Latest / Elevate The Hustle / Stop Growing Your Agency Alone | How to Build Connections That Drive Revenue | Jon Spaugy

Transcript

Stop Growing Your Agency Alone | How to Build Connections That Drive Revenue | Jon Spaugy · Elevate The Hustle

0:00
SPEAKER_00: I always I always give this example.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: So we had a Christmas party.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: We did about 10 of them.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Our second one had 800 people at it.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: By the end of it, we were getting about 200 to 250.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: The problem is the venue that I was doing it at would make me guarantee 300.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: So it was super easy at first, then it got hard.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm working almost as hard getting people there as I am on planning the event.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: So I don't take any of that stuff for granted anymore.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, I want them to have a good time.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Like we were independent agents work really hard.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: So my wife's got an agency too that she's had for 22 years.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: So some marketing reps would make me mad because they'd be like, oh, your wife's not in the office or this and that.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, come to my house, look at my kitchen table, go to the office at 10 o'clock at night instead of being there at 10 o'clock in the morning and see who's at the office still.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what a business owner has to go through unless you're a business owner.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: Elevate the hustle.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Elevate the Hustle, where we break down what it actually means to build teams, scale companies, and lead with intensity.
1:11
SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Stan Mayton.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: And I'm Dom Picharillo.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: Today we are welcomed by John Spoggy, who has spent a decade doing things that most people only talk about doing, building an incredible network of people in the independent insurance world.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, thank you.
1:31
SPEAKER_03: John, clap it up.
1:32
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to Unlov Hell Hustle.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: Before we get on to before we get into your story, who you are and what you do.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: The most important question of the show is what does the word hustle mean to you, John?
1:55
SPEAKER_00: It means work your butt off uh and enjoy it while you're doing it.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Enjoying it's the easy part, right?
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: If you're not enjoying it, like uh you need to find a new hustle.
2:09
SPEAKER_02: You need to find a new hustle.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: At what point did you know that you were a hustler?
2:14
SPEAKER_02: Was it was it ingrained in you from an early age?
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was ingrained in me.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: My my dad was military, and uh I grew up seeing my dad work work hard, my mom worked hard, uh, and then I started probably around 14 uh doing anything I could to bring some money in.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I like that.
2:34
SPEAKER_02: Let's let's go right into it.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: What what were you doing?
2:37
SPEAKER_00: So uh I was mowing lawns, I was going, uh had a newspaper route, went door to door.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh in junior high.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: I was I was selling candy out of my gym bag.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: Me too.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: What kind of kind of candy?
2:53
SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh laughy taffies, uh anything that would sell, buy them for a dime, sell them for a quarter.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: I feel like people don't do that enough these days, right?
3:05
SPEAKER_02: Like the the the you know, buy for a dime, sell for a quarter.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: It's like the oldest hustle in the book.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
3:14
SPEAKER_02: So you're selling candy, you're hustling door to door.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: Where where where do we go from there?
3:21
SPEAKER_02: What where where where is the world of insurance coming to play?
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, as soon as uh actually before I graduated high school, I was already joined the Navy.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: I spent uh three years in the Navy.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was a wonderful uh time.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: There was really no wars going on.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: It was the Cold Wars.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we kind of respected each other and and respected the power.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: So there was just a lot of uh war games and testing each other, but nothing really going on.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: I got out in 1990.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Um I went to work with my brother for a couple months at Tony Roma's, stripping the back of ribs.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Um I got great place, by the way.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: They had great ribs.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: I got out of that.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: My dad was my dad was an insurance, so I always wanted to be like my dad.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: When I went into Navy, I wanted to be an electrician, but they said I wasn't good enough for that.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh I ended up being an operations specialist, which is watching radar um and identifying friend or foe.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Um and a lot of those jobs can go on to be air traffic controllers, which would have been a good career too.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know about these days.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: My uh my mom worked in uh worked for an insurance office, uh Key City Insurance out of Victorville.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: My dad worked there.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh he was the manager.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: I got on uh with them, was there for about uh five years, um and the owner just had us make a decision.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: We could stay on commission, he would give us, or he could give us a raise as as he could, or we could we could look for a job for two months.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, I had broke my thumb and had to go to county hospital, and everybody that worked at that agency was either family to the owner or uh uh military people.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: So I was the one without medical insurance.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: So I was gonna go anywhere in the country.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: I just had I gotta I gotta get a job that has benefits.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And it just so happened I got a job with FIC, uh, which is now Kemper, or really Unitren.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Um had a great stint there, was there 10 years, was in underwriting, commercial underwriting, corporate underwriting, and then finally made it to sales.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Um after that I went to AIG, uh, worked for AIG for almost five years, uh, left before the real crash happened with them.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh I just got an incredible offer from the Hartford.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: I went and worked for the Hartford a couple years, and then I went to work for the general for a couple years, uh, and then finally got over to GMAC, which is NatGen.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Um during that time, I actually started uh insurance association, uh, which is now ABU.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Um started that in what 16 years ago?
