Executive TLDR
The top 1% stay focused and refuse distraction.
Sales mastery is essential for building a successful business.
High recruit-to-code ratios come from strong field training.
Leaders must create a “value gap” to attract and retain talent.
Accountability (“Where you at?”) drives consistent production.
Repetition and consistency separate professionals from amateurs.
Invest time in serious athletes, not “cup bangers.”
Success requires personal growth, skill development, and decision.
Video Summary
In Bored Of Repetition? Here’s Why The Greats Win In Primerica, Hector Lamarque shares a powerful Q&A session on leadership, sales mastery, focus, and the discipline required to build a large Primerica business.
Hector emphasizes that success is not about flashy motivation but about professional sales skills, repetition, and accountability. With a 60% recruit-to-code ratio, he built distribution by focusing on quality training, strong field results, and developing independent leaders. He explains the importance of creating a “value gap”—continuously improving skills so others feel compelled to follow you.
A defining trait of the top 1% is focus. Distraction, he warns, leads to economic destruction. The elite stay locked in on production, numbers, and growth. His famous “Where you at?” accountability approach reinforces that this is a business built on measurable results.
Hector also highlights the power of repetition. Just like elite athletes, top leaders embrace monotony. They prospect, train, sell, and coach consistently without getting bored. Success comes from mastering the fundamentals over and over again.
Ultimately, he reminds leaders that greatness requires personal growth, disciplined repetition, sales professionalism, and a decision to fully commit. The only thing standing between someone and massive success is their willingness to focus, grow, and execute consistently.
FAQs
1. Why is repetition important in Primerica?
Repetition builds mastery, consistency, and long-term success.
2. What separates the top 1% from everyone else?
Relentless focus, discipline, and refusal to be distracted.
3. What is a strong recruit-to-code ratio?
Hector maintained approximately 60% through strong field training.
4. What does “Where you at?” mean?
It’s an accountability question focused on production and results.
5. What is the “value gap” concept?
Leaders must continually improve so others see value in following them.
6. Why do most people fail in sales?
They never commit to becoming great at the fundamentals.
7. How do you increase retention in Primerica?
Train people to make money quickly and improve their skills.
8. Should leaders invest time in everyone equally?
No. Invest heavily in serious, committed individuals.
9. What causes economic destruction in business?
Distraction and lack of focus.
10. Is sales skill necessary for success?
Yes. Professional sales ability drives income and growth.
11. How do you motivate new recruits?
Show real results through strong field training.
12. Can anyone become successful in Primerica?
Yes, with focus, skill development, and consistent action.
13. How important is accountability?
It’s critical for maintaining momentum and measurable growth.
14. What mindset creates elite results?
Professionalism, repetition, focus, and personal responsibility.
Glossary
Recruit-to-Code Ratio – The percentage of recruits who become licensed and active agents.
Value Gap – The skill and knowledge difference that makes others want to follow a leader.
Distribution – Building independent leaders who duplicate results.
Field Training – In-person coaching and sales practice with new recruits.
Accountability – Measuring and tracking production consistently.
Distraction – Anything that pulls focus away from income-producing activities.
Professional Salesperson – A trained individual skilled in persuasion, closing, and communication.
Repetition Principle – Consistent execution of fundamentals to achieve mastery.
Transcript:
How amazing has this been so far? I mean, I got chills being with all you guys. Hey, two things I want to tell you. I bought, we ordered. It’s not ready yet. We ordered a shed from Home Depot, and it fits a lawnmower and some of those weed whackers. So I hate to overdo it on you. I hate to brag, you know? But I will tell you a few things. Comparison is the death of joy. And so we made a million dollars in overrides last year. I am the brokest guy on stage by about $300 million. So no matter whatever level you’re at, you will kill yourself if you compare. You need to compete, not compare. The person you need to compete with is the best that you can be.
So those of you who have looked at some of these things and got depressed, you need to eat an elephant. One bite at a time. And the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Okay? So calm it down. Get together with your significant other and think about what you want. And stop looking left, stop looking right. Start looking forward. The second. What’s the matter? Is my zipper open? You keep laughing at my ass.
The old cow is trying to get out of the passage.
Sorry about that. Let me sit down. The second thing is the biggest gift. Oh, Jesus, she’s yelling at me. I feel like I’m doing something wrong. The biggest gift. All this. All the. All the material things. You see, one of the reasons I respect, one of the millions of reasons I respect Hector so much, is because he chose to be the go to person in his family. He lived what that meant, and he manifested it in the commitment he made to the woman that he loved since he was 17 years old. And the gift that Primerica gave him above and beyond all the material gifts was the gift of being able to spend every waking moment with the woman he loved more than anything else in his life. And the gift that Primerica gave me, which is we’ve been. We’ve done pretty well.
