 I started this industry selling file expense. Yes. My first year I made it, maybe not 100,000, but like the high 90s. OK. Yeah, so my first year. I don't hear that a lot, OK? This dude's in the hot seat, made literally 90 something thousand dollars his first year as a final expense insurance agent. Most don't do that kudos to you. Well, I enjoy talking to people. I enjoy making friends. I enjoy. I just learned a lot of cool stuff from people along the way, like I learned like whenever, and I still do it to this day. Whenever I see a client. I got a power producer in-house today, Mr. Ernest Mitchell, currently in Greenville, South Carolina, dude. Welcome to the studio. Thank you. Glad to be here. Dude, you have phenomenal energy. Your wife, Lauren, is awesome as well. Both of our wives, Lauren, are both awesome. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That proves we're both really good salespeople because our wives are amazing. That's right. Right? That's right. We've got to mention them and you've got to mention her. I've always been impressed with you hanging out with you, man, over these last several weeks, you've come into Greenville twice now, right? Once for business expansion workshop. Phenomenal. If anybody wants to go to that business expansion, if you want to grow your business, you've got to go to this thing because there's so many things that we thought we knew, but we didn't know. Thanks, man. And from accounting to taxing taxes to lawyers, it's just a phenomenal event. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff that you just don't know. Like a lot of insurance agents are business owners. They don't even realize it. They're a business owner. Talk about that for a second because you're a business owner, but there's things that you don't know along the way. And so what can you help a new agent with if you look back and say, man, I wish I'd have known some of these things as I was running a business? I think transitioning from being a 1099 to getting incorporated, that's a big deal. It's a hassle, but you're double taxing yourself. And I think also when you get into the point of you're making good money, I was talking to you. I started this industry selling final expense. My first year I made it maybe not 100,000, but like the high 90s. OK. Yeah, so my first year. I don't hear that a lot, OK? This dude's in the hot seat, made literally $90,000 his first year as a final expense insurance agent. Most don't do that. Kudos to you. Well, I enjoy talking to people. I enjoy making friends. I enjoy. I just learned a lot of cool stuff from people along the way. Like I learned like whenever. And I still do it to this day. So if ever I see a client, I always make sure I always give them a hug if it's a woman. It's awesome. You know, give a good, nice handshake if it's a man. But just taking the time to show them that I care while I'm also helping them and trying to add value. So important. I love that. OK, so first year, $97,000 final expense agent. I know you've pivoted. How long have you been in the industry? I've been independent in the industry for about 10 years. OK. And then you pivoted to Medicare about six years ago or so. That's right. Why the change, right? Final expense Medicare now. We're talking about this off camera. So I was looking at how many applications I wrote with this one carrier. It was foursters. And I had 431 clients. And my renewals were like $1,600 a month. And I had talked to someone that was in Medicare. And they were telling me what my renewals would have been if they were in Medicare. If you'd have wrote all 431 or whatever, Medicare. If I'd just been focused on that. And when we'd made that pivot, it enabled us to do some cool things down the road. So I was actually able to take my family to Puerto Rico for six months. That's awesome. And just enjoy the experience of living on the water and living in the beach. How cool is that? It was cool. It was cool. I would love to eventually own a home down there or something. That's cheap. I mean, you can get some good. I mean, not everything's cheap. But you can get some good property down there. That's crazy. OK. OK, so that allowed some extra freedom. Allowed you to create some residual income, find some additional opportunities to kind of grow something. And then really now you're really trying to help others have the success that you've had. Yeah, so my bills are covered. So me and my wife, we work together. We're a husband and wife team. Just like you guys are just crazy. How are you? That's crazy, right? You are cool, by the way. But it's cool because I have young kids. So my wife, she primarily works from nine to two. We just recently invested in an office downtown in Greenville in our Simpsonville area. Congrats. And it also enables my wife to be able to have the freedom to be mom, CEO mom, from two on. Both my kids are doing two activities a week. That's four activities a week. So we're a busy family. Yes. And we're also able to grow. We were going to get an office last year, but the pandemic hit. So I feel like just like a lot of people, I kind of took my foot off the gas a little bit. And having residual incomes can be a gift and a curse. For sure. Because you know that you have that money coming in, but you also have the ability to sit back and say, you know what, maybe I don't want to get the corona or something. You know? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Good for you, man. Well, OK, so let's fast forward now. Like what are you, like when you're looking for an agent to help, what are you looking for? Well, I'll help anybody that's willing to put in the work. I think you have to want to, you have to have a why. You have to either want to be able to have a lifestyle, want to be able to provide for your family. There has to be something. Me and Lauren are born teachers. We love teaching people. If you look at any of our videos on YouTube, you can see that we don't have a lot. But we're getting more. We're trying to stay consistent like you talked about. But we understand Medicare. So we understand no matter what that client's going through, whether they are having prescription problems, they are looking for durable medical equipment. They are aging into Medicare, which is a great way to earn a client for life. The person that's turning 65. We love to take the time to sit there and explain the process to them. They can ask as many questions as they want. We will sit there on the phone with them. We've done a lot of Zoom calls this year. We want them to be super comfortable. A lot of times, we call people Miss Betty or Miss Judy. It's that Southern hospitality thing. And we like to teach people that same process to duplicate that. Yes, that's a cool man. I love that. What have you? OK, so you're an athlete. Still an athlete, too. We haven't got you on the tennis court, but you would destroy me. So I shouldn't, probably, right? But I heard about pickleball, so I brought my shoes. Yeah, your dad told me. Zoom, good, man. Yeah, I love some pickleball. So I've always found that athletes, ex-athletes, either way, are more successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and salespeople. Have you noticed the same thing? I mean, a lot of athletes are in my circle. So the one thing about being an athlete is it does teach you how to just focus on the target. Also playing tennis, it was an advantage for me because it enabled me, as tennis players, we weren't able to, we didn't really rely on anybody. So we're out in the field. It was me and that client. And I had to find a solution in order to get a client. You can't, you know, you can have some charm and you can do some good small talk. But if you can't solve their problem, there's a reason that they set the appointment with you. You're not going to get that client. So tennis players make the best insurance agents. That's arguable, but I don't know. Well, you've been really successful. Well, you're a basketball player too, so we had talked about seeing who could still get the shots up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We may have to get on the court at something. We might, I don't know. You played? I, well, I come from about, yes, I played, my brother played in college, but technically, he's never beaten me. Oh, all right, what's your brother's name? Yeah, his name's Mason, but he would, I'm sure he would not agree with that. I'm going to make sure Mason watches this now. Again, for those that are watching, because I want you guys to better look this guy up and follow him, really cool dude. And his wife, Ernest and Lauren Mitchell in South Carolina. They're even coming into this SIG, Secure Insurance Group family. That's right. They're going to spend the next few days here for the main event. He'll be on the Q&A panel actually sharing with other agents from stage, which I'm sure you're excited about. I am, always, man. You're going to drop the mic. He's going to do good. I love your energy. Well, thank you. I like yours too, man. Thanks, man. Well, yeah, we have so much fun when we're together, right? That's right. Crazy. Where's that come from? Has it always been that way for you? I think so. I think so. I've always been enthusiastic. It's just kind of natural for me. My wife always reminds me, make sure you just be who you are, show your energy, you know? And it's a better way to be for me. You know, everybody's different. And I like being around people that are high energy and have a zest for life. Yeah. Yeah, that's one thing I've always seen with you too, Cody. Thank you. Appreciate that. How important is positivity? Staying positive in this tough insurance world? Oh, you know what? Okay, so