thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I could say the same for myself. That's pretty much what it is. Every time I feel better, whether it's at least for me when I used to hoop and stuff like that. Whenever I come back from an injury, I try to push myself and I end up tweaking up again. I'm like, oh god, all right, I gotta continue to go back to doing the things that got me there and not do too much. That's the problem, Andrew.
SPEAKER_05I can't rest. That's the thing. Me too. I have that same thing. Yeah. Alright, so basketball hip, when did you hurt your hip? This was back 2019, my senior year of high school. And you couldn't afford an MRI. I couldn't afford an MRI. Your parents just said no way.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05How much how much what'd your parents do growing up?
SPEAKER_04Well, my mom, she worked at a skincare store, Origins, and then she does at-home work for, I believe, Chase. And my dad has his own business. Nice. His own audiovisual business.
SPEAKER_05And were you depressed when you were gonna stop doing basketball?
SPEAKER_04Well, the to be honest, Andrew, that's something I still want to do.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. How old are you?
SPEAKER_0425. And you want you don't want to play in the NBA. Well, I mean, I'm delusional like that. I want to play at the highest level because I love the game that much. I'm I'm so serious. And that's I feel like my delusion to some degree has been able to get me farther in life. Like, you know, when I set these crazy ass goals where, you know, I want to hit a million the next two, three months, and I know we can. Some people are looking at me like, Nick, you know how much we have to do in order for us to get there? Well, I'm like, I set the goals so high, so that way if I what is it, you shoot amongst the stars, you fall on the moon, something like that. Yeah, but um, I shoot my goals extremely high, but I have a passion for the game, I love it. So I want to play at the highest level. Who's your favorite player? It was Kobe growing up. You go to any games? Yeah. Well, I lived in Miami, so when the Lakers came to go see Miami, that that was actually the last time he played in Miami.
SPEAKER_05Who's your favorite team? Miami. Dude, I uh told everybody I never liked LeBron. And then when I saw him play with his kid, I was like, I I really respect that dude a lot. The fact that he's still playing, his kid's on the court, he's passing it to him, he's they're both scoring. That's nuts. What he's doing at 41 is absolutely nuts. Yeah, absolutely insane. Yeah. All right. Now, how does selling life insurance uh compare to sports or what are the similarities in sports? Because a lot of people that are from the military, they like this business. If they're if they have a sports or athletic background, they like this business. Why?
SPEAKER_04Well, for me, like the reason why it transitioned so well for me to do well in insurance is because the principles as developing a skill set. Like for me, I was a I was really good at shooting and I was really good at defense. So those are two things that one, you gotta have a good skill set for because you have to rep out the shot. And then defense is something you just gotta have grit, right? Like doing the dirty work, doing what's necessary in order for you to win games. So how it translates to business for me is just one, I had
Sports Principles That Sell Policies
SPEAKER_04to develop the skill set of learning how to dial, run appointments, close deals, and then having the grit just be able to get down and dirty and do whatever is required in order for me to hit my goal. So that's how it translates well in the insurance space. And then from the coaching standpoint, or just being able to study the game film, that's what helps me develop my guys. Because growing up as a basketball player, I used to watch a lot of uh game film on some of the league's best point guards and stuff like that. So I'm studying the game film, looking at the details, like, okay, where can I improve? Right? If I'm weak here, if I'm coming off the pick and roll and I'm not making the right reads, then you know I'm gonna struggle. I'm not gonna be able to make the right reads on the court. And it's the same thing when it comes to selling insurance. If I can't read where I'm weak at, then how am I gonna reflect and get better? So those are really like the three main things. And what about the team building aspect? The team building aspect? Oh, well, the leadership. Like, that's ultimately what it comes down to. Like, you're gonna deal with so many different types of people. Like, there's some people that you can talk hard to where you know if you tell them, hey, you're not performing well and you go coach them pretty hard, they'll be like, okay, they'll respond better. Some people you have to be a little bit more sensitive to because maybe they don't take that level of criticism the right way. So you gotta find creative ways to be able to motivate your team in order for you to get them performing at the optimal level.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's huge. And then and as you're building your team, what advice do you have for new people getting in the business?
