 Dad, did you ever think or realize that I would earn this my first year in the insurance industry? Actually, I did. I know you had the talent. I know you had the drive, and I actually did. At what point did you realize? Because I remember some things we did, and we'll get to that as we're going to talk through how this became a reality, some behind the scenes, some stories, some things happened along the way. Some could take this very arrogantly. I'm telling you, I'm only showing you the $117,361.13, because you can have it too. It wasn't something special about me, but at what point did you realize he can actually do this? You made me believe myself as a kid, like no one in his business, by the way. I owe a lot of credit to you and Mom for the confidence, the internal confidence that I've always had. But at what point did you actually realize, okay, he's going to do this? I think it was when you first started. We had a lot of new agents when you first started, and a lot of agents were setting their cubicles, and they'd make a phone call, and then they'd wait four or five minutes, make another phone call, wait a few more minutes. They'd go and take 90 minutes, 120 minute lunches. They'd show up at 9.30, leave at 3.30, because they were independent. They could kind of come and go as they pleased, and so the drive just wasn't there. And with you, it just became a passion. And to where when you first started, I remember this like it was yesterday, and I wish it was yesterday. But with you, it was totally different to where, I remember you coming to me and you saying, hey dad, I'm going to have a bunch of the college guys come and do phone calls for me. And he said, I'm going to pay them $10 in an appointment. I think that was a number, and I'm going to buy them pizza. And so next thing I know, there's eight or 10 guys in the office, and they're all making dials for you, setting appointments for you. And then a situation to where that started occurring. And then it was just a weekly passion for you to, hey, not only a weekly passion, but a daily goal for you to make sure you made at least one sell every single day. And most days multiple, but never satisfied if you didn't make a sell that day. But, and then like when, you know, and you started doing auto dollars, you started just, you were thinking outside the box so much bigger than the average person was thinking outside the box. And so I could just, from that standpoint, anytime I see a person that has the passion they think outside the box, there's just no way they can fell in this industry. If they've got some talent to think outside the box, and they've got passion about what they do, they're going to succeed and succeed at a high level, which is exactly what you did. So, thanks. Yeah, I mean, think about that. Okay, he's given you the ingredients of what you need to do day in and day out to be successful, right? To have the passion, put in the freaking work with the drive. Okay, think outside the box, be creative, and then do whatever it takes, right? Within ethical reason. And I remember it's one other little quick little thing I remember, you know, real, real vividly, is if you had an appointment, you know, you may have an appointment two hours away, and but it was your only appointment that day. And so you would print off a list of individuals and for that, for that area, and you'd call that area before the appointment and see if you could set up more. But if you didn't, you still went to that appointment and then you would just door knock every person in that, you know, apartment complexes, senior centers, regardless of what it is, you were knocking doors like crazy. And to where most people, you know, not only do they not want to co-call, which you were co-calling a lot, and they sure aren't going to walk on a strange, knock on a stranger's door. And which, you know, it all goes back to the old saying that successful people do what unsuccessful people won't do. And that's just, you know, and you did a lot of things that aren't fun, aren't desirable, aren't, you know, exciting, you know, until you got your niche. You did a lot of things to drive activity and a lot of people just don't do that. Yeah, so true. Okay. So the question is, will you do whatever it takes when you learn what it takes? Okay. And a lot of times people will blame others. And you've always taught me, man, you got accepted responsibility. If it's meant to be, it's up to you. And you determine your success, which is why we actually entered in this little contract. If you want to call it that. We did. I remember it. Because you even told me like, really, I mean, you need people in your life speaking to you like this man has for me over the years, okay? You will earn 100 grand, and you will make the top trip with the company we're with. Yeah. I remember you telling me that you want to make 100 grand. I said, well, if you'll make 100 grand, put it in writing. And I said, put it, you know, put it in writing. And I said, sign it. And so the next thing I know about, I don't know, 10, 12 minutes later, you bring me a contract where you had written it out. And you had already signed it. And you had the district sales manager sign it. You were on the first line, the district sales manager on the second line. I wish you still had that. And I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about this story. And then the third line was for me to sign. And because I was a general manager at that time. And so anyway, so I told Cody, I said, look, if you want to make it a reality, you know, you can say something, but if you want to make it a reality, put it in writing. That's right. And so what you did was you put it in writing, you had all of us sign it, you hung it on your cubicle. And you worked out of a cubicle at that time. And so the first thing that Cody saw every single day when he walked into that, you know, cubicle was the commitment he had made to himself and to the district sales manager and to me. Yeah. How important is it for those watching to make those kind of commitments and big claims and put stuff in writing and to really make commitments about what they are going to accomplish. Most people think, well, it's probably a little cheesy to like, write out a contract and sign it and hang it up on the wall and all that. But to me, it was like, that was the target. That was the goal. You've always taught me that you just do whatever it takes and you hit it. Okay. It don't matter how much you got to work. You've always said you can work. You can work a half a day and be successful. You choose, there's 24 hours you choose which 12 hour period you work. And you still do that today, by the way. So, I