 If you had to look back over the last 13 years, and you had to think of one aha moment that really maybe shifted things for you, right? Got your attention, made you change something, and it really started to propel you on the path to success. If you had to look back, it was probably several, I'm sure, right? Because for me, I've had a revelation many times in our business about how to change something up. If you had to pick one thing that could benefit somebody that's watching, there was really more of an aha moment for you. What would it be? Wow. Man, these questions are great, Cody. Thanks. You gotta step on my game when I interview you. I might just ask the same questions, honestly, because these are great ones. And I love the passion you have for trying to bring value to your audience. Thank you. These moments are so important in our careers. And there's so much to talk about, but with the time that we have to focus on what has really pivoted our agency, man, I just have so many that I could think of right now. Man, I think one of them was when I was new, I think part of being ambitious, the problem could be that you get overly ambitious and you start getting a little frustrated that things aren't happening as well, especially in the PNC world. It just takes some time to build it up. And I could sense that with my ambition as high as it was, I was getting frustrated at myself. I wasn't as nice to my employees. I wasn't as nice to maybe even my clients almost. So one of the aha moments was like, hey, I have time. So having a sense of gratitude, more sense of gratitude and patience really. Once I had that patience kick in, I was like, hey, I'm doing a good job. Give myself a little bit of credit. Don't beat myself up. Everything's going to happen just a matter of time. That's when I became a lot better as a leader, especially to my employees, even being patient with them too. So for me, it was patience. Another aha moment I just thought about right now is when I found a lead source that really worked and I was spending money on it. For some reason, I just thought I shouldn't spend more than an X amount of dollars on it. I just didn't think like, but it was a aha moment was like, well, why not? I want to scale my business. I need more leads. Just blow up the marketing budget. So that wasn't a aha moment where I don't know why. It was like an imaginary cap I had on myself where like, oh, I shouldn't spend this much anymore than this on marketing. That was a aha moment was like, well, let's just blow this place up and just spend more money because once you have more leads, a lot of the problems are solved. Yes. Now you're speaking my language, man. I love that dude. That's strong. Those are great, great feedback for the audience. I have time, you know, overly ambitious. I struggled with that too. You mentioned you're with a team and staff and stuff along the way. I being overly ambitious as well and being a lot of like, we seem to be on a similar, how old are you? I just turned 40 this year. 40. Okay. Good. Well, dude, you don't even look 40. I just turned 30 this year. So we're a similar age, you know, in a way. And we feel like, I feel like we've had similar paths because I've been in this industry about a decade and I've been overly ambitious, hard on my staff, didn't treat people the way I should along the way. And I feel like you start to grow and mature and you sort of come into more of a business owner because in this business, I feel like, I want to see if you agree. I really feel like you're initially you're a great salesperson, right? Then you want to be a great sales manager. Then you want to morph into being a great CEO and business owner. And I feel like, you know, it was a great salesperson. I made 120 grand when I was 20, you know, great sales manager learned over time how to be one and now trying to be a CEO and business owner and you seem like you seem like you've moved in to more of that role as well. Yeah, yeah, the roles will always change, you know, but I call it, you know, being patiently in a rush. Like, I'm always in a rush, like doing something, but in the in the big picture, I'm being patient. But in the small picture, I'm just in a rush, like, I got to get stuff done, but I'm still looking at it, you know, taking a step back and looking at it from a macro view. But yes, you've been only 30, man, the sky's the limit. I mean, you're just getting started. Dude, I mean, that's, you know, I'm really looking forward to just, you know, just connecting with you and just keeping in touch and seeing what great things you're going to accomplish because man, to be where you are at 30. I mean, at 30, I just do I was three years in and I was just mad every single day that I wasn't, you know, having a million dollar book of business. I was just the mindset was so different. But I think I hope that that that could help some people were, hey, if you're working every working hard every day, even though there's going to be not easy and it shouldn't be, it does pay off. For sure. It always does, man. You know, I mean, those that survive and make it and really, they end up thriving. You know, they really do. You said being patiently in a rush, maybe think of the country song. I'm in a hurry to get things done. Yeah, I don't know. Lyric's always kind of a mind. I don't even listen to music, but Lyric's kind of a mind, which is kind of funny. If you had to do it all over again, not that you would, because you know what, you've learned so much along the way, right? But if you had to do it all over again, you had to start over from scratch. Someone to drop you off in the state of Maine. I don't know. You need to build a new team and a new office and everything else. Nobody knew who you were. What's the first thing you would do? I would just, you know, have a marketing plan. You know, I would make content. I would promote it. And I would just, I would do that first and then, you know, look for staff to help grow our agency. But I think I would say marketing before staff or even location maybe is because you just need someone to talk to, you know? And that's the first thing, the first step for anything. And I say looking back at things, I would say some of the mistakes I made, sometimes being consistent also means that you're not willing to change as much. So I think although people have said that, hey, you've adapted to the new world, I look back and sometimes wish I would have adapted a little bit sooner or spend more money on marketing sooner. So those are some of the things like from what I've learned, I wish I would have, you know, went