Executive TLDR
Long-term wealth is built through time, consistency, and “pay yourself first.”
Attitude, belief, and competitiveness determine who wins.
Recruiting and team culture drive exponential growth.
Success requires discipline, commitment, and starting over when necessary.
Primerica rewards good people who work hard and stay positive.
Video Summary
Four Decades of Perspective
In this emotional and high-energy address, Jim Meyer reflects on nearly 40 years in Primerica, tracing his journey from a 23-year-old with no savings to a multimillionaire leader.
He opens with a powerful example: a $103,711.21 check from a single transaction in early 2024—money generated from decades of disciplined investing and leadership.
His core message:
Time + consistency + commitment = life-changing results.
The Million-Dollar Game Plan
In 1984, under the mentorship culture that began with A.L. Williams, Meyer was taught to:
Redirect $100/month from a credit union
Purchase term life insurance
Invest the difference into mutual funds
Follow the Rule of 72
Pay himself first
That $63.52 monthly investment began compounding. As income increased, contributions increased.
The result decades later? Multi-million-dollar qualified plans and long-term financial independence.
His lesson:
It’s not about where you start. It’s about whether you stay consistent.
Emotion: Excitement and Fear
Meyer expresses two emotions:
Excitement for those who will apply the system for 30–40 years
Fear for those who won’t stay long enough to benefit
He emphasizes that many people quit too early—before compounding, recruiting momentum, and leadership maturity take hold.
Primerica Rewards the Right Kind of Person
According to Meyer, the company rewards:
Good people (not perfect—good)
People with desire to win
Money-motivated individuals who help others
Hard workers
Positive, grateful leaders
Success isn’t about background, education, or age.
It’s about attitude and sustained action.
Attitude Is Everything
Meyer reinforces the “MIM” mindset:
My attitude is my responsibility
I deserve success
I will do what successful people do
I refuse negativity
Negative people drain energy. Positive people attract growth.
“90% of winning is staying excited.”
Recruiting: The Catalyst for Growth
After years of slowing down, Meyer reignited recruiting within his organization.
He highlights team members who recruited aggressively—double-digit recruits in a month—demonstrating that explosive growth is possible at any stage.
His belief:
You are one person away from an explosion.
Recruiting builds culture, competition, and renewed purpose.
Wealth Through Compounding
Meyer explains:
Compounding is slow at first
It becomes dramatic over decades
Pay yourself first—always
Increase savings as income increases
He stresses that financial education changes lives, referencing the foundational teachings of term insurance and investing discipline.
Competition and Standards
Meyer challenges complacency.
He openly states:
$500,000 income today equals what $200,000 used to be.
Average effort yields average results.
Competition removes complacency.
He believes leaders must:
Walk faster
Talk louder
Smile more
Raise standards
Three Stages of Commitment
The “Lion” stage (aggressive pursuit)
The “Monkey See, Monkey Do” stage (modeling behavior)
Always being willing to start over
After nearly four decades, Meyer emphasizes:
If necessary, start over again.
Longevity is earned through reinvention.
Protective Shield Against Criticism
Meyer acknowledges critics who misunderstand the income potential in direct sales.
He counters that criticism by highlighting:
Lives changed
Death claims paid
Families protected
Teams earning millions collectively
He urges representatives to never apologize for financial success earned ethically.
The Final Message
Life is short.
Time compounds money—and effort.
Team means: Together Everyone Achieves More.
Meyer concludes that he feels like the luckiest person to ever join the business—not because it was easy, but because he stayed long enough to win.
FAQs
1. Who is Jim Meyer?
Jim Meyer is a longtime leader in Primerica with nearly four decades of experience building teams and personal wealth.
2. What is the main theme of the speech?
Long-term commitment and consistency create extraordinary financial and leadership success.
3. What is the “million-dollar game plan”?
A structured savings and investment approach using term insurance and mutual funds to build long-term wealth.
4. What does “pay yourself first” mean?
Automatically save and invest money before spending on lifestyle expenses.
5. Why does Meyer emphasize recruiting?
Recruiting multiplies effort, builds culture, and creates exponential income growth.
6. What role does compounding play in his story?
Compounding turned small early investments into multimillion-dollar retirement assets over decades.
7. What kind of person wins in Primerica?
Good, hardworking, positive individuals with strong desire and competitiveness.
8. What is the Rule of 72?
A formula to estimate how long money takes to double based on interest rate.
9. Why does he discuss criticism?
High income in commission-based businesses often attracts skepticism; he urges confidence in ethical success.
10. What does he mean by “one person away”?
A single strong recruit can dramatically change the trajectory of a team.
11. Why is attitude so critical?
Negative attitudes repel growth; positive attitudes attract people and momentum.
12. What does “start over” mean?
Even after decades of success, leaders must re-engage and rebuild to stay sharp.
13. How does competition help performance?
Competition increases urgency and removes complacency.
14. What is the three-stage commitment concept?
Progression from aggressive action to modeled leadership and eventual reinvention.
15. What does “build a protective shield” mean?
Guard against outside negativity and internal doubt.
