 Cody I'm part-time, you know, should I really do it? Should I really go for it? What's unique about you is you're making 60 70k a year, you know five six grand a month solid income and above average income You know, maybe not in Connecticut, but in especially in Missouri, but just in general You freaking went for it, you know, you saw the potential you're probably someone that you know the sports background all that obviously I've heard and I want you to share at some point too is but just in general You're probably someone that's like if he's doing it, I can do it, you know And so talk about that a little bit because to be able to pull the trigger and go for it if you took a disc assessment, you'd probably be at a High D high I you know, I'm just guessing. Yeah, I mean For me it was like so just to kind of even backpedal it further like I I've always been obsessed with I've always wanted to be in the special forces that was something I've always wanted to do and My wife knew that's what I was, you know, she knew that about me when we met And I was actually planning on leaving to go and do that I don't know my test and everything and gotten where I probably one of my biggest regrets in life is not being in the military I just I just I just love it. I love I just love our our military and and and I've got buddies that serve and so Just something about it that I just I've always been really really drawn to I think it's that sense of team that sense of community that sense of just the competitive nature of it and You know the fact that a lot of folks said, you know, that you know, there's only so many that make it that that was always very intriguing to me But you know, we were starting to have a young family Kind of kind of sat down and realize that this probably wasn't probably wasn't gonna be the best thing If I was gonna be a family man to to go and pursue that dream So, you know, my biggest passion in life is I've always known I've wanted to help a lot of people, you know I want to be able to Provide for my family in the manner that's best in the best interest of our family not based on what's in our account You know what we want to do. I want to be able to help my parents out who were kind of in a tight situation I want to be able to give back to my my outer circle So it's like I had a buddy of mine who had a cancer benefit a few years back and was able to donate like 500 bucks And I'm just like how can I get to the point where I can donate 5,000 15,000 20,000? So for me, it was like I what I was doing at that moment in time I knew wasn't gonna be able to fulfill all my passions. I thought that I if I did like the military that would fulfill my You know that that I could make some sort of tangible difference But this is the next best avenue that I've found to be able to do that from an income standpoint It's not about money to me. It's it's to me. It's like money's just paper It's but it's what you can do with it You know to be able to give back in a massive way and like I measure everything on like the rocking chair test If I'm 75 80 85 years old and looking back on my life Reflecting upon my life. I want to know that I made some sort of difference So for shifting over from part-time to full-time when I saw that when I saw the potential I I immediately recognized that this was a this was an avenue that would allow me to truly fulfill my passion And really achieve my why and so and then and then once I dove in at that point It was I'm just like I'm a hundred and ten percent into whatever I'm doing at that moment time So at that time it was insurance. I'm a hundred and ten percent in I'm not gonna fail What am I gonna do quit on my wife and kids? Like it's not an option And I think success becomes really easy when when failure really isn't an option you know you get back into a corner and It's made like how far can I get ahead of everything? Far to my how far how far I can get ahead of my lead bill my personal bills like I want to get so far ahead like I'm not I got you know, I'm sure you're a football feeling like I don't want to be up NFL I don't want to be I don't want to be a you know two scores at the half three scores at the half Like anything can happen NFL football game like I want to be up like seven eight nine ten scores I've always kind of taken that approach with everything that I've done and Yeah, I mean and the transition from full-time to part-time I don't Initially, it was very part-time very very half-heartedly, you know working a weekend here and there But then as I was approaching full-time It was really my part-time schedule was probably similar to a lot of folks is full-time schedule And I think like it's like a buddy of mine Eric Schmidt who came over from the car business was in the car business for 20 324 years he was working about 50 60 hours a week making a hundred eighty hundred ninety grand, you know a Year over there, but but not be able to spend a lot of time with his family I mean the dealership basically owned him, but when he transitioned he knew he wanted to get out and He saw what I was doing and he When he wasn't at the dealership on that transition I mean he was still running he was able to run 15 appointments a week like so when he wasn't at the dealership He was run a part-time so like everyone's definition of part-time for me like if you're gonna do a part-time You definitely have to be able to get in front of You got to get in front of a bunch of families right away to know if it's something that's gonna be for you or not Is there anything else you guys want to add as someone that I view as an influencer in our industry? Looking to help people looking to you know, maybe from a from a podcast personal brand Content perspective anything else you guys want to add some final tips for anybody that's looking to do something like that Well, I think you got to get you you know figure out what you're good at first of all and You know put a lot of content out on social media and do it in a way that Has zero expectation of anything in return, but just wanting to help people and That doesn't you know, I've been I've been saying this for a year now But if I had it to do over again, I love Bradley so much and I do anything for him but I would have probably started a podcast and The niche