The Heart and Hustle of Insurance Agency Success with Jorge Carbonell PART 1

Imagine navigating the tumultuous sea of insurance sales with the savvy of an industry veteran. That's exactly what unfolds when we join forces with George Carbina, an insurance agency owner who's mastered the art of adaptability. Our lively discussion takes you through the twists and turns of leading a team, innovating in the face of constant change, and the personal resilience needed when life throws you curveballs. George doesn't just share tactics; he opens up about the emotional journey, revealing how his approach not only solidifies his business but also uplifts his entire crew.

The Insurance Dudes are on a mission to find the best insurance agentsaround the country to find out how they are creating some of the top agencies. But they do not stop there, they also bring professionals from other industries for insights that can help agents take their agencies to the next level. 

The Insurance Dudes focus on your agency’s four pillars: Hiring, Training, Marketing and Motivation! We have to keep the sword sharp if we want our agencies to thrive. 

Insurance Dudes are leaders in their home, at their office and in their community. This podcast will keep you on track with like minded high performing agents while keeping entertained!

About Jason and Craig:

Both agents themselves, they both have scaled to around $10 million in premium.  After searching for years for a system to create predictability in their agencies, they developed the Telefunnel after their interviews with so many agents and business leaders.  

Taking several years, tons of trial and error, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on lead spend, they’ve optimized their agencies and teams to write tons of premium, consistently, and nearly on autopilot!

LEARN MORE BY Registering for TUESDAY’s LIVE CALL With The Insurance Dudes!

Transcript

Jason Feltman: 0:00

Welcome to insurance dudes.

Craig Pretzinger: 0:02

Oh yeah, it was so excited. My head flipped off.

Jorge Carbonell: 0:06

That's taken off a roller coaster. Uh huh.

Jason Feltman: 0:12

Yeah, we had to do a retake because we said a word that we're not allowed to say. So word Walter Rookie's. It kind of we were told that, you know, we'll get sued if we say a certain name. So we won't say that name. Kara would say that they

Craig Pretzinger: 0:27

said that or Karen? Was that it? Karen? Karen.

Jason Feltman: 0:31

It was Karen. Well, great. I

Craig Pretzinger: 0:33

said it six times.

Jorge Carbonell: 0:35

So I worked for Karen. Yes.

Craig Pretzinger: 0:40

I shared insurance dudes are on a mission to escape being handcuffed by our agencies. How?

Jason Feltman: 0:47

by uncovering the secrets to creating a predictable, consistent, and profitable agency Sales Machine.

Craig Pretzinger: 0:54

I am Craig Pretzinger.

Jason Feltman: 0:56

I am Jason Feldman. We are agents. We are insurances.

Craig Pretzinger: 1:02

Well, we have George, Mr. George carbinol. Here on the show. George, why don't you introduce yourself to everybody? You've been on a couple times. But it's awesome. All you have you on here. You're a credible agent and a really good friend. So it's great to it's great to be hanging out again. Yeah,

Jorge Carbonell: 1:18

man. Thanks for having me. I know it's been a while but just I guess quick intro been been in the insurance industry for since 2012. really been working for the same company, large captive carrier. The last five years I've been an agency owner started scratch. And over the last five years, we built it from from zero to nearly 14 million in that timeframe. So a lot of work has gone into it had a ups and downs. But it's been a fun roller coaster and excited to you know, keep chatting about it. And I appreciate all the support you guys give me and the rest of the community

Jason Feltman: 1:53

love it did well, you you give just as much support back. I really wanted to do this because I was excited. We all three talk randomly throughout the week or the month. And I thought it'd be really cool to kind of do a roundtable where just the normal conversations that we normally have about our agencies and stuff. Just why not record them? Yeah,

Craig Pretzinger: 2:13

so I have the carbonated corner every every so often.

Jorge Carbonell: 2:20

Down George might be honest, something might

Craig Pretzinger: 2:23

be honest. I was calling it the carbonated sandwich because he's in the middle here.

Jason Feltman: 2:28

He's on top on my screen.

Craig Pretzinger: 2:30

Oh, well, well, let's, let's let's move on.

