 So I always wanted to be wealthy, but something clicked when I got into the company I work for now, it stopped being a want and it became a must. And for me, I saw the possibilities and I said, I'll do everything it takes to get there. While I'm at car sales, I said, why do you do insurance? And he said something that changed my life forever. He said, when you sell a car, you get paid once. When you sell a house, you get paid once. When you sell a product, you get paid once. When you sell an insurance product, you get paid forever. I left my wife, four kids, and my buddy Nate Offred called me and said, you're still doing insurance. I said, yeah, he didn't know I was homeless. He said, listen guys, this is not that hard. It's gonna be one of the hardest things you've ever done, but it's not that hard. He said it again, you can make it if you just don't quit. And I started writing on the piece of paper, just don't quit. And I look around and this is the wealthiest guy in the room talking, nobody else is writing. And I'm writing it again, just don't quit. And I look down and there's tears streaming out of my eyes. Just don't quit, I'll make it if I just don't quit. I can beat 95%, I can beat the 92% if I just don't quit. And I'm writing that down and I'm crying tears and so forth, and I said, I'm gonna make it here. And I finally, in my life, made up my mind to not quit something, because here's the thing, Cody, I quit everything I've ever started. Man, do I have a story for you guys today. You have to pay attention and listen to everything we're gonna talk about. This man's story is insane. It'll be one of the best interviews we've ever done. I'm confident in that. Welcome back to another interview of Insurance Influencers. This dude is an influencer in the insurance industry. He won't say it by himself, but I'm telling you, Marlon Faulkner is a stud. Thank you for being a part of this, bro. And thank you so much. I'm excited to be here and just getting to know you over the last, I guess, it's only been a month, but I feel like I've known you for like 20 years. It has been incredible. So just if I came up to see you today and you threw me in the chair and wanted to interview me and just a pleasure to know you and just to be a great company. And just excited to get to know you so much better, but excited about this. I think it's my first interview. What? What? We're releasing Marlon Faulkner today, dude. I mean, how sick is that? So we met at Nate Offert's event in Dallas. Nate's a good buddy of ours. We gotta give him a shout out. What's up, Nate? You beat him here. You got here in that chair before he did. I did get here first. Do you think you just act faster than him? Like what's the deal? Well, I'm not gonna say that, but I'm just gonna say I did get here first. I live about an hour and a half from you. And so I made it happen, man. So it's a shame on him. That's what's impressive about you. I have a way of complimenting people to start something like this, like you did, you stole my thunder and did it to me. Something about you that when I was listening to your story and we're gonna go through it a little bit today, I was like, I gotta hang out with that dude. I get to know that dude. And you've been the exact same way. You've been, you text me every morning. You're like, you show up, you're coming here. Like, have you always been that way to you where you're like craving for more and you just like take action and do it? You're like, I'm just, I'm doing it, man. Is that always been that way for you? No, it, you know, not really. And we'll get into my past a little bit. About the lack that I had growing up from my dad, my mom really tried hard, but the lack that I got, when I feel like I meet someone who's got a lot of love, a lot of energy, I wanna be around them, just no different than a kid's gonna really gravitate towards a teacher that's really showing them love or someone else. So I don't necessarily do that all the time, but when I'm around people that I feel love and feel a genuine connection with, people that are authentic, kind of like yourself, I wanna be around people like that because I know it makes me better. Did you ever think you'd be making the kind of money you're making today? I'd always dreamed that I would. Is that a safe answer? It is. Like everyone dreams, everyone wants money. I remember being a kid, my mom asked me what I want to do and I said, I wanna be a doctor. I watched the Cosby show at them. It was the only show I lived in Europe. So we had one channel and it was AFN, Armed Forces Network, my dad was in the military. And so you would watch like Raw Hyde, MASH, then the Cosby show, then a football game. So I remember watching the Cosby show and I saw someone who generally was a great family man, which I really didn't have that at home. Someone who took care of things, someone who was the answer person. So I always wanted to be wealthy, but something clicked when I got into the company I work for now, stopped being a want and became a must. And for me, I saw the possibilities and I said, I'll do everything it takes to get there. Not only do I, can I want it, but now I can have it. And for the first time in my life, I turned the mirror back and said, the only way you can have it is if you change. I never done that. I always blame people about the color of my skin, not having enough money, having a raw deal. I always blamed everybody else. And for the first time in my life, I met some men, some mentors that said, man, it's on you. And to be honest, I hated them for it. To be honest, I hated them because when you don't like yourself and someone tells you, you're the problem, that's hard to deal with. That's why I didn't sleep well with that. But I saw the opportunity and man, I ran with it and it's been unfreaking believable. Dude, it has, it has. Why don't you, for those that don't know, because as I keep asking questions, it's gonna come, the story's gonna come up. Why don't you share, who is Marlon Faulkner? Yeah, I'm still learning that because I'm changing, I'm growing, but who was I, I was a military brat, I grew up in Europe, my dad was in the armed forces and was a really hardened guy. I tell people, not in a bad way, but I felt like him and Satan were best friends. So he was really hard. He never told me he loved me ever unless he was drinking. It came out a few years later on my 13th birthday, found out that my mom had come out that he molested my sisters and my mom had a knife, I'll never forget it, it was on my birthday and I walked upstairs and my mom had a knife on the bed and I asked her what was wrong and she said, your dad's been molesting your sisters and she talked to me about what he'd been doing to me and I told her it was all true and so when you're a kid, you don't know what normal is. Like we were poor because my dad was an alcoholic, I didn't know what poor was, I just know I didn't have another people had and sat by my mom all night because I didn't want her to kill my dad because I didn't understand, but the next day we packed up all of our stuff and we left, my sisters and I and that was the last time I'd seen my dad in a long time. So that was kind of growing up, I didn't have much, I was always the center of attention because I wasn't getting attention at home so I wanted to be the center of attention at school so I was a straight A student but my teachers hated me because I talked all the time, I was a troublemaker, I was the guy that teachers dread because I was a straight A student but I did everything because I didn't want to go home, I was in drama, I played football, I played basketball, I was a inquire, I was in drama, I did it all because I didn't want to go home to face what I had to face and so going into life, I knew I wanted to go to college because like I said, I wanted to be a doctor, I was pre-med, my first year of college, I started to find myself and realize that I didn't like the person I'd been, I thought life was unfair and that's when I started playing the blame game, right? Because we're all young, we have dreams and aspirations, I'm doing great things but I got to college and realized that people had parents that cared about them, people had money, people had cars, people had things that they got to have and I thought why don't I have it? So I started playing the blame game and that took me down a dark path of never having enough, never having satisfaction, never being happy and that's who I was, that's the foundation of those things that happened to me and to my sisters, you don't know what normal is, you get mad at the world, you get mad at God but I still found a way to find love for people, I just didn't know how to express it. So that's kind of a basis to who it was. I'll never forget, I think you've heard the story but there are times when, I'll just throw it out there, I peed in the bed till later in the life, I was a bed wetter and I would pee in my bed and I would go sleep in my sister's bed and my sister was a year up for me, she's awesome. There were times that even if I'd pee in my bed, she'd come sleep in my bed and I didn't realize that was for safety and knowing that now, I've always been a protector of what's