16. Why is long-term thinking emphasized?
Wealth and leadership credibility are built over decades, not months.
17. How does team culture impact success?
Strong team culture increases accountability, belief, and performance.
18. What is Meyer’s definition of success?
Helping others win financially while achieving personal independence.
Glossary
Compounding
The process where investment earnings generate additional earnings over time.
Rule of 72
A formula used to estimate how many years it takes for money to double at a given interest rate.
Pay Yourself First
A financial principle that prioritizes saving and investing before spending.
Qualified Plan
A tax-advantaged retirement account such as an IRA or SEP.
Recruiting Explosion
Rapid team growth triggered by strong recruiting momentum.
Protective Shield
A mindset that blocks negativity and criticism from affecting performance.
Base Shop
An organizational unit within Primerica focused on recruiting, training, and production.
Time and Consistency
The foundational formula for both financial growth and business success.
Transcript:
Free. Good morning. Let’s get our seats and go to work so we could change our lives. Thank you for that nice introduction. My goodness. In my 39, soon to be 40 years in this business, I’ve never had as many emotions as I have running through my body right now. Well, don’t clap platform, because a lot of them aren’t good. Well, yes, I did get paid last night. For those of you that were in the leaders meeting yesterday, the product meeting, you are looking at the number two personal producing securities rep in Primerica for all of 2024. Even though it’s the first week of 2024. And this amazing company sent us a check from one transaction we did for $103,711.21. Don’t clap. Don’t clap. That’s ridiculous. It’s ab. Thank you. Give this lady a wonderful hand. She’s amazing, man. Amazing job.
She does an amazing job back there. Thank you. It’s an amazing business because I remember how hard I worked for. It took me about. I got involved in April of 1984. That year, I made no money. In 85, I made 70 something thousand dollars. And in 86, I made $103,000. And I remember, John, how hard I worked in 86. Okay? And I’ve heard up from. I’ve heard some people on the state say for a certain period of time, if you want to win here, I mean, get big, you got to put your head down and outwork everybody. Now, I don’t know if I was. If I was the. I just knew I was doing all I could do. I mean, there was no tv shows. There was nothing I loved. What? I got a bunch of notes here today.
It always screws me up, too. But I love what my man yesterday. I want to make this guy my new friend. I mean, Noah McQueen said yesterday, you don’t have a time problem. You have a priority problem. I couldn’t write that quick enough. Kim was writing it quicker than me. And my priority was one thing, a. L. Williams. That was a chance for me to change my life. Which brings me to why I have all these emotions going on right now. Because my life has changed. I do need to apologize again. I did mishap yesterday. I did forget were in church. It doesn’t matter where you are. You shouldn’t curse. But unfortunately, I’m from New Jersey. And when you’re from New Jersey, curse words are like the. Okay, but it’s funny, but it’s wrong. Okay, it’s wrong. I don’t live in Jersey anymore.
And so I am very committed today to Lord, but you don’t have a time problem, you have a priority problem. And I’m the luckiest guy in the world that I met a guy named Joe Hitzer. That taught me that total commitment is the key to anything. And I want you to know something. I have failed in a lot of things. I’ve had a screwed up personal life. Things have not gone all right for me in a lot of areas, but one area I have won in is in this darn business. Because this business taught me how to make and save money for retirement. And at 23 years old, Jointra sat down with me and put together a million dollar game plan for me. And he sold me on this million dollar game plan and he said, are you saving any money anywhere?
I said, nope. He said, you’re not saving any money anywhere? I said, actually I am. I’m putting $25 a week in the daily news Craig union because that’s where I used to work. And he said, that’s great. That’s $100 a month. What interest rate are you getting on that money? I said, I have no idea. He said, don’t you think you should know? I said, yeah, after learning the rule of 72, I should know, but I don’t know. He said, how much you going to have at age 65? I said, have a. I usually say. He what do you say? Double hockey stick? I usually say that word, but I’m not going to say it. He said, how the heck. I said, how the heck would I know? How do you know what interest rate I’m getting?
He goes, okay, we don’t get wise with me, young man. I said, oh, I’m sorry, sir. And he said, don’t you think you should know what you’re going to have? Don’t you think you should know what it is? I said, yes. And he showed me how to put together a million dollar game plan in April of 1984, where he took that same hundred dollars a month that I was already putting into a credit union. And he took 36 dollarsforty eight cents of that, and I got my first life insurance policy. It was a $50,000 life insurance policy level for 15 years. It was called a mod 15. That was the product we sold back then. And the company was celebrating how great it was because it just replaced a product called double dollar twelve.
I had no idea what double dollar twelve was, but what they explained it was this. They took the first year premium, they doubled it so they could pay commissions. But now we don’t do that no more. We got this new mod 15. And Jimmy, you’re going to be one of the people to get that. I said, I really don’t want life insurance. He said, well, the reason you want to get it now is because you want to lock in your insurability. This way you have a plan in place. I said, okay, sir, because I wanted to be coachable. I wanted to submit to the system. And then he said, you have $68, $63.52 to start putting into mutual funds. I said, that sounds great. Let’s do this.
