Executive TLDR
Success depends on operating in the right market, not just working harder.
Target middle-income families who can commit at least $100 per month.
Avoid low-premium policies and uncommitted recruits that drain time and profits.
Get licensed quickly, stay mentally tough, and focus on long-term business stability.
Video Summary
Work the Right Market or Work for Free
In Maximize Your Time And Profits: The Power Of The Right Market, Jeannie Morezzi delivers a direct message: you are in business for yourself, so profitability matters. Time is limited, and if you spend it in the wrong market, you can do everything “right” and still fail to build income.
Primerica’s Designed Market
Primerica is built to serve the middle-income market. Just like you wouldn’t recruit short players to build a championship basketball team, you shouldn’t target clients who don’t fit the company’s demographic.
The right client typically:
Is age 25–55
Has household income around $80,000+ (or $40,000+ single parent)
Has dependents
Has clear financial goals
Can commit at least $100 per month
If someone won’t commit $100 monthly to their family’s financial future, they likely aren’t serious enough for long-term planning.
Why Small Apps Hurt Your Business
Low-premium policies (e.g., $15/month life apps) damage long-term income. When they lapse, they hurt your book just as much as larger policies. Writing strong $80+ monthly applications and focusing on 20- or 30-year terms (instead of 10- or 15-year terms) aligns better with the company’s compensation structure and long-term retention.
Build your business on rules, not exceptions.
Recruiting the Right Way
The same principle applies to recruiting.
Look for people who:
Are employed
Have goals
Are coachable
Will adjust their schedule for training and events
Take ownership of their growth
Avoid recruits who need reminders to wake up or resist coaching. High performers show up to meetings, get licensed quickly, and allow themselves to be trained.
Crush the Licensing Narrative
There’s a myth that the securities license should take months. It shouldn’t. If someone passed the life license exam, the securities exam can be completed in roughly three weeks with focused effort. Speed signals seriousness.
Mental Toughness Determines Longevity
Sustainable success requires mental toughness. Jeannie highlights how foundational leaders like Joe Ensor helped open markets by maintaining resilience and credibility. Strong leaders attract strong teams.
In contrast, one teammate saw income drop from $78,000 to $21,000 because he stayed addicted to the wrong market. The lesson is clear: if you ignore the target demographic, your income will eventually reflect it.
The Bottom Line
You deserve to be profitable. Focus on the right clients, the right recruits, and the right commitments. Raise your standards, protect your time, and operate inside the market the business was designed to serve.
FAQs
1. What is the main message of the talk?
Choose the right market or risk working hard without building lasting income.
2. What is considered the right market?
Middle-income families with stable income, dependents, and the ability to commit $100+ monthly.
3. Why is $100 per month important?
It reflects seriousness and creates meaningful long-term financial planning.
4. Why are small life insurance policies discouraged?
They are more likely to lapse and hurt long-term book value and income.
5. Why focus on 20- and 30-year term policies?
They align better with compensation and client retention compared to shorter terms.
6. What happens if you work in the wrong market?
You may follow the system correctly but still fail to grow income or stability.
7. What qualities define a strong recruit?
Coachability, employment, commitment, and willingness to attend events.
8. Why are major events important?
Big breakthroughs happen at big events, not in isolation.
9. How fast should someone complete the securities license?
With focus, approximately three weeks—not months.
10. What does mental toughness mean in this context?
Staying committed despite setbacks and refusing to lower standards.
11. Why build on rules instead of exceptions?
Exceptions are unpredictable; systems produce consistent results.
12. How does market choice affect long-term income?
Consistently targeting the right demographic increases retention and renewals.
13. What mistake caused income to drop from $78,000 to $21,000?
Persistently operating in the wrong market.
14. Why is time management emphasized?
Time is limited, so it must be invested where returns are highest.
15. What mindset shift is required for growth?
Move from activity-based thinking to profitability-based thinking.
Glossary
Middle-Income Market
Households with stable income and dependents that fit the company’s core demographic focus.
