Shawn Meaike
Appearances
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
see early on i was really excited about but i've got to a point like you know what if i do any of this shit i could be doing something to make money i have kids i have a family you're gonna pay me yeah but if i matter if i was looking at my life 360 app because i have my daughter in there keeping hers just like keeping sav safe in california she named it my son was eight and he i still have the same one he named that the that we're tracking each other and it said pay me motherfucker mike family
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
passive. It was active. I was the one doing everything. I was the one chasing.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
How you doing, man? How are you, buddy? Good, I appreciate that. That's quite an introduction. I feel even better about myself than I have before I walked in here.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Everything anybody was doing to make money in real estate that I wasn't, I wanted a piece. So I thought, okay, I just represented John. John spec'd three homes. I sold them. Why can't I spec the homes? Why did John have to do it? That's weird. So I decided to start doing, start building my new construction. So me and a few guys got involved and built the company.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And for you to know what I'm building, 10 houses a month, which is pretty decent-sized homes. We're doing pretty well. Then I said to myself, why am I buying the land from somebody?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Why don't I just buy raw pieces of land, develop it myself, get a good engineer, good attorney, go into town, do everything on my own, learn how to do it, sit through the town meetings, learn each town in Connecticut and how it works. Because this is before YouTube, dude. Oh, yeah, no, this is self-taught shit.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Sitting in fucking meetings. Dude, I used to go to the town hall in Salem, Connecticut.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
before I bought anything and sit in their meetings planning zoning wetlands commission zoning board of appeals I wanted to know how it all worked I took notes they would literally come over sometimes be like um are you here it was public and I'm like no I'm just here to they're like are you do you work because it's time we had newspapers like you were in the newspaper I'm like
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
No, I'm just want to. And I literally was like, OK, there's nine people. They don't have a quorum. How does that work over here? Wait a minute. Why is this one attorney representing? OK, got it. He must be big. He must do OK. He seems to get along with the town planner. Then I'd be like, let me go talk to the town planner. So I did all this shit on my own.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
OK, then I was like, OK, so I learned that. And I'm like, OK, look at the engineering plans. I didn't know how to. So I start reading plans. I had to replant. So I started talking to folks and learning, but it was, yeah, man. And it's funny because I joke with these guys all the time. They go on YouTube and learn everything.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Tell you what.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I'm like, okay, but you also won't get, the YouTube video won't show you everything that happens that I got to pick up in two hours in a meeting. And I'm paying attention. Because it's easy to get dumb when you're watching YouTube. It's easy to stop thinking. And you also assume that what you're watching is true. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You're already hired.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
That's why it was so easy for me. Nobody would do it. So I knew things that I thought everybody should know. And then I'm like, then they were coming to me and saying, I got a raw piece of land. Will you help me develop it? I'm thinking, dude, all I've been doing is going to meetings. So you want me? And I'm like, sure, but I wouldn't do. And I'm like, my deal was I ain't doing it for free.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I don't do shit for free. See, early on, I was really excited about, but I've got to a point where I'm like, you know what? If I do any of this shit, I could be doing something to make money. I have kids. I have a family. You're going to pay me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You're already hired, dude.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Matter of fact, I was looking at my life 360 app because I have my daughter in there keeping hers is like keeping staff safe in California. She named it. My son was eight and he I still have the same one. He named that the that we're tracking each other. And it said, pay me, motherfucker. Mike family. He was eight. And I remember always saying, like, I'm going to be on the phone.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I'm like, dude, I'll do it. But you're going to fucking pay me. And my deal was, so I started getting involved in so many aspects. I started doing really well financially, better than I ever thought I would do. And I loved real estate. It was really a passion of mine. And post-08, the rentals went through the roof. It was unbelievable.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Matter of fact, I probably wouldn't have sold them, except I had a company from China reach out through a broker I knew. And I was like, what are they doing here? He's like, the casinos. There's so many people coming from China to work and gamble and the whole deal. And I'm like, all right, what were they? I'm only going to sell them as one. I'm not going through one.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
If the number's big enough and fat enough, I will sell it. And matter of fact, I got to the point where I almost lost the deal because I had to use his broker because he brought them to me. And he's a nice guy, but like, God. And I'm like, and it was painful. And at one point he called me late and he's like, hey, there's permits from like 40 years prior to me owning them.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
He's like, we're just going to push back on them. And I'm like, dude, how much do they want? He's like 50 grand. I'm like, just pay it. Just pay it. Like, what are we doing here? And I'm like, but you realize how people, they want to die on the wrong hill all the time. And I sold those properties. When I tell you that COVID, I first heard about COVID because of how long it took me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I held onto it for quite some time. I sold those and 14 days later,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
covid and then two months later in connecticut moratorium don't pay your rent i had tenants that didn't know that i sold them yeah that would call my guy and be like hey like all excited like we're not gonna pay rent dude i could have bought my problem for 30 cents in the dollar and i didn't i was like you know what dude um once that happened with the government it freaked me out i was like dude they can do some stupid shit don't ever underestimate how dumb the government can be oh yeah you know i mean the u.s government's won two world wars and prince's own money but they can do some stupid shit
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I was like, all right, you know what? But that was my run in real estate.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
We, right before my deal was closing- They disputed. They said they did not believe my rent rolls were accurate. They said there's just no way because I had a very low vacancy rate. I did not have delinquent tenants. I had thousands of them. And I said, why don't you just ask me how I do it? I'll tell you all. And they're like, well, the guy's like my brother. Well, they don't really.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I said, dude, do me a favor. I said, pick 15 units, any 15 you want. 15, give them 24 hour notice. I'll meet the guy myself. I will drive him. You guys pick the 15. We'll go to the places, verify somebody lives there. If they're home, we'll talk to him. Like, let's just do that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So we did it. They agreed to do it. Not everybody's home, but after about six hours, he's like, okay, what do you do? And I said, well, it's easy. All there's 50 guys like me around here. I'm one of the biggest, but there's 50 of us. There's a few individual people that have a property owner. 85 to 90% of the home, the landlords, the property owners don't even live in Connecticut.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
