 You already seem like the kind of person that you make a decision, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna succeed, I'm going all in, and I don't care if I gotta drive two hours every Friday, like that's what it takes, you know, I'm going to do it. I came into this business, started from scratch, didn't have one client, did not have a comma in my bank account when I started. So, you know, so I get it, I understand where a lot of these guys and gals that work with me, I understand where they're coming from and I understand the experience that they're going through currently. Every agent is gonna do it differently. There's some people that are really good on the phone, there's some people that are gonna go door to door, there's some people that are gonna wanna work at Vents, so there's a lot of different ways that you can be successful in this business. You know, for the last six to seven years personally, because I still personally produce, the last six to seven years, it's all been referrals. I haven't spent a dime on leads or anything for myself personally because I'm filtering all that money to my new agents, you know, getting them leads, getting them plugged into the things that they need to be doing. You are listening to the 8% Nation Podcast, created to help you become a top producer in the insurance industry. Enjoy the show. Hey guys, welcome to the 8% Nation Podcast. This week we are remote because of the corona pandemic that we are all surviving. But yeah, this is a out of studio podcast. We have Cody Crooms joining us today. He is a rock star. Cody, don't blush while I brag on you a little bit. But, you know, he owns two life insurance offices with 40 agents. They wrote almost $6 million of AP last year in health, Medicare, long-term care, insurance. And so, you know, Cody, we are honored to have you on the podcast. We're looking forward to picking your brain and really just trying to like understand your journey. You know, you could do things differently. How would you have done it? And just really just pick as much wisdom as we can from this conversation if possible. So thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it, guys. Man, dude, that's quite the intro, bro. That's big, man. Six million a year. Dude, that's not a joke. So walk me through. If you don't mind, I'll kick this thing off with the question, Cody. So first off, tell us a little bit about yourself. You know, just, you know, how did you get to where you're at, how long you've been in the business? Let's just understand a little bit about who you are. Sure. Started 12 years ago in the insurance business. Answered a blind ad. I was living in Nashville, Tennessee at the time and had my resume out on monster.com and got a phone call from a recruiter with the company that I'm currently with right now. Went in and visited and I was looking for an opportunity and it was kind of like, you know, I knew my skill set and I knew some of the things that I wanted to accomplish in life, but I didn't, I wasn't really in the right vehicle, so to speak. So anyways, went in and, you know, like what I heard and thought, you know, hey, I can do this. So, you know, started off the process, became an agent 12 years ago. So it would have been January of 2008. Worked as an agent, actually was flown to Des Moines, Iowa, which is where I live now from Nashville. I went to a training that was put on by Lloyd Lofton and Lloyd is still in the business. I believe he's in Georgia right now, but went to one of his trainings in Iowa and the timing was kind of right where it was probably a good time for me to make a move. And I had asked them, I said, you know, could I transfer to Iowa and do this exact same thing that I'm doing down here in Nashville? And they said, absolutely. So I made the move up to Iowa, which is where I'm at right now. And for the first, I would say seven or eight years, I was working from Otomo, Iowa, which was where I was born and raised. So I started getting my business off the ground there in Southeast Iowa before making the move up to Des Moines as I transitioned from agent to manager. So now not only do I personally produce, but I train, recruit, you know, run the agency. All right on, man. Cody, have you ever heard of this monster? Cody Askins? Dude, only from you. I'm like, I'm floored, I haven't, man, because, and I just met someone in your, you know, that you're close to at least in your guys' company today. But I believe that you guys have like, I mean, 180 some offices, the company you're part of in the whole country. I mean, it's just, it's a big freaking behemoth, you know? And it sounds like you found your own lane and just are freaking laying pavement quick, man. I love it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, the great thing for me is when I was brand new into the business, there were some individuals within this company who were great mentors for me. You know, they had been in the business for a long time. They had, you know, they'd been up and down the road and they were able to teach me some of the things that they learned and help me avoid some of the potholes that maybe they ran into when they were a new agent. So now, you know, I'm doing the same thing for agents that I'm bringing into the business as I'm helping them avoid some of the pitfalls that you can run into and say, hey, maybe instead of this, try this. And you know, what I learned really quick, every agent is gonna do it differently. There's some people that are really good on the phone. There's some people that are gonna go door to door. There's some people that are gonna wanna work events. So there's a lot of different ways that you can be successful in this business. And I kind of relate it to being a coach, you know, is helping each person. Each person has a different skill set and each person has a different way that they wanna do it and just help them be the best that they can be in