He Cracked the Code to Sales, Money, and Freedom | Jon Mason

What does it really take to go from survival mode… to financial freedom?

In this episode of The Gold Coast Podcast, Eric Winegard sits down with Jonathan Mason, a top-performing insurance and financial professional who built his career from the ground up.

Jonathan shares his raw journey from living at home, drowning in debt, and grinding multiple jobs… to becoming a leader in the insurance industry and building multiple successful offices across the country.

This conversation dives deep into:

The 4 phases of success (and why most people get stuck)
Why 92% of people fail in sales
The real difference between effort and skill
How to structure your day for maximum income
The truth about personal development and discipline
Why most people never reach financial freedom
Sales, leadership, and building a duplicatable system
The power of mentorship and accountability
Real strategies for prospecting, closing, and scaling a team
How life insurance and annuities actually build long-term wealth

Jonathan also breaks down how money really works and why most people were never taught it.

If you're in sales, business, or looking to level up your mindset, income, and life… this episode is a must-watch.

📲 Connect with Jonathan Mason:
Instagram: @JonMasonMoney
Website: moneymase.com
TikTok: @jonmoneymase
YouTube: @JonMasonMoney

🎙 Hosted by Eric Winegard
📺 New episodes every Tuesday & Thursday at 6PM

👉 Like, subscribe, and share this with someone who needs to hear it.

Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Gold Coast Podcast. I am your host, Eric Weingard, and today I'm very excited to be chatting with a client, a friend, and someone that I admire deeply, uh Jonathan Mason. Um, you know, I met John probably about a year ago or now or so, and he has an incredible track record in the insurance and financial space, and uh he's got an incredible story of um you know uh youth to success, and I couldn't be more excited to share John's story. Um welcome to the show. Thank you so much, glad to be. Nice job, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Thanks, brother. Yeah, you know, I reached out to you, you know, and you just we're rolling, so just go. Oh, that's awesome. So I reached, I'm just gonna get the story, right? So so I reached out to you and you know, we got connected through Mario, got connected to somebody, talked and says, Yeah, I want to put some insurance in place. We set that up, yeah, and then had that process to go. Because what remember what I did for you was I saved you several years of your life on cost of insurances. So what people don't realize, you can actually obviously it's you know taking commissions out of your pocket, but you're putting that back into the person's policy. And most agents are not gonna do that. But with a certain clientele, with a certain market, you want to be able to save them cost of insurances that you know there's some some companies have restrictions on how much you can do, but you do what you can to make sure it's it's in the client's best interest.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Um, and that's what we did. So it depends on the age, it depends on the amount of coverage, it depends on the health. Uh, there's caps on what you can do to control that. But you know, we we did the best we could for your policy. Yeah, and realistically, that took thousands out of commissions back into thousands into your cash. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. And people don't even know that they can do that because most companies don't even have that option. Some companies do.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Well, I found out early on you're a good businessman because you know, when I like at the end of the day, I I believe doing good business is doing what's best for the prospect or the client. If you just do what's best for them and you have the best intentions and you deliver for them, you're gonna get a whole lot more referrals, you're gonna increase your reputation. Some people have a very short-sighted mentality when it comes to commission, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Because they remember they're in the four phases they're in the survival, the status, the freedom, the purpose. Yeah, when most people get into sales, especially insurance, they're in survival because it's commission. They gotta make that sale, they gotta get that quota, uh, they gotta get that recognition. So that's the part where that happens. So definitely we could talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Do you remember being in survival mode at one point in your life? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Do you remember it? Unpack it. How old were you? What were you doing?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Man. Survival mode really kicked in when I was 26 getting into insurance because no commission, no steady income. The only income I had was the entertainment park, doing the weddings, the bar mitzvahs, all those kinds of events. Yeah. And I did everything I could to lower my expenses, and there's even a point of living with my parents just to make sure that, hey, that's a thousand dollars a month, fifteen hundred a month that I could put into my business. Yeah. So I did everything I could to lower my expenses. And I and I remember I was renting an office in South Florida for about$1,200 a month because it was an executive suite, so the fl the price would fluctuate, where my office rent was one thing, but then I had to pay for the executive uh uh boardroom, and you have to rent it by hours. So there were two boardrooms that we we would rent. One was uh actually three. One was free, which is always the one that looks like crap. Yeah, then there's a really large room that was more expensive, and then there's the other one downstairs, which was smaller. And then we got some free time, and that's the part where it would always change, you know, some hours we used, some hours we didn't. So, but it was around$1,200 a month or so. Now, that$1,200 a month when you first starting out was a lot. Brutal. Yeah. So I was also, you know, paying off some credit card debt. No one knew that I had from working with a buddy of mine in in a marketing business where that's a whole different story. Um, we were young, took on some debt to buy printers and computers, and we got the the Verizon chip. How much debt?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

How much?$23,000. Ooh, that's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

It was business debt, but long story short, we did it together. We both didn't know what we were doing. And we're like, all right, let's get this$1,000 laser jet black ink printer.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Made no sense. Let's get the best Trio Verizon. Remember when you take out the pen and start tapping it when it first came out? Stupid idea. But we did it. Ego kicked in, bad decision. And then we got laptops. Vio? Vio laptops? Is that still a brand? I don't think so. Vasio, I don't know. But we got laptops and we got desks, and we're acting like business professionals. We have zero freaking experience. And we ended up putting all that on the credit card, and then you know, my my business partner at the time convinced me, we're 21, 22 years old. He convinced me that it's fine, it's business debt, we can write it off. I'm like, I don't know what that means. So we get into all this debt, and then we had two or three accounts, but we didn't know how to ask for the money up front. We didn't know what a retainer was. Yeah, so we're all in this credit card debt, and the guy that uh brought us on, he says, John, if you need the money to pay that off, let me know. Like you should have asked. I didn't know how to ask. Then I said, Well, then yes, if you're asking, you so then he wrote us a check, took care of some bills. But what happened was this guy, I'm not gonna give his name, he actually passed away a few years ago. Um, he wanted to go back to get his MBA. His mother was teaching at a at a at a at a big college, and he came over to the house one day, signed everything over to me, and says, You'll take care of it. Oh, so screwed me over. I don't want to play the victim card, but I didn't know what was happening. I was trying to keep our friendship together, and I said, All right, now it's all good, you know, we'll figure this out. Really, what he did, he took the laptop, his own he took his laptop, right? Took his phone, but it's a company account, and then I got two desks and$23,000 in debt. Half was supposed to be his. Now, then I'm like, what the hell? Like, I was doing entertainment stuff, figuring things out, paying this off for a couple years. And then when I got into insurance, in about a year and a half, two years, guess what happened? I paid off all the debt. So I paid all of that off while I was doing insurance part-time and doing in entertainment and working at the gyms doing hip-hop aerobics. And so I was in I was in that survival hustler mode for a long time. And then, you know, financial freedom kicked in down the road. But there's a lot of skills that I had to go through, a lot of grind that I go through, a lot of things behind closed doors that nobody saw. Because no one, no one sees how hard you're working behind closed doors. They only see the proof. No doubt. You know, what's the funny saying? You know, it took you 20 years to become an overnight success.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah, the iceberg, tip the iceberg, right? Exactly. The iceberg picture. They don't see anything, just see that part. So sleepless nights, you know, the days you went to work, not sleeping, the day you got into a fight with your girlfriend, you don't feel like working, the day you're hung over because you were a knucklehead the night before. That happened twice.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

We went to Blue Martini. We went to Blue Martini, and I did not want to go to the office. My guy Chad says, John, how are you feeling? I was pissed off. I said, You done? Like, yeah, good. I'll see you in 20 minutes. All right, see ya. You know, this is a quick check. Um, I remember I live in my parents' house because I was moving from South Florida to Boca and then Boca to Jackson, but I was paying rent at this place. It was all like I'm a weird spot. And I had my red um luggage that my grandmother gave me, and I had all my stuff in one big uh one big luggage. Yeah, and then I had my suits on the white chair. So I was living with my parents, but they already turned my room into like my dad's lounge or something. I don't even have a bedroom anymore. I'm I'm in the guest bedroom, which is small. So I'm on a small bed. If you ever hear Patrick talk about he's on a small bed, now's the bed.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

And um my luggage is is on the floor, but all my clothes are in the luggage. It's like the top of the socks. Second, there's a shirt, so that's what it was. And then my suits were either on the floor, laying down, or on a chair because the closet was full. And that's how I lived for a while. Then I moved to Jacksonville, and then I had all my clothes in the car hung up. I didn't have the bar, I know what that was. I wish I knew what the bar was, but I had clothes on the racks, on the on the uh handlebars.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Let me ask you a couple questions about because I I, you know, all I ever hear people our age talk about and older is that this generation generation 22, 23 year olds, you know, my one buddy called them dunces, right? They're super soft, right? What do you think, like if you're in, and I know it's hard to put a number to it, but whether you're B2C or B2B, if you're in sales and you're trying to be a six-figure earner minimum, okay, plus, right? Is there a certain number of hours a week that people should be working? And I know you're gonna say it's efficiency and referrals and networking, but is there if you're 22, 23, you're single, you don't have any money, you know, uh you're living with your mom, uh, save twelve hundred bucks. How many hours a week should you be putting in? Into what? Into insurance sales or marketing sales or real estate sales. If you're in sales, how many hours a week do you think they should be putting in?

