Digital Social Hour - Avoid This $20 Phone Call Error – My Costly Sales Blunder | John Wetmore #DSH 523

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

🚨 Avoid This $20 Phone Call Error – My Costly Sales Blunder 🚨 Ever wondered how a simple phone call could cost you $20? 🤑 Tune in now as Digital Social Hour host Sean Kelly dives deep into his own costly sales blunder with guest John Wetmore. Discover the mistakes you MUST avoid to save big and boost your sales strategy!  In this engaging and eye-opening episode, John Wetmore reveals how he turned his frustrations into a winning formula, tripling his income in just one year! 💼 From surviving the grueling grind of multiple jobs to building a multi-million dollar insurance empire, John’s journey is packed with valuable insights you can't afford to miss. 🚀 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Don't miss out on the ultimate guide to turning your mistakes into massive wins. Join the conversation and learn the tactics that can transform your business and life. ✨ Watch now! #InsuranceSuccess #SalesTraining #BuildingTeams #CommissionSales #BusinessGrowth #JohnWetmore CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 0:40 - Life Insurance & Health 3:44 - How John Got to Coaching 6,000 Agents 17:02 - Coming on the Digital Social Hour Podcast 17:04 - Your Origin Story 21:12 - Conspiracy Theories 23:24 - Internet Detectives 25:20 - Mental Game of Money 26:50 - Luck 28:40 - Working 20 Jobs 33:20 - Leads 34:45 - Where to Find John 35:08 - See You Tomorrow APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUESTS: John Wetmore https://www.instagram.com/johnwetmore?igsh=ZTRqNDU1bzZhcHVz https://johnwetmore.com/ SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

even though I wasn't that great. One day I divided one by the other and it came up to like 17 bucks a phone call. I was like, huh, interesting. But I was so frustrated, I thought I was doing poorly. And so I just started running the model differently and looked at it as straight numbers. You know, I was trying to be people who aren't me.

You know, these elite sales trained guys. And I'm like, I'm not that. And dude, I just started going after it. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I'm not that. And dude, I just started going after it. All right, guys, we're talking life insurance and health today. We got John Wetmore. Thanks for coming on, man. We should do. Happy to be here. Yeah, we just talked earlier. You're training for some intense stuff. I am. I am.

I like doing hard things, dude. So did my first marathon ever in March. I wanted to do it before my 47th birthday a few weeks ago. Did you run the whole thing? I did not run the entire time, but I finished it. Okay. Funny enough, I'm not a runner at all. I just like doing crazy things.

So I signed up in like October. So I gave myself like four months. And the furthest I'd ever run was a 5K. Just three miles. I'm like, I'll figure it out. So I start running a bunch. I sign up to it. My daughter signs up to it.

It's on the border of Mexico, right along the river. So I sign up and I'm like, all right, I just want to do it before my birthday. We sign up like early March. I start prepping, training, running. During the training, the most I did was 15 miles. I'm like, all right, I'll figure it out. So you go and it's four loops of six and a half. So in my head, I'm like, I can do two for sure. I just got to get through the third and I'll definitely finish the fourth one. It is what it is. So I do all this training and I get out there and you go down. And first of all, it was in the desert, which I didn't know.

I thought it was going to be like on the road. I mean, just on pavement. Oh, so it was on like straight sand. Dude, it was on like rock. It was like gravel in the desert on rock. Damn. So it was a complete trail marathon that I did not know about. That sounds intense.

It was insane. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a beginner marathon at all. It was not, but I always say if I looked into it, I wouldn't have done it. Yeah. I would have overthought it and not finished it. I think the fact you booked it, it helped a ton because if you just said you were going to train and then booked it the week before, it would have been worse. Especially if I found out it was on rock. Yeah. So I ran about 60% of it. Okay. That's pretty good. A 46, 47. Yeah. Yeah. That's impressive. My goal was to finish. That's a good first step 47 yeah yeah that's impressive too bad i just my goal was to finish that's a good first step but now you're gonna climb a mountain for 20 hours a mountain

for 20 hours 29029 jesse it's this thing yeah it's like uh climb a mountain as many times as it takes to hit the equivalent of mount everest that's his objective so it's in august i'll fly out to whistler and uh you got 36 hours to hike it i think it's eight times four miles 3 000 feet 36 hours hike that sucker eight times that's impressive would you rather climb or run climb interesting i hate running okay but i do it yeah climbing you could socialize right yeah if it's not too steep you can talk to people yeah i mean you can there'll be a ton of people around and running is i only run because it's hard and it's not too steep, you can talk to people. Yeah, I mean, there'll be a ton of people around. And running is, I only run because it's hard and it's, you know what I mean? It's like a challenge to me.

