Latest / Elevate The Hustle / The Brutal Truth About Breaking the $5M Ceiling in Insurance | Pete Poggi

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The Brutal Truth About Breaking the $5M Ceiling in Insurance | Pete Poggi · Elevate The Hustle

0:00
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know how to build business, it doesn't matter what name or what sign or what building you're in, no one's going to come in and buy a churn from you.
0:07
SPEAKER_02: So it was very challenging because no one teaches you that, no one shows you how to build a business.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Elevate the hustle.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Elevate the Hustle, where we break down what it actually means to build teams, scale companies, and lead with intensity.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Stan Mayton.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: And I'm Dom Picharillo.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Today's guest turned a$150,000 franchise mistake into a PC agency that grew from$3 million to$180 million in premium.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Pete Pogey.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, guys.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Stan.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Dom.
0:44
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me on the show today.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: Excited to have you on.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Ask you the first question we like to ask all of our guests.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: What does the word hustle mean to you?
0:54
SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's that's a great question.
0:56
SPEAKER_02: Hence the name of the show, right?
0:57
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
0:58
SPEAKER_02: Um hustle is two two different meanings to me.
1:01
SPEAKER_02: Hustle to me is part is what are you doing now?
1:06
SPEAKER_02: What what in your brain keeps you going and keeps you motivated all day long?
1:10
SPEAKER_02: That part of the hustle.
1:11
SPEAKER_02: And then the other part of the hustle is are you actually doing something towards your goal on a regular basis?
1:16
SPEAKER_02: Are you hustling to get to your goals at all times?
1:19
SPEAKER_02: I kind of took that two ways for me.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Let's bring let's bring it back to you know, young Pete.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Did you always know you were a hustler?
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Did you always knew you had this business sense in you?
1:34
SPEAKER_01: And if so, at what point?
1:36
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I think I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family business.
1:40
SPEAKER_02: When I say family business, when when you're when you're Italian, you think that means something bad or dangerous, right?
1:44
SPEAKER_02: Because I grew up in an Italian family in the south side of Chicago.
1:47
SPEAKER_02: What could possibly what could that possibly mean, right?
1:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: So it was actually a it was actually the hair business.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: My my dad started a company right out of high school.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: And then as I got a little older, I I joined the company and we built it up to 50 locations.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: And I think I was fortunate that I learned work ethic being growing up in the family business.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: There, there is no slacking, there is no excuses.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: When you work with mom and dad, they're your hardest critic and they're gonna they're gonna push you the most.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's where you learn how to work, as we said in our family, half days, which is 12 hours.
2:18
SPEAKER_02: There's no such thing as 24 hours in a day.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: Half days were 12 hours, so you just learn that.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: Um when I was, I would say, I think it was my first summer home from college at Illinois State.
2:31
SPEAKER_02: I remember I just got back from school, I put my feet up, I thought I was gonna take the summer break off, I couldn't wait.
2:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, I went to school, I knew everything.
2:37
SPEAKER_02: I went to one semester of school.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: How what could possibly go wrong?
2:40
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I'm the smartest guy in the world.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: And then my dad came, kicked in the bedroom door, opened.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: He says, All right, Einstein, time to go to work.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: You've been home, you've been home one day.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: So literally the next day I went and worked at the warehouse and and he started taking me out, showing me, you said now your real education begins.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: You know, one day there's no there's no such thing as a spring break, it just didn't happen.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: So I I think I learned that early.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: And then my younger PTs in the insurance business, um, I always really, really worked hard.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: So I because I learned that, but it was a different kind of hustle.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: It was always how much production can we put on the books?
3:14
SPEAKER_02: That's for the insurance business.
3:16
SPEAKER_02: Completely different mindset that I have now, but that's two different hustles how I learned early on.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: What were you doing in your family business?
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Are you like taking out the trash?
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Are you like stocking inventory?
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Like are you doing?
3:29
SPEAKER_02: I I've stocked inventory, I've taken out trash.
3:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh I would go to salon locations, sweep here, run the front desk.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: That that was the early years until I learned how to actually manage people.
3:39
SPEAKER_02: Then I started training and managing people, everything but the hair side.
3:43
SPEAKER_02: My dad had the technical skills, and I did more of the sales training and the management training to each to all the stylists and and all the management teams.
3:51
SPEAKER_02: And I just grew up through it throughout the company that way until I was uh ended up being vice president.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: And did you always want it?
3:59
SPEAKER_01: Did you always like looking at your dad?
4:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, 50 locations is a real business, right?
4:03
SPEAKER_01: And you were like, wow, my dad is you know really growing this business, and I'm gonna open up my ears and and learn, learn from him and figure out how to do it.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's that's a great question.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: Um, I I watched him almost go broke a couple of times with one or two locations as I grew up.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: So uh what once once we found the formula on how to duplicate success and open multiple locations, I was fascinated by that.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: And I uh I didn't know any better, I guess.
4:31
SPEAKER_02: I grew up that way, and so I was just so fascinated, wanted to learn that.
4:34
SPEAKER_02: So I always had that instilled in my brain.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: So, yes, that's how I knew I always wanted to do multiple locations or uh build multiple people, multiple teams.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: It just came that way through time with family.
4:44
SPEAKER_02: I and and you know, at the time I my my dad was shorter than me when he was bigger than life, right?
4:50
SPEAKER_02: Light up a room, we just I could learn so much from him.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: What was the formula you unlocked?
4:56
unknown: Go ahead.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: What was the formula?
4:59
SPEAKER_00: What was your key to success that you had to like figure out that allowed you to scale the business?
5:03
SPEAKER_02: In that business?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:05
SPEAKER_02: Um when he first started, but it was all get your hair done by appointments.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: That was the big thing.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: And you go and you you pick your stylist and you make your appointment over and over.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: At the same time, supercuts was just starting out in Texas.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: It was the six dollar haircut, no appointment.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: First come, first serve, whoever, whatever, whatever stylist you get when you come in the door.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: As soon as we switched to that formula in the Midwest, which nobody was doing it, it changed everything.
