Executive TLDR
Financial freedom comes from long-term commitment and duplication.
Recruit, train, and develop leaders who become master copies.
Treat the business like an Olympic race—discipline and consistency win.
Shift from individual success to generational relay leadership.
Build a family legacy, not just personal income.
Video Summary
From Military to Million-Dollar Leaders
In The Primerica Playbook: Mastering The Game Of Financial Freedom, Ed Ortiz and Ivonne Ortiz share their 32-year journey from leaving the military to building a thriving family-run Primerica hierarchy.
After relocating to Atlanta in 1992 looking for work, Ed walked into a Primerica office seeking investment information. What he found was an opportunity for ownership, leverage, and long-term wealth.
Ivonne didn’t initially understand the presentation—but she trusted the environment enough to see it for herself. That decision changed their lives.
The Power of Environment
One of Ivonne’s key lessons:
Bring people to the environment.
Instead of trying to explain the opportunity imperfectly, expose prospects directly to leadership and the system. The environment communicates belief, scale, and possibility better than words alone.
Do You Understand the Bigness?
Ivonne challenges the audience:
Do you truly understand the size of what’s in front of you?
Primerica is not just a sales job. It’s a system that allows ordinary people—regardless of background—to build extraordinary income through duplication and leadership development.
They’ve developed 19 RVPs, including leaders crossing $500,000 in annual income. That didn’t happen by accident—it happened by system.
The Olympic Mindset
Ivonne compares the business to the Olympics:
Athletes train for years.
They show up to win.
Their moment comes because of disciplined preparation.
No one shows up hoping someone else wins.
Success in Primerica works the same way. You must decide you’re here to win—and prepare accordingly.
Finish the Race
She shares a story about their son Eric running a race at two years old. He started strong but stopped halfway, saying, “I tired.”
That moment reflects what happens in business:
People start excited.
They say the right things.
They stop when it gets hard.
The winners are the ones who finish.
The Simple Formula
Their success is built on a simple system taught by their upline:
Recruit people.
Train them.
Develop them into master copies.
Promote district leaders.
Build leaders who build leaders.
It’s not complicated—but it requires consistency, work ethic, and self-improvement.
From Sprint to Relay
In the early years, they ran hard personally—producing and recruiting aggressively.
After decades in the business, they shifted from sprinting to running a relay.
Now their sons and their partners run the base shop while Ed and Ivonne provide accountability and investment leadership. The baton isn’t dropped—it’s shared.
The result: a younger, energized hierarchy built to last generations.
Building a Family Legacy
The most powerful image shared is their family standing together, each earning over $100,000 annually.
That moment represented more than income.
It represented legacy.
The message is clear:
This is not about short-term cash.
It’s about building something that lasts for decades—and possibly generations.
FAQs
1. Who are Ed and Ivonne Ortiz?
Ed Ortiz and Ivonne Ortiz are long-time Primerica leaders who have built a multi-decade family business.
2. How long have they been in the business?
Over 32 years.
3. How many RVPs have they developed?
They have developed 19 Regional Vice Presidents.
4. What is their core business formula?
Recruit, train, duplicate, and promote leaders.
5. Why is environment important?
Exposure to leadership and culture helps prospects see the bigger vision clearly.
6. What does the Olympic analogy represent?
Long-term preparation and disciplined competition.
7. What does “finish the race” mean?
Stay committed long enough to see long-term results.
8. What is a master copy?
A trained leader who duplicates the system exactly.
9. Why is duplication critical?
Duplication creates scalable, long-term income.
10. What is the relay concept?
Transitioning from individual effort to generational leadership.
11. How do you build legacy income?
Develop leaders who continue producing and promoting.
12. Why emphasize work ethic?
Consistent activity over time compounds into large results.
13. Can anyone succeed in this system?
Yes, if they commit to the system and stay disciplined.
14. What role do their children play?
They now help run the base shop and expand the hierarchy.
15. What does long-term vision mean here?
Thinking in decades, not months.
16. What separates winners from quitters?
Endurance and consistency.
