Jay: Hi, everyone. Welcome to The First Customer podcast. Today, I'm lucky enough to be joined by Bruce Weinstein, founder and CEO of Weinstein Wealth Insurance companies, host of Ask the Man podcast, Bruce. Hello, sir. How are you?
Bruce: Hi, Jay. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for having
Jay: to your show. You are, that's fine. You know, I would love to ask the plan, man.
I don't have any plans.
so
we were chatting a little bit. you were, you're down in Florida now you're from Jersey. talk to me a little bit about your early years. where'd you grow up and did that have kind of any, impact on your entrepreneurial journey?
Bruce: Oh man. absolutely. 100%. grew up in central New Jersey, just outside, the new Brunswick area by Rutgers University. For those who know that's considered central New Jersey. The emphasis of this is my folks got divorced when I was eight in the early seventies and I had to figure out as a young kid how to make some extra scratch.
So I've been very entrepreneurial since I was five, six, seven years of age with lemonade stands and paper routes and shoveling snow and, you know, just hustling to have that extra money because we didn't have it.
Jay: Right. All right. Well, were your parents entrepreneurs at all?
Bruce: No. my mother was pretty much an office manager, for the local dentist in town. So she had to work. and then my dad was in the He started in the hospitality of hotel and restaurant management, but then he moved into the hospital side where he, when you're in a hospital, God forbid, and you got to get your three meals a day, he ran the kitchens and he was out in Long Island doing that for many years.
So not neither really had the entrepreneurial sense of it. So I just kind of came by it naturally. I mean, I've literally, except my first, I mean, you can't count like. High school jobs that paid you, but, you know, delivering pizzas, you work for tips and you work in the mail room. So, you know, you may do 310 an hour.
I worked at Carvel, usually work two jobs every summer through college. I had one job right out of school in the computer space. Hated it was miserable. So since the age of 23, I have always been self employed, eat what I shoot, generate and earn my own income. So just been It's a preferred way of life.
I
Jay: I, it's a nice way of life. I noticed. You went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which I did not even, I couldn't wrap my head around what that means.
but,
Bruce: a PA, but you're a PA guy. You
Jay: I am, but I don't know what the Indiana University of, where is that? Where is that located?
Bruce: So, fair enough question. So Western Pennsylvania, about an hour outside of Pittsburgh, two hours from Penn State. Think of back in the day before cars in the late 1800s. Pennsylvania is very mountainous, right? A lot of, so you had these little towns in Bloomsburg and Lock Haven and Slippery Rock and, Edinburgh, I think was one.
And so there was a town of Indiana. It was Indiana normal school. These were teachers colleges back in the late 1800s and then over time became colleges and then universities. And it's all part of the Pennsylvania state school system. It's a division two platform, but Indiana is the hometown of Jimmy Stewart.
For those old enough to know it's a wonderful life. It's on every holiday season,
it's the home. that's its claim to fame. It's a Christmas tree, capital of the world. Most of the Christmas trees come out of that region. It's very mountainous, rains, you know, forever, 200, you know, 300 days a year it rains.
And, yeah, there's a Jimmy Stewart museum and everything. So yeah, I mean, it's just the school I found, I grew up, as I mentioned, right by Rutgers, overbearing Jewish mother was not going to go to school two miles away. I had to get out of town
and I came across the school through a relative that had gone there, same price point.
as going to Rutgers as an out of state, so it was very affordable back in that point in time, and I had a fantasy of playing, continuing to play football, so I walked on, you know, it was division two, and I was able to walk on there, so it just kind of checked all the boxes, and, you know, have fraternity, brothers that still friendly 42 years, very close with, we do golf outings and cruises now, and so, yeah, it's served me well.
School's not about school's about relationships. For
Jay: As is life and business.
Right.
Bruce: absolutely.
Jay: learn a couple new things today if I don't wanna learn anything else on the rest of the day. knowing that Jimmy Stewart and the Christmas Tree Capital of the world are, Indiana, Pennsylvania,
Bruce: buddy was always convinced it was in Ohio because he's like, well, it's Indiana and it's Pennsylvania, so it must be in Ohio somewhere. that was always his
Jay: That's a fair. I mean, I could see that. I could see that. All right.
So
Bruce: we've had NFL guys come out of the school, you know, it's,
Jay: position did you play? What
Bruce: well, I was left out mostly.
Jay: love it. Love it.
Bruce: so I walked on, I was a heavy set, and thick in high school and not thick headed, but just thick. And so I thought I was going to be a fullback. And then I kind of had my growth spurt, if you will, I lost all my baby fat and I wound up coming on and I weighed 165 pounds.
So you're
Jay: Mm,
Bruce: So I was a wide receiver. I was like a six string wide receiver. I was definitely on the left outside of things.
Jay: You walked on and walked off. I
got ya.alright. So, tell me about the journey from that to, I mean, it looks like you've worked, you've had this business forever, right? I mean, 35 years. this is basically your main, kind of,
centerpiece on, you check your social and everything else. I mean, this is you.
This is what you've been doing. So, when, tell me about that,
kind of transition into the business world.
Bruce: So, went to school for computer science, quickly found out my aptitude for that kind of stuff was not there. I transitioned into what was called MIS, Management Information Systems, but I got a minor in finance. So, I started getting interest in finance then. And again, we're talking like early 80s.
