Disagree & Commit

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Hey guys, Alberto Riehl  sitting here with Sarah. Hi, Sarah. You’re not gonna talk? No? We’re on a little swing. We’re at a little swing table. We’re in Tulum, one of our favorite places. It’s called … What’s this place called?

Sarah : Nomads.

 

Nomads. We almost went to a different place called Be Tulum, but we’re at a place called Nomad. It’s Thursday afternoon, we’re at a cool table. You can’t really see how cool it is. It’s on a swing. You can tell we’re swinging a little bit. The table’s better over here. And let’s see if we can get a little bit better here. No, can’t really see it. We’re right on the beach here. See, there’s our view. Show you guys a little bit about this place.

 

All right. So it’s Thursday. We’re jut kind of hanging out,  day date as we call it, right? Spend a day together. I think that’s something that most business people don’t really talk about, you know? They work their asses off, they become workaholics and all of a sudden, 20 years later, find out their spouse feels she hasn’t been appreciated or maybe he hasn’t been appreciated and everything that was built has to be split up and maybe some nasty court stuff going on. So what’s the point of working your ass off your entire life for that? The Dalai Lama talks about … he has a saying, he says, “I don’t understand Western culture. You work your ass off and neglect your health all your life so you can make all this money, and then you spend the second half of your life spending all your money to get your health back.”

 

And I was just thinking as we’re hanging out here about how important it is for our wives or our husbands to be happy with us. If we’re in sales, gosh 90% of sales is mindset, and if we’re not in the right mindset, we can’t perform, we can’t perform at our best.

 

Have you ever not had the wife happy. What do they say? Happy wife, happy life … and try to have a productive day? Right? It’s a long day, everything is hard, everything takes extra energy, and the results are always a lot less. Or, we can put a little bit more time and effort into our relationship, make sure that everything is good at home, and then it just makes everything else so much easier.

 

And so, I think that’s something that … Man, I don’t know that anybody has ever talked about when it comes to business training or sales training. But it’s a whole lot easier and simpler to kick some ass out in the field and be in a good mood and be sharp and be friendly with people when things are solid at home. So I think a lot of times, people just don’t take the time to do that. Alberto Riehl: Now, one of the things that we were talking about right now is we’re having a great day today, of course, but it’s not always like that. See what this looks like. Look at this place. Nice little … This is really cool. Check out this space right here. Drink some coffee, have some tea, kind of hang out. It’s a little dark.

 

But we’re reminded of a phrase that we learned. It’s called, “Disagree and commit.” And you know what? I’m not smart enough to come up with it on my own. I actually am stealing it from Jeff Bezos … and you know Jeff Bezos, right? He’s now the wealthiest man in the world. First guy ever to be worth over $100 billion, owner of Amazon. And he talks about something that he does. He calls it “Disagree and commit,” and one of the examples he gives in his book is with his movie studio, right? Amazon now is making these amazing productions, amazing movies, and he trusts; he’s hired some of the best people to do it. And many times, they’ll bring a project to him that they’re excited about, and Jeff Bezos just doesn’t think it’s a good project. He just doesn’t think it’s a good project, but what he does, he disagrees and commits. So, he disagrees that it’s a good project, he doesn’t like it, but he lets his team do what it is that they want to do what they think is best, and not only that, he commits. He disagrees with it, but he commits to it 100%.

 

So he puts all his money into it, he puts all his energy into it, the time that his needed, his support, everything. So he calls it “Disagree and commit.” And I think that’s something that’s a great philosophy or a great strategy we can use at home, right? Use with our spouse. We actually just did that a second ago as we were talking and sometimes it’s just very stupid things that we can get in little arguments about and can kind of ruin the day or ruin part of the day. And Sarah was actually the first one. She said, “Alberto, you know what? I disagree, but I commit.” And that really made me feel good. She disagrees with me, but at the same time, she’s committing to what I was talking about and supporting what it is that I want to do.

