 Welcome, I'm Cody Eskimo, security mentor. I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing my buddy David do Ford with final expense age of mentor How are you brother? I'm good. Cody. Thank you so much for having me today. How you doing today? Good, man I'm doing well. I had a good I had a good weekend. How about you? I? Did absolutely nothing. It was the greatest weekend ever. Nice man. That's always the best. It really is it's always It's always more fun that way. That's right. Absolutely Dave Man you've inspired me and you're probably inspiring a lot of other people not only do you deliver valuable content almost every day But you're someone that thinks bigger. You're someone that is putting your thoughts on paper I think it's super impressive that you started you started to write books. You're I mean How soon how early in your career did you realize? Hey, I want to bring value and help agents When did you when did you learn that that was your mission? Well, I'll give you the short and the long The first start when I wanted to recruit agents. Let me just be honest with you, right? Second of all, truthfully, I mean, you know how it is you've been doing this a long time This business is predominated by multi-level marketing which typically issues and and and and covers up the transparency of information information wants to be free and I saw myself going through this business realizing that it's a great opportunity if done the correct way So that's where the idea of doing the YouTube videos came from That's where the ideas of writing the books came from just as a way to translate what I've learned through my miserable failures and successes to an extent here So people hopefully could learn from them and give themselves a best shot into the insurance business You've done an incredible you did an incredible job I really believe that if you're not a household name amongst insurance agents You will be very soon. Just you you can't look up an insurance related video Without finding valuable content from you. So thank you from myself and all the agents in the business For everything you do before we jump in Appreciate it. Thank you. You got it. So You you've recently written a book. I'm guessing it's finished Pretty much yes What was your motivation for this specific book? Yeah, so so the book is entitled interviews with top producing insurance agents and the whole motivation behind this book. I'm actually looking over here on my Giant bookcase here several years ago. I read this book here. It's called the greatest insurance stories ever told It's an mdrt book Million-dollar roundtable book for you guys that don't know and inside of this are like all the the legends of selling insurance You've got Tony Gordon Sidney Friedman Mar Feldman's in their normal vein these guys are all Bert Meisel great guy great great book to get but what was nice about this Book is that it was not just a another here's how you sell insurance book It was actually a deep dive into the history and And in the stories of how these insurance agents Started in the business which many of them started from unusual circumstances They started with you know, no apparent signs of guarantees of success. There were normal people and how they had dramatic success I love the concept of the book and but the problem there's not so much of a problem with this book It's just it tends to be I want to say outdated or antiquated. There's definitely Eternal lessons for any insurance agent in this book, but I wanted to give kind of an up-to-date feel specifically around What I would call retail Insurance sales, you know more of the mom-and-pop type of sale versus what's in this book is more of your business owner type of selling corporate Executives that kind of thing. So that's what I did. I've done a series of interviews over the past Maybe half of year with you You're featured in the book, of course with a lot of other people and simply put all I wanted to do was detail their success from start to finish to where they were currently and Give an avenue for new agents struggling agents to see Really what people are like getting in this business and what really is possible, you know You talk about thinking big the importance of it and I can't agree anymore. It's absolutely important and that's what I attempt to do at this book is is to show what you can do and Get people to really be excited about selling insurance. Yeah, we talk about all the time Everyone on YouTube does about 92% of agents fail and so by I think it's brilliant to culminate a lot of people that have fortunately had success in this business and you're able to bring all those together for every insurance agent in the country to what and in the world to learn from Other successful people just like yourself So I think that's I think that's super cool And and I'm excited to get to get a copy of and get to read it interviews with top producing insurance agents So who is who's all in this book? Who's whose profile in the book? Of course, you and I did an interview together Where we talked extensively about selling final expense over the phone that as you know has been a hot topic Over the last couple of years. It's gained a lot of steam and there's a lot of people interested So I thought why why not interview you? You know, you've got a lot of experience doing it and you would be a perfect Example of how to do it successfully Also, probably your audience being on YouTube probably familiar with a Christopher Westfall if you've done any sort of Medicare Sales training type of video searches on YouTube. You'll run across Christopher Westfall. He's got a great story Literally a rags to riches story Also, if you're in final expense Most likely you've got