Executive TLDR
Builders focus on leverage and override income, not just personal production.
Developing independent district leaders creates long-term growth.
Systems and duplication beat personality-driven businesses.
Urgency and fast starts prevent new recruits from quitting.
Team building requires delegation and leadership development.
Builders prioritize others winning, not just personal success.
A structured routine and daily environment drive consistent expansion.
Video Summary
In What It Really Means To Be A Builder In Primerica – Builders Panel, multiple successful leaders share practical insights into what separates recruiters from true builders inside Primerica.
The discussion begins with personal stories. Panelists came from diverse backgrounds including nursing school, childcare, dental assisting, sneaker sales, and entry-level work. What they all share is a decision to pursue Primerica seriously and treat it as a business opportunity rather than a side activity. Many were introduced through simple invitations, social media posts, or referrals, reinforcing that opportunity can begin anywhere.
The core theme of the panel is the builder mindset. A builder is not focused solely on personal production. Instead, builders prioritize leverage. They focus on developing override income, meaning income that continues even when they are not personally writing business. Builders aim to create a structure where money flows through duplication, leadership development, and team production.
Another key distinction discussed is the difference between a personality business and a system business. Personality businesses rely heavily on one individual’s charisma or presence. System businesses create repeatable processes so anyone—regardless of age, background, or personality—can succeed. Systems mentioned include structured orientations, routine follow-ups, daily environments, and consistent recruiting targets.
The importance of urgency was emphasized repeatedly. New recruits are most vulnerable in their first few days. Builders move quickly to complete orientation, develop lists, schedule appointments, and plug new people into activity. Fast start bonuses and early wins create momentum and belief. Without urgency, new representatives often lose focus and quit.
The panel also highlights independent district leader development as a cornerstone of growth. True builders don’t just recruit IBAs; they promote district leaders who can operate without constant supervision. This means teaching leadership skills, licensing strategies, appointment rotations, and how to train others. Independence and duplication create scale.
Delegation is another powerful concept discussed. As organizations grow, leaders must empower others to train, close appointments, and run environments. Builders understand they cannot personally handle every meeting or interview. By creating more leaders, they create more capacity.
Additionally, the panel reinforces that builders pour into their teams. Leadership means meeting people where they are, maintaining accessibility, and being an example. Whether it’s driving long distances to bring a team to an event, running daily study sessions, or implementing simple systems like a “two-minute drill” check-in, builders stay engaged with their organization.
Ultimately, being a builder in Primerica means focusing on long-term structure over short-term wins. It requires urgency, systems, leadership development, duplication, and a commitment to helping others succeed. Builders create environments where people can grow, earn income, and develop into independent leaders.
FAQs
1. What is a builder in Primerica?
A builder is a leader who focuses on developing teams, promoting district leaders, and creating leverage income through duplication.
2. How is a builder different from a recruiter?
Recruiters focus on bringing people in. Builders focus on developing those people into productive leaders.
3. Why is override income important?
Override income creates leverage and allows income to continue through team production.
4. What is the difference between a personality business and a system business?
A personality business depends on one leader’s presence, while a system business uses repeatable processes anyone can follow.
5. Why is urgency important with new recruits?
New recruits often quit quickly without activity, so fast starts build momentum and belief.
6. What is the “three by three” strategy?
A simple duplication strategy encouraging new reps to complete three activities consistently to build momentum.
7. Why focus on independent district leaders?
Independent leaders grow and train their own teams, allowing exponential expansion.
8. How do builders prevent burnout?
By delegating responsibilities and developing additional leaders to share the workload.
9. What role does daily environment play?
A structured daily environment reinforces habits, study, recruiting, and team culture.
10. Should leaders recruit direct or build underneath leaders?
Many builders strategically recruit to help develop and strengthen existing leaders.
11. How do systems increase duplication?
Clear routines and processes make it easier for new reps to follow a proven path.
12. What keeps builders growing long term?
Consistency, leadership development, urgency, and a focus on helping others win.
13. Can someone with no prior experience become a builder?
Yes. Builders come from diverse backgrounds and develop through training and repetition.
