Embark on a transformative sojourn with Jay, a luminary in the life insurance realm, as he narrates the pivotal switch from his electrician's toolkit to the echelons of the Million Dollar Round Table. Our latest episode unveils Jay's odyssey, accentuating the potency of persistence and the monumental impact of mentorship in sculpting a prosperous career. With anecdotes that illustrate his resilience against the backdrop of the garment industry and life insurance sector, Jay's journey is a testament to the credo that embracing rejection as a stepping stone is key to transcending professional plateaus.
Dive into the psyche of a former baseball player whose tenacity in the face of skepticism catapulted him into a premier industry player. Jay's discourse delivers an empowering message on the art of converting criticism into motivation and the significance of nurturing a passion for your vocation. Taking a page from his playbook, we explore the magic woven through genuine connections and the reciprocating nature of kindness in the world of business referrals. The chapter draws back the curtain on how self-belief, coupled with the wisdom gleaned from mentors, can be the compass guiding you through the labyrinth of doubt to the pinnacle of your aspirations.
Concluding with a celebration of the virtues of hard work and integrity, Jay shares the harmonic convergence of personal values and professional ethics. He imparts nuggets of wisdom on the relevance of goal-setting and meticulous record-keeping, with real-life examples that underscore the unexpected rewards of altruism and networking. Furthermore, he extends a magnanimous offer of mentorship to listeners, reinforcing the ethos that the spirit of generosity and community is the cornerstone of enduring success. Join us to absorb these pearls of wisdom that could redefine the trajectory of your career.
Embark on a transformative sojourn with Jay, a luminary in the life insurance realm, as he narrates the pivotal switch from his electrician's toolkit to the echelons of the Million Dollar Round Table. Our latest episode unveils Jay's odyssey, accentuating the potency of persistence and the monumental impact of mentorship in sculpting a prosperous career. With anecdotes that illustrate his resilience against the backdrop of the garment industry and life insurance sector, Jay's journey is a testament to the credo that embracing rejection as a stepping stone is key to transcending professional plateaus.
Dive into the psyche of a former baseball player whose tenacity in the face of skepticism catapulted him into a premier industry player. Jay's discourse delivers an empowering message on the art of converting criticism into motivation and the significance of nurturing a passion for your vocation. Taking a page from his playbook, we explore the magic woven through genuine connections and the reciprocating nature of kindness in the world of business referrals. The chapter draws back the curtain on how self-belief, coupled with the wisdom gleaned from mentors, can be the compass guiding you through the labyrinth of doubt to the pinnacle of your aspirations.
Concluding with a celebration of the virtues of hard work and integrity, Jay shares the harmonic convergence of personal values and professional ethics. He imparts nuggets of wisdom on the relevance of goal-setting and meticulous record-keeping, with real-life examples that underscore the unexpected rewards of altruism and networking. Furthermore, he extends a magnanimous offer of mentorship to listeners, reinforcing the ethos that the spirit of generosity and community is the cornerstone of enduring success. Join us to absorb these pearls of wisdom that could redefine the trajectory of your career.
Jay got into the business in 1976, a life member of the million dollar round table, but not just a lifetime member at the highest level, which is called top of the table. And to achieve the top of the table is not a simple feat. To be there and then to also be a lifetime member is pretty great. How did you get started in the business Interesting?
Jay Weintraub:
question. Let me just step back a little bit in time. My father was one of the biggest electrical contractors in Philadelphia and the imminent partners said don't go to temple full time, get in the electrical business. So I became an apprentice electrician at local 98 and continued to school every night and every weekend until I got my degree from temple and after five and a half years I hate the business and I left. So it wasn't for me. I didn't trust my dad's partners. I trusted my dad, who was my best friend, but I didn't trust his partners. So I left the business, got into the garment industry for a year and a half or two years, did very well.
Jay Weintraub:
I worked for a company called Samour Fashions which is no longer a business but they bought and sold peace goods, private goods from like Calvin Klein. They made 2000 extra dozen sherpas. So they would have people around the country sell to the department stores and they asked me to take over the in-house sales, which was about $1,000 a week in sales. And I said how do I do this? I said here's the yellow pages and I went in and called stores and within three months I had it up to $25,000 a week. So I knew I could sell. And then a friend of mine, his sister, who I was dating, convinced me to come into the life insurance business which I do with equitable life, and that was pre-contract training in December of 76. And here I am, all these years later, going okay, look, we've done.