They've retired and moved to Florida. At the time I was in my 20s and 30s, they're 70 or 80. So I would say, hey, John, listen, let me ask you something, bro, before I rent this to you. What do you think the chances are that you're going to get in a place where you can't pay your rent? And I mean ever, John. You'll say probably never. You're awesome. You're never going to have a problem. Cool.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I go, John, let me explain how this works. Me and my property manager, we live within 10 minutes. So if you don't pay rent, we're going to be so fucking annoying. I mean, like here all the time, knocking on the door. We might walk in because we might think you're unsafe. We might call 911 and think you're unsafe. We might be parked outside. We're going to text. Dude, we're just a pain in the ass.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Well, first of all, thanks for having me on, man. I appreciate it. I appreciate everything you do and everything right back at you, man. I see you everywhere. I've heard a lot about you and it's good to meet you in person. So thanks for having me. And I need to preface this with one of the reasons I want to come on a show is I like real people that tell real stories.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
The rest of these guys, they won't even know. You'll be four months into not paying rent before they send you a fucking letter. Me, I know the family relations people. I know the people at the courthouse here. I know everybody down there. Dude, path of least resistance. If you think it's going to be a problem ever, dude, just rent from them. They won't even screen you out.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
They'll never even meet you. And people are like, that doesn't work. Dude, it worked all the time. If I wasn't going to pay... And he was like, I don't give a shit at all. And you were like, you do. I'm like, I'd go with him. Why would I not? That doesn't make any kind of sense. So we really worked really, really hard. You understand, my first job at 16.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And if you know that you're going to not pay your rent, you're not going to pick me. Yeah. Because I'm going to annoy you. Yeah. You're going to pick the other dude. And guys would actually call me. This guy named Eddie, he would call me. He'd be like, did you interview so-and-so? I'm like, did you rent to him? Yeah. I would give him their number sometime. I'd be like, dude, this guy is real.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
He'll like you. Call this guy. Call this guy. I'm just telling you, Basin, because I think that the thing for me was my first job at 16, this guy just passed away. Outstanding guy. He was a big mentor of mine, professional baseball player, Yankees, Rangers, Red Sox, and a huge real estate guy in Connecticut. You're talking about in the early 90s. My first job.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
like outside of McDonald's grocery store job was going to the job site, meeting these guys, taking a truckload of four by fours, going to people's apartments, screwing the four by fours, two of them to their door. If they were delinquent on rent, I mean, I, you can't do it. Shouldn't do it. It's all awful. But, but think about this. I never forget going like, what are we doing?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I remember that one of the ladies, her and her husband, they called the police and the husband came, the police came out. We're there. And I'm like, dude, are y'all sure this is legal? Like, I mean, I use coke and shit, and I do dumb shit, and I beat guys up, and they hit me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
This is going to be it. What if there's a fire or something? And I'll never forget the cop saying to the guy, did you pay your rent? And he goes, well, he goes, sir, I'm just asking. I'm going to get and remove the 4x4. It's a safety hazard. Did you pay your rent? No, I suggest you pay. But I think for me, what people have to understand is the psychology behind most people.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I mean, it's cowardly for me not to pay you if I owe you money. I'm a coward if I do that. If I owe you money and I don't pay you, I'm a coward. Cowards are cowards consistently. Cowards are cowards consistently. You know, men that beat up women don't go fight men. They're cowards. So I was like, dude, all we got to do is ask them enough questions. They're going to back down.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So real estate was really, you know, and I had a lot of really good tenants and people we had for a long time.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Dude, I worked there for like a day.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It's unfortunate with this whole nature versus nurture thing because so many people they fabricate their story. It's not a real story. Um, so I shoot you straight. Whenever I have to say it happened, if I say it didn't happen, it didn't happen. And it makes my life a lot easier. My mother raised me and my brother, my brother's two years younger than me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Kind of like that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
That's exactly true. But it's true.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It was a different world, man. And I think it, but it, but listen, I learned a lot. It was very good to me. Um, I enjoyed it. Like I enjoy everything about real estate, to be honest with you. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I had a guy approach me, weirdly enough, in 08. I was buying a four-family home. He was a real estate broker listing it. And he said, you ever think about, you know, find other ways to make money? I'm like, well, dude, like, I have money. I'm not, I ain't, but I'm always open. What do you got? And I assumed it was something real estate related.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And he said, you ever heard of mortgage protection? And I said, and I hadn't. I said, and I know you mean like selling mortgages? And he's like, no, no, mortgage protection, life insurance. And I said to the guy, and then with Jim, I said, no, Jim, I've never heard of it. And he said, well, you get your license. And I really didn't pay him any mind. He probably tried to recruit me four times.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I didn't really pay him any attention. But the fourth time he came to me with a lead and he handed me this form, this piece of paper and client's name on it, explained the product. They put their name, date of birth, signed it, put like a little code words for me, called them.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
and i was like let me see it so i took the thing and i called it on my cell phone and uh he's like what you doing i'm like just call him it's the guy answered and i'm just like hey dude like you fill this thing out my name is sean i'm getting back to you got your information you wanted some information of organization insurance do you remember doing that he's like no i said cool i have the form your date of birth oh yeah i do i said cool um i'll be out tomorrow whatever time so i hang up and he's like dude how'd you know how to do that i'm like it's a lead bro what are you talking about i said but i need my license he's like yeah dude you can't sell money to get licensed
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Um, she got pregnant when she was 17, had my brother who died shortly after birth. I would have had another brother. I'd been the middle child and then had me at 19, my brother at 21, um, old man left. My mom raised us. My mom had a high school education. And my mother worked at a hospital plant product, kind of like wore a hair net, worked there. She was a bartender and did all kinds of odd jobs.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I said, all right, you know, I'm gonna get my license. I was intrigued by the lead. Got my license about four or five days. I still had no desire to do anything. I just figured I'd get the license, can't hurt myself, sell myself a policy to my buddies, whatever. And so I got my license about four or five days.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And about two weeks later on a weekend, I was like, you know what, dude, I'm gonna frigging call some leads this weekend.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
what was my contract level with him?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I was at a, I was at a 55% term, 38% final expense contract. Oh man. But you understand, I know about life insurance. In real estate, I'm getting 6% and getting half. Obviously, the transactions are a hell of a lot bigger. But to me, I'm like, you know what, dude, I got my license. And I didn't even ask, actually, at first. I was like, because I was just so new to the business.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It's funny you ask that because I worked at that company for five years.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
