Executive TLDR
Eliminate fear and excuses if you want to build a real Primerica business
Recruiting and developing people is the fastest path to long-term overrides
Set the example through activity, appointments, and consistent prospecting
Master your presentation so you become confident and duplication-ready
Focus on building a team, not just writing personal production
1440 minutes per day — invest your time intentionally
Financial freedom begins when overrides grow beyond personal effort
Become “good looking” in business by producing results others want to copy
Video Summary
Ray and Carol Costello deliver a direct and passionate message about building a real Primerica business from scratch by eliminating excuses and committing fully to the process. They share how early fear, doubt, and inexperience did not stop them from taking action, knocking on doors, setting appointments, and learning through repetition. The Costellos emphasize that recruiting new talent daily and developing people is what creates long-term override income and leadership growth. Ray explains that true freedom comes when overrides generate consistent income independent of daily prospecting activity, and that belief in yourself is foundational to reaching that level. They stress mastering prospecting scripts, becoming an expert in the presentation, and using repetition — writing, saying, and listening — to build confidence. Drawing from mentorship under leaders like Joe Ensor, they highlight duplication, discipline, time management, and setting the example as essential principles. Their core message is clear: if you eliminate excuses, commit to becoming skilled, and build people instead of chasing short-term production, you can build a sustainable Primerica business anywhere, multiple times over.
FAQs
What does it mean to eliminate excuses in Primerica?
It means removing fear, procrastination, and self-doubt so you can consistently prospect, recruit, and build your team.
Why is recruiting so important in building a Primerica business?
Recruiting creates duplication and long-term overrides, which lead to sustainable income growth.
What are overrides in Primerica?
Overrides are income earned from the production of your team as you build and develop leadership.
How do you become confident in prospecting?
By learning scripts, practicing consistently, recording yourself, and refining your delivery through repetition.
Why is presentation mastery important?
Confidence and clarity in your presentation allow duplication and help your team copy success.
What does “1440 minutes a day” represent?
It represents the daily time available and the importance of investing that time intentionally toward your goals.
Why focus on team building instead of just personal sales?
Personal production creates short-term income, but team building creates scalable, long-term growth.
How can someone build the business in a new location?
By applying the same fundamentals: prospecting, recruiting, training, and duplication consistently.
What does it mean to be “good looking” in the business?
It means producing visible results that others are inspired to follow and duplicate.
How do you memorize scripts effectively?
Write them repeatedly, say them repeatedly, and listen to recordings of them with focused attention.
What mindset is required to build long term?
Belief in yourself, commitment to growth, willingness to improve skills, and consistency in activity.
What is the difference between going full time and going “fool time”?
Going full time means becoming skilled, disciplined, and prepared — not just quitting your job without mastery.
Glossary
Overrides
Income generated from the production of team members within your organization.
IBA (Independent Business Application)
The application completed by a new recruit to begin building their business.
Prospecting
The process of identifying and contacting potential recruits or clients.
Duplication
Teaching others to follow the same systems and processes to replicate success.
Presentation Mastery
Developing confidence and skill in delivering the company presentation clearly and effectively.
Hierarchy
The structured organization of team members within a Primerica business.
Security License
A professional license required to offer certain financial products and services.
Full-Time Commitment
Dedicating focused, disciplined effort toward building the business as a primary career path.
Transcript:
You know, when we got started in the business, a lot of times, you know, you doubt yourself. You’re not sure if you could really do this business, but realize you got to do the work. You got to be willing to get after it. You got to eliminate the fear to being afraid. You have to not be afraid to go out there and get to work. Okay? I tell you right now, and what do I mean by that is a lot of times we kind of procrastinate if we should get out there and go recruit and go build people and work with people. And too often you talk yourself out of prospecting, recruiting what’s going to actually be something that’s going to make you the wealthiest in this business, believe it or not, okay?
Because every day you’re seeking new talent, you’re finding new people that actually you can go work with and go build something special. And that’s why today we’re able to override such a magnificent hierarchy. Obviously, Chris houng, that’s at 1.6 million. We got John Picone and Cindy that are actually at 800,000 and soon, super excited and fired up. They were number one in securities and, you know, and so many more people. I mean, obviously the great Orville Richards, when he started 17 and didn’t have a reason to stay, but stood and today’s that $500,000 of income. So it’s not just daggone freaking powerful, the talent that starts to rise over time. But first you got to set the example. You got to get after it. You know, you got to be willing to go out there and talk to people.