SPEAKER_04Well, so understanding what you're getting into because selling insurance is simple, but it's not easy. Simple in the sense of you know, you're picking up a phone, you're dialing leads, you're following a script, you close deals. The hard part of the business is that this business is an emotional roller coaster. Right? And that's the hard part because you're dealing with individuals or you're you may be coming in as an individual that you're not that mentally developed yet, right? Where in the sense of you go through a little bit of adversity and you lose your confidence, right? That's that's a huge thing. Like that's something I battled in sports, right? Like if I had a bad game or something like that, then you know I get down on myself and then I won't perform as optimal, and then under realizing that you're gonna have great games and you're gonna have bad games. And when you understand that that's just a part of the process and you can't avoid it, then you stop getting emotionally dictated by the result and you just focus on putting in the work and you keep your emotion at a standstill. And I feel like that's the hardest part for people to get, especially what I see with new agents, because so many people are dictated by the results or the money that's in their bank account rather than just getting better and just focus on becoming as skilled as possible. Love it. And then how did you get introduced to insurance? So crazy. As I was trying to train for basketball, I was trying to find another alternative to make money. So I was doing a couple other things, I was DoorDashing, I was doing day trading, I was doing Amazon Flex. So I was just trying to find part-time income. And to be honest with you, Andrew, I had one moment where with God and I was like, I don't know where I'm headed when it comes to this because I know what I want, but I didn't I didn't know what avenue I was gonna take to get there. And all of a sudden, at my practice company, somebody tells me, Hey, I have a business opportunity that I want to show you. And me, I'm not very closed-minded. I'll listen to opportunities, but I was kind of like, seems a little sketchy, like what's up with this. And then he they showed me the opportunity of selling insurance to a practice company, and I was like, Okay, this is gonna pay me based off of what I put into it, not necessarily something that I'm getting paid an hourly wage for because that's something I couldn't do. I had to be rewarded for my effort. And when I understand that it aligns so much with me being able to still train or me being able just to develop a quick skill set, it's like, wait, I've done this before. So if I could do it here with selling insurance and you're telling me I can make, you know, 800 bucks, 900 bucks in an hour, well, sign me up. What I gotta do? And then they showed me the layout, like building a team and how rewarding it is and how that translates to what I'm trying to do. And when I saw that, I was sold immediately. I was like, if this is gonna help me, excuse me, if this is gonna help me reach my vision and complete what I'm trying to do, I'll do whatever the f I'll do whatever it takes.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And then how how is this business do you think changed your life in so many ways?
SPEAKER_04Spiritually, uh mentally, financially, um, spiritually in the sense that, you know, like I said earlier, you know, you can't be dictated by the results. And when, you know, maybe chargebacks are piling up or something like that, and you're the roller coaster, the roller coaster of the business, right? You gotta you gotta lean on faith because at the end of the day, it's like that I feel like that's the foundation. Like I'm very big on God, right? And that was the foundation for me. I've had moments in the business where I'm like, I was at my breaking point. And when I was at my breaking point where I didn't even know if I'd survive in the business, I had my best week actually at FFL and I did 25,000 that week. And
Faith Through The Sales Roller Coaster
SPEAKER_04it just showed me it's like, okay, faith, skill set, me putting in the work, all those three things together, then I'm unstoppable. And it really taught me how to be mentally still in that moment, and I was a broke college kid when I dropped out of college. Do you have siblings? One sibling, older sibling.
SPEAKER_05What do your parents think about what you're doing?
SPEAKER_04So at first they were kind of they didn't tell me no, but they were like they didn't know, they didn't think that that was my path. I knew the moment that I was introduced to this opportunity that this is what I had to do. And now they see what I've been able to do with it, and they see what's going on in our office and the special things that are happening, and the the opportunities that we're creating for so many people. So they're beyond proud of what I've been able to do. And my mom actually wants to get into it now.