I graduated in 85. So, you know, 1981, we're still using card punch. computer operations, eventually getting into the deck riders and then, God, what was it called the Commodore 64 came out and we were jerry rigging with my little black and white TV and a phone modem and, you know, early, early days. And so, you know, what everybody has today in their pocket is just astonishing from what it was.
Anyway, fast forward, get out of school, get a job in the computer space. But I'm interested in the stock market. I'm learning and I'm again, there's no computers to, to speak of per se. So, you know, I'm charting and writing things down. I had a stock broker. He sucked and I was doing better and his ideas were tanking and my ideas were making money and he's talking me out of it.
But I had no idea what a stock broker was. So I'm 23 years of age. I'm getting married and I go out and I start seeking opportunities as a stockbroker and eventually got in with Merrill Lynch and in September of 86. So this year will be my 37th year and I got license in securities, got license in insurance and pretty much, you know, had, have been going, you know, since that window of time, a couple of hiccups along the way, but,you know, parenthood and divorce and remarriage and changing firms and lots of market crashes.
So there's a lot of stories
Jay: Right.
Uh,
Bruce: but that's how I got into it. It was just basically this guy sucked at it. He was with Payne Weber and I'm like, well, I get to a better job than this horse. Like let me, and then once I found out what the job entailed, I was, you know, the pig in mud.
I was just totally eating it up and loving it.
Jay: and did you start your own firm at that point, or
Bruce: no, I was,
Jay: you worked at Merrill Lynch.
Bruce: Merrill Lynch put you through their training program. They were very in an expansive mode in the day, they were literally hiring a class of trainees every month, again, 86, 87, 88, you know, so you had Reaganomics coming in, expansion, Wall Street took off, the stock market took off, it had come out of like a 10 or 15 year doldrum, again, those listening who were, remember the 70s and high inflation and Jimmy Carter and gas lines and shortages like the economy was in the dumps.
Reagan comes in, you know, 8081 and the economy starts picking up and Wall Street gets somewhat explosive in their growth. So my training class was 175 people nationwide and they were hiring that every month. So that's over 2000 financial advisors they were bringing in. We were called account executives back then a year later, Jay 10%.
10 percent of my class was left. So that's why they hire so much because it's who's going to stick and most don't make it. And the big reason why is the phone weighs a thousand pounds and we were just cold calling. I mean, that was the day. You just literally got a phone book and you cold called out of a phone book.
Jay: Wow. so when did, Weinstein Wealth Insurance Solutions or whatever iteration, when did you
start your first business after you kind of cut your teeth doing the Merrill Lynch stuff?
Bruce: So through an evolution of years, 2016, 30 years in, I sold my practice from the financial advisory side, and there's some backstory there that, I will say it was not necessarily by choice. got a run in Wall Street kind of gobbled you up. as they say, you can't fight City Hall. It's true. You're just your bank is not big bank accounts, not big enough to take them on.
So I had some issues there, in 2000, let's see, it's two and a half years. So I forget the math rate. I think it was. November, December of 2020 midst of covid. My wife and I decided we're going to just start our own insurance based agency. So we don't really manage money like I used to. I built 100 million book of business as a perennial million dollar producer, which basically means I'm in the top, you know, 1 percent or so of financial advisors had a big book of business.
and in 2016, that was all gone. I had to sell and get out. yeah. So a couple years trying to figure out what to do next. I'm in my early 50s, moving, had moved to Florida and had to figure out a way to reinvent myself. And so we got into the insurance world, which I'd been doing, did a lot of long term care, did a lot of estate planning, life insurance work, term insurance for young families.
So, you know, I'm versed in both ends. I passed the CFP exam in 2011. So that takes extensive training and work. so yeah. You know, I always kind of led with planning. That's where the plan man kind of came from is everything is needs based application. So one of my taglines is I have nothing to sell, just problems to solve.
Like you tell me what your problems are and we'll figure it out. And when I was securities licensed, well, I pretty much had both. Suitcases of stuff to give you now. Now I partner with the investment people and I'll implement the insurance side and we'll do the planning with them together. So we're 2. 5 years in our we do everything and I'll break it down.
But our main concentration, if you go by You know, where most of our business falls, health insurance, life insurance, Medicare. We do annuities, long term care, disability. We do group health insurance plans. And then I'm duly licensed, which means I also do auto, home, and commercial. That's a property and casualty license.
So, again, here's another tagline. If it has an I, I'm your guy, anything insurance related. So, we pretty much help everybody. And it's all consultative because it doesn't cost you to work with us. So you sit down with a financial advisor, an attorney, a CPA, they're going to look to charge, right? Their time is how they bill.
If you're enrolling in Medicare, Medicare pays us. You're enrolling in, health insurance, Obamacare per se, they pay us. So insurance is compensated through the insurance carriers. It's built into the model. So there's no price manipulation. Like you can go to three car dealerships, look at the same car, get three different prices, right?
There's no uniformity. And then you've got to negotiate and you got a knot in your stomach and you hate the whole experience, right? But people feel the same way when it comes to insurance, but they don't realize like. The price is the price. So your health is going to set it. Your driving records going to set it.