No. I moved to 110, which still was okay. 110 mortgage.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Ten-month advance. Ten-month advance. Yep. And what happened at that company, I was at my fifth year, my annual convention. And I've always struggled with... recognition's not important to me. That doesn't make me right. And recognitions really like the parking space out there. Number one agent, I'd want it. But if it was that over money, give me the money. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
If you're like, dude, we want my, I'll take the money and I'll park.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I saw that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I don't, but, but I, I really struggled with that. So I was at an event and the, the guy that owned the company said, Hey man, um, you're our number one income producer for the year. And I'm like, I've been the number one income producer for three years. And I've been here five. And he said, yeah, but I need you to do me a favor. I want you to talk about top line income in gross.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I said, well, I do. I talk about top line and bottom line and expenses. And that's what I'm always going to do. He said, I know, but you're oversharing. And I said, well, it's my information. I'm confused now that my peers would get up there and go, I made $740,000 a share. I'm like, dude, he netted 80 grand. Yeah. Like he didn't.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I said, and I remember him really pushing back nicely to me, but he was just like, I really just wish you would. And I got up and I said, dude, either I don't have to get on stage. It's not that big a deal to me, but I'm knocking up a lot of the people because I'm going to serve my government. And then it hit me, dude, I'm making that year. I made 1.4 million gross.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Dude, I didn't make $200,000. I didn't make $200,000. I didn't. The fees, it was crazy. So I decided to launch my own company.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Yeah, but you'd be shocked.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I was buying leads. I was paying lead override. Every time a guy in my organization bought a lead, I had to pay for it. I had monthly fees, weekly fees, training fees. Just getting zapped. Anything they could get me on, they got me on. And the reality was that I was, I already had my, like I was broke. I was making money and I enjoyed doing what I was doing.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I decided it's funny because even then I'm like, you know what, man, this isn't going well. I flew down to the corporate office, met with the owner of the company. I said, here's the deal. Cut me a new deal. I'm by far number one guy. I ain't hurting nobody. Cut me a due deal so I can pay my guys more because I want my guys to make more money too.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I want to get a better deal. I want to make more money. I know how to structure this. I know how to do this. I can show you the grid. I know how you break the comp down. I know what the bonuses look like. I know what I'm doing. Help me cut a deal for my agency. We're the biggest. And in person, he was like, yep, sounds good, sounds good, sounds good. And about a
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
day later he calls me with like i like to call liquid courage every drunk guy wants to he's ready to fight until you punch him in the face and he's all drunk and he's like don't ever ask me that stuff again i'm never going to do that and i made a decision to quit so december 12th of 2013 was the day i quit Launched Family First Life. And people say, what was your goal?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Give you an idea how hard my mom worked. I played baseball, basketball, football in high school.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Dude, I just wanted to have a better situation. But I didn't think we'd have 30,000 agents. I didn't think we'd do a billion a year. I was just excited to be. I mean, most people in our space don't even think about doing 50 million a year. There's guys that have huge podcasts, huge presence. They can't do 60 million a year. It doesn't make them bad people.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It's just like they don't know how to do it. So we built something that really took off and it's been great and been one hell of a ride. And, you know, it's funny. I was at a, I was on a plane the other day. The guy walks down the aisle. He's like rogue IMO. And I'm like, what? He's like, you used to run ads that were called the rogue IMO. Are you an insurance? Cause I'm not even in insurance.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I don't even know what the rogue IMO means, but I couldn't get out of my mind. So we were talking later, I was waiting at the baggage claim, and he's like, dude, what was that all about? I'm like, we just wanted everybody to know we were doing something different. And you're starting an established industry.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
football and baseball in college my mother's never seen me play any sport in her life not because she's not a great mother because she worked her freaking ass off so good so um mine was very much um i was very blessed with what i got to go through but my mother i will tell you people always ask me why do people have a low self-image everything that i've studied i went to college got an undergraduate degree in social work mastery in psychology because i wanted to play ball it's the only reason i went to play baseball and um
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
If you ain't got a difference, you ain't got an edge, you ain't got a better value prop, you're screwed.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
A hundred percent. And also, dude, I sold. I think, you know, one of the reasons you've probably been really successful is, dude, you sold. We do. I think it's hard for men and women that want to launch something and be the sales manager, leader. It's hard, dude, because they don't know what you're going through. They don't know what it's like to drive three hours to list an appointment.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
They don't know what it's like to go to somebody's house and get porched where you're going to meet with them, sell life insurance. And they're inside going like, and it's funny. So when I started, I would do stuff that people thought was crazy. I got to go to your house and we had an appointment. I knock on door. I could hear you and your wife inside. And I'm like, well, we booked an appointment.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I bought your lead. So I would just text you. I'd be like, hey, John, listen, Sean, Mike, I'm here for our appointment. I can hear you all inside. I'm going to call 911. I'm obviously concerned for your safety. And I would do that. I'm like, I'm concerned for your safety. I don't know if it's a home invasion or something happened, but I can hear you all. I'm assuming you're in danger.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And they would open the door. And somebody would be like, dude, what did you do? I'm like, I got in the house. I sold him life insurance. Like, what are you talking about? But also part of me was like, if you don't respect your time, why would anybody else? Yeah, no kidding. And I ain't wasting my time, bro.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You better believe it, dude.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So here's the funny thing. It's an interesting story. We did when we started. So we had our own mail warehouse that we worked with. that I had to deal with that guy, and it was pretty much our mail warehouse. As leads evolve, YouTube, IVR, all the stuff we did in social media, we did a lot of it. And then probably three years ago, it got to a point where I was like, wait a minute.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I can teach you how to do the leads. I can show you how to do it. We pay you better comp anyway. We got crazy good bonuses. A little bit of a lot becomes a lot of money. We're doing great. You know what? Wherever you buy the leads from, you can buy them from. Matter of fact, we just wanted... Because for us... To manage, the lead gen business has changed so much. You understand?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
100% of what I did when I started was direct mail. Yeah, it's all mail. That's all it was. And now with what we do, I mean, it's social media. It's where everything's in the lead. The acquisition is cheaper. The quality is really good. And then post-COVID, it's all virtual. You understand? We were 198% face-to-face.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
98% Zoom. We went literally. So these guys are getting on the phone, getting on Zoom from their house, from an office, however many days a week, however many hours a week. But we literally, when COVID hit, I remember people like, what are you going to do? Well, we kept running appointments. We would bring our lawn chairs. Because people would say to me, what are you going to do?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I'm like, dude, I don't know. We have to be whatever, social distancing. How close are you to your clients anyway? Like, I sit down and talk to them. They're like, what do you do with your clients? Like, I don't get that close to them. We're not snuggling on the couch. Like winning a set on my lap, like they're there, I'm here, we're getting them insurance. So it, um, but yeah, so now it's funny.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
