Jeff Lehman  0:02  

Welcome to Lead. Empower. Grow., a podcast featuring entrepreneurs who lead productive teams, empower their communities and grow successful businesses of their own.

Today's guest is a swerve from last week: a younger agent on the rise, Thuan Bui, a regional marketing director who's only been with us a few years, but already he's making a name for himself. And I wanted to get a perspective from a newer agent, one who might still be establishing their business.

Thuan and I had a great talk about the role of leaders and your upline in shaping and teaching, and how you learn how to teach from your teachers as you build your own team. We hear a lot about Thuan's story, and it was just great having the fresh perspective of someone so full of energy and great insight already. Let's get right to it. Here's my talk with Thuan.

Thank you so much, Thuan, for being on the podcast. It is so great to see you. I can't wait to hear about your story. I usually just start with how FFS found you, or you found FFS and what you were doing before — what was your job before FFS? What's your story up till now?

Thuan Bui  1:04  

Yes. So prior to FFS, I was a college student. I went to Cal State Fullerton. I went to school for business with a focus in marketing. 

Jeff Lehman  1:14  

Okay, so you were ready.

Thuan Bui  1:15  

Yeah, so I did that. I was in my first year — I finished that, my first year — got maybe a third of the way through my second year, and I decided maybe this isn't for me.

I was exposed to FFS prior to this — I was exposed prior to college actually, before college even. I never did anything with it. Because, you know, being 18 years old, thinking about insurance... you don't don't do that.

Jeff Lehman  1:49  

Yeah, exactly. 

Thuan Bui  1:50  

Yeah. No one grows up thinking like, "I want to be an insurance agent. I want to be a life insurance agent."

Jeff Lehman  1:57  

[Laughs]

Thuan Bui  1:57  

So I guess I found it and then I found my way back to it.

Jeff Lehman  2:02  

Right. It was ready for you, at least, when you were ready. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, at 18, we don't really have life insurance policies. And also — even though I kind of knew what I was doing, I didn't really know what I was doing. You get into college, and you're like, "What is a job? Every day? What do you — what is that? What do you do? [Laughs].

Thuan Bui  2:21  

I didn't have any direction at all. I just knew... like where I wanted to be, but I didn't know how to get there.

Jeff Lehman  2:27  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  2:28  

So during my time in college, it was... I remember this time when, right before I left, it was because we had a assignment. Like this quarterly assignment. It was for us to practice our interviews, because the title of the class was "How to Become a Proper Employee." 

Jeff Lehman  2:53  

[Laughs].

Thuan Bui  2:55  

So when I read that on the syllabus, I was like, "I don't know if this is for me."

Jeff Lehman  3:00  

Yeah, yeah.

Thuan Bui  3:01  

I went along with it. And then —

Jeff Lehman  3:03  

Did it seem too simple? 

Thuan Bui  3:05  

Right.

Jeff Lehman  3:05  

Too basic? I feel that, yeah.

Thuan Bui  3:07  

And I didn't want to go down that route. Nothing wrong with having a normal job, that's perfectly fine. But, you know, for some people is doesn't work with their skill set and stuff like that. So yeah, it didn't work with me. 

So a person from the Business Department of Cal State Fullerton came in and was showing us how to dress properly, speak properly, write emails properly, ask for restroom breaks properly.

Jeff Lehman  3:33  

[Laughs]. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  3:34  

I was like, "Ugh. I don't know about this."

Jeff Lehman  3:37  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  3:37  

And the one thing that really ticked me off was — or, not ticked me off, but rubbed me the wrong way — that I asked her, "What can I wear during my interview?" I like suits. I had a pinstripe suit at the time.

Jeff Lehman  3:54  

Yeah. In class, too?

Thuan Bui  3:56  

It was nothing too flashy. I asked, "Hey, miss, can I wear this for my interview or a job?" She said, "No, that's not conservative enough. Keep it to white and black only."

Jeff Lehman  4:09  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  4:10  

So that, I understand — but then, she's telling me to be conservative, but she has blue hair. 

Jeff Lehman  4:16  

Right. Oh, yeah.

Thuan Bui  4:17  

Which is beautiful, by the way. You know, beautiful hair, but...