And so it's just a matter of helping them understand it, interpret it, make sure that they're properly covered for the risks. And so again, like I said, it's needs based. So I'm not selling, I'm solving. So tell me what's going on in your world. I think you mentioned you were married. So, you know, what are the exposures you need in your life?
Long term, short term, intermediate term. Right. If you have kids or you're planning a family, well, what does that mean? What do I have to prepare for? and so that those are the conversations. So that's, it's all consultative. I use, I'm sorry, I keep going, but I use something called the SWOT, right?
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
Yep.you'll hear people apply that in their business, and we apply it into your finances, right? What's Jay's SWOT? So, you're going to have strengths, you're going to have some weaknesses, we'll show you the opportunities, and we'll certainly show you the threats, and then it's a matter of, hey, what do you want to do about it?
Jay: I love it. so let's, I want to talk a little bit about, that initial kind of creation of what you were going to reinvent yourself for, how, who will, and you know, obviously you don't need the name names, but who was your first customer? I mean, how did you get that first person into this new business that you guys were doing?
Like, how did you land that, that first customer?
Bruce: So, the reinvention was basically my coming to terms of being, let's just say, left handed. Meaning, I couldn't be ambidextrous anymore because I couldn't do everything I used to do. I could only deal from the one side, which is insurance. So, I avoided that for four years. Like, I was very displaced. you don't know this, but my audience knows, like, I'm down over 60 pounds.
I had gotten very heavy. You know, I can't say I was depressed, but I was lost. And then once I got rekindled in purpose, With what I was doing. Well, you know, the head trash was out of the way and I'm feeling good and working out and just I got a reason to get up every day. I had I can go help Jay and his family, right?
So that was motivating. So what I basically did as a financial advisor to build my business for the majority of the years is I used to do retirement planning seminars. So I was very comfortable speaking and engaging and doing marketing around that. Now here I am in the insurance world. Well, You know, it's 2020 like the world's changed the Internet, Facebook, LinkedIn, all this stuff exists.
It didn't exist years back. What do I need to do to get known recognized inbound activity? I don't want a cold call. You can't really cold call anymore. Everything's with do not call lists and like that's just not a game I want to play anymore. That's why I did my seminars. So I was very big over the years.
I Built, if you will. I found it. I was trying to find the right word. I founded my own networking group in New Jersey, and we would meet twice a month. So kind of out of the B and I let tip Chamber of Commerce, you know, type of, setting leads groups. So I brought people together. We're trusted advisor group.
CPA, CFO, realtors, mortgage brokers, you know, I was the financial guy, so we had different insurance people in the group at the time. I let them in and so we networked and we collaborated and so I created this foundation of a trusted advisor group. Oh, why is that important? Well, any one brokerage firm, a Merrill Lynch has 20, 000 financial advisors.
Guardian, Northwest Mutual, Mass Mutual, you know, name a firm, there's thousands of us.
so what makes you different? What makes you unique? We're all asked those questions. What makes Bruce more unique? Well, the way I kind of built things was I had to be more valuable than just what the stock market did for my client.
Hey, I'm an outside the box thinker and always challenged the status quo and gave them different ways to look at things. But I built what I call a golden Rolodex. So, you know, nowadays it's your contacts in your phone, but it was literally a Rolodex in my day, right? You had business cards and you're like, Hey, where's Jay's number?
And I, you know, go look under either J for Jay or A, for, you know, Aigner. And so, you know, it got to find them. So. When a client would call me and say, Hey, I'm looking for a plumber, or I'm going to go buy a new car, or I'm looking to move. Well, I had people.
Jay: Mhm.
Bruce: And so I would say, Well, here, give Jay a call.
He'll help you out.
And so, and I actually talk about this, I do a insurance talking circuit, if you will. and one of my slides or topics is never say no to an opportunity. And. What I mean by that is, if Jay calls me and asks for something, and I say no I can't help you, he's going to go find somebody eventually, and most likely Jay's not going to come to me next time,
because he didn't perceive me being able to help him.
But if I'm able to help him, even if it's something that I'm not directly involved with, compensated, but I'm a conduit, Jay's going to come back to me next time too.
Jay: Mhm.
Bruce: Because you're going to see me as a resource. Hey, Bruce got a lot of contacts. Oh, Bruce's plumber was great. Bruce's handyman, Bruce's car guy, whatever, you know?
So a lot of those people were my clients. So it helped business within the business, right? Why not keep it in the family? But. It made me more valuable. You know, this is that lesson to your listener is you want to be more valuable than your competition. And so having resources and connections to bring in now, certainly you have to trust somebody like you and I are just meeting.
You don't necessarily trust me yet. You might like me, but I've got to earn your trust. And then I got to earn your referability. and vice versa. So the group by being together regularly developed that higher level of intimacy than some strange, you know, a stranger that you might just pick up the phone book.
Right? So think in your life of every time you needed a painter, you want to get your car detailed. Like you're usually asking people, Hey,who cleans your car? Right? Or you see your neighbor getting his car detailed and you walk over to the guy and you're like, Hey, give me your card. Right? So you've already assumed the person's good and trustworthy and reasonable because your neighbor's using them and you might ask your neighbor, Hey, how do you like this guy?
How long are you using them? You know, he might say, Oh, you know, it's my first time. I'll let you know. Or he might say, Oh, this guy's been doing me for years. Right?