14. Why is delegation essential for growth?
Delegation increases capacity and allows the organization to expand faster.
15. What is the long-term goal of a builder?
To create a scalable organization that grows through leadership development and duplication.
Glossary
Builder – A leader focused on developing teams and creating leverage through duplication.
Override Income – Earnings generated from the production of a team rather than solely personal sales.
Independent District Leader – A promoted leader capable of training and growing a team independently.
Duplication – The process of teaching systems that can be repeated by others.
Fast Start Bonus – An early production milestone designed to help new representatives earn quickly.
System Business – A structured business model built on repeatable processes rather than personality.
Distribution – The size and structure of a team within the Primerica hierarchy.
Transcript:
So this is very, very, very exciting. I first want everyone to really understand who is before you today. So starting with Reshine, introduce yourself. How long have you been in the business? Where are you coming from to be here today? A little bit about your background. What were you doing prior to Primerica?
What’s up, everybody? Are you guys excited to be here? Let’s go. My name is Rashni, and I’ve been in Pramerica for quite some time now. Prior to Primerica, I was a nursing student, but when I met Coach Verdi, he told me that I could make more money in Primerica than being a nurse. So I listened to him and I decided to do Primerica full time instead.
So you just heard, I can make more money here and I want to be here than where I was at. It was that simple.
Yeah.
A lot of times we overcomplicate the business. Right? We really overcome. Liz, how about you? You and Willie? Absolutely unbelievable leaders from the Waymakers hierarchy. Liz, tell the crowd, for those that aren’t from the gold sequined jacket section, where are you from? How long you been here? What got you into the business?
Yeah. Hi, everybody. So I am from Kansas. I’ve been here three years. Three years last month. And, you know, why did I join the business? I wanted a business that I could leverage really quickly, so here I am.
Awesome, awesome. Brendan, take it, sir. Where are you from? How long you been in the business?
Yeah. So my name is Brendan Rivera. I’m part of the Aviator hierarchy and from Tampa, Florida. Been in the business for eight years. And I saw an Instagram post eight years ago that said, who wants to make an extra thousand dollars before Christmas? And I didn’t have $1,000 in my bank account, so I said, what the heck?
Do you have more than $1,000 in your bank account now?
Yes, 100%.
Everyone say an Instagram post.
Instagram post.
What a crazy. Pass it off to your bride. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
All right.
When I met him, he was donating plasma, so there’s hope.
Okay.
My name is DNA. I’m also part of the Aviator hierarchy. This is my husband. And, yeah, I started the business in March of 2019. I was going to nursing school that August, and I was definitely going to start it and not give up. Before I had worked so hard to get in, I was a dental assistant. I worked in a childcare for six years. And I was actually going to school full time when I dropped out of college because he took me on a trip with the business.
Very cool. Mr. Leighton Brown, if I recall correctly, were we in the same MIT class together in 2023?
I believe so.
I believe were. I picked your brain at that time, and you were just recruiting the world. And how are you doing it?
So my name is Leighton Brown. Prior to Primerica, I was a street pharmacist. Not playing, but I used to sell sneakers originally from Jamaica. Ain’t Jamaica’s in the house? Okay, awesome. So, like, three of us. Let’s go, right? But yeah, been in Prime America for 12 years. I was 19 years old when I started, and I got tricked to come to a Primerica office. Anybody got tricked to come to our meeting, I was tricked to come to an op meeting. And I saw it, and my vice president said, blah, blah. I made 13,000 last month. And I said, can I do that?
Yes.
And can I take a position? Yes. Is this a job? No. Okay, sign me up.
Awesome. Let’s go in reverse order this time. Layton, first question to you. This is a builder’s panel. Being a builder looks different for different people at different chapters of their life. What does it mean to be a builder to you in this business? In Primerica, when you think builders, builder, what does that mean? What synapses go off in your brain and think, oh, this person is a builder. What does it look like in your business?