 

So, anyways, I think that’s something that’s an amazing tool. Now, we’re here in Tulum, which one thing I want to point out, this has been named one of the top beaches in the world. It’s gotten number one beach in the world before. But if you look at it today … Look at it … looks kind of nasty. There’s seaweed everywhere. There’s been storms, there’s been wind, there’s been big waves. Everything looks like seaweed-y out there. Is that a word? Seaweed-y. And that’s one of the things that Sarah and I was talking about is how we all go through our seaweed. Right? I mean, today, again … Today’s an amazing day. We’re getting along great. Everything is wonderful. We’re spending all day by ourselves here. Kids are taken care of. You know what? It’s not always like this.

 

And we’re talking about the beach and we’re kind of relating to it where … You know, usually we come down here and everything is white; white sand, there’s no seaweed at all. The water is absolutely perfect. It’s turquoise, it’s clear, it’s just gorgeous, it’s sunny. And today’s just one of those days where we got seaweed everywhere, it’s cloudy. I was in the water a second ago, there was seaweed all over my feet and seaweed getting in my shorts. But it’s great to have the understanding that we live in a world that ebbs and flows. And I bet you the next time we’re here, probably about a week or so, this will be back to being the beautiful place that it is. Today, we’re just making the very best of it, having a great time here with what the universe has given us. A lot of times, that’s what we gotta do throughout the day, right?

 

So anyway, I’m hoping you’re enjoying your day with your family, with your significant other. Take some time to appreciate her or him and man, that just makes sales so much easier. I guarantee you’ll go out and perform a whole lot better. So, this is Alberto Riehl. See you next time.

Quit Selling Life Insurance Like Walmart & Motel6

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Hey, good morning. This is Alberto Riehl with Riehl’s Rants, and the first thing I got to share with you is this is definitely going to be the shittiest video that you ever see from me. The reason why this is my first, what do you call this, selfie video ever shot … I can’t believe I just said selfie. I usually make fun of people that do selfies, but I was told to do this by my mentor to get me outside my comfort zone, so I’m doing it this morning, so here it goes, guys.

 

I’m in New York City and just finished my mastermind. I was here for the last four days and learned some amazing, really mind-blowing artificial intelligence stuff, machine learning stuff that I can’t wait to get back today and implement in my business. There’s nobody else teaching this. We’re going to apply this to life insurance and keep getting even better results. As I was thinking about this, I’m at the Plaza Hotel right now. You can it’s a pretty nice place, right? Probably one of the most iconic, one of the most famous hotels in the world. You have movie stars stay here, presidents, leaders of state, and every morning, there’s a bunch of tourists outside taking pictures. They can’t even get in. You can’t even get into the lobby here. Look at this elevator. They’re taking pictures from the outside wishing they were in here. I’m thinking, “Well, where are they staying?” Alberto Riehl: Look at this elevator.

 

I don’t know. Are they staying in Motel 6? Are they staying at Super 8? I started thinking about it. Most of you, if you’re watching this, most likely, you’re selling your insurance services like Motel 6, right, like Walmart, based on prices. That is the absolute worst way to do it. That’s the hardest way to do it. Really, you’re doing your clients a disservice. Why not sell your services like the Plaza does? The Plaza is four to six times, maybe 10 times more expensive than the average hotel yet it’s definitely worth it. I got to talk to people as I was here. Everybody’s in a good mood. Everybody can’t wait to come back. I can’t wait to come back and spend more money here at the Plaza. There are friendly people saying, “Good morning.” Security is good. At the end of the day, that’s what we do, right? We sell security, and so what does that have to do with life insurance?