Jason Feltman: 2:36

Well, cool, there's so much. So George is in Ohio, that Craig is in Arizona, I'm in California, and there are a lot of changes. And there's always changes. You know, it's funny, I was just I was talking to an agent within the last month or two. And we were just talking about like, just the changes in general that it's never not going to change. So when when agents are complaining, and we're frustrated that you know, the ball gets moved, it's always moving, you know? Yeah. So it's like, I would say like the best, the best trait to have as an agent is being adaptable, you know, not holding too much to the way it was done even last year.

Craig Pretzinger: 3:18

It's tough because it becomes emotional, right? Like, and it's difficult to have a logical view on the thing if you're emotional about that change. And so I think being aware of it when it happens, right? Yeah, it gets, it could get kind of crazy. And I think that it has gotten a little crazy lately.

Jason Feltman: 3:35

Yep.

Craig Pretzinger: 3:35

What do you think, George?

Jorge Carbonell: 3:37

I think I think it's important not just as a for the agent owner, but to be able to lead the way for your team to because they see how you react to things. And we can take it away, we can get news, whether it's carriers shutting down in your in your state, or rates or RMP, underwriting changes, etc. Like, what we project out to the team is what is reality for them, right? So we can internalize that. Try to have control and figure out how to manage through it, and then filter it for our team is really what makes a difference in the operation. Yeah, yeah,

Jason Feltman: 4:10

that's so true. And as agents we always do, I know, like, it's hard not to have a poor reaction to things, especially when it's affecting the bottom line, you ramp up your team. And then all of a sudden, you can't sell in your state, which I know a little bit about. But with the emotions, it's it is important to filter and to have the output that you want from your team. Like give them the output that you want. So it's important to keep face and and be conscious of the way we're reacting to things. Yeah, and yeah, so

Craig Pretzinger: 4:45

the challenge right is is in in our positions and what we're doing there's were at the top of it right so there isn't anybody manning the emotional control of us, right? Like if you're in a job if you're working for a accompany you can't behave like that, right? You're gonna get fired. But here, you're just gonna lose your team, which is I think, higher consequences. But but sometimes I mean, I know over the course of my, my career here, there have been many times where I wish I hadn't said things that I'd said, that really didn't help. Right. And it's just venting. I mean, we all vent. And I think it's important to vent but probably not anywhere near the team. Right? Yeah.

Jason Feltman: 5:26

Until I just, I just had this response. It was like, a week or two ago, they changed a rule out here in California and changed some of the requirements, minimum things and all that stuff, which completely changes our business model. And I was pissed, I talked to another agent. Well, another agent told me the news, and we were both like, cursing like sailors for a moment there. But then like, then, like, within the next 30 minutes to an hour, I grieved. And then it was like, well, well, damn. Like, there's only I only have to one of two options go this direction. Follow, like, like, what I what I know what I know, that we can do think about the past. And like, all the assets that we built in the past, like all the, I don't know, all the opportunities that we have using those things to go forward in this direction, or go the opposite direction where we're, we're gonna die. So so that so that was it, and then post that it just changed my attitude, because it's like, alright, it's just game on. Like, I have to do this, like, it's gonna be good. And then I talked to the team after that about it, and I kind of pumped them up about it. And they were actually excited. And there's some, you know, new opportunities and stuff. So it's just focused on the opportunity's screw the stuff that doesn't that's, that's not that you don't like about it, like, focus on the stuff that you do like the opportunity. And like, after that conversation, I was actually pretty stoked. So I kind of changed. But yeah, at first, I was pissed. So

Craig Pretzinger: 7:03

if I ask a couple questions about that, sure. Because I think this could be beneficial. So you got pissed. Talk about that? Like, where? Where did you get pissed? And how did you get pissed? And I know that I know the answers to some of this because,

Jason Feltman: 7:16

yeah, yeah, I was in my office. So the but my office with no employees around, okay. It was just that and then I had a conversation with you a conversation with somebody else that is not on the team. And then another agent. There you go. And I vented to you three,

Craig Pretzinger: 7:38

so there goes the anger. Yeah, that was then the sorrow and grief, kind of working

Jason Feltman: 7:42

it out. Right? Because it was like, well, pissed about this, this this the only way this is gonna get better is if we do this the like, it was like, I was figuring out how to solve those issues as we were going,

Craig Pretzinger: 7:54

right. What is the anger sorrow, denial?