5:34
SPEAKER_02: Our volume doubled and tripled, and it just allowed us to scale that much faster.
5:37
SPEAKER_02: It was that was like the light bulb that went off by just a different concept and a different model.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: How did you how did you get into the insurance game?
5:46
SPEAKER_02: Um, the uh the company actually sold uh when I was about nine years in.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: Uh, just when you think you're doing well with your 50 locations, uh Harry Cuttery came by who had a thousand locations and said, How about a check and go away?
6:00
SPEAKER_02: Like one of one of those, not not a bad gig, but the the thing is I I didn't have ownership.
6:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm the dumb kid from working for the for the for the family, right?
6:07
SPEAKER_02: So they retired and I was out of a job, right?
6:09
SPEAKER_02: So since I'm out of a job, I had to do something.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: And I remember working all those hours with my dad and all those work and watching all the insurance people on the golf course, and they're all making money.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know any poor insurance people, and I didn't see any of them working.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: So I said, I that's that's the gig for me.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: I have to be in insurance.
6:26
SPEAKER_02: That's that's what you think when you see it from the outside, anyway.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: So so you wanted to play golf and and basically be retired.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: That was that was exactly before I started, I wanted to be retired, and yes, correct.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: So from there you went to work at Allstate, if I'm not mistaken, right?
6:40
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I I opened an Allstate agency.
6:43
SPEAKER_02: And in my mind, since Allstate's one of the biggest names in the business, right?
6:49
SPEAKER_02: So I wanted to leave Chicago and go to Florida.
6:52
SPEAKER_02: My parents were already down here part-time, my brother already lived in Florida.
6:55
SPEAKER_02: I said, what better go to Florida and open an Allstate office?
6:58
SPEAKER_02: Because with Allstate, all you need to do is put up a sign in the ground and people come running in to buy insurance because of the name.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: So I said, Allstate's the way I want to go, and insurance is what I want to do, residual income.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: At least you think about that.
7:11
SPEAKER_02: So that's why I started at Allstate.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: Just went for the name brand, uh, really not known anything else.
7:16
SPEAKER_02: Just go by what you know or what you think or what you believe.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: How did that work out for you?
7:21
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
7:23
SPEAKER_02: Well, I I did I did well at Allstate, so I don't have anything bad to say about Allstate, but in Florida, a couple things that you learned, there's there's no loyalty to the brand that there might be in the Midwest, right?
7:35
SPEAKER_02: Especially especially in Florida down here in the Wild West.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: So people didn't really care about the name that much.
7:40
SPEAKER_02: And also, if you don't know how to build business, it doesn't matter what name or what sign or what what building you're in, no one's gonna come in and buy insurance from you.
7:48
SPEAKER_02: So it was very challenging uh because no one teaches you that.
7:51
SPEAKER_02: No one shows you how to build a business.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: So just spending that money to open, thinking people are gonna come in, it's just a it's just a whole nother, it's a whole another world and a rude awakening once you're in the business.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: What do you think, what do you think it takes to build a successful business, right?
8:07
SPEAKER_01: Like you said, nobody teaches you, you know, about the business.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh is it learning on the job?
8:13
SPEAKER_01: Is it failing?
8:14
SPEAKER_01: Is it you know podcasts?
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Like where where where are you where are you getting this this knowledge from as you're going through it?
8:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's a great question.
8:24
SPEAKER_02: Um there really isn't people out there teaching you how to how to build, like I said.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: So what are so many to do?
8:30
SPEAKER_02: So, first of all, you do have to learn how to produce some some something yourself.
8:36
SPEAKER_02: And you have to learn how to build how to build a client base.
8:39
SPEAKER_02: And so what I teach everybody right up front is you can't go door to door, you can't send out mailers, and you can't do thousands of quotes.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: It's just it's too long.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: You have to go relationship to relationship, in my opinion, in the mortgage business, real estate, so that everyone who needs the insurance for the closing is your customer uh and they start sending business to you.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: That's the first part of this is learning how to build your relationships business to business as opposed to business to customer.
9:05
SPEAKER_02: That's that's step one.
9:07
SPEAKER_02: You always want to make a relationship with everyone in the home closing process, it's just 10 times faster.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: The second part of this is you have to absolutely get out of your own way and not be the bottleneck in your own company.
9:18
SPEAKER_02: Because in your mind, you could do it better, faster.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh you trust yourself, but you're one person, you can only do so much.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: The sooner you can get that through your head, and the sooner you can learn to duplicate your own effort, learn how to build it, then learn how to teach four or five, 10 other people how to do that.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: That's what'll change your business.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: That's that's the simplest version of it, but that's really the key to this.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: If I could say you know, three things build relationships with the right business partners, teach other people how to do that, and then get really good at developing and managing those people, those three things.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And so it's early days at Allstate, no one's knocking down your door.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming you had some trial and error to figure out like how to get centers of influence.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, what was that like?
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And what were some of the tactics you used to develop those relationships?
10:04
SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: I they what they teach you when you first start the business, you know, send out mailers and spend as much money as possible on a marketing that doesn't work.
10:11
SPEAKER_02: That's what they teach you.
10:13
SPEAKER_02: So you can go broke that way really fast, which which I spent, I call it, I paid a lot of stupid tax.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: Lots of money was spent trying to figure this out.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: So one day, true story, I was in a network, I was a BI meeting with a friend of mine named Chuck.
10:27
SPEAKER_02: I'll be as brief as I can with this story, okay?
10:30
SPEAKER_02: He was a mortgage lender in my group, and we decided we want to do a joint presentation together.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: Okay, just one of those things on the home closing process.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: Now I thought I was a pretty good agent.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: I had Chuck's auto, I had his home, he referred me some people.