markets that we sell commercial insurance because instead of You know the way we did this is really Mind-numbing in the fact that we're we're just talking to other insurance agents Yeah, if I was gonna get in the podcasting world and I was in the insurance space I would be talking about my niche market whatever it was that I was selling Here's the key with that like don't you know don't do a pod if you're niche as apartments Don't do a podcast about apartment insurance. Do a podcast about apartments, right bring influential people in right? And a five products of that is they're gonna look we do a podcast to the insurance industry I sell insurance from that podcast, right? Somebody asked me the other day like Bradley, you know social media is great But like I don't really think you can sell commercial insurance on the C side. I'm like dude do the podcast and Rowan Oak, Virginia, wherever you are the Rowan Oak business podcast Interview other business people about their business. Yeah video it record it You've got your podcast. You've got your video not to mention 80 little one-minute clips. You can put out there, okay? Other business owners are gonna watch it. They're gonna know your name The business owner you interviewed is gonna feel guilted into letting you quote their commercial insurance If you ask for a deck page after you've given them free advertising other businesses are gonna reach out to you Swear to God this is gonna happen. Other businesses are gonna reach out to you and they're gonna say hey Bradley Can I really please can you interview me on your podcast? It'd be great advertising for your business Yeah, Rick the cost is I need your deck page. Mmm You will sell commercial insurance on Facebook on social media like why this why I mean, you know So and why am I not doing that? I know you talked really quick there about how to Pivot keep control of the conversation move it where you want to go That's one thing I also believe a lot in is in phone cells is the person in control You know not from a jerk standpoint, but just in control of the conversation It's definitely gonna get farther if you're able to keep control of it And you know it doesn't mean you have to talk a lot, right? Because of me you can you can let them talk and then feel like they're dominating the conversation and they're sharing Which is what you wanted to do, but you're able to just pivot and steer like you talked about yeah, absolutely And and here's the thing if you're in the sales game, you know And I think that sometimes it gets painted negatively the the idea that we're salespeople and that we are doing certain techniques to To try to control the conversation. Well, that's our job Our job is the subject matter as experts is to control the conversation is to make sure that we're going down the right avenue and not chasing Going down a bunch of rabbit holes So I don't think there's any problem at all with with doing the right thing in terms of asking the calm asking the questions necessary to steer them in the direction of Providing the correct information for that consumer situation So we do that exact same thing that you're talking about Cody you were probably actually the first person that taught us that You you say it differently say it again. It's it's ask yeah, yeah agree answer and ask Yeah, agree answer and ask and so I also it was it was Reinforced by a book called the conversion code that another buddy recommended and then in there they call it acknowledge respond pivot Meaning the exact same thing right, but it's so powerful Because that's what needs to happen anytime somebody brings up an objection over the phone You need to acknowledge their objection you need to acknowledge that you're actively listening you hear it You respond to that objection with an answer So hopefully that's been well rehearsed so that you have a good a good way of controlling And then you go ahead and pivot with asking another question It continues directing the conversation the way you want it to go tell us about for a quick second Digital life insurance agent mastermind. It was it was in vegas, right? Yeah last it was uh earlier this year in vegas We had about 120 Agents It's a two-day thing. We're planning our next one for next april or may And yeah, what we do is we just get agents in the trenches. We're not getting any carriers to speak. We're not getting any Anybody that's going to try and sell you something on the stage everybody needs to provide value We prefer agents in the trenches that are very successful And so you kind of learn like the ins and outs and really it's just a place to connect with other Digital life insurance agents. We're such a small niche and we get I mean And people take cracks at the digital life insurance space all the time face-to-face agents saying how it doesn't work How your persistency is terrible how Excellent, you know, and it's just one of those things where we know what it really is We're all going to hang out. We just have a great time. You know we It's it's basically a two-day party with a ton of value That's awesome. That's cool. You know what you know what I love about that Is and the same thing great percent is bringing those online relationships offline, you know, and i've learned Like even getting to know you over the last couple years. It's it's been uh It's been incredible the people you meet, you know, because of conferences and events and things mastermind things you can do in general It's just i'm learning that it is small Networking is important. I used to ignore it, but man Um, I love i'm enjoying socializing other people I always leave a valuable nuggets, you know, uh, I think it's great Absolutely, um, I mean building community is is everything. I mean we're as life insurance agencies We're at home working by ourselves, you know to be able to get with people and talk to people that are doing what you're doing And uh and learning from each other, you know getting out of that That bubble Picking up new new skills and new insights is just is worth it. I mean I always tell people it's not the Yeah, you're gonna get a ton of value from the speakers But it's those sidebar conversations where somebody you're just gonna leave you nugget and uh, you're it's just gonna change the way You do your business