Rose Treasure
New Member
Hello! My name is Sondra, but most people call me Rose. I'm a mom, a grandma, a widow, and a crazy pet lady. Currently I have four cat roommates, one little dog roommate named Sadie, and three chickens (they live outside.) I'm really grateful to be here, and I'm going to spend some time today learning from you all.
I decided to become a life insurance agent in November, and got my license in January. I took the training for FFL (please, no bashing) and am excited to get started! I should probably make a post elsewhere about my troubles getting started, but I need to pour it all out, so it's going here.
In 2015, I had what I thought was a pretty good life. I had a very good job with T-Mobile USA on their social media team; the pay was good and the benefits were awesome, but I was working A LOT. Then my husband took his own life. It was devastating, but I was grateful for one thing - I had made the choice to purchase the group life insurance benefit. This allowed me to buy a house, outright, and to quit my job. But that money was not endless, of course.
Seven years later, I was still a pretty broken person when I decided to get my stuff together and do something with myself. I have taken/am taking a course called "Freedom Session" and it is transforming the way I feel and think and want to live.
For the past many years, 6 in fact, I have had a relationship with a local church, and have been their office manager. I'm really good at the job, but it pays very little, is part-time, and I have financial goals I would like to reach. More importantly, I keep a different set of holidays (Holy Days) than most folks, and that being the case, I would like to have more control over how I spend my time. I really want to be my own boss, and this was supposed to be an avenue to that.
The first problem I have is that I can't get out from under my previous job. I know many would say "just quit" but I'm not comfortable doing that. At present, I'm literally the only person who knows how to do my job, and the other person who knew has died. I informed my employers in early March that they needed to replace me. I knew that I would need to stay until Easter because it's a lot of work for church ladies, but at this point, they don't have any prospects. I knew they were offering too little pay (they are paying me too little!) and they are asking too much of the new person. They had interviewed one person, but she was offered another job she wanted in the meantime, so she declined the offer. So here it is, almost May, and I am still spending the best part of my week at that job, 26 hours, and giving that job a huge amount of my emotional and mental energy. This means I am emotionally and mentally exhausted by the time I get home. I'm not 30 anymore where working two jobs is no biggy, and I also have a life with my kids, grandkids, and regular obligations like shopping and eating and showering and housekeeping. I advised the council president this week that she was either going to have to pay more or offer the job to someone under qualified and hope they rise to the standard. I am hopeful there will be a change by May. I had previous stated that I needed to take Thursdays off (I work Mon-Thur) but they "declined" to allow for that. I keep Sabbath, and so working Saturdays is absolutely not an option, so I basically have Friday and Sunday to sell life insurance. That is not working.
Second, my mentor is Zach, and he is on the east coast. I am on the west, so he can't exactly come to appointments with me, right? The FFL training I received was heavy on call training, light on product training, and so I don't feel like I have a strong grasp of what to offer when I get into the customer's home. Most of the YouTube training on these policies doesn't really talk about the policies, but more about how to sell the policies, which is only so helpful. Zach is a very motivated guy, and really very nice, and wants to help me, but when I mention this lack of product training, he says I should get into the customer's home first, get all the info filled out on their meds, age, and general financial status, and then tell my customer I'm going to call my "product consultant" to see what would best fit their needs. I feel like I need to KNOW what I'm going to be offering in general before I get into their homes. To complicate things, ALL of the official product trainings from the primary companies I work with happen during my day job hours, so I have been unable to attend them. I am unwilling to cheat my current employer by working this job on their hours.
Also, I can't get into the customer's homes. After finishing all the trainings, Zach advised me to pay for aged leads ($4 each) from the CRM, and to start calling them. So I did. My experience has been discouraging and frustrating. First, most people don't even pick up the phone. I try emailing, texting, calling - nothing. So, the next step is door knocking. I spent four hours doing this last Sunday (not my first effort.) One person answered the door, and the man wasn't there, and his mom didn't know for sure when he would be back. I left my card - no call back. One person wasn't home, so I left a note asking them to call me. They called me, but then insisted I was part of a prank, and hung up on me. At the final address where I stopped, the girl who answered the door said she had never even heard of that person. Those were the only actual human beings who answered their door. The few people who do pick up the phone insist they didn't fill out any request. When I say, "I understand. I forget things too..." and provide them with the many details they provided on the form, they double down and say someone stole their identity, or some other such nonsense. Many people just hang up on me. One guy made an appointment with me, then spent five minutes on his front porch telling me someone has hacked his information, and filled out all that stuff to harass him, but he doesn't know who. Le sigh. I even handed him his lead paper, which he reviewed, then handed back and said he didn't have the money for insurance and then didn't let me into the house.
