Executive TLDR
Most worries never happen; focus on long-term freedom.
A job rarely creates true financial independence.
Residual income provides lasting wealth and time freedom.
Selling products alone limits income growth.
Building a team creates leveraged, scalable income.
Primerica offers entrepreneurship without inventory or territory limits.
Surround yourself with mentors whose success depends on yours.
Build wealth with people in 5–7 years, not assets in 30.
Video Summary
In this dynamic leadership message at Primerica, Anthony Barone challenges entrepreneurs to stop chasing short-term sales and start building long-term wealth through people. He explains that most fears and worries never materialize, yet many people allow distractions to prevent them from focusing on financial freedom. Barone contrasts traditional business ownership—inventory, payroll, territory limits, legal battles, and raising competition—with Primerica’s distribution model, which allows agents to build residual income without physical products or heavy overhead. Drawing from his own experience in construction and launching prior businesses, he emphasizes the power of leverage: earning overrides and residual checks years after the original work is done. His core message is that true independence doesn’t come from personal production alone—it comes from building and mentoring a motivated team whose success compounds over time. Instead of spending decades building assets slowly, Barone urges leaders to build wealth through people within five to seven years, creating scalable income and lifestyle freedom.
FAQs
Why does Anthony Barone emphasize building a team over personal sales?
Because personal sales create linear income, while building a team creates leveraged and residual income.
What is residual income?
Income that continues to pay after the initial work is completed, often through overrides or renewals.
What makes Primerica different from traditional businesses?
It requires no inventory, no territory limits, minimal expenses, and provides mentorship aligned with your success.
What does “wealth through people” mean?
It means developing and leading others so their production contributes to a growing income stream.
Glossary
Residual Income – Ongoing earnings generated from previous work or team production.
Leverage – Using systems and teams to multiply income beyond personal effort.
Distribution System – A structured model that allows products and services to be delivered through independent representatives.
Override – Commission earned from the production of agents you recruit and train.
Financial Independence – The ability to control your time and lifestyle through sustainable income streams.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Hey, man, I’m going to go through a couple things with you guys, and I’m excited. I got notes, I got a presentation. I won’t stick to any of it. So, those of you guys that know, how does this thing work anyway? The up up. It’s the other up. All right, we’ll try that again. So, hey, I want to start off by saying a couple quick things. The first thing is, 90% of what you worry about is never going to happen, and the other 10% you can’t control anyway. Can I get an amen on that? There’s a lot of people that aren’t here today because of what they thought was going on in their life. That was more important things they were worried about, right? I got a call last night at 12:00 at night, and focus is important.
Speaker 1
And I got a call, 12:00 from my sister down south that my nephew was in the emergency room. And I said, okay, if he’s there tomorrow, I’ll go help him. He’s got his older brother with them. They’re in their late twenties. I mean, they’re not kids, right? And guess what? I get a text at 530 this morning. Oh, he’s okay. He’s home. Yeah, I know. Because that’s usually what happens, true or false, right? There’s people that are home right now because they’re worried about, oh, I got this. I got to do that. Right? There’s nothing more important than building a residual six and eventually seven figure income that allow you to have total freedom. Do you all agree? But you gotta be willing to put a little time in up front. So, you know, I gotta ask this question.
Speaker 1
Is what you’re doing right now gonna get you out of what you’re doing right now? Cause outside of the people at this table, most you all work for somebody else. True or false? So if you work diligently for the next 20, 30, 40 years, will you get out of it? No. Or maybe you will for a few years before you die, right? So here we want to talk to you about value. I want to talk to you about the value to the entrepreneur, not the value to the client. There’s tons of that crap. There’s no doubt. I want to talk to you about the value to an entrepreneur and what I saw when I came here. Right? So something. There you go. So how many of you seen this before?
Speaker 1
Some of you all look at this and go, what a great thing to sell clients. You know how I look at this? Unfriend? Believable that they would take me, allow me to work in this scenario, build a distribution system that gives those products to people. And I don’t have to pay. I don’t have minimums. I don’t have a territory because I came from a background where that type of system owned me, right? So we get to bring Wall street to main street. It’s a great value. You could feel confident. You could feel good about that, right? But if you’re looking to say what a great place to sell life insurance, what a great place to sell. We just got recognized for investments. But you know what? I was more jacked up about the base shop. Recognition that I was the personal. Right?
Speaker 1
We still do personal. We want people to know that we still know how to do it. Well, here’s one thing I never want to hear. Oh, coach, you don’t know what it’s like to be told no. Trust me, I know. How many people are married. No. I’m gonna kid. No. So what happens is, right, we all know that we want to be. We know what it’s like to go across the kitchen table, right? So we get to deliver all these quality products, right? So I want to show you something, which I keep hitting the brightness button, and it’s not fricking working, okay? So I want to talk to you. Listen, here’s one thing I want to make sure you understand. Your story is your story. You don’t need notes. You don’t need to practice it. You don’t need to make shit up.