If I compare myself to them, I’ve done nothing. But compared to the world, we’ve done pretty well. The gift that Primerica gave me was My mother and father watched me take my first breath. And because of the freedom of Primerica, I was there with both of them when they took their last breath. Not because I had to take a day off or ask Keith for that time, because I chose to spend the last quality time I had with my parents. With my parents, and was able to do that. Okay. And the last thing I’ll tell You is, my daughter got engaged and she’s only. The guy’s only been with her for 10 years. So, you know, they really rushed into this.
And we sat at dinner a month ago and Danielle said something about how cool it is that we’re so tight and we became family. She said, I want to get married next August, but the first thing I have to do is call the autos to make sure they’re not going to be out of the country because I’m not getting married without the Otto’s at our wedding. That’s a true story. And then I said to Carly, are you gonna. Because we’re Jewish. I got on my arm here, something in Hebrew, it says, tikkun olam. And tikkun olam means heal the world. And I think we all should start healing the frickin world. Okay? It starts with you right now. But I said to my daughter, are you gonna have a. Are you gonna have a rabbi? She goes, no, I’m gonna have an officiant.
I said, okay, who’s in the running for the officiant? She goes, well, you. And I’m like, cool. She goes, mark, my son. And she goes, but I don’t know if you guys are going to be able to emotionally deal with all those roles. So I was thinking about Keith. So I’m like, hold on.
I did a DNA test that Cardino’s got me. I found out I’m 26% Jewish last year. And no, I was like, holy shit, I’m a Jew, right? My mom said I was Jewish, but I thought I was like, Jewish, right? 26% Jewish. I just did it yesterday. It went up to 27%. By the end of the week, I’ll be 30.
Yeah.
But I found that I was 26% Jewish in my income. My income doubled in 60 days.
60 days. He found out. And the other thing is, I bought Shalom. I bought him. I bought him a quarter of a yamaka. It’s just. It looks like a. It looks like a pizza slice. And so he says. She says, keith. I said, you know, that’s actually a really good choice. Until I thought to myself, she’s gonna walk down the aisle to my neck, my back. And I’m like, you know, I think Mark is gonna be the officiant. But the power of that is we did not know each other until were forged in fire in Primerica.
Exactly.
And I said to somebody like, these guys are my best friends. And then I said, you know, we’re best friends. And I said to somebody over there, I said, I can’t speak for them because you guys know a lot more people than just me, but you are my best friend. I know. I’m like number 73 on the list, so I don’t want to get too arrogant, but how cool is that? You could be in business with people that. That wind up being your brothers. Like brothers by choice, not by blood. So I want. I want. I really needed to say that because I love you. I love the energy you put in. I love the people currency.
Thank you, brother.
That you spend on us. And. And I. I couldn’t be more thrilled than to be sitting side by side with. With both of our hero right now. Awesome, Hector. Lamar, awesome.
Hey, I don’t want to brag, but I did watch Neil diamond twice in concert. I watched the Jazz Singer.
So you are a Jew. Hey. And I heard you power watch Schindler’s List.
So. Hey, listen, Mike and I are excited to do this with Hector, and just, like he said, had a huge impact in his business, in his life. Huge impact. And I think the greatest thing about Primerica is a walking, talking example. The reason I showed the picture of my farmhouse wasn’t to realize how my wife sold me. I’d spend a lot of money on a place we’re never going to use, but really to show you how you could design your life. And I think what Hector’s done, you know, I heard years ago, I’d rather see a sermon than to hear one any day. And I think he’s a perfect example of, you could have it all. Just like Patty talked about. You could have great family, you could have a great business, and you could have a great life.
And that’s what we tried to emulate.
Hey, Hector, could you sit down so we could just talk about you real quick? My son was born December 23, 1996. I was. I had my business going. Art Williams left the business. I lost a lot of people. I was looking for leadership. Hector cocooned his hierarchy out in the west coast. Turned off tv and just started, you know, kind of doing things. And Cary Ginsberg gives me a call. He says, I know you’re frustrated. Let’s go out, stalk Hector, and we’ll wind up find him at his office. I’ll call his secretary. I guess he must have played golf once, and he’s a good golfer. And so we. We came to your recognition that you did at the place that they do the Academy Awards. So we asked if we could come to that. We sat there and we stalked Hector.
And I had 17 questions that I wrote down that when I met Hector, I had a little mini cassette recorder. And I had 17 questions. And he endured the nonsense of a. Asking him 17 questions that he probably. It’s up on the screen, right? So I. I was changing desks, and I found the desk. Here’s. Here’s the mini cassette recordings of Hector Lamarck changed my life January 12th 7th. January 12th. In 1997, three, four weeks after my son, my first child, was born, Kirsten had a little postpartum depression. I said, please don’t kill either one of like yourself or the kid. But I gotta go talk to Hector. So. And we came back. Our business was changed. I humbled myself. I asked him a bunch of questions. He was very straightforward and forthcoming.