SPEAKER_05Dude, you guys have a very healthy team, and what I mean by that is like it don't seem like there's drugs and alcohol involved and toxic behavior. It seems like you guys are like meditating together, praying together, working out, breeding a very healthy environment. Right. Which I like to see, man, because this business is getting weird. Like there's some weird stuff of people making money and it's very toxic. Right. Have you seen that? Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04It's everywhere, and you know, you see it all over like social media and stuff like that. People are just trying to flex, you know what I'm saying, like the lifestyle of it or whatever to attract the right people. Like the way that we attract our people is through the personal development because that's the foundation. You yourself at the core is the foundation. Like every single one of my guys I have conversations with, and we don't even talk about insurance when we're first talking about um stepping into the business. I just want to get to know them if they're good people, if they're trustworthy. Do these people have grit? Have these people been through adversity before? So those are the type of things I'm looking for when I'm, you know, looking to partner with people, because that's the way I see it. I see it as a partnership. And um that's why we do those things in the morning. You know, the working out, the praying, the meditation, all those things to pretty much test who they are morally. One, and then two, just uh get an idea of like when things go bad, how are they gonna respond? Because that's where most people mess up, Andrew. I see it all the time. It's like when when things go so uh like south, then that's when individuals start doing like crooked crooked stuff. And I wanna be I wanna know that the people I'm going in uh the battle with are battle tested. And it's everywhere in the industry now now more than ever, because of social media and what people are just like, oh, you can make a lot of money doing this. But they're cut in a lot of corners, right? Exactly. Yeah, all right.
SPEAKER_05What what is it like for an agent for their first year in insurance? What can they expect?
SPEAKER_04There's a lot of things that can be expected. The first thing I would say is be ready to be tested, like I said earlier, mentally because there's gonna be a lot of things you're gonna have to adapt to, you know, as far as being able to handle the phones, get a lot of rejection, stuff like that. So mentally you're gonna be able to see a lot, but also if you're putting in the time, you're putting in the work, especially hard at the beginning, like the way that me and our guys have been able to do, you could see a quick financial change as well. You have like before I was sharing a car with my brother and my dad, and you know, that was one of the first things I did within months in the business, and I was like, okay, there's one thing where it changed for me. Then start I did my first $30,000 month that year as well, and you know, I'm making $10, $20, $30,000 a month, and I'm like, oh shoot, that was all done in one year, but that's because we put in so much time at the beginning. But just to go back to the question, Andrew, it's a lot of time that's gonna be needed to put into it in order to develop that skill set, and you're gonna need to adapt, you're gonna need to adapt mentally to the business, and if you do that early on, it could change your life forever.
SPEAKER_05I like how you said you have to have faith. Right. Because you can question fast if this is gonna work. You get hung up on 17 times in a row, the policy you sold last week cancels, and you have to have faith that if you keep going and you keep calling, this will work out. Right.
SPEAKER_04And my mentality as well is if it's happened for that person, why can't I do it? Well, what's your lowest point been? Well, I'll get vulnerable here. I've had $7,000 with a chargebacy one carrier. I had $1,500 left in my bank account, it was fifty thousand dollars in debt. And that was one of those moments where I was talking about I was at my lowest breaking point, and I spent my last $1,500 in leads. And if I didn't sell that week, I didn't even know if I'll be in this business today, Andrew. But telling you I had a long conversation with God, and I knew what I was capable of as well, because I put in so much time and so much work into this. And that next week I did the 25 grand. And that moment forward I was like, as long as I keep putting in the work and keep doing what I gotta do, I'll never fail.
