Podcast appearances and mentions of tom henga

Coach Pete D’Arruda tackle some deep topics including playing pool and how that ties into retirement planning. Brian Quaranta takes us through high frequency trading. Kevin Brucher lays out what hedging can mean in a topsy turvy market and we’re not talking about a hedge fund. Richard Pelitier lays out the new IRA rules for inherited IRA’s. Tripp Limehouse takes us on the road to retirement and how a wrong turn can really turn things upside down. Coach Pete talks with author, advisor and speaker Tom Henga. Call 800-662-6808. Text PIZZA to 21-000. @stevesedahl on Twitter.

In our talk today, Tom Henga, author of "Don't Worry, Retire Happy" and "Paycheck & Playchecks" broke down the science behind the optimal way to retire and the many reasons most Americans don't have a comfortable, confident retirement.

Author, Morris Sims shares how to create understanding with clients. Learn the power of influence in sales. View more at MarkMiletello.com. Note: “Where The Insurance Pros Meet” is an audio podcast and is meant for the ear. A transcript of the audio is provided for referencing a particular section or for you to follow along. Listen to the episode to get the most out of our show. We use both speech recognition software and human transcribers to create the transcripts so they may contain errors. If you’re going to quote us in print, please be sure to check the corresponding audio. TRANSCRIPT Speaker 1: Where the Insurance Pros Meet, Episode 6. Morris Sims: What we do, Mark, as insurance agents, we change people's lives. We change people's lives for the better every day. Speaker 1: Where the Insurance Pros Meet is a podcast that brings the greatest talent in the world together: managers, coaches, and producers, the very best experts the insurance and financial services industry has to offer. Get ready to change the way you do business to have your most successful year ever. Now here's Mark Miletello, a top 1% producer, manager, and your host of Where the Insurance Pros Meet. Mark Miletello: Welcome to Where the Insurance Pros Meet. I'm your host, Mark Miletello. Today we're going to discuss influence, understanding influence, increasing your influence, and principles of influence. Of course, in sales, we use our influence on either leading a team to increase production or as an individual just to increase sales. Influence is in everything we do. Our guest is an expert on the subject. He has trained over 80,000 agents and managers. He's written a book called Practical Influence. Highly sought-after leader and coach. I love welcoming Morris Sims to the show. Welcome, Morris. Morris Sims: Well, thanks, Mark. I really appreciate it. Mark Miletello: Glad having you and I'm excited to jump into this. You know, Morris, I kind of designed this show to run alongside a format of, and I gravitate toward, professional athletes. Many times, I was watching Major League Baseball this weekend and I was thinking the practice, from an early childhood they are practicing their skill. Even when they're late in their career, they still practice almost year around and honing their skills. They must have a coach. They have coaches throughout their entire career. I think there's a lot of similarities. What my goal in going into management was to bring that same understanding that we need, our clients really need us to be professionals out in the field. As we're recording this show, Major League Baseball is in the heat of the season. Teams are jockeying for the positions. But, Morris, professionals, they're in the spotlight, right? I would say they have a huge influence over others. Correct? Morris Sims: Oh, I think so, Mark. I think there are a lot of different principles of influence academically that are not necessarily the same principles that I have in the book, but rather maybe a little more academic principle that they've studied over the years in universities. The kind of influence that we're talking about there is the charisma and the collegial, if you will maybe, type of influence. It has to do with seeing someone and wanting to be like them. "I want to be as good as Dak Prescott. I want to be as good as," et cetera. Mark Miletello: Right. That's what drives me sometimes is watching others win awards. You know? Influence affects us. Aren't those major league athletes, aren't they influenced by others as well? Morris Sims: Oh, I think we all are. We all allow ourselves to be influenced by others around us all the time. I guess it's what you would call more of kind of influence: "I want to be like Mike. I want to be able to achieve the same things that Mark has achieved. I want to make MDRT." All those kinds of things are the kind of influence that comes along with other people. We're influenced by their lives, by what they've made of their lives, and we want to be able to be as good as they are. Mark Miletello: You hit it perfect. I want to be like Mike. That type of influence really still today, we know what that means, and they did a good job marketing that. Right off the bat, we're jumping into this, but, Morris, we're going to put you up to bat at first. We want you to step up there and hit us a home run on the first pitch and give us a professional tip right off the bat that can help us. Do you have a professional tip for us? Morris Sims: A professional tip. I'll come up with one for sure, Mark. You know, something I've been working on lately, let me just put it this way, folks. Social media is not dead. It's like what Mark Twain said, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Well, social media is far from dead. In fact, it is something that I believe we all should be very, very involved in because there are a lot of people out there and there are a lot of people going through that all the time.But here's the deal. You and I are experts in our own business in what we do. You all are experts in the insurance and financial services arena. You know more about insurance and financial services than a guy on the street knows, for sure. Now today, certainly with a Google search, you can learn a whole lot, but you still are much more expert in that than the average guy on the street. Work within your expertise, on your area of expertise, and hire a marketing professional to do your social media for you, or at least set you up to do your social media.The professional tip is one that I've worked on a lot, and I hope we get to talk about it some more, is focusing on what you do best and getting other people to do the things that are not in your area of expertise. You're an insurance expert and chances are you're not a marketing expert. Let's get a marketing expert involved. Mark Miletello: Perfectly said. We will have more time to talk about it. We're excited to dive more into it. Before we jump right into that, I want to know a little bit more about you, Morris. I've read up on you. I've read your book. I've found some articles. I see all the coaching that you've done and the great career that you've had, but I'm just having a hard time understanding how a chemical engineer with a master's degree in science, those aren't usually the prerequisites for having a successful 30-year career in this business. What were you going to be at first and how did you transition into this wonderful industry? Morris Sims: It's like I thought, "What were you thinking?" Yeah, I know. It makes for a really good story, though. I'll tell you that. After five years of being an engineer, I was okay. I was not a walk-on-water engineer. I was good, but I wasn't excellent. I didn't see myself becoming excellent. Frankly, I wasn't having any fun. I wanted to do something that was fun. I wanted to be recognized for the work that I was doing. I wanted to be able to have some control over my life. About that time, my agent came over and we looked at buying some more life insurance because we just had a child. I looked at what he was doing and how he did it and I thought, "You know, that might be fun." I went through the interview process and became an agent with New York Life. My life changed overnight. It really, really did. I've had more fun over the last 30 years than I ever did as an engineer. I've had the opportunity to work with some of the best in the business. I've had the opportunity to meet people, and go places, and do things that I would never have had as an engineer working in a chemical plant or sitting behind a desk designing pumping systems. It would not have happened. It turned out well in the long haul, but at the time I wanted to do something that was fun, Mark. This looked like it was going to be a lot more fun. Again, as I said, I have a lot more control over what I do and what I make than I was as an engineer, as an employee. Mark Miletello: We're sure glad that you did. Thinking about influence, and freshly reading your book, I guess, everything I'm thinking now, and one thing is that agent that came out to work with you on life insurance must have done a pretty good job or had some pretty good influence on you. Morris Sims: He did. It was interesting. He did what I guess we always trained our agents to do. If someone expresses an interest, you immediately defer to your manager because the recruiters are the guys that really know what they're doing when it comes to that kind of thing. That's what this gentleman did. He referred me to his manager. His name, just as an aside, is kind of cute, or funny at least. His name was Ernest Gordon, but everybody called him Flash. He was Flash Gordon. He did a