 Good evening, 8% Nation Insurance Wealth Conference. Dude, we might as well call it the insurance nation, success nation, money nation. Dude, I'm excited to have Mr. Ryan Palomini, president of Top Rank Advisors, a part of this conference, speaking with Ray Lewis and Grant Cardone at Nissan Stadium. What's up, brother? How you doing, man? Doing good, man. Appreciate you being on very, very much. We are super, super, super excited to have you involved. Just because you're a dude, you've got a little different story, a little different background, a little unique approach to make a lot of money in this business. I'm telling you what, if you're watching, if you're jumping in, you want to stop and listen to this man, Mr. Ryan Palomini. He's gonna be at the stage at 8% Nation. And should we share with him your topic, your title of your speech? Sure, I think you should. How to write five million a year in annuities. How's that sound? That sounds great. It sounds great. Especially seeing how two years ago, I couldn't even spell the word annuity. So I think that's a good start. Tell me this, is it okay if I share how quick you were able to do that last year? Yeah, of course, absolutely. Back to the first three or four months, right? It took me four and a half months last year to write my first five million in annuities. Yep. Dude, I'm gonna start calling you the $20 million man, at least 16 or so, right? Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things. Now the cool thing is it's fun to scale it. Right now we get to figure out how to scale that across the country with agents, with advisors. But man, it's been an incredible journey. But I'm excited to be a part of this. So I really am. You know, when I saw what you were putting together with this 8% nation, I absolutely fell in love. Honestly, I think the minute it hit the internet, I hit you up and I was like, you don't know me. I don't know you, but I need to be a part of this because I believe in what you're doing. And so, I mean, man, it took us what? Literally probably two days to connect and I'm like, I'm in. Whatever you're doing, I'm in. Dude, it was quick, man. Ryan's a dude. He's like me, dude. They don't think about stuff. He takes action, which is probably why you've been so successful. Hey, give us, give our audience. 8% nation, everybody's gonna be there. All of our fans, agents all over the country. A little taste of your background, your history, a little street cred, a little social proof and how you've got to where you are now. Yeah. Well, I mean, Cody, honestly, my story is like most, man. I started in the life insurance industry, just slinging mortgage protection from 2010. I got my insurance license. You really know background in sales at all. I was doing a little bit of network marketing when I was 18 years old, fired up, wasn't making any money. But really enjoyed the process, right? I enjoyed, I'm a sports player. I went to college, played soccer and whatever the coach told me to do, I did, right? And so I just ran the plays. And so early on in my career, when I started in the financial world, I jumped into the mortgage protection market. I found somebody that was successful. The coach said run the plays and man, I just ran them. And so my first couple of years, like most, I flopped right on my face, bro. It was terrible. My first year, honestly, it was a rough year. I made some serious mistakes early on, not having a backup job, jumped into it full time with really nothing to follow, no system, no money. What was the biggest mistake? Sorry to interrupt, what was the biggest mistake for everybody out there listening? The biggest mistake honestly was not having any money backed up, man. I mean, jumping into this thing full time, really with no background in it, no money to get me, to get things rolling. Like, I started off like most, man, with absolutely nothing to my name. I had no money. I was a server full time at a restaurant working, you know, four nights a week, making a hundred bucks a night. I mean, that's how I started my insurance career. I had nobody to tell me or teach me the way. And I found some mentors along the way that kind of helped me, but the first year was rough. The first year was rough. And I remember being, I was 20, was it 20 years old when I first started, being broke like that. One of the, honestly, I think it could have been an advantage, Cody, being broke like that because failure wasn't an option, man. It wasn't, failure to me wasn't an option. So I either had to go and figure it out or had to move on to another industry, right? And, you know, I remember, I'll give you a quick story as to really my beginnings of this to share with you how broke I really was. When I jumped into the company that I first started with, they had a conference. And, you know, in the network marketing world, you're always told to go to the conference, never miss an event. And I did that, right? I followed what they were doing. And so I remember there was a conference in Atlanta and at the time I was living in Providence, Rhode Island, and I couldn't afford to go. I mean, there was, I had no business being at that conference. My mom helped me pay for my plane ticket. You know, the guy coaching me at the time paid for the $50 registration for me to get in. But the thing was I had no hotel. I had no food, you know, money for food. And so I remember going, this is why Cody, these kind of conferences for me are so big because I understand the power of