Tire Salesman & College Student Write 100+ Life Insurance Policies (Ep. 294)

Big results in life insurance sales rarely come from hype, and this conversation proves it. We sit down with John Palmer, who wrote $86,000 in his first full month after leaving tire sales, and Tate Buckentine, a 21-year-old college student stacking $25K to $31K months during summer grind seasons. Their stories land on the same core truth: disciplined reps beat talent when you commit to a simple system and stop negotiating with yourself.

We talk about why former athletes often thrive as insurance agents, from handling pressure to embracing boring daily fundamentals. John breaks down how he worked aged leads, stayed glued to the phones, and focused on putting clients in a better spot financially by saving them money and improving coverage. Tate shares what it’s like to market while still in school, deal with people talking behind your back, and keep confidence by learning from mentors instead of critics. We also get real about early fears on the phone, why “are you free to talk?” weakens your frame, and how assumption, clarity, and consistency change outcomes.

Then we zoom out to the operating system behind the production: schedules, Zoom meetings you can’t drift into late, Discord dialing rooms, planning around holidays to protect momentum, and avoiding the chargeback trap. We even dig into how the team uses Claude AI for planning and ops without falling into the common distraction of building custom tech instead of dialing. If you want practical life insurance sales training, lead generation insight, and the mindset to stay a student, this is for you. Subscribe, share it with a hungry agent, 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.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Backgrounds

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Yeah, I'm just well, yeah, I guess I can just frame everything up if you want, just as we go.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

Yeah, let's roll.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

I want to make I want to make sure that their their handles are good. Um John, will you look let me know if that looks good? Yep, that's good. All right, and take that's great. Yep, that's good. Which way are you going, Taylor? We you can just take it away.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

I'm gonna start with John. All right, what's up, everybody? Andrew Taylor here. Thank you for joining us. Oh shoot, I got a tag on my hat. Brand new trans hat. Not bad. Why didn't you guys tell me? Trans America hat. Yeah. All right. So we got two sp three special guests here. John Palmer. Thank you for coming in. You did 86K in your first full month in business. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

What'd you do before this? I was in tire sales, so I did tire sales for while I was through college, while I was playing college football. I did that on the side. Um, kind of between classes, between practice, I'd literally go in and out like five times a day and did that for basically all my years of college, so four years, full, four years of doing all that kind of stuff. So love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

And then we have Tate Buckentine. Yes, sir. Thank you for coming in. Tate, how old are you? How long have you been selling life insurance?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Um, I started a year ago, but I've only been selling for about four months because I'm a college student. You're in college now? What are you going to college for? It was finance, but then I found this job, so I switched it to general business just to get my slip of paper.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Now, everybody here do they have college degrees? Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Most guys do. I got one class left that my parents keep on yelling me at for my master's and my MBA, but you know, you put that off as long as possible. So yeah, I got a degree, but master's one class away.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

So you guys are like from another planet. Because everyone I know, they don't go to college anymore on the West Coast.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Yeah. Athletes, nice, you know, Midwest hospitality, a lot of educated guys, and you know, that's why we're all on the same page. Where in one of the last podcasts we we recorded, you were talking about, you know, the problems that people are dealing with or what they're struggling with, or the flash, or the toys, or the whatever. Like we don't have that here. And that's why we just have smart guys and gals who are educated, not saying you need to be educated to be smart, but you know, they have four years of all the BS with no money to get out of their system. By the time they're done with college, well, guess what? They're ready to make a living, start a family, and you know, climb and scale their life up. Dude, what the heck? What is football like?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Is it like the movies? Yeah, um, well, I started at Iowa Western, so that is like exactly what you would picture it to be, right? A lot of, you know, that's how I probably learned a lot of my like traits in my head as far as how I attach myself to certain people and like how I overcome things. Like I think my wide receiver room was five star, five star, five star, four star, three star, then me, some kid from Glenwood, Iowa, right? Like six foot, 180 pounds, like just ha have to find a way kind of thing. So that's where I really determined all like what I was gonna do. I set my mind to it. Then when I transfer to University of Sioux Falls, right, you meet a lot of people that are on the same mindset as you, maybe not as talented right out of high school

Why Athletes Win In Sales

SPEAKER_00 4:00

and aren't given maybe the right opportunity, or you know, have to make their opportunity the most of it, and kind of just file and sue those people, connect yourself with certain people and get around the right group of people, is kind of what I'd say. But yeah, I mean, college football is it's right, you got party, you got, you know, the legitimate of it, right? The aspects you gotta put into it, but also the mindset that goes behind it is what prolongs me to have a you know a career in this, right? It's something that I don't mentally go through anything with it really, because I was you know put in that spot basically my whole life. Like five years, like I've just been used to it. It's it's normal to me.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

So, yeah. That's being an athlete. I'd say being an athlete is a hundred times harder in college than anything this job could throw at you. I think that's why these guys just come out of the gate swinging, they write so much business. Because think about it, you're a team captain. Well, what do you do? You have to communicate the message between the head coach and the players on the team. You know, you look at everyone's journey starting at day one, but comparison is the thief of joy, unless you use it as motivation or inspiration. Where John wrote $86,000 his first month, but guess what? He was a college athlete. We might have to help him. He's choking. Are you dying over here? Wrong pipe. Oh, we're glad you're alive. We're good. I thought it was choking up because I was saying something nice about him. Yeah. You good? Yeah, water went down the wrong pipe. Oh man. But um, yeah, kind of what I was back back to saying about John, where it's like he came out of the gate swinging with no insurance experience. He's just such a mature guy with such a great head on his shoulders, where he puts his mind anything and he just picks it up so quick because the adversities went through college football. Psh, those two days. Nothing compares to anything like that. What's what's dialing 12 hours a phone when you're in air conditioning?

