The Former Baseball Player Writing 70 Insurance Apps a Month (Ep. 278)

You can hear the moment when “I’ll figure it out” turns into “I’m not quitting.” Nick Coello joins us to unpack how he went from a college baseball trajectory and working brutal jobs to becoming a fast-rising life insurance producer, hitting a $72K month and calling $15K take-home profit a “bad month.” The best part is that it’s not framed as luck or a secret script. It’s reps, discipline, and learning how to stay steady when the phones get ugly.

We talk openly about what most insurance content dances around: the gap between issue-paid numbers and what you actually keep after chargebacks, lead costs, and business expenses. Nick breaks down how he thinks about investing in leads, why mortgage protection builds elite selling skill, and why inbound leads can be a true game changer when you understand cost per acquisition and the numbers behind the business. We also get into the constant temptation to blame leads and why that mindset quietly kills more new agents than any vendor ever could.

From there, we go deeper on resilience and culture. How do you handle a day where appointments no-show and policies cancel back-to-back? How do you avoid carrying negative energy into the next call? Nick shares the routines and standards that keep his team sharp, plus why surrounding yourself with producers changes what you believe is possible. We also challenge the next step: working on the business, hiring help, and using recruiter math to scale an agency instead of staying stuck as a solo producer.

If you’re a new life insurance agent, a seasoned producer trying to improve persistency, or a builder looking to scale with better systems and culture, you’ll take practical notes from this one. Subscribe for more conversations with top producers, share this with an agent who’s been blaming the leads, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway: what are you going to do differently this week?

*****DISCLAIMER****** 

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up everybody? Andrew Taylor here. Thank you for joining our podcast where we've interviewed thousands of top producers in the life insurance industry. Today we have a special guest, Nick Coelho. Thanks for coming in. Thank you for having me. Nick, what's your biggest month in insurance? 72 grand. Pull that thing closer to you. It's like yeah. 72 grand. How long have you been selling life insurance? I'm going into my third year now. And what did you do before?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I was a collegiate athlete. Played baseball my entire life. Nice. Were you good? I would say so, yeah. Were you gonna go to the big leagues? I mean, that was that was the plan, right? That was the plan. And what happened? Um, just you know, life in general. You know, played baseball for basically my entire life. Um, I was a junior in college. Things happen, um, you know, whether it's injuries, coach, bad season, and just like real life, wanting to change my situation, seeing my parents work, whatever the case may be, I wanted to be able to help them out and then obviously start making money, figure out what it is that I wanted to do. Uh I was in I went to college simply for baseball, right? Not because I wanted to go to college or felt like college was gonna take me where I wanted to be. So I honestly only went to school just to play ball. And then once that dream of playing ball kind of like slipped away or kind of faded away, and then transitioning into the real world trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I ended up here. That's kind of where we're at now. What kind of injuries? Well, uh ankle injury, a little bit of like arm pain here in the elbow from throwing, a little too much. But position too serious. Infield, third base, shortstop, second base. Nice. Had some you know, good hands, double plays, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Nice, awesome, bro. Now you wanted to help your parents. What did they did? You grow up with money? No.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

I mean, not that we were dead broke poor, but you know, my parents came here from Venezuela. My mom was born in Cuba, raised in Venezuela, my dad's been Venezuelan. They came here with nothing to their name, and they grinded it out and been able to provide for me, you know. When I was a kid, I always grew up having the cleats, having the baseball glove, being able to go to tournaments, and now when I look back at it, when I have conversations with my mom, she's like, you have no idea what it took to even try to help you get to those tournaments, and that obviously gave me the opportunity to play, be able to get in front of scouts. You know, I went to college, got full scholarships everywhere, didn't drop a dime to go to school. Um, and I'm just blessed to be able to do that, and you know, part of me growing up and obviously maturing and seeing what my parents had to go to to get to the point where they're at now, I want to be able to essentially pay them back for everything that they've sacrificed or everything that they've put off to the side to allow me to live my dream and chase my goals. That's awesome. And do you have any siblings?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, I have a little brother. He actually uh works with me now. No awesome, bro. Yeah, yeah, it's funny because you don't know who's watching you, but somebody's always watching you, and I think it's important to remember that. Like uh the best thing that happened at the last event was this kid came up to me and he's like, dude, I've been following you for three years, and like what you've done has inspired me. And I I didn't even think about somebody I don't even know watching you, but the people you do know are watching you, and you probably probably set a good example for your brother. How's he doing in sales?