Yeah. But I'm not, I don't love running. I actually like hiking. So that one I feel would be easier. That's some Goggins mentality right there. I don't know about that. 100 mile stuff. He runs out here.

People talk about seeing him out here all the time. Yeah, he spoke at an event at our conference this year. And dude, he's a different level. Yeah. He's a different level. What was it like getting to meet him and interview him? I didn't get to meet him directly. But he spoke from stage at an event that our company puts on.

Got it. And just seeing his mentality, dude. It's just a different level. Yeah. You know, just the way he thinks and fights through pain and the mental. Like, so what? It hurts a little. Yeah.

He's different, man. Yeah, he's a different breed, dude. I want to talk about the business side of things. You've coached over 6,000 agents, right? Yeah, dude. How'd it get to that point, man? And how long did it take? It's funny.

It's like, it feels like it took forever. But when I tell people, I've only been in the business like 12 years. So not crazy long in that context. But going through it, it was insanely slow and painful some days. But I got in the business, life insurance. I was an accountant before, like a staff accountant, crunching numbers, paying bills for a company, making like 40 Gs a year and miserable. Five kids, like an hour and a half commute each way, working for a boss I hated. And I was looking for just a

side gig just to make extra money to pay the bills. We were broke as a joke. And a buddy reached out to me and he's like, hey, I found this thing you might be good at. It was insurance. So I started selling on the side part time after work and weekends just to make extra money. And that uh, that was in 2012 made like made more selling insurance part-time than I did on my job full-time first year. So like, damn, there's something to this. So I quit and, uh, I was introduced to the model. I was in, I don't know if you're familiar with mortgages, uh, like business. Yeah. Mortgage business. So I was in that for a hot minute before the whole world fell apart in 08. And in that industry, you can sell

mortgages or you can hire, like I could hire you to sell a mortgage and I make a little spread. If you sell. Middleman. Yeah. Yeah. It's like brokering, right? So insurance works the same way. So I can sell, make what I make. But if I train you to sell, I get a little piece of the sale. Got it. As a broker. And so I understood that from the beginning when my buddy introduced it to me. And I'm like, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to, I don't want to sell. I'm not a sales guy by trade, but I got into sales to get out of the rat race, you know, out of the nine to five and did it for a year part-time. Got into, started recruiting to bring other people in.

And I had some good mentors that helped with that side because I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I was terrible at it. I would get kicked out of houses. I would miss sales. I was a train wreck the first couple years selling. And started studying other people that were good in the industry that were making great money.

Started seeing people at conferences and events and on stage and making multi-six figures. And I'm like, I want to be that. So I just started looking into, you know, uh, improving myself on the sales side. And, um, you know, I had a, I had a buddy who's been a great mentor of mine. I got to meet him. He was the opening speaker at the first event I went to and since become a good buddy. And, uh, I started asking him, he was making like half a million bucks selling insurance. I'm like, dude, how do you do it?

And we start talking and he starts analyzing like my numbers and my activity, how many clients I'm seeing and things like that. And I tell him how many clients I'm seeing a week. And the dude laughed in my face, like not mean, but he just found it comical that I expected to make half a million bucks, but I was only working this much, you know? And it's a numbers game, right? Yeah. So I had to learn that, you know, hence the do more thing. I was like, you know, we made,

I made what I made, you know, I cracked a hundred grand my second year in the business, but that wasn't, I mean, it's not a ton of money when you got five kids and five kids, definitely not 20 grand a kid. Yeah. So, you know, I started looking at the thing and I was, I was going through some financial issues. I've've had a bankruptcy two foreclosures car taken away divorce and i'm like dude i gotta figure something out and uh i'm super analytical by nature accountant yeah i was always trying to find like the magic way to overcome objections and scripts and the next little crm to make magic and just all the stuff that didn't matter yep And after talking to this dude, I was like, I started looking at my numbers for the year and I learned, uh, uh, even though I wasn't that great, I was making likes if I looked at

the deposits I was making. So that part-time year I was making like five G's a month and I was calling like 300 people a month. And one day I divided one by the other and it came out to like 17 bucks a phone call. I was like, huh, interesting. But I was so frustrated. I thought I was doing poorly because you'd get cancels and no shows and people tell you to F off. And you know what I mean? Like it was just the middle stuff between calling them and the sale was hard for me. I was super emotional about it. One day I looked at that and I'm like, dude, what if I just do more of that and just worry about getting better at it later? You know what I mean? Just run straight numbers game. Because if you paid me 17 bucks a phone

call, like who cares what they say? You know what I mean? I just didn't care. You can tell me to F off. I made 20 bucks in my head. And so I just started running the model differently and looked at it as straight numbers and putting more activity. And I increased the amount of appointments I started running and stopped worrying about all the other stuff and the noise and the things I was bad at. And I was, you know, I was trying to be people who aren't me, you know, these elite sales trained guys. And I'm like, I'm not that. And dude, I just started going after it activity wise and, you know, tripled up on how many clients I was calling a week and ended up that year. My income tripled and I started getting a lot of traction in the recruiting side.