Glossary
RVP (Regional Vice President)
A leadership position responsible for running a base shop and developing a hierarchy.
Base Shop
The primary operational office where recruiting and training occur.
Duplication
Teaching others to replicate the same proven system and activity.
Master Copy
A leader who executes the system consistently and teaches others to do the same.
Hierarchy
The structured organization of agents and leaders built through recruiting and promotion.
Relay Leadership
A generational transition model where leadership responsibility is shared and passed forward.
Legacy Income
Long-term income sustained by a developed organization rather than individual effort alone.
Transcript:
All right. Excellent. Excellent. Well, hey, listen, my name is Ed Ortiz, and you guys are in for a treat this morning. You guys have the honor to listen to the love of my life, the lady that I get so excited. I mean, shoot, I am blown away. I’m excited right now because this lady right here means she’s getting prettier and prettier every day, man. And I just can’t. I just not can’t. I can’t wait till tomorrow. Cause tomorrow she’ll be prettier than she is today. Hey, that’s a one liner. You guys can get that one. All right. But let me share a little bit about our family business. We’ve been in the business 32 years. 32 years. Came in, we’re out of the military. I flew helicopters. She used to jump out of them. And we just left the military.
92 and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, looking for a job. And a friend of mine in Panama said, ed, when you get to Atlanta, go check out this company called Primerica. They got some great investments. So here I am looking for a job. I see this office, primaric office. I’m like, let me go check this thing out. Find out what this all investments are all about. Walked in the door, the RVP there looked at me and said, hey, are you here for an opportunity? You’re interested in making money? You’re interested in becoming stone wealthy? Guess what? I said, yeah, what you got? What you got? And he said, I’m gonna show you who we are, what we do, how we do things, how we grow, how we build a business. And if it’s for you, my job is to help you run a business.
I got so excited, man. And I went home and I talked to my boss, and I said, babe, you got to come take a look at this. See if it makes sense. Brought over the next day, showed her the same thing. She looked at it, and she said, I’m in. Let’s go. And we. That’s the type of lady we have here. I’m in. Let’s go. If we think about. There’s no need. If we don’t do it, we’ll probably be thinking about this for the rest of our lives. And we just made a decision. We came on board. All right, today, Jason was seven years old. Eric was five. Today, they’re in their thirties. Today, we run a family business. Run a family business. All right. Jason and Jackie and Eric and Bryn, they run the base shop.
I do all the accountability, and the boss over here does all the investments. And that’s how we run it and we’re having success, and it’s work is working for us. All right. But. And by doing it that way, we developed 19 rvps. 19 rvps. I’m excited about one of them last night went over $500,000 income. That is a great Edward Fernandez. Gabriela Cabrera, man. Phenomenal. And little Fabian silverios. I got you. I got you. But so without any further ado, let me bring up the great, the love of my life, the lady.
Oh, my goodness. How is everybody doing? Awesome. Awesome. First of all, I want to thank God because without him, I’m nobody. And to him goes the glory of everything that is happening in our lives. Right. I also wanted to take just a quick second in here and thank Rick Ayers. I mean, I’m telling you, to put this event together. This is an incredible event. And I only had to buy a ticket and encourage my team to come. That’s all I had to do. But they worked very hard. So let’s hear it for them, especially for Rick, because it’s important what he does, right? And to all, the entire leadership of Primerica, I see so many million dollar income earners in here that pour out of themselves.
So much to make sure that every day we have a shot at growing our family businesses or our businesses, you know? So that is important. Thank you so much for being here for all of us. You know, we really appreciate that. I do want to do a quick shout out to the Ortiz hierarchy, the aviators. You over there. I love you. You know who we are? Who are we? That is awesome. And again, like Ed said last night, we totally celebrated some milestone in our business by watching or not watching but witnessing how Eduard Fernandez and Gabriela Cabrera cross over half a million income, you know? So I really want you guys to give it up for them because that is a big deal.