that particular way that they wanna do it. Well, hey, Cody asked if he paid you a pretty good compliment a minute ago about your content and just how it was geared. Why don't you rehash that a little bit, Cody, about your perspective, your value that you put on a mentor early on and how there just wasn't this kind of content. You know, why don't you go there again? So even though it was only 12 years ago that I started in the business, and when you really think about it, it's not that long ago, but when I got started in the business, I was driving an hour and 45 minutes every single Friday and I would look forward to that and drive every single Friday morning because our office put on these meetings and that's where some of these guys that were producing these huge numbers, they were attending these meetings and they were talking about best practices, they were talking about what they do that helped make them successful and I was telling Landon, I said, the nice thing is now for a new agent with a click of a button, they can watch Cody Askin's YouTube channel and they can learn a lot of those same things that I was driving an hour and 45 minutes one way to go to a meeting, but it was worth it because I was gonna be like a sponge to learn everything I could so I could improve in the business. Dude, thank you, buddy. That's awesome to hear, man. Yeah, I mean, you seem like the individual already and we're just barely to know each other. You already seem like the kind of person that you make a decision, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna succeed, I'm going all in and I don't care if I gotta drive two hours every Friday, like if that's what it takes, I'm going to do it. I can already sense that from you and I love it, man. The people that, I mean, and Landon and I, we see it all the time, the people that end up having teams and companies doing six million bucks, et cetera, et cetera, are the type of individuals that really, because in this industry, you've heard it, 92% fail, 8% succeed, like it's very difficult, you know? But the type of individuals that end up doing extremely well and end up being in your shoes or the ones that are like burn the bridge, burn the ships, I'm all in, I ain't quit and I ain't given up, you know, our theme for the virtual conference Saturday is if you don't quit, you can't fail. And I think that sounds like it embodies you quite a bit, man. Absolutely, absolutely. I'll be on there on Saturday too. Boom, thank you, bro. That's huge, that's awesome. Right on. And that's another thing is, I mean, sometimes I think people look to me and you know, events like this and different things and it's like, you can always learn. No matter how long you've been in the business, I mean, I know people have been in the business 40 or 50 years and they still learn things and they bring up to me, they're like, wow, it's really a different way of doing the business now. And they're coming in with a perspective of literally right when Medicare started. So they were telling me, which this might be a good story to share on here. I've got one of my mentors told me that he was in the insurance business when Medicare started. And he said there was a flood of insurance agents that left the business because they were like, oh, won't be able to make any money anymore. The government's getting involved, Medicare is coming in, you won't be able to make any money in insurance anymore. And I just, I was like, that's mind blowing that he was in the business when Medicare started and told this story that a lot of people left the business because they didn't think they'd be able to make money in it. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah, he's still in the business, still riding business. And yeah, so I've had some good people to look up to. You don't do it by yourself. Obviously Cody and Landon, you guys are surrounded by a team. I am too. I have a team of agents that work with me and administrators and a support system. So I'm definitely all of them as well. That's it, dude. A lot of big time people are also coachable like you're saying. I mean, it's almost like the farther you get in business, you're like, dude, I've learned so much. Imagine when I don't know, and then you're just craving more and more and more. And so like I just, Landon don't even know this. I just hired a coach to help me build out a curriculum. Literally, I just hired a coach for six grand Monday. Cause I'm like, dude, this dude knows what he's doing. I gotta know something like, I'm always hiring people to like help. Cause dude, if we're not moving forward, I don't want to go the other way. Yes. Yeah. So you're either going one or one of two directions. Well, and you know what's funny about that? That was one of the first things when I met Cody Askins that I was like, I was almost, I was just shocked about this guy. Cause he was like telling me about how he was taking the red eye to 10 X and all this other stuff and dropping 10 grand to sit front row with Grant Cardone. And I'm like, I was thinking so small that like, I was like, what in the world? Like, you know, 10 grand just for a ticket and yeah, yeah, but it's like, but that's how 8% was born and that's everything, you know, and the more I get around big thinkers and big guys, like the more everybody is investing in themselves and content and just they're paying for access to get around people. And I'm telling you in, in 2020, there's going to be a group of people that have figured this out and are paying to get in front and around people that they respect and think that you're going to differently than them. And there's guys that are going to just kind of and gals that are just going to kind of be like, well, I don't know if I'll get my ROI on that $15 or whatever. But it's like, I feel like that's how you grow now. Like, I don't know how I would not do it any differently. Like honestly, I'm going to tell my kid, my