When you go from terrible for three years in sales to making half a million bucks, I was like, damn, there's something to this. What a jump. Did you blow it all right away? No. Because I did that the first time in the mortgage industry, which is why the foreclosures and the bankruptcy came. I made money in mortgages for like six months. And dude, I bought a big house and a car with the rims. And that all got taken back.

They're doing studies on this now. When you come into money too quick, most people lose it. 100%. It's something like psychological. Yeah. It's like when you watch athletes. Yeah. 80% of them. Yeah. Crazy.

So yeah, I learned my lesson. I did that. And I didn't make money long in mortgages. It was literally like nine months. Yeah. So you got it out of your system. Yeah, I did. And then this time it's, you know, I was afraid of that.

Yeah. So when it happened this time, I didn't change my lifestyle at all for years. I just, and still really don't relative to what the industry has done for me. Um, but it was neat to see like the people that helped me, how much they got out of helping me get out of the hole. Yeah. I'm like, I want to do that. Like I want to be, I want to feel what they felt. Right. You know, they were more excited for me making a half million bucks than I was. Wow. And, uh, yeah. Cause you could have kept all that knowledge for yourself. For sure. And a lot of people do. Right. You know, so I'm like, I say most people do. Yeah. I was recruiting early,

but I was doing it for the wrong reasons, you know, and a lot of people quit me. So I like in insurance, um, the first two years I interviewed like 700 people, hired people, some started most quit. And at the end of two years, it was just me still had no agents still after 700 interviews because they would all quit on me, you know, because I was just doing it for the straight for the money. I was like, yeah, if I have this many, I make this much. And we get in business for money naturally, but that was the driving factor. You know, I just changed up my model, dude. And I was like, what if I just help people make a bunch of money? What if I just help them make what I was making? You know what I mean? And just worry about the revenue on my part later and just let it be, man. And I, I just got really good at explaining how to, how to navigate the business in a really simple way.

You know, and certainly I can teach sales now and I can, you know what I mean? I mentor a ton of people in the sales side and the psychology of it and all that jazz, but at its core, most salespeople struggle because they don't they don't put enough work you know especially in especially my business in my side and i imagine i know people in other sales industries and it's similar but in life insurance dude it's really easy entry you can roll out of bed and go get a license in a couple days is that easy yeah dude you pass a 20-hour test and pay 75 bucks and you have a license in two weeks. Yeah, it's super easy to get into. And the upside is massive.

I mean, there's trillions of insurance sold every year. Yeah. Everyone needs insurance. Correct. I mean, there's tons and tons of people over the 200 years that industry has been around that have made insane money. PBD, Ed Malet. Correct. What's his name?

Sean Mike. Yeah. So Sean Mike is, I'm under his umbrella. So I've been with Sean for the entire time his company's been around. Wow.

So I've known Sean for 12 years now. PBD, Integrity Marketing acquired his PBD and Sean and my agency. Oh, wow. So we're all partners

at Integrity. So one company bought all you guys out. Yeah. Interesting. So they're like a giant player in the space. Yeah. They're massive, dude. my agency oh wow we're all partners at integrity so one company bought all you guys out interesting so they're like a giant player in the space yeah they're massive dude what what do you need to achieve in revenue to get on the radar um they look at i mean seven figures net they're looking to ebit out like a million bucks a year yeah okay and then it's pretty doable it was obviously

yeah that's pretty doable if you put 50 100 people, a hundred people under you, you could probably choose. Yeah. I mean, I was making seven figures within from 15 is when I really, that's the first year I like stepped up, made a half million on my personal production. By 17, I was making multi seven. Wow. So you did 500 K just by yourself. No agents under you? Yeah. I had no agents. It was just straight selling life insurance. How many calls a day were you doing? I was, my goal was 120 appointments a month. Okay. 30, 30 appointments a week. Yeah. So the goal for me was 30 appointments a week, 120 a month, just to hold myself accountable. If I slacked 1500 a year, right. And I would have out of 1500, my goal was this and I was doing it in the days before all the technology. The AI. Yeah. So it was like, I was driving to people's houses, sitting at kitchen

tables. Oh wow. Yeah. It wasn't like remote. No dude. Okay. I AI. Yeah, so it was like, I was driving to people's houses to sit in that kitchen table. Oh, wow. Yeah, it wasn't like remote. No, dude. Okay. I was driving all over. I was going to say those numbers sounded small, but now that it's in person, that makes sense to me.

