Family First, with Shawn Meaike

violence. It was just, you know. So I think I went to college to play baseball, and I was a business major, and I was sitting in my economics class. Never forget, the professor went out to be a president of one of the universities in Connecticut. And I pulled her aside after my class, and I said, you know, can I ask you a question? She said, Yeah. I said, None of the professors here are actually businessmen or businesswoman.

You're just teachers. I don't mean just teacher like it's not at all, but like you're teaching me on things you haven't done. And what I loved about her answer was she was transparent. And she said, if that's important to you, Sean, then you need to find a major where the folks that are teaching, they're living it. And I said, Can you recommend one for me? She said, social work. And so, you know, I didn't switch majors right away.

I took a couple Social Work classes. And I'm like, God, I love this, like it was what I want to do, but God is great. And a buddy of mine called me and said, Hey, come to the Department of Children, Families and Work with abused, neglected children. And I was like, All right, I went interviewed, and I spent 14 years there. Man, it was probably the most gratifying job I've ever had in my life. It was definitely tough, but it was gratifying. So that's what led me there, and I think I had I

didn't want to see women be in violent relationships. I didn't want to see kids abused. I don't want to see any kids or women hurt, for that matter, but I'd lived a lot of that, so I think I could relate to some of the kids I did a lot of the stupid things the 1516, year old boys I was working with were doing. They were angry and violent. I really loved my job. That's how I got there, though.

difference, the money will come. I want to make a difference. And I'll never forget I was selling life insurance part time for about two and a half months, and I went to a home in waregan, Connecticut. Lady's name was Lisa, never forget it, and she answered the door and she said, you won't be able to help me. And I said, why not? And she said, Because I have stage three or four pancreatic cancer, like I'm dying. And she said, Can you help me? And I said, No, I didn't have any graded products

that time. I like, had you, I couldn't get her insurance. Now I'm not gonna lie to anybody about anything. I was like, ma'am, I won't be she was in her early 30s, and her husband came around the corner, big old dude, started yelling at me, cussing me out. And I sat down both them for about a half an hour, and I got him a $250,000 policy, and he was healthy as a horse. I mean, big guy, great. I mean big guy. I mean 642, 30, great

shape, not a partier, not on any medication. And 48 hours after I wrote him a policy, died in a motorcycle accident, and then she died shortly after that, and the only money the kids had was the quarter million dollars I got from him. I think Gary. After that happened. My whole perspective on insurance changed. The whole thing changed. Everybody's life is

fragile. I realized you never know when it's your time. And I realized that middle class and lower middle class and lower class people weren't taught what wealthy people are talking about, life insurance. Nobody taught my life insurance when I was growing up. I'm a smart person. My mom's not dumb, she's smart, but we never talked about it. And I realized that when wealthy folks died, it was like, it was like an event, right?

Like nobody wanted to happen, but like they had everything, like people got paid, like they actually planned for these things and put money in place and developed legacies. The first time I heard the word legacy that meant anything to me outside of sports was in life insurance, and I'll never forget a guy said to me, Shawn, when you meet with people, they're already going to leave a legacy. All we're trying to do is tell

the. Be a positive one, but if they do not have life insurance, and they leave their wife and children, you know, encumbered with bills gotta pay for their their funerals, they leave a negative legacy. So I really wanted to not only help them leave a positive one, but prevent them from putting their families in a terrible position. Because, okay, what's going to happen if you die, or he dies, or you both die? So, yeah, it became my passion. What I trained agents Gary. I knew that

a lot of times we had one shot. You call somebody, you go meet with them. They opened up to you and they gave you an opportunity. And if you screw it up, when I say screw it up, I mean, you left them and they're not going to meet with anybody else ever again. Did you give it everything that you had? If you did, that's all you can do. But if you didn't, that's a problem.

insurance. But there is not one time that I ever look back and go, I wish I would have said this, because I did everything I could with every single client I met with. Because I wake and sleep at night, right? I only put my head on the pillow go, you know, what did you do everything you could? I did, and I feel the same way with agents, because I think the thing about life insurance is this is that everybody's gonna die, so

everybody's gotta have it, right? And the vast majority of people don't have it, or don't have enough, they admit to that, and then they get vulnerable and fill out a lead and send it back to somebody selling the life insurance is all about getting in front of as many people as you can, as often as you can get, as uncomfortable as you can challenge them, as much as you can, because their legacy has to be as important to you as yours is. I want other people to win as much I want myself to win.