Jeff Lehman  4:20  

Yeah, I find that the teaching of that — the conventional wisdom or whatever it is — it's like, you kind of got to learn the rules, but I get what you mean. It's like, you also want to stand out, you know? Of course, you don't want to go crazy, but pinstripe isn't so crazy. And you're showing your personality and your style. I know what you mean. It's feels like it's getting a little outdated, that kind of stuff.

Thuan Bui  4:42  

Right. It's a little...

Jeff Lehman  4:43  

It's like, we're dancing around the word boring, but it's like too same-y. Or I don't know, you don't stick out like that.

Thuan Bui  4:48  

Right. Right. Exactly.

Jeff Lehman  4:49  

Conforming, or...

Thuan Bui  4:51  

Yeah. Exactly. Conforming. And she had the bright blue hair, so that's not very conservative. So I was like, "What's going on here?"

Jeff Lehman  5:02  

Not practicing what you preach? Yeah.

Thuan Bui  5:03  

Exactly. So the following week, I was gone. [Laughs].

Jeff Lehman  5:07  

[Laughs]. Yeah, yeah. It makes sense — they were kind of trying to teach you how to follow rules, but you were looking for something where you're like, "I want to blaze my own path," it seems like.

Thuan Bui  5:17  

Exactly.

Jeff Lehman  5:18  

Why we want to get into business is to start one. But yeah.

Thuan Bui  5:21  

Exactly.

Jeff Lehman  5:21  

We've all had classes that were like, "Ugh... is this for me?" I had those, yeah, absolutely.

Thuan Bui  5:27  

Oh, I'm sure. Everybody has them. But then, what do you do with it, you know? Are going to continue to go down that path and not take action to blaze your own path, like you said, or are you just gonna keep on doing what everybody's telling you to do?

Jeff Lehman  5:41  

You've got to follow that voice in your head.

Thuan Bui  5:42  

Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Lehman  5:44  

So then, was it kind of like you knew, once you left, that FFS was kind of waiting? Or was it like it hadn't even really rung the bell yet and there was still a little time in between? 

Thuan Bui  5:54  

It hadn't rung the bell, yeah. I remember, it was like... an option for me, at the time.

Jeff Lehman  6:00  

Yeah. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  6:01  

So I was like, "Okay, let's just give this a try." And I think this was maybe 2020... 2021 actually, yeah. Because I remember going back to school after COVID.

Jeff Lehman  6:11  

Of course, it didn't even think about that. That was a tumultuous time to be in college anyway.

Thuan Bui  6:15  

Right. I wasn't there. I had no interaction with anybody. I came back to that. So 2021, I left college, and I decided, "Hey, maybe I should give this FFS thing a try, this insurance thing a try." And, I really didn't put in my all...

Jeff Lehman  6:34  

Yeah, that's okay.

Thuan Bui  6:35  

I was just coasting.

Jeff Lehman  6:37  

Yeah, yeah, kind of tiptoeing at first,

Thuan Bui  6:40  

Until finally, maybe a year or two later... Yeah, it took a long time for me to really find my footing.

Jeff Lehman  6:46  

Yeah. 

Thuan Bui  6:47  

I'm blessed enough to have a very close relationship with Mr. Corey Vuu. He called me up super early in the morning, I remember, and he asked me, "Hey, Thuan, are you done —" I'm not gonna use the actual word, but you know...

Jeff Lehman  7:01  

[Laughs]. Yeah, we know. Yeah I know Corey enough to know.

Thuan Bui  7:05  

"Messing" around. [Laughs]. "Messing" around, but the F- one.

Jeff Lehman  7:08  

[Laughs]. Yeah, not podcast appropriate, but that's certainly how he is.

Thuan Bui  7:12  

Yeah, you know how he is. Yeah. So I was like, "Okay, okay, I'm done. Let's get serious." And now, here we are.

Jeff Lehman  7:19  

But in the grand scheme of things, with everyone I've talked to, a year or two isn't even that long. It isn't so long. I know it feels long, but you know.

Thuan Bui  7:24  

It does, it does.