great job of sharing with me how I could be in control of my life, how could I be in business for myself, but not by myself. With the backup provided in his team and the team at the company, we were able to find a way to get out there and go sell some insurance, which we did. That was fun. I enjoyed it. To this day, my son chides me that I didn't stay in the world of being an agent, and why in the world did I ever go into management? But the management turned out well for me, too, I guess. It worked out in the long haul all three ways. Mark Miletello: Yeah. Yeah, just I've been there. You and I spoke last week. There's a lot of similarities we have together. I really looked forward to having you on the show because of that. I was an agent as well. I don't know. I just think sometimes individuals are led to help and work with others. My gosh, you must be one of the leaders in this country of working with agents. Looking back over your career with literally tens of thousands, almost 100,000 or more, of mentees and the positions that you held with really one of the world's top life insurance carriers, and you must have met all the greats in the industry, but what are you most proud of looking back over your career? Morris Sims: Oh, great question. It must be the people, Mark. It must be the people that I had the opportunity to be involved with and hopefully have a little bit of practical, positive influence on their lives. That's the most important thing that I had the opportunity to do. I wish I had been able to do it better and still constantly, you mentioned practice earlier, I'm still constantly practicing how I can relate with people better and how I can have more of a positive influence on others. Because it is what we do with other people that makes all the difference in the world. I think that's the other reason why I am so passionate about what we do and what agents do for a living every day. Because what we do, Mark, as insurance agents, we change people's lives. We change people's lives for the better every day. That's really where the rubber meets the road is when you can change someone's life. As the head of the training area, I was able to institute some new programs and do some things that I hope provided some training that changed people's lives for the better. A lot of agents become successful in this business of ours that maybe might not have been as successful if they hadn't had the training that we provide. I guess that's it, man. It's having that positive influence on other people. Mark Miletello: Right. You're being very humble because everyone I talked to said that you had great influence over their lives. This show is about influence. Let me ask you, Morris, let's talk about influence. What brought you to studying and really writing a book about influence? Morris Sims: Well, it was really my own need. I felt like I needed to have more influence with others and that I need to do a better job of doing whatever it is you do to gain more influence. I wasn't sure what that was. I started doing what I guess most of us would do. I started reading everything I could get my hands on about influence in the popular books and media that were out there. I couldn't find a book, or a podcast, or anything that really answered the two questions that were most important to me, one being what is this whole thing about influence and what do I need to know? What do I need to know to be able to have more influence on other people? Then the second, I think the more important question was what do I need to do differently to have more influence on others? What do I need to do differently? What skills do I need? Finally, how in the world do you go about doing it? How do you improve your skill of having influence with other people? With that in mind, I sat down and started looking at it and started trying to answer those two questions. Suddenly, a book appeared. Mark Miletello: One of the books, I guess, that pop into my mind when I think of influence is Dale Carnegie's book. Morris Sims: Oh, absolutely. Mark Miletello: Did that inspire you or did you- Morris Sims: 100%. 100%. That changed my life back 40 years ago when I was an engineer doing those things that I was doing to read more about sales, and how you go about doing that, and how much fun it was, and where you go. Dale's book made all the difference in the world to me in making the decision to go into the world of selling life insurance. Yeah, that book has been important to me my whole career.It certainly was on my mind as we went through this because he does a lot better job than I do when he starts talking about how you go about gaining influence and how you go about building relationships with other people. That's really where there's the similarity between the two. He does a much better job than I do in helping people learn how. Mark Miletello: I think it was one of the first books I read in the industry 27 years ago and still on my shelf today. I'm glad that now we have another one that built off the back of that because it is one of the most important topics when you're in sales is how you influence others.Reading your book, Practical Influence, there's 10 principles of practical influence in your book. We don't have time to discuss all 10 so, Morris, pick one for me that you think might be the most helpful for our listeners, if you could. Sorry to do that to you. Morris Sims: That's okay. One out of 10. I guess the one that opened my eyes more than any of the others is when, finally, in the research and the reading and the study that I was doing, it finally came to me and I began to understand, probably our listeners understood it a lot faster than I did, but when I had understood that influence comes from how other people perceive us, that made it all clear to me from that point forward. In fact, at one point I thought, "If I can teach people that principle, is there any need for the other nine," and finally decided, yeah, there was. But the key is this. How other people perceive us is going to determine how much influence they're going to allow us to have. Because you see, Mark, I can't influence you unless you allow me to have influence with you. There's got to be a reason that you would allow me to have influence with you. That perception is what makes all the difference in the world. Perception all is derived from how we behave around others, and what we say, and what we do. If we can sincerely, and that's the key word, Mark, is sincere, change the way we relate to other people in a positive fashion, then we can improve our level of influence with those folks. Sincerely is really the key because I tell you what, fake shows up very clearly very fast. Sincere- Mark Miletello: I'm sorry, I'm trying to think of a practical example. Is there a way that you can tie this into maybe what we deal with on a daily or a weekly basis, how that relates? Morris Sims: Sure, I think so. If you think about what we were talking about earlier, the fact that you all are insurance experts in all reality, you know more than the average person out there, if the prospect perceives you to be an expert because of the knowledge you have, because of the experience you have in the business, then they're going to listen to you and you're going to have more influence with them when it comes to things dealing with insurance.For example, take an off the wall kind of example here maybe. Mark, if I were an expert in automobiles and automobile repair, and I was the best mechanic you knew, and I came in, we rode in your car, we've got out of your car, and I said, "Gee, Mark, you know, it sounded a little rough; You may have burned a valve in there, man; You need to take this in and have it looked at," if you perceived me to be an expert in that area, what are you going to do? Mark Miletello: I'm going to run right to the shop because you obviously have this trained ear. I have no knowledge of anything mechanical. I'm going to have to trust you. Morris Sims: If I were to go on and say, "You know, Mark, you really probably ought to take it to go see Joe Smith down on Main Street because he works on that kind of engine and that model car all the time; He is an expert in that area; You'd probably ought to take it to go see," what did I say: Joe? Mark Miletello: Right. Morris Sims: Whoever the guy is down on Main Street. You probably would take your car to go see him, right? Mark Miletello: Exactly. Morris Sims: That's called expert power. That is one of those things that we can do as insurance agents constantly become more and more of the expert in our own business. That will, in turn, allow you to have influence in that area with your prospects and clients. Does that help? Mark Miletello: Oh, absolutely. I was just thinking while you're talking, my mind was going all over the place, but I was thinking that we very quickly will throw out, especially let's say in the property/casualty world, or even life insurance, but in the property/casualty world, we very quickly will throw out a plumber or a water restoration. We have an influence. I think sometimes we forget, especially as newer agents, when maybe our confidence is lower than it will be later in our career, but we forget that we do know tons more than the client, and we should walk in there with a heightened sense of confidence. Maybe we forget about what influence we have. In this world of commoditization where pricing wars, it's harder to stand up and be a professional, especially as a younger rep in the business, a newer rep in the business. I think