see that's like going to war you know when you're getting that foxhole in a war that's where you buy that's where you're born right but I loved it I loved every moment of what I talked about I want to be somebody so bad it just ate me up inside I see that in you thank you goodbye like me folks how do you do it how did you do how did you dadgum do it talking a ragtag army didn't have a putt appears it's been said that every journey starts with a single step some journeys however just seem impossible in 1977 the life insurance industry looked like a mountain that was impossible to climb the 100 year old life insurance industry was the largest in the world the behemoth held 60 percent of America's assets held incredible political influence controlled every regulator the media and had a network of 250,000 agents across the entire country 90% of all life insurance and force was cash value one of the worst financial products ever sold to the American public simply because it paid a higher Commission term insurance which offered more protection for families at a fraction of the cost was only sold to 10% of the public how could anyone change 100 years of history influence and market domination they can measure the heart of a man or woman in February of 1977 85 men and women from every walk of life took that first step on a journey that would completely change the face of the largest industry in American business 100 years of history would be rewritten in only 13 years an army of coaches policemen teachers and nurses mostly part-time were on a crusade to do a better job for American families and to change the financial destiny of their families forever folks if you can see yourself winning again if you want to be somebody if you want to control your own destiny if you want to do something exceptional with your life I'll promise you a Oh Williams and give you a chance to be somebody you're proud of [Music] okay I got this much to go y'all so hanging here tomorrow tomorrow I'm all didn't get into the five fundamentals of our the way we did business but I want to lay the groundwork I mean I want you understand how we came about this incredible system I wanted to be somebody so bad he just ate me up inside you know what I you know what I mean when I say that I mean I wanted to be something so bad it just it ate me up inside it was how it was unbelievable in 1966 I was a football coach in Columbus Georgia making ten thousand seven hundred dollars a year when you got a wife and two kids a first year in coach I've made four to six hundred dollars you always got a second job and most of the time I was refereeing basketball games after football season I run him down that basketball court for three hours and make $12 and you you know when somebody like me wants to be somebody just eaten up with it you know if I walk down town Atlanta and you see these big office buildings down there and I walked into one of these big famous buildings and I said look I want to be somebody I'm gonna apply for a job and the personnel director said well what job you want to apply for and I said well I want to be what's the top job around this place and if there was a CEO I said give me that application that's what I want to be do you understand a football coach with a PE degree you understand they would they would not eat they wouldn't eat they wouldn't even take the application much less consider it right see and nobody thought I could run a big company nobody thought that I was all that special that I could do anything in credit but you know why I thought I was I thought I was and I want to have a chance to prove it all I wanted was a chance I wanted some company to give me a chance and you know why in December 1966 ITT gave me a chance for $100 they let me get an insurance lie since the securities license it took me three months in March of that year before I could go make my first sale you know why with that little hundred dollars getting that insurance license and securities license that opened up a whole different world to this football coach you understand that I was like a Superman insurance agent Naiya didn't sell life insurance I replaced trash value insurance right high and I'd cut near cost seventy or eighty percent we weren't talking about little bit nickel and dime proud right I'm talking about thousands and tens of thousands of dollars right and I'd give them a savings program put them in a mutual fund with an IRA and at the end of that cycle they'd be worth $300,000 more 500 thousand all more a million dollars bull ride I was like a superstar banker banker screw you almost as bad as insurance companies Ryan I mean you got a credit card and you borrow money on your credit card and you don't pay it off every month they charge you seventeen twenty seven percent right but you go save money with them they pay you one percent or two percent by but it took me a while but I figured out how to screw the bank's Ryan you go you go use their credit card for convenience like right now even got it here but I don't carry a billfold with me I carry little cash Eve's a few bills and a driver's license and a credit card and I charge every even if I buy Diet Coke it a shopping thing when I'm buying gas I make them use my credit card right cuz I'm using the bank's money and I pay it off every month and I don't pay them nothing hey that's something I love I especially Citigroup right I love it all right you know I have a chant I think about how to start brokers were screwing you I turn into counts and all that kind of crap right I figured out how the hedge fund people were screwing you right I took this thing serious and that's why I accumulated two hundred ninety one thousand dollars in two and a half years part time those three months that I was getting my security sliced by insurance license I taught all my teacher friends my coaching friends parents are my players friends of mine and a hundred percent of them if you're a back then if you were in Middle America a hundred percent of them had trashed a life insurance then I had another bolt of lightning hit me ITT sponsored Napoleon Hill at a seminar down town Atlanta before I met you Bobby and I went down there he our he was the author of thinking Grow Rich the most famous business book back then so at that time Napoleon said I spent my entire adult life looking for the secret looking for the one thing the one thing that all these successful people did to be successful I see you get my attention when you say that right he's spending that's what he writes with his entire adult life doing that right I never read that whole book and I think maybe I just got the page 175 or whatever it was I found that formula here it is you got it in that little Brit don't look at it right now okay you look at it later but folks i sat down there and I figured out that thing it took me a week or two or three I figured that baby out those 60 you know you could use these six step to be successful in a lot of other way I used to be financially independent right and I figured out a way hi folks I wanted to create ten million times in this business but I'd had this thing posted on my daily account I had it posted on my mirror in my bathroom and I'd look at this thing and I'd say man in ten years I was gonna be financially independent and I said if I could just hang in there if I could just hang in there you know why you know why everybody I recruited for a number of years I made them feel this thing out of hip and feel this thing out do you have any idea of what it's like for football coach whose parents never had any money he never had any money to see himself Harvin a chance to become financially independent where nobody could put their thumb on him he could tell the world to take a flying leap you know how wonderful you know how unbelievable that is that's the kind of opportunity we gave