Michael Fox:
What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced at the very beginning?
Jay Weintraub:
Getting past the word no. And I realized my manager at the time was Roland Healsen, who was fabulous, and he told me that I would never succeed. And I said why'd you hire me? He said, well, I had a goal and a quote. I had to hire you. And Jeff said to hire you. And I said all right. And I said well, why won't I succeed? And he said because you're not married, you're not going to be kids, you're not going to have a mortgage. And he gave me a whole list of things.
Jay Weintraub:
What he didn't know that my entire life I was always told you can't do this, because my motivation was always to prove people wrong. So I said to Roland I said you're the number one sales manager in equitable life. Tell me what to do and I'll do it. If I succeed, you can take all the credit. If I fail, you will get all the credit. He said to me well, see, no less than four people, four new people a week, due to one for the year. Keep records of that. And if you do that, you'll get at least one sale every week in the next three months. So I did what he told me and that's how.
Michael Fox:
I started. Sometimes we'll go to someone that we consider a mentor and we'll ask them what should I do? And they lay it out for us and then we create our own way of doing it and don't listen to that person. I'm interested to hear what your thought process is on listening to the advice that someone who's at a higher level that you really respect. Should you take that to heart and do that 100% People?
Jay Weintraub:
didn't become successful by ignoring other people's great ideas. I was told in this industry when I started that some of the most fabulous ideas that they used to obtain from other people. So in 1978, which was my or 77, I started officially in June. 78 was my first full year when I followed five for the million dollar round table in my first year but you want to have to tell anybody you were with a provisional applicant and I went to the MD or team meeting, radio City Music Hall in New York City, blew me away and I got some great ideas and I went back. It was a fellow, steve Jacobs, who was a wonderful mentor to me. Ronnie Lurch was a mentor to me and they just told me some great things and I went.
Jay Weintraub:
Well, they're making a lot of money, they're successful, they're happy. Why don't I do what they're doing? So I did it and it was pretty simple and simple idea. If you want to make it a state, take the estate tax table, sit down with the client and say here's the estate tax table, excuse me, where is your estate fall? And they'll point to a number. I said go to the right, see the tax. You want it to go to your children and grandchildren, or do you want it to go to the government? And they go? Of course I wanted to go to like children and grandchildren, here's your sale. So it's a simple idea turned into a lot of money in people's states because we protected the estates?
Michael Fox:
In your experience in working with people, do they make it much more difficult than it has to be at times?
Jay Weintraub:
Sometimes yes, sometimes the attorneys will make it much more complicated, but it still comes down to what is motivating that person to make a movement. You know it comes to life insurance. You only buy life insurance for two reasons you love someone or you owe someone. That's it. So if you find out what motivates that prospect, all right, you can easily solve their problem. It's not always life insurance, but we've sold a lot of life insurance solving problems.
Michael Fox:
You have a whole system where goals, by setting those goals and keeping track over the years, that's really one of the key contributors to making you super successful. Is that?
Jay Weintraub:
the case? Absolutely. Let's first identify goals. If anyone's paying attention I hope you have a pencil in your hand A goal must be conceivable.
Jay Weintraub:
In the great book by Napoleon Hill, thinking Grow Rich you Over the Mind of man can conceive and believe if he can achieve and that book was written a long time ago your goal has to be conceivable. Many of us get on our goals through what's called dreams. We wake up in the morning and have what we call uh uh. This is what I think I want. The difference between a dream you wanna make a goal and just a dream it's a neat thing to think about is the things we want the most. We dream in vivid color. The things that are passing watch go by in black and white. So if you identify your goal, it's conceivable. It has to be believable. You must be achievable, measurable and, more importantly, accountable, cause if you're not accountable to somebody and I have to be accountable to my chief of staff, my wife, as well as my staff and my office If it's not accountable, it doesn't count, because you can make up excuses. So when do we set our goals? December, the 11th, every year. I sit down, it's my mother's birthday and I go. What do I think I want, and I can have 10 or 15 things that I'll write down. And then I go what do I really want? And then I'll narrow it down to the top five or six and then I write that in my goal book. And I have a book. I don't have it with me, but I have this beautiful book. It's a satin book that a former employee gave to me back in 1990, this is my second, I had one from day one but it has a rainbow on the front and every year I write down my goals on the right-hand page and as I achieve those goals then they go on the back of the page called my victories. As an example, it set a goal to sell my house by June of last year in M Bucks Kennedy. The house was closed on June 30th. It was in my goal book, so we achieved it.