He said to me, you gotta build a business because it is a business. It is not a circus. It is not a game. You’ve gotta build distribution. You’ve gotta recruit, train, and develop independent leaders who go out and do exactly what you do, as long as you do it well. And I was like, I belong here now. And thank you so much for that. I appreciate it.
Awesome. Awesome. So I got the first question. I got some of you guys that had some questions in the RVP meeting. You wrote them down. I asked you to put your name on them. Nobody put their name on them. So you guys are awesome. Following instructions.
It was great.
To the question Mark Williams. No, this. So I asked some questions, and what we did is I threw out the stupid ones. Like, how do you think motivated? How do you keep on keeping on? How do you push through? How about things like eating, paying for your rent or your mortgage? But so one of the questions that someone asked, which is a great question, how do you get people to want to come and sell? Just like Patty said, you know, if you’re at a party and you want to meet a girl or at a bar and you go, I sell cars, or I’m an insurance salesman. You got a duck. And put your hands up and your chin down. It’s not the most sexually attractive position to be in. So sales wasn’t number one on my list. And so how do you.
You became a great salesperson, but how do you attract people like us, average and ordinary people that don’t see themselves in sales, but sell them on being in sales and make that attractive. Hector.
Is this working? Yeah. No. No. So how’s that at work? Okay. I think everybody’s a salesperson, except they don’t know it. You know, they don’t realize it. I mean, if you have a spouse, a partner, sales, okay. You know, or everybody is a salesperson to one extent or other. If you’ve wanted things all your life and you ended up getting going after those things and making them happen, it involves sales. There’s no part of. And especially in prime America, there’s no part of our business that’s not sales. It’s all sales. And that people, like, fight that or whatever. It’s retarded. I mean, I don’t understand it. Everything is so, you know, you have to learn how to, you know, if you’re going to get big in Primerica.
Like these two guys up here are professional salespeople, even if they didn’t realize that they are professional salespeople. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Right. Yeah, absolutely. No question about it. But all of you are salespeople. And the thing about if you want to have a great life, one of the easiest ways to make that happen is to become a pro at sales. Because that’s how you get what you want is through that, you know, that ability, who do you think is going.
To make out with Hector first? Me or Keith? T shirt. T shirt to the one who guesses. All right, so I got a question for you. There’s two. I want you to think about this later. Like, your jewelry store history is important, I think, to share. But when I came out to see you know, were. You were just a couple years older than me, and I was a young guy trying to figure it out. And I didn’t grow up with self improvement. You know, I had a great dad like you did. My father was a. You said the word hold. Court. I remember my father holding court. Court. Everywhere he went, thousands of people came to my. So I had the benefit of a really great role model in that regard. But you said something to me about being attractive in the business.
And I was like, I don’t know how to be attractive in a business when I’m trying to recruit up, right? I’m trying to recruit people better than me. And you said, you need to create a value gap. You used to use that a lot, right? But I remember the first time you said it to me. You’re like, you need to create a value gap. And I’m like, what? What is a value gap? And at the time, you probably had read 900 of your 1500 books and you said, inundate yourself with people who have done the things that you want to do, and then others will recognize that you know more than they do, and they will recognize that you could take them to a destination that they can’t get to without you, can’t do.
It on their own. Yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing, because one of the. If you want people to continue to follow you, there’s got to be a gap there. You can’t be at the same level. That doesn’t work. You’ve got to better at every part of the business than they are to be able to have them want to follow you. Because what you want when you’re building a prime American is you want people to want to follow you. And the thing that you need to do is you need to grow your skills. You’re going to spend a lot of energy growing your skill sets, your. Your communication skills, your sales skills, your people skills, all those skills, so that there’s a gap between you and those people.
And they feel they need to be part of your team because they see all the value of being there. And so. But if you are at the same level as the people you’re, you know, you’re leading, there’s no gap. There’s no reason. What they’ll do is they’ll go look for somebody that does have it right. And when you see people like in your business, they’re going to see other people because they’re not getting what they need with you. And I’m not telling you personally that’s happening, but I see that happening a lot in our business. And so the one thing that I focused on was to. Was to really work on me, make. Make myself valuable so that people would want to be in business with me and want to stay in business with me. And so that’s.
All of you here have the ability to do that. There’s nothing stopping you from. From becoming great at what you do so that people feel compelled to be with you. That’s what you want people to do.
You sold us early on. Danielle talked a little bit about it last night when she introduced you, but how the goal wasn’t just to get good at sales and recruit people and pick up IBAs, but it’s creating independent players that can do it just as good as you. And if they’re not doing it just as good as you said, why not? And I remember you asked, asking me how many guys you have that are just as good as you. I. I got a ton of guys at the time in our base shop. I said, if you. Like you said, if someone send a bunch of money on Insurance or million dollars to invest. He said, I’ll stand like, I’m not.
