 final expense coach. And, you know, this is one of our first Facebook lives interviews with Mr. Cody Askins, the owner of SecureAgentMentor. And I wanted to get him on here because I just wanted to really get, you know, just his point of view. I mean, he's been doing this for a while. And I'll let him tell his story. But, you know, it's it's all about bringing value to this industry. And one thing that I feel like this, you know, the insurance industry is just kind of lacking is just proper training in this industry. And, you know, you know, Cody's a guy that has 650 videos on YouTube and, you know, I'm a kind of guy that's fallen in his footsteps. And I just wanted to get him on here today and you guys kind of listen in. And as, you know, viewers are hopping in here, you know, we'll be able to take some, you know, some Q and a later. But, you know, we want to talk about, you know, just the industry and, you know, why people are failing and, you know, what it takes not to fail. But, you know, Cody, if you can, man, if you can give us, you know, a little short synopsis of, you know, your story, you starting in the industry, and kind of. What's going on with you now? Absolutely, buddy. Thank you so much, Sean. Appreciate you having me on. Appreciate the group for allowing me to do this, man. I'm excited. A little quick background, really quick, because I know that's not what everybody came here to hear, you know. So I've been in the business since I was 19, started out with Mutual All Mall. I was in college playing basketball. I became obsessed with the business. Was fortunate enough to make 117 grand in my first eight months in the business. And ever since then, man, I'm just, I love it. I eat it up, you know. And so now, you know, moved along. I'm not necessarily, you know, captive or career anymore, but dude, just always loved life insurance, file expense. And here we are in the file expense coach group, man. Absolutely. And one thing I want all you guys who are watching this right now, there is nothing scripted about these videos in this interview. This is completely raw. All this is just right off the dome. And I want you guys to understand that because when you do this at a high level and you know your business upside and down, especially as any owner, you need to know everything about your business. And when you know it, you don't have to script anything. You just know how to deliver. So, you know, kind of hop into this, Cody, you know, because we've got some more viewers hopping in here. And as for some of you viewers hopping in here, shoot us a thumbs up, you know, give us some likes and, uh, you know, go check us out, you know, as we go ahead and, you know, cover this about, you know, so when it comes to this industry and, you know, we wanted to talk about, you know, how not to fail, Cody. You know, why do you think 92% of agents in this industry fail? And then I'll give you my little two cents on what you said. Yeah. Uh, I think a lot of it comes down to a system of some sort. You know, everybody's systems different, but I believe that what I learned at 19 was, hey, for me to succeed and for me to hit my goal and make it a hundred K winning a trip, like, I knew I needed to see 10 people and we all talk about different numbers. And you know what, everybody can have their own number, but the key is we got to know what to do. So I'm big in, hey, set 15 seats, sit with 10 and you'll close five plus. And so that, yeah, that varies. Like somebody just want to sit with 20, 30, 40, that's even better. But if every agent we know, no matter how great or how skilled they are, how much insurance experience they have, how much sales experience they have, it doesn't matter if they sat and presented and built value and asked 10 people to buy every single week, you know, they would not fail. No, there's no question about it. I mean, when it comes to agents in this industry, I mean, they, they have to have a system. They have to have a sales process. I mean, you can't just go through a presentation. I mean, if you think from beginning to very end of the presentation of building rapport, you know, qualifying the client, you know, finding the coverage and finding the right company form, receiving the banking account information. I mean, there's a lot of steps to that process. And, you know, depending on where you are in your career, you know, depending on your skill sets, you know, you know, sometimes when your presentation is kind of jumpy or it's kind of all over the place, it's not seamless. And when you can kind of make your presentation just completely natural at the tip of the tongue and just kind of make it, you know, smooth transition, you kind of find yourself, you know, you know, closing more business. And that's one thing I feel like a lot of agents within this industry, even within this this group right now watching, they're just not getting the type of training that they need. I mean, it's just that simple. So I mean, you know, you know, to give you another question, you know, because we're gonna, we got a lot of viewers out here already. But, you know, for any new agent getting started, you know, in this industry, what would you advise them? And what kind of steps would you tell them to take place, you know, at the beginning of their career so they can set themselves up for success? Yeah. And that's a great question because you've got, even in this group, right, you got people from tons of different companies, you've got everything going on, you know, so I would say, find someone to learn from, find a mentor, find a Sean Fogelson man, get plug into a group, and then get better every single day. I'm big on having goals, staying focused. I write down my goals every morning and every night. I'm big on goals. I'm big on waking up and being focused and being conscious of what I want to accomplish all day. So if someone has goals, and they are serious about improving and actually succeeding and actually making it, then you'll naturally want to improve. You'll naturally