10:44
SPEAKER_02: Um, I had about six or eight policies with him and some of his friends.
10:49
SPEAKER_02: We were in that group together for three years.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: And do you know, I never asked him one time how many loans a month he closed, and I never got one of those insurance policies from all the people, all the people he closed loans on for three years, and he was very, very good mortgage broker at 10 to 15 loans a month for three years.
11:07
SPEAKER_02: So if you do all that math, all I had to do was ask him that question that taught me that wait a minute, why can't I do this home closing business for every single person?
11:14
SPEAKER_02: Chuck's one person, 15 loans a month, 2,000 in premium.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: Actually, that was a it was I did the math on it, it was over a million dollars in premium that I could add in my book if I would ask the right question.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: Again, no one teaches you that.
11:28
SPEAKER_02: So it I had to flip the switch and say, okay, why am I doing this person to person?
11:33
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, referrals are great, but man, give me 20 chucks, and I don't I don't have to ask anyone for anything ever again.
11:39
SPEAKER_02: So I just learned how to how to flip the script and start talking to mortgage brokers and real estate agents.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: When I say flip the script, most insurance agents are gonna come out to a loan officer and say, hey, I'm really good at insurance.
11:50
SPEAKER_02: Give me a try.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: I'll help you with your home closing.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: I look at it differently.
11:55
SPEAKER_02: I know I'm the the lowest piece on the on the funnel, the gum on the shoe, on the bottom of the shoe when you're going in.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: Like, so I have to have something to add value with.
12:04
SPEAKER_02: So I look at it differently.
12:05
SPEAKER_02: I never asked for business unless I brought something first, you know, the ultimate rule of value building.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: For example, I would never go speak to a mortgage broker and ask for business if I didn't introduce them to two real estate friends of mine that could help them in their business.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: So I've already done something more than any other insurance agent would ever have done is introduce them to someone that maybe can help them grow.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: I want to find out how I can help them grow first before I ever ask for insurance.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: And that's been my my key to success.
12:31
SPEAKER_02: And half of the things I teach now are based on that concept, and it's it still applies today.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's the law of reciprocity, right?
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Where if you give something to someone, they feel inclined to give something back to you.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're willing to give first, chances are you're gonna get it back in the long run.
12:46
SPEAKER_02: Most most insurance agents are takers, if I'm if I'm being honest.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: And and the other side of it is like what you just said, it's not revolutionary stuff, right?
12:58
SPEAKER_01: It's very simple, right?
13:01
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of a lot of people, and I mean, you know, guilty hands up here, like a lot of people, you know, it's usually the simple stuff that works, right?
13:10
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: Everyone tries to overcomplicate it and try to figure out like the secret sauce, but sometimes it's just as simple as asking Chuck and saying, hey Chuck, what value can I provide for you?
13:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: And in return, he you know he can provide value to you, and you're asking that question, and I'm sure the answer was yes.
13:29
SPEAKER_02: Yes, well, that is a question.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, people always ask, well, how do you build value for a real estate agent or a mortgage?
13:35
SPEAKER_02: To your point, you ask the question, right?
13:38
SPEAKER_02: Ask them what how to help them.
13:40
SPEAKER_02: And to take that one step further, if hey Chuck, if I was able to introduce you to maybe half a dozen of my busiest real estate agent friends, would you want to meet that?
13:50
SPEAKER_02: Would that help you in your business?
13:52
SPEAKER_02: Of course.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: The answer is yes, right?
13:53
SPEAKER_02: That's where they get their business from.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: So Chuck starts referring you business, you start, I'm assuming, going to other mortgage brokers and other center of influence and start, you know, building a network.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: At what point are you like, okay, we have something here?
14:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, yes.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: Where do you go from there?
14:14
SPEAKER_02: Um when I when I figured out this concept, it was right after the when the market crashed, like 2008, 9, and 10.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: So it was a good thing and a bad thing.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: The bad thing is there was mortgage companies that were out of business, or you go into an office, there's one person sitting in there where it used to be 15, right?
14:31
SPEAKER_02: So I had to do a lot more work.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: I had to go a lot more door to door and a lot more phone calls.
14:37
SPEAKER_02: But the good news is there's nobody out there, there's nobody out there doing it, right?
14:40
SPEAKER_02: So I was the only person going door to door, right?
14:42
SPEAKER_02: And talking, and we had a lot to talk about because there wasn't many closings going on.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: So onesie twosies here and there.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: But guess what happens when you're the only guy out there and the market turns, right?
14:52
SPEAKER_02: Who where does all that business go to?
14:55
SPEAKER_02: So that started, and then when I started having like five or six mortgage brokers sending me more business than I could possibly write by myself, I'm like, wait a minute, this and and closing at 80% because they were referred to you.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: When that started happening, I'm like, this, I just have to duplicate this as fast as possible and bring in more people because it it became from hard to find business to I I can't write it fast enough.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: And you are you still with Allstate at this time?
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And you're still writing Allstate policies?
15:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm still doing Allstate.
15:22
SPEAKER_02: I was just making the transition to Brightway at that time.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: So I just started going independent when I had the more options because with the Allstate with the Florida market, you were really limited on what you can write for home.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: So I started at Allstate, and it really took off when I when I switched to the independent model.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: And what what talk us through John Galt Insurance 2007?
15:43
SPEAKER_01: You decided screw this.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm 2017.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: So you're going, you're you're starting your own company.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: What was the so did you did you go to Brightway first, though?
15:54
SPEAKER_02: I did.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: I went I went all stake to Brightway.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: Um with Brightway, I own two agencies.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh we were actually in the top five or ten percent all the time.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: Um and it so I learned a lot about that model.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: So my model is similar to that where we take the service piece away from the agents so they can sell more.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's fine.
