The RoadMap Podcast Ep. 09 - Holly

[Music] foreign hey guys welcome to another podcast of the road map podcast uh Mike irvling I'm with Holly Newton today we are thrilled you guys are joining us I'm super excited about today's podcast with Holly she is absolutely crushing it Holly how you doing I'm doing good thanks Mike awesome awesome welcome to the podcast um super excited to have you um kind of want to know right off like kind of your journey here through FFL um how did you find out about it what were some of your reservations or was it just like yeah I'm I'm All In what was that kind of like getting into it and kind of hearing about it for you okay so I found well I think I've always known a little bit about FFL a lot of like our mutual friends started this job and of course in a warm Market you recruit your friends so a lot of my college friends started doing ffo and I just kind of watched from the distance for a couple years I was doing my own little thing and then it wasn't until our family moved from Kentucky to California I began to get really interested in what this FFL thing was um of course 2020 we don't know how crazy that was um we moved from a fairly cheap cost of living type of state to a very expensive State um and all the pandemic um I was pregnant at the time so after I had my son I was really really really wanting to start working again just to help the family out and things like that so I reached out to a couple girls I knew in FFL and they told me pretty much everything terrible about it and everything good about it and then I told them okay I'm ready to start what do I need to do because at that point you know inflation was really really high and it was just getting ridiculous so I was ready to get to work right away so that's kind of how I heard about FFL and I got started um officially started I think January 2021 after I got through Contracting and everything was your first 90 days like did you hit the ground running or was there kind of like some ups and downs what was that first kind of 90 days like for you so you know you buy your leads for your county and so my County here it's just so massive I was driving everywhere I was driving you know the Palm Springs that was an hour away then I was driving Temecula two hours away and I can only put like three four appointments in a day and maybe you you know four wasn't Max you know so I was driving hours between appointments gas was almost 10 10 a gallon it was getting really really crazy um so if I had like a day of no shows I mean I was just filling up my tank a couple times and you know not really getting any show for it but the few people I did sit with I was able to close them so I knew I was able to do this job as long as I just kept working and showing up I was able to make things happen but I called my upline and I said hey I want to keep doing this but I am wasting so much time on the road I'm driving hours hours every day getting home really late um you know if I had a day of no shows I mean it was just a complete waste of time so she said well why don't we switch you to telesales and you just work from home and I said I love it so I immediately stopped driving around all over California and then went straight to tell us house and immediately saw the difference just by making that's what was that my first 90 days were tough only because I was wasting so much time driving the transition um it was so easy I mean it didn't like within a day I was just calling my leads staying home making my appointments and myself I was able to finally do more than four appointments a day which is you know terrible you don't want to do less than four a day um so I was finally able to book you know five six seven I kept getting better the more I was doing it I was able to fill my day full of appointments and the transition was just so much simpler I was able to just get all my work done sitting at a desk I don't have to go anywhere at all and the transition was just so easy I loved it I love it um so obviously you had that transition right obviously that was more 2022 that you really kind of fully went you know virtual so what was the obviously you're crushing it this year you protected over 100 families in three months you're like one of our top three producers on Inception so what is what was that what's the difference between the start of this year and kind of last year What's led to this explosion and the amount of business you're writing right now um I think part of it was um I wasn't really confident when I first started I had no idea what cells were I didn't know how to talk to a client professionally you know I never dealt with you know stuff like this before you know like my previous careers was just dealing with kids working as a teacher Nanny and things like that in a school you know of course I helped parents and things like that but like I've never dealt with a client professionally I didn't quite understand how to communicate um you know I was really really struggling in home but there was just one thing I knew how to do and that was to help people and so I just really tried my best you know I'm sitting in front of this couple and I have a product that will change their life so if I can just help them get it then I knew I was doing the absolute best I can and you know over time I just kept getting better the things became more natural to say in home and things like that so it took a while to really take off and I would say I think by the end of last summer I was really getting confident in what I was doing I was starting to see more progress it was helping my confidence when I was seeing more progress more sales come in and then after that I was like okay well I'm going to up my lead spin I'm going to put more effort into this than when I was doing before and from then on I just kept growing rapidly I would say yeah I love because I think that's a big piece that a lot of new agents Miss is actually helping the client right instead of saying oh here's this great product how can I actually help the client and when you can kind of bring some of that emotion and really try to truly help a client I think that is a really the client feels that instead of being stressed that you're not even made you haven't made a sale in a couple of days it's just okay how can I help the next client how can I truly protect them and I love how that because again I think when you change your mindset to that along with obviously sitting with more people that's a big key to agent starting to have that's that consistent success so that that's that's awesome um obviously you have you wear a lot of hats right you you know you're a mom your your wife your pastor's wife right you wear a lot of different hats plus being a business owner now right so what is that like how do you juggle all of that in your schedule and still right at such a high a high production level um well like you said I did where a lot had some constantly busy I mean there's there's some weeks where I can only work maybe two or three days because we have a lot going on at our church for example Easter a couple weeks ago I was only able to work one day um because we're prepping for a really big Sunday you know things like that um I got things I do with my kids you know I'm just really busy in general so what I really really really try to do is make sure I manage my time very very well I don't