Jason Feltman: 7:57

There's no denial. There's like, that's a river in Africa. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes I like sometimes I kind of need the anger to fuel the fire to like, bright, get get my butt moving. So it worked. Yeah, it worked.

Craig Pretzinger: 8:13

We were talking about how we wake up in the board. Like, it's like, you could have a little egg or at the end of the day, you're cranky, tired. Get a good sleep. Nice workout in the morning. And it's like, Groundhog's Day. All good. Again, you know, that's important, too, right? Having the right headspace. So that's what I was, was talking through that. I mean, I've had it where in my career, like I came through Merrill Lynch, where it was a little, a little more old school. Some of the some of the guys there were like, had been, you know, stockbrokers back in the day. And there was one day where I dial in, and like a guy, one of the guys kept out of his office, either the Bulpitt comes out of the office, and he points across to the compliance officer, everybody that signs off and he goes, fu job Licio. He just screams at this Eddie through his phone across like over our heads. I see the full flight across a smashed against the wall. And he had he denied like he said, No, it was like a million dollar VA that he would have got paid, you know, I don't know, 30 grand or 40 grand on some whatever it was, I don't know. But he was pissed. And that was how he handled it. And I thought, wow, that was pretty gnarly. I don't think that's a good idea. You know, and then moving forward. I think I had I did have one that was not quite as bad as that. But I did throw something when when everybody came late one day, and I kind of lost it. And I thought, Am I doing the manager of the baseball team right now? And am I rallying them by this or is it the opposite? And it's like I was at Merrill, where I was freaked out because you know, and so I think it probably is likely never a good idea to have the meltdown in front of the team.

Jorge Carbonell: 9:59

Correct. I was you said back in the day, so phone throwing, I'm just picturing the back in your day. It's got to be the phones with the briefcase. So it's like that thing. No, no, no, there were the ones that were stolen, or

Craig Pretzinger: 10:12

did you have that thing on your ear?

Jason Feltman: 10:17

He ripped it off the wall.

Craig Pretzinger: 10:20

Wouldn't phone off the wall? It's good. Have you seen those short, you might be too young, like the like, I'd be they didn't operate when I was a kid. But my my grandpa worked at the photo at the telephone company. And so we had these old phones, and they were like the ones you like from the 20s? I don't know when it's from 50s.

Jorge Carbonell: 10:39

My grandma had the dial one. Yeah,

Craig Pretzinger: 10:42

we have those? Yeah, yeah, I could be your grandma. 2024 sorry,

Jorge Carbonell: 10:50

24, you can identify as my grandmother.

Jason Feltman: 10:56

That's good. What's going out in Ohio?

Jorge Carbonell: 11:01

Lot, but not as much as Kelly in terms of carrier and stuff. But yeah, a lot of underwriting stuff. I mean, we they've updated things here. Over the last couple of years, those carriers start to restrict the amount of business that they're bringing on, obviously, for profitability pressures we get why they're doing it. But we're talking about it before the call started is just how do you keep your team motivated, right, just through the ups and downs in training is so much more important. Because you're gonna win back in the day like your, a couple of years ago, back in the day, a couple years ago, your your your six months of continuous coverage, you're writing everything. Now there's tighter restrictions, prices are more expensive. We really have to hone in on the value. We talked about it every day, it's about building a wedge. So either a clients are going to come with you or prospects are going to come and tell you all their problems, or B, you have to help them identify the problems they didn't even know they had. And then you got to double down on that right start to build that wedge between what you're trying to show them what's better coming with us versus what they have today. If we don't do that, we're not going to win any business. So it's just a continued evolution, continued training and development. Just something we're continuing to focus on right now. Yeah, we're getting there. But yeah, I'm happy with my team's progress. We got a lot of new people. So yeah, it's fun.