Sending him, I’m not sending her.
And realize we didn’t have enough. And so how much time would you invest in somebody or how long would it take for somebody to, if they worked with you, what was your expectation for time frames and independent?
You know, it just depends obviously how focused they are and how dedicated. But I would say, you know, four to six months. If you spend a good four to six months with somebody and you really coach them and you’re really on top of that you could get people to a pretty solid place. They’re not going to be maybe incredible yet, but they could be very good. Good enough where they start making money. Because what you want to have happen in your business, you want retention, you want people to stay in the business. Well, here we got big time retention here. Look at, there’s 4,000 people here. And so you want people to want to be here. And so that the thing that I was always focused on was teaching people so that they could make money.
Because the only reason you lose people in primary care, not the only, but the primary reason you lose people because they don’t make money and they’re not very good. And so what you’ve got to do, if you’re smart, you’re going to be working overtime to improve yourself so that you can help them improve, so that they can make money, so they can stay in the business. Because as soon as people stop making money, they’re gone. They’re not here anymore. So I always focus on making sure people’s skill sets at getting results was really high so that I could keep them. I mean, I have 16, 17,000 agents. Well, the reason is because we have a lot of people that are good and know what they’re doing. And that’s what you want to focus on, is developing people and make them great.
So I actually. So I have a. As ridiculous as I appear to most of you, I actually have. It’s a curse and a gift. I have a kind of a photographic memory. So I actually, when I’m talking to him, I’m thinking about the moments I talked to him 30 years ago. And so the questions are actually the same as they came out. And I asked you about, we talked about motivation. And two things you said to me, mike, when you have a good experience, most human beings, if they have a good experience, let’s say Patty’s got a restaurant and I had a really great dinner at Patty’s Restaurant. I’ll tell three of my closest friends, you got to go to Patty’s restaurant. If you like Italian food, it’s awesome. If I broke my tooth on a meatball, I’ll tell a thousand people.
And you said to me, there’s people up where you are from that are recruiting literally hundreds and thousands of people. And I’m watching their recruit to code ratios and it’s 1%. So you said to me, think about a thousand guys recruit a person, recruits a thousand people, gets one license. There’s 999 people out there talking shit about Primerica. That’s 999,000 people. That one dude is. And you said, make sure you’re not one of those guys. Make sure that the experience that they have with you is one that is pleasant. And if it doesn’t work out the way you planned it to work out, at least they walk away saying, My experience with Mike was great. He talked to me about buy term and invest. The difference he showed me now invest 50 bucks a month into a IRA.
And although it wasn’t the business for me, I really relish the opportunity. And I went back and I came back with a, a completely different mindset. It was much less about and I. And the numbers matter, right? I wanted to win contest, but it was all about what am I doing with the raw material that I’m harvesting as I’m prospecting, right? So can you share that mentality about this being a business?
It’s a business. One of the, one of the things that I, my recruit to code ratio was 60%, 60% building a business. So if I recruited 10 people, I’d get 60 people licensed and functioning. So and I didn’t have to recruit a zillion people. So you, I see people recruiting, you know, like you said, tons and tons of people, but they’re hardly getting anybody licensed. So they’re not. What are they really gaining by doing that? I mean, there’s no, you know, there’s nowhere to go when you have people quitting, like left and right. So I was really careful about training people really well. And, and I think the way you get people to want to be licensed is. But I did it through great field training.
I did it because when I recruited people, I would go and I’d close 5, 10, 15, 20 transactions with them. They would see that the business is legitimate. It works, you know, it really works. They see the positive results of that, how people getting involved and joining and whatnot. And so that would motivate the new recruit because they see that it works. The biggest problem people see is they get by people. People that just rah, rah. But they’re not really training and they don’t feel like it’s real. But if you’re getting great results and they’re seeing that a kitchen, across the kitchen table. The people are excited about our business and they see that it works and it’s worthwhile to go through the hassle of getting a license because it’s a hassle getting a license.
I don’t know about here, but everywhere I see it’s not, you know, there’s always, it’s an issue getting people licensed. But if people see that the business really works and they firsthand see it, they’re going to be much more motivated to get coded to get a license. That’s my, that was my experience. So I, I had a very high recruit to code ratio because I was great at training people and I worked hard at developing the people in my bay shop to be great at it also so they could have a similar experience that I would have.
Awesome me the same as my photograph graduate memory.
I remember the day that happened actually. It was a Thursday. Yeah, it was about 12:30.
So Mike’s cool. He’s got all the inside. I have notes.
Yeah.
Hi, how are you? So you talk, you, you mentioned yesterday. I don’t need that. They just need to respond.
Okay, very good.
It’s not working.
You mentioned yesterday day that at the RVP meeting that when you call people and I, you know, I read Rick.
Susan’s book and he used to talk.