right and getting to bring that into the business world has benefited me a lot. So that's, I don't know if that's kind of what you wanted to hear, that's a little bit of background to me, I don't want people to feel sorry for me, I don't because life is life, there's people that have worst stories, the worst things have happened to, this is just my story. This is just the life that I had to live and a lot of times I wanted to live someone else's life, looking back, I'm so grateful for the life I live and that sounds weird but I'm so grateful that I had to go through those things because it made me stronger, it made me appreciate the little things, watching the sunrise, something I appreciate, watching the moon and that is something I appreciate. I appreciate more things to life now that I can get a grasp on the things that happened to me early on in life. So let's talk through it because you're 43 now. I don't look like it, I mean I can't do my age of it. What did you work out every day? I mean look, I want to back up to your 20s. Who was Marlon, Darren, let's say, you talked about college a little bit, what happened after college? Well I knew I wanted to make money, I switched from a pre-med degree to exercise science and actually had a minor in Bible and because I wanted to learn the written word, Greek Hebrew, I wanted to learn not with someone else's interpretation, was it, but I was in search of myself so I wanted to search out this deity so I wanted to do that but I knew I love sports, I played football, basketball in high school, played a year of college, ball got hurt so I wanted to change the change to exercise science when I graduated I didn't know what I was going to do. Like what do you do with the exercise science degree? So I did whatever a normal person does that doesn't know what they're going to do, I went and became a coach and a teacher. So I love coaching because I love what it could do for kids who hadn't had hope. I saw myself in kids. I saw myself in less fortunate people but I knew I didn't want to teach for the rest of my life because teachers are the most underpaid profession in the world that need to be the most overpaid and so I was kind of confused because I'm teaching and coaching football, coached in Florida under awesome coach Bill Kramer at Naples High School. We went the first state championship in school history. He just got inducted into the Hall of Fame but I knew I didn't want to do that forever because I wasn't well off, I knew I was created for more. I wanted to take a step back. All those nights that I lived at home with my parents, all those years I was by myself, all the years of college, if I really thought about it when I laid my head down and I cried myself to sleep a lot of nights, I always knew I was created for more. Like what do you, that's like you have an ego and a pin full of chickens. You know that you're there in a pin and you know you have feathers but you know you're different. I didn't know how to explain it but I knew I was different. I just didn't understand how to get what was in me out. And so there was this pool and tear of conflict between my inner thoughts and my outer actions. So I love coaching because I love people, helping people achieve but I knew I was created for greatness. Did you wake up frustrated during times because of that? Because you're like, okay, I knew I meant for more. I'm not performing at the level that I know I should be. And I'm not getting what I know I should be getting. I know I go through that, you know. I would say I woke up frustrated because I love coaching but I just knew it wasn't what I was born to do. People go out and work a job from nine to five. I even tell people now I wasn't created to sell insurance but I was created to make a difference. And so insurance is the tool I get to use to do that but I woke up, I wouldn't say frustrated, I woke up anxious. Okay, good. At some point knowing that I wouldn't be doing that anymore but how would I get from A to Z not knowing how to get there? That was the anxious part of me. Like I know I'm great. But I know I got something special. I know I'm different than that person and that person and that person and that. There's something different in me but I can see it but I don't know how to get there. So it wasn't as much frustration as was anxiety of I'm gonna get there, I don't know how. And I left coaching and I came back and I met my wife, she gets pregnant and I know I have to enter the workforce. So I go where every person who wants to win and make a lot of money and do sales, I went to a car lot. One of the worst ideas ever. I started off in car sales. Here's the thing that changed my life. I played basketball, I had one day off a week working 60, 70, 80 hours, making decent money but no time and I played basketball. I go to the gym and I met this guy who was there. Every time I was at the gym, he was at the gym. It didn't matter if I was off on Monday, Tuesday. He was always there and he drove this Mercedes and I'm not, what's the word I'm looking for? I'm not a materialistic but I like nice things. And so I noticed that I was driving a Nissan Sentra and he was the same age as me around. He was driving a black Mercedes. So being me I said, what do you do? He said, I'm an insurance. Well at the time I thought I was doing pretty good. I said, that's awesome but I'm in car sales. But I didn't drive a Mercedes. You remember his name? I don't remember his name. Dude, I wanna thank that guy because we wouldn't have met. Well, yeah, absolutely. I need to go back and thank him. I need to buy him another Mercedes. But I said, you know, when you don't know what you don't know, I said, why am I car sales? I said, why do you do insurance? And he said something that changed my life forever. He said, when you sell a car, you get paid once. When you sell a house, you get paid once. When you sell a product, you get paid once. When you sell an insurance product, you get paid forever. And he literally turned and walked off. And there was another conversation with the guy. I need you to be the Mercedes. That's all he said. That's all he said. Oh. He didn't have to say much because he was driving the Mercedes, I was driving the Nissan. But when he said that, something in me changed. And it still was, get this, it was still three or four years before I, because I was scared. Now anxiety turns to fear. Because now I know I'm not accomplishing what I'm supposed to accomplish. Now I'm scared to go out there and do it because I got a wife and a baby and I don't want to fail because I didn't realize that failure was the bridge to success. And so it took me three or four more years, three or four different jobs of trying to do different things before I decided, I need to go get my insurance license to get an insurance field. Wow. What age? I was 24, 25. You first got your insurance license? My wife was, my son was born. I was 25, one of my best friends at the time. I worked at a shoe store in Shawnee in college and this gentleman started with a company called Prime America. I don't know if I can say that, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. And I watched. You say whatever you want on this. Yeah, I watched at Prime America and people always call it Prime America and it makes me mad. Yeah, no, it's not. It's not Prime America, it's Prime America. That's right. Anyways. Art Williams, right? Art Williams. Started out as A.L. Williams. A.L. Williams and, yeah, yeah. I watched a buddy of mine who I worked for, he was a manager at a shoe store when I was in college making 50,000 a year to making a few years later and Prime America being an RVP and a senior national sales director making 50,000 a month. Wow. People can say what they want. That dude is one of the best speakers I've ever heard. Art Williams? Oh my God. I still listen to that stuff. You sent me a video the other day to just do it speech, you can YouTube it. Holy crap, that was good. I listen to that once a month because it's. It's dude is so good. No excuses, just go do it. Yeah, exactly. So my 20, that's where I was. 25 years old, I get my license and I fell miserably. My best friend at the time, got Chris Hines, got started with me. He's my college roommate. We get started, we're fired up about Prime America. We're running, we're gunning. I get told no a bunch. I get told it's a pyramid scheme. I get told and I quit. Why'd you quit? Did you just weren't making sales? What was the primary reason? Well, what I know now is the primary reason was Prime America was never in me. I got you. It was just a pursuit of money. Sure. I wasn't making, obviously I had a wife, baby, frustrated. You're not making money, go do something else. So I did the next logical thing. I went to farmer's insurance. Okay, I didn't even know that. Yeah, I've been at 15 different insurance companies. Wow. So you've been at this insurance thing for. For a long time. 18 years. 