Correct. I mean, we got guys knocking down a hundred grand a month selling on their own pen now. Wow. For sure. But again, me driving all over. Hell, I used to fly to Utah to sell.

I would fly to Ohio to sell. I would do crazy stuff. And you're still doing 500K doing that. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So again, it was 30 week, 120 month, 1,500 a year. Maybe I'd sit with 1,000 in my head because I wasn't that good. I'm like, if I close 25%, I'll make 250K.

You make about 1,000 bucks a sale. Yeah. You know? And that year I messed up and did like 468. Messed up. Is it recurring when you get the 1,000? Some of it is. Okay.

Yeah. It depends on the policy type. Some you get renewals. Small renewals. I mean, it's not massive. Most of the money's up front the first year. And then it's small renewals. But 12 years into the business, it adds up.

Nice. Is the business still thriving? Dude, it's killing it. Yeah? Yeah. Our agency did $209 million in production this year. Holy crap. In 23.

That's crazy. Yeah. So you scaled them nine figures in 10 years yeah it's been nuts that's impressive man yeah it's one of those things where everyone needs it so it makes sense yeah and there's always people looking to make money you know i mean and now it's like all right if you want to work hard and get out of your situation we we coach them on selling and make them wherever you want to be whether you just want to sell some people don't want to build an agency but you can and i've been very fortunate to be around

some really cool people. And we've got it that size because I have great people on my side. Love it. Recruited some, taught them how to make a bunch of money selling. Then they wanted to build. So I taught them how to build.

And now I got guys in my group that hell, they're better at it than I am. Wow. That's cool to see. By far. When the mentee passes the mentor. Yeah. I had a lot of really good people.

That's one of my goals in life to have someone like that. Same dude. Hopefully it's my kid, but it'd be cool if it was someone else too yeah yeah so i've been fortunate man and we've had quite a few agencies that i've helped be a part of developing that they've been fortunate to have their agency acquired yeah you know multi seven figure wow exits and so that's a pretty common thing in the space these yeah i mean for sure yeah Yeah. Especially in today's age. Yeah. It makes sense from a competition point of view to want to acquire

them so they don't eat at your correct, your revenues. You may as well add it to your bottom line. Yeah. Did Ed sell his yet? Ed Milet? I don't know his full, he doesn't talk about it a lot, dude, but I think he was part of, I mean, I know the company was part of for sure. And I think they ended up like under trans America. I feel like there was some kind of purchase but i don't i don't really hear i follow his podcast but he doesn't i don't know him yeah i met him once just yeah you hear it in in like passing but he never really owned up to it no i wonder why i've not heard deep like specifics yeah from him so i don't i would just be assuming that's interesting yeah because pbd was pretty open about it sean mike's very open about it and they share what they sold them for right i'm like they got some jack is it pretty expensive to get into this

no not at all yeah i mean licensing again you can get all if you get a life insurance license between they make you do like a pre-license exam right between the pre-license your state license and you need like a little you know insurance yeah it's like 200 bucks damn so the upside is really massive yeah you know but it's like we're looking for people that want to really work hard and make a difference and it's everyone's 1099 right so it's like if you're looking for a job this ain't for you yeah but if you're willing to what's the whole deal like eat what you you kill? Yeah. You know that mentality where I really want to go out and what you make is dependent on how much you put into it. Right. You know, those types of people do really well in this business.

Athletes, military guys, you know, door-to-door sales guys, people like that. Like, dude, they kill it with us. Sean Merriman, I think, is. Correct. He's part of the agency, too. Right. Yeah, that makes sense. I've always had that mentality, to be honest.

I can't stand when people just collect a check yeah it just pisses me off you do knock out a ton of these yeah yeah i got today's a light day i got six today but usually it's eight yeah and that's the mentality i have man these guys are filming one a week i'm like gotta get your numbers that's crazy it's not enough man that's bad. Let's go back to your origin story, man. Raised by a single mother on welfare. Yep. Sing teen teenage mom. Eight. She was,

I was born the day after her 18th birthday. Wow. So unplanned or yeah, just whoopsie. Same with me. I was a one night stand. Were you? Yeah.

I didn't know that till I was 25, but yeah. Are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest? We'll click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below, and here's the episode, guys. I don't think it was a one night. I do know my dad.