what something like this can do for you and your business, right? And it's about being around the like-minded people. So I knew that I was broke. I knew I didn't have any money to get there. There's no reason for me to be there. But I knew I had to get around the heat, right? That was the most important thing was getting around the like-minded millionaires that I wanted to become. I was negative, I mean, $22,000 in credit card debt. You know, I was getting ready to be evicted from my home at that time and it was just, it was bad. So I go to this conference and I remember flying into Atlanta airport and I had absolutely no plans. I knew that I was gonna go to this conference, no hotel. So I figured, ah, the airport doesn't shut down. I'll just sleep at the airport for, you know, for three days and you know, so that was my game plan, dude, I had nothing. So luckily, one of the guys that was at the conference let me stay in his room. I slept on a couch with a sheet for three nights as most uncomfortable thing in my life. Didn't really care though. I had no money for food. You know, everybody was, I remember feeling how everybody was down at the buffet. Everybody was eating, everybody was having a good time. And for me, it was such a trying time for me. And I remember sitting up in my room and after the first day of the conference, I remember being up in the room because I couldn't afford to eat. I brought like a sleeve of saltine crackers with me for the entire weekend. Man, I kid you not, that's what I ate all weekend. I was all I had left in my apartment. Sorry, man. It's crazy. So I get through that. And I remember being upstairs, man, just writing down my goals, man, furiously, just writing down, you know, one of the things I remember saying is this is as worse it was ever be as it was ever get. Like it'll never be this bad, right? And so a lot changed. I started seeing people that have been in this industry for a long time. And I remember going, not to be mean, but I remember going that person right there, that person right there is making six figures. What am I doing wrong? You know what I'm saying? And so it got me excited. It got me fired up and it put me in a position to when I got back, still not having any money. I remember going through Boston. Now, if you ever come out of Boston Airport, there's a toll there. Okay, there's a toll when you come out of the airport. It's $3 and I couldn't afford the toll. So, and I keep a check. I literally had to write to the Department of Transportation for Massachusetts a check for $3 when I got back. It was the most embarrassing things. I remember sitting at that toll booth with a whole line of traffic backed up behind me. But this is how I started, man. And so I drive back to Rhode Island and I run out of gas on the way home, right? So I coast into the gas station on fumes, man. I kid you not. Like when I pulled into the gas station, my car just stalled. And I remember sitting there, you know, and I was just like, what am I gonna do? My credit cards were tapped, none of them worked. And so I had a necklace that my dad gave me from Italy and I went across the street and pawned it. And I got $400 for that. And I believed in me so much and I believed in the system so much. I took that $400, I invested into leads, mortgage protection leads. The very next week I went out and wrote $8,000 in premium. And I remember how that changed my life. And I remember going- That's fake. This is real. I remember like, you know what I'm saying? Like this is real. This is, it was real money in the bank. I don't know what it was, maybe like $5,000 in commission at the time, but $5,000 is more than I had ever seen in my lifetime at 20 years old. You know what I'm saying? And so that was my start, man. You know, and from there, it progressed and with that agency that I was with in my first four years, I built an agency with over 250 contracted agents. We were smoking, I built a six-figure passive income. And in 2014, I left that company to go independent, started my own deal. And from there, things have just progressed, Cody. Now it was one of those things where we started top-ranked advisors simply because of that feeling that I had again, right? Because in 2014, when I left, I just went solo, man. I really wanted to figure this industry out. I wish I was half as smart as you, watching the things that you're doing with the social media stuff. And I'm like, dude, I can't even get this microphone to work at the time and you're doing all this stuff. And so like, I wish I had that. So, you know, but my advantage was I wanted to sit back and really learn this industry because I knew there was more to it than what I was doing, right? Because, you know, like most, I got burnt out. I'm not gonna lie, you know, doing $20, $30,000 a month in life insurance every month, month in and month out. Yeah, it's great and you can make great money, but I got burnt doing it, you know? So, I tried to find something different. And in 2015, my life really changed. In that one year span of time, I really went and searching for a mentor. For me, mentorship is so important. And I can't hit on that enough. You know, mentorship is so important. And in 2015, I found my mentor, a gentleman that was doing $20 million a year in annuities out of his office, and never leaves his office, $20 million a year in annuities. And, you know, I took that, dude, I kid you not. And so, that to me was a game changer for me. And I remember taking that