How Eddie Knezevich Built a Lead Machine Through Continuing Education Webinars

Eddie [0:00:00]: I built a lead magnet, a lead machine.

Eddie [0:00:02]: So the people that come and work for me.

Eddie [0:00:03]: I don't want you to call on your friends and family.

Eddie [0:00:06]: I don't want you to go out and do coffee chats or networking.

Eddie [0:00:08]: I want you to plug in to my continuing education webinars.

Eddie [0:00:12]: And I want you to work my system and take people through our financial planning process and get them all the way through it, and I'm going to collect a piece of the revenue for the lead, and you're gonna collect the majority of it for doing the plan, building it out selling them on why they should work with us.

Callan [0:00:30]: Welcome to The Insurance Growth Lab, where we go deep on the growth campaigns and strategies driving real results in the insurance industry.

Callan [0:00:38]: Callan Harrington founder Flashgrowth And in each episode, I sit down with marketing and growth leaders from carriers and sure tech and top brokers to break down one specific initiative, whether it's how they marketed a product, scale to channel or solve a specific growth challenge.

Callan [0:00:55]: It's no fluff, just tactical insights you can apply in your own company.

Callan [0:01:00]: Eddie, I want you on the show for a long time.

Eddie [0:01:08]: We've known each other forever, it feels like at this point.

Eddie [0:01:10]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:01:10]: What's been like fifteen or

Callan [0:01:11]: sixty years.

Callan [0:01:12]: So it's actually been a legit amount of time.

Callan [0:01:14]: Right?

Callan [0:01:14]: And it's funny.

Callan [0:01:15]: Like, you know, you see

Eddie [0:01:16]: your college friends.

Eddie [0:01:16]: You know each other as, like, from when you're in college.

Eddie [0:01:19]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:01:20]: You're year degenerate

Callan [0:01:22]: a thousand percent, Some would argue those didn't change.

Callan [0:01:25]: But here we are.

Callan [0:01:26]: Yeah.

Callan [0:01:27]: So here's what I wanna start out with you.

Callan [0:01:29]: Because I started my career out in a similar spot.

Callan [0:01:32]: Tell me about the beginning stages of building your practice.

Eddie [0:01:36]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:01:36]: Sure.

Eddie [0:01:36]: I'll tell you it was a lot of trial and error.

Eddie [0:01:40]: Yeah, I'll give you kinda like the backstory.

Eddie [0:01:42]: So the whole reason why I it in and everybody was asked, why why'd you get into financial services.

Eddie [0:01:45]: How'd did you get into financial services.

Eddie [0:01:47]: So a little bit of my background, and then you know this, but the audience wouldn't know this, but I grew up in, like, middle upper middle class America, and my parents got divorced when I was nine years old.

Eddie [0:01:58]: When my parents got divorced, my dad lost everything.

Eddie [0:02:01]: So I went from, like, upper middle class to, basically, like, low class where my mom was on food stamps, and she was cutting our friend's parents grass to keep us in a decent school system.

Eddie [0:02:14]: So, like, from zero to ten, I kinda saw, like, both sides of life, like, wealthy and poor in, like, a very short amount of time.

Eddie [0:02:22]: So that kinda like, opened my eyes up to what does the future hold?

Eddie [0:02:25]: And as I got into high school in middle school, I moved into a very affluent community, but we were the poor kids in the affluent community.

Eddie [0:02:32]: So that exposed me to a lot of different walks of life and people, and we didn't have anybody helping us with our financial situation, and that put a lot of, like, stress and strain on us going through high school and then into college.

Eddie [0:02:48]: And then I was in college.

Eddie [0:02:50]: I mean, you know this, but, again, the audience would know this, but I started a promotion and nightlife business while we were in school, and I did that in response to my family not being able to afford paying for me to go to school.

Callan [0:03:01]: Those large bar buses baby.

Callan [0:03:03]: Yes.

Callan [0:03:03]: No one's gonna get that reference so what.

Callan [0:03:05]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:03:06]: Yes.

Eddie [0:03:06]: So in school, the way that I paid my way through college was I started a business getting all of the fat and so sisters and for Attorney brothers down to a certain area, and I brought him to bars, and I was earning a piece of the revenue from the bars.

Eddie [0:03:20]: And believe or not when I was nineteen twenty, twenty one and twenty two, I was making, like, fifty to eighty thousand a year while I was a college student.

Eddie [0:03:28]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:03:28]: And back then that was a lot of money today.

Eddie [0:03:30]: For sure that wouldn't be, but It was a lot back then.

Eddie [0:03:33]: So then when I got out of school, I was one of the few people that said, you gotta severed ties with the college job and you actually gotta get into Corporate America and put the big boy hands on.

Eddie [0:03:42]: So I got out of it very quickly.

Eddie [0:03:45]: There was a lot of people...

Eddie [0:03:45]: Stayed in the bar scene and kinda stayed there forever and never got out of.

Eddie [0:03:49]: There's still some people there that.

Eddie [0:03:50]: Were there when we were there party and, that just wasn't the path that I wanna to go down.

Eddie [0:03:54]: So when I was in school, I gravitate towards finance Nas naturally just because again, we didn't have a background in it we didn't know it.

Eddie [0:04:01]: We didn't understand it, and I was, like, Ed My let was just starting to get popular, and, you know, he had this one skit that he did called the one.

Eddie [0:04:10]: And everybody seen it, and basically, it's that one person in the family to kinda changes the dynamic for everybody in all future generations going forward.

Eddie [0:04:18]: And I just woke up one day and I was like, I'm that guy for my family.

Eddie [0:04:22]: Like, I'm going to put this last name on my back.

Eddie [0:04:25]: Like, Jersey, and I'm gonna run that sucker all the way to the end zone and like, nobody's gonna stop me.

Eddie [0:04:29]: So I got into finance and I got sacked behind the line.

Eddie [0:04:33]: Literally, first play first down.

Eddie [0:04:36]: And for the first couple years, I was dead broke, flat busted.

Eddie [0:04:40]: Literally, there used to be a Check smart on High street.

Eddie [0:04:43]: Now it's where Urban Pint.

Eddie [0:04:45]: I do I know far is there used to be a check smart there.

Eddie [0:04:48]: In in my early twenties, I was living in a basement apartment in one of the worst ghetto at the time in Columbus, Ohio.

Eddie [0:04:54]: I was on Bride Road in Ohio Avenue.

Eddie [0:04:56]: Ten and I was in a basement moldy apartment, one bedroom one bath with one window, and we had one stove top burner that worked, and I had no dishwasher, and I had a broke down Nissan sent, and at the time I was just like, I'm already at rock bottom.

Eddie [0:05:12]: I can't go any further down.

Eddie [0:05:14]: Like, the only further placed down is bankruptcy.

Eddie [0:05:16]: So Mh.

Eddie [0:05:17]: I'm, like, you can either go up, or you're gonna fail and you're just gonna go into Corporate American work for somebody else.

Eddie [0:05:22]: So I just kinda put my head down and grind for handful years.

Eddie [0:05:27]: I quit drinking for a couple years in my twenties.

Eddie [0:05:29]: I was just laser focused on, like, delivering amazing service to people and crushing at in the insurance and financial services industry.

Eddie [0:05:36]: And probably about, like, twenty six twenty seven, is when things really started to kinda take off for me.

Eddie [0:05:42]: So for the first couple years, I was just mentally insane.

Eddie [0:05:45]: I just...

Eddie [0:05:45]: You don't have a choice.

Eddie [0:05:46]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:05:47]: You You

Callan [0:05:47]: know?

Callan [0:05:47]: If you start this business from scratch.

Eddie [0:05:49]: Yeah.

Callan [0:05:50]: And I remember that.

Callan [0:05:50]: Like, you start...

Callan [0:05:51]: Like, for me was I just wanna talk with anybody that's pulse.

Callan [0:05:54]: Yep.

Callan [0:05:54]: If you've got a pulse,

Eddie [0:05:56]: then when I discuss like, yeah, we should talk about insurance.