Speaker 1
It’s your story. Be proud of it. Tell it. It’ll attract others to come with you. Not everybody that comes here comes from a nine to five background, okay? I came here, I worked my way through college. I had blue collar jobs, right? When I was in college, and I watched the other side of my family that was wealthy, that was all driving bmws. They were lawyers and doctors. But you know what none of them had? None of them had freedom. I had an uncle that was a multi, multi millionaire and went to work for 30 plus years. None of them had freedom. I looked at Keith Otto. Was that freedom, yes or no? We have more freedom making 300 grand a year in this company than we would. People say, oh, you only make 300? Well, you know what?
Speaker 1
It’s better than what most people do. True or false? I want more. I know I’m not there yet, but I look at it. We get our residual income every Friday night. We get a freaking check from shit we did in 1993. And I look at it and go, what jackasses would pay me for stuff I did 30 years ago. But they keep paying me. I keep cashing them. So, I mean, you know, what does the average. Here’s the whole thing. You know, when I look at it, I remember when I was in construction and I was in. I looked at guys in their forties, looked like they were 70, right? I’d be there loading trucks. I’d go to college during the day. I’d load trucks at night. I’d go to the gym the next morning, or I’d go out drinking with the boys.
Speaker 1
Swear to God, were up 20 hours straight. But then I start, and I could do this shit forever because I’m only 20. And then you look at people that are like 40, that look like they’re 60 and 70 because they’re tired of working their asses. I didn’t want that. Right. What? Look at people in your careers right now. What is their life going to look like 20 years from now? Do you want it to be yours? Why don’t people do? I don’t understand that. You know, I promised myself I was just going to read my frickin notes and sit down. Anyway, I decided that I did not want to be broke and broken down like a lot of my relatives on my mom’s side. Steel spines replaced. Knees out on disability. I didn’t want to do that.
Speaker 1
And I decided that I wanted to be in business for myself. But then I realized something. I needed freedom. I needed no product, no physical product, no inventory, minimal expenses, and minimum exposure with residual income. So I went out and built it because I couldn’t find it. So before Primerica, I opened up a communications company. And I went and contracted with all these companies to go provide services. And then I recruited agents, taught them to, so that they can go out and make sales and I can get what overrides. What I didn’t understand, David, was I was raising up my competition. I would go away on vacation, come back and drive down Hempstead Turnpike, and there’d be two more cell phone stores and two more long distance stores. And I’d go in and be the same frickin people I talked the business to.
Speaker 1
How’s that for security? Right? We used a real estate thing, in the opinion. I don’t understand the real estate thing. I don’t sell real estate. I did that, though. I had big companies tell me that they weren’t going to pay me because I didn’t meet my minimum that month. How about that? Some of you all come in primeric. You make one sale a year, and they never say a damn word to you. I thought that was opportunity, right? Look at the left side. This was me beforehand. Use expenses, payroll minimums, by company. Sometimes you would sell something that maybe wasn’t the best thing for the client because you had to make your contractual minimum. Ain’t that something? I know. Go judge me right? Judge me now. Oh, you sold the wrong thing. Right? Long distance at the time was long distance.
Speaker 1
I didn’t give a crap. Right. So territory limits, right? These companies would say, well, you can only sell in a tri state area. Legal fees. You know what I saw when I saw primerica? I need to make an extra $10,000 a month to pay this. Lawyers that were chasing the other companies for the money they owed me when I left, they owed me hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars in residual income. Residual income. And I walked away to do this because I said, you know what? I’m tired of working to pay lawyers to fight crap that I’m probably never going to get. Training. The competition we talked about, no support, no training, no mentorship. Who’s mentoring people? Right? Listen, you can see all this stuff on the other side.
Speaker 1
Listen, I want to wrap up with this because I don’t want to go over. I built and trained my competition. That pissed me off. We talked about that. So who do you surround yourself with? Think about that for a second as we wrap this up. Who are your mentors and didn’t have your financial interests at heart? See, one thing that turned me on here is my upline said to me, I can’t make money unless you make money. That was a fail safe for me. Right? What lifestyle do you want to duplicate? Do you want to be broke, tired, and negative, living in mediocrity or wealthy with family time and money and a lifestyle? Right? So, listen, when it comes to building, it’s the one thing that comes with financial independence. You got to have that residual income, that freedom.
Speaker 1
So build wealth with assets over the next 20 to 30 years or build wealth with people over the next five to seven. Your choice. Look for people that are motivated, not motivated people. All right with that? I’m good. I got all the crap, but it’s all right. Joe Cardino.
