 Give it up for Cody! What's up, Cody? I love the music, man. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you. The energy in here is amazing, man. I love the freaking energy in this room. Is it always like this? You know what it is? Dan has a ton of energy. Constantly. That's what I love about the dude. We met several years ago, fell in love with the dude. His energy is amazing. We are so similar in a lot of different ways. Thank you for allowing me to spend a few minutes with your team today. Thank you, guys, for being here. I always talk about the steps to success. And I really believe step number one is showing up. So give yourselves a hand for doing step number one. I do this a lot. We do a lot of different training tours, everything else, and I grew up as a kid wanting to be a public speaker, wanting to be a trainer. Well, at 19, I started as an insurance agent. I was an intern at a local office. Just interning, making cold calls with a phone book, et cetera. At 20, I transitioned into being a full-time insurance agent. I'm 20 years old. Who else is like 20, 21, 22, 23? Like, okay. Well, I got a lot of young people here, which is awesome. I'm 34, 98. Just kidding. Okay. I'm 20 years old at the time. I'm taking 21 credit hours of semester at a local college, playing basketball as a full-time student athlete. Practices, games, tournaments, weekends. And I decide to become a full-time insurance agent, which you can think, like, I could make a lot of excuses that I don't have a lot of time, right? So I remember a recruiting meeting. There was 10 of us in the room and the manager says, all right, 10 of you stand up. Okay, so let's do that. These four, these five, and you, ma'am, if you can stand up as well, that'll be 10. Stand up real quick, okay? And thank you. I'm sorry. Okay. And what he does is he says, okay, now take a look around. So I start, like, taking a look around. Okay, you know, I can take him. I don't know about her, you know, let's start sizing people up, okay? And then what he says is he says, nine of you sit down and he leaves one standing. So if you nine can sit down and you can stay standing for just a little bit longer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And he didn't leave me standing. You can go and sit down. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. And what he said next was maybe one of you will make it. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm extremely competitive, extremely driven. And I'm saying if there's going to be a one, I am going to be the one. And here's what I did in that moment. Not only was I irritated that he didn't choose me as the one, but I wrote down in that moment. And I set a goal. I set a target. And I said I will earn $100,000 my first year in the insurance industry. And I dated it and I signed it. Because I don't believe like a lot of people just say stuff. Like I write it down. I sign it. I commit to it. And I hung it up in the wall of my cubicle. And then every day I went out to make that a reality. Only selling life insurance, cold calling, cold door knocking, no leads, no insurance experience, no sales experience, 20 years old, playing basketball, college, et cetera. Only cold door knocking and cold calling. And I made $117,000 in my first eight months. And I'm going to share with you, now we have five different companies all doing north of seven figures that are generated and focused on helping agents. And one I want to talk about today is my eight rules to 8%. Because 8% stands for, think about it, 8% stands for 92% of insurance agents fell in their first three years. Who knew that? It's an awful statistic. It's horrible. Here's a positive statistic. There are more millionaires in our industry than any other industry in the world. Who knew that? Right. So you're in? You're in the right place. You're in the right vehicle as long as you don't quit. Here's what I know. Those that decide, I am going to win. I am going to make it. I'm going to make what I've learned is at some point life gets really good as long as you don't quit. And most insurance agents simply quit too soon. Quitting is a choice. Quitting is a decision. Quitting is a mindset. So I want to walk through my eight rules 8% this morning, afternoon now I guess. I spoke earlier today. And I want you to take notes on your phone, write them down. I'm telling you, those of you that apply these eight rules will succeed in the insurance industry. Who has the courage to raise your hand and say, you know what? 2020 was not the year I expected it to be and I did not do as much as I wanted to do in 2020. But who also is committing now to making 2021 a different year than 2021. Because I'm telling you, while you're raising your hand, deciding for 2021 to be the best year of your life is a choice. Deciding for 2021 to be the best year of your life is a decision. Deciding for 2021 the best year of your life is a mindset. And those