Jeff Lehman  7:25  

We all find our way somehow. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  7:27  

Yeah. I remember, my first year, I had received my 1099, and it was like $7,000. And then, my second year, my 1099 was $14,000.

Jeff Lehman  7:38  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  7:38  

It's like, what?

Jeff Lehman  7:39  

That's progress. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  7:40  

[Laughs].

Jeff Lehman  7:41  

We count our steps. So that would have been, probably... I'm not counting the years, right, but right around the time I saw you on the Young Guns panel. That was last year, only?

Thuan Bui  7:49  

That was last year, yeah. That was 2023.

Jeff Lehman  7:51  

So I guess I'd like to go into what challenges you had at first, but — it doesn't even have to be challenges. Maybe it was just like trusting the process, or jumping in all the way, or, you know... I was like that after college too. It just takes some adjustment time or whatever. It's hard to jump — it's easier to jump right in if you've been in the working world, or, I don't know, if you're going from another insurance company. Those are usually the people who really kick off. But, you know, for us young'uns, it takes a little bit to get your gears and your momentum going.

Thuan Bui  8:21  

Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. Especially when you're... for me, it felt like jumping onto a treadmill that's already going at 16 miles per hour.

Oh, yeah. [Laughs].

You know? Like, you're going from a heart standstill to like a 16 miles per hour treadmill. You're gooing to fall,

Jeff Lehman  8:36  

You're just trying to stand up.

Thuan Bui  8:40  

Where I saw myself was that I was just looking at the treadmill. Looking at the treadmill like, "I'm too scared to jump on.;" Way too scared to jump on. So, I guess the biggest challenge was the battle against my own self-doubt.

Jeff Lehman  8:51  

Absolutely. I know that.

Thuan Bui  8:53  

And that's for every industry.

Jeff Lehman  8:56  

Mhm.

Thuan Bui  8:56  

But I think it really hit me because at the time I joined, I was the youngest person in the office.

Jeff Lehman  9:04  

Something to prove, maybe.

Thuan Bui  9:05  

The next-youngest person to me was over 10 years older than me. Completely at a different stage of life: kids, wife, everything, into their career already. I'd just dropped out of college. So I'm like, "Oh my God, I don't know what to do."

Jeff Lehman  9:18  

And I'm sure building you as a team member — for your upline and leaders — it would have been different than what they'd been doing at first, you know, dealing with people 10 years older.

Thuan Bui  9:26  

Yes, so I do have to give a shout out to my upline — who also happens to be my girlfriend's mom.

Jeff Lehman  9:31  

Oh, nice [Laughs].

Thuan Bui  9:33  

So going back to the first question, how I originally found FFS, was through my girlfriend's mom. She saw me spending a lot of money on car stuff — I'm really into cars. I would spend a lot of my money on that, and she just told me, "Hey, come to a training to learn about financial literacy and saving money." Okay, whatever.

It's my girlfriend's mom, I have to! [Laughs]. You know?

Jeff Lehman  9:54  

[Laughs].

Yeah, yeah, I know. 

Thuan Bui  9:57  

So, going back to what you said, my uplines and my leaders around me had to raise me differently, because I wasn't a full-blown adult. I didn't have any experience in anything. They really helped guide me on this path. They really held my hand all the way through. My upline Yvonne Nguyen —

Jeff Lehman  10:19  

Oh, yeah, she's been on the podcast. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  10:21  

I remember, we would spend like two hours, three hours sometimes, every single night. Just me asking her questions. And she would do her best to explain it to me. And I caught a lot of it, but I missed a lot of it as well, because it was so new. I couldn't — I didn't understand finance. Basic finance.

Jeff Lehman  10:40  

No, it makes sense. Yeah. And you're getting a lot of... it's information overload sometimes, for as much as we try to space it out. Yeah, it's a lot to take.

Thuan Bui  10:46  

So I always use this analogy: If you don't have a good foundation, no matter how grand of a house you build on it, it will fall at some point.

Jeff Lehman  10:54  

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Thuan Bui  10:55  

Right? So that's why I felt, at that time, everybody else, like Yvonne, Corey — I have to call him Uncle Corey...

And Auntie Victoria, they really held my hand and helped me find my rhythm and explain things that I would understand in a way I would understand them.