Eddie [0:05:59]: Yeah.

Callan [0:06:00]: And then you get all of the medical exams back like, oh, man.

Callan [0:06:03]: We're never gonna pass this.

Eddie [0:06:04]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:06:04]: Exactly.

Callan [0:06:05]: So good.

Callan [0:06:05]: Good.

Eddie [0:06:06]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:06:06]: So then, like, mid twenties, I started to actually, get some traction.

Eddie [0:06:09]: I moved out.

Eddie [0:06:10]: I opened up my own office.

Eddie [0:06:11]: I worked for two individuals that are, like, mentors of mine in the business, and they were...

Eddie [0:06:17]: Older than me, but they were still young enough where they were gonna be in the business for quite some time.

Eddie [0:06:22]: Yep.

Eddie [0:06:23]: And I really didn't see a pathway where I could buy them out.

Eddie [0:06:26]: And so kind of that journey every single year I'd sit down with them, and I wanted more and they couldn't give me more.

Eddie [0:06:33]: No.

Eddie [0:06:34]: And rightfully see No.

Callan [0:06:36]: Not not their fault.

Callan [0:06:36]: Stuck in us all the time.

Callan [0:06:38]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:06:38]: It's really...

Eddie [0:06:38]: It's not their fault.

Eddie [0:06:39]: And so what ended up happening was I made a decision that I was going to kinda start my own thing, do my own thing.

Eddie [0:06:46]: I wanted to be out on my own.

Eddie [0:06:47]: And so that's what I.

Eddie [0:06:49]: I basically took the reins and kinda took control of life and then ran with it, and then now fourteen years later.

Eddie [0:06:54]: I've got twelve full time on my team, we're managing billions of dollar in the bank owned life insurance space.

Eddie [0:07:01]: We're managing hundreds of millions of dollars in traditional wealth and and traditional life insurance space and it just keeps compounding.

Eddie [0:07:08]: And now it's kind of the become the gift that keeps on giving.

Eddie [0:07:11]: In the beginning, it was hard.

Callan [0:07:13]: Yeah.

Callan [0:07:13]: And one of the things that I've always had ton of respect for is and just to add to that.

Callan [0:07:17]: Right?

Callan [0:07:18]: You were number two risk management professional in Ohio according the Forbes, top one hundred in the country.

Callan [0:07:23]: So, like, all the credibility there.

Callan [0:07:25]: But one of the things that I've always personally admired was two things.

Callan [0:07:30]: One, what's exactly you just said.

Callan [0:07:32]: It was just, like, I've got a goal, and I'm blasting through it.

Callan [0:07:35]: And you called everybody.

Callan [0:07:36]: And everybody would hear about it from everybody, and, like, you put the

Eddie [0:07:40]: blind so I didn't care.

Eddie [0:07:42]: I'm sure there was a lot of things being said in a lot of circles.

Eddie [0:07:44]: I did you.

Eddie [0:07:45]: I made a

Callan [0:07:46]: lot of those cold calls.

Callan [0:07:46]: Like, or not not cold calls.

Callan [0:07:48]: Like, it's the warm cold calls are actually easy.

Callan [0:07:50]: Yeah.

Callan [0:07:50]: It's the warm calls.

Callan [0:07:51]: To your have friends and family that are the absolute.

Callan [0:07:53]: I didn't work.

Eddie [0:07:54]: I didn't care.

Callan [0:07:55]: Oh, that's what I was ruthless.

Callan [0:07:56]: That was ruthless.

Callan [0:07:57]: Number one.

Callan [0:07:57]: I respect.

Callan [0:07:58]: Number two is you've always approached it with a machine like quality.

Callan [0:08:03]: So, like, you operationalize a lot of the things that you did.

Callan [0:08:07]: Yes.

Callan [0:08:07]: And that's one of the things I wanna dive into today that is, you know, would...

Callan [0:08:11]: We were catching up the other day, and you were telling me about the continuing education program you ran.

Callan [0:08:16]: I wanna get the weeds on this.

Callan [0:08:18]: Yeah.

Callan [0:08:18]: Because you were telling me and we'll get to this in a little bit here about how many leads you you're generating from that.

Callan [0:08:23]: But let's break this down.

Callan [0:08:24]: Where did this idea come from?

Callan [0:08:26]: So speaking on the operational side

Eddie [0:08:29]: of things, you're absolutely correct?

Eddie [0:08:30]: I've always thought about any business kinda how Henry Ford thought about Ford Motor company.

Eddie [0:08:35]: And I look at things like a factory.

Eddie [0:08:38]: And if you can build a model that is scalable, repeatable, and something that you can take and give to anybody and they can plug in and do it.

Eddie [0:08:47]: Simplicity is key, But if you can do that and make it repeatable.

Eddie [0:08:51]: You do it over and over and over again.

Eddie [0:08:53]: It's going to scale that business, and then there's enterprise value there.

Eddie [0:08:56]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:08:56]: So I've always looked at two things, scalability, enterprise value.

Eddie [0:09:00]: And early on, I honed in more on process, not product.

Eddie [0:09:05]: So a lot of people in the industry, they find their widget.

Eddie [0:09:08]: They find their tool.

Eddie [0:09:09]: They find their product.

Eddie [0:09:10]: And what I did was I said, look, let's build the process out.

Eddie [0:09:13]: Let's build the arm that is always going to be the mouse trap no matter what.

Eddie [0:09:16]: Mh.

Eddie [0:09:17]: And let's put everybody through that mouse trap.

Eddie [0:09:19]: And then eventually on the other end, the revenue will come.

Eddie [0:09:21]: So if you kinda like Zig Zig says, if you help enough people get what they want in life.

Eddie [0:09:25]: Eventually, you'll get what you want.

Eddie [0:09:26]: So we built the mouse trap to engineer it so that every single time that we were engaging with any perspective client, any prospective investor, we were putting their needs first, putting them at the top of the pedestal.

Eddie [0:09:38]: But giving them something that they wouldn't get somewhere else.

Eddie [0:09:41]: And then by doing that, we would earn revenue off of it.

Eddie [0:09:44]: And so I engineered this thing.

Eddie [0:09:46]: And then what I did was I just scaled it up as time went on, I said, okay.

Eddie [0:09:49]: How can I get more people into it?

Eddie [0:09:51]: And then eventually, later on down the road when we got to developing the Ce platform that we now operate, we basically started out kinda funny enough.

Eddie [0:10:00]: I'll give you guys a hilarious story.

Eddie [0:10:02]: My first ce event I ever did.

Callan [0:10:05]: Really who's the audience who you talk to?

Callan [0:10:06]: And what's like the content delivered.

Eddie [0:10:08]: Back then, we were only in one sector of the market.

Eddie [0:10:11]: We were only doing real estate continuing education.

Eddie [0:10:13]: We were doing real estate agents.

Eddie [0:10:14]: And originally, we used to do them in person.

Eddie [0:10:17]: Mh.

Eddie [0:10:18]: So, literally, I would rent out of space at a library or I would call on a brokerage, and I would actually go out and physically set up shop in their brokerage, and we would send out an email to their brokerage director, The brokers director would let everybody know that some continuing education and free lunch was gonna be offered at said location at said time, and then people would sign up, and they would show up, and we'd give them lunch.

Eddie [0:10:39]: We do a presentation and the hope was that we could either get referrals.

Eddie [0:10:42]: Leads or work with the people that were actually there.

Callan [0:10:45]: Busting the F and so downtown the exact same thing as

Eddie [0:10:49]: the F and the just the financial services business.

Eddie [0:10:51]: And so I did that.

Eddie [0:10:53]: My very first event.

Eddie [0:10:54]: This is actually Hilarious.

Eddie [0:10:55]: We had four speakers We had two partners that were business partners of ours.

Eddie [0:11:01]: So we had six people in total to put the event on.

Callan [0:11:03]: Mh.

Eddie [0:11:04]: We dropped a thousand dollars collectively.

Eddie [0:11:05]: And we had twenty five people sign up to show up for the event.