a contract through guy named Allen town He is a three-decade veteran in the final expense business He literally was around before it had kind of like any sort of steam or as much Impact as the day this guy is his business his agency He has issued in excess of a half billion dollars in final expense business And we get to see his process getting in the business as a bartending Surfer in Florida to a guy that makes, you know, millions and millions of dollars Just worry us to this point today. So it's a great Transition and then of course we talked a lot of six-figure final expense agents that look, you know started came from teaching came from Places not related to sales, you know all walks of life again to give that full diverse picture of you know Who's out there who's successful and what it took to get them there? Wow, that's cool man. That's a lot of rags to riches, you know, if I can suggest a theme song for the book Start started from the bottom now. We're here, right? That's cool, man rags to riches that and you know what you got a lot of good names there that we can all learn from West Fall and in particular I got a lot of respect for what he's done for this for this business the fact that he's an ex-police officer I love that, you know naturally. I think that's just amazing. That's cool. He's a natural He's naturally good at Serving people and helping people and so I think that's awesome. I think it's really cool. Yeah, so You there's hundreds if not thousands of people that have been successfully entering business, maybe tens of thousands Why'd you select these individuals and shoot? Why was I so lucky? Well, I thought it would be important again kind of going to the concept of this book the greatest insurance stories ever told to Give it an updated feel but but I also wanted to give more diversity as far as the people who represent Success if you will sure and but but also their backgrounds and the products they sold so a lot of whom I chose is simply because they represent the unique different lines of Essentially retail most of the time retail type of insurance sales. So I just didn't want to book about final expense agents I think a lot of people will benefit from the the stories about final expense agents who've been become successful But maybe their final expenses it for them Maybe I could inspire someone to have interest in disability sales like the interview that I did with Jim Schneider a great guy Great product to sell. So I wanted to also educate people not just on How to be successful but with what products to be successful too So that was important just as success stories to say you could do not only be successful in final expense But maybe you're more inclined to selling Medicare look at Nick Williams or look at Christopher Westfall Maybe you want to sell employee benefits? I talked with a guy named Jim Ward who started in the 80s and he writes last year wrote 15 million dollars in employee benefits He's got over 200 employees. Yeah nationally. That's what he does and again this guy started off literally as a He came out of West point, you know with with very little business experience So I wanted to just show that whole profile not just with right it's enough to shit It's great to for agents to see successful stories from start to finish But also that you can do it with anything and that's kind of the trick right as a find the product that we believe in Or most passionate about and then apply to kind of lessons that we learned from these agents to Hopefully realize the same level of success. Yeah, exactly. And then there's a lot of Difficult that's what's probably one of the biggest struggles for agencies There's so many different ways to succeed in this business employee benefits Medicare final expense P&C I mean just they're just there's dozens and dozens of avenues little niches that someone can be successful at And so I think that's important. I think that's cool It's that you kind of highlighted a few so that it wasn't just all this because Just because you may sell final expense Doesn't mean that you can't learn something valuable or pull a nugget from someone that's in this space, right? And so So something that's unique though is when you were interviewing everyone was there a Some commonalities or like a shared work history or prior experiences before they got in the business that you noticed. I Mean, I think you know I think what you'll find through these questions that will continue to ask is it's funny because a lot of people think Okay, what's the best product to sell as a final expense? Is it Medicare? Is it disability? Is it term mortgage protection? But what what's funny is is as I did these interviews I realized that the these the process in which we went down more Now there were some technical skills that of course an agent will read this book and learn that they can incorporate in their own game But many of the guys that are making million dollars plus a year in this business as I interviewed a few to a few of them in This book they talk about mindset They talk about character talk about discipline to talk about these traits That really drove them through to the point where they're just massively successful and I always looked at this as like You know, it's why did why did they spend time talking about all this like character stuff? I mean, okay. Yeah, we've heard all this stuff in school But then as you become begin to experience success Yourself it really is funny how you can start to relate to that more because a lot of these people struggle at one point in their lives You know in the business many of them as we'll talk about face quitting and they keep going anyway So so I think it's not so much the answer your question You