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Well, that's what I'm saying, into what?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So what I mean by that is cause and effect. You say I'm working, but what what are you working? Because if you there's a couple things you have control over. Obviously, God's gonna take care of everything, but you still gotta do your part. Yeah, right. So, one cause and effect, okay, skill set and mindset, attitude and activity. You either have an effort issue or a skill issue. So you say, How many hours should you put in? But if your skill set is horrible, it doesn't matter how many hours you put in or what you put into the hours, you need to work on your skill set. So if you're asking, what should I put hours into? Well, how many hours are you putting into personal development? What book are you reading? What meetings are you attending? You know, what conferences are you going to, what are your associations like? So talk about that for a second. So hours putting in, that's what I said, into what? Be specific.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

I think if you want to improve your increase, your your income, you have to increase your personal development, read more books, attend more events. Like we talked about SLS in a couple weeks, right? Be around better people, and then get your skill set up, which is also going to help with your mindset. So, how many hours are you putting into skill set improvement and mindset improvement? That's number one. Number two is the working part. That's the CPAs, or it's actually PCA. Right? You can do CPA for remembering it, but there's three things you have to always do in sales. You have to do this in marketing. You uh if you're in solar, if you're in real estate, you're in insurance, you have to track how many prospects you're getting per day, per week, per month, how many calls you're making per day, per week, per month, and appointments you ran per day, per week, per month. So if you don't prospect people, you have nobody to call. You don't call anybody, you're not making appointments. Now, if you don't run any appointments, you're not gonna make any money. So so many people thinking, how many hours do I put in to make money? But what are you doing? I have to make phone calls. But if you're calling the same 30 people that you called last month, what are you expecting? How many new prospects? Yeah, but I'm not meeting anybody. That means your skill set is not good. That means your schedule is not good. That means something your approach is not good. Does that make sense? Yeah, of course. So because you're not doing this, that, or because you're doing this, that, and the other, the effect is this, this, this.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

So, so get so give me uh one of the reasons I I started this podcast is you know, part of I I feel like I've had a life kind of void of mentors. Unfortunately, you had a great mentor. I I really had poor mentors and they taught me bad things. Yeah, right. And and what I observed under mentorship was uh I I realized in my young 30s, wait a minute, maybe this isn't the right person to follow because I'm seeing some inconsistencies here. But you had an unbelievable mentor. Is it fair to call PBD a mentor? Amazing. The best. He's a one-of-one. He digitally mentored me on freaking YouTube, for God's sakes.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

By the way, and that's the part where people miss. You know, when I got into insurance in 09, Instagram didn't exist yet, Facebook was just coming around. The resources that are available today to people to get mentorship is literally unheard of now with AI, with chat. So people can get mentored if they choose it, but they also have to be willing to be held accountable to go through that process.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

So give so give me one of the reasons I started is you know, a 22, 23-year-old, or even a 40-year-old who's thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, give me a schedule. Break down the schedule, uh Sunday to Saturday, how much time, and I know it's results-oriented and and you're trying to build your skills, but but actually give me a schedule of uh what time I should wake up, what time I should, how many audiobooks I should be listening to, how much goes to personal development, how much goes to cold outreach, how much goes to warm outreach. Walk me through the day of a young salesperson, what they should be doing.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

So after 17 years being insurance, I decided to write a book, Prospecting Secrets. Right, PBD forwarded it because I noticed that a lot of salespeople had a hard time getting in front of people. They're great at closing, but they have to have somebody too close. So I wrote Prospecting Secrets, and in the book, at the end, in the appendixes, um, I have a schedule that people can follow, a hypothetical schedule. First thing is you have to understand your time. You can't control or manage time, but you can organize it really. So there's red time, there's yellow time, there's green time. And there are other companies that I didn't come up with this, by the way, it's not my invention. Um, I learned this over years. Green time is money-making time, phone calls time, running appointments, networking events, when you're actually doing things to generate, right? Generate, generate. Green is so think G and G. Green, generate. Generate green. I like that. Would you consider that eight to five? I call them golden hours. It can't because it depends on your calendar, it depends on your schedule, depends on your business. Because in insurance, our eight to five is typically six to nine. Evenings with six to ten. Exactly. So it it is not a set time. So the idea is you have to pick what green time is your time. Okay. Yellow is admin. Paperwork, follow-ups, um, submissions of stuff, whatever you have to do. That's all the admin, the emails. That's your yellow time. That could be first thing in the morning, that could be after lunch. You have to pick your yellow time. Red time is family. Turn over your phone, put it aside, give your wife, give the kids, give your husband, give whoever's in your life, family time. That's also your gym time. That's also you time. That's your your your faith time. But most people have a really hard time with the red because they feel guilty, they're not putting towards towards the the green.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Where where do you slide uh a Tony Robbins audiobook in? Is that red time or that's red time? That's red time, okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Now that could be yellow. That's interesting. You know, okay. But that's personal development is not generating any actual you're not actually red. It's not green time for sure. It's not green time. So you can say red time, it's your time. Okay. That's interesting. No, people look at red time as a bad thing. You need red time.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Turn the phone over for a minute. Your phone's turned over. Oh my bad. There you go. Right. But that we're here because one time when when Mooney and I were dating, I was on my phone like this whole time. You know, she's sitting there thinking, Hello, I'm here. Like, do you see me? Like, is your phone everything more important than me? Now I had to learn some lessons, and then years later, I realized I'm like, no, no, no, no. I have the most important person of my life in front of me. What am I on this phone for? So we went on a date one night, it was New Year's Eve, and I said, Babe, do me a favor, put this in your purse. I gave her my phone, and she looks at me like, Who are you? Like, remember that, right? Who are you? I'm like, I got you here. What the hell do you need the phone for? Yeah. And she's like, Okay, that's the man. And I think most people forget to turn off the engine because we get you and you're we're men. We we get so caught up in providing, making money, you know. I'm in the arena, right? But it's like, wait a second, you also have to remember that you're also a family man, not just a business man. So a man's job is to provide. That doesn't just mean financially, no doubt. That's also emotionally. And that's the part that I had to learn through. But um red time, I think, is very, very important. It's family time, it's you time. Yellow time is the admin stuff. And uh, if you get better at yellow time, guess what? You hire assistants, secretaries, they do that stuff, you trust but verify. Um and then the green time is you actually working. And uh, you know, one of my buddies is uh this attorney buddy of mine, he did the estate planning down here in South Florida, Michael Wilde. Great guy. Here's a little shout out for him. Um I remember I met him at a networking event. And every networking event I go to, he's here. I said, How the hell are you at every networking event? Don't you do stuff? He says, I have great staff. I said, Got it. So he doesn't bog himself down with yellow time, he doesn't bog himself down with the busy work. He wants to work on his business, not his busyness. Yeah, does that make sense? I and the why, right? So, but red time, you got to put time into the family. I think that's why a lot of people have you know divorces and breakups and so and so. They forget the red time because society has almost conditioned people to feel guilty for not working. Yeah, in the Bible, it's a sin not to work, but don't forget you have to take care of your family. So read between the lines there. It's like you have to work, but it doesn't mean you work non-stop.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

So you have to decide what hours you're gonna put into your company, into your job, into your business based on what do you want, why do you want it, how bad do you want it? Now, what also can help alleviate that is make it a family business. You know, when Patrick was starting the insurance company, guess who was helping 24-7? Yeah, his wife.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Jen, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

While she was pregnant, while she was giving birth, she was doing payroll. Literally, she popped out a kid and then popped out the payroll. Like literally, that's what happened. And Pat tells the story all the time. Like, that's no, that's a G right there. For sure. So, so you know, respect to Jen and Pat's family for making sure that it was a family business. And then as the company grew, Jen is still involved. You go to Valley Tane all the time. Jen's still around, she has an office there. She's still so that's the idea.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

She tries to give the female perspective too, which is odd.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

But that's the part because the family's together and Patrick involved in the kids, it's not daddy's never around. It's no, daddy's incorporating the life he wants. So I think if you design a life, not just go out and make a living, you're gonna be much more happy. Uh or happier. I'm what is the proper English? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I think you know it's really learning centers. So no, you're good. It's just an observation I've had over the years is that you know, women being in the workplace is is relatively new. It probably 70s was when it really started. So we're only talking 40, 50 years. And I think what happened was just my observation is you know, because of finances, we people needed that dual income. They needed that second income. And it's kind of unnatural to have hubby at work, wife at work, someone else is raising the kids. And it is more natural to have, you know, especially the the mother around a little more. So what I've noticed, and this just happened organically with me and Alexis, my wife, is you know, we started business together. And it's actually been the healthiest thing ever for us because we don't just, you know, when we come home at the end of the day, it's not just me complaining about work or going, hey, I got promoted. We're both actually bonding about problem solving together. So um I my point I'm making is I see a lot of couples doing business with each other today um in in an effective manner.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

You also have to be careful. Do you want a wife or a secretary?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

And a lot of people I talked to my you know brother about this the other day, old school stories. Do you want a girlfriend or an assistant? And you have to realize that your spouse, whether you know, if the woman's in the business and the husband's supportive or the husband's business, wife supportive, your sub your spouse is not your therapist. And I think a mistake that we've all made at one point is you just got to get it out sometimes. And you take it out, not in a negative way, but it's like they have enough stuff going on. So your approach matters. So when you go talk to your wife, it's hey, babe, I'm can we talk? I'm kind of dealing with something. I want to get your feedback on it. That's not the same as venting, that's disgusting. And I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that when we have those kinds of conversations, she feels engaged, she's like, okay, she feels seen, feels heard, understood. And I think that's a better connection than a vent. But sometimes we vent, sometimes they vent, we gotta listen, like you're good, I'm better. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