Eddie [0:11:10]: Mh.

Eddie [0:11:10]: We had three people show up.

Eddie [0:11:11]: There was more teachers in the room than there were students.

Eddie [0:11:14]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:11:15]: And so that was kinda like my first eye opening that...

Eddie [0:11:18]: Wow, this isn't that easy.

Eddie [0:11:19]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:11:19]: So it really took us about a year and a half to start filling rooms.

Eddie [0:11:23]: And so how did

Callan [0:11:25]: you do that?

Callan [0:11:25]: How did you get that momentum?

Callan [0:11:26]: Like, so I'll give you an example.

Callan [0:11:28]: When I was in this same business in the life insurance world.

Callan [0:11:30]: I was trying to do this with teachers?

Callan [0:11:33]: Because everybody was going to doctors.

Callan [0:11:34]: Everyone was going to residency, like, that was very saturated around.

Callan [0:11:38]: Correct.

Callan [0:11:38]: So I started calling, like, it's funny.

Callan [0:11:40]: We're in

Eddie [0:11:40]: plain city right now, but, like, Plain city was not anything at that time.

Callan [0:11:43]: Yeah.

Callan [0:11:43]: So I'm calling the plain City super superintendent and just doing this all over.

Callan [0:11:47]: And like, oh this sounds interesting,

Eddie [0:11:48]: and I did the same thing.

Callan [0:11:49]: I showed up and, like...

Callan [0:11:50]: Problem Donuts.

Callan [0:11:51]: Yeah like two people came.

Callan [0:11:53]: Nobody came.

Callan [0:11:54]: And so for me, I was, like, it's

Eddie [0:11:56]: all I'm probably gonna

Callan [0:11:57]: keep doing this.

Callan [0:11:57]: Yeah I'm.

Callan [0:11:58]: What made you continue to say, there's something here.

Eddie [0:12:01]: Why I already told you I'm mentally insane.

Eddie [0:12:02]: So that was part of.

Eddie [0:12:04]: But the other part of it was I knew that there were other people that were across the country across the globe that were using education and other things to draw in people to sell product to sell whatever it was they were doing or to get them through a process.

Eddie [0:12:17]: And so what I did was I just...

Eddie [0:12:19]: I eventually would get feedback and figure out kinda what that model was that molded best with my audience.

Eddie [0:12:26]: Okay.

Eddie [0:12:26]: So instead of just keep throwing crap at a wall to see what sticks.

Eddie [0:12:30]: We started serving them.

Eddie [0:12:31]: What do you guys wanna learn about?

Eddie [0:12:32]: What do you guys wanna hear about?

Eddie [0:12:34]: What is important it's actually impacting your bottom line?

Eddie [0:12:37]: Then we started shifting our courses to tailor to what they actually wanted to hear about?

Eddie [0:12:41]: So that was a big shift.

Eddie [0:12:43]: Then what we found out was that a lot of people got busy and about half of our participants weren't coming to the events because they had a showing that popped up, or they had somebody that had to come by their house and repair something, and they couldn't make it.

Eddie [0:12:57]: So then what we did was in about two thousand and eight.

Eddie [0:13:00]: So we started the program in two thousand sixteen, So it's ten years old this year.

Eddie [0:13:03]: And in two thousand and eighteen before the pandemic, and before everybody was working in the virtual business in virtual world?

Eddie [0:13:10]: I had this great idea.

Eddie [0:13:12]: I said, guys, why don't we start offering hybrid, allowing people to plug in and do it virtually or come to our events.

Eddie [0:13:20]: And so this was a big risk that we took on and my other partners at the time were skeptical about it and rightfully so...

Callan [0:13:28]: What real...

Callan [0:13:29]: Sorry.

Callan [0:13:29]: What was the risk?

Callan [0:13:30]: Was the risk that that we're spending this money and, like, if they just dial in, like, we're not

Eddie [0:13:35]: gonna build any a relationship with them.

Eddie [0:13:36]: We're not first is Okay.

Eddie [0:13:37]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:13:38]: And not only that, but we were still spending money on the physical in person events at this time.

Eddie [0:13:42]: So, like, if they...

Eddie [0:13:44]: Say they're coming to the event, but now they plug in online.

Eddie [0:13:46]: We've still spent the money on lunch.

Eddie [0:13:47]: We still spent the money on the space in the location.

Eddie [0:13:50]: So we're out our capital no matter what.

Eddie [0:13:52]: Right.

Eddie [0:13:52]: So it kinda went to that model and what we quickly realized was people would rather sign in virtually, do a class and get on with their day.

Eddie [0:14:04]: Yep.

Eddie [0:14:05]: And so we went from doing eight classes in a day, eight hours worth of continuing education.

Eddie [0:14:10]: We whittled that down to four, and then we even scaled it back further to two.

Eddie [0:14:15]: And we found that, like, between two and four hours was our sweet spot for the audience that we were working in with for that particular audience.

Eddie [0:14:21]: When the pandemic, we couldn't do in person anymore.

Eddie [0:14:25]: So pandemic hit, that completely wiped out the in person events altogether, nobody would host us.

Eddie [0:14:30]: Nobody would have anybody in a room that had more than five people in it.

Eddie [0:14:33]: Mh.

Eddie [0:14:34]: So the host could show up, but nobody else could.

Eddie [0:14:37]: So what we started doing was we actually started shooting these live us together during the pandemic, but nobody could come in at ten.

Eddie [0:14:44]: They can only attend virtually.

Eddie [0:14:45]: And then what ended up happening was it kind of taper down a little bit during the pandemic, And then what we do was we put our foot on the gas and started to expand it into other markets.

Eddie [0:14:54]: And into other territories.

Eddie [0:14:55]: So we weren't just focused on our locality here in Ohio.

Eddie [0:14:59]: We started to get into Florida, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois, and we started to expand it out, and then we started to go after other markets started to go after physicians.

Eddie [0:15:08]: We started to go after mortgage lenders.

Eddie [0:15:09]: We started go after title agents.

Eddie [0:15:10]: We started to go after Cpa, attorneys.

Eddie [0:15:13]: And so now we've built this into a machine that now feeds our wealth management business, but it didn't happen overnight.

Eddie [0:15:21]: And it definitely wasn't an easy road to get to where we are now.

Eddie [0:15:25]: And so I've learned so many lessons over the last decade focusing on that aspect of the business, but it has become one of the main pillars of our business for

Callan [0:15:34]: our business.

Callan [0:15:34]: Well, that makes total sense?

Callan [0:15:36]: I got a handful of questions I wanna dive this and what you just said.

Callan [0:15:39]: What does the flow look like between...

Callan [0:15:42]: Okay.

Callan [0:15:42]: What I'm hearing and you say is like, okay.

Callan [0:15:44]: Now we've actually created content that they want.

Callan [0:15:47]: Mh.

Callan [0:15:47]: And this is getting them to attend?

Callan [0:15:49]: We move this from imports into virtual because they're all real estate agents.

Callan [0:15:53]: So, like, they could have a showing...

Callan [0:15:54]: Somebody says I need to go see it right now.

Eddie [0:15:56]: Like, they're gonna go do it.

Callan [0:15:57]: That's yeah.

Callan [0:15:57]: This is like, what they're

Eddie [0:15:58]: gonna their business.

Eddie [0:15:58]: They gotta go get money.

Callan [0:15:59]: A hundred percent.

Callan [0:16:00]: So you get somebody to attend to a class.

Eddie [0:16:03]: Yep.

Eddie [0:16:03]: From

Callan [0:16:04]: What happens there?

Callan [0:16:05]: What does that flow look?

Callan [0:16:06]: How you turn somebody from an attendee?

Eddie [0:16:08]: And what's your at value rate law reciprocity?

Eddie [0:16:10]: So, like, there's some

Callan [0:16:11]: of that going on?

Callan [0:16:11]: But you've got an attendee?

Callan [0:16:13]: How do you turn them into a client?

Eddie [0:16:15]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:16:15]: Certainly.

