 Alright, we are live. I'm here with 8% nation and I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing the Insurance soup gang man Michael McCormick Taylor Dobby. What is up fellas? What's going on, man? Got it. Thank you guys so much for doing this seriously I've been following as I'm sure a thousand other interest agents have as well the insurance soup or Half a decade at least and I'm telling you what what you guys are doing is incredible It's amazing. These guys are that they bring they bring as much value And I mean this as much value to the insurance industry as anyone else on planet earth Gentlemen, welcome on. Oh man. Now I got some big now. I got some big expectations to live up to geez No doubt that they have a they have a Facebook group called insurance soup that if you are not a part of I'm telling you what You need to go to request to be in the insurance soup group They they were just shy and they'll break it today. They say 22,000 Insurance agents in the insurance soup group. They are all about bringing value to the insurance industry Michael McCormick is up in Stony Brook, New York and Taylor Dobby is about 25 miles south of Dallas down in Texas Super good dudes for those that don't know they are keynote speakers at this year's a Percentation Insurance Wealth Conference, which gentlemen is in 22 days 12 hours 10 minutes and 45 seconds from now Which means we probably need to start working on a presentation of some kind exactly Excited man. Super excited. You put together. I Think it's going to be by far the greatest conference for the industry that they've ever seen So super excited, you know same same we've been following you and your work You know what you've been doing for a while as well And it's always funny, you know when we talk to someone on the social media world that we we haven't actually met in person How long we stalk each other before a relationship actually comes about? I remember the very first time that you popped up. I was I was watching a YouTube video and It wasn't even anything insurance related or anything like that You know you used your your Jedi ninja skills and all of a sudden I got I got you in front of me with Remember who you were who you were speaking with but you had your you know You had your whole studio set up and you know looking sharp like you guys always do I just said to myself who is this? And how soon before we're either friends or competing with one another so excited that it went down the road that it went down and you know here we are and Nashville is going to be a hell of a time No doubt. Thank you so much for the kind words Nashville, Tennessee, Nissan Stadium This event is like I said October 26 and 27 not too far away. All right, so Michael and Taylor For whoever would like to start I'd love to hear your guys's quick background and story about each of you How you got in the industry and also after after we introduce the two of you also how soup has Became a giant Gigantic Bola soup at this point. Yeah, so I'll go first. I got out of the military in 2012 I was medically discharged with some back issues. I was in the Air Force. I worked on aircraft So I got out started working on corporate jets and North Dallas worked on Mark Cubans Ross, Pro Junior You know a lot of the very successful men and Dallas, you know got got to work on their toys I got to a point where I physically couldn't get out of bed anymore and my wife was at the time taking over her uncle's farmers agency So I started going up there hanging out started to really enjoy, you know Just helping when got licensed and then became a farmers agent myself We took over her uncle's agency, but at the same time I started my own his agency was up and running for 35 years So it really threw me right into the middle of it, you know Not only on the cells, but service service inside as well A lot of agents when they come into the industry that servicing kind of slowly starts to pick up as they grow their book You know, I was thrown right into the middle of it With the agency being, you know an older agency things were still done an older way So it didn't take me long to realize, you know in order to grow the agency, you know We had to start, you know marketing like it was, you know year 2015 2016 instead of like 1990 So that's kind of how Mike and I actually met was on a social media marketing group and Started really diving in and that was the beginning of our journey down this, you know this rabbit hole of marketing and it was in June 2015 we started creative concepts Which is our social media marketing course then December of 2015. We started insurance suit the Facebook group My luck might go into a little bit more about, you know, how we started and how it's got to this point though Nice. Thank you Taylor. Thank you for your service buddy. That's awesome. Appreciate it. Yeah So, you know my story as far as how I got into insurance and how we get to where we are today When I first got out of college, I was in the mortgage industry mortgage industry was at that point pretty much like the wild wild west It was it was hot. It was fast. It was ridiculous and good money and It was a lot of fun, especially for a young guy just getting out of college, you know 23-24 years old making six figures plus doing doing something that you're having a lot of fun with it was it was it was all great and Then 2007 ish started a creep up and the writing started to show up on the walls as to what was going on the industry and My my girlfriend now wife was kind of in my ear about how You know, she was nervous about my being in an industry that looked like it was gonna crumble and fall in a part in the whole nine and I wound up playing it small and doing something that I generally don't do in my career all that often and I started playing very very conservatively and I moved into the retail banks and I started off as a branch manager for Jake and Morgan Chase and part of being a branch manager