6:13
SPEAKER_00: And the original idea was just to have meetings to get agents together.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Our first meeting, we had over 200 agents actually come out.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and shortly after that, I started doing uh conferences.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Um were your parents pushing were your parents like pushing you to go to into insurance, or was it something that you like actually wanted to do?
6:36
SPEAKER_01: Like how did you decide that?
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Again, I wanted to be my dad uh when I was growing up, and that was uh a nice way to do it.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's funny because I you know um both my mom and dad passed away now, but I I'd call them Ken and Connie uh because of the time in the office.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: I never called them that before, but after working in the office with them for uh five years, like most of the time it was it was Ken and Connie.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Um and I had I had the luxury, like I started my own agency uh with a partner in uh 2013.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: Um and the nice thing with with that is when my dad got sick, I spent more time in Ohio for a couple years than I probably did in California uh taking care of him.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And then after um my dad had passed, uh my mom came out here and was with my brother.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I got to spend a lot more time with him.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, like super special time.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Like it's probably the honor of my life to take care of my my parents uh as they got older.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing, John.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: You you're a great you're a great person.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: Anybody ever tell you that?
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I could def uh you know what?
7:49
SPEAKER_00: You find out about yourself uh when stuff like this happens.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: I if if my career ended, I could absolutely be a caregiver.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh I got a lot of patience, uh maybe because it's my parents, so maybe I'm saying that I'm not as good as I think I am, but I could absolutely be a caregiver uh if if if this didn't work out.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's a lot of business.
8:13
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people out there that would not that would not say the same thing, whether it's their parents or somebody else.
8:20
SPEAKER_02: So let's backtrack to ABU.
8:22
SPEAKER_02: So you start you start this association and and the goal is simple, right?
8:26
SPEAKER_02: Let's get a bunch of insurance agents together.
8:29
SPEAKER_02: Was there a structure behind it?
8:30
SPEAKER_02: Was there like a roadmap, a business plan, or was it just like let's get a bunch of people in the room and see what's gonna happen.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: Like if somebody throws me a suggestion, I usually off and run with it.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: So in the 16 years, we've done like seven cruises and like seven-day cruises, not like the small cruises.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: We've done baseball games, I've done two events a year, we've done Christmas parties, we've done picnics.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: It was whatever we could do to get agents and companies together.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: I never wanted to do advocacy, I never wanted to be um a wholesaler or um like segregator.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh that wasn't the plan.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: That was at the end of the day, um, was to bring people together.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I was lucky enough, uh, Ron Thurman, uh, who owned Key City Insurance, like took me to the uh convention like my first year.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: A lot of owners don't do that.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, you don't get that opportunity.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: So I made it.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: I'd always say like the conventions are my Super Bowl.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Like I get to see everybody in one place, I get to network with everybody.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: So it was just one of those things I I think kind of came naturally is like, hey, I know I can bring people together.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: I know I can get people in the right room.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: And then it's up to them.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: But but let's backtrack that first event, those 200 people showed up.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: Were you co-calling them?
9:54
SPEAKER_02: Like were you emailing them, faxing them?
9:56
SPEAKER_02: Like what like how are you getting everybody in the room?
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Here's the cool thing.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: At the time, I was a marketing rep uh with AIG when I first started it.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: So marketing reps are probably your uh in the industry, marketing reps are probably your best advocates out there.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of us, especially back then, is in-person visits.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: It's 60 to 90 visits a a month when you get that all said and done.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: All my friends were were marketing reps as well.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: So I'd be out there promoting it, they would be out there promoting it.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: So it was it's definitely a lot easier then.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, now it's like social media.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Now it's hard though.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, again, you gotta put in the work.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you gotta put in the hustle, like you guys say.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Like some people think you can just throw a meeting together or a conference together and people's gonna show up.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: No, it's it's texting them, it's emailing them, it's calling people.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: It's it's uh it's definitely a lot to to to make these events successful.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: What do you think is the biggest thing that's made your events as successful as they've been?