let me tell you about this positive thing. So I am naturally positive, but I still have times where I have doubt and frustration. And I have to. So what I do is I go back to the YouTube videos or I go back through my notes and I read back through some of the victories that I've had and some of the things that I've dealt with. Just recently, you have to sometimes remind yourself who you are, where you come from. That's right. So tell me at a time where you had self-doubt, because I don't ever see that from you. I like this. This is good, by the way. That's smart. You guys are curious too? Well, okay, so I've got a recent example. I haven't shared this on video yet, but Ernest asked, so I'm gonna do it, okay? This dude's a good interviewer already too. He's doing the interview and interviewing. In January, I put in my notes that there was a specific plane that I wanted, preferred plane, my preferred plane. It's a Cessna 414. Really wealthy gentleman that has a bigger plane's like, no, you don't want that plane. You want my plane, you know? He created some doubt in my mind. And I'm like, man, maybe he's right. Maybe I'm not ready. Maybe it's not the right time. Whatever, right? So we go four months. I see another gentleman speak at this conference in Austin this past weekend that I was at. He speaks right after me. He owns a plane. I go see him. Guess what plane he owns? Cessna 414, the exact plane I told myself I need to own. We talked for a while, long story short, we talked for a while. I tell Andy, I'm buying that plane. Saturday night on the way back, we're in the Dallas airport. I'm looking at planes. I call someone that owns this plane in Oklahoma. I find the plane I want. They already have it committed to somebody else. We're already committed to a client, so you can't have it. I follow up anyway, 72 hours, calls text emails hard. Long story short, I literally hear yesterday morning. You got the plane. I got the plane. That's awesome. I've been writing that down. Literally, I've got a goal book. Sitting right there, my old OG goal book from 2017 saying I will own a private airplane. However, there's been plenty of doubt along the way that did not think I would buy it at 30. That's why I've been trying to figure it out this year because I turned 31 in July. I wanted to own it when I was 30. Now when I was 31. January, I had doubt. Today? You're on the plane. I'm on the plane. So have you flown the plane? No, no, I'm going Saturday. I'm going Saturday, no joke. That's funny, you didn't even know this. This is brand new, by the way. Breaking news. I'm literally sitting here, let's actually make another good video, by the way. I'm literally Saturday going to Oklahoma to see it, verify it, and then we're doing a pre-buy inspection early next week, and then closing next couple of weeks. So when you own a plane, because maybe I need to make this a dream of mine. So when you own a plane, you're not ready to fly the plane yet, are you? So you have to get a pilot? How does that work? Well, I'm actually interviewing several pilots right now, and you will pay them per day. If they're lower hours, like 1500 hours, you'll pay them like 350 a day for the day. Or if they're higher hours, like where's one guy locally that actually does all the check rides and training, and he teaches at college, he has 16,000 hours, a lot in this type of plane too, he's like, you know, 500 a day. So then you pay, the way it works is you pay for the plane, you buy the plane, then you pay for monthly expenses, right? So maybe you have a loan on the plane. Insurance, hangar, and you've been paid per month for the future annual inspection. So you have months, you have fixed costs, that's what's called fixed costs, and you have variable costs. Those are costs when you actually go fly the plane, and those are hourly costs to use the plane, right? So fuel, oil, you put away future money for when you need to overhaul the propellers. You put away future money to do an engine overhaul in the future, because engine overhauls on this plane that I got are $40,000 per engine, because these are multi-engine planes, seven-seater, pressurized cab, and now you see I'm really getting excited. So then you got money for that, and you got money for general maintenance, right? I mean, I may be missing something, but I don't think so. So then you have an hourly cost to use the plane, then you have a per day cost for the pilot. So once you own the plane and you're paying for monthly expenses, it's just, okay, I'm going to Dallas, it takes me two hours to get there, that's hourly cost times two, hourly cost times two on the way back, plus however many days I use the pilot. But as much as you travel though, I can see the, you know, you're writing it off. So I mean, it's not like you're just throwing that money away. So I can see the benefit of that for you. Yes, and it's a lot more affordable than people think. And when I'm taking three team members and we're traveling in fours, I love to fly first class when I can, but when I'm taking four people on American Airlines to Dallas and back for the day or two days or whatever, there's no doubt that's going to already cost me two or three grand. I may be able to actually have my own plane and go and a pilot for only two or three grand. Okay, okay. So it's actually, the math starts to work out better than people think, so yeah. Well, the plane I flew on is probably the size of your plane. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a little American Eagle plane, wasn't it? Yeah, but it had. You fly from Charlotte or would you fly from? I flew from Chicago, but we had, they stuck like 60 people on there and it was tight. One seat and then two seats? I'm not complaining. You guys took care of the ticket. Oh, good, thanks for having a cool man. So I appreciate you guys. You got it, thank you. That's really interesting. I think I'm more of a boat guy though. Okay. Yeah, so. Like a yacht or what kind of boat we talking about? Well, you know, like you're interested in planes. Yes. Like when I'm at home, me and my wife, we watch those YouTube videos where people are like sailing like catamorans and stuff around the world. Oh, yeah. So that's kind of interesting to us. That's awesome, man. Yeah. Good for you. So that's. How important is it that both parties, both spouses are on the same page? Oh, it's super important because number one, I'm sure you're the same way is you don't trust anybody else more than your wife. Totally. 100%. So, you know, my wife is always gonna have my back. She's gonna see something that I don't see possible. They've all got like the sixth and seventh sense, by the way, too. Like they see stuff and notice stuff that we don't even see. That's right. That's right. And they know how to read people that we don't know how to read. Yes. So we, we just, we did a first interview with a young lady that wants to come aboard and we're doing the second interview. Went over our core values. Like we talked about the business expansion meeting. And, you know, so my wife's gonna be interviewing with her tomorrow. I don't need to. I was there the first time. Good. But one of the things that wives and husbands have is it gives you also the opportunity to grow a business together. Yeah. So I believe in this business. So my wife has had opportunities to take other jobs but I'm not letting them pay her for what. She's impressive, too, man. She's more valuable to our business than she is for other. Exactly. Other people, so. Tons. That's so funny you mentioned that. Cause so many people are like, dude, your wife's, everybody wanted to hire my wife all the time. And I'm like, she, she, you know, she's working, we're working together. That's right. You know? That's right. And so that's really smart, by the way. Also you can take vacations together. Yeah, exactly. Exactly, exactly. Like if we want to like take a couple months off and let the new person that we're hiring, I don't want to say her name yet cause I don't know if I'm hiring yet. But man the shop, we go. We go, we don't think about it. And that's the beauty of owning your own business. And everybody needs to get to that point where they're not a slave to their own company. You know, Tony Robbins had a good statement about this. He goes, I don't care how much you get paid. If you have to work, if you have to physically work, that's a job. Yes. But if you can create your business to where it can be managed and work by other people, then that's a business. And that's what I've always wanted. I want a business. Most people say that most, a lot of people are saying that if your business feels like a prison, you're doing it wrong. Yeah. And there's a lot of times where, for me previously, I remember when it was. Well, you know, we were just talking about that in the office of the day. So we had to step it up. So we ordered a bunch of like, there's different things to put around the office with some of our favorite sayings, just to make it a little bit more. Did you see the core values in the back, by the way? I think I did when I first came here. Sure. And stuff like that. That's very important. And it was really cool when we got to interviews because we've never done this before. So we're interviewing someone. We're going over our core values. They're seeing that we have standards. They're saying, well, no one's ever done that before. Oh, it's separating ourselves from these other businesses that are just like, okay. So you can already tell. Oh, I can tell, yeah. And core values, wow, these people. Okay, all right. Let me sit up a little bit more straight. Let me, yeah. Okay, this is doable. This Ernest dude, this Lauren cat, they