Jay Weintraub:
But writing down that goal could be as simple as gee. I want to make $100,000, and let's make up another. Write it down. That's the elicit. How do you read an elicit? One byte at a time. So if I know that I need an opening interview 10 of them and new in your career maybe you'll get two closing interviews out of the 10 to get one sale. And if that one sale averages $1,000, I need 100 sales. When I started I had in the front of my employment book a graph and I kept track every month of my sales for the first 10 years of my career on that to see what were my good months and bad months. So if I know I need $1,000 in a case, I gotta say okay, I have to see so many people to get so many interviews, to get so many closing interviews to present my ideas, to get so many closings. When I started my career I was 200 interviews a year. Well, number four weeks, not so bad. That's what achieved them too.
Michael Fox:
Very small bites, like you were saying you're gonna eat the elephant, you're gonna do the and bite size. So you had to get in front of four people. You're brand new in the business. How do you do that? Cause there's a lot of people that are fairly new and one of the things I always say is so hard to get in front of a prospect, how do I do it? How do I get in front of people? How do I get the business? How do I close? What is your advice for them? Well, one way to start is create relics.
Jay Weintraub:
The first list is people that you can call, say hey, it's Jay, how are you? And they don't say Jay, who? That could be your family, that could be your friends. The next list, which is gonna be at least twice as long hi, it's Jay Weintraub, how are you. The next list is hi, it's Jay Weintraub. You know me or I know you through somebody. So that's gonna be your biggest list.
Jay Weintraub:
Start with the people you know and say I have no reason to believe that you're in need of my financial planning expertise or insurances or whatever, but do you have a moment that we could spend together? Just like I didn't tell you about what I do and how I do it? No, one's gonna say no. Somebody may say, when you're all finished, you know what? I'm okay, I've been dealing with a guy for years and I can say you know what. I wouldn't have expected you to say that. Who do you know that I can talk to? If your best friend walked in that you were right now, would you introduce me or would you let me sit here like a log? Well, there's a Of course. I'd say we'd introduce you. Please introduce me to that person. And that's how you start.
Michael Fox:
Did you ever get to where you were running out of people?
Jay Weintraub:
If I ran out of people, it's because I stopped the prospecting. Okay, you can't stop. Remember the goal, make your plan, pursue that plan and keep records.
Michael Fox:
So yeah, four a week, you had your goal. So how did you work that? How did you do it?
Jay Weintraub:
Well, I knew the industry said make your phone calls on Monday night. They asked for appointments that week, all right, and I said is that what everybody else does? And Roland said yes, and Roland the houseman, I went, I'm not going to do that. Because everyone said, oh, I'm busy Tuesday, I'm busy Wednesday, I'm busy Thursday, which is, when are you going to make your calls? I'm going to make them Thursday night. So every Thursday night, whether I was in the office or at home, I picked up I had cell phones back then I picked up the phone and I made phone calls until I had four appointments set. At least I didn't stop, because if you stop, you lose.
Michael Fox:
You would really need to have a mindset that was pretty solid to keep you consistent in making the phone calls. How did you keep yourself with the proper mindset to be able to stay consistent and persistent?