About all the time where he at.
Where he at?
Where he at the jewelry business. You can allude to that where he at. And his whole thing is he would call you up and say, man, hey, John Smith, where you at in the month? And not in conversation. And he said, well, I don’t care how your parents are feeling or who’s sick, the dog’s got diarrhea. I don’t care about that. I want to know where you’re at in the business. And you clarified it for some people. Well, some people take that as well. You don’t care about me personally.
No, you’re a coach.
You made a statement yesterday, like when I played sports, you play tennis, you play basketball. Your coach would get on top. He didn’t go, well, my tummy doesn’t.
Feel good, my sister, I’m tired.
What happened is you’re direct and you’re a Business coach. So not that he doesn’t have feelings for people, but obviously to be not rude or condescending or mean, but direct.
Correct.
And the expectation. So can you just allude to that with the jewelry business and how you tie?
Yeah. When I was, you know, Rick Shizzy and I, we work for the same company, and I. I worked there for five years and I opened four. I opened five stores for this retail jewelry company over. Over that period of time. And the owner of the company guy’s name was Steve Robbins. He owned. They owned several stores. And Steve was like, thank God for him. He was relentless. He would call, I’d get into the. I was managing stores, so I’d get into the store first thing. You know, hour into the day, he’d call, where you at? That’s what he would say, where yet. So. And what does that mean? That means how much. How many sales have you made? What’s the production so far for today in Primerica? Where you’re at is how many recruits do you have?
How many people got coming to the meeting? How many sales have you have? Are you closing this week? Where are you going to be? Where are you at always? I was always holding people accountable. So I even had a license plate on my car that said, where you at? You know, because that’s what. That was the number one question. I didn’t go home. How’s your wife? How’s your family? I didn’t. I didn’t want to know that. I just. I just want to know where you at so that I. We could talk about that and get you going. So. And if you’re not where you need to. You told me this. I would call. I’d say, look, you told me that you’re going to be by this. By this time, and you’re not there. Why not? What’s up? What are you.
What are you focused on? So I was always really direct about. I wasn’t mean. I was just direct, you know, because we’re in a business that you got to make money to stay here. So if you are. If you’re not focused on where you are all the time and focused on growing that number, you know, you’re in the wrong business. You got to be really focused on, you know, growing the. Growing the numbers all the time. That’s what I was always doing. So where you at was very, you know, and people want to start talking and tell me stuff, and I don’t want to know all that. I just want to know where you’re at. How Many sales have you had? That’s all I want to know. And then hang up because I got 20 more calls to make.
I can’t spend a half an hour with you on the phone talking about whatever, right? So anyways, that’s what I did. Where are you at?
So. So anybody coach, like Little League or any coaches in the room, raise your hand if you coach anything, right? So I coached a little bit when my kid was going through all these different sports. And when they were little kids, my kid was actually good baseball player. And in eight or nine years old, you’re coaching little kids. Some kids you see like you as a coach, Rick. Susie comes in, you see an athlete, right? So when I coach some kids come, you look at them, kid’s an athlete. Some kid, the mom just looked at it as an opportunity to dump the kid on the field for three hours and let me babysit her. I used to call those kids cup bangers. They would, I’d put them in right field.
You had to wear a cup and they would just bang on their cups, right? They bang on their cup banger. Okay, Johnny’s a cup banger. But you have to identify cup from athletes, right? So here’s why I’m saying this. I listen to Hector. Hector’s not. Hector said yesterday, I’m not a mean guy. I’m actually a nice guy. When you see a cup banger, you go, hey, Johnny, that’s cool. The way you got out of the way of the ball so it didn’t hit you in the Adam’s apple. And, and your cup is on your knee. Your knee is strong, your testicles aren’t. Put it where it’s supposed to be. But an athlete who’s playing shortstop, who 50 times in practice has thrown a frozen rope over to first base, and in the game, he loses his attention span and whips one over the dugout.
Yeah, but you knew he had the capacity to throw a frozen rope to first base. You call Johnny over, go Johnny. You’re better than that. You told me you want to play high school varsity. You keep whizzing balls over the short, the dugout. You coach athletes different than cup bangers. Okay? And right now, if you’re a cup banger, start studying how to throw a ball over to first base. And maybe your coach, instead of saying, hey, good to see you, which I call an emotional stiff arm. I don’t let them know I’m not going to work with you, but I’m not going to work with you unless you show Me, you’re going to be an athlete, right? Is that the kind of mentality? Because once again, there’s people here are looking for a reason to call somebody a douche. And.
I’m nice to everybody. I’m a nice guy, okay? But I don’t suffer fools. So if they’re not serious, then I’m not serious, and I’ll be nice to them. Hi, how are you? How’s Mary? How are the kids? And that’s the extent of my involvement. But if they’re the right kind of person, I’m spending tons of time with them. I’m making time to meet with them. Them. I’m working hard with them because those people are hard to come by. And so when you have them, you better be spending a lot of time with them, building a relationship, coaching them, teaching them exactly what to do, teach them how to be successful at the business. And the rest of them just be nice to them. I never alienated people. I didn’t want to push anybody away because you know that. Why do that?
