Executive TLDR

• Treat your business like a real business — not a hobby.

• Lead with expectations, not rigid rules.

• Build systems that are predictable and duplicatable.

• Multiply your time by building support and structure.

• Attitude determines attraction, trust, and leadership impact.

Video Summary

Treat Your Business Like A Business

Speaking inside Primerica, Anthony Barone delivers a practical blueprint for leadership.

He opens with a simple truth:

If you treat your business casually,
You become a casualty.

Entrepreneurship demands structure, consistency, and standards.

Practice The Golden Rule

Effective leadership starts with respect.

Treat clients and teammates:

• The way you’d want someone to treat your parents

• The way you’d treat your siblings

• With dignity, honesty, and transparency

If you experienced poor leadership in the past,
Don’t duplicate it.

Break the cycle.

Transparency Builds Trust

When sitting with clients:

• Focus on service, not commissions

• Deliver value consistently

• Let income be the byproduct

With recruits:

• Create a game plan that benefits them

• Think long-term

• Make growth predictable

Consistency builds credibility.

Systems And Strategy Matter

You should speak from the heart —
But never plan from the heart.

Leadership requires:

• Systems

• Structure

• Predictability

Your team should know:

• You’ll be at training

• You’ll show up on key days

• You’ll be reliable

Surprises create instability.
Consistency creates duplication.

Understand The Value Gap

The value gap is simple:

What you know vs. what they know.

That gap is why:

• Clients pay you

• Teammates follow you

You don’t need to know everything.

But you must:

• Stay aware of current events

• Understand market basics

• Be relatable and informed

Clueless leaders lose credibility.

Expectations Over Rules

People join businesses to escape rigid jobs.

So instead of rules:

Create expectations.

For teammates:

• Set clear standards

• Communicate mutual accountability

For clients:

• Define how you serve them

• Expect respect and follow-through

Leadership is a two-way street.

Don’t Be A Lone Wolf

One of the most powerful lessons Anthony shares:

You cannot build alone.

When he hired an office manager, income increased dramatically.

Trying to do everything yourself is like:

Opening a fast-food restaurant and refusing to hire staff.

Impossible to scale.

You cannot be:

• The hunter

• The processor

• The trainer

• The administrator

All at once.

Leverage multiplies leadership.

Accessibility Is Non-Negotiable

Few things damage credibility more than:

Not returning calls.

Accessibility builds loyalty.

Responsiveness builds referrals.

Service builds legacy.

Attitude Is Everything

At the core of leadership:

Energy attracts.

Frustration repels.

Nobody wants to follow:

• A complainer

• A victim

• A crybaby

People want:

• Confidence

• Stability

• Positivity

Your attitude determines who joins you and who trusts you.

Core Message

Effective leadership is simple but disciplined:

• Treat it like a business

• Lead with respect

• Build systems

• Set expectations

• Leverage support

• Protect your attitude

Expectations create culture.
Rules create resistance.

FAQs

What does “treat your business like a business” mean?
Operate with structure, consistency, and professionalism.

Why focus on expectations instead of rules?
Entrepreneurs value autonomy; expectations preserve freedom with accountability.

What is the value gap?
The difference between what you know and what your client or recruit knows.

Why are systems important?
They create duplication and predictability.

What does “don’t be a lone wolf” mean?
Scaling requires delegation and support staff.

Why is accessibility important in leadership?
Responsiveness builds trust and loyalty.

What is meant by “hunter and skinner”?
You can’t both generate business and handle all processing alone.

How does attitude affect recruiting?
Positive energy attracts; negativity repels.

Why should leaders be predictable?
Consistency builds team confidence.

How do you break negative leadership cycles?
Refuse to duplicate behaviors that harmed you.

Why avoid planning from emotion?
Emotional decisions lack strategic consistency.

What is the ultimate takeaway?
Leadership is structured service with the right attitude.

Glossary

Golden Rule
Treating others the way you want to be treated.

Value Gap
The knowledge difference that creates professional value.

Duplicatable System
A predictable structure others can replicate easily.

Lone Wolf Leadership
Attempting to run a business entirely alone without leverage.

Hunter And Skinner Principle
The idea that business growth and operational support require different roles.

Expectations-Based Leadership
Setting standards without creating rigid rule-based environments.

Transcript:

Good afternoon. What’s happening? Hey, I got a PowerPoint, believe it or not. Do I have a PowerPoint? Maybe I don’t. I had one, but it’s not there. Oh, there we go. Treat your business like a business. So, hey, how many people realize they’re in business? You know, there’s an old saying in Primerica, if you treat your business casual, Lee, you’ll become a casualty. Anybody ever hear that before?

Right?

So one of the things is, Joe, don’t laugh at me, man. What are you laughing at? I can see him laughing already. You and Ray, what the frig, man? That’s why they put us on the other side. So, hey, it’s kind of funny when I think, when I look at these front tables. A lot of us started together 30 years ago, and it’s hard to believe that 30 years went just like that. And I’m married 29, my kids, 25, and I look back and I’m like, what the frig happened?

Right?

So, listen, when it comes to running your own business and treating it like a business, the first thing is you got to practice the golden rule, right? Everybody knows what the Golden Rule is, right? Treat other people the way you want to be treated. How many ever heard that before? It’s not a difficult thing, right? So when you take a look at that, deal with others as if they were your. If you’re dealing with people a generation older than you, treat them like you would want a representative to treat your parents, does that make sense?