Jason Feltman: 12:19

It's funny, because when I first started, I was always worried about the price. If the price went up, or we weren't as competitive, you know, how you're like certain carriers, you're like, Oh, not that carrier. We're so much more than them, you get so worried about it. But as we matured as an agency, and, you know, once you learn more of the skill of being able to like build that wedge between, you know, the value and what they what they currently have, and don't have, because because most people are kind of clueless with their insurance, because most insurance agents don't explain that much to him, right. I think like the less scared of it. And I actually have gone the opposite direction, we went up 30% in Cali and took, we're the first ones to take a 30% rate increase. I don't know if we've ever had a 30% that's a that's a nice raise. Well, what's crazy is there was a proposition in 1987, that only allowed us to go up 6.9% Every time you file here in California, but because of the 2020 and the state commissioners, well, I won't call them names. But that's a position that that basically it's a fake position that they that they use as a stepping stone for higher up positions in the government. Gotta love the the system, right? But he didn't allow anybody to go up since 2020 For four years, because of the whole thing. He was like pro people instead of pro, you know, businesses actually turning profit. So all the companies lost money out here, Geico pulled out of California. And, like none of the car the auto carriers were profitable. So then he let allowed us to go up and then he allowed us to take this 30% rate. Most other companies are gonna do it. But as you know, as it's always been out here, we take the first 30% So the team's a little worried about it, but like, I'm stoked. A it's a it's a race. All right. to I believe in profitability, every company has to be profitable. So I mean, I understand that people empathize with with the consumer, but dude, you have to make money. Right? Like, you

Craig Pretzinger: 14:33

have to not go bankrupt. Yeah,

Jason Feltman: 14:35

you have to not go pink. Right. Right. Right.

Craig Pretzinger: 14:38

I think it's more than be profitable at this point. Like they like the beer like they're in a fight for their life. Right, like, right against the big boxes. So yeah, but

Jason Feltman: 14:47

but here's the here's the huge competitive part. I know this is that if everybody goes up, and everybody's fighting this price thing, and every agent has to sell on value. I know we're gonna be one of the best.

Craig Pretzinger: 14:59

You Mm hmm. Yeah, most

Jason Feltman: 15:01

agencies suck at it. So

Craig Pretzinger: 15:03

it's interesting because it's like, so the way that you've described it is it's similar to the difference between day trading and investing, right? Like, if you're day trading, you're every day, you're you're playing the market, you're trying to time the market, you want to beat the system? Well, that's the same thing, right? If you're doing it, versus the long term play, so it's just the carrier knows, they have all the analytics, right? We know from making all the dials, like, when you have 100 million dials of analytics, you have some information that you can make decisions off of, they have billions of data sets, right? And so from that, they know, take your 30, great, we're gonna lose this, and they know how much they're gonna lose. It's all predictable. So they know what's going to fall out the back end, whether the agent scrambled or not, it's not going to make any difference. Like we've, we've sat through big rates where we got off the phone and called everybody are proactive, it didn't matter. It was there was no significant difference. So all that time and effort and energy, it's all been accounted for. They don't it like that isn't going to impact. So why are we trying to time it right? We don't time it. You don't time the market? Why are we going to try to time the pricing? Like that's there like the Fed? Right? The carrier's like the Fed, changing rates, and then boom, there you go. So yeah, stay the course it just be consistent, right? If we're consistent with the process that gets results, then we can just control the inputs, it doesn't matter what the carrier does, right? It doesn't matter what the prices do. If if people are buying less, because we can't sell because it's just that bad. And the value doesn't even work fine. You gotta buy more leads. I mean, that's the solution. Right? It's, there's, it's one or the other, like, it all works out in the math. And that's what I love about, like, just bringing out to the math, because it doesn't matter at the end of the day, all this other crap that all that everybody's always complaining and talking about and worried or concerned or this or that, none of it matters, none of it, right. And we've wasted all our time on it. That's the 80%, the 80% of the time that we spend waste, that generates 20% of results, is that, right? That was a