We did integrate all that. We do have a great platform and it's funny. You talk about the tech, give you an idea of startups. We had a, um, man, we were so deficient technologically by the time we were three years in because we didn't anticipate having thousands and thousands of agents. So I remember when I was looking at like the infrastructure and had a guy come in and do a whole deal and,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You know, people say to me, what causes low self-image? I said, lack of unconditional love. And my mother, for all the things I had going on in my life, all the stupid shit I did, all the drugs and alcohol I was involved in, all the times I got arrested for doing stupid shit, she loved me through it all. My mom told me she loved me every mother-effing day of my life.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And it's funny, one of the guys that works in my office that manages it said, what do you think it's going to cost us? I said, ah, a couple million. And come back and I'm like, it's like 7 million. You know what I mean? And it's funny because what people don't know about scale, and we've always been really aggressive, like your pirate ship analogy.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You know, we throw it in where, you know, I was already making some money other places the first couple years. Dude, I wasn't taking any money out of the company. We were killing it, but I was like, dude, I'm good. And I never needed to. So the guys that were trying to compete with me, They needed to make so much money and keep so much money, and I didn't.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
If I told you that that was my compass, I'd be lying to you. I mean, I understand them. We've looked at them. Here's what we had. We had this idea that if we believe we have the best value proposition in America, which I still believe that we do, And nobody can prove me otherwise. We're by far the biggest. So I, in our space.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I say, okay, if we do that and we can leverage social media, build people's self images up and teach them to be leaders. And then we can start instead of being so focused on here's your sales training is great. We have everything put together, but what if we took every agent and said, we need to get you to 25,000 legitimate followers. Like what if we leverage social media? Like nobody ever has.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And again, Then we just started recruiting everybody to the point where, like, get online at night. If they're in the business, if they're not in the business, ask them if they want to make more money. They make more money here. That seems pretty simple.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
That's it. And we're going to treat them great. We're not going to micromanage them, those that can't manage, micromanage. And we're by far the biggest. So if we're by far the biggest, it has to be working because we do the most volume.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Oh, early on recruiting?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
The funny thing was it was hard because there was no proof of concept. So it was hard because what people would ask is, hey, man, how do you know it's going to work? Because you just started. And my deal was I was like, I don't know if it will. And they would, I'm like, I don't. Here's what I do know, though. We're going to be the biggest IMO you've ever seen in your life.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
We're going to go down in a ball of flames. Either way, it's going to be a lot of fun. I ain't going to hurt you. I'm not going to lie to you. And shit, you'll probably make more money than I'm going to make early on. But that's what we're going to do. But if you want me to look you in the eyes, John, and tell you I'm 100% sure we're going to succeed, I'm not 100% sure. I will not quit.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Um, truthfully to this day, if I called her right now, that'd be the first thing she says. So she, um, she, she raised me, worked really hard. Um, you know, we lived in, you know, subsidized housing and I knew that's not where I wanted to be. Um, I knew at a very, very young age, you're talking about your kids. I knew at a very young age, I want to do a lot more.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
100% sure I won't quit. 100% sure I won't back down. 100% sure I'll give it everything I got. And I ain't no punk. But am I 100% sure it's going to work? No. Are you in or you're out? And the also reality was, what are you committing to? My idea is what are you committing to? Like, let's just say, let's just say, because people would say to me, you give away too much comp early on.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I'd be like, okay. And I used to tell everybody, like I go to these meetings and my competitors would be there. And I'm like, dude, don't let me make it three years. I make it three years, you're all fucked. You're so fucked. And I would do this during a meeting. I'm like, you're so fucked. If I make it three years, you're fucked. Because I give away so much of the comp.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
But if a little bit of a lot becomes like a Home Depot situation and you're Smith's Hardware and you keep too much money, don't let me get there. I'm like, so you all better get together and take me out within three years. All y'all fucked. And I would say that shit all the time because I like talking shit. It's my favorite part.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Oh, hell yeah. They all hate me. Which drove me even more.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I was like, dude, all of you together I don't worry about.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I know. Right? But, dude, what's weird for me is I don't know what I would do without that. I need that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I need it. And, you know, it's funny because I was reading. Have you read the 38 Letters John D. Rockefeller Wrote to His Son? It's a great book. And one of the letters is about that. He's talking about the railways and gold and all the things they were doing back in the day. And he was just elaborating on how awesome that part of the deal is, knowing that everybody's coming at you.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Because you want to be the biggest. And I think, you know, it's funny. It's hard to explain it sometime to your kids. It's like, dude, well, I don't take it personally. Oh, dude. Like, well, they say this about you. I'm like, dude, people are always going to say shit about you.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Amen. True statement.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It's amazing. The stuff those guys did. Those are the real heroes. Those guys were savages.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I knew at a very young age, my brother had no desire to do anymore. And we lived in the exact same house, exact same circumstances. So I went to college, played baseball, got a degree, uh, And then got myself a job immediately working with abused, neglected children.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
100%.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Man, you know, it's funny. Pre-COVID, I had an idea to get to, or I wanted to add 400 offices in a 12-month period, 400 across the country, brick and mortar offices. Dude, I blow by 400, and then COVID hits. And I mean, I had, I had guaranteed leases everywhere. I had, you know, 40,000 square feet in Atlanta, 52,000 in Salt Lake city.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It was, and I remember people coming to me and going, you know, what are we going to do? And people aren't going to come back to the office. And I did that. And the, one of my best gifts is I don't get rattled ever. Never. I've lost a bunch of money. I made a bunch of money. I'm doing the best that I can. I'm going to get great information.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I'm going to be around people that can help, but I'm not going to crumble. So like, you know, we had to really, it's a great question, John, because we really had to build a virtual culture. So we had to take the structure that was in the offices best we could, because short-term goals and structure will give people a sense of urgency.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I'm like, okay, how do we get the, how do we get structure? So we started doing things that were structured. To your point, I'm like, okay, every day, every whatever, Thursday at this time, I'm doing this for this group of people. Every Friday, I'm doing this for this group of people.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And then what I started doing is I started traveling and getting other people to travel to people and doing pull-together events, okay? You don't have the office. Cool, got it. All right, yeah, we're doing an annual convention once a year. You know what? Let's start doing, they came up with this terminology, lock-ins. So they would get an Airbnb or a few of them in a city.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