for Chase Requires you to have your life health six and sixty three You know you aid with some of the retirement planning all that kind of stuff and you know after doing that for a couple years I got recruited into a brand new private banking program in Citibank for their affluent clients and I was doing some retirement planning and some You know some stuff in in the In in the wealth world For a couple of years, but I was really really unhappy. I didn't like what I was doing I wasn't having fun with it and my boss at the time Even though I was I was doing phenomenally was just always just right on top of me And it got me to the point where I said to myself, you know what I don't I don't want a boss I don't need a boss and I'm generally more productive and and successful and happy when I don't have anyone to answer to and I'm just Well, that's kind of you know, follow my own create creativity And so I started shopping myself around a little bit and I was getting recruited by pretty much every life Life insurance company under the Sun every every P&C company under the Sun but most of them were looking to bring me on as a As a soldier and I've always kind of viewed myself as a general I wasn't looking to get the trenches if I was going to do something of substance within the industry was going to be an Ownership level and and finally I got the I got a knock on the door not literally, but my email from from State Farm and I went down that I went down that path and after Presenting my business plan a number of times. I finally got the I finally got the agency I have scratch here on the island and part of my business plan was to You know pretty much make it rain homeowners insurance because I've got an army of loan officers behind my back from my previous life when I was in mortgages and Long story short, they love my business plan But then on the second day after I opened I got a phone call from my sales leader letting me know that here on Long Island The most about a homes per month and new agents allowed to write is for because they're looking to take a little bit of a break from You know from gaining a market share on the heels of Hurricane Irene Hurricane Sandy they take out that's like a pretty bad beating What's that wow yeah, yeah, so you know the way I always put it as I felt like I opened up a dump in Donuts and On the second day after after opening up that dump in Donuts. They were like oh by the way you can't sell coffee So I kind of felt like I had I had my Know the the the rug pulled out from under me if you will And I stuck with it for for two years I put together a little bit over a two million dollar book But the way that the way that State Farm has got things set up if you are not Producing at a high level with life insurance You're struggling to really maximize your commissions and maximize your bonus and all the life insurance that I was producing was transactional I wasn't really putting people in policies they needed for true protection I was doing it to you know offer additional discounts and Not having a book of homeowners trying to convince people that are 23 24 years old living in an apartment or living in their mom basement or You know someone in their 40s that you know kind of failed to launch You know convinced them they like insurance No, I did my numbers But ultimately what ended up happening is as those people would shop their their auto insurance The life insurance would fall off and if your life insurance didn't stick on the books for at least two years They began to penalize your production for the year that you're in and I started losing policies because quite frankly the stuff that I was doing Was all transactional wasn't legitimate use-based so So anyway, we butt heads on on that and they weren't thrilled with with some of the marketing I was doing and we're butting heads a little bit on that because they like to have a lot of control over things and And ultimately I just kind of got to a point where I had to say to myself all right am I going to continue to struggle to Run a business as a business owner like I'm like I convinced myself that I am but state farms treating me like I'm not or do I or do I make a switch and ultimately I made a switch I opened up independent and Within a couple of months of being independent Everything that we were doing on the soup side the CAC side and a couple other projects that we had going we're booming at such a level where I kind of had to make a decision and I had to decide do I want to move into more of a consultancy role in this industry or continue to To grind it out as an owner and I love the marketing side man. It's so much fun I love social media probably I probably love social media a little bit too much if you ask my wife should tell you I definitely do even though even though she likes the money that we make and And and here we are today, so yeah, that's awesome, but thank you for sharing your story too. That's really cool Well, I can tell you what your personality really comes through on social, so it's just hilarious this Just the interaction and the stuff I see now because because Facebook friends and following the group and all that y'all do some really cool Stuff very unique, you know, like you kind of talked about you guys naturally just think outside the box extremely creative What's kind of what's kind of the differences real quick between like what Taylor's great at and what Michael's great at Why this has been such a great Partnership, well, I can answer that Mike is the brain behind You know a lot of the marketing that we do a lot of the strategies. He's he's the wizard behind the scenes You know, I learned from Mike every time we get on we put, you know together a new marketing campaign I'm taking notes And that's we work really well together one we keep each other in check You know, there's days where we both have to be like alright man Like it's time to get stuff done, you know, we need to pick