SPEAKER_00 3:46

It honestly makes me so proud, like thinking about my brother where he was at, because my brother just turned 19 years old. Okay, and he's crushing it. He's doing I think his highest month was 40 grand at 19 years old. He's doing like 30 consistently. He's if he's not one of my top producer on my team right now, he's definitely in the top three. He's killing it. Being able to see him, you know, from young Dumb Brook, teenager to then developing so fast as a man, and then obviously, you know, in sales and in his career, like from where he started to where he's at now, how he's been able to like polish his skill set, make sales, and become independent. Where before it was like, hey, big bro, Nick, I need help with this and that. Now it's like he doesn't even ask for help, super self-sufficient, and he just gets it going. Like, I think this past week he ended up the week with 13 grand, 13k. Insane. That's awesome. Seeing that like from a big big brother perspective, you know, where the skill set that I developed in in the years that I've been in the industry, and then taking him under my wing, like, hey, don't go to college, like just follow what I'm doing, and you're gonna thank me later. And he just jumped with it. He graduated high school, got license, started dialing, booked a couple of points for me, and then he started getting rolling, started doing things on his own, and now he's just like he's he's rolling, he's he's going crazy, and he's just gonna keep growing. How old are you? I'm 24. 24.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

What okay, do you do you have a college degree? An associate's degree. Okay. Legit question. Where do you go work if you have an associate's degree if you don't get into sales? I'm legitimately asking.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Bro, I don't know. I really don't know. Um I'm sure there's good jobs. I mean, there probably is, but it's not gonna be something that's gonna allow you to, you know, get to that next level that you're wanting to be. And it all depends on what type of individual you are, of course, right? Like if you're okay with doing the bare minimum and then getting bare minimum results and staying as a, you know, average Joe, right? We're not here to be average, we're here to do some damage, we're here to grow, we're here to make serious money, we're here to change people's lives.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

I wonder how much you make on average if you you don't have a college degree and you go out in the job market and look for things. What do you think you make on average?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Maybe four grand a month if you're lucky.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

If that. What do you now what do you legit what do you legitimately keep? Like after chargebacks, after leads, what do you legitimately keep in your bank account? On a bad month, I'm gonna say 15. 15 grand. Bad month. So for people watching, when you see issue paid numbers, it doesn't mean they're keeping all that money. There's chargebacks, business expenses, uh, depending on a lot of factors. Like one agent that we know was using a lead vendor that was reselling the lead so many times that their persistency was zero. Like everything they sold charged back. They didn't keep any of their money, which is why it's important to use legit lead vendors. Um, but I like that I like when people come in and they're honest and they go, yo, I wrote 40, but I kept take home after everything 15. If you keep on average 15, what are you writing in that month? Like 30, 32? So you're writing 30,000 and your comp is over a hundred percent with us, right? You're writing thirty thousand to keep after all expenses fifteen thousand profit in your account, which is why you can also lose money. Of course. Do you see new agents come in and lose money?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yes, but at the same time, like it's okay at the very beginning because you're starting off your business, like it's not about at least the way I see it. Obviously, everyone's in business to be profitable. That's why we are in business because we do want to make money, we do want to like compound over time, but at the same time, like at the very beginning, it's just about getting the skill set down, putting in the reps, getting the experience, you know, developing your relationship with money. Like, okay, you can be profitable one month, maybe you're not as profitable the other month, but at the end of the day, this is a long game. It's the way I like to see it is it's not a get rich quick, it's more of a get rich for sure. The longer you're in the game, the longer the compounds are gonna result, and you have to just be okay with the journey. At the end of the day, the journey is gonna take you through the highs and the lows, and that's where your mindset has to like just be strong and understand where you're where you're at, where you want to be, right? Um, so that's kind of where I'm at. I mean, at the end of the day, like, yes, profitability is important, but also one of the most important things as well. Again, it's it's a marathon, not a race, way I like to see it. It's about who can stay in business the longest. Because if you're in business for the long run, like over time the the results are gonna compound.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah. But let's go back to that. So if you get into life insurance, you are not an employee, you have to buy your own health insurance, you have to go find your own customers. And back in the day, if you got into life insurance, do you know what happened on your first day? They say, Hey, we we want you to write down 200 people you know, their names and phone numbers, and so you write it down and you think this is just some exercise of how popular you are, and then they turn the sheet around and they go, Here's your leads, and you're gonna go sell these people and you're gonna get referrals. Now, I never wanted to do that, so I never wanted to get into life insurance until somebody showed me a way

Real Take Home After Expenses

SPEAKER_01 9:58

where I could invest in marketing to get leads to call people that are open to the idea somewhat of getting life insurance. And to me, that was the business that I was gonna run, but it was different from a job, but it was very hard to break my employee mindset to invest money to make money. So I only wanted to spend 50 bucks a week. I'm like, bro, I'm I'll spend fifty dollars a week, but in reality, what do people have to spend to get good results?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

I mean, it all honestly, it all just depends on what type of lead you're running. I'm gonna say, like, at the bare minimum, I would say five grand. Five grand. Any top producer in a month?

