Executive TLDR
Mental toughness determines whether you stay in the game or get taken out by emotions.
Adversity either contracts you or expands you — your choice.
Leaders take responsibility when teams lose and raise standards through action.
Success habits, production, and discipline create credibility.
Recommit, don’t quit — winners bounce back stronger.
Video Summary
Staying In The Game Requires Mental Toughness
Leighton Brown opens with humor, then gets straight to the truth:
If you are not mentally strong, this business will take you out.
Emotions slow motion.
When you become emotional, you immobilize your progress.
You cannot make a million excuses and a million dollars at the same time.
Adversity Builds Character
Life will happen.
The question is not whether challenges come — it is how you respond.
When adversity hits, you have two options:
Contract
Expand
You can break down…
Or you can break records.
He reframes the word impossible:
“I’m possible.”
Leadership Means Accountability
In sports, when a team loses, who gets fired first?
The coach.
Leighton emphasizes:
When the team wins, it’s on them.
When the team loses, it’s on us.
Instead of blaming people, ask:
What can I do better?
How can I raise intensity?
Are my habits aligned with success?
You are born looking like your parents.
You die looking like your habits.
Habits Decide Outcomes
Success is routine-driven.
If one person wakes at 5 AM and another at 10 AM, over time the disciplined one wins.
Check your habits:
Are you getting up early?
Are you producing daily?
Are you improving?
Losing seasons don’t define you — quitting does.
Rebounding From Personal Loss
Leighton shares the passing of his father — one of the most difficult seasons of his life.
He faced a choice:
Stop the business.
Or expand through pain.
He chose expansion.
He structured his work around hospital visits.
He stayed in meetings.
He kept producing.
Why?
Because idle minds invite negativity. Staying busy builds strength.
Since that season, his organization produced over $300,000 in income and achieved senior leadership milestones.
Pain became fuel.
Failure Is Part Of Winning
He highlights examples:
Starbucks failed over 200 times before scaling into a global powerhouse.
Amazon went nine years without profit before becoming a trillion-dollar company.
Tom Brady was drafted 199th and became the greatest of all time.
Failure is not final.
It is feedback.
“No” means next opportunity.
Recommit Don’t Quit
Good people do not quit — they recommit.
If someone quits, they were not your best person.
High producers might leave.
But you cannot quit with them.
Leighton returned to personal production:
50 calls per day
50 direct messages per day
10 to 20 new prospects weekly
Averaging strong personal numbers monthly
Leaders must lead from the front.
You cannot coach from the sidelines.
Manager Versus Player
Managers talk.
Players execute.
If a player fumbles, they say:
“Coach, give me the ball again.”
He urges leaders to stay in the game personally — not just supervise it.
Becoming An Asset Not A Liability
When joining a new hierarchy, he humbled himself.
He asked:
Am I raising standards?
Am I an asset or a liability?
Am I bringing energy or complaints?
Respect is earned through numbers, not noise.
Let production speak.
Nameless Faceless Or Recognized
Do you want to walk into a room and nobody know who you are?
Or do you want your name associated with performance?
Recognition in business is earned through:
Consistency
Production
Discipline
Presence
Excuses repeat themselves.
Producers repeat results.
Time Is Ticking
At 30 years old, Leighton reflected on his classmates.
Most lacked clarity, income growth, or direction.
He made a powerful point:
Making $2,000 per month feels heavy.
Making $20,000 per month feels light.
Mental strength changes outcomes.
Final Message
Adversity is coming.
When it does:
Stay in the game.
Recommit.
Lead from the front.
Raise standards.
Expand, don’t contract.
Mental toughness is built — not given.
FAQs
Who delivered this message?
Leighton Brown.
What is the core theme?
Staying mentally tough and remaining in the game through adversity.
What does “emotions slow motion” mean?
Letting emotions control you stops your business momentum.
How should leaders respond when the team struggles?
Take responsibility and raise personal intensity.
What is meant by contract or expand?
Adversity can shrink your effort or increase your growth.
How did Leighton handle his father’s passing?
He structured work around hospital visits and stayed productive.
What does “No means next opportunity” teach?
Rejection is redirection, not failure.
Why mention Starbucks and Amazon?
To show that massive success often follows repeated setbacks.