mean, when you think through that, what would you say, okay, as an agent, here's the things that you need to do. And it sounds like committing and having a target and actually having a goal is a great start. It is. So a lot of people will say, a lot of people say, hey, I want to make $100,000. I want to do this. I want to make this trip. But it's just all talk. There's no action. There's no commitment. There's no drive. There's no passion. There's no commitment to others. And so what I did, I worked for Mutual for 13 years, never missed a trip one time ever. And the only general manager that never missed a present circle in the history of the company, the only one ever to not miss one. And it was a situation where when I went back, when those trips started, I made a commitment to my wife, hey, honey, I'm taking you on this trip. Because I didn't want to let her down. Because obviously the trips were extremely nice. So I've always been one. I love writing goals down. I love writing down. I love making commitments to others because it holds you accountable. For those that you care for and those that, with the commitment you made that day, I knew without a doubt you were going to hit it. But we monitored and measured it and you did hit it. Because I was watching it along the way. And I came to you and said, hey, Cody, you made this commitment. Falling behind. So you made this commitment. And so I just think it goes back to anything that we really, really want in life. We can get it. We can have it. 100%. And we just got to be willing to pay the price for it. But paying the price sometimes, it's always well worth it. Totally. Once it happens, it's like, holy, freaking man, I wish I'd have done this quicker. Because you've always had a lot of belief in your ability to pull stuff off. You've had a lot of wins along the way. And as you get wins, you get confidence. For someone out there that doesn't have the confidence or the belief in themselves, or they're like, the problem, too, is people are saying, I want to make 100k. Not I will. There's a big difference there. So what would you say to someone that doesn't have the personal confidence they need, but they want to earn this their first calendar year in the industry? I would say a couple of things. Number one, you have to have a belief that you can do it. And you have to make that commitment. But you also have to, you need to find the greatest person in the world, I think, my personal belief is a person who has a ton of passion, talent, but they think outside the box. And that person, like you were thinking outside the box with the dollar, before the dollar was popular. You know, you were thinking outside the box with the college guys coming in to do the call nights and knocking doors and all those type things. And so you just thought outside the box and did things that other people didn't want to do. But I really think that people think outside the box. And so as an example, like anytime that if you have passion what you do and you're thinking outside the box and you have a system in place and a process, and you have a mentor, someone that mentors you, you know, someone that can help you get to the next level, it is not hard. It is not hard to do. It's just you've got to make that commitment to do it. And I just, I think it kind of goes back to the passion, the commitment and really the thinking outside the box, you know, just because there's so many people in this world making so much money it's unbelievable. And they all do it in different ways. What works for one person may not work for another, but you have to find out what works for you. And I've helped, you know, several, several, several hundreds of agents, you know, make lots of money, you know, helping them develop. At least thousands. Yeah, helping them develop, you know, what works for them, the system, the process, the, you know, the presentations that works for them. And they don't all do it the same way. Not at all. Yeah, I mean, we didn't do it the same way. No. You know, which was okay. You know, everyone's built different. Yeah, we're, ourselves is totally. I even ourselves style. Ourself style, the way we built our business, everything is totally different. So. Yeah. I mean, you're, you've, you've, you know, you've earned this many times over, over your career. And you've wouldn't, your personality wouldn't do this, frankly, it would not. No. Right. However, that's where you got to find your own way though. You know, so one thing I've noticed too, is with you specifically, and that I learned from, is not only like waking up, committing to what I'm going to do, but staying focused throughout the day. And there's a lot of insurance agents that just lose focus from time to time. That commitment that we made, that made this whole thing possible right here, made me show up and be focused on what I was going to do. I remember even too, actually tracking it visually on a whiteboard every single day, every week, every month. Okay. I got to do this, this, this and this, right. And I did the math and ran the numbers. I even went to our sales manager back then and said, we should get a board for the whole office. And we did. And before you know it, everyone's putting their numbers up on the board and you're visually tracking them and seeing your success. And because nobody wants to go, like especially you, as competitive as you are, no one wants to go put a zero on the board. There's not a chance of that happening. Right. And you always tell me, hey, you make a sell a day, you'd be all right. You know, because most insurance agents just don't make 100 cells in a year. I made a few hundred. You made like 460 or something, your first calendar year. Yeah. So one of the things I remember that you did a lot is every single night before you left the office, you always write down your to-do list, your goals, and what you have to get accomplished the next day. I remember that like it was yesterday. I remember every single day before you left the office and that would be sitting on your desk when you walked in the door the next day. For example, I remember years had, I'm going to knock 40 doors in this particular city. I'm going to call 112, 120 people, whatever it is, from this list here. And then you always had a list of exactly what you're going to accomplish the next day. But one of the things that's really, really always impressed me with Cody is him and I are a lot alike, but a lot different. We are a lot alike, but a lot different. True. And we've developed our businesses completely in different styles, which I'm, because what I really love about it is is that you've been very successful in your own way, not