Jorge Carbonell: 17:14

mental note I took at the end of last year was I know, and we talked about it all the time, like focus on what you can control, right it but it's so much easier said than done. And you and you want to be the best and you want to compare yourself to others. Last year last, really, just a couple of months ago, I made a commitment to myself to run my own race, we're about the people within my agency and my customers, right? And just take ownership of that and just build off of that. Just just get rid of all the other noise outside of that, right, just put my blinders on and just run my race. I can't stress about other factors. And I just, you know, I got a family feed and I got families to support right within my agency, I take a lot of pride in that we have 20 employees, right, think about 20 families, you gotta continue to invest in the machine be consistent, like you were saying, and it's gonna pay off. There's no scenario where if you are consistently continuing to invest in your business, that the end of the year that you don't come up better for it,

Craig Pretzinger: 18:12

right. 100% Yeah, we were talking about that yesterday, Jason and I were talking about that exact thing. It doesn't matter what you do, everything works. Just like at the if you if you're consistent, it works. Everything can work. Yeah. Is it going to work? And be the most effective thing? If you do, you know, if you do all live transfers, probably not. That's gonna be more expensive, right? At the end of the day, there's somebody that has a better cost per sale. But if you're consistent with it, it will work. Right. If you're consistent with mailers, they do work. I mean, George, you did it, it worked. But you get you don't get much back on your investment in the way, you know, from your experience. And that was my experience. I know that some people have done great with it, they were probably more consistent, right? And that they figured out the little nuances. I

Jason Feltman: 18:57

love what you said about running your own race. Yeah, it's so funny, like we do compare and all that stuff. And I like for years I was sprinting with the agency trying to grow and made you know, a bunch of decisions looking back that I'm that I wouldn't do again. Then there's also like the ego part of it, like building it up trying to get we got best in company and all this stuff. And like we're, we were we're sitting really well. We've taken a couple hits the last year, I mean, clearly with the carrier stuff with in California where we couldn't really sell anything. So we had to adjust the agency and what we're doing in the agency and it does, it hits the ego, but it's like I'm not i i shouldn't try to compare against, you know, monetary or even awards like or what other people are doing like that. That's where you can get really sideways in the head. So that was one of the takeaways that I've had in last couple years. Is it I actually think it was a good thing to be kind of like taken aback. And then the other thing was the way we built the team before, there was a lot of good. But there was some stuff that I'm that I might have let slide when it came to even culture in the agency that, like, I thought that I was building one thing, and it kind of turned into another thing. And there's definitely some stuff that I let slide that I would never let slide now. So like, even if you make more money in the agency, by doing one thing, and it ethically everything's great, I mean, it wasn't not ethical, but it was just, I wasn't proud. I like there were times that I was super proud of the team. And other times where I might have let some some stuff slide. Still ethically, but like just even just the kindness in the, you know, like, between the top tier guys and the middle guys, and you know, what I let you know, days off, and just all kinds of stuff between it, I would have done it differently. And I wouldn't have let some of the tea, I would have let some of the best team members go away earlier, even though would have hurt a little bit monetarily. And I actually think in the long run, it would have helped. Yeah, business. So I think the way I approached the building of it now is different, where before, it was all maths, and now it's like, like, I want a place where not one single person doesn't want to be around each other. Because including myself, because like not those days of not wanting to show up or not wanting to deal with people or all this stuff that can happen is just not worth it. You know? Yeah. Not if you're playing the long game, if you're playing the short game, whatever. So how

Craig Pretzinger: 21:43

do you how how are you going to structure that? Lets you know you're you're in this place now, where you haven't been able to write business for a year. Yeah. And now they tell you in a month, you are now have goals? Yeah. No team, you got rid of everybody just like all the other agents. And so it's the same problem everybody has, and we could laugh and it sucks and all that. But it is what it is right. Yeah. Now what? What's the plan?