What separates managers from players?
Players execute daily and lead from the front.
What is recommitting?
Choosing to continue stronger instead of quitting when challenges arise.
How do you avoid being nameless and faceless?
Produce consistently and show up relentlessly.
Why are habits so important?
Daily routines compound into long-term results.
Glossary
Mental Toughness
The ability to stay focused, productive, and positive despite setbacks or adversity.
Contract Versus Expand
Two responses to adversity — shrinking effort or increasing growth.
Recommit
Choosing to renew effort and discipline instead of quitting.
Personal Production
An individual’s direct contribution in sales, recruiting, and activity.
Idle Mind Principle
The idea that inactivity invites negative thoughts and emotional decline.
Asset Versus Liability
Whether your presence strengthens or weakens your organization.
Stay in the game.
Recommit when it gets hard.
Expand when others contract.
Transcript:
Perfect. Wow. So I guess I’m officially one of the old guys. I woke up this morning, a back pain. I got an email from AARP. I’m like, what’s going on? It was crazy, right? But I definitely want to take number one. Thank God for allowing me to be up here. Number two, for you guys who follow me on social media the last two days, that’s the best birthday I ever had, ever. So everybody can say, thank you, Veronica. She’s right here. Okay. Thank you guys so much. So, she’s awesome, right? Best thing ever happened to me. Orion says, yeah, keep on. Ali said, keep on recruiting, recruiting. I said, yep. Keep on recruiting until you find a good one. Right, guys? Now I’m being funny, but, guys, so super excited, guys, about today. This presentation we got planned. Got about staying in the game.
Staying in the game and being mentally tough, right? Staying in the game. Be mentally tough, guys, because this business, if you’re not mentally strong, guys, you’ll be out of here. You can’t make a million excuses and make a million dollars at the same time, guys, your emotions will take you out of business. If you guys break down the word emotions. Emotions mean to slow down. We talk about emotions. Immobilized mean you stop. Right, guys? So if you’re emotional, you stop the motion of your business. You guys, follow me, right? So, guys, so one thing about dealing with adversity, guys. Adversity builds character. Adversity builds character. Guys. People only really care about their character. How you respond to something, life is going to happen to you, right? Next thing I want to talk about, guys, listen, when adversity hits, you can either contract or expand.
You guys, follow me. See, guys, you guys know, a couple of years ago, well, two years ago, my dad passed away, right? That was a very trying time because I had opportunity. Hey, I can stop the business or keep going, right? The next thing, guys, you got to focus on. You can either break or you can break record, right, guys, you want to break or you can break records. You can break down with your problems, right? Or you can go and break records. If you guys think about the word impossible, right? The word impossible really means I am possible. You guys, follow me. The word impossible has a two part meaning. It means that I’m actually possible, right? The next thing is, guys, we focus a lot on our people, guys, about being mentally tough, right? So when things.
When adversity comes, you got to always think about, okay, when a team wins, is on them. When a team loses, is on us. You guys, follow me? You guys look at sports. Look at football teams or basketball team. When a team has a bad season, what happened? Who’s the first person to get fired? The coach. You guys follow me. So ain’t somebody. Our team is not doing well. I say, hey, what can I do better? See why I got to do better? To increase the intensity, right? Increase the intensity, right? Guys. I look at my routines. See guys, you’re born looking like your parents but you die looking like your habits. You guys follow me, right? So guys, you got to check your habits. Are you having success habits? Are your habits conducive with you growing, right? Are you still getting up late?
You still getting up at guys. If you someone who get up at 09:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.. Guys. And you got someone else that get by 05:00 a.m.. Guys. You cannot beat that person, right, guys, you got to understand, guys, you have to lose to win. You guys know I always say, guys, you show me a happy loser, I’ll show you a loser. Guys, the first TBA lesson, a long time that we came to, guys, or he was, we was not number one or not top three, guys. And if you see my face, guys, you understand I’m not happy. You guys follow me. But understand that’s adversity. It is what it is. But we’ll come back, right? Dream chases will come back, right, guys? So I’m super excited by our team, guys. We definitely not be up here with our team.