FNA (Financial Needs Analysis)
A structured review of a client’s financial situation to determine appropriate coverage and planning.
Life App
A submitted life insurance application, often referenced by its monthly premium size.
Term Policy
Life insurance coverage for a specified period, such as 10, 20, or 30 years.
Book of Business
The collection of active policies generating ongoing income.
Mental Toughness
The resilience and discipline required to stay focused on long-term profitability and growth.
Transcript: Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon. Has today been on fire or what? I mean, seriously, I can’t take notes fast enough. It’s been absolutely incredible. So, um, one of the things, a lot of people have talked about recruiting, right? A lot of topics on recruiting and also doing business. What about, what market should we be in, right?
Like, let’s talk about, like, where should you be investing your time, I think is really critical for To your success in the business. So let’s talk about this for a second and things to remember. Okay. First of all, you’re in business for yourself. I think Albert Tony just said that really well. This is your business.
So, we’ve got to make sure that our business is profitable, right or wrong? Like, you don’t want to be spending time, we don’t have unlimited amounts of time to just do stuff. Like, I remember when we first got our securities license, I would drive all the way into Staten Island from my house on Long Island to do a 25 money market that you don’t even get paid on, right?
Okay, because I didn’t know any better. But sooner or later, you’ve got to get profitable, okay? Um, you’re, oh, I should have taken my glasses. Okay, so, Primerica is designed for the middle income market. Let me talk to you about that for a second. The middle income market, if we were, this is our designated market.
So, if we were building a championship basketball team, let’s just say, right? Would you be recruiting people like me? and Albertoni and Vin Ragusa? Would you be recruiting people like us? No, right? You’d be recruiting really tall people like Rick and stuff like that. So does that mean you’re prejudiced against somebody like me?
No, it’s just that I don’t fit the demographic that you’re trying to accomplish. Does that make sense? Okay. So, uh, the demographic that fits with what we do at Primerica is the middle income market. And we’re going to break that down in a second. Because if you don’t do this, guys, if you go into, if you’re constantly in the wrong market, Here’s what’s gonna happen.
You will do everything right, and you will not make any money, and you will not build a business. And you’re doing everything right. So it’s super, super frustrating. So let’s take a look at the right and wrong clients. Okay? The right client is somebody age 25 to 55. They’re married. They’ve got household income.
This says, uh, 80, 000 and up for a couple or 40, 000 for a single parent. Uh, stuff like that. We have, uh, We have limits in our base shop also that we, we suggest that they, if you’re writing in that market, you should write to that limit. They have other people depending on them. They have goals, they’re mature, they’re, they have a monthly commitment.
We don’t even take an FNA unless we’re getting a commitment of 100 a month or more. I mean, think about this. We’re putting together something that is for the family’s entire financial future. And they’re not putting in more than a hundred dollars? How much is your cable bill? How much is your coffee habit?
You know what I mean? You’re spending all this money on stupid crap, but you’re not going to put 100 into your family’s financial future. Don’t even take the F& A. You’re dealing with a serious person. Whereas if you’re with the wrong client, it’s all the stuff on the right hand side, right? And so, low monthly budget, no goals, lax maturity.
You don’t want to be in that market. Now that’s not necessarily an age. But again, you’ve got to build your business on the, the rules and not the exception. Here’s the results. If you’re in the right market, there’s a high need for insurance. You’re going to be writing 80 a month apps. You know what chaps my ass?
A 15 a month life app. What the, are we doing? What are we doing? Because when that falls off the book, It hurts your QBI just as much as a 100 life app. So what are we doing? And what’s more likely to fall off the books? 15 life app. Okay, so we’ve got to start being adult and mature about where are we writing business, okay?
They give strong recommendations. The business stays on the books. If you’re writing bad, you know, also 20 25 and 30 year plans. Do you guys know that we get paid significantly less on 10s and 15s than we do on 20s, Do you guys know that? You may not know that. Why do we get paid significantly less?