know, I didn't see necessarily people that came from say they're from B2B sales or they came from an entrepreneurial background I originally thought that But where we're all these people tend to have more in common is this this mentality of never quitting They they don't give up on themselves. They're in a sense pigheaded discipline and Determined to get their goals that they want to accomplish Well, it's funny because it's not so much of where in a career mindset that came from Because most people don't dream about getting an insurance sales, you know they know end up there because there's no other options and but they but they had this kind of I Don't know this the spirit. I guess you could say all of them did That pushed them forward to this great level of success What is it about? Because a lot of people think that you know what they see They may see celebrities or movie stars or just people in general that are successful And you're like well I really don't want to pattern myself there because they don't have any character anymore or they're not someone that you Want your kids to pattern after or whatever when you were interviewing some of these successful agents What's really neat is you mentioned you mentioned mindset Which is obviously really important for scaling up and growing in anyone in personal life or in business you mentioned discipline which Having the discipline to do the things that you may not always want to do but you're disciplinary you're consistent about doing them I think the coolest thing you mentioned was character along the way Those people didn't lose their character. They didn't let the People knowing them or the money or some of the semi insurance fame Keep them from being Humble and treating people with respect and doing the right things and and still having character Why is why is that something that? They made sure that they didn't lose or naturally they were just good people that never lost it I mean to highlight character for a second because I think it's super important What was it about that and those individuals that? They didn't the character almost grew and got stronger as they grew rather than the opposite which we see a lot of times You know, it's it's kind of an interesting thing. It's an interesting question. You're asking It's the first thing I think of is one of the old Sayings I used to hear was you know money doesn't change somebody It just really reveals more about who they are, you know, it exaggerates their that's good Their negatives right and it's true, you know, I can personally say it for myself You know, I've gone through a pretty big change in my life because of the insurance business And I'm like the same dude that was You know had 90 bucks in his bank account after his first year in the business and was almost broke a little less stressful now Yeah, not any different than I was and you can see the same thing with the people who maintain Sustained success that was important for me too because you can certainly get people who are massively successful And they're but their flashes in the pans. I'm not saying that The ones that are all successful for a long time all can do it because they have perfect character But I tend to think that the ones that have You know bad intentions the ones that are bad guys, I guess you could say and they're out there in every business Eventually if your focus is not on the benefit of the people you're assisting Whether it's your agents or your clients in the field You'll eventually be had you'll eventually be found out and your reputation will be ruined and It's just a matter of time till that happens So I think I think the partially answer your question sort of kind of is I think a lot of these people that I interviewed You know, they're they're my primary focus is on how can they be of service? How can they help and that's what I've realized too? That's why I do that's why you do too I'm sure I'm not putting words in your mouth But you do a lot of videos because you're being a service to people you're helping people and and and the more You help and the more outsized you help people You'll your money concerns your financial success will be well taken care of you know If you don't focus on what can I do to make X amount of dollars and you focus on how many people can I help? How can I assist people? How can I make a difference? It may take longer, but it's the right way and it'd be sustainably successful for it So I don't know if that answers your question code. It was interesting interesting point to bring up I think a lot of these people we talked to in the book really represent that. Thank you buddy That's a fantastic answer I think What you mentioned money kind of brings it out and and and who they really are I think that's cool and this business is so small It's big, but it's small that hey people are gonna talk and if you're if you're not doing right by people You will be found out as you just said you really really will and that's something that I've always noticed about you Everybody in our office. Everyone always says hey you can tell that Dave dude is You can tell he's a good guy and he means well and he really likes Helping people and bringing value. Well going back to the book what when you were interviewing people. What was some of the top? Positive characteristics or traits about them that you noticed that was kind of a general consensus I Think I Think it comes down to just never quit. You know Again, I can think of a couple of people You know West fall at some point in his career had some difficulties You know, he started off in final expense. He did well but for him he saw that it was a hamster wheel and he wanted to get on more of a renewal driven pathway, but it was