 

Now, I’m here at the champagne bar. You can see I’m the first one here. It’s actually very early in the morning. It’s about 6:00 a.m. We’ll probably see the sunrise, and you can’t see this, but I was sitting here …

 

Oh, that’s not good. Alberto Riehl: This is 5th Avenue and Park, and I was sitting here having a cappuccino yesterday morning, and I was looking at that view outside. If you’ve been here, it’s 5th Avenue, right? Again, one of the most famous streets in the world, and you have Cartier on one side right here in front of me, and then the Apple store. I started thinking about that because yesterday was [Sarah’s 00:03:04] birthday. She likes Cartier. We went to Cartier. We got a nice little ring for her, and I was looking at it, and as far as the commodity goes, it’s just gold and diamonds, right? Gold and diamonds. That’s it.

 

I started thinking about the same thing where you have other retailers selling that for 80% less than they are. Cartier gets to sell their diamonds and their gold for four times, six times, 10 times more than their so-called competition. That’s another great point. They have not competition, right? Maybe you can go get a ring there at Walmart, but again, just like nobody stays at Motel 6 because they want to. They have to. Same thing, people going to, what is it, save money, live better, whatever it is. That’s total bullshit. We’re sitting there, and we get her a nice little eternity band to stack on her other Cartier ring …

 

We got somebody saying hi there . Which matches her Cartier bracelet, which matches my Cartier watch. Again, why am I saying that? Because people love to come back and spend more money just like the people here at the Plaza cannot wait to come back and stay again just like I can’t wait to come back and stay again. Cartier is making a very good profit, and at the same time though, adding value to their clients. Everybody there is happy. They can’t wait to spend more money. Then, same thing with Apple, right? I’m looking at Apple. I just picked up this phone yesterday. It’s the new iPhone X. Is that what it’s called right, the 10, or whatever it is? That place is packed. Now, Microsoft has a place on 5th Avenue down the street. That place was not packed yet Apple is selling their computers and phones for about four times more than the competition, right? You can go pick up a smartphone for $250, and that’s what Steve Jobs was told, was the sweet spot. $250. “Oh, no, Steve. You can’t sell iPhone for a thousand. Nobody will buy it.”

 

Of course, he didn’t listen. Now, because of the iPhone, Apple is the most profitable company in history. This place was packed yesterday. I mean packed, buzzing. I tell the lady that’s setting up my phone, “Oh, man. You guys are so busy.” She goes, “Oh no. This is nothing. We’re not busy right now.” What’s my point?

 

Again, if you’re listening to this, you’re probably selling your life insurance, your insurance services like Motel 6, like Walmart and like who is it? Toshiba or Lenovo or whatever other crappy computer companies that are out there, but nobody’s lining up to by Lenovos, right? Nobody’s lining up to buy that crappy phone that they’re trying to sell you and save money on. This is what my guys are doing.

 

My guys are selling life insurance not like Walmart, not like you most likely are, but they’re selling it like Cartier and Apple. When I was out in the field, it was very normal. It was an everyday occurrence where I would walk into a family’s home or I meet with somebody in my office, and they would show me this little 73-dollar-a-month life insurance policy. That’s the average, $73 a month. How does somebody even make money selling something $73 a month? 73 a month. I would walk out of there with a life insurance policy of about $300 a month. That’s right, $300 a month, and they were so happy with me, and they thanked me. They cannot wait to see me again and spend more money with me, and they cannot wait to get on the phone and cancel their crappy 73-dollar-a-month Walmart policy, Motel 6 policy because now, they are covered by value, by Cartier or Plaza or Apple.

 

Guess what? Those things got on the books higher than anybody else. They stayed on the books. Persistency was through the roof. Placement was through the roof. Renewals were through the roof. Referrals were through the roof. They were happy. They came back and bought more. The re-buys were through the roof. If you’re the guy out there like most insurance guys, 97%, selling based on price, “Oh, look. Let me see if I can save you some money. Give me 15 minutes. I’ll save you 15%.” I want you to realize that you are not a sales professional. You’re an order-taker. Order-takers don’t make any money, right? Order-takers are, “Hey, welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order please?” “Oh, yes. Let me supersize it. Let me get a Big Mac,” and chances are, you’re earning about the same as that order-taker.