18 years and I was always the worst. I never made more than 30,000 a year ever. Wow. There's a lot of people that are a part of the 92% that are thinking about quitting. We get people on our YouTube, just why I love our YouTube channel so much. We get people on our YouTube channel every day that are like, dude, I thought about quitting. And then I saw that interview with you and Marlin and I'm not gonna quit anymore. Yeah, so here's a story I have. So can I say the name of the company I'm with? Please. So I'm with Symmetry Financial Group. In my opinion, Debus Company was changed my life. Sure. We'll walk back to where I'm at. This interview might be an hour because we got a lot to do. That's fine. They're gonna be good, whatever it is. So my wife and I got separated. I wasn't a good husband. I wasn't a good father. I wasn't a good person. And she'd put up with so much. And basically I wasn't good. I left. I left my wife, four kids. And my buddy Nate Offred called me and shared this. He said, you're still doing the insurance. I said, yeah, he didn't know I was homeless. Wow. I answered, but listen, I was homeless by cell phone. When you say homeless, like... I didn't have a home. I was sleeping in my car on friends' couches. I slept at the Salvation Army one night. Excuse me, I slept on the street because it was winter time. I slept in my car. I was homeless. So like outside when it was cold. I didn't have a home. Oh my gosh. Do you no wonder you're the discipline that we'll get to later? Don't wonder you have such freaking discipline. It was so... But I was still married to my wife and I still wanted to work things out. I just had to... I realized I was the problem. Again, remember? That's always gonna go back to that. I was the problem. Anything in my life, my weight, the way I look. You know, I love gym rotas. But if you wanted something in your life to change, change it. If you want the way you look to change, change it. If you want your money to change, change it. And so I was homeless and Nate Offred called me. I was sitting on my buddy Brian Hinton's porch. Him and his wife were arguing because I'd been with them about a week and a half. And she's like, how long is he gonna be here? He doesn't pay bills. He eats our food. He sleeps on the couch. He sleeps late. And Nate calls me, hey, what's going on? Oh, things are awesome, Nate. He said, hey, I wanna send you a video about this new company I'm thinking about. He said, you do insurance. I said, absolutely. And he sent me a video. I hung up the phone. I watched it. I started crying. I called him back immediately. He said, I said, I wanna get started. And I got started. While Nate was getting his license, there was a conference that was coming up. Nate Offred said, if you don't go to conference, I can't work with you. This is why I got angry again at outside circumstances, not inner turmoil. Nate drives a really nice car, $100,000 car. I was living in a multi, you know, a million. He didn't have the McLaren back then. He didn't have the McLaren back then. We'll just say he had the Bentley. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, okay, this dude's got money. He wants me to start the insurance. He's gonna give me money to go to the conference. You know what he said? He said, you gotta go to conference. You gotta figure it out. And I got angry. I'm homeless. I'm not my wife and kids. I don't have any money. I don't have any money. He said, I won't work with you. Now, mind you, I've watched this guy make millions of dollars in his lifetime. He's with different network marketing companies, different companies. He drove a Bentley. He's one of the most impressed people I've ever met. 100%. He's so freaking talented. He is one of the most talented people I've ever met. No doubt. And all I'm thinking is, you want me to work with you in insurance, I need a few hundred bucks. And he wouldn't loan it to me. I was upset, but I knew that I'd watch to make this money. So I had to figure things out. And I'm getting to the point. I said, okay, I'll go to the conference. I sold some stuff to buy a ticket. It was like a hundred bucks for the ticket. I didn't have gas money to get there. I didn't have food. My wife and kids left to go to school and work. I went home and I broke into my house and I stole money from my kid's piggy bank. And I stole money from my wife. I knew she kept some cash and I grabbed two suits that didn't fit very well. And I jumped in the car and I drove 12 hours to Atlanta, Georgia. Two things happened when I got there. I didn't have enough food. I didn't have enough money to eat food and to stay there. The first night there, I didn't eat. There was a group of people who had been, they had a meeting and they were collecting pizza boxes and I went over to help them clean up. They thought it was so nice. I took some of the scraps to my room and ate leftover pizza that people didn't eat. The next morning I got up, this changed my life. Brian Pope was one of the owners of the cemetery. He was speaking on stage and he looked out of the room and this is the wealthiest guy in the room. And he's talking about insurance. He's talking about things and I'm taking notes and he says, you can make it here at Cemetery if you just don't quit. And I looked up and he said it again. He said, listen guys, this is not that hard. It's gonna be one of the hardest things you've ever done but it's not that hard. He said it again, you can make it if you just don't quit. And I started writing on the piece of paper, just don't quit, just don't quit. And I look around and this is the wealthiest guy in the room talking, nobody else is writing. And I'm writing it again, just don't quit. Just don't quit. And I look down and there's tears streaming out of my eyes. Just don't quit, I'll make it if I just don't quit. I can beat 95%, I can beat the 92% if I just don't quit. Right. And I'm writing that down and I'm crying tears and so on and I said, I'm gonna make it here. And I finally in my life made up my mind to not quit something because here's the thing Cody, I quit everything I'd ever started. Everything, I quit on my family. I quit on my wife. I quit prime America. I quit farmers, I quit senior life. I quit Aflac, I quit on friendships. I quit going to the gym. I quit on everything I've ever done in my entire life. And the guy said, all you have to do to win is just don't quit. So two things happened that week and I became a man when ain't offer wouldn't give me money and I had to figure it out. I always tell people, I'm not looking for people that have resources, I'm looking for people that are resourceful. And that's the lesson they offered to me. I became a man in that moment. I'm glad he didn't give me the money. I'm glad he didn't give me the money. I had to stop blaming everyone else and say I got to this point in my life because I was a failure or because I failed not because I was a failure. See, I was broke, I wasn't poor, it's a mentality. And so when I found the money and I found a way not eating, helping people so I could figure it out. I realized I was resourceful. I was eating pizza in that room and I was laughing, I was smiling because I had to, I can figure this thing out. If I can figure out how to eat and how to get across the country and there are people in this room that have the resources, they have the talent but they ain't gonna work as hard as me in it. Something switched that moment when he said that and when ain't offer did that. I drove home, literally drove up to the door. My wife had taken the kids to school and I said, give me 90 days to prove my love for you and that this business works. And I drove off and I went to work. See, most people tell you that you're working and I wanted to show them what work looked like and that changed. Wow. Wow. It's awesome that you can pinpoint these different times in your life that changed you because it's crazy to hear your story and hear over the last 43 years, 18 years, whatever you wanna look at and compare you probably even, what, six years ago? To today? Yeah. Is insane. And it should give a lot of people hope that watch. Yeah, that's all I wanna give. I tell people the one thing that you can take, you can take my money. The being broke wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part for me was being hopeless. See, most people think that the money, money's fluid, you can make money. I could have went and worked at McDonald's. I could have found a way, but when you don't have hope, that's a scary place to be and I was hopeless. If you have hope, you're gonna make it. That's it. If you just have hope, you might not know how you're gonna make it. You may not know when, you may not know where, you may not know why. If you have hope, you'll make it. Hope's the one thing you can't take from me. Listen, you can beat me up, throw me in a, I was homeless sleeping in my car and I had hope because I knew that I had a secret ingredient. If I didn't quit, I knew I was gonna make it. I didn't know it was gonna happen as fast. So I'm gonna circle way back around. I know it's gonna happen as fast. Did I ever dream I was gonna make this money? I always dream it, I realized what happened as fast. And it took a long freaking time too though, you know? It feels like it was yesterday that I was living in my car. Wow. I mean, let's talk about it. The one thing that I didn't have when I was broke was perspective. Like now I told you I'm doing some intermittent fasting. Like