SPEAKER_04 5:47

Crazy. You guys are building a life insurance team of athletes. That's what you're doing. You don't have to be an athlete, but you know, you kind of are what you attract. Early on, our marketing was uh uh ex-military and athletes love this job. Like, fill this out, fill out this form on Craigslist. We're looking for ex-military and former athletes because they like they love the discipl they love the self-discipline, what you have to do off the court, outside of practice to be successful, and all those same things. And then you also have a team. Where else do you go that you have a team? Right. You're still on a team, which is awesome. But how the heck could you do 86,000, bro? That's nuts.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Yeah, I mean, kind of weird thing about it was that we wasn't like fresh feds, like it was all age leads. Like I was spending a dollar lead, um, but I was like obsessed with the like I'm getting there at 7 30 in the morning, we have our morning meetings, whatever. Obviously, I'm new, like I'm trying to soak as much as I possibly can, have no idea about the industry at all. Like, I've been in sales, like I know how to communicate with people, I know how to read the room. Like, yes, it's hard over the phone from being in person, but I felt like I could accommodate to that pretty fast. And so I'm getting these leads,

John’s 86K First Month Breakdown

SPEAKER_00 7:05

right? I'm like, a lead's a lead, name and a number, like it's me and them, like I can do I can do this, right? And it's just like I've always had the confidence about it. Like, I assume everything, assume everything's gonna go the right way. What's the worst thing that can happen? Oh well, they told me no, cool. It's like whatever, you give that for. Um, so I'd say like I was already eight, uh, like we hit run a lunch break and stuff like that, we run it, but like I like wasn't running like pool, I can eat my food in five minutes and get back to the phone. Like, I don't care to like be doing anything else. Like it's like I was fine, like I was making good money in my other job, but like I was like, you know, Carson, right, leader kind of office, like, dude, like you'd be great, like there's nothing to worry about. Like, so I was like literally up and up and out in like two weeks. I got my test done in like a week and a half. Next week I was in the office. Let's go, let's see what we can do with it. Um, a lot of it was, you know, the good thing about being here is like we have a lot of the best contracts, a lot of the best carriers. I find a lot of people that were actually right in the spot of financially felt tight with their policies they already had with, you know, so-and-so carrier or whatever. We could run them through our carriers, save them money, put them in a better financial place, and get them more coverage. And that was a lot of it. It was easily just helping the client out. That's always always been. Um kind of I say it all the time, I'm so detached from the money aspect, like I could care less what I make at the end of the day. Like, where I have enough to pay my bills, I'd well do more than I can know to do, right? Like, so doing that is so focused on helping the person, and then my achievement, like my mindset was like, dude, I could just save like this person a hundred dollars a month that gets them to free up a little bit more money for this. Like I had a lady last week thirteen thousand dollars in one day through this one lady. I didn't care that, right, it pays me that much money, but she just saved $380 that month, and she thought that was a world through. Like, she was like crying, like she's like, this is like I didn't think I could get something like this, but she just introduced the wrong character, she was introduced to the wrong place, like with what she had and her husband, like it just puts them in such a better mindset that she's like, I've been dragging this burden for so long, but that's what like gets me to go. Like, that's what helps me succeed, is like I get to help those people. I don't really care about the income part of it. Yeah, it's great and all, but I like my like fill your cup up is that lady is like literally crying on the phone. She's like, I just saved $380 a month, have better coverage, have more coverage. Now my family's taken care of between where she was stressed about what she already had because she was wasn't reading you know, the systems we have, right? We're taught to, you know, put people where they should be put to the best of their situation. It's unique to them. So that's where I get my joy of it from, and then obviously that helps, obviously, and everything else.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

So that's wild. Yeah. How many sales is that 86k your first month?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

I think it was just oh I think it was like 53, or it's like 47 or 53, one of the two. Yeah. When did you quit selling tires? Uh like a week and a half prior. Like, so February 18th was my first day. Like, I didn't have my carriers, I just wanted to listen to the dials and then um write that probably that next two weeks I was just more full like getting the verbiage and everything. Like we have a playbook, right? We go through the script, it's a plug-and-play system, and then so you know, March 1st is probably my first day. Like it started ringing, and it's kind of funny. Like March 2nd, I had a lead that I sold yesterday. I sent her an email on March 2nd, my second day of actual dying. I just told her yesterday, she's like, sorry, I just got back to you. Free $2,000, right? Like, she was like adamant, she's like, Yeah, I'm getting back to you now. Like, it's always you know, the repetition of staying in touch, but like it's like a lead is a lead, right? You can do with what you will. Your effort d determines everything with it. But yeah, I mean, when you look at that, 50, you know, 57 policies, but the biggest thing is like, you know, from March 1st, I was dead set I'm gonna make this work. Like, I don't no plan B. Let's go. Let's, you know, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

So and are you married, kids? Got a girlfriend. So nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

How long have you been dating? Uh just about a year now. Uh met her, you know, right when I moved to Sioux Falls. Um, been probably one of my best friends throughout college as well, and then obviously we're together now, so she's obviously means more than work does to me. So she's a big support system, right? She would be if someone's like, you know, when I told her I was doing this from making, you know, I was making over a hundred thousand dollars in that job and just get up and leave. If I told her I was gonna sell blades of grass, she's like perfect full support. Like, you know what I mean? Like she's just that person, so it's awesome to have around, then you know, everything kind of goes into that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Are you guys all really good at cornhole? I don't play cornhole, I bet Tatus. I would say so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yeah, I would I would agree. Cornhole is like a mid, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Yeah, it's like a it like was born in the Midwest, right? Yeah, yeah because I just lost a thousand dollars playing cornhole, so I'm pissed. Oh man. And I need a new partner. Yeah, you just gotta write a policy now and get it back. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