That doesn’t serve a purpose. But when you find the right people, you need to really invest your life into those people because they’re the ones that are going to become these guys. That’s the way you have to look at it. Okay.
It’s copyrighted, just so you know. It’s copyrighted.
Yeah.
Cub’s got. Cub’s not gonna do it, guys. You can hire a cup banger if you make enough money.
Stop making happen.
Right?
Yeah. I’m thinking. I think me and Keith should never be on stage again together. What do you think?
Next question.
It’s like OPRAH Winfrey and Dr. Phil had a baby that was dropped on its head, run over by a truck, and then started asking Hector questions. We’re the love child of OPRAH Winfrey and Dr. Phil.
You get up, you recruit a new person, new associate. And the most important thing you said made a statement yesterday. More important than the IBA is getting their top 20.
Absolutely.
And I remember someone saying years ago when they would do a steam list.
Yeah.
You want to get referrals, you want to recruit the person. But I would. This guy would say I’d be with people, I would scheme them. And if they recruit on, that’s fine. But if not, I’d rather get 10 or 15 referrals than their IVA. You want their IVA?
Yes. Yes.
So if you recruited John Smith tomorrow, back in the day, and do a field training, what would the protocol like? I’m not one of the questions I hear was, do you ever make a phone call? I’ve never called someone’s list. Okay, imagine Mike calling my brother. Hi, this is Mike. I’m here with your brother. He wants to talk to you.
Like what?
Why don’t you just put him on the phone? So what would you do? How would you get someone’s top 25, top 50? What would the conversation be with that new person? And then how would you have them set up appointments?
Well, first of all, I tell them, look, you know, since you’re not making a financial investment in this business, and what does it cost to get a license? It’s nothing. You know, it’s like a few hundred dollars. I mean, it’s nothing, right? So there’s no financial investment. So I would tell people, I said, look, since you’re not making a financial investment, what we need to do is we need to get your list of people. So I want you to put together a list, at least, you know, 15, 20, 25 names or more, whatever that is, of people that, you know, that like you, that trust you, that if you call them, they’d say, hello, how are you? That sort of thing, right? Get that list together.
And then what we’re going to do is we’re going to start calling those people, and then I’m going to teach them how to call people. I taught people how. I didn’t. I didn’t call people for people because they don’t learn anything from me making the call for them, but I would coach them on how to do it, how to say it, and I’d role play with them, you know, to make the phone call. And then I said, okay, now get on the phone. You know, call. Call Otto, all right? Call your buddy Otto here. And so then I’d have them do that. And then once he called him, he. I’d have him say, basically, listen, hey, Keith, I’m just getting started in a business. I’m really excited about it.
In fact, man, it’s so interesting, so exciting that I’m actually contemplating possibly making a more a bigger commitment, maybe doing this as a career at some point. But before I do that, I want to get some people’s opinions that I really respect. And I respect your opinion. Would you do me a favor and sit down with me with my trainer and take a look at it, and then you tell me what you think. If it’s yay or nay, it doesn’t matter. I don’t really care if you do it or don’t do it, but I’d like for you. I like your opinion because I respect you and I trust your opinion, and that’s how I got people to do that. So it was really easy. It’s a piece of cake. To get people help. Yeah, yeah. I need your help just like that.
So it’s a piece of cake.
Do you, do you, when you meet, let’s say I’m brand, Keith brings me, introduces me to you, and do you get my head and say, hey, Mike, what are you looking for out of this business? Do you get there? You know, I don’t think anybody knows what their why is when they first walk in the door. But do you try to get their hot button so that you could hold them accountable to the hot button?
Yeah. You know what I would do with people? I say, look, you know, where do you want to be? I mean, where do you want to be in five or 10 years? Are you wanting. I mean, are you looking to do something where you want to make a couple hundred, couple thousand dollars a month? Or was. Are you more kind of leaning towards making enough money that you could quit your job, start your own business and make. Make 100 grand or 200 grand or 300 grand? So you tell me what you’re looking for. Because depending on what you tell me, this is going to determine how I am with you, how I react to you, what I do with you. You know, because somebody tells me they want to make a lot of money, then I’m saying, look at what we’re going to do.
I want to hold you really accountable. I’m going to call you know, multiple times a week. We’re going to, I’m going to really stay after you. But if they say, I just want to make a couple. A couple thousand dollars, then I’m not going to invest that kind of energy in that person. So I want to know where they’re at and what they’re looking for. And then that instructs me in how I treat this person and what I should do and how, what kind of investment I make in that person. So that makes sense.