16:13
SPEAKER_02: But what I also learned about that is since since our agencies were successful, Bradley actually hired me to go train some of the other agents around the state.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: So I always laugh and go, yes, I'd like training my own competition.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: That makes a lot of sense, right?
16:27
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, that's it, that's for another story.
16:29
SPEAKER_02: But what I found is a lot of these agents were struggling no matter what, you know, after life savings in this, uh, you know,$50,000 franchise fee, sign, marketing, all that stuff.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: You're in for$100 or$150,000 before you sell one policy.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: And no training on how to on how to make it better, right?
16:47
SPEAKER_02: So after five years of that and wanting to wanting to open multiple locations with Brightweight, and just not, we just weren't the right fit.
16:56
SPEAKER_02: I learned a lot from them.
16:56
SPEAKER_02: We got we we parted ways okay, nothing like that.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: I wanted a different model.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: So I said, let me do this differently with John Gaul.
17:03
SPEAKER_02: No franchise fee because I want the person to take that$50,000 and invest it in their business.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: Hire two people, right?
17:11
SPEAKER_02: At least one person.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: Take that money.
17:14
SPEAKER_02: The$50,000 to me, of course, is the we'd all would say yes, it's great, but that wasn't the point because we're all gonna make more money at the end if we build faster.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: So I said, let me do it agent-friendly where it's not about selling franchises, because then you lose you lose sight of what you're you lose sight of what business you're in.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: We're in the insurance business, not the franchise business.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: That's a difference.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: So let me do this one.
17:37
SPEAKER_02: Let me not charge the franchise fee and let me coach all of these people on how to build a 10, 15, 20 million dollar agency from the ground up, as opposed to all the other stuff that you pay for and don't get.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: That's the shortest version I can tell you.
17:51
SPEAKER_02: So, how do how do I make it go?
17:52
SPEAKER_02: Low barrier of entry is the one thing, but even more importantly, if you follow the system that I'm gonna show you, how about you grow 10 times faster and get to a large agency that much faster?
18:02
SPEAKER_02: I hope I answered your question.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: You you seem to have a unique ability to understand certain concepts, right?
18:11
SPEAKER_01: Which once again, they're not, none of these concepts are like revolutionary.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: No, but but you are smart because you're able to flip them, right?
18:22
SPEAKER_01: You're able to say, how can I go deeper and find something in that concept to to you know squeeze that lemon a little bit more, right?
18:30
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people could say, hey, I found those centers of influence, right?
18:35
SPEAKER_01: I got my five guys, I'm making money.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: Great.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: You're like, no, I got the five center of influence.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: How can I get more and how can I train more people to understand what I understand, which I think is is a huge, you know, that that that is that is something that the most people don't see, right?
18:52
SPEAKER_01: You were able to see that.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: Is that your superpower?
18:56
SPEAKER_01: Is that like like you're able to see it almost from a from a different lens than most other people?
19:01
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you saying that and and I'm and the compliment, so thank you.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: Um I've been I've been told that I've been told two things.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: First of all, I have a knack for people wanting to follow me or listening to my instructions, so I guess that makes me a good leader.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: And my team sometimes says, Pete, do you see the future?
19:16
SPEAKER_02: They make they make fun of me in a funny, in a good and funny way.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: Like, how did you know that was going to happen?
19:21
SPEAKER_02: Or why are you seeing that?
19:22
SPEAKER_02: So that is a superpower.
19:23
SPEAKER_02: How to how to take what I can see is working to your point and it multiplied times 10.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: That's my superpower.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Were there things you learned when growing the salon business and scaling it to all those locations that allowed you to scale the insurance business as well?
19:40
SPEAKER_00: Because it seems like there's a lot of parallels there from what you were working with early days with the family business to where you are now.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: Um going back, you learned failure is not an option, and you learn about duplication and scaling at an early age.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: Um, again, fortunately for me, I had the knack of being able to go into a location, see what was wrong, and coach the team on how to fix that very quickly.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: That's helped me, obviously, today.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: But yes, you you learn all about business from the ground up, from failure to success.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: And that definitely trans transfers transfers to any business, but definitely in insurance.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: What were some failures you had that, or maybe one big one that you remember that like stuck with you all these years?
20:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Um is it like us where you have too many to even count?
20:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have a lot.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: Like this hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: So thank thanks for letting me out of that question.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: Umistakes too, a lot of things you spend money on.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: The next shiny toy, the next marketing campaign.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: To me, it's still and it's all important, but it's still grassroots.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's still relationship to relationship, still builds this business.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, I've tried a pizza business that I didn't do well in.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: I've tried there's you know, just stick with what you know.
20:54
SPEAKER_02: Don't try to stick with what you know and get good at it.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: Quit trying to do other things.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: That's that's what I would tell you because I've I've gotten myself in trouble a few times.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: So so you scale John Gall uh from 3 million to 180 million in premium in 84 months.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: What what was that light bulb moment that was just like that went off?
21:16
SPEAKER_02: I knew I was I knew I was on to something with the with the high performing Brightway agencies, right?
21:21
SPEAKER_02: I I but but I didn't have enough people or cash flow to do it at scale, right?
21:27
SPEAKER_02: So, really what happened is as as soon as I got I got good at the recruiting process, that was the first thing.
21:34
SPEAKER_02: Um you've got to find the entrepreneurial-minded people to do this that that are gonna work and and and be hungry.
21:41
SPEAKER_02: You have to really get good at splitting sales and service no matter how hard that is.
21:45
SPEAKER_02: That is a huge trap for people because once again, as a as a high performing agent, you think I can say I can service better than anyone else.
21:55
SPEAKER_02: That's true until you have 40,000 customers, right?
21:57
SPEAKER_02: Like it's it's it's impossible.
21:58
SPEAKER_02: You can't you can't answer everything.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Phone call, so you have to really as hard as it is, split sales and service and the light bulb moments because as I started getting these entrepreneur-minded younger guys coming in, we and I have Austin, but I just three guys really stuck in my mind, and they got off the ground within six months, and then revenue caught up faster, and then the next guy did it a little faster and faster.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: And then once I got the system to hire, train, hire, train, hire, train, then there was no holding us back.
