Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Tyrone Clark President and Founder of Brokers’ Choice of America

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

Tyrone Clark is a national speaker, an educator, a mentor, a teacher, a financial advisor, a sales and marketing consultant, an author, and a serial entrepreneur. Tyrone has had an amazing career that has touched thousands of lives.Tyrone has been on the advisory board of numerous insurance companies. He’s designed several insurance products, written many articles, and written and co-authored multiple books. Tyrone has appeared in numerous media sources. Tyrone’s heart and passion are part of the journey of the insurance agent because, as an agent, Tyrone rose through the ranks from being a successful salesperson to management to being a National FMO and company founder. His FMO is one of the oldest FMOs in the nation.For over 33 years as an FMO, Brokers Choice of America has been a nationally recognized leader in Annuity sales and ranked as a number one sales achiever for numerous insurance carriers.Tyrone has also assisted other FMOs in getting started and has been active with many Industry Trade groups. Tyrone has been called the agent’s agent, having trained more than 8,000 agents and conducted over 2,000 consumer seminars and workshops in 49 states.If you’re a licensed financial advisor, you’ve received or read the five national magazines that Tyrone is a co-founder of, and they have been a game changer in the industry. Undoubtedly, Tyrone has been an influencer, a disruptor, and a game-changer in the industry.Tyrone has also been a serial entrepreneur for numerous start-up companies outside the insurance industry. He has been a proud supporter of the Community and Chamber of Commerce. His most important gift is his faith, which he says overshadows anything he has accomplished.Learn More: https://brokerschoice.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-tyrone-clark-president-and-founder-of-brokers-choice-of-america

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with this Tyrone Clark, who's the president and founder of Brokers Choice of America. Tyrone, welcome to the program. Thank you, Mike. Hey, I'm excited to talk with you because I know a lot about you in the industry, so I want to hear your thoughts on what you do and what some of your thoughts on, on trends that are upcoming.

But get us started first with your story and your background. How did you get into financial services in the first place? Well, Mike, that's my story, I think as far as getting into the financial services business is very unusual. I started in a business when I was only 17 years old, and I was brought into the business by a high-level estate planning financial advisor. And by the time I was 23, I was vice president of his company. and I feel very fortunate and blessed to have been brought into our business from what they would say in our business, an MDRT top of the table producer. And that opened my eyes to the amazing benefits of life insurance and estate planning. And then after around 23, while being vice president of his company, I learned about annuities.

And that's an amazing story because I was able to meet someone who was kind of like the Susie Ormond of that time. And we're talking about in the 80s, like what a lot of people did. know much about annuities and I fell in love with annuities and I glued myself to this legendary woman and this is while I was at the firm and then I became very, very proficient and knowledgeable about the whole world of annuities before the annuity industry kind of really took off. And then I was fortunate after that to kind of be, you might say, in a historical positioning where I got to work with the very first index annuity that was created by a felony of Richard Cato of Genesis actual firm in Canada. That was in 1994 and that became history. and then I was able to work with the first bonus annuity.

That was actually prior to that. That was in 1987, and that was created by a company called Life USA, and that was Dan Roark who created that concept, which he borrowed from the TSA industry. And then I was fortunate and blessed in 1981 of my partner and vice president of that insurance agency, we introduced the very first universal life policy in the state of Colorado. We were one of the first around the whole nation. The first universal life policy was with E.F. Hutton, that became first capital life,

and then the second company was Life of Virginia. And we introduced that before first capital in 1981. So in a brief, brief summary in a long way, I was just kind of walking down history lane. Yeah. Some high-level big changes in our industry. And then in 1990, I started my FMO, but just prior to that, I was also the national annuity vice president for a great company. And I was in my 20s and that was called Brokers International. I basically helped design their whole annuity distribution in the 80s.

And then I started Broker's Choice in 1990 and became known as one of the top annuity experts and nudity FMOs in the whole industry. and so it's been a real fun time and anytime I get to talk about annuities, I can certainly kind of bring a history and a lot of information about that world, having been involved in a deep way to the annuity insurance industry. Yeah, you know, I love the progression of what you just laid out there and it made me think of a few things that I want to get your comment on. Have you ever heard of the quote that is probably attributed. to many different people out there, but success leaves clues. Yes. Yeah, that's it. I do like that point.