And I tell you, and I tell you why that is a huge deal, guys, because I remember, like, it was just yesterday when Eduard walked into our office, 18 year old, you know, like, full of energy, full of, you know, wishes and dreams and whatever. But I’m telling you, it was a lot of work because he was so young and he didn’t understand a lot of things. But I am so glad that because Primerica has a system that anybody can come in here, you know, even if you don’t know business, even if you don’t know, you know, how to put together this in here, the system is perfect. All you gotta do is plug into it, and then years later, you’ll have the same results that we have. An amazing Edward and Gabriela. Enjoy today. So don’t tune me out, guys.
If this is your first time, how many of you are here for the very first time? Look at that. This is great. So if you’ve been in the business more than 30 days, you probably have heard our story a million times. But I want you to listen to our story from the way I saw it coming. Ed left one morning after we have gotten out of the military, scared to death because we didn’t have anything going on for us. And were just putting out resumes out there like crazy, hoping that somebody would actually see in us the worth that we had, how wrong were, because were so good, but were not getting any jobs. And one day when he walks out and about, I don’t know, 203:00 in the afternoon, he walks back into the house.
And I’m telling you guys, for the first time, I witnessed how something had happened in the life of my husband that has changed him forever. I didn’t know what it was. And he tried to explain to me what he had seen, and he screwed it up because it was bad. I didn’t understand a thing he was saying because he was talking a language that I had never heard before. He says, babe, you just don’t know what I found. But I’m going to tell you one thing. You better start shopping right now because we’re going to be filthy rich. And I’m looking at him, it’s like, what in the world are you talking about? But he did a brilliant thing. And it’s.
He asked me, Yvonne, why don’t you come with me to the office tomorrow so that they can explain to you what they explained to me that I was able to see, because I’m really not doing a good job at this in here. So point number one, guys, bring the people to the environment. Bring the people to the ones that have, pay the price that are in here so that they can witness also the greatness of this company. I wonder, guys, every time I speak, I wonder, do you guys really understand the bigness of what is in front of you right now in your life? Do you really? Because I know some of you came in here excited because the team is here. Some of you came excited because you have already heard that this is a place where dreams do come true.
And you have also heard the unseen people making money here, because that’s what we do. We teach people how to make money and change their lives around here. And you probably still have not grasped the bigness of what this business is all about. And I want to just kind of, like, paint a picture for you guys in the next few minutes in here. One of the things that I love so much about, honey, if you can help me with this in here and go back. One of my favorite events ever, sporting events, is the Olympics. You know, I admire, you know, every time the Olympics come around, I admire so much the fact that these athletes have worked so hard, and they have been so disciplined, and now is their moment of glory. But they don’t have all the time in the world.
You know, they have a lifetime to prepare for something that comes around every four years, and their glorious time only have a time frame, right? I tell you this in here, guys, because when you look at the Olympics, right, we all start out, you know, with make or these guys start out by making a decision that they’re gonna win and they’re gonna win big. Nobody shows up at the Olympics thinking, I just got a chance. They all won that gold medal. They all want to win. Do you guys want to win, or did you guys come in here to see somebody else win? You came in here, right? But it all starts with you. And this is something so cute. I always tell everybody the story of my cute son. This is Eric when he was two years old.
And I’m telling you, I tell this story because you seen this story a million times in your base shop. There was a race, and he. I took Jason and Eric. We took Jason and Eric to the race. And it was so funny because they were out there watching everybody running, and they wanted to participate. So Jason went off on his category, and he ran, and he got number three, and he was only four years old. What an amazing celebration. And Eric is watching. He’s only two. And you know what happened? It’s Eric’s turn to go run the race then. And you know what? He gets in there. He’s prepared, he’s talking a good game. He’s saying the right things until they say go. And when he went, that guy went like a bat. You know, he was running for his life.