a very difficult transition and You know, I can tell you personally, you know I had a point in my career where I got deviated from the the known path of success and trying to figure it out like I know better than what already is known to work sure and You know, I temporarily quit the business But I was still drawn back into getting into it because I found out what it's like working for somebody else not my cup of tea so I Think the biggest again it comes back to that attitude it comes back to that mentality. I I commonly say That in business you really have to have faith. It's almost like a religious conviction that despite evidence And despite even your spouse or the closest people in your life telling you otherwise You know, you have to make this personal decision to commit to something because most agents at one point or another will face quitting they'll face a point where They think they can't get out of this, but they've got to find a way to get through it and why is that the case because? vast majority of people on here all Alex face something like that. They fit what I call a pivot point where they could keep they could go back to their jobs They could go back to a wage. They could go back to the comforts and certainty Or they can go all in damn the torpedoes and I think that's the one major factor that all of them have is that they just they don't know when to quit Which is why they're successful. Yeah, I love that but How does someone end up with that because everyone's always faced with trials tribulations tough times as you say What makes one person give up and quit leave the business and the other person Just they're like their their mind is so set on I don't care what happens I will never quit no matter what to walk me through that a little bit because you got a chance to interview some really neat people You know it that's a great question I think I look at this I have books everywhere that that are answering these questions serendipity It's got this book by Brian Tracy. It's I read Brian Tracy. Yeah, it's called maximum achievement. And and it's funny I don't know. I don't know. It's I think I think part of it is that Why do some succeed and others do I don't know if this is It's almost a spiritual thing, you know, when the tea when the students ready the teacher will appear I just think some people some people on some level honestly just can't cut it You know, they've got issues in their lives. They've got excuses They've got reasons why and they're just not ready for the transition to this type of career Which of course on the surface looks easier than it really is because this is really a war between your ears No matter what it is that you end up selling and you've got to conquer yourself in a sense That's why I think it's kind of a spiritual thing in a sense because you've got to be able to handle yourself Which is the most difficult thing anybody can do and Some people are gonna do it and some people aren't So I don't know where is actually exactly going with that I don't I don't really know You know, maybe some people have the luxury and Like myself I'm my father was a business owner. I you know, he struggled for a long time and so I understood the fact of how he went through life and eventually succeeded and sold his business retired young so I have the the the Ability to see what it was like in the transition so I could have a little bit more faith. I guess you could say but Yeah, I don't know, you know, it's it's very difficult to say You know, that's why I made this book. I guess is because you need to have models Design that you can relate to I think I think, you know, if we think of the Bible, you know Jesus is Representative of you know, he Connects with people because he tells biblical concepts and parables You know, he explains something that people can relate to in their life and walk their life Not relating myself to Jesus by any chance However, what I am saying is is that stories are a way to connect and a way to understand on a much deeper level than just being saying close More, you know, or say this script instead, you know Sometimes you need to explain things in ways that you can see. Wow. I'm not the only one who struggles I'm not the only one who think these things. You're not alone and with different stories like this You really get a varied sense of things, but you also see that there is a pattern There's a pattern of success like Brian Tracy says you success leads glues And if you look for the clues in the form of stories and things like that, you'll be surprised. What's fine Is there something that you do or that you notice some of these other agents do to where they're really close to quitting? Is it just is it just is it just the mindset that you know, they're expecting some Some some some negative things to happen and they know that it's in their control to overcome those and keep going We're wearing some people. Maybe don't realize it's gonna be as tough as it is and then they're more likely to give up Well, what would well to touch on that real quick again? What would you? What would you say it is that gets that the one person to not quit versus the other is it just like that? They're mindset to keep going. I mean, it's that that's what that's the part of that. That's just so cool to me And that's why I feel like about 92 out of every hundred agents fell Dude a lot of a lot of them quit. I wish there was something that those eight did. I don't think there is To I think it's just I think it like you said, I think it's just mindset Yeah, you know and a lot of people who who fail think oh, there's some sort of secret sauce they have and Again, this book hopefully will try to dispel that because most people who are successful