kid, I got three kids, hey, if they want to go to college, I all for it, I love it. Okay, I want to pay for your college. If you want to be a nurse, whatever that is. But if my kid comes to me and says, I want to get my degree in business, I'm going to say, no, I'm not paying for no degree in business. We go get a job, you know what I'm saying? And then I got some mentors that whatever you think your tuition is worth, I'll just pay some guys to teach and train a couple alongside me. Cause that is how we learn now. I mean what, you know, there's no, in fact, side story, I'm getting passionate about now guys. So I spoke to one of my old marketing professors at Missouri State on Monday, cause they're just now rolling out a digital marketing program. And they want me to be a contributor to the actual content. I'll be able to be a part of this program at Missouri State. But there's like nobody doing this. And I'm like, we just hired a couple interns and I'm like, hey, no offense Chuck, but like these people that are coming out of your marketing degree, they have got to understand what the heck is going on in digital marketing. They know nothing at all. Like they think they know something, but they really need to get, you know, get their feet wet. And so, you know, we're on the cutting edge of this thing. So paying for access to people and being willing to cut that check and see a cut that mentor in those two hours. You know, you're just another guy that I've met that's mega successful that things like that, you know? Yeah, absolutely. It's big to know. What do you look for, you know, go back 12 years, right? So if you could, you know, you've been in the business 12 years, you did six million almost last year. You're, you know, growing in office. You're not slowing down during this pandemic like all of our other friends. Nobody's slowing down in the insurance industry. So what would you have done differently? Walk me through like, hey, I learned this, made some mistakes, spent five years here. Should have do this different, you know, walk us through that if you don't mind. Well, some of it, it's kind of relates to what you were saying about college and business. I mean, I jumped into it and just got out and got in front of people, you know, I don't know how much I would really change. I might just ramp up what I was already doing because I think all of those things that I learned along the way, because by the way, I just had a list, a stack of names and I went and knocked doors. I started in the business. So, and that's how a lot of our agents start. So, you know, but I think those types of things and what I learned in doing that and getting out there and just getting in front of people and helping people. I mean, it's an activity-based business, whether you're on the phone or whether you're working leads or Facebook leads or knocking doors, whatever you're doing or doing events or seminars. We do a lot of seminars with a lot of our offices in our company. Whatever you're doing, it's activity-based. What I've noticed is the agents that work with us, the ones that are doing the most activity, those are the ones writing the most business, having the most success, and also getting through that learning curve the quickest because I can tell them all day, you know, try this or do this or do that, you know, make recommendations to them, but it's when they actually do it themselves and see that's when, you know, the light bulb kind of goes off and they're like, oh yeah, I see now, you know, why? So I don't know if I'd go back and necessarily change anything other than just ramp up the things I was doing already, you know, maybe ramp up like the online presence, the social media presence, things like that, ramp that up quicker, because I was doing it, but I was so focused on produce, produce, produce, because I was an agent that I wasn't really thinking of these, you know, like Facebook and different things like that. So maybe that's something that I would change, but I love all the learning experience I had and the hard times are a good thing because I can speak from a place of experience when I'm visiting with new agents and I can truly understand, you know, I came into this business, started from scratch, didn't have one client, did not have a comma in my bank account when I started, so, you know, so I get it, I understand where a lot of these guys and gals that work with me, I understand where they're coming from and I understand the experience that they're going through currently. And Landon, we talked about it earlier, you know, I knew a guy that was selling cars and a personal friend, I've known him for a long time, but I told him, I was like, look, if you put in the same effort that you're doing on the car lot, if you put in that same effort and you do insurance, because you already had the skills, like he's good with people, he's a smart guy, like he already had all the skills, I'm like, if you put that same effort, just the same effort, not more, the same effort into the insurance business, you'll make 10 times more than what you did on the car lot, and I think he's already seeing that a couple years into the business, so. That's awesome, that's huge. Dude, you succeeded the hardest way, man, you know? I mean, I remember starting out 19, 20 years old, cold door knocking and cold calling and it ain't easy, but you know what, I wouldn't regret it either, you know? It makes you who you are. No, I mean, you have that instant objections at the door and you gotta think on your feet and here's what you say to this and here's what you say to that and be genuine. I mean, you're right there in front of the person, you know? And in the senior market, I mean, the senior market loves that for one thing. I love working it that way, you know? So I kind of draw like a pie chart when I start out a new agent now and I say, look, there's four different ways that you're gonna get your business