Executive TLDR
Proximity determines growth—stay close to winners.
Be coachable and execute the play exactly as taught.
Set specific, measurable, risky, time bound goals.
Build a big base shop through consistent recruiting.
Take action now—waiting kills dreams.
Success comes from constant execution toward clear goals.
Video Summary
Harvey Grajales delivers a powerful message on how proximity shapes success, sharing his journey from being brought to the country as an undocumented immigrant, facing deportation, and overcoming a troubled past to building leadership in Primerica. He emphasizes that the people in your circle either elevate or limit you, making it critical to stay close to mentors and winners. Drawing lessons from sports and business, he highlights the importance of being coachable, executing the system exactly as taught, and embracing recruiting as a sales process. He challenges leaders to commit to a three year vision by setting specific, measurable, risky, and time bound goals while building a strong base shop through consistent directs and production. His core message centers on the principle of TAN—Take Action Now—because waiting leads to the law of diminishing intent. Success is not secretive; it is constant execution in the direction of a clearly defined goal.
FAQs
What does “proximity is power” mean?
It means the people you consistently surround yourself with influence your mindset, standards, and results.
Why is coachability important in leadership?
Being coachable allows you to execute proven systems instead of relying on ego or guesswork.
What is the three year challenge concept?
A commitment to double income, help more families, and grow production through focused long term planning.
How do you build a big base shop?
By consistently recruiting directs, promoting leaders, and increasing monthly sales production.
What is TAN?
TAN stands for Take Action Now—the discipline of acting immediately to avoid losing momentum.
Glossary
Proximity
The influence created by consistently being around driven, successful individuals.
Base Shop
The foundational production and recruiting engine of a team or organization.
Coachability
The willingness to accept guidance and execute proven strategies without resistance.
Law of Diminishing Intent
The principle that the longer you delay action, the less likely you are to take it.
Leverage
Increasing income by expanding distribution through recruiting and team development.
Constant Execution
Daily disciplined action aligned with clearly defined goals.
Transcript:
Man, oh man, I love you guys, every last one of you guys. Thanks so much for Wilma, Raquel, Keith and Danielle. The crew’s amazing. Now I have to go back to McDonald’s, right? We had a butler, so now, damn Shelly, right? But not. It’s amazing to be around like minded individuals and individuals that are growing. But we gotta get to work because I know we won. The main thing when you come to one of these events, I think is leaving the event a different person, you know, and being more engaged. And it’s what happens. But before we get into the message real quick, guys, I’ve been in this country, I’m from. Anybody know where Colombia is? Good place to be from, far away from, right? And man, it’s crazy. Full circle, right?
I was brought to this country as an illegal immigrant at the age of four. And by the time I was 18, I was deported, right? So we come from a background where we don’t have a mom, I don’t have a dad, don’t have aunts and uncles, you know, I was kind of like brought here, dropped off David and let to go. As a matter of fact, in this particular area, right, I’ve gone to all the alternative schools. Pocono Mountain, Pocono High, Strasburg, East Strasburg, Jim Thorpe. I’ve gotten kicked out of every last school in this area, right? So I’m always afraid to come back here. There’s always something wrong. I’m always afraid to drive through here. I’m like, man, if they pull me over, they see my name, oh man, it’s going to be problem, right? But full circle, right? Proximity is very powerful.
The people that are in your circle are either going to bring you down or influence you. Does that make sense? So I’m very thankful for a business like Primerica and all the leaders in this room, you know, even the ones that the names don’t get called, you always have something to learn from people. Just really quick, right? I wanted to give out some recognition real quick. We have Bryson, Lexi, our remote team from Pittsburgh, right? They did over 30 by 20,000, 40 by 20,000. They’ll be going to regional. Vice president will be number five. Cammy will put on $100,000 ring in the next few hours. You got Remy, right, number one in license, did over 30 by 20,000 last month. Garfield and area up and coming. They should be going to rvp Maggie, who just number one in the country for plpp, right?
Winning the dag on trip. Shout out to Maggie. You got Brittany from Pittsburgh also got 30 recruits last month, man, from Florida. They drove the way up from Florida, right? Iri and Lynn just got their SIE license. So you got Mercedes going to rvp. She’s going to be one of our biggest leaders, man. Let me ask you guys something. Was Michael Jordan better than Phil Jackson? He was better than Phil Jackson. However, though, check this out, right? Michael Jordan was one of the few players who listened to what the coach had to say. Although he’s better than the coach. Although he’s better than the coach, he executed the play the exact same way, right? And so one of the things that I want to talk to you guys about is being teachable, being coachable, right? Your mentor knows the way.
Stay very close to him, have that merger with them. But let’s get to work really quick, right? We left the convention, if we can get this up on the screen. We left the convention and Glen Williams had a challenge for everybody, right? What is your three year challenge? You should leave here with some sort of challenge. He said double your income, right? Help more families. What’s up, baby? Oh, okay. No, he said help more families, right? Art Williams used to say it in a way, it says create more financial independent families than anyone before. That’s what your business should target, right? Eliminate the insurance industry as we know it, right? It Both encompasses the 50% rule of the 50%, the 50, which I’m calling, damn it, the 50 rule, right?