22:28
SPEAKER_02: The other key to this is you want people to feel like they're a partner with you no matter what position they're in.
22:35
SPEAKER_02: If that's why I believe in giving renewals, a lot of agents do not, and that's there's merit to both sides.
22:40
SPEAKER_02: If you're sharing renewals or sharing an opportunity for ownership, uh people will do more, work harder, trust you more.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: And I just found that to for me, that's how we were able to scale to scale so fast and so much, is because of the the ownership opportunity and the feeling like a partner and being trained to do it.
22:59
SPEAKER_02: And and I hope I answered your question.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: You I heard that you don't really like to target insurance people for for for your franchises.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: Why why not?
23:09
SPEAKER_02: All right, that that is that's a fair question.
23:11
SPEAKER_02: I would sum it up this way.
23:13
SPEAKER_02: So I do have some very successful people who are in the business, but usually when you hire someone that's been in the business 10 years, you have to be careful of two things.
23:21
SPEAKER_02: First of all, did they learn it wrong the first year and they've been doing it completely wrong for and repeated it nine years in a row, right?
23:27
SPEAKER_02: You don't know that.
23:29
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, they don't want to listen to anything you have to say because they know better.
23:35
SPEAKER_02: So there's a lot of bad habits you have to break.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: And I have a tendency to hear, well, that's not how we used to do it, or why do you do it this way?
23:42
SPEAKER_02: I don't think that's gonna work, as opposed to someone with no experience but has the drive.
23:47
SPEAKER_02: I'll take that any day because they don't, first of all, they don't know any better and they're gonna listen if they have the drive.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: I'll take the mold and I'll take the foundation and teach them exactly what to do and say, and how to follow the system.
24:00
SPEAKER_02: And if they execute, they have such a better chance of succeeding than someone who's gonna fight you every step of the way.
24:05
SPEAKER_02: Again, I'm not opposed to experience, but it's what experience are you coming in with?
24:10
SPEAKER_02: And and I know you could be just in a bad situation, but there's a reason why they're interviewing with me if they're so good at where they were somewhere else.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: And what and what do you what do you look for some more?
24:20
SPEAKER_01: Like what I I know you said entrepreneurial spirit, yeah, drive.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: But what you know, you're going through that process, you you you you're talking to somebody and you're like, this is the guy or gal that I want to have a franchise.
24:33
SPEAKER_02: And just so everybody listening is clear, there's there's it's not magic.
24:37
SPEAKER_02: You can you can make a lot of mistakes hiring too, right?
24:39
SPEAKER_02: So but just I've got every single hire right.
24:43
SPEAKER_02: I've never made a mistake, right?
24:44
SPEAKER_02: No, so just just know that and keep going because your your next great person could be the next hire.
24:49
SPEAKER_02: So don't ever give up because you hire a bad one.
24:51
SPEAKER_02: That's just gonna happen.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: Or someone doesn't fit your system or culture.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: But what I look for, I would say, is four or five things.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: It's not all the time, but I love when someone has played sports because it makes them competitive and coachable.
25:04
SPEAKER_02: Competitive and coachable is what I'd like someone who've tried a bunch of different things, fallen down, but get back up.
25:12
SPEAKER_02: They're not afraid to keep trying things.
25:14
SPEAKER_02: And then I don't mind a bunch of questions, but if if they're asking questions on how to get their job done as opposed to just questioning the question because they're hiding, that makes a difference.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: So I need coachable.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: When I say entrepreneurial-minded, have they done something else uh successfully?
25:30
SPEAKER_02: What's the hardest thing they've ever overcome?
25:32
SPEAKER_02: And is it is it worth it?
25:33
SPEAKER_02: Um do they actually listen or do they talk about themselves the entire time?
25:41
SPEAKER_02: Are we actually engaged in a conversation?
25:44
SPEAKER_02: Or are they just here's what I did, here's what I did, here's a great idea, here's what I'm gonna do.
25:47
SPEAKER_02: It with with we don't know that for sure, is another thing I look for.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: And as funny as this is, and as simple as this is, as you know, I'm a simple man, are they even likable in the interview?
25:57
SPEAKER_02: Like, am I forcing myself, or do I actually like this person?
26:00
SPEAKER_02: Can this person actually make me like them?
26:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure they can make a mortgage broker like them if I like them.
26:05
SPEAKER_02: As simple as that is.
26:06
SPEAKER_02: Um, and finally, I like to give a couple tests early on to see if they even can can execute or complete the task at hand.
26:16
SPEAKER_02: As simple as it is, if they can't do that within the first week, I know they're not gonna work.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: Just simple things to see if they can execute.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: What kind of tests are we talking about?
26:25
SPEAKER_02: Even if you're terrible at it, I want you to make two, I want you to make two calls to a lender call.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: Can you just make it?
26:32
SPEAKER_02: I don't I hope you stumble from I don't care.
26:34
SPEAKER_02: Can you at least pick up the phone and do that?
26:35
SPEAKER_02: That's number one.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna let you talk to one of my customers that calls in, and I want you to exactly say this just like this, and do this just like this, and see how close they come to the actual task.
26:46
SPEAKER_02: See, simple things, but if they can't do either of those, it's gonna be it's gonna be a hard road later.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, once again, simple tactics, right?
26:56
SPEAKER_01: How badly do you want to win?
26:58
SPEAKER_01: How curious are you, right?
27:01
SPEAKER_01: Are you have you failed before?
27:03
SPEAKER_01: And are you afraid to continue to fail?
27:06
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we you know, we talk about on the show all the time, right?
27:10
SPEAKER_01: Like, none of these things are super hard, right?