Halfway through the race, he stopped. I mean, totally stops. And Ed and I are here, like, Eric, go. He didn’t go. He just crossed the field and came to where were looking down pretty much like that. And you know what we ask Eric, what in the world happened? Why didn’t you finish the run? He look at us and he goes, I tire. I tire. Have we seen that before? How many people are excited about the race, how many people show up? And it better not be you because I want you to finish that race because it’s important, right? But how many come and you hear them say the right things take off like crazy, but then they don’t stick to the fundamentals of this business and they end up getting tired. And that’s why they’re not here for the long run.
That’s why they don’t witness what we’re witnessing right now with Edward and Graviera when we see them cross the million dollar ring. So this is something at first, guys, there is something important that you got to understand. Pretty much. It’s up to you to get this going right. Ann and I, in 1992, when we saw this bigness, we realized a couple of things. We have things that we can control, and the things that were able to control was our work ethics. I’m telling you, we’re not afraid of work. We still not afraid of work. We’ll work as hard, as long as it takes to get the job done. Don’t come in here saying, I just gonna give it three months. I’m gonna give it a year. Give it as long as it takes. What else do you have going on?
Don’t you want to win the race? So ed and I went to work. Nobody had to call us. Nobody had to motivate us. We were so excited that we got an opportunity every single day to do something important with our life. We were consistent. We knew exactly what the plan was, and we created activity on a daily basis. You know, what your plan at and your uplines. Share that with you every day. The kind of things that you need to do to win in here. And we self improve. Now, we understood that there is a very cute formula, a very short, simple formula in Primerica to win big. And this is the formula. You just got to recruit some people. You just got to fill, train them and make them be master copies. Exactly what you have learned.
This is one thing that attracted me so much about, you know, the business. When I first went into the office, I didn’t understand everything that had to be done. But my upline, ward Peters, he tell Ed and I, he said, this is not very hard. I’m going to teach you to do something. You do it, and then you just teach somebody else to do it. This is not complicated, guys. We tend to look into what is that special formula? How many times I get asked, what is the one thing? What is it get you going, whatever. I just know what I need to do and I go, out, and I prospect, and I talk to people, and I help them get licensed, and I do district, we do district leader promotions. And the most important thing is we develop agents.
I wonder, guys, if you really know what you got in your hands, because I’m going to tell you something. Ed and I started this race giving it all we had, and we competed, and we got something good going on for our family and our friends. But the one thing is we shifted events. We used to run by ourselves. We were running those dashes and running hard. But now, after 32 years, we get to do something important. We just change the way we run. Now we do the relay run. Everybody talks about the relay run, and they say it’s about the baton being passed to the next person that’s important. And it better be done right, because otherwise you drop it. Right? But let me tell you what I love so much about that race. Every single runner has to be in shape.
Every single runner has to be at the top of their game and give it all. Every single player has got to be focused in running their own race for the good of the group. And that’s exactly what we’re doing right now. We’re not passing the baton to our sons, who were five and seven when we started in this business and watched us run and run. You know, what we’re doing now is we’re incorporating them in our business. And that business is gonna last for a long time. The day that Jason and Eric got serious about coming into primerica and running this business, and they got their partners involved and running with them, that is the day that our hierarchy got young, and that is the day that our hierarchy. We knew that were going to be here for a long time.
I want you to give it up for the aviators, especially Jason and Eric, Brynn and Jackie, for doing such an incredible job. We all run and fight, guys, because we want to make sure that we get that moment in time that we’re going to celebrate. And I’m telling you guys right now, we’re celebrating that moment. You know what? I look at this picture in here. Go back on it. I look at this picture, and I look at no Ed. The one with the family in the rings. There you go. When it was Ed’s birthday and we didn’t know what to give to him, we got together and we said, what is the greatest gift a child can give to a father? And we thought, let him watch you be successful, too.
Let him see and witness that what he has done and the things that he has endured. Somebody close to him has embraced that, and now they can go win for their family, too. When we took that picture, everybody was making over $100,000 a year in the business. You guys, you have small children. Guys, I’m telling you something. It’s time for you to get extremely serious about this business. Don’t take this opportunity for granted. Don’t you think that this is just another thing? It is big, it is great, and it can totally change legacies for a long time. So God bless you. I’ll see you at the top.