And so 50% of the time we need to be selling the dream, meaning, you know, don’t talk negative to any of your downlines about, you know, someone quit on you’re having a down day, you got a damn cheeseburger, a charge bag, it happens to all of us. Nobody cares, right? Don’t talk negative. So 50% is telling the dream. Kami, you’re going to be one of the greatest, you’re going to be the best. Oh my God, you know what I’m saying? Like you got to continue to sell the dream. If you continue to go, Keith, there’s nothing that’s going to stop you. People like you are meant to be at the freaking top 50% of the time. Sell the daggone dream, right? The other time is the crusade. What we do, we fix it, we’re fixing the industry one by one, right?
Art Williams said recruiting is nothing more than the sales process, right? We made a decision when were in this room facing the crowd, just to face in the crowd that we wanted to be number one. And the only way we can get there is to get leverage, right? We’re in capitalism, right? The way you make more money, right, is through distribution of more products and more services. Primerica gives you the opportunity to capitalize by recruiting and training and development. More people, it says right there, right? Recruiting is nothing more than a sales process, right? And so every time we meet with somebody like a Queenie, I’m always saying, man, don’t worry about it. You’re meant to be number one. You know, it’s a sales process. I gotta sell them on them being big, right? So let’s keep moving. Bill widow says, right.
To be great in sales, people have to like you and trust you. So have a checkup from the neck up, right? If people aren’t around you for too long, then you just gotta learn a few people skills, right? John Maxwell says the law of the buy in. So what is, you know, people buy into you before they buy into where you’re going and what you’re doing, right? Do you still have something about you that turns you on about where you’re going? Right? So some of the steps to accomplishing the challenge one is set a goal. I’m really big. We’re very big on setting goals, right? So get a goal, get a plan and get started. Let’s keep it moving, right? Because I got four minutes, right? It says set smarter goals.
So the acronym there on the right hand side, you’ll see the red S stands for something specific. What is it that you want? Be very specific about it, right? Make it measurable by when are you going to get it done? Hey, let it be actionable. Have an action plan behind it. Today when you leave, tomorrow when you leave. I recommend writing your goals down every morning and every night. By the way, I don’t recommend that crap. I just followed other people that taught me how to do it, right? Risky, right? Make sure that it’s risky. It needs to scare you. People need to laugh at your goals. It’s okay if they’re not laughing at you. Your goals are not big enough. One of my goals is to make sure we take out Willie. Damn it. Okay? Laugh your ass off, right?
And so again, if I miss, I’m still up there laughing at most anyway, right? Make it time bound, make it exciting and make it relevant. Right? Part two says step two. Get a plan based on your goals. Right? Assumptions. So all good things go to those who build big bay shops. Say big base shop, right? A big bay shop should have a minimum of 100 sales a month, right? Plan one is this in the first 90 days. On the conservative side, on the first 90 days, right? You have six to 12 personal directs. One to three person, one to three personal directs. Who’s your next direct district that you’re promoting? Right? Plan two, the second 90 days, do it again. Another six to 12 directs. Everybody wants to have the team, the licenses and everything.
You got to start in the beginning focused on the front end of the business, which is getting more directs. That’s like opening new outlets. Very simple. Tattoo that on your ass cheek if you have to, right? But you gotta do that if you want the big things in the business, right? Win the day, win the week, win the month, win the quarter, win the year. And then we’ll win the next three years together. You guys with me? Yes or no, right? It says this, right? The trick to it is tan. Tan stands for take action now. When you leave this place, take action now. We’re not waiting for tomorrow. The clock is ticking. You heard Roy Lipson talk about it. Write his ticker anyway, right? Remember what? Remember this, right? Waiting feels safe, but waiting kills dreams and goals. You gotta be risky, right?
The secret to winning isn’t a secret. It’s constant execution in the direction of the goal, right? So you can imagine, guys, you can sit here and imagine you’re gonna be a million dollar earner. You’re gonna be, you know, the next thing, the next hottest thing, and that’s all cool and dandy. You’re gonna drive the nicest of cars. That’s all good, right? But if you don’t execute, it means, you know, it means squat, all right? It’s all plans and no punch like last night. You guys watch the fight like all plans, man. No punches at all were thrown, right? And so look, because what happens, right, we all set a goal, and that’s the law of intentionality is New Year’s resolutions that are coming around. The law of intention, that everybody wants to do something.
But what happens with most people is that we wait to take action. And because we wait to take action, then the next thing that comes in, Jim Rowland says, is the law of diminishing intent. You wanted to go to the gym today, but you waited. Now tomorrow is twice as hard. Does that make sense? So the key to it is take action now, right? It states that the longer you wait to take action, the less likely that you’ll do it, right? The leap principle. Read that book if you get a chance. I’m going to run through this, right? Goals demand change. If I wanted to lose weight, right, we had to change the way were eating. I wanted to build a bigger base shot. We had to wait. We had to change our schedule. Right. And so attitude determines this. Right.
A subtle way of thinking. Anyway, the same reasons people fail are the same reasons people succeed in this business. People fails because they’re afraid of rejection. People succeed is because they embraced rejection. People fail because they say, I don’t have a support group. People that succeed, they develop a support group. Right. People fail because they’re not coachable. People succeed because they’re real coachable. Right. Some people fail because they say, I don’t have a mark. So the same things that help you fail is the same things that help you succeed. Guys, we’re on our way to crushing this thing. Becoming multi million dollar earners. We will have 12 direct million dollar earners. We will take over this company and be number one. Goals demand change. Keith Otto. Love you like a brother from another. See you guys at the top.