Jay: Mm hmm.
Bruce: well, then you're going to do business with that guy if that's what you need. So we all kind of come from that level of, you know, security in a referral base.
So I built a referral based network. Right? And I labeled it Trusted Advisors Group, and then when I relaunched the business, the wrap around to your question is when I came to Florida, my New Jersey group somewhat disbanded. I built a group in Florida, so I started a whole new networking group in Florida.
Then with the Internet, not the Internet, with, Zoom and the world, you know, and COVID, I was able to take my Florida based group. Reconnected with some of my New Jersey people, and so now we meet via Zoom and I've got people in Oklahoma and Texas and Tennessee and so, you know, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
So, you know, now you can collaborate on an even larger scale because of the zooms, you know, that are out there. and then so again, it's just redirecting. So, you know, two and a half years into this, I got back to my old techniques. Networking, social media, and just promoting what was first Weinstein Wealth, Insurance Solutions, and, you know, just letting people know here we are, what we're doing.
Having been out of the business for four years, people were like, oh, good to see you back. What are you doing? But none of my old clients are really clients. I think I have one or two that really fit what we're doing or needed what we're doing because I had pretty much taken care of them.
You know, a lot of those clients are long retired now, so it's really been getting new clients, new relationships, we strategic partner with other insurance agents.
That's part of our business model. So let's say you were an auto and home agent, right? P and C,
Jay: Mm hmm.
Bruce: you're not necessarily familiar or versed with life or health or medicare and dollars to donuts. Your clients are asking like they need it. You got business clients. They might need a group health plan.
You're not verse well, you can a get licensed B. You could hire people or C. You could partner with people like me that do it. And then I'll revenue share with you back. we give a third. So if you think of the profitability in the state farm or farmers type of model, they want them to expand and hire staff.
Well, a net profit after expenses and salaries and commissions, they're lucky to make 2025 percent net on an employee. So instead of dealing with that, well, Hey, 36 years. He knows what he's doing. Your clients are going to give you great feedback. And so we'll pay you as if you, we were on your staff. So that's part of our model too, and we get a lot of inbound referrals from agents, not just clients.
Jay: Right. So, networking, business groups, strategic partnerships, all. And I think... you know, I think you would need to have lived through a lot of that stuff, like you have to go to, to take that route, right? Like a lot of people would try to do that. If you were to go to somebody, say, start a business in their twenties and you say, you need to start with strategic partnerships, a networking group, and like a community, like people are like, what the hell are you talking about?
Like, that's the dumbest study ever. I'm gonna go like bang on doors or call people or whatever. So I think, you know, your experience over the years kind of sounds like led to. The way that you relaunched your business and your career, right? Like you learned that those are the ways
to get business.
Um,
Bruce: look, it's not to be disrespectful in its nature, but you know, when you're young and dumb, you pretty much are going to do anything. you don't have the scars and the damage. So, you know, back when they were hiring at Merrill, we were all young guns. We were all early 20s. Ex military was very big.
Why? Because they give you marching orders and just tell you what to do, and they don't really want you thinking. Well, after four years of cold calling 100 times a day, 200 times a day, it gets old. So, I created a way to market and brand In a different level on a higher scale level. Now there's an investment and risk tied to it as I had to pay for the seminars.
But eventually what it did and anybody listening in the business world, you got to know your 80 20 rules, right? The parade of rule is 80 20 80 percent of your business going to come from 20 percent of your clients. Okay? So if you want to grow your business faster, you want to replicate your top 20 20.
percent of your clients. What is that profile? What is that avatar? That's the word of the day. So for me, what I looked at when I broke down where my client revenue was coming from, who had, you know, dollars that were sizable enough to invest and who I could help the most at that point in time was a 58 to 62 year old.
So that was my client avatar. And so when I did my retirement planning seminars, I wasn't inviting 30 and 40 year olds. I was targeting, and you can get this with mailing lists, 58 to 62. Based on zip code, household income, around a restaurant that I was hosting it at.
Jay: hmm.
Bruce: And target market that age group and then, you know, by process of elimination, you'll get so many seats, you know, filled and then based on how well you do with the presentation, I always had good success getting people in the office because the message resonated and the message was my seminars were called your right to financial dignity and then the whole conversation was getting you to the finish line.
And then beyond because you have an insecure feeling when it comes to retirement. Do I have enough money? I'm making pretty much an irrevocable decision to leave my employment, whatever that is, if it's your own business or you're, you know, most people, and what I was dealing with were not entrepreneurs as much as executives.
In big companies, AT& T, Merck, IBM, you know, they were all central Jersey was a real big hub for commercial business, right? So all the pharmaceutical companies were there, oil refineries, ExxonMobil. So you had a lot of executives and they're now 55, 58, 62, like. Hey, I'm being offered a package or can I take an early retirement or should I go to 65?
How does my pension work? When do I take my 401k? What happens to my health insurance? So there's a million questions. And so the plan man back then was, well, let me show you Jay, how to get to the finish line. This is what you need. Again, it's conversation, right? What do you want? We have to think we have an acronym called Woody Woofie.
What do you want for yourself? so what's your Woody Woofie? You got all kinds of stuff on the board. behind you, right? So you got a vision board, you got ideas, you have things you want to do. Tell me what retirement looks like, right? I always say to clients, what are you retiring to? Because if you're just looking to get out and you have no purpose on the other end, you're going to shrivel up.