 

Sales professionals, we sell based on value, and because of that, people are willing to pay four times more, 10 times more. In that same hour that most agents are making their little 73-dollar-a-month commission, whatever that is. Who knows? I think we call it petty cash or gas money. Our guys are earning four times more, six times more, so if you’re one of those guys that’s selling a commodity when it comes to insurance, right, saving people five bucks, and you realize that your client is not loyal to you. They’re loyal to a good deal. You’re going to lose them soon, and you’re scared every day. I want to thank you because without you, our group and the success of our group at Predictable Premium would not be possible.

 

For our Predictable Premium members that go out there every day and add value to the community and give back and service their clients and keep pushing the envelope and keep doing things that I never dreamed of. We just had a guy name [Derek 00:08:51], sold the biggest policy ever, right, and the person, after just one meeting, we do this in one meeting, 125,000-dollar a year premium. I never did anything close to that, but you know what? Our group, we have members doing that all the time. They keep pushing. They keep adding value to our communities. They keep servicing their clients, and they’re earning, because of it, more money than anybody else out there ever has. I want to thank you guys, and we’ll see you on the very next video.

Accidental Valentine

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Hey guys, Alberto Riehl’s Rants. Today I’m hanging out with Sarah, who is right behind me. We’re actually spending a little bit of quality time together. It’s very important to. Keep doing your test. She’s actually taking a personality test right now. It’s Wednesday. It’s about 3:30 in the afternoon. Left the kids at home. We usually … It’s a little day date. I think it’s very important to do this. We’ve been together now for almost a decade. We’re just here at a very casual place to give us a chance to connect. It’s a pretty cool place. I’m going to show you. You can see the background. It’s in Akumal, one of our favorite places in Akumal. We’re right on the ocean here. We can see the ocean. There’s the water. Look at the color of that water.

 

All right, so we’re right on the water here. It’s a casual place to come, have some fresh seafood, have a little fun. Sarah’s taking the Myers-Briggs personality test, which I definitely recommend it. You can actually take it online. Just thought it would be kind of fun. I just got my results, and we’re going to find out if we’re compatible.

 

 

Sarah: I’m going to take it with a margarita.

 

Okay. Hopefully it’s, we still have some, it’s not too late right. Anyway, kind of distracted me a little bit. As we’re taking this time to connect, I was thinking about every day we talk to agents who unfortunately they share with us that they want to start our program but their wife or their husband just doesn’t support them in it. You really can’t have success in life or in business without the support of your wife or husband, your domestic partner. What is great is at the same time we have many members in our group who as we go over their targets and their goals for doing the program, at the top of the list, especially lately, we’ve had a lot who say, “Hey, I want to bring my wife home so she doesn’t have to work anymore, so she doesn’t have to commute. I want to bring my husband home. He really is working too hard. He’s stressed out all the time. We want more freedom. We want to work the business together.”

 

: What’s great is that together we can really accomplish those big things. There’s nothing of great consequence that we can accomplish on our own. With today’s divorce rates, really the odds are against us. I think it’s really important to take the time and connect. For a lot of guys, the first goal is one date a month. Of course, we want to do it as often as possible. Today is actually February 13th. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so we’re having a little pre-Valentine’s Day. Didn’t even think about that. It’s just something that we do about once a week, if not more. Just spend a little bit of time together. Gives us a chance to connect and catch up with each other. Anyways, it’s usually just something casual like this. Pretty cool little place here.

 

I’m going to show you our favorite thing about it. Make sure I don’t fall off the cliff here into the ocean. Look at that water. Pretty cool, but there’s this little bar here, they have these little bar tables where you can actually climb. We have somebody climbing now. See if you can see this guy. They have the buckets here. This is where you put the, the waiters put the beer. Then you actually climb up here and there’s a bar up there. Trying to do the right angle here. Actually when you hang out up there you have a beautiful ocean view and have your beers. This is a place in Akumal called La Buena Vida. Anyways, Riehl’s Rants. Just wanted to share a quick little video as I’m sitting here with Sarah. Hoping your taking some time out of your schedule to accent, focus on the important things, connect with your loved one. Hope you’re doing that. Talk to you soon.