copying me in any way. It's been totally you. And we both have the same passion, the drive, the commitment to excellence and to succeed, but the way we do our business. And I'm just saying that forever be out there is just, you don't have to be Brian, you don't have to be Cody. You can be yourself. The best version of you is you, you know. Totally. And you don't have to replicate Cody, you don't have to replicate me. You can use some things from me, you can use some things from Cody, but it's you and if we're our best person, that's where we're going to be the happiest. We've got to be happy in what we do. We've got to have a commitment in what we do. We've got to love what we do. And we've got to, and if we ever get to the point to where we are truly, truly, truly doing what's in the best interest of the client in every situation, we'll never have to worry about the next client. It just don't have to worry about it. I remember you too. I love that you said that by the way. I remember too, me getting calls from, I think I got a call from like a manager in like Wyoming or Minnesota or somewhere, like okay, or you did. I got a call wanting to go help some agents in Northern Missouri and you had some managers in Mississippi and other places like that, or you would talk about the week I had on the agency call, which I'm sure sometimes people got tired of, but like when you were getting some of those calls, like I remember you saying, hey, I had a manager call me from California or somewhere saying, dude, what the freak is this kid doing? You remember some of those? I got a lot of those calls and so it's a blessing and a, not a curse, but it's a blessing. It's good and bad both when your son works with you and so my son came in after I had been the interest business for 20 years or whatever it was and I was a general manager at Mutual at the time and so you come in, you're happy with your college year. You're playing basketball full-time on the basketball team at Baptist School of College. And so I remember that you made this commitment and all of a sudden just the cells exploded. I mean, you just, you became a very determined individual to hit that achievement there. And so some people took it that Brian was giving him business. Brian never gave him a single piece of business. You know, that just didn't happen and Cody can verify that. You know, I didn't give him, he didn't get any special leads. He didn't get anything, you know, and then and other people realized that how hard his work and how much he was thinking outside the box with the phone callers, with the doctor knocking the doors, with the list, with, you know, all the dollars, all the different things that you were doing, which other people weren't doing. But it was a situation to where you were just so determined to hit that number and you just, you thought outside the box so much, but. Yeah, well, thank you. It's, I owe, I mean, yeah, you may not give me a business, but you gave me a lot of other stuff that helped this become a reality and everything else we're doing today become reality. So thank you for sharing a few minutes and talking through this in closing. What's a few things if an agent's out there and they're like, man, I want this. How do they get it? So a few things here. Number one, I've trained a lot of agents. I mean, hundreds if not thousands of agents over my career and the ones who succeed the most are the ones, and this is something to where it's going to hit home with some of y'all, unfortunately, to where your spouses aren't sold on your career and to where, you know, your spouses are negative about your career and so forth. And that's a tough gig. And so that's the one thing that I've seen people fail probably at the most. And so you need the people that depend on you to be behind you. And if you're, you know, if you're listening to this and your spouse is in this business, get behind your spouse. I think that's one of the big things is that is to have some support, you know, and, you know, like, you did all this, all of this on your own. You know, obviously, you know, you grew up on home to where I was insurance sales and, you know, all that. Business minded. Business minded and, you know, et cetera. So, you know, obviously that didn't hurt anything. Definitely. But I think that if you really, really want to be successful in this business, you got to have a belief that you can do it. You got to have a system of process. And if we can help anybody, we'd love the opportunity to help you. But, you know, and I used to think I can make anybody successful. I stopped believing that and because I can't, they have to have belief in themselves. That's right. You know, and but one thing I always tell people is be the best you possibly can be because, you know, you don't have to be, you know, A, B or C or X, Y or Z. Be you, you know. And if you're you and you have the process, the procedures, you know, the passion, you know, there's no, the sky's the absolute limit. So, but, you know, I've seen you come throughout the years and this was, you know, I knew for a fact you'd hit this number. So, thanks, man. You need people around you that believe in you. Okay. Your circle matters. Your mentors matters. People that believe. You have to have people around you to believe in you. Right. My dad always has. My mom always has. Lauren always has. You know, I'm sure my sisters did along the way too. Right. You need people along the way that believe in you. Okay. I'm telling you, your circle matters. Right. They can always say that they can tell how successful person is by the top five people that they hang out with. Right. And then are around them. Why? Because how you talk to yourself matters, that belief in yourself matters. You chasing a dream or a goal or a target or whatever it is. Okay. You need people around you that are speaking positivity into your life because I'm telling you, the number one thing Brian Tracy says this, and I learned a ton of from him as an early agent too, is that number one thing a sales person, every great sales person has is personal confidence. Okay. So hopefully this will give you some personal confidence. You'll start thinking outside the box. Okay. Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Okay. Appreciate that. That's a lot of fun. Go get this. Hey, if you enjoyed this, I got another one. You're going to love it. It's right there. Click on it. See you in there. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm extremely excited to jump out and interview an absolute powerhouse in the insurance industry. Miss Leslie Schofield. What's up Leslie? Hey, hey, hey. Happy to be here. Thank you so much for being a part of this.