that adopt these eight rules 8% are guaranteed to succeed in the insurance industry. Is it OK if we commit to guaranteeing success right now? Let's go through it. Is that it? You guys lose energy? Am I already? All right. Dan, get back in here. That's good. All right. Number one, focus on revenue. A lot of insurance, they just walk into an office. You know, I got to get my coffee. I got to go to the bathroom. I got to eat lunch. I got to leave it. You know, oh, it's 4.30. I'll make calls tomorrow, right? And before you know it, we didn't accomplish anything at all. Like I tell my team, if you show up at 8.30 and you leave at 5.30 and you didn't make any sales, why did you show up to begin with? As a salesperson, our number one job is to drive sales and help people every single day. Say yes if you're going to commit to doing that in 2021. Yes. Okay, good. Rule number two, focus on your potential. Most people focus on where they're currently at versus their true potential of where they want to be. What I've learned is my personality is I wake up frustrated because I feel like I'm not doing enough. I'm not moving fast enough. I haven't accomplished enough. All right. My wife and I just bought a three quarters of a million dollar home in Springfield, Missouri, and it's pretty nice in the little small area. Okay. It's not Phoenix. And the second they were in the house, I'm like, babe, it's too small. It's too small. I'm like, I got to move faster. I'm not doing enough. Like I'm still having a flight commercial and I want to buy an airplane. Like I need to move quicker. Well, what happens in those moments when I'm focused on the dissatisfaction and what's going on or the lack of speed of where I'm getting there and the impatience, it's because I'm focused on where I'm currently sitting instead of my true potential. Like a lot of salespeople think they've got, they're like God's gift to the world and they're just the most amazing salespeople on planet Earth and they're incredible. And what keeps me humble and focused is focusing on my true potential instead of where I'm currently at. Right? Who's okay committing saying, you know what? I can get better. I can improve. I can definitely do more and I'm just going to start doing it today. The moment you start focusing on your potential, everything will change because you'll start focusing on where you want to be versus where you currently sit. Rule number three, short-term targets. We just did a Texas training tour in Texas. We went to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio in Austin. We had like 600 agents registered for this free training tour we did in Texas. And we planned the event in 13 days. Like we planned it 13 days before. Planned the whole event in like 13 minutes and then rolled it out. What I've learned is, like for example, who set a goal in 2020 and you did not reach it? Okay? Why do you think most people, if they don't reach their goal, why didn't they hit it? Okay? Good? Good? And every answer is going to be correct by the way. I'm just going to give you my answer, which is it was too small. And I always get some odd faces like, dude, what do you mean it was too small? I didn't hit it. I said it. And I didn't get there. How is it too small? If I didn't hit it, then it didn't challenge me. If I didn't hit it, it didn't wake me up. If I didn't hit it, then it didn't pull me forward. So we have short-term targets like crazy where I'm like, hey, like for example, if I just came back, jumped into the U.S. Health Advisors Office in Phoenix, I would be like, how do I sell 100 health insurance policies this month? I'm going to claim something so big that it's going to pull me forward. It's going to pull me towards that target. And I've learned that the faster I go from, hey, I want to do this, to actually starting to do it, the more successful it is. And so instead of like, because a lot of ages are like, hey, who hasn't made six figures, but you'd love to? Hey, good. Right? There's no doubt you can do it here, number one. Whether you believe it or not, I promise you it's true. You've got to start to believe it before you can ever achieve it. But here's the cool thing of what happens is you want to make 100K cool. You need to have short-term targets along the way that actually keep your attention. Saying you want to make 100K and then spreading it out over the course of a whole year before you know it, like you've lost interest in the target within 90 days, six months. Before you know it, you're like, I don't even know what goal I had to begin with. Because not only do I set a goal, number one, break it down. Number two, that's $2,000 a week. I would start pumping out, like, how do I do the activity to earn five grand a week so that as long as I hit those numbers, 100 grand is going to come. Like, how do I make short-term targets that are going to keep my attention? They're so insane. Like, here's the way I think