SPEAKER_01 10:41

In a month, bare minimum. Okay. And you guys spend it more than most people do on leads. Yeah, I mean, at one point we were spending like 13, 14 grand a month. But how much were you writing? Bare minimum 50. Bare minimum fifty. Yeah. So the more leads that came in, the more you guys would write. Of course. And what kind of leads do you like running?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

I mean, I started with mortgage protection, and that's currently what I still run. I mean, I feel like if you develop the skill set where like you can

Buying Leads And Mortgage Protection

SPEAKER_00 11:15

sell at a high level with mortgage protection, selling anything else just comes super easy. Like if you're doing final expense or whatever the case may be. I feel like the skill set that you develop when you're doing mortgage protection, since it's such a detailed presentation and you have to like dive so deep into with your client to understand your their situation, the way that you learn how to overcome objections, understand the products, break it down for the client, paint the picture overall for that client. It's because the number one thing is is the skill set, right? The thing that that separates the average producer to a top producer is is the experience, the reps, the skill set. And the only way you're gonna develop the skill set is by putting in the reps, right? The only difference between me and someone that's new is time. So as long as you put in the work throughout that time, you're gonna develop the skill set to then get the results.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah, and I love mortgage mortgage protection to me is the top-tier lead. Shockingly, there's a lot of mortgage protection open because a lot of people stopped using it. So throughout we have four big lead vendors that you can email. I don't know exactly who you would email to get set up. You can, if if you're interested in it, you can put it in the comments and we'll get we'll connect you. But we have four mailhouses that have tons of availability all over the country for the original old school mailers. Some people don't like them because the cost went up, but you're still making a crazy profit and it's a really good lead, and persistency is really high. We also have a bunch of options for your own campaigns for the IVR uh mail that goes out as well. And there's a lot of availability. There's not a lot of availability in certain areas, but if you're willing to use your license to work anywhere in the country, there's there is a lot of availability. But I do want to say this to everybody watching, especially if you're building a team. There was a we started, FFL started only on mortgage protection. That's the way the company started. And we were flying all over the place to run leads because there wasn't enough leads in certain areas, and we couldn't sell over the phone. And final expense leads came out, and guess what everybody said? Forget mortgage? No, they said final expense doesn't work, we only want mortgage leads because it was change, and the premiums were lower, and the it was a different sale, it was harder to sell. So one of our guys said, never use final expense leads because mortgage is better, it's the only way to go. He got his team to hate final expense leads. Guess where he is? I don't know where he is. He's not selling life insurance anymore because they got obsessed with one lead type, and when it when they couldn't get them, they collapsed because they sold everybody that all the other leads were bad. What I always did is I was like, I'm gonna go run them myself and I'm gonna sell a lot of insurance off of them, and I'm gonna tell everybody about it, and then just change the perspective. Then Facebook leads come out, and everyone says, Don't use Facebook leads, Facebook leads don't work. You have to just use direct mail. The only way you could sell is direct mail. And we're like, okay, let's run a bunch of them, prove they work, and how many sales do you think are done now from Facebook leads a day? Hundreds of thousands. The reason I'm saying this is because as an agent, whether you're a manager or a producer, the only thing a lead is doing is opening up a conversation to talk about insurance. That's it. It doesn't matter if it's a final expense lead or a mortgage lead or an internet lead or an inbound. If someone is willing to even discuss at all life insurance with you, that is a lead. And sometimes people think leads are sales and they complain and they're like, dude, I didn't sell I didn't sell these leads, these leads suck. Like, bro, that's what that's why this is hard for people, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Of course. I mean, everybody can do it, but not anybody will do it.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

And it all just again, it depends, whatever lead you're running, whether it's a mortgage protection, final expense, IUL, whatever it is. I mean, you're right, like with what you just said, the lead is what's gonna give you the opportunity to sell the insurance. But at the end of the day, it's up to you, your skill set, and how you're able to help your client. That's gonna the obviously give you the result that you're looking for, whether you make the sell or not. So, I mean, you open up the opportunity for yourself by buying the lead, but that's not gonna guarantee the result. You have to put in the work and obviously have the skill set to get the result.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Yeah. So listen to this. I want to bring this up. Have you done inbounds yet? Of course. And what what's your opinion on them? Game changer.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

How? I mean first of all, the lead call is you, they know what they're they're calling you about, and they're obviously asking you for your help. So all you have to do is figure out a way to help your client. You're not outbounding, and there's nothing wrong with outbounding. I personally do it myself. I've actually found a good flow between outbounding and inbounding, but the inbound calls are game changer.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Okay, so you know what a CPA is? Cost per per ad. Per acquisition. Acquisition. So how much are you spending to make a sale? So some of our

Lead Types And Why They Work

SPEAKER_01 17:00

top guys are running cost per acquisition a hundred dollars for the whole month. So every hundred bucks they spend, they're getting a sale, which is crazy numbers on inbounds. But we get a lot of complaints. So let's see. One of the lead vendors texts me this hey, an agent of yours is complaining. They have a six seventy-five dollar cost per acquisition. They're name-dropping you and saying that they will convince FFL to never do business with you again. All these complaints, all this stuff. But I think how do we how do you educate a new agent that you're not gonna sell them all? It's a big numbers game. Not everyone's gonna say, oh yeah, I'm here's my here's my banking info. How do you prepare them for that so you don't get complaints like this?