when I was broke and I didn't eat till lunchtime, I felt sorry for myself because I thought I was hungry. Now I call it intermittent fasting. Yeah. It's all about perspective. That's right. And so then I was broke, but I still had my health. I was broke, but I still had friends. I was broke and I had a golden opportunity. Listen, don't matter what company it is. Yeah, it really doesn't. But I changed my perspective. And that's the thing that I think wealthy people have is they have a different perspective. I don't think they have more opportunity. I don't think they have more, I think they have a different perspective. And for me, if I was upright, I was always gonna be a father to my children. I was always gonna fight for the love of my wife. But the perspective was I gotta go out here and win and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Start acting as if. So you're not gonna ask the question. I was just, I'm going with it. No, you're good. This is phenomenal. What was your first year like with symmetry? You came back, you said, I want 90 days to prove myself. You went to work, you got serious. Walk us through these. Like how long have you been with Nate? I've been at symmetry six and a half years going on seven years. See, it's impressive when you're like, I was homeless three years ago. Pretty like, I'll be telling the story and I'm like, I was homeless 47 years ago. But my first year with symmetry was the hardest thing I'd ever done. But it was worth it. I always tell people don't ask if it's hard to ask if it's worth it. So it was hard because there was a lot of things that were in me that had to come out. There were bad, there were a lot of good things in me that had to come out to create power and wealth. And so I had a lot of bad habits. I think if you look at any person, I'm talking to you and when I hear you talk about a lot, you're saying one thing, but I'm hearing it's habits, habits, habits, habits. I think all wealthy people have great habits. And so what I had to change was my bad habits. And so that first year, Nate Offred had a lot of great habits because he had a great mentor that I had to take and change. What was the worst habit you had that you've totally fixed and it's the complete opposite now? I don't know if I'll ever fix it because I think it was so natural. I mean, it was so comfortable. We know that comfort is where things go to die. I know where you're going. I'm a procrastinator. Hi, my name is Marlon. I'm a procrastinator. Hahaha. Dude, it's human nature. It's what everybody, you know. Well, I just hired Coach Michael Burt to work with me. He says something, he says things, the power in what he says, he talked about, he teaches his mind, the first person you negotiate with every morning is yourself. And I know I'm a procrastinator, so I wake up and I start to do things to keep me from procrastinating. If I don't, like sometimes on the weekends, I'm a procrastinator. My wife's like, can you clean this, or can you go pick up stuff? I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow, babe. You know, I work hard and the kids got basketball games and I'll get, I'm a procrastinator. But here's what I know, that there's pain that hurts and there's pain that alters. The pain that hurts is not being able to buy my son tennis shoes, to play basketball. Story I tell is my daughter, we went to, I don't want to say the name of the store, we went to a big store and I bought her these really inexpensive soccer shoes. They were $13, that's all I could afford. They ripped and they tore like two days later and I took them back and I yelled and screamed at the lady because I didn't have money to buy more. But she said, I'll give you your money. She said, I'll give you your store credit. They didn't have any more of my daughter's size. And so I fought for 30 months to get money to go to another store to get shoes. The pain, that's pain that hurts. Pain that alters is when I would go to the refrigerator when I was living at home with my wife and my kids and I'm looking in the refrigerator and I count meals and I turn around and count kids and I'd have more kids than I had meals. That's the pain that alters. The pain that alters is I was sitting at a buddy's house drinking and playing video games as a 35 year old gentleman and my wife calls me and we're on food stamps at the time. And she says the food stamp card won't work. And I said, well, I'm busy, I need to figure it out. That's pain that alters you. So that first year I ran towards, here's a good one. Okay, good. People may not get this. The way to beat procrastination is to run towards pain. Gosh, I love that. I run towards things that I don't like to do. The reason I procrastinate is because I don't like to do them. Like the cold shower? Like the cold showers. Which I'll tell that story in a minute. I run towards things, first thing in the morning I get up, I meditate, I read a book, I listen to audio. I go to the gym, I come home and take a cold shower. Why? Because I have to trick my brain into doing something I don't want to do. I've done it for a year. Now listen, it was 30 degrees in Oklahoma the other day. When it's 80 degrees outside you take a cold shower, it's a little discomforting. When it's 30 degrees you take a cold shower, I become a woman in so many words. I'm either cussing myself out, I don't want to do it, but I stay in there until I absorb it and I realize that I'm doing it and I stay in there until I enjoy it and then I get out. I can take a cold shower for five minutes or 30 minutes until I trick my brain into understanding why my first year at Symmetry, I had to beat that demon of procrastination out of me. And I did it because I had a great mentor in Nate Alford. I had a great mentor in Brad Smith. I had a great mentor in Matt Smith. I had a great mentor, the number one guy at Symmetry Financial Group, Edward Pritchett. One of my biggest fans. This guy is by the book. He does everything that he's supposed to do, but he told me I'd do them because I realized if I don't, it'll break me. Like I ask him one time, why do we read? Because we hear people, wealthy people read. I said, why do you read? He said, if I don't read at some point the money's gonna break me. So I forced myself to read. And I substituted by listening to a lot of audios. But the first year at Symmetry, I had to get rid of a lot of bad habits. And I'm thankful, all those gentlemen I just named, a guy like Brian Delaney, who had no financial gain in my future would take time on the phone with me. And they wouldn't yell at me and say, you're wrong. You suck. Hey, Marlon, have you ever thought that if you go do what you wanted to do, you can go do what you get to do? So these guys, I'm getting mentorship. And like you said earlier, I'm gravitating towards guys who have great energy, guys that are positive. Guys, I stopped the two most important decisions my mom told me you'll ever make is where you'll spend eternity and who you hang out with. But they say it different in success books. They say your wealth is equivalent to five people that you hang around with. Well, network is your net worth. Your network is your net worth. But here's the thing that I tricked. Most people don't believe that. Oh, 100, 100, I didn't believe it either. I didn't either. I thought it was cheesy. I thought that was dumb. I can have my buddies that are working at Quirt Trip and that Quirt Trip's a great company. But I can't get to where I'm getting to working at the cashier at Quirt Trip. If I do, I better be doing something on the side. That's right. I can't get to where I'm getting to when you're going to nine to five and you're happy for the weekends and I'm waking up happy about Monday because I get to go get it. I'm happy about Sunday and Monday and Tuesday. I can't be around you because we don't have the same birds and feather flock together. So I realized when I started changing the people, it's the foundational thing in my life that I'm studying right now is you can check. This is the reason why. Listen, let me talk to some of you guys. Hi, my name is Marlon. I'm a procrastinator. Have you ever been to an event? Some sort of event. You're going to 10X tomorrow. I leave tomorrow. It starts Friday. It starts Friday. Unbelievable. You're sitting second row. Second row. Can I say that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. I called you to ask you how much money? Second row. Why? Association. If you ever go to an event and you came home and you weren't really that changed. Here's why I think it is. I don't know at all. I think the reason that you're not changed is because your mentality changed but your environment didn't change. Wow. So when I go back and I'm an eagle and I've just been with a bunch of eagles and these guys are soaring high and they're rising above the storm not running from it like a chicken and they're flying and they're on a cliff and you only see eagles by themselves. You don't see them with everybody else and you come back and you run a bunch of chickens. At some point, if I'm around a bunch of chickens what I do is not what they do and I want to fit in because I like being liked and I start doing chicken activities. Not