Producers' Playbook - Christian Pounder

0:00Well, good morning, Equus Nation. And welcome to this week's producer playbook. Pretty excited about this one. This is my second one coming out of conference. We had the great one last week with all the ladies just killed it. Just these people just tearing it up. And then this week, I just thought to be appropriate to bring another face that's well known to Equus. And for new people, maybe not as much, but you're going to get to know. And there's several reasons why I've got Christian pounder on today. And my theme really is consistency, model of consistency. And we can talk. We're going to speak to that a little bit and his consistency. The last five or six years, it's just been insane. And I'm going to share when I say insane, what I mean by that. And it's crazy. And you've just been amazing. I mean, I've watched your growth from day one. We're not going to go all the way back to when we first met in New Orleans.

1:00But I'm just going to say from that point to where you are now. And then I watched you at these tables and you were one of the leaders at the conference. And it was just blowing my mind, listening to you speak to people. And it wasn't like Christian was out there trying to drum up stuff because I'm a leader now. I've got to say it a certain way. It was just coming out of you. And it was coming out of you with authority because that authority comes from doing it, becomes from successes. It becomes from pain and failure that grow. And then you grow out of that and you grow yourself into this what you are now. And I look at you when you went in first met you had no kids. You were not making any money. You weren't married. And now I look at you've got kids. In fact, one of them you're sitting with today because you're working out of your house like everybody does. And you're you're incredible production. It's just insane. I'm going to go over those numbers. Like I said, you're married and just looking at you develop yourself as a leader.

2:01It's just awesome to see. So back we're going to go back to 2023. This is personal production. Christian pounder issue paid. These are issue paid numbers. I'm giving you today not submit numbers for all of this. 360,000. 2024 into year 387,994. 2025 387,100. When you're issuing those kind of numbers issue paid his contract level. Folks, you don't have to wonder is he making money regardless of what his lead expenses make it money. Year to date so far you're at 302 and we all know going into September, October, November, December. You're about close to 40 to 50% of what you're going to make for the whole year in those four months. That being the case, I don't see any reason why you can't eclipse 450,000 this year. I think that that's kind of the trend you're on. And I know you've got something going on with.

3:02Try to remember the other the other agent that you compete with all the time. Anyways, you constantly fighting for the top you guys are, your guys are going at it all the time. And I see that you're probably going to hit like I said 450, but I look at, then I look at your team. Now this was the one that I'm really excited about. I know you are too. 2000 and 23 your team production was 579,000. 2000, 24 team production, 598,000 took a really nice leap last year to 678,000. These are issue paid numbers. And then, and then this year, you're already at 504,000. I mean, you're not that far away from your totals in 2023 and 24. And again, we're just now rolling into September. So let's talk about this for a second. When I want to find out, and I think people want to know is, let's talk about what have you done? What would you say specifically that you think you would point to that's

4:04made you so darn predictable and consistent because when you're predictable and consistent like this, you're, you're very profitable. And, and it gives you a sense of calm. But I know that you have urgency every single day too. So talk about how you worked your way into this consistent mode because it hasn't always been that way. Well, listen, and here and really at the end of the day for me, personal experience of being inconsistent. It's finally drove me to just say, you know what? Right. You're just going to be consistent because being inconsistent, this is too hard to be doing to not get the results that you need to begin. And they come by being consistent. So like through the years, what will happen is Bill is I would be content, right? Because I would just be sad if it was a number, basically. And so when I hit that number, even if it was mid-month, what would I do? Just subconsciously, I was like, all right, right?

5:05Or things would come up and I just wouldn't work the same. And so that, that's not a fun way to be in this business. Because then what you have to do is make up an extra activity. The next week or two to get yourself back, right? And see for me, I got so good at it that I could work with my back against the wall for two weeks, right? And really grand and get my result and then coast for two weeks. So for me, man, it was the up and down living of just doing enough and then slacken and then having to just like this, right? Like this. See, sales in itself is like this already. If you're even if you're consistent, but if you're consistent, you're like this through all this. And so the results come and go, but if you're consistent, you're going to be right there when the tide comes back in because it always will. But being inconsistent for me, what happens is you leave the beach.