want to make that additional call. Like, successful agents do what unsuccessful agents are unwilling to do. Absolutely. I mean, you know, I can't think about how many times where it was later in the evening, you know, I had a couple of clients, maybe no show me, I got a, you know, 530 appointment, and, you know, I could easily have just packed it up and gone home. You know, but I just knew that if I went out there, even though I didn't want to, you know, a lot of those times, those appointments that I never went to, or that I didn't want to go to, I would sell those clients. Exactly. So it kind of, you know, to kind of, you know, to go piggyback off what you're saying is that you're right, is that a lot of agents, you know, they want this big money, they want to make a million dollars, they want to make 100 grand, but they're not willing to do what it takes. And at the end of the day, you know, you have to have a mindset and this is a roller coaster of emotions, right? You know, one day you're on a high, the next day you're on a low, and you've got to find that even keel where even when you're running hot, you just got to be at a press forward because when you got momentum behind you, you just don't take the foot off the pedal because what, what do they say? What's the best time to make the next sale? It's right after you made one. Exactly. When you're hot, man. And it's, it's true. When you're, when you're, when you're in a hot streak, man, you just can't miss. Everyone is a buyer, right? But then when things are struggling, we've got, we've got an agent in our office that came to me, you know, was asking some questions, you know, and struggling. And he's like, dude, what am I doing wrong? Like, you know, when that stuff happens, it feels like you can't throw a beach ball in the ocean. And so staying focused and staying serious, like, if you know that having a call night every week will help you, then freaking do it. If you know a Saturday morning call session will help you, then freaking do it. If you know doorknock in the neighbors, if you know asking one more time, if you know all these things will help, then freaking do it. Yeah. That's the truth, man. And I mean, you know, I just don't understand. I have agents that constantly call me up and they ask me questions. But when I give them information to go utilize, I mean, you know, a lot of agents won't even take the time to go on the carrier websites. Exactly. We're, we're a 1099, you guys. You know, the idea about what we do is that we are in business for ourselves. Now, even though we might be working for a particular company, if you were 1099 and not a captive agents, you are need to be running a business structure. And the idea of what we do is you got to put the time, you got to put the effort. I try to talk about people opening up a restaurant, you know, let's just say we're talking about something outside of this industry. If you open up a restaurant and let's just say you spend a hundred grand, I mean, you got to buy it, you know, you got to buy the grease, you got to buy the pants, you got to buy the inventory. I mean, you got to invest in your business. And then for people who are financially tight, what would you say that they need to invest in their time? You have to invest time. Yep. Yep. And those that separate themselves are the ones that dude, they like you just said, they invest in your business. I mean, my business started to grow when I started having call nights, bringing college kids over because I was in, I was in college playing basketball. I was 19. I didn't have a lot of time. So I had to be creative once I started investing in my business, spending money. I mean, the most successful agents in the country are on a weekly lead program and they're spending money every single week. And so, dude, investing in your business, taking it seriously, running it like a business, buying the grease, buying the pans, you know, hiring the people, dude, that's just part of it. Yep, it is. And I mean, the thing is that when you see the agents that are out there really being successful for all you people that are watching this right now, you have to understand is that the ones that are actually successful is exactly what Cody said. They're on an actual lead program. I don't care whether you've been doing this for 20 years is that, you know, at that point, you better have a book of business of thousands of people to be able to write at a high level. And if you don't have that and you're brand new in this industry, you've got to start somewhere and you've got to have something that is getting you prospects and being able to get you across the table for Mr. and Mrs. Johnson because if we ain't sitting in front of people, guess what? We're unemployed. I mean, it's just that simple. You know, a lot of agents, they like these office atmospheres where they kind of go to the office and they make dials and they might make 20 or 30 and then they get a couple, you know, a bunch of noses and then they're ready to say, you know what? I'm done for the day. You know, I worked hard. Exactly. Exactly. Yep. We, we, we funny you say that we have a canvas in our office that says without leads, agents are unemployed and I'm a big believer in that. Like, we both say all the time on videos, 92% of agents fail. I bet 90% of agents aren't on a weekly lead program but not on a predictable system that produces so many sets, so many leads, so many set appointments, so many run appointments, so many apps, so much revenue. The agents I talk to that are on a weekly program and they're consistent because we've got another campus in the office that says weekly consistency equals insurance success. Agents that are successful, they're putting up 100K, 200K, 300K, 400K, half a million. I haven't heard another age the other day that I wrote like 750K last year or whatever. They are consistent week in and week out because life happens if we have a bad day, we have a bad week, we have a bad month. Before you know it, like you buy, you buy