Dinosaurs vs Robots

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Hey, guys. Alberto here, Riehl’s Rants. Today, I want to talk to you about dinosaurs versus robots. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s the old school way of doing business versus the new way of doing business. This is where I do a lot of my work. You can see my hammock here and what I usually do in the morning is I come here on my hammock, lay down. Get some thinking done here. Now I got to be open with you. Usually I face the other way but I’m giving you guys the good view today so you’re welcome. I’ll stay here for hours in the morning thinking about business, thinking about the big picture.

 

As I was doing that earlier today, I saw my neighbors. You can see on this side we just have raw jungle and then of course we’ve got the Caribbean ocean right there. Then next door is our neighbors, the Clarks. The Clarks are amazing people. The Clarks are, man, they’re about 80 years old I’m guessing. You’ve heard of the Clarks. I mean, Clarks Shoes, C-L-A-R-K-S, Clarks Shoes. They have over 2,000 locations around the world. If you haven’t seen one, then you need to get out a little bit more. I started thinking about the way that they generated their wealth and their income and the way they run their business and you would think that the Clarks being 80 years old … They’re British. They got this British accent, really cute. They usually will peek on the other side of the wall there and say good morning as I’m here swimming in the ocean, which I do almost everyday or in the pool in the afternoon.

 

They always wonder what does this guy do? In the morning he’s out here. He’s swimming in the ocean. He’s swimming in his pool. In the afternoon by 2:00 or 3:00, he’s with his kids having fun in the backyard. They have to work a lot harder doing business the old school way. Chances are if you’re watching this right now, you’re a dinosaur. You’re doing your business … Of course we’re going to be specifically talking about life insurance. You’re doing your life insurance business, grinding it out.

 

Let’s compare the two models real quick. With their model, the Clarks, they have over 2,000 locations, 2,000 locations around the world. They also have over 15,000 employees, over 15,000 employees. That’s crazy, right? Now, here is the kicker. They’ve been in business over 150 years. Pretty crazy. Pretty crazy.

 

Now, let’s compare it to our model, the robot, the new ways of doing business. Now, I got a little confession to make. I was a dinosaur for 19 years in the insurance business. I was out there grinding it out, doing the things that I was taught by the insurance company which, by the way, are horrible, not efficient things, but grinding it out. It’s only been a few years since I became a robot and started using technology to do all the heavy lifting.

 

Let’s compare models. My model, I don’t have a single location. Zero location. This is my location. This is how I do business. This is my uniform. This is how I do business everyday. It’s February, by the way. It’s about 75 degrees. 2,000 locations, old model or new model, no locations, zero employees. Old model, 15,000 plus employees. This model, new model, no employees.

 

Now, here is the kicker again. It took them, in the old model, over 150 years to get to where they are. Now, they love being here and the Clarks, they have homes all over the world and they share with me every time I talk to them, “Oh, this is our favorite place. This is our favorite place. Oceanfront in the Caribbean.” You know what? It’s my favorite place, too. I must confess. But 150 years. It took me less than five years of being a robot to get here, less than five years of using technology to do the heavy lifting for me. Again, if you’re watching this, most likely you are a dinosaur, right? Even if it sucks and you have to admit it. Yeah, you’re a dinosaur.

 

Let’s talk about some common characteristics I guess that we would say about dinosaurs. If you do business the old school way, you’re probably meeting with your clients two, three, four, five times to maybe close the deal. 75% of those clients disappear after the first meeting, don’t even want to talk to you. You’re probably, if you’re a dinosaur, you are bothering your friends and family to sell life insurance. Oh, my gosh. What a horrible existence. They see you coming at Thanksgiving. Oh, no. Here he comes, going to try to sell us some life insurance.