SPEAKER_00 17:54

I mean, number one thing is just like mindset and then understanding that it's just part of the game, right? Like we're in a we're in a business where it's just constant adversity and then constant no, right? So, I mean, I'm pretty sure you've heard this before about one no or a thousand no's is a step closer to a yes, right? So as long as you put in the reps, you stay consistent with what you're investing or what type of lead type you're running, whether it's the mailer, whether it's an inbound, whatever the case is, you just have to buy into the process, trust the process, and then put in the work. Because at the end of the day, like you have like you said, you have to invest into your business to be able to get the return on your business. So you can't be scared to, you know, put yourself in the game, throw some skin in the game.

unknown 18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

So I mean Do you have agents come in though and go, These leads don't work, or this or that. Do you have that, or is your is your culture so good that right off the bat they know they see people selling, they see people getting hung up on?

SPEAKER_00 18:54

I mean, it's a little bit of both, right? You're always gonna have those people that that hop on the inbounds or hop on whatever lead, they get up on it right away, and then you're gonna have those agents that they'll have one good week, and then the next week they'll have a bad week and then they'll blame it on the leads. They'll say, Oh, these leads suck, or whatever it is, and I'll tell them straight up, I'll be like, bro, the leads don't suck. You suck. And it's not that I tell them like, hey, you suck, but it's just like, hey, like, fix your mindset. Because the way that you're gonna approach the call is gonna be different if you if you believe in the system, if you believe in what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Dude, now people will get fired up, go out and start calling, get smoked on the phones, and then be very discouraged. What do you do in that situation?

Inbound Calls And CPA Reality

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Understand the bigger picture. Understand, like, why are you doing the work that you're doing? Where do you want to be? Why are you doing the work in the first place? What are your goals? You're gonna let one bad day, one bad call, one bad client, one chargeback derail you from the potential that this business will or this career path will take you. Like at the end of the day, it's a game of adversity. That's what life comes with. Things are gonna be hard. Nothing's gonna be easy. You have to earn everything that you get. You can't let one back call, one chargeback, one social objection, banking objection, whatever the case is, derail you from the rest of your day. Because I've had instances where, damn, I didn't make the sale. But guess what? Am I gonna go mope around for two hours and stay stuck on that sale, or am I gonna hop right back on the phone? Just like life. Just like life. You gotta get back up and you gotta keep going. And you can't let that it again, it's a big game of energy. Like you can't let that negative energy transfer onto your next call.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Do you ever get in the doom loop?

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I think everybody does. I think everybody does, and that's just human nature. But again, it all just comes down to number one, who you are as a person. Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe in what you're doing? And at the same time. Always no. No. Because again, one of the most important things is also who you're surrounded with, right? Like you can have a bad day, but you can have five people in the office that make sales. It goes to show you. Like, hey, I can have a bad day, five people have good days. So tomorrow I can show up, I can have a good day, and then they might not have such a good day.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Dude, so check this out. I'm 18 years old. I get my license. I live at home with my mom. Me and my girlfriend just break up. I'm dialing, sounding like I'm sad on the phone. I throw the talon. I'm like, I'm not going to do this. I'd rather go get my job back at Stater Brothers at the grocery store. I had already bought a plane ticket to the conference

Mindset For Rejection And Chargebacks

SPEAKER_01 21:45

and paid for it. Back then, the company I worked with, you had to pay four or five hundred bucks to go and buy a plane ticket. I had never been on a plane. Okay, so I'm 18. I've never been on an airplane. And my mom Mom's like, why don't you stop being a wuss? Because I'm telling her that I'm quitting. Why don't you stop being a wuss because it's pathetic and just go see what everybody else is doing. If I didn't go, I wouldn't be selling life insurance. Or I wouldn't even be in the industry. I've had so many times, dude, where I wanted to throw the talent. I'm overwhelmed. And then I just go, you know what? I'm going to wake up tomorrow. I'm going to keep going. My big thing, because I don't think I'm really good at this, but my big thing is I will not quit. Regardless of what happens, I'm going to keep going no matter what. And when I was in the field, I had this rule where I'm never backing out on an appointment. I will never make an excuse and go, I'm not going to go because I want to do this. So I think a lot of things is not quitting this business. And I was telling you guys last night at dinner. The thing I'm the most grateful for is that I have not jumped around, uh hopped around from company to company, and I just outlasted whether things were going good or bad. I just outlasted everybody. The first year, compared to the second year, compared to the third year. I feel like it It's so much better.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Yeah, it does. And at the end of the day, the the business is hard, but it does get easier the longer you are in the game, just because again, it's just like starting anything from the beginning. You you don't know anything. You're starting. It's like riding a bike, right? Or learning how to walk. You start from the very beginning with no knowledge, no skill set, no business experience, and your relationship with money, you might be immature, whatever the case is. So the journey, in like at least for me, what it's taken me through, like my relationship with money has changed, my skill set has developed, I've matured as a person, like my vision has gotten so much clearer, and everything has just gotten easier from learning how to make my first sale to then producing 30, 40, 50, 60, 70k a month, and then being able to bring people in and then teach them how to do the same thing, right? It's just it's a game of growth, and in that game of growth, you're always gonna be tested. It all comes down to again what type of individual you are and how resilient you are as a person. Because hard work beats talent 99% of the time. So you have to be resilient, you have to be consistent, and you have to be disciplined enough to outlast a suck, like you said, right? Because I've had friends that I've came into business with around the same time, and the only difference between me and them is that I outlasted all of the adversity and they quit when it got hard. That's huge.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