that the event didn't change me. The event changed my mentality but if I don't change my environment doesn't matter. That's absolutely true. So when I come back from events that first year at Symmetry I changed my associations and I have a lot of great friends. That doesn't mean I kicked them to the curb. Right. That just means I spent more time with guys that had what I wanted. Smaller doses. Smaller doses, brother. I love you. Hey, we can go out. Let's go out next month and watch the fights. I love to do that. Hey, can you come over tomorrow? Actually, I'm working. I'm at the office. I'm staying late. Hey, I got up at three o'clock this morning to read. It's seven o'clock. I'm tired. You guys heard that, right? I got up at three o'clock. Like, dude, it's insane. I freaking love it. I'm pushing myself a little harder recently because I've got my power five. 5 a.m. Club, workout, write goals, learn in cold shower and I went out of the cold shower once in a while. When I heard 3 a.m., meditate for an hour, workout for an hour, learn for an hour and cold showers are nothing to me. When I heard that in Dallas at Nate's event, I'm like, dang, this dude's out working. This dude's out doing me. You don't like that. No, I don't like that. This is Cody Askins, ladies and gentlemen. Dude, I hate it. I'm like, dude, Barlin Faulkner is legit. But here's why I heard Michael Phelps say, one time they interviewed Michael Phelps. I'm not a big swimming fan. I can't even swim. I'll tell you that story. That has to do with the cold shower. Okay. But I heard him ask him, he won so many gold medals. He's number one in cold shower. I mean, not cold showers, but I'm number one in cold showers. Yeah, that's right. He's number one in gold medals, Nate. He was being interviewed. I didn't remember where I watched. I looked for it. I can't find it, but I know that song. They asked him, how many days a week do you swim? And when he was, I think five or six, I'm gonna bumble the story up, but just get the gist of it. He talked to his mom, or maybe seven or eight, but he found out that high school athletes swim four days a week. The best high school athletes swim four days a week. He found out the best collegiate athletes swim five days a week. He found out that world-class Olympic gold medalists swim six days a week and take a day off. And so he made up his mind as a little boy, I'm gonna swim seven days a week. Cause he realized every year he was getting a day on his competition. So if I went from homeless, I'm trying to catch a guy like Cody Askins. I'm trying to catch a guy like Nate Offord. I'm trying to catch a guy like Edward Pritchett. I'm following guys like Brandon and Casey. I have to get up early because I'm at a disadvantage. Cause I was 38 years old at 37 years old and I was homeless. So if I don't get up early, I can never catch you. And there's people who say, well, you don't have to get up early. You don't. I have to. Cause I got four kids. I got a stupid cat that I don't like and I gotta be at the office. And my kids play sports four days a week, five days a week, six days a week. And I'm gonna go to the gym and work out. Well, when do I get my time? So Edward Pritchett taught me something. He said, you can't steal from your family time to give to your time. And you can't steal from your business time to give to your family. And you can't steal from your time to take from either of them. So he said, you've got to figure out one or two things. So you only have 24 hours in a day. You only have 85,600 or whatever it is, seconds in a day. I can't steal from my wife or my kids. I was at a basketball game till eight o'clock last night. One was like, I was gonna get home and wanna read. I was gonna get home and wanna go work out. I'm not saying I'm better than people. I gotta get up. My wife rolled over the other day. She said, what time is it? I said, I don't know. I don't use an alarm clock. I heard Eric Thomas and I thought he was correct. I thought I was crazy. I thought if there's a creator that can create all this stuff, surely I can wake up without technology. Wow. So I don't, listen, I know my body. I know I can get five and a half hours of sleep. So if I'm in bed by 10 o'clock, three, 30, three o'clock is not that hard. If you know your body, I just know mathematics. I tell people, guys, it's not magic. It's math. I would have been at 10, get up at three. It's not hard. So I don't use an alarm clock. I beat my alarm clock. It's a game I play. It feels, it's a good feeling. It's an unbelievable feeling. Cause I get up and my feet have to hit the ground in 10 seconds or what? I'll procrastinate and I'll lay there. What'll happen? I'll go back to sleep. I give myself 10 seconds. How many people do you have on your team now? We've lost some people in the game. We're around, we were at 150. We're probably down to about a hundred and 20 hundred. We had an event. We had a hundred good people at the event. Cause you are a master. And I don't even think you really realize this yet. You are a master recruiter, promoter. I learned from, thank you for saying that. Too many times people let people talk about them. Again, man, I'm honored to be here. I just want to be in your presence. I just like you as a person. Without all this stuff, this is just a bonus for me. But I appreciate you saying that. But I learned from Nate Offert, from Matt and Brad Smith and I paid attention. Here's why. In our company, you can either be a great producer or a great recruiter. I wasn't a great producer. You hear how many years of experience I have in insurance. My first month, this is a, excuse me, sorry. My first month in symmetry, and Nate Offert's first month, Nate Offert zero insurance experience. Great with people trained. He went out, he did 50,000. I've got 15 years of experience. I did 3,800. So here's what happened. My wife lets me back in the house. We salvage our relationship. We're working on, we're daily working on relationships. Still six years later. And, but I remember sitting up one night and think I can't catch Nate Offert. I don't know if I'll ever be able to write 50,000 in a home in a month, I mean. But he told me, Brad Smith said this one time. He said, the greatest promoters are the highest paid people. Here's what most people don't understand. I think, I won't say that because it sounds, here's what I didn't understand. It doesn't have to be about you. I can promote symmetry. I can promote Nate Offert. I can promote Brad Smith. I can promote Edward Pritchett. I can promote Matt Smith. I can promote guys that are better than me. And what does that do that takes the focus off of me? Cause that's what people want to know. I was a homeless guy. How do you recruit people when you're homeless? Cause here's the number one question people ask. Well, how are you doing in the business? And then Offert taught me to ask a question. When you were in elementary school, when you, you remember the last day of school when the teacher would lie, they always have a fun day or some sort of day. It was the best day of the year for me. And they would lie to everyone up and see who the fastest kid was. And then Offert said, when the teacher shot the gun off her blue the whistle, did you look around to see how fast everyone else was running? I said, no, he said, what'd you do? So I ran as fast as possible. And so when people would ask me, well, how good are you doing? I say, you remember the last day of school when you had teacher. That's good. What's something else? What if someone came up to me and said, hey, how are you doing at your job? I said, well, I'm doing okay. I don't know. It's still kind of working out for me. And they said, well, I'm going to wait and see if you do good at that. Exactly. That's the same as saying, hey, Cody, you're married. I'm thinking about getting married to my wife. I'm engaged. I'm going to watch you and wait to see how good your marriage is. And then if your marriage doesn't work, I'm not going to get married. That's how much sense that makes. Here's really what they're saying. I'm scared of the unknown. And if you can do it, I think maybe I can do it. But here's what happened. They would never do it. Everyone who said that to me would never do it. Why? Cause they thought I got lucky. They thought I knew something that they didn't or they thought it was a scam. Logically in their brain, like I used to make excuses. They had to make an excuse as to why they couldn't have success that I was having. That's the same thing I did. When I would look at successful people, money was evil. What are my thoughts about money? Cause thoughts are things that person evil. What is he have to steal to get it? That rich people are greedy. I was thinking all these thoughts what I was doing was saying I'm scared. I don't know if I can do it. I'm scared of the unknown. There's a fear in me. You have people around you that have known you throughout your life that probably reach out all the time, don't you? More now because I'm more private. I like. Yeah, you're not. That's if you were more public on your Instagram and everything else, you definitely would. Yeah. Yeah, I'm more private because I don't necessarily want the fame. I