Are You Willing To Pay The Price?

Hey guys, good morning. Alberto Riehl here in New York City. It is Sunday morning… make sure I don’t get hit here. It’s a little different to what I’m used to. Sunday morning on my way walking to my Mastermind. I got to tell you man it’s been an amazing, amazing event. There’s just, so many things that I’ve learned in the last couple days. Today is the last day. There’s just one thing that I’m super excited about, that I’m going to put into action actually today, tonight. I’m going to put it into action in my business, we’re going to have some great results. I think that’s a great way to tackle when you go to events like this, a lot of people, 95% of people that go to a live event, go back to work on Monday, and go back to their regular lives and don’t do anything. Less than 5% actually put it into action.

This is Anthony Robbins. Anthony Robbins was considered to be one of the best out there. He says if he can have 5% of the people that attend his seminars put it into action, it’s a great success. Why is that? People get all these ideas, and they become overwhelmed. Then, they’ll say “Well, I’ll do it later, I’ll do it later.” They go back to their daily life, and then they forget about it. I think the trick is to pick just one thing, one thing to implement. That’s what’s great about these events, if you’re going to once, that one thing can transform your entire business. One of the coolest things about it is the relationships that you build also. This is a … it’s a $30,000 buy-in to get into the mastermind you have. Everybody in there is earning seven figures. Some guys, multiple seven figures. Some guys eight figures.

I actually went to dinner last night with a guy who’s an eight-figure earner. His business did $10 million last year. He was telling me his story, and I thought “Wow.” It’s all about willingness. This guy’s name is Gabriel. Came over from Uruguay when he was 22 years old. Came into Miami. He had it tough. The guy didn’t have anything, his job was picking up trash at the beach, so that’s his job, picking up trash at the beach. This is Park Avenue, I got the MetLife building in the background there. I think there might be a little bit of money in insurance, right? Then right behind me, you see the Waldorf, that’s the famous Waldorf Astoria. It’s being renovated again. If you have any doubt that there’s any money in the insurance industry, the Waldorf Astoria broke a record, just got bought by a Chinese insurance company, paid, I think was $2 billion, the most they’ve ever paid for a hotel.

There’s plenty of money in our industry. But going back to Gabriel. It’s all about willingness. Most people are not willing to do what it takes to be successful in business. This guy was picking up trash at the beach, that’s what he did. Then, he was waiting tables and bussing tables. At one point, he told me about his apartment had nothing in it, a little studio apartment, nothing in it. He’s sleeping on the floor. Then, his girlfriend is supporting him, helping him out. He’s chasing his dream the whole time. He knew he could make some money online, e-commerce. People are telling him to get realistic. You guys ever heard that? His friends, his family, his wife is saying “Honey, please, get a job, get a job.”

His father-in-law. Would you imagine your wife’s dad sits you down and says “Look, man. It’s time to start acting like a man and get a job so you can support your family.” He’s like “No, you don’t understand. There’s potential.” He’s talking about business online, and earning millions of dollars. He was like “Dude, you’re crazy. You’re delusional. You’re crazy.” He’s like “No, I know I can do it. I know I can do it.” He’s taking credit cards out, he’s in debt, he told me I think it was five credit cards all maxed out. He’s down to his last $500 on a credit card. His last $500.

Finally, boom, something hits. Puts in $500 into Facebook, ends up making $8,000 back. Finally, something hits. He just kept scaling, scaling. Guys, this is at the end of 2016. The guy was going after his dream. He’s 36 today. He was going after his dream for 14 years before anything happened. 14 years of heartache, 14 years of let-downs, 14 years of setbacks, of failures. That’s the way most people see it. He saw it as a learning curve. He talks about that. I got to tell you. 14 years, are you willing to go through that heartache and fights with the spouse, and the family, your family thinking you’re crazy for 14 years?

But I got to tell you, at the end of 2016, that’s when things popped for him. Last year, in 2017, his first full year, he did over $10 million in business. Now, the same people that were saying he was crazy, are his biggest supporters of course. He got to buy his wife the dream house that she always wanted. The mother-in-law that said he was crazy got to buy her, her dream car, a Mercedes that she always wanted. Is it worth it? Is all that stuff worth it? Absolutely, guys, absolutely.