A builder to me is someone that focuses on being a legend. You know, you want to be everywhere all the same time. You know, it’s something called omnipresence. You know, you got to think of Primerica like Walmart, like McDonald’s, like Amazon. You got to think about, you know, making money when you’re not working. You know, I go over a lot with my team about the money you can make in overrides compared to your personal pen. You should be more excited about the money you make when you’re not working than the money you make when you are working. Right. I believe builders, you know, focus on other people winning in their business, other people getting to the next level and as becoming as big as you can get to the next level.
And also, too, I think in Primerica, you don’t want to be a nameless, faceless rvp. People only really know builders. Builders are attractive. You know, builders are people who get, you know, surrounded and talked to, et cetera, you know. So also, you want to. I want to focus on making money regardless of what’s going on my life. Someone gets sick, I get sick, flat tire, whatever. The money still Comes in, you know, if you’re going to be here for a long time, you’re going to work 20, 30 years anyways, right? Like a short story. I had a friend of mine I was talking to the other day. He said, we’ve been primarily 12 years. You know, I make this, make that. I said, let’s talk about how much money you make when you don’t work.
I said, hey, you work 12 years, I work 12 years. If I don’t work here, I make 15, 20,000amonth. How much do you make? And it was crickets. So that’s what a builder mindset is to me.
Power.
Powerful answer. Brandon and Yanay, what does it mean to be for builders, for you in partnership? What does it look like in your business when you think builder? What does that look like for you?
Yeah, for us guys, you know, being a builder is an example. We have incredible examples in our uplines. The Ortiz family, they promote over 20 RBPS. But, you know, for us, as someone who does it all right, there’s not one position. You know, I played baseball growing up from 3 to 20, 22 years old. And, you know, I was someone that was able to play multiple positions, right? Sometimes you gotta be coach, sometimes you gotta be dad, Sometimes you gotta be husband, right? You gotta be a counselor, right? You gotta wear many hats, right? And I have a lot of people in my office. I’m gonna start charging them hourly to start talking to me because they spend take a lot of my time. But, man, I’m just always open, you know, it doesn’t really matter what’s going on in my life.
I tell my team what’s going on because, you know, I don’t want to be that perfect person that people can’t come to. You know, for us, we’re humans. We’re all humans. We’re all going to go through stuff, and I think that if I can help them become the best version of themselves, right, I got to become the best version of myself first. So for me, a builder is just being the person that you want to be.
Awesome Yune, did you have anything to add on that one?
I forgot the question. They did so well. Did they not y’? All, did they not body those questions?
So.
So a builder in partnership was your question?
Yeah.
What does it look like? What does it look like to you when you see so many different builders in Primerica? They do their business different ways. And you say you want to be a builder, if someone, you had the newest recruit, they’re like, okay, what does that Mean to be a builder how?
I think 100%, I think in today’s Primerica, you know, and I’ve been hearing this a lot recently, but it’s something that I’ve been meditating on. There is a lot of noise and there are a lot of examples on how to win. Would you guys agree to that? Like, you’re seeing people cross the stage and you don’t know what they’re doing. And for a long time, Bren and I focus on what are they doing. And it’s not about what they’re doing, it’s what we’re not doing. Right? And so for a builder, for me, as somebody who focuses on licensing people and independent district leaders. Okay, now write this down. Not independent district leaders. They need your help with everything. They’re not independent. You produce them. Right. They don’t know how to license somebody.
An independent district leader leads even when you’re not around because you’re helping develop their team. So that, for me, is what I think a builder is.
That’s outstanding. When you said district neater, I saw Andy over there. Oh, say it louder. Liz, you are an absolutely unbelievable example in the business and blueprint of what Primerica was made to be. Distribution, building duplication. Obviously, we’re in the same hierarchy. The Waymakers hierarchy talked about licensing. Waymaker’s Hierarchy is approaching 600 codes, right? Under the leadership of Josh and Sarah. Christian, you and Willie, you’re over the ring. You’re doing well. You got a beautiful family. You probably could have flown here, right? Could you have flown here?
Yeah, yeah, we could have flown.
You got a couple hundred dollar bills to fly here. Did you fly here?
We did not fly.
Was it a two hour drive?
It was a 20 hour drive that turned into about a 30 hour drive, but it was awesome.