you're right. I was thinking of a lot of different scenarios where, as an insurance agent, we have influence and yet sometimes maybe we don't use that influence on its fullest extent. Right? Morris Sims: Oh, I think so. It's so easy. It was for me at least. The things you remember, I guess, but I can remember as a brand-new agent thinking, "My word, I'm going to go see this businessman. He's got to know more about this than I do." Finally, one day my manager looked at me. He said, "Morris, think about what you know today and what you knew four weeks ago when you walked in the door the first time to actually become an agent. Think of what you know now that you didn't know then." You think about it and you realize, "My word, I know more about insurance than I ever thought I would ever need to know, much less want to know. And yeah, I do know more than the average guy out there."That's when all of a sudden, a little bit of confidence will show up and a lot of confidence will show up. Then eventually you can be that humble expert that can walk in and have that expert power with your prospects. They will follow your lead because you're doing what's right for them. You're doing it sincerely. You're doing it with that expertise behind you. Mark Miletello: Well, I tell you, it's a struggle in this day and time to learn, to get educated. But you know, one thing, you're right, is that our reps know so much more than the average client. Even a poorly-presented or brand-new rep can really influence their clients by protecting them.You know what? That's what clients need in this day and time more than anything. That's a large reason for me to go into management and for me to start this podcast is we must become better at what we do at influencing our clients to not so much look at the $2-a-month, or $20-a-month savings, or as much as price. I'm a big proponent of value selling and showing the value. I think that does come down to how we influence. It starts right off the bat from the very first meeting as to how you influence your clients. Morris Sims: Yeah, I think you're right, Mark. I think that the most important thing that we can do to begin building that relationship and building that influence is being who we are, and being ourselves, and being sincerely interested in helping other people get what they need and get what they want. Wasn't it Zig Ziglar that said you can have anything that you want in life- Mark Miletello: Help others. Morris Sims: If you just be willing to help enough other people get what they want. Mark Miletello: Right. Morris Sims: If we can sincerely be of a mindset that, "I'm here to help this family, I'm here to help this individual, I'm here to help this business accomplish what they want, and protect their family, and protect their business, I'm doing it to help them," and not walk in there with an idea that, "Man, I'm going to make the biggest sale of my career and everything is going to be great because I'm going to sell a bazillion dollars’ worth of insurance," because you know, Mark, there isn't any sale out there, there's just not one, that is big enough to make your entire career or one that's going to, that if you lost it, is going to kill your entire career. It's a career. It's a 20-, 30-, 40-year practice. One sale isn't going to make or break you, but one relationship certainly is going to have a significant impact on your business. Mark Miletello: Well said. Well said. I was watching, out of all the practicing for their entire lifetime these Major League Baseball players have, they still make errors and they wish that they could take it back. Looking back over my career, there are things that I would do differently. I would. I mean, I learned a lot and people say, "Well, that's why you are where you are because of those trial and errors." Morris, having a highly-successful career and still having a wonderful influence on the entire industry, looking back I think sometimes it's easy for us to learn from maybe others' mistakes. Looking back, is there an error that you had on the field of play in the financial services arena that you can share with us that you might have learned from? Morris Sims: Yes. That would be another three-hour show, Mark. That's for sure. I think the one thing that I've learned recently that I look back and I can see where it caused me struggles and challenges throughout my career, I didn't learn it until I went out and started to try and run this business that I'm running now, that is you must focus. There are so many different things that you can do as an insurance agent, as a business owner, as an executive. There are so many different things you could do that are all good, all practical, all going to help some way or another, going to help move things forward a little bit. But if you try to do it all, you're shallow. You're doing everything just a little bit. It's like being a swamp. You're shallow and stagnant, and you're not moving, and having a great amount of influence and impact. You want to focus on things so that you can cut deep like the Colorado River and cut a Grand Canyon into the earth. You've got to focus to be able to do that. I think that was the key thing that I had to learn was that I had to focus. I couldn't do everything. I said earlier I finally realized I can't do all the things that have to be done to be able to be the marketing expert that I need. I've got to hire that. I'm going to have to go find somebody to do it. I found a great guy to help me, but I had to focus it down to three things. "Okay, what do you want to do, Morris?" "Well, I want to run my own business." You take that all the way down and there turned out to be three things that I wanted to do, three strategies for my business. I wanted to write. I wanted to write books and articles. Or to use that technical term, I wanted to write stuff, Mark, because I enjoyed writing and it works out well for me. I wanted to write. The second thing I wanted to do was speak in front of groups of people because folks have told me I'm good at it and I love doing it. I just love helping people. I wanted to be able to do keynote addresses, and workshops, and facilitate groups of people. That was the second thing. I wanted to be in front of folks.Thirdly, I want to do, frankly, Mark, what you're doing. I wanted to create some digital training that people can find online because, frankly, you know what, with that phone in my pocket or that computer in my briefcase, I'm connected to the world. If I want to learn something nowadays, the web is the first place I go. What if we can create just what you're thinking about? What if we can create a library of knowledge and some practical how-to instruction to gain a skill that will help people get better at what they do all day long? That was the third thing I wanted to do. Those were the three top things that are on my list every week when I plan my week. I guess the real key to focus is this. I sit down on Sunday afternoon and I write down everything that I must do this week. Everything. I put those activities in each of the five days of the week. On Tuesday, it's marketing day. I spend all my day Tuesday focused on how do I get in front of more people and how do I get in front of more people that can have a positive impact on our business so that we can have a positive impact on other folks. It fills it up, fills up the week that way. Then every day I don't have to create a new plan for tomorrow. All I must do is tweak my plan for tomorrow. It works out well.There are going to be a bunch of things on my list every Sunday that don't directly connect to one of these three key strategies. They don't get put on the plan. Mark Miletello: You know, you said this podcast as well. That's kind of where I went with this is that ... I'll give you a perfect example. A partner in this and myself, we Googled, "life insurance sales training," and dog training came up. We laughed, and we said, "This is not going to work. This is not going to work for our industry." What we had to do is develop what we feel is to go out there and find the best with Van Miller, and Garry Kinder, and Tom Henga, and Richard Weylman, and now you, Morris Sims, and the many A-list talent that we're going to have on this show so that others can tune in and, first, and I've said it on a previous show, filter through all the noise out there, all the ads. You're right. Five, 10 years ago, there was no digital online. There was no digital type of training that was substantial. Now they're popping up all over the place. They really are. I'm starting to find more and more. It's still kind of a dead space. Let the listeners decide, but we, as the host of this show, myself, I want to find the best talent so that people can tune in and say, "Okay, that's what I need to know and that's where I need to go to find it." I think that's one of the things out there, so I'm glad that you're also someone that we can trust in the number of people that you've led and coached, and the speeches that you've given that we can follow, and we can learn. We hope that you keep plugging away. But I agree. I think looking back over it, I think everything you say I seem to relate to it. I think we're going to be good friends and I want to continue following you. But looking back over my career, I think that's one of my issues as well. One of my very best agents to this date that, nine years ago going into a leadership position, he said, "Mark, I don't want to do group health. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that. I want to do the two, three things that you tell me will make me most successful with the vehicle that I'm in." I shared with him those three things and he became my very, most successful agent because he stayed focus on anyone I've ever worked with. Not like myself, either. I became successful, maybe because I was raised in an insurance family and I had this knowledge of long-term care at age 17 and 18 when it was really a brand-new thing. I've kind of had this knowledge that stretched out. I think because of the history of it, therefore, I was probably doing a lot more things than I should rather than being laser-focused like he was. But you're right. Looking back, if I would have just focused on a couple things that I was really excelling at, I would have had much. I think younger reps in the industry, especially, and maybe even a veteran that's listening to this, that could refocus, that they can hear what you've said and maybe what I've shared, and they can say, "Okay, I'm not going to make that same mistake by trying to be a jack of all trades." Joint work is a wonderful way to do those things. I don't know why I felt like I needed 100% of every commission when in this day and time most of the leaders in our industry do joint work, right? Morris Sims: Oh yes. Absolutely. It is so vitally important as a learning activity. That whole idea of being able to go out and watch, and then be coached by someone who is constantly doing what it is that I want to do every day, man, if that's not worth 50% of any first-year commission that you're going to make, it's probably worth the whole thing in all reality. We're only asking you to put up maybe 30%, 40%, 50%. Mark Miletello: I'm still in the game. I just can't help it. It's just been on my mind and I must share this, Morris. I think you will appreciate this as a coach. I have a rep, went out on his first life sale without me, which I said don't do, but he did. He came back with two $20-a-month term life apps. There were some issues with one of the home policies. The policy was set up to lapse. Anyway, long story short, I went back out to the house with this rep to meet with the clients. We got a commitment with a $20,000 IUL commitment and he had walked out of the house with $40 a month in the term, the $20,000 annual IUL commitment with the same client. If that doesn't share with you right, there that joint work can produce way more than you could have on your own. I love that story because it's fresh and I'll be able to share it, but it's just what you're saying as far as joint work. The greats do joint work. Morris Sims: Oh yeah, absolutely. I think as a learning professional for the past 30 years, I can tell you right now the best practice you can get is out in the real world with a coach for your side. Because if you think about what all those baseball players do when they practice, they're practicing, but they've got a coach with them right there saying, "Think about your grip. Think about this. Try this. Try that." It's that coaching with the practice that makes all the difference in the world. Mark Miletello: You know what, Morris? As one of the thought leaders in our industry, I believe that we must look back at the past and think of what we've done right and wrong. Then we must focus on today and the near future. But I also have the segment on my show that has a professional prediction. The year is 2027. It's 10 years down the road. Morris, as a coach and a leader, help me prepare for five to 10 years down the road. Morris Sims: Wow. That's an important question. It really is. It's one that we all must ask ourselves. Where do you want to be five years from now? Every time I've answered that question, it has propelled me a lot further than my answer. I think for us in this industry, things are changing rapidly. I don't believe personally that we will ever see a world where insurance will be profitable, profitably I guess is as good a word as any, where insurance will be profitably and correctly sold to the masses without having personal contact. I believe that to make the right decision about the insurance protection that I need to have for my family, be it for my office, for my car, for my house, for my boat, for my motorcycle, for my life, to provide for my retirement, that's not going to happen to answer a few questions online or even with artificial intelligence software. It takes somebody being out their toe-to-toe, knee-to-knee, eyeball-to-eyeball, answering those questions, and helping people make the right decisions. Without that, it's just not going to work. It's not going to work at all and it's not going to be in everybody's best interest. With that in mind, here's the answer to your question. I believe we must stay on the cutting edge, whatever that edge might be. It's getting sharper and sharper every day, but we've got to stay on the cutting edge. That means studying and spending money to develop yourself. That means studying and spending money to get your CLU, your ChFC, your CFP, to get the advanced degrees. Maybe a master's in financial services. All those things are available and all of them are attainable. All you must do is go to look for it and go start. Put a foot in the water and get it started. But it's also why we've got to be members of NAIFA. It's why we've got to be members of other professional associations where we can learn from each other. It's one of the important reasons for making MDRT is to get to go to the MDRT meeting and learn from other great professionals. I think that self-development is probably the key, is going to be the key, even more, going forward over the next 10 years. Mark Miletello: Thank you for that and I completely agree. I wish we had more time to really dive into all the wonderful relationships you have and the people that you've met. We'll do that personally because I'm excited to know you now, but looking back over your personal development, can you pick maybe a book or a person that inspired you that we can also look at and maybe gain that same type of inspiration from? Morris Sims: Another great question, Mark. I think the people that have influenced me the most and have had a great impact on my life, are personal friends and mentors that have helped me personally. A gentleman here in Dallas, Andy Marshall, basically taught me how to do public speaking and how to think. Another great mentor, Tony Jeary, also happens to be here in Dallas. Tony has written a book called Strategic Acceleration. Strategic Acceleration. In that book, Tony teaches what he taught me over the last 30 years, that you've got to have focus. You've got to be clear on your purpose. You've got to have focus. You've got to execute. Then he goes into things that will help you learn how to focus, learn how to determine what it is you want, and learn how to execute properly and be able to do it in a very practical manner. I think Tony has been a huge influence on me.Other authors and books, Mark, golly gee. You mentioned Dale Carnegie. That was a big one, but a couple of more recent ones. Drive, by Daniel Pink, talks about how we get motivated and how we can do what we do better. Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell- Mark Miletello: Staple. Yep. Morris Sims: Yeah. He talks a lot in there about practice and it takes 10,000 hours to become a real expert. Then the other one that just really got me going was Shawn Achor's book, The Happiness Advantage. It's funny. He says in there that you don't become happy by becoming successful. In other words, because you become a success, it's not what's going to drive your happiness. In fact, it is the happy people in the world that become successful. It's the other way around from the way we've been taught to think about it as we grow up. The Happiness Advantage is really a great book as well. Mark Miletello: I'll tell you what, I've taken notes, and I've got a lot of new reads. I appreciate that. That's what this show is about is giving us places to go that is highly recommended, and will really filter through the noise, and find out what it is that we're looking for, and really help us in the way that you've explained. I want to tell you to thank you for the time of coming on the show. Tell Carla thanks for giving us your time. How can we find you? How do we research you? How do we follow you best, Morris? Morris Sims: Well, I'm on LinkedIn and that's always a good place to go, I guess. Just Morris Sims, I guess. It's the easiest way. But I have a website that's being developed right now. It took a lot of creative thinking to come up with this name, Mark. Are you ready? Mark Miletello: Go ahead. Morris Sims: Www.morrissims.com. Mark Miletello: Alright. Yep, yep. I got it. Morris Sims: That's Sims with one M. It's M-O-R-R-I-S-S-I-M-S dot-com. Those would be probably the best two ways. I'm doing a lot of posting on LinkedIn about sales skills and other sundry things. I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn. Mark Miletello: Absolutely. We'll look you up. Check out Morris Sims, morrissims.com. LinkedIn. There's a lot of ways. Google him. I think you'll be able to find him easily.If you like what you hear on the show, I ask you that you go to iTunes, rate and review it so that we'll pop up and others can find us because it's very hard to find good things out there. I want to tell the listeners thank you for supporting us and following us. Thank you, Morris. Morris Sims: Thank you, Mark. I really enjoyed it. It was a blast. Look forward to more conversations in the future.

