Bo Gentile, Globe Life VP of Recruiting

Count money, man.

Money, man.

That grits us.

I'm trying to told him I'm a beast.

What's up gang?

Welcome back to another episode of The Grindcast.

Get ready.

It's a new day and today we have Globe Senior Vice President of Recruiting and my man, my

friend, Mr. Bo Gentile in the house.

Welcome to The Grindcast, sir.

Sir, I've waited long time to get on the couch.

It's like being white, you know, you see the late, late show and this type of stuff on

our industry is getting on the Grindcast.

And I just really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to visit with you and spend

some time with you and your agency this week.

I know we, you know, I speak on behalf of the whole organization when we say that we

really appreciate you taking time away from your family and other folks in the company

that you serve to come spend a couple days, you know, with us you and Phil and Mike and

we're all grateful to have you.

So let's get started.

We're going to get a bunch of juice, a bunch of nuggets that will help people not only in

our business but out of our business also.

Bo, you've been with the company, I think 23 years-ish.

Exactly.

Total, mostly corporate.

Yeah, majority corporate and then five years in the field, the Stint with the Altig organization

and then a Stint with Tom Wims and David's often who's our president.

I was there, RGA, for three years in 2011 to 13.

So it's a great unique connection, you know, it's not always with folks in corporate

and what we do in the agency field for side.

Do you have somebody that has transcended and kind of been in both shoes, you know, so

to speak, gives you a little bit more understanding of what's going on on both sides and that

has shown in the ability for you to help and serve others and that's probably why you've

went from, you know, helping folks at American income, helping folks at Liberty to help

and people at Family Heritage and now basically heading up the recruiting situation for all

of GLOW, which many of you know is our parent company.

And so why don't we start out with you telling us a little bit about your upbringing?

Yeah, you know, raised in a small, I mean, a little town in Edmund, Oklahoma, went to

high school there, went to college in the state of Oklahoma and then, you know, grew up,

what was unique was growing up, my father was a professional athlete.

He played 19 years in the major leagues and so I grew up in...

What an experience.

Yeah, it was.

I mean, he was already done.

My older brothers and sisters got the fun of being in a post rate, in a raising, a brand

serial commercial and doing those things.

They grew up with it.

He was already dumb and I was born but it was what, that's what brought into me the work

ethic and the competitiveness if there's a word for that.

You know, he before it was popular and all this stuff, he just was always like, take pride

in the name on the front of the Jersey, the name on the back of the Jersey matters, but

the front's what matters more.

You're always part of the team first and individual second.

And so when I...

It just kind of transcended through sports as I played sports as I got into business and

then when I got into business, what was really unique, especially with the AIL experience,

was there was this team.

There were 40 agents, owners at the time and it was like, I'm a part of this team and

so I was that front name on...

It was that name on the front, not so much my results that I could get.

You took more pride in taking care of the others and so kind of a phrase that we kind of

used is, my mission was their success.

My mission was to provide them with whatever they needed to get there.

And that instilled very young with my dad trying to help us out with my mom.

What do you need in order to succeed in understanding the process has to be right for the result?

Yeah.

To be right.

Too many people just jump.

I always like to...

When I'm training my guys now, I talk about it.

Too many guys go to the last line on the spreadsheet.

Right.

I like to do it and it drives them crazy.

I cover the names.

I cover the results.

I inspect the process.

Those are the people that you need to work on.

Then look at the name and look at the result because a lot of us will look at the process

differently based on the name.

But if the name's covered, the process is the process.

Now look at the name and then decide how you're going to work with that person.

I think that started real young with my dad and those types of things.

One of the things that...

I was here and you talk about was your son who's also a good athlete.

I think he's playing football.

He's done hockey.

Yeah.

I've watched him through you grow up.

I mean, I've watched him get bigger and bigger.

I remember you sending me to pitchers and I'm like, man, this kid's big.

He's young.

He's my size.

I'm doing too big, but I mean, as a young kid, he's like, man, I could tell he's already

my size.

Now I see the pitchers and he's like, you're size.

You know what I mean?

And freshmen in high school and we were talking and you're like, hey, I told the coach,

you don't have to worry about me because they got them playing varsity already.

You went to the coach and said, hey, you don't have to worry about me where if you got

to be hard on them, be hard on them.

Yeah, well, coach is coach.

And sometimes we have a tendency not to do that in society as we have a tendency to

we have our opinion and as long as the coach goes along with it, we're in a good place

where I wanted him to know, I need you to feel like the reins are off.

Be free.

In other words, if you need to have tough love, you can have tough love.

You know, granted within boundaries, but when I played for a coach to grab your face

mask, that was to get your attention.

Normal.

It wasn't out of line.

Nowadays, I understand it might be considered a little aggressive, but I want whatever the

coach felt he needed to do to get my son's attention.

I was letting him know you're not looking over your shoulder.

It's very hard to go forward when you're looking backwards.

And when you're looking over your shoulder, worrying about different things versus what you

know is right.

The ethics are right.

The priority is right when you're coaching and what you're doing.

That's how people learn and that's how people go forward.