6:05With the tide coming back in, you're not there. So you got to still be standing at the end of the day, after the storm, after the right, all of it. If you're just standing there still, you're going to be okay. So me personally, it was the pain of the living the other way that finally was like, I'm just going to be consistent. It's not about a number. It's about, hey, look, I'm going to every single day. I'm going to give it all I got whatever that is. I'm going to do everything I can. So like yesterday, summer was sick. Bo was off all last week. So I was doing the best I could. And then summer was sick yesterday, but I didn't work. I couldn't work appointments. I started at like five o'clock PM. I worked five hours just. I did nothing, but call my leaves like with aggression. Like I wanted to be a paper shredder. I wanted it to be a big mess. Road like six geez. And so I'm going to do the same thing today. So at the end of the day, used to be I would just not even work. Say, as just that's just a day that's gone now. What are we going to do? But if I live every single day and I give you all I got every single day,

7:08it's not about a number. But here's what I know though. If I live like that, the number is going to be real. How? It's going to be higher than what it is right now. And that goes with team building too. Like with team building, it was, I was inconsistent. And so I started a long time ago while years ago, right when COVID happened. And I met, I met somebody and he was a dog, right? He was, we started building the team anyways. It did work out. And so I said, I'm just going to sell for a while with my family, all that. I'm just going to sell. And then about a year ago, I got really committed to building the business. I said, here was the problem. I wanted the result in business, but I wasn't willing to give the corresponding effort and sacrifice as they're building for me. Didn't never work. But I said, you know what? I'm going to do it the same way I'm going to run my production and just show up and be relentless and do the best I can and give all I got. And now I'm staying up 10, 11 o'clock sometime on these zooms with my team helping them. You know, I'm working.

8:08I'm doing what I can. I'm trying to be a good dad, right? All of us though. Yeah. And so. But what I've, what I've learned is it's not, it's not that I couldn't ever do anymore, right? It's and I'm just, I'm just utilizing what I have to the maximum capacity. And then here's what I'm learning. Bill, when I do that, more is added unto me. So like the more that I do, the more I'm able to do. Yeah. So it's really strange and it doesn't seem like I'm working any harder. It's just I'm working aggressive and efficient and, and it's just a different kind of workflow. But pushing myself to just do everything I can has put me in a position to where I'm able to function at a higher level. Essentially, you know, you said a couple of things that I can certainly relate. And it's hard to, you know, when you're, you know, when you're sitting at a table and people ask you questions and you try to get across to them to understand what this feeling really is and how do you infuse that into somebody.

9:11And I was trying to explain to people a couple of different times of conference. I try to do it on this call when I get when I do my Thursday call to and I get people asking me questions and they're asking about the drive and motivate all those different things will kept you going. How did you do it? And I said, I don't know how to describe the feeling of fear when I got started. Once I started making money, the fear got worse of going backwards. It wasn't like, oh, I've arrived now. No, I was, I was all that fear of all the failure and the background and the pain of barely living was just driving me every day and running as far away from that as I possibly could. So the drive gets more intense because when you start piling it up a little bit and people think, well, they've arrived. No, no, you, it just gets more intense. I don't know if that's the way it was for you, but for me, it was that way when I was in the when I was going at it when I was out there pounding the ground and running, building the team, personal production.

10:15It just escalated every single year. I see I'm looking at you. You're not falling backwards. You don't you haven't taken a dip. That's why I throw these numbers out there. It's increased every single year. I'm guessing that that intensity is similar to you as far as running away from where you were. Would you kind of talk about that? That's a good point you make. So and that, see, and that's where I kind of fell into a lull because in the beginning, the motivation was I was running from something. Yeah. $10 an hour working in the heat. Now I loved it. I loved job. But the problem was two for 20, right? At A go last forever. Right. I was running from something early on and I was running for my life. And let me tell you something. That's the most aggressive and the most all land that anybody will ever be is when you're running from something. Yep. Now here's here is the key. See, because when I when I stop have to run so fast from that, what happens?

11:16Well, slow down. Right. And what happens? My effort decreases. It's all it's all about effort. Because if you so boundifully, what are you going to do? You don't read boundfully, but you got to do a lot to get a lot. So what's the key to just being in a mode of doing a lot every single day? Your motivation has to change. So when now I'm not running from something, what I'm running to something. Mm hmm. Right. So here's one thing I do, right? I leave it all. I leave it at the past, right? And I go after I go forth. So I'm running to something now. So my motivation has now quickened my activity to where I'm working as aggressive as is I'm running from something. So it was a mental shift. Because the key is how do I show up with relentless, aggressive, consistent activity? Yep. If you can do that, if you're going to win in this business, because it's a numbers game, but how do we get there mentally to where we can lock in and be aggressive and consistent and intense every day?