11:01
SPEAKER_00: So we get we get dinged a long time because we get known as the party association, and we don't party any harder than anybody else, I promise you.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: The only difference is I party hard.
11:12
SPEAKER_02: Uh well you you it says Vegas on your hat.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like you're you're you're making a statement.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: I think the industry calls you Mr.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: Vegas.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: You know, I might have made that up, but it you party hard?
11:26
SPEAKER_02: Is that is that what are people coming just to see you?
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I hope not.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh the one thing I actually say with associations is you better get humble quick because I had that problem.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And I'm a nice guy, but those first like 10 years of doing the association, we were the new fresh thing.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody was coming out.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: It was easy to get people there.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then after a while, like you better um, well, you better get humble.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Because I gotta be honest, for a minute there, if you came to my show and you complained about it, I'd tell you, you know what?
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Don't come back next year.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Like I'd be like, we got this.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm like, please come back, enjoy the show, like get to networking.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: I always I always give this example.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we had a Christmas party.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh we did about 10 of them.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Our second one had 800 people at it.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh by the end of it, uh we were getting about 200 to 250.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, is the venue that I was doing it at would make me guarantee 300.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: So it was super easy at first, then it got hard.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm working almost as hard getting people there as I am on planning the event.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I don't take any of that stuff for granted anymore.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh, like I said, I appreciate everybody that comes out.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: I know it's it's it's not even about the money, it's about the time that they take away from their office to get out to these events.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh and at the end of the day, I want them to have a good time.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: Like we were independent agents work really hard.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: So my wife's got an agency too that she's had for 22 years.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: So some marketing rests would make me mad because they'd be like, oh, your wife's not in the office or this and that.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, come to my house, look at my kitchen table, go to the office at 10 o'clock at night instead of being there at 10 o'clock in the morning and see who's at the office still.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what a business owner has to go through unless you're a business owner.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: And I was probably guilty of the same thing when I was a rep only.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: I was lucky enough to marry into to have parents that were in it, but not owners, but then have a wife that was an owner, and then see what how much work it takes and what she goes through.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: So what what do you think what do you think it it takes to be successful in the insurance industry?
13:37
SPEAKER_00: You just have to have that mindset that you're gonna uh grind it out.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be by yourself a lot of times, and you just you know, you gotta you gotta overcome that.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Um and again, I think being around like-minded people or people that's been through the same struggles as as you have, you know, it's really nice now.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of uh agency-only uh groups out there, there's a lot of support on uh through social media that wasn't there before.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: So as a business owner, you're you're kind of out there.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Like you said, like sometimes you just gotta do it.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, having a plan is important, having your uh your roadmap to things, but not everybody has that.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And when they don't, like you have to go to these things to realize that you're not alone.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: I go to Grant Cardone's like 10X shows, like a ton of them.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: And the most I get out of it is realizing, like, hey, I'm doing I'm not doing everything, but I'm doing a lot of these things that they're talking about.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: So even if I'm not consciously planning for stuff, subconsciously the stuff's hitting me, and I know that I'm implementing uh, you know, that that the the stuff that they're preaching all the time.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: And it's from Are you getting those ideas from going to these other conferences and saying, like, oh, I see, you know, what Grant Cardone's doing or you know, whatever it is, applied hawkshawk, whoever it is you might be going to see.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: Like, are you getting ideas and you're like, I think I could do this better?
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, and that's really what it started from.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Like, I've seen the associations that were out there, and they're way better now, a lot of them, and a lot of them disappear.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you don't have uh big financial backing behind you in a board chest or a couple vendors that almost pay for the whole thing, this thing's a grind.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're not gonna do this unless you love doing it, uh, unless you like bringing people together.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Um it it it's it's a grind, uh for sure.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: So, how many years have you guys done Vegas?
15:40
SPEAKER_00: Is is this we've done uh four years in Vegas.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: So actually what happened is uh after the pandemic and that we had uh, you know, we did all the shows in in California, and I started going to national shows, and I said, you know, hey, I want to start doing national shows.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing that we had to do when we went to Vegas is actually see if our California people would would would actually follow us.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is is this is our home base where we've been doing everything.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: So we did it at the Tropicana the first year, uh, got a lot of California people out, not that many from other states, but we're saying our national.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: So we're slowly getting into national budgets instead of regional.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: We also needed to do that because a lot of companies shut down in California, and our convention was actually mainly insurance carriers uh that supported us.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: But when they slowed down and didn't want to do stuff, it wasn't just our shows, they stopped going to shows.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we had we had to we had to do it uh a change.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: The nice thing is we did the Tropicana, and then the Tropicana got blown up.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: You guys of you?
16:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: What'd you do, John?
16:50
SPEAKER_00: That's the power party too hard.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: That's the power.
16:53
unknown: Whoa!
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I have a funny story with that too.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: So uh we were a big independent group, uh, and nobody said anything to us.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: So we had been around like 12, 13 years.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh as soon as we went to Vegas, we get a cease and desist from the big eye.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, I never wanted to do lobbying, and they said you can't use a big and independent together.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Like people are getting confused.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh the younger me and the not humble me would have wanted to fight that.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: The older me, wiser me said, it's just the name.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: They were really cool though.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Like uh they didn't make us change our bank accounts, they didn't make us change like our um the way that we were filed.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, we've got all that change now, but they really just didn't want the confusion.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm sure when we when we went national, they were probably getting calls saying, Oh, it's great you're you know, you're gonna do a national show in Vegas.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: So um, but yeah, the younger me would have wanted to fight that.
17:52
SPEAKER_02: But that's you know, that's like a feather in your cap, right?
17:55
SPEAKER_02: All of a sudden big eyes calling you, and they're like, Oh, who the heck are you?
17:59
SPEAKER_02: Why are you why why are you doing shows in Vegas?
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And are you you know, getting recognized is getting recognized.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: So we used to do the Dodger Angel games.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: I'd buy like 500 tickets to the game, and uh we'd have marketing reps and that come out and and uh do a lot of stuff.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Like my proudest moment as a marketer is getting a call from the angels telling me I have to cease and desist uh using their logos and that.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm like, really?
18:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no problem.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, but I made it.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm there.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm like MLB is like recognizing me.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: So that's interesting.
18:34
SPEAKER_02: Are you do you consider consider yourself a marketer?
18:37
SPEAKER_02: Is that why you're great at bringing people together?
18:41
SPEAKER_02: Because you know how to you see it, you see the vision, and you're able to put it together?
18:45
SPEAKER_00: I think the big I I consider myself a marketing rep at heart.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Like I I uh as soon as I went from the agency side to the company side and got in underwriting and all that, like I knew my place was like being that person that brings people together.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: So and that's what a a good marketing rep does.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, good marketing rep understands what an agent goes through, understands what a company needs, and then makes the compromise between the two of them.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: So I actually got turned down as a marketing rep at first.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: Like they hired somebody else.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then I went to a conference and we were signing people up, and then they seen how I interacted, and immediately they carved out a special uh job just for me, uh special territory just for me.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: And you know when you have those personality tests, like some reason I didn't I didn't show up as being a personality.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't show up.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: That would be a good mark any rap.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: They they should have seen your green shirt you're wearing.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: They would have been like, that guy's a personality.
19:46
SPEAKER_02: And and for those of you that don't know at home, you know, John is usually wearing some sort of colorful outfit at his shows.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: Is that is that right, John?
19:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:57
SPEAKER_02: There's an orange there or something like that.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, orange, uh yeah, everybody else gets uh black, green, and blue.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, not green, gray.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: Black, gray, and uh blue shirts.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm usually have orange, green, like bright, bright blue.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: And normally my wife's been uh not letting me do it.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Normally I have a hat on.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I either get recognized by that or you know, something that leaves an impression with people.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's my personality.
20:28
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: You're you're you're being who you want to be.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: Did you did, you know, let's let's rewind back to 18, 20 year old John.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: You know, did you think this is where you would be a minute?
20:41
SPEAKER_02: Did you is there like are you far off the mark or are you pretty close to where you thought you would be at this point?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm at what I'm at where I'm where I'm where I need to be right now.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh like I said, I got been doing this for a long time.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: I have a ton of friends uh in the industry.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: One of the best things that happened to me, when I was a marketing rep for California, I knew all California people.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh when AI uh when Kemper actually moved a lot of their stuff to Texas, then I knew people from Texas on end.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: When I got to work for AIG, uh I got to know people from across the country.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: And then one of the best things that happened is AIG got split up.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then now I know a lot of vice presidents and presidents across uh uh uh the the country.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: And then the other thing that I feel that I did that was really good is I started so I knew company people.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: I knew a lot of company people.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh the cool thing that I started doing is getting in these uh conventions that are all over the country and getting in the chat room.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: I actually said I I I personally think I could go to any state and if I said, hey, I'm here, uh I wouldn't even I wouldn't have to get a hotel or nothing.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Like I know so many people in in this industry and across the country that uh I'm pretty confident I could be someplace and somebody would break bread with.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
22:02
SPEAKER_02: So let's rewind back to that first Vegas conference.
