Executive TLDR
The Power of Environment: Coming from poverty in Cuba, Fernandez highlights that the best way to change your life is to be “next to something” successful.
Expert Influence: He warns against letting loved ones who aren’t successful in business influence your financial decisions; listen only to those in the “money business.”
Volume vs. Efficiency: Success isn’t just about being better; it’s about being bigger through systematic licensing.
Ownership: To fix a problem in your business, you must first own it. If you don’t own the problem, you can’t be the solution.
Video Summary
Eduar Fernandez, who moved from Cuba to the U.S. after his father won a visa lottery, shares his perspective on building a hierarchy that recruits over 2,500 people annually. He emphasizes that while he achieved high-level success (becoming a $200,000+ earner and leading a team of 300 agents), his journey would have been smoother had he mastered three specific areas earlier.
Fernandez focuses on the mental shift required to move from an immigrant “survival” mindset to a “wealth-building” mindset. He candidly discusses the friction of being a 19-year-old entrepreneur with parents who valued traditional college over business ownership. His three core lessons—selling out to big events, licensing large numbers, and radical coachability—serve as a blueprint for new representatives to avoid the “hard work” trap of high recruiting with low licensing.
FAQs
What is Eduar Fernandez’s background? He was born in Cuba and moved to the United States around age ten after his father won a lottery ticket.
How old was he when he started in Primerica? He started when he was 19 years old.
When did he pass his licensing exam? February 28, 2014.
How many people does his organization recruit? They currently recruit over 2,500 people per year.
What is the first thing Fernandez would have done better? Sell out more to “big events” to get inspired by people with similar backgrounds.
Why are big events important? Because people get inspired by those they are like, unlike, or want to be like.
What is the second thing he would have done better? Pay more attention to licensing large numbers of people.
Why is licensing more important than just recruiting? Because if you don’t license people, you have to work too hard; being “bigger” is often what wins in production.
What does he say about the relationship between codes and income? He notes that your number of licensed codes is usually equal to your rolling twelve-month income.
What is the third thing he would have done better? He would have been “way more coachable” from the very beginning.
What advice does he give regarding parents and spouses? Don’t let their success (or lack thereof) in business influence your career if they aren’t in the “money business.”
How does he describe the “money business”? He says if you are in the money business, you should listen to people successful in money, just as you’d expect a McDonald’s worker to bring home burgers.
What does Fernandez say about “owning” problems? He states that you must own a problem to be the solution to it.
How much production does his hierarchy do? They do about 100,000 in production per month.
Who does he credit for his inspiration? Leaders like Charlemagne and Tesla, specifically seeing their success as immigrants.
What is his philosophy on “seasons”? He believes life has seasons of winning, learning, happiness, and sadness, and you must stick with it through all of them.
Glossary
Big Events: Large-scale Primerica conventions or meetings designed for inspiration and training.
Licensing: The process of getting a recruit legally authorized to sell financial products (Life, Securities, etc.).
Coachability: The willingness to follow the exact instructions of a mentor or “upline” without deviation.
Hierarchy: The organizational structure of agents and leaders underneath a Regional Vice President.
Base Shop: The primary group of agents directly managed by an RVP before they “break out” into their own offices.
Rolling Twelve: A metric measuring a leader’s total income or production over the most recent 12-month period.
Transcription:
Hey, good morning, everybody. How are you guys doing? All right. All right, let’s practice participation. How are you guys doing? There you go. Awesome. Awesome. I just want to thank God for putting me in front of you guys for my hasten. Sock. Bas. Come on. So hey, so awesome to be here again, just want to thank God for putting me in front of all you guys. Just want to thank David. What an amazing event, ain’t it? Man, that’s awesome. Omar, thank you for the gift. Laura. I appreciate you guys so much. Just the school as a whole, I just appreciate you guys so much. They say it takes a village to raise a child. I don’t know if you guys ever heard that before, but, I started in this business when I was 19 years old.
For those of you guys that don’t know me, I’m actually not from here. I was born in Cuba. Anybody from the Caribbean around here? A little bit, yeah. Let’s go. I was actually born in Cuba when I was five years old. My father won a lottery ticket to come into the United States. When we got here, I was almost ten years old. When we got here, my father started working at a factory, my mom started working at a restaurant, and they always worked two to three jobs growing up. As I was growing up, as you guys know, the best way to be next to something is to be next to something. Does that make sense? The challenge that as we go through different levels of consciousness is when we come from poverty, like Haiti or Cuba, right?
Or South America, we’re born so poor that we don’t really believe that we can go to that level. By a show of hands, if you guys agree with me, you all know what I’m talking about, right? As we come here, we’re like, man, I remember as a little kid, even the doors opening by themselves. I thought anybody thought that was crazy because anybody asked their parents to go to the mall to ride the elevator. You know what I’m talking about? The stairs. You know what I mean? That was me, guys, growing up, my parents didn’t do the best financially, so I always wanted to be somebody, always wanted to do something. If you’re Hispanic, if you’re an immigrant, I think, and you come to the United States and you don’t go to college, your parents are going to disown you, right or wrong. You know what I mean?
I remember going to college, but because I had to, not because I wanted to. Man, one day I was at a gym, and somebody came up to me, I was working out, and somebody said, hey, I work with a financial company. We’re expanding, and we’re looking for people. Have you thought about doing anything else? And I was like, heck yeah, dude. Of course, guys, that was eight years ago. I passed my license on February 28 of 2014. I want to say if that’s, eight years, guys, today, we have three regional vice presidents. We have a licensed team of almost 300 agents, and, our organization, we’re recruiting over 2500 people a year right now. Ain’t that something? Just really want to give an awesome shout out to Allen, Lewis, Camille, if you guys can stand up really quick. You guys are just doing so awesome. Give it up to them.