12:18And it's about the motivation has to change. So really people that are in a position that are running from something, you really have an advantage because you're going to go at it. It's it's it's once you make a 30 grand a month or whatever and you're like, you slow down. But now we're running to something and now we're able to show up aggressively every single day. You know, um, talk about this because this is a question I get quite a bit. I'm curious as to your thoughts. As far as people asking me ramping up leads, and I hear a lot of people ask me questions about I out loud counsel with them and they'll say, I ask what kind of leads are getting. And there's people six, seven, eight months or longer, still working the two, three, four dollar leads because that's all they can afford. I'm trying to impress on them. You've got to figure out how to escalate yourself and move out of that type because it's just going to, you're spending a lot of time on the phone. You're going to get some traction, but it's just going to keep debilitating you. It's going to depress you.

13:19Got to figure out how to step up your, your, your quality of lead just because of the time spent on the phone, effort and all that and the, and the payback on it is much better on higher quality leads. If, if lower cost leads were the ticket, then all of our top producers would, would be using those exclusively, but they're not. They're spending more money on leads, get better quality because it's about quality time on the phone. How would you advise somebody and how did you do it? How did you move away from, I have no money buying only a few dollars worth of leads a week to then finally making it part of your lifestyle to just get quality leads for the most part. How did, how do you move into that? That's a great subject matter. So you're, man, you've gotten really good at this, by the way. All right. So with the lead business and really in life in general, but just with leads. So here's what I learned. There's going to be a price to pay for leads either way.

14:20Okay. You're going to either pay with Tom or you're going to pay with your money. If you pay with your time and you save your money, it's a ground. And that's how you want to live. Hey, look, go, go, go grab that out, baby. Go, go, go steal the phone and do that. That's fine. Hey, in the beginning, that, that's a necessity because that's where you get beat up. You get tough. You learn how to get up, make a phone call, all that. Like you got to go through that. That's the gauntlet. But man, you don't got to stay there. You don't have to stay there. So here's, here's really the play that I that I went for. I wanted, if I was going to pay either way, I wanted to go ahead and just learn how to pay for my money and save my time. Because the goal for me in this business is, is to be free with my time and to make a bunch of money. So I want to, I want to have as much time as possible, but still make as much money as possible. So how do we do that? Well, it's certainly not on the old leads. Like I said, hey, look at that's how you want to live, but I want to make as much in his little.

15:20Yep. So here's the play. In the beginning, you're not good enough to close a leads. Right. Waste of money. You got to, you got to pay with your time. Even if you got money, you need to pay with your time. You're going to develop yourself your skill level. Now you want to get good enough to close all the right people. How quick does that take? Well, it depends on how much activity you do early on. Right. Is it enough to break gravity or you're going to stay stuck in the stratosphere? So you got to do enough activity early on to break gravity to develop a skill set to close all the right people. Yeah. With the right people, people that care about it, people that are healthy enough to qualify and got a couple bucks to spin on it. That's literally it. Yep. When you get skilled enough to help the right people, all of them. You're extremely profitable 60 to 70% profitability virtual. Okay. So that's the goal. Get good enough to help all the right people.

16:22And then what you do is you're able to transition and start saving your time and spending your money. And then what happens is it's just a matter of how much money do you want to make? And how much time can you give to aggressively working these stack of leads that you're going to get? So now what I'm what you what you'll do is you'll shift to where the right people. If you're not good enough, you're not helping. See, because here's what I've learned this business is objective. So it's a it's a system of numbers and averages. Everything is baseball. All everything statistic. So what it is, it's an objective system. So first someone has to be consistent on that variable that subject to change has to be consistent. So when you couple it with that objectivity, there's predictability. But what you have to do is you have to be the variable that changes from unskilled to where now it's not a set number because you're not helping all the right people to skilled enough and consistent enough to now plug into that objectivity and have that the anomaly of the numbers.