about targets, by the way. Number one, I want it to scare me to death. I want it to be so big that it scares me to death that I have to deliver or I embarrass myself. Number two, after I set a target and I only don't want it to be insane and scare me, I want to tell everyone. I can tell who believes in your goal by how many other people you tell that it's going to happen. When I made six figures my first year in the industry at 20 years old, I told everyone it was going to happen. I had my dad sign the paper. I posted the paper on social. I told everybody I went to school with. Like, I committed to it. A lot of times we say it, I want to do it, but we never fully commit. We never fully write it down. We never fully sign it. We never fully make it public and tell everyone. Because what that does is that holds you accountable along the way. So you have to get to where. Not only do you have a big goal. Great. But you've got these short-term targets along the way. I'm talking one day, seven days, 14 days, a month, something short that is crazy that pulls you towards that. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay, good. Who's going to do that in 2021? Good. Who learned something new today that you've never heard? Excellent. Okay, good. Rule number four, never quit. Life is going to get really good. I said it earlier, life is going to get really good as long as you choose not to quit. The only reason insurance agents fail is they choose to quit. The only reason Dan is so successful and good-looking and wealthy and... What else? What else? The dude, the dude, the guarantee there was moments he wanted to quit. Early in his career, for example, I had one day where I had 12 appointment scheduled to go out in the field. I'm like, holy freak, this is going to be a good day. 12 appointments, every hour on the hour. I go out, eight stand me up, I sit with four of them, nobody buys. You better believe I wanted to quit that day. I promise you, life will get really good as long as you choose not to quit. We did a virtual conference for 3,000 agents last April, and we titled it if you don't quit, you can't fail. I really believe that as long as you choose, I am never going to quit, life will get really good. Who's been in the industry for a little bit where you're like, dude, I can tell that life gets really good. I could see everybody laughing at you earlier, so I knew you had been, okay? And you're okay raising your hand saying like, dude, I know, because I didn't quit, life got really good, right? Life gets incredible. This industry is the best, it's not the sexiest, but it is the best industry on planet Earth. Like you don't walk into Career Day saying, I want to be an agent, you know, or you don't go to booths at the career fair saying, oh my goodness, insurance is for me. Like I never did it either. However, I knew that as long as I didn't quit, life would get really good. For example, my in-laws told my wife when we first got married, why doesn't he get a real job? Imagine if I would have. I'm glad I didn't now. Who's ever, who's heard that before? I don't want a job. I want a career. I don't want a job. I want something to create financial freedom forever. I don't want a job. I want to be the CEO. I want to be the boss. I want to have a growth mindset. I don't want to just walk in and get my coffee and hate my life and clock in and all sort of stuff. I want control. And that's what you guys got. So who's okay saying, you know what? I'm committing. Let's change it up. Stand up if you are committing to not quitting this year. Because I promise you, but don't do it unless you mean it. Okay? Don't do it unless you mean it. There's going to be a lot of moments. Last training in Texas in Austin, I had to go like, pick a kid out of his chair because he didn't want to stand up. Okay? Give yourselves a hand. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There we go. They all committed, Dan. They all committed, man. Okay? There's going to be a lot of moments in 2021 when you think about quitting. Right? Your back's against the wall. You're drowning. You can't make a sale. You don't know what to do, but as long as you choose not to quit, one day, you're going to look back and say, 2021 was the year I chose not to quit. And my life is incredible now because of what I did that year. So thank you for making the commitment. Rule number five, remove limiting beliefs. We all have these, but we don't know it, typically. There are mental barriers called limiting beliefs that are things in your head that are mentally holding you back from taking the next level in your life. For example, fear to be uncomfortable, to get out of your comfort zone. Like, you better believe I didn't want to make a bunch of cold calls when I was a brand new agent. Like, it scared me, but I knew I had to do it. It was a limiting belief. Fear of spending money because I don't think I'm going to be able to go recoup