Leads, Follow-Up, And Resilience
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's so mental. Because people think it's the system, the leads, people have special leads. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_04There's no such thing as a special lead. A lead is a lead. So many different things. There's always gonna be that shiny object that everyone waves around. At the end of the day, if someone put in the request for the information, it's right in front of me, I'm calling it, and I'm calling to help this individual out. Put him in a better position. And I think that's just the root of it. At the end of the day, if they if there's a name on that inquiry, that means there was some thought at some point that they're thinking about their family and what it would look like if something did happen.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, dude, let's talk about someone filling something out real fast. Right. People fill something out when a major life event happens. And that could be a baby buying a home, losing a loved one, like these things that trigger you to really think about what if something happened to me. So when someone fills it out, in that moment, they're like, Man, this is crazy. Now, a week later they can go back to thinking they're invincible or nothing's gonna happen, or just get too busy for it. But the reason why the follow-up is so important is because six weeks later, they could get something else could happen. They could get a medical scare, they can have a doctor's appointment they're worried about, they could have a friend who told them a scary story that got them to think, and then you call them and it's like, oh, now's the time for me to get this. Right. That happens a lot, right? 100%. Absolutely. And I think it's important that people understand the psychology of people filling out these forms. But you don't care what it is, you're calling it. I don't care. As long as it's a opt-in.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, as long as they opted in. If they opt in at some point, that means you know they're thinking about it at some point. That's what I tell my people all the time. Doesn't matter to me.
SPEAKER_05And you believe you're helping them, you don't think you're bothering them?
SPEAKER_04No, at all. At the end of the day, if they requested it, they raise their hand and say, Hey, look, I'm looking for insurance. That's why they put in the inquiry. So you're gonna do your job and get the information back out that they requested.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And at the end of the day, this is something that if they're underinsured or they don't have enough insurance, and you're talking about that they can't afford their home or they can't afford the funeral costs. You're talking about life-altering things. I do not feel at all that I'm bothering them. I'll call them over and over again until they had a conversation with me. Or at least, you know, we put something in place.
SPEAKER_05I like how you when I call you guys, you go, call you back, I'm on a Prezi.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's because we're always working, we're always on the phones Monday through Saturday.
SPEAKER_05How big of a day do you guys have on Saturdays?
SPEAKER_04We start like around 8 30, 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_05And peep people can work with you on Zoom? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Anywhere? Anywhere, from anywhere. Okay. Alright. What separates top producers from average or people that just fizzle out of the industry? Because there's a lot of people that get started, dude, and I get it. There's a lot of information, and it can be overwhelming, and you don't know what to do, and you get some some crappy leads and you spend 500 bucks, and you're like, dude, I'm out. This is what this sucks. Right. What's the difference between p people that make it and don't? Their mindset.
SPEAKER_04That's ultimately what it comes down to. The the resilience. And again, it all comes down to them seeing Andrew. Like, if I see an individual right next to me is dialing the same leads and doing the same thing that I'm doing and they're seeing results, then that means it works. But a lot of people don't ask for help.
SPEAKER_05Well, they need to open their mouth and ask for help, especially when you need it. Yeah, I want to say this keep opening doors. Because if I didn't keep open and opening a door is a conversation, a question. If I didn't keep doing that, dude, I wouldn't be here.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_05And I recently started this real estate project that I have no business doing because it's way too big for me and I've never built anything. But I'm like, I'm gonna try to figure it out. So I go get this bid to do this um apartment complex, and it's 23 million dollars to build. Okay. Well, I think the numbers don't match up. I would actually lose money every single month if I did it. So I'm like, I can't do that. Right. So should I just abandon it? Well, I was like, let me keep opening doors and talk to more people and talk to more people and talk to more people, and then I just talked to this dude, and he was like, Um, let me introduce you to another dude that knows everybody, and I start meeting all these different people in that space. And yesterday, one of the bids, the framing bid, originally was $3.5 million, and I met enough people and opened enough doors to get it down to $1.2 million just on that little part. So from all these little things, getting all I'm saying is don't give up. Right, keep opening doors, don't abandon the project. Now, I do think that some people have the burning desire to win, right? And you can't stop them no matter what. Right.
SPEAKER_04Exactly.
SPEAKER_05I think that some people throw in the towel too early, right? And they can make this work. And then I think it's just not for some people. Have you noticed it's just not for some people? Yeah, 100%. Like they don't want to deal with the stress and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_04Because you gotta have a high stress tolerance when it comes to this, because stuff will happen. But yeah, you know, how bad do you want it?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and why you do it now. Do you have any goals to take care of your parents or anything? Oh, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_04That's did you go ahead. No, yeah. So that's one of the first things I want to do. I want to make sure that I'm able to get enough real estate so that way my mom doesn't have to work anymore and my dad could just operate his business solely for the pasture of it because he loves what he does. What does he do? He does audio visual, he does a lot of things actually. He actually he wants to get into real estate as well.