I I was more angry that I lost. Yeah, yeah. That was the main thing. I'd hope so. I'd be a little concerned if I'm following in your footsteps and a thousand dollars. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 12:07

All right, so Tate, this is pretty amazing. You're in college, you're selling, you did 25k in a month.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Uh yeah, that was last summer. Uh in June this summer, I submitted like 31,000. And what's it like? Dude, it's pretty crazy. Like, because obviously I work hard during the summer and it's a lot of fun. Like, our culture's great, but then I go back to school and obviously I market, I post, and just all the people coming up to me talking about it, like whether it's behind my back or to my face, so many people are talking about it. Like, it's such a topic, and as much as I've grown as a person, it's just insane. Like, faith, how I treat others,

Tate’s College Hustle And Criticism

SPEAKER_01 12:53

just how I carry myself. Um, but the finances are also really crazy as a 21-year-old country. So, are people dogging on you? I think behind my back, yeah. Like I'll hear it from a second source, like, hey, this person said this, this person said this. That doesn't get to me really anymore. I I tune it out because I mean, Mike would never look at what I'm doing and make fun of me. You would never, right? And I want to be in your guys' shoes. I don't necessarily want to be in theirs. Bro, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

I'm I'm more excited about you than anyone here because of your age and you're in still in school. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's amazing, dude.

unknown 13:32

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

When do you graduate? This I have one more year. Nice. You have a girlfriend? No, sir. No? Single? How many people go to your school?

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Ooh, I want to say like 10,000. It's a very small division one school, St. Thomas, Minnesota. So and do you play sports? I do not. Inner mural, but oh not anymore. But you did play in high school?

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Yes, sir. Yeah. Were you good? Uh I was He's modest. He was good. He was the starting quarterback and starting point guard on the varsity team.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, I was solid, yeah. It wasn't anything crazy, but I was a good high school. Why'd you stop? I could have played div like division three, maybe low division two football, but at the time I didn't want to stay that close to home, and I really liked the school I was looking at because it was so like very, very good for networking and setting up my future. So at the time I was gonna be a finance major, and I was like, I know I'm gonna meet good people here, get in the right area, set myself up for the future. And so that's that's why I stopped. It just wasn't worth it to me anymore.

SPEAKER_04 14:35

Is finance major the thing or what?

SPEAKER_03 14:39

No, it's honestly we recruit and try to attract all different kinds of people from different backgrounds and different demographics, but you know, we talk about money literacy a lot on social media. I talk about, you know, how can you save money, how you how can you invest money, you know, what to do with your finances, and that usually attracts like-minded people. Because I bring up a S-corp, uh Solo 401k, I bring up a Roth IRA. Most people are like, what is that? He's speaking Chinese. Where finance guys are like, oh yeah, I learned that in college. Like, this guy's legitimate, he knows what he's talking about. He has his master's degree in it, and he's doing life insurance, which takes no degree. I want to join his team and be a part about what he's about. Because even if I don't get my master's degree, well, guess what? I can learn from somebody who does.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

Now, did you have your parents been supportive or family, or are they like, uh, this is sketchy?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Yeah, so when I first started, my parents have always showed me unbelievable support. Like, so, so grateful to have that, you know, background. Um, but they were definitely hesitant, which helped a lot was they know Mike and his family. So that helped a lot. They're like, okay, we know they're good people, like, I'm okay with you giving it a shot. And luckily for me, I kind of got out of the gates and did pretty well. Um, so there wasn't too much like to worry about as far as everything went with my parents. Um, and now it's kind of just like updates like, hey, how's the team doing? How's this guy on your team doing? Not so much of like, did you make a sale today? Like, are you sure this is the right path for you? But super, super supportive.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

I love that. One thing I want to talk about is people around you can kind of label you. They can be like, that person's shy, that person wouldn't be good at sales, uh, that person that doesn't seem like it would be a good fit for that person. And sometimes you make decisions based off of the way you think people see you. Has that ever happened for you?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yes, but in kind of the opposite sense for that. My aunts and my friends, honestly, anyone has always told me growing up, like, you're a great convincer. Now that's not what this job is, but they're like, you should be a salesman when you grow up. Like, I've been told that my whole life. You like talking to people, you're a good people person, you connect, you know, you can just get level with whoever

Identity Labels And Staying Confident

SPEAKER_01 16:55

you're talking to. And uh, I've kind of been told my whole life that I'd be good at sales, and so kind of just walked right into it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

That's awesome. What about you? I would say I'm kind of the opposite. Like, I love when someone tells me I can't do it. Like, that's just like the biggest thing for me. But I also like take tidbits of people I'm around that I know know me very well, that I do listen to what they say, and not in a manner of like, that's how I make my decision, but that is information I do take in. But I love when people are like, you know, you from the outside, like people are like, alright, like the sad thing is you gotta post what you make for people to even get attached to it. That's the sad thing about it. Like, I would hate I would much rather post anything else to bring people to attention to it to get them the space, but sharing the opportunity, like Mike mentions all the time sharing the opportunity is the best thing you can do, right? Why be selfish about it? If that you can create this for yourself, why not create it for other people? Right? So I look at people very close to me and like see what they said, but like my parents, for instance, my mom's like a yes person, like will never say no. Like when I told her, like she knows what I made in my previous job, she's like, You're doing very well, like you're I was 21 at that time, making over a hundred thousand dollars. And then selling tires, selling tires. Yeah. And so the my mom's like, Yeah, sounds sounds good. Let's you know, I'm here for you, like I'm always gonna love you no matter what. Like, if you go broke, like, cool, I'm here for you. My dad, like, right, started his own bricklaying firm, worked his ass off from day one. Like, he was kind of hesitant, always like, You have a you know, you're making over all this money, you're you're comfortable, like you can live very well off this. Yeah, but I want something more for myself, like I want to help other people. Right, we talked about captive and non-captive, that was captive, right? Um no matter what I sell, I'm getting paid that. Like, it doesn't matter if I show up to work that day or not. Right? Um so taking the you know the better bet on yourself, creating something for other people is my biggest thing that fills my cup is like if I can help that person change their financial situation, support their kids, and have the free time of their family in the future, that's the biggest thing for me, is like I don't want to look at my wife and my kids and be like, yeah, sorry, I can't make your basketball game, I gotta go work till 6 p.m. Like, no, I see you guys, I'll be back when my kids' games are over. Like, my family, my wife, right, the kids all come first. That's the biggest thing for me is like put that stuff first, it labels your life for another direction that you can help other people as well.