Right?

Or if you’re with someone your age, you’re dealing with someone your age, treat them like they were your brother or sister, right? This is not just about clients. I know people talk about, well, you have a securities business. It has to do with dealing with the people in your base shop, too, right? You guys have all heard the story about maybe two brothers living in a household where there is abuse. Anybody ever hear story, right? And one becomes someone. Maybe it’s alcohol abuse, right? And one person grows up to be totally against that, right, and teaches their kids not to do drugs and not to drink, right? But the other One grows up and repeats the behavior. If something happened to you that you don’t like as a leader, change it. Don’t duplicate that process. Does that make sense?

There were some things that happened as we came through the process that we didn’t particularly like. It didn’t make us feel good, and we made a commitment that we would not duplicate that behavior.

Right?

Be transparent with your people, your clients, and your teammates.

Right?

Don’t think about what you’re earning. Every time you sit down with someone, just provide the service. Do it consistently long enough, and good things will happen.

Right.

When you recruit people with your recruits, have a game plan that benefits others. Right? Joensa principle number two, have systems and strategies. Don’t fly by the seat of your like, you should be able to speak from the heart, but you shouldn’t plan from the heart. Does that make sense?

Right.

When Keith said, do you have a PowerPoint? I’m like, I guess I could do one. You got some bullet points. That’s about it. As much as I could do, right? But be duplicatable and predictable. You should not shock your people. It shouldn’t be like, oh, my God, I can’t believe that he did it. Should kind of be, your guys should know, no matter what, that you’re going to be there on a Tuesday and a Saturday. Well, in our base shop, Tuesday and Saturday. Right. They should know for a fact that you’re going to be there for the Thursday advanced training. Without a doubt.

Right?

It shouldn’t be a surprise. Be prepared for success.

Right?

Have strategies that are going to help you and your clients and your teammates become successful. Understand, number three, the value gap that’s so important, right? This is what you know. This is what they know. That’s why they pay us. Whether it’s you dealing with people in your base shop that you’re trying to show the way to or if you’re dealing with a client, right, these are just six simple things to help keep you on track, right? So listen, you don’t have to know everything about everythIng, but you got to have a clue on what’s going on. You got to be relatable to people. If someone said to you right now, oh, my God, did you know that there was a conflict in the Middle east, you shouldn’t just be like, no shit, when did that happen? But you should know everything that’s happening, right?

When people talk to you about the market being up or being down, you should probably be aware of that. But you shouldn’t be able to recite the Wall Street Journal either, because you’re wasting a lot of time in places that don’t count. Does that make sense? All right, number four. Expectations, not rules, right? With your teammates. Have expectations, not rules. Nobody likes rules. That’s why they came to you. They didn’t want a job. But guess what? With your clients, have expectations from them, and you should let them know what the expectations are that you have on yourself for them.

Right?

Don’t let clients abuse you. Don’t let Bay shop members abuse you. Have expectations. Let them know this. You give me this, I’m going to give you that. I’m going to do this for you. I need you to do this for me.

Right?

Number five, don’t be a lone wolf. Right? And what I mean by that is, don’t think you can run your whole business by yourself. We’ve had an office manager. You know what? When my income was at about 125, 150 grand, I heard Keith say in a meeting, if you’re an RVP, you should have an office manager. And I always had guys helping me out here and there. But I went out and got an office manager, and our income went up to a quarter of a million. In the two years we’ve had other people doing crap that used to bog us down, right? So I’m telling you right now, if you’re sitting there going, I don’t know if I can afford it. That’s like saying I’m going to open up a McDonald’s, but I’m not going to hire anybody to do the cashier.

I’m not going to hire anybody to flip the burgers. I’m not going to hire anybody to clean the toilets. I’m going to do all that crap all by myself. Would that be a very successful McDonald’s? Well, then why do we do that with our Primerica business? Right? People actually call me now. I don’t even know how to do half the things I used to do every day. Now I don’t even know who our paramed company is anymore. I have no idea. I don’t call and do those types of things anymore. There are some things we should know, probably, right? But listen, make sure that you’re accessible. Here’s another. These are just business basics, right? Make sure accessible to your clients. My pet peeve. Not returning phone calls.

That drives me nuts when I find out that, well, I had a representative once with Primerica, but they never returned my phone call. That drives me friggin nuts. Return people’s phone calls, for God’s sakes. Multiply your hours by having people to help you. You can’t be a hunter and a Skinner at the same time. Anybody remember the hunter? If you’ve been around long enough, you know what the hunter and Skinner story is, right? You can’t go out and hunt the game down and be the same one that brings it back to the camp and processes it.

Right?

You got to have people for that. You go get the clients, they go help the clients, you go get the teammates. Someone else trains the teammates, right. And keeps them going through the licensing process. Number six. Attitude. Attitude is everything. How many times have you heard that?

Right?

You got to have the right attitude with your clients. You got to have the right attitude with your prospects. You have to have the right attitude with your teammates.

Right.

You got to be attractive to people. Right? When I say attractive to people, wants to follow a frustrated damn dump crybaby, right? You’ve heard that a million times. You got to be attractive to people. They got to want to join you. They got to want to trust you with their money and trust you with their careers. Hope that couple of minutes helps you out. Proud to be a teammate. See you all stop.