leads and then you don't, you don't buy any leads for like three or four weeks. Oh, I'm in a drought, like what's going on? Buy more leads than you need, you know, I mean just invest and think of it as a business that must run a proper way week in and week out. There's no question about it. I mean in the one word you just said there, player in the world. So the thing is that, you know, talent is important, you know, not everybody has the gifted gap but the thing is that I've seen plenty of agents that I've actually hired and recruited Cody and I don't know if you've done this where some of you guys are kind of like picking like, hey, he's going to be a rock star and you might be a little judgmental and the funny thing is that some of the people that I think are going to be the rock stars and the people that I think might not be successful, it's the complete opposite. You just never know what you're going to be dealing with because at the end of the day, it comes down to, you know, work ethic and not to mention having heart and will because, you know, if you don't have it in you to go out there on the days you don't want to, you will never reach the true potential that you could become and the idea is that we get our license and become a license, you know, a license official within the whatever state that you, you know, get contracted, it just blows my mind that people are just so willing to give up so quickly and, you know, to tell you guys a little about my story is that my first year in this industry was nothing like Cody. I failed but the difference was is that I didn't quit and the thing is that there's plenty of other agents out there that are going through the same things that I went through and all you really do need is a mentor and that was one thing that really helped me is when I had somebody that, you know, Cody that I could look up to that knew this business that could point me in the right direction and then once I was able to kind of get, you know, you know, get things rolling, you know, it was just every day I was just getting better and better and better and even you, Cody, we never stopped learning to do it. I mean, it's just it's a not ever it's a non it's an ever ongoing thing, you know, you never stop growing. You can't man. As soon as you do, like you're either expanding or contracting and as soon as you stop growing, as soon as you stop expanding, someone's going to pass you like I see this all the time on videos. Complacency is my biggest fear. I don't want to get complacent. I don't want, you know, whatever I'm doing, whatever my brand is, whatever your brand is, whatever the agent's brand is in this, like as soon as you stop trying to grow, as soon as you become complacent, somebody's going to pass you like things are not going to go well and so always expanding and always having that mindset of what can we do to grow is huge because nobody wants to be passed. Nobody wants to be, you know, nobody wants to be shown up, you know. Well, as long as you're a true competitor, I mean, hell, Cody, I hate losing in video games. I mean, so, you know, when it comes to anything, I don't like losing, you know, I mean, I play college soccer. You said you played basketball, right? Yeah. You know, I mean, you know, I think a lot of things with a lot of, you know, a lot of agents that work in this industry that come from a sports background tend to do really well with this because, you know, when you have a leader board and you see your name and it's at that bottom of the list, I mean, you ain't feeling too good about yourself, are you? So, you know, you got to step your game up and you got to take yourself to the next level. And, you know, one reason why I wanted to get Cody on here, you guys, that, you know, for everyone who's watching is that I just really wanted y'all get a different perspective. You know, somebody who's been there and done it and who's constantly growing right now. And, you know, you guys hear me all the time and I'd rather you guys hear somebody else for once and, you know, Cody's a great role model for a lot of people in this business and, you know, for anybody that's really, you know, trying to take their business. I mean, hop on the YouTube, watch these videos. I mean, they're extremely helpful, but, you know, I mean, Cody, when it comes to you and, you know, I know I asked you a question about, you know, for a new agent to, you know, what's the best thing that they can do about getting started? But when it comes to an agent who's been doing this for a little while, you know, what really gives, you know, any agent really an edge, you know, what, what gives them that, you know, that, that next level where they're able to kind of separate themselves from some of these other agents. I know you kind of hit on some of those things, but if you had anything else to kind of add on to that, you know, please do. Yeah. I mean, everyone's, I mean, it's cliche. Everyone's got their own, their own why, their own purpose, their own motivation, their own focus. And so whatever it is for you that can keep you focused on the task at hand, I think that's huge because if we lose focus, like we said earlier, when we lose focus, life happens, like an entire month or quarter can go by and we're like, crap, where did it go? So the more focused we are, the more conscious of what's going on, the more we're in tune with our numbers and our business and we have goals and we're focused on expansion, the better because, like you said, man, it's, but this business, it's so many agents fail. And a lot of the times it's just because they don't know what to do. They don't know when to do it. And then because they don't know what to do and when to do it, they don't do anything. Doing something is better than nothing. Like when I started out, I didn't have any money. I had to, and I worked for a, I worked for a captive career company. I didn't know, you know, how the independence side worked. I didn't know how leads worked. I didn't know all these things. So literally