SPEAKER_04 19:12

So I love that. What has now did anyone ever do that to you, or that they just look at you and they're like, this guy's gonna do whatever he wants to do? Because you have that look.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Yeah, I've kind of always been labeled like that, like you know, had a four-point OGPA through high school, was always a captain on all my sports teams. I think it's how I was raised. You know, my parents, they gave me everything and more. Like my mom and dad never missed a game. You know, I'd wake up at five in the morning starting in seventh grade, going to work out before I'd go to school, then I'd work out again, then they'd drive me an hour to the cities to go work out at night. What about before seventh grade? Before seventh grade, I was nervous, I was shy, I was insecure. I it helped having cousins my age. I don't I have an older cousin Luke and a cousin my same age, Kevin, and I have my little brother Nick. So it's kind of like you look at the mentor, the running mate, and the mentee, I had that built in. My cousins lived five houses away, Luke was our mentor. He was always bigger, stronger, better. Kevin was my running mate, always competing against each other. And then Nick was my mentee trying to help to bring him along. Yeah. So kind of I had just a built-in support system and and family from the jump. When did you get into sports? I had a ball in my hands when I was born. Yeah, my dad was a previous uh college basketball player and then a high school coach as well. So he was coaching you from a young age? Yes, yes. He coached me all the way up to high school, and then he stepped down from high school so I could be my own man and earn earn it my own way.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

That's awesome. The reason I'm asking, dude, is because everybody said I couldn't do sales. Like they're like, there's no way he's gonna do sales. Like he doesn't even talk enough. They said and but I was like, bro, I'm just not gonna quit until I figure it out. And then they're like, he's not gonna have a team because like again, he's he don't talk enough. But I'm like, dude, I don't know if you keep trying and keep trying and keep trying, you'll get confident at what you're doing. Now, my first call was me asking them if they had time to talk right now. Is that a big mistake?

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Yeah, yeah. That's almost I'd say that's probably the the second big biggest mistake besides hanging up the phone on the the person when they answer because you're too scared.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

Yeah. And then after a couple years, I would call them and

Scripts, Assumption, And Dialing Fear

SPEAKER_04 21:45

I'd go, hey, Mike, this is Andrew. I got your file, I'm your new insurance agent. We're gonna either put you in a better position today with your current policy, or get you one if you don't have one. I just need to verify the information here. So two completely different approaches. One is assuming no matter what, they'd be crazy if they didn't work with you or or buy. The other one is saying, are you even free right now? Even though they answered their phone. Right. So obviously they're free. Yeah. Right? Oh, but dude, the oh no, my my mindset changed so much from when I first started. Did you struggle with that at all?

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah, like my first week, I was definitely super scared. I remember the first day I was like kind of waiting around like for someone to do it for me, and Mike's like, no, like dial the phone. I probably didn't dial that phone for the first hour or two. I just kind of sat there, but then finally I got got the balls to just start dialing, and you fall on. Your face, fall fast, and you learn. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Do you guys do any reading self-development type of stuff?

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Yeah. What do you do? Well, not not within our team, but what we do is in the mornings we'll send out podcasts to the guy. Guys, so say I listen to something good at the gym, I'll send out like a podcast for the group to listen to. In terms of readings, we were talking actually not too long ago, it wasn't with you, it was with Trey and Gavin, but about starting a book club. So that's something that we're we're looking at adding, but I feel like we're more of a subtraction team than an addition team. We like to cut out vices, cut out distractions, cut out things. Because once you add too many things on, you take away from the main thing. So we're kind of bouncing back and forth on how we can execute that. Should you do it? Should we do it? Right. I like things that we can do with something else. So for example, podcast. Well, what can you do with a podcast? You can listen to it and lift in the morning. Our training courses, what can you do? You can listen to it and go on a walk with your wife. Well, not with your wife, with your dog. Right? If you're listening to a training course and

Self-Development Without More Busywork

SPEAKER_03 23:45

walk with your wife, she's not gonna be too happy. But you know, like incorporating things that they can put into their daily life, which doesn't take away an ad, but more so combined together.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

So Yeah. I love that. Because you guys you guys do a lot of things that you would think you read in books. Like your team, the way it operates. Like you have a lot of really cool things. What's it like working with him, with Mike?