We've had a lot of scary moments as the company was being built of things not going well. Like, dude, we had a our main lead vendor, the dude disappeared. He went to like another country or something, and we were pre-paying for everything. So we all gave him all our money for the week, and then we couldn't get a hold of him. Like we've had some crazy things happen, but I think it's important. Uh I think I think uh Sardinus said like you just have to have faith. Of course, and it's such a powerful thing, dude, because it it is unknown, but statistically the numbers do work out if you keep doing everything every single time. Yeah, they do. It's strange how they do. Now you're doing 30k a month, but you could do 70, 80, 100. 100%, and you've done 72. Why don't you do 70 to 100 every month?

SPEAKER_00 25:51

I could. I could, but at the same time, I've had a huge like mindset shift when it comes to the business overall, right? Because there's obviously like working in your business and working on your business. I feel like I'm at a point right now where like if I wanted to lock myself in my room, doubt all of these leads, buy these leads, just invest into myself, crank out 70, 80, 90, 100 grand, I could do it, and I will do it because I need to have that hundred grand a month under my belt. But at the same time, like with my brother and all of the other

Working On The Business

SPEAKER_00 26:29

younger guys I have on my team, I'm investing more into them right now than I'm investing into myself because I'm just understanding the bigger picture, and as a collective, I want all of us to move up together because if you help people out and you help other people change their lives as well, it's always gonna pay you back ten times more. So that's where I'm kind of at right now, where I've kind of taken not that I've taken myself completely off of producing because I still want to obviously lead by example and be in the trenches with my guys, but at the same time, m most of my investment and most of the things that I'm doing right now are going straight into them so that they can have that success. They can make more money. And then obviously, as they get compensated for it, I'm getting compensated for it too. We get the ball rolling, we continue to grow, and then we just run this, you know, run this up to the moon, honestly speaking.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yeah, that's huge. So you I want to challenge you on this. Do you have do you have any employees? One thing for me when I was 18 and I started selling, the person that was mentoring me at that time they they're like, you have to hire an employee. And I'm 18. And like I just moved out of my my mom's house to get my own pad. So I hired an employee immediately because I th I was always thinking I could sell more and they can take some of these tasks that are taking up my time, and I can also hire more, and I'm really grateful for that. And I think one, people don't want to do it because it's uncomfortable, but if we want to real build a

Hiring Help And Recruiter Math

SPEAKER_01 28:18

real business, which is very, very one of the best opportunities in the country when it comes to running a business because it's low overhead and you can get overrides, you can get bonuses, you can win trips, you can do all these things. But I think you guys are you guys should have hired employees a long time ago. You guys could handle that, and you're working with your three best friends, right? You guys all grew up together?

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Yeah, we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Does anybody have any employees? No, it's just us, bro. You guys could grow so much faster if you invest in some people to help you. Shannon, who does our helps us with contracting, which she's helped you, right? She's awesome. She's awesome. How much has she helped you? A bunch, dude. She just hit 10 years with us. And the other thing is, as you do this, think about how you can make an impact in their life and they can join you as they can participate as you grow. You know? But I think you guys should do that. Not that that's what this is a this podcast is about, but you guys could have recruiters, you could have all kinds of stuff. Now, let me run this by a business person, okay? If you're watching this. What's the average override you get? I mean, it depends on the spread. What's what's your spread on a new agent? Let's say 30, 40%? Like 40%. Okay, so you're making 40% on a new agent in overrides. Yes. So if they make a sale, they're getting 80%, you're getting 40%.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Okay. If you if they sell 10 policies in a month, how much do you make? Bare minimum. Like bare minimum four grand. Four grand. Okay. So if you're watching this and you're a business owner or you have you have a business mind, follow me here. If you hire one recruiter, and let's say you pay her for pay him or her four thousand dollars a month, and they find one person, they pay for themselves. Do you think they could find one person in an entire month if they're talented? For sure. I mean, they should find more. Hold on. But let's say just one. Now the next month they find one more. Now you have two. So now that one employee is making you a positive $4,000 a month. And let's say the next month now they find one more. Positive eight. Now you're positive eight. Now the next month they find one more. You're positive 12k from hiring one person. Now this person has to be a good recruiter because not everybody can do this, it's hard. But you could train them, you can give them resources, they can you can give them bonuses, you can do all these different things. But what's the worst case scenario? They only find one. No, that they don't find any, and it's just not a fit, and you have to find someone else to do it. Make sense? Like why I part of one of my biggest regrets is not doing that faster, sooner and more aggressive. As soon as I started making money, I was like, I don't want to lose this money. I'm gonna go invest in other things, not into insurance. I'm gonna go invest in real estate or some other stuff, and I could have just, dude, we could have been so much bigger, so much faster, but I was playing scared. But luckily, somebody pushed me to hire some employees early on. And the the way they talked me into doing it is they were like, dude, if you make one sale a week, that would pay for an employee. If you make two sales a week, that would pay for an employee and your office rent. If you make three sales a week, that pays for an employee, your office rent, and your leads. If you make four sales a week, it pays for employee, office rent, leads, and you get to keep that money. Everything so just to break even for me every week, I I wanted to make 10 sales a week, but the first three were just to pay for everybody else. Now, what it did for me though is I I worked way harder because other people were relying on me, like legitimately, and I didn't want to not be able to pay them for sure. Now, have you read any books about changing your mindset from employee to self-employed to business owner?

