EXECUTIVE TLDR
Leaders go first and stay last
Control attitude and activity
Communication removes gray areas
Vision must be big enough for the team
Accountability protects success
Show up early and stay late
Follow the 531 system consistently
Peace comes from doing what you said you would do
VIDEO SUMMARY
In this Future RVP session at Primerica, emerging leaders break down what it truly means to lead first and stay last.
Elijah Espy opens with gratitude and urgency. His central message: action must follow inspiration. Events don’t change lives — execution does.
He outlines four keys to building a championship team:
Leadership – Leadership is not positional. It’s behavioral. Leaders go first. They control the only two things fully within their power: attitude and activity. They show up early, stay late, prepare materials, and handle small details without being asked.
Communication – No gray areas. Transparency with teammates, uplines, clients, and especially yourself. Leaders must become professional communicators capable of helping others upgrade their mindset.
Vision – Create a vision big enough so everyone wins. A strong vision keeps the team focused through adversity.
Accountability – Lock in with serious players. Stay away from spectators and “dream stealers.” Accountability doesn’t just create success — it protects it.
David Carroll reinforces leadership through discipline and presence. Showing up consistently is non-negotiable. Leaders arrive early, take notes, stay engaged, and respect every training. Being duplicatable is critical — if others can’t replicate your process, you are not building depth.
He also emphasizes giving emerging leaders room to grow. Strong leaders don’t control; they empower.
Jose Polanco shifts to systems and consistency. After committing full time, he realized success isn’t luck — it’s formula driven.
He introduces the 531 system:
5 appointments
3 closes
1 recruit
Follow the math consistently and income follows. Multiply the formula to scale results.
His biggest insight: most people are not afraid of failure — they are afraid of winning. When you don’t follow the system, you create internal conflict. Fear shows up when you’re out of integrity with your commitments. Peace comes from executing fundamentals daily.
The session closes with a powerful mindset shift:
Operate from peace, not fear.
Peace comes from discipline.
Leadership begins with example.
Lead first.
Stay last.
And follow the system.
FAQS
What does “lead first, stay last” mean?
It means leaders go first in activity and stay last in responsibility.
What are the two controllables in Primerica?
Attitude and activity.
What is the 531 system?
Five appointments, three closes, one recruit — the core production formula.
Why is accountability important?
It sustains momentum and protects growth.
How do you scale income?
Multiply the 531 formula.
What creates peace in business?
Doing what you committed to do consistently.
Is leadership positional?
No. It’s behavioral and example-driven.
GLOSSARY
Future RVP – A leader building toward Regional Vice President promotion.
531 System – Production formula: five appointments, three closes, one recruit.
Premium Producer – A representative generating significant life insurance premium.
Personal Investment Production – Individual client investment volume written by a rep.
Duplication – Teaching others to replicate your exact system.
Accountability Partner – A teammate who tracks commitments and performance with you.
Attitude & Activity – The two controllable drivers of results in the business.
Video Summary
00:00
All right, we’re going to hear from three more future RVP’s. Right now. If I could have Elijah Butts, SB, David Carroll, and Jose Polanco come to the side. Right over here. Elijah got recognized at premium, and Life S is one of top personal investment producers. Did over a billion investments, top 10. And Jose Polanco was in the top six in premium. People making some stuff happen. I like them to come up one at a time. I’m gonna start off. Where’s Elijah? He’s ready. Elijah’s ready. So I come one first Elijah Espy and then Jose. Let’s make it happen, guys. Welcome to future RVP’s.
00:49
Let’s go, baby. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s make some noise. Let’s go. Yeah. Love it. I love it, man. Let’s get ready. Let’s get right into it, man. My wife said I gotta breathe and my minutes are already going up. Listen, if I can describe this season in my life right now to one word, it’d be gratitude. You know, grateful for the opportunity to deliver a message to you all. Not just to be a face in the crowd, but to actually face the crowd. And I couldn’t be here without our teammates. Thank you so much for the sacrifice and all the dedication that you guys do. I’m gonna try not to get emotional, but here it comes. But it’s actually the first time I have my son here to hear me speak, you know, and, you know, he won’t remember it, but I will.
01:43
That’s all that matters. But listen, you know, we’re all here to get better, right? And the one thing that we all have in common in this room is this business. So in my opinion, the foundation for every conversation that we have here has to be about this business, you know, whether it be building each other up, you know, pushing each other to the next level, you know, identifying each other’s blind spots. That’s going to be huge, right? So you want to make the minor adjustments that’s going to take your life to the next level. The most important thing that you can do here after this event, action. That’s the thing that you have to do, is take action. This can’t just be a great event. It has to be a great life. Okay?