40 agents would fly in there, stay together for four days. They would do it like every three months. So you built that culture face-to-face in a lock-in.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And now it's like you get some pizza and some food. You're dialing all day long. Everybody's got their phone. You got an Airbnb. It's got horseshoes, volleyball. You play around a little bit, take them to Topgolf. Everybody goes home. But it gave them that camaraderie. And then off of that, what they did was Zoom dials. So it was like, okay, dude, you did office meetings, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Why don't we just do a show on Zoom? When do you dial? Here are the days I dial. Good. Do it all on Zoom. Yeah. Well, they got to get on the video. And I'm like, hey, they're independent contractors. And that was the other thing, teaching people, stop trying to treat people that are independent contractors like they're your employees. They're not your employees.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And just because you had an office and they came in, they are now at home. If they decide to dial four hours a day, two hours a day, recruit more people. The answer is always new blood. So stop beating them down for what you're not doing. And good self-assessment on your part where you're like, hey, dude, like I was just not as engaged. So it kind of starts moving sideways. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So are you engaged, bro? So we have a lot of support virtually. And what's happening now, I'd say over the last probably six months, Now we have people opening offices again because a lot of the people themselves miss the culture. They miss it. And I'm like, dude, you guys want to do it. I had a grand opening in Tampa last week. I'm going to Denver next week, Kentucky the week after that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I'll fly in. I'm going to speak to an hour, get them all fired up, see their new office. But it's their office, and they decide to have it because they want to be in person. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
What are you doing? Pre-COVID? Oh, dude. It was the wild, wild west. And we were growing so much. I'm like, okay, you know what? That's going to run me $35 a month. Cool. Yeah, do it. How many agents? Yeah, it was easy. I'm like, we have 12 offices. I couldn't, I couldn't even keep up. We had too many people. So I'm like, okay, you know what? That's going to charge you three grand a month.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
There's 36 covers the whole deal. Boom. It's triple now. Here's how we get it. Boom. And I said, I don't want to make any money, but I don't want to lose any money either. I'm like, I don't care if I make any money, I don't want to lose any money. So we didn't even have to now post COVID. Yeah. I'm like, dude, you better get all this stuff. And we've gotten people to take a breath. I didn't need.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And yeah,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Some of the space I have is like, oh, my God. Like, we didn't need it. It's great. It's got a gym, a cafeteria, penthouse, bar up top. That's outstanding. So now it's like, how much does that cost you? Don't commit. We don't do long-term leases. Because you don't know what's going to happen with the business. So these guys will call me, and I'll be like, dude, you can find something.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You don't need to sign a five. You don't need to do that. Like, take a breath. Relax.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Ours are guys are hanging off the walls. Yeah, dude. Which is good. Yeah, it's like I want 140 people there when it only holds 112.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I get excited. because that means they had to compete because adversity, it might be a person. It might be a situation. It might be an entity outside of us. It might be me. Right. So I think that, that it, it, it inspires me and motivates me. Number one, and I'm a perspective guy. So I'm thankful that I had that adversity. Um, I I'm, I'm every day legitimately.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I'm like, I could be in a, and I know that it's so I, It's so easy to say, well, that's a simple problem. I get it, Sean. It's like, but why don't you live it? Getting it and living it are two different things. And I also realize that the people around me, for the most part, don't love adversity. You know, like, and for me, you know, it's funny. I was at my house at a gym upstairs down the hall.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I was about four months when my daughter was home from college, and she's like, hey, there's a guy at the front door knocking. And I said, what's he look like? She told me. And I go, she goes, he's got his hands behind his back. I said, oh, he's a process server. He's going to serve me something. So I go downstairs, and I'm like, I open the door. He's like, oh, I said, just give it to me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Don't be weird. Just fucking give it to me. It's awkward. So he does, and I shut the door, and I put him in. And she goes, what is it? And I said, I'm going to sue for something. And she's like, what do you do? And I said, what do you mean? She goes, do you care? I mean, she's, my daughter's 22 years old at the time. And I go, do I care in what way? What do you mean?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And she goes, well, don't you want to like go through it and figure it out? I said, no, I have an attorney that does that. And, and later that night she goes, you don't really care, huh? And I said, Savannah, if there's something that happened, you and your brother, I care. But in business, I ain't getting rattled.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You guys, hell, if my daughter had a moth flying in her ear one night, I thought she had God knows what in there. She was screaming. Dude, I was losing my God-blessed mind driving her 12 minutes because she was a little kid. You know what I mean? Watching my son throw a baseball and watching his arm break at 14, 15. It was awful. That rattled me. Yeah. Business?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I'd like to give you a much better answer other than if you choose to be unsuccessful, you're going to be unsuccessful. If you choose to be cowardly, you're going to be cowardly. If you choose to cry and mope and whine. I got a faith, dude. There's nowhere in that book anywhere that says to be a coward. be a punk, be a complainer, like nowhere. I've read it. Like I read it a lot.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Us competing, you taking a shot at me, bring it. Like, now I'm alive, bro. Like, yeah, you picked the right guy. Let's go. And I think, for me, I get excited, and I also know that the calmer I can be, the more productive the people around me can be. And also, I want the adversity.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Meaning, I coach my son's ball sports, baseball, basketball, football, and I have one of his buddies who works with me in insurance, makes $300,000 a year, 21 years old, 22 years old. And I said, what was the greatest thing I taught you about basketball? Now, John, when I tell you that I'm not a good basketball player, dude, I played in high school because I was an athlete.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I fucking hate basketball. It don't make any sense to me. I like tackling people. I like hitting shit. I'm just not my game, bro. And I don't know a lot about it. Nobody was asking me what played around at the end of the game. In high school, all I knew was screen from my buddy, Mike. get a fucking rebound. And my coach would say, don't shoot my basketball.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Meaning I had to give it to somebody that could shoot.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Like I understood that concept. So I remember I was asking him on a podcast. I said, so what's the greatest thing I taught you about basketball? And he got real quiet. I go, dude, do I know anything about basketball? Like y'all played in college. Y'all play over places. Like, no, not really. I said, cool. Thank you. I don't know anything. What did I teach you?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