27:14
SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people are just they're so afraid to fail.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: There's they're so afraid to, well, what about if it doesn't work out?
27:21
SPEAKER_01: What about if I hire the wrong person?
27:22
SPEAKER_01: What about, you know, like what if, what if, what if, what if, what if?
27:26
SPEAKER_01: And and really this the simple question simple question you should be asking yourself is what about if it goes right?
27:32
SPEAKER_01: What about if it works?
27:34
SPEAKER_01: What about if I could do this 10x times over?
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Like, what does the future look like now?
27:39
SPEAKER_01: And and that's really like expanding your mindset to to look at to look at it from a different lens.
27:45
SPEAKER_02: And and and usually sometimes a person who's been in the business a long time is is looking for just a job, or I call it a home, but the wrong way to look at a home a place, a place to have lunch, you know, as opposed to what's the opportunity here that I could do something way bigger than myself and build an agency.
28:02
SPEAKER_02: Two different mindsets.
28:03
SPEAKER_02: We don't I don't want the person that's just looking to come over and just write some business.
28:07
SPEAKER_02: I want a person who's I want to build something and change other people's lives.
28:10
SPEAKER_02: And you can get a feel from that from the questions and what they're asking you.
28:13
SPEAKER_02: Like not what's in it for me, but what can I build here?
28:16
SPEAKER_02: What can I develop next?
28:19
SPEAKER_02: Can I get my own agency?
28:20
SPEAKER_02: What's it gonna take to get my own agency?
28:22
SPEAKER_02: Totally different questions than when's my vacation and my PTO and my lunch break, right?
28:28
SPEAKER_00: That's our that's our favorite thing.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: How much PTO did I get?
28:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how much PTO do I got?
28:35
SPEAKER_01: Is it okay if I leave early?
28:37
SPEAKER_01: My first day of work.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: You haven't hired me yet?
28:41
SPEAKER_01: Right.
28:42
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: Sure you can.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you start now?
28:44
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you get start leaving by now?
28:49
SPEAKER_01: So you build the system.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: I mean, tell us about the business today, like how how how many people you have or how many agencies you have, and what is how has it grown?
28:59
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
29:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh like I said, I started with about four or five agents.
29:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh and everyone just came into the hub and which and the way our the way our system works, so you guys have an understanding of this.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: Ever every everyone comes in kind of as what we call a uh a flex franchise in training.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: So there's no see you're just in training until you get big enough to roll off on your own.
29:23
SPEAKER_02: So we bring in people, uh, teach them our system, and when their book, when their book of business is big enough to actually pay for what they need to grow as opposed to going out and going broke, then uh we have another conversation and we teach them how to do the next phase, which is hiring and growing of books.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: So we started with the four.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: Now we have about um I think I have almost 48, 40 agencies and about 70 producers.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: Um some of them have twos and threes in each one.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh, some agencies, I have a couple agencies that are at 20 million.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: I have a lot of guys at five or six million now and just getting started, which I which I think is great.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: Um and what I've learned and what I'm doing now, which I think is where you're going to.
30:07
SPEAKER_02: So the system is, yeah.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: So now we're at 180.
30:09
SPEAKER_02: We're doing about, I don't know, we'll we'll put on close to 50 million this year in new business, which I think is pretty cool.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: Um what I do now, what I'm doing now is everything that I've been teaching all these agents all these years, I've decided to branch out and teach other agencies across the across the country.
30:28
SPEAKER_02: Because what I realized there's such a need for the for first of all, how to be how to be even become a million-dollar producer, but also there's so many agents stuck in that three to five million dollar range and are just so scared or don't know what to do to to get out of that.
30:42
SPEAKER_02: And that's what I preach to my team all the time.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: You have to hire, you have to duplicate.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: I have 180 million dollar, I have 180 million dollar agents, and I'm an idiot.
30:51
SPEAKER_02: If I can do it, you you can do it.
30:52
SPEAKER_02: So here's but here's what it's gonna take.
30:55
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you're gonna hire wrong to make a mistake and all that stuff.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: So what I'm trying, what I'm trying to do is get to 250 next and then 500.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: That's that's my two goals.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh I want to have the billion, I want to have the billion dollar agency, but I have to do it in steps, obviously.
31:09
SPEAKER_02: That's that's the whole goal.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: So with 38 agencies and about 65 producers, uh I think we're selling more with the small group than a lot of larger agencies with the bigger force, just because I've I will I always believe in in quality and more production than just agencies everywhere running all over with no production.
31:27
SPEAKER_02: I just I just feel I like the control and I like uh I like dealing with the success mindset and just putting bodies everywhere, if that makes sense.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: So I'm right now I'm trying to take what we've taught inside, which is it's now a two-year system.
31:43
SPEAKER_02: You have to go through our system for two years, learn how to produce and learn how to duplicate.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: And I'm now bringing that outside to other agents and other agencies, and I'm I'm pretty excited about that because people are people are digging it a lot.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: So I like that.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: We've we've talked a lot about the sales side, but you haven't really touched on the service model.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, a lot of a lot of the revenue for insurance agencies is residual, and a lot of what goes into that is servicing customers.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: Do you have like a secret sauce on the service side that's allowed you to hold on to the customers you've acquired?
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Secret sauce, no.
32:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh but the reason I say that because it's it's it changes all the time, right?
32:21
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna go into your guys' wheelhouse here too in a second.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: So, first of all, it starts with a team, just like a sales team.
32:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I had I had to turn over service a couple of times to get it right.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: You just, you know, it it's a certain it takes a certain person to do to do it to do service properly, right?
32:36
SPEAKER_02: And and it's a different animal, it's a machine back there with with a whole different concept, right?
32:42
SPEAKER_02: So I still believe in customer facing for anything that has to do with you know binding or talking to a customer.
32:51
SPEAKER_02: But we when we started to scale, we went outside and got VAs and stuff to take some of the stuff off their plate because again, if you're gonna have 60,000 policies, how many service people are you gonna have?