Today’s episode is on retirement income solutions. Tom Henga is a retirement income specialist. Learn more at MarkMiletello.com. Note: “Where The Insurance Pros Meet” is an audio podcast and is meant for the ear. A transcript of the audio is provided for referencing a particular section or for you to follow along. Listen to the episode to get the most out of our show. We use both speech recognition software and human transcribers to create the transcripts so they may contain errors. If you’re going to quote us in print, please be sure to check the corresponding audio. TRANSCRIPT Announcer 1 Where the Insurance Pros Meet, Episode 2. Announcer 2 If you really want to get good, I mean, you want to be the best in the business, you've got to train a little bit every single day just like the pro football players do. Announcer 1 Where the Insurance Pros Meet is a podcast that brings the greatest talent in the world together: managers, coaches, and producers. The very best experts the insurance and financial services industry has to offer. Get ready to change the way you do business to have your most successful year ever. Now, here's Mark Miletello, a top one percent producer, manager, and your host of "Where the Insurance Pros Meet". Mark Miletello Today we're going to discuss retirement income solutions. We have on the show with us the retirement income specialist himself. He's the author of four best sellers, "Paychecks and PlayChecks", "Retirement Income Masters", "Paycheck and Playchecks for Canadians", and most recently, "Don't Worry Be Happy: Seven Steps to Retirement Security, which has played on public television to over 72 million homes in the US and Canada. Our guest specializes in creating, what I love, is simple and powerful retirement solutions based on math and science and not opinions. I've seen him speak myself. He's exciting. You should look him up. He speaks to businesses, government organizations, professional associations, financial professionals, and more importantly, clients across the globe. The road warrior himself, Tom Hegna. Welcome to the show, Tom. Tom Hegna Thank you, Mark. Thanks for having me. Mark Miletello Well, Tom, NFL season is here. I'm excited. The pros are practiced, rehearsed, the butterflies are gone. It's game time. Tom, congratulations, and thanks for being a leader, a voice, and a consummate professional in the insurance industry; and is, really, the leading speaker and coach in the financial services industry. So, thanks for coming to the show. Can you give us a kickoff of this show with a professional tip or advice just to start us off and get this game going? Tom Hegna Sure. I mean, since you're talking about pro football, let me ask you a question. How often do they train do you think? Do they train once a quarter? Once every six months? A couple of times a year? They train every single day. Sometimes they do doubles. Sometimes they do triples. What people don't understand is that the top producers in any business, but let's just say pro football, they're constantly training. You know what else, they've got a coach. Why would they need a coach? They're the best players in the world. Because the coach sees things they don't. The coach can come up with a game plan. And I think what both you and I do is we focus on training and coaching. Why do people in our industry think that they don't need to train every single day? And, you know, if you or I were training or coaching them, even for 10 or 15 minutes every day, imagine how much better they would be in three months, six months, nine months. And so, I guess that would be my opening pitch, is that if you really want to get good, I mean, you want to be the best in the business, you've got to train a little bit every single day just like the pro football players do. Mark Miletello You know, I'm even more excited now because you're spot on. As a producer, as an agent, sometimes we're out there by ourselves; and here I am, 27 years into my career, and I still have a coach. I still have a mentor. I still look for more knowledge. So, you're exactly right, and that's the type of stuff I knew we were going to get right off the bat from you. Right now, let's break for industry news. There's no secret, the Department of Labor rulings are dominating the news in the insurance and financial services stadium. Tom, help us out. How do you think the industry will or will not change with these Department of Labor rulings? Tom Hegna Well, you know, it's kind of interesting, I was just on a nationwide debate last week with Knute Rothstead. He's the co-founder of the fiduciary standard, and he debated for the ruling. I debated against it. And I'd encourage your listeners to listen to it. It's free. They can go to apviewpoint.com and register for free and it's in there, or just look up any of my social media. I've got the recordings posted, but I encourage them to listen to it. But to your question, I would say this. I think some good things will come out of it. We all know there were some bad products out there. We all know there were some bad people out there. But what I tried to say in the debate is, you know, Bernie Madoff was a fiduciary, but I don't go around saying all the fiduciaries are Bernie Madoff, and I don't have anything wrong with fiduciaries. But my point in the debate is, right now, it's legal in all 50 states to do business with a fiduciary. So, if you really want a fiduciary, guess what? You can do business with one, but not everybody's choosing that. I said this, "If fiduciaries were so good at what they did, if they were so good, guess what, they'd put everybody else out of business." How could State Farm do what they do? How could New York Life do what they do? How could American National do what they do? If fiduciaries are so good, everybody would have to become a fiduciary, or they'd go out of business. But here's the truth, the truth is they aren't always that great. There are fiduciaries who are not taking longevity risk off the table. There are fiduciaries who are not taking long-term care risk off the table. There are fiduciaries who aren't using life insurance to leverage wealth transfer to children and grandchildren. So, my question to them is how can you be doing what's in the best interest of your clients if you're not using annuities, life insurance, and long-term care? So, that is on their side. But on our side, I would say this, I think we are going to see products, maybe a little more leveling of the commission, which I don't think is bad. I don't think there should be necessarily you make more commission on that versus this, and then you're tilted to recommend that over that. I think that's one of the good things that will come out of this rule is that companies are going to really must look at what is in the best interests of their clients? Now I don't agree that just a fiduciary puts their best interests. I see insurance professionals or financial professionals all over the country, every day, who are putting their client's best interests first; but I think there will be some good things that will come out of it as well. Mark Miletello Well, the Department of Labor ruling, I mean, I agree. I think that protecting clients ultimately is the goal, and that's more important than anything, but there is a balance, and I think that's the issue that you're talking about. We must find the balance, right? Tom Hegna Right. And what I proposed, at the end, instead of just beating up on my opponent or just trying to trash the DOL rule, what I tried to propose was a fiduciary process. You see I think the argument about fees versus commission, that's ridiculous. I can show you plenty of places where a commission is better for a client, and they can show you plenty of places where a fee is better. So, let's just agree that the fee commission argument just depends on the client. That's a ridiculous rule. But, let's also agree that nobody knows what's going to be the best. Here's the problem with the fiduciaries. It's the best interest. Did you know that if you go to five different fiduciaries, give them your exact same set of circumstances, you will get five different courses of actions proposed? Speaker 5 Exactly. Tom Hegna All in your best interests? I mean, that doesn't even make sense. How could five different people give five different solutions if this is in my best interest? So, what I say is let's agree that nobody knows what's going to be the best, all right? And what math and science do is when you get into a situation where you don't know what's going to be the best, there are so many variables, what math and science look for is the optimal way to do it. And all optimal means is this will be the best more often than anything else will be the best and it'll never be the worst. So, what I propose and what I talk about all the time, I don't talk about the best way to retire, because nobody knows what's the best way to retire. I talk about the optimal way. And so what I proposed at the end of the debate is something that I think both sides could agree on. What if we had a fiduciary process that said step number one you got to have a plan, and it's got to be in writing, and you need to work with a financial professional, and it needs to be reviewed regularly. That'd be step one. Step two, why don't we insist that they cover their basic living expenses with guaranteed lifetime income. That's what all the PhDs who study retirement say you should do. And then what if we said for the rest of the portfolio you optimize that to protect yourself against inflation. Or, if you weren't in the securities business, you could ladder their income products, so they could have one that starts at age 60, one that starts at age 65, one that starts at age 70; but the key is to give them increasing income for the rest of their life. What if we taught our clients how to maximize their social security benefits? See social security's the largest retirement asset most people have. What if we said that no retirement plan is complete without a plan for long-term care and that we were required to discuss a long-term care plan with the people. And then what if we used life insurance as the most efficient way to pass wealth. That if they have a life insurance policy for the kids, they could spend more of their money in retirement. I said now that is a process that would be based in math and science that, whether you are a fiduciary or non-fiduciary, whether you sell annuities or manage money, or you pay fees or commissions couldn't we agree that that would be a powerful process that would be in the client's best interest, and then we can just disagree. To me, that's the