Jason Feltman: 22:10

Yeah, so we move sales manager over to the ideas. So then that's one sales person gone? And then we don't really have any salespeople? Yeah. Yeah. So. So then there was somebody else that when he had the sales manager meant position, there was somebody else that almost got it. And we've kind of stayed in touch here and there. And I just reached out to him. And I said, you know, like, we're about to do this again, and, and asked him if he wanted to join the team. And he was stoked. So we're gonna do it a little differently, too, because we talked about the, the, the good old days, but then also, you know, we were talking about some of the things that, you know, we didn't like, and in the good old days, it was almost all good stuff. And it was almost like it was we didn't even need to bring up a couple things. But I wanted to bring it up, because I wanted to make sure that going forward, that I really want to hold everybody's best interests as number one. So I think going forward, there's three things is mission, vision and values like love it. Yeah, like the vision is the thing that like me, I need to cast I need to cast a strong vision for the team for the agency where the agency is going, like, yeah, and then I think we need the mission like what what what is our mission? Every single day that we're trying to do, you know, as to get to that end goal, that Super Bowl goal that that vision? What are we doing every single day, what is our mission when we get into the to the agency, and helping people and everything else, and then values. And then I think the values part is the most important when it comes to getting new team members on board. And when it comes to any personality traits, because if you have a strong set of values, and we know those values, and we talk about the values regularly, then it helps to sort out the people that have other values, right? It becomes really clear. Because it it, it divides it it like if somebody starts doing something that doesn't, that's the opposite of one of your values. That person, it's it's not, it's not cool. And I want the team to like let that person know that that's not cool, and have some sort of ground where they can say, hey, what about you know, this value? What about you know, that in you have use that phrase? What about that? What about, you know, team is Booyah, and then like, Oh, like that, then there they have a way that they can communicate with each other to hold each other accountable where it's not just, Hey, dude, what you're doing is not cool, you know? Yeah,

Craig Pretzinger: 24:50

rules are important. Yeah, I mean, especially with a bunch of salespeople, right? Like you're dealing with special people that have a lot of emotion and and a lot of energy, if they're good, right? If they're gonna get you there that they need to have a lot of energy and a lot and likely a lot of emotion, right and empathy. So there's a lot of that happening. And they're quick thinking, and you know, so we definitely need to put those rules in place. Like without the rules, it can get sideways quick. And I think everybody on here has had that situation.

Jorge Carbonell: 25:22

Good sales reps, we always talk about our solution oriented, just make sure the solution is appropriate. Right.

Craig Pretzinger: 25:29

Yes, you have some unique solutions.

Jason Feltman: 25:33

So Craig had quite a year last year. I did you started off last year? Yeah,

Craig Pretzinger: 25:39

horribly. Yeah. It was rough. And so it was I was in I was kind of in that place where, like, you were forced into that play? I guess I was somewhat forced, I probably by not being as involved, allowed it to happen. Right? What happened with the team left? So but my whole team left? So I got I went from a 200k month to hardly anything. And then it was like, here we go. The start starting over is really hard. And I think I had, I don't know that I even I probably got angry. I don't remember it. But I definitely would have gotten angry. So it was, you know, anger, then I went through all the stages. And then well, there's only one thing to do, right. But that was actually a catalyst for putting getting all the hiring stuff in place. Like to really get that airtight. And I remember us talking a lot about the higher like IV George was George IV, your instrumental it to you gave me a ton of that a ton of great insights into that. But like, the whole idea is it's very similar to the offense, right? It's very similar to leads like, you need a funnel. And that was why it was always a struggle to get people. Right. And luckily, that team that left, I mean, before they left, it had been the same team since I opened my my other location like nobody ever nobody left from the day that we opened, or well, two weeks after we opened. So yeah, like, that was tough. But it created the fire that made it be documented and made the process and we have to follow it this way and not being at the office when it happened. I guess that's an important point. Because I was at Cabo at Nakaba. I was at Cancun. And so like having that, like having the thing to be able to go over with my ops manager and him to execute. I mean, that's huge, right? Because I know, in the past, I had, I had had to leave like I left a trip one time when some people left because I was like, I emergency I need to leave. And then you know, that's not good for the family. That's not good for for anything.

Jason Feltman: 27:48

Yeah. And you had health issues. Last year, you had family issues. Yeah.