and in the upper right-hand corner, I say cold calls and I want them to try everything to see what they really like and what they wanna do, but I have cold calls and that could be phone or that could be at the door. Then the second pie down below is leads. That'd be like direct mail or Facebook leads or whatever. The third one that I have, I have like Medicare seminars, events, you know, like a company specific, carrier specific events, and then I have all three of those pointing to the fourth piece of the pie, which is referrals. You know, for the last six to seven years personally, because I still personally produce, the last six to seven years, it's all been referrals. I haven't spent a dime on leads or anything for myself personally because I'm filtering all that money to my new agents, you know, getting them leads, getting them plugged into the things that they need to be doing. So that's huge. So you wanna get to that fourth one because that's where your highest close ratio is gonna be as well. Yeah, yeah, you probably have about, you've probably got about a hundred percent close ratio now, you know, which is nice, I'm sure. Take us back to when you were a new agent so that we have a lot of new agents that watch our content. Yeah, absolutely. Look back at your first year, first two years, first three years, what did that look like? How did you do? Walk us through that. So what I would say is my first few years, and it's funny now, talking to these new individuals, which some of them you guys have met, they've reached out to you for leads, but a lot of them are like, I don't know how you made it. I don't know how you made it because like it was a slow build. But the thing was is my business was really quality. So I was creating those relationships, those long standing relationships where I was helping, I was servicing, I was seeing a lot of people, and I was building a good foundation and I was learning all of the different things that I needed to know for future success. I didn't know it at the time, but at the time I was building on the knowledge that I needed now, I was building all that in 2008, 2009, 2010. As many companies do, they do a rewards trip each year. The first four years I was in the business, I didn't qualify for the trip. And like some of the guys now that are getting into with our company, they're like, how did you do it? How did you make it if you didn't make the first four conventions? And then, you know, it's kind of like after that year five and beyond every single year I've been there and I've moved up the standings and everything. So, and that's where it's led to where it is now. But again, I have that story that I can tell a new agent that look, if you put in the, if you do the hard work and then you just put in the time, you know, the longer you're in this business, the more success you're gonna have as long as you're doing the right thing for your clients and as long as you're working hard at it. So if you work hard, you do the right things, over time, your success in this business, it just duplicates over and over and over again. That's a good story to share with new agents, man. New agents. And I mean, the only way I would have failed is if I would have quit, if I would have said, no, I'm not gonna do this. But I knew I was doing the right things and I knew that success was going to come. And, you know, the residual income, I mean, I always had that in my head. I was like, okay, well, you're building this each year, you're gonna get that residual income. You do the right thing, you take care and you service your clients and then continue building on that. And then, you know, it's like a snowball. You know, starting out, it's like you're pushing a boulder up a hill and then when you get to the top of the hill, then it's like, you know, you're just rolling it downhill and pushing it every once in a while. So, yeah. I'm still pushing that boulder up the hill. I'm still trying to, I haven't quite made it to the crest yet. But yeah, so that's a good question or that's a good thought process. You also have an eye for recruiting agents. You're one of the top recruiters in your organization. You have a lot of stories of plucking people out of their current situation. The Carlite guy was just one of them. You have a bunch of stories. What do you look for? And besides like raw sales ability or whatever, but what do you look for whenever you're like, you know what, that guy, you know, you could, you know, what do you look for? So one of the things that I really look for at most of the agents that I've got started, they have no insurance experience. So I'm starting them fresh into the business. They're brand new. So some of them, you know, an outsider, I don't think this way, but an outsider may say, wow, they're having a lot of success for being brand new to the insurance business. But basically I boil it down to as simple as this. I'm like, okay, would I want this individual working with my mom or my grandparents, you know, and would they be someone who I would trust to be able to help them? That's number one. And then obviously if they've got a good personality and then if I know anything about their work ethic, you know, that's important to me because, you know, you can only do so much with all the talent you've got to put in the work. So if I would trust them with my parents or grandparents, if they've got a good personality, whether they have a sales experience or not, if they have a good personality and then they're willing to put in the work and learn, that's that, I mean, in a nutshell, that'd be the perfect person that I'm looking for. And I found them from all different areas, you know, steel sales, car sales, flooring sales, a guy that was doing payment systems. He's one of our top eight. Fourth quarter, he wrote more business than anyone. And he's second year into the business and he was doing like one of those where you swipe the credit