The night before I went to dinner with a guy named Josh. You probably heard of him, he’s one of the biggest marketers online, you see him everywhere. He earned over $4 million last year. He’s telling me more in depth about his story, how again, it created all kinds of frictions with his wife, with his marriage. He’s going after this big dream, everybody around him things he’s crazy. Boom, today, amazing life, they moved to Florida, they grew up in, gosh where was it? One of the very cold places up north, maybe you’re watching up north. I think it was … Gosh, I can’t remember. Iowa or one of those states. Again, now they have their dream home, beautiful kids, gosh, bought the wife a Maserati.

Now, that’s not what it’s about, but it’s the time freedom that they have now, the financial freedom, and they’re all giving back. It’s funny, because I get people on my posts all the time saying “Oh yeah, fake story. Here’s another guy that went through a rough time. Everybody goes through a rough time. Everybody sleeps on a buddy’s couch,” which I had to do. I was sharing my story, and we’re laughing now. We’re laughing. That’s what brings character. But at the time, it’s not so funny. But yeah, I did, I slept on a buddy’s couch for months. My wife, pregnant, had to move back in with her mom. We’re 3,000 miles away from each other. I’m working seven days a week. I got stumped on two-year-old leads, final expense leads.

If any of you guys have worked final expense, you know that’s the bottom of the barrel, you don’t get into the insurance business to sell final expense. Making little $300 sales. I’m calling on people that, again, leads that were two years old. These are seniors, these are low-income seniors, very unhealthy. I’m knocking on doors, and I’m asking for John, “May I speak with John?” They’re like “Who wants to know?” “Alberto, he sent in this thing.” They’re like “That must be a long time ago, because John’s been dad for six months.” You know, that happened to me all the time. I got chased by pit bulls. I don’t know what it is about that area, I was in Hawaii, where it seemed like everybody had a pit bull, working seven days a week from early morning until the sun came down.

I was told by locals “Hey man, you shouldn’t be here anymore, sun’s going down, it’s not safe for you to be here.” That’s what I had to do, borrowing my friend’s car to get there, a little Ford Ranger with no air conditioning. This is Hawaii, guys, I was sweating, my back is full of sweat, because I’m showing up to people’s houses hoping that they answer the door seven days a week. That’s what I had to do. Old, stumped on leads with wrong numbers, and people were dead. But that’s what I had to do to get to where we are today.

Most people I talk to, we talk to hundreds of agents every month, hundreds of them, every month with our guys. There’s people in tough situations, tough situations. But what are they doing? They’re just standing back at home hoping and praying that things somehow get better. Somehow they get better. They’re not willing to do anything. We tell them, it’s like “Look, man. Right now all you have is time. You don’t have any money. You have time. Use that.” Like, no, they’re just sitting on the couch, hoping something falls onto their lap. They’re just not willing to do it. Guys, that’s the price of admission, that’s what you have to do.

The other secret about it is that if you want to stay on top, and stay in business, then that never ends. It never ends. The sacrifices are a little bit different. Like right now, we’re in New York City at Sunday morning, most people are with their family, right? Sunday morning. Flew in from Southern California. Southern California to New York City, it’s like a six-hour flight. Six-hour flight, price of admission to the mastermind pretty high. Airline tickets to get over here, hotels in New York are pretty expensive. But that’s the price that we must continue to pay to stay on top and stay in business.

Now, the good news is, very few people are willing to pay it. If you’re one of those few people, then congratulations, man. I’ll see you at the top. If you’re not, then think about why is it that I’m doing this? There has to be something bigger than you. Maybe it’s for the family, maybe it’s to get back to your community, or maybe it’s to your church. But it’s something that has to be bigger than you that makes you want to do whatever it takes. People always ask “What does it take?” Whatever it takes. It doesn’t matter. We decided that “Yes, I’m going to get this, I’m going to make my business successful.” That’s the only decision made. After that it’s whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to be successful, I’m going to do.

Sunday morning, from New York City, guys. I hope you’re having a wonderful day. Alberto Riehl, talk to you soon.