And I started a plan at 23 years old, living home by mother and father who were in the process of getting divorced. When they got divorced, I had to move in with my grandmother because I had nowhere to live. Nowhere to live because I wasn’t making enough money anywhere. My first goal in Primerica was to get an apartment. It doesn’t matter where we start. What matters is where you finish. And to finish is your choice, your dream, your decision, what you want. So my emotions come from last night. The company pays me $103,000. I’ve been moving. Who was the client? Who was the client? Who was the client? It was an amazing client, a very sharp man.
It was me, because it is 63 dollarsfifty two cent I started putting away, by the way, he showed me a calculation m in my million dollar game plan because I already had $1,000 in that credit union. He said, what are you going to do with that? I said, I usually find something when it gets between $501,000 that I could buy. He goes, okay, well, if you don’t buy something and you let it start compounding, see, money compounds. And he showed me the rule 72. And that just intrigued the heck out of me. Now, it’s not sexy when a thousand goes to two or five goes to ten. Let me tell you what is very sexy.
When 100,000 goes to 200,000 in a couple of year period, or a million dollars goes to $2 million in a couple of year period, I see my fellow million dollar earners going, oh, yeah, because we’ve all experienced it. We’ve also sat there in the days where we’re invested $100. Is this thing ever going to grow? You stare at it like you think by staring at it’s going to grow. Staring at it don’t make it grow. Time and consistency makes it grow, just as time and consistency will make your business grow. And the more money I made, the more money I saved. Because one of the principles in how money works booklet that we had at that time which at that time was called common sense. Now we have a how money works website. There wasn’t even such thing as a website in 1984.
There was nothing to be a website on because there wasn’t an Internet in 1984. All of a sudden, 50 00, 10,000 goes in. Pay yourself first. Pay yourself first. Pay yourself first. Pay yourself first. And over the years, my main wealth is instilled to this day, a mutual funds. But I have a qualified plan that has grown because that’s what an IRA is. And then I couldn’t have an IRA no more, so it became a sep and all these different things. And all of a sudden I hear about these buffer annuities. The world we live is crazy. It’s always crazy. The market’s going to go up. The market is going to go down. I understand all that kind of stuff, but you got to start taking money out of these things at 69 or something or whatever. So I turned 63 in May.
They talk about a six year thing. I said, I’m going to take it out of these mutual funds. I won’t pay any taxes because it’s a qualified plan, because I’m in the financial business. I know all this stuff. No, I don’t. Brains don’t have to be on top. They got to be on tap. I got a lot of people around me that are a lot smarter than me. They said, you can move it over, there’s no fees. And all this. I said, okay, now it was 3.3 million. I was going to take a million one and put it to three different of our partners because they’re all good to us. I started doing the first paperwork and I wasn’t doing it. The one deal was, you got to do this for me. Somebody’s got to do this for me. I’ll give you the information.
And it was like, how many questions? I got to do this three times? No, you’re getting all 3.3 million. But watch what happened. See, because of a decision which creates these emotions. What are the emotions? Excitement. I’m excited for a few of you in this room. That’s going to be your story 30, 40 years from now. I’m hurting for others of you that aren’t going to have time and consistency and follow through on the plan God has for you. I’m excited and thankful to have a chance to start over again. I’ve started all over again at the lab. So excited about our convention in July. I’m so excited. I have a love hate relationship with the Mercedes Benz stadium because when I went to Mercedes Benz Stadium two years ago.
I know we played the song one more time, but my talk was designed for everyone else to go do it one more time. Why am I gonna do it one more time? I already got mine. Okay, you go do it one more time. But I got so motivated. Listen to Danny Chamorrow speak about his guys. I got so motivated. Every time I get around Mario Arizona. How could you not be guy. Just the guy motivates me. And then I was sitting around with all my other circle of champion members, and we’re all getting older. We’re all getting older. We could deny it. We could tell ourselves the new. That’s bull. And I’m not going to say the word. It’s bull. Still 62. That’s the reality of it. Okay. All right. That’s the deal. We could tell ourselves, you look good. You look good. Okay.
I ain’t got a tooth in my mouth right now. Okay. I feel like an old person. I see some of you look at me, I try to hide it. I try to hide. I went to Ireland. I was in Ireland. I had a toothache. I was not letting them fold my teeth in Ireland because you ever see irish people’s teeth? I get back, it’s been a disaster. I just had surgery again last week. I’ve had a chunk of my ear cut off. Okay. I’m not contagious. Don’t worry. I should have listened to my mom and put more suntan lotion. I was a kid. I got terrible skin. Every time I go to the dermatologist, we’re getting stuff cut off. Thank God. The partner in my airplane is my dermatologist. Okay? He’s a mo surgeon. But the thing is this.