SPEAKER_05Nice. Awesome. Did you see the Mother's Day post that we put out? No idea. Drew, can you pull that up real quick on the Instagram?
SPEAKER_06Um yeah.
SPEAKER_05I mean, check this. Check out how cool this is when Drew pulls it up. In the meantime, while he's pulling it up, w how long did it take you to feel comfortable
Leadership, Healthy Culture, Second Follower
SPEAKER_05like this could work? How many months?
SPEAKER_04Well, till I got comfortable doing it, it took me about four months. But I always knew I had to make it work. I didn't have another option. That's the thing with me. Like I'm tunnel vision. I knew I wasn't gonna go to anything else. I dedicated basically the last three and a half years to this. So but I always knew it was gonna work, it was just a matter of when is it gonna click. But it took me like four months.
SPEAKER_05Alright, you, Adrian, and okay, let's let's watch this real quick. Did you scroll down? Right there, happy Mother's Day. Click that one. Watch this. Can you turn the sound up? Bottom right, dude.
SPEAKER_07First goal my first year is to uh be able to retire my mom as far as financially.
SPEAKER_01My mom is going to Europe in a week. I pay her her flights, her Airbnb.
SPEAKER_00Everything I do, I just think like in ten years, like, do I want to be struggling to provide for her or be comfortable in providing a life for her that I want her to live.
SPEAKER_07So the two most important days of your life is the day you're born and the day you know why. And so that's that was kind of like the day I figured out why. Take care of your mom. Yeah, I need to make sure that you know nothing bad happens. I want her to be comfortable.
SPEAKER_06I would have to ask my parents for like 20 bucks, like leave the house. Like I feel like such a bum. That's the best time.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, we we help our mom with the with the mortgage.
SPEAKER_05She's gotta be so proud of your mom.
SPEAKER_03Great woman. Like, you know how a parent provides that unconditional love growing up? She's always given me that. She always just always told me, like, you gotta love yourself no matter what. Like you're beautiful the way you are. Love yourself. When I told her I was doing life insurance, I was gonna drop out of school. My mom said, do it. Most parents said don't. You know, and that's the difference.
SPEAKER_05She just believed in you. Yes. When I got I started getting these big bonuses, I was like, I'm gonna pay the rest of my mom's house off. Oh shoot. All right. So a lot the reason I want to play that is because a lot of people come in here and the younger people, they say they're motivated to help their parents. Yeah. Period. Yeah, 100%. That's and that's how I was. I wanted to help my mom. Yeah. And the people that I cared about, and I didn't want my kids to worry about buying stuff that I saw my mom worry about. But I don't know, dude. I just think it's so cool. So we have we probably have hundreds of clips like that of people saying, I want to retire my parents, I want to do all these cool things, I want to make sure they don't have to work, my dad's back hurts, I want to, and I'm just like, yo, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But I love what you're saying. Okay. You you, Adrian, and Coelho, are you guys like the leaders of this group, kind of? Yeah. Alright. When did you realize you weren't just gonna be a producer, you were gonna take a leadership role? People, people will follow you, and why did you think people would follow you?
SPEAKER_04Well, the leadership part, or at least for me, I knew that people would follow me already just because of a lot of these people I grew up with, like a lot of people on my team, like I've known them since I was like 12 years old, eight years old, and we always had like a common vision of what we wanted to do together. It was always about how are we gonna get there? Like Sardinez, I've been basically in business with him for probably the past six or seven years. Anything that we did work-related, we did it together. That's so cool. Yeah, and then um, so he was actually working at waste management, and I was doing insurance, and at one point I was kind of like at one of those breaking points. I'm like, dude, I might just go get a job. And he goes, Dude, if you get a job, you're just screw us both over. So I need you to figure out this insurance stuff and figure it out. And I was like, Okay, I'll do it. When I joined Family First Life, one of the coolest moments of my life, to be honest, was being able to, you know, invite him over, and came being able to see make three grand because I closed three deals back to back right in front of his face, and he was like, dude, we made it because now we know the the opportunity we're gonna use in order for us to do what we're trying to do. Yeah, so that was huge for us. But um the moment that you know I did that and he joined and he started killing it, I knew that okay, he is all in, and when he was all in, because I I know who I know who I am, right? I know that I'll give 110% into anything I do. When I saw him give that type of energy, I'm like, okay, if me and him do that together, then ain't nobody stopping us. Nobody is stopping us when it comes to this, and I knew that people would feed off that energy, and then you add Coelho into the mix, where he was a former athlete and he has that dog mentality into him too, and he matched our energy, then our first year in insurance, we did a million production.