I would have cold calling, call night sessions and pay college kids to come set appointments for me. I would also doorknock like section eight and senior housings all around the area because I knew I had to sit with 10 people. I don't have any money. I can't fit. I can't find a system. So I'd get creative and think I'll set the box and sit and ask 10 people to buy every single week. I didn't always know where they were going to come from. I just knew that they had to happen. Yeah. No, absolutely. And I try to, I mean, one thing I'm huge on for any agent. And let me get your kind of opinion on this is that for somebody who just starts in the business and let's just say they, you know, whatever leads or whatever company that they're at, and they go ahead and purchase some leads, you know, what is your concept? Do you say that, Hey, go ahead, Cody and start, you know, getting on that phone and dialing? Or do you ever advise your agents to go, you know, go, go doorknock, go take these leads and go ahead to that door. And, you know, once you get good at door knocking, you know, the rest of your business will start getting better and better. And that means you being, you know, more efficient over the phone because not everybody's got that, you know, that I guess I don't want to use the word swag, but, you know, not everyone's got that, you know, spontaneity about themselves where they can just get on the phone and be able to land appointments right from the get go and does come down to the leads and the quality of them. But for any agent that are starting, you know, have you ever told one of your agents, Hey, you know, go out there and doorknock them and see how that works. And, you know, maybe later on start making those dials. I mean, you know, how, you know, when it comes to you about, I have all different types of ideas about setting agents up, but when it comes to you, I mean, how's that, you know, how's that, you know, come down to you? Well, a lot of agents are scared of the phone. Maybe they're not skilled on the phone. Maybe they're not talented on the phone. Maybe they don't know what to do. Maybe they don't, when someone says, Hey, I'm not interested, they may believe them when, you know, 99% of what they're saying is that they don't mean it. It's just a rebuttal. It's just off the top. They're just, they're just selling them on why they don't want their help. Exactly. And so some agents, if you're not comfortable there, then go doorknock. Like the goal of getting leads is to get in front of them. It doesn't mean that you have to do this one thing or that one thing or only email or only text or only call or only doorknock. Do them all, you know, just get in front of them. And if you're not comfortable on the phone, get in Matt Quest route planner, you know, put together a route and just go doorknock them all two, three, four times a day for a week. And before you know it, I guarantee you'll see 10 people, right? I mean, it doesn't matter. You just got to see them. Yep. I mean, at the end of the day, like you said before, I mean, you got to see, I mean, for agents that are starting, I mean, you got to see sit down with 10 people and it's easier said than done. I mean, you got to put the effort in. And you know, when I look at this industry and I look at the best agents that are producing on a high level, Cody, they're doing a combination of all of them. They're not just saying, Hey, I'm just a doorknocker or they don't just say, I just schedule appointments. They do it all. Whoa, that might fell down. But you know, as, you know, as for, you know, there's times where, you know, when I'm out in the field and, you know, you get no showed, you know, are you going to go drive the gas station and pull out your phone and play on Facebook? Or are you going to go maximize your time while you're out there in the field and go out there and do some doorknocks and set up a big day tomorrow? That was my biggest concept, Cody, is that, you know, when there was those days because, you know, you always have those lolls, there's always that one day of the week where it's very slow, you know, unless you just are a machine. And those days that were really slow, I would make sure that I would get in my car. I'd spend 20 bucks in gas. I'd punch in my road warrior, which kind of like you're talking about your route planner, and I would just go doorknock every single house that day. And then by the time I got home, I'd have five, six appointments for the next step, you know, just by getting my face out there and introducing myself, letting them know who to handle their case. And is that your name on the car, Cody? Oh, it is. Well, I got that important information for you. It only takes about five to 10 minutes to go over. And I got all these other families I got to see in the area. And I'm going to be back tomorrow. What's the best time I can see you more of a morning or afternoon person? I love that, dude. That's simple. That's good, man. Because you could have chose to do nothing. You had no appointments. It was a slow day. You could have went and, you know, picked up the kids. You could have went home and watched Netflix. You could have made two calls and got some coffee. Like you chose to do something and take some action to improve your business. Because 95% of agents wouldn't have done that. It is. I mean, it's a, I mean, a lot of agents just don't want to go ahead and do, I feel like some of the agents out there, like they truly feel like they're just too good for it. You know, I'm too good to do this, Cody. You know, I, you know, do you know my background? I don't, you know, I don't give a damn about your background. It's about living now. And you got, the thing is for any of all agents out there is that usually the first year is the toughest. But the thing is, once you make it past the first year is that you have all the momentum behind you. Now you have residuals coming in. Now you have those, you know, you have, you know, you're tailing your money hitting, especially on the 