I quote sometimes John Maxwell, you know, where he says that leadership is disappointing

people at a rate that they can stand.

And I think if you want to be able to move at an expedited pace, I have to be able to

disappoint you at an expedited pace.

And part of the game now in society, especially with kids, is I have to be able to, I have

to be hard on you at a pace that not only you could handle, but that your parents can

handle.

So I would imagine, you know, the only reason why you would do that.

You know, I know for me as a parent, one of the more difficult things it is for me to do.

Sometimes I have to go discipline my children and say, you know, get over there or do that

or I don't want to hear it.

You know, when I walk away, I'm thinking like, man, that was not easy.

You know, it hurt me just as much as it hurt them, but I know I'm doing that, you know,

for their own benefit.

And not a lot of, I think that transfers over into business.

You know, people get grown as adults and they no longer are willing to have that same.

They understand why if they were the coach, that would be good for the kids.

But when they become the coach, they don't really like to take the same coaching from

whoever's coaching them as much.

And I believe that's what stunts the process.

You know, is there un, they're unwilling to be still a form of a child in them in order

to continue to grow.

And I think that was huge when I heard you say that about the coach.

What was it like or what did it take for somebody like you to earn your way to, you know, run

the recruiting for all of Globe Life, which is a, you know, a huge company, you know,

that whole path, you know, what was that like?

What's the cool stuff, you know, and all that.

But what is, what is, what was some of the like, man, what did that require?

Well, I think a lot of it was, I had a great mentor when I first came in, which was Roger Smith.

And I was fortunate, we were small enough that when I came in, there were only five people

at the corporate office at American income.

So once a week me and Roger would actually, and this is where I was going to say, first

it was I had the right people that cared about me, the right people that cared about me

and wanting to see my success.

Roger, every week would make a trip up to go see the CEO at the time of, of Torchmark for

us to kind of meet.

Roger was new in his position.

He'd only been there a year.

He brings me in to be his director of recruiting that two hour drive to McKinney up and back

every week, pouring into just me.

It was the most anyone in the business world had ever cared about me.

And at the time I didn't understand it.

Sometimes I was like, oh my gosh, here we go, two hours.

And I wouldn't add it like, I got to have the right answers instead of understanding

I needed to ask the right questions.

See too many people when they're working with the person who's what you would say, you

know, they're here, you're, you know, above them, they think they have to have the right

answers.

And what they're missing is that was two hours.

I would love to go back now.

You can go pick up.

Oh my gosh, if I could pick his brain for four hours a week, I do it now.

And I'm hoping I'm not bothering him.

He's at home on vacation.

You know what I'm saying?

I miss that opportunity.

I went into that meetings wanting to have the answers for him versus trying to get the

questions to be better.

So that was really good.

Once I understood that people cared, then it was kind of, I got to be honest with you.

A lot of it was the people.

A lot of it was the people and not wanting to let them down.

I talk a lot about what I see as the most successful people in all of business, even in any business,

is those people that have the ability to create emotional loyalty.

Now hear me when I say emotional loyalty.

I didn't say romantic.

I said emotional and that they don't want to let somebody down.

Not wanting to let somebody down as more important than going after the right result.

100% and that's what I learned where I didn't want to let the agency owners down.

I didn't want to let the SGA's down.

I didn't want to let you, I mean, when I first met you, I mean, I think it was like 2000

and three or four.

You came into wake go down on the basement where we did our leadership.

Also, all school leadership schools.

And the first thing I did was when I met you, I was like, okay, this is going to be a

key player.

You could tell within an hour, it's going to be a key player.

It was, how do I challenge you?

You want my AIO cufflinks?

Okay, do this six months later.

I was sending you my cufflinks because you accomplished what was there.

And that was part of it.

It was like watching other people grow.

But really what kind of did it was just learning that people are people.

And if you can understand what it is that they want to accomplish and you can help them

accomplish what they want, the satisfaction alone is enough.

For more times than not, especially in our business, but just in life, everybody wins.

People always want to talk about there has to be winners and losers.

I don't believe that.

I think at times in sports, maybe, but in business, everyone can win.

Everyone can win.

That's the best part about what we have where we, in our business or most businesses, someone

doesn't get something and someone else lose it.

We just make the pie bigger.

Right.

And that's the part I like.

So as I went along, I started to realize that.

And then, you know, I, I, seven years in the business, I realized and Roger had a conversation

with me.

He was like, Bo, you're really seen as an administrator and until you actually kind of,

and he used an analogy because it's a small, you know, go regressing a little bit.

When I first interviewed with Roger, I think one of the only reasons I probably got the

job was his wife at the time, Dottie had babysapped for my older brothers and sisters when

my dad played baseball and Baltimore.

Small world, right.

I'm interviewing with Roger Smith.

And here's this.

So Roger used the analogy of a baseball card.

He's like, Bo, the front of the card looks great.

But the front of everybody's baseball card looks great.

There's no separation between King Griffey's baseball card and yours on the front.

But when I turn him over, one of them is going to Hall of Fame and one of them doesn't have

any stats.

So he's the one who kind of nudged me almost in a way to say, you've got to go into the

field.