Eddie [0:16:16]: So that's all back to that process driven orientation that we built.

Eddie [0:16:19]: So we also have a model that for all of our advisors that work for us.

Eddie [0:16:23]: So we're a little bit different than most firms.

Eddie [0:16:25]: When people come to work for us, Like, most firms you remember this.

Eddie [0:16:29]: When you worked in the private wealth space.

Eddie [0:16:31]: You go to work for any of these big box carriers any of these big box companies.

Eddie [0:16:34]: First thing you do when you walk in the door, they're gonna give you a project two hundred.

Eddie [0:16:38]: Mh.

Eddie [0:16:38]: They're gonna tell you, hey.

Eddie [0:16:39]: Pull out your cell phone, start writing down everybody know, you're gonna call on those people.

Eddie [0:16:43]: You're gonna bring me on an appointment.

Eddie [0:16:44]: And you're gonna have me sell them on it.

Eddie [0:16:47]: You're gonna phase out

Callan [0:16:48]: of the business in six

Eddie [0:16:49]: to twelve months, and that's now my client and thank you for helping me build my book.

Eddie [0:16:52]: That's how the industry is set up right now.

Eddie [0:16:55]: What we've done is completely the opposite.

Eddie [0:16:57]: We flip that on its head.

Eddie [0:16:58]: What we tell people is look I built a lead magnet, a lead machine, so the people that come and work for me, I don't want you to call on your friends and family.

Eddie [0:17:05]: I don't want you to go out and do coffee chats or networking.

Eddie [0:17:08]: I want you to plug in to my continuing education webinars.

Eddie [0:17:11]: And I want you to work my system and take people through our financial planning process and get them all the way through it, and I'm going to collect a piece of the revenue for the lead, and you're gonna collect the majority of it for doing the plan, building it out, selling them on why they should work with us.

Eddie [0:17:27]: And now it's an equitable relationship where it's not one side where the adviser that's the older senior advisor isn't taking advantage of somebody that's younger.

Eddie [0:17:36]: It's more in the favor of helping them get off the ground and build a business for themselves, but not buy themselves.

Callan [0:17:42]: So that all makes sense.

Callan [0:17:43]: Although I would say, yes.

Callan [0:17:46]: Like, I'm probably not as Draco corny in, like, the pure purposes that they're gonna shift out, But you can't deny it's a very high attrition rate.

Callan [0:17:54]: Yes.

Callan [0:17:54]: And oftentimes those clients do stick.

Callan [0:17:57]: With that company whoever brought them on.

Callan [0:17:59]: Correct.

Callan [0:17:59]: And the project two hundred, that's, like, pretty standard issue pretty much everywhere you.

Eddie [0:18:03]: Every everywhere you go.

Eddie [0:18:04]: I mean, that's our sales between we tell people to come and work for us I go, you know, our difference is, I'm gonna give you leads.

Eddie [0:18:09]: Sure.

Eddie [0:18:09]: Gonna feed you a thousand to two thousand people a month that are qualified that have clicked to opt in.

Eddie [0:18:14]: They want to meet with somebody.

Eddie [0:18:15]: They have pain.

Eddie [0:18:16]: They have a problem.

Eddie [0:18:17]: They have something they want solved.

Eddie [0:18:19]: And your opportunity is you get to go build a relationship with them because of the credibility that I brought to the table.

Eddie [0:18:25]: And now all you have to do is build that relationship and sell them on why they should want to work with us.

Callan [0:18:30]: Yep.

Callan [0:18:30]: Makes sense.

Callan [0:18:31]: It's a great mouse trap in a great way to get somebody going.

Callan [0:18:33]: Okay.

Callan [0:18:34]: So you mentioned they click?

Callan [0:18:35]: Like, what does that look like?

Callan [0:18:36]: The Yeah.

Callan [0:18:36]: Class is over.

Callan [0:18:37]: Yep.

Callan [0:18:38]: What are they getting?

Callan [0:18:38]: They getting an email to opt into this?

Eddie [0:18:41]: Worries.

Eddie [0:18:41]: So there's there's an entire process Or

Callan [0:18:43]: does that look like?

Eddie [0:18:44]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:18:44]: Entire marketing process.

Eddie [0:18:45]: I can't give you all the details and all the sauce, but I'll give you high level most of it?

Eddie [0:18:48]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:18:48]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:18:49]: So during the course, we're usually tailoring the courses specifically to the audience that is on the other end.

Eddie [0:18:55]: So Mh.

Eddie [0:18:55]: The courses are generally, they have some kind of a hook towards one particular product in the wealth management space.

Eddie [0:19:03]: Mh and they're very specific in nature.

Eddie [0:19:06]: So we'll have one vehicle and we'll have seven or eight use cases on why you could or should utilize this in your portfolio and why it makes sense for you And so instead of going after building the relationship and trying to take them through a basic financial planning process, we go for something that triggers them that is a pain point that they're dealing within their own finances right now, So give them a solve.

Callan [0:19:32]: What an example be...

Callan [0:19:33]: I'm a real estate investor.

Callan [0:19:34]: I'll give you

Eddie [0:19:35]: a real life example.

Eddie [0:19:35]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:19:35]: So I'll give you a few.

Eddie [0:19:36]: Real estate investor paid a huge amount of taxes?

Eddie [0:19:38]: How do I reduce my tax liability?

Eddie [0:19:40]: Okay.

Eddie [0:19:41]: Okay Okay.

Eddie [0:19:41]: So we'll talk about different ways to do that.

Eddie [0:19:43]: And then we'll give them actual solutions that they can take back to their Cpa or their financial advisor.

Eddie [0:19:48]: They don't have one.

Eddie [0:19:50]: At the end of the presentation, we'll put up a link.

Eddie [0:19:53]: Normally, we would charge, like a thousand dollar consultation fee for...

Eddie [0:19:57]: Engaging with them.

Eddie [0:19:58]: We'll wipe that consultation fee off the table and we'll say, hey, if you guys click and schedule today.

Eddie [0:20:03]: Right now, you guys can get a meeting on our books and you can walk through this process to learn about x y or z at that time.

Eddie [0:20:10]: So we'll get the transaction done then.

Eddie [0:20:12]: And then after the transaction is complete, we will go back and try and build the deeper relationship, go out and collect the other assets, go and try and do a or in...

Eddie [0:20:20]: Fact finder.

Eddie [0:20:20]: So we call it building transactional relationships.

Eddie [0:20:23]: You're getting the transaction now because you're solving a problem that they're actively looking for, and then you're going back and actually showing them that we can provide immense value on a bigger scale for whatever it is that they're trying to achieve long term.

Eddie [0:20:34]: Well, you you've done the work upfront.

Callan [0:20:36]: Correct And you're not presenting something that's not relevant to what they care about because you mentioned you did the surveys, did the research at a time.

Callan [0:20:43]: Yes.

Callan [0:20:43]: And then you've got somebody that's...

Callan [0:20:45]: Like, they're already opting in.

Callan [0:20:46]: So that's somebody with a known problem that you're teaching them how to solve.

Callan [0:20:49]: If they go solve it on their own?

Callan [0:20:51]: Great.

Callan [0:20:51]: But odds are, they're probably not I, why would they be on this if they could solve correct.

Callan [0:20:55]: Correct?

Callan [0:20:55]: One.

Callan [0:20:56]: So at that point, now we're booking them on the next one.

Eddie [0:20:58]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:20:58]: I'll tell you.

Eddie [0:20:59]: It's kinda funny.

Eddie [0:20:59]: Like, what we've learned going through this entire process is that there's so many regulations, red tape rules, laws that prohibit people from doing what we do.

Eddie [0:21:09]: It took us probably three and a half to four years just to get that front end stuff dialed in.

Eddie [0:21:14]: Every state has different state departments that you have to get specialized licenses for to teach these courses In certain states, we had to open up schools, so we literally had to up a school to be able to just teach classes, and we're giving the classes away.