You. That's a lie. No, it's not a lie. If you go, do I care more about your kids than my kids? No, I can't care more about your kids than my kids, and I don't care equally. They're my children, just like, it'd be weird. If you're like, I care as much about you can't that would be awkward. But your success, I care as much about your success as I do my own. And I think for me, we have such an amazing opportunity, because I give you 100 stories of people I met with. They thought they had

insurance. This guy didn't do the they didn't really put it. They didn't challenge them. If I left the house or I got off a phone call or I got off a zoom, as long as I did every darn thing I could do. When you do it that way, you put them first. I was never afraid to say anything, because you as a client were more important. Your family's protection, your legacy, your safety, financially, was more important

than my feelings. And when you do that for people, they become very comfortable because they know you genuinely care about them.

protection? What is a cash back offer type policy? What is the IUL, the index, Universal Life of setting up your retirement and having life insurance serve as not only a protection in case you do pass what you're going to but also potentially have a certain amount of money being every month that you sent in your retirement, when you retired, could you share for the person that maybe isn't as educated about giving people lots of choices and why they need those choices?

term return of premium. So, oh, wait, what I was attracted to was, here's a policy they pay in every month, and at the end of their term, they outlived it, and it paid me back. So that's an amazing product. To your point about the index universal life, if you've never read the book tax free retirement, I think y'all should read it. I don't care what other books you read in your life by Patrick Kelly. It's an unbelievable book. I was introduced that book early in my life insurance

career. I had never I didn't know what an index universal life was. It explained I had gotten into my 401 k when I was in my 20s at the state and I didn't realize what was happening. I had to wait till age 59, and a half out of people, cash them out and take a huge penalty. It just It taught me a lot about index universal life. I bought myself a policy in the next universal. Of and set that up when I think about whatever age I decide to start pulling the money out. So that's

an amazing product. And the index Universal Life has changed our business. Matter of fact, half of our business by the end of this year will be IUL. Now, why is that so amazing? It has so many different benefits. You talked about the retirement, you talked about it being tax free, you talked about the opportunity to be able to utilize your money earlier when you're in insurance, I think you need to be very honest about the products. You know, they're not magical. I see people say things

about products that is not true. I don't like that. I give you the good. I give you what might be the I give you the strengths and weaknesses of everything. Here's how this works, here's how they're gonna take your money. Here's the cost of insurance. Here's what goes in an investment. Here's how it's performed over this many years. Here's a guarantee, here's a non

guarantee. And I think that's part of why I've had a very successful insurance career, is, you know, I always told my kids when they were young, a salesperson has has a successful career if he or she can walk around in the communities that they sell in and help people in and be excited to see people. I never wanted to bump into somebody at the grocery store and have them be like, walk the other way. I wanted to be like,

That's my insurance guy. I'd be out my kids all over the place, and people would not remember my name, and they'd be like, you were at my house. You're my insurance guy. I'm like, Yeah, I'm your insurance guy, but that was my job as was, to protect you and protect your legacy. So there's a lot of diversity in products. That's also why I think if you get in the insurance business. You should be independent, like, you should get multiple carriers. I People call me all the time. We sell

this one product. What do you think I should do? I'm like, I'd quit if failing first life was like, you can sell one product, one product only. Y'all should quit. And then also, what happens when you do that is you start selling people that one product, like, they probably could have gotten something else, but you're out there going, I don't make any money if they don't buy this one product from me, all I got is this one product. So one of the things I'm proudest of, you know, the

annuity be able to protect people's retire. That was 2009 I hadn't sold an annuity. The guy sat me down and said, You need to ask people what they're doing with their safe money. Ask them if they're a saver and investor. I knocked on a door, knock this lady's trailer. I opened the door and I got COPD right away, because she must smoke like 14 cards and cigarettes a day off.