17:27So it's a development program. Right. And it's all mental mostly because the mechanics of this business were just picking a phone call a phone up and dialing a telephone and having a conversation. That's mechanical. So it's the mental understanding of what the price to pay is before you start on the journey. And if you know the price up front, you don't have to keep paying it every day. Yeah, you pay it one time and you keep going and you don't look back. So the goal is with the leads get good enough to help the right people get extremely consistent and then make as much money as you want by just buy more elites and proffiting from the actual system of the numbers. You know, talk to this real quick. How did you jump out of the financially because that's where people say they struggle and I don't want to suggest you sell you set of tires or your sofa. Now looking back, I would have done that. I have to have a little space on credit cards.

18:30We were as everybody knows, no secret. We were horribly horribly in debt. I mean, so much debt, you know, you were looking at it as this mountain. Can I ever get out of it and is it even possible to get out of it and we we did. But, you know, I was able to put as soon as I got understood the phone calls and quality leads, I started buying a leads and I had never I never went ever a moment in my time in this business where I didn't have a standing lead order of a leads. And, you know, I'd fill it in when I needed to with lower cost leads with my elite orders didn't come in all the way. I'd fill it in, but I had a standing lead order from day one, essentially, once I once I knew how to make a sale. How did you make that transition? It had to be, it had to be, you had to be scared a little bit of making that kind of commitment, but you came in with no money. What was the way you finally worked your way just grinding it out and they finally made a sale and then what did you do? So really, I started out a work, uh, Nathalie, my own manager, I worked his leads. He gave me to me and then, you know, he's good. He's very good.

19:38So it was tough. That was tough. But man, look, I just didn't care. I heard him make a couple phone calls and say, let me just call these shows. Yeah, I was scared. Well, I was so scared. I was shaking all the all my boys. It's like, if I want to piss somebody on the other lot of the light. No, no, no, no, come back to me like three years, but anyway, so I was, I was bad at it, but I just, man, I just, I saw, like I said, I was running from something. I had nothing, dude. I was 25, last 10 years were rough, no college, no professional experience. I'm working with my body. Which I love, but there's no future in that for me. Yeah. And so I gave it a shot, dude. I said, okay, these old leads, I don't want to work these forever. And I'm not making enough money because I'm not doing enough activity. And so it was, uh, it's been a journey for me, dude. It took me two years to finally get committed to being consistent. You get on a stand-in-a-lead order. Two years. I got married. And then we moved and then by the house, and I'm like, this day, I got a figure something out. So I got admitted.

20:40And then from then on, been on the a leads, but I was always buying a leads always. And I would get it. I guess I did have little small orders, but I, but how I was running my business, I was just single, run it, you know, learning the business, not really doing a ton of activity. And then we talked and you said do 15 appointments a week. Yeah. If it was years ago, it was right when I moved. I said, I'm going to do 15 and four months a week. And that's what I did. And that's when I started making over 200 K and all that. But it took a while for me to actually commit. Like, that's the thing. It's mental. It's the same piece of it's a piece of paper. They're all a piece of paper. Right. It's the mental thing. I had to, so what I, what I've learned is fear comes from within us. It's all in word. So you can master those things. So I had to master me. When you master me, you can master the business. You can master every situation. It's just a matter of number one, we talk about understanding how things were.

21:44And there's a way things were. We'd be figure that out and you go to the source. It's a lot easier than looking at the result trying to change that because the result once you get it is too late. The fruit is in the seed. So you got to understand number one. And then number two, you got to have the effort and the desire, right. And the discipline to separate yourself to function in these things. And when you can do that, you start to start having good results. I mean, it is what it is. Yeah, I love what you said right there, the mastering yourself, because that's really what it is. That's why I try to get across to people. I talked to them. That you have to decide that you're in control of this thing and everything outside of you is not in control. I think that outside rule has control, but really it's just your mind. And I got to say this. It's funny because it goes right along with this. I'm a Lions fan, right. And Detroit Lions fan and Dan Campbell was being interviewed the other day. The guy asked me says, what's the key to greatness. What's the key to somebody who's great that can be a championship champion.