15th month, you have your first, second and third month all hitting at one time. I mean, that's when you start really building up your cash flow. So for any agent out there, all I can really advise and, you know, Cody can mention his thought is that you have to stick it through. You just can't give up the ones that succeed or the ones that never quit. And you know, that's just the bottom line. And that goes for anything out there. I mean, I think about celebrities who were living in their core and now they're worth $50 million, you know, they just never gave up on their dream. And you know, apparently you never did either. No, exactly. I've seen veteran agents that weren't great at sales, but after 20 years, you know, dude, they're making a quarter million dollars a year. They're making a half a million dollars a year. And they were average agents. They were making 30, 40, 50 grand a year, whatever, for a long time. And they just grew their business before, you know, if they're getting referrals, like they just didn't quit. They just, and I'm not saying that's how I want to grow my business. And I know that's not how you're going to want to grow your business, but they didn't give up. No, there's no question. I mean, so I have a couple of questions. If you guys have any questions out there, a little Q&A for y'all. But, you know, while we got Cody on the line, I like to, you know, get some of y'all's input. When it comes to someone's asking your doorknock, you cannot map out 26 stops on MapQuest. Well, yeah, you can. I mean, as for anybody, if you guys want a really good app to use, it's called Road Warrior. You can go ahead and pay. It's like $5.99 for the month. And you can put unlimited addresses in there. And you can go out there and doorknock as many people. You can pick the shortest route, whatever it may be, just like a normal GPS locator. You can take up, you want to miss tolls or you want to, you know, have the shortest distance or the shortest drive. You can punch that in there. And it's going to save you gas because I can't tell you how many times that before I got this app, Cody, I'd be doorknocking homes out there. I'd have my leads with me. And then I would drive 30 minutes up the road to go doorknock. And then I punch in my next address. And I was just right up the road from right before I came from. Exactly. You know, just wasting time, wasting money. So, you know, that's awesome. I'd never heard of that. But that's really cool. Thank you. Yeah, Road Warrior. It's a great app. So, as for, you know, when it comes to an agent and, you know, obviously we talk about leads, leads are extremely important in this business. But, you know, for agents that really aren't, you know, financially stable, who can even purchase $100 or $200 with the leads, have you done any type of, you know, gone to any like assisted living homes? Have you done any type of webinar or, I mean, seminars within those people? You know, what did you always do? I mean, would you just go at doorknock random neighborhoods like you said? I've done that too. I've done that too. One thing I did when I didn't have a lot of money is, again, I'd get creative. So, I would have call nights and bring over like three, four, five college kids. I'd give them, you know, I'd buy them pizza, give them a script, a phone, a cubicle, tell them to, you know, read the scripts and appointments. I'd get all jacked up and motivate them and run around and get excited. I'd pay them like $10, $20 an appointment. You know, before I knew it, I'd spend $100, $200 or whatever. I'd have like $15, $20 appointments done at the end of the night. A lot of them would stand me up, but hey, it was activity. Another thing I would do is I would doorknock. You know, in Missouri, there's a lot of, especially around Springfield, there's a lot of senior housing and it's like four units, four seniors living in a home. They're, you know, living in a building and it's 55 plus, 60 plus. We've got some around here that have as many as like 120 individuals that are 55 plus living in this huge complex. And when you get rural, like they don't, they don't care if you solicit, you know, I've been kicked out of a lot of places in Springfield, but when you get outside of there, dude, I would spend, I wrote, you know, I wrote six apps in one day in one afternoon slash evening, cold door knocking, random people. Really? Okay. Well, you know, I mean, I always tell my agents, if you ain't getting the cops calling on, you ain't working hard. Oh, man, let me ask you a question. This is on a, this is on a different, you know, concept about, you know, about why agents fail. But you know, when it comes in your experience, you worked at a captive agency. Yeah. Now, when it comes to being captive and non captive and a lot of agents out there, just, you know, you know, uneducated, they just don't know about this. But did you give your two cents on this? Because this is something that I really try to highlight a lot of times when I'm trying to educate the group or, you know, just talk to my agents in general about the opportunity being from independent to being actually in a captive agency and what that looks like. Yeah. I'm not someone to, you know, talk negatively about a bunch of companies in general. I'm really not new companies. We're just talking. But in general, I want to say, like, you know what? When I was with this, with, with, with mutual, for example, like, dude, I drank the freaking Kool-Aid, like, I didn't even know any better. I was so focused. I was so tunnel vision. Like, you could have told me, Hey, dude, I can offer you a hundred and a thousand percent. I said, dude, I'm focused. I got hit my goal. Like, I don't care, you know. But at the end of the day, you want to build a business that is for you, is for your family. You want to build a legacy. You want to, you want to grow something for you. You don't want to grow something for other people. So I think being vested from day one, this isn't a recruiting pitch. It's just important. You