so seriously that I actually picked up my life. My wife and I, we moved across the state of Florida to the Tampa area. And I moved to be right next to that man. And for a year and a half, I sat in his office every single day. I kid you not every single day for a year and a half and just watched him be strategic, learn what he said, how he interacted with clients, how he interacted with his staff. And I remember going, man, this is it. This is what I want to do, right? I got excited again. And so, I went out and as you know, I know, I work in the federal market. That's my niche market. I work with federal employees all over the country now. And it was because of, you know, meeting that gentleman and seeing what they were doing. But in 2016, I did my first seminar. And that was the scariest time of my life. I've never done a seminar before. Yeah. Money in 2000, that was what two, three, two years ago. I still didn't have any money at the time. Put my first seminar on my credit card. And I remember having 58 people attend my seminar. And I had no idea what I was doing. But here's a cool thing is I've always known that no matter what you lack in skill, you can always make up for it in numbers, right? So if you have enough, if you have enough volume, what your numbers will make up what you lack in skill, right? And so that's why we always talk about, you know, making sure that you always have a consistent flow of people to see. Even though I didn't know anything about annuities at the time or financial planning at the time, I had 58 people to see, right? So I was going to figure this thing out quickly. I had $3 million on the table worth of business that I could have got. And because I was so bad at the annuity world, I only got half a million of it. And it was a tough lesson. It was a six-figure lesson I had to learn. But that transformed everything from me, Cody. You know, it really was, man. That's cool, man. Thanks for sharing that. Well, what an awesome story. You get such different stories with people in this industry. And that's one of the best I've ever heard. So thank you for sharing that. I know our audience is going to be a static to get to hang out with you in Nashville, get to shake your hand, get to listen to you karaoke at the party. No, I'm just kidding. And just to hang out backstage. That's what's so cool. You mentioned a mentor. What's so cool that a lot of agents in our industry don't get is you need mentors. You need networking. You need collaboration. You need to get to know people. And dude, I'm naturally stubborn and I let my ego and pride get in the way. So I avoid learning from others for a long time. No, I got it. And I stayed small for a long time until I started listening to people getting mentors like you talked about. So what was it about? What was it about this conference when you first saw it come through on like an ad or online? Facebook, yep. Nice. And I saw Grant Cardone up there. So all these guys you had, and I'm like, what is this guy doing? And then I didn't know who you were. I had no idea who you were. I'm like, this Cody guy is putting on his conference. And here's the thing. If you go back, I have a YouTube channel and last year, before I set a top rank advisors, I really was just kind of in the mindset of just want to teach, man. Just want to put out content. Wanted to just help the industry because the thing about it that I've learned is this. There's so much business to go around. And dude, I got so tired and I am so tired of watching people bash each other in this industry, watching agents bash other companies in this industry. Stupid crap, like replacing somebody's life policy for a dollar or less a month, like what kind of crap is that? I mean, that hurts this industry. You know what I'm saying? And so I wanted to try to unite this industry as much as possible. And that's why on my YouTube stuff, I just started talking about this, started throwing out some content, just training on phone scripts, anything I could, man, it really helped out. And so when I saw what you were doing, it was exactly what I was trying to do a year ago, but just got sidetracked, truthfully. And when I saw the mission of it, and I spoke to you for the first time, and you and I had that conversation about what you're trying to do, I initially, I knew, I knew that this was exactly what I was trying to do a year ago, and I really wanted to be a part of it. And so it was a no-brainer for me. And to see the talent that you have speaking, oh my God, I mean, this is gonna, this could very well revolutionize the industry, as we know it. And I'm excited to be a part of it, because it's the right time, the right place with the right people. Thank you, buddy. I'm fired up, man. You can't even tell you. I'm excited, man. Thank you for, dude. That's a cool thing. We got an incredible audience. You're gonna be incredible. What was it about, what was it about the annuity world? Yeah, you learned from a guy, you found a mentor, you even moved for crying out loud. What was it about, what was it about the annuity business that really stuck with you, that really got your attention and got you super, super passionate? Cause dude, it comes through. Like the passion is coming through the camera, and I love it. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's a combination of a few things. One, here's the thing. When I was at the other company, that was with the other insurance company, I realized that we were not taught how to sell annuities the right way. And so when I started seeing the actual power of an annuity and what it can do to help a family, that was easy for me to get behind and really put my passion into it. Because, don't get me wrong, life insurance is great and we sell a ton of it right now, but it doesn't change people's lives unless somebody actually dies. And again, it's a great thing. I've delivered a ton of death claims, but it's not an immediate change in somebody's life, right? So when I started figuring out the annuity world, and when I say annuities, it really comes down to more financial planning too, right? Cause life insurance is a transactional business. For most life insurance agents in the mortgage protection, final expense, you know, we go in and 45 minutes, we write an app, we're out the door. I mean, that's just the business. It's transactional. Whereas, you know, having people that actually do financial planning with is so different. So like when I'm working with my federal clients, having them come in my office and actually coming up with a strategic game plan is really what gets me passionate, right? Because then as we're putting together the strategy, seeing how an annuity fits in is so important because then we can take a 401k or a TSP or whatever they have, roll into an annuity and within a year or that very same year, they can turn on an income rider, they can utilize the cash flow. There's so many things that an annuity can do to give somebody immediate results, right? Which is life changing for some people right away. And so when you start really understanding the power of it and how it can change somebody's immediate life, that was really what started getting me excited about the annuity world. And truthfully, not being taught the right way. Cody, the reason why people don't sell annuities is because they don't understand them. That's it. 100% That's the only reason I don't sell them. 100%. But the thing about it is when, one of the things that I've been able to really do and something that I'm gonna teach at the 8% nation is how to take the complexity out of an annuity sale because it is incredibly easy to sell annuities and it is really, really easy to understand. But when you're taught the wrong way, like I was, it makes you nervous, right? Because you're taking somebody's life savings and you don't know what you're talking about. You don't wanna take that risk with somebody, right? You don't wanna take somebody's life savings, put it into a plan and mess things up because you can mess things up, let's be real. You can mess things up. But that's what I'm gonna teach. I'm gonna teach on how to not only understand the annuity world, but the simplicity of explaining it to your clients. One thing that makes me so successful in the annuity world is I have a way of being able to take the complexity out of understanding financial planning and financial management. That's not easy to do and it took me a long time. It took me a lot of mistakes to figure that out. And one of the cool things about top rank advisors is how we've been able to take the simplicity of it and scale it across all of our marketing platforms with top rank. And now the best thing for me is not the fact that I do five million in sales and blah, blah, blah, but how my team is able to take the same concept, the same simplicity and go out there. And we've got a ton of people that are gonna be well over a million dollars this year in annuity sales that never wrote annuities in their life. And so when you teach the simplicity of it and that's where the 8% nation is gonna be so important because if we have a thousand people there or 2,000 people there the way you guys are marketing this thing, there's gonna be a lot of people that are gonna come out of that conference and I promise you if they take what we teach they can write a million dollars in annuities in the last quarter of the year even if they've never sold an annuity in their life because I'm gonna teach the simplicity of it. That's a bold statement, man. Dude, I mean, I'm as excited about anybody. Dude, I may sit front row just because but just so that I can pick it up before anybody else does behind me. But dude, I'm excited to see you speak because that's one market that intrigues and interests tons of agents. Like you can't ask an agent would you like to learn how to sell annuities and actually effectively and actually make money at it? No one's gonna ever answer that question no but because they don't know how they don't understand it, there's a lack of confidence so they don't look for them or when they do they talk too much they give them, you know, the clients can tell they don't know anything about it because they gotta call somebody else or ask somebody else. They're not giving you your money unless you know what the freak you're doing. So that's what's so cool and why we're so, so, so excited to get you involved is I believe anyone at this conference that leaves this event and says, hey, I wanna make, I want about to write five million a year in annuity business. After you, after listening to you and learning from you, they will be able to do that. Absolutely, it's not difficult. I promise you listen, two years ago I didn't know how to spell the word annuity and now, you know, but the thing about it is this is it Cody, it comes down to you also have to be in front of the right clientele, right, I mean, we teach our mortgage protection agents how to find the money. But the