Experience all the same frustrations that said frustrated person experience, too Well, how did they figure out how to get out of it? Well, they just never quit. I think I think to answer your question though Excuse me. It comes down to a reason why you have to have a burning passion for what it is that you're doing Here we go and in a business such as this where I harken Commission straight commission business you wake up unemployed every morning. All right. It could be your last day You sell anything And it's your complete responsibility. You have to have complete ownership for the outcomes of your business that's a really tough thing to swallow for a lot of people and You have to really really really really Believe in what you're doing believe in yourself and Be committed to the entire process I mean, I can tell you personally about myself. I Absolutely hated Hated the idea of working for somebody else. This was not in my DNA. Yeah, father was an entrepreneur My grandfather was an entrepreneur My uncle was a consultant, you know, he was in a programming side of things and radio And I just the idea of working for somebody else is like it's like my reason why you know I just hated the idea of doing it and then I when I failed out of the business temporarily I had to go get a job. I had to work for somebody and Then and I look back and I'm glad I went through the failure because I learned through the lessons of it that This is what it's like to work for somebody. This is miserable, you know, I have no ability to scale my income I have no control of the politics that are going on, you know My advancement to some extent is determined by the person above me if they like me In and these things just don't do not sit with my genetic function, I guess you could say down to the DNA level And so that was a real strong point and like said, I'm glad I did it because it reminded me of why I got an insurance And it's because of the freedom And it's because of the flexibility and things that you get that so many people like right now are stuck in an Office somewhere that don't want to be there, you know, because that's just the choice they made Yeah, so you have to have a passion That drives you, you know, maybe it's the idea of being extremely successful in life having a lot of money Maybe it's fear of poverty. You don't want to be super poor. My dad always told me that he's he said I the driving force My life was being poor, you know, he grew up in a Catholic six kid household 1200 square feet and Lincoln Park Detroit area so he understood that that was his driving force But I think what you see happen is that people who eventually fail out of this business do so because They they never really had the conviction, you know, they're okay working for somebody else. It wasn't that big of a deal You know that they they like the idea of being free and financially free, but not bad You know, I could work for somebody else. It's not that big of a deal. It's you know So I guess that's why I say it just depends on where you are in your life, you know and and you know, there's kind of this just natural process of Some some are ready for it. Some aren't, you know, maybe they'll come back to it again later in life. That's good Nice. Thank you, buddy. Okay, and also You you dispelled something earlier about how Even people that are successful They have a tough road some agents. They don't see that they would think oh that that person You know that person's never had a rough day in their life They're just they're just they just woke up and they were great at insurance, you know And that's rarely is that actually the case do would you say that even top agents? experience Low points and hardships in their career. Oh, yeah, no no doubt. I mean certainly on the way to the top again, I think that is the Call it the Karmic force of the universe. Yeah, something you have you will be tested You know, you have to in a sense you have to welcome the test of your convictions You say that you want to be success. You say you want to be on top. Okay, the universe puts these obstacles in front of you not to You know to test you, you know Maybe it will take you out and you just weren't ready for it or whatever But you know at this process it's it's all in how you look at the obstacles in what you approach you have to have a mindset of of looking at it for the lesson that you may learn from it and That defeat isn't permanence temporary So and certainly, you know a lot of top insurance agents to certainly struggle, you know to maintain their production to maintain their activity You know many of many of the people you'll talk to her absolutely at the top of their game are very are very Driven and and every detail matters to them and it's very stressful. Again, you may not see it When you see them But you don't see what happens behind the scenes there's so much in life, you know We have Facebook and YouTube we see everything when it's perfect You know see all the work goes into it all the stress all the all the things behind the scenes, right? So, yeah, no, I mean nobody gets out alive. Nobody gets to the top without high risks that had to be circumnavigated you know the the ones that are on top of the ones that face their obstacles down and Circumvented the things that most common people never get over, you know It's that's not because they're more intelligent more smart even even all in town again Who half billion dollars in final expense? He's I think he's like a little over 50 He said to me at the end of years interview. He said Dave I just want your audience to know I ain't got nothing on the on your guys on you guys I ain't got nothing on you except time. It's all I've had just time and absolute laser-like