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Not really a big reader, I'll be honest with you. Um, but I am a huge like podcast guy. I listen to a lot of uh Andy Frisella. I don't know if you know who that is. Yeah, I listen to him a lot since the very beginning of my like sales career. That's who I've been listening to. And he's he's allowed me to like obviously see things a little differently, and I also give credit just to like my past as an athlete. Like my athlete mindset has transitioned into the business world. Like when I was

Training Inputs And Daily Discipline

SPEAKER_00 33:24

an athl athlete, I was always used to putting in the extra work, showing up to practice early, staying later, putting in the extra work that nobody else would put in, and it's just translated into business. And then listening to things like that, for example, Andy Frisella, and then being around individuals like that force me to grow, like my guys on my squad, people that I've you know spoken to, um, it just results in growth, and this is a game of growth. You just gotta constantly grow, evolve.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

How important is it to plug into everything if you're an a new agent?

SPEAKER_00 33:53

It's huge. It's huge. Because again, you're gonna have hard days, you're gonna have days where you don't want to do it, you're gonna have days where you wake up to a chargeback, whatever it may be, right? So your mind has to be sharp. And again, we get paid based off of how we perform. Like if you hop on a call, you gotta be ready to rip, you gotta be ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Alright, so for a new agent, there's gonna be I like I like that you said that there's gonna be a day where you wake up and you have three appointments, because you're just getting started, and they all no-show you. So they do not get on. And you're like, dang, that sucks. And then you're gonna get t two emails right away that the two policies you wrote last week both cancelled. Have you had that day before? Yes. And what do you think about that day?

SPEAKER_00 34:39

I mean, it sucks, right? Everybody that ever everyone has to go through it at some point. Um but again, it's just it's just part of the game. And the better you get, the sharper you get, the easier it gets, and the less chargebacks you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah. Have you ever been scared to call a client back because you don't want him to cancel? No. Dude, I used to be scared to call customers back because I'm like, I don't want to remind them they got a policy. What if they want to cancel? No, never.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Never. Like if there's an insufficient fund or whatever the case is. You call them. Trust me, I'm calling them. I'm calling them, hey Bobby, what's up? And we're getting straight to it.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

I love that. Now, how do you feel like you don't bother people? Because when I came in, I felt like I was bugging people, I was pestering them when I would call them. I did not feel like I was helping them early on.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

I mean, if if there's a need for them to have the insurance, right? Like at the end of the day, part of being an agent is also understanding your client. Like, you're just not there to sell them just to sell them. Like you're you're selling them a solution to their problem. Like, hey, if your husband, God forbid, something did happen to him, like, how are you gonna be able to afford this home? I'm not gonna be able to. Okay, so there's obviously a problem, right? So it makes sense for your husband to get this policy to make sure that if something happens to him, you're taken care of, correct? Correct. So if there's a need, right? A strong enough Y to get the insurance, whatever they throw at you, you already have all of the ammo that you need and it's common sense, right? Would you want to have a plan to make sure that you're taken care of or not? Because if you don't have it, how does that look like? Most of the time when they're looking into it and there's actually a need, they're gonna tell you, yeah, it's I'm gonna be forced to make some tough choices. And that's what we do, right? We help people not to have to rush into making any decisions. Be able to leave that money behind for them to help their families out.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

What's your plans with your family that you want to you you mentioned you want to take care of your family?

SPEAKER_00 36:41

I want to pay off my parents' house. They're still paying their mortgage. Um, so that's like number one thing. I mean, they've been paying into it for so long. And again, they've literally given me everything since I was a kid. I always had the cleats, always had the glove, always went to the tournaments. Last the least I could do is pay off their house. And that's the goal. What do they owe on their house? Like 80 something grand. Bro, let's do this. It's gonna it's gonna get done. It's already done. It's already done. When? By the end of the year. By the end of the year. Stamp it.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Alright, let's stamp it. We'll come back and I'll show proof. I believe you. Yeah. Because I think that you're you guys are operating. You you guys are so good. Because this is you and your best friends. That you did you grow up in the same neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 37:30

No, but we went to the same middle school. Okay. And some of us went to high school together. Even if we didn't go to the same high school, we would go play sports, do whatever.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

So these are your boys you grew up with. Yeah, these are my boys. That you are building this business with. Yes. And they're all animals, but you guys don't know how good you are. And you keep telling us that. I know. Because you guys there's like something special about the culture of your team. What what time do you get up every day?

