 Welcome back to the insurance truth. I'm Cody from Scourge Mentor. I am sitting with Mr. Christian. Thank you, buddy Hey, Cody. Yeah, good to be here. Appreciate you being on man. Christian is from he's a final expense agent He's from Columbus, Ohio Hio Why'd you come down today? I came down because I'm always looking for education and nuggets as a final expense agent I'm always trying to improve my game Cody and I have we've you know I've been following Cody for some time had the opportunity to come down here and meet with him today and So we've gotten a lot of good things flushed out just some things that I'm doing this this You know this industry is all about numbers, but there's there's also a people side one thing I learned today is Taking time to listen, which is a hard thing to do when you're trying to build rapport and finding out that Why when you meet with people? Yep, and so that's pretty important What is as far as like as far as like selling final expense in Ohio, you know, you can we get a lot of new agents are like Hey, I knew I don't know what to do help me. You know, what would you say? You know, I mean when you're figuring it out It's cold Yeah, yeah, it's real cold, but and I say that tongue-in-cheek because You know in the northern states, I know I know a lot of the good producers You know you look at the weather. You obviously got to look what's going on because sometimes you're gonna have to be knocking on doors You know chasing a few people down So no matter what the weather is you got to be prepared for it and you got to get out there rain or shine Exactly, you know what's what's been what's been the secret to your success so far? Maybe it's not a secret, but maybe it's something you've done like you're like, okay These are some things that I've done in my business that have actually really that have really helped you Yeah, I you know for me I was just thinking about this the other day is I focus on okay. What am I doing right? Yeah? I don't focus on we all know what our weaknesses and it can be we know what we need to prove on but I learned a long time ago Being a former educator and when I helped vocational students With their jobs Purnish it programs. We always focused on Hey, what are you doing right? What do you like about this job? What would you say you do right? You're like, you know what? I'm good at this, you know I enjoy sitting down with people. I enjoy talking with them. I enjoy their story I don't care what situation it is if I'm sitting on the edge of a couch on an edge of a chair or recline back I want them to be I Wanted to be a comfortable and pleasant situation because these are these are older people these are seniors and the big reason I got into this business is because Basically my mom didn't have coverage I got her coverage Cody was the first policy ever wrote and Actually wrote her a second one later when I could save her a little bit of money do what's affordable, right? And unfortunately she died unexpectedly eight months later So I know my reason why that's your why so when I look at the things I do right my why is a big part of that And you have to know your why so if you can figure that out why you're out here why you're helping people If that's what you want to do obviously you're gonna make money But you listen to the story and that's what I did right absolutely so as far as that was a great right That was awesome. Thanks as far as what would you say? Maybe you've done wrong or you're not great at or you've you've noticed Hey Christian from Ohio needs to improve it that I need I need lots of improvement, but we all we all do yeah, yeah I would say being consistent I've been in situations where I've had to do a lot of organizing With the different companies I've worked for a couple different companies and multiple companies at times You know depending on how you're set up as a final expense agent, right? There's a lot you can put on your plate. You just got to keep it very keep it very simple When I don't keep it very simple it becomes complex. I overthink things Myself gets in the way my head gets in the way my mind isn't right Why is that because it's it's tough to stay focused on what the task at hand and and and get out and work cuz yeah You work and you can tell I mean this this dude works this dude is impressive I've sat down with him and I've been impressed and I've taken away and learned more from our meeting than I guarantee you He did it's been good. It's been really good. I'm serious. Well, you know You gotta know you gotta know how to work this this business is It's simple, but honestly, it's not easy. That's a great way to put it simple, but not easy Wow, you just got to work at it and what you're not good at you do need to improve upon their their systems and processes with Whatever company whatever brokerage you're with You have to follow that Are you gonna be perfect? No, you got to work on improving that I can't came down here to meet with Cody that to improve upon some things and It is a game of numbers, but at the end it's really it's it's it's a it's a professional business That you have to get better at an education. You're always learning you always gonna be learning this business No matter what profession you're in especially ours because it's it's not easy exactly and said said said well from a Previous educator and teacher yourself. You know what and we're going out. We're educating the general public, right? We're helping them we're having that teacher's heart, right that teacher's mentality of helping building rapport building relationship I guarantee you that's something that you're great at face-to-face being genuine getting trust building rapport I guarantee you you're fantastic at it. Thanks, man. I you know, I just that's the easy part We're talking about working with people is I really care about them I may not know a whole lot and I think I'm not sure Einstein or somebody was a unknown author said people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care It really is the truth crushes dropping bombs on the issues truth, man. I love it. I like it, you know, and How else can you help like as an agent? Tell me one thing that was like a struggle for you and you're like, you know what as soon as I overcame that or I Fixed that or I or I took that struggle away That it really helped your business The big thing and I'll dial it down to a small thing the big thing is fear of failure. Okay, it's okay if you fail There's nothing wrong with it. Yep So one of the things that I was bad at still working on it In fact, I gotta get on the phone here as soon as I leave Cody Is the phone Setting up appointments. I've had people do it for me It's not near as good as when you do it because you get a lot of experience from it Whether you're new at this or you've been doing this a long time Because you may not have that appointment setter Accessible they might be out sick or you might not have one Yeah, and people really want to hear your voice that you're gonna sit down and meet with so I think the best setter Can be the person's actually gonna sit down with the person so for me It's picking up that phone making those dalleys putting down those the tally marks wire agents Maybe not always a hundred percent scared. Maybe it's just something we don't want to do We don't enjoy it. What is it about picking up the phone? And yeah, you can doorknock, but we need to be doing both What is it about picking up the phone? Outside of maybe the fear of it not working well for you or getting started for me I think it's the fear of the unknown And you know honestly once I get started and I get that first appointment Maybe even get that first no or two or I'm not interested or ten Yeah, I know it's gonna be that next one that's gonna say yes, and it's kind of like golf You make a good hole you keep coming back, but I think once you start you just pick up the phone and you start even if you're You're dialing Bogus dials, you know, you're calling that number two and three times just to put that tally down Whatever you got to do and I'm a big Star Wars fan Jedi mind trick your mind To pick up that phone you do whatever it takes and that's a lot of this business I love that, you know, whatever whatever it takes you got to find what works best for you And that's the reason I do this today with Cody is whatever I can share we all learn from each other Again constantly learning and I love this business. I love helping people This is my it shows, you know, this is my career. I want to get as good as I can with it I love it Christian. Thank you very much Truth for coming all the way to the office to hang out That's oh, I owe baby to get to I really enjoyed it. So thank you for the thank you for the mentorship the relationship the friendship Yeah, Cody getting to hang out getting to help some agents while you're down. Hope so. Yeah, so thank you Oh, thanks for watching your truth. If you got value from this, you know, like, you know what I love this Give us a like if you want to see more make sure you hit the subscribe button because we're gonna be dropping more I can't promise they'll always be as good as the interview with Christian, but I can promise you they'll be great Thanks for watching. Have an awesome rest of your day. Appreciate you guys