want to help people. Well dude, I was bragging on you a second ago and you deflected it. That's what truly humble people do. Yeah, because I don't want the fame. I know the kind of world we live in now. If I can help one person, my life was worth living. If I can help one person, that guy who drove the Mercedes, he changed my life. He didn't know it. If I can help one person change your life because that change will be generational for my children's children's children. Because a man made a statement to me that clicked. If I can be a conduit. I didn't have to take the credit for it. If I can say something that someone I never ever get to meet and it changes their life, I'm good. That's why I like to talk. That's why I like to speak. That's why I love doing what I'm doing. I know people, I want to see everyone reach the best version of themselves and I'm trying to reach the best version of mine. I'm not perfect. Just call my wife, call the cat. Call the, I mean, I'm allergic to the cat. That thing tries to be around me. I think at some point we're gonna gain a friendship me and the cat are working. I feed him, so he loves me, but I don't like him. But, I couldn't know what else to feed him. It's weird. Somebody's gonna do it. Someone's gonna do it. Oh, I'm not a glutton for pain. I want the cat to eat because I like to eat. But we're on this rock called Earth for a moment. And I read this in Les Brown's book. And I just read this yesterday. And it's like become my life's mission that I want to live a life that's gonna outlive me. How do I do that if I can't get up? How do I do that if I can't hold myself again? How do I do that if I'm taking all the credit and thinking I'm something when I'm still just a homeless guy who fought for his family? That's all I am. You wash everything around me. I'm a homeless guy that wanted to fight. There was almost a divorce that wanted to fight for his kids to love him one day. That's it. That's all I am. All that. You can take that. That's the pain that anguishes. That's the pain that torments. That's all I am. Everything else is just a picture of just a guy that wants to be with his wife and kids. That's why your story is just so incredible from homeless struggling the insurance industry specifically for so many years to the amount of money you're making now is truly remarkable. And you're still, you will still 10X the amount of money you're making now. 100%. I won't say how much, but we're high, five figures. We're gonna close it on six figures a month this year. That's amazing. I'll say this, I was sitting in bed with my wife and you guys have to understand I bought my wife a house and I went to Billard Dreamhouse. We bought a house that fits all of us. My father-in-law passed away so it's seven of us in this house. We all have room, like before I couldn't burp without someone saying excuse me and they'd be like three rooms away. That's why we were in a 1700 square foot house, six people. Now I think it's 4,500, 5,000 square feet, but what would you say? Cause it- Oh, we were talking about, yeah, I'll do that all the time. I'll talk about the amount of money and from high five figures to six figures a month this year. Oh yeah, some of the house, I'll talk to them about the house. So it was in November, we had the biggest month we've ever had in our lives and I woke up and in one day we had so like 30,000 deposits in our bank account and that was all the overrides. That wasn't, I've written a policy in three or four years and my wife and I started crying because that was more money I'd made in a year ever in the insurance industry, I made in one day and I'll never forget Brian Delaney to call he remembered the day that he made more money in a month that he made a year and more money in a day that he made a year and that's a humbling experience. You have to understand me and my wife were big crybabes. We were crying because like when we moved into this house we have our own bathroom now. My wife has her own tub with the shower and we have her own- Legit, your own separate bathrooms. We have our own separate bathroom. And so we were- Don't let my wife hear that. I was crying because three years ago we had, and I was in symmetry. Let's talk maybe six years ago when I just moved back in. We were all sick one time. We all had to, you know, when you have big families but one person gets sick, like if one person goes to the doctor or strepto, we go get everybody to the bed and say like, they're all gonna get it, doctors. Give me the meds. I'm not trying to overdo the meds and just give me the meds doc and, but we were all sick and our bathroom that my wife and I had in our room didn't work. We couldn't afford to fix it. So the toilet didn't work. The shower didn't work. The sink was, it was the house she grew up in. My in-laws moved out when her grandma passed away and we lived in that house. But you know, this is the first house I've ever bought. Wow. And my kids were sick. We all had the stomach bug in between vomiting and diarrhea. There was a point when I had to go outside to vomit because there was nowhere else. There was only one bathroom and there was a line for people to diarrhea or vomit to go from that. Listen, you need to talk about what you want to talk about. If something happens and I go to my own bathroom, it's still humbling to me. I'm still, there are people still don't have that. So when I wake up, even when I'm grateful and sometimes when I'm meditating, I'll just find one thing to be grateful for for 30 minutes. And that morning it was just having a bathroom that my wife and I can share in privacy with our kids. I get chills listening to you tell stories like that. It's, I don't take it for granted, man. I'm blessed. No, you don't. And you still work and show up like you're homeless. Hmm. And I don't, I don't see it changing. That's good. I never thought about that. I never thought of, dang it. You said it first. You said it first. That's good. Dude. I mean, how you show up, the time you wake up, the meditating, the learning, the working out, the cold shower, the mentorship that you still crave, the people you spend time, like all the things you're doing, those are the secrets. Everybody that watches it, we've got 13,000 in change, insurance agents that watch our stuff pretty consistently. And most of them are Marlon Faulkner six years ago. They're Marlon Faulkner 10 years ago. They're Marlon Faulkner 18 years ago. And they're struggling. They're not making any money. They're thinking about quitting. They don't know what to do. They don't know who to sell with. They think like there's some magic company or some magic weed or some magic potion that you can sprinkle on them that, and what I hope they get out of this, and why I was so excited about this today, and you can see my energy pick up, is that it isn't the product they're selling. It isn't the commission they're earning. It isn't the company they're with. It isn't the experience they have. It is those little things that you're doing that have changed you. You went to a conference. Like I'm gonna get 8,000 excuses of why most of these people won't come day-percent nation. You went anyway, no money. No gas, no food. Couldn't afford a ticket. You knew it was gonna change your life. And you showed up and you went anyway. They're like, Art Williams, just do it. You did it anyway. And most of the people in our business won't wake up. Like I tell people, you talk about everyone has desire. Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to give to charity. Everyone wants to make a lot of money. Everyone wants to make six figures a month, et cetera, et cetera. But very few people adopt, very few people put their ego aside and adopt the discipline to show up and go get it every day. And that's why I love spending time with you. You're gonna elevate me and take me to another level whether you realize or not. You think I'm gonna take you to another level. That ain't gonna happen. It's gonna be you that's gonna take me to another level because I don't wake up at 3 a.m. I don't work out for an hour. I don't meditate for an hour. I don't read for an hour. I don't take cold showers every day like I should. I don't crave mentorship like I should. I go to a lot of events and I do a lot of things, but that's the secret that I hope they take away from today and listen to you talk. Man, I appreciate you saying that. Here it is in a nutshell. Man, that's good. I hope it wakes somebody up today, man. Just one, man. Just one person. Everything that I've ever done since starting in Symmetry. I'm telling you, I'm gonna do great things. I'm telling you, it's not if it's just when, but. Yeah. Here's the difference. Could you do all that? Now it's just different habits. Because I don't think taking a cold shower is extraordinary. It's just something I do. When you get to the cold shower story, we'll come back. We'll get that next time, but. When I walked in the door last night, my wife came up and kissed me. My kids came up and hugged me from being ashamed of who I was to proud of who I am. That's it. That's worth it to me. When I look in the mirror, I'm proud of who I'm becoming. And I used to not look in the mirror because I