I don't. He was never really there. Yeah. You know, I do know him. I visit him once every year or two. Say, hey, but it wasn't really. So my parents got married when I was four. were like on it on again off again high school yeah whatever school sweethearts i don't know if they were sweethearts but they were high school

together they were together and uh you know they got married when i was four and divorced when i was four damn that's quick it was a killer marriage it was like a few months holy crap yeah she bounced and so you lived with your mom. You didn't see your dad much. You said once a year. Now, I mean, then he'd come visit every once in a while, take us to McDonald's, visit his mom. So we grew up outside of Boston in the projects.

Got it. Grew up in like a big high rise in the hood. So both my parents were from there. And he moved out, but he would come back, visit his mom, pick us up every once in a while, take me to McDonald's. I'd go to his house every once in a blue moon, but not really much there. Yeah, I had a similar story, man.

I didn't really, I had a father, obviously, but not like a solid father figure to go to for advice and stuff. Yeah, no, I didn't have that at all. I didn't. I didn't know how to tie a tie. I was raised by a woman, completely. My mom, my aunt, my grandma, you know, they took care of me. Yeah.

And then I had my first, you know, that show 16 and pregnant. I've heard of it. Yeah. So they just follow kids. Yeah. That was a reality show, right? Yeah. So I was like that before it exists, before the show existed.

So I was 16 when my first one was on the way. Damn. My oldest is, should be 30 in a few months. So you have a 30, that's older than me. Yeah. That is impressive. 16. Yeah.

What's going through your head with that? Man. Weird enough, dude. It was kind of common where I was from. Really? In Boston? I mean, in the projects. Shout out to the projects in Boston, man.

You guys be going out there. People have kids young, man. Again, my mom was a teenager. Her mom was a teenager. So it was three generations, teenage parents. So you're going to be a great grandfather and still be alive. When I tell my kids, no babies and don't get married until you're 30. I'd beat it into them.

So far, I've made it. My oldest is 30. My youngest is 12. And no babies yet. No babies. Okay. 30, she's only got like five, seven years. Yeah.

One day we were joking about kids. And she said, she goes, I don't want kids. I raise doors. She had to take care of, I don't want kids. I raised yours. She had to take care of her siblings. That's funny, man. I had to work a lot, you know, coming up. And my first marriage, I was married like eight years, but we got divorced eventually. So you were married from 16 to 24?

I didn't get married at 16. I got married at like 20. Okay. I was about 20. 20 to 28? Yeah. That's young to get married. Yeah, I was young. I was young 20. 20 to 28? Yeah. That's young to get married. Yeah.

It was young. It was young. I had a lot going on. I had four kids by the time I was like 20, right at the time I divorced. Holy crap. By like 26, I think I had four. So you grew up quick. Yeah.

All I know is kids. Yeah. You didn't have that phase of 20s of partying and going out. Wow. I was living with like her parents and then we lived in like another little government. I mean, I did dumb in my own house. I didn't have like the typical experience.

Yeah. For sure. I was working at Little Caesars 70 hours a week from 16 to 20. Waiting tables? No, like making pizzas. Oh, you were the chef. Yeah.

I don't know if I was a chef. I made pizza. So you can make a mean pie? I can make a mean pizza. Yeah? What were the chef. Yeah. I don't know if I was a chef. I made pizza. So you can make a mean pie? I can make a mean pizza. Yeah? What's the secret to a good pie? It's crust. Okay.

Because apparently it's the water. Yeah. The water affects it, all that stuff. Yeah, there's some spots out here. How long you let it rise and sit. I mean, you're from part of the country that has dope pizza. I make some Trader Joe's pizzas sometimes. No, but apparently the good spots

fly the water from new york to out here i've heard that in la yeah i've heard interesting yeah it's insane what what affects it yeah wow so you really grew up quick man i thought i grew up quick but that is four kids by 28 damn yeah that's impressive do you want 10 like elon we're done you're done i'm done top i have one with my current wife he's 12 single single single child if you will okay so it goes like my kids visit so we're they're all local i put them all in the same the the three i have three that are in high school or in school still yeah and two that are out of high school and out of college even and so the three little ones all go to school together and they live local so that's like sometimes he'll be alone maddox the youngest and then sometimes

he'll be the youngest of three got it so. So they go back and forth between house and their moms. I grew up an only child. It was very rare where I grew up, actually. Yeah. It was all siblings in Jersey. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

There was theories on it, but some chemical test or something. I was literally the only, only child in my school. There's 3,000 kids. Are you serious? Yeah. What? Yeah. And there's some weird studies in that area about like, there was a lot of twins in that area. Did you have twins in your school growing up? Yeah. What? Yeah. And there's some weird studies in that area about like,

there was a lot of twins in that area. Did you have twins in your school growing up? No. Dude, there was at least. My assistant has twins. Yeah. There was seven pairs of twins just in my town. What?