You got to eliminate your fears. You got to get away from excuses yourself from doing the work and realizing that you got to get after this thing. How serious are you actually about building a real Primerica business? You know, a lot of times people say, yeah, I’m in, but you’re really not in, you’re out, okay? And the times that we say that, we’re really in. We’re not working through the process of getting out there and prospecting people, getting on appointments, getting referrals, and keep on doing that process. But you have to set the example. You gotta be the one. You know how many times I used to go and take out Chris A. Chong on an appointment and I used to. We’d knock on the door and be on the appointment. I’d say, please don’t be home.
And then I’d look at him, he’d look at me, and I said, yes, this is good. And I’m like, please don’t be home. Then we knock on the door and wait, and we walk in. I said, awesome, here we go. And went, did a presentation, didn’t even know what the heck were doing. And we did a presentation, didn’t know we had to take information. And we didn’t get kicked out. We were excited. We were too excited. Idiots. I promise you that. Okay? And we’re like, man, they didn’t kick us out. This is amazing. We’re excited and we write no business because we didn’t know how to do appointment. Okay? And today you guys have polished leaders that know how to do an appointment, get on appointment, get referrals. And were just trying. We were trying to win, try to find a way to win.
And.
And we just wanted to win so bad that it hurt. And were just following through the guidance of Joe Ensor and obviously the awesome Keith Otto and Roy Lipson. I mean, we couldn’t do this business without Roy Lipson. Roy Lipson has always been a tremendous cheerleader. I tell you, we appreciate them so much because he always said, you can do it. You can make it happen. And he actually built that faith and belief in ours to get after it. And, you know, we have so many great leaders here. Obviously, Tony and Shelly, believe it or not. I do. Me and Shelly do Zooms left a couple times a week and go out there and setting up appointments and getting stuff still today. Okay. And that’s something that we all still are actively moving forward.
And, you know, we built this business we built, started in New York, then went to Arizona for 23 years and now we’re building it in Florida again. Okay? So we. Don’t tell me you can’t build it once, okay? We’re doing it for the third time and you gotta decide that. It’s your time, it’s your opportunity. You’re here to win. You’re not gonna excuse. Excuse yourself from doing what you need to do. Eliminate your excuses. I promise you great things will happen. I couldn’t do this business without my partner is the awesome, great Ray Costello. So let’s get up for the awesome Ray Costello.
Man, oh, man. Are any of you. Are any of you excited to be here this weekend? I asked if any of you are excited. You know what? Do you know what? I am freaking excited to be here. It starts with you being excited. It begins with you believing in the most important person that’s in the room and that’s the person that’s sitting in your seat. You gotta believe you will make It. Because if you don’t believe, there ain’t no speaker that’s gonna come up here and convince you that you’re gonna make it. If you don’t believe you’re gonna make it. Now, what does make it mean? What does make it mean? In my book, it means you get to the promised land.
The promised land to me is $300,000 a year income to you in overrides where you’re not going out to the mall mauling people, where you’re not out making phone calls, prospecting and trying to get an appointment, where you’re not doing an appointment, where you’re not having to get an IBA to hit your bonus. You make 300,000 in overrides. Whether you get up out of bed and go to the office or not, 300,000 is going to hit your checking account. That’s freedom and the beginning of freedom. But if you don’t believe that’s going to happen for you, it won’t. It won’t. You gotta believe it. You gotta feel it down to your core. You know, we grew up in this business under the great tutelage of Joe Ensor.
And he used to talk a lot about 1440 minutes a day, 24 hours a day you get in your day. How much of those 1440 minutes are you investing to get to your promised land? Cause I say 300,000 promised land. Cause I know once we got to 300,000, it was like, man, it’s real. But when you get there, if you get there by yourself, even though you have ownership, you don’t own nothing. Cause if you stop, it stops. The key is getting people to. To want to copy what you’re doing. And to do that, you gotta be good looking when it comes to the business. If you ain’t good looking in the business, ain’t nobody attracted to you.
