Have you ever felt like you’re stuck in a rut, unable to break through to the next level in your Primerica business? You’re not alone. Many reps struggle with building a legacy that truly lasts, feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of recruiting and developing leaders. But what if you could change that? What if you could create a business that not only thrives but also leaves a lasting impact for generations to come? That’s exactly what Ray and Carol Castillo dive into in this powerful session. They share their journey from humble beginnings to building a legacy that outlives them, offering insights and strategies that can transform your approach to recruiting and leadership. This isn’t just another training; it’s a game-changer for anyone serious about making a difference. Watch the video below and discover the breakthrough tips that can help you build a legacy that stands the test of time.
Video Transcription:
You know, I sit here and I listen this, talk to the different talks today, and pretty much you guys got a pretty awesome message.
I would think, if anything, you should be able to run out of here and say, let’s get this going and let’s go make it happen.
But I’m going to tell you basically why we came into this business when we first got started.
And it’s crazy to say this, but I think about it, we didn’t have what you guys have today.
We didn’t have no offices.
We were a hotel operation.
If anybody had to second guess if this was really real, it was our opportunity.
I promise you that.
Okay? And, you know, I tell you that because I’ve been in business since I was 19 years old.
I bought my first business when I was 19.
I was a hairdresser.
And then afterwards, I got married and I got another business and I opened up another salon.
And then I saw this business.
But it was kind of ironic that I came into this business because I was hiring hairdressers.
So eventually I did not have to be in the salon.
That was my thinking, my theory.
So I kind of thought, when I saw this business, I said, hey, why wouldn’t I want to recruit people so I can work myself out of a position? And that’s what you got to look at this.
You got to look at this opportunity as the reason we recruit is so that we can duplicate ourselves and develop vice presidents so that eventually we could walk away from the business.
Not walk away, but not have to do everything we’re currently doing right now.
Right? And that’s something we have to come to the realization.
So when we first got started, I said to myself, they said, we have to recruit.
And I said, I want to make 100,000 in this business.
I was already making that outside of my other business, but I said, I want to make it in this business.
So I was going to be very coachable to Roy.
And I asked him, what do we need to do? And he says, you got to bring a lot of people.
And I said, what do you mean by a lot of people? And I’ll never forget, after our first meeting, I said, I’m going to bring you a lot of people.
And he looked at me like.
And I said.
I looked at him and I said, roy, you look like you don’t believe me.
He goes, I do.
And I said, I really don’t think you believe me.
Okay.
And I’m going to give you a couple ideas of what happened.
My first interaction with this opportunity when he looked at me like that.
I said, this guy don’t believe me.
I’m going to bring some people, right? So then afterwards, a couple of days later goes by and Roy Lipson never calls us.
And Ray calls me and says, hey, what’s going on? And I said, well, Roy hasn’t called me.
I already have, like, 15 people invited.
I think I should call him.
No, don’t act like you’re too anxious.
I said, are you serious? He says, no, because if you act, you’re like you’re anxious.
We don’t want him to get an edge on us.
I said, right.
What the hell am I gonna do with the people? I’m gonna put them on my head.
He goes, I don’t know.
But then a few hours later, he calls me and I.
And at that point when he called me, he calls me and he goes, carol, Roy never used to call me.
He always called Ray for real estate, right? I was the hairdresser.
I just provided the money to buy the real estate, let’s put it that way, right? So at the time, Roy calls me and he goes, carol, I said, my God, thank God you called me.
And he goes, why? I said, I got like 20 people coming.
I don’t even know where the hell I’m sending them.
I don’t even have an address right now.
But they’re all coming to my house.
Guys, how excited are you about your opportunity? What are you looking to do with this opportunity? Are you looking to really change your life? Are you really looking to change and make a difference for you and your family so that you could have freedom? I could have used every excuse in the world, you know, Matthew, he wasn’t even born in the business.
He wasn’t even born yet when we started this business, mind you.
We went to our first convention, and that’s how I found out I was pregnant.
I was three months pregnant.
I said, how’d that happen? I just figured, hey, you know, I thought I was just tired.
I was starting a new business, you know, I didn’t feel.
Thank God I didn’t have morning sickness.
So thank you, Matthew, for that one.
But anyway, I say that because people use their kids as their excuse on why you don’t do this business.
I got a family.
You just don’t understand.
I got a lot of stuff going on.
I had four kids.
Four, three and 18 months.
I had a lot of excuses.
There were three excuses in my day, and I didn’t have them coming to the meeting.