He said, honestly, the greatest thing you taught me was to not be afraid of anything. Like ever. And I wanted people to be mad at me. The adversity strikes me, that means it ain't striking y'all. I'd rather have it be me. So if I walk in the gym and I talk shit to everybody, they're mad at me, not my players.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And then if something happens to my players and I make more of a scene myself, they're mad at me and I want them to be mad at me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It used to really bother me. I used to take it personally. I used to get hurt for them. I'd get angry if I poured into them. And I never believed no good deed goes unpunished, but that's probably one of the truest statements I've ever heard in my entire life. I've done a lot of really good things for people I didn't have to do and they still let me down and went out of their way to let me down.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I realized that everybody, hey, I learned grace. Everybody goes through shit. They didn't want to let me down. I hedged my bets more. I'm really cautious, meaning like I'm not that far out anyway. You let me down. It really didn't hurt me. It takes me a long time to trust. Yeah. Long time to trust.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I think a lot of it's gut. I mean, my experience, just because I had the experience, you're a different human being, your circumstances are different. I look at people's surroundings, like who they're with, um, relationship wise, who they spend time with. I try to gauge some of that before I get to too far in, but also that crisis of character may be situational.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I have some really good people that did some really stupid shit and really bad situations. I have guys that did some really stupid shit, let people down because they were drinking too much. They're in a bad relationship. They were depressed. It doesn't mean that it's an excuse, but it was a situational character issue. And it doesn't mean that's who they are forever.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And while I don't understand all of it all the time, it doesn't say that anywhere. So I think that was the path my brother chose, you know? So I chose to not be what bothered me the most as a kid, to be honest with you, John, by far the most was the way people looked at me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And also, it's not my job to judge. Two of the greatest things I got, and I got a lot, is that I don't drink. So I'm sober. So everything, everything. And I, I did have a really healthy fear of the Lord. And dude, that book tells me that I can't judge nobody. Yeah. So the minute I start finding myself doing, I'm like, dude, they're a human being like you, bro. Like relax. Like, who are you?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Like you got to make decisions, stand up for your family, protect people. I get all that. But also at the end of the day, I've had some people that nobody's believed in them. And I think we have a lot of, you know, people that work with us that people have given up on.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
But I'll tell you what, dude, you take somebody that people have given up on and you believe in that guy, and all of a sudden he starts to have success and he's had some dysfunction in his life and he has a resilience that you talked about earlier, dude, be careful. That was what I knew about the people we recruited, man. We had a lot of really good people.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
It didn't mean that my first ad was now hiring athletic or military experience required. It was my first life insurance ad I ran. People would call me up and be like, hey, man, I'm in. I played ball at NC State. What's the job? I'm like, dude, you're going to be perfect. Come down tomorrow morning. We'll talk about it. We'd be a half an hour into it. They wouldn't even know what we did.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
They'd be fired up. Sometimes they'd get up in the lead and be like, hey, what do we do again? They just wanted to be around me, and I liked them.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
No, mine's 100%. But as an independent contractor, the biggest thing I'm rabid about is accountability. I'm rabid about accountability. If I go, hey, man, tell me about why you're here. Well, I was working at this other company, and they suck, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, well, somebody made money there. I always go, well, somebody made money there. Why did they make money and you didn't?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
looked at me based on what we didn't have and i always knew it because i was listen i was in ap classes in high school i hated my ap classes because i hated the people in my class and i'm like none of you all play ball at all i don't have anything in common but i realized i really didn't love myself enough and i felt uncomfortable around them because they were they had good clothes
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And then it's get quiet. I'm just like, and I'm waiting. And if you go, yeah, you know what, Sean, I could have, no, it just, the place sucked or this happened or that happened. I'll nicely go, Hey, let me ask something, John, if you don't mind. Do you ever take responsibility for anything or do you blame everybody always? I've got a really good asking questions people want to ask.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I don't ask them to be a prick. I ask them because I want the information. And a lot of times, and if they're uncomfortable, I said, you know why I'm asking those questions? Because I genuinely care. It'd be easy not to ask those questions and just move on and dismiss you until you get contracted and never talk to you ever again. But I want to know why you think that way.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I want you to get better. And I want you to get better because I care about you. I don't even barely know you, but people cared about me when I didn't care about myself. I'm not trying to psychoanalyze you. I'm just saying, like, at some point, dude, this is you, bro. Everywhere you go, you're there. So let's talk about that. Now, a lot of times people self...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You know, it's kind of like I was talking about with tenants. I have a lot of people that just are like, dude, I'm not going to like, this guy's like serious about me being successful. And he's kind of a pain in the ass. And he's asked me a lot of questions and I'm not, I'm not down people. Like this is too much for me. I'm like, okay. Yeah. I'm like, Hey, good to meet you. Oh man.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
If I'm, you know, people always ask me, if you hire 10 people, how many of them are successful? I, you know, listen, I think for me, I hired people based on what I thought they could become and who they knew. And I didn't pretend otherwise. I'm like, dude, I'm hiring you because of what I think you can become here. But also, you know, people and I'm not gonna lie to you.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
A lot of the great guys and girls I have, I didn't hire them directly.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I hired somebody who hired somebody who hired them. The dude that hired me quit. Month after he got in there, which is stupid. He shouldn't have. And the guy that hired him quit like a month later. Matter of fact, when I launched my company, this guy, Jim, who hired me, called me. He was like, man, it's going pretty good, huh? I'm like, oh, dude, we're killing it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
He's like, I never should have quit. I was like, dude, you're overriding me, you dumbass. Yeah, all you gotta do is just stay around.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Just keep your business card, bro. Keep your phone on. I was doing the rest, dude.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I know.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
think i have that touch people because i want to i think it's i'm genuinely interested in people and why they are the way they are what they're trying to accomplish and who they're trying to be i'm also really transparent in who i am like i i don't pretend that i'm not up but then again we all are and i think that's the struggle for people i think once people realize this is a level playing field just because that guy might know this and you don't because and she might know this we're all still just trying to get through day by day man some days are better than others
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I think everybody deals with the same stuff. It's just different doses and different times, right? I think, you know, listen, college, honestly, for me, was good. As much as people are like, I did learn a lot about sociological theory. I did. I learned a lot about the DSM-IV and diagnoses, and I got a master's degree. So I did learn some stuff. So I'm not going to minimize that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