him in al Williams I wanted to build a company for people like me that weren't so pretty that weren't so smart but they had a hunger and desire to be somebody that was unbelievable I didn't want to build a company when we thought about Al Williams for those Harvard people those yells people those Dress for Success crowd those big IQs those red people those pretty people I wanted to build a company like you build a football team I didn't care where you came from I didn't I didn't I didn't care what your education was we put a uniform on you we put you out there on the field and we'd be chopped but if you were tough enough if you want it bad enough if you were willing to sacrifice pay the prize will give you a chance and all I wanted was a chance with that idea February 10 1977 al Williams was born let me tell you my story it really sounds hokey but it's true my dad died I was a junior at Mississippi State at age 48 of a heart attack he was sold to little of the wrong kind of insurance my mom was like most of the mom in the 50s she didn't have an education so she worked in the home I had two younger brothers at home I saw firsthand what it was like for Mama to have that responsibility dumped on her shoulders she sold antiques she did all kind of jobs you know just to make ends meet we had one of our babies in college and one after college we got married at 18 my first coaching job I was paid 40 $600 a year one of my players daddy's worked with Gulf Life Insurance Company says art I need to come talk to you about your insurance I knew I needed it because my dad had died I left my mother in a mess and I didn't have any he came and showed me ensure install that craft you know and I didn't want I was a football coach I didn't want to know nothing about insurance I didn't want to know that about investments I just wanted somebody I trusted just tell me what I needed here I was calling my dad but dad's one of my football players for heaven sakes and he I said he said how much can you for I said $20 he said well I can give you $15,000 polish I didn't question that I you know I thought he was a good guy five years later I went to a family reunion at my mother's house in Cairo Georgia my counter cousin Ted Harrison came there and he showed me the concept of my term and invents the difference and he says Archer get screwed you know you can get $150,000 worth of insurance the same thing you're paying for 15 that was like lightning striking me to that moment in my life I didn't care about nothing but coaching football I suppose it's hard to believe it sounds hokey but it's the truth three days later it was my mom I lived in Cairo Georgia I was coaching in Columbus Georgia about a three-hour drive we drove back three days later I dropped the angel the kids off at the house I went to the Bradley Laura library and I said I just don't believe my cousin's telling me all there is to know about this crowd and so I go down and I get money's worth and changing time whatever you know a few things and they all said the same thing cash values a ripoff why you've got young kids you know you need a lot of reassurance you know that decreasing responsibility theory right and I said Wow and three weeks later this is true story it sounds hokey I go to a PTA meeting I bet you seven years coaching I never went there but three PTA meetings you know I go to PTA meeting at the break I go meet far as Smith his son didn't play football so I didn't know him we're sitting there talking and I ask him what he does he said I'm the division manager with ITT financial services we sell mutual funds are pretty much an investment company and term insurance I said Wow well why is all this happening to me like this so so I have a couple of conversations with him I was coach of the year that year and and he says all right you know you ought to come full-time because I was passionate I was getting me getting really passionate about this stuff you know and he said man with your reputation you know you could you could billable blah and so I said you got to be kidding me good people don't sell life insurance you understand that people people find out you sell life insurance they cross the street to avoid talking day that right every public opinion poll ever taken what people think good jobs out there on the bottom of the totem pole is funeral home directors used car salesmen and a life insurance agent Ryan I mean I walk down the street people say hi coach how you doing coach great win last night coach how's it gonna do next year coach so after two or three times he said well aren't you off in the summer why don't you get your license and just you know I can consider your full-time back then the part-time concept had not yet been born and so I said that sounds like a good deal and so I signed it up takes me three months to get license three months after I you know pay my hundred dollars I'm going to take my test pass it and I'd picked up my policies Robert Kelly one of my assistant football coaches he had what everybody I talked to had he had a 15000 all the whole life policy I'd go any had $50 a month going to Teachers Credit Union making 2 or 3% I go in there and 45 minutes remember I used to run down that basketball coach for 3 hours and made 12 dollars and nobody had told me this was four months after my cousin told about by turn investor there was three months after I paid my hundred dollars get my license nobody told me about the money I came in here because I was passionate about my term investor difference I hated trash value I hated those Prudential ages I hated what they did to my mama I hated what that player's dad did to buy me and Angela and so I go in there and I do the same thing for him that my cousin talked to me about I was able to take the same money he was paying fifteen thousand hundred thousand therm take the $50 a month he was getting two or three percent off put him in a mutual fund getting ten percent we get through with that my manager who went with me for the first and only time he said all let's go have a cup of coffee and figure out you know let's check you out and all that crap so we go sit down and do all that crap and he says let's see this is for months now after I heard but by turning that's the difference he said or let's figure how much money you made he said art you just made three hundred and twenty-four dollars folks I've made a lot of money in my life I've had a lot of gigantic paychecks I've never had one like that that's the biggest paycheck I ever got in my life it opened up a whole new world for me I believe with everything to see me my passion made me what I was my passion made me what I was I ain't smart enough to be what I was you know I ain't talented enough he was my passion Yves it was my passion it was my passion it's gotta be more than the money the money's got to be second that's what city didn't understand coach Lombardi understood it coach Lombardi said you capture person's heart you capture the person they are we have captured my heart think about this folks think about this what are the odds of 85 people in one city one state versus 250,000 people every city every town every state becoming number one destroying trash failure life insurance just think about this how could that happen how could that happen because we were able to create a continent in a battalion you simplify let me just talk about simplifying there's three things during it no limits I want it Bobby Busan and all these original guys to look at every person in a oh Williams it's an RVP we talked about that that's where you get to own your own business if you come full to you know the biggest surprise I had in my own recruiting career is when I came to work at ITT I was gonna come see if I could hire part-time people aging hi part-time people that's I sold him on the idea of hiring part-time sales force right