We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

Hey guys, Alberto Riehl here, Riehl’s Rants, and I am gyrating this morning. Is that a word? I’m in Cuba. This has been on my bucket list for quite a while. Right behind me, we have the very historic and world-famous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Hotel National of Cuba, probably the most famous hotel in all Havana, if not Latin America. Pretty cool, built in the 1930s.

We’re right on the bay here. You can see here’s the ocean right behind us. You’ve got Havana, there’s Havana, which we’ll be going there in a second. The lighting’s a little off. It’s early in the morning. Let’s go ahead and go inside the hotel.

What I’m doing is I’m calling this … I’m going to be going over something called We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know. I haven’t talked about this principle in quite a while. It’s something that’s very, very important. I was reminded of it on this trip.

The Hotel Nacional, it’s a five-star. When I made my reservations, I had to do it through an agency in Mexico. Things are a little bit complicated, I guess. I made sure to ask, “Hey give me the very best hotel.” So I had an agent. What does this have to do with insurance agents? Watch this, watch. I’m going to connect it all here at the end. This is very, very important.

I had an agent say, “I’m going to put you at the very best hotel for you and Sarah.” It’s just the two of us. We’re at the grounds. You can see it’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. Built in 1930 again, five-star hotel. She says, “I’m going to put you at the National, that’s where presidents have stayed. There’s just a lot of history there. It’s beautiful. It’s a five-star resort.” Here’s a little fountain here on the grounds as we start heading in.

We were actually here yesterday listening to some live music, see if you can see it, right here. There’s live music playing. We were sipping our little … Had a Cuban sandwich. Had to have a Cuban sandwich, right? Sarah was having a mojito, of course. So we’re about to go into the lobby here. You see here.

I want you to look at the ceilings. It’s a little bit darker, take our sunglasses off now. Look at this place. Pretty beautiful, huh? Look at the ceiling. Built, again, in 1930. Look at the sign right here, Hotel de Cuba, five stars. You can see that. Five-star hotel. I’m pointing that out for a reason. I’m not trying to brag here because I ended up being a little disappointed with the rooms.

So as we’re coming in here in the lobby of the hotel, let’s explore a little history here. You got Fidel meeting with different presidents from all over the world. This is where they met. This is where they met. Again, very, very famous hotel. Now we have a little bit of a bunch of people waiting on the elevator here. That’s when we start running into inefficiencies. About four out of the six elevators are not working. They just haven’t put as much money into maintenance as maybe they should have. we noticed this morning at our buffet, they were taking the mushrooms out of cans, everything out of cans.

What happened there? Is it going down?

It’s going down.

Okay, okay, coming back up. So we start noticing the little inefficiencies with the hotel, waiting for those canned goods. There was hair on our tub, as well as there was a cockroach at the table next to us this morning at the buffet.

So I’m just sharing these things with you because things aren’t always what they seem from the outside. As an insurance agent, we’re told … Some companies tell you this, “Buy an expensive car. Buy a nice suit, if it’s just one of them.” Give an image of … Go up the … All right.

Is it working?

It will work.

Okay, I just want to point out the telephone here. What do you guys think this telephone … What year is this from?

In case of emergency.

Think it works?

One can hope.

It’s supposed to work.

Where are you from?

I’m from Cuba. Where are you from?

From Cuba? And you’re speaking in French? Nice.

I speak lots of … Where are you from?

US.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah? Nice.

First time in Cuba?

First time in Cuba!

Enjoy!

Thank you. So we’re going up to one of the executive floors here.

Here we go.

Are you showing to your friends?

Yeah, millions of people. Say hello!

Hello.

Where are you guys from?

Austria.

Austria!

He’s China.

China! Austria, China, see? People from all over the world.

You?

US. I’m the only American here.

So now we’re on our executive floor. Look at the … See the furnishings? You might like that. The carpeting starts reminding me of my old fraternity house. It’s probably been there since the hotel was built. You can see the carpeting.