In a building mindset, why did you choose to drive?
Good question, Blake. Well, we chose to drive because we wanted to get as many people as we could here. So we rented a beautiful 15 passenger van and were like, hey, come with us. Because we wanted to make it possible for people who it may not have been possible for. So we ended up getting like 24 people here with us. Not all in our van, but yeah. And I wanted to spend time with some of those people. We had so much fun. We had like rap battles and dance parties and. And that’s what I wanted, I think, because being a leader, to me, being a builder is pouring into others kind of in a way being who they need you to be. Right? And I wanted to connect with them. So that’s why we did that.
That’s beautiful. What a great example. Leadership. Reschni, same question to you. What does it mean to be a builder?
For me, I think a builder is someone who is focusing on financial independence because you cannot become financially independent by yourself. You have to focus on being impactful, building other people and changing other people’s lives. And that has been my main focus. See how many people I can help in a monthly basis. That’s why I go. Not only I do it personally, I recruit. My focus is to do 20 recruits personal every month. It’s not just for the numbers. I focus on changing other people’s lives. I train the people. I make sure that I meet with them every morning and I train them. I do repetition. So that’s why the name of my team is Team Champion. Because I believe that even if you fail in life, that doesn’t mean that you’re not a champion. Because I have faced many failures in my life.
Even though I look young, but I have faced many challenges, but I overcame every single one of them.
That’s awesome. So you know, we talked about yesterday or the group talked about yesterday, you know, you want to help people get off to a fast start. People have big builders distribution. We’ve all heard you don’t want to be an IBA collector, right? A lot of IBAs on be crossing the stage. People stay because they’re earning income. Right. So how do you as a leader when you’re creating such great distribution and you want to have independent district leaders, right, that are self sufficient, how do you manage that? How do you oversee it? What does it look like to make sure, okay, we got, we’re going to have a wide reach right now. But I want these people to be experiencing individual success for their home. How can I help them make money so they stick?
Go ahead.
Sure.
I whoever wants to recruit a lot of people, I think they have to create a routine. Because when you have a routine, you don’t need motivation. You wake up, I sit down and I create a schedule as if I have a job. I wake up in the morning at 9 o’. Clock. I know I have to meet with the team by 12 o’. Clock. Let’s say I recruit 20 people. I recruit and I teach them to do the same. Because I believe that as a leader I have to do it first. So if they go, they recruit. I said, okay, we’re gonna have orientation every day at 12. So everybody, we do group orientation and I teach them to have a routine for themselves so they can go and do the same thing. So that’s how I’m able to keep up.
Because at first it was a lot and with the help of God and my coaches. And I’m so grateful for them because they gave me so much. Because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here. So I’m grateful for my coaches, and that’s what I do. I create a routine and I teach them to do the same. And I meet with them every morning.
Awesome. Liz, how many codes are you and Willie at right now in the organization?
140.
Okay. So you’ll probably be over 300 by the end of this year. How you’re compounding growing. How do you as a leader, you’re doing it from the front of the room. How do you make sure. Okay, these people, they’re at least getting a fast start bonus. So we get in front of you. How do you do that?
Yeah, you’ve got to get people their fast start bonus. You need to get them to division as fast as you can. Of course, at first, it’s just you, like when you’re first starting, you guys, it’s you, and you’re figuring this out and you did it right. Your coach helped you do it, and so you want to go help some other people do it. But here’s the thing. Pretty soon you will have. It’s almost. You don’t just wake up and have a team, but if you keep doing the same things over and over again, you will have a team. And then you can train so many more people, of course. But sometimes I’m like, hey, you guys, I don’t want to sit on 20 meetings today, so I need you and you and you to take this appointment. Helps them. It helps me.
So I think you just get good at delegating, build leaders, keep building leaders, then get good at delegating to those leaders. And because you can’t create more hours, but you can create more leaders to lead with you and help you.
Yeah. So follow up question to that. I think it was Mike Sharp. I don’t want to misquote, but I think it was Mike Sharp. He said, I never recruited a direct. He said, I was always recruiting people and building teams underneath my field. And I’ve seen you do that with a lot of intentionality. Can you describe to the newest new person? Like, well, if I met someone out at Chick Fil A, why wouldn’t I recruit them direct to me? Can you describe the team building mentality of that.