I find prefacing it with, hey, can I just vent real quick? Correct helps. Correct. Hunts. This isn't an attack, I'm not mad, I just gotta get it out.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

That's it. Yeah. What do you cuz because remember, what do men want to do? We want to fix.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

We want to fix naturally want to fix. Women, when they're venting, they don't want you to fix it, they just want to talk. But we want to fix something. But when we're venting, it's because we're we're angry or pissed off or something. So they don't understand it too. But I agree with you. You have to preface it properly. Listen, I uh here's what's going on. Can I just vent for two minutes? Awesome, you're good? Yeah, okay, let's get some coffee. Yeah. So I agree with that part tremendously.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I um I love I I love your I love your book, um, you know, Prospecting Secrets, because yeah, like you're so right about every sales training I've ever seen. Everything. And I'm guilty of it. I follow it. I mean, I've watched Cardone, I've watched PBD, I've watched, you know, Jeremy Minor's another good one who's out there. You know, Bradley is a guy we both know. He uh, you know, he's got some good money, sales skills for sure. And I've always admired these guys. I've always tried to like, you know, the same way you know, a basketball player looks at different basketball players. Kind of takes you know certain styles or moves and tries to be the best version of himself. So that's what I've tried to do. But you are so on point with the lack of someone's ability to get in front of people. I don't care if you're Tony Robbins. I don't care if you're you it doesn't matter. If you got no one to sell, you ain't gonna make no money. So I I love your prospecting. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's great. So you and I met through Value Tainment, Mutual Connection, connected us, became fast friends and and uh clients of one another. So tell me, you know, what was your what was the inception point of you, you know, working with Patrick?

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Yeah. So in 2008, when the the great recession hit, everyone's again they're butt kicked in real estate, mortgage-backed securities. You know, what's funny about that is you know, people still go back to it. They don't they don't understand money or finance, and that's the biggest thing. But in 2008, everyone takes a hit, including my family. So mom and dad lost real estate property investments. My uncle lost uh several hundred thousand in his 401k right before retirement. My grandfather uh lost half his money in the portfolio that was supposed to be managed. And I'm sitting here thinking, I went to school, I got my degree, but I know nothing about money. They don't teach real finance in school, they teach you some basic stuff, but not actually how to apply it in the real world. And you see the table, a lot of these kids come come go to school, they're coming out delusional, with a lot of debt, no actual job that's gonna pay anything to them. And it's either way, nothing's changed. So I'm in the entertainment business, doing the weddings, the bar mitzvahs, the corporate event. I'm the fun guy, having a good time. And then life got serious real quick. My parents were struggling, the family's struggling, and I wanted to say, you know what, I'm gonna help. No more messing around. I matured overnight. I wanted to learn about money because I didn't understand it. So I went from breakdancing to financing, that was my job. Wanted some interviews, and I realized that the corporate companies have a big name, but they don't give you the flexibility because a lot of those companies don't give you a salary, it's full commission. So I couldn't not do my entertainment stuff. I need to pay the bills. So I needed something I could do part-time where they can train me, guide me, teach me, and learn what I have to learn to start making money, and then go full-time. So March of 09, I got well, end of February, but I flew out in March of 2009 to meet Patrick through my brother. Patrick was connected to Pat. Uh, my brother was uh connected to Pat. And I flew out there on a week's notice to go interview. I love how he ran his business, the culture, the environment, the team, the community. Insurance is boring itself, the business is boring. Yeah, but the environment is fun. The environment is what I was drawn to.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

The locker room almost, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:51

If you're an athlete, if you're a competitor, if you're in a marine, if you're uh a military and you like camaraderie, you like people, you like having fun, that you'll love this business because that's what I got drawn to. I knew nothing about the products or services. I like the environment. And then I said, wait, you guys actually sell insurance here, like life insurance? No. Okay. I'm there for three days. I go to Patrick. I love this. I'm in. What do you need me to do? He says, Go get licensed. How do I do that? He says, John, we don't know. We're in California, go figure it out. So I fly to Florida, back to South Florida, uh, call the licensing school, set at the time, take my test, get it knocked out. I said, Patrick, now what? He says, Well, send someone to train you. It took two months for them to come train me. I was logging in.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

It wasn't send somebody for two months. You were just waiting. Oh waiting for two months. Wow, okay. I know that part of the story.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Most people don't. You know. The good old days. Oh man. And there was no Zoom. There was no Skype yet. Skype was like barely good. There was another thing that I bought, Hello World, and I was paying 40 bucks a month to do video conferences, but it kept freezing.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Then there was another thing, and it was horrible. And I was the only one out of state. So they're logging in. Imagine you're trying to get training on a video camera and it keeps freezing, but the camera is set to be on a wall behind you. So all I'm staring at, if Patrick walks off screen, I can barely hear the voice, there's no microphone, no lapel mic or anything, it's just a wall. Insane. I said, I gotta figure this out. So I'd fly back to LA every other month to learn, instead of a couple days, to learn how to run the office, how to run the systems, how to run presentations, how to do things. And it was a process. Um, the first year was hard, and I was literally by myself. Then a guy moved out to help train me and give me some hands-on training. I didn't make a lot of money my first year. Um, and then from there, I got better experience because I had some help now. I had some help to kind of work. You know, it's always say if you're gonna open up a territory, get two people. You need two. Like you said, you and your wife, you need two. Yeah, and uh he did one thing, I did the other. Developed, developed, developed, built it up, became a top officer of the country. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Then I moved to how fast did you become the top officer in the country? Two years. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Two years after that? 2013, yeah. So 2011, 12. Yeah, okay. Um, not the top, one of the top. I think we were at number three. Right then again. Yeah, you know, still, still bronze, right? Um, and then I moved to Jacksonville, started from scratch, recruited a guy, he started part-time, built it up. But I was working at a Panair Breads and Starbucks. Yeah. I actually did uh meetings in libraries, and anywhere we could find the desk and a table, and that's all we needed. And we built it up, and that became again number three office. Never cracked number two or one. Damn it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Um, but that was a little luck involved here and there, too. You know, but they were startups.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

It wasn't like I took 50 people and opened an office. It was literally from the ground up.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Some of it's market dependent and well, you have to work your way.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

That's where prospecting comes in. Yeah, you prospect into the market you want to get into and made a lot of mistakes along the way, but also had a lot of great support. You talked about mentorship, a lot of great support along the way. Now from Jacksonville, Orlando, and then Orlando. I've opened up different parts of Texas, South Carolina, you know, states in the north, California places. So we have people around the country. And uh it was a grind, but I got in the business because my family took a hit and I wanted to make sure that that never happens again. That was my reason why. And every time I felt like quitting, because insurance, 92% of people quit within two years.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

They forgot why 90% of people quit?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

92%. That's the stat.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

In sale, in insurance. In insurance.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

So only about 8% people that get started stick around after two years. That could be because they are bored, that could be not mentorship, that means they they mentally can't hand handle the ups and downs. They have the number of reasons. It's not like one. It's not made for everybody, I knew that. It's not. Well, how many people sell a house to first-time real estate? Most don't even sell a house. They sell one and that's their parents. So most don't have the skill set or mindset to understand that anything that's really in sales is long-term play. Because if people need fast income, they need actual just a job or a salary to pay the bills. If they're looking for long-term profits, not just wages, they need to have a business or they have to get into some career that's going to pay them what they're worth. And a salary typically doesn't pay you what you're worth, it almost pays you what you need. So what happens is you design your life around your salary versus go design your life based on what you want. And that's where commission kicks in.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Let me let me ask you this. So what was this is good. I want to dig in here. What obviously I see how like the person I'm talking to today is clearly an exceptional salesperson, clearly an exceptional sales leader. No, it's obvious this day when when when I see how smooth you are talking with people and networking, you're you're incredible. Was that you 20 years ago?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Yes and no. Um, yes and no. Let me explain what I mean by that. What you see is what you get. There's no bullshit. We just talk. Yeah. Okay. And I think that's where salespeople mess up. I think salespeople try to put on an act or a facade is if that's the word. They try to play the role. They're not comfortable on their own skin. They're afraid to, well, what if I say this? No, no, no, no. I've always learned, especially in insurance, you talk about the worst case scenario first. Because if you can handle the worst case scenario, the best is fine. So for you and I talking, um 20 years ago, you're talking entertainment days. I was the fun guy, the uppity guy, the energy guy. I didn't know sales. I didn't, you know, someone says, What's sales? Someone asked me this just in a podcast. I said, Sales is two things. It's asking questions and solving problems. Absolutely that's really what sales is. It's not the gift for gab. That was the entertainment day.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Gift for gabbing is not a sales presentation. That's not no. A great salesperson is a great listener, completely opposite of what people think. A great salesperson is not being pushy, aggressive, or abrasive. That's just an asshole. A great salesperson asks quality questions, solves big problems, adds more value, and that's why great salespeople make a lot of money. So things that I had to learn was not to be so because we're thinking that's how you sell. No, no, no. You need high energy to get to work. But when you and I are talking, calm, calm, right? You know, trying to gilo. So it's a matter of I had to learn how to not evolve, but I had to learn how to uh not control, give me a better word. I had to learn how to take my high energy and numb it, numb it down, numb it down.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