focus. That's all I've ever done It's all been good at and so, you know, that's true You know, it's just time focus and a willingness to commit. It's it's so simple and even try it, but Boy, is it true? Yeah, it's Super super true It's it's I don't know. I don't know about other agents I know it's just true as well because we get a lot of questions about it But just just just that just that mindset being able to handle those challenges to realize that hey When you if you want to be successful, you will experience hardships Like for instance, even our videos and content a lot of your stuff. I guarantee you that You would never know it Dave's had some some bad days some hard days But when you get on video when you when you're focused on delivering value and content You put that aside you move on, you know, you've already overcame so many stinking hurdles in your life and in this business that once you get another one It's just another hurdle, right? I mean Well, it's hard to it's hard to it's hard to remind yourself of this in the moment But the truth is is that Every obstacle every hurdle in your life is a as a reference point of of learning, you know, you get stronger you get more wisdom and And these are the things, you know, I that's what I was reading this morning maximum achievement You know Brian said, you know people who are wise are wise not because they avoided or or never experienced pain Or making mistakes. They're wise because they did So, you know, look that that that's what makes you a Special person a unique person is not the avoidance and never experiencing You know, basically the cycle of humanity which is suffering or their struggle It's what makes you better and and you should on some level embrace it Even though we all want to avoid a lot of the financial stress and things that come along with life That in certain phases of our lives, but without these things that don't make us the kind of quality people that we are I agree. So You not only interviewed a lot of top producing agents that are that are super experienced a lot of ungemini veterans Agents that are maybe, you know, younger like you and I old dudes that everybody in between Different lines of business. We also interviewed agents and marketers that are crafting new methods in this business Tell us a little bit more about kind of the because I really believe the next the next ten years This business is gonna change a lot kind of kind of tell us more about what you experienced in these interviews from that perspective Yeah, so I thought it was important to Look at what has always worked in different lines of business, but also profile those Individuals like yourself that are taking a new twist on the typical routes of doing business like you said You only have to look so far as at Amazon. Let's say and see the entire retail world Upended how Amazon is affected every aspect of normal American consumerism since 20 years ago is just remarkable And the same will happen for the insurance business already is happening to an extent insurance has been a lot slower in this response So I interviewed a couple of people I thought would give us a little bit more of an insight of that first of course it was yourself and taking a traditional business that's done face-to-face and Turning it into a a digital approach to doing business without the necessity of being face-to-face and how to scale that and how to be successful I also did a pretty good interview with a guy named Jeff root who Jeff root has been Yeah, he's been in the business probably for ten years approximately he does a lot of work with agents on the search engine optimization side of things and developing websites and He's got great success stories of people literally in the final expense business one guy in particular Should have interviewed him. Maybe on the next book He's written an excess last year of $500,000 in business final expense in his home because of website leads that he sells Yeah, nobody thinks that's possible if you talk to 90% of final expense agents thoughts. It's Mrs. Jones in the trailer. That's who you sell final expense to she's never heard of the internet obviously not so You know, I wanted to bring some of that out again because it goes back to thinking big opening your mind and looking at ways to differentiate yourself because right now we're in this Technological upheaval. It's gonna have an impact on every aspect of life. It already has and it's coming to an insurance agency near you And and to survive in business you have to adapt or die And so, you know, these stories will and experiences will show people, you know What you can do to prepare for that how you can build your business to be a 21st century type of business and An experience a lot of the opportunity that's really really untapped when it comes to the more I guess you could say modern-day approach to selling life insurance. Yeah on that note How do these how do these top agents handle those technological those those tech opportunities when they come up? And does it have a no even even when it has a negative or positive impact on them? Because a lot of times they're doing business one way business takes a big shift the business this business will take a big shift as it already is How do they maybe it benefits them Maybe it doesn't how do they respond and how do they shift? Well, I mean you just have to be prepared to analyze the market what's going on and then and then plan accordingly You know, I look at the final expense business as a perfect example Right now. We're kind of in this. I don't know. I wouldn't say it's an upheaval But you you see some definite problems was in some circumstances in some markets to generate direct mail leads Yeah, and I'm a big believer