Eddie [0:21:27]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:21:28]: In certain states, we have to have a physical location.

Eddie [0:21:30]: So I had to go out and buy real estate in some of these states.

Callan [0:21:33]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:21:34]: And have an actual physical address.

Eddie [0:21:35]: I've had to partner up with schools and become an educator for live schools that are actually in practice right now.

Eddie [0:21:41]: So what we found was that, you know, it was a huge hurdle to get over, but once we got everything dialed in, we got our presentations approved through the state departments.

Eddie [0:21:50]: We got our presentations approved through broker dealers?

Eddie [0:21:53]: We got them approved through the schools themselves, then it was just a machine that we could scale up.

Eddie [0:21:58]: It's...

Eddie [0:21:58]: How are you marketing?

Eddie [0:21:59]: How are you getting the people to get there?

Eddie [0:22:01]: And then getting the marketing dialed in was that was the challenging part.

Eddie [0:22:04]: And once we got that dialed in it kinda has just snowball sensitive.

Eddie [0:22:07]: So now it's word mouth, and we're getting anywhere from, you know, two to three thousand per event that we host.

Eddie [0:22:13]: Mh.

Eddie [0:22:13]: That are showing up to it.

Eddie [0:22:15]: And we're scheduling anywhere from eighty to a hundred and twenty meetings before the meeting even ends.

Eddie [0:22:20]: And then over the next couple of weeks, probably another comparable amount to that for our team, that number continues to scale and grow.

Eddie [0:22:28]: So we're we've hosted events where we've had twenty five hundred people on a Zoom, and they're just there to learn for continuing ed for whatever sector of the market that they're in.

Eddie [0:22:37]: But, yeah, real estate has become a big niche for us, Cpa, attorneys, positions, mortgage lenders and title agents have all.

Eddie [0:22:43]: As well, but they're kinda secondary markets to the real estate agent market.

Callan [0:22:47]: Well, you guys cornered it in, you probably...

Eddie [0:22:49]: Well, you picked an area that not everyone's going for.

Callan [0:22:51]: Yeah.

Callan [0:22:51]: Like everybody in this space, maybe not the title agents.

Callan [0:22:54]: Just not a knock against title.

Callan [0:22:56]: I got some great friends that are title agents, but physicians Cpa, attorneys.

Callan [0:23:01]: Those three are, like, the three in business owners, You they're

Eddie [0:23:04]: the gold standard Right?

Callan [0:23:05]: Exactly.

Callan [0:23:05]: Or for this world.

Callan [0:23:06]: Okay.

Callan [0:23:07]: Funny enough, when I was doing research for this, all of the compliance pieces that you submitted popped up on your deep research report.

Callan [0:23:16]: So that's interesting.

Callan [0:23:17]: I actually never knew that That was a thing.

Callan [0:23:18]: I didn't realize you actually did have to submit that content and have it validated.

Eddie [0:23:23]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:23:23]: It's tougher than you think too and, like, believe or not.

Eddie [0:23:25]: So this is Hilarious.

Eddie [0:23:26]: We have a course right now in Ohio that we've used for five years.

Eddie [0:23:29]: It's a course we've used for five years in and out.

Eddie [0:23:33]: It's one of our, like, sixteen Ohio approved courses.

Eddie [0:23:35]: Yep And we went to go do it in January, and we had to renew it, and they rejected it.

Eddie [0:23:40]: First time in five years, they were, like, we need this slide in this slide changed, redone.

Eddie [0:23:45]: So, like, there's always constantly.

Eddie [0:23:46]: There's always regulations that are being updated.

Eddie [0:23:49]: There's always things that you can say in these courses and things that you can't say in these courses.

Eddie [0:23:53]: So it's honestly, like a secondary full time job running the continuing education business separate from the wealth management business.

Eddie [0:24:00]: So the lead magnet is just important as the machine that actually produces the income.

Callan [0:24:06]: Well, it's probably just a high enough barrier to keep people out of it.

Eddie [0:24:09]: It is.

Eddie [0:24:09]: And it's gotten worse and worse.

Eddie [0:24:10]: Like, when we first started doing it, it was a lot easier to get into it.

Eddie [0:24:14]: As time has gone on, it's gotten more and more difficult, and more and more red tape.

Eddie [0:24:17]: And the barrier to entry has gotten harder.

Eddie [0:24:20]: Also with the Ftc and the Federal Trade Commission.

Eddie [0:24:24]: They've made it difficult with spamming people on messaging and things like that.

Eddie [0:24:27]: So we have to get people to opt in to be on our list before we can even send them out and invite for our things.

Eddie [0:24:33]: So we have to have, like, compliance approval on that side of things too, that never existed before twenty eighteen.

Eddie [0:24:39]: So there's a lot of things that have shifted in that industry where it's you can't just, you know, start text messaging everybody in your phone and saying, hey, come to my course.

Eddie [0:24:48]: Will get arrested.

Eddie [0:24:49]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:24:49]: There's a lot of compliance and red tape and oversight that wasn't there ten years ago that's there today.

Callan [0:24:54]: Okay.

Callan [0:24:54]: So I back this up a little bit.

Callan [0:24:56]: You mentioned the marketing piece was the hardest part.

Callan [0:24:58]: Yes.

Callan [0:24:58]: And one of the things I wanna dive into is My guess is...

Callan [0:25:02]: Did you

Eddie [0:25:02]: start this locally?

Eddie [0:25:03]: I'm assuming.

Eddie [0:25:03]: I did.

Eddie [0:25:04]: Okay.

Eddie [0:25:04]: Did.

Eddie [0:25:04]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:25:04]: So you probably

Callan [0:25:05]: of that

Eddie [0:25:05]: we ever heard it was in Newark, Ohio.

Eddie [0:25:06]: Man.

Eddie [0:25:08]: That's why three people showed up because there's only three people in newark.

Callan [0:25:11]: Well, you got them all.

Callan [0:25:11]: So that was good.

Callan [0:25:12]: So with the whole town there.

Eddie [0:25:14]: No.

Eddie [0:25:14]: Not.

Callan [0:25:15]: Was all

Eddie [0:25:15]: I was a mayor and the only two of real agents.

Callan [0:25:17]: With there in all three incredibly well There.

Callan [0:25:19]: Great clients.

Callan [0:25:19]: Okay.

Callan [0:25:20]: So you got these started doing this, and you probably just started building it.

Callan [0:25:23]: My guess, you started building a name.

Callan [0:25:25]: You've became known for offering these probably an easy way for people to get state Nobody likes to do Ce credits.

Callan [0:25:30]: Anybody has to do Ce credits.

Callan [0:25:31]: Nobody like, I everybody hates him.

Callan [0:25:33]: So if you came in, I guess you came in here, he provided a better experience than, you know, the usual, which it's usually, like, gut wrench.

Callan [0:25:39]: But Yeah.

Eddie [0:25:40]: Gave him free lunch.

Eddie [0:25:41]: Well, our promise always to people on Ce is we're gonna give them something to move the needle for their business.

Eddie [0:25:45]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:25:46]: So, like, I always tell people, like, the courses even though they're designed to ultimately hopefully get us a client or relationship.

Eddie [0:25:53]: They're more designed for them to actually impact their bottom line.

Eddie [0:25:58]: Yep.

Eddie [0:25:58]: So the presentations will be very specific on, like, growing their market, getting more customers, obtaining more leads in their market, marketing itself, And then in addition to that it'll have a wealth management component that also helps them with their own finances, and it'll be something that ties into whatever it is that we're trying to achieve for them.

Eddie [0:26:18]: And we tie those things together very well.

Eddie [0:26:20]: Before the invention of Ai, this was all, like, self creation.

Eddie [0:26:24]: Sure.

Eddie [0:26:24]: You know, now that Ais come out, our presentations have gotten pretty wild.

Eddie [0:26:27]: But before Ai, it was all just, you know, me a pad and a paper and saying, I wanna make this and then having my team put it together, get it on paper and then getting information from different sources all over the web, and then putting those presentations together then sending them off, getting them rejected, having to go back to a drawing board, fix them, send them back off.