You pull yourself back a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Yeah, poised, I guess is the word. Be more poised and just learn how to have a conversation, I had to learn how to connect, how to mirror right now. If you're leaning back, I should be leaning back like this. We're on a podcast, I'm pretty leaning up to the microphone. Yeah, yeah. You'll look better on the shorts. I appreciate it, right? Up that way, up anyway. I had to learn, I had to learn how to control body signals, and I'm still getting better, like even my hands crossed. Well, my hands are relaxed right now, just comfortable. But if my hands are like this or my hands are like this, or I'm like this, I learned that from poker. You know, you go by poker, people have little twigs and stuff, they're nervous. So I learned how to be relaxed when I was selling because I believed in what I was doing. I believe in the benefits of life insurance. I believe in what life insurance annuities can do for people. Because I wish someone sat with my family 30 years ago, but they didn't. I wish they had options. They weren't given those options. When my grandfather had some issues financially, we moved my grandfather's IRA money into an indexed annuity. That stopped all the bleeding, got him some money back, turned on a guaranteed income with no fees at that time for them. And my grandfather, the next several months, had a guaranteed income. He passed away shortly, but then guess what happened? The money in the annuity went to my grandmother. And then she had a guaranteed income for the next seven years until she passed away. And that money goes to my parents. So the point is, I had seen the benefits of what these products can do for people. So when you believe in something, it's easy to talk about. And most salespeople have a hard time because they don't believe what they're selling. That's the part. So for me, I had to believe in what I was doing and when I did, I had to get better at communicating that and then keeping things simple. The more facts I give you, the more you're overwhelmed, and a confused mind can't decide. I give you the most important facts that you need to make a decision, and then I'm also prepared if you have more questions that I can have an answer for you. Now, if I don't have an answer, the sexiest thing that a salesperson can say. Sexiest thing. Great question. I'm not a hundred percent certain. Let me go find out.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Yeah, don't bullshit on.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

That's the part.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Agreed.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

So if I don't know, I I don't know. Well, let me go find out. And that's where we're at. So the reason why I liked you know the the insurance business is because how long has insurance been around? Hundreds of years.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

One of the companies I work with is going on 177, 178 years old, A-rated, all this kind of stuff. They have reserves, they have a track record. It's easy to talk about. And if you want to buy life insurance, great, here's some benefits. If you don't, all good. Can you connect me? Would you mind asking for referrals? So going back to your your question, was I always like this? No. There's an evolution, you know. I I think people go go and grow through. And we talk about this with Patrick all the time. Pat's not the same pat you see today. There's evolutions, as that's the idea of maturing. So a lot of books, a lot of mistakes. I've learned more from my mistakes than my victories. And I think people need to learn about mistakes and then course correct and figure out how to not repeat the same mistakes. But uh directly answering your question, I give you the story behind it. No, I'm not the same that I was 20 years ago. But I remember the work that I had to do to get where I'm at today. I'm still not the best in the game, or I'm good. I'm good. Obviously, I want to be where I'm at, I'm good. But um what really is nice is if you know you're really good, how many people can you teach and train and duplicate yourself to go get the same kind of results that you're getting? Yeah. That's how you know if you're good.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

Is that do you think that the so this incredible success that you had with these offices, you know, ranking as high as you did nationally in that company, do you think it was were you Superman putting on the cape all the time, or was it you know, with the selling, or were you able to build and train um a high quality staff? Which one contributed more?

SPEAKER_00 35:43

More Batman, because Batman had if you watch the what's it the what's the movie?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Batman versus Superman?

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Yeah, but the other one he brings the team together. Oh, yeah, yeah. Batman's the leader in DC comics. Uh at least I think so, right? But that's the part.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

So Batman was the main guy, then he recruited everyone else and brought them together. So in that kind of business, if you're in real estate, if you're in solar, if you're in insurance sales, if you think that your shit doesn't stink, you've already lost. Yeah. No matter how big your ego is, or that whatever personality is. I know without the team doing their part, the office doesn't get recognition. But obviously, there's always a face of a team. Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan, but Michael needed Pippen. Michael needed the guys around him as well. Now he was the driver, but he also still needed Phil Jackson behind him as well. So you have to remember you can be a great player, but you still need your team. Even with Brady, when Brady went from Patriots, he still went to Tampa, he still had to bring some people with him, mainly Gronk, right? So you still need to have someone to work with. For me, I'm giving the success of each office to the team because, yes, what role did I play? I recruited, I trained, I developed, I did field trainings. I went late nights. We did appointments at one in the morning sometimes because people didn't go late. We did weird stuff, a lot of fun. I came up with ideas, I prepared the training, that kind of stuff. That's my role. Their role is they kept showing up. They also read the books, they did the work, they believed in the situation, and they also got better. And then they stepped up and they became leaders. So it's a give and take, it's a push-pull situation, and that's what creates a team, but that's what created the offices. So, yes, was I the driver of the office? Sure, I'll take credit for that. But they were there and did their part because without them, nothing exists.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

How how do you how do you so give me some what's the word I'm looking for? Uh give me some strategies on how to help on how to develop salespeople. What what are what are kind of like a few core things that are important to help develop them? Is it helping them structure their day? Is it helping them learn how to prospect? Like what are the core ways you develop sales?

SPEAKER_00 37:52

So Eric Warry, Eric Warry wrote a book called GoPro. It's seven steps how to become a professional in network marketing. People look down at network marketing because they think it's get rich quick and all these little things going around. But if you actually study network marketing, you're just marketing to your network or you're creating your network. But the book talks about skill sets and mindset that as a business person needs to develop. And that's my take on the book. It's not designed for network marketers. If you're in anything in sales, you should read that book. Okay. In there, he says something very powerful is that you want to have a tool-driven business. Tool-driven business. I cannot duplicate your personality, you can't duplicate my personality. So there's three ways to build a business. First is personality driven. You'll see a lot of companies attract a certain type of person. You know, big personalities, they they build it off of how their looks and how they talk. Okay. That's like a fraternity. Got it. Then you have the product people. Well, products keep changing all the time. So if you try to build, there's like even a company that just has one thing. Well, industries change, you're falling behind. It's not relevant. So if you try that in technology, you're gonna fall behind if you basically a product. The one thing that both personalities and systems can duplicate is systems. So you have to have a system based on tools to develop people. Now, as far as tools that we used in the insurance business, the first thing was books. If we all sit down and read the same book, guess what? We all get the same information. So we can learn faster from other people and other people's mistakes. Okay? Bradley and I talked about that on the show. Um two, we have consistent in schedule. We're consistent in our schedule. Every week we have at least two meetings in the office, and then we're training from the same playbook. There's literally a manual that we have created that any new person can pick up, look at page one, and read the whole thing and learn the business. So we've made it duplicatable by teaching the same system using tools. So everyone knows if you get recruited, this is your first book, your second book, your third book. You have to have a breakdown of your first day, your first week, your first month. That's onboarding. So the better and more clear you get at onboarding new people, the more systems you have with tools, that's a duplicate. And the biggest mistake that people have is they they want to be in fourth grade before graduating first.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Because they want to skip the process. Would you skip boot camp and go straight to war?

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Yeah, obviously not.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

No, you got to put those weeks into boot camp, learn what you're doing so you survive, then go over. So there's gotta be that orientation part, that training part, that I I'm excited, but I don't know what I'm doing part, but I got good support and help, and that's where mentorship kicks in. We have a very good mentorship program, and then you get certified, then not only can you do it by yourself, but if you want to actually mentor other people, that's the fun part. So there's a duplication process in leadership development. John Maxwell said, and I forgot which book it is, but study John Maxwell if you want leadership training, phenomenal. Here's how you duplicate I go, you watch. Number two, I go, you go. Step three, you go, I watch. Now you're certified. Step four, you go. So it's a process duplication.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

No, it's I love that you say that because when I used to train salespeople, um I was more of a sales, I used to be a VP of sales for another marketing company. And what I would do is the first day, like on Tuesday, I'd say, come with me on appointments, just watch me, don't say a word, okay, and just watch me do my thing. Just watch, and I might make some sales, I might not. But at least you're gonna see how I handle it. And usually I'd make a sale or two, right? And then the next day I'd say, hey, let's tag team it together. And then the third day, I'd say, it's your day. So I I agree with you. I think I'm I'm in alignment with you there that you know it is a process, and I do see people, they they really do just try to skip steps. And and one of the things that I struggle with, I really do struggle with, is you know, I will recruit people, and I'm I'm seeking your guidance right now in this, is I recruit people, and man, they they just people go, I'm gonna be great, and I'm I'm gonna kill it. And I'm like, my only answer now is is I see better than I hear. And uh, and sometimes I, you know, I see people fall flat on their face, and then they're like, whoa, there's way more to this than I thought, you know? And especially with digital marketing, John, because you kind of got to know your stuff a little bit with ads like you know, CPA, CPM, you know, C A C like there's a lot of stuff that you got to be able to break down. But um, I think where I struggle is when you say a system, no, I mean I personally struggle, when you say a system, is the system that I'm passing down a booklet? Is it an email? Is it a video? Is it me talking in a room about the pamphlet? How does how does the system actually get coached? Okay, does that make sense? Sure, that question?

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Sure. So it it depends on what business you're in and what's relevant today. For example, in 2009, when I got to insurance, could you set up an Instagram page?

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Today?