know, it's just advice. It's just, it's real though. I mean, it's, everyone needs to know that. No, of course. I mean, I mean, and there's all, I mean, I tell anybody, there's a lot of great opportunities in this industry. There's not just one, you know, there's thousands of opportunities. So, you know, for anybody that's getting into this industry or even on this group that maybe just started, I mean, do your homework. Don't just listen to the person that recruited you. Do some, find out some other people that are working in that organization and see how they're doing. You know, I've been to, you know, I've been to conventions where I was a top producer and I was in a captive organization and I was making literally 35% commissions on free leads. And when I got up on stage and I, you know, I want some, you know, I want some money and, you know, you know, got a little plaque and all this, I was looking around Cody and I was like, man, I don't make much money. And then I'm looking around at everybody clapping for me and I'm like, how much do y'all make? You know, so, you know, the thing is, is that, you know, I, you know, it's important. You got to look at not only just, you know, not being, you know, independent where you can actually, you know, run your own business, but being to have multiple products that can really benefit the client and not being one dimensional in that sake, because a lot of captive organizations have their own particular product, right, Cody? And you normally see about a 25 to 35% increase in those rates. And I could be off, but that's just kind of a guesstimate. Well, no, yeah, like, like with mutual specifically, we didn't have access to the living promise. That was a broker only product. Like brokers don't have access to the mutual guaranteed issue, you know, what's funny is when I sold final expense back then, I was on a 35% commission level. Yeah, I got some small bonuses. And yeah, I sold some term and other stuff to get to where I made 120 grand. But I couldn't sell a simplified issue product unless they bought at least 20 K of coverage. I didn't know any better. Yeah, I was selling people guaranteed issue that didn't even need it. I didn't know any better. I was just focused. It was only, only opportunity I had, it was only option I had, you know, and I look back now, I'm like, dang, what if I would have had other options? What if I would have actually been competitive? What if I'd have actually been vested, you know, so. Well, you know, I mean, when you're not vested day one, I mean, you know, there's a lot of stipulations with these companies. And I'm not trying to trash talk anybody, Cody, what I'm trying to do is we're trying to bring awareness. We want, we, you know, the idea of this group is to bring value and educate agents because the thing is, like I said before, is that there is a lack of training, proper training within this industry. Why? And one of the reasons why 92% of agents truly fail is because they don't have somebody who can lead them that can actually show them and really, you know, mentor them and engage them and role play with them and do all the things above that a top manager that would do, you know? So, you know, you got to lead by the front. And when you don't have, per se, a manager who can do that or at least educate you on the products, you're really going to struggle out there. And unless you're somebody who's really hardcore driven, you know, kind of like me, you know, and you is that, you know, they're going to, they're going to start getting a bad taste in their mouth. And what happens is they typically leave the industry and they have nothing positive to say about it, which is, which is unfortunate because those individuals sometimes they're just linked with the wrong company. And if they actually had a different opportunity, they could be, you know, a rock star. Exactly. Yeah, there's a lot of really awesome agents out there that all you're doing is bringing awareness to something that they need to know, like you're bringing value and making it, you're doing them a favor by bringing this up. You really are. Yeah, because I mean, I just, I, you know, a lot of agents, they got to wait a year, two years, five years, sometimes 10 years to get vested. 10 back then, 10. Yeah, no, mine was, mine was seven years. So once I caught a glimpse of that, I actually read more in the contract ever, I started educating myself. And you know, I can tell anybody that, you know, who's watching this video, you know, who's trying to educate themselves, they're trying to get themselves, you know, to grow is that the more you get involved and the better you get at this, the more you're going to learn and you're going to start understanding that, Hey, I'm being taken advantage of. Hey, I need to maybe look somewhere else because I truly feel this way is that 90% of agents who end up becoming successful, 90% of them who started with their first company tend not to end in that company, they end up somewhere else. Something I want to, I'll bring it up real quick. Yeah, when any agents that I meet, you can name, you can name any company, local offices, whatever you can go to around as some local life and health company, you know, captive shops or whatever, even in your area, you won't find someone making quarter million dollars a year, half a million dollars a year, even normally a hundred grand as a producer in those offices. And so there's just no one for those new agents to look up to, like there's no one for them to learn from, you know, there may be some, maybe some managers or some corporate individuals, you know, but it's just, it just doesn't exist. Like it just doesn't, and even those, if they are, like even back when I had vets at Mutual, back when I was there, they sold a lot of other carriers and products outside of that company. Well, I mean, in some cases, I mean, I try to tell agents in general, and it's not me trying to recruit them, it's not me trying to put, you know, put some little deploy on, it's, it's simply, you