 

What else do dinosaurs do? Oh, observation. Observation. Have you heard that one? Observation, let me teach you, is a fancy word for bugging strangers around you anywhere you go. What a horrible strategy. That is actually considered a strategy and it oozes desperation, desperation. What else do dinosaurs do? If you use stalling tactics and you like to stall and complicate the sales process and make it longer like procrastinating the no. You’re definitely afraid of the no so your prospect says, “Hey, follow up with me next week.” “Sure. What time?” You’re a dinosaur. Or, “Hey, send me some information.” “Sure. What would you like?” You’re a dinosaur. Here’s a good one. “Give me some numbers of your clients. I want to call and bug them because that’s what clients love to do is talk to strangers when they’re busy.” “Sure. How many clients would you like to bother of mine?” Dinosaur.

 

Guys, you don’t have to do business that way. Take it from a former dinosaur. It’s a lot better being a robot. It’s a lot more efficient. We let technology do the heavy lifting, the educating, the qualifying. You know that dinosaurs are still using their most valuable asset, time, to qualify and to educate people. Why not have technology do it? That’s what us robots do.

 

Now, we close business in one meeting. We have guys that have closed at six figure premiums a year in one meeting. Yes. Guess what? We also only talk to people that actually want to talk to us, people that come to us asking for our service they know what it is that we offer. We only talk to those people and we get to be very picky with who we talk to. We also don’t participate in any of those stalling techniques. We want to get a no as quickly as possible. Now, most of the people we talk to actually say yes because they’re looking for us. But if it’s going to be a no, we want to get it done as quickly as possible so we can get to that next yes, so we don’t participate in the stalling techniques. We do not complicate our sales process. Follow up with me. We don’t follow up. We’ll let the dinosaurs follow up for us. Send me some information. We don’t have information to send. Sorry, that’s what dinosaurs do. Let me bother some of your clients. Ah, one of my favorite ones. No. We don’t do that.

 

The choice is yours. Now, you can keep being a dinosaur and I fought it for a long time. I was a dinosaur for 19 years. I didn’t like technology. I kept pushing it away but I knew that finally I had to embrace it because we all know what happens to dinosaurs.

 

Now, if you’re the type of agent that says, “You know what? I’m still going to be a dinosaur,” I got some good news for you. The good news is the destination is the same. The result is the same. You can do the old model like a dinosaur like my neighbors which I love, by the way, the Clarks. I love those guys. That’s the good news. You will end up here. We’re next door neighbors. Now, I do have some bad news though. You will not be alive to see the result. You will not be alive to enjoy it. Maybe it’s time to start doing things with today’s technology. Maybe it’s time to be a robot.

 

It’s funny how I think about stuff. I was thinking, “I think there’s a movie about that. Robots against dinosaurs?” Then I thought, “No. It’s like King Kong against Godzilla or something like that.” There’s no movie of dinosaurs versus robots because it would lasts like 30 seconds. The robot would just destroy the dinosaur with its technology and lasers. There would be a lot of pissed off people paying good money for a 30 second movie. We have a complete unfair advantage today. The technology is here. It’s time to stop fighting it. But, if you choose to continue to be a dinosaur, I do have to thank you. Our group thanks you because without you, the dinosaurs, we would not have an unfair advantage. Imagine if we were all robots. Well. That’s why we’re very picky with the people and the agents and advisors that we let into our group.

 

Again, I’ve been there before grinding it out as a dinosaur. It’s 1:00 in the afternoon, 1:05 and I remember around this time I was usually injecting myself with Starbucks or energy drinks to try to get rid of that crash in the afternoon, grinding it out. If you’re a dinosaur, you know what I’m talking about. You’re probably experiencing that now. Today, as a robot, we just don’t fight nature anymore. We do things efficiently. If you feel a little drowsy coming on at 1:00 in the afternoon, we call that siesta time, one of my favorite parts of the day. I want to thank all the dinosaurs out there for letting the robots be robots and helping us have that unfair advantage and we will talk to you on our next video.

My Best,

Alberto Riehl