Remember when you all were single and you’d go out, would you go out to a club or place and look for the ugliest person in the room? Would you go, oh, that girl’s ugly, I’m gonna go after her. Ladies, would you see a guy that’s the ugliest guy in the room and go, No, you look for the most good looking, right? Well, how are you good looking in Primerica? See, in Primerica today, everybody has access to pol. They get paid 50 bucks to get pol. So you a dumb butt if you don’t get pol the day you put in your iba. But you know what happens when they get pol? They start experiments on Pol. And then they look at your income and you may be in the office of district leader. Go, man, I’m so excited. This is awesome, man.
I’m building a great business. And then they look at your income. You made $50 last. That’s not good looking. If your upline was making $50 a month, would you be like, I can’t wait to be like them. They’ve been here six years. That ain’t good looking. Right? So what are we saying? You gotta make money today, but don’t forget why we’re here. I honestly believe the great Joanne had genius in a lot of the teachings he taught us. When we got started, were not allowed to write business. You couldn’t write business till you got your security’s license. Imagine if the company did that to you and you only had your recruiter’s license until you get your security license. How many of you are not security licensed right now? Raise your hand. Then all of you would be real recruiters. You would freaking have guests.
You would have people putting their IBAs. And you would show them how to get IBAs. And you show them how to get IBAs. You show them how to talk to people to get IBAs. You’d learn how to build a team because you’d have no other option. Thank God Joe did that with us. Because let me tell you something. How many of you remember that have ever made $1,000 in a month? How many of you remember the first time you made $1,000 in a month in Primerica? Nobody forgets that. When you do your first comma dance, You never forget that. And then you think about, what did I have to do to make that? And then you compare it to your job you have. And you’re like, I gotta work two and a half weeks to make a thousand dollars take home at my job.
And I made $1,000 in 25 minutes with my cousin and his best friend. I gotta go full time. Now my question is to you, for those of you that want to go full time, are you gonna go full time F U L L or F O O L full time? There’s a difference. If you’re willing to become an expert in your presentation for prospecting. An expert? An expert means you don’t doubt what you’re going to say and you don’t doubt any question that you could respond to. If any person asks you that question, you are like a Navy SEAL parachuting into a war zone. And you don’t care how many of the enemy is out there. You’re going to take them out. That’s the difference. Do you put the time to learn how to be an expert?
If you don’t or if you haven’t, you must do what? Fix it. You gotta fix that. You can’t allow time to pass by and you don’t fix it. You’re all adults. You’re all adults. And that, I think is the biggest challenge in Primerica because you’re all adults. You have all this good stuff in your brain that’s spoiled by the people in your environment raising you. What do you mean, Ray? How many of you have kids, grandkids? When you see your grandbaby or your child for the first time, oh, you could do anything you want to, son. You could be the president. You could be a football player. Oh, my God. And then that kid turns seven years older in the back making noise. You dumb. Shut the.
You know how many times growing up I heard children are supposed to be seen and not heard? So Carol is always on me. You don’t talk to me, but you got to become good at doing what we do. If you’re not sure how to prospect, grab hold of your upline, sit down with a recorder with them and ask them what you should say to prospect. Then write it down. This is how I memorize stuff. I don’t know if it will help you, but I’m going to give you a formula for memorization of scripts, names and anything you want to memorize. Write it down 21 times, say it 21 times, and then listen to it 21 times. You will never forget it. But you can’t listen to it 21 times and hear in the background, my neck, my back in the. You know, it’s focus.
You gotta focus on listening, you gotta focus on learning. You gotta focus on fixing whatever it is you need. Fix, fixed. If you have trouble with the presentation, grab hold of your upline, sit down, write it down, record it, and then listen to that over and over. What did John Lambin say? Right? That is what you, all of you have a song in your mind that if we played the notes right now and you heard the first couple of notes, you’d be like, that’s my song. You know, to dance to the song. Cha cha. Three times, right? Nobody pays you to know to dance. Nobody pays you to know the words for that song. When are you gonna learn and put time to learn our song and our dance so you could become a million dollar income and change your damn life.
That’s what you’re here for. Let’s go. Get and get it. So proud to be your teammate.