Jeff Lehman  11:04  

[Laughs].

Absolutely. That's the key to what I find in the most successful agents — and not only here, like in any company, any business, any role — is that we all need guidance. We can't... No one's just born a genius, walking out.

Thuan Bui  11:26  

Yeah.

Jeff Lehman  11:26  

And so it does take good leadership, which we're thankful to have, especially over there.

Do you remember any particular — and you don't have to — nuggets of wisdom or anything specific you learned from Corey or Yvonne or anything that you remember that they emphasized? Or maybe like a story out in the field, if they field trained you? Is there anything that comes to mind?

Thuan Bui  11:47  

I spent a lot of my time with Uncle Corey.

Jeff Lehman  11:50  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  11:50  

A lot of my time. So, I can't pinpoint one single piece of advice. It was more like a combination of experiences with him.

Jeff Lehman  11:59  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  11:59  

And I just picked up on his kind of demeanor, I picked up on the way he speaks.

Jeff Lehman  12:05  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  12:05  

I picked up on the passion that he has for this business.

Jeff Lehman  12:08  

You were watching him lead by example, yeah.

Thuan Bui  12:10  

Yeah, exactly. So I was watching him very closely, and, in turn, he was also watching me very closely. Like 5:30 a.m. calls. If he calls... he told me, "If I'm up, you're up."

Jeff Lehman  12:21  

Yes.

Thuan Bui  12:22  

That was the kind of close, close relationship that we had.

Jeff Lehman  12:26  

Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about. Yeah, yeah.

Thuan Bui  12:31  

So I can't really pinpoint any singular advice that I learned from each and everybody here — my upline Yvonne, Auntie Victoria, Uncle Corey — I cannot pinpoint it because I spent so much time with them, it was eventually going to rub off on me.

Jeff Lehman  12:50  

That's okay, it's just the whole thing, the whole osmosis. Yeah, that makes sense — but it's so good that they brought you and spent so much time with you. Because that is... that's what it is, too. It's never going to be just one nugget. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  13:02  

And I'm very blessed for that, because I understand that a lot of agents don't have that close relationship with their uplines. Or even the EFC s — or Senior Executive Field Chairmen, now. I have a very close relationship with them. They come to my house, they take me out to eat, and all that. He took me on vacation and everything. So I'm very blessed to have that kind of relationship.

Jeff Lehman  13:24  

I'm glad, yeah. I mean, I like that perspective, hearing about the importance of leadership. Have you been able to build much of a team of your own? Or can you see yourself implementing the kinds of things that they taught you — like a "teaching the teacher" kind of thing?

Thuan Bui  13:37  

Oh, yeah. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, so I do have a team of my own right now, and we're currently building up. And yes, I have noticed myself implement the teachings I've learned from everybody else here.

Jeff Lehman  13:48  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  13:49  

Especially, Uncle Cory. The "no nonsense" kind of style.

Jeff Lehman  13:52  

Yeah. [Laughs]. Have you been calling anyone at 5:00 a.m.?

Thuan Bui  13:57  

5 a.m.? No. 6:00 a.m.? Yes. [Laughs].

Jeff Lehman  14:00  

A little more reasonable — but it's still early. [Laughs].

Thuan Bui  14:05  

Yeah, I do... I'm not as extreme. [Laughs].

Jeff Lehman  14:10  

Mhm, mhm. We all have different styles.

Thuan Bui  14:12  

Yeah, yeah. But I do take on that "very hands on with my team" style. I'm not there to collect override, I'm not there to earn RMD points without earning it. You know, I'm not there to collect. I'm very hands on with my team, like if they need anything at anytime I'm there — Sundays, Mondays, early, it doesn't matter what time.

Jeff Lehman  14:34  

Yeah, and that's really all we can ask for.

Thuan Bui  14:37  

Right?

Jeff Lehman  14:38  

That's great. That is teaching. That's leading. Just kind of being there — that's the foundation you were talking about, is presence.