I joined living home with my mother and father. I moved in with my grandmother. I got enough money to get my first apartment from this business. Everything I have, everything has come because of time and consistency in this business. And six principles, please. No, thank you. Six principles that I’m going to take you through. First off, as I talk about building this team, because that’s what you want to do. You want to build a team. At least that’s what I wanted to do. I’m so thankful to the maniac team. Vance, the job you did up, all the panel were great. Okay? But every advance, the first time we met, we’re like, bro, we are two brothers from different mothers, okay? I love primerica. It’s not about your age. It’s not about your faith. It’s not about the color your skin.
It’s about what you got right in here. Him and Letha lived in New York when they joined this business. And Joancho is the greatest marketer in the world. Because, guys, we’re in New York. We’re getting ready to open up New York any week. You’ll be the first one in there. How long later, Vance and Letha do we open up New York? How many? Four years later. But what did Vance and Letha do? They didn’t wait till it opened because Joe said, what you should do is, while we’re getting ready to open next week, you should move to Jersey and get started here and then help us pioneer into New York. So when we finally got in, four years later, they were senior vice presidents building, growing, compounding. Other People waited and never took advantage of anything.
See, in life, it’s about the little decisions that make the difference. The little ones. We look at this one more time movement, and you guys are amazing. Okay, Jerry, Rhonda, thank you for. They’re not thanking you for Kumo space because maybe they do some days, but I’m a maniac. All right? It’s not a named. Like the way the Maniacs came about was, guy’s a maniac. What’s wrong with that guy? He’s a maniac. Well, what’s wrong with me is I played basketball, and I loved basketball. Loved it. I wanted to play in the NBA, but when you play a division three school upstate New York, there ain’t many of us going to the NBA. So now I was going to go to Europe and play. Well, I played before there was even a three point line. And I used to shoot further.
That’s where I used to shoot from. That ended when I saw this. This was my chance. This was my shot. So I wrote down one other emotion as I get into this, and it’s fear. I’m not fearful. For me, if the good Lord takes me home right now, I’d be sad that I didn’t get more time with Kimberly, her kids, my kids. Because what we got right now is so good. And you appreciate something that’s so good when it, at some points wasn’t so good. And at other points in your life, your other personal life wasn’t so good. Don’t beat yourself up for the past. Learn from the past. Accept the past, embrace the past, and grow from the past. So if I went home today to the good lord, yeah, I’d be sad because they’d miss me tremendously.
But as we look at what’s in front of us, we have this team of people, 930 in the morning for 15 minutes. We get on. Then we got a few full timers that they showed up here yesterday and we just see each other virtually. But it’s a family forming. It’s a team forming. One of them was late, still upset. I wish I didn’t get so pissed off. When people don’t do what they say they’re going to do. I’m like, where are you? And then he sends me and he’s squirming right now. I’m not going to make you stand up, but you know who you are. And those of you sitting around him, you know who he is too. Because it’s getting hot around that area. He puts idk. What’s IdK? I don’t even know. Don’t even answer me.
Let me explain to you why you’re late. You left later than you should have. Like, this isn’t too hard to figure out. You didn’t plan well, hence the reason most people don’t succeed in anything. They don’t plan to succeed well. I just don’t know if I deserve success. Grow up. Well, you don’t know what my childhood was. You don’t know what my childhood was. What’s that got to do with anything? You’re not a child anymore. Where are you? Where are you? There comes a point in your life. Pat Riley said, you got to plant your feet if young people. Pat Riley was a tremendous basketball coach and still is the general manager of the Miami Heat.
He wrote many books and one of his books in there, he said, my father taught me to at one point in your life you got to plan your feet and just turn and go. I’ve done this almost 40 years. I know why people don’t succeed. They try to steal. They try to run the second base with their foot on first base. They do not want to give up what they don’t like. Think about that. You don’t want to give up what you don’t like. I can’t comprehend that. And I won’t comprehend that. But that one more time. Team. The spinas, the Gilmans, the medinas, the Abners and the Leathermans. There’s a lot more. But those are the ones that are competing right now. Because I’m done with people that tell me they want to make 500 grand a year.
Because 500 grand a year is really the old 200 grand a year. Okay. It is okay if you’re making 200. I know you’re not saving a lot of money or you’re not living. Okay everything’s expensive. Kim and I all the time say, how do people live? Like, how do you live? How can you live? My American Express bill is 100,000 a month. Now, that’s stupid. That is stupid. It pisses me off. All my travel stuff’s in there, so I won’t. Baby, how much you spend on this car? It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me. I’m like, well, who that was? It was either me or you. It was your idea. She goes, it was your idea to join inspirado. That was 30,000. Okay? That’s why. Yeah. Because it’s not always 100,000. Okay? That’s 30,000. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. No big deal.
I’m in the investment business now. I’ll just write another investment. So proud of those guys. But we’re competing. There’s going to be a competition. Who has the 500,000? Because competition takes to work out of work. I stopped posting numbers on our guys, and their incomes have gone like this. I’m okay. I’m okay. Well, I’m not okay with you being okay there. And if that makes you uncomfortable, then don’t come around me, because I don’t know how much longer I got ears cutting off, no teeth. How you doing, everybody? How you doing, everybody? I got no ear hub, Jim. They wheeled me. It’s hilarious. It’s hilarious. So if we could. I’m working this. We got six points. Think about that. Oh, watch this. I didn’t tell you this today. For that same $36.48 that I got $50,000 of coverage with today, 30. Look at this.