up and improve here here and here like this is what you need to do This is what I need to do But yeah, Mike's the I consider the wizard behind the scenes so Yeah, and you know and refer for everything that I do on the marketing side You know Taylor is a complete wiz when it comes to automation and help it on the the back-end side of the of the marketing efforts and quite frankly the majority of the Behind-the-scenes business stuff that you know call it call it Administrative stuff that we don't pass along to one of our employees You know Taylor's your heads all that kind of stuff and Great, which is great for me because I'm a bull in the china shop, but it comes to anything administrative So it really works out well, so But but yeah, and to Taylor's point, you know, I mean When you're when you're operating a number of businesses that are all kind of being driven by social media You are constantly interacting with people and you're interacting with people in a manner that Know where people behave in in ways where they wouldn't necessarily behave in real life so we deal with a lot of people that have But a keyboard muscles keyboard tomatoes that kind of thing and the one thing that the two of us are both very very good at is Keeping the other one calm when the other one's feeling a little bit heated, so we we balance each other out and I don't want to get all mushy and say he's the yin and my yang or anything like that But he is my he is my brother from another mother. I love that. I love that that is so cool Well, you can tell you guys get along fantastic. I mean, it's it's like you've known each other literally your entire life Doesn't sound like you have But it's been that's been you know that just watching you guys and the things that you do and you know give it away a given away a Crew every year for your group, you know, I mean you guys just do some really cool stuff So it's just it's just super and super impressive from a marketing guy More previous sales guy that had to learn marketing It's I'm super super impressed and I'm learning from you guys every day. So thank you for everything You got a man, okay So what was it about because we could all jump we could all we could all stay on here for hours and hours and blast But I know we everybody's got stuff to do What is it about? What was it about this conference? That wanted you guys to get involved You know, how'd you how'd you notice it? You know kind of kind of feel us in on what was it about about this because you guys are such a great fit for this yeah, one thing that intrigued me is Everything that Mike and I do we try to bring the absolute best to the industry We don't get behind any program or product or software unless we believe that it's the absolute best And trying to find someone that shares the same passion and mindset that we do is Sometimes very hard to do You know our industry I still feel is 20 years behind so when we found you and 8% nation and Sol which are putting together it's it's forward thinking and it's thinking way bigger than a lot of people think and And that's what we try to do every single day is you know if if we aim small You know, it's easy to hit But when you aim big you can still miss it and still achieve much greater You know a much greater goal than you originally planned and sharing that same vision that you do is what really attracted me to it Thank you, buddy. That's awesome. Yeah, you're just a kind of piggyback off that you know, we're I guess you'd say in the grand scheme of things. We're still relatively new to our role within the industry You know just kind of just kind of like you are You know and one of the things that we've kind of found is we've established ourselves and grown at the pace that we've grown at and all that kind of stuff With all the different conferences that are out there It seems like and I could be wrong, but you know normally my gut is is what I go with It seems like a lot of these conferences are The same people talking about the same topics Just in a different city in front of the exact same audience over and over and over again And you've got these little tight insular circles within the leadership community of our industry That quite frankly are a little bit tough to break into you know, I mean, you know You got a lot of alphas. You got a lot of people who Look at look at the new guy or look at the new kids in the block and say, you know They don't they don't have the credibility to be speaking or I'm sure it's heck not sharing a spotlight with with anyone because you know that's that that's just not what I do or whatever and You know one of the things that we really liked about when you're putting together here as opposed to a lot of the different conferences that that you can find out there is that it is Truly a different approach a different angle You got some different faces and different different names and you see in the typical in the typical circles and And what let's call a spade a spade man. You went all in and I got a real appreciation for anyone who goes all in I mean you Gotta you got a damn football stadium man You got you got Grant Cardone you got Ray Lewis I mean you you went all in At a level that most I think myself included I won't speak for Taylor myself included would be probably a little bit too nervous to do So, you know, we saw what you were putting together and all that know the opportunity was of no-brainer Thank you, buddy. Thank you, man. I mean, it's been what's been what's been really cool is You know getting you guys involved You know is is is amazing, you know, just your guys's synergy and so I appreciate the kind words man It's it's been it's been a ride. I've learned a ton You know that I've probably made a lot of mistakes, but you know what like you got like Taylor said earlier You think big you shoot big you go big and you know what guess what you'll end up with 1200 agents at a NFL football stadium in Nashville, you know, so