know, if you wear a size 11 shoe, you know, you're not going to fit in a size nine, you know, so it goes the same thing with our businesses that one product does not fit all. And the thing is that you have to have multiple products that catered to the client's age, their health to make sure that they get the best plan out there. And why being a 1099 contractor and not being in a captive agency is that you have the ability to have those products and do a good service. And while doing a good service, getting paid phenomenal. Exactly. So I mean, what other questions we have out there, you guys? I'm going to have one little question for you on the, on the secure agent mentor side is that are your telemarketing, your Facebook leads, are the income, are the income bracket where they have a, you know, a, you know, decipher of 20,000 to 50,000 or, you know, an income bracket where you're actually the, you know, when you're finding those leads. Yeah, we do some of that from time to time. We've noticed that it isn't as accurate as people would think. Okay. Well, that was one question. And I asked you guys, we got a couple more minutes. We'll finish this up for any Q and A's. If you guys have any questions out there, at least shoot those up. So I can go ahead and ask Cody while I'm on the line. Yeah, there was a Mr. Edgar that said, Hey, you know, being captives means you're being, you're with one company, right? You know, I'm sorry, I'm new to the game. No, dude, don't apologize. You're, you're exactly right. That's a, it's a great question. And yes, the answer is yes. So. Yes, you, when you're, when you're on a captive, you know, agency, you're, you're really putting yourself in a one dimensional, you know, process where, you know, you can make money. And there's plenty of agents that do phenomenal and captive agencies. But the thing is that if you took those agents, those ones out of the rock stars and that type of environment, and I go ahead and I put them over in a different situation that they're non captive, higher commission levels, different lead structure, more products, these individuals only excel more. So, you know, for anybody that is, you know, you know, within, you know, a captive agency, you know, you can succeed. I'm just saying that if you are in a, in a non captive agency, I said, you're the ability to actually succeed as much more. Yeah. Yeah. Keep the questions coming. That's what somebody said. But, you know, anything else, you know, when it, you know, to kind of do a little circle, a little recap, you know, you guys, when it comes to, you know, agents failing and why we wanted to get on here and why, you know, what it takes not to fail. I mean, there's a couple key concepts what it really truly takes to be successful. One is to be prepared, preparation, you know, to make sure you have your applications with you when you show up at the house. You know, I've done that before. You know, I, you know, I sold quite a few apps that week. I showed up the house. I had $132 premium I could close. Guess what? I didn't have the application. Oh, you know, so there's just little things that we need to be doing and preparing ourselves, because if you're not, if you're not preparing, you're preparing for failure. And that's why I said about, you know, agents plugging into their carriers, getting on the, you know, the carrier websites. I mean, they have, you know, they have, you know, webinars teaching about the products, you know, agents want to call me about product knowledge. And I'm pretty, pretty thorough on it, but I'm not going to know more than the underwriter at Mutual Home Hall is, you know, I'm not going to know that, you know, more than the underwriter at United, you know, United Homelight. You know, you got to plug in. You got to be a business owner like we discuss. Good. On that note, you mentioned something really, really crucial. A lot of agents, especially when they're new, they want to know everything before they do anything. And I'm a big believer in, hey, just do, just take action, get in front of people. You'll figure it out on the fly. You'll learn, you know, so a lot of agents, you don't have to know everything. Like there's ins and outs of policies that I don't even know, you know, but at the end of the day, my job is to see people, help people, earn a living. And if I'm worried about studying brochures and learning everything for weeks on weeks while I'm new, I'm going to fail because I'm never going to make any sales. So just get out there and take action and do it. It's uncomfortable, but just do it. No, you're right. I mean, you know, for me, when I was talking about when I failed my first year, you know what, you know, how many appointments I average on a week, maybe three to four sit downs. So the concept, you know, where you're going to this is that the more people you get in front of the more mistakes that you make at the beginning of the career, the quicker you're going to be able to learn and grow. And the thing is that, you know, when you make these little mistakes and you leave that house and you're driving home, you know, I would sit there and I'd be like, I would be recapping the whole thing in my head. I'm like, what could I say different Cody? How could I said this and delivered and how to how I could overcome that objection. And I had a mentor that I was, you know, that I'm still friends with and we were tall and we would just bounce ideas off. Hey, what do we said this? What do we said this? And then we started implementing within our presentation and then you started seeing results. So, you know, for any agent out there that is struggling and, you know, I'm sure Cody does the same thing. I have agents call me up and, you know, they'll be in the home and I will put me on the speakerphone. I'm a 3D hologram sitting beside them. And I'll sell the policy like that. And you know what, after about two weeks of them working with me, I put money in their pocket. I showed them how to overcome certain objections. And after two