difference comes, and I'm gonna give the tip of the day, this is honestly- Don't give it all away. I'm not giving it all away, I'm gonna not give it all away. You gotta take it home for it, there we go. But one of the things that I learned in the annuity world is it has to go from being this great salesman, honestly, I kid you not, listen, I know some great salesmen that can't sell annuity for the life of them, right? We both know some people like that. However, when you jump into the financial planning world and you're dealing with people's money, you have got to become a great educator. And the reason that I sell so much in annuity and the reason why I do so much business is when I'm sitting with my clients, I am doing nothing but educating my clients. I mean, I'm teaching financial management, I'm teaching financial literacy, right? I mean, I'm talking about their benefits. So I do more educating than I do selling and after I educated somebody on how this world works, we talk about taxes, we talk about social security and blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, after I talk about all that stuff, the confidence in me that they have, I mean, it's so simple because now it's a matter, okay, this is how the game plan is gonna work. This is what we're gonna do. And I've developed the confidence from my client that they have in me to say, I wanna do business with this guy. That's the kind of stuff. So dude, at the 8% nation, I'm gonna talk about, really, I'm gonna give my first appointment because the sale is done on the first appointment that I work with my clients on and I'm a two-step close, but I'm gonna share with the 8% nation my first appointment, how I fact find the things that I talk about, taking the complexity out of the financial work for your clients, that's what I'm gonna be talking about. I got a half hour, I'm gonna take what I learned in two years, put it into a half hour because I believe that it's your followers, that the people who are coming to the 8% nation, I believe that they have what it takes to get to this level, right? To be able to go out there and massively change their business and adding this financial stuff to there because I know that it's not difficult and I'm gonna show you how easy this is. And once you guys realize how easy it is and you start thinking about all this, they are gonna end up being able to create some of this, man. That's right. Some of that wealth. The wealth, baby. That's right. I love that. I love that. I'm gonna teach that, man. Exactly. Dude, hey, thank you for being involved. Thank you, huge thank you to you and Top Rank Advisors for being a part of this thing, man. Dude, hey, if they wanna follow you, where should they start? You can hit me up on Facebook at Ryan Palomini. You can follow Top Rank Advisors. Man, you can find us at toprankadvis.com, ryanpalomini.com. There's several ways to get me. And I'm here. I'm here for all the help. Dude, hey, thank you so much for being involved. And if you guys are on the fence about attending this deal, dude, his 30-minute keynote alone is worth 10 times whatever you pay. Dude, thank you for being involved. Thanks for taking a second to educate our audience on why they should attend, what you're gonna be speaking on, the knowledge and the wealth. Tell me this real quick. Tell me this real quick. Other than us getting to hang out and getting to meet each other, who's the one other person? Because you know, we'll be hanging out backstage. We'll be at the party. Who's the one other person that you're most excited to meet? Yeah, obviously Grant Cardone. I've never met him, so I'm fired up. But I gotta tell you, I think that I can relate a lot to Tim's story. I love the way he speaks. I love how he tells his stories on stage. I feel like I'm gonna learn a ton from him. And I'm really excited to hear that, meet him and hear his story and what he's got to say. So I'm excited about that. I love that. We got a little construction going on in our office. I don't think I can hear noise in the hall, but we're about to add on 3,000 square feet these next couple of months. So we're going out some walls and ceiling tiles and stuff. Dude, our motto. This is why you fit so well. Our motto for this event is come learn the mindset, the mission, and the moves to produce millions of dollars a year in the insurance industry. It's such a perfect fit for you to be there. So thanks again for being there, man. Really, really, really, really. Thanks for having me. Hey, thank you for putting this on, man. I know the sacrifice it takes to push something like this on, man. I know you laid it all on the line, brother. This is not a cheap event. I'm incredibly proud of you for doing it. I'm happy to be a part of it. And listen, we stand behind it. Top rank advisor stands behind this event. Like you have no idea. We've got a crew coming. We're all excited to learn. I'm gonna be in the front row taking notes like you wouldn't believe. I can't wait to learn, man. Thank you for putting it on, my man. I appreciate you. You got it, buddy. Thank you so much. For everyone that is thinking about going, ticket prices are increasing on the 25th. We got about six, seven days, and the ticket prices are going up, so you're thinking about it. Now is the time to take action, Ryan. Have an awesome night. Thanks for being on, dude. I will see you at Nissan State, even Nashville, brother. You got it, buddy. Thank you. Appreciate you, man. Thanks for being on. Yep.