card payment systems. He was offering those. And, you know, he was in my networking group, which that's another thing. I've gotten involved in networking groups like V&I and, you know, morning networking things. And that's where I met him. And it was funny because when he had mentioned that, hey, I'm no longer working with him, instantly I was like, I need to talk to him because I like him. I know he's a hard worker because he met with everyone in the group to tell him about what he did. So I mean, he was doing the activity and I was thinking that that's that payment systems loss. You know, it really is probably a better fit for this business than he was that business. So, you know, so I found people from all different areas. I don't think you have to have one specific background. Again, I bring it back to like coaching. I mean, coaches can find all different types of players for whatever sport that they're in and they can put them together and make a really good team. But every single person needs a little bit different type of coaching because they may have a different personality or they may have a different way that they want to do the business. Right on, man. Well, you know, one of the things that I feel like you're really positioned to speak on well is, you know, you have two offices, 40 agents. So just really quick, when did you hire your first agent? How long were you in the business? Let's see, I was in the business for five years before I hired my first agent and he's still working with us now. And then it was a couple more years when I hired my next agent and then it just snowballed. So it was like year five, I hired one, year seven, I hired another one. And then over the last few years, that's where everyone else has been. I'd just like to unpack that for a minute if we can. So if you can remember, or like, you know, when was like, you know what, I can reproduce if I'm doing it someone else or was it just the right person came along or going from zero to one is a big move. And then going from one to two is also a big move because it's no longer one-on-one, you and me, bro. But then going from two to 40 is a big move. So I'd love to explore each of those different phases. Yeah, so here's exactly how it went down. I started getting so much business personal, like personal production referrals and everything that I was like, I'm only gonna be able to do this. So I mean, there's only so many hours in the day with all of this business that's coming in and why allow those individuals to go elsewhere when they could be taken care of by someone literally that we train that I know is gonna do the right thing for them and that's gonna help them. And then what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to place these people as local as possible. I know what the way things are now, you can be anywhere, you can be anywhere in the United States. I get that, but still one thing that kind of sets us apart is we usually have someone that's pretty close to where their clientele is at, which clients, they appreciate that, you know, they know that they can see that agent or talk to that agent face to face. So it was just a matter of, and it's like with anything, you know, once I saw that we could get one agent successful, I was like, well, if we can do one, we can do another one and another one and another one. So, and I can't take all the credit for that. I've hired some really good people and they have gone out and found people. So with our organization, you know, we have a way that someone gets up and going and they start recruiting, we have a level in there where we can make them, you know, basically their own kind of mini satellite office and then we can build an office around them. So essentially, that's where the growth started happening more was I had really good people who were hiring really good people and it just, you know, it's duplicating. Right on. So really an overflow, so an overflow of like leads slash your own activity was creating such a, your work ethic and activity was creating such an influx of lead flow that you're like, you know what? They're gonna go somewhere else, might as well send them to my guy. Right, right, right. And if I can help someone that I know and like, that's another thing. I have multiple family members who are in the business with me, my aunt, my cousin, my brother. I have people that I've known since they were kids that are like my brother. My brother's a few years younger than me. And so, I mean, it's people that I know and that I like and I know a lot about them. And then there's people that I would have never known had I not been in this position in the business that now, I mean, have become like family to me. You know, my, my ARIS family basically, you know, I have father figures, I have people that are like brothers to me and, and, you know, at some point, someday I'll probably have some that are like children to me and watch them come up in the business. Well, we work with Tammy with you guys' office and I cannot speak highly enough about her innovative way that she, you know, you guys have a great team. I mean, Tammy's specifically what I work with, but you can just tell just by, I know, so I know you, I know several agents. And then Tammy and I'm like, every person I talk to is just good people that care, wanna serve, wanna help, you know what I mean? So, you guys. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, I like that. I like the, I like your logo and love that polo, dude. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so funny story on that, back in 2012, I knew that Facebook was gonna be a big thing for the senior market. And at that time, I kind of brought it to the higher ups in our company. And I said, you know, we need to get on board with this. And they're like, you know, I don't think they really wanted to, you know, I was an agent and I don't think they really wanted to look too much into it. And I was like, well, can I use my LLC and just promote my, you know, myself? And they're like, well, I mean, as long as you're doing everything compliant, I'm like, I'd have no reason not to do something compliant. So I did and I started utilizing Facebook and, you know, not even spending a dollar on Facebook for years and years and years. I created a lot of leads from there because people were sharing my stuff and saying, hey, this is my guy, you know, work with him. And they were just sharing stuff that I was posting. And so I got a lot of business from Facebook. Now land and fast forward a few years. Now, now we're on board. Everyone's on board. Well, it was funny. I was talking to one of your guys, you know, I won't say his name, but, and, you know, you guys have really aggressive like co-op campaign too for people like, you guys support your people so well, you know, and, you know, you can, you can say that you guys are on board and but it's also working and it's just, it's fun. Like, and you know what? It's the next thing is going to come too and Facebook's going to leave and it's going to be the next thing, you know? And so yeah, those, those that got in early Cody was one of the first guys that actually did Facebook like lead development in the insurance industry at scale, you know? And so it's just, it's a fun, it's a fun run. Or the least the first one that told everybody about it, huh? Yeah. You know, that's what's funny. I used to have people, I used to have people like, they would like, they heard about it from me and then they started like, you know, doing it. And then they would get emails to be like, hey, stop telling people about Facebook ads and digital marketing and all that hilarious. Yeah, I was, Cody, Krooms just, you know, so I owned, whenever I've been with, we've made Cody a partner for about a year now and I owned the, like the largest digital marketing agency in Springfield and one of our friends was like talking to us, new Cody and I met with Cody and I was in there and I just thought I was like meeting with this kid, 28, 27 year old kid, you know? And I'm just, I mean, no offense, Cody. I'm just saying like, I like, you know, whatever, didn't hurt of you, whatever, cause I was like the big dog agency. I knew all the agencies and you weren't on the list and we were talking to him and I was like, so you know, yeah, we do a little bit of business on Facebook, I'm like, what do you mean? Like, you know, a couple of grand or whatever. He's like, you spend probably about quarter million a month and I'm like, what? I'm like, that's like double of what I'm spending, like a quarter million a month. I'm like, you're lying. Like there's no way, and then I got to know him. I'm like, oh, you're a monster. I see, like you're like under the surface. You're like nationwide. Everyone knows who you are in this one industry. And so that's when I made, in my mind, that's when I was like, you know what, this game, you've got to be niched down and no one niche or else you're never gonna survive because the business changes so much. So it's, that was, that was the, the, with digital marketing, the marketing landscape has changed so much that it's just fun. It's gonna change again too. So Cody askings, what, what questions do you got for this gentleman? I'm out of question. I mean, you mentioned earlier, you've talked a lot about activity, which I'm a huge fan of. I felt like I had success early on due to the same thing, activity. What's up? Is there a system for like set sit sales, activity number, like what's some things, like how many people you want to, you know, like activity-wise that an agent could learn and glean from? That's a great question. It's different for every person. You know, the people that are doing seminars and events, like Landon mentioned, we have a very aggressive co-op for our new agents. We're pushing out seminar mailings and we've got libraries locked down. We've got, you know, senior centers, different places where we're doing events. Obviously we can't do that stuff right now, but that's what we were doing. We also do carrier events. You know, we've got a lot of different carriers who will host events and have like an agent work those events. So in terms of numbers, it's kind of hard to put my finger on it, but in terms of knocking doors, I was always a fan of, look, if you actually physically talk to 15 people per day, not knock on the door and run away and you didn't talk to anybody, you knock on the door and you actually talk to 15 people in a day, you're gonna make a sale every single day doing that. And it does not take very long where that number shrinks down. You know, you go from 15 to 10 to then it goes to five and then like, you know, every three that you're knocking, you know, that you're actually talking to, you get in, you're able to have an opportunity to write that person, help that person with some business. So, you know, for new agents starting out, I want them to talk to about insurance, 15 people per day. That number comes down. And then when they're doing events and they're doing different things, but that's kind of still what I do. And I don't try to be gimmicky with it. Like, oh, you make 15 calls, you get five and then three. I don't try to be that way. I'm just like, look, if you're doing the activity and you're genuinely seeing and talking to 15 people every day, you're gonna average one sale a day. So if you do that five days a week, that's five sales. And then that number starts coming down. So then if you keep seeing 15 people, you might make two out of the 15, two sales. So then you're at 10 a week and then the number just continues to come down. So that's kind of the system for someone who's brand new with us. But right now with on the phones, it's kind of changed things up because that's not really, I mean, I'm not telling you anything I haven't told Landon. That's not really the way that we've operated. We've