Yeah. Every once in a while I’ll recruit someone direct to me. But really my goal is at this point, do I want to train every personally? No. So I’m looking at my leaders and I’m like, man, this person’s so close to this and this person just needs this. So. And I also personalities. I’m like, man, this person would get along really well with Lindsey or whoever on the team. So I’m going to see how that goes. Hey, will you train this person? And that’s kind of how I do it.
That’s awesome. Brendan and Yine, same question to you. How do you oversee when you’re building such a large organization?
Yeah, for us, we’re super urgent. I want to give a shout out to our base shop and then mainly our leaders, Ethan and Natalie Acosta and our regional leaders, Brian Martinez. And then obviously Nelson and Uli promote rvp. We’re probably the most urgent people in the office. I think for us, we have a super, super awareness of we recruit someone more than likely tomorrow they’re going to quit. Right. So that’s our mindset. So we do orientation right there. Same day we’re getting top 25 list, top 100 list, whatever it may be. Because we asked them, it’s all about the words, you know, do you want to get promoted fast or slow? Fast. You want to make money fast or slow? Do you want to do things big or small? And we tell them that we get them start thinking like a business owner.
And so for us, it’s all about the urgency. The urgency and urgency. I know. I can’t believe in more than one place at one time. I’m not God. I’m not Jesus. Right. He’s the only one that can do that. So I. I have to make sure that my team knows, like, hey, listen, if you have three people waiting for you at the door and you have an orientation, you should have the orientation watch you do those three interviews. Because now that’s the best orientation them is showing them how the business works. Right. And that’s another conversation we have in orientation. You want me to tell you that it works? You want me to show you that it works?
Awesome. Thank you so much, Yune.
Yeah, that’s really good. We focus on a daytime environment and promoting, again, district leaders. So if we’re focusing on a lot of people getting promoted to district and we’re training them and. And the conversation at orientation is what, three by three? Say three by three now. Say it faster. Three by three. Three by three. Three by Three. Everybody. Everybody. Three by three. Three by 3. Faster, faster. So by the only time we leave orientation, the only thing they’re thinking about is what? Three by three, right? I don’t need you to go out and do ten by ten, I need you to do three by three, right? And so we focus on that daytime environment. Three by three, get your license. We do rotations between appointments. You know, we’ll study in a group environment and then more appointments.
And then like Brendan said, if there’s five to seven people there and maybe they don’t have a warm market, we’ll plug them into somebody who does just so they can listen. Because, you know, in the early years of your career in Primerica, and really, to be successful, I believe that you can’t focus on the cash. You have to focus on the team, right? And if the team is making money, and if they’re growing, you’re gonna make the money too.
Thank you so much.
Wow. Going last, right? I don’t know how I topped that. But in Primerica, I truly believe you want to have a system business, not a personality business. A lot of bay shops have a personality business where only a certain type of person can come into your bay shop and win. You want to have a bay shop that anyone, any age, any background, any language can come in there and win, right? So one of the things that we do in our business, we have a bunch of systems in place. For example, we have something called a two minute drill. So every single day, we reach out to our team, two minutes, and call the people and see what’s going on with them. We ask them, hey, you know, where you at for the day, how much you got today, et cetera.
And also too, as vice presidents, right? The vice president, no matter what size you went out, you are the best person on your team. So everybody that come into the team, I reach out to them, I call them, I introduce them, I meet them, right? And I can have a two minute conversation and say, okay, this is the one. Everybody say, this is the one. So I identify my team 100%. Understand that, hey, if I work with someone on your team, you’re going to get someone who’s fully trained, licensed, independent, closing on their own, and they’re 100% okay with that. I think a lot of times people in Primerica, they leave their business up to chance, right? And they let everybody else run their business, right? No, we supposed to run our business.
We supposed to be involved in our business and help the people get to the next level. So just be involved with everybody on.
Our so good. Give it up for these incredible.