02:20
And if you want to give this little talk that we’re going to do here, a title is called the Keys to Building a Championship Team. And anybody want to experience winning a championship. Of course. Of course. Of course. So, hey, listen, I got a lot of keys, but Not a lot of time. So we’re going to unlock as many doors as possible. Fair enough. I love it. See, listen, number one key, number one is leadership. Leadership, leadership. You show me any great team, organization, corporation, church, I’ll show you a great leader. And leadership has levels to it. You know, just because you’re not the vice president, the CEO, the owner, does not mean you can’t be a leader. You know, what is it? So attitude reflects leadership. Attitude.
02:59
The only two things that you can control in this business is your attitude and your activity. Right? See, what does a leader do? They go first, right? They go first. They show up, they leave late, they make sure the clipboards are ready for the orientation. They do all the little things that most people are not willing to do. Second thing is communication. There is no room for gray area in this business. Be transparent. Direct with your teammates, uplines, clients, but most importantly, yourself. Be the encourager that you need so you can be the encourager that your teammates need. People are a little emotional, would you agree? Most people have lack and limited mindset and it’s up to us as professional communicators to begin the renovation process of their mind. You got to take that old carpet out, if that makes sense. Right?
03:50
Number three, vision. Appreciate you guys, right? Without the vision of people. That’s right. Create a vision big enough so all your teammates win. And the last one, accountability, guys, accountability. Accountability puts you in a position to receive greatness, but more importantly helps you keep it. Lock in with your uplines, your teammates who are in the game, keep away from the fans in the stands. And the Dream Steelers, they have the most to say but have nothing to show for. And they don’t have anything. They don’t have anything better to offer either. See, listen, you all showed up here today, which means you have a shot. Where most people look for excuses not to do something. You need to be the type of person who look for reasons why you should do something.
04:32
With that being said, you can do all the things right in this business. And then some people are still going to quit. You’re still going to get those calls from your clients saying, hey, listen, I’ve been thinking. People think too much sometimes, right? See, but here’s the thing. Adversity is needed for character development. When adversity hits, are you going to fold or are you going to fight? See, if God gave you everything you asked for right now, would you be able to hold on to it? See, you don’t need everyone to be. You don’t need everyone to Be free. You don’t need everyone to win here. You just need a few key people in this journey. And it will always and will always start with you. Thank you for your time, y’ all. SBD Vaccaro.
05:27
All right. Didn’t he. He did a great job, right? I have to tell you guys, some of the future regional leaders blew my socks off. Like, seriously, you guys are RVP’s. You just don’t have that title. I don’t feel that way. I literally was so impressed by all of you. It’s. It’s just incredible to hear so much, you know, coming from this group of leaders that are up and coming, right? So we’ve learned from everybody. So I just. It’s funny because I didn’t copy anybody. And I swear, Elijah, I did not take anything that you were doing. But we’re on the same page. Three points to leadership, right? But first, I want to thank my team, my husband, who’s always there for me, right? My biggest motivator, Elias, for Corey and his beautiful wife, Carolina. We’re right, you know, we’re. We’re prospecting.
06:15
We’re talking to, you know, partners, right? Partnership. We talked about partnership and how important it is. And I just want to, you know, talk about those three points because we shouldn’t deviate from any of these. No matter what’s going on in your life. I know some of you know that I’m going through. We’re going through something with our daughter. I ask for your prayers, right? She’s fighting for the battle of her life, but things happen. We’re here. We could be there with her, right? And you just have to really focus on the commitment that you make to the Primerica business and what is it that you want out of it. So how much are you respecting yourself and your teammates and your business and your upline, right? Are you showing up to everything?
06:55
You have to show up to everything because you’re not going to learn if you don’t show up to everything. You learn the lingo. We have a primary lingo, right? We use log acronyms. People are like, what on earth are you even talking about? IBA and FNA and all these things that we have no clue when you brand new. So you have to learn those things, and showing up is going to teach you those things. Do you arrive early? Do you stay late? Are you there if they ask for your help? Are you learning your business? Because if you’re not learning your business, how are you going to teach somebody else, right? You have to become duplicatable you have to take notes. If you’re in this room and you’re not taking notes, you’re crazy.