$36.42 would give a 23 year old 173,000 of coverage, not level for 15 years, but level for 35 years. And it’s instant. Damn. Darn instant. Darn instant. I got the preacher right there. The Lord’s looking over my shoulder. Go sit somewhere else aside. Okay. He’s got his big cross hanging out. He’s got the cross hanging there. He was throwing holy water on me before I came up here. Get the demons out of him, lord. Get the demons out of him. Oh, man. All right. What was I saying? What was I saying? I know what I was saying, but I read a book once. It said, good speakers. Ask the crowd what you’re saying, and that engages them back in. I’ve never read a book that said that, but it did work. So watch. Watch. And it’s instant issue. Sometimes they even increase it.
When they did mine, they said, take this little cup. It has a little pill in there, don’t take it out and go in the bathroom. I’m not going to say the word because we’re in church. But, you know, I had whatever in this cup. Not this, but this. Okay? And I’m coming out and I’m like, hey, it’s only water on there. I washed my hands. That’s what we used to do when we wrote sales. Then went to spit tests. Oh, that was fun. Just put this in your mouth for 30 seconds on this side. Now you hit a button and it says, oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Ms. Client, you’re not going to get 173,000 because of your health. You’re going to get 262,000. Are you kidding me? Anyway, let’s get to my talk one more time. That’s me.
Primerica rewards the right kind of person. What’s the right kind of person? I’m going to look here. I very prepared today because I knew I wouldn’t be able to see it. I’m not going to get into that. Here we go. Look at this. Okay, so watch this. The right kind of person. I know the first one. A good person. A good person. Not a perfect person. Not a great person. A good person. We have any good people here? Okay, those of you that didn’t raise your hand, how many people would like to be good? Okay, this means, maybe this means I want to be good. Get in the game. This is an involvement sport. For the last 21 minutes, I have with you. Let’s get going here. Some of you think it’s spectator. Let’s even get involved. Okay, so the second one is unbelievable.
Desire to win. That’s who wins here. That’s who we reward. I think everybody did everybody get recognized today? I think everybody did, right? Seem like everybody got something. Is that correct? I’m sorry. I was in the back. I was just prepping for the last couple. But everybody got something. No, everybody didn’t get something. You know, recognition is really for those of you who didn’t get something. I remember when I didn’t get something, I’d sit there or we’d be sitting here saying, this next guy getting his promote, this guy’s a superstar. He’s the best ever come in this business. He’s this, I’m going. It’s got to be me. Let me stretch out. I’m getting ready. It wasn’t me, but I was visualizing some of you during the recognition. You know, you ain’t getting it. So what do you do? You start talking to people.
I would come right up front, I’d be right there, sitting here going, that person’s no better than me. Yay. Yay, yay. You think I’m kidding? I ain’t kidding. Because ain’t nobody better than me. It ain’t nobody better than you. But what do we do? We check out. I’m okay. I’m okay. Kumbaya. Let’s just all. You don’t do much. I won’t do much. It’s okay. Socialism is great. The rich, they’re bad. Money makes people bad. Yeah. How many people you sponsor for the. For the. I don’t even know where these kids are going, but they’re going somewhere on us. How many warders did you buy? I bought 100. Gave him 150. How many? I go, 100. I need 100. Here’s 150. Can I have 100? The girl’s like, yes, sir, yes, sir. We need 100. He don’t care if they’re cold or hot.
He don’t care because we’re having a little lunch instead of me buying them from Publix. So don’t tell me. I didn’t know if I was good or bad. I’m not saying I’m good, but I know whether I’m better than I was, and I’m going to keep getting better. Look here. That gump. Distinguished went away. Here we go. We’re going to roll now. Who’s ready to get rolling here? Here we go. So, tremendous faith in our system. How can you not have faith in what I just talked to you about? Teach people to make and save money for retirement. I was living home my mother and father. Now one little piece of my net worth gets rolled over, and the company sends me $103,000. I’m like, what else? Maybe I want to roll over around here. All right. What do we got? Money motivated. Yeah.
We reward people that are money motivated, because the only way you make money here is help others get what they want. So you, in turn get what you want. What a concept. What a darn concept. They work hard. I want you to know, when I started, back after that convention, I said, baby, we’ll work on Mondays. I was so far out of. I was eight years out of having a bay shop. I forgot that when you build a bay shop, it’s like having an infant. That’s like having your little baby that comes home. All right, you little beautiful Jimmy Jr. You are so cute. Put you in here now. You’ll be good. You’ll be good. I’ll come see you next Monday. Doesn’t work. It’s seven days a week, 24 hours a day. And let me give you a little hint.