and I found out that 90% of the people hated a full-time job I didn't hate my full-time job I loved my full-time job that blew me away right and so all of a sudden I had to change plans right and we had to create an incredible full time opportunity and so we created an opportunity with no limits where you could come to work with us part-time but if you wanted to you could come full-time you could have become an RVP you could own your own business you could go anywhere you want to there was no lack any limit on income there was no limit on promotion with no living on old territory ain't that something ain't that something you know why y'all don't do that then that ain't good nothing you've got no limits then you've got to understand how to simplify make it simple right and transferable right right as you start this incredible Grove like Bobbie had you know you got people all over 50 states for 45 states whatever is you've got to be able to talk in a common language right you can't be out there like this guy got his own guidelines this guy's got his own guidelines this guy's got all the way to be reelect I can't understand that right and then you got to understand how to multiply you know if you've got the greatest opportunity in the world with no limits and you can simplify and transferred but you ain't got nobody to transfer it to you ain't never gonna get big right you you got to have no limits you've got to be able to simplify transfer something and then you've got to understand how to make the multiples work for you ain't that right I'm not gonna read this cuz I'm getting a sore throat okay this is Prudential I wouldn't take a million dollars for this this is Prudential rate book right here and this is al Williams flavor right here one page do you know you know not only is trash value to allows this investment product ever created by the minds of the human scum-sucking ball right right but you know what slower than the person that created that product the person that would old term insurance and sell that to somebody right I derive you know what 90% of those Joker's old term insurance and soul that crowd right ain't that something ain't that something see we figured all this right we we figured out how to simplify and transfer things right I showed you my presentation a while ago right all right look at this baby all right then we have to get a simple kind of way to do business right now I know y'all don't do multiples and y'all none interested in promoting our VP's I mean I watch some of you okay and but this is what this is what we did right we would recruit for in five pointers 90% we want say Yoda I don't want this to sound ugly you know but I bet you know I had some people I love in here that asked me to tell it to you like it is you know so I mean you know you can hate me I guarantee that some people at Prime America in here and especially somewhere down the road go hate me for saying some of this day and I don't want them to I don't mean it that way you understand that but you would have no respect for me if I didn't tell you Gus how it was right I mean you might not agree with it and you might you might not like me for it right but I don't care I want you to respect me right you got to have recruiting standards we had recruiting standards they oh Williams we've recruited four and five pointers 90% the recruit sets up the appointment he knows something you're my biggest fear in coming full time was how do you get appointments how do you go I wasn't go I never cold-calling my life and then knocked on a stranger's door I never went a stranger's house right I'd rather dig ditches and do that so the recruit sets up the point with this best friend Ryan and the recruit goes with you ain't that something ain't that something and there's no pressure no cell on the first I know you're gonna think I'm beating us today oh I'm over but that stupid folks are selling the first interview and I know I got some good friends in Primerica today that's oh you know what we're in the minority market they ain't got insurance out there and it'd be awful if they died in the next two days before we got this thing issued you know so I'm gonna screw them and sell them something with pressure and I got rye its obtained folks you don't sale on the first interview you're in there to build a relationship because you're trying to get eventually a recruit and a Sales Leader in a district leader in a division leader and an RVP and and NSD right and if you go in there and slam bam thank you ma'am kind of high-pressure all that kind of crap right and then you repeat you repeat your repeat now you know how long it takes somebody just to figure that to understand that to transfer it I wrote common-sense this is the best thing ever written it's the only thing I ever had inspiration in my life I used to keep a scratch pad when I was coaching by my bed at night and if I thought of something into play or a defense or something like that if I didn't write it down I'd forget it the next day right I've been looking where's my book hey we use this book Bobby your mother Scott Reynolds wrote this book who can read who could understand this crown I mean look at that little old bitty print you know that's what we use about a year too and all of a sudden I had an inspiration one night I said wow people ain't gonna read this but they'll read a magazine you go sit in a dentist's chair or getting your toenails fixed or something you know they got a People magazine you'll pick that up right and I said you know what somebody needs to write a book it's like a magazine it needs to have some color it need to have some big old type and it needs to have some pictures in it and some grass right needs to be printed in seventh grade language you know what and common sense was born and best I remember I took it back to the war room the next day and Bob you song was one of five people that said it ain't no good and all it did all it did was sell 16 million copies so 500,000 copies a month you want that you don't know something else al Williams had the largest pretty country in the southeast I went over there one day it blew me away blew me away it was like the New York Times printing press a whole big old thing out there with machines running all that crap you need you know how much 500,000 copies of this room it takes up about a gym the nastier they got and they were nasty folks we were in a war I mean it was it was unbelievable the harder we fought you know the thing I remember most I think about the early days one of the things I think the most about the early days is how our people those 85 people they recruited they recruited they had standards they had standards you know if I had to have one word one cook couple three words to describe who we were in and how we did business we were a warm market company we were a warm market company I mean that sort of says it all right we didn't believe in cold calling we didn't believe one knock on stranger's doors handing out leaflets going to a carnival you know and handing suckers and balloons out to the family to get names and crap like that right we had standards and we recruited four and five corners now that's married got kids on a home got a job 25 to 55 now the company didn't have a rule to get four and five pointers we just figured out these were our friends these were people that were leaders and influential people in a community and they had friends and it was a way if you did a good job for them that that you could recruit them and then take you to their friends and you could stay in a Walmart right it just was common sense it wasn't any kind of really brilliant bill we had to overcome in those early days slow pay took us two or three months to get a policy issued can you imagine so you're going in you you close the sale on the first interview well we had to wait two or three