SPEAKER_00 43:26

No, in 2009.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

It did it didn't exist, I don't think. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

So what we give advice today, I couldn't do 16 plus years ago. Okay. You get it now? So what is duplicatable? A booklet, sure. A book, sure. A tool. What is a consistent tool? So every every company should have an SOP and FAQs ready to go. That's a booklet. Great. If you are in solar sales, you should have basic scripts ready to go in a booklet. There you go. If you're in real estate, basic so basic scripts inside of a booklet is the easiest. To duplicate. Here you go, here you go. Very simple to do. Videos. You can do videos now because we got YouTube, we got uh private channels, you can do stuff just for your team, whatever you want to do. But remember, back in the day it was V VHS. Then it went to CDs, then it went to so everything has changed. So the more technology stuff you have, the more reach you can get. If you're just giving a handbook, it's one-on-one kind of thing. Okay. But if you're in South Florida and one of your client or one of your agents is in Atlanta, Georgia, you mean to tell me that you're gonna either mail something to him or they're gonna have to drive and meet somewhere to get him a booklet? Or I've uploaded the booklet, log in, here's the Google Sheet, wherever it is, download it and print it yourself. That saved time. So now you're using technology. When it comes down to a video, listen, I recorded this presentation, watch it 20 times, duplicate it faster. Version, we have versus we have to run 20 appointments. So the way that you want to duplicate your system is based on the resources available in today's age. Now it's AI. Now people aren't writing letters anymore. Chat's doing it for them. Yeah, it's totally different today. So using what resources are available, but also you have to know what works. You're gonna go through things that maybe you think work, but doesn't. Um you talked about the personality guys, the big yeah, let's let's go. Yeah, but it's it's actions speak louder than words. Handsome face doesn't matter. So it's just it just helps me. Show me. Show me. It's all good. Show me. I'm gonna do it. Show me.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

How do you think I I'd be curious, you know, not to give away like PBD secrets or anything, but you know, how often, like use uh Mario. Mario's a Titan inside of Valutament. Sure. How often is Mario himself being trained? Or how often, like how often are they doing training?

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Okay. Would you agree that more things are caught, not taught?

SPEAKER_01 45:52

More things are caught, not taught. Um what do you mean by that exactly? I want to make sure we're speaking this.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

I can sit down with you in a in a classroom of people and train from the whiteboard for five, ten, fifteen hours.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

No doubt. Oh, I see. That's taught.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

That's what's caught is you're in a situation and getting hands-on experience.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

Always caught. Okay. Caught is experience is the best teacher.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

So Mario can go to as many trainings as he wants.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

The only way he's gonna really learn is when he's in situations.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

I see, I agree. I agree. No, I I agree. Like sometimes uh, you know, sometimes um I think I think you have to train people, they gotta be educated.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Sure, you know foundation. You need to have trainings, but if you're only relying on the trainings, it's what you do getting caught and taught. Yeah, like oh, I caught that. I I heard oh, I'm not sure. No, I like that. No, I like it. So more things are caught than taught.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Yeah, I call it, you know, getting your nose buddy. Like, go get your nose buddy. So, you know, sometimes there's certain things that I'll try to teach people, and I'm really trying to scale my cunning uh company, that's why I'm asking you this stuff. And one of the things I struggle with is sometimes I I I'll tell somebody something and they don't even realize why that's the case unless they go have the experience. Okay. Right?

SPEAKER_00 47:11

So here's one thing I learned from Pat. And I said this a lot of times. He said, you know, what's the biggest thing you learned from Patrick? I've learned a lot of things from Patrick. But the one thing that always sticks out, you know what he's very good at? Accountability. So let's say you're trying to duplicate. I'll say, um right now, what are your goals? Awesome, write your goals down. I'll say, all right, Eric, listen. How bad how fast you want to get this done? All right, so and so all right, here's your homework. You get this done, you text me, we'll hop on a call and go over this together. Sounds good? Great. When are you gonna get this done by? I'll have it done by uh by tonight. What time? Awesome. Text me tonight, we'll talk. Now, if you don't text me, guess what? I can't work with you. Because you can't keep your word and you don't want to be held accountable. So he's very good at holding people accountable. Two, he's also good at giving people responsibility. So you can't be the leader and do everything yourself. You have to allow other people to step to step in. Remember, I go, you go. Then you go, I watch. You have to allow them to lead. Give them the let them go ahead, you gotta learn. Yeah. And he was very good at giving responsibility, delegating some things, and let them have the light. So first he was the light, and then he said, All right, you step up, you take the light. I'll step over here. I'll guide from the sideline. So rather than being in the king, he became a king maker. Yeah. And that's where giving responsibility kicks in. And I think if you're willing to hold yourself to accountability and willing to take on responsibility, then eventually you're gonna see your real ability.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

No doubt. How how much of it is, you know, because we're coming back, the number that's sticking out to me right now about all this is eight percent. Yeah. Remember the 92% that don't make it? Yeah, yeah. So so it's like okay, yeah. Right? So that so that's what's the numbers stuck in my head right now is is it so was it the because clearly the training didn't work for the 92%. So it's like you have this other, I'd like to hear your opinion on this. You have this other 8% that made it and turn it into a career. So that's gotta be something intrinsic with the individual over the training. Wouldn't you agree?

SPEAKER_00 49:19

I mean, so here's good people. Here's the challenge. I don't know why those 92% didn't make it. We have theories, yeah. Right? We can put a list of this, that, and the other down. They were lazy. Were they lazy? What about the leader? Does the leader get any blame in this? Did they not train well? Oh, the training is great. Well, what did they have going on in their personal life that it prevented them to show up? So I think the 92% mindset is number one. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes, not just I'll give it a try. Oh, yeah, that sounds good. I'll give it, I'll give it my I'll give it my best shot. No, it's you're gonna do whatever it takes. You're gonna do whatever it takes to make this company grow. Not oh I'm gonna give it a try. No, that means the moment things get rough, you're out. You either commit or you don't. You know what? That's where Yoda was so wise, you know, do or do not, right? There is no try. So I think a lot of people get into the insurance business with expectations that are not realistic. They overestimate what they can do in the short term, but they underestimate what they can do in the long term. Now they might have great trainers, great mentors, great office, great environment, but they're so stuck in their old ways. But here's the other part about this they also have so many bad habits that they're bringing in to the business. They have things in their earlier stages in life, their trauma that they've developed when they were kids or early adults, and they haven't let go of that, and they bring that trauma, low self-esteem, low identity, into a new business. No matter what happens, they've already set themselves up for failure, which is now leading to self-sabotage. Yeah, because now if you are if you feel guilty about everything, how can you ask somebody to pay for the product or service you're offering? You feel guilty for asking for money, you feel guilty for this, you're not gonna make it. Yeah, so you have to work on your relationship on with money, relationship with people. You have to let go of the past, let go of things that no longer serve you, and you have to revamp and reshape and remold your mindset, and most people are not willing to do that. Are there people that have crazy things crazy things going on behind closed doors? Everybody does. 95% of people don't care about your problems, the other 5% are happy that you have them.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

Yeah. So I I the idea of uh scaling is is really on the top of my mind right now because it's for me, it's all about human capital right now. So we said 92% is the industry standard for insurance, yeah. For insurance. So uh name another, forget uh PHP, forget Patrick Bed David. Is there another world-class insurance organization? Sure. Yeah, name one. I'm curious.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Well, I mean, integrity, you know, before PHP was bought by them, they were the biggest I'm on the country. Now we're part of them, you know. That's that's where our company's through.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

What's their hit rate, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 52:10

Their what?

SPEAKER_01 52:10

Their hit rate of success rate. So what's their 90%?

SPEAKER_00 52:13

They have 600,000 people employed by them. Like they're a monster company.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

Is it is it just is it 10%?

SPEAKER_00 52:18

Is it 20%? No, because it they own, they own a lot of companies under umbrella. You're talking 300 companies are owned by them, plus they're monster. Phenomenal company. But they have CRM systems, they have training, they have videos, they have everything. It's really on the agent. Now, under the companies that they own, there's brokers and you know, GAs and whatnot, MGAs that control different branches depending on the title you're in. But there's a lot of companies that have great leaders, a lot of companies that have great products. Yeah, some companies sell the same products, it's just about who talked to who first. You know, in college, okay, there's sorority and fraternity rush week. Okay, freshmen come in, they want to make friends. Best way is you know, join something, right? Yeah. So how do you know what fraternity or sorority to pick? I know sorority is a little bit different than fraternity, you still go fraternity route, but when you go pick, it's kind of who talks to who first. I'd say the majority of fraternities have similar personalities. There's a few that are different, but you're also going to gravitate to where your personality makes more sense. And then what happens is you get recruited to that one fraternity, you find out there's two or three other fraternities that your guys also hang out with, too, because you're all friends, you all get along, and just I'm in that fraternity. I I they they talked to me before you did. Yeah, so there's great insurance companies, and there's people that I talked to that have policies. And the only reason why that they don't have a policy with me is because somebody talked to them first. Now, with the knowledge that I've developed over the years, even if you have a policy today and you've had for several years, one, you if you have an iPhone and there's one lens, you may not be aware there's iPhones with three lenses. Takes better pictures, better this. But you're thinking, well, I have an iPhone. You do have an iPhone, it's just outdated.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:04

So people I come across that have had policies for years, you do have life insurance. It's just probably outdated. If I take a look at it, I might be able to actually help you either lower premium, get you more coverage, lower cost of insurance, add long-term care. I might be able to upgrade you for the same amount that you're putting in every single month. So I'm gonna add more value to you. So again, you know, going back in I don't know where I'm gonna go. I was on the fraternity personality. What's in this company? Let me uh sure this is Kreamer.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Let me uh let me ask you this because uh, you know, uh if you knew my career track, I I I worked at this company for a long time. You know, I ascended all the way to the top. You know, I was the equivalent of you at PHP, right? I was like the guy, right? One of the guys, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:01

One of the guys, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

One of the guys, yeah. There's other key contributors. We have some big dogs.