It’s going to take longer than you think, but it’s going to better than you could ever imagine. If you’re willing to put time and consistency into it, let’s move on here. They work hard and they have a positive attitude. I’m adjusting that, pastor, because it’s a grateful attitude. Okay, whatever the word is grateful, we’ll use that right there. Now, let’s talk about developing. Second one is attitude is everything. Am I on? Good. Okay, good. Pop that thing. Attitude is everything is number two. Everyone loves to be around someone who is positive. Okay? Grateful. All right. And excited about life. Negative people. Read it for me. Negative people. What? It’s up now. I will try again. Negative people. What? Train your batteries. This is the greatest business in the world when you work with the right people.
It’s the worst business in the world when you work with the wrong people. Who’s the right people? People that want it. How do we know if they want it or not? They show you. They show up. They have a good attitude, they work hard, they try to get better. They look for the good in things. They have childlike enthusiasm. They’re in a pile of crap. But guess what? There’s a pony in this pile of crap somewhere. Man, oh, man. Something’s good around here, right? That’s who it is. Happy people attract others like them. Negative do. 90% of win is always being excited. The key to staying excited is lead by example. What has changed in my life since the last convention? Me getting new people.
I am so thankful that a golf course right over there in Tampa, old memorial golf course, owned by the two founders of Outback. Both of them are friends of mine. One is a very good friend of mine. And his personal caddy, Hogan Bender. Hogan, stand up, if you would. Okay. Hogan Bender was his personal caddy. You still haven’t got a haircut. Okay, stay standing. Stay standing. You still haven’t got a haircut. Okay, good. But I met him through another caddy. You’re one person away. Hogan recruited 50 people in October. How many in October? November. Hogan. 41 in November. And how many in December? How many? You’re one person away from an explosion. Okay? He’s got a stud on his team. Tyler Barrett. Tyler, how many did you get in November? Speak up, boys. This is your chance.
What’d you come back the next month with? He’s got a son. His team, named Janessa. Where’s Janessa? Janessa. Janessa got fired. Stand up, Janessa. I’m sorry. You are? Okay. Okay. I love these short girls. Hey. One of our teammates. Talk about a short superstar in hierarchy. Seriah candelier. We just lost her. She just passed away. Horrible situation. Horrible. Seriah was this big. She was called Team Turbo. Every time I saw, I’d give her a hug, and I’d go like this. We’d be on stage. I go, Seriah, come over here. Give me a hug. I go like this, and we’d all laugh. The good Lord. She fought cancer for the last couple years. It’s horrible. Life’s short, but I’ll tell you that. Janessa, stand back up. Janessa. What a superstar. Lost her job three months ago. Been there forever, since college.
I said, janessa, you have a choice to make, okay? It stinks. It’s horrible. Okay? But guess what? We got a system in place. The buyers turns onto Kumo’s face, you start plugging in. We can get your own. She comes out and doubles recruited the last two months. Give her a hand for that. Proud of you, Janessa. Oh, guess what? Where’s Angelina? Angelina, right. Angelina. Angelina. I’ve never. Look at her. Look at her. She could light up a room with her smile, okay? She’s the most giving, caring people. There are good people out there. She’s a qualified district leader, and as a qualified district leader, Bustin Butt. And his team named Amir, right on his team right there. Give him a big hand for that. Okay, but watch this. Last but not least, where’s Gunner? Amir. Proud of gunner. Stand up. Daggum.
College kid out here in Tampa. Got started in November. Double digit recruiter in November. And he’s running with the bulls because we got this team we’re running with the bulls. Running with the bulls. Silly stuff. I get it. I get it. But guess what? We’re going to get recruiting going on because the maniacs used to recruit. We haven’t recruited in years, and we’re getting back into it with this one more time. Team gunner. Did I tell you to sit down? You stay standing till I tell you to sit down. You hear that? Gotcha. Yes, sir. Okay. He comes in, superstar. Great energy, great focus. Having a lot of fun. Double digit recruits two months ago. Give him a hand. His first two months. Don’t tell me you can’t do it. And we ain’t done nothing yet. We’re learning how to do production.
I had Andy cornered back here. You gotta tell me how you do. Like, what’s your presentation? What kind of presentation you do. I want to know everything it’s about. You can sit down now. We got a good job. You must practice a positive attitude. It’s the old mim system. Okay, Tom Hopkins. Okay, read it with me. My attitude, Mimt, that’s the m. The I stands for. I deserve success. Listen, I deserve success and we’ll do what successful people do. I refuse to allow negative people to fill my mind with negativity. You say it now, you don’t know it. I’ll show it to you. Go ahead. The next one. The next one. Most of the arm is. Don’t switch it. Most of the arm. And now, by the way, I don’t have a prompter giving me this.
This stuff’s ingrained in my head most of the arguments I have with myself. So when I get down, I’ll use the famous Goya formula for guaranteed success. All right, those of you that know it, let’s do it without the screen. Ready? Most of the arguments. All right, now, those of you that don’t know it, you’ll get to know it. Now. Let’s go. Oh, whoa, whoa. Back. How do we go back? Help, please go back. Thank you. Ready, everybody? Go ahead. And don’t forget. Don’t forget you got a goya stir. It’s very tough to Goya with your legs like this, so get them planted and get your goya up. Goya means get off your. We’re not going to say it. Get off your anatomy. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go. Let’s go. Here we go. Aheadll win. Why? I’ll tell you why.