You're going to be bored, right? So you kind of have that conversation. And then guess what? Most couples haven't even had that conversation yet.
Jay: Mm
hmm. what are those male, what, how do you get people? To a restaurant or to a seminar to talk about insurance. Like what was your mailing, like, what was your hook to get people that you're sending them in the mail?
What was your message to get people to come to a restaurant? I mean, not, you know,
not to insult the industry, but
like, can't imagine, you know, an insurance seminar conversation is just like something that somebody is super excited to hear about or know about just because, you know, like you said,it's unknown it's, but what was your hook to get people to go to these things?
Bruce: So there was a method to the madness. And again, this is in the nineties. So I was an early adopter to this strategy. Now it's prevalent all over the place. You'll see Facebook ads for it. So usually you picked a decent restaurant in the area. My later years was Ruth Chris. So I'm inviting you and your wife to a Ruth Chris dinner.
So right off the bat, that's going to get people's attention.
Okay.And then it's a numbers game. And then there's some psychology in the presentation of the mailer, which I always did a wedding style invitation. So it looks like you're getting invited to something and it says you're invited to, and then, you know, it's being hosted by now again, it wasn't insurance themed.
It was financial planning themed and, you know, investments with insurance. So, you know, it wasn't leading with insurance, but, you know, you hit some bullet points in the invitation. We're going to talk about this and this. And, you know, are you concerned about, you know, your retirement running out of assets, knowing when to retire?
So, you know, hitting people's pain points of conversation, and we're going to be talking about X, Y, and Z. And You know, you send out 10, 000 pieces, and you got a 1 2 percent response. I mean, that's what direct mail is. So, you send out a big casting net, and then I would get 100 200 people to attend.
And I would do it over a couple of nights, sometimes I would do three restaurants geographically, you know, within 20 minutes of each other, and then I would circle around their communities, you know, and do a big mailing, and then you had a choice, depending on where you lived, you could go to any one of the three restaurants.
Jay: And what would you, what would your hit rate be, your success rate for, you know, new clients from those
100 to 200?
Bruce: So I was an anomaly. I was over 75 percent conversion,
which was it again. It, the norm is under 50 percent meaning you're going to get a hundred people to attend. Now cut it in half cause I had, it had to be couples.
if a hundred people are attending, it's 50 couples.
I would get somewhere between 75 and 90%.
I mean, it's never perfect. I label it plate liquors. You're always going to get your plate liquor.
Jay: hmm.
Bruce: Okay. So I kept a database back in the nineties. And so Jay, if I saw your name come up and you'd been on the list already, you were there in November. Now I'm doing it again in, in May. Hey, Jay, you know, you've already attended.
So the invitation said first time attendees only presentations geared towards couples. So, you know, I had ways to protect myself to just constantly feed people three, four times.
and I'll add this in is. Either I or my assistant, if we had somebody who'd been replicated, right, you're trying to come back, we'd call up and say, Jay, you attended last November.
We thank you so much. We just want to make you aware it's the same exact presentation you saw last time. Nothing's really changed. And if you recall, the invitation says first time attendees only. However, Mr. Weinstein's instructed me he'd love to take you and your wife out to dinner at Ruth Chris privately to talk more about.
How he can help you in your situation.
So, you know, this is my counter action to the plate liquor
because you didn't basically you came the first time you didn't ask for a consultation. We never engaged beyond you taking my dinner and leaving and that's fine. It's a cost of doing business. Well, now you're trying to come back.
So A. I'm not letting you back. B. If you're really interested, then we'll meet privately and I'll take you out to dinner again. Okay? 20 plus, 25 years of doing it, Jay. Ask me how many people took me out, took me up on that free second dinner.
Jay: Uh, none.
Bruce: Exactly none. A big bagel. None. Not one. Because it's a place, so it was a way to chase away the plate liquor.
And be professional, right? Mr. Weinstein would love to take you out. so you know, a hundred, fifty couples I would probably get. 40 consults, you know, 75, 80 percent consults, out of that. And then 2 out of 3, realistically, if not higher, would convert and do business. Because once they're coming in, based on how I set it up, based on my conversation points, again, I'm talking about pain, I'm addressing threats to them, you know, I'm showing them what they're SWOT earlier.
So, the seminar is geared towards the SWOT. Right? These are your threats. This is what you're up against. You're 58. You're going to live 30 more years. This is what you need to be thinking about. And I'm going to help you navigate that journey if you want my help.
Well, shoot, I had no idea I needed to deal with all of that, right?
So yeah, I better sit with this guy. and then we would do the planning work. So it always led with planning, number crunching, projections. And then it would back into recommendations because the plan shows you what you need to do.
Jay: mm hmm.
Bruce: Makes sense.
Jay: I yeah, no, I love I feel like we could talk about this forever I have lots of questions and but let's pivot real quick. I'm interested. I've got three things. So three healthy things I mean you're you know, you said you're 60 you're good
lord. You look great for 60. I'm glad you lost 60 pounds and congratulations That's a big deal
What are three things that you as a? And, you know, a guy who all too well knows about longevity and, you know, health and staying tuned up over the years, what are three things you're doing to stay kind of tip top shape, you know, for longevity of your life?