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Dude, I love it. Like it's it's awesome. I mean, it's coming from a place of he wants the best for you, but if you're not necessarily up to standard, it's not like he's putting you on blast in front of the whole team. He's not gonna fire you, but it's just kind of like a common understanding, like you're just not gonna get to the point that you want to get to. And I I for me, I need that. Like, I need someone to just give me a little shove, you know what I mean? And for me, I love it. Like, I love every aspect of it. I don't think it's too much, it's like just enough to get us over the edge, and I don't feel like, dude, I wake up so excited to go to work. Like it's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 24:46

And everybody's in Discord to get the messages, or do you use iChats and other ways to communicate? So we have a group me.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

We have a group me chat, and then what we do is we run our morning meetings on Zoom. Like, well, Mike, why Zoom not Discord? Number one, you can only have 25 people in a Discord room. Then number two, you can join Discord rooms late. But Zoom, you can lock people out. So we do Zoom for our morning calls and our developments, and then Discord for everything else for dials. So people can go in and out of dials throughout the day. Well, that's the thing is I don't care if people work three hours a day, to be honest with you. If they're happy with the money they're making and becoming better people outside of work, that's all I care about. Yeah. Everyone's schedule is different, things pop up, funerals happen, marriages happen, vacations happen, go do it. If it's your faith and you miss work for it, go do it. If it's your family, birthday party, anniversary, whatever, miss it, go do it. Fitness, go do it. Right? Last comes the finances. So as long as people communicate and keep it open, shoot, I don't care one way or the other. Like if you're like, hey, it tastes like hey, I'm going to Greece for two months, perfect. Go enjoy it, we're gonna hold down your team until you get back. But if he goes to Greece and doesn't tell me, like I'm concerned for his well-being. Like, is he okay? Like, we just have the transparent understanding of guess what, they know when I'm here and when I'm not, and they know months in advance.

SPEAKER_04 26:03

Yeah. I also like how you said you send the schedule out every day. Yes. That is so like I'm gonna take a bunch of this stuff and copy it. Do it. Yeah. Because the schedule for everybody that's local and then also locking them out, I think's awesome. I love that. Absolutely. Yeah, that's so good. Now, if you if you I wanna if you let people or don't explain to them that you can get significantly hurt if you if you have a schedule and you don't follow it well and you don't plan for birthday parties and and family events, you can get wrecked with chargebacks. Oh, for sure. So what I always did is I

Vacations, Momentum, And Chargebacks

SPEAKER_04 26:55

would just if I was gonna go on a vacation on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I don't like going on vacations more than three days because I get bored anyways. But but if I'm gonna go on vacation Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I'm gonna work double the appointments Monday through Thursday, or I might even start a day early because I don't ever want to not hit my my goal.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

So that's like rather than buying leads Monday, Thursday, a thousand, Monday, a thousand, Thursday, you're putting two thousand in on Monday and working your tail off.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Yeah, or the Friday before when I normally would take the weekend off, I would run a whole week Friday through Sunday and then hit the same number. Or if Christmas came up, dude, it didn't mean I didn't submit my 10k for the week. I just worked different days leading up to it, and I really would plan for it. And then what I would do with our entire team is I would I would tell them the schedule for the holidays. So it would be like, okay, Friday, Saturday, we're gonna run appointments now because Christmas is on this day, we're gonna lose this day. And then the other thing is like everybody makes money, or a lot of people make money early on, and they go on a vacation, they spend it all, they come back with chargebacks, and now they're operating from a very stressful place. Edmund said this to me the other day. Um he said when emotions are high, intelligence is low. And we were talking about it with competing. So when you're really emotional, your intelligence goes down. So if you we can apply that here. If you go on vacation, you come back with you spent your money that you made, and now you owe money, your emotions are high, your intelligence is gonna be lower. Do you do you guys deal with that ever?

SPEAKER_03 29:02

Most people understand the expectations. You know, like they understand the first three months is our is our sales boot camp, you know. So like nobody goes on vacation in their first three months. And if they do, they communicate and we work around it. Say their vacation's in two weeks from their start day. Well, guess what? We're not gonna start you till after you're done with your vacation. You know, you can work an hourly job, mow eat mow lawns, things like that. Because the last thing I want you to do is start momentum, lose momentum in your toast. So that's the thing, is momentum's everything in this business, and vacations kill all of the momentum. You know, the reason why I'm here with my top six guys is because guess what? They can pick it up like it's it's it's not not just a a match on a matchboard, but it's a it's a frickin' lighter. Like these guys can come and go at the snap of a finger, and the reason why isn't just because of how long they've been here, but because of their backgrounds, because of who they are as people, because of their upbringings, because of how they were raised, because they're former athletes. So we don't really deal with people going on vacations because they know the expectation and they know the downsides of what comes with those vacations. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

Yeah, because they know if you're an athlete and you go to you go to Europe for a month.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Yeah. Shoot, I mean, we don't go home for Christmas in college playing basketball. You know, I mean, we play on Christmas. So it's like we don't see our families anyways. That's crazy. That's why I said on one of the previous podcasts we had being a college athlete, hundred times harder than being a life insurance guy who's selling life insurance to people who want life insurance, who fill out a form who's expecting a call from us.

SPEAKER_04 30:30

Yeah, and also dealing with injuries is a Yeah. That's an underestimated problem in sports, right? Mm-hmm. Especially this big dude in football.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

What'd you do? Uh my so my junior, my sophomore year, uh, when I went to uh University Falls, I blew up my knee completely uh midway through the season. So like literally every ten you could tore, I tore it. Like my kneecap was in the back of my hamstring. Like they're like, you might as well be done playing. Like it's it's a 14-month recovery. Like, you're not gonna be the same, you're not gonna be as fast when you come back, anyways. And one, we don't really recommend it. Perfect. You told me I couldn't do it, I'm gonna do it 14 months, you know, 11 months later, three months advanced. I go back, I'm playing full speed. Two months later, you know, we're getting to the end of the season. I'm literally walking around, practice, tear my ACL again. Like, literally, I'm walking on the same knee. Same knee. Yeah, turn it. And so then they did some, you know,