I wasn’t bringing them to the meeting.
Because I wanted to be focused and I was determined to do whatever was necessary to get this done within six months.
We went to vice president and Roy didn’t even know who he was going to pick to become his promotion exchange.
He was asking us who should I take? And I said, I don’t know, figure it out.
I want my contract.
Okay, think guys.
Some of you guys are sitting here and saying, well I don’t know how I’m going to get my next person.
I’ll be honest with you, I was shy as heck.
I was super shy.
Well, I didn’t even, you know, I’d rather be dead than caught.
Be caught up here talking to you guys.
Be honest with you right now, I’m okay because I kind of got used to the role.
But I tell you got to understand, if you sit there and say, well I’m shy, I’m quiet, you don’t understand.
Where do I talk to people? You see a person, you talk to them.
It’s called the three foot rule.
Anyone you see, you talk to.
If you want to allow yourself to not talk to them, you’re allowing yourself to actually prolong the length of time it’s going to take for this to happen for you.
You’re looking for talent, you’re looking for leaders, you’re looking for people that want to go build something special.
And I promise you do that, eventually you’ll get to vice president.
How do you think we got to vice president? We got to vice president by recruiting.
Recruiting and building and everything else happens.
We got so daggone freaking good at recruiting, we’d have 15 to 20 people a meeting every day.
Not every three days.
Joanne After a while started saying who are these Costellos? And I said oh shoot, we’re in trouble.
That’s how naive were.
He says no, I want to talk to you.
And I said why? He says congratulations, you’re bringing some people.
I said we want to go to frickin rvp.
So all I could leave you with right now.
Guys, get your butt to rvp.
That’s where the opportunity starts.
Don’t sit there and wait.
Stop making excuses.
I don’t have my security license.
Figure it out.
We got it.
In 6 months I got my series 663 and life license within that timeline.
So did Roy.
So did Ray.
Not Roy, Ray.
Roy already had his okay.
And I say that to you because some people take years to go get your securities license.
What the heck are you doing? How bad do you want your Dag on freaking contract? Go make it happen.
There’s.
You can’t tell me the old dogs are smarter than the new dogs.
It can’t be.
You see, what you’re doing is you’re sticking yourself and saying, oh, well, you know, we didn’t have it like that.
No, you guys have it a thousand times better than us.
People are making more money today than ever before.
Different ranks.
Not just through recruiting, they’re actually specializing in securities, or they’re doing life and they’re making money left and right.
It’s.
How are you going to design your business? Are you going to be a salesperson that wakes up broke every day? Or are you going to be a builder that’s actually going to become free to live the lifestyle they wish they could live? I couldn’t do this business without my partner.
I could keep on going.
But let’s give it up for the awesome Ray Costello, because I know we’re on time.
I’ll talk to you guys later.
All right.
Why don’t you all get up and unstick yourselves? Get the wedgies out.
Gentlemen, you can loosen up your jackets, take off your ties.
Women, you can take off anything you like.
It never works.
I try that every time I.
In any event, are you excited? I mean, if you’re not excited after hearing everybody speak, after hearing all the examples of success, you’re already dead.
We could take you out in the backyard, throw some dirt on you.
It’s over for you.
If you’re not feeling a buzz, if you didn’t get emotional, if you didn’t feel something, being here today, we got to check your pulse.
But let me talk to the guy and gal that maybe felt a little something.
Maybe you felt, maybe I can do it.
Maybe you said that to yourself.
Maybe you said to yourself, maybe I can make 300,000 a year.
Maybe.
Maybe they’re talking to me.
Maybe I could see myself one day recruiting somebody like a John Picone.
I could see myself maybe bumping into a Roy Lipson.
I might be able to talk to a Carlos Salazar one day and invite him to the meeting and have him get excited about it.
Maybe I could talk to a Bernardo Lecte one day.
I get UPS deliveries.
Maybe I’ll talk to that guy when he comes.
Maybe the Amazon guy.
Maybe, just maybe, it could happen for me.
I want to talk to you.
I want to give you hope.
Because it doesn’t matter where you grew up.
It doesn’t matter if you grew up with your mom and dad in a normal household or if you grew up with no dad or you grew up with a grandparent or you grew up with a store bought parent.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters.
What you got inside, what you want inside for you and your family.
Oh, you know, like Blake said, my future family, some of you are young and you have going to have a future family.
There’s going to be a day when you have kids and grandkids.
We’re celebrating our grandkids now, you know, and I.