months to issue the policy so we had to do something with him and it was two or three months right and so we didn't want us make the sale we tried to build a relationship we made him our friends we've invited him to our house we took him to ball game we had parties we built friends right way it took us to it we had to get insurance and securities life so that took us two or three months to get them no advance I've already told you about that rather than get $150 you got $12.50 but you got that for 12 months right you had to get a blood test you know if you sold $100,000 policy I told you about them passing a law that you had you could this house almost unbelievable you could replace a trash bag your policy with term unless you picked it up and did all that crap right not only slow pay but low pay see back then there was no full time part-timers they fitted us into a unfitness right here they fitted us into the full-timers pay schedule we just had to go along with what they were doing right so they had a sales person a district leader that's what I was and a division leader that was the only three positions so we had to fit in there so look at this if I was field training a person which I did that first year full-time I was trying to build part-time sales force if we sold a two hundred dollar commission on $100,000 policy let's say the salesperson made a loss field training made $100 I made a 10% override $10 no that'd be $20 right $20 10% commission but my check three months later would be a doll and 85 cents hey hey four and a half years that's what I live that's what we did that's what we did that's what we did so slow pay and low pay it forced us to have better standards and our recruiting to build relationships al Williams believed in recruiting part-timers why why because you could recruit you could recruit a better quality person you want gonna go in there and get a good coach or a good dentist or a good nurse or to give up their job their salary their benefits to go full-time sell life insurance right so that's why we created a part-time opportunity not only slow play low pay but we had committed administrative problems out to kazoo let me just give you a couple of them hey Williams hit this industry like an atomic bomb Hindu jurors an example their life suited the part would have to people although the insurance companies would recruit maybe 20 people a month and we had hit him with a thousand our home office the first company had five employees our second company national home life was the world's largest of what do you call that the bill or the business art Linkletter was their celebrity spokesman Dan Sayle at ten thousand dollar policy whole life policy and it was an automatic issue right in turn care if you were had cancer and you're on your last day of life you know they just all wrecked is you then we had hit them with 90,000 policies that they'd have to underwrite an issue so not only did we have slow pay low pay administrative problems out to Gazoo but I saved two hundred and ninety one thousand dollars part time ain't have something now how did we compete is this born to you people you know I realize started putting this together I told Angela I said you know what they've heard all this crap I don't think I've ever done this in one session I still got a lot to go but but you know but see I love you I love it too you know hey I don't mean nothing off this deal you know I just you know what you know I'm financially independent even though I lost a lot of money with Citigroup but you know why you know why the greatest joy you get in your life when you look back at it when you get old like me have 76 years old it's too thick you help somebody now I don't know I don't know if I'm gonna help everybody in this room the next day and a half but there's gonna be somebody in here I'm over there you're gonna leave here you don't leave here a little bit tougher a little bit meaner you know see see y'all how did we compete with the most powerful machine in the United States at that time we didn't have their money but we had something better than money we found their weakness and we took him to the kitchen table if we showed the family how they had been screwed see see I never saw a of Williams even in the early days I never saw a Oh Williams there's a multi-level marketing company where you recruit anybody with no standards anybody's got $100 you recruit them you bring prospects to a meeting first you sell them on the first interview you force everybody to buy a product whether they need it or not I never I never forced a single person about life insurance in my life I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy what al Williams did was impossible as I look back on all the slow paid low pay administrative problems everything seemed so hard everything Nate I look at it now it seems so hard I started working in fifth grade my daddy brought me a 52 Studebaker I was 15 didn't have a driver's license in and taught me something about ownership I never forgot I remembered it when we started at your Williams though I played football in college that was hard playing football and going to school my dad died at 48 that was hard that was hard when I saw my mama go through and I got married at 18 had two babies when we were 22 or 23 that was hard going to school first coaching job making $4,600 that was hard we had one car for the first two or three years I was coaching when I started making a little money I bought him an all-state red scooter we took Bobby and Red's kids on Ridge it a million times that's what I had for a second car for two or three years was a red scooter at ITT having to get insurance license and securities license taking two and three months to get like that was hard first check making nine dollars and forty six cent that was hard regulators investigating you over and over pier me had called all kind of that was hard but you know what you know why back then it didn't seem hard because every dollars way of Spota high everything I did all my life was hard it was just the way of what I thought it made big money to build a big organization to become financially but I expected it to be hard and it was hard but I didn't think about it being hard because everything was hard I know this we loved it we loved it in the toughest of times we still loved it we love getting together and telling the war stories we loved it every to know one reason we loved it because we were the ones that started the fight we threw the first punch we threw the first punch you know all our families have been screwed with trash value and we wanted to hit him in the nose we wanted to hit him in the nose al Williams was on a mission to destroy trash value life insurance and we did we trained crusader we've trained wars I cannot tell you the number of people not just America but I can't tell a lot of Primerica training from Prudential and all these other places out there training insurance agents I we didn't train insurers say just we train Crusaders I never had a surgeon tell me any sales secret I never went to a training program I never taught a training program old sales techniques all we did was talk about a crusade all we did was build warriors John Roy come up here come up here we got we died if we got a mic this mic work Matt now this guy had cans for two years so maybe I see he don't like it look to me but he's mean as a snake you know every football team you've got to have somebody that takes you to a different level of meanness you know we had one on our college team called scrap iron scrap iron it just seemed around campus he was just like this guy he was such a nice easygoing wonderful guy but boy you got him in the locker room and you put a little uniform morning he was a different human being he was like a guided missile you know all those quarterbacks we wore different