22:06
SPEAKER_02: You guys go you decide to go national, right?
22:09
SPEAKER_02: Big eye is telling me to change your name.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: Like, do you know how to plan a conference in Vegas?
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Do you just call up, you know, the conference manager and be like, hey, we're gonna get a bunch of insurance people over.
22:22
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm assuming they have big minimums, right?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Like they're this is not like uh we were we were a mess.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I did the ones in California, had it had a uh decent idea out here uh because I've done them so much.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh going to Vegas, it's just it's the same thing.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: You just kind of do it and figure you'll you'll work through it later.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: So uh now you know I had uh Ricky Brito working for me and he was a he was a huge help.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: I was getting burnt out on stuff, and he came in, slowly gave him more and more responsibilities, and it really made it where I could step back.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: So what happened early early with Big is when I first started it, uh the partner I started with it was getting divorced, and they were trying to bring the association into that divorce.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: So originally we were brokers insurance group.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: When they tried to do that, I'd I said, you know what, take it.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: You can have the whole thing.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's just a name.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm the one that's like putting all this stuff together.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh and it the problem that I had, uh, which again on the hustle side is stuff that you have to work out look out for.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: I tried to do everything.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Like everything.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: Like I was like, nobody's gonna blow this unless it's me.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: And and that's not the that's not the right way to do things.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh not if you want to continue to grow.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: It's just too much on you.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: That was that was the same thing.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: If I did a convention and you came up to complain to me in the middle of the convention, the early days, I would probably you'll probably get an ear fro from me.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Because like your complaint that's probably a valid complaint, it's like a dagger in the heart to me, because I'm doing everything.
24:05
SPEAKER_02: So so you took everything personally.
24:07
SPEAKER_02: It was the complaint box.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: So what about what about now?
24:13
SPEAKER_02: Now that you're mature, you guys are an organization, right?
24:16
SPEAKER_02: Like you have vendors that are coming back every year, you're getting bigger and bigger.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: What what's what's the next three to five years look like?
24:24
SPEAKER_00: So uh what I want to do is continue to to to grow the base out.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: And and I actually came up with this the other day.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, what made us so successful at first?
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Because in California, we we were rocking and rolling the early days, and then like I said, things kind of kind of fell off.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, all right, I get I need to get out to the marketing reps, uh, let them know who we are again and what we're trying to do.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: And I need to get out to the agents uh that are attending every year and let them know, let the companies know that aren't there, like why they should be there.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really looking at, you know, getting what I what I call brand ambassadors to kind of get the word out to say, hey, this is a good show to attend.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is why you should be there.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Um and I gotta be clear on the messaging about that.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: What's your strategy around that?
25:12
SPEAKER_01: Like, how are you going and finding these people?
25:14
SPEAKER_01: What are you like how are you gonna go like execute on what you're trying to do there?
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the plan is uh to do exactly how like when we started this.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: And I uh I know it's uh harder, but I'm gonna start locally here in California, and especially Southern California, and I'm gonna start having uh rep meetings at first.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna see who wants the come on the board and help us out, who wants to be a brand ambassador.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, like we get stuff rolling again and then start doing fun stuff again.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, going out to the baseball games uh was an absolute bast.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Like uh just creating opportunities that make it easier for us to connect.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: When I was a rep, like we used to have uh you know rep uh happy hours all the time.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I don't think they do that that much anymore.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: And I think the one thing is is getting everybody together face to face again.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: Um when the pandemic happened, man, we was doing Zoom meetings like we were doing them weekly and was having over a hundred people on on Zoom meetings.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh everybody wants a lot of people out with SBA stuff like that.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: It was just giving them info, you know.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: So again, I think I'm gonna go back to the roots of things.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh go back to inviting people out uh to attend meetings with us, um, and then kind of spreading it from there.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh I do need I do need to get out more nationally to people.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, a couple years ago we had uh another association do the convention with us, and that helped out a lot because I got us into national budgets.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: Um so the one thing I know is as a company person, I know when budgets are due, and I know the importance of at least being in the talks.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: So uh if you get into the talks, and you know, again, there's so many shows out there, I understand that.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: But as long as you're in the talks, into the consideration, that's where we need to be.