You've got to get, for lack of a better term, street creditor, you've got to get experience

with our people.

So they trust when you're asking them to do something in the field.

They trust your reports.

They trust the analytics of it.

Now trust the personal behavior part of it.

And so went into the field.

And you know, when I spent those three years with Tom and Dave in a couple of years with

A.O.

That's where now all of a sudden I did have that baseball card.

But more than anything, I really understood what it meant to be in business.

Sometimes when you're behind the desk, you're not in business.

You're an employee mindset.

You know what I mean?

And once I kind of merged the two together, that's where I felt like things took off because

I could now, I could have empathy for when an agent or an SGA or an agent's owner would

tell me one thing or anyone would tell me something.

But at the same time, I understood what still need to be accomplished from the corporate

goal.

Right.

Right.

You know, and kind of where you talked about discussions, it also allowed me to be better

at having those conversations.

We've all heard the quote, you really not moving the needle of half your conversations with

people.

Don't make you as uncomfortable having them as they are going to be hearing them.

You're taking the easy way out.

Does that make sense?

It taught me how to have those in a manner that showed them that I cared versus it was,

hey, I need you to do this.

So we look better on a ripple.

Speaking of, you know, taking the easy way out, what, you know, you have to imagine on

a journey, you know, 20 year plus journey, you'd have to have some obstacles or hurdles,

you know, along the way.

Many hurdles jump out to you, any obstacles that you've had to persevere through that stand

out.

Yeah.

I went, and I'll be just really sincere when I first came back from working with Tom and

Dave.

Roger was the CEO and everything was good.

And I knew Roger was going to retire and I had a real big maturity lesson that I had.

So this is coming back to corporate, coming back to corporate from working with and those

you that aren't familiar with the company.

Tom and Dave, those are two great people that were at the time.

And South Florida, which is where you were working in the agency field course transitioning

into corporate.

Yeah, Roger again, like we talked about, Roger kind of had along the way moved things and

then, you know, he just basically was like, Hey, would you like to come back to corporate?

Okay.

But he told me how did that?

Hey, it looks like I may be retiring and there's going to be a new CEO that comes in.

And I knew the CEO, Steve Greer, we go back at one point as even as director.

We worked together.

But I didn't, I didn't handle the transition right.

I didn't, you know, I didn't, I didn't handle the, and I called the transition.

You've got to be able to adjust to different processes and different things in business.

You've got to be able to understand that things are going to change.

You may be playing for this coach and now you're playing for this coach.

And I don't know that I adjusted as strongly as I could and I, and I, that's the one

hurdle that I wish.

I could go back.

If there's one thing I wish I could go back, it would be, I would have sat down and I

already said it earlier, I would have sat down with Steve Greer and asked more questions.

I made more statements.

I tried to keep things the way they were, done it, the done it, and I wish that I would

have.

Now, we have a great relationship.

But I know this is a mistake I made is I didn't try to ask questions from the part, the

same thing I didn't do with Roger in the beginning.

I had a chance to correct that with Steve and I look back and go, that's that, that's

a two-year window.

I wish I could have back of communicating with Steve because I would have asked a lot more

questions.

And who knows?

I mean, I've gotten those answers now, but it was a two-year curve on that.

So there's some nuggets that people can pull of, you know, spend time before you're transitioning

into something or spending time with somebody that may be a coach or somebody that you

have to work closely with, spend time on the questions, give, give thoughts of the

questions that you want to ask when you're with that person. I know for me it's maybe a different year

but whenever I have an opportunity to mentor, you know people in business, the thing that separates

me wanting to continue spending time with somebody is how prepared they are, you know, when they show up and I try to do the same thing when a

mentor gives me time. You know, I still try to find mentors and have mentors in my life, you know, at 40 and

18 years in a game. And I think the way that I've tried to separate myself, you know,

I have to hear from that person's standpoint of why, you know, you would continue that relationship with me for a decade when so many people want your time is that I try to come in prepared

with not only what I've done that I've implemented so you could realize that you're not wasting your words and wasting your time but that I'm coming prepared every time with

with questions that are well thought out to show that I respect the opportunity and respect your time. But to also keep it to where you don't have any heavy lifting. I'm not

showing up and expecting you to do more work. You're already doing me a service by allowing me to pick your brain and pick your knowledge. What are some what are some standout characteristics that you would say of people that succeed in business in our business in general, you know, maybe just

people that are just starting out, you know, we could start out with and then maybe you've traveled, you know, the country and spent time with some of the greatest leaders, the greatest leaders in the company, which is in my opinion, some of the greatest leaders in business in business period in the United States of America. So maybe can you point out some things that stand out of a who makes it, you know, in the business, what are some of the characteristics that you see of the people that, you know, these are some things that they do that are not going to be a good example of what they're doing.

And then at the higher levels of leadership, what what things stick out about the greatest leaders that you've been around. Yeah, that's a great question. Um, and my first response back on that is most of them have a vision that is just so much greater than Friday's paycheck.

Their vision, you know, I like to relate in our business that and I'll use our business kind of you serve the question that the agents in the day, the essays in the week, the GAs in the month, the MJs in the quarter and the SJs in the year.