SPEAKER_00 37:57

4 50 a.m. Alarm goes off. What do you do? You go to the gym first? Hit the gym, get some weights, listen to my podcasts, get in the sauna. Every day. Every single day. Monday through Friday. Do you do a meditation, a prayer, or anything like these guys do? A prayer. Sometimes I do the six-phase meditation. It's like 10 minutes in the sauna. So I just, you know, with my headphones in, everything goes dark, locked in, walk out of there, dialed. By 8 a.m., we're at the office and we're ripping.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

And you guys don't drink a lot, you don't party a lot? At all. Do you have a girlfriend?

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

How long have you been with her?

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Almost three years. She's ready for a ring? I hope so.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Cool. I think so, yeah. You think she's the one? For sure. Awesome, bro. For sure. So what the reason I'm saying it's special is because it's healthy. Yes. Your guys' team is very healthy. And I've met all of you guys, and you have the same aura of get up early. You want to help people. You're not out to hurt anybody. You guys work like animals 12, 14 hour days. You every Monday through Saturday, do you guys use you guys take Sunday off?

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Yeah, Sundays. I mean, you know who doesn't take Sundays off? My brother. 19 years old ripping. He wants to he wants to pass everybody.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

He does. Yeah. But dude, so I think if you guys get a little more aggressive, like you hire some staff, you start to run a business, I think you pass a lot of people. Because what you have so special.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

For sure. And I mean, it's it's just the beginning, right? Since we've made this transition over, like it's just been growth every single week. New people getting paid. We're moving quick, like we're growing, we're making the adjustments, and everything's just flowing a lot smoother. Now you guys le you left FFL. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

You started FFL. How good were you doing?

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Doing pretty pretty solid. But you were new. I was new, and as soon as I came in, I mean, again, we had all of the resources to win. And I'm not gonna lie to you, Andrew. Like I came into the industry, it took me three weeks to make my first sale. After I made my first sale, boom, domino effect within a week, 11k as a new agent. As a new agent. So as soon as all that money came in at the very beginning, I was like, whoa, this is real. Like, this is real. And after that, it was just alright, let's get to work. Invest into some leads, and let's keep it going. And after that, it was hit it's history. Now we're here.

Leaving Then Returning Stronger

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Now, do you think it was a blessing that you left and came back? Yes. Why?

SPEAKER_00 40:46

It taught us a lot. It taught us a lot in terms of obviously the people that you're surrounded with, it taught us how to survive. It taught us how to maneuver through certain things. It obviously allowed a lot of us to grow and allowed a lot a lot of us, especially like the guys, to understand like realistically how the business works. Right? And now that we understand and we're more fine-tuned and we're more experienced, the best decision we could have done is come back.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Because what's it been like you're back since you're back?

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Our new agents are making the most money that they've ever made. Why? Resources, carriers, and culture. And culture, yeah. It's just a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

There was a girl named Maddie in here, and she I think she's 23, 24, and a couple months ago, she told an agent, a new guy here named Pedro, payroll P. He's right on the wall right there.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

He put on he came in here, he had a 20K month, he was brand new. He put on the wall, he's gonna do a hundred K right there. And then he came, he he was in here yesterday and he hit his 100k issue paid month. Okay. Now Maddie was talking to payroll and she was like, My goal's 30,000. And she said he looked at her with a very confused, disgusting look and was like, Why is your goal so low? She went if she started thinking, Why is my goal so low? Went out and did 70 something thousand the next month, all because of the way payroll looked at her. That's huge. Now, you don't think that's a big deal, but that is FFL. You have the best people, and they're motivating other people to believe they can do it. And once you do it once, you can do it. Dude, I didn't think you can do 10k a week when I started. I thought it was impossible. Now you got people doing 25k a week. And 100k a month is the new tw 100k a month is the new 20k a month here. Which is wild to think about. Which is wild to think about. But a lot of these a lot of these things are just in our own head on like why can't we do it? We definitely can. If you can do 30, you could do 100.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

100%. Yeah. People have like either a scarcity mindset or like a limiting belief, and like that's only holding you back. Like you gotta be a dog, you gotta push yourself to your limits, and you gotta believe in you. And apart from believing in you, like you gotta do the work.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Now, what do you do if you have you ever been down bad, like real bad?

SPEAKER_00 43:41

I mean, before I got into insurance, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

What was it? How bad?