solution. Mark Miletello Wow. And thanks for being a voice for our industry. We need a voice right now more than ever, and really, you're a voice for the client as well. As I've read and studied and followed you, the sound advice you give is on behalf of the client and, like you said, the little things, how commissions are paid, that's the little things. Now giving more than 5,000 speeches and seminars and really influencing hundreds of thousands of advisors out there, let's talk about you. Let's talk about Tom Hegna himself. Can you tell us in your own words how you arrived at the point where you are today? Tom Hegna Well, look, I'm driven right now by one thing. There are 78 million baby boomers out there who are retiring. They're either in retirement or close to retirement. And tens of millions of them are going to run out of money if we don't get to them first. And so, I'm really driven by the fact that I can't get in front of 78 million people, but you know what? You can get in front of a 1,000. They can get in front of a 1,000. They can get in front of a 1,000. They can get in front of a 1,000. So, if I can get in front of 300, 500 thousand advisors, a million advisors, through the leverage of their work, we can get in front of most of these 78 million. Look, most people won't do everything they're supposed to, but we can fix a lot of them. I've been in the business for over 30 years. I've learned a lot in that time. When I was at New York Life, I was kind of in charge of their retirement income push, and so I found out things I never knew. Mortality credits. Longevity credits. I learned things about longevity risk. I learned things about why guaranteed income is so important. And happiness in retirement. See, I talk to people all the time. You know, it's one thing to retire optimal or not optimal, but don't you want to be happy in retirement; because I can show people how they can be happy in retirement. And happiness in retirement is tied almost 100% to guaranteed lifetime income, and so I can demonstrate that to them. I can show them all the research and all the articles that have studied it. And so that's kind of what gets me up in the morning is I'm trying to help 78 million baby boomers. I can't get to all of them, but I can get a bunch of advisors and try to help them help their clients. Mark Miletello Well, perfectly said. I'm looking at the parallels in our history. First, thank you for your service in the army, six years’ service. I had six years’ service in the army, as well, before I started my career, during my career. But I was an agent, I was a producer, and nine years ago I went into management. I had won a lot of the awards that I set out to and had the success that I wanted to have as a producer. I think at a point I wanted to touch more people, as well. I found that my passion and heart is helping clients with what you call miracles, selling life insurance, which I totally agree with that in your book. But what I wanted to do was touch more lives, just like you said. And going into management, I felt like building 20, 30, 40 agents, we could touch more lives and get the message out there. I love the fact that you've taken it even additional, and that's, of course, the reason for this podcast, having a place where we can touch more people, help more people through the things that you talk about and teach in securing and doing the right things. I told you right before we started to show that I read your book a third time Monday on a plane. I couldn't put it down until I got to St. Louis and I must tell you, it just meant something totally different to me at this point in my career. So, we talked about the industry, the news, we talked a little bit about you, and congratulations on all the accomplishments you've had, and the best sellers that you've had. Let's talk a little bit about clients. What is the number one piece of advice, Tom, that you would give to retirees today? Tom Hegna Well, that they've got to have a plan to retire. See, most people don't have a plan. And again, that plan should include some very simple things. They should make sure that their basic living expenses are covered with guaranteed lifetime income so that no matter what happens to the market or no matter what happens to interest rates, they will at least have their basic living expenses covered. Then they got to have a plan for inflation because guaranteed lifetime income, if you just buy one, unless you buy inflation protection on it, it's going to stay the same, and over time prices go up. So, you've got to have a plan for inflation and I leave that up to the advisor. They can recommend a market-based solution of stocks or mutual funds, commodities, real estate, that's fine, or you can ladder your guaranteed products. That's what I've done. I've got eleven of them and I've got them starting at different ages, and so I will have increasing income for the rest of my life. You've got to have a plan to protect yourself against inflation, and then you've got to have a plan to protect yourself against the risk of long-term care. That's probably, after longevity risk, that's the other biggest risk. Seventy-two percent of all people will need to have a plan for long-term care. They should maximize their social security benefits. That's the largest retirement asset that most of them have and, in general, just very simple, the breadwinner should delay. So, if you've got a husband or wife, and the husband made more money than the wife, the wife can take her benefits early if she wants to, but the husband should wait until 70 because his check covers both lives. That's why the breadwinner should delay. And then use your home equity wisely. There are all kinds of new things like reverse mortgage market. You can sell your home and capture capital gains tax breaks, and so use your home equity wisely. Then I always say leave life insurance to your kids for pennies on the dollar, and then just go out and spend your money and have fun in retirement. So, I talk a lot about how to have fun in retirement, how to never run out of money in retirement, and how to not have to go to a nursing home so you get to stay in your house for the rest of your life because you have a plan. And so, those are the concepts that I talk with retirees. Mark Miletello Well, I've been training based on a lot of what you've said, and I've also been following and mentoring with Van Mueller who, by the way, speaks very highly of you. Tom Hegna Dan's a great guy. We go way back. Mark Miletello Absolutely. And so, I've been rolling out to the agents that I'm mentoring and acronym, TVFIL, taxes, volatility, fees, inflation, and longevity. In your book, Paychecks, and Playchecks, you say the greatest threat to retirees is longevity. It's a multiplier of the rest. Can you expound on that? Tom Hegna Yeah, because the longer you live, the more likely the market will crash. The longer you live, the more likely you'll take out too much money. The longer you'll live the more likely inflation will decimate your purchasing power. The longer you live the more likely you're going to need long-term care. What I tell the people is this. Look, if you retire when you're 65, and you drop dead when your 68, it doesn't matter if the market crashes 10,000 points. It doesn't matter if inflation was 15%. It doesn't matter if you were drawing 12% a year. It doesn't matter if you forgot to buy long-term care insurance. You didn't a life long enough. But if you live to be 75, 80, 85, 90, it's all those other risks that will wipe you out. So, of all the research, I can find from the smartest PhDs in the world who study retirement said this: "To retire successfully you must take longevity risk off the table." Well, guess what, stocks can't do that. Bonds can't do that. Mutual funds can't do that. Real estate can't do that. Only some form of an annuity can do it. A lifetime income annuity, you might call it an SPIA, a deferred income annuity, you might call it a DIA, or an income or withdrawal benefit rider from a fixed index variable annuity, that is it. Those are the only things that can take longevity risk off the table. So, you've got to put an annuity in that portfolio. And then people don't understand that the reason is that you put it in the portfolio is to take longevity risk off the table. Why? Because only a life insurance company can issue an annuity. Why? Because only a life insurance company sells life insurance to be on the other side of that risk. See because an insurance company is on both the life insurance and annuity side, that if people die too soon or live too long, they can neutralize themselves. Because if this person lives to be 115, that's okay, that person over there died when they were 60, so they're protected against both longevity and mortality risk because they're on both sides of the risk. Your banker can't do it. Your broker can't do it. Only the life insurance industry can protect people from dying too soon or living too long. That is a mathematical, scientific, and economic fact. Mark Miletello I'm so pumped up right now. I read your book on a plane. I got off to give a speech. I believe it was the most powerful speech of my career. And in the speech, I held up your book and ... it was a study group of the top leaders in my company. I held up your book, and I said, "You have to find your voice right now." One of the things that you said in your book, Paychecks, and Playchecks, you said, "We are at different times." And I think one big message that you give is to wake up. Wake up and look around. And I think that's the hardest thing for me, was for me, is to find that voice like you have found, like Van's found, like others succeeding and ... Let me go back to one little point. You had mentioned annuities that pay for life, and you know what, I get caught up or have been caught up, with clients talking about rates of return. You get completely away from that, and you focus on the longevity. The income stream for life and the value and importance of that, and I really had some of my first discussions where I said that the interest rate doesn't matter. Can you dive a little deeper into how reps should consider ...? Because I've got to be honest, I've sold tons of annuities, tons of life insurance, I've helped protect families and clients; but I've never really until, I think this week, saw the value and importance of what you say and how you use these products to protect people in these uncertain times. Tom Hegna I often talk about the payout rates of annuities. And if you look at SPIA OR a DIA, the guaranteed payout rates for those things are very high. They're 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 percent guaranteed for the rest of the client's life. And I always tell advisors, I say someday if you talk about payout rates the client's going to ask you, "Okay, but what is my interest rate?"  