Is that thief courage and enthusiast you now? Oh, the classic champion creed. I am not judged by a number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed, a number of times I succeed. This is the right abortion. Number times I can fail and keep. Go, go. Watch this. We did Thursday training. Dave Harris, man, I’m so thankful for you and your family, boy. You’re helping us here in Tampa tremendously. Okay. What a great team. What a great family. And I’m excited about where we’re going. Big part of our one more time team. I thought you were going to be one of the guys that were going to compete to go to 500,000. But I did make a rule.
The guys, we came together, we said, we’ll take your income and Rob’s income and combine them and then maybe that you can compete with the medinas and the abners. So we’ll put that in, we’ll talk about that later. Watch. I’m doing this in training the other night. Not this, but a different train. I thought to my joints. You taught meyer, weird, rich, normal, poor. I go, okay, sir. And I’m talking to Amir. I sent Amir a message this morning. You ready to change your life today, brother? He sends you back. Weird, rich, Amir. You have no idea how much of excitement. Even though you were late today. Don’t you be late again. He wasn’t the one I was talking about before. Okay? Amir’s newba. Amir. First time late. I make a check. Next time, you deal with this, okay? I have been watching.
Let’s go. So let’s keep going. You must practice a positive out to which we just did. Pass negatives up, positives down. So many people want to talk to their sidelines. Can you believe what Jimmy’s doing? We have people in our hierarchy now. There’s people in our hierarchy that are so miserable that we recruited 50 people two months ago. They’re hoping that it doesn’t work. They are in for a rude awakening because we are going to promote people that are going to beat them when they’re wasting time worrying about what we’re doing. I’m not doing it to motivate them or demotivate them. I’m doing it because I’m not going to keep going to conventions and sit there and just. I have a great life. I have a lot of things I could do. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona, in a beautiful house.
Belong to an amazing country club there. I don’t mean a pretty good country club. I made an amazing country. I belong to a country club right up the road here. I belong to four country clubs in Jacksonville, Florida. As a matter of fact, I just purchased one of them. Okay. Not me personally. Me and a group of guys. My life is really good, but I love this. Airplanes. Don’t have a yacht no more, but, man, it’s good. I’m not doing this to motivate you. If you’re happy with your. And you got out of primary where you want. Wonderful. I made a decision that I wanted to be around young people. The way I see Mario and his team now I’m getting to know Andy. I got two new friends, Andy and Brittany. I just got your phone number. I got Andy’s phone number.
He asked me for mine. I go, I’ll give you mine if you give me yours. I love that about this business. Johnny, you and I go back 30 years now, Bud, when you went up to speak. Yes, I saw. This guy’s so good. I remember when his son played college basketball. This becomes a family unless you don’t apply time and consistency. Look here. Let’s move on to number three. That’s a guarantee. A bad attitude. It’s almost a guarantee of failure. Number three, build a protective shield around you. You got it? You get it. Let’s move on. Because we’re controversial. Yes. What’s controversial about us? Not our products. No one could ever say something bad about. Teach them how to make and save money for retirement.
Take a 23 year old person, show him how to take $100 a month he had going into the daily news. Get him to realign that, put some into a life insurance, puts him into mutual funds. 39 years later, turns into, by the way, I don’t want to see anybody. The $60 didn’t turn into 3.3 million. I kept putting more money in, and that’s what you’re supposed to do when you make more money, you pay yourself first. I would have never done that because I would have never saved before. Because whatever I made, I spent. Whatever I made, I spent. No one could argue with what we do for people. Where people could criticize us is the fact that somebody like me could get paid $100,000 today. There’s got to be something wrong with it. How much has he made? 47 million.
That’s what the company’s paid us from our original business. Millions in stock. Above that. Something’s got to be wrong. He must have took advantage of people, because that’s the way the mind works. Instead of, oh, my God, how many people on his team does he have? Make money. See our payroll on our team every month. I should say our cash flow is millions of dollars, not including ours. Very nice introduction you gave us. But we also have a $2 million increment on our team. I love the fact that Howard Lashner made more money than us, not last year, but the year before. Not competing with Howard Lashner. I’m disappointed myself that I just accepted I was never going to make $3 million here. Why would I do that? I know why I stopped. But now I got a plan.
It ain’t about me going to 3 million, but it’s about getting those young people I just introduced you to go out and make $10,000 a month in our base shop. Then when they go to regional vice president, make 25,000 their first month and make 300 grand their first year, and then go to 500,000. That’s what I’m fired. Is that going to change my life financially? Not at all. But it’s going to put a little more. It’s put a little more energy into me of making a difference. Our children, Kib and I’s children, know those guys. They’re not engaged yet, but they realize these guys are now and gals are now part of our extended family. They come over. They’re at our house. They stay over. They stay there when we’re not there. Tyler stayed at our house in Scottsdale when were there.