But I can tell you that... it was putting it to use. So I heard the same stuff my peers heard in school. Then I was like, cool, I'm going to go put it to use and see if it works. But I think a lot of it's experiential. I think the foundation was good for me, but then I took it to a different level. I was like, all right, dude, let me go figure these things out and always be bold.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
they're from good homes and i just didn't fit in so i was like let me get out of these classes but i knew i wanted something different and i knew that my brother didn't and i knew i wanted my mother would always tell me it's like people i said well how'd you why'd you want to be an entrepreneur my father who wasn't around was a business owner my father did not work hard my father made good money i mean he lived his life that was his life um and
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I always tell myself default to aggressive, like whatever's happened, just default to aggressive, be intellectual about it, be intentional, but let's default to aggressive.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And that's a great question. I think your ability to explain and market yourself in 30 or 45 seconds, your ability to sell who you are, whether it's to a client, whether it's to a lender, whether it's to a peer, whether it's to a recruit, a lot of people don't develop that communication style. Start with you. Why should I work with you? What is it about you? What do you bring to the table?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
What are your strengths, your weaknesses? So I'd perfect your communication as it pertains to you as a business person, because that's all sales is. You only communicate who you are. I come in here, you do your thing. You're very, very intentional about it. And I got to give you number two, learn from people.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
watch what they do if i come in here and your sign out front says welcome to sean mike and it feels makes me feel good why would i not do that it makes me feel good so if it makes me feel good i'm like shit that made me feel good why that's not like but people just are so into themselves i'm like what can i learn from you i come i want to be in your show i want to know you that's great i'm happy about that but i'm also like what can i pick up in the short period of time i'm here yeah
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You know, so you got to keep your ears and your eyes open, but you've got, if you can't market or sell you, you can't market or sell anything. If you can't sell you, who the hell wants to join you?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Instagram is easy, man. My last name is M-E-A-I-K-E, Sean Mike, S-H-A-W-N. Everything's in my name. Website. We got the Pick Money, the podcast. We wrote a book called Punch Me in the Face. I do stuff all over the country, and I'm not hard to find, man. Go on to IG. If you want to hit me up, send me a message, and I'll get back to you. I, uh, I enjoy trying. I enjoy what I'm doing.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
later in life i've come to build a relationship with them because after not talking to somebody for 10 plus years you realize like bro is it hurting you or hurting them like what does it matter so i reach out them all man we have you know we have the relationship but we have but i built a lot of resilience too but i never thought of it that way like i knew that my mother dated guys and when they would come to the house and i would be 14 15 years old and they'd be like where's your mom
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
She's upstairs. She needs to hurry up. I'm like, bro, I will fuck you up. Yeah. Like, I will fucking smack the shit out of you. You talk like that about my mom again. Yeah. Like, and look at me and ask me if you're fucking... Like, I was really angry, kid. I'm probably still angry, to be very honest with you. So...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Very. Very. Defensive, protective.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I mean, hey, listen, what's the biggest struggle we deal with with our kids? They're never going to know those struggles, unfortunately. Fortunately, but unfortunately. Your kids are never going to know, nor are mine.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
A hundred percent. And I think, I think for me, you know, it's funny that, you know, you building this real estate monster and all things you've done. My mother got a real estate license when I was probably 10 and, And it was the first thing she'd ever done outside of a job. And I remember my mom, you're talking about 1982. Yeah. But I can remember the dress she was wearing.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I can remember being excited. I remember hearing the terminology open house. I didn't know, like I had to ask my mom and I was very inquisitive. And I had a neighbor who I don't know if she's still alive, but boy, she was a bitch. And she like would come over and try to beat us up. And she was a brutal, brutal lady.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And I remember my mother got a license and she looked at my mom and she said, Carrie, you know that you're never going to be successful at this right in front of us in our little apartment. And my mother was very passive. That's why I think I've also got to watch people treat her. verbally the way they were never going to treat me. And my mother quit, gave up her real estate three months into it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Don't even know if she ever made a sale. I don't think she ever made a sale. And I remember like feeling so happy for her and then realizing like, dude, she's never going to try anything ever again. Never. And so I actually got my real estate license when I was like 21 and I got it because of that. Like I really wasn't like, I didn't have a plan. I was a social worker.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I was like, dude, everybody's getting a real estate license, meaning like five guys I knew. But I'm like, why not get it? And then I started buying and selling property when I was 21, land developing, multifamily homes. And I, you know, built a pretty good real estate portfolio, which I sold later. But yeah, man, growing up, it really drove me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I think my mother, um, she had a really, really tough upbringing, you know? And honestly, in fairness, so did my old man. And I think when you look back on it, you know, I had a guy tell me one day that every son and father go through three phases. First, your son idolizes you. Then he demonizes you. Then he humanizes you. And, man, I thought about my son. I mean, I coached all his sports.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I was with him every minute of every day. You know, the idolization. And what's weird is I started – you start thinking a lot when you get older, and you're like, you know what, man? My old man was – he was an ass. But guess what, bro? There are things that happened to him he didn't do to me. So as much as I want to demonize him, I realized he's a human being, bro. So he's just a human.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Oh, I take it, dude. I take a ton of joy in it. I think for me, you know, I've been, I've been sober 24 years. Um, I love to drink. I love cocaine a lot more. I love, I love smoking crack a lot. Oh God. Oh yeah. I'm being, you know, if it didn't involve a needle, I did it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Yeah, man. And, and, I quit actually this past September 24th is my 24th year.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Okay. Do you know Eric? I do not. Okay. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
You know, and I think everybody in my family, so that was one of the first ones I broke. I graduated from college and all that. And I just, you know, wanted to be, you know, I wanted to, To your point, I wanted to be like those people on some level, but I wanted to have the same chances they had. And I had to convince myself that I could.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
And when I got into real estate, I started getting around people. And, you know, I did really well. And I worked at like Remax and William Ravis. That's a big New England one. And I did really well. And I was like working my job. And I'm like, dude, I'm like number one agent. And I don't even work here full time. Like y'all don't work.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I was like, this is such an awesome industry because y'all don't do anything. The people in my office, I'm like, you just hang out. Like this is easy. It's easy to beat you guys. And then I was like, I get to compete again. Like I thought I'd be playing baseball until I was 35 years old getting paid to do it. And I'm like, dude, I get to compete again. And that's what got my juices flowing.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