SPEAKER_00 43:46

I mean, before I got into insurance, I was scrubbing toilets. I was cleaning toilets.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

At a gym. Hey, tell me that this ain't the best in the best business on the planet. I was bagging groceries. You are cleaning toilets.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

It's wild to think about. I I honestly like it gives me goosebumps. I get emotional thinking about it, like where this journey can take you and where it's just going to continue to take us, simply because like life has looked a whole lot different ever since I joined it. A whole lot different. Mentally, in terms of the man that I'm becoming, obviously financially, everything. It's just crazy to think about. I came from being an athlete, playing baseball my entire life to then getting out of school, getting a job, working two jobs as a server at a gym, scrubbing toilets at 3 in the morning, because I would clock in at 3 a.m. And I was like, yo, what am I doing with my life? Seriously, what am I doing with my life? And then one day I get a call from Sardinas. He's like, yo, pass by the office. I'm like, alright, whatever. Pass by the office. He runs one call in front of me. And he shows me how much he makes. Pulls out the calculator. Does the math. And I see it and I'm like, wow. That's what I have to I have to work three weeks to make that. Sign me up. Rest is history.

Bigger Goals And Family Motivation

SPEAKER_01 45:13

Amazing, bro. What do you think you're gonna do by the end of this year?

SPEAKER_00 45:17

I mean, my goal, the team has to be doing a million. I told myself that at the beginning of the year. I have it written down on my phone. My team has to be doing a million by the end of the year. I'm not gonna do it. Yes. Not a million in a year, a million in a month.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

It's gonna happen. Does your girlfriend support you in all this?

SPEAKER_00 45:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

What does she do?

SPEAKER_00 45:39

She's actually going to law school now. Oh what? Yeah. So we got a little power couple thing going on.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Yeah. How do you get your girlfriend to buy in to let you work so much?

SPEAKER_00 45:53

I mean she was there when I was scrubbing toilets. She was. Yeah. She was there when I was broke. Yeah, she's in. Dude, my my w go ahead, sorry, I don't want to cut you off. And like she just saw the growth. Like, I was like, hey, I'm gonna start doing this. Like, I'm gonna try it out and see where it goes. And month passes by, make my first sale. Like, yo, babe, this is real. Like, this is what I'm gonna do. Take off with it. And yeah, we're working 12-14 hours a day, but I mean, the work is worth it because we do have the freedom of again working from anywhere. Like, we've been to New York, we've been to Puerto Rico, we've been to California, we've been to multiple places, and we're able to like have a good time, enjoy ourselves, and I can still make money from the comfort of wherever I'm at, which is what makes this industry crazy.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

You guys want kids soon or no? I would say so. See, it's funny because you your group answers questions different than almost everybody else that comes in here. Like, I don't want kids. Later, I want to party, I want to have fun. And you guys are like, yo, we want, you're like, yeah, this is the one. I it just seems very family oriented, like you guys came from good families.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

And that's how our agency runs too. Like, it's all open, like we're all family. Like, we mess with each other, and then when it's time to lock in, yo, time to lock in, and we lock in, and we're super open about it. There's no secrets, there's no side conversations, like everybody knows what's going on. We're super open with it, and at the same time, like everybody's involved. I actually got my mom license too. My mom's gonna start selling with us, she's gonna be a killer too.

SPEAKER_01 47:39

Dude, when you pay your parents' house off, can you do like a grand opening ribbon cutting for sure?

SPEAKER_00 47:44

I'm documenting the entire thing, it's gonna be huge. That's so dope.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Yeah, all right. What's one tip you'd give an agent that is struggling or new?

SPEAKER_00 47:56

There's a lot of things I can say. The most important thing is that no one's gonna do the work for you but you. No one can sell for you but you. Understand that yes, the journey is hard, the journey gets frustrating, the journey's gonna take you into deep waters, but if you get out of those deep waters, you're gonna come out a different person in every single way possible, and it's all worth it. Again, there's no industry in the entire world that allows you to do what we do, and uh it'd be dumb not to take advantage

Who They Want To Work With

SPEAKER_00 48:35

of it. Who can work with you? Anyone? I wouldn't say anyone, honestly. I wouldn't say anyone, but if you're a hungry-driven individual that is in a position where you do want to change your life, you're hungry for more, you're an athlete that is getting out of college, is getting out of school, you feel like school's not for you, and you want to take the road less traveled and come join us in in in sales and be able to change your life. I mean, those are the people that I want to work around with. The people that are hungry, the people that want more, the people that are family-oriented, the people that that don't want to be like everybody else. We're not here to be average, we're not here to stay mediocre, we're not here to go through the motions. Like, I'm not with that. Like I we we we we want to move with intention, like we have a goal, we have standards, and I want to be with people that meet that standard and that move with intention, that align with the vision, because that's what it's gonna take, right? You can't do it alone.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Yeah, love it. All right, my man. Thank you for coming in. Hit them up if you want to work with them. You can be anywhere in the country, but you guys are in Miami, right? Miami, Florida, the 305. So you can work with them in person in Miami on Zoom if you're not in Miami. If you have any questions for next week's podcast, put it in the comments. And also, if it's helped you, please like or share. We want to help as many young or old entrepreneurs, new entrepreneurs, or people in life insurance as we can. Even if they don't work with us, we don't care. Uh we just wanna we wanna do what people did for us to help us get here. So thank you so much. Thanks for joining. You're an animal, can't wait to see what you do. And everybody on here, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, Andrew.