Smith and I'm an agency owner with Farmers Insurance.

I grew up in a middle class family all the way up until I was about 13 and then my dad lost his job and then all of a sudden he was gone and I was being raised by my mom by herself.

She was probably making 20 grand a year. You know, in order for me to have a car, I had to pay for the car, I had to pay for the gas, I had to do everything on my own.

So the independent thinking had to come early if I wanted to do anything.

I didn't want to have a boss.

I did independent things without, you know, working for somebody else.

Even at 15, I had my own wand company that I was doing 60 yards a week. And, you know, so I 15 I had my own one company that was doing 60

yards a week and you know so I've always had my own thing for the most part and

then in my 20s I you know worked for other people and I hated it and always thought

man I could be doing this on my own better than he could so owning my own business

was something that I've always known and wanted to do

since I was, you know, 14, 15 years old. Little did I know how stinking hard it was going to be

for the first five years. I mean, it was incredibly hard. In-laws have a moving company, so I worked for

them during the day. I'd come in the office at night and I'd make cold calls all night long, some design work on the side, designing logos, doing some websites and stuff like that. So the first two or three years wasn't just selling insurance. It was picking any odds and end jobs that I could pick up to make this thing work. Because I had a wife who stayed at home, I had two babies at the house. So, I mean, I had to

work my tail off. A couple of years ago, man, I was stuck in a rut. I really honestly was,

and I couldn't see it. Not because I was doing it wrong, it's because I didn't know any better.

Rates were not good. Selling was difficult. Staffing was just unbelievably difficult to keep good

staff in here. I was having a ton of turnover. And I was about ready to hang it up and sell

out. I was just done. And that's about when I got introduced to the concept of the will of wealth

and thrive. Some of the specific things I've learned about running my business is

systems and being organized.

Before, I think I just kind of shot from the hip a lot of times.

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