SPEAKER_05Alright, I want to show you this video. Drew, can you go to YouTube really quick? If you're watching this, this is something that I learned when I was early on in insurance. I'm gonna show you guys a video. When you get on there, Drew, if you can put in it's like type in second follower is the leader. This is dope. Okay, so the the thing behind this is if you're a leader, but you don't have your number two guy, no one else will follow you. And you're gonna see this right now. Just type in second follower is the leader. Yeah. That right there, the dancing one. Watch this video.
SPEAKER_02The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that really makes the fire. Now here's the second follower. This is a turning point. It's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut and it's not two nuts. Three is the crowd and the crowd is new. The movement must be public. It makes your outsiders to see more than just the leader of it. Everyone needs to see the followers because the new followers emulate the followers, not the leader of it. And you're gonna do more people than three more immediate leaders. Now we've got to now we have to more people. If they were on the reason not to join in now. If you think about it, it's a great fun and show other fun. When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the gut to be the first person to stand up and join in.
SPEAKER_05Alright, so I've always I've always thought about this video, and I've been lucky to have the number two, number three, like people that go, hey, I want to follow you and do this with you. And I did the same thing with the people that hired me, and I did the same thing with Sean, where I was like, yo, this guy is gonna do something awesome. I'm gonna follow him.
SPEAKER_07Right.
SPEAKER_05But the reason I'm sharing this with you is because I believe what's so special about your team is you got your number two and number three guy.
SPEAKER_07Right.
SPEAKER_05And you guys are dialed in on the same page. Absolutely, and you could do some serious damage with that. We will, yeah, I know you will. All right, what's the hardest part about running a sales organization and being the guy in charge?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's dealing with other people's emotions as well, because not all of us are the same people. Like I operate some way, but another individual may operate a different way, and it's being able to coach their mindset and being patient enough in order for them to develop into that person that you need them to be. And uh, you know, some people go through different adities. Like, my adities are different than maybe someone like uh someone else on my team's adversities are. So when you don't necessarily have all the answers for them, you kind of have to like let them, you know, struggle a little bit
Managing Emotions And Company Growth
SPEAKER_04in order for them to be able to adapt into the individual they need to be. I feel like that's the hardest part about growing a sales organization, but at the same time, it's super necessary because like the way I coach my people is that I want to transform them into leaders, I want them to be able to go through enough adversity so then when the next guy comes along, you know, they're able to mold them the same way so they can lead their team as well.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I love that. How many times have you doubted if this would work or not?
SPEAKER_04A few times a few times, but I also understood that that was gonna come at some point. There would be adversity ahead at some point. I felt like in this business or anything that you do at the highest level, you're gonna have to go through something, you're gonna have to be at those breaking points at some point.
SPEAKER_05If you're a human, right, like didn't Tom Brady say everybody has something different they're dealing with, right? It it's it doesn't come in the same form, but it does the same thing to people. And then we did a call, 48 people or crazy amount of people on it. I said, How many people on here are dealing with something you don't tell people about? And the point was to see like everybody's got something they're worried about. It could be child support, it could be not seeing your kid, it could be medical stuff, it could be all kinds of stuff, right? Right. Guess how many people put something in the chat? How many? Every person on the call, every single person on the call. But I like that you said that, like everybody's going with something now. The leadership principles and not giving up helps and pushing through and being around other people that are pushing through. That helps. Right. And being around people helps too. Yeah, absolutely. All right. FFL it the carriers have never seen anything like FFL. They're like, okay, we're now giving we're now doing $11 million a month with Trans America. We're doing uh our team did just our team, dude. I was bagging groceries, $49 million of issue paid last month. The company's pacing a billion dollars, we believe we're small still. Yeah, we think we're still small, and that there's a lot of damage we can do because this is our 13th year in business. Why do you think the company's growing? You've been around a couple places. Why do you think it's growing? I think it starts at the top.