Yeah. So you got connected at an early age at 19 with a thought leader mentor in the industry. And you probably didn't even attribute, you know, success leaves clues, but you probably were like, okay, let me learn this. And then in a quick, short six years, you became VP. You learned the industry from a mentor from someone that was in the industry. and then just became proficient at it. And then probably along the way we were thinking,

you know what, if I were, you know, to have the decision I could do it a little bit differently this way and this way, but you've learned the ropes. And it kind of made me think of when other people are now coming up in the industry, that when they can have that concept of, let me work with a mentor,

let me just trust the process and know that this person has blazed the trail, then that success is going to follow. Is that something that you have found in your career, as well? Well, yes, the gentleman that brought me into business, you know, there's a saying that says, show me your friends and I'll show you who you are. I think that applies to business. Show me who your business associates are and I'll show you who you are. And if you want to be

successful, be with somebody who is successful, and it will just naturally rub off on you. And so if you want to climb the ladder, work with somebody who's been there and done that and is willing to mentor you to climb the ladder. And so it's kind of like mentorship. And when you think about it, we're using terminology of today. The thought leadership, you know, that's kind of a new term influencer, disruptor. That's kind of centered around the internet.

But it's all the same thing. Mentorship kind of goes back for centuries and centuries in anything. And we're so fortunate and blessed in our society where I believe anybody, no matter who you are, what background, what race education or no education. If you really desire to achieve a level of success in anything, you can do it. And my recommendation, which is attach yourself to somebody who is genuinely successful in the area you're looking at. Now, we're talking about something that's going back for 43 years, but remember this.

The concept we're talking about now, that's the platform of the success of our company today. We work in several markets. We work in the college planning market, the estate planning market, business owners, IRA 401k market, rollovers, the affluent market, social security market, the women's market, and the digital online market. So what we do is we have a mentor that is highly successful in those markets. They paid the price to go through failure in order to have a business model. And that's very similar to how I got started in a business. And what we do is we expose those models to advisors.

And then if they plug into them, then we have a whole process that we like to look at as fail-proof. in order for that agent to be successful in that market. Yeah, that's a really huge piece because why try to reinvent the wheel? Why not align yourself with someone that's currently out there doing it and that can show you the way? And as an FMO, talk a little bit about what BCA brings to advisors to help them scale their firm. What really sets you apart from other FMOs? Well, a lot of FMOs, a lot of the owners or principles of FMOs today have not been in the field battling and out with sales and prospects. So they don't have a clue about how to close, how to present, how to handle objections.

So I spent many years in the field, so to speak, I did over 2,000 consumer seminars in 49 states for agents. And all that that agent cared about is that when that seminar was over, that they have a lot of appointments. And believe me, if you were to do seminars all over the United States, you have a lot of challenges. You have a lot of different people in those seminars, but people are people, and the criteria that I discovered worked, and I became somewhat known around the country as the seminar king.

And so what sets me apart in our FMO is my background in working with consumers. So I also did radio shows. I did an infomercial. I did TV. I did about everything you can imagine that an agent is trying to do today. I've been there and done that over and over and over. So the good thing about that, that enables me to talk to any advisor anywhere in the country

and work with that advisor as an individual and sculpt and customize a successful marketing process for that. advisor and then of course then I have the the mentor programs they're kind of like each each program is like a franchise where it's total turnkey so when you combine my background and then you combine it with these mentor backgrounds that's a reason why we've been around we're one of the oldest in the country but here's our trademark we do a tremendous amount of production with a small number of advisors. We don't work with masses. That's because each advisor is to have them at a high productivity level.

And so we're high touch. I am involved, along with my whole staff, with all of our agents. And I could have retired Mike 20 years ago. But I love the business. I love everything about our business. And today, there's more opportunity than I've ever seen in my whole life. But today to capture the opportunity is a lot different. You've got to really know what you're doing in all the different areas.

And so we're heavily involved in the trenches with the advisor. You know, I like that word picture that you painted there of we're not just going after the masses. We want to really go deep with us, you know, like a concierge level number of advisors to make them successful because why would you want to have huge numbers getting minimal success? I would rather see minimal numbers having extraordinary success. So I love that. And no matter how good you are in selling and marketing and conversations and closing, you've got to have some good products. So without getting into details or anything like that, but talk a little bit about some of your special access to. to maybe some cutting-edge products that you guys provide your advisors with?

Well, we... Fixed Nucks, annuities, things like that. Yeah, so, Mike, we are contracted a license with just about most of all the carriers that advisors are looking at. You name the company. We're contracted, I think, with 80 different carriers. And if each carrier has, let's say, 30 products, that's, you know, 200. 50 different products, but we have technology that enables the agents to compare all the different products and to look for the best product.