Guys, you understand when you’re going through adversity God is removing something out of your life to bring something bigger in your life. If it’s really coming out your life, guys, you try to hold on to it. A lot of times, guys, you can be holding on to your past and it’s stopping your future. Let it go, guys. Guys. Sometimes you got to let people go because they’re heavy. You guys, follow me. Guys, you got to get to the next level, right? So guys, you got understand to the biggest losers, right? Became the biggest winners. You guys know about Starbucks, all y’all coffee people, right? It’s Starbucks. It should be called $5 but it’s very $7 $10, right, guys? Thank God I don’t drink coffee, right? Never had coffee in my life. So, guys, Starbucks failed 217 times and now worth over $100 billion.
Do you guys follow me? Some of you guys came on last 217 seconds in Primerica, right? Did anybody in here ever start bleeding because someone says no? Anybody ever died? No, right guys? Actually guys, no. Is an acronym. No means next opportunity. Everybody say, next opportunity. Guys, Amazon didn’t profit the first nine years. The first nine years, no profits now worth $1.2 trillion. Tom Brady, right, guys, didn’t start playing. Didn’t start for Michigan until his senior year of college. Was also the 109 9th pick. And Tom Brady is the goat of football. Argue with somebody else. You guys follow me. So, guys, you got to be a biggest loser. Be your biggest winners because losers, you understand? Okay, what am I doing wrong? But now you got to start hanging with winners.
See, some of you guys, the reason why you’re not growing is because you’re the biggest fish in your pond. You guys, follow me. You got to understand, guys. If you want to grow, guys, you got to go from being the biggest fish in your pond to be the smallest fish in someone else’s pond so you can grow. You guys, follow me so far, guys, rebounding from losing your best guy, right, guys? So David Harris called me and say, hey, can you speak? I said, man, you know, I’d love to speak about that. He said, man, talk about losing your best guy. I said, what do you mean my best guy’s still here. Javarian, Tasia, Bruce, what are you talking about? You guys follow me. Guys. Put your hands together, guys, for Javarian, Tasia, Bruce, my guys told you lose. My best guys.
See, I understand. Your best guy wouldn’t quit. You follow me if you say, hey, my best guy quit. That wasn’t your best guy, right? Javars and Tasia, you know, the average 35 x 35. They’ll be a vice president here shortly, right? So, guys, good people don’t quit. They recommit. Everybody say recommit. Guys. High producers. I told David, I said, hey, my best guy didn’t quit. A high producer did. But I’m not going to quit with you. Do you guys follow me? Because somebody. Listen, guys, somebody got to put salt on the fries, right? Someone has to validate a car. Just not you, right, guys? So don’t quit with that person. I’ve never known someone acquit Primerica and their lifestyle is better than ours. Anybody else? I’ve never seen someone quit the business and their lifestyle is better. Guys, listen.
So I said, okay, what can I do personally? What can I do? Working myself personally, right, guys? How can I say to myself, I can produce? Everybody say, I can produce. If you guys know for a long time, guys, coming to this tbls. I’ve been coming here since it started, guys. I’ve won so many trophies here on personal production. So, guys, everybody say I can produce. I said, okay, instead of looking at the problem, right, guys, I’m going to get in the game. See, coaches, see, when you’re watching football, right, and it starts raining, do you see the coaches leave? Who leaves? The fans. I don’t know what happened. All right, so the fans leave. You guys follow me. The coaches stay in the game with them.
So, guys, why I did, because I got back in the game before that, about three months ago, was averaging about three by three a month. Personal, right? Guys, if you guys know me, that’s not my talent at all. I say, you know what? I’m going to get back in the game. Get back in the game, guys. The last three months, we’ve been averaging five by 17,000. Personal. You guys, follow me. Get back in the game. Guys, leave from the front. See, guys, you can only talk about what you’re doing, not what I used to do. Someone said it today, we don’t want to hear from someone who, oh, I did this 20, 30, 40 years ago. What are you doing now? Right? When you was doing Primerica, there was no zoom, there’s no computers.