Knee Injuries And Mental Toughness

SPEAKER_00 31:25

British special two attached legament now kind of thing. That's where all it's you know, they're like, Yeah, you I mean, insurance will be covered in the future if you want to get surgery again, you've got to pull for your other leg. So, like, you know, you call it quits at that, but like I would say, like, there's a lot of challenges in life, but like I can tell you, like, going through it twice, the first one being the worst, like my my college roommates are carrying me to the bathroom. Like, there's low points in life, like things can get much worse. Like, I've been lowest point in my life for sure. Like, you're going through it, you can't do anything on your own. Like, you're you're relying on, like Mike said earlier, like parents basically to bring him back to who he is. Like, my roommates were like everything to me, right? They're literally supporting like how I my my daily life for six months. Did they have to bathe you? Yeah, I mean basically like most of my boys, but like for sure, like it was like I couldn't have paid them amount of m enough money to do what they did for me for that six months. Like, I couldn't like this in the middle of December when I had my surgery the first time, and like it was six months before I even put pressure on my like weight on my leg. That's insane. And so it's like I'm you know, I'm in crutches, South Dakota, it's it snows, it's like three foot that year, and I'm they're taking me all my appointments, you know, whatever it is. Um, you know, the worst part about it is my body reflects every pain medicine there is. Um so they didn't know that. I didn't know that. No one knew it until after my surgery was done, no nerve block worked or anything like that. So they're like, this is not normal. So then, right, you had to do blood work, all that stuff, and then right finally figured out for my second surgery. But that whole first surgery is not a single, right? You name the highest drug you can get nerve blocked anywhere. Nerve blocked nothing. So they're like, obviously. Oh, you're an animal. Yeah, so it was kind of interesting and weird, but like, yeah, being put with that and like the people that I had around me support me, like through that stuff, like I would never I can't be more thankful enough for my roommates then. Like, right, that's a struggle that they could have easily said, yeah, that's you deal with it on your own. But like, no, they like they took time in the other days, they switched their school schedule to help me in certain times, but like it can always get worse in my like mine. Like, this is easy, easy, easy stuff compared to what I've gone through in the past and then what other people, other situations. Mike brings up like a good thing, is like, don't complain about your life. If you if we can put a hat in the middle of the table and throw a hundred people's problems out there, and you can you have no choice you end up with, or you're throwing your personal problems in there right now and saying, I'm good with whatever's coming out of that bucket, not knowing what they're dealing with, no, I'll keep my problems.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Yeah, do you want to take that gamble? Yeah, exactly. So, absolutely not. It's like that uh that little uh picture of the dude in the Ferrari and the guy in the car is looking next, looking at him and being like, Man, I wish I had a Ferrari. He's in like a Toyota, and then there's a guy in a bike looking at the toy on a bike looking at the Toyota. He's like, Man, I wish I had I wish I had a car. Then there's a dude walking looking at the dude on the bike, all in this one little picture. He's like, I wish I had a bike, and then there's a dude in a wheelchair, and he's like, I wish I could walk.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

Yeah. There's that last one. What was the last one? Oh shoot. Mm-hmm. Crazy, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

That's huge. Wow. Crazy. Um, all right, what tips do you guys have for agents and also what type of leads do you work?

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Yeah, um, final expense, veteran leads, um, run them, uh, goat leads, and then uh life jacket as well. Um, mortgage protection with them recently um has been good. Saw a lot of good things with that as well, um, through the both of them. But tips I would say is right. We always say, right, lead spin plus hours work is your cash flow. Like, there's no secret sauce to it, was you mentioned all the time. Like, if you make if you're sitting there for the hours making the dials, you're gonna make the money. I don't if we you know, play by play, there's a script to go through. You can add your tidbits to the script. Obviously, you don't read your read your client, read your customer, help them in the best. But if you put, you know, detach yourself from the money you make, detach yourself from the exhaustion you might go through,

Lead Types And Simple Success Formula

SPEAKER_00 35:25

detach yourself from all their aspects besides of putting your client first, you're gonna be successful. I you know confidently believe in our systems that you could pick a guy from the side of the street and you give him three months, he's profitable. He's making money, he can change his whole life around just in general by our systems. I don't think you have to have anything special. I don't think there's anything that you need to bring to the table. I think if you have the attitude and effort, you in our systems you can be successful. So I think the tips is just believe, trust in our systems, don't do anything crazy, like always say, right, plug and play system. There's nothing that goes more to it in the end of the day. So how important is it to not reinvent the wheel? So important.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

Who did it? Did anyone do it? I tried to when I first came over here. Everything I learned at my old company. Like that's uh, you know, I'm very, very grateful for the experiences and the people I met, but you know, just saw what was over here and not disdain towards my previous company, but just I don't have the right word for it. But I tried to reinvent the wheel when I came over here thinking that none of their stuff would work. So I came over here blank sheet, and first month was a slower month. I produced well, but you know, brought in a couple agents, they weren't doing well out of the gates. Then like, well, what stuff did I like? Like, in my mind it's a way inferior company that sells worse policies to people, that puts clients in worse financial spots, and yet it's still a Fortune 500 company. So let's just take, you know, all the things that I learned with my, I guess with my brain, I suppose you could say that, and just you know, carry over things that I learned that I incorporated without taking anything legally and implementing it over here. So the structure, that's what I took from over there. The discipline, you know, the referral and beneficiary game that I helped, you know, maneuver over there. And then once we put that all in force into a model that clients want insurance coverage, they're requesting it, it's the best prices on the market, and it's leads who want it, that's when we started to pop. So I tried to reinvent the wheel right away to change everything, and then humbled myself after a month, two months, saying, I don't know anything. I've been in the space less than five years. You know, let's go back to ground zero, peel back the layers, figure out what we liked, copy that, what we didn't like, just put alternatives in there and then off to the races.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

Something I've seen a lot is people are spending more time coding with Claude for their own custom CRM than they are on the phones.