SPEAKER_00 55:05

We have some big dogs.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

No, no doubt, yeah, no doubt. But I but I literally had uh most sales ever, um, you know, most sales in the every record you can imagine I had, right? And I became like the sales leader, sales manager. But anyway, I had a lot of uh once COVID hit and I moved down here, I worked with that company for like another year, whatever it was, that that year. I don't remember the exact dates, but I actually told the CEO, this is the best thing I ever did because I knew I was gonna leave, start my own company, and I wanted to forge my own path in the future. New life, a new job, new zip code. And I knew the only way to do it was like I had a big salary. My base salary was 275,000. And then, you know, my biggest year ever, I would, I think I made 385,000. That was my biggest income year ever. And what I did was I said, I know to be the best version of myself, and I had some conflict with the company too. Like I wasn't I wasn't really vibing with the leadership. I talked with leadership and I said, I want to go 1099, I want to for forego my salary, and because I just I don't really want to be a part of the company anymore, I just want to be a 1099 salesperson. So for the first time in my life, John, at age 39 or 40, whatever I was, I went without a guaranteed income. That year, all those records I had in sales, I broke every single one of my records and I made like$520,000. So the reason I'm bringing this up is like I was committed. And what I what I believe is is commitment is burning the boats. It's eliminating options. And unfortunately, when people have a salary, they're they have an option, and and I just I wanted to eliminate it, and I just wanted to bet on myself. And what it did, dude, is it just made me a different person because I knew I wasn't ready to be a CEO until I did that, and that very next year is when I started my own firm.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

I think taking calculated risks is what it comes down to. Yeah, everybody has their version of what a calculated risk is. If you have a family to take care of, bills to take take care of, you can't just quit that full-time salary with no savings, with no opportunity ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

So fair, I had built up some. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

There you go. You have experience, you have a market, people knew you, you had savings, you had some things going on. So guess what? You had some breathing room to make an adjustment where it was a calculated risk. And I think some people don't do that, they get so excited about an opportunity that they go to one inspiration session, one motivation session, they quit their job, and I'm full time. And you ask, and people do this insurance, it's like, okay, what's a three good quality script? What's a follow-up script? What's a script? Uh uh uh why are you full-time? You need to go get a job, pay your bills, do this part-time. Because obviously you're not putting in the time to learn the stuff. Now there are companies that say full-time only, and I understand that because if you're full-time only, you have to learn the stuff. So it's a catch-22, with at least with with my business on the insurance side, where we have a lot of side hustles, a lot of uh secondary incomes. But the secondary income, if it's treated like a secondary or third income, then that's the result you're gonna get. But if you're if you work harder on your side hustle than your full-time job, your side hustle becomes your full-time business. So, yeah, you're making 80 grand, 100 grand a year salary. Awesome. Not many guys are doing that on salary. They typically 60 grand salary plus commission, they make 200,000. So keep your job, put the best you can to your job. Do what that job hired you. Do everything you can to make them the most money because they give you an opportunity. So don't slack off at your job. Definitely do the best because you're developing yourself too. But when you're off the clock, go work your business. Like go keep your work to yourself and then give yourself some choices. A year later, okay, your job is your job, you're still where you're at, but your business is taking off. What do you want to do? Give yourself some calculated choices.

SPEAKER_01 59:20

Yeah. Yeah, my number was uh my I remember this, my bills were sixteen thousand dollars a month. And I know it sounds like a lot to some people. Sure, sure. It's not a lot to a lot of other people, but but that was the number. And I just remember I was like, I was like, well, as long as I have sixteen thousand coming in a month, I was like, I can easily jump ship and feel safe doing it. Sure. And that so that was like my magic number. I waited until that second income of clients was able to support my life, and then then once I was able to dedicate myself to this, that's when we we took off and and ascended. Um, but yeah, um, I no, I I love these talks, dude, because I I just like I don't know, man. I just you know, I had a I had a I come from a single mom uh on welfare, and she used welfare to eventually become a nurse, okay, right? And and we ended up living halfway decent, right? So it's like, and to be candid, like my mom wasn't the best mom ever, dude. But you know what, dude? She worked. She always worked. You know, she she missed all my sports games. She missed, you know, we didn't spend holidays together, but you know what? She was working.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:30

Was there a roof over your head? Roof over my head. Was there food in your belly?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

Yes, God bless.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Clothes in your back? No doubt. Good mom.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:36

No doubt, right? So so I just come from the observation of good or bad, like like work, and and and I don't know, that's just who I am. I like to work. Like I'm it's just what I do, you know. And think about this.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:48

You you think your mom would have loved to beat those games? Of course she would have. You know, but the the parents' priorities provide for the kids, number one, and then the fact that you're able to do that stuff, and and your story is is also part of where your mom says she was using one thing, not relying on it. She leveraged it to get herself off it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:06

She wasn't uh being enabled, and that program actually enables a lot of people to say, Well, I'm just gonna stay on this because now that program actually almost pays people more than full-time jobs. I know, and that's the problem. They're like, Why would I get off this?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:17

I'm making more money doing nothing. So I I have a conflict in my own head about entitlement programs because I think they're obviously abused, but I also witnessed a woman use it the right way. So I have my own internal conflict there. I I'm very that's a part of me where I have a social or liberal side to me for sure. Because sometimes people do just need a little help. I don't even think it's liberal side.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:41

Yeah, what I think is it's understanding the current situation. I think we all have a good heart enough saying, listen, someone needs help. Okay, but if you don't give other options, you just say here's money, yeah, without them being held accountable or responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:55

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

So why not do drug testing? Why not help them find jobs? Why not put them in schools or someone else can offer schools? What you know, what can we do to get them the skills they need? Does that make sense? So there's something we can do to help. Um it's just that people mooch it. They they they don't want to work, and that's the part. So if you're going to be taxing people and just giving money away, well, what are they doing to earn that? Approve that. So you go to Dubai. I know obviously, you know, right now they're in a weird spot with this bombing and stuff. Sure. We haven't even gotten into that. If you go to Dubai and you're an immigrant and you don't work for 30 days, they kick you out. There's no if, ands, or buts. Out. I witnessed someone getting their citizenship a few weeks ago. The person on stage says, Is there anybody here that doesn't speak English that needs a translator? I thought that was interesting that you're getting a citizenship in the US and you don't speak English. That's interesting. Number two, the guy on stage says, I hope you decide to contribute to the country. I hope you decide to contribute. Wait a second. You mean to tell me that people are getting their citizenship that don't speak English and they don't have jobs? They're not contributing to the country? What am I missing here? Something's off. I thought, shouldn't there be a requirement that if you're gonna get citizenship, you speak the language and you contribute to society? If I move anywhere and I don't speak the language, I don't contribute, then what am I? Then I'm a leech. So if I go to France and I don't learn French, why would they give me citizenship? Does that make sense? Or what am I? Of course. Or let's say I don't let's say I don't speak the language, but I'm still opening a business and I'm contributing to society, fine, that's different. But you mean they don't speak the language, they don't contribute? Where's the response? Where's the accountability for that? Yeah, come respect our culture. People come here, okay, they want a better life, awesome. So respect the environment. And all the requirements should be learn the language and contribute. Now, obviously, what's easier? Contribution. Okay. Language takes time, but based on I I guess we go back and forth on that one. But do something to provide value. But the fact that I heard that guy say that on stage, I'm like, you're enabling.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

Now people are escaping countries of other side, that's a whole different story. You know, I'm not gonna get into that. But when it comes down to entitlement programs, there are people that need help. I totally get that part, okay?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:12

Especially the children, because that's what I'm thinking about. Okay. The two-year-old doesn't have the choice. That's okay, agree. So that's right, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

Yeah. But the fact is, if the parent is not doing what they can to improve their situation, I think that's the part where I'm like, come on, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:27

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

But they don't ask for help, they don't reach out for help. Now, granted, I'm not gonna sit here and say, and we got into politics for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:35

I'm not gonna say everyone's like that. I don't think everyone's like that. I think that's what they're marketing on the media. I think there are a lot of people that are trying to find solutions, but maybe they're not getting help. So I think there's there's a different conversation we can get into. There are ways to help people that want to help themselves.

unknown 1:04:52

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:53

That's the part. If we can find better ways to help people that want to help themselves, then we're on the right track. But we're creating too many people that are expecting no doubt. Well, they paid me before, then do it again. No, no, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

You gotta listen to the last podcast that got released. Unbelievable story. So this this dude, he's our age. I've known him 35 years. He um unfortunately fell into addiction. He said he took a hit of crack and it was like he became married to it. One hit, one hit, married to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:22