Yeah. There's some weird stuff going on there in Bridgewater, New Jersey. They wanted more. I don't know what they were doing. There's some scientific lab and people have theories. I'm going to look this up. You should get someone on and talk about that. I know. That'd be a good podcast. That'd be interesting. I'm into conspiracy theories. I'm going to look this up. You should get someone on and talk about that. I know. That'd be a good podcast.

It'd be interesting. I'm into conspiracy theories. I am too. Yeah? Which ones do you follow? I remember watching the first movie that was called Conspiracy Theory. Yeah. Years ago.

That's way- I never heard of it. Yeah, because you're so young. Go Google it. Okay. It was good. It was just a compilation of different theories. The whole movie itself was a,

was a conspiracy of government stuff. I like watching like the government conspiracy stuff. It's wild. Same. Yeah. I'm the Tik TOK algorithm algorithms got the moon conspiracy. Is that the moon is a flat or something? No.

Like the, the earth is flat as one. Yeah. Whether or not it is those pop up, but whether or not they went to the moon. Oh, I see those a lot. Yeah.

What's your stance on it? I don't know, dude. Some of the video, you see it, you can see it both ways. I'm like, yeah,

you know, when they have a video, somewhat they're flying away and someone's there recording it. It's like, what got me is the call from the house phone in the white house to the moon. Yeah. I remember that one. Yeah.

Like that is like, this is damn interesting. I don't know about that. I don't, I don't have a lot of opinions on them because I'm like, you can't win it. And you're never going to know. But I know there's way more.

You don't want to get too far down the rabbit hole because then you are considered crazy or a lunatic. But they're interesting. I'm intrigued by watching them. I am intrigued. A lot of them are coming out to be pretty true recently. You can't really fake stuff anymore with social media. That's true.

Internet detectives are undefeated. They find everything. You can't really fake stuff anymore with social media. That's true. Internet detectives are undefeated. It's true. They find everything. No, for real. There's people on Reddit. There's a whole section called like unsolved murders

and these people will just team up and just solve murders. Stop it. From like 20 years ago. What? Yeah. Using forensic image

analysis, stuff like that. That's crazy. Yeah, man. You can't get away with ****. Isn't that what did the... I think it's hard to like

do any crime these days. Reddit was the thing where they did the stock. What was it. Yeah, man. You can't get away with ****. Isn't that what did the... I think it's hard to like do any crime these days. Reddit was the thing where they did the stock. What was it? Oh, the stock pump? Yeah. Yeah, the Wall Street bets. Yeah.

Yeah, they pumped GameStop. GameStop, that's right. You get in on that? No. No? I wasn't smart enough. Yeah, I wasn't early enough. I missed the Doge pump too.

You into crypto at all? I messed with it for a minute. It stresses me out. Yeah, it's too volatile. Yeah, I don't really mess with the stock market a ton. I've made some money in real estate. I like real estate because I can control that. I feel like I can control it.

Yeah, and I feel like you've made enough where you don't really need to take crazy risks. I don't sleep well at night when my money's over here and some dude has to decide if it goes up or down. I don't understand. I've played in it a little, but I don't like it. Yeah, I told my mom the same thing because i mean she could retire right now she doesn't need to be chasing 10x

bags crypto yeah you know i i want to because i'm young and i can afford to lose money but do you like it uh i mean it's just a mental game yeah like right now i'm down millions okay so i have that's in the back of my head and mess you up and i can't get rid of it does it mess you up uh at first yeah yeah like the first month that's yeah i lost 10 million so i was pretty messed up but uh what am i gonna do about it other than make more money yeah so that's try to what i focus on i love it yeah have you gone through periods where you oh you mentioned you lost after the first business. Yeah. That was the worst loss.

Since then, I've just been conservative. I like living with my stuff paid for so no one can ever take it. No debt? I don't like debt and stuff, dude. So all your houses are paid off? Yeah. Interesting.

We're building now a new house. Where at? Local to Atlanta. Okay. Yeah, just bought some land off the street. Atlanta seems to be an interesting market. It's fun. It is definitely interesting is a good word to Atlanta. Okay. Yeah, just bought some land off the street. Atlanta seems to be an interesting market. It's fun. It is definitely interesting is a good word for Atlanta.

Yeah. See some interesting things out there. I do. For sure. A lot of different backgrounds and areas and a lot of stuff going on. Atlanta's wild, dude. My friend just opened up the biggest sports car shop out there. Where?