operated face to face, we've done meetings, but hey, everybody's had to adjust and it's perfectly fine. Now we're making phone calls. We're using some predictive dialers. We're doing some different things like that that we're plugging people in. And I'm not making it like a blanket. Everybody's gonna do this. No, I mean, every person is a little bit different. The agents that have a large book of business, what I've encouraged them to do is reach out to your current clients, reach out to some of your best clients that have sent you referrals, visit with them, see how they're doing, see if there's anything you can help them with. And what I have found is it doesn't take very many phone calls to your happy clients. You start getting referrals. You start getting the phone calls saying, hey, they don't know what to do right now. They can't go to the local office, it's closed. They're not taking in-person meetings. Would you be able to help them? And we're like, absolutely. Or cross sales, some things that maybe they weren't thinking about. Maybe they have a Medicare Advantage plan and they didn't even think about having a hospital indemnity or cancer coverage or dental vision and hearing. Some of those things, I've seen a big jump in those types of sales because they're reaching out to their current block of business and maybe something they didn't think about at that time or life insurance. I think industry-wide life insurance has been way up in the last few weeks and it has with our company as well. So it's just a different way of doing business now and I don't really have like a set number of make this many calls, but it's activity. It's putting in the time and the effort and you'll see the results if you're putting in the time and effort. Totally. I mean, a similar idea. Landon, we have a buddy, his name's Nate Offert. He'll actually be on the virtual conference Saturday. When he first started out recruiting, he recruited 69 people in his first 60 days. You may have saw that webinar, whatever we did. But he would actually start out with 10 pennies in his left pocket and by the end of the day, he wanted all 10 pennies to be moved to the right pocket and one by one, you know, he would talk to somebody about the opportunity. So, you know, similar idea. I remember when I was cold door knocking, if I knocked on about 50 doors, I would talk to about 15 people and I would end up with a cell. Literally almost identical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause I didn't say the number that was knocked. I was just saying, no matter how many you have to knock, see 15 people. So yeah, same concept. Good, that's so good. Yeah. I love it. Well, Cody Askins, you got any other questions for Cody or Cody, you got any questions for us? Actually, I have a kind of a funny little story. I've shared this with a lot of my agents that were new to the business. Remember I had told you earlier, I would drive an hour and 45 minutes to these meetings. Oh, there's an individual that works in our company. He's been in the business over 60 years. He was the one I was telling you about, you know, he was in Medicare or he was in insurance before Medicare was a thing. And he's still a high producer, extremely successful. And someone that I look forward to listening, hearing him speak every Friday. And I remember one time, you know, I would take notes. I had a little notepad and I would take notes in these meetings. And I remember one time I was very new in the business and he held up his fingers and he said, there's three ways to be really successful in this business. And here I am, I've got my notepad and I'm ready to take notes. And I write down number one. And he said, see the people. And I was like, okay. Number two, he said, see the people. And I was like, okay, I see he's gone here. Number three, see the people. And I was like, okay. That was a message to me early on. It was like, look, this is activity. This is getting out, getting in front of people. There are so many people that need help. There are so many people that want help. Maybe they don't know who to go to. It's just putting ourselves in front of those individuals and helping those people. And ultimately, I mean, I think it's a zig-ziggler, the more people that you help, the closer you can get to everything that you want in life by helping others. So yeah, paraphrasing, but yeah. Right. It seems like we have a very similar insurance background in that a lot of the stuff you're saying is a lot of the stuff that I was taught or that I learned along the way, my first several years in the business. I mean, I used to do a video series called See the People because I heard it so much. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. That was back in probably 2016 on YouTube, but yeah, I had a video series called See the People because it was like, I'd heard it so much and that's what I knew. Yeah, since 2008 every year. And now my agents all know. So it's funny, you know how STP, like the oil, you'll see the logos on the NASCARs and things like that. I purchased a couple of those magnets and at the end of the year, I put them in the Christmas card to a couple of my agents who I know just, they go out and they said STP, they're like, oh, that's pretty good. We always talk about STP times three. See the people, see the people, see the people. I love it, I love it. Yeah, and I mean, all those things were things that I learned from people that some of them, there was nothing in it for them other than they wanted to help someone who they saw as being young, new in the business and there was nothing in it for them other than they liked seeing some of the others be successful. So I'm trying to take some of those same things in the position that I'm in now and help some of the agents to be successful because one, there's so many opportunities out there. I mean, I hear all these people like I have friends that are servers that work at