And thank you. I mean, so I also think some of the times sometimes we make this mistake, and that is we want to make a million dollars a month, and we project that onto the new person who just wants to make 250amonth. And then we hold them to our standard of what we know it takes to make a million a year. And they’re just telling you, I only want to make 250 extra bucks because we’re behind on our bills, right? And then. And then you’re jamming stuff down their throats that they’ve basically told you they don’t want. So I think we waste our energy trying to get people to want it as bad as we do. I think we got to meet them halfway.
And I think that’s what you said to me back then, was meet them halfway in their world and then bring them into your world. Because once they figure out you can make a thousand a month with 10 hours a week of commitment, they’ll go, wow, If I put 20 hours a week in and bring some people who do the same, maybe I could multiply that 10x without 10x effort, right? And so, you know, you help me with that. You also help me with the motivation thing, because were big motivators. Like, and you said to me, hey, look, Mike, if you got a thousand idiots and you motivate them, you’ve got a thousand motivated idiots. And I was like, all right, where’s this going? You said, money follows greatness if you create. You recruited. Never said, don’t recruit the thousand people.
You recruit a thousand people, teach them that skills, pay the bills, and then motivate them. You’ve got a business that can’t be stopped.
Awesome. So if you look at the separation in primary, there’s a huge separation. I do a whole training, 95% and 5%. The top 5% of the people make 95% of the income in primary. Oh, that’s because, you know, prime America doesn’t work. No, because most people don’t do with their 5%. Well, 98, 2, 99. What’s the 1 percenters? What separates the elite? Whatever percentage it is. What are some characteristics that you look at that if you. We all have common denominators. Success leaves clues.
Yes.
What’s the characteristic of the 2 percenters and the 1 percenters, in your opinion?
Well, the 1 percenters stay focused no matter what’s happening. And people that aren’t really there, they get distracted very easily. You know, most people. And I have a saying that distraction leads to your economic destruction. I said distraction leads to your economic destruction. And most people get easily distracted. You know how little kids, when they get distracted real easy and they’re jumping from place to. That’s a lot of people in prime America are. They get distracted really easily. And if you get distracted easily, you can’t stay focused. You can’t. You can’t create momentum. You can’t make anything happen of any substance. So you got, you cannot be getting distracted.
One of the things I used to tell people, you’re never going to get me distracted if the only way you’re going to get me distracted in prime America, you got to hit me over the head with a frickin two by four. Okay? Otherwise I’m getting it done, I’m just going to do it. And so I wanted people thinking like that. That’s what you’ve got to do is you got to be really focused. Those of, you know, and everybody who ends up doing anything substantial, they have an ability to stay focused. There’s all the winners here today that have done really well. I guarantee you they’re, they’re not getting distracted, which is why they are capable of building momentum and making things happen and you know, getting people to really act and do, do the right things to be successful.
So I, I’ve always been a very focused guy. I know how to stay focused. You know, I just always have been. I, I don’t know why I am like art, you say, but my ass is always on fire. I don’t want to get things going. I want to make money. I want to grow and I want to be somebody. I mean, and that, that was, that resonated with me, with, you know, I really wanted to be somebody. And I didn’t give a crap what anybody thought about it. I, I didn’t worry about what people were thinking about me. And you gotta, if you’re gonna get big, you gotta stop worrying about what people think about you know, because what people think about you is none of your damn business. Okay, perfect.
Yeah. Yeah. If you got them written down, you get. Yeah. You know, I, I didn’t come into this business. I don’t think you came into this business looking to be rejected. Like as you know, if you’re a professional salesman. We have become professional salesman. I don’t care. We say all this stuff. Oh, it’s not a sales business. It is, right? You got to convince somebody to do something that you want them to do. You’ve got to. Your job is to help people make decisions that are ultimately benefit them without them knowing it.
Right.
Does that make sense to you? So did you were there moments? Because I think sometimes people look at a guy like you and they go, it was never hard. Right? Like you never got to know. You know, I think people really think that Hector succeeded in the absence of.
Of.
Challenges and my experience has been the most successful I’ve been around. People I’ve been around succeed, and they’ve. In spite of all their challenges. As a matter of fact, the most successful people I’ve been around are the ones who have been buried under challenges and dug their way out and just became so much more resilient because of it that the next challenge became easier and easier. So was it just a smooth sailing situation for you, or is there hope.
For us out there? No, it wasn’t. I mean, the only reason business became easy for me is because I first, before I got here, became a professional salesperson. So the sales part for me was. Was easy.
How many years were you in sales before primary?
5.
So you had five years of experience?
That’s right, yeah. So that, that. That’s what made it easy for me. Because most people, they don’t know how to. How to sell. They don’t know how to close a lot more. I mean, sorry to say this, but probably the majority of you in here really aren’t really that great at it either. You can become great. There’s nothing stopping you from becoming great. But most people never put the time and the energy into being great. And, you know, then you were saying, money follows greatness. So if you want to make big money at anything, you’ve got to focus on being great. One of the things I shared with my kids growing up, I said, look, I don’t.