in direct mail and There but there's a lot of agents in certain markets that just can't get direct mail I don't know a reasonable price to justify getting into the final expense business And so what's the solution solution is what you do which is generate Facebook leads? They are proven to work there's plenty of testimonials and examples guys that I work with that do well with your leads others as well and You have to take advantage of certain things in order to sustain yourself in the business because there are things that you just have no control over as an agent such as Hey, if you're selling health insurance 10 years ago, you know and the ACA came out it destroyed health insurance agents you know, you have to adapt or yeah, you're gonna die and You just have to be prepared for what's coming on the horizon be willing to be flexible You don't want to change everything. You don't want to change your business model entirely, but You know, you have to be willing to try things out and be in an experimental type of situation So it's not to be counted out. It's not be another statistic of the 92 percent. Yeah, and it goes back to You're gonna you're gonna see some hurdles. You try some new stuff. You're definitely gonna see some hurdles It may make you want to quit going down that road of opportunity But those that do well Adapting or those that like you said, they just never quit they never give up something that Something that I'm extremely impressed with and this goes back to character You as individual The legacy that you're trying to leave on this business that hey, it isn't always about the almighty dollar And if anyone knows you at all knows that you're a dude with a big heart, you know, that loves people cares about people It is in it to help agents Something that I was impressed with this you've decided to Donate the proceeds of this book for a charitable cause Tell us more about that. Yeah, so I did this with the first book We kind of describe that for I described interviews of top insurance agents with the Official guide to selling final expense insurance There's a guy on the insurance form a couple years ago Who was suffering from a disease that he had to literally go to Mexico to get stem cell treatments for he had to raise $50,000 his name was Mark Rosenthal. Yeah, and a lot of people on the forum came out helped out donated and about the same time My book was coming out. So, you know, it'd be great if I could Promote this guy's, you know desire is what he needs help with and and and then cross my book into it and give away the first month's proceeds So we did some promotional efforts and in that case we raised I think about $1,600 that we donated to mark to go towards this fund eventually he raised the full 50,000 and You know, it's very it was doing well at this point. Nice as far as this book What I've decided to do is for the first month the book is out So right now it's slated to be released August 15th, 2018 So for the next 30 days till September 15th, 2018 I plan to give after-cost profits to the wounded warrior project So for anybody that purchases a hard copy book on Amazon or who goes my website and purchases an ebook version It doesn't matter The proceeds after-cost will go towards and one lump sum as a donation towards the wind of war project So I like doing this stuff. It draws a lot of attention to worthwhile causes like this, of course And yeah, so I thought it was pretty good idea. So and I'm even more impressed that it's you know, especially the window warrior project That's beyond impressive Why that cause? Because There's no cause in my mind that really is more warranted to be supported You know, we have the luxury and in the city of ours to Enjoy an insurance business without threats of violence of National of heevils that could take our lives to the point that you know, I probably take it for granted and These men and women put themselves on the lines to protect that freedom and many of them struggle Come back and and bear a lot of what they experienced physically mentally and need help and This this cause is a great job to help them out So I figured hey, you know, this is a way to give back Through what I've done in my life to be successful and you know, what better way to do it Yeah, that helps out in two ways it helps bring valued agents and it and in turn it helps a Extremely worthwhile cause so thank you for doing that for for everybody. That's that's cool. Man. I love that especially Just our military in general. I have a ton of respect for them as I can tell you do as well So that's that's beyond impressive. That's super super cool. Thank you for doing that Interviews with top producing insurance agents. There's a there's a couple of ways to purchase your book I think you just you just let on do a couple of those Again for those that maybe didn't catch what you just said sure. So if you look just gonna assume you're gonna put this and link Or in the description box Cody Should be guys if you look in the description box on Cody's YouTube channel or at least this video You'll see a link to Amazon comm below the video. Yep below the video Yes, and click that link that they'll take you to the book. You can just buy it there That's a hard copy version if you want the ebook you can go to my website. It's FE agent mentor calm Look for the link at the top that says interview book something like that It'll be pretty obvious and then you can just buy the ebook version And read it immediately if that's what you like to do. So either way works. That's cool. That's really good so Kind of take us behind the scenes real quick about writing Having the idea for there's a lot of agents that have a lot of knowledge and maybe they want to put it on