shirts idea he didn't give a crap about that you know either coaches kicked him out of practice a number of times cause he was hurting on players out there you know this guy - we had 250,000 Crusaders and warriors today a Williams this guy was number one he took us to different levels of tennis I never met his equal ever John what did we go through last couple years he had cancer he built an organization you know some of you don't think about something you don't think you go everyw get cancer right some of you think you're not ever gonna die you know and so you don't think about maybe my business one day you know needs to be something that's gonna give me an income right John got cancer about two years ago he's fighting for his life he couldn't work but he had built-in organs hey he used to make $12,000 years a football coach in Fort Lauderdale but he all of a sudden was making $500,000 a year taking care of himself but Joe was that like John just I mean when we go through together like you said before we love that we didn't like this then we loved it we got up every morning I get up at 6 o'clock in the morning all I could think about is getting to the office because something's gonna happen today we didn't have a plan but something's gonna happen today and that's the way we did we just put one foot what happened years ago when you got cans for me what bad was that what was that like man it was a shock nobody thinks are gonna get cancer but this gentleman right here called me every night I had to go through unbelievable chemo I had to go through unbelievable radiation and he would call me every night and he'd say hey one more one more day it's going to be unbelievable and and and you're the guy who kept me alive oh hey hey hey what in that worth morning override you make on somebody to have relationship like that you know I mean anyway John you meant the world all the bus John to me and his teammate were scrap iron he was a toughest meanest sob this ever been in a lives he would get after you like you can't believe and man in my toughest of times I knew there was somebody in Fort Lauderdale did would ever quit there won't ever leave me alone he was the best [Applause] see Prudential so life insurance to make a living we show life insurance to correct an injustice Prudential trained life insurance agents we train Crusaders and warriors folks don't don't fall in the trap of training life insurance agents don't fall into traffic you you that's what it's all about I mean you better find somebody that believes in you and you believe in them I called him every night at nine o'clock every night at nine o'clock if I could summarize AoE Williams versus the life insurance industry everything the life insurance industry did we just did just officers just did just opposite they built with full timers we built with part-timers they trained life insurance agents we trained crusaders they talked a good game we fought a good game they were in it for the money we were in it to correct an injustice they Dress for Success redress for war for 20 years I never had any sales training I never trained anybody in sales techniques for 20 years we trained across a kitchen table live families with live problems we trained across the kitchen table we'd take that new recruit back to the office and we'd show him how to tear up a policy and how to make her proposal I spent nine years in corporate America and I hated it I hated it and I think the thing that got me the single thing that got me you remember it Bobby and st. Peters were weary of convention and continental Investment Corporation a real estate company in Boston had bought Waddell and Reed and that had gone through a real estate depression and they were like Citigroup you know and they were taking Waddell Reese profits and they were cutting our Commission's and all that kind of crap you know and I kept telling the president cut me I said look I'm a vice president I got to go explain this to my guys and at least give me the courtesy if you don't cut our Commission's or do something like that tell me so I can prepare them right and so we're down at a convention in st. Petersburg and Bob Butterworth who I hated was assistant to the National Sales Director calls mijita delivering me bad messages you know and he called and he says art we just came out with our budget there were 13 regions and Waddell and Reed three years earlier when I started there we were 13th place three years later we beat all the other 12 combined but they came out with their budget and they said okay all the regions get to promote two people to Division man that's like an RVP you know where they open off as they paid it was expensive all that kind of crap you know I had 19 guys in jails ready to be promoted and I was gonna have to wait another year can you imagine and I told Butterworth I said Bob you go tell Ben course Shawn to stick it where the Sun don't shine and he said arch you want me to tell him that I said you go tell him exactly that okay and I went home and I told Angela said I'm getting out of Walt Ellen Reid I might have to go back coach but if we can't start our own company I'm never gonna be in a company again where I've got guys my buddies my best buddies in life like John Roy that earns a promotion and I got to look him in the eye on it's got to say you got to wait one more year or whatever you know so February 10 when we founded AO Williams we found at a company hey I found this old thing it's hard to believe I found this a long time ago really but it was a brochure you know when I started when I was became president oh yeah we have I've been in Venice nine years you know we had a lot of experience it is what like just our first rodeo right and so this this is this is our kind your number one responsibility is to build a team a team is every player playing with one heartbeat now this back at ninety seven seven now this is not something I invented everybody said beer Brian your state if I read this but all that kraut right a team is every player playing with one heartbeat step number one you must have a big goal in a big vision we sat down and talked about that we wanted to be produced we want to store trash Bayern's keep potential but but financially independent all the crowd step number two you must have a plan our plan was to build an army of part-timers to build an army of part-timers and have a few generals to build seven to ten first generation our VP's Bobby that's where we came up with he said seven to ten I don't know why he picked seven to ten because I had seven we started with seven so I'll recognize reading we did it step number three you must do it first you've got to show it don't talk it you practice until perfect that's all that's all coaches taught right there right you feel trained until somebody becomes a district leaders one of the things I said step number four you must deliver you know you got to build a team and you got to have one part time of this making money in building a team and then one RVP that's making money and billion we used to say you're not on a Sales Leader to you but build a sales e you're not a district leader do you build a district leader you remember that John you're not a already P until you producing our VP right now you accept no excuses step number five you coach your team we don't want bosses in this company we won't coach this you get the best out of people by encouraging them building relationships always being positive you got to become an expert in praise and recognition it's all common sense stuff there's nothing you know but but we lived it we didn't talk it we lived it step number six it was my way or the highway there's only one head coach you've got to have one head coach right I mean each RB peas a head coach of his organization right but L we they got but one head coach right see I said the first rule is