SPEAKER_04I mean, like, I think it comes down to the leaders, like people like you, people like Sean, and you know, just how transparent and you know, I remember the last conversation, the last meeting that we had, where it's like you guys are constantly just moving, constantly talking to people, constant like the leadership is there, and I feel like with the leadership's there and the foundation is strong, then that's what's gonna allow so much more growth.
SPEAKER_05It's there's a lot of leaders, dude. Nina and you got Nina and Hayden, Trey Honeycutt, Zach Tordowski, all these dude, and they there's there's hundreds right of good leaders. I tried to think about it like this. This is what I came up with. Like, a lot of our team has been together a long time, and we've been through a lot of things together, and we've had a lot of things happen, okay? And I try to think like if we're all here to help in some way, it's like having a really big family. And it I think we all know that if you have a really big family, it's better than um relying on one person who's working three jobs that that doesn't have a lot of time and doesn't have a lot of support, it's more stressful on that person. And basically, what I came up with is like there's so much support, it's like being a part of a very big present family, right? Absolutely, and then Sean Mike's also an animal, like dude is and he thinks this is so tiny, he's like, dude, we haven't even done anything, yeah. Yeah, but so that's what you think. You think it's what about what do you think about the bonuses that get paid out? Oh, they're incredible.
SPEAKER_04The fact that you're getting non charge back of a bonus that can help with so many things, like you know, whether it's like paying your bills or paying Your rent and just for doing your job, doing stuff that you're already gonna do regardless. Because, like, for example, I'm not even really I wasn't even looking at the bonus at some point. When they come in, I'm like, oh, that's nice.
SPEAKER_05Dude, $5.2 million last month was paid out. Amazing. Like people are like people are out of their minds, and that's producers and managers getting paid a percentage of what FFL does. Yeah. Which is pretty amazing. Alright, what excites you, what excites you most about the industry right now?
SPEAKER_04How much more efficient it's getting. Like we were talking about the inbounds and stuff like that, like how that's changing the game, like how we're able to implement that. It's just like as time goes on, I feel like it's getting you know more simple simplified in order for us to be able to get deposits or help families out. And that's what excites me the most because it's like if you were here a few years ago, you would see how much more efficient that it's getting. And so it's like if you were making it work then, imagine what you're gonna be able to do now, and it's just gonna create so much more volume for the people that are coming in. People are gonna get help be able to help um help families
Faster Systems, Future Calling, Contact
SPEAKER_04faster, get the positive faster, reinvest into the business. It's just life-changing results at a quicker rate, which is something that excites the hell out of me. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_05How does somebody reach you to work with you? Social media? Yeah, social media. Okay, and then lastly, what do you think like your calling is in this industry five years down the road? To inspire.
SPEAKER_04To inspire, like that's the thing. I want to be able to share my story and be able to share that. And like with basketball, I'm trying to do something. I'm 5'10, 5'11. Like, the odds are not in my favor. And the odds, I felt like, in a lot of ways, haven't been in my favor. And I felt like I've gone through a lot more adversity than most people. But regardless of the adversity, regardless of the obstacles that life will life or the business will try to throw at you, I'm still here. And that's the message I want to continue to convey throughout my whole career in insurance and my whole life, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I love that. Alright, my man, thank you for coming in. Thanks for sharing. We're excited to build a big company with you. If you're watching, hit him up. We put his social media on here, and then uh drop a comment if there's anything you want us to talk about with our next guest, any questions. Uh, but bro, thank you, man. I'm excited. We're gonna help a ton of people. Yes, sir. You're a great dude. We're gonna crush it, and thank you for coming in.
SPEAKER_04I appreciate you, man.