was ashamed. I can't wake up every morning and go back because I like the man that I'm becoming. And more than that, my kids look at me and my wife looks at me and they watch the struggle. They're old enough to know I was homeless. They're old enough to know about the molestation. They're old enough to know that my dad, he beat me unconscious when I was, I mean, I got story after story after story, but when I walk in my door at night, when I lay my head down, my wife and kids are proud of me. And my kids go to private school now. It cost 50,000 a year for my kids to go to private school. They know the sacrifice that I'm making, not about the schools, not about the money. They know that daddy will do everything he says he's gonna do. And they're gonna watch me struggle some more and get better. They're gonna watch me struggle some more and get better. At the end of my life, when I get hit walking across the street or my wife and kids being proud of me by that's word that I'll work harder. Totally. I heard Ed Milet, I listen to Ed a lot and I heard him say that he didn't wanna die and get to heaven and the Lord introduces him to this man that's unfamiliar and that was the man that he should have been. And I don't know if I could accept not being the man that I should be because I wanna get sleep or because I can't be disciplined not to eat or I'm too selfish or not humble enough. I've gotta go help people regardless of the income. The income money never leads and always follows. I've gotta go win so that I can meet that man one day and it's like looking in the mirror because I know what he looks like. And for 37 years of my life, if I would have died, I would not know who that man was. I knew this was possible, I just didn't know what it looked like so. Is that why you, this is really unique and we're almost, we got a few more minutes, we'll wrap up quickly but there's, I don't think I've ever met anyone that almost like craves pain like you do. It's almost like you like crave it and wanna go through it because you know, you've seen how far you've came because you did a lot of things that you didn't wanna do. And it's like, dude, it's special. Everything I quit to a video or a book because every time you say a word, I'm thinking videos. That's because you're so, you're always learning. Yeah, Ray Lewis has a video called Pain is Temporary. Eric Thomas has a video called Pain is Temporary. I crave pain or I run towards it because I have a lot of hurt in my life. I tell people when I started at Symmetry Financial Group, people think it's hard, it wasn't hard to me because you gotta go fail a lot to get good and I failed at everything in my life so coming to Symmetry, it wasn't hard. I can promote and recruit because I knew I wasn't a good writer but I could fail, people could tell me no and I could run and fall down and skin my knees and get up again because I failed at everything I'd ever done. Pain is just understanding that if pain is temporary, if I can get to the other side of it it's not a pain anymore, it was just an obstacle. Most people look at pain as permanent. Pain is not pain is temporary. So the first time I took a cold shower because I was watching, I don't just watch TV, I was watching Netflix but I was watching Tony Robbins, you and not my guru and he got little things like this, people miss. He got out of bed, he was talking, he jumps in this cold plunge that's freezing and he got out and he went on his day. 57 degrees. 57 degrees, that's something I'm not doing. And then I was talking with Edward Pritchett and we went to Dorado Beach where my symmetry takes us on trips every year. Two years ago, my wife and we went on 10 vacations a little bit much now. I tell him, can we just stay home because it was this year? Like we're Puerto Rico for 90, can we just stay home? But Edward Pritchett, they had this thing and it was just cold plunge and I couldn't stay in the cold plunge for more than two minutes. And I said, why? Because of pain, it's hard on my body, it's hard. And this year we're back in Puerto Rico and I was in there about 30 minutes. Wow. Why, because pain is temporary. You can teach your body to do anything. When I was living the life I was living as a child, I would have to close my brain off when things were happening to me that were painful. I would close them off in over come and I'd still go to school smiling. I'd still wake up and go to football practice. I didn't use that as an excuse. So now if something is painful like making phone calls or cold calling or recruiting an agent or I just put it in my brain that's only temporary, make it through it and it won't be here anymore. And so I look for pain, why? Because the 92% won't. I take cold showers, why? Because the 92% won't. If I just do what the 92% people won't do then I'll have what the 8% has. It's not rocket science. I just have to do what, if I wanna go work a nine to five, I'll have what people work nine to five make. I'll have the lifestyle that they have, the house that they have, the cars that I'm driving my kids to go to school where their kids go to school. If I want what the 8% has, I gotta go do what the 8% do. I've got better habits. I've got to run towards pain. I've got to fail quicker, fail fast. I'll just listen to, you got me on Grant Cardone. He said, if you're gonna fail, fail fast. Why? Because it's not a failure anymore, it's just an obstacle. And it's funny to look back at all the things that I thought were painful. They were just like litty-bitty speed bumps. Like picking up a phone and calling a friend that's in pain because they're living a life from nine to five. They don't get to see their family. They don't make enough money. They have to take stay vacations. And I was too painful. It was too painful for me to call them and tell them about the opportunity at Symmetry. It's insane that most people won't do that, though. It's crazy. It's crazy. Can't tell the story real quick. Please, please. So I can't swim. People get on to me about this. So this is two years ago. You still can't swim? I still can't swim. But I heard Grant Cardone said, if you can't swim, go take some strokes. I just heard that yesterday. So I'm calling, at least I called the YMCA and it's only answered. And I asked him about swim lessons. She said, well, I'm the one that teaches. I said, all right, I'll call you later. Bye. Like I don't want to hate old lady teaching me, but cause I almost drowned as a kid. So it's a phobia. It's a fear. I almost drowned. Oh my. So it's not that I just didn't learn to swim, but I went to Puerto Rico last year cause we took a cruise and we stopped in Puerto Rico. So I went to see my mentor cause he has a house there. And we were at this kiddie site. He said, you want to go to kiddie park? So yeah, I got four kids. You've got four kids. And so we went to this kiddie park and I'm thinking kiddie park. Now when you go to Dorado Beach, looking up sometimes, it's like paradise. And their kiddie park was like Disney world, but it's on where they live at. And he says, well, let's go down the slide. I can't swim. I've never gone on a water slide in my life. And I look up and I see these stairs going up and then there's some clouds and I can see some more stairs going up and he starts walking. So I think I guess I'm going down the slide. So I walk, start walking up the stairs and I passed a Sherpa on the way. And it's like climbing Mount Everest going up this thing. And I get to the top and I can look down. To me, it looked like I was at the top of Mount Everest. To kids, it's probably 40, 50 feet up. It's a big slide. You've never been on, I'm a 42 year old man at the time. I've never been on a water slide. And he's like, all right, we're going to go down the slide. Now there's a slide on his side. There's a slide on my side. His slide's got rainbows and butterflies and birds. And it's an open slide. And mine's dark and it's got bats and spider webs and he's like, you go down that slide. I'm like, uh-uh. I'm going to go down that slide. He said, no, if you go down that slide, you'll never go down that slide. Listen to what he taught me. So we sit down and we're ready to go down the slide and my heart's racing. I think I'm going to die. I'm going to take in water. I've almost drowned before. I remember that feeling. I remember that fear. I'm not going to do it. And he's like, one, two, three, go. And I don't let go. And I look over and he didn't let go. He said, you don't let go. I said, you didn't let go. And he's like, well, you got to let go first. I said, you let go first. And so we're sitting there banding back and forth. I turn around. There's this five-year-old girl tapping her foot like this, waiting for me. So I get up and I let, there's a line of kids that are built up and they're going down the slide having the time of their lives. And then it's all, all the kids are gone. So he's like, okay, here we go again. We sit back down and my heart is racing now. I'm thinking every negative thought I can think. And I'm like, I can't do this. And he said, yes, you can. I didn't want to tell him what my fear was. I'm thinking I'm going to drown. I'm going to take in water. When he came out the side, you stood up as about wastey. I know people think this is silly. Follow me, please. He looks at me. This is why Edward Pritchett is one of my best friends, one of the greatest mentors I've ever had. He said, what would you tell one of your agents to do if they were scared? That did it. Yeah. I'm thinking you're talking about death and writing a policy. But in my brain, I realized when people don't do things, why they're scared and that was me. And so I let go. And it was the scariest thing I've ever done in my entire life. Like I'm trying to stop it. I'm going down the slide. I'm using my elbows to try to slow down. I ended up turning over. I'm in the water going down the slide face first. I'm thinking I'm going to drown. I turned myself back over. I'm going through the sides of turning and I come out. And I just stand up at my feet and I stand up. And I feel like I just conquered the world. And my son and my wife and Edward, they kind of rolled their eyes like congrats. What took you so long? And they walked off. Here's the moral of the story. 