Thuan Bui  14:42  

Exactly, exactly. So because that's how I was trained and raised in this business, I try to duplicate it as best as I can for my new teammates and my current teammates. And where I fall short, he fills in for me. Yeah, that's good. When I can't be the bad guy — because some of these people are my closest friends —

Jeff Lehman  14:43  

Of course. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  14:43  

He does it for me. So there's no hard feelings involved there.

Jeff Lehman  14:49  

Yeah, that's an aspect that I haven't really touched on yet, but of course, it's true: the tapping in. The tapping of the teammate, yeah. Just because you've built a team of your own doesn't mean that your upline or other people around can't be tapped in for certain things. Because we all have different skill sets, like you said. Yeah, yeah.

Thuan Bui  15:24  

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Lehman  15:25  

"Good cop, bad cop" kind of thing.

Thuan Bui  15:27  

Right. I'm not very good at being bad cop. I feel... mean. And I don't like feeling mean. [Laughs].

Jeff Lehman  15:32  

Yeah, I feel that too. Yeah. And in reality, it's not being mean, but certain people are better at putting their foot down. I'm the same way: I feel too bad too soon, and then I cave. Or, you know, like, "Ahh, that's okay." [Laughs].

Thuan Bui  15:44  

Me too. And it comes to bite you later down the line.

Jeff Lehman  15:47  

Uh huh, yeah. And it's something that you can... it isn't forever. It doesn't have to be forever. You can find your own way to put your foot down. We all learn. It's a hard thing to learn.

Thuan Bui  15:56  

That's why I firmly believe that anything you want, you can get it.

Jeff Lehman  16:00  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  16:00  

Anything that you want, you can absolutely get it. Only if you really, really do want it and really put in the time to get it.

Jeff Lehman  16:08  

Exactly. Because it takes patience and time. The power of wanting something is day after day. Because if you don't really want it then you can get tired. You're fighting against getting tired or bored or, I don't know, discouraged. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  16:22  

Yeah. That goes on to discipline as well — something else that was instilled in me by my upline.

Jeff Lehman  16:29  

Mhm.

Thuan Bui  16:30  

My aunties and uncles here, you know? Like Auntie Victoria: She's here every single day from like, 10:00 to 11:00 at night, sometimes 12:00.

Jeff Lehman  16:37  

Yeah, I remember hearing that.

Thuan Bui  16:39  

Without fail. Like, she says on stage, and a lot of people might not believe her, but I see it every single day.

Jeff Lehman  16:45  

Yeah, it's true. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  16:46  

She's always there. So...

Jeff Lehman  16:48  

Burning the midnight oil. [Laughs].

Thuan Bui  16:50  

Right? So seeing that, you know? Seeing my people around me, with kids, family and everything, work this hard? And me being young as I am, blessed as I am, to have this much time and freedom? To not really take advantage of it is disrespecting the opportunity that was given to me.

Jeff Lehman  17:11  

Yeah. Gosh, that's true. Yeah, that's a perspective: Watching them lead by example, but also not taking anything that you've gotten for granted. 

Thuan Bui  17:18  

Exactly.

Jeff Lehman  17:19  

Responsibility. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  17:20  

The biggest disrespect to the people who believe in you, the biggest disrespect to the sacrifices your parents made for you — your parents did not sacrifice everything just for you play small and play little.

Yeah, yeah. That's true

Right? Same thing for uplines and leaders here. They didn't give up their time to train you, give up their time to have lunch with you and teach you what they know, just for you to go around and mess around and throw it away. 

Jeff Lehman  17:34  

Yeah, I know what you mean. That's a great perspective too: valuing their time. It just sounds like you got consideration for all around you. That is what makes a good agent.

Which kind of brings me to... I wonder if you have seen your impact in the community yet. I know it sometimes takes a while — years, sometimes — to pay your first death benefit or something, but I wondered if you had any client stories or if you were seeing an impact yet? What that was like, on the client side, for you?

Thuan Bui  18:11  

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I haven't seen the death claim yet. None of those yet. Thankfully.

Jeff Lehman  18:16  

Yeah, it's a blessing. Really. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  18:19  

But I'm very grateful to know that when that day comes for whoever I've touched, that I'm able to be there with the check to make sure the family gets through tough times.