Other highlights: two people gave me addresses for homeless shelters. No, I can't find them there. Three people gave addresses that don't exist or didn't include their apartment or space number. At least 12 of them have phone numbers that are no longer functional. Of the texting replies I actually received back, three of them asked me to stop texting them, and one ghosted me after finding out what I wanted when I sent them the pictures of the lead I printed. The one appointment I was able to make was with an 85 year old lady with major heart problems, and her husband, also 85, is a diabetic who recovered from cancer last year. One guy made an appointment with me, but when I came to the door shouted, "Now is not a good time, Rose!" and didn't open the door. My attempts to call him back have gone to voicemail.
So out of 75 leads, I spent $300+ and got no money back from it, not to mention the paper, gas, printer ink, and other expenses involved. I've also bought business cards, and ID card, and a shirt in an effort to look more professional. Honestly, just typing that makes me want to cry and makes me feel like a massive failure.
I am a widow on a very limited income. I'm willing to go into debt to get more leads, but I can't really afford to throw good money after bad. I don't know where to buy more recent leads for people who actually want to buy insurance. I don't know how to get leads I can afford, because I bring home about $1500 per month at my day job, and I won't enough after paying bills to pay for more leads. Zach gave me one lead company, which I jotted down but when I looked into it, I couldn't seem to find anything that actually told me how much it was going to cost me, and now I don't know where that was now, almost two months later.
But it's more than that. I also don't know how to get this product training I need before I leave my job, and I can't seem to fit life insurance around my day job very well. I literally don't know how to do this.
I'm not about to give up. I can't afford to do that either! I've already invested too much time, energy, and money getting licensed and trained. I NEED TO MAKE THIS WORK, and I literally can't figure out how. Zach is helpful, but he mostly talks over me, and isn't really "available" here on the west coast. I feel weird defecting to someone else, since I don't feel like I've given this my best effort, but I really need some help moving forward, and I'm not sure Zach can do that for me long distance. I did reach out to an FFL group by email here in Oregon, but they never returned my email.
Does anyone have any idea what I can do differently? Maybe just some encouragement would help, because I am starting to feel like failure is my ONLY option.
If you've read all the way to the bottom of this, thank you. It has helped me to get it all out. Any help anyone can provide would be useful. I'm going to make another cup of coffee, and cry a little. Thanks for letting me join.
Here's a picture of my sweet puppy to offset my depressing post.
~~Rose Treasure
I decided to become a life insurance agent in November, and got my license in January. I took the training for FFL (please, no bashing) and am excited to get started! I should probably make a post elsewhere about my troubles getting started, but I need to pour it all out, so it's going here.
In 2015, I had what I thought was a pretty good life. I had a very good job with T-Mobile USA on their social media team; the pay was good and the benefits were awesome, but I was working A LOT. Then my husband took his own life. It was devastating, but I was grateful for one thing - I had made the choice to purchase the group life insurance benefit. This allowed me to buy a house, outright, and to quit my job. But that money was not endless, of course.
Seven years later, I was still a pretty broken person when I decided to get my stuff together and do something with myself. I have taken/am taking a course called "Freedom Session" and it is transforming the way I feel and think and want to live.
For the past many years, 6 in fact, I have had a relationship with a local church, and have been their office manager. I'm really good at the job, but it pays very little, is part-time, and I have financial goals I would like to reach. More importantly, I keep a different set of holidays (Holy Days) than most folks, and that being the case, I would like to have more control over how I spend my time. I really want to be my own boss, and this was supposed to be an avenue to that.
The first problem I have is that I can't get out from under my previous job. I know many would say "just quit" but I'm not comfortable doing that. At present, I'm literally the only person who knows how to do my job, and the other person who knew has died. I informed my employers in early March that they needed to replace me. I knew that I would need to stay until Easter because it's a lot of work for church ladies, but at this point, they don't have any prospects. I knew they were offering too little pay (they are paying me too little!) and they are asking too much of the new person. They had interviewed one person, but she was offered another job she wanted in the meantime, so she declined the offer. So here it is, almost May, and I am still spending the best part of my week at that job, 26 hours, and giving that job a huge amount of my emotional and mental energy. This means I am emotionally and mentally exhausted by the time I get home. I'm not 30 anymore where working two jobs is no biggy, and I also have a life with my kids, grandkids, and regular obligations like shopping and eating and showering and housekeeping. I advised the council president this week that she was either going to have to pay more or offer the job to someone under qualified and hope they rise to the standard. I am hopeful there will be a change by May. I had previous stated that I needed to take Thursdays off (I work Mon-Thur) but they "declined" to allow for that. I keep Sabbath, and so working Saturdays is absolutely not an option, so I basically have Friday and Sunday to sell life insurance. That is not working.