Paper they want to write a book. They want to do something creative What was it? What was it that that took you to write a book the things that maybe you've learned about writing a book Publishing a book releasing a book Is there anything that that you want to do you want to add that would help other people encourage other people that Maybe want to do something similar Well Let's see I started my book Tabled it started again and tabled it. It took me about two years to get it out It's it's anybody who's written a book is Gonna find that it's just a it's just a sludge It's takes a long time to formulate the book that the how you're what you're gonna talk about the process in which to write it It's a labor of love. I guess you can say But there's there's a few tips I could give you that I think helped tremendously number one and this is good for me because Mostly I do videos and I can ramble on for a long time as I normally do One great way to end up the hardest part is just starting. I think you and I were talking about that begin with You can always Get some kind of recording device whether it's in front of your laptop and just dictate, you know Come up with a an outline You know, you want to write about the sales process. You want to write about whatever Come up with an outline and then each bullet point you go down. Just start talking start recording And if you look 10 hours of audio probably would be a hundred and fifty two two hundred page book And you can come up with a rough draft. Yes, it's gonna be ugly But now you got something on paper and then you can start to formulate your thoughts You can start to edit it, you know, a lot of book writing takes a lot of editing the first sample is gonna be rough It's a rough draft and you just go through the process clean it up edit it go through it several more times clean it up edit it But to me the biggest thing is like you said getting started doing something and having something to work with it's very hard I found sitting in front of a computer to type out a manuscript to a book So for me it was about okay. Well, I can talk all day, you know I can I can formulate my thoughts fairly well on camera Well, I could do the same thing on audio and then dictate it or get it transcribed and I've got a great outline That's that's me That's a brilliant idea makes it so easy and helps people that want to do it just to start All right So this was all about the book that Mr. David do Ford is releasing interviews with top and top producing insurance agents You can find it at FE agent meter calm or right below this video in the description in the link I'm gonna I'm gonna purchase the book as I feel like others should too for two reasons number one You're gonna get a valuable nugget. You're gonna learn from successful people. So you might as well, right? If you learn anything it's worth Whatever you pay for something if you get one nugget that you can apply to your business I feel like whatever the cost was was You'll get it back a hundred X that so that's the first reason I'll be purchasing it and the second reason is The proceeds are going to the charitable cause that I can get behind and that I would donate to anyway So you might as well, right? In closing is there anything else you want to mention about interviews with top producing insurance agents? Yeah, no, I just I just really feel that this book is meant For the new agent or these especially the struggling agent There are so many people that ninety two percent that you talk about That quit this business Because not because they couldn't be successful, but they just didn't know how to be successful Yeah, and there's nothing worse than a guy who quits because he just didn't know the opportunities that were out there He just didn't know how to get from point A to point B and where a starting point was just miserable like a lot of these agents And so my goal for this book is to help out those agents that want success, but find it elusive that find it difficult you know, there's no points of Lecturing in this book or anything like that It's simply just the stories that these agents decided to convey to me and I think through reading through it struggling agents especially confine answers to some of their problems and can look within themselves and see there's no difference There's no and that's what I want. I want you out there to struggling to look at this book and say There's no reason why I can't be successful like this guy this guy didn't have anything You didn't have a spoon in his mouth, you know silver spoon in his mouth He didn't have any sort of you know mojo or some, you know secret sauce Except he just worked harder than I did and once you realize that you can Take the same type of character traits and implement them in yourselves and change yourself from within to change your outcomes You know You're gonna give yourself a fighting chance to be successful in this business and then eventually over time realize Kind of great things that you get out of selling insurance and working in the insurance business So, you know, that's who I really hope gets this book because it's gonna have the most impact on that kind of agent Nice. Thank you buddy. This is mr. Dave. This is me interview and Dave about me interview and Dave about his book full of Interviews with top producing insurance Dave. Thank you very much very much for allowing us to interview about this book Thank you for writing it and from all the agents buddy appreciate you putting the time and effort So thank you Cody. Thank you for having me and being a part of this book, too I appreciate it. You got it again. The link is below. Make sure to take advantage of it Dave Thank you, brother. Take care. See you. See you guys