Jeff Lehman  18:29  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  18:29  

But the direct impact right now? I would have to say... the peace of mind that my clients have after they sign their policies. I had this one client: She saw me on TikTok. She reached out to me. She's in her 40s. She and her husband have three kids. Three beautiful kids. They had nothing saved up at the time. They were relying on one income.

Jeff Lehman  18:58  

Common story, yeah.

Thuan Bui  18:59  

So you know the kind of risk that comes with.

Jeff Lehman  19:01  

Gosh, yeah.

Thuan Bui  19:02  

If something happens to the primary wage earner, within a month's time, the family is going to face major, major financial catastrophe. Some people say 6 months, some people say 8 months, but no way. 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

Jeff Lehman  19:18  

Yeah, yeah.

Thuan Bui  19:19  

If that paycheck cuts off, how can you say that it's going to take six months for the family to feel financial impact? It's going to be immediately, within two weeks.

Jeff Lehman  19:28  

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, I feel like the 6 months is one of those "averages" things, but really, it is like 1 month or less. You're going to feel it right away, most people.

Thuan Bui  19:36  

Yeah, because you're including the wealthy people who do have the excess funds.

Jeff Lehman  19:41  

Exactly.

Thuan Bui  19:41  

And that kind of outweighs everybody else. But 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling every single day.

Jeff Lehman  19:47  

It's good point.

Thuan Bui  19:48  

After we closed that deal, she texted me. She pretty much almost broke down in tears, is what she told me — that she feels so secure now, knowing that if something were to happen to her, her three kids and her husband and everybody else in their in the family could move on financially.

Because when something like that happens — when an untimely event like that happens, Jeff — there's emotional burden, of course. And then, secondly, there's financial burden, which hurts the most.

Jeff Lehman  19:53  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  19:58  

They add into each other. That can affect emotions for generations to come. With emotions, you'll cry maybe for a month; you'll cry maybe for 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, whichever. But the financial burdens... that's what really wrecks people. You cannot deposit tears. You cannot deposit sad feelings. You can only deposit cash. With the mortgage — the bank — they're not going to say, "Okay, well, we'll accept three tears this month."

[Laughs].

"You're good for the following month." They have to have cash.

So, she texted me and said, "I feel so secure now, knowing that if anything were to happen, my family would be good to go. And just... thank you so much for that, Thuan."

Yeah, that was the first time someone really told me that without me asking. Because I usually ask for referrals, you know, and that's when they say it. But this time, she just said it, like right after she signed. It was the proof in the pudding.

Yeah, absolutely. That is that's impact — capital-I Impact, just like anything else. Yeah, that's so nice of her.

Jeff Lehman  21:18  

Yeah, and like you said, the financial impact — that weight is more than just months. That's years and generations that that can ring out. 

Thuan Bui  21:25  

Imagine: Right now, 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Again, I know I've said that three times now on this podcast, but —

Jeff Lehman  21:32  

Because it's scary.

Thuan Bui  21:33  

People need to understand that. What does that mean? Like, if Dad does not come home this week — or if Dad just cannot work this week — next week, we're in big, big trouble. The mortgage is not paid for, the car is not paid for, the water cannot turn on, the electricity cannot turn on, you know? And then, from there, people downsize. They lose their cars. They lose this, they have to sell this off, downsize again. And eventually, some of them find themselves losing their home.

Jeff Lehman  22:03  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  22:04  

Some of them find themselves losing everything and then becoming homeless.

Jeff Lehman  22:07  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  22:08  

Imagine. Imagine the impact of that on the kids. You know? And then their kids, their kids' kids, and so on.

Jeff Lehman  22:16  

It's true.

Thuan Bui  22:17  

You know, once you slip into that generational poverty, it's really hard to get out.

Jeff Lehman  22:22  

Yeah, yeah. It's a steep hole to dig yourself out of.

Thuan Bui  22:24  

Right. Inflation. You know, just because you fall, just because you slipped a little financially, people don't start dropping their prices for you.

Jeff Lehman  22:31  

Yeah. Yeah.

Thuan Bui  22:32  

You know, Amazon doesn't have a poverty discount.

Jeff Lehman  22:35  

Mhm, yeah.

Thuan Bui  22:36  

Walmart does not have that. You have to have the money to survive. 