I mean, he was doing you know a little other stuff. Okay, got it. Other stuff before that. But so he he went on this just wild bender for his 20s. Unfortunately, he ended up going into going to jail for seven years, and his father died while he was in jail. And when he got out of jail, you know, he's really trying to get his life together. Um, and you know, he was really financially, you know, struggling. And his mom said, you know, Mike, like like just go get on welfare, get just do it, just get some money. And he he never wanted to, you know, his father, um, you know, a proud Italian family, his father owned a paving business. And you know, he he's he really struggled with getting on welfare. Like that's that's not me, that's not who I am. And he went to the welfare office and uh he sat there with his mom and he couldn't walk in the welfare office. He said, I can't do it, I can't take that money. And today he has a$10 million a year paving business.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:25

Have you seen the movie Cinderella Man?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:27

I have not, but I've not.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:33

Put on your list. Cinderella Man, Russell Crowe.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

Okay, Cinderella. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

Um the boxer movie is about uh James Braddock back in the twenties and thirties. Oh, yeah. He's a winning boxer, uh a Great Depression hits, he's living in this weird spot, loses money from you know, boxing gets hurt, gets kicked out of boxing, and during the winter, what happened back then is typically parents send their kids away because they can't afford to take care of them. So in the movie the bills pile up, the money stops, lights are off, electric's off, the heater's off. One of the kids is sick. The mother decides to send the kids to live with family or friends. Father comes home, what the hell's going on? Because he promised his son he'd never send them away. Swallows his pride, gets up, walks over to the building, Social Security Department, whatever, whatever it was, the assistance building. He gets a certain amount of money, I can't remember like 20 bucks or something like that. But back then that's a lot. Got what he he needed from them, from assistance. Then he takes a ferry to go see all the boxing promoters that were still doing okay, told him what's going on, needed a couple dollars to get the lights back on, the heat back on to get the kids back. Goes around, he's in tears, he's humbled, and people help him out. Next next scene, he gets the kids back, and then he got a break. That guy that was his old trainer got him a fight, he won. Next fight, he won, boom, boom, boom, started working his way back. And then guess what happens when he made the money back? The money that uh assistance gave him, he brought it back.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:17

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:18

So he was able to use assistance for what he needed, and when he didn't need it, he put it back because he knows other people will need that one time too. So it's okay if there's a situation, but don't milk it. No doubt. Don't abuse it. And I think that's where we've gone to.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:35

Yeah, and I think I think the difference between what I was thinking with him was is he was embarrassed to take that. And it's just it's just a hundred percent. I agree with that. That's psychology. Sure. Whereas if you're proud to take that on, that's the problem, right? Like I remember I remember my mother handing, I remember this specifically, her using food stamps at the time, and she used to always give me this line of BS. She would say, Oh, these people, uh, you know, she would go to the local stores called Wegmans. That's our big grocery store. By the way, it's like world-class groceries. Wegmans? Wegmans. One thing my hometown is known for is like world-class grocery shopping. It's kind of embarrassing that that's like our claim to fame. But if you walk into one of our grocery stores, you're gonna be like, What is this? You're gonna think it's like the Ritz-Carlton or something. It's crazy. So, you know, and I remember my mother giving, you know, going to Wegmans and paying with these, you know, welfare checks or stamps or cards. I don't remember what the hell they were exactly. And she would always tell me, Oh, that's not real. Uh, somebody traded my money, you know, they they wanted dollars, and so I they gave me this. And she was so embarrassed to tell me the time she was on welfare. And this guy, Mike, was obviously embarrassed to go on welfare. But my point is, is it's the psychology of it, it's the pride of it. And they were able to turn their lives around just so solely based on pride.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

You know, and and if and if you don't have that kind of pride, and you're just you're just gonna feed off of us, like that's that's when I'm I agree with you. I'm not okay with it, but I think it all boils down to pride, right? Um, I'd actually love to know the answer to that. You're no, I think that's kind of I think that's actually a very classy gentleman thing. I've noticed that even though we do business together, something as simple as happy birthday. Happy birthday, you texted me, hey, tell Alexis happy birthday. And my attitude was, oh no, why don't you tell her? She'll love to hear it from you. And you put it in a group chat. Is have you always been uh classy like that about contact with your buddies' ladies? Did someone teach you that? Uh I'm just curious to hear your ball on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:52

But that was a big Patrick thing. That was a very big Patrick thing. So you talk about culture and environment. Yeah, a lot of companies don't teach that. If we were doing a field training, okay, and you're married and you're training a new female, you're not no no no, I'll meet you somewhere. You're not jumping in my car and we're driving together. Yeah, where at Starbucks, fine. That's one thing. So there were boundaries where there's certain things you just don't do. And when it comes to messaging, why would I message your wife? Even with your permission, then that's okay. But listen, group message is fine because everything is about respect, especially with social media and stuff going on. There's no need for that. So for me, if I'm in business and there's a relationship with something, it's a little different when it comes down to if it's a leadership call. Um how can I how can I phrase it properly? It a lot of it's common sense too. So someone that one of my mentors is a female who's married, and I talk to them both individually sometimes, but we're also on a group text. Does that make sense? Um, so I'm texting on the group message as I'm texting both of them kind of thing. So that everyone's in a loop. It's all about just open communication. Um, and that's that part. So it's just a matter of being respectful towards someone else.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:12

I think it's cool family. I think it's cool. I think like the way mine and Alexis's personality are, we're both such uh extroverts, she's even more extroverted than me, that we're cool, like we don't even think like that. But I think no, you're okay, but it says a lot about who you are. The fact that that's even something that you are conscious of doing. I just think it's if somebody is intentionally going out of their way to not have anything be misrepresented like that, I it just says a lot about your character. I appreciate that. No, it does. I and me and Alexis talk about it. We're like it's unnecessary, but it's it's it's respectful.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:47

Yeah, like in the business, you know, I'll have a wife call me and ask me an annuity question. All right, great. And then I'll message back in the group message, hey guys, you know, glad I was able to get that advice because I don't know if she told him that she called me kind of thing. So it's almost like, you know, just communicate. And I think a lack of communication leads to those issues.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:06

No, I think I think it's cool is you know, I I love um, and I and I want to get into insurance here in a second, but like I was at the boardroom last night, and uh one of the prevailing opinions in there is that you know, for the single men, one of the guys goes, hey, you know, can I bring some girls here? And there was actually a conversation about it. Like, sure you can, um, but it's not the environment where don't bring a new girl in here every day. Don't don't bring us, you know, don't bring her over from cheetahs or whatever these places are called. But of course you can bring a lady here, absolutely. Um, but I but I like that environment feels good to me. You know, like I want to be around men that are not just trying to prop themselves up, but propping their wives up, you know, protective, protect for sure, yeah, for sure. And uh, you know, even this other woman over here, uh, I was just joking around with her this morning. She said, Oh, what does the uh platinum membership do for you? And I said, Oh, it kind of just gets you another room. I said, all joking aside, it gets you more things, but she goes, Oh, what goes on in that room? And I go, cigars and bourbon and business, privacy, just quiet.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:17

Yeah, she goes, Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:19

TV? Yeah, I go, no, no, no. Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:21

That's the stereotype. That's the stereotype that most places have. You know, what goes on behind closed doors? Nicer chairs, like how more space? How awesome is the private room behind it? I love it. All the chairs are comfortable. I mean, last night we had food served to us, we had hookah, cigars, people are running, they built out the back. Like, it's it's more spacious, yeah, it's quieter, it's private, more conversations. That's why you do that. What the hell do you think goes in? And if people wanted to take a look, the windows open on the side. Like Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:53

So and you get a locker. No, for sure. I I just this is this is the newest version of me. And I just, you know, what I'm saying is, is my people that I was surrounded with in the past just didn't think and move and act like this.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:07

You know what? It was so awesome uh last night hanging out with everybody. That's on the right mindset, right wavelength, so many things in common. So I agree with you with that environment.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:18

Yeah, I love it. So let's let's dig into business a little bit, right? So, so I personally have uh a life insurance policy with you, and uh which I'm very thankful for. Um, kind of break down, you know, different products, you know, different situations where certain individuals may need products other certain than others. Like just so you know, I've heard Tony Robbins say that annuities are some of the most underrated and most valuable products out there. Kind of kind of give me a little unpack of uh unpacking of insurance.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:48

So a couple things. When we spoke, what at that time had you open to discussing why you wanted life insurance? Do you remember what what what prepped the conversation? Propped it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:01

I can't remember if it was before my marriage. It um it was it was mostly thinking about my wife at the time and knowing we're talking about children and that I am not invincible, I do have mortality. So it was really about building a family and protecting them.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:17

So life insurance wasn't about you, it was about them. 100%. So people think, well, I don't need life insurance. No, you don't, they do. Does that make sense? Because your family's provide is is your income. So you were wise enough to say, listen, if something happens, I gotta make sure they're okay. That's responsibility. So you were taking responsibility for leading your family, okay? Number one. Number two is you have to understand finances. I'm not an expert in every category of finances, but when you break it down, there's your cash, which is liquid and safe. You have your equities, which you have your growth potential, but you also have your risk, which is your IRAs, 401ks, your other equities, cryptocurrencies, mutual funds, stocks, Roths, everything up and down, IRAs, etc. Right? Flexibility flex uh uh fluctuations. Then you have real estate. Great for cost segregation, depreciation. But you know what investments made the most millionaires? Real estate. You know what investments caused the most bankruptcies? Real estate. So you have to really know what you're doing. The only sector of money finance that hasn't really lost is insurance. Because life insurance on annuity's job is to protect and enhance and secure the portfolio. So insurance shouldn't be your risky, insurance should be protecting against risk, if that makes sense. So I chose the insurance sector because it's more certainty, there's a track record, it's less risk, and if you do it the right way, you can really change legacies. So, one is understand why it's needed to protect and secure the portfolio. Two, do you know what the number one cause of bankruptcy in America is?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:48