I got two ways to answer that. Number one, "What would you like it to be?" Because the insurance company does not set the interest rate on an income annuity. They set the payout rate. It never sets the interest rate the client by how long they live. So, I say, "If you want a higher interest rate, just live longer. If you want a higher interest rate than that, live longer than that." That's what I love about these products. You get to set your own interest rate. I hope you set it very high. But the second way I handle it is this. It doesn't matter. Just like you said, it doesn't matter what the interest rate is. When somebody asks you "what is the interest rate", in their mind they think this is an investment that they want to compare to their Merrill Lynch or their Schwab or their Edward Jones investment. And what I would say that an income annuity is not an investment. It is a guaranteed paycheck for the rest of your life. So, if I went on an appointment with that advisor, these are the exact words that would come out of my mouth. "I'd say Mr. and Mrs. Client, congratulations, you're now retired. In retirement, you're going to need a paycheck. Now at our company, you can have your paycheck guaranteed or non-guaranteed, which do you prefer?" Most people say guaranteed. "We can guarantee it for your life or for both of your lives, which would you prefer?" Most of them say for both of our lives. So, I repeat it back. "What I just heard you say is you would like a guaranteed paycheck for the rest of both of your lives." Yes. That's what this does. And there's no other product in the world you can buy that will give you a higher guaranteed paycheck for the rest of both of your lives. So, it doesn't matter what the interest rate is. You want a paycheck. You want it guaranteed. You want it guaranteed for the rest of both of your lives. That's what this does. Merrill Lynch, Schwab, E-trade, they can't do that. Mark Miletello So, I've got my checkbook out. I feel like I need to pay you for that. Tom Hegna I mean, let's keep it simple, and let's have fun in the appointments too. I have fun when I'm in front of people. I get in front of more people probably than almost all your listeners combined. So, I'm in front of people every day and I have fun with it. [crosstalk 00:21:36 Mark Miletello Absolutely, and I'm glad I asked that question because I needed the answer to that, and I would imagine a lot of my agents and my listeners as well needed the answer to that. And so, that'll help us find our voice in competing again what interest rate is at, and just spot on. I obviously brought up "Paychecks and Playchecks" several times. That book is just filled with so many nuggets. I've highlighted the entire book, and it's going to be part of my process going forward and training, and teaching, and reading, and learning myself. I'm excited to hear a little bit more about, "Don't Worry Retire", but before that, what inspired you to write "Paychecks and Playchecks"? Tom Hegna Here's kind of what happened. I was still at New York Life at the time when I was asked to speak at the top of the table for MDRT, which is a huge honor. This is a top of the table event of MDRTs, the top of the top of the top, but I didn't know that MDRTs, that to test their speakers because it's a smaller group. It's the highest group, but there are only about 500 people. If you do good there, then they'll ask you to domain platform at MDRT, the general session, where there's six, seven thousand. But anyway, I had a presentation and they said you got have a name for this thing, you got to have a name for this. And we talked about it and said what about Paychecks and Playchecks. I said, "Oh, that's a great name." So, we titled my talk "Paychecks and Playchecks". Well, it was a huge hit, and then I did MBRT the next year in Vancouver. It was a huge hit. I didn't have a book. And that's killer. You're on the main platform at this big thing. I didn't have a book. Everybody said, "You've got to have a book." So, I sat down and I wrote the book and then what we did is we took my "Paychecks and Playchecks" talk from MDRT and we broke it out into chapters, and then we built up the chapters. I put in all the knowledge that I'd learned over the years and that was "Paychecks and Playchecks". And it was a foundational book. It sold over two million dollars. I mean less than one percent of books ever sell a million dollars. That sold over two million and "Don't Worry, Retire Happy" has now sold over a million. So, it's kind of cool. I got two books in the top one percent of all books ever written, but it was I wrote it out of my heart, you know. It was really all the knowledge and all the words and language. Because I tell people this, people think this is a knowledge business. I've got news for them. This is not a knowledge business anymore. You give me an iPad and the internet for 15 minutes, I can figure out anything I need to figure out. This is not a words business. This is a language business. This is a questions business, and this is a stories business. And my books are full of words, language, questions, and stories that are powerful. I always tell people if you don't have your ... People say all the time you got the words, you got the questions, you got the stories. You can borrow the stories, borrow the words, borrow the ... that's what I did when I was brand new. I listened to audiobooks every single day. I watched tapes of the Kinder Brothers so I could close business the way the Kinder Brothers taught me how to close business. I can handle objections the way they taught me to handle rejections. And what I did was learn the words, language, questions, and stories of the top producers in this industry 30 years ago and those words, language, questions, and stories made me millions of dollars. And now I've got the words, language, questions, and stories for this retirement income market and people can make millions of dollars off of that, but they're worried about spending 35 bucks on an audiobook or something. It's crazy. You've got to invest ... and I'll tell you this. The best investment you'll ever make is not in stocks or bonds or bitcoin, the best investment you'll ever make is an investment in yourself. That will make you the most millions. Mark Miletello It's perfectly said. I believe that what you've said it's not that ... you look at my upbringing and my challenges and I had Richard Weylman on the show last week and the struggles that he came through. It's about finding your voice and telling a story. And like I said in a speech, I used several things that you've said from "If a dollar was a second, what would a trillion dollars mean?" And things like that. It's just stories and I held up the book and I said, "You have to learn these stories because you don't have to make them up." They've already ... someone's already paved that way and you learn from the Kinder Brothers. We all have learned and quoted from someone that has inspired us, so thank you for putting that together. You know, I've got some self-published books and maybe that's what I need to do, record myself speaking and quit trying to sit down and write everything out. That's some good advice. But you know what? I work with a young team, but even us veterans we've, keeping with the theme of football, we've all had fumbles; and so, looking back, do you ever think about some mistakes that you could avoid, or you would have avoided for these new agents that are. Tom Hegna Well, kind of my best advice for new people is activity. I say an app a day keeps depression away. Look, this is a business is where you go way up, and you go way down emotionally. You go out and you close a million-dollar sale and you're on top of the world, "Oh, man I just sold the biggest case I ever did." And then two days later you get a call, and he says "Well, I talked to my brother-in-law. He says it's stupid. Please cancel that." Or, the guy got declined, or he changed his mind, or whatever. And now you're down and the depths of depression, and then you write another case and you go up here and then something bad happens, and you go down here. So, what got me through the storms, because I went up and down terribly. My first, in my first year, was very hard, but what I found is the more activity I had, then I could weather it. See if I got 12 applications in, and I lose one no big deal. If I got one application in, and I lose one, that's a life-threatening event. So, I started trying to see three people a day and then once I started doing that I saw five people a day. And then I would see seven people every day, and if you're seeing five to seven people every day, I promise you, you'll get through it. An app away keeps depression away. I tried to write at least one app a day, and my record I think was 13 apps in one day and I routinely get five or six in a day, that was not uncommon at all. I never had a blank week my entire time as a producer. I'm kind of proud about that because it was drilled into me activity, activity, activity. And so, there are only three ways to increase your production. See the people. See the people. See the people. So, I would encourage new advisors, see people face to face every single day. Mark Miletello Well, we can dive more into that. That could be its own separate show, but the good news on this show is you get the repeat of a first down. You get a do-over, so you're starting over, Tom, you know how tough today is, you're starting over right now, how do you grow a successful practice? I think you've given us a lot of these nuggets already, but I'm just going to point blank ask you because this is what a new agent wants to hear. What do you hear today? Tom Hegna I think you've got to build your frontal as full as you can, and what I mean is that you've got to be on social media. You've got to be on Facebook. You've got to be on Twitter. You've got to be on LinkedIn. I guess Instagram for millennials and all these guys. But you've got to be on social media. You've got to network and get as many people into your funnel. I don't care how well you know them. Go to Chamber of Commerce, get everybody's business card, put them in your funnel, connect with everybody you can. Because what you want to do it early in your business now you want to get thousands of people in your funnel of social media and then you want to watch your social media because you can learn a lot about people. Oh, we got