And so I don't want to go through the list of all the carriers, which is very extensive, but it's most of the top companies in a product area. And probably I would suspect that one of the other benefits that you provide with your high touch is when you have an advisor that has a client with some special. special unique needs. It's not, you would be able to come alongside with them and structure a solution versus, you know, here's this cookie cutter template. Give everybody this one product. So talk a little bit about how your team and your staff works side by side with the advisor to make sure they've got a good structured solution for their end client.

Well, well, so here's, this is pretty important for an. advisor no matter what level an advisor is at. So the first thing that really should be done for an advisor and what an advisor should be doing themselves. But they don't have the time. It's our job to do this for them. One is you want to do a technology assessment for the advisor. So what technology is the advisor using? Is it the cutting edge technology? I'm talking about a CRM system. I'm talking about a calendar system. I'm talking about a software system of product analysis. I'm talking about a planning process when they're in front of the client. There are so many financial planning software, but we try to stay on top of all the different financial planning software, and there's some

that you don't want to work with. They're so complicated, they're so cumbersome, they're so hard to use. we can instantaneously tell an advisor, well, here's the software that we're using or recommending because it's simple, it's quick, it's efficient, and it gets you to the meat of it. So first thing you want to do is a really good technology assessment, which also includes whether the advisor is online with all their clients. The next thing, of course, you want to look at in terms of technology is that a do they have a CRM system that is connected in with the product comparisons, the software, and connected in with their method of prospecting?

So today, in order for an agent to get in front of a prospect, they have the opportunity of engaging in, you know, social media campaigns, television, radio, and seminars, classes, and workshops, and referrals, or other professional referral sources, such as attorneys, CPAs, and so forth. And we, you know, I have that whole process together for an advisor. Now, what that also includes in total technology is their educational process, their sales, their sales process as well and their client communication. So it's all tied together one big source.

Yeah, like a business in a box almost. Well, that is the way we design everything for advisors. So I'll just kind of quickly run this by an advisor today. An independent advisor, of course they have a big advantage of being independent. But think about this, Mike. If you're an advisor, today you can actually say to yourself, or perhaps you have a family member that you want to bring into your business and follow your footsteps. But they can choose, you know, the Social Security market, the affluent market, the IRA 401k market, the business owner market, the state planning market, the college planning, and or a market called financial wellness that's working with companies or corporations, corporations and helping their employees with financial planning. And a big, big opportunity today is

the women's market because women will control $36 trillion of assets in just only six years. Remember, I said the opportunities today are bigger they've ever done, ever been before. There's, there's, what does all this mean for an advisor? Two things. The number one pillar that must be the main pillar under every single advisor is they got to keep their calendars full every week of new prospects. That's my talent. I can, that's my God-given talent like you, Mike. That's why you and I have worked together is marketing. So I know and using your help how to put that advisor into their targeted market

in front of people every single week to fill their calendar and by appointment, not least. All right. So that's critical. I call that bread and butter business. If you're an advisor listening to this, there's all kinds of. opportunities, all kinds of programs. You've got to have your calendar full, regardless of all those programs. And then number two, you've got to have a short sales cycle. That means when do you get paid? When do you see a paycheck? If you work in the affluent market, by the time you go through

tremendous amount of planning and, let's say life insurance underwriting, you might not see a paycheck for three to seven months, we cut that process down so that the agent is in front of people every week and they get paid quickly. And then we have a back room that helps the advisors. We have somebody that is a specialist at transferring assets. We also have a partnership with an RIA firm where the advisor, if there's 65 license, they can join that.

firm and utilize the asset transfer. So here's the bottom line of what we strive to accomplish. We want to put an agent in a cocoon of success. A cocoon of success. So it's just like if you buy a McDonald's, everything is all put together for you, the owner of McDonald's. Even the location and the building and the marketing and the functionality of all the employees. So that's what we do is we want every single agent to be outrageous successful. But they've got to focus. I like to say don't use focus, focus, focus. I love it.

I love that cocoon of success because that ties right into what we were saying earlier to of trust the process of success leaves clues. And if you, I'll just kind of ask this as we wrap up here, if someone is interested in that cocoon of success and getting their calendar filled and seeing what you guys offer and can help to take them to the next level, what's the best way that they can reach out and learn more about BCA and also connect with you? They can always contact my personal cell. I told you, I'm involved with all the agents, which is 720560-1280. You can text myself. You can email me at T. Clarke at brokerschoice.com. T. Clark at brokerschoice.com.

That's all you got to do is text me, call me, or send me an email, and then we will start the ball rolling on our process. Excellent. Well, Tyrone, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Thank you, Mike. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes,

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