Second, my mentor is Zach, and he is on the east coast. I am on the west, so he can't exactly come to appointments with me, right? The FFL training I received was heavy on call training, light on product training, and so I don't feel like I have a strong grasp of what to offer when I get into the customer's home. Most of the YouTube training on these policies doesn't really talk about the policies, but more about how to sell the policies, which is only so helpful. Zach is a very motivated guy, and really very nice, and wants to help me, but when I mention this lack of product training, he says I should get into the customer's home first, get all the info filled out on their meds, age, and general financial status, and then tell my customer I'm going to call my "product consultant" to see what would best fit their needs. I feel like I need to KNOW what I'm going to be offering in general before I get into their homes. To complicate things, ALL of the official product trainings from the primary companies I work with happen during my day job hours, so I have been unable to attend them. I am unwilling to cheat my current employer by working this job on their hours.
Also, I can't get into the customer's homes. After finishing all the trainings, Zach advised me to pay for aged leads ($4 each) from the CRM, and to start calling them. So I did. My experience has been discouraging and frustrating. First, most people don't even pick up the phone. I try emailing, texting, calling - nothing. So, the next step is door knocking. I spent four hours doing this last Sunday (not my first effort.) One person answered the door, and the man wasn't there, and his mom didn't know for sure when he would be back. I left my card - no call back. One person wasn't home, so I left a note asking them to call me. They called me, but then insisted I was part of a prank, and hung up on me. At the final address where I stopped, the girl who answered the door said she had never even heard of that person. Those were the only actual human beings who answered their door. The few people who do pick up the phone insist they didn't fill out any request. When I say, "I understand. I forget things too..." and provide them with the many details they provided on the form, they double down and say someone stole their identity, or some other such nonsense. Many people just hang up on me. One guy made an appointment with me, then spent five minutes on his front porch telling me someone has hacked his information, and filled out all that stuff to harass him, but he doesn't know who. Le sigh. I even handed him his lead paper, which he reviewed, then handed back and said he didn't have the money for insurance and then didn't let me into the house.
Other highlights: two people gave me addresses for homeless shelters. No, I can't find them there. Three people gave addresses that don't exist or didn't include their apartment or space number. At least 12 of them have phone numbers that are no longer functional. Of the texting replies I actually received back, three of them asked me to stop texting them, and one ghosted me after finding out what I wanted when I sent them the pictures of the lead I printed. The one appointment I was able to make was with an 85 year old lady with major heart problems, and her husband, also 85, is a diabetic who recovered from cancer last year. One guy made an appointment with me, but when I came to the door shouted, "Now is not a good time, Rose!" and didn't open the door. My attempts to call him back have gone to voicemail.
So out of 75 leads, I spent $300+ and got no money back from it, not to mention the paper, gas, printer ink, and other expenses involved. I've also bought business cards, and ID card, and a shirt in an effort to look more professional. Honestly, just typing that makes me want to cry and makes me feel like a massive failure.
I am a widow on a very limited income. I'm willing to go into debt to get more leads, but I can't really afford to throw good money after bad. I don't know where to buy more recent leads for people who actually want to buy insurance. I don't know how to get leads I can afford, because I bring home about $1500 per month at my day job, and I won't enough after paying bills to pay for more leads. Zach gave me one lead company, which I jotted down but when I looked into it, I couldn't seem to find anything that actually told me how much it was going to cost me, and now I don't know where that was now, almost two months later.
But it's more than that. I also don't know how to get this product training I need before I leave my job, and I can't seem to fit life insurance around my day job very well. I literally don't know how to do this.
I'm not about to give up. I can't afford to do that either! I've already invested too much time, energy, and money getting licensed and trained. I NEED TO MAKE THIS WORK, and I literally can't figure out how. Zach is helpful, but he mostly talks over me, and isn't really "available" here on the west coast. I feel weird defecting to someone else, since I don't feel like I've given this my best effort, but I really need some help moving forward, and I'm not sure Zach can do that for me long distance. I did reach out to an FFL group by email here in Oregon, but they never returned my email.
Does anyone have any idea what I can do differently? Maybe just some encouragement would help, because I am starting to feel like failure is my ONLY option.
If you've read all the way to the bottom of this, thank you. It has helped me to get it all out. Any help anyone can provide would be useful. I'm going to make another cup of coffee, and cry a little. Thanks for letting me join.
~~Rose Treasure
... laughing at that now... no so funny then. 