I want to start a company where you had no limits I wanted every single piece of flesh that came to work today o Williams to know that they they could always make more money look at somebody like Andy Young go where Andy runs got a payroll right now thirty million dollars a month where could a guy like that offensive lineman hey we're not sure come up here Andy [Applause] see Saturdays I'm not even here here's our here's our here's our game plan okay we want 90% four and five pointers right that was it right we had standards now y'all don't have no standards okay we had standards back then right 90% four and five pointers right that was influential people leaders that had friends out there and why would we do that to get us out of the cold market right but we had 10% exceptions you know you want to always make exceptions ripens you don't have 90 percent exception like some of you and ten percent standards right well this was the biggest all-time exception in the history of Vail Williams he was a hog you know that's what you call offensive lineman he was an offensive lineman at Wake Forest so you have a sip lineman and you got uh you got seven hogs down there now you don't want a team of hogs right but then you won't a stirred hog right and so you gotta have ability to look at all these hogs out there and pick out the exceptional one the goddess got the eye of the tiger right and nobody's got the eye of a tiger like this hog ain't that right AJ right visit Mahon [Applause] okay all right I now listen to me folks we get into some heavy stuff here now we had a Oh with who we start ale Williams I wanted this company to have no limits I wanted every I told you I just read out our game plan right 1977 we wanted to produce our bp's right now so we had no limits on the money you could make no limits on the promotions you get no limits on the territory you go anywhere right okay I'll get down your brand right then we had to get this thing where it was simple and transferable right we had a separate why Lord told you about all that right okay then we had to multiply you've got to understand how to multiply right if you ain't got a team if you ain't got a bunch of people out there to multiply to and transfer to what the crap you got right okay now our plan was to build our VP's our plan was to build seven to ten first generation our VP's right now somebody said from America's clan is to build big base shops you know now maybe that's the plan I don't know if you call that a plan or or what but anyway I mean I look at it I say well our plan was to build seven to ten first generation our VPS now what I would do what we did is we pay somebody rbp let's say Bob you stood on the bill seven to ten our VPS didn't let's say did $10,000 each that's $100,000 now to me that was more valuable than $100,000 base shop and no RV feet does that make sense to you people right so what I would do what we did I didn't what I would do is I would pay this guy let's say Bob USANA bill seven to ten first $100,000 in this got fifteen thousand dollars now you think I'd get somebody's attention huh not now why is that better why is that better John Roy just told you you got cancer two years ago he built an organization never thought he'd have cancer but for two years he was making five hundred thousand dollars a year a former $12,000 football coach right that's why it's better that's why it's better right you build a base shop only Gus you get cancer your income stuff that makes sense and it's better for the company I mean I want to be Prudential I want us to destroy trash value right so it's better to have ten RB P's and one does that make sense I mean that ain't got no genius I mean that it's just common sense right I look at this thing now hey this is the way the traditional industry built the manager would go out and he would recruit three people and in ten years if you did that ten time to be 30 people well it al Williams we wanted every new recruit to look at himself is building a team right I'll talk to you about that a little bit more tomorrow right but if you built three and you're three built three and you did that ten times that's fifty nine thousand people that's how we get in you look at every our VP as an RB P as a future our VP where they can build a big income and a secure income that makes sense we wanted dreamers I love what Andy Young did you don't know that I got this but Andy Young sold a dream but and I sold it he was young 22 out of Wake Forest and where's that town winston-salem and he he stays there 18 months building his business and decides to move to Washington DC goes up and lived with his family gets settled in and he drew a circle I did that same thing Andy I did the same thing when ITT moved me to Atlanta I drew a circle 30 minutes around my house okay but Andy was smarter than me he puts X's there and said I won't rbp in all these places around he started on his first recruit fair said ah but just what I want I want you to be that guy right there it opens that office become Darby you sell a dream we sell a dream and our dream it al wheels was to build an army of RB peas in every city every town every Hamlet ride and there was five parts then we'll talk to you about tomorrow look at we got five parts you write a recruit right you've got a train ride you got to build trusting relationships you've got to sell the vision and there's got to be one way everybody Dale Williams has got to be you know you almost couldn't get fire today or Williams I have one rule as a football coach you had to come to practice every day if you unless you were in the hospital dying you better be at practice you know what a Dale Williams we only had a couple rules one of them is you couldn't send him to sales trainers you couldn't have different guidelines you know what fire your ass I had to fire one Dennis Richardson for doing a bunch of crap nah I know you know what I know some people it's easy still I used to handle it Cooper learn and Pete Dawkins I like all those guys I mean they were good guys you know they just ain't never done it before one of my life lessons is you don't listen nobody they never done it right that's reason a college degree ain't worth nothing you know college professors don't know nothing but they never done nothing so I don't lift those Joker's right I think that's the most useless thing in the world is up to hey a business trip University of Georgia I got grandkids a winner and not only is that Peter did plumber worth nothing these kids will leave with 30,000 dead and 40,000 that's the best politicians for you right that's the biggest disaster right now when I'm facing our country right now so so you know what those first yeh leaves that Citigroup sent down you know they'd come to my house they say aren't now you know y'all just promoted all these are VP's you know and we ain't gonna do that you know some of your our VP's I did doing 5,000 and 10,000 then we don't want nothing but do this 20 20 and 30 30 and 50 50 and crap like that so we don't produce successful our VP's we ain't gonna do like you that's people ain't never done nothing right and so well see 95% of your our VP team is always gonna be young and growing right now you go check all your RB peas in Primerica they go all will be five ten fifteen thousand the Home Office people they never sold nothing built nothing they think of ten thousand all the base shop is nothing I think they thought like that's just nothing that's nothing ten thousand dollar effing nothing Ryan that's a ballbuster to do a ten thousand all the base shop Ryan you better have a bunch of our VP's that are five tens and fifteen that are green and growing right and then you have five pimps in that like nd their ball busters right they're big and multiplying does that make that makes sense so city let me get old city they want only big are VP's y'all