SPEAKER_03 37:57

Right. And that's where these guys know, like, you know, my job running Max Out Financial is to put my agents in the best spot financially. So what does that mean? The systems, the technology, the leads, the investment. I'm gonna do it all myself because when you invest your money, I'm gonna make sure that that works. Yeah. So I've been very fortunate to come over with enough money where I had a runway, able to write production like it's nothing, just with the way I'm able to talk to clients and figure out their situations. So that's one thing at Max O is nobody's trying to do anything off system or create anything different. We just run the system, pour more money into the system, pour even more money into the system, then guess what? We have a lead vault. Then guess what, we have a seven-day training course. Then guess what? We have a fully built-out CRM that auto books appointments in our schedule. Then guess what? We have the ethos link that gets sent out to clients automatically where they fill out the form and we get paid commission on it. All because of these guys working their tails off, you know, where I'm able to get an override to reinvest back into the business. So without these guys working their tails off, being on schedule, being on system, we won't be able to grow at the pace we're growing at. What does your schedule look like every day? Yeah, so up at 4 a.m. in the gym by 5.30, from 5.30 to 7 is gym time. Well, 5.30 to 6.45 is gym time, and then at steam room or sauna from 6.45 to 7.15 in the office by 7.30, Bible study from 7.30 to 8, or 7.30 to 7.45, depending on Monday or not a Monday, but let's say it's not a Monday, 7.30 to 8.

Don’t Reinvent The Wheel With Tech

SPEAKER_03 39:25

Then at 8 o'clock, what I'll do is I'll meet with my VA, I'll meet with my assistant, and then I'll meet with, you know, a couple guys who had questions over the weekends that I weren't able to get to. Then right around 9 o'clock is when I really unpack and figure out where we're at as a team, check in with guys, see their lease spent, things like that. Then from there it's either breakfast with the new recruit, breakfast with the guy who's crushing it, things like that. And then from there it's Claude up till 11 o'clock. Then at 11 o'clock, I'll run the day. But what do you do with Claude? Well, what my assistant does to start her day, she imports all the data from the previous day. What data? All of our sales, all of our dials, all the leads we buy, things like that, and then say we have a new agent I put in their background. So, for example, this guy came from college, has no sales experience, is single, worked at FedEx for $10 and fifty cents an hour. He has this is his minimum, this is his realistic, this is his optimal, this is how much he has in his account. You know, which person is he most like on the team? So then I kind of get a feel of where they're gonna be. You do that manually every day? Well, not every day. That's m that's like Monday when we have new agents come in. Oh but then I'm going through stuff with Claude. So for example, like this past week, well, guess what I did? I just created that itinerary for here, making sure it flows smoothly.

SPEAKER_04 40:48

So then from Do you use Claude on your itineraries? Yeah, yeah. Like you put what you want to do. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know? How insane is this world we're in right now?

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Yeah, every and then it makes it look pretty. Like all of our graphics are from Claude. You know? We put in the picture of the yacht that we're going on with the picture of our mansion, import that, create the contest and go from there. Is there drinking at these events? No. So you don't have any drinking? Never. Not any team events. People can go out Tuesday night with the guys and drink, but I won't be there. If they drink with me, I won't participate. Like, for example, at the airport, two guys had drinks, like I'll pay for everybody else's stuff besides the two guys who got drinks. And you just tell them that? Yeah. You know, like so. I mean, it's not like I'm super anti-drinking, but it's like it what good does it do for you? You're not gonna fund it, is what you're saying. I'm not gonna fund

Daily Schedule Plus Zero Alcohol Events

SPEAKER_03 41:45

it. Exactly. I'll fund you eating your pancakes. You know what I mean? I'd prefer you have like uh uh omelet because that's a little better for you, but yeah, no.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

Interesting. What do you guys think about because A, Claude is new, bro? How when did you start using Claude? A couple months ago. And how m and you're already having it pick who someone should work with in your office.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Well, not necessarily work with who they'd emulate. You know what I mean? Like what background, what trajectory, what what path are they on? But do you place them with someone? Uh directs I do sometimes. But for example, like Tate brings in the guy, I'm not gonna place Tate's guy with John. Yeah. You know, so yeah. And then what what's the rest of your schedule? Yeah, so then 11 o'clock we have our development. So 11 to 11:30 we'll run our development. What is that? Um, so Monday we'll have a special guest speaker. That's from 11 to noon. Tuesday through Fridays, 11 to 11, sorry, Tuesdays through Thursdays, it's 11 to 11:30. Right now, we just rolled out our Jeremy Minor course. What we've been doing this week is that core stuff. But after everybody's up to speed on it, then we'll have different agents who are crushing it run developments. So for example, like Tate ran a development, you know, John ran a development. You know, Carson, Trey, Gavin, Blaze, they all run different developments to help people out from 11 to 11:30. And then from That's only on Mondays. Tuesday through Thursdays. Tuesday through Thursday. Mm-hmm. And then Friday, Sean from 11 to noon. And then what what's the rest of your day? Yep. So then from Is it defense or offense? I'm always playing offense. My assistant plays defense. Yep. So then from 11:30 to 2, it's get lunch with the guys, hang out. Every day? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 43:31

11:30 to 2, you guys get lunch, do you bring it in or do you go to lunch? We usually go to lunch. Just about every day.