Now there’s a lot of history on the walls, which is why I wanted to take this route here. Okay, look at this about the Cold War and the missile crisis. This is where all the presidents were meeting. Pretty cool, right? Pretty cool. Ooh, I want you to look at this bedding. Look at this bedding. Pretty awesome, right? This is from 1930. I’m showing you that, because I’m about to show you my room. That is still the same. It hasn’t changed.

This is the way that most insurance people are doing their business. They’re stuck in the 1930s. They’re using tools that they were using in the 1930s. I have people posting on my ads that word-of-mouth is the best way to do business. Word-of-mouth is still … Buddy, maybe in 1930, but we got phones now. We got something called social media. There will be thousands and thousands and thousands of people watching this within three days of me posting it. You can’t do that by word-of-mouth. Right?

There’s people out there bugging their friends and family. They don’t want you to do that. Trust me, they do not want you to do that. When you can actually be exposed and learn a whole new way to do it, a whole new way. See, for most of us, we’re stuck. We don’t know what we don’t know. We think that this is the best. My professional agent said this is the best place. This is the best place.

I’m going to show you now, we’re at the very corner. This is as good as it gets. Executive level, and this what our room looks like. Let’s see if we can see just a little bit. Look at the bedding. Same exact bedding. Now this, in the US, would be like a Motel 6 or something. This bed was not comfortable. I kind of made it for your viewing pleasure. I kind of made it a little bit last night. Gave us two beds.

So this is what the room looks like. I wanted to give you … This is an executive level room. The bathroom, I mean it’s okay. It’s okay, right? The agent told me this was the very best. She didn’t know what she didn’t know, because there is a brand new hotel that just opened up. They call it Five Stars Plus. We ran into yesterday. We said, “You know what? Once I learned that new place …” At first we’re okay here. We’re okay, because we didn’t know what we didn’t know. We didn’t know there was something better out there.

Most likely, if you’re an insurance agent doing what you were taught by your manager, you don’t know that there’s something better out there. You’re doing okay with your referrals, and you’re bugging friends and family, and your word-of-mouth and all that crap. You’re doing okay. You have no idea there’s a better world out there. What if, with a click of a button, you could be transported to a world of doing business that you had no idea existed?

Then bam, just like that, you’re transported to a whole new place you had no idea existed. This is the first and only five-star plus hotel in Havana, Cuba. It’s the The Gran Manzana. It’s a Kapinski hotel. Now look at the bedding there. Very different bedding. Look at this bed! It’s an amazing, amazing bed. This is real five stars, something way better than our professional agent even knew. Look at that, see that big glass? That’s the shower. I don’t know if you can see the little silhouette, Sarah’s actually showering in there. You can make it opaque, but that’s an entire bathroom there.

Now if you come out here, we got what the consider to be the best view. Here we are, the famous plaza. The center of Havana, Cuba, right outside our door. Pretty cool, right? Had no idea existed. So with the click of a button, you can take your business to a whole new place that you don’t even know exists.

Less effort, less time, using today’s technology to earn five times more money, help five times more people. Look at this place. I wonder if this … Or if we’re going to have to edit this out. She’s taking a shower. Right? Whole new place. I’ll show you the rest here in one second.

Okay, so Sarah’s done showering now. Check out this shower. This thing is huge. It’s like a whole room. Let’s get in here. Look at that, we’ve got the rain … What do they call it, rain shower thing. We took a shower here last night and it’s like being under a waterfall. Huge place. I had no idea this existed. Look at that shower. Man you can’t really tell how big it is. Bathroom a little bit of a mess, been used.

But my point is … Let’s get out into the hallway. My point is that we have no idea what we don’t know. When we were at the other place, down at the other side of Havana, we thought that was the best. Right now, if you’re watching this, you probably think that what you’re doing is the best in your business, what you’ve been taught, referrals, observation.