weeks, they don't got to call me no more because they know how to run a real business. So, you know, if you're not having a manager that's actively engaging you, is that a manager is supposed to, he's making money on you. He's got to be earning it. And if he's just sitting out there with his hands out, you know, go out there and make it happen. He's throwing you the wolves. You know, it's going to be a tough time being successful in this industry when you don't have anybody pointing you in a direction. Someone who's saying, hey, Cody, you made a mistake. This is what you need to work on. Because you don't really know what you are making mistakes. And the thing is, sometimes we think we're better than we really are. And we get in the house and I tell agents, record. Record your conversation. Record your presentation. Because when you go home and you play that, you're like, wow, I kind of stunk here. You know, I need to work on this. So that's stuff that I've always done and how I've gotten in the position where I'm at now. So, you know, because you care. That's because you care. You're serious. You want to improve. You want to be better. If it doesn't bother you when you leave sales and you didn't make a sale and you're like, OK, was it them? Was it me? What could I have done differently? Like role playing with yourself in the car? Like, if you don't think like that, I don't know what's wrong with you because you ought to. Like, if you miss sales, I'm like, dang, what's going on? Like, what did I do this morning? Did I eat something wrong? Did I have a bad day? Like, did I say something wrong? You know, what's going on? You know, so. Yeah, it is. I mean, I wake up five in the morning, six o'clock in the morning every day because I'm just excited to get to work. I'm excited to, you know, work on my business. And, you know, for all of you agents that are on here, you have, you know, you have an ability to take your business by the horns, you know, no matter where you are in your career, no matter your experience, no matter anything, no matter your looks, it don't matter. You know, it's just you've got to get out there. You've got to hit the pavement and you've got to go see the people. STP, baby. That's right. See the people. Hey, Andrew brings up a question that I felt like was really good. He said, what point is it good for a part-time agent with a full-time job to make the leap to full-time insurance? The answer is yesterday. You can't succeed part-time. I'm not going to be the greatest agent in the world. I'm not going to win trips. I'm not going to change my life forever with a part-time mindset. I'm just not. No, you weren't part-time. You get part-time results. So, the idea is that it's scary. And Andrew, it gets you nervous about taking that leap. And you got to have a divine belief in you, knowing that you have what it takes to be successful. And once you make that leap and you commit everything that you have to it, there's no way you can fail. The only way you do fail, and why a lot of the agents have failed in this industry, is because they quit, because they ran into a roadblock. They ran into a challenge. And I've gotten to the point where anybody, if you're growing, Cody, you're always running obstacles. But the difference is, you find a way to go over it, go around it, go under it, or you go through it. And that's what winners do, is that they find a way. And that's what you got to ask yourself, is that, am I really doing everything possible to be successful? Am I working as hard as I think I am? Because the idea is that when you're selling business and the average AP for final expense, and we'll finish this up in a second, is $600 an annual premium, right? Well, sometimes you sell some big apps, right? Maybe your goal is $4,000 for the week. Well, maybe by Tuesday, you had three big applications and you're almost at $4,000. Does that mean to go ahead and take your foot off the pedal? Or does that mean to go ahead and press the pedal even harder? Because the idea is agents say, oh, I hit my $4,000 mark. You only close three applications. What if one of those pieces of business falls off the books? What does that do to your week? You've got to constantly be writing business. And even when you run into chargebacks, you just write through it and you go back to your client's houses and you try to do the cancellation letter and you try to save that business. But anything else, we're going to have a lot more interviews between me and Cody. I appreciate you being on here. Man, it was awesome. Just kind of get your thought process and you'll be here giving some value to these agents because they always hear me. It's better for them to maybe hear somebody else like you. But anything else you got? You maybe got one little thing to say before you head out the door? Yeah, I would say figure out what you want. Everyone's in a different place in life. Some of us are part-time. We've got a full-time job. And a lot of us are asking those type of questions because we're looking for a specific answer, which I think it's the answer we gave. So figure out what you want and go get it. Do whatever it takes. Don't let anything get in your way. If your goal is to make $100k, set the bar at $100k, work backwards. Figure out what you need to do every single week for that big goal to happen. Once you break it down and it becomes a small weekly goal of a couple grand or whatever, it doesn't seem so okay. You know what? That's only $400 a weekday. You know, that's like half a sell. So it's like think about the big goal. Figure out what you want. Break it down weekly. How many people do you need to see to make four sells? Maybe it's eight. See eight people. Figure out what you want. Go do it and be consistent week in and week out. Absolutely. Well, Cody, man, we really appreciate you. The owner of Secure Agent Mentor. It was a pleasure having you on here. And we'll have a lot more conversations in the future. So you guys, we appreciate you hopping on here. And we'll see you guys next time.