it. That's a fear. That's a limiting belief. Or, here's a big one for me. I don't know about for you guys, but worry about what everybody else thought of me. Worrying about what my friends thought. Worry about what my family thought. Like, I wouldn't do something. I wouldn't take an action because I worry about what everybody else was thinking, man. I want you to focus on figuring out what those limiting beliefs are. I'm telling you, there's something that is mentally holding you back from taking the next level in your life. You have to identify it, and then you have to do everything you can to eliminate it. Anybody else have an example of one that has held you back that you've started to actually overcome and everything's changed? Maybe it's one I mentioned. Maybe it's one I didn't mention. For me, it was my accent. Okay. Accent? Yes, dude. It's all up there. Totally. I had a gentleman in Houston, Texas say the exact same thing to me. And I swear I didn't even notice the first eight seconds he was talking until he mentioned it. So I think a lot of times we create these false beliefs of things that are going to thank you for being honest to mention that. Because we create these things that we think are going on and holding us back or people are thinking when in reality they're not. So that's something that, for example, I know only Dan and Clayton are actually Cardone fans. And nobody else likes them. Which is fine. Or is that true or not true? Okay, good. Okay, good. Clayton, you lied to me. No, just kidding. No, I know. He didn't say that. I'm just joking. But I paid to go to a $50,000 master mar with Grant Cardone back in February of 2020. This was one of the things that he mentioned that got my attention like nothing else. I was like, holy crap. I've always worried about what everybody else thought. Like when I would do videos, we've got 28,000 insurance agents subscribed to our YouTube channel now. Who's subscribed to our YouTube channel, by the way? Okay, good. How about that? That's cool, man. Thank you. Boom. Okay, can we fix that and get everybody else on there today? Okay? It's free. Okay, good. Thank you guys. We're on it, though. That's awesome. But what I've learned is I used to not do a video or like overthink stuff. Like who else like overthink something before you do something? I'm telling you details delay. Details delay. The more you think about doing something, the less likely you are to ever do it. Procrastination is real. Also, time kills all deals. Whether that be me personally adding time to whatever I want to do or talking to a prospect and allowing time for them to think about it. The longer a prospect thinks about buying for insurance from you, the less likely it is that they will actually buy it. I promise. Who's committed to figuring out what those are this year and removing as many of those as you can? Okay, good. This will be tough. This will be one of the toughest things I've said. Rule number six, effort. Effort. I remember at 16 years old working at a local Apple Market, a little grocery store in Rogersville, Missouri. And I'm supposed to go to work at four o'clock. She's enjoying this. That's all right. Either way. That's awesome. He's enjoying this. That's good. So let's go to work at four part-time. It's 3.30. And I'm throwing up. I don't feel good. So let's go to work at four 30 minutes before I'm just not feeling well. I go to my dad. I'm 16. I'm not feeling well. I don't want to go to work today. He said something that I still think about every single day. He said, you do whatever you want to do. But you know what I would do. So I went to work. Because I've never seen him miss a day of working his life. When I don't feel like speaking at 7.30 a.m. in Orlando after I get in at 2.30 or 3 o'clock in the morning, guess what? I do it anyway. Because effort is the name of the game. Like there's three things. We don't have a whiteboard doing that. There's three things that could hold you back from hitting your target. Thank you, buddy. From hitting your target in 2021. Somebody give me a goal. Or if you don't have one, you need one. But at least just make it up and make me think you do. Buy a Tesla by my next birthday. Dude, I like that, man. Give him a hand. That's awesome, dude. I want a Tesla. That's good. Okay, give me an income goal for 2021. Okay, good. 1.5 million issued. And what's your name, ma'am? Caitlin? Oh, you're good. Okay, good. Thank you. There's only three things that could hold Caitlin, right? Back from doing that. Who wants to know what those are? I'll tell you later. Okay. All four of us will tell you later. Okay? Anybody else? Okay, good. Number one is effort. Number one is effort. Majority of agents struggle with the effort piece. The second piece that could possibly keep Caitlin from doing this because she may not put forth the effort. She may not work hard enough. Now, I hope that's not true. But it's up to her. We'll find