Bruce: Well, I got serious about my health two years ago. I spoke at my first event getting back into the industry, on my birthday in 2001. I was 58. And my wife took the picture and I saw how fat I was. And I was horrified that's what I actually looked like because you're on camera. You see your face.
You've morphed into it. You don't necessarily see your rear end. You don't see your profile
you're just staring at your head. And I had this big, fat, chunky face. And then I saw. My big fat body. So I came home from that event and I was basically like, that's it. I got to get serious. So, you know, dieting.
I went on a food program. I could drop the name if you want it. it's become pretty popular. It's called Optivia or Octavia. So I did that. Amazing results. Absolutely loved it. But again, you got to be committed.
it's bars and shakes and lean and green eating. So, you know, you're giving up the pizza, you're giving up the carbs, you're giving up the alcohol.
Like you're really staying regimented to that program. I lost 40 pounds in two months, three months. I lost 20 pounds in the first month. I lost 10 pounds the first week, 40 pounds in three months. And then I started to just kind of mix in some cheat days. And by my 59th birthday, I lost 59 pounds. So, and that was with cheat meals.
Okay. So your results obviously will vary. I didn't want to keep eating the bars and shakes as much as getting back to more normal food. And then, you know, when you lose 60 pounds, your body's a little bit deflated and saggy. Right. So I lost some muscle tone. I was, you can't really, I couldn't, some people might be able to, I couldn't exercise on the program.
Because it's a fairly low calorie intake. So the days that I exercised or you know, I would go for a power walk or something, I was starving. So it was counter, it was counterintuitive. 'cause then I was eating, so I said I wanna get back in. I started working with a nutritionist. I started working with a professional bodybuilder who gave me a fitness program.
And so for the last year I've been exercising, eating right, still mixing in my cheat days. my birthday's in literally four weeks in change and. My target is to have lost 70 pounds in that two year span that the, this last 10 pounds,
will be through muscle development formation and exercise. So, you know, but it, the hardest part is between the ears.
I mean, everybody will tell you that it's just, it's what's in between your ears at your own head trash. And
Jay: Mm hmm. 100%. Mm hmm. Mm
Bruce: I follow a business coach named Michael Burt and he's got a new book out called flip the switch
and it has to do with activating your prey drive. And that we all have that animal instinct of prey drive.
And I heard him speak at an event a couple years ago, and I just gravitated to this message. Because that's how I've lived since I was a young adult, even a kid, with this prey drive without having a label to it. Because the hunger and the thirst to just work and chase and make more, like never being satisfied.
and the disconnect and the lesson in it is, You get it, you get what you're chasing, and now you're somewhat dissatisfied that you're on to the next chase, and that's the animal's prey drive.
the wild dog, the wolf out there, the lion, it's not about just the catch and the kill. As soon as they do it, they're looking for the next one.
That's animal instinct, and we have it. If you're in sales, you're not satisfied. For very long. Once you close that deal because you're on to the next deal, a car guy's got to sell 30, 40 cars a month. He's not stopping at one, right? So I'm not stopping at one client and health insurance. I need hundreds. So you're constantly on that grind.
And so it was amazing to come across this guy with the prey drive. And then the tie in back to the health was, well, that's how I get introduced to the concept of Body mind, you know, spirit and so, you know, getting your head right and then realizing, acknowledging the prey drive. I was getting purpose again, having the new business, right?
I had a reason to wake up every day and then it just morphed over to the health side because it just goes hand in hand.
Jay: I like that. I'm going to look up that book. If you had to start, Weinstein Wealth Insurance Solutions, over again tomorrow,
Bruce: Yeah.
Jay: what would be step one?
Bruce: Step one. Again, this is teachings. I would say from Coach Burt again is. Become a person of interest. Why are you and I doing podcasts? We're trying to get popularity, exposure, being known.
Jay: Mm hmm.
Bruce: My phone's gonna ring, your phone's gonna ring. We're gonna get likes and shares. We're gonna see our views go up, right?
We're hoping people are gonna share, comment. So, this is a person of interest. It's another one of his books. It was the first book I read of his. And so, that's pretty much When hand in hand with what we've done in the two and a half years is using social media, either paid or free. You could certainly do tons of it for free and going on LinkedIn, going on Twitter, going on Tik Tok, going on Instagram and message brand and just give content and most importantly, lead with value.
So again, I have nothing to sell. I have problems to solve. So I'll put things out there to make people think about their vulnerabilities. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? What would you do here? What would you do there? Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Right. I have a campaign called you probably know,
Jay: hmm.
Bruce: which is like reverse psychology.
Cause we're all like, when you walk in the store, Right? You go into Macy's. You still have Macy's in Philly?
Jay: I don't think they're all I think they're all
Bruce: I don't know.
Kmart's are close, but you walk through the, you walk through the department store. You're going to walk through the perfume department almost every time.
Right? And here they come at you.
Would you like to sample this? You know, they're spraying and spritzing. Right? So we all have that. It's been labeled crocodile brain is we all put up the defense of no. Right. We get defensive. And so I learned through training, the reverse psychology is pattern interrupt is put things in a different way.