engaged. That'd be a perfect person to call. Oh, we just got married. Oh, my dad died. My mom died. We had a baby. All that's on social media. Well, those are all life events that people need to buy more life insurance and they need to roll their 401K or they need to do something, right? So now today we can know when all these things are happening. When I was an agent, we didn't know. We had to buy a baby list from the paper or something and we'd get it like six weeks later or something, or the obituary list and you got go through there and figure whose parents they are. I mean, really, seriously? Now you've got all these tools and then there are marketing people that I'm not the marketing guy, but there are marketing people that can help you do campaigns and do things to get more leads. And then I would encourage people to do seminar selling. It does work. It's not dead. People think it's dead. It's not dead. I do seminars every single day almost. And they fill the place with three, four, five hundred people. If you're giving great content, great content, people will come. The number one producer I work with is a guy down and Florida. He does about a million a month in commission, a million a month, okay? And he runs educational seminars, no food; he brings them in two or three a day, does two or three days a month, he brings in top speakers, he said all the money I used to spend on restaurants now I put into my speakers. And he just is known as the educational place for all these retirees and they bring their friends, their neighbors, their brothers, their sisters. There's no selling done at these seminars. They are just educational workshops. He brings me in. He brings in Mary Beth Franklin, and he brings Moshe Maleski in, and he just educates people in the community. And guess what, they do a lot of business on him. Mark Miletello I bet. Well, activity is the key, we all know that, and you're right. There are almost so many places to go to create an activity that one doesn't know where to go. I think sometimes they're just looking around at all the different places and they don't know which one to choose. But you said get out there, get involved, and everyone watches it, make contacts because one thing you and I know that it's about timing more important than anything. You can call me today and discuss an annuity and a year and a half from now might be the right time to discuss that annuity. So, in this industry what I've found is when I was born there wasn't a big sign at the hospital that said Welcome into the world, Mark Miletello, natural born insurance salesman or financial services agent. No one's born, you know, you practice, rehearse, study, and so whether you find yourself successful or not, I believe activity is the key and timing, as well, is the key and with social media, we can hit that timing a lot better than we did just culling obituaries. Tom Hegna It's a numbers game, right? So, you want to have lots of numbers in your circle. As many as you can, even if you don't know them well. Then it's a timing thing, and then you've got to have the skills. So, it's really three things. It's numbers, it's timing, and it's skilled. And so, if you have the skills if you have the words, the language, the questions, and the stories and you know somebody who's right for talking to and you have enough of those people every day you've got people to go see every day. Just stop by. Hey, I saw you had a baby. We have a bib in our office, and it's just, you know, give them something. We used to hand out road atlases. I don't know what you hand out anymore, but just something you could give them, or bring them a little present, bring them some chocolates. I don't know what but get in front of people who it's the right time to talk about things and build a relationship with them and then help them. Do what's in their best interest, and they'll refer people to you. Mark Miletello Wonderful. Well, Tom, it's the future. It's the year 2027. This is maybe one of the toughest questions I'm going to ask you because this is on the minds of all of us with everything going on around, but also technology the future. What will the industry look like in ten years and how do we fit in, how do we stay relevant? Tom Hegna Well, there's all kinds of people worried about that, and I know on the P&C side they're worried that amazon.com is going to have a little thing you just plug into the USB port and you drive from here to the store and it just charges 12 cents to your prime account for insurance. And then you drive across to California and it's $2.42 for insurance. That your insurance will charge you by the number of miles that you drive, and it will be automatic, and you won't have to worry about it. That's was the P&C people are worried about. I think for life insurance, annuities, and long-term care investments you know these robot advisors, yeah, that's fine, let's see how that all works when that market crashes 50 percent. At the end of the day, people need help from people. People trust people. And I think they're going to need a financial person to walk them through this. The average person doesn't spend enough time learning about this stuff and what they hear, they hear from Ken Fisher or Susie Orman or Dave Ramsey. People are giving them opinions, not facts. And that's why I say stick with Tommy. Tommy's got the facts, and the facts beat opinions 100 percent of the time. And so, if we can just present them mathematical, scientific, and economic facts these are irrefutable. These are not opinions. I can win every argument with Ken Fisher because he's dead wrong. You know when he says, "Oh, anything you can do with an annuity, you can do better elsewhere." That's a lie. You know what I'm going to do? This week, I'm going to write an open letter to the SEC, because what I think he is doing is almost criminal and he's leading people astray and for the SEC and [Senator 00:34:37 to allow that kind of stuff to happen ... I'm just going to write an open letter and I'm going to clearly expose him for what he's doing. He's not doing good things. So, I got math and science behind me. He's got his opinion. Let's see how that works for him when that market crashes 50 percent. Mark Miletello Well, what you're saying is, we can't predict what the next 10 years are going to be, but we can sure be prepared. We can be an advocate for our clients. So, thank you for protecting us, and doing those things. You're right. Some of it is ... I don't even know what to say about some of the things that I hear, but one thing that I keep going back to that's one of the most powerful things that I've read in your book, and that's, "I talk about facts." I'm going to use that if you don't mind. I'm going to steal that when I'm talking to clients is that you know let's not look at all the opinions out there, let's talk facts. Tom Hegna Facts win, every time. Mark Miletello That's right. So, look, I would like to keep you for hours on end. I know your time's valuable, and thank you for sharing with us. We've gotten so much already. I'd like to ask you a hundred more questions, but give us your professional recommendations. How do we get started following you? What steps do we take to find, maybe this is a two-pronged question, but how do we get started to find a voice like you have found? Is part of that following you? What can we do? Tom Hegna Well, look, I know you got some great training, and you said Van was one of your mentors. Van and I are good friends. We've done a lot of work together. Joe Jordan was one of my mentors, as were the Kinder Brothers, as were some of the top producers back in the day, the Ben. And now Mark Feldman has a great book, "Man on a Mission", all about life insurance. Great life insurance questions. But if people want to follow me, I'm at tomhegna.com. I'm easy to find. If you google my name a million things will pop up. I got free videos on YouTube they can sure watch. I've got a subscription service called Tom Hegna on Demand where I literally put my entire brain online, sorted by video clips, three to eight minutes. over ten hours sorted by life insurance, annuities, long-term care, questions, sales ideas, handling objections, social security, all that stuff. So, my entire brain is there available 24 hours day, seven days a week. And I say what if you spent 10 minutes a day there, 15 minutes a day, or what. How good would you be in three months or six months or nine months? There's also a coaching site where, let's say, they get to the appointment at ten minutes early. They get on the iPhone. They go to the coaching site, and a video of me pops up. I say, tell me about this appointment. Is your client single or married? They put single. How old is this person? She's 70. Once you hit those two buttons, a video of me pops up. Okay, so you're going to an appointment with a 70-year-old widow. Here's going to be her key questions. Here's how I would answer those. Here's going to be her objections. Here's how I would answer those. Here's the product you're going to want to use. Here are the questions you want to ask her. And I coach you for 5, 10 minutes before you go on your appointment. The next day you're going on an appointment with a 45-year-old couple. You hit married, 45, and I coach you totally different than I did for the 70-year-old widow. Now that's all available online. We've got package deals on our podcast. So just go to tomhegna.com. I'm easy to find. Mark Miletello Well, the financial investment is ridiculous. That's a no-brainer. What we must do, and what I've tried to teach and install in the ones that I mentor is the time investment. And it's not that much. It could be 5, 10 minutes. It could be a ride on an airplane. But we must take what you're handing us, and we got to pass it down to the next generation. We got to build upon that, so that's what this podcast is for, is to reach out. With all the noise out there, it's getting hard to find who's the real deal. And you are the real deal, and I'm going to continue to follow you. I appreciate the advice on man on a mission. I didn't know that one. I'll look that one up. I hope that everyone out there listening to this will immediately go to your website. You are one of the top one or two that I recommend following, as well as you mentioned, Gary Kinder, the Kinder Brothers, and Van Mueller as well. So, thank you for being a guest on the show, and thank you for all you do. Tom Hegna Thank you, Mark. Great being with you. Mark Miletello Absolutely, and you can follow me on markmiletello.com. If you like what you hear on the show, go to iTunes and rate and review, and you'll help others find us.