27:11
SPEAKER_02: So what let's hear the pitch.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: What's the value proposition for you know a vendor to come to your show as opposed to coming to one of the other so this is uh one more important thing that happened when we went to to Vegas too is uh we got more agency owners or managers there.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: So even though attendance was down from California and not to not like CSRs and all that, because everybody's important in the office.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: But let's face it, as a vendor, you want you really want to talk to decision makers and and people that uh have the authority um to decide if they're gonna use your product or not.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: The number one thing though is again, it's just the networking opportunities.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And it and for the vendors especially, it's not just the agents that are in there, it's talking to the other companies that are in there.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, as a as a as a company person and as a marketing rep, if you have one or two products and you got to see 60 people a month or communicate with 60 people a month, you may have 300 agents.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: You can only talk about your product for so long.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a good marketing rep, like you're gonna be want to bring tools to that agency that's gonna improve you know their efficiency in that.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: And we have a lot of tools now, like it's incredible the amount of tools that we have.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Like, we couldn't compete with um companies that you know had systems that we could only dream of.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: We have the same systems now, and we have the local, you know, there's a reason why independent agents haven't gone away.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Like people still want to deal with people locally, uh, and they want to deal with uh agents that are in their communities and that.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh don't get me wrong, people buy every way, and the insurance companies are smart because they should.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: They should sell every every way that they can, get as much as they can.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: But the independent agent is still as strong as it's ever been, you know.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: What are the biggest tools that that you're seeing that have helped people in the last year or two years, whatever it's been?
29:09
SPEAKER_00: So the uh big thing now is uh kind of like when you had carbon paper at first and you did stuff with typewriters and then you had computers and you could uh do all your certs and everything, uh that's a story for you.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, man, I remember I remember doing evidence of insurance for homeowners.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: And if you missed one thing on the typewriter, you couldn't white it out.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: You had to start all over again.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: So as soon as somebody got accords, this is like early 90s, that was that was that was a lifesaver.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: If you look at how efficient an agency can be now, uh, and that's why I don't care if you're brand new in this agent uh industry or you've been around for 30, 40 years, our industry is constantly changing.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: And where do you get that information at?
29:52
SPEAKER_00: You get that at conferences and in and talking to other people.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: And there's so many tools out there for us.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, the big thing now is AI and that.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and they have the automated phone systems and that.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: So I have a funny story with that.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Like I wanted I wanted to change a res.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: No, I wanted to see if I could check in early at uh a hotel that's right by me.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: So I called in and and all I get is, you know, the the woman that sounds like could have been a man too, but it was a woman that sounded like she listened to me and she cares about my concerns, but she can't tell me if I can check in early.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Like it's not computed with it.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And the thing that made me the maddest is there wasn't an option to get away from this lady.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: So I had to drive to the I had to drive to the hotel and say, hey, is this available?
30:40
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, can you tell him like this this dude the the the AI that you're using or whatever you're using sucks uh because it's not answering me.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's gonna be our key to thing as independent agents, even with all these tools that help out and can do stuff, like at the end of the day, people want to be heard.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: And if it's just spitting out answers, uh you know, sometimes I don't even want the right answer.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: I just want to be heard.
31:11
SPEAKER_02: I I think I think that's important, right?
31:13
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think that's where you're gonna have big differentiators from like going into a high end higher end restaurant, right?
31:22
SPEAKER_02: Or going into whatever the business is, but you want that interaction with people.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: You want somebody that's gonna listen to you, you want somebody that's gonna be able to engage with you and not gonna be cookie cutter.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: But also like now it's gonna be amplified, right?
31:38
SPEAKER_02: Now you're gonna be able, like you're gonna want that so much more because it's gonna like like it's gonna be cookie cutter.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: Like I every time I get an AI email, I just delete it.
31:48
SPEAKER_02: I don't even I don't even read it anymore because I'm like, like at least hide the fact that you're trying to send me a AI fold email.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: There's that's my complaint too, is that a lot of times you can tell it right away.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know what?
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes leave the misspelling in there.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the longer it is, you know that I don't write that much.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: If you get a long, if you get a long thing from me, that that's not me.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you right now.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: My thing's gonna be like two or three sentences.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: They used to complain all the time when I used to use uh constant contact, and they're like, Well, you misspelled this, and you I and you know, again, it bothers some people.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: To me, I'm like, well, you read it.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: You read it because you had to read the misspelling.
32:37
SPEAKER_02: I I think I agree with you.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: I think marketers are gonna have to start going to like, you know, 1980s, 1990s, early 2000s marketing, because now you're gonna want to look different, right?
32:49
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna you're gonna want to feel different.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: If everything looks the same, somebody else is gonna is gonna the people that are gonna win are gonna start taking a different approach.