People have to stop and think because their instinct is to always go to alligator. Brain is no like it's defensive.
when you walk around the car dealership and the guy comes out, you say, no, I'm just looking. Right? Like we were used to saying, I'm just looking so can I help you with the health insurance?
No, I'm just looking. Well, no, you're, you are looking for health insurance. Like, what are you afraid of? Right? So my pattern interrupt is as an example, J, you probably know how Obamacare works. J, you probably know when the best time to take social security is J. You probably know how to enroll in Medicare.
So it's a reverse questioning because you're going to sit there going, no, I don't know.
Jay: hmm.
Bruce: Right? When you answer the phone and somebody says, You know, is Jay there? No. Right. You don't know who it is. You're gonna say no. Or here's a good one. Did I catch you at a bad time? No. Right. Hey, did I catch you at a good time?
Right. Click. Did I catch you at a good time? Nobody's saying yes. They're saying no. Jay, did I catch you at a bad time? No. You're used to saying no. So no, you didn't catch me. So you're using some of those tonalities and questioning to make people stop and think and it's a different approach. And again, it's a separator.
In, you know, you versus your competition. Let's say, you know, as you're building your business. you know, it's the same thing. I'll go on a slight tangent is how many people say no problem. You're ordering something at the restaurant. Hey, can I get a side of, you know, fries? Sure. No problem. Right. Or thank you.
No problem. Well, it's a negative connotation. You're throwing a no in versus my pleasure or you're welcome. Right. Thank you. You're welcome. The no problem is like, Well, was it a problem? Did you think it was a problem? Like I asked for more soda. Yeah, sure. No problem. Why is it being posed as a problem? So again, it's just psychology here.
So I love and pay attention to the, my pleasure. You know, you're welcome. Like, I mean, you're welcome. Just got lost. Like nobody says it anymore. It's like, no problem. Right? So, you know, things of that in, in your business acumen, I'll give you one more. And I shared this at an event that I was at. Lose the word honestly in your conversation.
Don't say truthfully, don't say honestly. You could say candid and frank. You're always truthful, you're always honest. Don't say it as a point to drive a point.
Hey Jay, let me be honest with you. No, why don't you keep lying to me instead, right? So, Jay, let me be frank. Right. I'm always honest. I'm always truthful.
Let me be frank. I'm going to be blunt.
Jay: right.
I would say, well, then I would say, well, you're Bruce, not Frank. I'm a dad, I have to say, so, you know, I would
have to keep that. No, but I like that. I like that. So, all right, let's do one more, call it the mystery question. it's not a mystery. It's on every single episode, but somebody will eventually know the answer to this question. Non business related. What is something you would do if you knew you couldn't fail?
Bruce: Oh man. So stand up comedy.
Jay: Ah, I've got it twice this week. You've got a lot of st so why, I mean do you, are you afraid that you would just bomb and like that's your, that's why you would not go do it today?
Bruce: So, I've assessed this, the situation,
Jay: Heh.
Bruce: this, the part of the answer, not I'm trying not to make excuse or rationalize, but part of it is I hate being scripted. Comedians have a routine and a bit and it's scripted and you will literally could come to 15 of my seminars and the context will be the same because I work off of an outline, but the conversation is different every time
I have one of the worst things I hate doing.
Is giving my 60 second commercial my elevator pitch
because I'm just I don't like being scripted I don't like saying the same thing. So I'm always more pertinent to the moment to where I'm at I'll pick off of what somebody else might have said so I always keep it lively So my comedic style would be very Robin Williams esque
an improv Versus just standing up there telling jokes, but after 9 11, so I'll give you my stand up comedy Cause I mean, you don't know me well enough, but I'm very comical.
I'm very funny. I'm very good in the spontaneous responses back and forth. And people have said like, dude, you should do standup. Like you're hysterical. I'm a good storyteller. I know where you know, the pauses and the tonalities and all that. So whatever, I'm not a trained comic, but. I've certainly learned and watched all the greats, right?
Going back as a kid with Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor and the like. So anyway, 9 11 happens and everything is turned on its head. And somewhere in there, I get an email for a comedy workshop, literally six weeks after 9 11,
it's like in October and it's out in Palm desert. And it's a woman, her name is Judy Carter, and supposedly she holds these workshops, and I'm like, F it. Like, after 9 11, like, dude, I could be dead tomorrow, like, this is something I've been told I should go do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to the workshop.
My wife would not fly. I went with a childhood friend of mine, and... She flew. Her name is Beth. So we flew out to Vegas. We spent a couple of days. We saw you two in Vegas and then we drove to Palm Desert and I went to this workshop. Well, they want to know what day I want to do my routine. I'm like, well, I don't have a routine.
They're like, well, you get two minutes. So yeah, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you get two minutes and there's judges and there's people from the comedy stores. Like they're looking for talent. So there are really highly skilled comics there and then there's me and the first night We're going in and everybody's doing their bits and you're in the audience And then we're out drinking afterwards and hanging out and I'm picking people's brains and like what do you mean?
You're not doing it like dude You came 3, 000 miles like you got to do something like you're gonna fly home going. Why didn't I do it? I'm like But I have no bit. That's where we're going with this. Jay's like, I have no bit. I have, I'm not a com, a comedian. Like, I came to learn what to do if I wanted to actually go do it.