07:30
You should be able to teach at some point and get up here and speak and. And teach others, right. What you learned. So you have to always be taking notes. Are you on zoom and off camera or doing other things? Because if we’re doing a zoom and you’re on respect the person that’s speaking, right? You have to be present. You have to be paying attention. You can’t just be off camera, off screen, because you’re not really there. I don’t care what it is that you’re doing, you’re not paying attention, right? Do you give your teammates the room to fly? The winners are going to show you that they want to lead. They’re going to. They’re going to rise to the top, right? The cream always rises to the top.
08:07
So make sure that you give those leaders that are up and coming the room to fly and go and duplicate you. Right? You know, if they’ve duplicated you and you’ve been duplicatable, because they’ll be able to teach other people exactly what you showed them. Right? We talked about doing everything exactly the same way that you learn it. That’s how we have to teach it. So that’s got. That’s it, guys. Let’s go win together, right? I’m so excited to be here and getting that future regional contract. Jose Polanco.
08:42
Good afternoon, fellow teammates. Where’s my Dominican? They need me to close this. Okay. But I would try to do my best. Amazing leaders, right? I would try to apply a few of the elements that we get from our mentor as well. David Kim. Okay. So basically before coming today, I was having a conversation with my rvp and she mentioned. And I told her why should I speak about. Right? And she told me, you’re supposed to speak about consistent and accountability. Right? Because I’ve been in the business for a little, but. And then I decided to become full time, two years and a half, right? And that’s a big decision, right? That’s a big decision that comes with a lot of commitment, right?
09:38
And you’re not gonna be ready all the way, but if you coachable and you do the things that you’re supposed to do, you’re gonna become better, right? And I say, listen, if I decide become full time in this business, to write my own check, because that’s the privilege that you get when you decide to join this business, becoming your own boss, right? And get all the Knowledge that you’re gonna get it from this amazing leader. Leaders that make half a million leaders that make a million dollars. And one of the things that I start doing recently because a lot of people ask me why you doing different? Because I see you like winning like little achievement here and there. We’re not where we want to be yet.
10:17
But one of the things that I’ve been doing now, right because is really enjoying the self development, right? And I believe when you decide to not resist the self development, you’re going to become very powerful, you know. And by me doing that, I found out something about that. Most of the people we have, right. We afraid of winning and you not even knowing, right. And why that happened. Because there’s something that is called the imposter syndrome. And the imposter syndrome is something that you can cure right away, right? If people think oh my God, I’m afraid of doing this and that’s why I’m not winning and that’s not true.
10:59
I just find out that when you don’t win here in this company, it’s basically because you’re not following the system and they give you a formula and when they give you the formula, you don’t stick to the formula, right? Like for example, today I decided that I’m going to be early, right? So when I was in my car, I get up at 6 in the morning. So when I was at peace because I knew I’m going to get here at 8:30. And I feel really proud of myself. Okay? So one of the things also you need to realize is like for example, this is what happens. People get their license and then they want to operate in luck. If you in this business and you want to operate in luck, you’re going to have a lot of struggle, right?
11:50
And because you operating in luck, right. What’s going to happen? You’re telling the universe I’m still in success. That’s what you’re telling the universe. You’re still in the success. And when you’re still in the success, you’re going to feel really bad and then eventually you’re not going to feel the service of winning. And the system here is very simple. It’s a 531, okay? You need to do whatever it takes to have those A appointment to be in the fundamentals. We don’t care how you’re going to do the A appointments, do it through social media, going through the street, but you got to do the A appointments. What’s going to happen is A appointment five will go through three. We will become a close live app and one, become a new associates. Okay?
12:42
And as a district leader, if you do this formula, what’s going to happen? You’re going to make a thousand plus dollars. Then when you already accept the formula, right? You got to accept the formula whether you like it or not. Okay? It’s like when you go to your job, if you have a job and you go in late, you afraid and you know that they can fire you. So the same way you got a thing in this business, when you, in a week, you put a goal to make $1,000 in a week, you’re supposed to have a appointment, and you only have a three. Basically you firing yourself when you’re not doing your appointments. Okay? And if you want to do $1,000, do the formula times one. If you want to do $2,000, multiply the formula times two.
13:31
If you want to do $3,000, multiply the formula by three. And as a human being, we usually act from two fear or peace. And peace is the same thing as love. Okay? Fears come from lies. When you fear is because you know deep inside that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do. And when you appease, come from the truth. That means that you’re doing what you’re supposed to do. And this business, the lie that you tell yourself is when you tell yourself, I’m not good enough. But the truth is that when you follow the system, make phone calls, live by example, you will succeed. So from now on, choose peace over fear. Thank you.