Oh my gosh, observation. You know what that means? They’re actually teaching that as a strategy. It means bug any stranger around you. Bug any stranger around you. I had somebody do that to me at a Starbucks line. It was a well-known New York company. We won’t completely throw them under the bus, but I thought he was just being a pushy, pain-in-the-butt kind of guy. It’s a strategy they teach. It’s a strategy! How does that … Does that make you feel like an expert? Does that make you feel like … Is that the reason why you got into the business? To be pesking people at the Starbucks line? Really?

How about being in a place where you only talk to people that want to talk to you. Look, I want to show the furniture. Remember the furniture from the last place? A little different, right? A little different. A little bit classier here. So right now, you’re doing what you’re taught. Observation, that’s actually a strategy. Look at this place. Observation as a strategy … You don’t have to do that.

We have a program, we have a system where we only talk to people that actually want to talk to us. Just had a gentleman named Matthew, he’s in our program. He shared on a post … He actually had two posts. One post was a really long one, talked about his journey with us, his ups and downs. He’s had some challenges. You’ve got to get this straight. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. If you’re looking for a magical, miracle thing, this isn’t for you. It does take work.

But the good news is, it’s an actual system. We have a system, we have a process. All the biggest companies in the world, whether you’re Apple, whether you’re Microsoft, Coca-Cola, they all have processes in place. So now, we’re in this place where … Matthew, the second thing that he talked about was how he had an actual … Here we got. Hello. We have somebody greeting us. Thank you.

He talked about how he had his very first appointment where he got 48 minutes. In 48 minutes, he made just under $5,000. It was a $6,000 policy. So I’m sharing that with you because, yeah, Matthew had his ups and downs, just like we do with anything that’s worthwhile. Again, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. But today, one of the things that Matthew said is that he has a predictable system where he knows exactly what he needs to do to create the income that he needs for him and his family.

He gave that as an example, “Oh by the way, I just had an appointment, my first appointment. 48 minutes, made just over $5,000.” That’s what we do. Matthew was a certified financial planner. Excuse me, a financial planner. We have a lot of those. There’s a lot of people that are taking two appointments, three, four appointments, it’s normal to do what Matthew did in just that one appointment.

Let’s walk a little bit more. We’re actually at the rooftop here. Show you a little bit more about this place. Ooh, it’s getting a little sunny. So, I got a memo from your clients. They don’t want you to take five appointments or four appointments to do what you can do in one appointment. They don’t want you to do that. It reminds me of a story one of my buddies told me this, where he …

We’re at the rooftop now. This guy goes to the dentist, and the dentist tells him, “Hey, we’ve got to pull your tooth.” He says, “Okay, well how much?” He said, “Well, it’s $400.” “Okay, $400. How long is it going to take?” “Oh it’ll take about 10 minutes.” He goes, “10 minutes? For $400? Isn’t that kind of excessive?” Then the dentist says, “Well, I can take an hour if you want.”

That’s what most financial planners are doing. All we care about today is the result, guys. The result. That’s it. Most financial planners are working way too hard, three appointments, four appointments, three hours, four hours, for something they can get accomplished in one hour … In less than an hour, like Matthew said. 48 minutes, a $6,000 a year policy. And that’s just to start the relationship.

Your clients’ time is more valuable now than ever. People are more busy now than they ever have been. They want a process. They want a system. They don’t want you taking four appointments. So folks, just know that there is a better way out there. You don’t know what you don’t know. Right now you think that you have to take four appointments to close a deal. You think that you have to bother friends and family to close a deal. Observation, that’s not it.

There’s systems and processes out there. Ours is one of them. I’m not saying ours is for you, but ours is one of them, where you can definitely get everything done very efficiently. Talk to people that only want to talk to you about exactly what it is that you offer. Not your friends, not your family. Write up an application in one visit. So guys there is a better way.

Alberto Riehl, talking to you from the very top of Havana, Cuba. Let me tell you, the top … There’s a lot of room at the top. There’s a nice little infinity pool overlooking Havana. So hopefully, we’ll see you here at the top guys. Have a great day. See you on the next video.