Newly promoted RVP is killing it, about to get the ring. If we can just get him to stand up real quick. New $200,000 earner. So we’re just super cool. Of course, Erie next Rvp if you can stand up really quick. And everybody give it up for her. All right, so, guys, we’re just really grateful. I just want to say I genuinely appreciate every single one of you guys. I want to let you guys know that life is about seasons. There’s going to be seasons where you win and there are seasons when you are good. Nice. Some self development here. Learn, right? There are seasons where you’re happy and there are seasons where you’re going to be sad. I’m here to tell you guys, you just have to stick with it. As I was coming up for the speech, and if you guys know me, I really look forward to dropping a message that will help you guys.
I said, man, what can I do, guys? And you know what? The best thing that somebody can do for you is provide an example. So let me tell you guys something. A lot of times we listen to people because we love them. If I have a couple of points that I want to make you guys today is do not let somebody’s success in one area of life overflow into the next one. What do I mean by that? Let’s say that I love my parents. My parents have been together for almost 30 years. They’ve been together since they were 13 years old, okay? My parents have never had a seven figure business. I started this business, guess who were the first people that were challenging me on what I was doing? My parents. See, this happens so much with our spouses, our parents, our loved ones, and we start doubting everything our coaches upline says.
So, guys, think about it. If you want to be successful in the money business, you should listen to people that are what? Successful in the what? The money business, right? Because if you work at McDonald’s, what do you bring home? Fries, grease and burgers. Right? Okay. If you’re in construction, what do you bring in? Maybe like cement, boots, tools. Right? If you’re in the money business, what do you bring home? Come on. You get what I’m saying? If you’re in the money business, guys, you got to talk and be coachable to people that are in the money business. Okay? But, guys, look, I don’t want to take a lot of time here today, so I want to give you guys before I close, I want to give you guys three points that if I was 19 and I would start this business again, these would be the three things that I would do better.
Are you guys ready? Give me a thumbs up if you’re ready. All right, so number one I would sell out more to big events. That’d be the that would be and these are no particular order, by the way. There’s three points, sell out to two big events. Guys. You have to understand that people get inspired by people that they’re like, people that they’re unlike, or people that they want to be like. You with me. Whenever I come into your business, maybe I don’t look like you, I don’t walk like you. I don’t come from where you come from. When you come to a meeting like this, I see people that came from where I come from and I get inspired. I don’t know if Charlotte Lemon and Tesla are here. I don’t know if they’re the bathroom. Anyways. Are you guys here? Charlotte and Tesla. Yeah, maybe over here.
Guys, I’m telling you. When I came into this business and I saw Tesla putting up pictures of his house in Charlemagne, in Haiti, I was like, that’s not your house. That’s my house. You with me. I was like, I thought you could only be Puerto Rican to win here. When I met Ortiz. I saw some people, man, that came from places where I came from, I was like, man, I think I could do this. I remember coming home and telling mom, like, Mom, I’m telling you, man, I found what’s going to make us successful. And she was like, what is it? I was like, man, this is a Haitian guy. He went crazy this weekend. I couldn’t understand him, but he was excited. He was invented for Charlemagne. Tesser fired me up. Guys. The second thing that I would do is I would pay more attention to licensing large numbers.
You guys have to understand that when you don’t license people, you work too hard. So anybody? Right now that we’re beating through production, we’re really blessed with our hierarchy. We’re doing about 100,000 in production a month. About 250 recruits. We’re really blessed. But, guys, the only reason that we’re beating you guys, it’s not because we’re better. It’s just because we’re bigger. You with me? As I respect and love so much all the different levels of leadership here, they’re only beating us not because they’re better, but because they’re what? You with me? So what would I do? I would license more people. When you don’t license enough people, you work too freaking hard. You need to be look, Laura, get with her. She’s free. She’s free. Right now with my income level, we’re right where we need to be. Codes, it’s usually very equal to your income, to your rolling twelve income.
I’m telling you guys, learn the licensing system. We’ve been recruiting for three consecutive years. We recruit over 1000 people a month at the base shop level. Were number one in Rusty cross and hierarchy for three years in a row. I don’t know if you knew that, but I’m putting that out there. Guys, with those recruiting numbers, we’re blessed and we have an awesome team, but we should have been a lot bigger. You with me, but because the philosophy was like, I’ll just get another one, I’ll just get another one. See, at some point you have to stop doubting the people and you have to start doubting yourself. You’re with me because anything that I own, I can fix. If you don’t own a problem, you can’t be the solution to it. You with me. Number three guys, I would be way more coachable. I mean, I think I was pretty coachable, right?
That’s pretty coachable. Man, when I tell you guys, I would be more coachable guys from the beginning. Because if you don’t do the things the way that your coach says it’s only not going to work out and then you’re going to go back and have to do it anyways. You with me. Guys, to wrap up my part, have you guys met Gabby already? Say hi, Gabby. She’s all the way in the back. It was actually say hi, Gabby. Raise your hand, babe. So she’s the best. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. It was actually her birthday two days ago, right? I just want to take my last time and just sing her Happy Birthday. Can you guys help me with that? All right, ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Gabby. Happy birthday. Thank you guys so much.