95% of you are watching this can swim. And you think, what is he so scared of? What is he afraid of? That's how I look at you when I look at this business. You know how silly it is that people think I can't swim? I think it's silly you won't get up at three in the morning. I think it's crazy that you won't get up and read to make yourself better. I think it's absurd that you won't get up and take a cold shower and work out. I think that you don't write down your thoughts for that. I think it's mind boggling that people don't do that. Just like they look at me because I can't swim. And you know what they'll say? Yeah, but everybody can swim. You know what I say? Yeah, there's a lot of money in the world. Here's what I told the guy the other day. I need a tissue. Geez, you guys can you grab one? Man. I'm gonna wipe it on camera. Yeah, you're right. They'll be like, that's out there forever. And I'm like, the Marlins wiping is no, that'll be on a blooper reel somewhere. So I'm gonna hide my nose like this and talk. If it drips, it drips. I can't help it, but I told the guy, here's the crazy part. I'll learn how to swim and you'll still be broke. Because you won't overcome your fears. Wow, what do you say? Because that's good, dude. Like that's good. I mean, there's people that are watching this that I'll jump in while you're doing this. There's people that I'm gonna make watch this. I don't care if I got to like drive to Alabama and sit them down and turn it on. Like there are people that I'm going to make watch this. Don't get me wrong, there's still fears. But when I was five years old, I was scared that there was monsters in the closet. I'm not scared of that anymore. The bigger you get, the bigger fears you have. I still have fears. I'm gonna run towards them. I'm gonna learn how to swim. But if you don't change what you're doing, you'll still be broke. That's what I tell people now. Listen, I'll learn how to swim. Calm in a year. Hey, I may still not know how to swim. But if you don't change what you're doing either, you're still gonna be broke. What's worse, learn how to swim. Listen, I go on boats all the time. I'm going on a cruise. Our company's written out this big old, the biggest ship in the world, the waste of the seas. I'll be on a boat. I'm going to an island and I kind of did swim. This last trip we went out with the Pritchett Agency. I was in the ocean, which I didn't know that, these things, you don't know if you don't swim. I didn't know that you could float easier in salt water. So I was out there and I walked out with my wife and some friends and I was at the point when I could barely, the water was up to here and I could barely touch. I'm a six, three, I'm a big guy. And I took a step and I couldn't touch anymore. And I relaxed and I remember, hold your breath and you'll float and just take strokes. And I did that all the way back to shore. I just relaxed, took a big breath and I floated. Now here's the crazy part. Last summer I tried to do it at my buddy's point, I sank to the bottom. No one told me that you could float in salt water, you can't regular water, but I'm gonna get there. I'm gonna learn how to swim. If that's the worst thing that happens in my life, I've lived a pretty good life. Yes, right. But if you don't overcome your fears, what is it costing you? That's good. That's good, man. This is good, bro. Any final words? This is good. There's somebody out there watching that's struggling, they're thinking about quitting. They're new, we get more new insurance. I think we've had, I think Dylan said, we get like about a hundred brand new insurance agents that subscribe to our channel because of just one video we put out, you know, so. Yeah, I'll tell a story. I love to close this can be a good one. I love watching movies, I love military movies. My dad was in the military. I feel like I missed something part of my life because I didn't have that. Number one, Hats off, if you were ever in the military, someone in your family's in the military, Hats off, thank you for serving. Because freedom isn't free, you paid the price that I could be here sitting in this chair. So thank you for your service. Thank you so much. That's good, totally agree. But I was watching Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlberg and it was about the Navy Seals and Jacob LaTroy. And it's one of my favorite movies. It goes through Navy Seals with a call hell week. And they like sleep, you're sleep deprived. They don't feed you. They're screaming at you. They're trying to break you down. But the crazy part is every time that someone quits, you have to go and you have to ring the bell to let them know that you're quitting. And I wish that I could institute on my team that every time someone came in and they committed to work as a business and they committed to change your family's lives, I wish they would have to ring the bell. Now listen, that you go from what I understand, almost days without sleep, you've got to eat within five minutes. They feed you, then you got to run off and go. And then you're doing exercises physically all day long. And at the end of the day, they're going to push you one last time and that's when most people quit. I heard that they take you out to a pier and you got to sit in the water with your brothers and you're doing it together, but some people can't take it because they don't know if you're gonna be out there five minutes or five hours. Here's my favorite part of the movie. They started with like 200 some-out guys, they ended up with like 12 to 15, 20 guys. They make it through that? They make it through Hell Week. They become Navy SEALs. Please forgive me if you're a Navy SEAL and I'm just talking about the movie when I know from it and why I love this because I'm honored that those guys get to serve. They choose to serve, but at the end of that part, when everyone else is gone, they nail your wings to you, that signify you make it and you get to ring the bell. And I'll never forget, this is in my mind, I think about this all the time. One of the guys rings the bell and he screams, it pays to be a winner! It pays to be a winner. It pays to be a winner. Yeah, it does. It pays to be a winner. For my kids, it pays that I'm a winner. For my wife, it pays that I'm a winner. For my grandchildren, it pays to be a winner. For my kids that I never meet, it pays to be a winner. For the team of people coming up, following me, it pays that I'm a winner. It pays to be a winner. Yes, it does. If I could teach people one thing, Cody Man would be that they wouldn't quit because it pays to be a winner. That's good. That's good. Man! Thank you, buddy. Thank you so much for having me. Great for it. Can't wait to get to know you and your life more and just so impressed that I will say this, you walked in the room the first time I met you and I didn't know it was you. I'd seen videos, I'd seen you on Facebook and I'd seen your stuff and I didn't know it was you because you're so humble. For someone that has achieved as much as you have in this little amount of life that you have, I would be by your side to watch you achieve so much more because I'm on it, I get it. And to watch you is over the last, I mean, it's been like a month, I feel like we're good friends forever. I'm grateful that you allowed me to come up here. I'm grateful you answered my texts. I'm grateful to be a part of your life and just to watch you win, I'll tell you for the bottom of my heart it pays to be a winner. Thank you for being you, sir. Thank you, bro, you too. You too. Go follow us, dude. Go to follow this dude, Marlon Faulkner. Look at him on Facebook, go on Instagram, stalk him, watch him, I'm telling you, when he says it pays to be a winner, this dude's a winner. Hey, if you love this video and you wanna get your phone skills up, I got the video for you, how to nail the first 30 seconds of a call. Go right there, click on that video and I'll see you there. Hey, insurance phone calls are tough. Nobody wants to pick up the phone. Everybody struggles to do this and I'm gonna show you how to nail the first 30 seconds of insurance phone call right now. There's several mistakes.