out, right? You work hard, right? Everybody seems to agree, so that's good, right? That means she's a great example for all of you. Second, skill. She may not be skilled enough for that to happen. Now, I'm thinking she probably is from what I'm hearing. However, what's unique is she chooses how much effort she puts in. She also chooses how much skill and how developed her skill becomes and how good she becomes at what she does. Getting really great is a choice. Like if you're in a place where your skill isn't up to par and you're like, dude, I'm new. My skill is not where it is. Guess what? You can put in the effort for your skill to go up. True, true. So it's a choice. We get great because we decide to. Third thing that can hold you back from doing 1.5 million, Caitlin, this year, knowledge. She may not know enough for that to happen. But guess what? If we wanted to download Dan's health insurance brain into mind and I wanted to absorb everything he knows about health insurance and selling health insurance, could I learn everything he knows? Yes. Which means all it takes is effort. The only thing that could keep you back from doing whatever you want is effort, skill, or knowledge. And guess what? If you don't put forth the effort and work hard enough, if you don't put forth the effort for the skill to go up or if you don't put forth the effort to actually learn what you need to know, then you can't do what you want to do. But it all starts with what? Effort, which is a choice. Which means the ones that are successful chose to do whatever it takes to be successful. Who was dissatisfied with your personal effort level in 2020? Good news is you can change it this year. Who's going to make a commitment right now to change it this year? Okay, good. Good. Me too. Okay. Rule number seven. You got to train every day. You're going to love this. In my office, we train twice a day. Sales training videos, either Cardone U or my sales system, we discuss what we learned, and then we role play twice a day as well. Right? I get it. It's awkward. It's cheesy. Nobody really likes it. However, I've seen average salespeople get great only because of role playing. But most people role play incorrectly when they role play. Can we teach you how to role play correctly? Here's what you got to do. Number one, we stand up when we role play. A lot of people try to role play sitting down. It's like, I won't be sitting down all day. I might as well stand up when I'm doing this. Right? Number two, we role play something specific, and we role play it the whole week. So every time we role play twice a day, those 10 role playing sessions for the whole week, we role play that one piece, that one objection that we were struggling with, that one closing phrase, that one referral phrase, those trial closes to create engagement before we ask for the sale. We role play one specific piece the entire week. Most people don't do it right. You want to go from average to great. You will start to take this thing seriously. What I didn't say earlier is as a brand new agent, to Brian Tracy's, the art of closing the sale every single day in my car. I still don't listen to music in my car because it doesn't make me better. Yeah, it gets me hyped, but it doesn't actually make me better at being a master of the art of my craft. You want to get great. You want to have a ton of skill. You will train every single day. I don't care if you got to train, like role play with yourself in the mirror. I don't believe in practicing on the first call and we train and role play every single day. There's five things I do to start my morning every single day. I started doing these three years ago and it changed my world. We're going to see if you guys will do all five. Who wants to know what those five are? Number one. Number one, I'll wake up before 6 a.m. For some that seems easy. For some it's like, oh, I'm not a morning person. I used to tell myself the same thing. Good, boom. Number two, I write down my goals every morning. Good. You're with me so far. That's good. Who else is? Good, good, good, good. Actually every day, by the way, I also work out every day. Energy is everything. Me and this guy are like the same person. Energy is everything. Your energy matters. I only work out. Yeah, because I stay fit. However, I do it because I don't sell, you don't sell health insurance. You sell conviction. You sell passion. You sell you. You sell a relationship. You sell a personality. You sell a belief in what you sell. And you do that by transferring energy across the phone. If my energy is low, if I didn't go, like the gym is at Talking Stick, where we're doing an event, and my energy is closed, I could choose not to work out. I have an out. I have an excuse. But I'm going out and running around the desert. It's not really that hot right now. Compared to July. Right? But I'm doing that because I'm speaking multiple times today and I need my energy