got the stuff figured out, you know? Well, we try, you know. Yeah, we're all evolving, you know? So I want to give you a wristband, okay? So we just got these in today. Okay. No lie, okay? 8% and then accept responsibility, which I just put it on. Okay, yeah, I got mine too, yeah. They literally just hot off the press, sort of. They literally, the box just came in like an hour ago. So I'm gonna pass it on out, so. If something doesn't work, it's my fault. There you go. That's right. Okay, talk about that, because how freaking important is that concept? Super important. I've heard it before. You know, a lot of these concepts that even you bring up, we've all heard before. Yes. But you can forget them. Yes. Quickly. And that's why it's good to have a journal sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to get you a CA journal, by the way. We got some new CA Goals journals, by the way, too. Nice. Yeah. I was listening to Inky talk to somebody. I was working out and I was listening to him. And they were just talking about consistency. Yes. And doing what you, and then I was also listening to Ed Mollett, I tried to listen as much as I could. And this is something I haven't done, is where he breaks his days down to three days. Have you heard that? No. So he does, so he tries to do three days in one. So I think he said he does his first days from six to 12, then 12 to six, then six to 12. Okay. I don't know, I don't know. Less than six hours, I'll be really cranky but first day of the three. I don't know, but consistency. That's something that I think we all struggle with. But if you can break it down, and for me, break it down to like hour, take an hour, do some push-ups, take a break, and then another hour, stuff like that, that helps. I want to ask a question because I think a lot of people will relate to this. And we've both been through it. When you get in a slump or you're complacent or you're not freaking push-in like you know you should, or you're just content, you got a good residual income like we talk about with Venture and you're just like, you know what, I don't have to do anything. How do you get, how did you get out of it? Because I've been in it too, a lot of people never think that, but it happens to everybody, right? How do you get out of it? Gotta do something. So I was just funny, I was just talking to someone about this the other day. So I was explaining that I was in a slump and it wasn't, it was a slump that's where I just didn't want to do anything. I was just like, oh my God, I just want to just, I don't know, I don't want to pick up that dial. So what I did was I just went and worked out, went to the gym, put one foot in front of the other and just did that because I knew I could do that. I knew that would take my mind off of it. Then it made it easier for me to go back and get on the phones again and do what I needed to do. So I think that it's not staying stagnant. Yes. Just you gotta do something. So if you don't want to do that, maybe you don't need to do it right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But do something and push yourself. Because when I was pushing myself, I got my juices going again and it made it a lot easier to get back. Yeah, we all have a little bit of a competitive desire that we need to ignite every now and then, you know? My wife and I talk about this a lot. I don't, we don't, other than going to church and spending a little bit of time with family, we don't love weekends and Sundays. Really? Because I get so freaking bored. I get so bored. And then I feel like I'm being lazy, you know what I mean? Like it's tough for me to just like, I can sit for like a couple hours and watch some TV or a show or billions or something, you know? But to sit for like a whole day is like really tough. So we try to find stuff to do to keep us busy. You know, so I'm gonna say something. So this is the craziest thing. All the successful guys that I know watch billions. I've watched a couple episodes, but I think I need to watch a lot more now. You do. Because you guys are all on that show. Dude, it's good. It's good. Everybody wants to be the ethical version of Bobby Axelrod, you know? Okay. It's just, it gets my brain moving about business and thinking and like, I mean, it's kind of crazy. I like a lot of like cartel shows too, like Narcos. Like I love these kind of shows because I'm just like, okay, how could I do what they're doing ethically, not literally selling drugs, right? Not literally doing whatever the terminology is for the stock market, right? But I just like seeing people operate in a business setting and I'm watching and learning. Like how did he handle that? Ooh, what I have thought about asking that question there. Like that kind of stuff. Like I love watching speakers on stage. Sure. Or even at church. Like literally, we had