33:01
SPEAKER_02: You can't even have any function with it.
33:04
SPEAKER_02: So first of all, the relationship has to be really good between sales and service.
33:09
SPEAKER_02: I've had that battle before where this is my job, your job, my job.
33:13
SPEAKER_02: They really have to get along, and you have to have clear separation of when someone takes it over, otherwise, that can also be a problem, right?
33:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh I believe in the agent keeping the relationship all the way through until it's bound correctly and they followed up for at least 90 days to build that relationship, and then service will take it over from there.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: That's just what I always believe.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: I believe the sales agent should be involved as much as possible.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: Now, on the service team, you have to depart my departmentalize it, you have to break it up.
33:46
SPEAKER_02: Everyone should learn everyone's job.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: We do a lot of rotating, but you have to break it up in uh routing systems and rewrite department and uh certification department, whatever it is, whatever department you have to get, you have to break that up and have a leader in each department, otherwise it can be go haywire on you.
34:05
SPEAKER_02: That's what I said.
34:05
SPEAKER_02: The more the more we built out our layers and split, and the more we put the better people all the way down to even into the routing section, that that really started to stick and our retention started to go up.
34:15
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there was there was a time where I'm surprised any customer stayed with us for a while.
34:20
SPEAKER_02: I'm probably not anybody left, but but you so I went back there and dug in, and you gotta figure out like I spent three months back there in the service figuring out what's gonna be what we're supposed to say and how we're supposed to split it up.
34:32
SPEAKER_02: So uh, and then it really is about getting the right people and the right managers in place.
34:36
SPEAKER_02: So secret sauces were honestly people uh who know how to talk and know how to do stuff and and and splitting it up and and uh divide it into departments.
34:46
SPEAKER_02: And I hope I answered your question.
34:50
SPEAKER_01: Pete, you you seem like you're an entrepreneur.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: You you you're willing to get your hands dirty, you gotta go into service and dig in and figure out what the hell is going on back there.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: This is the week editor, right?
35:01
SPEAKER_02: That was the worst three months of my insurance.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: I mean, but but that's but that's what it takes.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: I think that's that's another thing, right?
35:10
SPEAKER_01: Like, and you're obviously a successful guy who's built a real business, you've authored books, you have all these programs, you've helped others succeed.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: But but there is hard work involved, right?
35:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the people that are sitting there and saying, Well, why can't I be like Pete or any of these other people?
35:27
SPEAKER_01: You know, you still have to go in there and bust your ass.
35:30
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you're gonna have to go into service or whatever other department you have to do that you don't want to do in order to figure out what is the problem, how do you fix that problem?
35:40
SPEAKER_01: And how do you, like you said, help your client, right?
35:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a relationship business.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh, obviously, you know, the agency model is changing, and you talk a lot about that as well.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it's gonna continue to change, it's gonna continue to evolve.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: And I think people that are gonna continue to change with those times are going to win if you have the right people on your team who want to win.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh, which is which is something that that we talked about on this episode as well.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: And you know what about working or not working, your job just changes.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Just just because I got to 180 doesn't mean I'm just sitting at home now, right?
36:16
SPEAKER_02: Like this, I got my your job changes.
36:18
SPEAKER_02: You go from producing as much as you can to pay your bills to hiring producers and staying on them until we can so you can pay your bills, right?
36:26
SPEAKER_02: The next phase, and then your job just changes.
36:29
SPEAKER_02: Um me developing this new system has taken a lot of my time and my podcast now is for a different reason to help other agents, but still, my job is now coaching my leaders on a daily basis.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: There's always they're always learning, helping them handle difficult situations and conversations.
36:44
SPEAKER_02: They don't know that unless they've been around 20 years, right?
36:47
SPEAKER_02: So your job just changes as each of your growth phases changes.
36:51
SPEAKER_02: And I think people should understand that you have to be one to change your mind and change your job, otherwise, you just don't grow either.
36:56
SPEAKER_02: So you just you have to evolve with each position as you grow.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: They don't necessarily get easier, they just they're just different.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: It's like having kids.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: It's harder and easier at the same time.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: Correct, right?
37:10
SPEAKER_01: Different problems, different problems.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: Tell us tell us about the book, Pete, and also tell us about the podcast.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: I know you're spending a lot of your time, energy, and effort in that as well.
37:21
SPEAKER_02: All right.
37:22
SPEAKER_02: The the book is PC Accelerator, how to how to you know scale in at least an eight-figure agency without the franchise fees and all that.
37:28
SPEAKER_02: So basically what I did in the book is I really did take everything I did from A to Z and laid it all out for someone if they would read it.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: If they actually read it and filed everything in the book, they could build a successful agency.
37:38
SPEAKER_02: I'm I didn't really leave anything back.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: I didn't I didn't make it up with AI.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: It's really my story and actually how to do it all the way from relationship with a mortgage broker, splitting up sales and service, duplication, hiring questions, all the way through the end.
37:51
SPEAKER_02: So someone actually said, if I pick up Podgy's book and I actually filed it, I could build a successful agency.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: That's what that's the book in a nutshell.
38:00
SPEAKER_02: The podcast is you don't own your agency, it owns you.
38:03
SPEAKER_02: And I talk about that because that is a big thing.
38:06
SPEAKER_02: So even some of my best producers, I have to beat them over the head to get out of that addiction to production.
38:13
SPEAKER_02: Don't get me wrong, production pays everyone's bills, but they're so addicted to being such a high.
38:17
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking, you know,$150,000,$200,000 a month in production, it's hard to let that go, realize that you have to hire three other people and share your business to grow a real agency.
38:27
SPEAKER_02: Because one person can only grow so much by themselves.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: I call it the, I call it, I say five million dollars by yourself is about the most you can do before you either burn out or become less effective.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: So my job with the podcast is to share stories with as many agents as possible who have done it with the audience and all their trials and tribulations and mistakes.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: And every episode, we at least find one new thing.