heard that little spiel aren't we and just produced anybody's an RVP just any money our VP right well one of my theories is it's an RTP you got the right to broke somebody early you ain't got the right to promote anybody late right don't you ever hold so many background fire your ass right but if you want to promote somebody or so if we ever lost an RVP org I quit sometimes I promote to to replace them just to prove it just to prove to my team that I'm going to promote our VP right so you run a business you've got to do those kind of things Ryan was so City these Yale E's they wanted only big are VP's so what they did is they lost half of the our VPS right and they ain't replaced them because they don't know how to replace them and they never gonna replace them at the pace y'all we're going right now right can y'all handle ten minutes y'all know why see I'm a swimmer in that since I had my partial knee replacement I swim every day I probably hadn't missed five days of swimming in the last three years at five o'clock in the morning I'll be swimming and I'll swim an hour in five minutes tomorrow morning or an hour and a half in five minutes then you know why I spend another five minutes I learned five minutes said of an hour because I never stopped at the finish line I always do a little bit more CAA Williams told me that that's so programmed in my life right now it's 76 years old a bar at five o'clock I'll be in the water and I'll swim an hour but when I see that clock up there I don't count lie outside count time I said I'm going an hour I don't stop an hour and then when I get to an hour I gotta go another three minutes until the five minutes because I know Prudential stopping the defendants line right hey Ryan see you gotta learn as a leader to be an example and you've got to learn to reward and punish yourself see I sometimes in the morning at five o'clock I don't want to get up and go swim but I work I say I like to stay in that bed and snuggle with Angie she looks still pretty good said to shake there's no right but you know what you know why I gotta hit that pool I gotta hit that pool and so I learned it's in coaching at in thirsty right before we played on Friday we'd go out and shorts would loosen up we'd go over a game plan and we'd have a meeting and I'd go over our goals and I say okay guys tomorrow if we have a great offensive effort and we win by 21 points let's say we hold them scored beat them at 21 and nothing we're gonna go out in shorts on Monday we go boy there's nothing like winning and then going out in shorts on Monday and you know a girlfriend sitting on the hill up there watching you prance around that's where all the bright now I said also if you go out there tomorrow and you win and you have a great defensive effort and you hold them scoreless we're gonna grind shorts on Monday you don't but you know why you know what go out there tomorrow night and give a half budded effort right and you don't win by 21 points or you don't win and then hold them scoreless then we're going out and passed on Monday and it's gonna be ugly right cuz we got to get better and eat that right you got to meet you go right it's got a war and you know what if you get beat tomorrow night I'll see you saturday morning see I did that in a old Williams when I win in a old Williams I had this as a personal goal before I met Bob you son and rushed in them I tried to make a sale today Monday through Friday I wanted to make a sale every day and if I made five sales and I take the weekend off and reward myself and spend time with Angela new kids but if I didn't make my five sales I'd work on Saturday if I didn't do it by side of that work on Sunday afternoon you know you got a reward and punish yourself and there's business if you want to if you want to win why don't we build with part-timers you recruit better people right and you get in a war market right you stay out of the cold market right that makes sense 90% ought to be four and five pointers and you all have 10% hogs ain't that right but you don't just get any hog right you get the good hogs ain't that right and a youngling I look at this hog 35 years 198 RB peace 34s bp's 21 NS v 7 is instant SNSD for 1 billion dollar earns one hundred six hundred thousand dollar earners cash flow in one point six million dollars a year pretty good hog right what about Greg Fitzpatrick making $12,000 here in Fort Lauderdale you talk about multiplying 30 produced 334 bp's 43 s VP's 25 NS DS 9 SNSD s 8 million-dollar earners 244 $100,000 earners 1.5 million dollar cash flow monthly team cash flow 5 5 million dollars a month 63,000 million dollars a year Mike Tuttle if I had to pick out probably the best leader and whatnot probably the best leader in al Williams at building relationships he was the ultimate he was my hero there Mike Tunnel was in Campus Crusade for Christ he had to raise his own money now this is I'm quoting him his his one of his goals was to make enough money where he could rent a TV on Friday night and he is Stephanie could watch TV on the weekend is that unbelievable when he comes to ayo Williams with that heart with that that passion that relate build ability to build relationships people to trust him he's got an organization right now 25 people making a million dollars a year former Campus Crusade for Christ guy making 2.7 million dollars a year those original people risk it all I'm closing that oh hang with me I get emotional about this I get emotional about this when I was doing it I'd go around this company first two years and I'd say folks I'm Terry recruiting interview every meeting I ever had I said the odds like that I won't you understand the odds like that Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter and you know I always got these labels you know Jinny Carter was the most courageous person I knew in AoE Williams there's a single mama of four kids at home making $75,000 here at Waddell and Reed that's like 200 something thousand dollars you know today's income I have all our expenses paid on that guy I spent hours with Jenny Carter saying Jenny are you sure this is something you want to do because we probably ain't gonna make it Ginny understand she didn't hesitate a minute can you imagine I couldn't do it I don't think I could do it John I don't think I'm capable of being that tough most courageous person I ever knew was Jenny Carter man our people risk at all Bob you saw was making $100,000 a year all his expenses paid Bob Turley $80,000 a year all expenses paid Jenny Carter seventy thousand five thousand dollars a year all expenses paid roughly crossed on a special program superstar knives of Waddell and Reed bill Orenda offered my position $120,000 a year all as the expense it pays 650 securities an insurance license people in five states and he had to come with us as a division manager and I said just trust me bill just trust me if this works and it probably ain't I'm gonna take care of you and he came and a year later he you would have had all this problem in Georgia Sheriff Department I said Billy you know you've earned the right to be motored our VP but you can't stay in Georgia and be an RVP you got to go somewhere he chose to go to Dallas and I said Bill I don't have any money to hippie I'm sorry it broke my heart to see he and Carol hook up their trailer to their car and load their furniture and three kids and go to Dallas Texas not know anybody come you don't pay nothing Leroy Dale went to Greensboro North Carolina coast he had to leave Georgia Eve's come up here you know we were going in Canada we were going in Canada you know I just put a map out of Canada and I said I said you know they selling cash value up there so we need to get some termites going up there you know and so we spent a year a solid year you know working with the regulators and all this kind of crap you know and they want