22:56And then there's, it's right here. It's the decisions you make right here that determine what the outcome is going to be. And those are the players that decide that they're going to be the one. They're going to be great. They're going to make this happen. No matter what happens. It's all right here. And if you can get enough of those guys on your team, you can get a championship team. That's the key. And it's, and everybody has to understand. I'm like, and he's, he's a Neanderthal man. I mean, Dan Campbell's on the handle of, but he's very cerebral. Yeah. He is a very cerebral guy. And he's 100% right. I try to explain that I know you do. I know I've watched you talking to people. And, and it always comes back to this people are looking for something more tangible. Type of lead this to that. Yeah, all leads work eventually. Right. If you call enough of them. But the real, the real reason people make it in this business is they make decisions between their ears here. And they're going to move forward. That's why we talked to Chuck Knox. So I had Casey Gregory that I pointed out at the conference.

23:59And you look at Diana Cooper. You look at all these people. You know, Nicole Hansen. You go on and on. They made decisions. And it's all between their ears. And I'm like, I'm 100% you, I mean, that's the, that's the root. Right. Every tree. Produces a certain fruit. And then that tree is judged by the fruit or the result that it can achieve. But the most important part of that tree is in the unseen. It's underground. And it's the root system. And that's our thoughts, dude. So that's where the destiny Genesis. But, but see, here's the thing. This whole world, this whole culture. They want your thoughts. Because if they can get your thoughts, they can get your direction. Yeah. And then they get their buddy. So everybody's trying to think for you or put their thoughts in you. And it's to profit themselves. So what you got to know is first, it starts with your thoughts. What thoughts are going in your mind. So you have to intentionally place thoughts of your choosing in your mind every single day all day.

25:03Because if you don't guess what's going to happen, there's going to be other people putting their thoughts in your mind. And what you think is what you're going to produce. That's the root. If you have a health, if you think right, your life's right. If your life is wrong, guess what is wrong? You're thinking. If you think wrong, your life's wrong. What's wrong, Christian? What's right or wrong? I'm not saying what's right or wrong. Right. Here's what I know. Let's go off results. Right. So if your results are wrong, your thinking's wrong. Well, what are wrong results? I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to look at that one and say, if you're broke, it's probably not. If you're living under your means and you can't support your family and your body's unhealthy. Would you consider that right or wrong in life? Right. I say, I'm wrong. Okay. Making is right. Your life is right. If you're thinking strong, your life. So you've got to get the thinking right. You have to place your own thoughts of choosing positive, powerful, dynamic, true, lovely.

26:07Here we go. Things of compassion, worthy of praising honor. Right. Those thoughts you place in your mind all day every day. What that happens is that develops a healthy root system that healthy root system then give the proper nutrients to the substance of the tree. And then what happens? The fruit's healthy. So if I think properly, I'm going to be functioning properly and I'm going to be producing healthy fruit or positive results. But it starts with the root system. That's where we got to go. That's where I had to go. Because I grew up with all this unbelief, all this negative conditioning about who I was, what I'm supposed to be, what I'm supposed to think, how the world works. Right. Thomas Payne said, it's not the truth that kills us. It's what we know to be true. That just as it's so. If you if if you get your thinking right and you can separate yourself and get away from everybody else wanting to do their thinking for you, right, for their profit.

27:09And you put the right thoughts in the result is going to be automatic. If I focus on the result, only that's a frustrating life. And what I've learned bill is to have an above average life, you must become an above average person. You can't want an above average life and still be average. That's where frustration comes. Now if somebody says, hey, look, I understand that I'm going to have an average life. If I don't become an above average person and I'm okay with that. And look, we each have a freedom to live our life on the way we choose the live. The problem is people aren't like that. They want this without with giving this. So that's where we're stuck. But you just got to understand there's a price to pay. If you want to develop a healthy root system and you got to you got to separate yourself from how everybody out how the world lives.

28:11You want to get different results than majority. You have to do different things than majority. You have to view different and hear different things than the majority or else you're going to be right there with all the other cattle being hurt it in. Yep. So there's I'm done. I'm done for each. No, let's end with that. I can't take a better way to end this thing. I mean that that was dynamite. And dude, I'm just so I just so impressed and just so proud of watching you. And the consistency is just mind boggling with your with your numbers here. And this year's going to be a banner year for you. And now just just looking forward to seeing where you're going to go. Looking forward to seeing what your results are at the end of the year and looking forward to seeing you again as always. So I want to thank your time question. Yes, sir. You do money. Take care.