Whatever you end up doing, I don’t care what you do, but I expect you to be great at what you do, because that’s how you make money. There’s no other way to make big money. I mean, if. Whether you’re an actor or athlete or whatever, the great ones make big money. The great ones in Primerica make great money in any. In any industry. It’s the same thing. So focusing on being great at what you do and being relentless about improving yourself every day, I don’t let a day go by that I’m not working on me. I haven’t missed a day in 40 years of working on me and trying to read something or learn something that could help me become better at what I do.
And so if you have that kind of mentality, it’s not a matter of if you’re going to be successful, it’s just when. It’s. It’s just when. That’s awesome.
All right, this is the last question, and it kind of ties into what were talking about when were playing golf and My wife always busted my chop. She was. Don’t you ever get sick and tired of people asking you the same questions.
Over and over?
I said, I teach first grade math. It never changes. I don’t teach second, third, fourth. And we had a conversation about this at dinner. And, like, there’s not one question that we asked you right now. You’re like, should I never heard that. So this ties into why some people mentally check out, right? Is the average person can’t handle the monotony. Like, like I. I use an example. Like a dentist. Imagine you go to the dentist, you have to meet a root canal, and you walk into guys in his 60s. He’s been doing it for 30 years. What’s. I have to have a root canal. And I’m in a lot of videos. Your meds.
I forget. I’m done.
All right, let’s do it. I’ll do it.
Yeah.
I’m so sick and tired of doing this. What, you gotta have open heart surgery? This guy’s great surgery. He’s got best in the world. I’ve done a thousand.
Just another stent.
So why is that normal in the real world? But some of us, like, oh, how are you able to handle the monotony? Or at least if you could take a minute.
Yeah, that’s a really good question. Because the thing for me is I knew that being repetitive and being okay with it was the key to getting big. I mean, one of the things, if you’re around Art Williams, he said the same exact thing every freaking time he spoke, right? Because we would sit in the audience and we’d be like, mouthing the words, right? So that spoke to me. So I never got tired of doing what I needed to do. Prospecting, selling, setting up all the stuff that. That leads to success. I never got tired of doing it. I didn’t. I didn’t go, oh, I gotta. I gotta work with this new brainy now. And shoot, you know, I didn’t do that. I was like, every time. Whoever it was, I’m excited because we’re gonna go.
Want to teach you how to make money and be successful. So you gotta get to the point where you. In any sport, I mean, I’m an athlete. Grow up being an athlete. It’s the repetitiveness of it. If you’re going to become a great tennis player, it’s massive repetitiveness. Same thing in basketball, same thing in baseball. It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s, you know, just like Lombardi used to say, when you start with the Packers. Gentlemen, this is a football, right? You started with the basics and you focus on that and you try to get better all the time. I know John’s a very good golfer. And, you know, it’s the same thing, right? John, you. You’re. You’re doing the same damn thing every time. You’re trying to. Trying to do the same thing, trying to be repetitive.
So anyways, I think you can’t get bored is what I’m saying. You got. You cannot be bored. You got to just do it. You got to start even if you don’t like doing it. There’s a lot of stuff, parts of Prime America that I didn’t enjoy doing, but I did them because those are the things that led to me having success. So you just gotta do. Figure out what leads to success and be super repetitive about doing those things.
Is there anything you want to add in closing? Hector, how great is this, guys?
Is there anything you want to add?
Yeah, you know, look in the mirror. The only thing that’s going to stop you from winning big is you. There’s no thing outside of you. It’s not your spouse, it’s not your children, it’s not your parents, how you grew up, or you grew up in a bad neighborhood. Nobody gives a crap about any of that stuff, okay? The mo. You’re the key. You’re the key to this whole deal. And all of you. There’s not a human being in this room that’s. That’s. That’s not capable of building a great business and making big money at some point in the career. You’re not going to do it overnight. It’s going to take time. You’re going to have to work on yourself like crazy. But it’s there for you. All you’ve got to do is decide what.
Are you going to get it done or are you going to be a weenie? Okay. I mean, just what is it going to be? So I just. I just think that you should be so excited about being here and being involved and having this opportunity, and you should take advantage of it. Well, I think one of the. I mean, I think a sin in Primerica is seeing it being involved and not going after it like you can and should, because all of you can change your lives dramatically if you choose to.
Okay, awesome. Hey, Keith. One thing I just want to publicly thank him for. This is like an opportunity to be with my hero. It’d be like if he hooked me up with Springsteen. I no longer want to meet Bruce Springsteen because I want to hang out with. A real patriot. So you are my new Springsteen. So thank you for sharing the stage with me.