38:51
SPEAKER_02: I learned something in every episode that I talked to someone about what they're doing.
38:54
SPEAKER_02: I just that I'm just trying to share that with all the agents that are listening.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: And early in the show, you you talked about getting into insurance, which is similar to my story because we saw people playing golf and they had lots of money.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: My my first my first mentor drove a S550 and played golf every Friday in the summer, and I thought this seems like a good job.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: I haven't I all I've heard you talk about is grinding the whole show, though.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Did you ever get to the uh golf course?
39:24
SPEAKER_02: Do you know?
39:24
SPEAKER_02: I think I'm the only insurance agent in all of Florida that doesn't golf.
39:27
SPEAKER_02: I don't I I I hate golf.
39:31
SPEAKER_02: It's supposed to be fun.
39:32
SPEAKER_02: Um I never took lessons and I wasn't very good at it, so I just I got so frustrated I didn't I didn't do well with it.
39:37
SPEAKER_02: I I do my relaxation to me is fishing.
39:40
SPEAKER_02: I do I do try to get out in the water.
39:41
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to I don't have a boat or anything.
39:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I'll get a guide or something, we go out in the backwater and fish for a couple days.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of my relief.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: Well you you you found you found something that that that takes your mind off the hard work.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: You have to.
39:56
SPEAKER_02: You have to a little bit.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: Um and then my wife and I, we do take we take long weekends here and there.
40:02
SPEAKER_02: There's no two-month vacations or anything, but we did take some long weekends and stuff.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: So you're you're giving this playbook.
40:09
SPEAKER_01: You're like, buy my book.
40:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you exactly what you need to know.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: But I'm warning you, there's gonna be hard work involved.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: It is not traveling to Europe for three months.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: No, you're gonna have to bust your ass.
40:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not all rainbows and butterflies.
40:22
SPEAKER_02: It really is, it really is hard, but uh to me, what's what's been rewarding is the how many how many people's lives I've changed.
40:29
SPEAKER_02: I know that sounds like a cliche, but every time I find someone that goes from zero and then they're a million-dollar producer, and then they have a six or seven million dollar agency and round their way to 20.
40:38
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I that's there's nothing, no better gratification than that for me.
40:44
SPEAKER_02: So I I just love that.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: I I'm sure you like also like coming back to some of them being like, remember when I told you to do this and you didn't do it right away?
40:53
SPEAKER_01: You should have done it sooner.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: You would have got you would have got there sooner.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: So like my couple of my meetings last week.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just think it's it's it's like it's just life, right?
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Like it's a natural course, like you know, like you see the right, like you see things, and you're like, I'm making them the same mistake, and you're like, I think I could figure it out, and then you end up finally figuring it out, and it was like there all along, right?
41:21
SPEAKER_01: And you just you just didn't do it earlier.
41:24
SPEAKER_01: You were like, I thought there was a better way of doing it.
41:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, the the on that though, the the biggest the most difficult thing now, or the biggest frustration is once agents get to a certain income level, the comfort just takes over, and they just they don't want to do the hiring, they don't want to even do the coaching or or the developing, or they don't want to do what it takes to get to that next level, which is which is way better.
41:49
SPEAKER_02: Well, you want to become bulletproof.
41:51
SPEAKER_02: I like I always say get to at least a$10 million agency, you're bulletproof no matter what happens.
41:55
SPEAKER_02: I know that production feels good, but you gotta you gotta get out of that comfort zone.
41:59
SPEAKER_02: And you know what other mistake people make?
42:02
SPEAKER_02: Instant gratification.
42:04
SPEAKER_02: Your business is not your ATM machine, it's just not.
42:07
SPEAKER_02: You always need to put save money to invest back in so you can get to that next level.
42:12
SPEAKER_02: You made 100, now you're at 150.
42:14
SPEAKER_02: Do you have to take all 50?
42:15
SPEAKER_02: Can you can you can you live on 130 now and put 20 back in?
42:18
SPEAKER_02: Like I just just you have to you have to think that way.
42:22
SPEAKER_02: And also, if you get so comfortable, yes, it's it it's more you have to make the time to hire and recruit, right?
42:27
SPEAKER_02: Oh and then they don't work out.
42:29
SPEAKER_02: Oh no, I'll never do it again.
42:31
SPEAKER_02: You gotta keep going.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: Gotta keep going.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: You gotta keep going.
42:37
SPEAKER_02: Well, I tell them, if I would have given up, you wouldn't have your job because there's there was about 150 people before you that didn't make it.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: It's true.
42:47
SPEAKER_01: Pete, where where where can people find you, your agency, your podcasts?
42:52
SPEAKER_01: How can they get in touch?
42:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh Pete Petepodgy.com has everything.
42:57
SPEAKER_02: It has the program and the podcast and everything.
42:59
SPEAKER_02: And you could also just go to John Galt Insurance if you're interested in learning about that.
43:04
SPEAKER_02: Or so either Petepodgy.com or JohnGaultInsurance.com is pretty pretty simple.
43:08
SPEAKER_02: You could find me.
43:09
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
43:10
SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, I mean, I I we really enjoyed having you on the show.
43:14
SPEAKER_01: And like I said, it's it's always obviously interesting to hear how people built their business and how how how they grew their agency or their company, whatever it is.
43:23
SPEAKER_01: But the themes are always similar, right?
43:26
SPEAKER_01: Like, like there's gonna be failure.
43:28
SPEAKER_01: There things are things are gonna go wrong.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to spend money, you're gonna have to work hard.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but really enjoyed having you on the show, really enjoyed your story.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh we hope everybody enjoyed it as well.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: And go check out Pete's podcast, go uh check out John Galt Agency.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: We hope you guys enjoyed the show, and we'll see you again here next week.
43:49
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, everybody.