put anything on my calendar that I know is going to prevent me from having a um successful week I try to move things around to plan out you know far in advance like if we're going to take a trip it's like well we're not doing anything until I you know make this goal or whatnot so I'm very intentional with my time during the week I map out everything everything I have to do for the church everything had to do with my kids everything I had to do you know helping my husband and whatnot and then I fill in all the empty slots for FFL so I can have 28 to 30 appointments a week that comes in every day um to watch my kids for me and the moment she walks in the door I'm walking into my office so I can stay focused until it's time for her to leave at the end of the day you know um if I have to make up extra work I'm waking up early in the morning do extra dialing or do an early morning appointment if I have to maybe run on a Saturday evening I'll do some appointments on a Saturday evening you know whatever it takes for me to still fill in what I need to do for my business and still make time for my family and for you know the ministry that we have too as well so as far as being organized I write everything I have to do per hour every single day so I know okay so I have you know 10 slots today I got this and this going on with church so I'm going to have 10 appointments in this time frame you know you know I make those goals because at the end of the week what I don't produce that that's on me because I didn't manage my time well so I'm very very strict with my time yeah so the two things that stuck stuck out to me there is obviously you're extremely disciplined right and you're extremely intentional about what you're doing right I think that's a lot of times an agent come in and maybe want to work two three days a week but they're not going to be consistent with their schedule they're not gonna be disciplined they're not going to be intentional about it so they're going to try to do what you do but without having that structure so I think that's really key because a lot of times I think you have a lot of moms and a lot of people that work limited schedules that again Watch and they're like I don't know if I can do this but I think like you if they're extremely intentional and they're disciplined with their time I think that is what can lead success and I think that's what's so great about our industry that it doesn't discriminate right it doesn't matter who you are what you do right as long as you're willing to put in the work and be extremely disciplined with your time I think that's a big key for someone to be able to come in and kind of duplicate what you're doing right I think that's the great thing about our our group is and when everything that we do here is that is very duplicatable right we're not doing anything I'm not doing anything crazy you're not doing anything crazy right we're just sticking to the system which is so great because again it's if you know you've never even have years of sales experience before you got here right this is pretty much your first thing to be considered sales right and it just you just followed the you know the process that was in place and it led to success for you so that's awesome um obviously going into 2023 what are some of your goals this year both personal team building what does that look like for this year well yeah so I want to make Hall of Fame by the end of the year hopefully by Thanksgiving you know I really want to hit that goal um I believe I'm sort of on track for that I did take a couple weeks off at a became the year commissions trip but you know the end of the year I want to hit holiday for my family um one of my goals this year was to buy a house for our family when we moved to California we had to depend on the church for housing and we just didn't want that long term so um actually we're going to close on our house um next Thursday which is incredible that I was able to do that for my family that was one of my goals and I didn't think it would happen until later this year and you know it was just incredible how things kind of played out for us another goal is to have a team um this convention I was able to bring um four four or five people to Convention and I want to Triple that for next year I want to be able to build a team and have agents doing the same thing I'm doing moms single people I mean it doesn't matter I want everyone to have the same opportunity that I got to have through this job and help my family and the people I love through this and I want to be able to give more people that opportunity to do that as well yeah that's super exciting able to buy a house especially in California houses aren't cheap over there so that's that's amazing that you're able to do that you know with this opportunity here so that is super exciting um obviously looking to build a team um with that if someone wants to work with you right because I think the great thing about this business is different people relate to different people right so if you have if you know if you're a single mom on here and you want to work with Holly how do they get how do they get in contact with you and they can email me um my email is Newton Holly and that's h-o-l-l-y dot FFL gmail.com that'll be the best way to get a hold of me perfect and you're on Facebook and Instagram as well right they can look you up there as well Instagram well Holly I appreciate you jumping on today um I hope the viewers hope they gathered a lot obviously you're crushing it um so it was definitely I always learned a lot every time I talk with you so I'm super appreciative you jumping on um and any any parting shots that you want to shout out before you we jump off um sure um when you do this job you have to be super super disciplined like we talked about with your time and you know a lot of people think this job is like a luxury you can work as little as you want and make as much as you want let's not necessarily true it's not a job in this world that pays you for doing absolutely nothing you have to work um and when you put in the work you will see the results and that's something that I learned um very very very from the very beginning is you have to work hard I thought I could just you know just hop on um make a few dials make a several thousand dollars but that's not necessarily true you need to be intentional with you with your day and work you know eight to four every day sometimes earlier sometimes later depending if I need a make up extra work because that's what my name is you know be intentional with your time and be extremely disciplined and rely on others like Mike I've called you so many times hey what did I do with this and I still text you and call you all the time um with help with different things you know you're constantly needing to grow always um I don't I don't feel like I've arrived as a life insurance agent I'm constantly trying to figure out ways to better my presentation and better my tone and better everything that I'm doing or better my time management so um constantly make yourself grow and constantly work hard is what would say love it to everybody yeah that's huge Holly appreciate you jumping on um it was a pleasure pleasure having you on um guys thanks for joining um this has been another podcast the roadmap podcast uh like share and come back next time appreciate it it's makeup