Craig Pretzinger: 27:54

My dad passed away. I don't know. I had this weird freak thing ended up in the hospital. I did. It was just wild. It was a really, really rough year.

Jason Feltman: 28:02

It was a crazy year. Yeah. But I also traveled a

Craig Pretzinger: 28:05

lot to I mean, I was God, probably four months of travel. Like I would go I would to wherever I wouldn't a lot of places. It was fun. It hit the reset button. Costa Rica. Yeah.

Jason Feltman: 28:16

It was crazy that that you were able to get the team back together. And let's be honest, your ops manager did. Yeah,

Craig Pretzinger: 28:24

he did. Yeah,

Jason Feltman: 28:25

he did. He did an awesome

Craig Pretzinger: 28:27

did it from a lot of the information aggregated from from so many different people, like it was just, you know, like, all we've done is take it the obvious it kind of put it so that so that it's easy to follow. Now, you do that at your agency, it works. I

Jason Feltman: 28:40

know. You know, I know. I've known you for a while. So he seems very engaged like it. Was he more engaged over the last year than he was? Yeah, like he seems very, like pumped. He doesn't. Okay, put it this way. He seems very excited about what he's doing. How did he become so excited about what he's doing?

Craig Pretzinger: 28:59

I think that I got, I think I got fortunate, because you know, how much I love, like holding, doing the accountability, like I love them to be accountable. But I don't necessarily like to keep doing it all the time. And so that's where, when, when I started pulling back, we're not doing as much in the agency, I was having him start to do that part. And I would do it we do it together that that I started not doing as much and it was sort of that, you know, phase out of it. And then I kind of Will it last year, like last year, I was I was pretty checked out for the whole year. And yeah, you know, like forced checkout. And so it worked. And I think I think that because the systems were in place, because all that time had been spent right. And he was he was around for the building. So he saw a lot of it as iterated and understood it too. But I had said, you know, hey, you're going to be running a lot of this at one point, you know, I So I prepped him, and he always said, Yeah, I'll do whatever, you know, like, because he, he was grateful. And he still says it, you know, when he came to be, he didn't have experience in this in this business, and he really hadn't had any any other jobs in the US, like, he's from England, and he had, he had a job and as a prison, you know, like, he was managing the ladies of the prison. So, but, you know, totally different, I guess, the management experience that was I liked that, and I thought, okay, that's gonna be something of value. He wanted to sell when I did the interview, and I thought the English accent was gonna crush it. And it took a while because he's not a sales guy. But he's, he's, he's taken that on, like, he's doing things, because of the things that we've done. Like the speeches because of the, I mean, he listens to the podcast, which is so crazy. hijas you know, it's just, it's, uh, it's interesting, but, but he takes he takes it on, and a lot of the things that we're talking about, I come in, in the morning, I usually get here at five or six, and I come in and go in the thing and look at what's on the board. It's a lot of what he's written up, there are the things that we're talking about, which is freaking awesome. You know, it's like, wow, man, he's, he's doing it, like, he's executing the things and, and, and it works, you know, and, and, and it we went to where it can get as bad as it is where everybody's gone. I mean, nothing, you know, to write Jason's like it, George, you haven't had like, a big fall. But when you do 250 In one month, and the next month, it's 50. It's like, take the gun out of your mouth quick, right? Because it sucks. And the only thing you can do is go well, at least we know the place right? Like we it's not guessing anymore before like literally for eight years, dude, I I mean, I could sell and I could teach people how to sell all day long. But the the mechanism to get the fiddly like to get people in to quote, because that's the big mess is nobody realizes you got a quote, you have to quote 10 households like I mean, ain't nobody quote in 10 households. If If there isn't a plan for that, right, like that, that's not going to happen. I mean, the most my people ever quoted before were really sales. You know, sales forward, sales forward. Is that right? Sales? Yeah. Yeah. Just think he's, yeah, consistently focused on that aspect of it.

Jason Feltman: 32:30

Yeah. Well, well, I think I did it there. wrap that up. wrap that up. That's all that needs to be said about that. And I'll just drop the mic.