I don't know where. It's like 5,000, 10,000, maybe 10,000 square feet. Really? Yeah. You into collectibles at all? Not really. When I was a kid, I did. I liked baseball cards as a kid.

Dude, you still have those? Yeah, some sitting in a box. Those might be worth. From like the 80s. Any rookies? Bo Jackson, stuff like that. I was in that era. You should get those.

Bo Jackson, Conseco, all those guys. You got to get that appraised. Yeah. That's some money in it, man. Bring it to your guy. That could be worth six figures. Yeah, bring it by the shop, man. I literally got boxes of them sitting in a room somewhere.

You could be sitting on hundreds of thousands, for real. If they're in good condition, that's the trick with them. Because when you're kids, you're just throwing around Charizard Pokemon cards, but now they're worth a million dollars. That's insane. I saw that dude, one of the Pauls, buy one. Yeah, Logan Paul. One of them's a million dollars. That's insane. Crazy. I dude, one of the Pauls buy one. Yeah, Logan Paul. One of them's a million dollars.

It's insane. Crazy. I'm not that into that. Yeah. Sometimes you get lucky in life, man. That's true. I have been lucky. Yeah?

I've been lucky. I mean, I think if the cards didn't fall perfect, I wouldn't be in insurance. And I think I got lucky in some real estate deals because I didn't know what the hell I was doing. You just bought random houses? Commercial, funny enough. I didn't really get into it. I know, but I've made some damn money in it. Really? Yeah. I got into it just because we

had agents that needed a place. Again, this is pre everything virtual, you know? So we needed, we had agents that needed a place to conduct business and make phone calls and, you know, maybe around an environment. So I'd buy a building and they rent out per office. So they'd pay a small amount per office, which they couldn't get rent cheaper elsewhere. But I made more than market value because it was per office instead of renting the whole thing. So I ended up getting up to five of them and sold. I have two left.

And I bought one. I did buy one residential one that I made like a million bucks on a damn vacation home in the Georgia mountains in like a year and a half. Holy crap. Just when it happened. Yeah. This one area in North Georgia became like the hotspot for people to go. I think my mentor bought a house there.

Blue Ridge. I think so. Yeah. It's brand new, right? During they were building. Well, it's not a new, but it's new for that many people and people with money from atlanta to go got it it was like a small little town that yeah really a ton of people didn't go to like we'd go every once in blue moon but it became like the hot spot for

local atlanta people to go wow on vacation and i bought right before and then i bought it for like 900 grand yeah and in And in a year, a year and a half, it doubled. So I was like, hell, I'll sell it. Might as well sell that.

Yeah. Yeah. That's cool, man. I think that was pretty lucky. Yeah. Sometimes you need luck. Cuban said to be a billionaire, you need a lot of luck.

Yeah. I've heard him say that. Yeah. Because timing. He didn't know the internet would take off like that. That's true. You've worked over 20 jobs too. I have.

You were grinding. Man, I was, I mean mean i had kids young and i didn't make a lot of money i didn't have a good background so i didn't make a ton so i had to work and i didn't like dude i hated i hate bosses i didn't like being told what to do i didn't i just wanted people leave me alone so i did i was a good employee in the sense that i would get stuff done but i wasn't good in that. I didn't like the whole boss employee relationship very much. The traditional system. I didn't like it. Yeah. So I was probably a pain in the ass. So I just, I hopped around a lot, man. I was,

I was looking for the next thing and what could get me out of the hole and get me to the next level. And so I just moved around a little bit, you know, so I have, I've worked in, I used to, I did like the pizza joint. I've done warehouses. know so i have i've worked in i used to i did like the pizza joint i've done warehouses i've done call center worked in a tax joint i've worked in just some crazy stuff dude pharmacy just nothing just random stuff dude what was the worst man the warehouse the where dude it was brutal man i did that for four years too just carrying heavy yeah i had to load trucks so it was like we we distributed to like restaurants okay so i would um basically go like grocery shopping for restaurants so big old warehouse like a costco so you go to restaurant

depot just buy a bunch of stuff no i didn't do any of that the trucks brought them in but it was like i would get an order full they have the sheet full of stickers, and I'd get an order for whoever, Applebee's, Longhorn, whatever. And I'd be like, all right, here's all the crap we need today. And I'd go stick it on a pallet and wrap it in the shrink wrap and load it on a truck. That sounds terrible. And I did an overnight shift. So I'd go in at 6 p.m. and do it until like 4 or 5 a.m.