And that if that's their mindset, that's typically when they'll be successful. And if you find yourself having to do the shorter, like if the SJs in the year, they're probably it's not a good spot. If the MJs in the week or excuse me in the week, it's not a good spot.

So what I find is the people that stay, I hate to use the term stay in their lane, but they don't allow themselves to get dragged down to think smaller than where they are. They empower their people to do that. In other words, you have a great crew. We just did your leadership school.

There's 20 people on there that make sure that you're in the month. Then below those 20, there's another 20 that make sure the week's going to be good. Then below those 20, there's another 20 that are making sure the day is going to be good. Every step along the way, it's like a redundancy like there's a spare parachute all the way to the goal where you're trying to get.

What I find is the number one characteristic of those people is that they're processed driven, not results driven. They really, really focus on the process. They're really more about the process and they trust it.

I'll use anytime we've implemented something new from a bonus program or a VIP program or something. There have been times where it'd been really easy to kill it, but they stuck with it.

It's just like a good diet or a good training. You've got to get through that two weeks where the scale doesn't show the result, but you know it's coming.

That makes them think that's the characteristics of those leaders where they kind of they don't they don't they don't what's where I'm looking for they don't switch on a dime. You know what I'm saying? They're not magic bullet. They understand it's the process. It takes time.

It's consistent to the long term. Exactly. Not there's no short term game for long term sacrifice type of stuff. But when I look at it, the most successful ones just have a big, big vision, but they they don't ever try to sell the vision of short of the amount of effort it's going to take.

That's the real thing. I see is that they understand the amount of effort it's going to take and they surround themselves with people that want to put in that amount of effort. And then the result happens, but I really rarely and most really big successful agencies yours and the other ones that I'm around nationwide, even when I'm with family heritage or I'm with Liberty.

The bigger agencies normally don't talk about a dollar goal or a weekly goal. They talk about an activity. They talk about a process to get there. That's the strength of the leader were the many you say a goal. Now you've put a limit. Now people think 75% of that's good. Hey, really want you have an A plus like I name minus I still did good. Right.

But once you say guys, we're going to do what we need to do. This is how we're going to do. We focus on the activity. That's where I'm seeing those are the stronger. Those are the characteristics that I see that they don't put a lid. They don't start the conversation with the lid. They start their conversation with we can go anywhere we want. This is just what it's going to take to get there and they surround themselves with people like that. Love it. How about the newer agents. You know, people that you know are in that first six months in a range that you see. You know, I know we've all been around. You know, man, we

think she's going to do great. She don't make it. Right. We don't know if she's going to be that good. She ends up being start. It's always the opposite, right. But but the the characteristics of the people that do make it. You know, I tell people in a leadership when we get into the turnover conversation of the higher you go in leadership, the less you have to deal with turnover. You know, if I'm an SGA and I'm dealing with MGA's and RGA's, you know, the retention rate of those people is 90% plus.

Right. If I'm a RGA and I'm dealing with MGA's and GAs, the retention rate of that is going to be 75% plus. And you know, if I'm a G and I'm dealing with mostly, you know, field trainers, you know, the retention rate of that is going to be 50% plus. And so the only place that the turnover rate becomes an issue is that the first agent, the sales agent, you know, that that is getting off the ground before they get, you know, promoted the new people that are in that first six month range. You know, if I had to blindfold you couldn't see the person you didn't.

But I said, all right, here's the traits of some of them. You could pick if they have these traits. They get to be on your team. You know, what traits would you look for?

To be honest, I'm going to ask them to tell me their story and the ones that have the most difficult story are the ones that I want.

Okay.

So people that have overcome some obstacles.

100% 100 because we're a great recruiting organization.

We will get a lot of people that want a piece of what we've got.

But they're not good at overcoming obstacles so they give up on their dream.

But those people that have overcome the obstacles will not let go of this dream.

They will see this and our people will help pull them up. Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

But we can't pull somebody up who doesn't put their hand up.

If you're not reaching out, I can't grab you.

And so for me, I would just like, okay, tell me your story.

You know, a lot of times I used to, you know, write wrong and different.

I would sometimes ask the question, tell me about yourself.

And just what they would tell me, but this, this, the more, the more times there was like a, I got down, I got back up, I got down, I got back up.

That's who I wanted because when I know in our business, we have a start date and a commit date.

There's a date. Everybody starts and those that stick commit and only that date since somewhere in their first 90 days.

And that's because their leader got emotionally connected to them.

And when I say Mo loyal, I mean, they change something.

Please don't misunderstand.

I mean, they change something from the standpoint of, wow, my income changed, wow, my lifestyle changed.

Wow, just the leadership you're providing changed that type of deal.

They got connected.

Right. And once they got connected, that's the ones that stay.

But I just want you to tell me your story and the ones that have overcome obstacles because this career will have

opposites any business will have obstacles.

Anything in life will have obstacles.

Sometimes when it by the time they get here, I sometimes will laugh.

The, the person with their first job, sometimes doesn't do as good as where the person with their third job.

Because one with their third already knows the first two, the corner office.

I appreciate it.

Well, it's, you know, um, um, you'll hear it said all the time.