Jay Weintraub:
That's a great question. Let me take you back to my baseball days. Okay, many people don't know that, but I was fortunate that I played a minor league ball for the Cincinnati Rates. But if I go back to when I was seven years old, I tried out for a baseball team Little league and back then not everybody made the team and I tried out for the Pirates because Mr Poore's I was friends with his son, richie was a former minor league player from Mississippi, and I went out. He says go to the center field. I said where's center field? He said out the center field and he hit a ball and the ball was a grounder and it hit a stone and it hit me in the chin. I came up crying and I got cut. I did not make the team so I said to God we'll never get cut from baseball again. So for the next year I went behind my house with a tennis ball or back then we had pimple balls and I threw 100 balls a day at the garage until I never missed the ball.
Jay Weintraub:
After that my baseball career took off. Now, along the way I had, people says you're not going to make a baseball because you're too skinny and you're Jewish and skinny Jewish kids can't play baseball and I ended up becoming one of the premier players and shot out for you on an elite travel team. I played American Legion. I did not play high school ball because I didn't like the coach and I didn't need him. To further my career, I played a little bit of Temple, invited to the Sinai Reds, and I spent six weeks at the Miners until I left my family and my career was over. I never lacked. Someone else's perception of me become my reality.
Michael Fox:
How many times do we listen to other people? They tell us their opinion and, for whatever reason, we'll believe it to be the truth, and then, if it's a negative opinion, it can stop us from moving forward and we can give up. So it sounds like again your mindset was solid. In fact, it actually seemed to work the opposite for you If someone said you couldn't do it, it was a motivator to actually push you to go even harder to get what you wanted.
Jay Weintraub:
Well, remember what I said at the very beginning. Roland Hausman said I won't succeed because I'm young, I'm married and I have no bills. My greatest motivator is tell me what I can do and I'll show you what I can do.
Michael Fox:
How important is it for someone to be doing what they love?
Jay Weintraub:
There's nothing more exciting than waking up in the morning with a person for what you do. When I get up in the morning, there's two things I always think of. One is be humble. Never forget where you came from. I told you earlier that I grew up in a row house in second and Chaldea. My parents did not come from wealth and my father used to tell the story. At one point we were so poor we brought the trash in. Anything we wanted we had to end up with. When I wanted to pair of jeans and we were able to wear them to school, I worked at a place called Martin's Aquarium, which was my cousin's place. I earned the money in a dollar an hour to buy a pair of jeans.
Jay Weintraub:
I wake up humble every day. I never forget where I came from. I'm not so special, I'm just doing a great job to make a difference in people's lives. I wake up with that passion to make a difference and I wake up scared where every day? Am I doing enough for my family? Am I doing enough for my community? Am I doing enough for my friends and my clients? That's the scared part. It's really not a scare, but am I doing enough People? And scared is my mantra, and I shouldn't just do better every day.
Michael Fox:
If someone came to you who maybe wouldn't be of help it wasn't a client, but they wanted help from you how would you treat that person?
Jay Weintraub:
Everybody has to be treated. We talked a little bit about the golden rule. The golden rule is treat others the way you would want to be treated. They'll be going to go to the platinum rule and that is treat others the way we believe they want to be treated, or that they do want to be treated Everybody, whether you're a client who comes to me.
Jay Weintraub:
Here's a great example. I go to a place called Bob's Fish Market on Tilden Road. I've got my own business and I've gotten to know the guys pretty well. One of the guys there is a young man and he's got tattoos. He's inked up and says to me one day Jamie, what do you do? I tell him this is me driving a car. But you always come in here. Look at that, no idea. Well, he had him a billion dollars or two dollars, and he said can you help me? We're starting him on a program just saving him like 25 to 50 dollars a month to get him started. So to me, making a difference in someone's life has nothing to do with where they are. It's what's making us feel good and making a difference. Somebody goes see that white trail. He took care of me when I didn't have a nickel. Now look at me, and that's what makes me go.
Michael Fox:
When we do good things for other people, when we're kind and we do the right thing, it comes back. It may not come back from that individual person, but it does come back, and I don't know if you're sharing the story that you then emailed me later about what happened after our call, because I just thought that was perfect.
Jay Weintraub:
We were on a phone call and we were talking about how I prospect for business and do I let people know about what I do? And I don't. I don't want to toot my own horn and I'm involved in many community activities and I do it out of my horn because I enjoy that. And how do we get business? Some people want to toot their horn all over the place and maybe that drives a little business to you. But the best way for me to get business, and the only way we get business, is referrals. If you're referred by your cousin, your brother, great story, quick story. And that was as we were having our conversation. I got two referral phone calls, messages as we were on the phone and I was like, wow, the universe is pretty cool, it does work.