That's terrible for your health. Yeah, it was no fun. But I'm glad I did it because it was like I was for my, I was 20 and I was making like 18 bucks an hour doing that, which was good for me at the time in late nineties. Yeah. That's probably like 35 an hour. So, um, and then I was watching all the people around in the warehouse at night and they were all older. I was one of the younger ones, you know, I was 20, whatever. And all the guys that were been there for a while, 10, 15, 20 years, they're all my age now, you know, mid forties, 50, whatever. They're miserable, back braces, knee braces. And their whole goal in life, dude, for most of them was to just get on day shift

eventually. But it was so hard to get on day shift because the people there stayed forever. So for someone to get on day shift, someone had to retire basically. So all of them were trying to get to day shift. And I'm like, you know, I don't want that to be my future. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I stuck on me. That's what got me to go to college. So I went to, I worked in the warehouse overnights and then I went to school full time during the day to get my associate's degree in accounting. Interesting. Yeah. Cause just just watching these fools i didn't want to be nice guys but i didn't want that to be my future you know what i mean and i'm like i gotta get out so i went and got that degree started working in accounting and then i went full-time at night to get a bachelor's

and then funny enough same thing i worked for the government doing accounting. Really? IRS? No, like a city. Okay. City government. And same thing, man. I'd watch them and the guys and girls that were there for decades for the benefits and the security of a government job. Their upside was like $76,312. I mean, the government, they're weird.

They have these weird scales to pay. And I'm like, dude, I got to find something else. It's not enough for five kids and a wife. And that's what got me just thinking again,

like, I don't want that to be my future. Yeah. I always got stuck on watching, like, pay attention

to my environment. You know, when I got into insurance, I was seeing people go from broke to paying off all their debt to multi-six

to seven to eight-figure guy, nine-figure guys. And I'm like, that's the future I want. I'm in. You know what I mean? And that's the first time I looked at it and I was like, I'm in the right spot. I just got to figure it out and navigate it. And I had to change a lot, man.

Sales is different. Commission only. You know what I'm saying? In our world, there's lots of different lines of insurance. But in what we do to to get clients we buy leads you know so it was like you can you can go out and network and generate things i didn't want to do that that's not my style i want to go to networking meetings and cultivate business or cold knock on you know i mean i didn't want to do that stuff so i'm like i'll buy i can buy you can maybe you're going to generate. I'll just buy them from you and I'll call them and go sell them.

There's a leads conference right now. I'm at it. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's what we're here for. That's what I scheduled this around. Yeah. So we're at the lead con.

I just had a dinner with guys that sell leads yesterday. Some of them are spending 50K a day on ads. Heck yeah. To get leads. Yeah. And they're selling them. Yep. Making money.

They print money. Yeah. That leads game is a whole nother ballgame. Dude, there's crazy money on Leeds. And that's great advice earlier. You mentioned, look at the industry, right? See what level you could get to. A lot of people think so short-minded of this salary per year and there's no scale.

Correct. Yeah. You can always look the higher ups and where they're at. Now you're going to have to do what they did to get there. Yeah. What I've learned, dude, is people will make money. They're willing to share what they do to get there. So usually someone helped them.

That's what I found. And if someone's listening and coachable and they're taking the advice I'm giving, like why would I not want to help them? I love helping people. I have plenty of money for all of us. Yeah, I have guests that come on the show saying the pod changed their life. I love that though. That's sick.

You know what I mean? I think it's the more we share the better. You do six or eight a day. Yeah. Karma, man. I know that that's going to come back to me. 100%. that, though. That's sick. You know what I mean? I think it's the more we share, the better. Well, you do six or eight a day. Yeah. Karma, man. I know that that's going to come back to me. 100%. Yeah.

It does. And I think it stands out. You know what I mean? It's like when you do that, other people notice, too. And I imagine the people you're around want to help you if they can. Yeah. I mean, look at a group chat. There's people just helping nonstop.

I love that. Yeah. I don't even want any piece of any deals to happen there. I just want people to help each other. Yeah. That's sick. It's cool to be that conduit for all that. Yeah, it is. It's a good feeling. That's what it was in insurance for me. It's like I play a little role in people's life. I don't do everything for

them. I'm not there getting them out of bed every day, motivating them, but I can play a small role. You know what I mean? I can shorten their learning curve, put them in the right direction, give them advice, tell them the things I messed up, things to avoid. You know, people are coachable, man. There's plenty of money out there for everyone. I love it. Where can people learn from you, find out more about you, man? Man, johnwetmore.com is the website where all my socials link there. Instagram's just at johnwetmore. Maybe YouTube, same, johnwetmore. We do a podcast as well, Insurance Insiders. It's like insurance industry specific podcast, but the website's the main, main way to get me. Awesome.

Cool. For sure. We'll link it below, man. Thanks. Thanks for watching guys. See you tomorrow.