Give me the person who's already been on two jobs at graduated college because the job with the assistant,

the corporate jet in the corner office wasn't there.

The second job where they went to us and they're now they're willing to put in the grind as we say to get

what they need to be.

Reality is kind of, you know, they're no longer in this idealistic world.

Now they're getting a little realistic and they realize hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.

Right.

And it's time to work hard.

And that's what I'm listening for and looking for.

I remember the, you know, back in the day, you know, we had, because you've been, you know,

the guy that talked to about recruiting for a long time.

I remember we had a poster, you know, and I may be dating myself a little bit.

You know, I still think I'm youthful, but, you know, I was, I'm old enough to love Bo Jackson, you know,

who played baseball at a high level and football at a high level and was a ridiculous athlete.

And we had a poster said, Bo knows recruiting, you know, when we were promoting stuff about, you know,

you doing a call and all that stuff.

And so I know Bo knows recruiting, you know, that's what you've been zoned in on, you know,

for two decades and spent time with, you know, like we mentioned, some of the greatest leaders in the country.

What do you think that it takes as a leader?

Because just like sports, I think businesses similar in sports in many ways, but one of them is typically

regardless of how good of a coach you are, you know, if I got the best roster, if I got the best talent,

a lot of times I'm going to win.

You know, to mean if I got to talent.

Yep. So you're in a talent acquisition business, business, you know, as a martial artist, you know,

I would say you're a black belt and talent acquisition.

I appreciate that.

You know, so what, what would you say it takes for leaders to be able to acquire top talent?

What things would you say that it would require for, you know, a former leader in any industry?

You know, here's how you start to attract some top talent.

Well, I think, I think a lot of that starts with the, you have to use multiple channels in order to do that.

I think, I think too many people in this day and age right now are getting social media happy.

Too much is just social media.

Does that make sense?

Believe it or not, what's old is new again, you know, and so what I like to say is you've got to have a multi-channel approach.

Social media, you've got to use it.

You've got to do some personal recruiting, just who you are, but I like to say you have an ownership.

So you think social media helps?

Oh, social media helps for sure without a doubt.

We wouldn't be sitting here, right?

Yeah.

Podcasts and things.

Social media is a bit of it, but I look at social media and this is where, you know, it's just a different take is social media is the validation of what I'm going to tell you happens.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

In other words, I'm not going to utilize social media to post an ad or to do things.

I'm going to use social media to validate that what's possible within my organization?

This is what we do.

This is how we share in our lives.

This is how we celebrate.

This is how we work.

You're going to be able to get, you're going to be able to get what I call the culture of the agency or the culture of the company.

By going to social media, not read a one ad on social media.

Does that make sense?

That should be the day.

Social media to me is that dangling care of man, I want to be a part of that.

That looks fun.

That looks exciting.

Wow.

Look at that environment and have a little bit of everything.

There's going to be a little bit of the material things.

There's going to be a little bit of the emotional things, a little bit of culture, but it can't just be one.

But I think social media is very important.

I think personal recruiting comes into play and what do I mean by that?

I think you're successful recruiters in any business are always open for business.

And what I mean by that, they have an ownership mentality, which means they're always listening, not listening because they're going to recruit everyone.

But even a top recruiter at a corporate organization, let's pull out any pull out the best banking firm in the world.

Their top recruiter, even when they're not working, watches traits of people, listens to what people are saying.

And we'll go up and present themselves because right now with where the market is for recruiting.

The only people not working are typically those that don't want to right now.

So your top talent, you've got to recruit.

We're not able to hire.

See, we went through a phase during during the pandemic where we could hire.

Now we got to get back to recruiting and recruiting is just like the player who said I'm never going to go play at Alabama because I live in California.

And I like the sun and the weather.

But once they feel the sun on the grass at Alabama stadium, once they see what's going on.

Heck, I know, I know your state.

I'm Oklahoma.

I mean, that's recruiting.

Who wants to go to Oklahoma to play football?

Think about it.

National powerhouse all the time.

I use them an example name.

If I asked anyone in your room, I'll go find your 50 top managers who have moved Oklahoma.

Some might even ask, where is it?

You know what I'm saying?

Right.

But we can recruit there because when they get on campus, it's the culture to the environment.

It's that that's what social media and the face-to-face interaction works.

But next, the next big thing with the recruiting is I go back into the multi channel.

Too many people are just going one, one channel and you've got to the person that's going to

fill out the better term win in recruiting is going to have multiple

for lack of activity streams of recruiting.

They're going to do social.

They're going to do personal.

They're going to do on campus or face-to-face college type of recruiting where they can meet people.

They're going to utilize the the job boards.

Indeed, zipper cruder, the monsters, the career builders of the world, the job boards,

but they're going to have all of these going.

So if one stops, the other four still keep it going.

Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

Multiple streams.

Correct.

But most importantly is they are open to the, you know, there's always a criteria with us.

You have to get a license with some places you need to agree.

Those types of things.

But ultimately, they haven't raised this bar to where that person that's hungry doesn't get the opportunity.

Yep.

I talked about it today on your call.