SPEAKER_03 43:37

Yep, the guys in the office. Where do you go? Chipotle, noodles. There's a really good place. I'm gonna put them on the map here. It's called uh Fox in the Pantry. Really good breakfast food. So we sometimes have breakfast for lunch. And then just get to know the guys, hang out. We have a mini basketball hoop guys play games on, or if people want to get back to the phones, they can.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

So every day if there's 20 people in there, you go, we're all going to lunch? Because that can get kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

No, it depends. It depends. So usually I'll always go to lunch with somebody. So, you know, for example, Tate and a couple of his downlines, they've been crushing it, so we went to a really nice restaurant here. What, two days ago? Yeah, I think it was Wednesday. Wednesday? You know. Thursday. I go out with Gavin a lot. Like Gavin's the right hand in the office. So me and Gavin probably go out three or four times a week together. And then we'll bring two, three other four four other guys with us.

SPEAKER_04 44:32

And then what time do you go to bed to get up at four? Eight thirty. Asleep by eight thirty? In bed at what time? Twenty nine. You go to sleep in one minute? Wow.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

Damn. No, that happens. When you wake up at 4 a.m. You'll go to sleep in one minute, I promise. Early on, I'm telling my mentor, I'm like, dude, I can't get up as early as you. And he's like, Oh, let me t let me tell you how to do it. Stop going to bed at two in the morning and you'll get up early. I was like, oh, that why is that so genius?

SPEAKER_03 45:07

Yeah, so then shoot, after that, from 2 to 5 30, it's uh recruit calls, overview, seeing what people need, helping them out, going back into CLOD, you know, planning next contest, just things that are on my daily schedule. So I write out my day before the day of things I need to do and then things I'd like to do. What time do you do that at? Uh before the day, so before I leave the office.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

So that's the last thing you do? You make your schedule for tomorrow. And I leave the office at 5 30.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

So you get home two quality hours with your family and go to bed. Yeah, so it's like I get home at 6, put my girl down, get to spend about 30 minutes with her, then put her down for 30 minutes, so 7 o'clock, and then that last hour is for me and my wife.

SPEAKER_04 45:51

Love it. That's awesome. Alright. Weekends, what time do you wake up? Same time. So you f Saturday, Sunday, same. Doesn't change. Same time. What happens if you some reason are up till midnight?

SPEAKER_03 46:05

Well, for example, I was up at up at a wedding here this past weekend and my schedule changed. Got it. So you just adjust it. Adjust it. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_04 46:14

Okay. Alright. So Tate, your top tip is to follow the system that people gave you. Uh be a sponge. Can you talk about that? Because that's what helped me survive. But how have you been a sponge since you started?

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Yeah, I'll break it down into like two separate sections. So, like the first thing, when I first started, all I heard from Mike is just be a sponge, be a sponge. And uh we rock in Discord, people unmute, share screens. So I remember when I first started, like if Trey got into a sit, like I was listening, I was taking notes and just learning. And then if Mike told me to do something, well, Mike's in a pretty good spot. I'm probably just gonna do that as well. Just soaking up knowledge as much as you possibly can. Um,

Be A Sponge And Stay A Student

SPEAKER_01 47:00

and then now having a little more experience, obviously I'm still very, very new. But I think I came in back this summer thinking I kind of knew, kind of knew it all. Like, yeah, I did this last summer, it'll be easy. But I relearned, like, dude, like you can never stop being a student. Like you have to just keep absorbing and learning, and you can absorb and then dish some of the stuff out if it doesn't work or it's just not for you. But at the end of the day, like, you're not gonna progress if you're not learning, you know what I mean? So that's my biggest tip. I tell the guys that I have on my team, just be a sponge. Learn from the the people who you trade places with, not only in like production, but like I have a guy on my team, Joe Torberg, he's really good in his faith. Like, I need to absorb how strong he is in his faith. So you can apply it to all aspects of your life, and to be successful in this business, like you can't just be good at selling, like you have to be a good person, you have to, you know, grow in your faith, grow in just those other aspects too. So I think being a sponge, not only in just selling and your skill set, but everything is huge, and you can grab that from tons of different guys for different reasons.

SPEAKER_04 48:11

Yeah, I do that in here with people that come in. Like with you guys right now, I'm gonna take a lot of stuff and apply it. And everyone that comes in, I take something from. And it's a sometimes it's stuff I forgot, which is crazy. It's like, oh, I used to do that. Why'd I stop? Why did I stop? Why'd I stop doing that? Alright, so speaking of being a sponge, if you're watching this, we'd love to have you at the Ignite event. Drew, can you throw that um website up? It's every carrier, every lead vendor, every top producer, a free one-day event in Florida. It is at the where is it at in Florida? Um South Florida, Fort Lauderdale, at the convention center. You can get all the information on igniteevent.com. But if you're in insurance, you know how you have the rule where you lock people out if they don't show up by 8 a.m. I have a rule where if you don't go to that event, I will not work with you. Because I don't think you're serious enough for me to spend time investing in

Ignite Event Invite And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_04 49:20

you. So if you're watching it, you definitely should go. Who said their mommy their they called their mom when they uh Yeah, it was crying. Yeah, he was crying because he was doing good. Yeah. I called my mom when I wasn't doing good when I was new, and I told her I was gonna quit. And she was like, You s like you sound like a girl. And like you're not gonna quit. Get over it. I then went to one of these big events where people were training, and it completely changed my whole outlook on the industry. So please go. If you if you want to do something, please go. I don't know anybody who's made it big that doesn't go and learn and soak these things up. Um, and we don't charge, which some companies they just do these events just to charge you money because they profit on them. That's like a big thing. You are the product, they don't care if you sell life insurance. Anyways, with that being said, thank you guys for coming in. It's been a blast. I can't wait to see what you're do what you guys do in the future, and I and then I gotta get the information for your grand opening. Let's do it. Alright, guys, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Good job, guys.