Is it real estate?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:50

That's on investments.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:54

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:55

And the number one cause of that is long-term care. Where people have to, they can't do two of six activities of deadly living, ADLs. They have to do a nursing home, or they have the nurse come by the house, or home health, and that's very expensive. In Florida, it's a hundred and plus thousand a year, hundred seventeen, hundred twenty thousand a year out of pocket. Other states it could be even more expensive. So, do you really want to use your IRA money, your formal care money, your retirement money to pay for your long-term care bills? Because you worked hard for 30 years, it's gone in five years, you don't want that. In the next 20 years, it's going up to in Florida on average. If you look this up, around 212 plus thousand a year out of pocket. Average long-term care is five years. That's a little over a million. You're spending out of pocket for what reason? Because your health insurance doesn't cover all that, your Medicare, Medicaid doesn't cover all that, it covers a little bit, you're still coming out of pocket. So you have to realize that you need to have proper plans in place to leverage for pennies on the dollar. So if you have a million-dollar bill, I don't think you want to send a million dollars from your IRAs to pay off the bills. But what if for$500 a month you can access a million dollars of life insurance or annuity money? That's the part of leveraging for pennies on the dollar. So then you look at what are your options? Term life is basic, it's affordable, get a lot of coverage for every little. Old school saying is every$50,000 of income should be a million of coverage.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:13

It's cheap for a reason. You're supposed to buy a lot of it. There are terms that are expensive, and there's terms that are inexpensive. You have to shop around a little bit. Don't just get one quote. Number two is long-term care now is built in. Living benefits, they call it, is built in to term policies. A lot of term policies don't have that. So if you get a heart attack, strokes, cancers, whatnot, you're still alive. Your term life could be accessed while you're alive. You're not dying, you're not dead, it's not terminal. But most people don't know that. So you can actually get term life with living benefits. The problem is 98% of term never pays because it typically lapses, gets canceled, just goes away. Only 2% ever pays out. Because if you get a policy when you're 30, you get a 30-year plus policy, you're not gonna mean your 60s. Typically, policies are done in their 70s, people get sick in their 80s. When you need it the most, it's not there. So, and there's permanent plans, different kinds of permanent plans. Permanent is designed to be in place forever. That's guaranteed money to go to your family, and it's all tax-free. That's the benefit of having a permanent life insurance policy. Pay the premium, make sure it's set up, good to go, benefits paid out, legacy's changed. And the way the tax code works, that death benefit should be paying tax-free to the family. There's no taxes. Number two, living benefits are built in. Covers heart attacks, strokes, cancers, long-term cares, Alzheimer's, et cetera. That if you have a million dollar, two million dollar policy, you need to get sick, leave your cash, leave your IRAs, four more cases, leave your equities alone, you can access your death benefit while you're alive, portion of it, a lot of it, and use that to cover the bills. So there's no financial burden passed onto the family.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:47

And then if you're 85 years old, the policy is still in place. That's when you need it the most. And then third is the tax-free option to pull cash out. So if you're putting money in, it's building up some cash, some equity. It's not going to outpace the market. It's not an investment plan. It's a safety tool just to build some equity. But it might earn its four, five, six, seven percent on average, right? You'll have these averages that people quote. But it's better than a bank because it's gonna earn potentially more than that. Or you can actually make money and lose it. There's guaranteed rates. Some companies give you four percent a year guarantee, but it's tax-free. Some might do five percent, but it's tax-free. So you have a tax-free bank account with cash you have access to along the way. So if you want to use cash, it's there. If you get sick, it's there. If you pass away, it's there. Okay. But if you're asking me which one's better, what's a better car? A Lamborghini or a minivan? What would you say?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:37

Yeah, uh, well, I mean, I'm gonna say the Lamborghini because I'm selfish, but well, what's the right question to ask back? The right question to ask back is who's buying it?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:46

Right. What do you need it for?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:48

So which one's faster? Lamborghini. Which one's more expensive? Lamborghini. Which one can fit more people? Minivan. Which one's better on gas? Minivan. What's gonna be probably more convenient, more comfortable to drive across the country? Yeah. Minivan. So what do you need it for? So if you're asking which one's better, term or permanent, it's well, what do you need it for? What are you solving for? But the best type of life insurance you're ever gonna have in place is the one that you have in place when you pass away.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:16

Because that's building a legacy. So there's no right or wrong type of plan. It's what is most suitable for your needs, and it's all about how you design it, how you set it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:26

Is there so is there a certain uh age that like like would you say that someone 22 years old shouldn't look at health insurance insurance at all? Or would you like is there a certain age where people should start thinking about life insurance?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:40

15 days old. Really? The younger you are, the easier it is. Number one, the younger you are, the lower your cost of insurance is. Okay, and it's not that expensive. People think, oh, so it's no no a basic term policy, it's not as expensive as you think. Permanent plans are by how you design them. Okay, so term is quoted permanent designed, a little different. But you can start putting away money into insurance plans for kids when they're young, a couple hundred bucks a month if you want. And that's cash they can use for college. If they want to go to college, they can use to buy a car, they can buy a house. It's just your cash. Okay, it's an it's a bank alternative, CD alternative. Um, if you're single, no kids, you don't need life insurance for life insurance, but you're logging in your insurability at a younger rate. So when you do get married and you do want to have a family, it's already there. But also, if something were to happen, you're protected. And if you want to get a permanent plan, well then guess what? You're gonna have access to that tax-free cash option if you want to utilize it. It's just gonna build build cash for you. So it depends on your situation, what you're looking at for. But the younger you are, the easier it is to get.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:42

Okay. How about um how about annuities? Who are annuities for? Who are they not for?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:48

In my opinion, okay, in my opinion, in annuity, specifically an indexed annuity, there's fixed, there's a variable that's indexed. Fixed, you're getting a low rate of return, but there's guarantees and there's no risk to market volatility. Variable annuities, um, they have their place. Some people like the risk, they want to pick their mutual funds, they want to pick the markets, they don't mind the fees, they get this. Some people like their VUL or VAs, that's fine. I like indexed annuities, which is tied to an index like the SP. You get some growth, you get a cap typically, but you get no losses. You get what you call the floor. So you make money potentially, right? Yeah. With no losses, though. And you can design those things to have no fees, and then you could get a guaranteed income. Then after a couple of years, you can get a double income to help with long-term care. So an annuity is designed to capture assets to turn into a guaranteed income. The happiest people in retirement have the highest guaranteed income, not just assets. So an annuity protects the money long term, like with my grandparents. They took money from an IRA, risky, into indexed annuity with security and certainty, and then turned it into a guaranteed income that passed on from family to family to family to family. So an annuity's job is to protect the money and make sure you never run out of it. That's why annuities are used.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:03

Okay. Um, are there other products that you're heavily involved with?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:07

Uh with my license, I stick to life insurance and annuities. That's what my license allows me to offer. Okay. Uh, you know, disability is there, long-term care is built in, you have to have health insurance options. So it's whatever that 215 in Florida, life health annuity license, whatever we can do with that license is what we are able to sit down and strategize with. When it comes down to life insurance, we have multiple options, multiple carriers, annuities, same thing. They're not all the same.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:34

They're not all the same. You know, is there a difference between a Lexus and a Mercedes? There are. They're both luxury vehicles, but they are different. And you go from Mercedes to Infinity. They're both different. So they're they all have their differences. Audi's, they're all different. So every insurance company has its differences. And it's nice to have access to that, not just one company. So companies are saying, well, we have the best compared to what? Show me three other options or two other options. Yeah. You know, typically two options is A or B, Coke or Pepsi. But in this business, three options is good because now you're getting more of a neutral stance. If you give me a list of 15 companies and see where they rank, awesome. So it depends on what you're doing, but typically option A, option B, option C.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:14

Okay. Any other insurance that you do want to cover on insurance or no?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:18

Life insurance annuities are the main two. It's about designing plans. There are people that have policies they've had for 10 years, seven years, eight years, and they don't realize that they're overpaying.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:28

And that we can actually go in and restructure them, add coverage, add long-term care benefits or living benefits to them, and either give them the same premium or even drop the premium, depending how we design the plans. But people have to be willing to sit down.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:41

Yeah, I think uh just for anybody that's gonna see this, you know, I I've personally done business with John, and I can attest to the fact that he truly was not looking out for himself, he was looking out for me, and I've referred uh dozens of people over to John, and everybody has the same experience. So um I can 100% vouch for John's character, uh, John's expertise, and he's he's just an overall good person to do business with. Uh, do me a favor if somebody wants to learn a little bit more, uh, potentially maybe a career in insurance, or maybe um interested in in various insurance products that you sell, do me a favor, look into the camera, that handsome face over there, and uh let them know where where they can find you.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:25

So you can go to moneymace.com, M-O-N-E-Y-M-A-S-E.com, but you also go to Instagram at John MasonMoney. Uh say hello. I actually respond to it. That's me. Just send me a DM and let's uh have the conversation. Pretty simple.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:37

Guys, thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast Podcast. Once again, I'm your host, Eric Weingard. Make sure to like and subscribe and forward this content on to someone that you think may find some value.