us and we're coming there and bring jobs and all that's got a crowd and so we go in there and get the first month those trashbag eyes got all over the regulators and they passed the law we couldn't hire part-timers the heart and soul of our company can you imagine that can you imagine that but we didn't throw in the towel we didn't give up I called Greg Fitzpatrick on the phone I said Greg I was coming out with these little videos and I said I need some people in Canada to call and he said called Yves and Jim Bowen I've never met Jim and but you know what you just like this like with a hog you know you are I don't know you just have special feelings as a leader or Y ain't no leader you know I fell in love with this guy do you know this the first time I've touched him but I bet you in the last I don't know how many months last April we don't talk on the phone but email ain't got something you know but I T what he loves art Williams and I love him how can you develop a relationship that by an email he told me a story I want you to tell it to me again real quick now cuz I'm tired is I'm I got a sore throat and I want to go to bed good I got to get up at five o'clock in the morning and swim how far an iron five minutes okay because I never do what you never know that's right now tell me about what I think you told me you were in Detroit and you were offered a job and your company to go to somewhere and you wanted to go to Canada why'd you want to go to Canada well the thing is you know my uncle's told me three whole life and uncle my uncle Wow yeah yeah yeah I know so anyways an employee of mine came to the hotel and he showed me about by term and there's a difference and I got pissed off excuse me and I turned down a transfer while a chicken and a few other things do ya and turn down a transfer to go to Hawaii quit 80,000 sold my home and move to Montreal and it was full-time then and you know I'm the first French in in Montreal and this guy saved my life because when we were apena all I had was as tapes and that that's why I love you I mean you know that's that's how we build together because you're the one that that really coached me and you know I love Greg and I love Bob Miller and he came to Montreal to help us out but this guy saved my life you know just because of who he is and he was talking to me in my car and that's how I was able to build full-time for 26 years now we have part-time you know I love you buddy and you know you told me I think you were financially independent now yep and he could quit and he told me those little videos I sent out and we developed relationships he said art told me one day I don't know if you remember telling me this you know but he said you know what I want to go far together I want to go help people again you know don't have to don't have to work you know but he's that kind of guy that's who al Williams was life and you know ease we're fixing to show you something right now it's gonna tear you it's gonna take its gonna tell you it's gonna absolutely tear you up this was our first employee at AOA Williams children and this yep Trudy and this yeah I sent him a copy he's on my little inner circle thing you know and so I send him my videos to help me check up on these people yeah make sure they do a good job but anyway this is why we were good it wasn't a system that was part of it the limit no limits and all that crap you know the kind of people that we had I love this guy he's my kind of guy he's like but he's like he's like he's like it I mean hug him that's right the meanest guy you ever see so means I believe right but I'm telling you see he's that kind of guy you can be in that photo with man this kind of person you want this kind of price you fix it see on this screen that's what made a Williams who we were let's win that car oh wait oh yeah here I got a t-shirt yeah how about that first time I ever met this guy you don't you know why you know I you know you got to become an expert on praise and recognition you know that was one of our Irish goals right if you're gonna be a good coach or whatever and you know we didn't have making any money back in the early days but this the first t-shirt I've given you I guarantee this means something to him at first time I touched him was tonight right and you know you know I found that you could you could put a little saying on these t-shirts you know but the thing I the thing I've come to love about you the move Steve is you want to you want to so I can put this on a t-shirt and man that says it all about him right you can put I am a stud right right here's somebody else you gonna love [Applause] how do you get people to trust you there are five rules number one you must always look for the good things in your people number two you can't let the losers and the negative people and the dishonest people and unethical people make you lose faith in people number three you must show your people that you really care about them and their family and their dreams really care number four you must love them and believe in them through good times and bad times when Angela and I had our two babies art in April and when they were growing up through those difficult teenage years which sit them down and we tell our neighbor we're saying to listen y'all I know you're gonna screw up I hope you're careful I know you're gonna make mistakes but I want you to know a couple things number one I doubt you'll ever make as many mistakes as your mom and daddy made and number two I want you to know there ain't nothing you will ever do in your life it is impossible you can't make a mistake I don't care what it is that would cause us to love you less than we do right now I want you to know I want you to know there is nothing you can ever do that you can't come home you can't come home and your mom and daddy is gonna be there to love you and fight for you number five you must believe that you're working to make them successful your people must believe that you're working to make them successful never that they that they think they're working for you to make more money to win you a contest to earn you a promotion let me give you another story that'll tell you it'll just tear you trudi why was the secretary office manager at our office in Fort Lauderdale we developed a special kind of love for each other when Coach Taylor retired from coaching I open an office for him in Tallahassee Florida and he didn't know anything about the business he knew a lot about people and so I moved Trudi white up to be his administrative assistant in Tallahassee Florida when I announced that we were leaving what Ellen read and start an ale Williams man World War three broke open and one Friday night I heard a knock at my door in Snellville Georgia and it was Trudi white and I said Trudi what are you doing here and she said I'm coming I said you come in where she said I'm coming to your Williams I'm coming I say ain't no way and crappier coming true - you've been at Waddell and Reed for almost 35 years you've only got five or 10 years to go to retirement you can't put that kind of pressure on me Trudy we probably ain't even gonna make it and she said I'm coming I said ain't no way and crap you're coming she said I'm coming I had to listen for that crap for two and a half day and from the afternoon she came now folk can you believe that you can understand rusty Crossland and some of these other people that had a chance to build their own company and build financial independence but but all she was gonna be is an employee was a secretary but she wanted to be part of something brave she won't do something special with her lives when Trudy retired a few years later she loved to travel more than anybody I think I've ever known I gave her a lifetime airline ticket where she could go anywhere in the world at any time until she died [Applause] [Music] you