Y’all was tying policies to a bird leg and send it to home office. Like, things change. You guys follow me. What are you doing right now? You guys follow me. John Lavin, not going. I’m playing, right? So, guys, so I go back in the game. I said, you know what? I’m going to get back in the game, guys. Started making 50 phone calls a day. Started sending out 50 direct messages a day. I got to start doing ten to 20 prospects on a weekly basis. When I go out, you guys follow me. See, guys, I had to make a decision. Some of you guys in Primerica, we rush to a level to be managers. Who in here like managers? See, guys, there’s a big difference between being a manager and a player. See, players get in the game. See, players, see a real player.
If they go out there and fumble, they’ll get back up and say, hey, coach, give me the ball. I say, okay, if I want to recoach my guys, I’m going to get back into the base shop and soldier vars, who can be the best person, producer. Now I’m playing, brother. I love you for that, bro. But listen, guys, I said, listen, I’m going to go out there and get wide. I’m going to go out there and get new players, right? I’m not going to quit. We’re going to recommit. Everybody say recommit. Guys, being in Primeca ten years. Where am I going to go? I can’t dance. You guys know I can’t dance. What Lewis and Allie did. Not even going to try it. I’m 30 years old now. I’m not going to try. You guys can’t sing.
Primerica is the only thing I can do. You guys follow me. But it’s a good thing, right, guys? $20,000 a month, right? So, guys. So, rebound from dad passing, right, dad? Adversity. See, guys. See, going through that was the toughest time. I thought prior to that was tearing my ACL. But watching a guy who instilled entrepreneurship in me pass away, lose 80 pounds in seven weeks, that was really tough, right? So how did I work with that? See, a lot of times people, and I might step on some toes, but you guys know I’m very direct. Because, guys, I always say, if you’re direct, you get direct deposits. If you’re passive, you’ll never get paid passively. You guys follow me. I say, hey, listen, I did my appointments around his doctor appointments. See, some people, someone gets sick.
Someone dissing you at the hospital all day. Why are you sitting there all day? Are you a doctor? Get to work. You guys follow me. Like, you don’t got to be there all day? I was there 2 hours a day. I was loving on him, reminding him, hey, I’m going to make you proud. You’re my dad, et cetera. Stay busy. Because I read a book every year called outwitting the devil. The devil attacks our idle mind. So when you’re alone, see, some of you guys go through problems, you want to be by your loan. The bible says you need friends. Why are you going to be alone? You can’t figure it out? Why figure it out? Go ask someone else who went through it and go through it. You guys follow me. See, I stay busy, right? I didn’t miss a meeting.
I came on every single meeting the first five weeks. Nobody even know he was sick, right, Eric? You guys even know he was sick, right? Guys, people respect. Have a. You gotta care about what people say about you growing up, all the things our parents taught us about. Don’t care about what someone think about you. You should care about someone think about you. You can say all you want to say about Layton, but you can’t say I’m not tough. Can’t say I don’t rebound. You can’t say that, right, guys? People work harder. So I decided to see a game that I played myself because I was being super positive about my dad, but it was getting really bad. If you guys know jamaican parents, they’ll still do the same thing. But you’re diabetic, bro. Put the chocolate down. Like, what are you doing?
They don’t care. You guys follow me. So I said, hey, I’m going to work harder, so you’d be proud of me. See, I started getting deeper into the Bible. I understood being absent from the body to be present with the lord. See, I understand that passing right is a celebration of heaven. We’re not really home. When you go home, you’re going to be home. You guys follow me. Amen to that. And guys, when he finally passed away, right, he passed away when I went to go see him in the morning. And I left to go rush to Edward and Gabby’s manager’s meeting. And by the time I was leaving, right, and probably like 20 minutes after I left, because it was pretty far from the house, the doctor called me and said, hey, he’s not breathing. Come back.
We came back there was all kind of crazy stuff. It was bad. Still went to the meeting. See, the game that I put in myself, I said, you know what? Some of you guys have someone close to you that pass away the game that I played myself. Is that okay? When they’re in heaven, is your loved one going to be proud of you and bragging about you or disappointing you? See, for me, I know my dad’s in heaven. Say, you know what? I’m proud of my son. Look what he did. Since that. Since that happened, we made $304,000, right, guys? Got top of the company, senior leadership. You guys follow me. All since December 2021, right, guys? So I didn’t contract. Thank you, guys. I didn’t contract. I expand, it’s going to happen. Are you going to be prepared for it? Right, guys?