Michael Fox:
So we're talking, jay commits to me and says, yeah, I want to do this because I want to it. Anyway, it can be of help to other people. You know I'd love to do that. And then, literally five minutes, not even, it was like two minutes after we got up, you sent me a message and you said can you believe it? But here we go, and that is proof that if we do the right thing and we treat people the right way, things come back to us. If you believe, or beliefs, did you have to have to become a success in the business?
Jay Weintraub:
You have to believe in yourself. It's so important. What's equally important is find somebody who you admire and befriend them. I had Steve Jacobson for it. I said to Steve can you help me? What do you need? Can I walk in the room occasionally just to pick your brain and find a case, whatever the case may be? And Steve said yeah, and he was a great mentor to me. I also had a couple of people that were new in the business around the same time I was, that are still in the business and we still talk to each other and pick our brains and occasionally we all need to be picked up. Something happens and just has you. And you know what? None of us are perfect. We all need a little pickup. Wherever you can get it, you gotta get it.
Michael Fox:
Yeah, I love that, jay. Anyone in the business, at any level of the business, two or three things that they really need to know and practice.
Jay Weintraub:
First is I had the opportunity in 1977 or 1978 to meet Mark Mr Victor Hanson, and he came to Cork, Arc and Skoge. I think George Cork paid him $300 to speak. Some of you may know who he is. Some of you may have read Chicken Soup for the Soul and other books. That's Mark Victor Hanson and Mark and I. I said to Mark can I be your friend? And Mark said sure, so I would call Mark two, three, four times a year just to talk and to get ideas. And Mark told me one thing there's three little letters you have to put together every single day, A-S-K. And if you ask people, if you ask people, can I have a meeting. If you ask people to move forward with the next step in your process, if you ask people to say, can we move forward? If you ask you're going to get yeses, and when you get your nose, bank that person for same though, because you're that much closer to your yes. So never let the nose stop. You Use them to propel you to your yeses, and that's important.
Michael Fox:
So there's people watching and they have mentors all around them and some of them again may be thinking does he have time for me? But if someone comes to you and they say, Jay, I'm really want to learn about the business, I want to grow, I've seen you've been really successful, Can you help me out? What goes through your mind when someone says that to you and they're sincere?
Jay Weintraub:
I am so flattered that some of them would think that highly, and I have four or five younger people around the country that I mentor. I also run well. Unfortunately, this year we put it until we have one in February, but not since I run study groups and I'll have six or seven advisors from around the country fly in to come to my office because they think I'm special. I'm not special, I'm not, but I'm always wanting to share ideas or listen and we'll really get ideas from now because that makes me better. So mentoring people is a joy. When, when I get someone an idea or they call me, say, jay, I have a situation, how do you think I might handle it? And then they call me back and go it works, it worked, that's the best, that's the greatest. But it's not the withdrawals that we take from the bank of life, it's the plume as it's.
Michael Fox:
You're doing a fundraiser. I was wondering if you could talk about that, because perhaps maybe someone might want to help with help you with that. We're getting close to the end here, but I wanted to touch on one Another thing that you feel is really important how did you get the passion and how do you maintain the passion along the way?
Jay Weintraub:
I'm going to give the credit to my dad. My dad told me he came from Lothan and him and his partners became one of the biggest electrical contractors in Philadelphia at one point and he loved what he did and he would go to work at six o'clock every day. He would walk in that back door to the house and then he would have dinner with the family and then he would work. He would take up blueprints and work and he'd say, jay, you'll always be hardworking, be honest, be loyal, be trustworthy and if you love what you do, do it with all your heart. So I learned from my dad you know those wonderful traits in a person and fortunately he gave them to me, maybe genetically or just to osmosis and I wake up with a passion every day that I want to do more.