Let's make sure we're not making it more difficult to become a part of this organization than it was when you joined.

Yes.

That door needs to be just as open as it was for these people now as it was for you.

I think, you know, when it comes to recruiting, you could look at it as, you know, leadership,

you know, a lot of it could be based off of your relationships.

Recruiting starts to become about networking and relationships.

A lot of are not all, but when I, if I could just speak for myself, when I look at my journey,

not everybody, but a lot of, of the people that have had the most success were people that were

personally attracted by others.

But I could just speak for myself that the, the people that I've coached, you know, over the long

haul, a lot of the people that had the most success were people that I personally recruited into the

organization. I would say half of the people I never knew before, some of the people I knew before,

but a lot of the people I never knew before, how do you think people could set a foundation for

having a good relationship while you're at the same time networking to try to try to try to

try to chip. You mean like personal recruiting relationship and at the same time do the outside?

Well, you were

you are living proof of that because when 2011 I came to visit you. Remember it was like,

hey Simon is we were an established agency in Florida. You were brand new up here and you are

handing us our tail. You know, I mean literally you are handing us our tail and it's like I left

corporate. I'm doing this. I'm like, wait, what's going on? And I came up here just to see what you

were doing in personal recruiting and what I realized was you were just doing it. You are actively

out there seeing people you own the business. You understood that the art of recruiting is people

and you understood how to communicate with people and attract people but at the same time,

that's where I kind of go to that multi-channel approach. Some people when they start having a lot of

success with personal they start to think if you're not a personal then you're not going to be

successful. And what they've really got to understand is I was not a personal. I know you're not

a mess. I was like listen, we called you. My team called you. I take credit for Simon being a part of

American income. It's yet the time Kim Smith provided us the resume and we called you from home

office or or Marcus and them contacted you. But but the but the real key to that is and that's

what sometimes happens with recruiting. People go to the magic bullet. Personal recruiting is

really working. That's all I'm going to do. And then it's oh wait indeed. It's all I'm going to do.

Oh wait this and they just have to have that balance in that same discipline the same way they would

and that's why I always try to parallel recruiting to production. Are you ever just going to be a child

safe only? Are you ever just going to do referrals? I'm just going to so mirror the two and that

tell works. You mentioned about Oklahoma having that winning 10 year that winning atmosphere. How

important do you think it is with winning organizations to have a certain culture you know that you

have that you said. She mentioned man who wants to move to Oklahoma until you come down there and you

feel the culture. Right. I mean, me and you talked about earlier. I mean, who would have thought

Oklahoma would win three national championships and softball back to back when I think softball. I

think UCLA Arizona all this now the sudden three years in a row this team out of Oklahoma has won

the national title and that's because that team has created a culture when they come on campus.

They almost create FOMO. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to miss out on that. I want to be a part of that. Yeah.

And that's why to me culture is everything and I learned a long time. The softball team. Yeah.

The softball team did that football hasn't won three in a row. I don't know if they'll

claim to that but we're a long way from there. We're just trying to get back to 500 next year. So

use up on the comments about you know when they were really really good. I know we're getting

there. Correct. A lot of it was coming from our coach. It's stooped out of the high. Maybe shout out

Bob. Well, I always claim to anything they can. I get it. I'm with you. Especially young style. I

got you. I got you. Throw me a bomb. I'm with you man. 100%. I mean, and you know, his brother was

there. So they were great. The big thing is it's culture is people. See, you don't change culture

because you put a banner on the wall. You don't change culture because you are wearing a suit

rather than a Jordan Jersey. Culture can only be changed by mindset and people. I've watched more

organizations go to another level because they the people that were holding it back decided to leave

or change in a lot of different industries. Not just ours. So I'm not. And then all of a sudden it

goes to whole another level. I mean, you know, heck our CEO Steve Greer talks about he let his dad

go and when he let his dad go out of his organization, there was even some growth there because sometimes

what you don't realize is it's people can be the lid to other people but people are really the lid

to that culture thing. And people want to be a part of it. I think now FOMO is greater than it's

ever been. And what I mean by that is fear of missing out is people show up and not for nothing but

we used to do it in Florida. This is way back. But you put the nicer cars in the front. You do this.

You dress up. People are like, wait a minute. That's kind of cool. That's kind of nice. And then

other people might see all the donations you make with inspiring with inspiring minds and the

different things that the organizations do with make tomorrow better and stuff. And who knows what

people want to do now to pay it forward makes sense. But if they can be a part of something that

does pay it forward, if they can be a part of something that gives them that opportunity for growth,

that fear of missing out is what brings them in. And that's the art of recruiting.

That's the art of recruiting. And that's why I think what you do with your grind casting,

what other organizations do, all of them do with their trying to just inform people and educate

people. You do this and more people that you've never walked in your door watch it then walk in your

door. If you were only doing this for the people here, then okay, great. We can just do it on

a zoom. Right. The fact is there are more people that get more out of this that don't come into your

organization. Right. That's paying it forward. Yeah. But that's also the that 1% that comes in. They

want a piece of it. Right. They want a part of it and the energy. And you know, me, Phil and Mike,

we're talking about it last night. I mean, just all of us going to top golf and the energy that was

at top golf and the camaraderie and the the passion. And even then because it was a contest,

there was that fear missing out. What have I got to do to get to that content? For sure. You know what I mean?