Jeff Lehman  22:39  

It's a good point. And you said it three times, but that's because it is important to remember.

That's nice that she found you on TikTok too. I mean, I feel like people are often like, "TikTok, that's a young person's game." But you know, she's older, and she's still scrolling. Everyone scrolls. You know?

Thuan Bui  22:54  

You know, the funny thing is, Jeff: The majority of my clients are from social media. TikTok, Instagram, whatever it is.

Jeff Lehman  23:00  

That's good.

Thuan Bui  23:00  

They're all over 40 years old.

Jeff Lehman  23:02  

It's something that I feel like even I should emphasize more. It's definitely not so true that it's a young person's game. Maybe the posting feels like more of a younger millennial, Gen Z thing, like it's easier for those generations — perhaps. But it doesn't mean that not every single person with the phone is scrolling, you know, like, through TikTok and things

Thuan Bui  23:23  

Yeah, I know. Everyone has a phone. 

Jeff Lehman  23:24  

Yeah, exactly.

Thuan Bui  23:25  

Our biggest clients are from tick tock.

Jeff Lehman  23:26  

Yeah, exactly. That's nice.

Thuan Bui  23:27  

A word of motivation for new agents: So, as agents, we kind of run into, of course, setbacks. Objections. Rejections. Clients telling you, "Hey, I don't want to sign this. I don't want to move forward with this. Can I cancel my policy?" Or, "I'm gonna go with somebody else." You know? All setbacks, all objections, all rejections.

But I learned this analogy — I saw this somewhere — when an archer pulls back the bow, right? The arrow is not getting any closer to the bullseye. Your target is actually getting farther away the more you pull it back. When you let it go, then it will shoot forward. So just imagine all those objections, all the rejections that you've had, that's just life pulling you back — and you're ready to move forward at lightning speed.

Jeff Lehman  24:20  

That rocks. That's great. That's a great image. Yeah, just because you think you're going backwards doesn't mean you're not being like an arrow.

Thuan Bui  24:26  

So that's just something for new agents, like myself at the time. I had a lot of rejections and a lot of objections because, 1) my age. My face. I have a very young face.

Jeff Lehman  24:39  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  24:39  

I would like to think it is. So it was hard for for older people to trust me to manage their money. So I lost a lot of deals and lost a lot of trust from people that I've known for a long time here. I didn't know what to do. And 2) I just don't look the part.

Jeff Lehman  25:03  

Yeah, a lot of rejections come when you're young. But you keep going. You build the trust. You'll eventually get that first client you help. That's experience. Testimonials.

Thuan Bui  25:12  

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Lehman  25:13  

It just takes a little time. Which is hard, of course. Rejections are hard — but like you said, it doesn't mean you're going backwards.

Thuan Bui  25:19  

It's just getting ready to launch you into wherever you want to be.

Jeff Lehman  25:23  

That's almost the most important first skill is to roll out of rejection, to roll with the punches, to make sure it doesn't affect you, you know? Learning out of that make it affect you.

Thuan Bui  25:32  

Yeah, all that stuff, the objections and rejections — those are really just a test for you to see where you stand as an agent.

Jeff Lehman  25:43  

Yeah.

Thuan Bui  25:43  

As an entrepreneur, if you fall back and you fail, then that's on you. You know, of course, there are a few clients who are just really adamant on not doing this. But yeah, most of the times, a "Hey, I don't want to get this..." That's a test. It's not a rejection.

Jeff Lehman  25:58  

Exactly, that's great. It's a trial. Yeah.

And sometimes rejection does hurt, but you rub some dirt on it. You know, just take your time. Take your breaths, and then, there's always the new day tomorrow. The only failure is giving up entirely for sure.

Thuan Bui  26:09  

At least you can have some chance of success if you try.

Jeff Lehman  26:13  

Yeah, absolutely. That's the only way you will get some.

Well, I think we've done our job here today. I think you gave us plenty to work with. Thank you so much for being on the podcast, Thuan.

And thank you all for listening. To hear more stories from entrepreneurs like Thuan, you can listen to our past episodes on our feed or at firstfinancialsecurity.com.

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