32:57
SPEAKER_02: So a lot of people is too perfect now.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's too perfect.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that that loses the personality uh of of what what you're trying to get across.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: It's it it you know what at the end of the day as a marketer though, you just want to you just want to be effective.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: So uh I can talk about the personality and all this other stuff.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, if you read it, I'm okay.
33:26
SPEAKER_02: So we learned something.
33:27
SPEAKER_02: Start sending out emails with misspelling.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: With spelling errors.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: And then right right in there.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad you're still reading the email, right?
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Like I think you can tell AI.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: Can you intentionally misspell a few words?
33:41
SPEAKER_02: I like that approach.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: I might steal it.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: I'm uh I might send out an email blast this week that that has everything misspelled.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: So this is not AI.
33:50
SPEAKER_02: We got your attention.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: Um so going back to grassroots, I like that as well.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: That that's the plan.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: And are you guys going back?
34:00
SPEAKER_02: You ready to announce?
34:01
SPEAKER_02: Is it back to Vegas next year?
34:03
SPEAKER_02: Is that the same thing?
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we got uh we got one more uh year on the contract with uh Planet Hollywood for Vegas.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: And then again, that's why I want to kind of get a board together, an ambassador group, and kind of say, all right, uh, where do you want to go?
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Um and it may be back to California, just because again, that's where we know we'll get a lot of a lot of a lot of folks at, um, and then figuring it out from there.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I've I've I've only done multi-year contracts like once, and that was with Planet Hollywood.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: So we are we will be there again next year.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: I actually like it.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's in the middle of the strip.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's real easy to get to the conference room.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you can get get around wherever you want.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm trying to figure out the best way for vendors though.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Because uh, especially when we're out there, the first day is usually uh really happening, and people's like, oh, the next day is gonna be there.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
34:57
SPEAKER_00: They're in Vegas.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh things happen at night.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: That second day is rough.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: But I know, but I I don't like to do the one-day events as much.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Even though I have one coming up, I like to do the the the events that last a couple days, and it's because of all the all the networking that gets done outside the the convention hall.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: The the coffee shops, the the dinners, the uh bars, the lounges.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: There's so much business that gets done uh at other spots than just the convention hall.
35:33
SPEAKER_02: So Yeah, and and I and I think you know, obviously we go to conferences all the time.
35:38
SPEAKER_02: We we we've been through your conference uh twice.
35:41
SPEAKER_02: Uh so like Yeah, like the business could be done anywhere, right?
35:47
SPEAKER_02: It it could be or or the presence of you being there or somebody you know now was thinking about you and they walked over to you or they saw your logo or whatever the case may be and then they got an email blast from you.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: It's another touch point in a in a very noisy market.
36:03
SPEAKER_02: So there's you you're gonna get some sort of ROI, whether you're a vendor or whether you're somebody that's just coming to that conference and heard somebody talking about some technology, right?
36:17
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that there's there's always there's always something that that gets the mind going.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: So I'll bring up my pet peeve real quick, because again, I was on the company side for a long time.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't like hearing that we don't have it in the budget when like our show's like$2,500.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: Like a better way to say that is we have other events going on or we just don't have nobody to work the booth.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: Because me as an agency owner, I go to conventions that cost me, you know,$1,500,$2,000 to attend.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's just to attend a show.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: So I tell everybody, you never know where your next million,$10 million,$20 million producer is coming from.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes they they complain about like, oh, there's not that many people here.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you spent$2,700.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's a lie.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: You spent probably$5,000 by the time you get two flights, uh, meals, and everything else, you know, even at the low level.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: If you get one one company, and especially if you your residual income on there, and you keep that guy for 15 years, like, do you think that$5,000 was worth it?
37:25
SPEAKER_00: So and like I said, I'm so much better just saying, you know, hey, we got other stuff going on.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have you in the budget this year.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh but when they say they don't have uh money, the money to attend, I'm like, like in a way.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, and the thing is, is like, again, you don't kind of get it because the way that these shows work is if you get one out of it.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: When we did California, I told every every uh vendor that came in, California is a tough nut to crack, but once you do, there's uh uh, you know, it's the biggest market out there.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: But our agents just don't jump onto like new systems right away.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: They have to see you, hear you, see you, hear you, see you, hear you.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: So when you're going out to these events, like you have to go out to them a couple times.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: And in California, we have quite a few.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: You need to go out to multiple of them, and then they know who you are.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: So you get past that initial, like, who are you, what do you do?
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Like after like the third year, they know who you are, they know what you do, and then it and then, like you said, it's timing.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, hey, I have this problem, this is the solution.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: That makes sense.