Eddie [0:26:45]: We finally get them approved, then it's time to start marketing the course and see if somebody actually shows up.

Eddie [0:26:50]: So it's a lot of effort, but when it's dialed in and when it's working at the scale that we're working at, It's a machine that doesn't stop.

Callan [0:26:57]: So you built this network in in Ohio.

Callan [0:26:59]: Yep.

Eddie [0:27:00]: And it became, like, the go to source on this.

Eddie [0:27:01]: And then you expand that outside it.

Callan [0:27:04]: How did you do that?

Callan [0:27:04]: Yeah.

Callan [0:27:05]: How did you actually get people to the classes as you got out of Ohio.

Eddie [0:27:09]: So what we did was we started having people in Ohio that were attending our courses that were dual licensed.

Eddie [0:27:13]: They were licensed in other states.

Eddie [0:27:15]: They were, like, do you offer this course an x y z state because I'd like to get credit in both of the states of licensed.

Eddie [0:27:19]: Mh.

Eddie [0:27:20]: And then we started saying, well, why are we only licensed in Ohio?

Eddie [0:27:23]: And what would it take to get licensed in this state?

Eddie [0:27:25]: And then also by the way, what would it take to get people in that state?

Eddie [0:27:29]: And get them to opt in?

Eddie [0:27:30]: And what do we need to do to go down that channel?

Eddie [0:27:32]: So, like, it kinda started out as very local and then it's spread out to more regional?

Eddie [0:27:38]: Mh.

Eddie [0:27:38]: And then it went even further and now it's, you know, more nationwide if you will.

Callan [0:27:42]: So what are some of, like these tactics that you're using?

Callan [0:27:44]: Is it paid search?

Callan [0:27:46]: Is it email market?

Callan [0:27:47]: It's all email?

Eddie [0:27:48]: Okay.

Eddie [0:27:48]: All email all text.

Eddie [0:27:49]: But again, they have to opt in first.

Eddie [0:27:51]: So we gotta get their information.

Eddie [0:27:52]: So we have a widget that we use to draw them in first.

Callan [0:27:56]: Like a lead magnet some you're offering some sort of...

Callan [0:27:58]: Okay.

Callan [0:27:59]: So this is all of an opt in email list.

Callan [0:28:00]: Correct?

Eddie [0:28:01]: How big is that list?

Eddie [0:28:02]: Huge millions.

Eddie [0:28:03]: Really?

Callan [0:28:04]: Yes.

Callan [0:28:04]: Interesting.

Callan [0:28:05]: Yeah.

Callan [0:28:06]: Are you doing anything else besides to see...

Callan [0:28:08]: Or are you guys just...

Callan [0:28:08]: Like, that you are the Ce company?

Callan [0:28:10]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:28:11]: So we have our own team that does it in house now.

Eddie [0:28:13]: So we used to outsource everything and then eventually when we figured out how to do it all ourselves and we were doing it better, We just brought it all in house.

Eddie [0:28:18]: Interesting.

Eddie [0:28:19]: So everything's all in house.

Eddie [0:28:20]: We don't have any third parties that are outside.

Eddie [0:28:22]: They all work in our office and, like, they have a job that's, like, marketing coordinator for our business, and that's all they're doing is marketing for our continuing education business.

Callan [0:28:30]: Are you creating content outside of this for that?

Callan [0:28:32]: Like, it could be a report on the state of the industry.

Callan [0:28:36]: Or is this purely, like, you have this very focused on the c very focused.

Eddie [0:28:41]: Yeah...

Eddie [0:28:41]: We've talked about it.

Eddie [0:28:42]: So I've got a couple of partners that have tried to reach out to me that want me to start building content and pressing it out.

Eddie [0:28:48]: Like, I've had a couple people reach out that they've asked me to kind of take the reins of trying to become, like, a young Dave Ramsey and, like, pave that pathway for our generation, and they're like, dude do you have so much good content?

Eddie [0:28:59]: Like, why don't you just start video it and putting it out there and creating this, like, people would want to listen to it.

Eddie [0:29:04]: So we did some test cases.

Eddie [0:29:06]: It did really, really well.

Eddie [0:29:07]: I just...

Eddie [0:29:08]: I don't like fame.

Eddie [0:29:09]: I'd rather be the guy that...

Eddie [0:29:11]: The wealthiest guy in the room, but nobody knows what he does or how he got it.

Eddie [0:29:14]: So for me, personally, like, I'd rather just be behind the scenes and be crushing it in business.

Eddie [0:29:19]: That's just kinda like My, but I'm sure there's a space for that out there, because there's a lot of people that want that information and there's nobody really in our generation that's kind of providing.

Eddie [0:29:28]: There was that one guy a couple years ago that the guy that was on Tiktok, but he ended up getting in trouble for something on some, like crypto game or something.

Eddie [0:29:34]: So...

Eddie [0:29:35]: But, yeah, we've been focused really on, kind of building out that widget for...

Eddie [0:29:39]: Continuing education business, continuing education business feeds is one pillar for our wealth management business, but it happens to be the largest.

Eddie [0:29:46]: Okay.

Callan [0:29:48]: So expanding this thing, you've continued to grow it.

Callan [0:29:51]: This is your may...

Callan [0:29:52]: Is this the Mean, I got it assume.

Callan [0:29:53]: It can't be another lead channel that you have as bigger in this.

Callan [0:29:56]: So believe

Eddie [0:29:57]: it or not, there's one that actually just past it in the last year.

Eddie [0:30:00]: But I'll say this.

Eddie [0:30:01]: It's our biggest lead magnet.

Eddie [0:30:03]: It's not our biggest source of revenue.

Callan [0:30:06]: Okay.

Eddie [0:30:06]: So it's our biggest lead magnet brings in the most people, But our biggest sources of revenue are actually there's two other line items that are above this on an annual basis.

Eddie [0:30:14]: It's just because of case size and complexity.

Callan [0:30:17]: The bank the bully stuff.

Eddie [0:30:18]: Bank life insurance and then we also do the qualified plan stacking.

Eddie [0:30:21]: The Max funded qualified plans.

Eddie [0:30:23]: So those two different areas, One tax mitigation strategies for high net worth individuals.

Eddie [0:30:28]: And then on the other side, bank owned life insurance for institutions, community and regional banks, they're just larger ticket, their bigger revenue for the business.

Callan [0:30:36]: Alright.

Callan [0:30:36]: I wanna kinda look back on some of this stuff.

Callan [0:30:39]: Yes.

Callan [0:30:39]: You know, one of the things that immediately pops to my mind is.

Callan [0:30:42]: Like, if you were coaching somebody, somebody, you know, listens to this, and there's was a friend of yours like, hey, I actually would love to try something like this.

Callan [0:30:49]: If my immediate thought goes focus on something you know.

Callan [0:30:53]: Focus on an audience you know.

Callan [0:30:54]: Like, you are a real estate investor.

Callan [0:30:56]: Knew the...

Callan [0:30:57]: So like, you knew a lot of the problems that they were and challenges that they were going through.

Callan [0:31:02]: And I know you guys started there.

Callan [0:31:03]: Yes.

Callan [0:31:03]: Would you recommend that?

Callan [0:31:05]: Or would you say, like, no.

Callan [0:31:07]: Just optimize for No.

Eddie [0:31:09]: I definitely would.

Eddie [0:31:09]: I always tell people like, gravitate towards what interests you or what piqued your interest and what you're going to be the most passionate about.

Eddie [0:31:17]: So, like, And I've always said this in every industry.

Eddie [0:31:19]: If you're in a service based industry.

Eddie [0:31:21]: Mh.

Eddie [0:31:22]: Like financial services or a physician.

Eddie [0:31:25]: There's two different types, and I always tell my my real estate agent clients as I say, look, there's two types of doctors.

Eddie [0:31:30]: There are generalist and there are specialists.