For sure. I mean, I got fear missing out when I watch you flying around the the race track because

anytime I hit my foot on the gas pedal, Natalie, you haulers at me because I ended up with a speeding

ticket. So I haven't had one in a really long time. Knock on wood. Okay, knock on wood. But,

you know, I don't know a ton about racing, but I know you're in the cars and you know, I know you

hit the race tracks and you know, and stuff like that before. How did you get into, you know,

is it is a drag race? Yeah, it's drag. Really what it is is when I was in Florida, the opportunity

afforded me the ability to I was always in Fort or sedans. And my son got to be about three. And

that's when I knew I was in trouble. He was like, Dad, your car is boring. And we literally just

one Sunday went and looked at cars. And I said, what about this one? Dad, I love I mean,

three, right? I love it. This is great. Ooh cool. Mitch is just matched as match box car. And I

got my first Dodge Challenger. And from there, it's just, you know, I joke, you know, there's a

meme out there that talks about having one type of habit was expensive, but being with cars has

gotten more expensive. This is a very expensive hobby. It's a very expensive habit that my son got

me into it started with a 99 cent match box car. And now we got a half a million dollar race

team that we go and race. Okay. And you know, we've done every and you race competitively. Yeah,

we've actually we raced. We went to no more or excuse me, we went to lights out in April and Atlanta.

Did real well there went to TX2K, which is the largest kind of street car race in the nation made

it to the semi finals out of 39 cars. That's sweet. It's a lot of fun. But and you built that car

yourself. Well, we took the ball. We well, not yourself, but your hands. Here's what the bull has

done it. Bought the car and then upgraded it significantly. Yeah. And, uh, wow. Now it's a lot of

fun. And you bring a team. Oh, no, like when you race, you have people that, you know, like when I

watch it, if somebody blows a tire out, there's like a team of people. Yeah, in order to be because

it's only like eight seconds down the strip. Okay. It's just a straight shot. Yeah, straight shot.

Okay. Um, if you blow a tire, it's real. You just gotta bring it back around. Typically, in most

cases, if I'm going out of state, I'll take the family, but for most like Sunday, I before I came

here, a lot of times I will go race to clear my mind before I'm going on a trip to just kind of.

So Sunday went down to the track by myself, pulled the trailer, unload the car because it's it takes

about just and this is me and Phil. Phil gives me a hard time. Just to unload the car and get the

car ready to go down the track takes about three hours. And it's eight seconds on the track. So

it's three hours of preparation for eight seconds. Great seconds. And I said, Phil, so it's like,

well, but that's what just what we're going to relate it to. I said, Phil, the reason why I enjoy

it so much is it reminds me the process is more important than the if I was only doing it for the

eight seconds. Guess what I wouldn't do. Right. But that process, it keeps me grounded in that

the process is what matters. I go through my safety checks. I make sure the fire bottles are set. I

make sure the parachute set. I make sure the brakes are good. All the tire pressures are right because

it's eight seconds at 160 plus miles an hour and anything could go wrong. You know, it's you and

two cement walls and a sand trap at the end and you either stop or so the preparation is more

important than the eight seconds because right seconds could be life and death. Could be life and

death. I don't like the thing that but it could be it could definitely not it could definitely go

wrong. Yeah. So it's the preparation. Well, so is life as you said, but so is any business. How you

prepare will definitely dictate more times than not the result that you get. Yeah. So it sounds like

you know, I was going to end with you know, what would be your advice to people new and not just

our business, but just new to getting into into business. And it's, you know, I don't want to

answer for you, but it sounds a lot of sounds like a lot of what you've said has been about that

just process process and and understand the process. You only can learn the process by asking questions.

I I am still convinced to this day with my staff and even myself, I had a meeting with with my

superior Friday before we came here and my whole deal was I sent him ahead of time because I don't

like I said, I said him ahead of time. The questions I was going to ask because I wanted to have him

time to digest and maybe give me a better answer at the time versus that meeting be discovery to have

to have a discussion later. So ask questions. If you're new to something, you cannot be afraid to

ask questions. You know, I always like to tell, you know, I tell my team the answers know if you don't

ask the question, right. But if you ask the question, remember, everyone needs to remember in business,

your leader, the owner or whoever it is, they're they want to say yes. They want to say yes. The

only reason they they say no is you probably just either the question wasn't phrased right or they're

not sure that you're aware of it. Do you have an asked enough questions to give them the confidence

that you can handle the next question. So asking questions being opened to guidance, but but

seizing that opportunity and realizing that asking questions about the process will ensure you get

the result you're looking for. So no, have an idea. Don't know me wrong. Have an idea where you

want to finish, but you got to ask the right questions to get you there. Yeah. When I hear asking

questions, you know, that's just being a student. Right. And I talk sometimes about there's a

difference between being coachable and ambidenous student. Well coachable, it's like I'm going to coach

you. I'm going to tell you what to do. Being a student is what you're talking about. Yeah. And that's

the biggest, the hardest part for most people is actually being the student. There are a ton of people

we both know this and me included sometimes we say, man, I'm willing to tell me anything. I'm willing

to learn. But then no, we're willing to hear anything. And then we're going to figure out what part

we're going to implement. Yeah. And what we need to understand is, you know, a puzzle isn't a

complete puzzle if you leave certain pieces out. So you can't pick and choose what you're going to

implement. You ask the question and your mentor, a leader, whoever gives you the answer, you don't

normally get to pick what parts you want to use. You got to use them all. And most people,

when they struggle, they pick which parts they are comfortable doing and the ones they're not,

they leave out. And then therefore they want to know why they never get that complete picture.