Ask yourself the question, guys. And I want to end with this now. Next thing is, guys start a new hierarchy. And this is not at all saying that, hey, if something happens, you go to another hierarchy. Don’t run, right, guys? Don’t walk into an office and say, oh, what can the office do for me? Ask yourself, what can I do for the office? Because you guys don’t know. I live 4 hours from Edward and Gabby, 4 hours south, right? So two years in my living room, doing primerica, doing 40 x 40. The most we did right was 80 x 50 in my living room. No excuses. So coming to the new office, prior to that, I already got my watch. Prior to that, I won like eleven trips on the bay shop prior to that, made $13,000.
Prior to that, I had a lot of success when I came into the office, right? And thank God for the Ortiz family for welcoming me now as a stepchild, as a child, right? I said, you know, I’m going to humble myself and be a student again. I’m going to cheerlead the system, right, guys? I’m going to respect everyone. Guys, you got to respect people whether you like them or not. Guys, you got to respect them. I say, hey, I’m going to let my results do the talking. See, some people in primerica, they do a little bit they want to talk about, bro, let the respect do the talking. I mean, let your numbers do the talking. I’m sorry, right, guys? I said, I’m going to be the hardest worker in the area of the hierarchy because they ain’t know me.
Right, guys, ask yourself this, right? Am I going to be an asset or a liability to the hierarchy? Ask yourself this question. On your team, are you an asset or liability? Are you a positive person? Are you a producer? Are you at every single meeting? Or are you complaining? Whining, oh, why the kid in here crying? Why this? Why that? See, if you look for a problem, you’ll find a problem, right? Sometimes you’re the problem. So you all looking for all these problems? Go look in the mirror. You’re the problem. Right, guys? I said, you know what? I’m going to raise the standards through numbers. I’m going to start talking about 20,000 personal. Prior to that, they weren’t talking about that. I’m going to start talking about making 10,000 in cash in the base.
I’m talking about doing 50 by 50 in the base shop. Raise the standards. I understand. Listen, I don’t override all y’all, but I override all y’all. Do you guys follow me? So I don’t override everybody in this room. Yet one day, our hierarchy going to be this big, right? But I understand that if I pour into everyone, everybody, make the company look better, there’s more to talk about. You guys follow me. God. Listen, I didn’t rest on my previous wins coming here and say, oh, what I used to do, right? I didn’t come here to bring my past, because it’ll stop my future, right? And I want to make a name for myself. I always talk to people about guys being a nameless, faceless person in primerica. And I’m going to end with this.
Guys, what do I mean by when I say nameless, faceless guys? Do you want to be a nameless, faceless district leader? Do you want to walk in a room and nobody know who you are? Do you want to be a nameless, faceless division leader? A nameless, faceless regional leader? So you guys walk in here and you hear, named Ryan, you hear, named Tasia and Javaris, you guys know who they are? See, before it was Tacia, now it’s Tasia. Before it was Jarvis, now it’s Javaris. You guys follow me. You earn that through numbers. You guys follow me. So, guys, are you going to be a nameless, faceless RVP? How many meetings are you going to keep on coming to because of adversity?
How many times are you going to miss a meeting or leave early because leave it early of a meeting because something happened? You notice how people who make excuses always find excuses? Every single time you got a zoom, there’s a reason your camera off. Every single training is a reason why you can’t beat her to kids, the kids. We got people up here with three, four or five kids, single moms, single dads. Guys, stop making excuses for your future. The clock is ticking. God. Listen, yesterday, right? Yesterday, turning 30 years old, right? I guess I’m part of one of the old guys now, right? But anyways, turning 30 years old yesterday, I said, man, you know what, I’m grateful for where I am. I made a lot of mistakes, but I’m grateful because I want to share this the last 15 seconds.
I had an opportunity to go to my high school homecoming last week and all of my classmates, except for one, he plays in the NFL. No one there is living a lifestyle how we’re living. No one there know where they want to go, what they want to do, the kind of income they want to make. He said, man, don’t you feel old? He said, yeah, man, I’m making about $2,000 a month right now. I said, yeah, you feel old? Can you make it $2,000 a month? I said, when you’re making $20,000 a month, you feel young. You guys follow me. So, God, that’s my time, guys. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. David Harris, have a good day.