Eddie [0:31:33]: The generalist are gonna make great living, one to three hundred thousand a year, they're gonna have very good quality of life, and then there's a heart surgeon or a brain surgeon or an anesthesiologist, and those guys make millions a year.

Eddie [0:31:45]: But they only do one thing, but they do better than anybody.

Eddie [0:31:48]: So do you wanna be a generalist or do you wanna be a specialist.

Eddie [0:31:51]: And for me when I got into the industry, I quickly gravitate towards becoming a specialist and becoming a specialist in something that I knew I understood, I was doing myself, so it wasn't me selling them on a concept that I didn't understand, it was me showing them what I was already doing for myself.

Eddie [0:32:07]: Mh.

Eddie [0:32:07]: In practical application and saying, hey, if you're interested in doing this for you, here's how to do it.

Eddie [0:32:13]: Here's how to pay that way forward.

Eddie [0:32:15]: So all Do is I took all the information I was learning for me, and I just applied it towards them.

Callan [0:32:20]: Mh.

Eddie [0:32:20]: And said, how can I build this model that creates exactly what I'm creating for myself?

Eddie [0:32:25]: For other people.

Eddie [0:32:26]: And if they're interested in that concept, then just expand the concept.

Eddie [0:32:30]: And then as time went on, I started develop it into other niches within the market.

Eddie [0:32:35]: So I always tell people like, I'm a heart surgeon when it comes to life insurance.

Eddie [0:32:40]: I'm the life insurance heart surgeon in the business.

Eddie [0:32:42]: And we study the contracts, all the three different types of policy types that are out there in the marketplace.

Eddie [0:32:47]: We studied them inside and out.

Eddie [0:32:49]: We know all the carriers.

Eddie [0:32:50]: We have relationships with all of them.

Eddie [0:32:51]: And that's really where I've gravitate towards.

Eddie [0:32:54]: And then I built team in the other sectors, disability, long term care, wealth management, private credit, Mh.

Eddie [0:33:01]: Lines of credit, Etf stocks, all that stuff.

Eddie [0:33:04]: So we have all of that underneath our entire umbrella, However, my main focus is mostly on that protection first mentality and kinda how does that translate into every other aspect of the financial plan.

Callan [0:33:16]: So what else?

Callan [0:33:17]: So focus where you gravitate?

Callan [0:33:19]: What you know What excites you?

Callan [0:33:20]: Yes.

Callan [0:33:21]: What other advice?

Callan [0:33:22]: Somebody starting this out from Yeah.

Eddie [0:33:24]: I would say own what you sell?

Eddie [0:33:25]: I mean, I hate to say it, but like, there's so many professionals in our industry that are bad stewards of their own money.

Eddie [0:33:30]: Like, I'm in my late thirties.

Eddie [0:33:32]: I'm a multi multimillion millionaire Like, I would say, like, do that for yourself.

Eddie [0:33:36]: If you're gonna teach somebody how to get rich, go get rich?

Eddie [0:33:38]: Like, go do it.

Eddie [0:33:39]: If you're not gonna do that, it's gonna be hard for you to convince somebody to do something that you're not doing yourself.

Eddie [0:33:44]: You know, it's just like a personal trainer.

Eddie [0:33:46]: Would you work out with a fat personal trainer?

Eddie [0:33:48]: No.

Eddie [0:33:49]: I work out with a guy that's Jacked that looks the way that I wanna look.

Eddie [0:33:52]: Like that's who you wanna work out with.

Eddie [0:33:54]: If you wanna get a lesson from somebody, go work out with a guy with an eight or twelve pack, and you'll get an eight or twelve pack because he's gonna teach you what he's already doing for himself.

Eddie [0:34:01]: Now, some of it is genetics.

Callan [0:34:04]: Seems I'm not getting

Eddie [0:34:05]: an eight

Callan [0:34:06]: or twelve.

Callan [0:34:06]: Neither my neither might not.

Eddie [0:34:08]: I got rid of the dad motto over the last year.

Eddie [0:34:10]: I'm like, I I can't get an eight pack, but like, I get a four pack.

Eddie [0:34:13]: Yeah.

Callan [0:34:13]: Yeah Yeah.

Eddie [0:34:13]: But I get genesis is a weird.

Eddie [0:34:14]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:34:15]: But nonetheless, it's the same thing in Wealth management, like you might be poor.

Eddie [0:34:19]: You might have come from some money, but you can be a good steward of your money.

Eddie [0:34:23]: You can learn these basic fundamentals that can set your family up and put you in a position that generations behind you didn't have in generations after you will have forever.

Eddie [0:34:31]: You just gotta learn those fundamental foundations.

Eddie [0:34:34]: You gotta implement them, but work with somebody that's actually doing it for themselves and building that foundation for them.

Eddie [0:34:41]: So I talk about this in every single one of my classes, work with a professional that is willing to show you their balance sheet.

Eddie [0:34:47]: So, like, I always tell my clients if you ever wanna see what I got.

Eddie [0:34:50]: I'm happy to share it with you.

Eddie [0:34:51]: I'm happy to show you what I'm investing in I'm happy to show you where I'm parking my money because I'm not gonna put you in something that I don't own on myself.

Eddie [0:34:58]: So I think that's very important.

Eddie [0:35:00]: It's not to be brag.

Eddie [0:35:01]: It's to be transparent.

Eddie [0:35:03]: And I think transparency is dead in our industry, and I think more transparency is needed to really bridge the gap on that relationship and build more trust than things like Ai.

Eddie [0:35:13]: So, like, I think a lot of people are leaning on Ai right now, but really what they want is a trusted partner.

Eddie [0:35:18]: They want somebody that they can have a conversation with and get everything out on the table and have somebody actually navigate the chess board.

Eddie [0:35:26]: And move the pieces around to better optimize their situation and set them up for success in the future.

Callan [0:35:33]: Let me ask a slightly different question.

Callan [0:35:34]: Go ahead.

Callan [0:35:35]: You're starting this exact Ce business from the beginning what would you do differently?

Eddie [0:35:42]: Well, knowing what I know now, I probably never would have done in person?

Eddie [0:35:45]: Because it was expensive.

Eddie [0:35:47]: I mean, we spent tens of thousands of dollars you know, on sandwiches it never got eight.

Eddie [0:35:52]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:35:53]: And places that never got filled.

Eddie [0:35:55]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:35:55]: And gas that drove that was empty seats.

Eddie [0:35:59]: And so I'd say that would be probably the first thing.

Eddie [0:36:02]: I would say that focus beats brilliance, and at the time I think we're were trying to be brilliant, and we weren't really laser focus, like we were on building the process and all that and, like, the first three or four years that we kind of failed forward, it was fun.

Eddie [0:36:15]: We figured out a lot, But I think if we could go back and if I would start it from scratch knowing what I know now, there's just a lot of optimization things I would have done.

Eddie [0:36:24]: I would have leaned on more spending more money on advertising.

Eddie [0:36:27]: I would have spent more money on infrastructure and actually getting licensed with all the states quicker.

Eddie [0:36:32]: It took a long time to do that over a five, six year period.

Eddie [0:36:35]: I would have spent more time building out the course Role x.

Eddie [0:36:39]: Courses got stale in the beginning.

Eddie [0:36:41]: We were showing the same ones over and over.

Eddie [0:36:42]: I would have spent more time with offers at the end in the beginning, we didn't really press for people to come to us.

Eddie [0:36:49]: We didn't have that magnet.

Eddie [0:36:50]: We would do the courses.

Eddie [0:36:51]: And then we would follow up with them days or even weeks later.

Eddie [0:36:54]: Mh.

Eddie [0:36:55]: And now we have a system for follow up that is bar none.

Eddie [0:36:58]: And that I think is why we get so much out of what we put into.

Eddie [0:37:01]: Sure.

Eddie [0:37:02]: So I think just optimizing a lot of those things now that we've learned what we've learned, The other thing I would have hired a lot more people sooner.

Eddie [0:37:08]: Like, I was fearful when I started it, I had impostor syndrome really bad.