a guest pastor come in a week and a half ago at church two Sundays ago. And he was really good at telling stories. And I'm like, I don't even know if he prepped any content, but he, but he kept me engaged better than any pastor has in a long time. And I didn't even know who he was. And I also, like a lot of people, I'm sitting there like, yeah, this is gonna be boring. I'm not like, that's not the main pastor. Oh, here we go. You know what I mean? Unfortunately, but he kept my attention. Check this out. So we went to church this last Sunday. Okay. And guess what the message was? What's that? It was your message and it was don't quit. And this was one of the things that you said. And this was, this is also something that I would say to new agents out there, don't quit. Because if you keep going, you're gonna, you're going to be able to provide an amazing life in this business right here for your family and for your loved ones. But that's what the message is about. Man, you're gonna, if I try to give you a Bible verse on it right now, I'm gonna mess it up, but it was don't quit. And... How important is that message? Like, cause we do the virtual conference. If you don't, if you don't quit, you can't fail. I remember you, I remember listening to it from you as well. Before I even, yeah. So what was it like about a couple of years now? That's been what your slogans? That's right. That's right. 2020 and 2021. Because it's true, man. Like there's a lot of people that aren't as cool and talented as Ernest Betcher. Oh man, stop it, stop it. That, I'm gonna fill his head real big today. You're not filling my head. But they quit too soon. Yeah. Well, you know, if you don't quit, you're gonna get smarter. And you know, another thing is if you make a messed up appointment, guess what you do? You analyze your appointment. So when you go back, you can, you know, say, okay, I'll do this better next time. That's right. On the next appointment. That's right. But if you don't quit, you stay in it, you're gonna constantly start separating and catching some of these other guys that are killing it. Yes. And that's, yeah man. Boom. Yeah, Mike. How do they follow you? Like if they're like, dude, I like this Ernest dude. He's a cool guy. And he is. They can lurk you up on Facebook. Yeah, so Facebook, I do have an Instagram. You know, I'm not, I don't know. Super active on Instagram? I'm not. Can they email you? Yeah, yeah. What's your email? Yeah, so you can email me at Ernest at deerretirement.com. Okay. Or Ernest at Mitchellbrokerage.com. Okay. Deer retirement, like D-E-A-R? Yeah, D-E-A-R. And Ernest is E-R-N-E-S-T. That's right. No A, I don't know. Does anybody ever spell it E-A-R-N-S-T? Yes, yeah. So I still, I'll still get it because I have clients that were constantly spelling E-A-R. So I had to add that. Yeah, so. E-R-N-E-S-T. But it is E-R-N-E-S-T. Yeah. Retirement.com. Boom. Okay. Is there anything else you wanna leave us with before we end the interview today? How good has this guy been by the way? This has been good, man. You're better than you know on video and speaking about that. Well, I don't, I feel like I'm just trying to be myself. Shut up. So, but you know, it's. Obviously very humble too. You're high energy, man. That's fine. But you know, you're the type of person that brings out the best in people. Thank you. That's really cool. Appreciate that. How would I end this? You know, if you want to be good in this business, you have to surround yourself with other people that are good. Mm. You really do. So go surround yourself with this cat, okay? Seriously. You really do. And it takes a team. Yeah. And that's why we decided to go ahead and partner up with Secure and your dad. That's awesome. And you know, we're just excited about what's happening in the future. Dude, a lot of bright things going on. Our families are going to be working together for many years and it's going to be a ton of fun. I've loved getting to sit. We literally sat that first night at the BW. And just chopped it up. Yeah, we just chopped it up. For hours. And drank camis. And I loved it. That isn't a wine. That is an expensive wine that I'm only going to drink if you pay for it. That's good. I need to get you a bottle tonight then, okay? Yeah. It was awesome, man. No, it was awesome, but. Reach out to this dude, okay? Follow him. Tell him how amazing you did today, okay? He's hasn't done a lot of this, but I'm telling you, he's a special dude and so are you. 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. Well, I quote probably close to $2 million of trucking insurance, everybody. Yeah. Close to $2 million trucking a month, you're quoting. I agree on that. That's extremely high for anybody who knows trucking, which don't start in trucking. Get your feet wet with the personal lines and then when you're ready for trucking,