so Yes, you guys are gonna be speaking Live from stage together at Nissan Stadium the stage is on the field looking up at the seats It's gonna it's gonna be it's gonna be incredible. I'm probably from an industry standpoint I'm super excited about what you guys are because I know that whatever you do. It's gonna be unique It's gonna be creative. It's gonna be a different approach, you know, it's gonna be the two of you What will agents learn From what you're going to I know you don't have everything down specifically yet, but just just from you guys What what what can they learn in general and what do you think will learn from from stage? Yeah, and uh kind of in a nutshell without going too deep is you know We're gonna we're gonna teach kind of the blueprint how we've grown the the largest most pure entrance group and industry Almost 22,000, you know members in the group every member that's in there is vetted one by one to make sure that they You know are either an agent producer CSR They hold a spot within the industry that is not on the corporate level not on the vendor level And it keeps the audience pure so to teach an agent how to do that within their community So that they can have that audience that starts to know them like them and trust them It's not a quick overnight, you know success but it's a long-term play that will feed you time and time and time again and We've spent I mean the last three years learning and like you said, you know We failed many times along the way one thing I've always said especially to our clients is even if you fall on your face You're falling forward. So you're constantly moving forward even if you fail So they really teach agents how to do and build a community like we have But I learned it from our mistakes along the way as well one of the you know, one of the Hot and sexy topics in our industry, especially on social media is the whole idea of Advertising on Facebook and if you know how to do it, you're able to generate those leads very very inexpensively They come in highly highly targeted and they're exclusive and the whole nine but one of the areas that I think that a lot of agents really kind of sleep on and neglect is The amount of opportunity that could be located right underneath their nose if they just know how to source it and You don't need to be a paid-edge wizard. I mean do our guys know how to generate leads Absolutely, I mean we've had guys that have generated, you know, not that long ago We had someone generate 1700 leads for 2100 bucks We've had people generate 1400 leads for 1100 bucks generally speaking the leads come in three to eight three to nine dollars a piece But you know that they come in less than that But the the bottom line is whenever you're generating leads off of cold traffic That no like and trust factor is never gonna be baked into that prospect. You've got a really, you know Be on your game. You got a you know, you got a call. You got a text. You got an email You got a voice drop you got a knock on their doors. You got to send the carrier pigeons You got to do everything under the Sun to really warm them up again to interact with you and the reality of organic social lead gen is You can very easily find three to five people every single day that are gonna let you put out their insurance that The no like and trust factor has already been getting established for months before that prior conversation that that current conversation and You know, while we you know, obviously we're huge advocates of generating leads and you know We teach it and our clients have a lot of success with it What what a lot of people ultimately wind up raving about is the fact that not only are they able to generate all these leads you know through the the education that we put out there, but They're able to hop on Facebook every single day and know that they're gonna speak to three four or five people that are going to directly let them quote their insurance And and someone that's allowing you to quote their insurance is significantly different than someone who submitted their information for a future conversation about their insurance so You know, what we're we're gonna bring as far as the conference is concerned is we're gonna we're gonna Really kind of roll back the curtain and show you exactly like Taylor mentioned how we grew suit how we went from a group with no intention of monetizing to creating a essentially a business out of thin air a number of businesses out of thin air and Teach exactly how You know, everyone that's going to be in the audience the the agents that are in attendance can do the same within their own Local communities and all that kind of stuff and we actually have a couple of our of our agents that are to be in attendance And one of them who acts who absolutely crushes it You know Troy Johnson will be in attendance and you know, we can if you can find him in the audience while we're speaking Maybe we'll point them out or whatever, but you know when when you're when you're organically Mining social media for opportunity those opportunities come to you at that Referral quality that lay down quality that you're hoping for that you seldom get So it's gonna be a lot of fun and it's gonna be a slightly different look at the idea of lead jen in In a traditional sense. Yeah, because that's what that's immediately what people think is okay I've you know what leads well, I need I don't need these but I don't have any You know, maybe I don't have any money, you know And so what's really cool about what you guys do what you teach in soup and courage and concepts and other things that you Do is how to and again you reference what you're going to talk about stage every insurance agent It's gonna take away. I'm not gonna give it away right now But they're gonna take away one specific nugget at least one that I know of and I don't even know everything that you're gonna be Speaking on but I already know one specific nugget that the