Because they’re, that’s not our demographic market. That’s not the demographic market. Let’s take a look at recruiting, for example. In the recruiting market, you’ve got people that are, you want to look for people that are employed, they’ve got goals, they’re coachable, they’re ready to go to work, they’re open to changing their schedule.
I can’t tell you how many teammates we had that were like, I had to work today. What? Like, we’ve been talking about this leadership school for two months! You couldn’t change your schedule? You just didn’t want to change your schedule. You didn’t think it was going to be worth it. And in my opinion, you’ve missed the best leadership school I’ve been to in a really long time.
In a really long time. I mean, nothing big is going to happen in your kitchen right now. Where big things happen are at big events. But you’ve got to be in it to win it. It’s just like the lottery. A recruit you may want to bypass. Like, have you ever had a recruit, you’re inviting them to the Saturday morning op meeting and they go, Well can you just call me and make sure I wake up?
Have you ever had that one before? Are you freaking kidding me? I gotta call you to wake you up? No, that’s not happening. I am not your mama. I am not your alarm clock. If you’re not mature enough to set an alarm and actually wake up for it, you’re not who I’m looking for. You know what I mean? Like, I forget who was talking today, I forget, um They were saying that, oh, David, it was you, right?
So David’s out partying on Friday nights and then he shows up to, to training on Saturday looking like a ghost, right? And, but he was mature enough to realize, I gotta change stuff like that. Guys, you wanna look for people who are willing to change. Uh, here’s what will happen if you’re not, if you don’t stay in the right market.
If you do stay, they show up to everything. They allow you to train them. Doesn’t that blow your mind when you’re like, Okay, here’s what we need to do to get you started, and then the person’s like, Mm, yeah, um, can I go on your appointments with you? No, you can’t go on my appointments with me. Why would you want to go on my appointments with me?
My market is not your market. So you know what you’re going to see? Everything you’re not going to be doing when you’re in your market. That’s what you’re going to see. What’s the point? We’re wasting time. Let people train you. You know, when I was a lawyer, I was in litigation. We had to shadow another litigation attorney, which means we had to go into court, and I would second chair them and stuff.
I watched very carefully what that lawyer did because I knew that one day, I’m doing this too. You want somebody that has that feeling that they’re doing that with you. They get all their licenses quickly. You know, get your licenses guys. Let me, let me say this about this, the uh, the securities license.
Cause I think there’s a narrative in Primerica that the securities license is supposed to take forever. And we need to crush that, okay? First of all, the securities test is a lot easier than the life test. So if you took the life test, you should, you should blow away the securities test. The second thing is, it doesn’t take months.
If you’re taking months, I’m here to tell you, you’re doing it wrong. It should take like three weeks. But it’s three weeks of you being serious and committed. The last thing I want to say is this, okay? You deserve to be in the right market, but you’re going to have to raise your level of mental toughness.
Albertoni shouted out, Denise and Joe, I’m here to tell you, these are, this is One of the most mentally tough couples I’ve ever met in my life. If it wasn’t for Joe, and I am not over exaggerating this, none of us would be sitting in this room right now. You have to realize that. Because if it wasn’t for Joe Enser, New York would have never gotten opened.
And if it wasn’t for Joe and Denise, Joe Enser would have never been able to do what he did here. Because they were the first people he recruited that had credibility. And then everybody else wanted to stay, okay? So focus on the right market, do it the right way. I’m telling you guys, if you do it the right way, we have a teammate that’s in his income was at 78, 000.
It’s now down to 21, 000. You know why? Because he’s addicted to the wrong market. And I told him, If you keep doing this, I’m telling you, you’re gonna blow yourself out of the business. You’re blowing yourself out of the business in the wrong market. Won’t listen, and now, you know, income at, at a quarter of what it used to be.
So please don’t let that happen to you. Stay profitable, stay in the world market, right market. We love you guys. Have a great weekend.