That's what a workshop was. No, it was, this was basically showcasing comedians. So, I'm totally out of my element. So, I go to bed that night and I'm talking with Billy Bingo. I remember Billy Bingo and a couple other people's names and they're like, dude, you gotta do it. So, I go to bed and I'm tossing and turning and I'm thinking a couple ideas.
And I'm like, all right, I'll do it. So I went and told them Saturday morning and like, all right, you know, you'll go on Saturday night and I get there and they, you know, they kind of say, okay, you know, you're going to go after J over here at, you know, at eight 30. And I'm like, oh my God, that's like, like 20 minutes.
Like, I don't even know what I'm going to do. All right. So, so here's the punchline. So there were two guys the night before this guy, Trevor from Michigan, who was like six, six lumberjack looking dude.
Jay: hmm.
Bruce: And then there was a guy named Rodney who was a bus driver from the Bronx and Rodney was six feet tall and Rodney was six feet wide.
All right. So two massive human beings. Right? And I'm, you know, I'm a Jewish 5'11 my hair is slicked back, the Sopranos are the hottest show on TV, it's 2001, and I'm wearing like a shark skin shirt, all shiny, I look like I'm a mobster, like I totally look, you know, I don't have any facial hair, and I'm not wearing glasses at the time, but, you know, I'm looking very Soprano esque.
It's just, you know, the attire of the day. So, I grab these two guys and I say, Will you come with me? And then, I'm gonna call you out and just stand behind me and look tough. Look mean. So, I'm just formulating. All on the fly, Jay. All on the fly. Right? I have no idea. So, I come out on stage. I get introduced.
Right? I'm petrified. And I'm like, how you doing? So I start talking with like a soprano, you know, how you doing? You know, I'm from New Jersey. What's going on? Now, you know, how's it going? And I'm like, so, you know, I'm, it's my first time on stage. I'm the comedy virgin. And so for what I'm understanding, I'm supposed to tell some jokes and use people supposed to laugh.
Well, just to make sure there's no misunderstandings, meaning you're not going to laugh. I brought a couple of fellows along to make sure, you know, we take care of business here. Fellas, come on out. And these two massive human beings come out behind me like my bodyguards
and they're cracking their necks and they're squeezing their knuckles and they're, you know, and they're looking tough, right?
So totally like a mob guy with his muscle,
you better laugh at his jokes, right?
Place went hysterical. It was everybody told me the best laugh of the weekend, but I had no jokes. I had nothing like that was it. That was my bit. So I stumbled and bumbled on a couple of jokes, but the audience was laughing so hard at the two guys behind me.
Jay: Mm hmm.
Bruce: I just kind of went, good night. Thank you very much.
But that was it. That was, it was a bit. It wasn't jokes. So I put my head on the pillow that night and I had the biggest smile on my face and I'm like, I did it. And then I'm like, I don't think I ever want to do it again.
Jay: Yeah. Yeah, that's it. That's it.
Bruce: I peaked, like, I peaked, but I did what I wanted.
And so that question clearly resonates to me. If you couldn't fail, because there's certainly the fear of failure in that,
that, yeah, I'd love to be that unafraid to go out. And do what Chris Rock does and Eddie Murphy does and all
Jay: Mm hmm.
Bruce: do because again, I, you know, I could be funny, but I'm not scripted prepared like that.
That's been the downfall is to really be able to hone it. And I'm really good at what I do here. So I just bring the comedic flair
Jay: Right. You gotta, yeah.you get to use it
every day. Well,
I love that answer. all right, well, if people are trying to find you, how do they find Bruce? How do they find, I mean, I guess I could see how I find the plan man back there, with the, you're not shy about the advertising
Bruce: No, we're
Jay: get
Bruce: branded. So I'd love. Two ways, best ways, planman. tv will take you to our YouTube channel. You can see all our episodes. Ask the Planman's podcast is financial literacy. No products are ever discussed. No advertisements are on the show. It's all about self help. So we break down different topics of financial and insurance related areas.
We've got estate planning. conversations, special needs trust conversations, buying or selling, sorry, buying or financing a car versus leasing, how your credit scores are impacted. We talk about life insurance, long term care, disability, auto and home. So there's episodes for everybody and it's very self help designed.
And then certainly we're here to help or go find somebody in your local markets. We're licensed in half the country. And very easily can, and very easily can add somebody else's state if we're not currently licensed. It's within 24 hours you can be licensed. So, love for people to come check out the show, and hit us up in any way.
You can go to asktheplanman. com, planman. tv, and then our insurance business itself. And there's tons of information there as well. A lot of FAQs, small videos and clips, you know, tied in with the Plan Man. And that's WeinsteinWealth. com. And then we have toll free numbers and everything else.
So, yeah. Thank you so
Jay: 8, 4, 4, 4 week cover. I like that
Bruce: Four week cover or 844 plan man.
Sowe have both 800 numbers under the 844. So 844 plan man.
Jay: Well, plan man. you were fantastic. I appreciate you coming on. I think there's a lot of, Like I said, I could've, we could've dug into the, marketing side of things for probably a couple hours. Maybe we'll have you back on sometime. This was a lot
of fun,I love your personality, man, and I wish you the best of luck and have a good rest of your week.
I will talk to you, Bruce.
Bruce: Thank you, Jay, for having me.
Jay: Thanks, man. See you, bud.