It’s awesome knowing the life that they will have which was nothing like mine.
Not even close.
I grew up in Spanish Harlem.
I was the baby of nine kids.
We lived in a two bedroom apartment.
My mom and dad had one bedroom, my five sisters had the other bedroom.
My bedroom was on the floor in front of the television.
I used to roll up my bed at night and roll it up in the morning and I used to sleep between my middle, my youngest, younger brother.
My youngest brother.
I’m the youngest, but my younger, the youngest of the brothers beside me because that was the accident because he was 17 years older than me.
And then my other brother and my other brother, I sat, I got myself in the middle because every once in a while you’d hear a critter once in a while running around.
And I figured if they’d get dumb, they’d yell enough so that I wouldn’t get bit because they’d get them there on the outside, you know.
I was always kind of smart like that, protective of my body.
But I used to pack groceries so I could buy a baseball glove when I was a kid because I couldn’t go to mommy and dad said I need a baseball glove.
How much was that? Crazy pay $18 for a glove? What are you crazy? Go to the supermarket, pack grocery.
When my kids got into sports, we’d go to a sporting goods place.
What do you need? What does he need? This.
That? Yep.
Get it.
How much? Doesn’t matter.
Buy it.
I can’t imagine what my grandsons are going to.
I’ll put an ad in the paper looking for a retired baseball player to train my grandson, you know, or something like that.
That’s.
What’s the kind of stuff that can be.
How do you want your grandbabies to be? What do you want to be able to do for your kids in the future? Now I didn’t make the rules, but stuff for your kids and grandkids takes money.
You don’t got the money for baseball camp.
Well, then you grow up like me and don’t go to baseball camp.
Your baseball Camp is the building up the block that has a blank wall that you could practice throwing a ball and catching it yourself and playing with yourself so you can play ball.
You get up at 5 in the morning and go to the baseball park and hold the field until your friends wake up on Saturday so they can come play with you.
Because I was a fanatic about baseball.
How do you want your life to look? What do you want your life to look like five years from now? Do you want to give your kids the options that you never had? Or do you want them to be like some of the people I’ve spoken to? When some of you ever been at kitchen tables or talking to parents.
And I grew up without.
I had to get student loans.
I want my kids to get student.
What are you in here? I want to slap those people.
That’s the.
You know, that’s just me coming out.
I don’t want my kids to struggle, to suffer, my grandkids to suffer or struggle or see what it’s like to sleep on the floor because you have to.
And you could make it here and change that forever.
And you got to think about it.
What is wrong with you? How could you not get excited to be in business like this? How could you not be excited? You have a shot that you have a chance to change your family name forever.
Forever.
Forever.
See, Art Williams used to say, we’re here for a flicker.
Well, I want my Flickr to last forever.
I want my Flickr for everyone in the family to remember Ran Carroll, their Flickr because we left a legacy for the family that years from now, generations from now, they’ll see our portrait above the fireplace in the mansion that we leave.
And it might be five generations now.
Grand, great, great, great.
Grandbabies playing on the estate and they see our painting.
Thank God for great, great.
Ray and Carol Costello for paving the way and taking the nos, taking the no shows, dealing with the people that come on board and say they’re going to make it and never show up again because they talk to their brother who works at a car wash that knows everything about finance, that it’s a scam.
Don’t believe that.
What company did you ever have to pay for to work for? Well, I was a cop in New York.
I remember back in the day, I paid for my uniform, my dress uniform.
John Steve, right? You gotta buy your dress.
You never freaking wear the dress uniform for Funerals.
Cost me $3,000.
I had to buy white gloves.
Never wore them.
Somebody was getting a kickback from that stuff.
If Doge was in there, forget it anyway.
But the idea of what happens, how are you gonna, like generations from now, them remembering you? See, I remember Joe Pomeray said everybody lives from so and so date to so and so day.
And in between those dates, if you go to the cemetery, there’s a dash.
And in that dash represents your entire life.
You ever go see family members and see dash born so and so date Dennis, so and so date and the dash.
What is your dash gonna represent? See, people die twice in life two times.
They die once when they take their last breath.
The second time is when people stop mentioning their name and they’re forgotten forever.
You build a business here, you build a legacy.
You will never die.
Because I can’t remember a meeting I ever went to in Primerica where they didn’t mention Joe Winston’s name.
I thank God for Joe.
I thank God for the business.
And I thank all of you for being teammates of ours.
Let’s go out and build a mansion of people that are going to come to the next school that we have like this.
We’ll see you at the top.