Then we left. He stayed there. He was like, yeah, use the car. They’re family. That’s what you do with family. The buyer’s daughter, years ago, got grounded in Jacksonville, called me, my daughter. I said, I’m getting the car right now. I drive there, pick her up. This is a different kind of business. The outside world wants to criticize us for that. They want to put us down. I want to applaud us for that. Don’t you ever be embarrassed by being part of this place. We change people’s lives every single day. I’ve asked the company for over a year now. Can you please put on Pol on a consistent basis what just happened from our death claim department. This client yesterday had this. We gave them this. This person died for them.
Because at the conventions, we used to always have a slide that showed that. And it was always the most moving thing to me. We make a difference. Don’t ever apologize for what we do. Those people will never understand this. Four. Still three. We ain’t average and ordinary. There’s nothing average about primerica. So don’t you be average, ordinary to numbers business. It only takes a few good producers and a lot of average producers to build an empire. I bought into that. I was like, I only need a few this time around, I only need a few. But let me tell you where the few starts from. You, you got to walk faster, you got to talk louder. I don’t want to say you. I don’t like that. We got to walk faster, we got to talk louder, we got to smile. Don’t prejudge people.
Pick your witness early. I said this yesterday. It’s a contradictory company. Work with people you want to be around. It’s so sad how you pour into people. You pour into people. You pour into people, then they just disappear. It hurts. It takes a toll on you. But don’t you dare allow that, to take that out on the next person you bring in, because you never know which one it’s going to be. Everything we go through is setting us up for the next explosion. Everything we’re all paid in direct proportion to how much crap we could deal with. Five, three stage of commitment. The lion stage. Yep. I see some of you in this room. You don’t have a notebook. I looked at our base shop, looked at how many people did not have a notebook. I start twitching. Kim’s like, what’s.
When I say, not now. Because it’s not their fault. It’s my fault. I couldn’t imagine coming to a meeting without a notebook. By the way, I went to every meeting. I was the first one there. Last one to leave. There might be nobody that heard Joannis speak more than I did. I heard him say, create interest, overcome objections, and close thousands of times. Thousands and thousands of times. Every time I heard him say it, I’d sit there, create interest over cojections, and close. And you know why? Because our team was watching me. And when I took notes, they take notes. Monkey see, monkey do. I got in trouble yesterday for my baby, okay. Because I was taking notes to my phone. Looks rude. I ain’t doing that ever again. I’m back. This is new me coming to schools.
Andy goes, are you leaving right after you talk? I go, heck, no. I got a big shop here, dude. I ain’t going nowhere. I was here early. I’ll be here at the end. We’ll be taking picture at the end. We take our team picture at the end. Because I want to know who’s here at the end. At the end, at the end. Oh, how come I’m not in that picture? Because you weren’t here at the end. I know you had to get somewhere. I’m sure you have a bunch of other multimillionaires trying to teach you how to become one. That was more important to be here. Oh, I got to work tomorrow. Don’t you have any days that you could take off? But people don’t ask. But it’s my fault. I got to get better.
I was going to pay for a guy to be here. Hey, dude, I know you got to work. How much you going to make on Friday? How much you make on Saturday? I make 150. When you show up, I’ll give you $300. You need to be here. He’s not here. He might be watching. If you’re not, I’m done with you. Oh, I’m done. I’m done. Let me show this last but not least, always be willing to start over. Okay. Lawant King, I’m so happy you’re here. Lawant King. You’re as good as there is in this company he is now, he’s got a long way to go because he went down some other path that I’m not happy with. I said, luan, you’re not coming to this. He goes, well, I got something. I said, luan, come on. See? And Luan and I joked.
He said, the one thing goes, coach, you got to do it one more time. I got to do it the first time. It doesn’t matter where you’re at. What matters is where you’re going. I look at you with all those emotions I mentioned. Those emotions come from an attitude of gratitude. You are looking at the luckiest guy to ever join this business. I brought three people to a meeting, three of them. My good friend Paul Sonowski, who’s still here. Buddy. Man, oh, man. Almost 200 grand last year. Love you, Paul. Carrie Geensberg. Carrie Geensburg. We all went to high school together. Carrie Geensburg. When I started this one more time movement, he said, hey, I ain’t in on that. Lives in Scott. He makes 900 grand a year. Hasn’t worked in 33 years. It’s the business. I love it.
I wish I had ten Carrie Geensburgs. We’re different. And I get to do this with all you. I get to work with people that I’ve never met before. Bay shop. I know I yell. I know Kim always says, you ought to stop yelling at him. I don’t think it’s yelling, but I know. My father used to say, I’m not yelling. I sit there, well, it seems like you’re yelling. I didn’t say he was smacking. I just want that base shop to know this one more time. To know I ain’t perfect. Walter and Ellith out there in Tennessee met them last year at a wedding in Hawaii. Her mom was getting married. Kim is a good friend. I looked at Kim and go, we gotta get to know them. They’d be great to watch the way that beautiful couple has grown.
With your little daughter, it’s hard. It’s lonely. Only if you accept that. It’s hard and lonely because we’re a team. And the word team is team. Together, everybody achieves more. And I’m very proud and honored to be your teammate. God bless. All right, all right. Hey.