So I realized I love to compete. I want to prove people wrong. I obviously developed a lot of resilience growing up. And also that hasn't left me. I see a lot of folks that go make enough money to live on. Dude, money. I have plenty of money. I'm not trying to be like, I've been very blessed. Sometimes I'm like, dude, this makes no sense. It makes no sense. You want to go eat?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Yeah, let's take a yacht to a restaurant. It's dumb. Let's fly a private jet. It's really stupid, and it's surreal, but it's never made me want to slow down. Ever. Like you've never been like, no, I don't feel like doing that today. Like I want to be moving all day long every day because I want to make a difference. I'm going to do things that give me a purpose.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I think my addictive personality never left me. I think I was predisposed to addiction. Everybody on both sides of my family was. There were certainly holes in our lives that I think I wanted to fill. But the first time I drank, I loved it. I loved everything. I was probably 10. First time I smoked weed, I was maybe 12. I loved it. First time I did coke, I was maybe 14. I loved it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I loved the way it made me feel. I loved that I could escape life. And it wasn't until the love for me
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
caught up to the damage like i needed to love to avoid those holes if you will yeah and then i you know and again i did some things like i that i you know jumping off a hotel's roofs and doing stupid stuff being happy and also realizing that dude god may not give me this many more chances like one of these days i'm just going to die but yes i am very honestly addicted To service. To service.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
I'm 52 as well.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Man, it's funny. Cause I'm, you know, 2008, uh,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
the market did what it did and people always like well did you get out here i've never i don't make excuses for anything so when two when everything for those people that watch are too young like 2008 the world ended like it ended i mean i had pro i had i had subdivisions i was selling i was i bought the land i developed land i put the road in i was doing the home construction and i was selling 2700 square foot homes for half a million dollars
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
post 2008 i was selling the exact same product for 230 240 um but but guess what dude there were people that survived it pretty well right so i had a lot of rentals i had at times thousands of units and they're all within 10 minutes of the casino okay so what time frame is this from 21 so what i started at 21 you're talking about this took me into my 30s i'm amassing these i have a great finally got a great a guy i played ball with in high school um because my real estate wasn't
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
Selling life insurance is social work. That was the thing for me when a guy named Jim Godwin introduced me to the business. I said, what do we do? And he said, we call people up and we protect them and their families. I'm like, well, I do that over here. And he said, yeah, but you don't make enough money to live the life you want to live for you and your kids. And he was right. It struck me.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
Nobody wanted it to happen, but they had everything. People got paid. They actually planned for these things and put money in place and developed legacies. The first time I heard the word legacy that meant anything to me outside of sports was in life insurance. And I'll never forget a guy said to me, Sean, when you meet with people, they're already going to leave a legacy.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
All we're trying to do is help you be a positive one. But if they do not have life insurance. And they leave their wife and children, you know, encumbered with bills, got to pay for their funerals. They leave a negative legacy. So I really wanted to not only help them leave a positive one, but prevent them from putting their families in a terrible position.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
Because, okay, what's going to happen if you die or he dies or you both die? So, yeah, it became my...
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
I was like, okay, cool. But I really want to do things that are making a difference. The money...
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
I think the thing I liked the most about it was the work ethic, yes, because that was impressive. It looked like it was a really great relationship. And I think, Gary, with full transparency, working with you and some other folks now has really solidified that. You are a guy in the field. You are a guy that knows what it takes. You are a guy that should be on this podcast.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
And with full transparency, that was always what I believed in it. You know what I mean? Like, I'm a sales guy. I got my life insurance license. I went and sold. We launched Fan First Life. I was in the field full time. I owned the company. I'm the president of the company. The insurance carriers would call me and be like, hey, we're trying to get a hold of you. I'm like, I'm selling.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
will come i want to make a difference and i'll never forget i was selling life insurance part-time about two and a half months and i went to a home in warregan connecticut lady's name was lisa never forget it and she answered the door and she said you won't be able to help me and i said why not and she said um because i have stage with stage three or four pancreatic cancer like i'm dying
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
They're like, you sell life insurance. I'm like, yes, I'm in life insurance. They're like, you're the president of the company. I'm like, is there a rule that says I can't sell? They're like, no, there's no rule. I'm like, okay, I enjoy helping people. Why would I not want to do that? So you guys for a long time have been out in the community helping people. I want to build people too, Gary.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
And I think a lot of the folks I was building, people didn't necessarily believe in them. They weren't raised in this situation where it's like, hey, man, all I got to do is show up and grandpa, let me run the company. They're trying to find their way. And a lot of times this entrepreneurial journey is their first entrepreneurial journey.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
And also folks pull against them, not because they're bad people. They just don't know they're not entrepreneurs. So it's easy to be scared of what you don't know. So I have to appreciate them. They're on cover the list. So I look at guys like you and me. My job was to walk in, put my hand on the guy's back and be like, hey, man, I know a lot of people are telling you can't do it.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
I know a lot of people are saying things like if it's too good to be true, it is and yada, yada. You know what? It's a great industry. I looked at you guys and you had a lot of guys and girls with a blue collar mentality to go out there and serve people. And you're fearless.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
And she said, can you help me? And I said, no. I didn't have any graded products at that time. I couldn't get her insurance. Now, I'm not going to lie to anybody about anything. I was like, ma'am, I won't be able to help you. She was in her early 30s, and her husband came around the corner, big old dude, started yelling at me, cussing me out.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
And I sat down with them for about a half an hour, and I got him a $250,000 pulse. And he was healthy as a horse. I mean, big guy, great. I mean, big guy, meaning 6'4", 230 pounds. great shape, not a partier, not any medication. And 48 hours after I wrote him a policy, died in a motorcycle accident. And then she died shortly after that.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
And the only money the kids had was the quarter million dollars I got from him. I think, Gary, after that happened, my whole perspective on insurance changed. The whole thing changed. Everybody's life is fragile, I realized. You never know when it's your time.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: "After That...The Whole Thing Changed"
And I realized that middle class and lower middle class and lower class people weren't taught what wealthy people are taught about life insurance. Nobody taught my wife insurance when I was growing up. I'm a smart person. My mom's not dumb. She's smart. But we never talked about it. And I realized that when wealthy folks died, it was like an event.