to be right. So, work out. Okay? Four, I learn something every morning. Audio book, book, YouTube video. I got to be learning always. And number five, I'm going to test you now. I finish every shower with a couple minutes of ice cold water. Dude, you got to add that now. Okay? Okay? It's not possible here in the summer. Yeah, and you know what? The water is not near as cold here as it is in Missouri. I'll tell you that, okay? But why? Why? Number one, it wakes me up. I like feeling alive. I like feeling awake. And another big thing is it forces me to start my day with something I don't like to do. I believe in starting... I don't believe like people are saying, you know, on social media that you can do whatever you want and you'll still be successful. Like, you don't have to do the stuff you don't want to do. I don't believe that. We have to do stuff we don't want to do to be successful. I'm training myself every morning to do something I don't want to do to kick off my day. Okay? Here's... Before I jump to the last one, one more thing real quick. Okay? Here's my excuse's policy for 2021. Number one, I don't make them because nobody cares. I mean, honestly, like, no one cares if I start making excuses. Easiest thing in the world to do, make excuses, oh, it didn't succeed because of this. Oh, I didn't make money because of this. Or it's dance fault. Or it's my manager's fault. Or it's my trainer's fault. Or it's my family's fault. Like... Not enough time of the day. Yeah, not enough time of the day. Like, we can make up so many excuses. We can tell ourselves whatever we want. But what I'm doing is if I make an excuse for my lack of success, I'm actually psychologically telling myself it's okay that you failed. And here's why. And if I believe there's a moment where it's okay to not succeed and I, like, make myself think it's okay, like I also believe when it comes down to closing, I believe that it's up to me to close a deal and there is a sell on every single call whether we believe it or not. And if I don't close a deal, it's my fault. And I believe that if I justify, well, they weren't interested. Like, who is interested when you get a sales call? Really, right? If they're not... I can do a whole other day on objections. I'm learning, though, that if I justify a lack of a closed deal with an excuse, and I think there's ever a time where it's okay that I don't close a deal, there's gonna be a lot of other times in the future where I'm gonna justify and think it's okay that I didn't close the deal. That's why I don't think there's ever a reason to not close a deal. Second, is I don't listen to them. Like, the reason we did the training tour in Texas is I, my sales team put me on the phone with four different insurance agents in one morning and I spoke to all four of them and all four of them made excuses for lack of success in 2020. There is not an excuse that you can say to justify a lack of success in 2020. So my personal excuse policy in 2021 is what? I don't make them and I don't listen to them, right? Nobody cares when I say them, so I'm not gonna care when everybody else says them, okay? Who's committing to training more in 2021? Who's committing to training more in 2021? Who's committing to training more in 2020? All right, here we go. Rule number eight, invest in yourself. It's not optional. I believe you have to pay to pay attention. If I don't invest in myself, I'm showing that I'm not as serious about my success as I thought. I'm not saying you gotta spend 50 grand. A book, an audio book, right? Somebody's time, some learning, some knowledge. Like, we just talked about the skill and the knowledge piece. Like, the amazing thing about this company right here is if there's something you don't know, somebody knows it and it can be more than just money, by the way. It can be time. It can be energy and everything will start to change. The whole ballgame will start to change when you choose to invest in yourself this year. Who's committing to doing that? Okay, good. Now, here's my challenge as I wrap up, okay? You guys have been awesome. Energy's been amazing. I want you to look back in a decade, 2031 and say, I'm so successful in 2031 because of the actions that I took in 2021. I have so much money in 2031 because of the effort I put in in 2021. My family is in such an amazing spot in 2031 because of the skills I developed in 2021. Success is a choice. Success is a decision. And I want to challenge you to make that decision this year. Thank you. Actually... Yeah, keep it going. Keep it going. Hey, if you enjoyed this... I got another one. You got a lot. It's right there. Click on it. See you in there. Walk me through that. Like, how did you start? What were you selling? What did it look like? What were some of the struggles you identified and noticed? And what are some things we can focus on that can help that agent that maybe is in the position that you were 30 years ago?