two of you will be delivering from stage and these on stadium That will change an agent's business Forever and it's incredible. So I'm excited for you guys go to give that value from stage at least one stadium from there So tell agents if they're on the fence In your estimation, what is it about this type of event this type of conference? And why should agents other than the fact that they get to meet the two of you and hang out, you know Why should agents attend? I'm a gambling man. You put me in Vegas. I'll set up the tables all day And I would push the chips all in that this will be the most value-packed conference for the industry That has ever come about and that's I say that with confidence the lineup of speakers The the program that you've put together if you're on the fence For the price of this conference is a drop in the bucket for the value that you will walk away in the next goal That you'll take from hands down That was so much more prolific than anything I had. I was gonna say you're on the fence. I'll let you stroke my beard And and if that's a turnoff then then I'll let you not stroke my beard I was gonna go with that but In all seriousness In all seriousness, I would agree. This is a lineup that is just front to back worth worth catching You know, you're gonna walk away with highly Highly productive and easy to implement strategies not just from us but from everyone that's gonna be up there on stage And it's gonna it's gonna be the type of thing where you know You're gonna be able to turn around get back to your get back to your office and implement And I don't I don't know the in-depth Topics that everyone is speaking on or whatnot, but I can tell you right now That if you are an agent who is planning on being in this industry industry for the long term But you are new and you are financially struggling and you're trying to figure out how to market effectively Without that budget If you get to this conference, you will walk away with strategies that you will be able to implement immediately That will cost you and your agency literally nothing Wow my gosh, so I Mean maybe I shouldn't say literally nothing it will cost you the price of admission to the conference But as far as an ongoing marketing strategy We are going to sow the seeds for you to be able to harvest from this point forward until you're it until you're ready to retire Dude, I love that. Thank you both. I That was that was that wasn't planned that wasn't scripted I'm telling you what Taylor about had me in freaking tears or about jumping up and down ready to tackle Ray Lewis, man That was I do got a There we go, I may be the only guy on stage big enough to actually tackle him Dude, we're got to set that up there I've noticed one thing today. I've at least got to work on my beard, right? One thing and one thing and it's been a curse and a blessing is Mike and I since the very beginning since we were member one and member two and insurance suit is we've stayed true to who we are I Mean we're we're real. We don't change It's pushed a lot of people away but it's attracted a lot and built a very loyal following and That's that's one of the things we're going to talk about is you don't have to try to please everyone You know be be yourself be real raw and relevant and you know your audience will come to you so When when you're constantly blown in the wind and trying to change who you are to satisfy the people that you're talking to or Whatever, you're essentially a cone of vanilla vanilla ice cream Everyone's gonna like it. No one's gonna love you and very few people are gonna go into the store and With 31 flavors and pick you so That's good. That's good. You heard of your first real brawl and relevant. I love that dude And you know what that's that's what learning you getting to know you guys over the short amount of time we have I'm telling you what there isn't two more honest transparent ethical dig down Actual genuine good, dude. I mean, it's I've been so overly impressed. I'm serious. It's been incredible Appreciate it. You got it. You got it. All right. Any final words gents before we wrap this thing up If you haven't bought your ticket You got to do so Yeah, and you know if you're if you're on the sidelines and trying to figure out how to you know put the You know put the scratch together to come or whatever You know Cody's put together a number of great opportunities. Don't just you know In our private Facebook group last night, we had one of the gals that really wanted to go saying that she couldn't find a hotel for less than 289 a night You know, you've got you've got some deals on on your website right now for 8% nation You know, there there are promo codes out there right now super soup will get you a discount on on a ticket I know you've got some other people out there that have got their own little their own little deals right now For for the conference so there there are ways for you to get there right now at a very very affordable price and And heck, I mean if you're struggling to find an affordable place to stay or anything like that Check out Airbnb. I was on there a little bit earlier today trying to find some of our agents a place to stay and You can find places for less than a hundred bucks a night I mean, there's really no excuse to not be there If your interest is Pete so, you know, there's a hundred and one ways to do it Let's just get it done and let's uh, you know, let's let's ask some fun at this conference. I love it I love it. Thank you so much. Hey, if you want To meet the insurance soup the faces behind the names Michael McCork and Taylor Dobby You got a bit 8% nation Nissan Stadium in Nashville 22 days 11 hours is counting down every single second gentlemen Thank you for being on and looking forward to seeing you at a personation insurance wealth conference It's gonna be a blast. We'll go forward to it be a lot of fun. Thank you gentlemen. Appreciate you being on very much. Thank you