Eddie [0:37:13]: I mean, a lot of founders do, but, like, I was actually just at lunch with a buddy from my country club today, and he was, like, he's a business owner as well.

Eddie [0:37:20]: He's in tech also, he was joking with.

Eddie [0:37:22]: He's, like, he started sock business.

Eddie [0:37:24]: You know, he walked in the room and he's, like, you know, all these guys around me, and it's like, I was the guy that signed my name on the paper, but, like, I don't have any skill set that's better than them and, like, as a founder, you go through that.

Eddie [0:37:34]: Like, you're like, I'm no smarter than anybody in this room.

Eddie [0:37:37]: They could all go out and do this themselves, but they just don't have a leader to kinda of push them forward in that respect.

Eddie [0:37:42]: And so in our business, I think the biggest and most important thing is just to focus on kinda building out that process first, not focus on the product, make sure that that's dialed in, do the research, minimize the expenses, maximize your tam, your total addressable market, and then build that out and then execute on it, and I think those are the things that I would do differently and and those are the things that as a founder that I struggled with when I was faking it until I made it.

Eddie [0:38:09]: You know?

Eddie [0:38:10]: Yeah.

Callan [0:38:11]: It is tricky.

Callan [0:38:12]: It is one of those things that you don't...

Callan [0:38:14]: I know that feeling.

Callan [0:38:15]: Yeah.

Callan [0:38:16]: Feeling of they're all smart people.

Callan [0:38:18]: Like they could go start this in a second.

Callan [0:38:20]: And I think in some respect.

Eddie [0:38:23]: You just got a paper to death.

Eddie [0:38:24]: Got you got you got a leave legal paper to death.

Eddie [0:38:26]: But, I mean, the reality is that...

Callan [0:38:28]: I know you're saying that tongue in cheek, but, like, doesn't even hold up.

Callan [0:38:31]: No.

Callan [0:38:31]: And not that I care.

Callan [0:38:32]: I'm, pretty against it.

Callan [0:38:33]: But that being said.

Callan [0:38:34]: Yeah.

Callan [0:38:34]: I think one of the things that a lot of founders don't give themselves enough credit for is, like, you do.

Callan [0:38:41]: I, I did.

Callan [0:38:42]: It's, like, when you first start the business all you can think of is, this is a house of cards, ma'am.

Callan [0:38:47]: This thing is gonna fold at any second, and then as you just do it longer that just tends to dissipate a little bit and a little bit more.

Callan [0:38:55]: There's always a piece of that there.

Eddie [0:38:57]: And I think that's just a lot

Callan [0:38:59]: for a founder who's wired that way to deal with.

Callan [0:39:01]: It's a heck of a lot for somebody that is not a founder to deal with that because that can be pretty overwhelming.

Eddie [0:39:07]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:39:07]: And I'll tell you what, it's actually funny.

Eddie [0:39:08]: So five years ago, I left and went completely out on my own and started my own business and I was affiliated with a broker dealer and a company before that.

Eddie [0:39:16]: And when I left, the last company, the company that I left, they tried to take my model and do it without me.

Eddie [0:39:22]: Mh.

Eddie [0:39:22]: Because they were working on it with us while we were there, and they did it for about six months, and then they realized how difficult it was.

Eddie [0:39:28]: And then it wasn't as easy as I made it look, and they quit.

Eddie [0:39:31]: They threw in the towel after, like, six months, I haven't seen them in the space anymore ever since, and they went on to, you know, their traditional how most people do it calling on friends and family and going back through that normal process.

Eddie [0:39:43]: But I'm one of those people, like, I always tell people I would hate to be on the other side of whatever it is that I'm doing because I don't quit.

Eddie [0:39:50]: So like, my big differentiator if I put my mind to something, I put a hundred and fifty percent into every single thing that I do.

Eddie [0:39:56]: If I...

Eddie [0:39:57]: I don't do something unless I'm gonna go hard at it.

Eddie [0:40:00]: But if I do something, you best believe I'm going to be the best.

Eddie [0:40:02]: There's never gonna be somebody that's gonna take out my position or do better than me in that.

Eddie [0:40:06]: So I would say that, like, with the Ce stuff, that's just kinda how I've set myself up for success is, like, there's nobody that's gonna do better than me.

Eddie [0:40:14]: Somebody can go out there and try, but they're gonna fail forward.

Eddie [0:40:16]: They're never gonna get to the level that we're at because we're steam rolling and we're moving fast.

Eddie [0:40:20]: We're moving, we're shaking, we're getting bigger.

Eddie [0:40:22]: We're expanding, like my foot on the gas.

Eddie [0:40:24]: I'm going ninety in at forty five right now.

Eddie [0:40:27]: And I don't see a stopping.

Eddie [0:40:28]: Yeah.

Callan [0:40:30]: Which is why if you're gonna do certain things like that, you have to be...

Callan [0:40:34]: You have to love that channel that you're going after.

Eddie [0:40:37]: Bill Girly, said something like, it's like, if two people are doing the same thing and one loves is obsessed with it.

Callan [0:40:42]: Doesn't matter if they're equally as smart at each other.

Callan [0:40:43]: That person's gonna win all day long,

Eddie [0:40:46]: and I totally agree with that.

Eddie [0:40:47]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:40:47]: In in my twenties, it's funny.

Eddie [0:40:49]: Like, looking back, a lot of people would say, man.

Eddie [0:40:52]: Like, I look at time Now that Have children, so I got three kids under the age of five...

Eddie [0:40:56]: Well, under the age of six, my son's about turned six and like, thirty days, crazy.

Eddie [0:40:59]: He was born the day the pandemic started.

Eddie [0:41:01]: Talk about a wild story.

Eddie [0:41:03]: Anyways, like, time has flown by over the last six years, and it's moved very, very fast.

Eddie [0:41:09]: And for me, the one thing that I always tell people is, like, time can either be your best friend or it can be your worst enemy.

Eddie [0:41:15]: And in my twenties, thing that I did that was a differentiator was when majority of my friends, not all of them, but majority of my friends when we were in our twenties, they were out drinking partying every single weekend, and I knew that was gonna be my time when I wasn't married, and I didn't have kids to separate myself from the pact, So in my twenties, I gave up drinking.

Eddie [0:41:35]: I did not go to a football game on a Saturday for three years.

Eddie [0:41:39]: So, like when I was twenty three to twenty six, all my friends were out partying every weekend go into Ohio state games, I was dialing.

Eddie [0:41:45]: In my own office locked in on Saturdays.

Eddie [0:41:47]: Not partying, not having fun, Sunday was the only day I took off.

Eddie [0:41:51]: And those are the kinds of habits and disciplines that I built into my life early on that paid dividends ten, fifteen years down the road, now that I'm thirty eight, I don't have to go out and do networking.

Eddie [0:42:03]: I don't have to make phone calls because I have a lead magnet that's bringing me and things because I put in that infrastructure fifteen years ago, fourteen years ago, when I start in the business, when all my friends were, like, I'm gonna go out.

Eddie [0:42:15]: I'm gonna party.

Eddie [0:42:15]: I'm gonna go out.

Eddie [0:42:16]: I'm gonna do this.

Eddie [0:42:16]: And, like, maybe for them that worked for me, it was, like, head down.

Eddie [0:42:20]: I've got a vision.

Eddie [0:42:20]: I wanna build this thing, and I didn't let anything get my way.

Callan [0:42:24]: I respect it.

Callan [0:42:25]: I don't give up those ohio stake for light.

Eddie [0:42:30]: Hey

Callan [0:42:30]: it is a perfect place

Eddie [0:42:31]: to wrap brother.

Eddie [0:42:31]: Thank you for coming on.

Eddie [0:42:32]: This is a lot of fun.

Eddie [0:42:33]: Yeah.

Callan [0:42:34]: Appreciate diving all the details on this.

Callan [0:42:35]: This is with Excellent.

Callan [0:42:36]: Yeah.

Eddie [0:42:36]: Thank you so much for having me.

Eddie [0:42:37]: I really appreciate it.