Then her husband came with her, both smoking. She's got cancer, but she had had treatments, or she's in good health, but I'm like, she's not going to get these products because she's smoking. She doesn't have a history of cancer, she has other stuff going on. Yes, you've been cancer free for a little bit of time, but not long enough for me to really take care of you. And I'm just talking. I've just asked the question the guy, I said, What do y'all do with your safe money? She said, What does

that mean? I said, money you have that you don't want to lose. She goes, I have money in the market. I lose all the time. My 401, K is killing me. So I'm like, how about you on your 1k I'm assuming Gary, she's going to say eight grand, 12 grand, 20 grand, 30 grand. She said, just over a million dollars. And I'm like, what? She's like, I worked at JCPenney since I was 18, and they matched me for and I was like, how much have you lost the

last quarter? She told me was obnoxious. I wrote her annuity for a million bucks. Her husband won for 300 grand. I'd never written one before, and every year they would call me like they didn't lose any money. They didn't lose again anything we've gone through economically when covid hit. I wasn't worried about my clients that had an IUL or nobody losing any money. Matter of fact, the thing I used to say to them was, I'm not licensed to lose you any money. I have an insurance license. I'm

not a securities guy. I don't even have the ability to get you in a product where you can lose money on it. So it's good to have access to all being able to help people.

sales guy. I got my life insurance license. I went and sold, we launched fan first life I was in the field full time. I owned the company on the president of the company, the insurance carriers would call me and be like, Hey, we're trying to get a hold of I'm like, I'm selling. They're like, you sell life insurance. I'm like, Yes, I'm in life insurance. So, like, you're the president of the company. I'm like, is there a rule that says I can't sell? Like, no, there's no rule. I'm

okay. I enjoy helping people. Why would I not want to do that? So you guys, for a long time about the community helping people. I want to build people too, Gary. And I think a lot of the folks I was building people didn't necessarily believe in them. They weren't raised in this situation. Was like, hey man, all you gotta do is show up and grandpa, let me run the company. They're trying to find their way. And a lot of times this entrepreneurial journey is their first entrepreneurial

journey. And also, folks pull against them, not because they're bad people, they just don't know they're not entrepreneurs. So it's easy to be scared of what you don't know. So I have to appreciate them. They're on colorful list. So I look at guys like you and and me, my job was to walk and put my hand on the guy's back and be like, Hey, man. And I know a lot of people are telling you can't do it. I know a lot of people are saying things like, if it's too good to be true, it

is, and yada yada. You know what? It's a great industry. I looked at you guys, and you had a lot of guys and girls with a blue collar mentality to go out there and serve people. And you're fearless.

leave behind belief level for other people. I want to help people create wealth for their families. I do want to put a hedge of protection and financially different people. And I think I'm driven by the underdog. You know, it's not that I haven't written life insurance and all kinds of people, but the folks that are really in a tough position, like, I'll never forget what I've done to be able to put them

in a better position. You know, there's a way. If you when you have kids and you're when you're a dad and you have sons, I read this long time ago, you go through three phases. Every Dad and son goes to three phases. First phase is your son will idolize you. The second phase, he'll demonize you, then he'll humanize you. And I remember asking this, this psychologist that was saying it one day ago, he goes, and the hardest thing will be, if you've been a really good dad, he'll idolize you

longer than he was supposed to. I was like, really? It's like, yeah, that'll actually last longer, like he shouldn't be idolizing you when he's 1819, 20. And for me, I don't know how long people are going to talk about us when we're gone, but I want to do enough good in the world, in causes, giving money back, making a difference. And if some grandkid one day says, I don't know, man, my dad, he went on my my grandpa, first he went and build a business and life insurance, then my dad got in.

That's how we've been able and here's we've been able to do,

and we give back over here. But if we hadn't found that, and some guy ran it out, his name might have been Shawn, I don't know, fam first, like, if that's the way it works, I want people to and I want to be honest with me that that I was hard charging, that I was a pain in the butt at times, that I probably could have said things a different way, that I maybe was a little bit too passionate, but damn, my motives were good, and that I inspired people that didn't believe in themselves to

believe in themselves. And then I want to help other people realize they're leaving a legacy too, whether it's positive negative, you're leaving something. And I want to help people develop that and leave that because it will last for generations, especially if it's the first time somebody's doing it in their family, to be somebody that breaks the mold. Our family was heading this way, and I took us a different direction, showed us a lot more to this world. So I'm very, very focused on legacy.

get information if somebody will reach out to you. Because I remember what it was like when I started, and I remember how hard it was to find information and find credible people that could give me information. I want to, I want to help eliminate that gap for a lot of people.