38:33
SPEAKER_02: All right, John.
38:33
SPEAKER_02: Let's get into my favorite part of the show where we ask you some personal questions.
38:38
SPEAKER_02: Let's get into rapid fire.
38:42
SPEAKER_02: Ready for the first one, John?
38:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm ready.
38:45
SPEAKER_02: Favor Vegas restaurant.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh probably um Oceans.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's in uh our uh Crystal Shop.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: So Oceans uh Prime is probably the one the go-to.
39:02
SPEAKER_01: All right.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: What's the biggest time that you felt the most pressure building this business?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, honestly, it's uh when the attendees haven't registered yet.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: So I get I get 80 to 100 vendors out, and I have like 80 to 100 people registered, and it happens every year.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh insurance agents are procrastinators, and I get like two, three hundred like the week before.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: That's pressure.
39:35
SPEAKER_02: Like what who's your favorite Raiders player?
39:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh Howie Long.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: Um actually, I like Max Max Crosby now, but I refuse to buy any jerseys from any of the new players.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh just like Max almost traded.
39:52
SPEAKER_02: So no Fernando Mendoza.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: That was a big pickup.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: Miami boy.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: He's he's probably going to be uh honestly, uh the prep that he puts in to uh to the game and to knowing what's going on.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me a lot of Rich Gannon.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh Gannon's prep was like unreal.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: And that I think that's what's gonna happen here.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully we get an O-line that protects him a little bit.
40:16
SPEAKER_02: But we're we're Jeff, we're both Jeff fans, so we're a little mad about that pick.
40:21
SPEAKER_02: We're a little bit we're a little bit upset about that.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna lie to you.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: Bo Jackson sucks.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: Bo Jackson's right up there with my favorite too.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Out after after I got out of the Navy, I'd never been to a probe football game.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: When I got out of the Navy, I went to every single game for the Raiders in Los Angeles until they moved to Oakland.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: So uh Bo was special.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, just not there long enough.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: But he they changed the whole the whole stadium.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: Everything changed when when Bo would would come from baseball uh into the stadium.
40:52
SPEAKER_01: So it's crazy that he was playing two sports too.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: Like he's a like he is he's an absolute freak.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh and was was fun to watch.
41:05
SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite place to party in Vegas?
41:08
SPEAKER_00: Um actually XS.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think there's a club better than XS.
41:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh Day Day party or night or night party for either one.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you a funny story.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, we we have a I have a condo in Vegas too, and it's uh Beard Towers.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: It's right in front of Arya.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh we bought it in 2007.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: It was just dirt.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: It didn't get done until 2010.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh I have to get blinds now because they're building across the street.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't have blinds at on my place, and I face uh I face uh east basically.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Um the reason I don't need blinds is because me and my wife normally don't get in until about four or five, and by like nine o'clock, like the sun's already passed and not in our way.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: But we do not have blinds in in our in our condo in Vegas and we face the strip.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: And you John you can absolutely see into our condo from the ground.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: John I have an orange chair, of course.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: And when I get there, I push it up against the window because I like to look out the window.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: And if you look up, go about halfway up the building, you will see my orange chair.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
42:24
SPEAKER_02: Well, you heard it here all.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh John, where can people find you if they want to come to ABU or if they want to reach out to you and say hello?
42:31
SPEAKER_02: How do they get in touch with you?
42:33
SPEAKER_00: The biggest uh place is uh ABUU.com or just hit me up on social media, uh LinkedIn, uh Facebook, Instagram, um, or call me like 909-809-4451.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm always developing.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna have his AI bot responding old school.
42:55
SPEAKER_02: And and and and if you if you guys want to go party in Vegas uh with John, his orange chair or uh a colorful outfit, you you you you better make it out to ABU.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know my favorite time in Vegas, it used to be New Year's, but my absolute favorite time, and I'm not even a huge fan, Formula One.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, interesting.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: Give me up on Formula One's in.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh March Madness for me.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: I can see it from my my front window.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I'm right at the corner where all the accidents happen.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: So right before they go up, Harmon.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: Las Vegas to Harmon.
43:30
SPEAKER_02: Like if you want to see an accident, give John a call.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the spot.
43:39
SPEAKER_02: Uh well, we appreciate you coming on Televade to Hustle.
43:42
SPEAKER_02: We hope everybody enjoyed the show.
43:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I know I did.
43:46
SPEAKER_02: And we'll see you guys again next week.
43:48
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, everybody.
43:49
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, John.
43:50
SPEAKER_02: Alrighty, thanks, guys.