The winning is in the winning is in the parts that you that you want to leave out.

Hunter, that always right. That's where the winning is done. Always. That's the cherry on top.

If it was just about doing the things that we want to do, then we all would be doing it.

Yeah. I'll be in that chair and you'll be over here. The separation is, is, is, uh,

well, you can have this chair. But that is the difference. Right. The hundred percent.

And doing the stuff that you don't feel like taking coaching. That's where that's where all the

winning is at, you know, right there. When, when people ask me, what does it take? You know,

I came in and I remember you said about the thing in, you know, Waco. And I'd love to hear what you

thought. Maybe if you can remember what, what made you thought that I would be successful.

But I could tell you, I remember, I remember you, you giving me the opportunity to earn the

cufflinks because it meant so much to me. I had those cufflinks and I know you know those

cufflinks because you talked about how there were rear, they were real silver and they started to,

you know, you had a pulse on the pulse. I rode those suckers to the wheels fell off. You

know, I had those things for over a decade. You talk about sentimental, you know, it was just in the

moment back when we were in the bottom of Waco doing leadership schools, you know, those cufflinks were

the only pairs of cufflinks I ever had, you know, in my life. My first interview off of that

resume, I borrowed the suit, you know, from my uncle. And I still have the tie, you know, that I

wore to that interview and I look at, you know, the jokes that I, when I try to coach our people,

and I still don't got it all down on, you know, how to dress to impress completely, you know, but

when I try to give the young folks some tidbits on how to dress to make sure they don't feel bad

about themselves, you know, I go back and pull up my old pictures. I'm like, look at me, look at

what I look like, you know, right there. That's what I started out with in the beginning. And,

you know, I could just tell you when people ask me, what does it take? You know, if I could pick,

you know, out of this stack of resumes, who's going to make it? It would be that person that

is not going to give up no matter what the adversity point. It would be the person that's going to

bring a work ethic and the person that is the most coachable. If you don't quit and you bring a work

ethic, where I'm going to outwork everybody, which is all of these things are controllable.

And then I'm going to be the most coachable person. I'm going to be the best student. You know,

those three things, I think if you can apply that to anything in life, you're going to have an

astronomical amount of success and the great thing that I found was it's all in your control. When

I realized that I can, you know, God bless me with the ability to walk into a company by the grace of

God. You know, I put that resume online for a college class that I crammed for that I waited

until last second and didn't even really expect to take the job. I just didn't interview because

the teacher said I had to do an interview to pass the class and show that I did it and all that

stuff. And when I realized that those steps were led, you know, to me and I don't want to force my

beliefs on it. But when I realized I believed those steps were led by the grace of God, you know,

to this place. When I started to realize you talk about your start date and your commit date,

when I realized that people cared for me, you know, like you were talking about when I realized

the stability of the company. But when I realized that my success was going to be based on my own

merit that I was in control and blew my mind. I never realized that that people would have the

ability. I thought that you were almost, you know, you had to go and this is what you were supposed

to do. You know, coming from youngstown, you just, you know, you go, you get a job, you work for 30

years, you know, you retire with a retirement, you know, at 65 and somebody tells you what to do.

Never really in that process that anybody opened my mind.

mind that it would be so similar to sports that if you just put yourself on the team you

will have the same opportunity to earn a starting position and you would be in control.

That's what I realized that has changed my life and would change people's lives.

If people just realize how much control that they have over their own success and all the

things that you're searching for out there, the answers are already within our control.

I want to say thank you for coming on to Grindcast and giving us your time, Bo, 20 some years.

I'm coming up on 18th and December, that means we could say the majority because it's

more than half.

The majority of our careers we've been able to work on the same team with each other

and work for the team on the front of the jersey.

I'm grateful to share that experience with you and I appreciate you.

Thank you so much for your time and all that you do.

One thing to answer, you know why you got the cuff links?

You asked a question.

You came and asked, what do I have to do to get the cuff links?

Your point there validates the whole thing when I talk about asking the question.

You asked the question, that's why you got what you got.

You've got to ask questions to get where you want to go.

I just want you to know myself, you and Natalie have blessed my family with the things

that we've done together, the conventions, the talks, some of the...

We've had some tough talks and we've had some good talks, but just the time with your family

and my family as well as how we've grown up together here at A.I.L. and Globe, it's much

appreciated and your success and your continued successes all we want.

We're just getting started.

You bet.

Just getting started.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of The Grandcast.

Get ready, it's a new day.