factories, all these different things. They're shut down right now. They're filing for unemployment. Their businesses are struggling. And I look back and I'm like, thank goodness that I'm in the business that I'm in. And I remember in 2008, people were like, oh, why don't you get a real job with a salary and this and that and you could do this and you could do that. And those same people now are like, man, I wish I would have done with what you've done. And it's like, I always knew the vision for long term because I had seen people that were successful like those people I told you about. I mean, those were my mentors and I've already seen what they could do. So I was like, if they can do it, I can do it. And I want that same thing. Like I guess adding to what I look for in someone that I hire, a lot of those people, I see it in their eyes. They're like, if Cody can do it, I can do it. And I'm like, that's good. That's what I want. I want those people because I want them to look at me or someone else is successful in our company and say, if he can do it, I can do it, you know? Right, I got a question for you. So how are you going to get to 12 million a year? Well, keep helping the people that I currently have so they can increase their production and keep duplicating what we're already doing, you know? Turn the national office from eight agents into 16 agents, turn the Des Moines office into, you know, just double the numbers, you know? And not necessarily double the agents. You know, it's also those individuals that are new, that are now getting more referrals and they're, you know, they're more refined. You know, they know the things to say and not to say. They know that the place is to put their activity versus place is not to put their activity. So it's getting those individuals who have been in the business now one or two years, maybe three years, helping them to become more successful and they're going to write more business and then adding more individuals underneath those other teams as well. So that's the plan. I can see it's training, recruiting and marketing, it sounds like, right? What's that? Training, recruiting and marketing, right? Those are the two things. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, coming on, man. It's huge. Dude, this has been great, man. I can already tell I'm gonna love getting to know you, buddy, I'm really excited to see it continue. Yeah, absolutely. I'll be on there on Saturday and I've got my tickets for Vegas. Yeah, baby. We need to have a... Bring in three agents with me. One of my Nashville agents, two of my Des Moines agents and myself, so we're all planning on being there. So... That's huge, thank you. That's awesome. Yeah, free Vegas first timers. I've been there, but they haven't. Dude, that's a great time to have your first time in Vegas, man. That's huge. That's right, yeah. Yeah, we're looking forward to it. It's gonna be awesome. Yeah, I can't wait to see you in person, man. We talk on the phone and we get to know each other I really feel like I've always been drawn to sort of your attitude and your... Just your general outlook of just really... I can always tell you're trying to help people and no matter what we're talking about, how you can help your agent succeed more in the marketing campaigns, how can we help them be set up more for success and transparency. Tammy's the same way and just, I really appreciate your guys' friendship and everything. So thank you so much for joining us on this podcast, man. Did we leave anything out? Are you gonna... If we cut it off now, would you regret not saying anything or are you good to go? I'm good to go. I mean, maybe we can have a future podcast when we talk about some more. After we met... We need to bring that guy. Get your mentor that you're talking about that you used to drive. That's who you need. That's who you need, seriously. Well, set it up. We'll do another podcast. We may need to schedule it out a little while, but we can do it in a couple months. 64 years in the business. Well, how about this? 64th anniversary. Next year, the first year he started in the business, those individuals that were born that year are gonna be going on Medicare. So you tell him that we would love to have him on the podcast. It needs to be a little while later, but if you could coordinate that, he's invited, man. I'd love to pick his brain. I think it would be invaluable. And actually, when he first started in the business, he was down in Missouri. He was down near you guys. It might even have been in Springfield. I'm not sure. I'd have to ask him for sure, because I know he went from Missouri to Illinois to Iowa. The company moved him around, because at that time, that's what they did. You developed and then worked your way up, and when you're at the top, you're in Des Moines. That's a well... Yeah, I'm not kidding. I'd love for you to make that introduction and let's just schedule it, even if it takes days away. Yeah, no, I think that would be great for you guys and for any agent that's new out there, because that's one of the individuals. He doesn't get all credit, but gets a big portion of the credit. I learned from individuals like him and some others, and I think they would be great for your podcast. Absolutely. Cool, man. All right, well, thank you so much for joining us, Cody. And we'll be out of this quarantine soon, and we'll be able to come to Springfield and hang out. We'd love to see you. Yep, I'd love to do that. All right, see you, dude. Thank you, guys. All right, see you. Hey, if you like this video, which I know you did with my buddy Landon and I, and you want to learn how to self-final expense over the phone, I got an amazing video for you, because right here, click on that, and we'll see you there. First story, either way, one of my good buddies here in the office, Dallas, he loves to drive. We used to drive all over the state together, doorknocking everywhere.