from internet leads to social media a little bit faster or, you know, just spend more money on marketing when I knew it was working. Some of those things are things that look back on and if I was starting all over, those are the things I would do a little bit sooner or be a little bit more aggressive. Yes. Yes. 100%. Me too. Me too. Me too. As far as staff, what's something you, what's something you look for when you're hiring staff? There's a lot of people that have agencies, they struggle to find good people. You've clearly found, I mean, how many staff members do you have? I have 12. Yeah, exactly. I was thinking, you had 12. They seem really impressive. What do you look for and how do you find great staff? Yeah, I just look for good attitude and good activity. I think them having confidence is important too. Yes. And then having someone who has a long-term view too. As agency owners, we always play the long game, but sometimes staffs, that's a little bit harder to expect that from them, but some people do have more of a long-term outlook in their careers. Yes. I feel like that's important. And also, I try to look for people I like to just genuinely want to help. And I like working with because a lot of times, I'm not sure how other agents do it, but for me, I haven't had that great of luck of finding people who are licensed where to go. My strategy has always been, hey, you don't know anything about insurance, just have to be a good person, a hard-working person, again, attitude and activity. As long as you have that, I feel like, hey, I'm going to be patient with you. I'm going to teach you from day one what everything is and just build with that person long-term because even though they may not be licensed, they'll start off with. So in the beginning, I feel like I'm really helping them. I'm paying them and I'm training them. I feel like my training is pretty valuable. So I feel like if you don't generally like that person, you're not really going to go through the journey of paying them and training them at the same time. So I do feel like someone that you like as a person you want to help is a good fit. And I look for those types of attributes rather than skill or pedigree or resume because I'm really in for the long run. And I feel like if you help somebody from day one, there's a little bit of sense of loyalty that you may be lucky enough to get if you really help them with everything they know about insurance where they came from that person. For sure. Let's talk about activity for a second. We got a couple more minutes real quick. I got two more questions. As far as activity, what's some of the activity metrics or some of the activity things that work well in your office that someone can learn from? You know, Cody, I don't really look at, although, you know, I'm an agent so people think I'm a real numbers guy, you know, I'm kind of more of a just a field guy, you know, I'm in the middle of the cubicle. So this is my private office, but I have a desk, you know, I have a cubicle out there in the middle of everybody. That's awesome. So, you know, and newer agents are sitting next to me. So I'm just literally this way, that way I could train this person, I could train this person, and questions all over the place. So I just gauge activity level by how busy we are. And sometimes another thing that I'd like to do is like, hey, if we're not busy, then sometimes I'd like to take accountability and figure out what am I not doing right? Am I not getting enough leads? Am I not giving them duties? You know, so I just know what busy is and I like being busy. So I'd like to be out there and just help people stay busy because being busy I feel is a blessing. Yeah. Yeah. My dad always says you can work half a day. You got 24 hours, you choose which 12-hour period you were. Alona, your dad was an insurance, huh? Yeah, he's been in it for 30 years this past April. And he's more on the life and Medicare side. But yeah, he's been doing it forever, man. And actually, that leads me to my last question, which is it's kind of funny you said that I credit a lot of my success to my parents, you know, and raising me the right way. Making me show up when I don't want to show up, right? Teaching me how to have good manners, teaching me how to be on time to something and not be late, you know. Who do you credit for your success? Same thing, you know, my parents. Well, my dad was an entrepreneur and I actually, you know, helped them out with this business too, the digital marketing side. But yeah, same thing, Cody. I mean, it's just like what you just said about, you know, how your parents helped you is the exact same thing, how I feel about my parents. But we're really blessed. And I feel like sometimes when I come across staff members or people that may not have had that luck, then I feel like it's maybe my obligation to like try to provide that, you know, learning lessons. And hopefully I could, you know, influence them in a positive way, the way my parents have influenced me. Exactly. I love it. For those that are like, dude, Dan Kirijima is a beast and I love him. How can they find you? Yeah, just my name, Dan Kirijima, Facebook, Instagram. Facebook's big with insurance agents, but I personally like Instagram and then YouTube channel where I have, you know, interviews with top elite agents, I call it. So you'll be the next, well, maybe not the next get, but a future guest. All right. Where, you know, I just, I just love talking to other agents are doing great things and really learn from each other. So those are some of the places and yeah, always DM me or Facebook messaging me is something that I like to engage with because, man, there's just so much to learn. And that's what I'm a big believer in that I have a lot more to learn and we have a lot more to get done. Boom, dude, you did an unbelievable job. Thank you so much for being on today. No, thank you, Cody. Too bad you had to go, but we're going to keep in touch, man. I really want to do some more things with you and then get to know each other too. Dude, for sure. Hey, for those watching, again, you're like, man, this has been good. I want you to be in the hot seat and be the next Dan Kirijima doing big things. Thanks for watching. Hey, if you enjoyed this, I got another one you're going to love. It's right there. Click on it. See you in there. Hey, so I want to transition now into working leads. I want to give you some specific training on how to work leads and then I'm going to finish with some mindset pieces. Okay. I'm going to finish with some mindset pieces in a second. Okay. So, so, so