Jay Weintraub:
Now listen guys, january the first, I'm going to be 69 and I still work at a crazy pace. But I take my family time, I take my vacation time. I do those things. But whatever I do, I'd love my family with a passion. I'd love my friends with a passion. When I play golf, you know I do with a passion and if you bring that passion to your practice, people will get it. Don't get the sense that you love it, and they will bring people to your practice. You're going to be Jay. This guy really cares, and there's an old saying people don't want to know how much you know, they want to know how much you care. And once you show them how much you care and they get it, then you can show them how much you know, I love that.
Michael Fox:
What percentage of your business is investment based versus life insurance?
Jay Weintraub:
Kind of interesting question. Right now we have a nice book of business with investments and I would say this year we're probably 60% is from advisory fees and probably 35% is from insurance sales and the rest are world trails.
Michael Fox:
Got it. You've been to all these million dollar round table meetings and some of the meetings with the top of the table like the elite of the elite. What were some of the things that made them so special?
Jay Weintraub:
One has to have a plan. If you talk to the 10 top advisors in any meeting, they all have a different way of doing business. You have to find out what makes you happy and how you want to do business.
Jay Weintraub:
We had a meeting that we recently ran. There were 22 advisors in the meeting and a young fellow in the meeting about 35 in the county who got into the financial businesses. Jay, unless somebody has a million dollars, we are not going to pay them as a client. And this was April and I said that's great. How many new clients did you bring in so far this year? And he says none. And I said why? Well, nobody had over a million. I said do you eat every day? And he looked at me and he said what's your average account size? Our average account size is $141,000. He doesn't tell it much, but he was a great story, real quick.
Jay Weintraub:
A young lady works for a salon that we have their simple plan and she said can I come in and see you one evening at six o'clock? She had $1,300 in her account. And can I bring my mom Sure? She came in my son matches with me at the meeting and we treated her like she had $10 million and we explained in simple terms what she has and what's going on. And the mother afterwards says maybe you can help me and I said well, we'd love to. We were flattered that you would think that way, we picked up a $3.8 million in assets from the mother. That's the Uncle Louis story. Everybody has an Uncle Louis. So don't look at somebody because they're tiny. Look at somebody because they have a problem or concern and you solve that problem and you help them work their way to their concerns, and sure, the Uncle Louis shows up.
Michael Fox:
I love it, jay. I just want to say thank you. There's been so many great nuggets here for everyone out there. I appreciate you being here taking out of time, out of your schedule. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Any last thing that you want to leave everyone with?
Jay Weintraub:
that last statement yes, you know, when they keep scoring baseball, they want to know who wins. So we talked about goals conceivable, believable, achievable, measurable and accountable. All right, I keep detailed records on everything the opening interviews, closed interviews, sales, the amount of dollars where they came from right. You have to keep score, if not you're just wasting your time. So the one thing plan it, work your plan. Never give up.
Michael Fox:
What's the best way for someone to track it? Just keeping it as simple as possible.
Jay Weintraub:
I created a self-spread cheat. Yeah, okay. One last story December 31st of 2018, I had to go to XML, I think. At that time I wanted to have 80 interviews opening interviews for the year, and it was December 31st and I give my staff off so they can begin celebrating my birthday on New Year's Eve, but I go into the office just to make sure everything's all buttoned up and whatever I have to do. And I walked in on December of 2018, pretty upset because I was one opening shy of 80. And I'm going what do I do? Why? Who do I call? All the people I know mostly get away, and so I'm sitting there working on I'm like sulking over one interview. My phone rang. Jay this is so-and-so. Bill so-and-so referred me to you. You have a minute to talk to me right now. I got my 80th interview.
Michael Fox:
That's amazing. I love that, Jay. Thank you again so much for all your time.
Jay Weintraub:
Anyone wants to pick my brain is not allowed to pick. You're welcome to call me. I'll give you my number, if that's okay, in my call, that's 100% sure. Yeah, I'll give you my cell because we're not working from the office 215-760-2869. You're welcome to call and if I can make a difference it'll make us both feel good.
Michael Fox:
Does that not say it all here? Jay just gave out his cell phone to everyone here, so if you have a question or you need help with something, here is someone that's already where you want to be. He just opened up the floor to ask for some help.
